Phantasmagoria is a 2014 Italian horror anthology helmed by three directors: Mickael Abbate, Domiziano Cristopharo and Tiziano Martella. The three horror tales are titled ‘Diabolique,’ ‘A Snake with a Steel Tongue’ and ‘My Gift to You.’ The film stars veteran Venantino Venantini, Maya Dolan and Sophie Pâris.
An advance US screening is being held at the NY Horror Show 2015 in Hauppauge on January 17, 2015.
‘The dead shall rise and walk the Earth’
City of the Living Dead – Italian: Paura nella città dei morti viventi [translation: Fear in the City of the Living Dead], released in the US as The Gates of Hell – is a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Lucio Fulci (Zombie Flesh Eaters; The Beyond; The New York Ripper) from a screenplay co-written with Dardano Sacchetti. It is the first instalment of the unofficial Gates of Hell trilogy that also includes The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery. The film’s haunting score is by Fabio Frizzi and was issued again as a vinyl album in 2013 by Death Waltz Recording Company.
The film stars Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Janet Agren, Antonella Interlenghi, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Michele Soavi, Venantino Venantini. Director Fulci makes an uncredited cameo appearance as Dr. Joe Thompson.
Plot teaser:
In New York City, during a séance held in the apartment of medium Theresa, Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl) experiences a traumatic vision of a priest, Father Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine), hanging himself from a tree branch in the cemetery of a remote village called Dunwich.
When the images overwhelm her, Mary goes into convolutions, and falls to the floor as if dead. The police interrogate Theresa, but fail to heed her warnings of an imminent evil. Outside the apartment building, Peter Bell (Christopher George), a journalist, tries to gain entry to the premises but is turned away.
The following day, Mary is buried in a local cemetery on Long Island overlooking Manhattan and Peter visits her grave site. The gravediggers (Perry Pirkanen and Michael Gaunt) leave Mary’s half-covered coffin at the end of their work shift and leave. Soon, Peter hears muffled screams as he reluctantly leaves the graveyard. Using a pickaxe, he frees the screaming woman from her premature burial, but with the axe coming dangerously close to her head as it smashes through the casket lid.
Peter and Mary visit Theresa where she warns them that according to the ancient book of Enoch, the events Mary has witnessed in her visions presage the eruption of the living dead into our world. The death of Father Thomas, a marked priest, has somehow opened a door through which the living dead can enter and the invasion will commence on All Saints Day, just a few days away…
Buy on Blu-ray | Instant Video from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
Reviews:
” …with its nonsensical ‘plot’ randomly constructed according to the illogic of fear, and its grotesque emphasis on physical mutability, fragmentation and decay, it could just conceivably be the sort of disreputable movie the surrealists would have loved.” Time Out
” …City of the Living Dead’s narrative is bland and workmanlike, but it does at least plod along at a solid and continuous pace like the beating drum in Fabio Frizzi’s effective, minimalistic score. That score and every other aspect of the film really come into their own in the big finale; when the location of the portal into hell is discovered and Fulci’s direction is at its most stylish and lively, building up into a final shot that is perplexingly ambiguous.” Matt Shingleton, The Digital Fix
“While usual undead stylish Giannetto De Rossi isn’t along for the ride, these walking corpses are appropriately ghoulish and maggot infested. Their collective, grand rising occurs in one of Fulci’s best set-pieces: a dank, dark, cobwebbed crypt that exudes death. Whereas the barren wasteland of The Beyond is eerie in its vast emptiness, this is terrifying in its claustrophobia. Our characters here stumble into an eternal sea of visceral, violent death rather than a spiritual, soul-sucking demise.” Brett G., Oh, the Horror!
“What Fulci gives us is a collage of images, some of which fit into the film’s story arc, while others simply add to the overall atmosphere of apocalyptic doom. So, a shower of maggots appears out of nowhere, a boy’s head comes into contact with an industrial drill and a woman vomits up her intestines.” Jamie Russell, Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema
Buy Book of the Dead from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
“The story does verge on the incoherent at times and certainly isn’t as neatly tied together as The Beyond or The House By The Cemetery, but has a rather more dreamlike quality to it. The build up to the slightly anti-climactic ending is somewhat surreal… Andygeddon
Buy Lucio Fulci Collection on Blu-ray from Amazon.com
“City of the Living Dead is saturated with technical exaggeration, teeming with oddball performances and high on its own outrageous contrivances. Elegant cross-fades and superimpositions add beauty, as do a handful of judicious, painterly details, like the petal seen dropping silently from the rose held by the catatonic Mary in her coffin. All these factors coalesce, and the film survives its thin story thanks to the eccentricity of its detail.” Stephen Thrower, Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci
Buy Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
Buy City of the Living Dead on Arrow Video Blu-ray | DVD from Amazon.co.uk
Special features:
Choice dialogue:
Bar owner: “A few beers and you fellows start seeing ghouls and devils all over the place.”
Cast:
Buy Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbook from Amazon.co.uk
‘Warning! How much horror can you stand??’
Taeter City – also known as Taeter City: City of Cannibals – is a 2012 Italian action/sci-fi/horror movie written and directed by Giulio De Santi (Adam Chaplin; Hotel Inferno - read our review) for Necrostorm productions. It stars Monica Munoz, Riccardo Valentini, Christian Riva, Wilmar Zimosa, Ortaez Santiago.
The film is being released on DVD in the US by Bayview Entertainment/Widowmaker on February 24, 2015.
