WORLDWEIRD CINEMA

THE END OF WORLDWEIRD CINEMA?!? And the latest from Mondo Macabro!!

2011-02-12T11:17:00.000-08:00

So I'm sure most of you have noticed that there hasn't been much going on here of late. In fact, it's been more than four months since my last post. My thanks to anyone who's still been checking in to see if there's anything new, my apologies to all who might be disappointed that there hasn't been. Truth is, my heart just hasn't been in it. From a personal life in turmoil to a wide range of interests other than movies to often just wanting to sit back and enjoy a film and not have to think about how I'd write about it, the reasons for my absence are many and varied. I'd love to say that this is a temporary hiatus, but I'm not sure. Anyway, this might be my last post for awhile. I need to figure out what my priorities are and get some things straightened out in my head before I can devote my time and concentration to writing about cinema again. But I still love movies, and I love the whole 'Worldweird Cinema' concept and feel there is still great work to be done in this field so I imagine I can’t stay away forever. But before I go off into self-imposed exile, I'd like to whole-heartedly recommended to all of you (however many of you might be left) the two most recent releases by our fave DVD label of all time Mondo Macabro. I speak of course of their two Jess Franco blockbusters SINNER and LORNA THE EXORCIST!

Of course the troubles that have plagued these discs have become the stuff of legend, particularly in the case of LORNA. I will not repeat the litany of obstacles that nearly derailed this release; you can find those at your nearest Google search. I will only praise the immense effort that MM has put into both discs. They are among the best ever presentations of Jess Franco’s work available. The movies are incredible too. SINNER is as solid and foursquare a movie as Franco ever made, but still washes over you with degenerate sex and heady, psychedelic music. The acting is surprisingly good for an early 70s soft sex epic and while a few plot points are muddled, the story is absorbing and solid. LORNA on the other hand, is just completely off its rocker. It is perhaps Franco’s most bizarre and unsettling movie, trading in the uncanny and unhealthy atmosphere that have always pervaded the wayward autuer’s best movies, but here cranked it up to full blast. The cut on this DVD is almost 20 minutes longer than any version ever released on video, with the most important revelation being the long-written-of but-rarely seen dildo initiation scene between starlets Pamela Stanford and Lina Romay. It’s transgressive, disgusting and highly erotic all at once. The United Nations should consider giving Pete Tombs and Andy Starke some sort of medal for unearthing this scene and several others which have fleshed out this morbid and disquieting film. Another key trait to note about both films are their incredible scores. SINNER’s is wild and psychedelic, LORNA’s hypnotic and melancholy, both hold the films together, lending a linear thread to hang the degeneracy and weirdness on.

The DVDs themselves are nearly flawless. SINNER looks as just about as perfect as one could hope for and while the quality of LORNA varies with the different prints used to re-construct this uncut version, it’s practically a miracle that it exists at all. There are great extras as well. Steven Thrower contributes an overview of Franco’s films as well as introductions for each movie. As Thrower is perhaps the most insightful of all cult film critic/historians, these interviews are absolutely must-views for fans of Jess. You will come away with some new perspectives on his bizarre, labyrinth filmography, I promise. Also featured is an exclusive interview with editor Gerard Kikoine, who worked on many of Franco’s pictures during his time making movies for producer Robert De Nesle. He’s quite charming in a very Gallic sort of way and there’s plenty of insight to be gleaned from him about early 70s French exploitation cinema scene. Great stuff. These extras are featured on both discs. Basically, you NEED both of these amazing DVDs, surely among the best and most significant cult releases currently to reach the market in quite awhile.

Next up from Mondo Macabro: STRIP TEASE! Starring Nico! With music by Serge Gainsbourg! Coming May 17th!

So, this probably WON'T be the End Of Worldweird Cinema. Just the last for awhile. I will probably be back after I figure some stuff out about myself. My thanks to the guys at Mondo Macabro and Onar Films for being supportive of what I do and allowing me to review their wonderful product. Thanks to all who've read and offered vocal support. Thanks to all who've read and just enjoyed in silence. Special thanks to Jack J of Denmark for occasionally kicking me in the ass to get back and do something here. If I return it will be in large part due to his unyeilding support. Special thanks also to Lindsey P who supported me and this blog through it's formative years. More Special Thanks to Rebecca S for pushing me to at least finish this entry and inspiring me to do more. Keep checking back, weird-movie fans, who knows what you may come across!

New Onar DVD coming soon?

2010-09-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

ZAGOR!
KARA BELA!

Long thought lost, but now found, Onar is unleashing this comic book-based Turkish western on an unsuspecting world in October (maybe). That is, if everything goes fine between now and then. This title is a dream release for Onar Mastermind Bill Barounis and for all we know might be the last Onar disc ever, considering all the trouble his previous releases have caused him. But gosh, I sure hope not - so everyone HAS to buy this thing and line Bill's pockets with gold coins so he can continue his extrodinary streak of amazing DVDs. Details of the package below.

ULTRA-LIMITED EDITION OF 500 numbered copies
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Levent Cakir (Zagor)
Poster Insert
PHOTOGALLERIES
Biographies
Filmographies
Aspect ratio: 16:9 - 1.78 Full Frame
Turkish audio with English & Greek subs
Dolby Digital 2.0

Trailer:

Korean Horror! At Unkown Kino! WWC says check it out!

2010-08-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

In the interest of keeping the barest of pulses still moving here at Worldweird Cinema, let me point you to a spate of recent reviews by my friend Mathieu St-Pierre. He lives in The Republic of Korea (that's South Korea to most of us in the English speaking world), and the lucky bastard has easy (or at least, easier) access to the incredibly obscure world of pre-millennium Korean horror flicks. His blog Unknown Kino is just about the only place other than yers troolies where the so-inclined can read about this almost entirely unknown region of international exploitation cinema. So soak it up. Unless Mondo Macabro or some other brave entrepreneurs strikes a deal with the Korean Film Archive to remaster and unleash some of these on DVD, our two sites are just about the only English language options for finding out about these things. There are a few Korean DVDs out there. I leave it to you to do your own digging.
On to the reviews! Take it away Monsieur St. Pierre!

SUDDENLY IN THE DARK

THE FLYING MONSTER

A MONSTROUS CORPSE

Impulse/Synapse unveils the initial disc in their Nikkatsu Roman Porno line!

2010-08-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

Out November 9th of this very year. Looks freaking awesome, aye? Synapse aren't sure which actual R.P. film will be the first to roll out but speculates that it may be DEBAUCHERY aka BEAST COLOR. We know nothing about this film and can find noting about it under that title. Nonetheless - SOLD! We love this stuff 'round here and so will you!
More updates will be forthcoming, including a roundup of recent sexy Severin DVDs! We swear! Stay tuned!

FREE MAIDEN (South Korea, 1982)

2010-07-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

FREE MAIDEN
Ja-yu-cheo-nyeo
Released: October 29, 1982
Republic of Korea
Shin Han Films Co., Ltd.

Directed by Kim Ki-young
Written by Lee Mun-wung
Producted by Jeong Do-hwan
Cinamatography by Jeong Pil-si
Art Direction by Lee Myoung-soo
Editing by Hyun Dong-choon
Lighting by Seo Byoung-Su
Music by Han Sang-ki

CAST
Ahn So-young
Shin Seong-il
Kim Won-seob
Cho Ju-mi
Han Woo-ri

The stirringly lovely Ahn So-young, star of the (very) soft-core hit film AEMA BUIN, plays a free-spirited young graduate student whose casual affairs with impressionable young men causes consternation among her colleagues. Motivated by a pursuit of commitment free-pleasure, So-young feels little guilt about bedding and forgetting a string of handsome beaus. Like the AEMA series, the model here would seem to be the European EMANUELLE films, with their schmaltzy, discofied ambience and (often hypocritical) free-love ethos. But FREE MAIDEN was directed by South Korea’s premier eccentric auteur Kim Ki-young and he takes this formula and curdles it, making a film that is riddled with his own bizarre obsessions.

