Die Screaming, Marianne (1971)

I recently started looking at the work of British rough trade director Pete Walker, an individual who during the 1970’s tried to adapt the British horror/thriller genre to be more modern, picking up current issues and giving them a funky twist. Die Screaming, Marianne released back in 1971 was the movie that really put the director on the map, with 

its twisted tale of bizarre practices, betrayal, incest, deception, and mental illness.

Read more: http://cinemaroll.com/horror/die-screaming-marianne-1971/#ixzz1a1auXxlB

Wrecked (2011)

When Rodrigo Cortes thriller Buried became a box office smash last year with very little investment, it was inevitable that several clones would follow.  The first out of the starting gate is Wrecked.

Adrien Brody stars Ray, a man who awakes at the bottom of a ravine, with a severe case of amnesia. Having gone off the road into the ravine, he looks around and sees the dead bodies of his two fellow passengers. His leg is broken, so travelling away from the scene is not as easy as he hopes, that is once he manages to free himself from his car. As day turns to night, and once again, Ray is haunted by a combination of his memories that blur the lines of reality causing him to battle against both the outdoors, and his mind.

Read more: http://cinemaroll.com/cinemarolling/wrecked-2011/#ixzz1ZwBS5BAp

Book of Revelation (2006)

It may to some men seem like a dream come true, as dancer Daniel is plucked out of his normal everyday life and taken to a secret location where for twelve days he is used by a sex toy for three women, but Book Of Revelation delivers a grim enough image that anyone that has a fantasy such as this might just forget about it.

Weird looking American star Tom Long heads up the cast in Book Of Revelation as the dancer Daniel. Daniel is happy in a relationship with his fellow dancer girlfriend, one day he heads off into the town looking for her cigarettes when he suddenly disappears. His girlfriend is distraught, as is his dance coach, bigger issues are also a foot because this was the night their latest show Osaka was due to begin. Twelve days later Daniel is dumped in the middle of nowhere and returned to his normal life, he struggles to put the pieces of his life back together. As he takes one day at a time we learn to deal with rape from the perspective of a man.

Read more: http://cinemaroll.com/drama/book-of-revelation-2006/#ixzz1Zw84NyY5

Watch Me When I Kill

Few people really understand the influence of Italian cult cinema upon the world of the popular movie, many do not even realise there was a time that Italy knocked out hundreds of movies a year; I recently enlightened a mind when I explained the term Spaghetti Western, leaving the person in question quite surprised as to the roots of this often used phrase. While the movies of Italy focused on what was popular inAmerican cinema and copied it, seldom do you hear the reverse. America however frequently borrows heavily from Italy, Quentin Tarentino reaches into Italian cinema history to steal aspects for his movies, I think I can draw some reference for everyone of his movies that stems from Italy. So inspired is the director that this year we will see a remake of the Italian classic Inglorious Bastards, a movie he frequently raves about. Also this year we will see another Italian classic get the re-make treatment in Suspiria, originally directed by Dario Argento. The Italians realise talent when they see it, and the need to copy ideas that work; this brings me to the latest Shameless release Watch Me When I Kill (Aka il Gatto dagli oochi di giada, The Cats Victims, The Cat With Jade Eyes), this movies writer/director Antonio Bido was clearly so inspired by the Dario Argento movie Deep Red (Profondo Rosso) that the movie mimics it.

Watch Me When I Kill is a rare delight; it’s one of those seldom seen movies that is often discussed by fans of the Italian thriller genre. The trouble being that those lesser seen or less popular movies suffer terribly without careful preservation. Apparently the movie rather surprisingly was one of the highest grossing Italian movies of the 70’s, but unlike movies like the aforementioned Deep Red was not kept alive by the fans. Shameless Films struggled for months to hunt down the best source material, and get specialists in the field to give the movie some new life. I think this needs some praise as it’s a common thought that companies that buy movies to sell on their independent labels are assumed to be literally chucking movies onto discs willy nilly with little thought about quality. It was all the way back last summer that my contact at Shameless told me they were trying to get some better footage... If you want to be taken seriously in the world of DVD production then look to these guys on how to do a job properly, imagine spending half a year preserving a movie before you even know how it will be received?

Onto the movie, about time I hear you cry. What you have here is an effective little thriller, clearly shot on the hoof but with a reasonable amount of time piecing the story together. With Watch Me When I Kill the movie surrounds a shared secret, something that happened in the past that connects a group of seamlessly un-associated characters. The whole series of events begins with the murder of an old pharmacist one day while working in his store. Nightclub performer Mara (Paola Tedesco) stumbles across the scene of the crime, and by association puts herself in the line of danger. When old flame Lukas (the late Corrado Pani) comes into the picture, he starts to connect all the pieces of the puzzle.