Official plot teaser:
The futuristic metropolis of Taeter City is managed by The Authority – a dictatorship that rules with an iron fist. Utilizing a special radio wave system called Zeed, The Authority is able to distinguish criminals from law-abiding citizens; however these special radio waves also alter the demented brain waves of the criminals and force them to commit suicide in horrible ways. A special police force called The Bikers then retrieves their corpses and delivers them to massive slaughterhouses that supply the mega fast food chains with the human flesh products that are needed to feed the hungry masses. The Authority’s hand has managed to keep the citizens under control for quite some time, but a series of unforeseen chaotic events has slowly been undermining their rule…
Buy Taeter City on DVD from Amazon.com
Reviews:
“Taeter City is an action-packed whirlwind tour of a dystopian cannibal dictatorship that’s bursting at the scenes with shocking violence, a retro synth sound track, hilarious English dubbing, amazing home-grown digital and practical effects, and good old fashioned European gore.” Aaron Allen, Horror in the Hammer
IMDb | Official site | Facebook
Witchcraft ’70 is a 1969 Italian mondo shockumentary originally titled Angeli Bianchi… Angeli Neri (“White Angel, Black Angel”). It was directed by Luigi Scattini (Sexy magico; Sweden: Heaven and Hell) and features a notable soundtrack by Piero Umilian that has been issued on CD and a gatefold vinyl album.
The US release featured additional sequences by sexploitation director Lee Frost (The House on Bare Mountain; Mondo Freudo; Love Camp 7; The Thing with Two Heads). In the UK it was released as The Satanists.
The film features Church of Satan leader Anton LaVey and his wife Diane LaVey, African witchcraft and Indian Kali worship. The Italian version was narrated by Alberto Bevilacqua whilst the English language release featured the voice of exploitation regular Edmund Purdom (Absurd; Pieces; Don’t Open Till Christmas).
Terror in the Crypt – also known as Crypt of Horror – is a 1964 Italian/Spanish horror film directed by Camillo Mastrocinque [credited as Thomas Miller] (An Angel for Satan), from a screenplay by Ernesto Gastaldi and Tonino Valerii (also assistant director).
The story was loosely based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s lesbian-themed novella Carmilla. The film’s original release titles are La cripta e l’incubo and La Maldicion de los Karnstein. The score was by Carlo Savina (see below).
Cast:
Christopher Lee, Adriana Ambesi, Ursula Davis, José Campos, Véra Valmont, A. Midlin, Carla Calò, Nela Conjiu, José Villasante.
Plot teaser:
Count Ludwig Karnstein (Christopher Lee) dreads his daughter may fall prey to the curse upon his family, a curse which promises the witch Sheena will eventually be reincarnated in a Karnstein descendant. Could Laura really be a vampiric killer?
Reviews:
‘With its cheesy Sunday afternoon horror thrills (and some wild-eyed and voluptuous ladies), Crypt of the Vampire is a whole lot of fun. There’s melodrama, mysterious manuscripts and some gruesome business involving the severed hand of a hunchbacked beggar.’ Doomed Moviethon
‘Brimming with atmosphere and shot in glorious black and white in and around authentic gothic ruins, Crypt of the Vampire has all the proper ingredients to affix it to the better movies made during the salad days of Italian horror. Although the film is sluggish at times, veteran director Mastrocinque … instills some truly haunting and shadowy imagery, especially when Laura’s macabre fever dreams are in full swing.’ George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In
‘The crepuscular atmosphere with candlelit interiors, the obligatory crypt and, on stormy nights, a bell tolling in a ruined church, lack the bite of a genuinely perverse force while all attempts at eroticism are foiled by the bovine incomprehension of the participants.’ Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Enclyclopedia: Horror
Buy Italian Gothic Horror Films from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
Choice dialogue:
“I like these ancient castles… they have such an atmosphere of mystery.”
“I’ve killed her. I’m a monster! I want to die!”
Cambiare is a bar situated in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, Japan, the interior and sign-design of which is based on visuals from Dario Argento’s classic 1977 horror film, Suspiria.
Buried in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo’s already hectic Shinjuku region is an area known as Golden Gai – it is here at 1-1-7 2F Kabukicho you will find Cambiare, one of several themed bars and private clubs which operate in this district. Rather bigger than many in the locale, Cambiare takes its interior decor inspiration from the lurid and garish colour schemes of Dario Argento’s most famous film, Suspiria, the dazzling reds, yellows and blues almost requiring medical intervention to prevent burning.
The most striking aspects are the familiar stained-glass window, overbearing chandelier and deliciously psychedelic wallpaper, though more committed fans will also notice that the exterior’s sign utilises the same font as Argento’s film, whilst the liberal use of neon reflect the strangely illuminated doorways on screen. The menu offers a less inventive selection of pizza, lurid cocktails and Italian wines and spirits but, rest assured, the familiar strains of Goblin will feast your ears whilst you contemplate exactly what is creating those strange shadows…
Daz Lawrence
Sex and Horror: The Art of Emanuele Taglietti is a 2015 book by Mark Alfrey published by Korero Press about the Italian comic book cover artist known for his outrageous artwork. In the course of his career in the 1970s and 1980s, Taglietti painted more than 500 covers, for fumetti comic books such as Zora la Vampira, Sukia, Ulula, Cimiteria, Stregonaria and Vampirissimo. Taglietti was one of most outstanding artists of the golden age of Italian comics. His distinctive iconic work brims with violence and eroticism. This highly visual biography displays dozens of his full-colour paintings and discusses his artistic techniques.
Buy from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
‘Terror amok! Hungry for the flesh of the world!’
