Halloween Hootenanny/Italian Horror Blogathon: Greats and Gems from the Golden Age - A Moviethon - Part I

I'd recently acquired a couple of new Italian horror titles I hadn't seen before (including The Ghost, which we'll get to shortly), so I was itching to do another Italian horror-a-thon, and as I came to construct the playlist, a curious thing happened... when I was finished, my list of movies actually ran in chronological order, i.e. in terms of the year each title was released. And as it soon hit me that I was about to embark upon a journey through over two decades of the very best that Italian horror has to offer, I was super psyched to get going...

Before we begin though, a quick disclaimer... time has run away from me again today, so I've not been able to spend as long writing this up as I'd ideally like... so if I seem like I'm skimming the surface more than usual then this is why. As with yesterday's post, I may add some cheeky updates tomorrow. Anyway, let's crack on!

Friday 18th October 2013

16:09 - I Vampiri (Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava, 1956)

This seminal movie, created as part of a wager between Freda and some of his producer friends, is essentially the fountain-head from which all Italian horror (as we know it at least... I'm not currently aware of anything pre-war at present) would spring. As is often the case though, it would prove to be somewhat ahead of its time, and something of a hard sell for audiences, and especially Italian ones... apparently, some of the natives fled in terror from cinemas at the very sight of names belonging to their countrymen, which is why Freda, Bava and others would later make frequent use of Anglicised pseudonyms.

This movie frankly surprised me by having one foot in the modern world... in fact, I'd argue it's almost something of a proto-giallo (due to some black gloved shenanigans and a slight mystery angle at the very beginning) crossed with a gothic vampire romp. As a result, it calls forward to countless future Italian horror films, yet still somehow feels surprisingly fresh, despite its age and extensive influence upon later productions.

It goes without saying this is essential viewing for Italian horror enthusiasts, though I'll say outright that I can't really ever see it becoming a favourite... though having said that, I did enjoy it a lot more during this second viewing... if nothing else, I certainly appreciated it a lot more when I knew what sort of film I watching. In terms of story, it's serviceable enough, and even fairly engaging for the most part. Though the real reason to see this is undoubtedly for its cinematography and special effects wizardry, provided by that master magician of the movie macabre, Mario Bava. And as is generally well known by now, Bava's contributions went even further than this, as he would replace Freda when the director abandoned ship ten days into the twelve day shooting schedule (a condition of the bet) with only half of the script then filmed. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Bava somehow condensed the script and finished the film in the following two days. Freda would do pretty much the same thing again during their next project together, Caltiki - The Immortal Monster, though he suggests he did it on purpose this time to give Bava a push to become a full-time director. By the way, for the preceding info, I'm indebted to Alan Jones' informative liner notes on the film that came with the excellent Arrow Blu-Ray release of Black Sunday (where I Vampiri is included as a standard definition extra... it still looks very nice though).  Finally, and as a complete random side note, keep an eye out for Paul Muller here, who will turn up again later in the moviethon... and come to think of it, his appearance here may actually call forward slightly to his performance in that later film.

18:14 - The Ghost (Riccardo Freda, 1963)

The second movie of the day is also from Riccardo Freda, though this time without support from his friend Mario Bava, who was now kicking ass and taking names himself, releasing both Black Sabbath (which will come up again soon) and The Whip and the Body in this very year. But as I've rather enjoyed all the Freda films I've seen so far (specifically Liz and Helen and Murder Obsession) and have heard great things about this one, I'm hugely excited to finally get chance to see it. The copy I watched (from a Mill Creek 50 movie pack) is far from ideal, seeing as it's a pan and scan job that's apparently somewhat cut... but as the film itself cost me something like 25p (if that), I really can't complain...