So-young’s commitment-phobia is seriously tested for the first time by an older professor whom she feels sympathy for after learning of his recent suicide attempt. It seems the old doc can’t get it up anymore and has fallen prey to the depths of despair. His loving wife tries in vain to alleviate his impotency by all manner of oddball cures in an extended sequence that’s pure Kim. A bitter herbal broth chased by an assortment of multi-colored hard candies, pornography, dressing in a middle-eastern-y looking veil, hypnosis and finally standing him on his head and shaking his legs around vigorously. None of this works of course. If you’ve seen any of Kim’s other films like INSECT WOMAN or WOMAN OF FIRE I’m sure you can guess what eventually does cure his chronic erectile dysfunction. A chance encounter with So-young provides the opportunity for the professor to loosen (and stiffen) up but his despair seems too great and an initial seduction ends in failure. But while wandering an empty field at night our loveless doc (an entomologist obsessed by butterflies) is entranced when So-young hoists up the sides of her dress and flaps them around like an insect. The professor chases her with his butterfly net, catches her, tosses her to the ground, flings her legs apart and re-discovers his manhood. It’s another memorable scene that could only have sprung from the cracked imagination of Kim Ki-young.

An intense affair begins, despite the abject disapproval of So-young’s fellow students. So-young has finally learned how to feel real love. But soon enough it becomes apparent to the professor’s suffering wife what is going on. She takes legal recourse (it seems as though adultery is a serious civil offense in the Republic of Korea, or at least it was at this time), threatening suit and forcing So-young to sign papers forbidding her illicit affair with the older woman’s husband. Though crushed, she agrees, but attempts suicide by taking an overdose of pills. She survives, perhaps because the bottle of pills she swallows clearly states that they’re “Vitamin E” tablets (?!?!?). But passion cannot be denied and the professor seeks her out for one last rendezvous, which makes up the films climatic and best love scene, an intense and emotional love-making swathed in vibrant and cartoonish crimson lighting. It’s the only such scene the escapes either faux-Europorn cheesiness or the loopy almost by-the-numbers eccentricity of director Kim. It’s also the only time in this film or in any other South Korean movie I’ve seen of any sensual nature that comes close to matching the vivid intensity of the contemporaneous Japanese “Roman Pornos”. It’s a wonderful, galvanizing and even emotional sequence that should linger long in your memory. The movie just sort of winds down after that, having blown its stack, so to speak. There isn’t much to say about the conclusion, really. Everyone is back to square one and no-one gets a happy ending.

FREE MAIDEN was one of a number of cheap films Kim made during the late 70s through the middle-to-late 1980s which were intended to meet quota requirements imposed by the government on studios importing foreign films. Although intending to pump fresh blood into the increasingly moribund Korean film industry, the actual outcome were scores of zero-budgeted melodramas that for the most part did no favors to the often negative view that the international film scene held about movies made in the ROK. But there were some fascinating pictures that pulled through and are ripe for cult rediscovery, for example: oddball z-grade horrors like THE WHITE WOLF or VENGEFUL VAMPIRE GIRL, deranged gothics so cheap and bizarre they remind one of early 90s Pakistani horror/sleaze. Kim’s pictures from this era are also on the rise in cult circles, although they were first rediscovered by the iconoclastic Korean cinephiles that would eventually breed world class film-makers like Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook. Movies like this one or HUNTING FOR IDIOTS or the bizarre INSECT WOMAN redux CARNIVORE are captivating in a wayward, off-the-cuff manner that deftly showcase Kim’s truly original and obsessive style. He himself was highly dismissive of these films, noting “Those are sort of jokes in a way. I made them with no intention of creating a real piece of work … I made them hastily in a mood of self-mockery”. And while they are not nearly as “well-made” as his 1960s classics like THE HOUSEMAID or GORYEOJANG or as psychedelic and powerful as the 1970s efforts PROMISE OF THE FLESH or I-EO ISLAND, they are nonetheless fascinating examples of peculiar world exploitation cinema. They are easily comparable to wonderfully idiosyncratic works from Jess Franco or Jean Rollin from this same period in Europe or demented no-budget US horror flicks like BOARDINGHOUSE or THE JAR. Films that have sidestepped any normal mainstream mode of film-making and seem instead to have been shot straight out of the wild, fevered imaginations of the irresponsible auteur crafting them. MAIDEN, like any of the films mentioned above, is a very imperfect cinematic artifact but which is nonetheless deeply engrossing anyway, precisely because of these imperfections and not despite them.

The principal selling point of FREE MAIDEN is the wonderfully sultry presence of Ahn So-young. So-young was born in 1959 and made her first film, MU-RIM BATTLE, in 1978. But it was her title role in the “ero-movie” classic AEMA BUIN, released in early February 1982, which made her a star. That picture was an immediate hit and ushered in a brief golden era of softcore sex productions in the faltering South Korean film industry. It spawned no less than 10 sequels making it the longest lasting film series in Korean film history to this point, although only the first featured Ms. Ahn. Although ostensibly erotic, both AEMA and MAIDEN are rather chaste when compared to European or Japanese softcore movies from this same time, not to mention the increasingly profane hardcore productions from all over the decadent west. The nudity in AEMA was teasing only, no full frontal anything. The same can be said of MAIDEN although there are a few more instances of tit-flash than in its more successful predecessor. According to the Korean Film Database (more reliable by far than IMDB) So-young made 23 films between 1978 and 1995 when her filmography then goes mysteriously blank. It is unknown to me why So-young retired but one may gather that perhaps she married at this time and settled down into a traditional Korean lifestyle, which probably forbids a woman from working period, much less working in sexy movies. There is a rumor that at one time she lived in the US and had opened a restaurant but I could find no substantiation for this story. However So-young returned to film in 2007 with THE SUN TOLD ME TO …, a romantic drama.

To be fair, FREE MAIDEN is not as good as AEMA BUIN or any of the other Kim Ki-young films I have seen. Kim’s disinterest shows through in the movie’s many plodding dialog and expositionary scenes, which are shot with none of the passion and verve that highlights even the most trivial scenes in his 60s and 70s work. And excepting the gorgeous force of nature that is Ahn So-young, there are no other great performances here, only perfunctory ones. Still, there is enough of Kim’s eccentric stylistic tics and enough sensual allure to hold one’s interest throughout. And as Kim only made 34 films during his long career (several of his contemporaries made as many as twice that number) and as a significant number of those are now partially or wholly lost, any entry in his filmography is a must-view for his acolytes, for whom even the most lackluster film contributes an important piece of the puzzle to the understanding of this most obscure and uncanny auteur.

Special thanks to my friend Mathieu St-Pierre for his help researching this review. Check out his great review of AEMA BUIN here.

NEW TENANT (Hong Kong, 1995)

2010-06-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

NEW TENANT (Hong Kong, 1995)
San fong haak (Cantonese)/ Xin fang ke (Mandarin)
“New Neighbor”
Universe Film Productions/Galaxy Films
Directed by Anthony Wong Chau-sang
Produced by Leung Hung-wah
Written by Lau Wing-kin, Leung Hung-wah, Anthony Wong Chau-sang
Cinematography by Tsang Chun-chung
Art Direction by Danny Yuen
Music by Raymond Wong Ying-wah
Cast:
Anthony Wong Chau-sang
Dolphin Chan Hoi-hang
Lawrence Ng Kai-wah
Dayo Wong Chi-wah
Parkman Wong Pak-man
Yip Wing-cho

With stomping Canto-metal blasting away on the soundtrack, the movie begins with actor/director Anthony Wong getting a haircut from UNTOLD STORY director Herman Yau made up like Paul Stanley from Kiss. It just gets weirder from there. It’s 1994 in Hong Kong and Wong is being discharged from a mental hospital. He claims he can no longer remember why he was originally admitted and therefore must be fully recovered. His doctor approves and, seemingly a bit of a Jesus freak, prays with him, and seems more mentally unstable than Wong does. Out on his own, our hero rents a flat in a building scheduled to be condemned in three months. Although he is the only current tenant he occasionally sees neighbors going in and out, only to later find their respective apartments empty, apparently for years. On his first night, he dreams (or does he?!?) that his face has become grotesquely disfigured and his hands have begun to stigmata. Rushing in a panic out his front door, he is confronted with the oppressive image of the hospital again, beckoning him to return. The following day, while sitting down to defecate, he is intruded upon by a rotund, mustachioed gentleman who, unable to see Wong already using the facilities, promptly whips it out and starts pissing directly on him. Blessedly, he disappears, but Wong is understandably upset and confused by this odd plot twist. Rushing into his living room he is astonished to find several people having a get-together in his apartment. They can neither see nor hear him. Anthony Wong, unsurprisingly, freaks out. These flashes continue and eventually he finds that one member of the household can at least hear him, a cute teenager improbably named Dolphin (also improbably the name of the actress playing the part and Wong’s girlfriend at the time). While in her room he happens to notice a calendar on the wall. He has suddenly found himself in 1984. Anthony Wong has become unstuck in time.