Caltiki – The Immortal Monster – original title: Caltiki – il mostro immortale – is a 1959 Italian science fiction horror film directed by Riccardo Freda and [uncredited] Mario Bava from a screenplay by Filippo Sanjust. It was distributed in the US by Allied Artists.
Plot teaser:
A team of archaeologists investigating Mayan ruins come across a blob-like monster. They manage to destroy it with fire while keeping a sample of the monster but not without loss of life.
Meanwhile, a comet is due to pass close to Earth, the same comet which passed near the Earth at the time the Mayan civilisation mysteriously collapsed…
Reviews:
‘Directors Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava performed a perfunctory job on this Quatermass rip-off, although it’s mildly interesting as an indicator for some future key elements of Italian genre filmmaking: there’s found footage and idle racism (both a mainstay of mondo movies), overt greed, lust and a focus on gruesomeness.
Otherwise, as a late 1950s sci-fi horror film, it lacks narrative drive and lead actor John Merivale is particularly poor. Thankfully, once the Blob-like monster appears things perk up. But then the film descends into dreary military defence scenes accompanied by dialogue as bad as any serial from the 1940s.’ Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia
‘The film’s in black and white, so don’t expect the kind of hallucinatory color riot that became Bava’s calling card in the 60’s, but Caltiki is far away indeed from the simplistic point-and-shoot sensibility of most contemporary Hollywood monster movies. Not even Bava can make a soggy canvas bag look scary, but it’s obvious that he tried his damnedest.’ 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting
Cast:
Choice dialogue:
“You’re a sensitive woman. You need warmth. And care.”
Wikipedia | IMDb | Related: The Blob
Robert le Diable (translation: “Robert the Devil”) is an 1831 opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer from a libretto written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. Robert le Diable is regarded as one of the first grand operas at the Paris Opéra. It derives some of its development from the medieval legend of Robert the Devil, a tale which was written in 13th Century France.
The opera introduces Robert, Duke of Normandy, the son of a union between Bertha and Bertram, a disciple of Satan, perhaps even a demon himself. In Normandy, alongside several other knights, he attempts to win favour with the beautiful Princess Isabelle. A minstrel, Raimbaut, inadvertently singing a song that referred to Robert as a devil is imprisoned by the enraged Robert but is granted forgiveness when Robert realises his fiancée is his foster-sister, Alice. Under the influence of a disguised Bertram, whom Robert is unaware is his father, let alone a devil, the duke gambles, leaves the door open for the Prince of Granada to woo Isabella and sees Raimbaut given a sack of gold to pursue love interests other than Alice.
By the time Bertram reveals to Robert that he is his father, he has communed with the devil himself, an event overheard by Alice who learns from the depraved chanting that if Bertram cannot convince his son to sell his soul to Satan by midnight, he will lose control over Robert forever. Bertram discovers he is being spied upon and threatens Alice, who leaves. He turns his attentions to his son who he informs could win back Isabelle by taking possession of a magic branch which grants invisibility, hanging near the tomb of Saint Rosalia in a nearby cloister. He agrees, despite knowing this is sacrilege and is punished by zombie nuns, the remains of sisters who lived with impure thoughts, who rise from their graves to taunt him.
Avoiding their suggestive drinking and dancing, he escapes with the branch and seeks to interrupt the imminent marriage of Isabelle and the Prince. With the clock approaching midnight, Bertram fails in his attempts and is cast down to Hell, leaving his son to step in and marry the Princess.
The opera was an immediate success on its premier in 1831 and drew plaudits from the likes of Franz Liszt, Alexandre Dumas (who featured the opera in his classic tale, The Count of Monte Cristo) and Edgar Degas. Brass (some provided by the now rarely used ophicleide, a forerunner to the bass tuba), fabricated thunder effects and baritone voices create unease throughout the opera, the Gothic drama of which comes to a head in the graveyard sequence where the hero is attacked by ghostly nuns rising from their tombs, Robert having to fend them off with supernatural powers. In many productions, this sequence is carefully choreographed to make the nuns particularly horrific and moving in unnatural ways.
Whilst the opera was so successful that Meyerbeer became a celebrity and was feted by the French court, it is said that his rival, the Italian Rossini, was so affected by Robert le Diable that he retired from composition. The opera has been compared to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, and is in fact mentioned by name in the musical. Considered shocking at the time of creation and still performed around the world today, the opera last appeared at London’s Covent Garden Opera House in 2012.
Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia
Solamente nero – released internationally as The Bloodstained Shadow, Bloodstained Shadow and Only Blackness – is a 1978 Italian giallo horror thriller film directed by Antonio Bido, starring Lino Capolicchio, Stefania Casini and Craig Hill.
Plot teaser:
When a young college professor (Lino Capolicchio of The House With the Laughing Windows) returns home to visit his Catholic priest brother (Craig Hill of Dracula vs Frankenstein), prominent members of the community begin to be stalked and slaughtered by an unknown killer. Can the brothers uncover the identity of this deranged fiend, even while they are being tortured by their own nightmares of an unspeakable childhood trauma?
Buy The Bloodstained Shadow on 88 Films Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk
Reviews:
The Bloodstained Shadow has a satisfyingly labyrinthine plot, plenty of shock cuts and some well-orchestrated murder scenes (especially the demise of the medium during a thunderstorm). Antonio Bido (The Cat’s Victims) again takes his cue from Dario Argento but makes excellent use of the winding passages and narrow waterways of the Venetian island of Murano to add the atmosphere. Meanwhile, Stelvio Cipriani’s enjoyable score gleefully incorporates well-known cues from prog rock band Goblin. On the downside, Lino Capolicchio is a typically ineffectual hero, a genre convention, seemingly – and wears some particularly off-putting knitwear to remind us this was made in Italy in 1978.
Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia
“While a little overlong at 109 minutes – the pace does tend to slacken on occasion, between the effectively tense stalking scenes – The Bloodstained Shadow is nevertheless a masterfully eerie addition to the giallo world. Laced with surprises, and enough damning glances to make nearly everyone a suspect, Bido brilliantly guides us through misty waterways, dark alleys, and overpopulated cemeteries to provide an intriguing and thrilling giallo experience.” DeadShed
“For all its strengths, The Bloodstained Shadow fails to make it into the top “tier” of gialli. The script is almost entirely derivative of other offerings in the genre, taking most of its cues from Argento’s work.” The Digital Fix
WH
Stelvio Cipriani – born 20th August 1937, in Rome – is an Italian composer, mostly of movie soundtracks, many of which were for genre films, including, horror, gialli thrillers and crime films. Cipriani is still active, performing both live and recorded works, his output totalling over 200 scores. He has occasionally worked using the pseudonym Steve Powder.
Cipriani grew up in a decidedly un-musical household, the catalyst for expressing his musical talent actually coming from hearing the local church organ. The priest encouraged this interest and alerted his family to his passion and quick progress in learning to both read music and play keyboards. Although he covered all bases by initially becoming an accountant after school, he had followed the more traditional path for Italian composers and had enrolled at a Santa Cecilia music conservatory aged fourteen, studying piano and harmony. At this stage, it had become the pattern among many Italian composers for film to have specialised in either classical or jazz before finding their true calling. Bucking this trend, more contemporary sounds appealed to Cipriani, joining small bands to play venues from local ballrooms to cruise ships. On a break in New York during the latter period, Cipriani met and played for Dave Brubeck, the legendary band leader. Cipriani returned to Italy to be pianist to emerging pop singer, Rita Pavone.
Aged 29, he composed his first score, the spaghetti western El Precio de un Hombre (The Bounty Killer, 1966), a breezy affair which had all the trademarks of a Euro Western score and was likeable if not ground-breaking. During this early period working in the film industry, Cipriani composed for a variety of film styles and directors; of particular note are the erotic thriller Femina Ridens (The Laughing Woman, 1969); the early Jose Larraz film, Whirlpool; Radley Metzger’s The Lickerish Quartet (all 1970), before his output took a slightly darker direction from 1971 onwards.
Even at this time, the likes of Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai dominated the Italian film industry when it came to music, though Cipriani was able to compete, not only because of his deft touch with melody and rather more light-hearted tone to many of his scores (his contemporaries had often strayed nearer to experimentalism or jazz before even thinking of incorporating ‘modern’ sounds) but also because he stuck to the composers’ code – he was willing to compose for any kind of film, regardless of subject matter or lack of quality. In fact, Cipriani’s style was closer to Americans such as Henry Mancini than many of his fellow countrymen.
Cipriani’s lush, almost outrageously suggestive score to Riccardo Freda’s giallo, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (1971) is typical of his work in this period – a broad spectrum of instruments from piano to oboe, breathy, wordless female vocals – by Nora Orlandi, herself an excellent composer – and flashes of both tea-spilling stingers and punchy pop moments. Such scores had brought him to the attention of one of the masters of Italian horror cinema, Mario Bava; the pair combining on his early slasher, A Bay of Blood (1971), Baron Blood (1972, too experimental for American distributors, AIP, who replaced him with Les Baxter for their home release) and Rabid Dogs (1974). It has been suggested that his score for Bay of Blood was originally intended for The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, eventually scored by Bruno Nicolai.
Such an association did little to slow down the pace of Cipriani’s assignments; his score to Death Walks on High Heels is in some senses the quintessential gialli score, initially flighty and breathy, lulling the audience into a false sense of security before angular dissonance signals the end of child-like frivolity and it’s black gloves and stabbing to the fore.
A milestone in Cipriani’s canon is his towering score to Roberto Infacelli’s The Great Kidnapping (La Polizia Sta a Guardare, 1973), the descending chords of the melody being reused several times over the years, most notably on the nearly-Hollywood blockbuster, Tentacles (1977). Plagiarism of oneself is not mentioned in the rulebook.
His reputation as being an easy composer to work with made him in demand throughout the 1970s and into the 80s, aided by his willingness to adopt new techniques; like other younger composers such as fellow Italians Franco Micalizzi, the de Angelis brothers or Bixio, Frizzi and Tempera, Cipriani readily embraced modern production, using synthesizers and guitars, as well as disco and rock, as time progressed. Although his output was not always of the very highest order, landmarks such as the taut, thrilling score to What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974) allowing you to forgive the slight misfires of The Great Alligator (1979) and the fun but daft, Papaya: Love Goddess of the Cannibals (Nico Fidenco was clearly unavailable!)
An oddity in his output is Bloodstained Shadow (1979), a score which was written by Cipriani but was actually performed by Goblin, a contractual issue neither party had any control over. This arrangement was repeated, with Goblin founder and keyboardist Claudio Simonetti performing on 1979’s Ring of Darkness.
Hollywood did call, although half-heartedly; Tentacles was no Jaws and Piranha II: The Spawning (1981, under the guise of Steve Powder) remains famous only as mega director James Cameron’s debut effort. Bizarrely, Cipriani composed scores to no fewer than three films about the mysteries surrounding the Bermuda triangle.