Apparently something of a pseudo-sequel to Freda's own The Horrible Secret Of Dr. Hichcock, released the previous year, the film features Barbara Steele and Peter Baldwin as a pair of lovers who are planning to knock off Babs' husband, Dr. John Hichcock (Elio Jotta). You'd think this would be a walk in the park, as the guy is both paralysed and also possessing something of a death wish (to put it mildly) anyway... in fact (and this isn't giving anything away, as it happens early on) he tries committing suicide in front of both his wife and her lover (who just so happens to be his doctor), so you'd think it'd be no sweat to finally help him off this mortal coil. As you might expect though, when they come to do the dirty deed, the dude proves seemingly harder to kill than they first anticipated... or more specifically, now he seems to have decided that being dead is perhaps not all he'd originally hoped, as Babs and her lover start seeing (and hearing) the guy's ghost all over their big spooky Scottish abode. 

I'll say no more, as I wouldn't want to spoil anything. It occurs to me that the movie has shades of an earlier and more famous genre effort, but I can't even mention what that is without potentially giving the game away. What I think I can say though is that if you like mysteries with horror elements and old dark house atmospherics, you really can't go wrong here. I would absolutely love to get my hands on a proper widescreen edition of this as I'm sure it looks sublime... plus now I'm really itching to check out its predecessor.

Finally (well, for now at least), I said earlier that Bava's Black Sabbath (also from this year) would come up again, and there's two things that connect that more lauded film to Freda's underrated gem. Firstly, Harriet Medin (seen above on the right) appears in both films, having a brief cameo in the "Drop of Water" episode from Black Sabbath, where as she has a much more central role here as housekeeper/psychic medium Catherine... and incidentally, I just remembered she also shows up in The Whip and the Body... needless to say, 1963 was a pretty productive year for her. The other connection to Black Sabbath, and this time to "The Wurdulak", comes in the form of a dog that won't stop howling... and if you listen, I'm sure it's the same frickin' dog as well! And without going into specifics, they both befall the exact same fate. We know Freda and Bava were pretty friendly, so one wonders if they ever went over each other's upcoming scripts when they were chewing the fat and talking shop. 

To both reiterate an earlier point and finish today's post, I'd say that both films are must sees for Italian horror obsessives, but perhaps not for those who are only familiar with say, Suspiria and The Beyond, to cite two typical gateway movies. If you're looking to get into some of the older stuff, and have yet to see any Mario Bava, I'd say Black Sabbath is probably a good place to start, as I suggested in my review last October, which can be found here.

To be continued tomorrow.....

Halloween Hootenanny - Late Night Double Feature/First Impressions: Let's Scare Jessica to Death (John D. Hancock, 1971) and Messiah of Evil (Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, 1973)

 

I'll have to make this post short and sweet as time has totally run away from me today and I've gotta be up early tomorrow... I might add some kind of postscript at some point, but as I'll no doubt be revisiting these in the none too distant future anyway, I'll probably just return to them in depth here on the blog as and when. For now though, just a few general reactions to last night's double bill, sans synopses... so if you want a plot summary, hit up IMDb or Wikipedia or something, as alas, I don't have time for such things today.... 

Postscript: 28/10 - I've updated/re-edited some small parts of this post as upon re-reading it today I realised there were one or two things I forgot to mention/needed to re-phrase slightly.

Jessica was the first film I watched, and while visually speaking it was the warmer of the two, on a more general level I found it to be also the most chilling. This is one of those subtle, psychological, slow burning tales that works its way under your skin, eventually clutching the core of your very being in its icy grip.... and the implications of the events the film presents are frankly terrifying to contemplate. I also found this to be the most moving of the two films, no doubt thanks mainly to Zohra Lampert's affecting performance.... she's one of those actresses that has such an intense, mercurial presence (with her expression often fluctuating from moment to moment, vividly displaying the internal dramas playing out underneath) that I find it impossible to take my eyes off her for a moment.

There's plenty more to praise here, but as time is short I'll just briefly mention one thing that particularly impressed me, which was the gorgeous cinematography from Robert M. Baldwin. I'm assuming this was something of a low-budget affair, but it certainly doesn't look like it as the photography is both colourful and vibrant... and the autumnal atmosphere it evokes makes this an ideal one to watch round this time of year. Now on to the next movie....