This brings us to the second act of the film, wherein Wong and Dolphin became acquainted and even sort of romantically involved. But soon enough the sinister strains of the first act begin to creep back in. Dolphin’s sister Whale (no really, that’s her name) goes missing soon after becoming engaged to the odd duck Anthropologist who lives downstairs (played by ubiquitous Category III leading man Lawrence Ng). Dolphin suspects that he has done something unspeakable to her, but really only because he makes weird noised at night that she hears through the ancient piping in their building. Dolphin and Wong sneak into his apartment one night to investigate and spy him opening a brief case and carefully inspect a mutilated canine inside. Convinced of his culpability, Wong checks in on the nutty professor back in 1994. He audits a class of his on the anthropology of human sacrifice. He speaks with unreserved passion about the cannibalization of loved ones in some “savage” societies, proclaiming the act to be the ultimate in intimacy. Confronting him afterwards the creep confesses to ritual murder and cannibalism of Whale and gives him a knowing look, perhaps somehow aware of Wong’s cross-time continuity. NEW TENANT spirals down from here into its unabashedly weird and incoherent climax. I don’t want to reveal too much, but I will tell you this about the end of the movie: It makes no fucking sense whatsoever.

Which is OK with me, really. This is a most unusual HK flick to be sure. There aren’t many pulp films from the former British colony that are so damned confounding, save perhaps for Wong Kar-wai’s ASHES OF TIME, although NEW TENANT is nowhere near in the league of that masterpiece. There’s an odd, unsettling tone to parts of the film that are genuinely creepy as well as hints that there is something more complex going on in the narrative, although it never really leads anywhere. I suppose there is something here about the anxiety over the ’97 handover to mainland China, but that’s not all that clear to me. Despite these failures in plot and theme, NEW TENANT is compulsively watchable and fairly bewitching. It’s a unique beast for its time and place, with an arty and austere mood, blanketed with a dissonant unease that rubs against the grain of the more commonplace commercial HK fare. It also features one of the oddest soundtracks I’ve ever heard, with the aforementioned metal opening, a bizarre assortment of what sounds like Russian folk songs and one of the most improperly scored love scenes in recent memory. As Wong and Dolphin are finally able to see and feel each other and therefore get it on, a tinny, jaunty Casio keyboard ragtime ditty tinkles merrily and mysteriously in the background. Many scenes are attractively eerie, and the narrative confusion adds to the incipient mystery of the production, adding a layer of pleasing weirdness even as the story stumbles. But just as often jarring bathroom humor and a sappy romantic streak undercuts this uncanny ambiance, reminding you that no matter how weird it may be, this is still ostensibly a mainstream Hong Kong pop cinema artifact. NEW TENANT never really finds the correct balance for these disparate strains. Still, it’s well worth the effort to track it down.

Acclaimed character actor Anthony Wong is the complete auteur of NEW TENANT. As star, co-writer, and director, Wong is responsible for both its successes and failures. According to an article by Lisa Odham Stokes and Michael Hoover in the Fear Without Frontiers book he also contributed music to the film, but I can find no other references to this credit. Perhaps he is composer of the metal theme at the start of the picture? Born in 1961 to a Chinese mother and an absentee gweilo father, Wong grew up an outsider and this perspective has informed his work throughout his long career. He has starred in upwards of 160 films, many of them as unrepentant heavies in horror flicks and gangster movies. He is perhaps the former colony’s best actor of such roles, always almost scarily believable as he chews up the scenery and occasionally the other actors. NEW TENANT was his debut as writer and director with only one other film, TOP BANNANA CLUB, a romantic comedy of all things, in that capacity. NEW TENANT was made for pennies sometime in 1994/95, and took some time to actually be released. As befuddling as this film is to a western audience, the average HK ticket-buyer must have been even more confounded by the ambiguous plot. Ambiguity not being a common attribute of 80s/90s commercial films, it is not surprising that TENANT struggled to find an audience. It is reputed to be one of the lowest grossing movies made during that decade. It has even struggled to find a recent cult fan base in the west, despite the exploito fame of Wong, star of underground faves EBOLA SYNDROME and EROTIC GHOST STORY 2. Despite its many faults it deserves a wider audience than it has thus far received.

Texts consultated for this review:

Charles, John, The Hong Kong Filmography 1977-1997, McFarland & Co., 2000

Stokes, Lisa Odham and Hoover, Michael, "Enfant Terrible: the Terrible, Wonderful World of Anthony Wong", Fear Without Frontiers, FAB Press, 2003

Dannen, Fredric and Long, Barry, Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider's Guide to the Hollywood of the East, Hyperion/Miramax Books, 1997

"This film is cursed!" LORNA disc to be delayed.

2010-06-11T17:09:00.000-07:00

Mondo Macabro have announced that their highly anticipated DVD of Jess Franco's amazing LORNA THE EXORCIST will be delayed.

To quote from their blog:

"Due at the end of this month, it will now be a month or so late. This is due to circumstances GENUINELY beyond our control. Trust us, if you knew how hard we’ve worked to get round this, you’d be minting us medals rather than hurling epithets. In our defence, we’d like to point out that in nearly 50 MM releases, this is the first time this has happened….so…apologies..."

Sad, so sad. Pete Tombs was nice enough to share with us what exactly had gone wrong with the materials they had received from the licensor:

"LORNA had been turned into a porno movie in Italy. They removed more or less all the plot and replaced it with hideous porn inserts. The ending was almost completely gone. It was a disaster. The english soundtrack did not match either. The worst fuck up I have so far encountered in nearly 15 years of doing this!"

The good news? They seem to have been able to fix the probs and it will still be published. The even better news? The legendary "power transference by dildo" scene exists and will be on this disc for all to behold! The following screengrab confirms this beyond all doubt.

While it may not be on time, and it may have nearly ruined the sanity of the Mondo Macabro brain trust, LORNA THE EXORCIST will surely be one of the DVDs of the year.
If you so desire, you may put your faith where your wallet is and pre-order this masterpiece here.

Here are some other screengrabs from MM's blog. For those of us who've only experienced this movie from 7th generation bootlegs sourced from ancient SECAM VHS tapes, these are a true revelation!

THE THIRD EYE (Italy, 1966)

2010-05-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

IL TERZO OCCHIO
Production Company: Panda Societa per L’Industria Cinematographica
Released June 11, 1966

Directed by Mino Guerrini (as “James Warren”)
Screenplay by Piero Regnoli
Produced by Ermanno Donati and Luigi Carpentieri
Cinematography by Alessandro D’Eva
Music by Francesco De Masi
Editing by Ornella Michelli
Assistant Director Ruggero Deodato

Cast
Franco Nero
Erica Blanc
Gioia Pascal
Olga Solbelli

Franco Nero is constantly on the verge of insanity as Mino, an heir to a wealthy estate. He is hemmed in by the overwhelming feminine forces in this life: his mother (Solbelli), his fiancée, Laura (Blanc) and his maid (Pascal). Each seeks to possess him, despite his obvious instability. And each seeks to remove the others in the process of possessing him. The maid, Marta, eventually wins this battle of wills by murdering both the mother and the fiancée. The loss of these two important figures in his life tips Mino into full-blown crazy as he embalms his dead fiancée’s body (he is an expert taxidermy hobbyist) and begins to randomly murder local floozies he is easily able to seduce. Of course Marta is there to enable this murderous grief as a means of weaseling her way into his life more officially, essentially blackmailing him into making him his bride. Her devious plan is then complicated by the untimely arrival of Laura’s sister Daniela (Blanc, again), a plot twist that doesn’t do Mino’s state of mind any favors. He sees Daniela as his once dead, now apparently living bride-to-be and intends to make her his for eternity. Marta attempts one last stab at his heart by attempting to kill her, only to become Mino’s final victim in his series of ritualized murders. This bloody act done, Mino abducts/elopes with Daniela to achieve his defiance of death, hurdling both of these doomed souls towards the film’s tragic conclusion.