Other horror-related works include Umberto Lenzi’s Nightmare City (1980), 1982’s Pieces, Joe D’Amato’s Orgasmo Nero (1980) and superior giallo, The House of the Yellow Carpet (1983). Cipriani continues to work in film and television (mostly in Italy) but has found many new fans due to his work being sampled by the likes of Necro and the use of cues from his older scores finding their way into Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof and to great effect in Larry David’s TV comedy, Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia
Selected Discography
1966 – The Bounty Killer
1969 – The Laughing Woman (aka The Frightened Woman)
1970 – Whirlpool
1970 – The Anonymous Venetian (winner of the silver ribbon awarded by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists)
1970 – The Lickerish Quartet
1971 – The Lonely Violent Beach
1971 – Human Cobras
1971 – The Iguana With the Tongue of Fire
1971 – A Bay of Blood
1971 – Blindman
1971 – Death Walks on High Heels
1971 – Deviation
1972 – Execution Squad
1972 – Baron Blood
Buy Baron Blood on DagoRed double-vinyl album from Amazon.co.uk
1972 – Return of Halleluja
1972 – Night Hair Child
1973 – The Great Kidnapping
1974 – Emergency Squad
1974 – What Have They Done to Your Daughters?
1974 – Rabid Dogs
1975 – Evil Eye
1974 – Death Will Have Your Eyes
1975 – Mark the Narc
1975 – Frankenstein all’Italiana
1976 – Colt 38 Special Squad
1976 – Deported Women of the SS Special Section
1977 – Tentacles
1977 – Stunt Squad
1978 – The Bermuda Triangle
1978 – Skin ’em Alive
1978 – Cave of the Sharks
1978 – Papaya: Love Goddess of the Cannibals
1978 – Bloodstained Shadow (composed by Cipriani, performed by Goblin)
1979 – Concorde Affaire 1979
1979 – Encounters of the Deep
1979 – Ring of Darkness
1979 – The Great Alligator
1980 – Orgasmo Nero
Buy Orgasmo Nero soundtrack on CD
1980 – Nightmare City
1981 – Piranha 2: The Spawning
1982 – Don’t Look in the Attic
1982 – Pieces
1983 – The House of the Yellow Carpet
1987 – Beaks – The Movie
1988 – Taxi Killer
1991 – Voices From Beyond
Buy Nightmare City soundtrack on CD from Amazon.co.uk
Buio Omega – aka Beyond the Darkness, Buried Alive and Blue Holocaust – is a 1979 Italian horror/exploitation film directed by Joe D’Amato [Aristide Massacessi] from a screenplay by Ottavio Fabbri based on a storyline by Giacomo Guerrini.
The film stars Kieran Canter, Cinzia Monreale (The Beyond; The Sweet House of Horrors; The Stendhal Syndrome), Franca Stoppi (The Other Hell), Sam Modesto, Anna Cardini and Lucia D’Elia. The score is by Goblin (credited as The Goblins).
The film remains controversial in many countries, even today, notably Australia, where it has been banned since 1992 due to very high impact violence throughout. Buio Omega remains banned in several other countries to this day although a quick internet search means you can watch it fully uncut online.
Plot teaser:
On a luxurious estate in the Italian countryside, Francesco mourns his deceased lover. Soon pain and loss turn to madness and violence, as this troubled young man decides he cannot part with his love just yet. Excavating her corpse, he preserves her body with excruciating attention to detail. That, however, is only the beginning. Soon he is overcome with rage, murdering innocent young women and anyone else who infringes on the privacy of his estate…
It has been rumoured that D’Amato used actual cadavers in some of the autopsy scenes and during the attack on the hitchhiker. The presence of pretty obvious prosthetics makes this highly unlikely. A goregrind metal band named themselves after the film.
Buy Beyond the Darkness on DVD from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
Reviews:
‘Despite a couple of mis-steps here and there, D’Amato’s movie is capped off with a nifty little shock moment that is a fitting end to an already intriguing, lunch launching little movie. Beyond the Darkness is still a strong feature all these years later and a shining, if highly repugnant example of extreme Italian horror.’ Cool Ass Cinema
‘Despite its shortcomings, Beyond the Darkness has some truly classic scenes that could potentially stick in the viewer’s mind forever. A must for all fans of Italian horror cinema, Beyond the Darkness could well be D’Amato’s best movie.’ The Spinning Image
‘Unfortunately, Massacessi’s approach is cheaply realist, trying to shock by unimaginatively filming butchery and cruelty. The potential poetry of a mad, necrophiliac passion that animates, for instance, Bava’s Lisa e il Diavolo (1972) is kept at bay by the crudely exploitative approach…’ Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia
‘Beyond the Darkness is a great movie; gory, kinky and surreal in a way that only D’Amato could deliver it. His cinematography leaves nothing to complain about, he knows what he wants from his compositions and that’s what we get. Ornella Micheli’s editing is perfect once again, and then there’s that excellent soundtrack by Goblin, that constantly keeps the movie moving along with their progressive rhythms … although not as violent and aggressive as Anthropophagus: or Absurd is possibly Joe D’Amato’s finest hour as a horror director.’ CiNEZiLLA
Also Known As:
| (original title) | Buio Omega |
| Blue Holocaust | |
| Bulgaria (Bulgarian title) | Отвъд мрака |
| Spain | Demencia |
| Spain (video title) | House 6: El terror continua |
| France (video title) | Bio Omega |
| France | Blue Holocaust |
| France (video title) | Folie sanglante |
| Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title) | Mesa sto skotadi |
| Greece (video title) | Pera ap’ to skotadi |
| Greece (video title) | Pyrina matia sto skotadi |
| Greece | Πύρινα Μάτια στο Σκοτάδι |
| Hungary | A sötétségen túl |
| Italy (reissue title) | In quella casa buio omega |
| Mexico (alternative title) | Zombi 10 |
| Portugal | Para Além da Escuridão |
| USA | Beyond the Darkness |
| USA (dubbed version) | Buried Alive |
| West Germany (video box title) | Blutiger Wahnsinn |
| West Germany | Sado – Stoß das Tor zur Hölle auf |
Wikipedia | IMDb | Image thanks: Wrong Side of the Art
WH
Massacre in Dinosaur Valley – aka Stranded in Dinosaur Valley, Nudo e Selvaggio (original title: “Naked and Savage”), Amazonas and Cannibal Ferox II – is a 1985 Italian adventure horror film directed by Michele Massimo Tarantini and starring Michael Sopkiw, Suzane Carvalho and Milton Rodríguez.
