Category Archives: Might See
Eight Eyes | This Serbian-set shocker is a trippy retro thrill ride
While trying to mend their fractious one-year-old marriage by taking in the Brutalist delights of Serbia and Macedonia, American couple Cass (Emily Sweet) and Gav (Bradford Thomas) gatecrash a wedding in Belgrade, where they encounter one-eyed ‘Saint’ Peter (Bruno Veljanovski), who inveigles his way into their lives offering to act as their personal guide to some of the city’s lesser-known abandoned communist buildings.
But Peter has an ulterior motive, which puts Cass in deadly peril when she and Gav have an argument, and he suddenly goes missing… Cass then finds herself propelled into a nightmarish, head-spinning, transformative journey.
The first in-house production from Vinegar Syndrome, Eight Eyes marks an impressive debut from director/writer Austin Jennings (The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs), who pays homage to the 1960s/1970s Exploitation genre (using 16mm and 8mm film stock is a real bonus) as well as the cinema of Lucio Fulci (The Beyond), Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) and even David Cronenberg (Videodrome). Oh! And let’s not forget Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho).
The in-camera special effects (during the climactic scenes) are a trippy delight, and the score and opening credit titles are pure nostalgia (think spaghetti Westerns of ole). And the gore scenes are a treat – although the most horrifying thing on show is a mallet-weaving naked obese man in a wax mask running around waving his tiny bits about.
As for the performances, the three leads play their characters to a tee – especially Bruno Veljanovski, whose ‘Saint’ Peter is hilarious and sinister in equal measures, while Bradford Thomas’ Gav reminded me of a live-action version of Ned Flanders from The Simpsons (although I don’t think Ned would be popping pills and getting drunk like Gav does).
So what does that title mean? Well, you’ll have to wait a bit for that, and it’s very ‘woo-woo metaphysical mumbo-jumbo’, which doesn’t make any real sense, but then, neither do a lot of Fulci films. Just come for the retro thrill ride. Oh! and as I love a bit of Brutalism, I’m so visiting Serbia now.
Eight Eyes had its International Premiere on Friday, 25 August 2023 at FrightFest in London
The Curious Dr. Humpp | The Argentine sexploitation cult horror on Blu-ray
The Curious Dr. Humpp is one of the most bizarre sexploitation films ever made – but so worthy of its cult status. And now you see it for yourself in this new Blu-ray release from 101 Films (available from 18 July 2022).
‘Permit your libidos to soar!’
A weird robot-like monster abducts seemingly random victims that are taken to the estate of morose mad scientist Dr Humpp (Aldo Barbero), who gives them an aphrodisiac formula ‘that turns humans into veritable screwing machines’.
With the aid of his former mentor, now a living, breathing, talking disembodied brain in a jar, the good doctor drains blood from the copulating couples (‘Let the lesbians share one room; I want to observe them’) that keeps him eternally young. ‘Sex dominates the world and now I dominate sex!’.
But when news reporter George (Ricardo Bauleo) is captured too, it’s up to Inspector Benedict (Héctor Biuchet) to find Humpp’s hideout before George is drained.
Shot with an artful eye to the Euro horrors of Mario Bava, Ricardo Frieda and their ilk, The Curious Dr. Humpp is a weird fusion of gothic horror, adventure serials and nudie movies, directed by Emilio Vieyra, atmospherically shot in black and white by Aníbal González Paz, and featuring an evocative score from Víctor Buchino. Add in that talking brain, the hideous guitar-playing monster, and some young ladies in sheer nighties, then stir in lots of dry ice, and you have one hell of a wicked brew.
Alas, the film also includes some 18-minutes of ‘sexy’ inserts – basically couples fondling each other in close-up. This was not of Vieyra’s making, but the producer’s. As such, this ‘Adult’s Only’ cut of the film was poorly received both in the US in 1970 (where it was given an English dub) and in Argentina in 1971. It was only when it was released on VHS by Something Weird Video in the 1990s as part of Frank Henenlotter’s Sexy Shockers From the Vaults series, that it found its proper audience.
‘Wow. How come this went unnoticed when it was released here in 1970?