This synopsis should ring familiar to fans of Joe D’Amato’s gore masterpiece BEYOND THE DARKNESS. In fact, that film is almost a scene for scene remake, despite the almost total lack of acknowledgement in literature devoted to the D’Amato version. BEYOND makes explicit that which is mostly implicit in THE THIRD EYE. Made in the mid-sixties, EYE skirts around the necropliliac assumptions as well as shying away from the viciousness of murder that is the D’Amato film’s stock in trade. Which is not to say there is not a pervasive sickness in the atmosphere of this film, like many 60s Italian gothics, which often seemed more like sex films in a horror drag. The movie actually has more in common with the giallo genre, with its lack of an overt supernatural element and its preoccupation with murderous intrigue. But the shadowy, monolithic mansion with its menagerie of looming taxidermied animal corpses and the crisp chiaroscuro photography lend a decidedly gothic feel to the production, sorting it out from the candy-coated proto-slasher antics of the later thriller trend. This odd genre-resistant strain marks THE THIRD EYE out as a unique film in the heyday of Italian popular cinema.

But why THE THIRD EYE? What does this title mean and what does it indicate about the themes of the film? At one point in the film, after murdering his second victim Mino says, cryptically, “It’s as though I suddenly had a third eye … it always stares in the same direction”. In most esoteric philosophical systems, both eastern and western, “the third eye” is a reference to metaphysical or spiritual sight, the ability to see beyond the mundane world of ordinary physical existence, or beyond life itself into the realms of death. Mino is preoccupied with overcoming the towering presence of death in his life, his taxidermy and murders are an alchemical attempt at defying and transmuting its omnipresence. He can see beyond death’s veil – “always … in the same direction” - and in doing so thinks that he can summon his beloved from the shadow world into the light, like a modern Orpheus. When his fiancée's twin sister appears, Mino obviously takes this as a victory over death’s finality. Her fate and his are then sealed.

Whether or not this represents the film-makers’ actual intention is unknown to me. Much of this production is shrouded in mystery. Despite its wonderful cinematic qualities and exploito delirium, THE THIRD EYE has remained unjustly obscure for many years. As far as I can tell it never played theatrically or on video in the English speaking world. Director Mino Guerrini (December 16, 1927 – January 10, 1990) has never reached any sort of level of cult acclaim. This is not surprising as he spent the majority of his career dishing out the kind of sexy historical comedies which followed in the successful wake of Pasolini’s THE DECAMERON, a genre which has not found a wide audience in the home video cults of the last two decades. He started out as a journalist and painter before embarking on a career in cinema as a screenwriter in the 50s and early 60s. His most famous credit in this capacity is as one of six who signed Mario Bava’s classic LA RAGGAZZA CHE SAPEVA TROPPO aka THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH or EVIL EYE, considered the first real ‘giallo’ film. As a director he made at least one other true cult classic, albeit, like THIRD EYE, a very obscure one, called DATE WITH A MURDER described to me by European Trash Cinema’s Craig Ledbetter as being like “a spy/giallo (film) directed by Giulio Questi”. Guerini seems to have been a film-maker of some talent. THE THIRD EYE’s best moments have a dreamy, feverish quality that makes wonderful use of the black and white gothic cinematography. He expertly balances the poetic and perverse elements, letting neither dominate to the detriment of the other. It’s a shame neither he nor his film are better known.

A name perhaps more familiar to fans of Italian horror cinema is screenwriter Piero Regnoli, who as a screenwriter had a career that lasted from the early 50s into the 1990s, seeing the Italian cinema from it glory days well into its long, sad decline. He was also a director is his own right, making his debut in 1960 with the first successful Italian horror film THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE. But even before that he wrote the first ever spaghetti chiller, Freda and Bava’s classic I VAMPIRI. Although his career encompassed every genre that wove in and out of public favor, his contributions to horror are his most memorable. In addition to the above films he also penned such cult faves as BURIAL GROUND, NIGHTMARE CITY, and Lucio Fulci’s ridiculous but underrated DEMONIA. His work here is perverse and esoteric, laying the proper foundation for THIRD EYE’s unusual and demented take on the horror genre.

Franco Nero gives a wonderful, typically intense performance as Mino. This film was made immediately after what would turn out to be his starmaking role in DJANGO. Though he looks a bit younger here than he does in Corbucci’s masterpiece, which may be one of the reasons why this film is often reported as being made somewhat earlier than it actually was. This may also be why it is sometimes erroneously reported to be Euro-trash diva Erica Blanc’s first major role. As this film was made and released in 1966, this cannot be. Blanc gives two performances here of course, with the first and more brief role being the juicier of the two. As Laura, Blanc gives hints of being just as scheming and self-serving as the murderous Marta. But the sister role is a little too pure and rosy, a perfunctory part written only to fulfill the characters’ destiny and the plot’s climax, and does not allow Blanc to show off her formidable chops. Nevertheless she is nothing less than a fiery and memorable presence throughout the film.

If ever there was a film deserving of being rediscovered by a wider audience, THIRD EYE is it. Accomplished, eerie, brutal, erotic and esoteric this mostly unknown Italian production is well deserving of a lavish digital home video presentation. The version I watched is a gray market composite “taken mainly from the German (anamorphic DVD) and re-dubbed (into) Italian and adding missing scenes from (an) Italian print” as stated by the builders of this DVD-R. The German DVD quality was great with only about four minutes from the Italian version suffering in the visual department. As far as I know this is the longest and most complete version ever available. But a proper, legal version published with the cooperation of all surviving cast and crew would be most welcome, even by those out there who may never have even heard of this gem. For them perhaps most of all.

Special Thanks to Keith Brown and his great Giallo Fever blog for use of the excellent screengrabs used in this review.

The uncensored cover for Mondo Macabro's SINNER!

2010-05-18T15:13:00.001-07:00

No date yet but here's the uncencored version of the cover. Hot Stuff!

We'll post more info on this release as we get it. Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but for those interested a new review will be posted by the end of the week!

If you see only one movie in a theater this year ...

2010-04-04T01:34:00.000-07:00

for God's sake make it GONE WITH THE POPE. I just witnessed this resurrected masterpiece at the Grand Illusion Theater here in Seattle and it is nothing short of spectacular. Can't wait for the DVD, or hopefully, the Blu-ray. Seriously, if you get the chance to see it in a theater, with a crowd that's game, you owe it to yourself to do so. It will be the best decision you make all year. I mean really, would you rather see that CLASH OF THE TITANS remake in 3D? Or goddamned HOT TUB TIME MACHINE? I fucking Think Not! Here's the ultra-rad poster, the ultra-rad trailer and the ultra-rad remaining theatrical dates for this incredible piece of American Trash Cinema.

April 23 & 25 - CPH PIX Festival, Copenhagen

May 6 - George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

May 10 - Doc Films, Chicago

May 21 & 22 - E Street Theatre, Washington, D.C.

June 4 & 5 - Landmark's Sunshine Cinemas, NYC

June 11 & 12 - Uptown Theatre, Minneapolis

June 18 & 19 Main Art Theatre, Detroit

June 25 & 26 River Oaks, Houston

July 2 & 3 Inwood Theatre, Dallas

Movie Review: SABIK ... KASALANAN BA? (Philippines, 1986)

2010-03-19T17:43:00.001-07:00

RJR Films International/Fantasy Films International
Release date 1st May 1986
Directed by Lito J. de Guzman
Produced by Soledad Nequinto
Story by Danny Rivero
Screenplay by Armando de Guzman, Jr.
Cinematography by Joe Tutanes
Music by Jeny Lee
Editing by Rene Tala

Starring
George Estregan
Joy Sumilang
Maureen Mauricio
Tani Cinco
Gino Antonio
Daria Ramirez

Ubiquitous Filipino sexfilm actor Estregan sets in motion a sleazy chain of events when he successfully seduces his stepdaughter (Mauricio). While her mother, his wife (Ramirez), is none the wiser the younger daughter (Sumilang) spies on their heated couplings with guilty excitement. Inevitably his attentions turn to this curious virgin. Although at first she resists his affection, it’s only a matter of time before she relents, in surprising hardcore fashion. This being a rather typical erotic melodrama, she soon finds herself in a family way. Wanting to hide her and her Stepdad’s shame, she agrees to marry the young good looking suitor (Cinco) she had previously found little time for. But while young love blossoms between the two, his dedication to getting ahead at his job soon frustrates our young heroines escalating sex drives. She finds sweet relief in the arms of her husband’s best friend (Antonio), in another extended hardcore sequence. But even he cannot give her all she needs. So she begins to entertain most of the single men in her neighborhood, as the local busybodies whisper in earnest. Unavoidably, her husband walks in on her rigorously boffing his closest friend. Slipping away unnoticed, he plots his revenge, poisoning a dinner he skips out on, killing his pal and framing his wife. Overpowered by the guilt of her unscrupulous actions Sumilang takes the rap and resolves herself to a life in prison. But her husband is crushed by his own guilt and soon confesses to the crime. In a parallel tragedy, the karmic wheel set in motion by Estregan’s transgressions turns back onto him. His wife catches him passionately screwing her eldest daughter. Turning his own gun on him (is he a cop?) his wife murders them both. But somehow we get a happy ending. Years later, Sumilang’s husband is released from jail and is reunited with his wife and daughter, back to a karmic square one.

