Strip Nude For Your KIller

It’s been a long two months, but the end of October spells the launch of the next Shameless Screen Entertainment movie: Strip Nude For Your Killer (Nude per l’assassino). Made back in 1975 this movie has been sadly elusive in the UK, while overseas it has been an incredibly popular purchase for collectors of the Italian thriller genre otherwise known as Giallo!

My first encounter with the movie occurred two years ago, when against advice I purchased the German X-Rated edition. The movie was quite literally chucked onto the DVD, its imagery sometimes so dark it was hard to see, but most importantly a soundtrack so distorted and poor that thirty odd minutes in I turned my back on the movie. The events so disturbed me that I wrote the movie off as a lost cause, and even ignored a following purchase of US Blue Underground disc. I had to buy it I’m a completist. Upon inserting the Shameless disc I was overjoyed to see the level of preservation that the team had gone to, the lengths of achieving (it’s this preservation process that sees such a large gap between the companies releases) something that looks near on perfect. Even when compared to the Blue Underground disc (who have far deeper pockets than Shameless) the preservation is amazing, the sound is near on modern day movie quality perfect. If there is any real flaw it’s in the dark scenes where the movies age is more obvious with some blue tints to what should be black.

As the movie begins we see a young woman on a doctors table, this is a typical case of the back street abortionist, but not so typical is the sudden death of the woman. The dodgy Doc is straight on the phone for help, and we see two men (one of which being the doctor) lowering the girl’s body into a bath in an attempt to make the death look like an accident. Thinking all is well the Doctor is not expecting to be brutally murdered while entering his home.

A month on and as the petty dramas of the Albatross modelling agency unfold, one of the photographers (a very good Quentin Crisp lookalike) while minding his own business, is disturbed by a visitor. While clearly knowing his visitor, things turn nasty; “You’re spilling my whisky!” he cries, but death and a rather nasty anal assault await our photographer, are the two murders connected? But this is just the beginning, and as the bodies mount up it’s up to newly united couple Magda (Edwige Fenech) and Carlo (Nino Castelnuovo) to crack the mystery.

I’m not going to plead all is good here; to be honest with you the movie does not feature the best of stories, it’s very “Scooby Doo” structured and for the most part leaning in the direction of what I would call bobbins. However, if you love the Italian horror and Giallo movies then of course this is too much of an opportunity to let slip you buy, after all you are talking about the opportunity, to see this movie freely available in uncut form in the UK for the very first time.

The story bounces about a bit, one minute being completely fluid, the next not so much; there is not much development here in its’ storyline or the characters, the characters are so thinly written that you do not really get to the heart of any of the characters. The movies big hero is one minute a little likeable the next minute coming off like a complete psycho, throttling Magda for no apparent rhyme or reason. Magda the movies leading lady, is sadly a little dim and annoying. Then there is the police, the biggest sham of a police force you have ever seen in a movie; when a crime occurs it seems the whole police force pile into a crime scene, nobody stays outside, and certainly none of the police can run.

Unlike a lot of Italian movies Strip Nude For Your Killer was shot entirely in Italian, this needs explaining I guess; frequently in Italian movies the cast are global, in many movies the cast spoke in their own language, or were forced to speak in English, then often dubbed into whatever language was appropriate for the movies audience. The result is that for those a little on the picky side, it’s obvious that this movie has been dubbed into English. The reason for mentioning this is that the person dubbing the character of Carlo has a few issues when saying certain words specifically corpuscles.

For the movies director Andrea Bianchi, this movie is somewhat a masterpiece his career varied from gross out movies to hardcore pornography, here he manages a partial synergy by delivering a pretty gory thriller, with enough nudity and semi-clothed stars to keep his more hardcore adult movie fans happy. It seems that the director was trying to harness a new genre, and while other movies before and after have tried, this is one of the more illicit of the Italian sex thrillers. I mentioned earlier the sort of mish-mash of storytelling and style, for those familiar with the Italian movies Bianchi’s work includes The Nights Of Terror AKA The Zombie Dead, Zombi 3; a movie that touches on the “It’s so bad it’s good” style, similar could be said about this offering.