Didn’t audiences go berserk when they saw it? An amazing out-of-control, instant cult classic,
quite unlike anything you’ve seen before. The world needs more movies like this‘. Frank Henenlotter
Thankfully, this 101 Films x AGFA + Something Weird Blu-ray release gives today’s cult film fans a chance to see the film at its best – as it includes both edits of the film in brand-new restorations. Plus, there’s a must-listen commentary from legendary Basket Case director Henenlotter, who gives the full lowdown on not only the film’s production but also its lasting legacy thanks to the work of Something Weird Video’s Mike Vraney.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• Newly scanned & restored in 2k from its 35mm internegative
• Commentary track with Frank Henenlotter
• La Venganza del Sexo: the 2K restoration of the original cut of The Curious Dr. Humpp from a 35mm fine-grain lab print. Presented in Spanish, with English subtitles (just remember to switch them on, unlike what I did, duh?)
• Shorts and trailers
• Reversible cover artwork
• English subtitles
The Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978) | Sergio Martino’s notorious exploitation cult looks ravishing on Blu-ray
From Shameless in the UK comes the 2k restoration release of Sergio Martino’s 1978 Italian horror The Mountain of the Cannibal God (minus the gratuitous animal cruelty) on Blu-ray and DVD.
Ursula Andress braves tarantulas, alligators, anacondas and treacherous terrain as she goes in search of her missing scientist husband, Henry, on a ‘wild and uncontaminated’ island in New Guinea.
Enlisting the services of Stacey Keach’s professor Edward Foster and jungle explorer Manolo (Claudio Cassinelli), Susan (Andress) and her brother Arthur (Antonio Marsina) set their sights on the mountain of Ra Ra Me, where Henry’s clandestine expedition was headed. But everyone have their own private reasons for reaching this mystical destination… and not everyone is going to survive the ‘orgiastic pandemonium’ that ensues…
Also known as La montagna del dio cannibale (in Italy), Slave of the Cannibal God (in the US) and Prisoner of the Cannibal God (in the UK), Martino’s exploitation flick was banned in the UK as a ‘video nasty’ until 2001 for its violent imagery. Shameless have now reinstated the long-missing original dramatic gore, but has wisely chosen to ‘soften’ the animal suffering visuals which were patently inserted, completely out of context, to cater for commercial stipulations of the day. However, that bestiality scene involving a ‘disinterested’ pig remains intact!
Frankly, I think this rebuild makes for much more suspenseful jungle adventure (like King Solomon’s MInes meets Emmanuelle), while Giancarlo Ferrando’s cinematography of the jungle and its wildlife, and the cave locations (all shot in Sri Lanka,) really shine in this restoration. The camera also loves Andress, who looks flawless despite her many ordeals, which include climbing a genuinely dangerous waterfall and being turned into a living goddess coated in honey. The music score, by Guido and Maurizo de Angelis, is also one I could happily listen to in its own right. My only niggle is the film’s unflattering portrayal of indigenous culture (but that is something that’s problematic of many Mondo-style exploitation flicks of the era).
Martino has fully supported Shameless’ efforts not to ‘pander to exploitative and unnecessary violence against animals’, and the director explains that in detail in the extras that are included in this release.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• Cannibal Nightmare – Return to The Mountain of the Cannibal God: Documentary
• Sergio Martino on filming animal cruelty
• Theatrical trailer
• Italian credits
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Dead-End Drive-In (1986) | Catch the day-glo Ozploitation thrills on Blu-ray
In an apocalyptic Australia, where lawlessness prevails, outcasts and misfits are being secretly herded into concentration camps disguised as drive-in movie theatres. When young petrolhead Crabs (Neil Manning) takes Carmen (Natalie McCurry) to the local drives in his brother’s ’56 Chevy, they soon face the terrible realisation that they have become the latest inmates of this bizarre social experiment. Can they escape before becoming resigned to a hellish existence of all-day parties, round-the-clock movie shows, and all the radioactive junk food they can eat?
Dead-End Drive-In is a prime slice of crazed Ozploitation from Brian Trenchard-Smith (aka Australia’s answer Roger Corman), who was responsible for Australia’s first martial arts thriller The Man From Hong Kong and the cult prison actioner Turkey Shoot. When it was released Down Under in 1986, it was written off as a bargain bin Mad Max rip-off, while its unconvincing cast of day-glo punks, freaks and loons looked like they had stepped out of an issue of the era’s über-trendy i-D magazine.
But it does have its fans, including this (Australian-born) writer, especially as it popularised German Bundeswehr vests and featured some rocking new wave tunes from those legendary Aussie alternative bands, Hunters + Collectors and Kids in the Kitchen. It’s also a great reminder of the now lost Australia tradition of going to the Drives.
Originally put out under the ArrowDrome label on DVD in 2013, Dead-End Drive-In is now out on Blu-ray, featuring a 2k restoration print, and packed with new extras, including an audio commentary from Trenchard-Smith and a documentary by the director on Australian stuntman Grant Page. Which only makes this the perfect excuse to revisit the much-maligned futuristic thriller.