While Jessica's visual style was thoroughly naturalistic, Messiah of Evil's veers more towards expressionistic, though both strongly evoke a fevered feeling of uncertainty r.e. reality and an atmosphere reminiscent of our most vivid nightmares. And as the always insightful Jeffrey Canino of Nessun Timore pointed out to me when I asked him which order he'd watch these movies in, Messiah is more of a night movie and Jessica a day, a factor that gives each film its own particular vibe and makes the former a superlative example of the "midnight movie". However, while they may seem quite different on the surface,  there are also a lot of striking similarities between the two... in fact so much so that I'm tempted to call them sister films already, even after only seeing them both for the first time last night.

I won't go into all of the overlaps here, but I'll briefly outline a couple. Firstly, both utilise a similar flashback framing device (with accompanying voice over)  to bookend their stories, and furthermore, the plots are quite similar in their general narrative trajectories. And both feature some of the same architecture, so to speak... specifically, I'm referring to the presence (and importance) of water and also, the big creepy houses the protagonists stay in both have a lighthouse like (i.e. cylindrical) element attached. However, the approach to interior decorating taken in each is rather different, to say the least... which neatly brings me to the last thing I wanted to mention today, which is Messiah's extraordinary production design, some of which can be glimpsed in the stills above and below. Kudos to Jack Fisk (who has worked with Lynch, De Palma and Paul Thomas Anderson, among others) and Joan Mocine for their amazing work in this department... the many murals which decorate the walls of one of the film's main locations add an odd, rather unique feel to the scenes they feature in... and in some ways it reminds me of the look of Fellini's "Toby Dammit", which is obviously no bad thing.

Alas, I've run out of time for today so I'll leave it there. As I said earlier, I'll be returning to both of these in more detail at a later date, so I'll just end by saying that these films are completely essential viewing for all horror aficionados, as they're both highly effective, memorable and stunningly realised, and either would be good titles to go to if you wanted to silence any naysayers who look down upon the genre as being "low-art". 

Halloween Hootenanny - Late Night Double Feature: Halloween and Halloween II on Blu-Ray!

As I said yesterday, watching the Argento cut of Dawn of the Dead allowed me to segue somewhat neatly into last night's double bill, seeing as like Halloween, it's also from 1978, and furthermore, both are among the greatest and most seminal horror films ever made. I'm not gonna be going into Carpenter's classic and its 1981 follow-up in any great detail here... I just want to share a few general reactions I had to watching these particular favourites for the first time in previously unseen high definition editions...

First up is Anchor Bay's recently released 35th anniversary edition of the original. Now, cynics may observe that the company has re-released this more than a few times (including on Blu-Ray) in the past... in fact, you could say that if you had a pound for every time they put out a new version then you'd have, well, a fair few pounds. But a new Blu-Ray release is not exactly uncalled for, seeing as the previous edition, while pretty good visually speaking, was a little bit off on the colour front. Specifically, it was a little too warm and not as autumnal as it had originally appeared in its previous Dean Cundey approved DVD outings. And speaking of that legendary cinematographer, fans will be pleased to hear that he supervised this new transfer. I've seen this film more times than I can count, but during last night's re-visit, courtesy of this gorgeous new release, my appreciation for the film's masterful camera-work and lighting grew even more. 

This edition also features a fairly robust sounding 7.1 Dolby TrueHD mix, which may not be the preferred option for purists (I'll admit I don't know where I currently stand on such issues... sort of on the fence I guess...) but it certainly does the movie no harm... the music in particular benefits quite a bit here. I think the original mono/stereo track (I forget which) is also included... I had a quick flick between the two when the movie began, eventually settling for the new mix, mainly for the added oomph it seemed to give the soundtrack, and, like I said, especially the score.