When not trying to titillate, the movie really goes for the gross out factor, the movies killer likes to undress their victims and tries to mutilate them in some way, one has a breast sheared off, another their testicles, while another makes off lightly just losing their ears, although lightly is a bit tame as the victim still dies. While the cutting is not pictured onscreen the after effects are, and while not being particularly realistic it’s still pretty mean to look at.

Of the movies cast Edwige Fenech always makes for good viewing, the actress was incredibly popular during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s making a recent return in big screen horror offering Hostel 2. Fenech here is sporting an unusually cropped haircut, and looking almost boyish. Bianchi had little time for actors and Fenech is never given any real chance to shine, though still rather nice to look at. I skip over Nino Castelnuovo because you cannot judge his role fairly due to the pitfalls of the characters development, I cannot remember a time I so venomously disliked a movie lead, this is more a criticism of the character than the actor. Who was nice to see however was Franco Diogene as the aging virgin Maurizio, Diogene is possibly best known as the crooked lawyer Yesil in Midnight Express, unfortunately you get to see a little too much of this character.

Of the movies big plus points, the big draw is that you will not ever guess who the killer is, I was on the right lines but 100 miles from the target, and this is the resounding benefit of the movie, it’s great to have a mystery and if nothing else the film delivers that.

Special Features:-

I’m at this time uncertain if the movie will come with a reversible cover as recent releases have, there seems to be no mention of it with the material I received, but in fairness it’s a great buy with or without the cover. The movie has been remastered in 2.35:1 with a 2.0 soundtrack.

But it’s the trailers that really impress here, alongside trailers for existing releases Torso (AKA Carnal Violence), and New York Ripper come trailers for upcoming titles. The Designated Victim is the next due release, a loose remake of Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train the movie will be seen by UK audiences for the first time, and unusually for Shameless releases according to the new trailer will come with special features including an English and Italian soundtrack, fact-track, deleted scenes, and art gallery; they are calling this the Fan Edition. Oasis Of Fear looks simply swinging with a glimpse of Flash Gordon’s Ornella Mutti in the altogether, well almost. Something that really pleased me was the first concrete evidence of the movie Watch Me When I Kill about to appear on the scene. While Shameless also promise Baba Yaga: Reloaded, a special 35th anniversary edition re-edited by the movies director after it was harshly edited upon release. Of course the trailer for Strip Nude For Your Killer is also included.

While personally it’s not my favourite of the Shameless releases, I’m thrilled that their releases has at last allowed me to see the movie, and that they have put so much hard work in the release.

Strip Nude For Your Killer is available from the end of October RRP £12.99.

The Midnight Meat Train

In the 1980’s the name Clive Barker was a name to be reckoned with, his Hellraiser books were not only were revolutionary in their written style, when they made the transition to film that style literally dripped from the screen. The 80’s made way for the 90’s and while the Hellraiser movies were hits, they had become so through the English market; nothing had been that phenomenal a hit in the United States. This was until Candyman, Barkers writing took viewers on a horror tale unlike anything they had seen before. Mid 90’s however the world had lost its interest with Barker, movies like Nightbreed and The Lord Of Illusions took viewers down familiar horror paths, Barker had lost his ability to remain unique in the horror market. But now after ten years in the wilds Barker has returned, and his first movie is a real gem.

In The Midnight Meat Train we follow undiscovered talent Leon Kauffman (Bradley Cooper best known from TV’s Alias) trying to make a name for himself in the world of artistic photography. His photographs are indeed cutting edge but nothing that we had not seen before. A meeting with Gallery owner Susan Hoff (Brooke Shields) gives him food for thought “You were in the right place, at the right time!” she tells him, then finishing by telling him that he does not have the guts to go further. In the middle of the night Leon goes out into the subways to capture the image of fear in a photograph. Disturbing an assault Leon gets just the photographs he needed while saving a young model in the process as she faced a group of young thugs. In doing so however the model boards a train, a train ride that will cost the model her life, for on this train rides Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) a vicious killer who attacks and murders humans like cattle.