Plot teaser:
A group sets out to excavate dinosaur fossils in the Brazilian Amazon, but they get much more than they bargained for. En route, the plane crashes and the group, which includes a psychopath and quite a few voluptous ladies, is forced to fend for itself as it searches for a path back to civilization. The team comes across a motley crew of cannibals, wild beasts and slave traders…
The alternate title Cannibal Ferox II was created by English distribution company VIPCO (Video Instant Picture Company). They associated the movie with the more notorious Cannibal Ferox in order to sell more copies.
Most of the native cannibals in the movie were played by Brazilian military men on shore leave.
Buy Massacre in Dinosaur Valley on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
Reviews:
” … a little lightweight as far as cannibal movies go but as far as sleazy Indiana Jones rip offs go, this one is a bonafide winner in my book. This movie is wonderfully stupid, watch as the photographer gets eaten by piranha in the puddle, then watch as the ‘Nam vet and the hero jump into said puddle to fight for a little while, with these same piranha are apparently full from gnawing on that photographers leg because they didn’t bother those two at all …
High art Massacre in Dinosaur Valley is not, but with bar fights, plane crashes, cannibals, scratched up titties, lots of nudity, fat bastard slave traders and Suzanne Carvalho looking crazy sleepy sexy… you can’t beat any of that with a stick.” Christopher Amstead, Film Critics United
” … Massacre in Dinosaur Valley is quite tame in comparison to its brethren. There’s a lot of nudity but only some of it is tasteless; there’s a rape scene and some lecherous men, yet the film makes little use of either. The violence is uncharacteristically missing from this Italian nasty, and many viewers will wonder why Massacre in Dinosaur Valley was worth plodding through.” Ryne Barber, HorrorNews.net
“Massacre in Dinosaur Valley is exploitation trash to be sure – the sort of movie in which the flight from the cannibals is interrupted so the party’s leader can leer at boobies – but there’s something almost lighthearted about it that makes the movie far more enjoyable than similar films…” HorrorView.com
IMDb | Image thanks: House of Self Indulgence
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I Sanguinari (“The Blood”) is an Italian fumetti ‘adults-only’ comic book first published in 1972 by Milan-based Edifumetto, the company that also issued Orror; Sukia; Ulula and Wallestein, il mostro.
Initially, the I Sanguinari comic books featured Storie di delitti e di crudelta’ (“Stories of Crimes and Cruelty”), however issue 10 introduced a new focus: Storie di mostri e di vampiri (“Stories of Monsters and Vampires”) presumably because horror was perceived to be a bigger selling theme than crime. And frankly, who’d want to read about crime and cruelty in early ’70s Italy? So, violent erotic fantasy escapism aimed at a – possibly misogynistic? – male audience became the lifeblood of I Sanguinari…
Related: Orror | Sukia | Ulula | Wallestein, il mostro
‘When I go beserk…you’re better off dead’
Watch Me When I Kill (Italian: Il gatto dagli occhi di giada, also known as The Cat’s Victims and The Cat with the Jade Eyes) is a 1977 Italian giallo film directed by Antonio Bido (The Bloodstained Shadow). It stars Corrado Pani, Paola Tedesco and Franco Citti. Trans Europa Express provide the Goblinesque score.
Plot teaser:
When Mara (Paolo Tedesco) stops by at the chemist to pick up some painkillers she’s unwittingly signed up for a prescription in terror and a world of pain for those around her! Told to come back another day, little does Mara realise that the chemist is lying dead in the back of the shop and she’s bought herself a stalker determined to wipe her out now that she’s a witness…
Buy Watch Me When I Kill on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
Reviews:
“The nods to Hitchcock and Argento are fairly blatant, but done as homage rather than theft so they add to the film rather than detract from it. By no means the best film to come out of Italy in the 1970s, Watch Me When I Kill is still a suspenseful and involving thriller and is a fine addition to the Shameless library.” myReviewer
“I really like Watch Me When I Kill, even if it’s a bit dry and lacks thats unique and spectacular atmosphere that we love so much in this genre, but the story is strong and acting is excellent.” Ninja Dixon
“Bido is obviously a film maker of some talent, he elicits top notch performances from all those involved and keeps the whole polished proceedings rattling along at a fair old rate. And whilst Bido’s film doesn’t contain the breathtaking set pieces of most of Argento’s work, he still manages some highly effective moments.” Hysteria Lives
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Do You Like Hitchcock? – original title: Ti piace Hitchcock? – is a 2005 Italian television giallo thriller film directed by Dario Argento. It stars Elio Germano, Chiara Conti, Elisabetta Rocchetti, Cristina Brondo and Ivan Morales and features a score by Pino Donaggio (Tourist Trap; Dressed to Kill; The Black Cat).