Virgin Witch (1971) | The saucy sorcery Britsploitation classic screens today on Horror Channel
Virgin Witch (aka The Virgin Witch and Lesbian Twins) is a 1971 British sexploitation horror about two models (played by real-life sisters Vicki Michelle Ann Michelle) who are lured into a coven by a lecherous lesbian. Directed by Ray Austin (TV’s Journey to the Unknown) from a screenplay by Klaus Vogel (allegedly the pseudonym for Hazel Adair, one of the creators of TV soap Crossroads), it was later disowned by the Michelle sisters, but remains a guilty pleasure for genre fans.
Catch it on The Horror Channel today at 10.55pm (Sky 319, Virgin 149, Freeview 70, Freesat 138).
Dear God No! (2011) | This is biker-horror-sexploitation heaven
INTO THE WOODS
Following a bloody fallout with their mob boss dad, two biker brothers and their sadistic Impalers gang invade the secluded cabin of a crazy scientist and his glum daughter. But they soon regret it when they unwittingly become guinea pigs in the scientist’s latest genetic experiment, while a sasquatch starts picking them off…
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GRINDHOUSE-STYLE BLOOBATH
A huge fan of 1960s and 1970s drive-in exploitation movies, director James Bickert hits the jackpot in recapturing the sleazy vibe of those films with Dear God No!, a breast-tastic, ultra-violent trip that fuses John Waters-style humour with Roger Corman’s biker classic The Wild Angels, the trippy satanic film I Drink Your Blood and the 1970s faux documentary The Legend of Boggy Creek to create a grindhouse homage to die-for. Shot on super 16mm, Dear God No! is a drive-in lovers’ wet-dream. Just forget the lame acting and bad synching and enjoy the ride.
THE DVD RELEASE
In 2012, a two-disc Impaler edition was released by Monster Pictures which included the Grindhouse Cut of the feature (with 1.32sec cut by the BBFC), collector’s booklet, audio commentaries, trailers, gag reel, two parodies and an animated short. In the US, Big World Pictures released a R1 DVD featuring the film uncut and unrated.
Dear God No! also screens today (Sunday 3 April) on The Horror Channel at 11.40pm
Ten Little Indians (1974) | The Agatha Christie who’s next whodunnit gets the Harry Alan Towers treatment
Ten strangers are invited to the luxurious Persian desert hotel owned by the wealthy, but absent, Mr Owen where they learn, from a mysterious voice, that retribution is at hand as each one of them is an unpunished murderer…
1974’s Ten Little Indians (aka And Then There Were None) which screens on ITV3 HD tonight at 1.15am was the third film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s best-selling 1939 novel (whose original title was latter changed for being racially insensitive) by legendary exploitation producer Harry Alan Towers, whose Euro thrillers were all bankrolled on the back of deals made with hoteliers and government tourism ministers around the world, and getting big name stars to sign up for a glorified paid holiday.
For this ‘international movie mess’ which is how Vincent Canby of the New York Times described the film, the fabulous Abbasi Hotel (then known as the Shah Abbas Hotel) in Isfahan, Iran stood in for the desert home of U.N. Owen (voiced by Orson Welles, who played Long John Silver in Towers’ Treasure Island in 1972).
But aside from the opulent hotel and a haunting score from an uncredited Bruno Nicolai, the most entertaining thing about the film (which was directed by Peter Collinson of The Italian Job fame, but who ended up helming genre fare like Fright, Open Season and Straight On Til Morning) is the starry cast, which included two former Bond villains Gert (Goldfinger) Fröbe and Adolfo (Largo) Celi, as well as Oliver Reed, Charles Aznavour, Herbert Lom, Richard Attenborough, Elke Sommer, Stéphane Audran and Maria Rohm (aka Mrs Harry Alan Towers). And as for the award to the best ‘worst’ performance – well, if you can stay awake until the end, then it’s a toss up between Reed and Aznavour (who lip-synchs his trademark song The Old Fashioned Way).
Fans of the classic mystery might like to know that an all-star three-part dramatisation is heading to BBC1 over Christmas.
First Man into Space (1959) | Look out! It’s the hideous cosmic monster that fell to Earth
Heavily inspired by Nigel Kneale’s The Quatermass Experiment, 1959’s The First Man into Space (which has nothing to do with Yuri Gagarin) was produced by British B-movie producer Richard Gordon after being rejected by American International Pictures. Shot in London and at air bases in Brooklyn and New Mexico, it was directed by Robert Day, who was no stranger to shockfests having helmed Boris Karloff’s Grip of the Strangler and Corridors of Blood the year before.