Although hardly the most original or clever plot, SABIK keeps the sleazy melodrama coming at a pleasing pace. It never flags, consistently tossing a soft or hard sex scene at you every ten minutes or so. The film-making is proficient but uninspired, never reaching the delirious quasi-art film highs of other Filipino sex productions like SILIP or HUBO SA DALIM. But it does manage to keep its drama just enough on the boil to hold one’s interest. The tone is deadly serious throughout, blessedly never copping out to a superfluous comedy subplot like so many Southeast Asian movies. In fact the only concession to lightness comes at the end of the film and it feels phony. The downward spiral of the story is too neatly resolved, running against the grain of the film’s direction. But that said, the plot is never very complex or rich so it’s not much of a betrayal. The only real point of the movie is the fucking, which it provides in a number of soft scenes and two extended hard scenes. But the hard stuff is rather unimaginative and unarousing, consisting mostly of George Estregan and/or Gino Antonio’s wrinkly balls slapping mercilessly against poor Joy Sumilang’s anus. Rather it’s the sleazy incestual undertones which mark out SABIK as unusual and interesting, and the way these taboos lead to the eventual disintegration of the Sumilang’s moral character. Not that her performance carries any of this dramatic weight. In fact all the performances are rather flat, with only Filipino b-movie vet Estregan providing any charisma, although entirely of a sleazy, reptilian bent.

SABIK was one of a number of hardcore sex films made in the tumultuous mid 1980s in the Philippines. During the year of SABIK’s production and release, 1986, perhaps as many as 30 of these “pene” movies (because they featured scenes of “penetration”) were released, although this is one of the most famous and controversial. Star Sumilang provided some real “Pinoy Babylon” infamy to the film for her disputed claims to be the illegitimate daughter of famous Filipino actor Romeo Vasquez. Her career only lasted a few films, not unusual for this period or this genre. The list of actress casualties of the ‘Bold’ and ‘Pene’ era is startling. It was apparently not a good time or place to be a sex film performer. That many of these girls were rumored to be legally underage at the time of many of these productions only adds to the unhealthy veneer of the industry and the films themselves. This was one of only a handful of films director Lito de Guzman made during this time (NAGAAPOY NA GABI being another), and was his last until 2000 when he began to making a series of contemporary sex dramas. Why Guzman suffered this long drought is unknown, although the infamy of the movie in the Philippines may have something to do with it. Previously an assistant director on low-budget action epics, he seems to have carried little of the auteurial weight that Peque Gallaga or Celso ad Castillo threw around in acclaimed hits like SCORPIO NIGHTS or VIRGIN PEOPLE and so could not rise above his porn director stigma. Although no great work of art, it’s wonderful that SABIK is still around to view as so many of these fascinating films now seem to be lost forever. If you can find it, check it out, it’s a rare view into a cinematic world now largely forgotten.

Special thanks to:

Simon Santos and his excellent Video 48 blog for use of the above image and his remarks on the 'pene' films of 1986.

Jojo Devara and his great Sari-Saring Sineng Pinoy blog for background info on cast and crew and for clearing up obscure plot points to this non-Tagolog-speaking audience member.

Wild Turkish Erotica!

2010-03-09T17:45:00.000-08:00

From the mid 70s until the military coup in 1980, erotic films made up the bulk of the cinematic output in Turkey. Here's a selection of clips and (where applicable) ad art of some of these raw and mostly forgotten artifacts. The good news is: all the films below are available in English subtitled versions from our friends at CIKO. Just check out their ebay page here.

SONSUZ GECE
1978; Directed by Yucel Ucanoglu
Starring Unsal Emre and Zerrin Egeliler

YALAN
1976; Directed by Cetin Inanc
Starring Yalcin Gulhan, Figen Han and Erol Tas

YALAN - THE LIE 1976

CIKO MySpace Video

KAFES
1976; Directed by Yucel Ucanoglu
Starring Unsal Emre and Aynur Akarsu

KAFES - THE CAGE 1976

CIKO MySpace Video

KIVRIL FAKAT KIRILMA
1976; Directed by Cetin Inanc
Starring Unsal Emre, Ceyda Karahan and Alev Altin

TWIST BUT NO BREAK - 1976

CIKO MySpace Video

CILDIRTAN KADIN
1978; Directed by Cetin Inanc
Starring Tarik Simsek and Zerrin Egeliler

GUNAH
1974; Directed by Cetin Inanc
Starring Arzu Okay and Tugay Tuksoz

GUNAH - THE SIN

CIKO MySpace Video

SON GULEN
1977; Directed by Cetin Inanc
Starring Yalcin Gulhan and Necla Fine

LORNA THE EXORCIST! June!

2010-02-27T09:16:00.000-08:00

Incredible cover! June 29th, 2010! More info to follow when we get it.

DVD Review: SADIST WITH RED TEETH/FORBIDDEN PARIS (Mondo Macabro)

2010-02-21T11:31:00.000-08:00

When MM first made their announcement that they’d be releasing SADIST WITH RED TEETH on DVD, there were several cult-film pundits crowing about the utter awfulness of this French vampire opus. And indeed by anyone’s standards of what constitutes a “normal” film, SADIST is mind-bogglingly terrible. Its plot is hopelessly confused, its script sounds made-up on the spot, the performances practically define the description “wooden” and the special effects are totally unrealistic. Your average self-respecting horror fan might look on these meager works and despair. But the open-minded cult film fan, the lover of the eccentric and the bizarre in world cinema will look upon SADIST with nothing but wide-eyed affection. For me it was love at first sight. SADIST is pure weirdo entertainment, more psychedelic than terrifying, mesmerizing in its total commitment to its own oddness.

A man thinks he is becoming a vampire following his release from a hospital. His doctors attempt to continue and foster this belief to further some obscure occult conspiracy. Eventually of course he ends up murdering some people and the police are soon hot on his trail. Except that that in no way sums up what is actually going on in this movie. SADIST is confoundingly weird, separating you from any sensible interpretation of the gothic events unfolding willy-nilly. Grainy stock footage of natural disasters regularly intercedes on the action ostensibly illustrating the main character’s violent state of mind, along with arty polarization effects and random shots of snakes and spiders, but these wayward avant-garde effects do more to interrupt the viewer’s frame of mind than reveal anything of value about the characters. Oddball characters waft in and out of the story with little rhyme and certainly no reason. My advice? Just give up and go with the flow. If you like weird movies, and you probably do, this is seriously one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen. It has a weirdness that is beyond words. SADIST WITH RED TEETH comes with Worldweird Cinema’s highest recommendation possible. If you don’t like this movie, it’s possible that bizarre foreign cult movies are just not for you.

I wish I could say the same about FORBIDDEN PARIS. Oh, it’s pretty weird, and has some wonderfully odd images and moments, but it just barely held my attention throughout. Director Van Belle’s first feature film, it’s a “mondo” style documentary depicting a swath of oddballs and nutjobs in the Paris of the late 60s. It starts off strong with a slow motion shot of a woman walking through the streets in the buff, and then heading into a vignette showing a family of three preparing for a post-nuclear future. But overall there’s a little too much drag in the episodes, with the usual fakirs and animal deaths and whatnot. I am not much of fan of this type of cult movie, and PARIS did not covert me. It does have a great droney pop-jazz score and it looks good, but I doubt I’ll be returning to it anytime soon, unlike SADIST, which is already demanding an encore viewing.