I haven't got around to checking the extras out yet, but it sounds like there should be some interesting stuff in there. First and foremost, there's a new commentary track from Carpenter and Curtis, which I'm sure will be far from dull, knowing how opinionated both director and star can be, so I'm hugely looking forward to that. Also, there's a Jamie Lee Curtis featurette called "The Night She Came Home", which is apparently directed by her sister Kelly, who starred in my favourite Michele Soavi movie, The Sect... so obviously I'm highly curious to check that out as well. I think there may well be more goodies stashed away on here too. Needless to say, this is an essential purchase for fans of the film, and now the previous colour issues seem to have been sorted, it could well be the definitive edition of the film... well, for now at least. And finally, it was handsomely packaged in a striking looking steel-book with some informative liner notes (interspersed with behind the scenes photos), which is always a bonus.

The edition of Halloween II I watched next is sadly a bit more problematic, though I'd say its flaws are minor in the grand scheme of things. Specifically, Universal apparently fucked up a bit with the credits, somehow omitting Moustapha Akkad's name. Now, personally I can live with this, though I will concede it's pretty bad considering that without the producer, the film wouldn't exist at all, and the series itself wouldn't have run as long as it had without his continued financial support. Also, I hear whispers on a few forums that the audio tracks are lossy, which coupled with the above error led to floods of complaints, so much so that I think I heard Universal even issued corrected replacement discs... if this is the case, I'll certainly try and get my hands on one... but if I can't, I won't be too disappointed... like I say, I can live with these somewhat minor issues.

On the positive side, I was very impressed with the transfer, which also beautifully showcases Dean Cundey's sublime cinematography. As I've said before, Halloween II is my favourite slasher sequel, and finally getting to see it scrubbed up in high definition has certainly cemented that status. While the film's atmosphere is a pretty organic continuation of what the original exuded, I think on this level alone the sequel may have the current edge for me (though this may be because I've seen the first film more so am somewhat overexposed to it)... there's just something about the scenes of Michael stalking through the suburbs at the beginning and through the halls of Haddonfield's hospital (which is seemingly devoid of other patients) later in the film that totally hits my sweet spot for this sort of thing.

Again, I haven't had chance to watch the extras yet. Included are an alternate ending, some deleted scenes, and the horror documentary "Terror in the Aisles", hosted by Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen. I've heard a bit about the latter but have never seen it, so I'm curious to scope that out. Apparently the region A locked Shout Factory release is superior, but if that one's not an option (which it wasn't for me as I don't have a multi-region Blu-Ray player) then fans of the film can't go wrong with this release, even if it does have those aforementioned issues. All in all, I think this was money very well spent, and these are the editions I'll be returning to for the foreseeable future.

For more Halloween stuff, click here and here... the latter link features my report about seeing the original film at the cinema last Halloween night... an experience I'm still buzzing from even now in recollection, some twelve months later.

Halloween Hootenanny/Italian Horror Blogathon: Zombi - L’alba dei Morti Viventi aka Dawn of the Dead - The Dario Argento Cut

I was initially debating whether this warrants inclusion in an Italian horror blogathon or not (and I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this subject as always, dear readers), but seeing as it was arguably this film (and especially this cut) that spawned and influenced pretty much every Italian zombie movie to follow, I think it deserves more than an honourable mention in the history of spaghetti splatter. Plus, I've had the DVD of this version (which is included as part of Arrow's excellent Blu-Ray edition of Dawn) for a few years now, so I think it's high time I gave it a spin. And finally, the fact that this is an international co-production makes it an ideal bridge between the Italian films I've been looking at for the past several days, and the American ones (mostly from the 70s) I'll be watching over this coming weekend...

Now, I'm gonna assume that everyone reading this has seen Dawn of the Dead (and if you haven't, I'm frankly puzzled as to how you ended up here), so I think we can go without the usual synopsis. Instead, I'm just going to mention some of my initial reactions to this alternate version of what is one of my top ten favourite horror films... though I suppose I should say a brief few words about the genesis of this cut. Basically, in exchange for help with financing the film, Romero gave Argento the rights to the film in all non-English speaking territories, and also allowed him to create his own edit for distribution in these areas.  