The most dangerous and daring mission of all time!
Daredevil pilot Dan Prescott (Bill Edwards) becomes the first man to fly into outer space – but he is exposed to cosmic rays and when his rocket returns to Earth, he seems to have vanished. Dan’s brother Chuck (Marshall Thompson) assumes the worst, until hearing reports that a bloodthirsty creature is terrorising Sante Fe…
The Picture That Leaps Out of the Headline!
When I saw this golden age sci-fi as a 10-year-old, I was truly terrified by that hideous one-eyed cosmic dust encrusted monster that Bill Edwards’ turns into after his experimental flight. He reminded me of one of my mum’s badly burned Sunday roasts (now they were terrifying).
Watching it today, I had completely forgotten about the copious amounts of stock footage and talking heads that take up most of the film’s running time until we get to the best bits – when the rubber-suited monster goes on the rampage. Well rampage is a bit strong, as poor Bill is just trying to get back to base to get into a high-altitude testing chamber so he can breathe properly again.
Marshall Thompson, who had been in Fiend Without a Face and It! The Terror From Beyond Space plays it brave, but bland (he was way better in TV’s Daktari); while Marla Landi makes an OK scream queen as Dan Dare’s caring girlfriend (Landi would next appear in Hammer’s Hound of the Baskervilles before ditching acting to marry a baronet); and then there’s Roger Delgado pops up as a Mexican Consul. Dated but still one to seek out, if only for the burnt casserole monster – which was a big influence on the 1970s sci-fi, The Incredible Melting Man.
The OEG Classic Movies DVD release features a remasterd and restored print by the BFI (although it looked way grainy to me) presented in a PAL 4:3 aspect ratio, with no extras.
Island of Death (1976) | Greek exploitation’s most famous export gets a brand new 2k restoration
When Island of Death director Nico Mastorakis once asked a festival audience member, ‘What made you want to see this movie?’, he got a telling reply: ‘Because it was banned’. And that’s exactly the reason why I first sought out what has become Greek exploitation’s most famous export.
The movie that the censors don’t want you to see!
Originally on the British censors video nasty hit list in the 1980s for its depictions of bestiality and graphic violence, Island of Death ended up having some 20-minutes of footage excised by the BBFC. When it was eventually passed uncut and released on DVD in 2011 by Arrow Video, video nasty aficionados finally got the chance a chance to see the film as the director shot it. Now, the infamous lurid shocker has been given an exclusive 2k restoration by Arrow.
The lucky ones simply got their brains blown out!
Shot on the cheap over 18-days during the off-season on the Greek island of Mykonos, with a group of English-speaking non-actors in tow (some of whom also appeared in that other Mediterranean mess, The Devil’s Men, which was shot at the same time, but had star names like Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasance attached to it), this psycho-sexual thriller follows a psychopathic British couple, Christopher and Celia, as they attempt to cleanse the island of immorality and perversion by killing anyone (mainly homosexuals, middle aged nymphomaniacs and hippies) who don’t meet their crazed ideas of purity. As an added kink, the couple photograph their murder spree that includes crucifixion, poisoning with paint, hanging from a plane wing, and being hacked to death with a mighty sword of justice.
Although the film boasts depraved acts of sex and rape, both human and animal, the results are little more than what you’d expect from a sex comedy, while the gore looks cartoon-like. The travelogue-like cinematography, which perfectly captures Mykonos’ picture-postcard scenery, and the incongruous folksy soundtrack only serve to make this film campier than the director intended.
THE BLU-RAY ARROW VIDEO RELEASE
Arrow Video‘s director-approved dual format (Blu-ray/DVD) edition features not only a new 2K restoration of the film, but over seven hours of bonus content, including the making-of featurette, Exploring Island of Death (which drags on a bit), and a location featurette, Return to Island of Death (with Mastorakis playing tour guide. This one’s a winner for me).
Also included is an archive interview with the director, alternative newly-created opening titles, and five original tracks from the soundtrack, including the catchy theme song. A four-part documentary charting Mastorakis’ filmmaking career and trailer reel (featuring some real stinkers) make up the Blu-ray release extras, plus a reversible sleeve featuring artwork by Graham Humphreys and a collector’s booklet.