Plot teaser:
In 1990, as a boy, Giulio was chased through the woods by two women after spying on them practicing witchcraft. Now a young film student in Turin, he watches his neighbors in the flats across from his third floor apartment, especially Sasha when she’s naked or arguing with her mother. Giulio’s girlfriend is disgusted with his voyeurism, but, after a murder occurs, Giulio is convinced that two relative strangers, just as in Hitchcock and Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, have agreed to murder each other’s bête noir. He follows his suspects, ends up with an intruder and a broken foot, and may be in real danger. Is he more than a peeping Tom?
Aside from Strangers on a Train (1951) and Dial M for Murder (1954), there are several references to Hitchcock films in this movie: the attempt to murder Giulio in the shower is a reference to the famous scene from Psycho (1960), the protagonist’s broken leg and window-peeping are a reference to Rear Window (1954), and the scene on the roof is very similar to the ending of Vertigo (1958).
Buy Do You Like Hitchcock? on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
Reviews:
“Do You Like Hitchcock? is an ambitious attempt by Dario Argento to deconstruct the narrative trappings of the giallo genre and to question the nature of voyeurism. It is, at the same time, a bloody and bare chested romp with plenty of twists. While no way his best work, it is no doubt an interesting little experiment.” Horror Digital
“The scenes that are the most appealing in the film are the ones in which Giulio spies on the various characters who are integral to the murder mystery. It is amazing what Argento is able to achieve when one considers that it was made for television. Overall Do You like Hitchcock? is daring and provocative film that exceeded my expectations.” 10,000 Bullets
“Had Do You Like Hitchcock? carried the name of an unknown director, its reputation would be sturdier, perhaps as something of a minor gem. With Argento at the helm, however, expectations unfairly raise the bar. While there is no way this one can compete on the level of his early works — the so-called “animal trilogy,” in particular — it is a satisfying thriller exuding real love for the movies and the voyeurism they inspire.” Flick Attack
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Anger of the Dead – aka Apocalisse Zero – is a 2015 Italian-Canadian post-apocalyptic horror movie produced by Uwe Boll (House of the Dead; Alone in the Dark; BloodRayne: The Third Reich) and Luca Boni, and written and directed by Francesco Picone (based on his 2013 short film of the same name).
The film stars Aaron Stielstra, Michael Segal, Marius Bizau, Désirée Giorgetti, Claudio Camilli, David White, Ally McClelland, Roberta Sparta.
Reviews:
“While there are more than a few slow spots in Picone’s first full-length presentation, his ability to convey a fairly decent story is what pulls this movie through and sets it apart from a typical Boll production. The dive into humanity is deep, and for the first time in ages, I actually gave a crap about a few of the characters … Overall, thumbs up to Picone for a nice job with taking a sub-genre that’s been butchered and valiantly reviving it for a short spell. This is definitely worth the view-time if you have the opportunity.” Matt Boiselle, Dread Central
Pacemaker Pictures Inc. was an American distribution company that specialised in releasing imported European horror movies with lurid advertising campaigns, often many years later than their initial production/release. The company had been operating since 1952 but their first horror release was the 1960 British film The Flesh and the Fiends, starring Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence, based on the Burke and Hare murders. The movie had already been issued in the US in 1961 by Valiant Films as Mania but for its 1965 re-release Pacemaker came up with the less subtle moniker The Fiendish Ghouls.
For the legendarily tacky German sleaze/horror film Ein Toter hing im Netz (1960, literal translation: ‘A Corpse Hung in the Web’) Pacemaker provided its 1965 campaign as Horrors of Spider Island. The film had already had a 1962 US release that emphasised its racier elements, as It’s Hot in Paradise but Pacemaker focused on the arachnid attacks.
In 1967, Pacemaker issued a double-bill of Italian imports, Il boia scarlatto (1965) and 5 tombe per un medium (1965) as Bloody Pit of Horror and Terror-Creatures from the Grave respectively. The former is a supposedly sadistic, yet amusingly camp and garish sequence of tacky torture scenes overseen by muscleman Mickey Hargitay as The Crimson Executioner. In its full version, the latter is a reasonably macabre monochrome Barbara Steele vehicle loosely inspired by Poe. Both were directed by Massimo Pupillo.
Pacemaker’s 1969 horror offerings were British Death’s head moth monster oddity The Blood Beast Terror (1967), re-titled The Vampire-Beast Craves Blood (“in frenzied color”), plus Curse of the Blood Ghouls, a renaming of Italian import Slaughter of the Vampires (1962).
Last, but by no means least, 1968 surreal Japanese sci-fi shocker Goke: Body Snatcher from Hell was given a belated 1978 outing as Body Snatcher from Hell, coupled with the aforementioned Bloody Pit of Horror as a support feature (the thirteen year-old movie must have seemed very incongruous to its late-seventies audience).
Buy Italian Horror Films of the 1960s from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
Lucio Fulci Poker Cards are the latest offering from UK-based company Gods and Monsters, which had previously issued two, now sold-out, sets of video nasties trump cards. It is the first project in conjunction with the legendary home of cult film rarities, the Psychotronic Store.