In a nutshell, because it's Argento who is controlling the editing and music here instead of Romero, this has a totally different feel to the US theatrical cut. If I had to sum it up, I'd say that this version is tighter (as the reduced running time would suggest) and more action orientated. Starting as he means to go on, I find that the introductory scenes at the TV station felt more chaotic here (though it could just be me), which is probably as it should be. Furthermore, I felt that many of the action and suspense set-pieces played more effectively, perhaps due to Argento having a seemingly more acute and accomplished sense of cinematic rhythm than Romero. And also effecting these scenes immensely, and usually for the better, are the changes in music...

More specifically, I think that replacing some of the library music Romero used (which frankly sounds like it was taken from a 50s/60s B-movie during these parts) with Goblin, or sometimes just silence, helped these scenes quite a bit... one example being where Stephen (David Emge) is trying to shoot a zombie in the boiler room (or whatever the heck it is). However, having said that, there are times when said library music is definitely missed (especially that fan favourite, "The Gonk")... plus some of the Goblin pieces (as great as they are) are perhaps a bit overused. Needless to say though, this cut is essential viewing for fans of the prog-rock soundtrack pioneers.

Finally, considering the fact that this edit is about ten minutes shorter than the theatrical release, it's somewhat surprising to find the occasional addition of new footage here... i.e. stuff that Romero left on the cutting room floor. The only one that springs to mind currently is an early scene where Peter (played by living genre legend, Ken Foree) admonishes Stephen for being so damn cocksure, especially considering the fact that they've only just narrowly escaped from their last encounter with the living dead. It's not anything that I'll miss when I return to the original cut, but it's a well written and acted exchange nonetheless, and it further underscores Peter's status as one of the only characters who actually has his head screwed on straight. And lastly, I just wanted to say that to me this cut definitely feels more European than its American counterpart, no doubt due to the editing from Argento and added score from Goblin, but maybe also be for other reasons I can't quite articulate right now.... or it could simply be the fact that I've watched so many Italian horror films during the last seven days... at any rate, it's brought home what one of my film tutors once told me, which is that an editor can potentially have as much, if not more power over a movie than its director. All in all, this is a must see for fans of the original movie, Argento enthusiasts, lovers of Goblin, and of course, connoisseurs of zombie films, be they Italian or otherwise. 

Halloween Hootenanny/Italian Horror Blogathon: Late Night Double Feature: The Nights of Terror aka Burial Ground (Andrea Bianchi, 1981) and Dellamorte Dellamore aka Cemetery Man (Michele Soavi, 1994)

 

For my first contribution to the Italian Horror Blogathon that's starting today over at Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies, I decided I'd move away from the haunted world of the gothics (though elements will continue to creep into today's titles) to the more modern territory (relatively speaking) that is the Italian zombie movie. And as I was feeling particularly decadent last night, I decided I'd make it a double... 

Burial Ground has, even for a zombie movie, one of the most basic set-ups imaginable (and this isn't a criticism)... a professor (Raimondo Barbieri, credited as Renato Barbieri) pries too far into some Etruscan ruins one night and inevitably unleashes a legion of the living dead... and to make matters worse (or delightfully convenient from the perspective of both audience and said gut-munchers), a group of well-to-do holidaymakers arrives the next day to stay at the very villa this hell has been unleashed upon. 

Soon after checking in, several members of the party indulge in the opportunity for some brief sexy time... and then the shit starts hitting the fan... and continues to rain down upon it for the remainder of the movie... Seriously, this is hands down one of the most no-nonsense, fat-free exploitation movies you could ever hope to find... and again, this is even more so than in the average zombie outing... gorehounds and connoisseurs of sleaze will both have a field day with this one. 

There's loads of delightfully demented moments I could bring up here, but I really don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen it.... all I'll say is this, if nothing else, the film is worth checking out alone for the singularly bizarre screen presence of Peter Bark (above... I wouldn't advise staring into his eyes for too long by the way... you might never leave), a dwarf actor (appearing here in his only credited role) who plays a barely pubescent boy with an unhealthy fixation on his own mother (Mariangela Giordano, credited as Maria Angela Giordan), to say the least...