• Order from Amazon
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (1981) | Walerian Borowczyk’s ravishing take on the classic tale is ripe for reappraisal on Blu-ray
Walerian Borocywck’s 1981 arthouse take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic allegorical tale is a ravishingly surreal oddity laced with satirical dark humour, an important work within the director’s oeuvre, and one of the best interpretations of the iconic story. Now, from Arrow in the UK, the French-West German erotic thriller has been given an exclusive Blu-ray release.
‘Long live the novelty of my sensations!’
A gentile engagement party for Dr Henry Jekyll (Udo Kier) and his fiancée, Fanny Osbourne (Marina Pierro) descends into murder and mayhem when a madman breaks into Dr Jekyll’s London townhouse and starts raping and killing his guests. But why is the good doctor never around whenever another guest comes under attack?
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne is like peeping through a Victorian Mutoscope, where an Orton-esque farce or a scandalous Bunuel-esque drama unfolds like a perverse wet dream. Rape, sodomy and murder are all carried out in dark corners, behind flapping velvet curtains and closed doors, involving the pillars of Victorian society, before a bizarre metaphysical marriage of flesh, blood and sexuality brings the waking nightmare to a delirious climax…
If Borocywck wanted to place us inside Louis Stevenson’s own fever-infected unconscious when he dreamt up his original 1885 Jekyll and Hyde manuscript while recovering from a serious illness, then he certainly nailed it with this 1981 erotic thriller. And if he wanted to portray Jekyll’s transformation as a violent rebellious assault on Victorian morality, taste and decency, then he nailed that too.
With a meticulous eye for detail in the film’s sets, décor and ephemera, and gorgeous soft-focus camerawork that evokes sepia photo montages of old (like the work of Oscar Gustav Rejlander), Borocywck’s barely-seen film (it was only ever screened in soft-core sex theatres and arthouse cinemas) will make you swoon or snore – depending on what kind of cinephile you are.
While I’m a big fan of Borowczyk’s aesthetics, what really drew me here was Udo Keir (as Jekyll) and Patrick Magee – two character actors whose careers have often skirted cinema’s lunatic fringe. I love them both in whatever they do (good, bad or dreadful), and Magee (playing a pervy General) certainly doesn’t disappoint, especially as his inimitable booming voice is retained on the dubbed English track.
Euro-cinema’s go-to weirdo Keir, meanwhile, is far more restrained than usual (he’s also dubbed, which is a pity), and doesn’t get to let loose except in the film’s key transformative bath scene – in which he thrashes about like a big kid at bath time – before turning into the eyebrow-less Mr Hyde (Gérard Zalcberg).
But the film’s most memorable moment – and it’s most accomplished – is the film’s long final scene in which Hyde/Jekyll and Fanny literally feast on each other inside a hansom carriage as it races through a fog-bound London. It’s key to Borowczyk’s themes of transcendence that get lost amid the shouting and sodomy earlier on in the film, but which play out with brutal beautiful carnality.
While Borowczyk is best known for his sensational erotic offerings like The Beast and Immoral Tales, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne is a poetically macabre offering that’s ripe for reappraisal and this meticulously-curated Arrow release is the way to go. It also looks and sounds fantastique, and makes for a great companion piece to the Borowczyk retrospective box set that Arrow released back in 2014 (and which quickly sold out).
THE ARROW ACADEMY RELEASE
• New 2K restoration (in all its diffused loveliness), scanned from the original camera negative and supervised by cinematographer Noël Véry, with restored English and French soundtracks in LPCM 1.0, and optional English subtitles.
• Audio commentary featuring a 1981 interview with Walerian Borowczyk and new interviews with cinematographer Noël Véry, editor Khadicha Bariha, assistant Michael Levy and filmmaker Noël Simsolo.
• Happy Toy (1979): arty short based on Charles-Émile Reynaud’s praxinoscope, which reveal’s Borowczyk’s naughty sensationalist side.
• Himorogi (2012): this wordless short by Marina and Alessio Pierro is a sight and sound response to Borowczyk’s aesthetics.
• Interviews with Udo Keir, Marina Pierro, Alessio Pierro (on Himorogi), Sarah Mallinson and Peter Foldes.
• Appreciation by Michael Brooke.
• Eyes That Listen: featurette on composer Bernard Parmegiani.
• Phantasmagoria of the Interior: video essay by Adrian Martin and Cristina Alvarez Lopez.
• Returning to Méliès – Borowczyk and Early Cinema: featurette by Daniel Bird.
• Theatrical trailer.
• Reversible sleeve with artwork based on Borowczyk’s own poster design.
• Booklet, with new writing and archive materials (Daniel Bird and Michael Brooke have great fun with the production credits).
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