Watch Me When I kill is like a typical blueprint whodunit style thriller (this specific type of Italian thriller has become known as Giallo), lots of random murders, and a whole bucket load of red herrings along the way to keep you guessing the movies killer until the very end.

The movie has dated far more than any Italian thriller I can think of, and I’m not referring to the print quality. It’s clear to anyone with the slightest knowledge of Italian thrillers that director Bido is trying to replicate the power of Argento. What Argento is clever to do though is hide tell tale signs that give indication to the movies age, so that with the exclusion iof fashion his movies could have been made anytime. Bido on the other hand throws ever bit of 1977 culture, and technology he can into the movie, meaning that by 1980 the movie already would have looked quite dated. This is not a digging criticism in fact it gives the movie a little charm, anyone researching late 70’s lifestyles would have a field day here; it’s really quite delightful to watch. When not focusing on the culture aspects Bido rushes around Padua, Tivoli, and Rome like you’re a tourist on a 24 hour break, I wonder how much the landscape will have changed.

There are not any real scares, or moments of fright in the movie; however this does not stop the movie from at times being quite disturbing. Using “state of the art” 1977 technology in one rather long scene Lukas takes his neighbour Giovanni Bozzi to a recording studio to dissect a tape recording of noises played down the telephone to the neighbour. The recording is not too pleasant on its own, but when the various aspects are broken down it gets a little more eerie. A movie could have been concocted off the back of this recording alone, and had you shown any signs of flagging on this movie then this would certainly alert your senses.

The story is pieced together quite nicely, with a good flow of action, mystery and a scattering of romance. For those who love those gritty moments of death, there is quite a healthy body count to keep you amused.

This is not a movie that should have been dubbed into English, it does somehow cheapen the movie, making all the actors come off as being a bit cheesy and just plain wrong, for the time you had a collection of reasonably respected actors and public celebrities, who now seem like amateurs due to rather lax dubbing techniques. Early on in the movie Mara drops in rather casually that someone had tried to kill her, the dubbing artists emotionless words make it sound more like she forgot the sugar. This is not a flaw on the side of Shameless but of the producers of the movies that ordered the dubbed version. It’s worth adding that few Italian movies would make sense in their native tongues, as cast members were often plucked from around the globe with no understanding of Italian, using the much mentioned now Deep Red, British actor David Hemmings was dubbed into Italian, but because vast portions of the original soundtrack were scrapped he was then dubbed back into English; in recent years as more of that movie has been recovered the issues of this have become far more obvious.

Sticking with Deep Red, there is this series of scenes that literally copy the movie with new eyes; shadowed figures, a table of totally random items, and false jumps. Just in case you were starting to think it was all copied, Bido curveballs you with a connection to another Argento movie, Suspiria. Musicians Trans Europa Express burst in with a Suspiria inspired soundtrack. The group did not only rip off Goblin/Argento hits, after the initial smack in the face of obviousness you get something far more subdued, almost dreamy, even beautiful.

Watch Me When I Kill is not necessarily a movie that you watch and become an immediate fan of, it can at times be fairly hard going. I chose to watch the movie twice, and knowing the movies hidden secrets the second time round I was more alert, more involved, and as a result I enjoyed it all the more; what went from pretty average rose a few levels in my opinion.

Special Features:

On Watch Me When I kill you get something quite unusual on a Shameless release, and that’s a very frank conversation with Antonio Bido as he talks about the movie in detail, and allows you through his words to see the movie through his eyes. The director is quick to try and put a halt to any Argento comparisons saying these are coincidental, and that if he copied anyone he was following Alfred Hitchcock. Bido also explains about the impact of the movie on Italian Cinema history, the failure of the stereo soundtrack, and the reason the print quality (now pretty well restored by Shameless) has not lasted well with time. On a nice touch the director also addresses his failures and his regrets.

After their previous commentary track, experts on all things Giallo “The Wilson Brothers” have put together a far more relaxed commentary track allowing you to enjoy move the movie and the text that accompanies it, still however managing to retain their unique sense of humour.

There are two trailers for the movie, both the American and International versions.

An alternate opening credits sequence gives an interesting spin on the movie.

There is a pictue gallery and trailers for other Shameless movies including Strip Nude For Your Killer, Baba Yaga, Torso, Oasis Of Fear, The Designated Victim, and The Phantom Of Death.

The movie is available to buy in the UK from the end of February.

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 Boys From Brazil

There are certain films that fascinate me, movies I would go as far as to say that I love. These movies generally get re-released time after time, after time; and me like the silly fool I am have to go out and purchase it just in case I’m missing something, or because I prefer the packaging, one such movie is The Boys From Brazil and the recent Blueray release proved too much of a temptation to let me pass by.