Finally, the make-up artists and musicians who worked on this are both deserving of a quick shout out. Kudos for the former goes to Mauro Gavazzi and Rosario Prestopino, who provide the pantheon of cinema zombies with some of its most memorable and visually striking creations. And supplying some serious synthesiser action and a rather groovy theme tune (which I've playing on my internal jukebox most of the day) are Elsio Mancuso and Berto Pisano. As a slight side note, I forgot to mention that the undead in this movie are smarter than your average zombies (and probably some of the human characters too, come to think of it), utilising tools and even the odd bit of teamwork, making them sort-of cousins to the ones from Lenzi's equally sublime Nightmare City (even if the director insists they're not zombies)... and my God, what a double feature that would make for! 

In summary, if you want a slice of unpretentious, gory, sleazy, fucked up fun for your evening's entertainment, you really can't go wrong with Bianchi's Burial Ground. 

Moving forward thirteen years, we come to what is generally regarded as the last classic Italian horror film (there have arguably been other great ones since though), and probably Michele Soavi's masterpiece, the superlatively titled Dellamorte Dellamore, which is something of a play on words, but roughly translates as "of death, of love", though there are apparently a few other possible variants on this. 

Featuring almost equal levels of sleaze and gore to Burial Ground, the film is more than a little preoccupied with sex and death (as its title suggests), though this is somewhat stating the obvious, as these are horror films we're talking about here. But unlike that earlier eighties outing, this is far from a routine exploitation romp... in fact, it seems so potentially rich that I won't be able to scrape more than the sheer surface with this quick overview...

Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett, in one of the most unexpected pieces of casting in an Italian genre film, period) is a cemetery caretaker in a small Italian town, assisted by his somewhat mentally deficient colleague Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro)... and frankly, the pair have been doing some serious overtime, due to the fact that Buffalora cemetery is apparently a prime spot for the spawning of zombies, or returners as Francesco calls them. However, there's a brief glimmer of light amongst all this death, as our protagonist meets and falls in love with a recently widowed woman known only as She (Anna Falchi). Perhaps unsurprisingly though, a happy ending is apparently the last thing fate has in store for the couple, and things soon start to go seriously off the rails...

I'd struggle to summarise the film much further beyond that point, as things start to get a little bit crazy, to say the least... and as with Burial Ground, I wouldn't want to run the risk of ruining any of the surprises the movie has in store for the uninitiated. What I probably should say at this point (i.e. before I forget) is that this is one of those films that can't really be properly judged or digested from the first viewing alone. In fact, I'll admit that while I enjoyed it when I initially encountered it, I wasn't crazy about it... and I've gradually warmed to it over time to the point where (especially after last night's revisit) it's now a firm favourite. It's probably still not my favourite of Soavi's movies (that honour currently belongs to The Sect... I still need to see The Church), but I think it's quite possibly his "best" film. It's certainly the most technically audacious and cinematically adventurous Italian genre release I've seen outside of the work of Mario Bava and Dario Argento. For another point of comparison, I'd say that the seemingly boundless energy the makers exhibit and the sheer amount of stylistic fireworks they unleash reminds me of such mad movie geniuses as disparate as Orson Welles (there's a particularly brilliant riff on Citizen Kane here) and Sam Raimi. And among the collected cast and crew, no one drops the ball for even a second. The latter parts of the movie may take a couple of viewings to fully appreciate (or at least that's what I found myself), but generally speaking, if you have even a remote interest in Italian horror and haven't seen this yet, I'd put it right at the top of your list... or if you're a general horror fan who is interested in getting into the world of spaghetti splatter, this is a damn good place to start.... and the same could certainly be said of Burial Ground as well. 

And finally, be sure to keep checking in over at Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies from now till Halloween for some more Italian horror themed blogging goodness!