Mondo Macabro’s digital video presentation of each of these rare and almost lost films is nigh perfect. A wee-bit of damage on the negative for SADIST comes through, but otherwise it’s astonishingly beautiful, colorful and sharp. PARIS fares even better, looking as though it could have been filmed last year and not 40 years ago. There’s a great French language documentary about Van Belle, which centers on this enigmatic directors propensity for storytelling and obscuring the truth of his own biography. Liner notes from Christophe Bier, who is also interviewed in the docu, do their best to separate fact from fiction but ends up emphasizing the unknowability of this unique figure in European low budget cinema. JLVB himself does little video introductions to each film, talking a bit about his reasons for casting mega-cutie British actress Jane Clayton in SADIST. Mostly it was because she was mega-cute, and had nothing to do with her acting. Which, after you watch the movie, will make perfect sense. She’s not very good, but she’s totally hot. His intro for PARIS emphasizes the verite of each scene, claiming nothing was staged. I think I may have to call bullshit on that one, but judge for yourself. While we are only two months into 2010, Mondo Macabro has unleashed a likely contender for the best DVD of the year. SADIST is amazing and the extras all worthwhile (even PARIS though I didn’t much care for it). Do yourself a favor and inject some much-needed weirdness into your life with this astonishing double-bill release.

DVD Review: ALTIN COCUK (Onar Films)

2010-02-12T17:35:00.000-08:00

International spy films have often used Istanbul as a stock location to give a feeling of mystery and intrigue. Its unique architecture and deep history lend this easily, and it doesn’t hurt that during the 60s and 70s there was a film industry based there which actively sought out international co-productions. Istanbul was cheap and exotic, two very big plusses when it comes to the b-movie industry. So why wouldn’t the Turks want to take advantage of this themselves and not just leave it to the Italians or the Brits? They did so starting in ‘66 with a series of amiable James Bond knockoffs filmed under the banner ALTIN COCUK. Onar’s latest DVD is a presentation of the first film in that series, and while it probably isn’t going to blow your mind or change your life it is terrific fun nonetheless. Featuring romantic leading man Goksel Arsoy as the Bondish Altin Cocuck (or “Golden Boy”) a super-suave, super-deadly superagent out to protect Turkey from Cold War-era nogoodniks and to get as many lovely and scantily clad Anatolian chicks into bed as possible. There are a lot of double crossings, disguises, torture, gunfights, near-naked girls, underwater hi-jinks and love on the sly as our hero prevents mega-Turk-baddie Altan Gunbay from blowing up all Istanbul in an event which Gunbay predicts will be “more fun than Hiroshima”. One girl is whipped nearly out of her dress and another is strung up while in a bikini and slowly hung as the ice she’s made to stand on melts away under a heat lamp and the diabolical glare of Gunbay. The movie spits out one fast-paced scene after the next in the best Yesilcam cheap-but-entertaining tradition and is never, ever boring. But if you’re looking for the weirdest or wackiest or bloodiest or sexiest Turkish film, this one ain’t it. Not by a long shot. But it’s wild enough and rare enough to hold a bright spot in your heart and your DVD collection if you’re just willing to let it in and do its thing.

More in the movie’s favor than its plot or action are its relatively great cinematic qualities. Director Memduh Un enriches each frame with a wonderfully expressionist, almost noir-ish eye. Dutch angles and moody lighting give it an atmosphere beyond the simple and action and poverty of plot. ALTIN COCUK looks great, better than it should, and is a shining testament to the often unheralded talents that were behind these disposable pop films. The acting isn’t anything that you wouldn’t find in any other Turkish film (or Spanish or Greek or Egyptian for that matter), but the cheap charisma of Goksel Arsoy holds things together nicely for the brief duration of the flick. And of course Altan Gunbay, in one of his earliest roles is typically great as the bald bad-ass out to betray his brethren. But really, it’s the endless parade of beautiful ladies that keeps your attention in scenes not featuring gunfire or torture. Sevda Nur plays the main girl, and while she hasn’t much to do, her dark and ethereal beauty are mesmerizing and after awhile you don’t really remember that she not really all that great as an actor. There’s quite a bit to be excited about in this movie, especially if you enjoy 60s spy flicks. Honestly, it’s never really been my cup of tea, I don’t even care for the Bond movies, but one thing I do like is Turkish pop cinema, in any shape or genre, and so ATLIN COCUK gives me just enough of that thrill that it will keep me coming back as long as it remains in on my DVD shelf.

Onar’s discs just keep getting better. This is one of the best looking yet. On par with many of Something Weird Video’s transfers of American 60s low budgets epics, you get a lovely, clear b&w 4:3 fullscreen image. Considering the sometimes awful state of the prints Onar often has to deal with, ALTIN’s fine presentation is a minor miracle. Extras soar as well. The best is the first ever filmed interview with longtime Turkfilm villain Altan Gunbay. It’s full of great and illuminating info concerning his career and the Turkish film industry in general. On the downside, the video is appallingly edited, with no rhyme or reason to the structure of the interview. Valuable stuff, nonetheless. The usual, terrific and informed bios and filmographies are here as well as some trailers for other Onar things. The exciting bits here concern two mysterious upcoming releases. One is a formerly lost KILINK movie, whose title is still unknown at press time: the scene included is wonderfully sadistic and certainly whets the appetite for more. Perhaps even more mindblowing is RINGO GESTAPO’YA KARSI, a feverish looking adventure pitting cowboys against Nazis in the wilds of Anatolia. I need this one as soon as possible, OK Bill? All in all, another great time provided by Onar Films of Athens, Greece. Fans of 60s international spy films will want to waste no time in picking this one up and the usual Worldweirders, if they don’t already have it, are heartily recommended to pick it up at their earliest convenience.

DVD Review: THE ALCOVE (Severin)

2010-01-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

Set during the years of Italy’s ill-fated imperial drive into East Africa, Joe D’Amato’s ultrasleazy THE ALCOVE plays deeply on disturbing master-slave dynamics of that era for its particular brand of kink. Al Cliver (DEVIL HUNTER) plays an aristocrat returning from the front with one impressive spoil of war, an Abyssinian princess played by legendary Eurosex goddess Laura Gemser. He returns home to a domestic situation already brimming with erotic confusion as his wife, Allessandra ( BEING TWENTY’s Lili Carati) has begun an affair with the secretary (LAURE’s Annie Belle ) hired to aid him in writing his war-time memoirs. The addition of Gemser to this hothouse of potentially dangerous sensuality causes the whole thing to boil over. Soon, Belle and Cliver are out of favor with the wife, who has succumbed to the savage charms of the African slave-queen. Throw in a leering brute of a gardener (spaghetti western and Poliziotteschi vet Nello Pazzafini) to the volatile mix and you know events are bound to end with the usual violence and rape. Tables are turned, dynamics are reversed, and reversed again, and the film ends with an actually somewhat shocking, fiery conclusion.

The film is enflamed with political incorrectness as an aid to its erotic aims. There are several references to Gemser as nothing more than an animal, which seems to be a driving factor in the film’s view of her sensual allure, for both the characters and the intended audience. The racist implications of Italy’s African colonial adventure are played out in an almost satirical manner in this porno/chamber drama, serving needs both lascivious and political. The shifting power dynamics both cultivate and expose racist attitudes in what is ultimately a rather confusing mish-mash of intentions. Gemser gains the upper hand over all the other characters in the film, revealing herself to be the most powerful and headstrong in the ensemble. The climax of the film has Gemser orchestrating a filmed rape of Belle by Pazzafini and Carati in a nun’s habit. With this humiliation Gemser enacts a cultural revenge for her own violation at the hands of Cliver. But there is yet another reversal of fortunes which serves to only re-emphasize the racial status quo of the time period.

But still, with all that, THE ALCOVE is great Eurotrash entertainment. Gemser is a powerful presence throughout, and her performance carries the dramatic thrust of the film. But even she possibly couldn’t have saved this from being a dreary and/or completely offensive movie without the deft cinemagraphic hand of Director D’Amato. His beautiful compositions and lighting give THE ALVOVE a classy sumptuousness it almost certainly does not deserve. And then of course there’s just the ironic thrill of the offensiveness itself. There is no way in hell a movie like this could be made anywhere in the world today, making it a unique artifact. If you’re of the right mindset, and most readers of this blog probably are, the constant non-p.c. sleaze on display will make you light up like Christmas. I had never seen this one before this fine DVD, and it only deepens my appreciation for Joe D’Amato as both a cinematic craftsman of a high order and as filmic pimp and conman, letting you peep in on a world you’d never want to live in but might just be very curious about nonetheless.