Even though I knew this was Clive Barkers big comeback film, under the directorial eye of Ryuhei Kitamura and screenplay writer Jeff Buhler; having seen the trailer earlier on this year I was not sufficiently convinced that lessons had been learned, the trailer looking no different from the average gore filled slasher, but watching the movie was something very different.

Like the very best horror movies, The Midnight Meat Train moves into continuously new ground, one minute it’s one thing, the next it’s another. The wonder of the movie is that you never quite know where the movie is going, and to be honest unlike many others you cannot even begin to hazard a
guess. As I sat watching the movie, my thought on who Mahogany was and why he did these unspeakable acts, soon passed, there was just far too much going on all round. Between Vinnie Jones hitting people’s eyes out with hammers, to these strange dream sequences and more confusing who the dreams actually belong too; there are so many aspects to this story. This could sound like a bad thing, but this is honestly not the case, this constantly evolving, frequently changing story keeps the movie fresh, rather like Barker’s Hellraiser and Candyman did. Around 30 minutes in something really interesting happens between Mahogany and a thug on the train, if at this point you have had any doubts about the movie, particularly fears that it is going in the same direction of other movies, then your mind will be changed, the scale of the situation increases two-fold. And this is only the beginning.

The special effects of the movie are pretty “out there”; they are very good indeed but not entirely realistic, indeed it seems that the production team have gone for something visual above everything else. In one specific scene Mahogany attacks a group of people after a night out, the first victim is struck on the back of the head, with such force the victims eyes fly out while still moving, and a woman’s head is literally knocked off her shoulders, again still moving. Far from realistic bearing in mind that the weapon of choice for Mahogany is a meat tenderiser, but as far as viewing entertainment goes something special, to hear an audience cry out “Oh my God!” and the like is really quite funny.

I’m always convinced there is a strong argument for casting ex sport stars in movies then referring to them as actors, this is not something I approve of; when you see Vinnie Jones as out midnight butcher you realise that for once this was absolutely the right decision. From a standpoint of girth, to the rather unusual way his eyes sink back into his head, Jones looks like the role was created for him. In the first 20 minutes, when he has committed seven murders you look at him and realise he is the embodiment of fear, rather like Rutgar Hauer was in the original Hitcher movie.

The casting of Bradley Cooper as Leon is a masterstroke, if you ever saw Alias, Cooper played Will Tippen, the best friend of Sydney, and the one that in your heart you wanted her to be with, rather like real life he was the loser in love and as a result overlooked. Here he bears a similar resemblance, a failed photographer and a coward that you like as the movie begins, but as he moves further and further through the movie, encouraging all sorts of nastiness you have to look again. By the time the movie has ended he is something so far removed from how he started, but this is not like putting a skinny man in a fat suit, you see him progress, grow, become stronger; and this transition makes him far scarier than Mahogany. Cooper made the movie his own,
to the extent that if the movie was ever remade you would not understand how anyone could replace him.

In the movies passing of the lead title (as the film progresses you are given the opportunity to see events through the eyes of other characters) you focus on Maya, Leon’s Girlfriend played by Leslie Bibb (Iron Man), and Jurgis (Roger Bart – Desperate Housewives, Hostel 2); while both are weaker actors, they effectively need to be, they enter events in the dark, but are quickly put in the firing line. As the movie moves to the third quarter you actually have to ask yourself who is the leading actor, as Maya becomes a one woman army; at this point I addressed whether her acting was weaker deliberately from the offset, as towards the conclusion this was far from the case.

Despite his lack of input, this is clearly a tale from Clive Barker, from the fact that the director has given you this very visual look, where you can see all the textures and there is this wonderfully unique filming style, to the down and dirty horror of the movie, On the basis of this movie expect to see a bold return of the author into the movie industry, and above all... Prepare to be scared.