We are promised:
1 High quality plastic-coated poker-sized cards
2. 36 ‘pip’ cards, all featuring artwork from films associated with Lucio throughout his career (not limited to just the director’s horror films)
3. 16 face cards, featuring actors and crew from Fulci’s films
4. 2 jokers and cover card exclusive to this edition
5. Brushed steel box featuring a holographic image taken from an iconic film in Fulci’s canon.
6. Strictly limited edition of 300 units worldwide. Individually numbered.
They are available to order from:
What Have You Done to Solange? – original title: Cosa avete fatto a Solange? – is a 1972 Italian-West German giallo-krimi thriller film directed by Massimo Dallamano (Dorian Gray; What Have They Done to Our Daughters?; The Cursed Medallion) from a screenplay co-written with Bruno Di Geronimo. The film is very loosely based on the Edgar Wallace mystery novel The Clue of the New Pin. It features a lovely score by Ennio Morricone (A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin).
Main cast:
Fabio Testi (Rings of Fear), Karin Baal (Dead Eyes of London; The Monster of Blackwood Castle), Joachim Fuchsberger (The College Girl Murders; The Hand of Power; The Fan/Trance), Cristina Galbó (The House That Screamed; Let Sleeping Corpses Lie), Camille Keaton (I Spit on Your Grave), Günther M. Stoll (The Hunchback of Soho; The Bloodstained Butterfly).
Plot:
A sadistic killer is preying on the girls of St. Mary’s Catholic school. Student Elizabeth witnessed one of the murders, but her hazy recollections of a knife-wielding figure in black do nothing to further the police’s investigations. Why is the killer choosing these young women? And what does it have to do with a girl named Solange?
Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
On 14th (UK) and 15th (US) December 2015, Arrow Video released Solange on Blu-ray + DVD with the following features:
Reviews:
“The film offers some truly oddball red herrings, sumptuous ‘scope cinematography (courtesy of Aristide Massaccesi aka Joe D’Amato), cheesy subjective camera shots from the killer’s point of view, Morricone’s classy score (alternating between a sanguine main theme and some atonal jazz pieces), authentic London locations and a truly sordid plot … Solange is a great giallo.” Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia
“What Have You Done to Solange? is a fairly accomplished film that should keep even the most hardened of giallo fanatics guessing until the very end and is worth watching. Indeed, the contrast between rural scenery and violent murder creates interesting images of life and death, and the film is not a simple compilation of murders, a trap that some of the more simplistic gialli fall into.” Flickering Myth
” … director/co-writer Massimo Dallamano opted to tell a coherent story and flesh out his characters, so as a result he doesn’t spend much time on nonsense or drawn out kill scenes. It’s got the random misogyny and gratuitous nudity you’d expect (including a hilarious bit where the cop says “The girls are under surveillance” and then Dallamano cuts to a peeping tom watching the girls shower), but if you go in expecting Argento-y kill scenes you might leave disappointed.” Horror Movie a Day
“In the first half of the film themes of innocence and purity are woven into the fabric of the narrative, and are then subverted in an ironic counterpoint at the conclusion. The film is full of little ironies, and it is able to alight on moments that seem inconsequential because of an incredibly patient and careful method of storytelling.” Shaun Anderson, The Celluloid Highway
“The murder scenes are sometimes beautiful and very stylized in their execution, usually from the point of view of the killer and never really shows much of their body, so it could be either male or female. The film is bloodless in a beautiful way, able to show the brutality of each act without getting overly graphic. The female nudity – and there’s quite a bit – also does not feel that graphic, but rather natural and normal for each situation that it shows up in.” The Girl Who Loves Horror
” … one of the few films of this type that deftly combines sleaze, murders with disturbing sexual components, a whodunit plot, gorgeous cinematography, and characters that actually have depth. And unlike some giallo flicks, it actually makes sense in the end. As icing on the cake, the soundtrack to Solange is among Ennio Morricone’s best work for this style of movie.” Horror Fan Zine
Cast and Characters:
Fabio Testi … Enrico ‘Henry’ Rosseni
Karin Baal … Herta Rosseni
Joachim Fuchsberger … Inspector Barth
Cristina Galbó … Elizabeth Seccles (as Christine Galbo)
Camille Keaton … Solange Beauregard
Günther M. Stoll … Professor Bascombe
Claudia Butenuth … Brenda Pilchard
Maria Monti … Mrs. Erickson
Giancarlo Badessi … Mr. Erickson
Pilar Castel … Janet Bryant
Giovanna Di Bernardo … Helen Edmonds
Vittorio Fanfoni … Enrico’s friend
Antonio Casale … Mr. Newton (as Antony Vernon)
Emilia Wolkowicz … Ruth Holden (as Emilia Wolkowich)
Daniele Micheletti … Mr. Bryant
Rainer Penkert … Mr. Leach, the headmaster
Carla Mancini … Susan, girl in Enrico’s class
Antonio Anelli … Father Herbert
Joe D’Amato … CID officer w / The Daily Telegraph (uncredited)
Filming locations:
Shot in London, England, over the course of six weeks in the autumn of 1971.
Trailer:
German ‘krimi’ trailer:
Ennio Morricone score:
Previous releases:
When submitted for a UK cinema release as Solange by Meteor Films it was rejected by the BBFC. It was eventually released in the UK on the Redemption video label in 1996 after 2 minutes 15 secs of cuts to edit the bath murder, and heavily reduce shots of nudity and knives between victim’s legs and knees.
The 2002 “uncut” DVD has some scenes in the still and artwork gallery that are not shown in that 2002 video release. These include: more nude shots of Elizabeth’s body (Cristina Galbó); a scene of a topless Solange (Camille Keaton) being visited by the unidentified killer which is very crucial to the plot; the shower scenes are cropped so that the schoolgirls are only shown topless. This does not necessarily mean that those scenes were actually included in the original theatrical release print, so the DVD could be “uncut”.
Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
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