Severin’s DVD looks pretty good. It’s flagged for progressive playback, it’s anamorphic, roughly the correct aspect ratio and the colors are strong. There’s a constant high level of grain throughout, betraying the low-budget origins of the movie which the otherwise beautiful cinematography might hide. It is a little on the soft side, but that just may be the style of the film, sort of dreamy, hot and hazy. There is some film damage near the end of the movie, but this is never distracting, and only reinforces the grindhouse-y nature of the whole spectacle. An old battered trailer, likely sourced from a VHS is included as an extra along with a short but interesting video interview with D’Amato. Done in the mid-1990s, when ole Joe was still among the living, it covers mostly his Emanuelle movies with Gemser. While it isn’t groundbreaking, you’ve probably heard most of this stuff before, it’s great for this obscure footage to finally get an airing. D’Amato is a director who greatest auteurial fame has been posthumous so any thing with expressing his own views on his work is of high value to his many late-arriving fans. All in all, a fine presentation of a great, if outright offensive, European cult sex film and highly recommended to all readers of this blog.

The Twisted Path of R1 DVD!

2010-01-16T14:12:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick rundown of some upcoming R1 DVDs of interest to Worldweirdians. All dates are subject to change, perhaps even likely to change. Images are copped from dvdaf.com as always.

BATTLE GIRL: LIVING DEAD IN TOKYO BAY (Synapse) coming 02-23-10

BEHIND CONVENT WALLS (Cult Epics) coming 03-30-10

BUSHIDO: CRUEL CODE OF THE SAMURAI (AnimEigo) coming 02-09-10

DEATH JOURNEY (Code Red) coming 03-16-10

FERNANDO ARRABAL COLLECTION VOL. 2 (Cult Epics) coming 02-23-10

GIRLY (Scorpion) coming 3-30-10

INTERNECINE PROJECT (Scorpion) coming 02-23-10

MEAN JOHHNY BARROWS (Code Red) coming 03-16-10

PORNO (Impulse) coming 04-27-10

POWER PLAY (Scorpion) coming 02-23-10

SADIST WITH RED TEETH/FORBIDDEN PARIS (Mondo Macabro) coming 03-30-10

SAYURI ICHIRO: FOLLOWING DESIRE (Kimstim/Kino) coming 03-23-10

SCREAM (Code Red/Shriek Show) coming 02-23-10

SWEET TEEN (Mya) coming 04-27-10

TAXI HUNTER (Eastern Star) coming 02-23-10

TWISTED PATH OF LOVE (Kimstim/Kino) coming 03-23-10

WITHOUT TRACE (Mya) coming 04-27-10

YAKUZA JUSTICE: EROTIC CODE OF HONOR (Kimstim/Kino) coming 03-23-10

More good Worldweird stuff to come, including reviews of Severin's new D'Amato sleazefest THE ALCOVE and Onar's latest essential Turkish cult release ALTIN COCUCK! Stay tuned for those as well as more reviews of extremely obscure foreign cult goodies!

Merry Xmas EVIL!!!

2009-12-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

Hey worldweirders, enjoy this little smidgen of sicko Xmas cheer. WWC will be back in full force with new reviews and news next year!

Movie Review: DE ESPALDAS (Cuba, 1956)

2009-11-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

DE ESPALDAS
"Backs Turned"
aka CUBAN CONFIDENTIAL
Cuba, 1956
Directed and Produced by Mario Barral
Screenplay by Mario Barral, Francisco Pazos, Francisco Forcade, Oscar Luis Lopez
Cinematography by Manuel S. Conde
Edited by Michael Cerone
Music by Jose de Aguilera
CAST:
Emilio G. Navarro
Maria Brenes
Jose de San Anton
Manuel Estanillo
Armando Martinez

A man awakens to find his mood troubled. While walking to work he unknowingly wanders into a graveyard and so begins an existential musing that lasts for the rest of the day and the film. Mostly he aimlessly wanders the streets, constantly asking himself ‘Why?” when stumbling across social injustice. He ponders the evils of sick children, poverty and Marxism. At one point he flashes back to a fortune teller and her witchy words make him believe he has power over life and death. He informs a dying boy that he will not die after all, only to hear mere seconds later that the child has gone and croaked anyway. This does nothing to alleviate his mood. While stopping outside a prison, a warden appears and asks him to speak with a man condemned to die. It is his last wish to speak with the first man the warden comes across. The doomed man explains that his only real crime is being ugly, and therefore impossible to believe when he claims he did not murder his beautiful lover. Our hero does believe him and comes away more convinced than ever of the hopelessness of the world. Which is only further exasperated by a chance meeting with a random floozy (perhaps prostitute – the narrative is unclear) with whom he tries to make sense of the days events before her angry husband comes home to beat her in what appears to be a daily ritual. All his sadness and misery are solved, conveniently, by his return home. Met by his adoring children and maid-like wife, our man in Havana is welcomed by the warm embrace of family, of middle-class life and most importantly perhaps, of television. The films ends with the entire family gathered around its hearth-like glow, entranced by its angst-easing flicker. In an odd and ostensibly poetic bit of casting, his family are all played by the same actors who portrayed the various shady characters encountered in his long’s days journey into TV-illuminated night.

DE ESPALDAS has serious artistic aspirations. It’s full of 50s European-esque arty angst a la Bergman or Italian neo-realism, but it just doesn’t work. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still an entertaining and interesting movie. Just not for the reasons it is intended for. The hero’s completely ridiculous voice-over monologues seem almost like a parody of existential navel-gazing, it’s so over the top and full of square-jaw sincerity. Despite its utter seriousness of intent, it comes across completely comedic. The English dubbing may have something to do with this, sounding as though it were recorded through a megaphone rather than a microphone. The music, too, seems at odds with the grave events unfolding. It’s a swath of typically 50s sounding library cues more at home in a pirate adventure movie than a film about a man touring through the suffering of the world. It creates an unintentional frisson which works in spite of itself, but only though an unhealthy veil of snickering irony. The film’s best moments are the hand-held street scenes, particularly a lively street carnival, filled with outrageous, campy costumes. Meant to represent the main character’s disorientation, it the only time when the movie feels alive and in it’s own skin. The rest of the movie, with all it’s labored conscientiousness, feels a bit off, a bit fake. There’s also a palpable, and uncomfortable, feeling of propaganda about the whole thing. The condemnation of the socialist organizers, for instance, or in the film’s obvious pro-US middle class values of the finale. It’s weird and disconcerting and makes the whole thing even more interesting, despite the blatant flaws of the film on its own terms.

Little information is available about Director Mario Barral. He appears to have died in 2000, only two years before his son, Rolando Barral, himself a media celebrity in the Miami Cuban exile community. Mario worked mostly in radio, television and theater in pre-revolutionary Cuba during the 40s and 50s. He was the head of CMQ, Cuba’s largest and most successful television studio during the medium’s infancy. After the revolution, Barral made his way to Miami where he continued to work in Spanish language media, even publishing a series of poetry books and writing and producing several plays. DE ESPALDAS was his first film. His second, and last, is CON EL DESEO EN LOS DEDOS (“With Desire in the Fingers”), an even more obscure film which reportedly never played outside Cuba, LOS DEDOS is described by an IMDB reviewer as “one of the serious attempts of making a(n) … erotic film in Cuba in the late 50's”. But judging from this one available film, Barral was no natural film-maker. ESPALDAS is mostly stilted and crude, exuding only a whiff of cinematic poetry here and there. Obviously an attempt to make a serious “art film” ESPALDAS is compromised by Barral’s limitations as a director and by the awkward propagandic impulses bubbling just underneath the film’s surface. Something Weird Video has this film available as either a VHS (this is how I saw it) or a DVD-R. In typical exploitation ballyhoo fashion their catalog drastically oversells it, describing it as a “lost art film masterpiece” or a “bargain basement Bunuel”. It’s neither, though still of interest to those wanting to dig into the often obscure world of South American cinema.