 

Beginning in Paraguay in 1978 Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) an American Jew obsessed with the Second World War has arrived in the small South American country, acting on a tip off. Concerned with the heavy influx of Nazi war criminals arriving in the country Kohler worries about the possibilities of a new uprising. When Eduard Seibert (James Mason) arrives, he is convinced that things are going to turn very nasty; Seibert during the war went by the nickname “The Executioner”. Reaching out to famous Jewish Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) for help, Lieberman dismisses Kohler as another kid on a wild goose chase. The next discovery however is far more distressing, as more Nazi’s pour into the country there is a final shocking arrival in the form of Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), Hitler’s dubious surgeon. Having bugged an imperial looking chateau Kohler discovers that there is a sinister plan to assassinate ninety four 65 year old men, but for what means?

 

Why I enjoy The Boys From Brazil so much is all down to the cleverness of the storyline, this is very much the sort of film that starts one way and ends with something very different. Based on the novel by Ira Levin (The Stepford Wives, Rosemary’s Baby, Sliver) and directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Papillion, Patton, Planet Of The Apes) Boys From Brazil is a strange synergy of war movie, tense thriller, and very real horror, it’s this alternating  genre turning that makes this an all-round winner. While not necessarily being the most action packed of movies a high body count and a series of rather striking images and situations burn a hole in your head and causes you to believe you have seen something far harsher than you actually had.

 

Boys From Brazil sort of marked the end of big British filmmaking, not long after Lew Grade’s movie company ceased making movies, and this is without a doubt a very worthwhile swansong. Not only does the movie have an impressive cast that also includes Denholm Elliot, Lilli Palmer, Michael Gough, Linda Hayden and Prunella Scales; but also offers some pretty impressive location filming which included Portugal, Austria, America and Great Briton. In between this the effects are pretty impressive, and the musical score by the late great Jerry Goldsmith is enough to send a pretty big shiver down your spine.

 

I won’t ruin the story by getting into the heart of what it’s all about, but I will say that like numerous other Ira Levin pieces of work it was way beyond its time in respect of ideas, the main focus of the movie surrounding something incredibly controversial now, as well as the ethical nature of it. I must say when I first saw the movie nearly 30 years ago, I was really struck by the story, and a little shocked by the revelation, while seeming incredibly farfetched back then it’s strangely obvious now days that someone would try such a thing.

 

There are two moments in the film that critics applaud, a rather sinister series of flashbacks that Mengele sees in his head while exploring an old derelict hospital, combined with a haunting Goldsmith score being the first and for me the most powerful image of the film. The second involves the final face of with Lieberman and Mengele involving a gang of hungry Rottweiler’s, while not so haunting is by far the most known scene of the movie.

 

Of our cast Gregory Peck performs rather well as the demented and devoted follower, looking more Charlie Chan than Nazi war criminal he wears his white suit with pride and has the most wonderful punch up with one of his assassins, while laying the boot into his wife with his tongue. Never much of an Olivier fan, I do really enjoy seeing the great actor here, this is the image I have in my head when I hear the name Laurence Olivier, an incredibly frail old man with a steel like resolve. Steve Guttenberg, on the cusp of his A-List status of the 80’s shows a little comedy that we are all familiar with but also at the same time giving his most serious and tragic role. But it’s the understated James Mason that kind of rules the day, laid back as Hitler’s faithful Executioner he emerges the strongest of all the cast in both performance and character, like Olivier this is how I always see Mason its his finest role.

 

So what difference does our latest technological revolution have on the film? I kind of had my doubts about this one, because in fairness older movies do not normally suit the wonder of Blueray previous discs of pre 80’s movies left me feeling like I had been done, literally getting a good DVD image for the extra five pounds on top of a normal standard DVD release.  One thing you don’t win on is value of content the only additional feature on the extra 30 odd gigabytes of storage is a theatrical trailer. There are also some subtitles, but to be honest with you lots of the words are missed out. What I cannot grumble about however is the beautifully rich image the movie rewards you with, from vibrant colours and a sharpness of image that really makes the movie look like it was made yesterday, not thirty years ago. The sound in fairness however is not much different to the last DVD release. The fact that special features are thin on the ground I guess could explain why the RRP of this DVD is just £14.99.

 

If you have not seen The Boys From Brazil, there has never been a better time (ordinary DVD is just around the £3 mark), in order to preserve the mystery of the movie I have had to keep my review a little thin on the ground, this is one of those movies that if you don’t really know what’s coming you’ll get the best reward.