Special Thanks to David Wilt for additional biographical info.

DVD Review: BORN OF FIRE (Mondo Macabro)

2009-11-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

Mondo Macabro has done it again. They’ve uncovered a mostly unknown and completely unique film and given it the red carpet, 5-star treatment. BORN OF FIRE is an imperfect film, but is such a bizarre and visually stimulating piece that its faults dissipate quickly from your mind. A mystic-minded horror-fantasy with a healthy dollop of art-film gravitas, BORN bends and slinks around most of your “normal” preconceptions of genre or mainstream narrative. Its Islamic context gives it a refreshing texture that is effortlessly exotic (it would make a fine double feature with another Islamic art-horror: Kutlug Ataman’s THE SERPENT'S TALE). The film carries you along by magick and music, by imagination and emotion rather than plot, which is somewhat weak. A concert flautist’s chance meeting with a mysterious woman takes him unexpectedly to Turkey to investigate the circumstances of his father’s death. His father had gone to Turkey to study under “The Master Musician”, a man of supernatural musical talents who is somehow responsible for his death. This investigation leads to obscure revelations concerning the end of the world by excessive solar and volcanic activity. Our hero must prevent this occurrence by a musical dual with the Master, who, it turns out, is essentially Satan.

The synopsis above does not, and cannot, possibly convey the impact this movie has. It’s full of weird and mysterious events which make little or no logical or narrative sense: a woman stoned to death by flowers instead of rocks, a djinn who responds to a sung Muslim prayer by shooting flames from his eyes, a vulture crashing through a shattered windshield on a rainy London night, the hero’s mysterious woman-friend, possessed by the djinn sends a steam of menstrual blood down her leg into a salt-water pool which later becomes a cocoon containing a monstrous moth that somehow causes her death when it hatches. Taken apart, these events hardly attach themselves to the “save the world by atoning for the sins of the father” thrust of the BORN’s plot. Taken together, with the other-worldly ambiance which seems to seep subconsciously into your mind, these images and many others like them form the dream-like corpus of the movie. Your perception abandons the narrative and floats along this metaphysical, surreal visual stream. Occasionally the spell is broken, mostly by clunky, tin-eared dialog (“The music originates here. The fire is its source” for one example) which reads almost like poetry on paper but sounds insufferably pretentious when voiced aloud by the actors. And the plot itself sometimes comes off half-baked, as though perhaps compromises during the film’s production limited the material that could be filmed, giving it an unintended ambiguity. But ultimately, ambiguity is OK with me, as long as the film itself is interesting enough to carry it through. BORN OF FIRE is, if nothing else, very interesting.

The DVD is total aces. The 1.85:1 widescreen presentation is spot on and beautiful. I could find no fault in it. A ton of relevant extras round out this great release, most notably three interviews with cast and crew. Director Jamil Dehalavi discusses his career and BORN OF FIRE in particular in great detail which is gives the film some nice context. As an aside I might point out that Dehalavi seems to agree with me about the dialog, insisting that you could do away with it and not adversely affect the film. Peter Firth is next and is very charming, and although proud of the movie seems still a little befuddled by it. Perhaps the best interview is with Nabil Shaban, who plays a deformed dwarf who in some ways becomes the main character of the movie. He seems to be one of the few people to be able to give a comprehensive answer to questions concerning what the film is actually all about. I’m not sure I agree with him 100% but his views are articulate and entertaining. Shaban is wild-eyed and enthusiastic throughout, discussing his career and the film with contagious affection. Highly informative, if rather brief and to the point, text pages by MM CEO Pete Tombs plaster you with further details about the movie, its production and cast. A VHS sourced trailer completes the package, along with the always-there MM preview reel, which sadly has not been updated to include this movie, their previous release GRADIVA or the upcoming SADIST WITH RED TEETH. All in all, this is a delirious and wonderful film let down somewhat by its own story, but is given an amazing and well-rounded DVD presentation so that thousands more people can make up their own minds about it.

New Onar DVD: ALTIN COCUK (THE GOLDEN BOY)!!!

2009-11-09T17:06:00.000-08:00

From Onar HQ, the News!

Dig the Details:

ALTIN COCUK (THE GOLDEN BOY)
If there was something the Turks were great at- besides Superhero adaptations- that sure was Spy special treatments. ALTIN COCUK was such a hit in 1966 that spawned 3 sequels in no time thus rendering the title hero more successful and cult than Mr. Bond himself! Luckily, the last surviving materials were found in pretty good condition, securing convenient entertainment through this worldwide DVD premiere.

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF CELLAT (TURKISH DEATH WISH)!

Country: Turkey
Year: 1966
Director: Memduh Un
Actors: Goksel Arsoy, Altan Gunbay, Sevda Nur, Reha Yurdakul

FEATURES:
ULTRA-LIMITED EDITION OF 500 numbered copies
Turkish audio with English & Greek subs
Dolby Digital 2.0
INTERVIEW with Altan Gunbay
TURKISH INTRIGUE (Article on Turkish Spy Films)
Spy Films Selected Filmography
Poster Insert
Photogallery
Biographies
Filmographies
NEW Trailers (A Newly-discovered, considered lost, KILINK film, PLUS another LOST gem, RINGO GESTAPO'YA KARSI!! Both trailers will premier exclusively on this DVD and nowhere else!!)

DVD Review: HARDWARE (Severin Films)

2009-10-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

Richard Stanley’s HARDWARE finally makes its debut on DVD (as well as Blu-Ray) after a decade or more of legal entanglements have kept in video limbo. Though it may have been a long time in coming, the wait is well worth it. Severin has pulled together a generous amount of supplemental material and has remastered the picture itself to perfection. HARDWARE is a cacophonous and kaleidoscopic apocalypse thriller which veers from flesh-ripping gore to dreamy idyll with disturbing ease. Set in a bleak future made terminal not by a single holocaust but by many and varied Armageddons, Stanley’s film depicts the struggles of two primary characters, Mo (Dylan McDermott) and Jill (Stacy Travis) to connect with each other amidst the rubble. Making this connection ever more complicated is the android killing machine that Mo, a post-industrial scrap-metal scavenger, has brought home in pieces as a Xmas present for Jill, a post-industrial scrap-metal sculptor. Unbeknownst to either of them, this killbot (officially known as MARK 13) is actually still operational, and what’s more, has a rather precocious talent for rebuilding itself. You can see where this is going I’m sure. Add in healthy doses of hallucinatory drugs, slimy voyeurs, nosy dwarfs, GWAR concert footage, lots of saws and drills and therefore also barrelfuls of blood and you have the makings of an exhilarating if not always coherent film explosion.

But coherency is not really what Stanley is after here. Delirium is the standing order of the day, and a fractal sort of sensory reaction to all the bloodspurting and metal-crawling. Highly influenced by Dario Argento and other Italian horror directors, Stanley is aiming after the same kind of disorienting effects those maestros so effortlessly achieve. He is drowning you is visceral details, loud music and vivid neon color schemes to plunge you into a heightened and fugue-like state of mind. He’s trying to alter the chemicals in your brain, and he does a damn fine job of it. The movie doesn’t work as well as a simple exercise in sci-fi or horror. Structurally, it’s quite messy. Before you know it, you’re smack dab in the middle of the violent climax of the film less than an hour into it, which then lasts the rest of the running time (in the audio commentary Stanley remarks that this is deliberate and an homage to a similar structure used in TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2). This explodes the three-act structure and its inherent means of generating suspense giving you no choice but to experience the movie in very different frame of mind. The film works more as a hallucinatory experience than a standard thriller. HARDWARE is as much a drug as it is a film. It tosses around your perceptions wildly, from moody synth soundscapes over red-tinted desert skies to flesh-ripping animated mechanical debris and clutter scored to Ministry songs, from evoking Hindu gods and New Testament apocalypses to paranoid musings on what terrors the Military-Industrial complex may hold in store for us.

But there is a point to all this, all this shredding and screaming and brutal android-human interface: HARDWARE is all about humanity’s death wish. About those suicidal drives which collectively embroil us in wars, which make us disregard the ecological effects of our lifestyles or which treat other human beings as nothing but playthings for our own shallow pleasures. A plot thread running almost underneath the events of the picture involves a government population control program meant to sterilize people in order to bring a halt to deformities and mutations. Mo and Jill themselves struggle over whether or not to have children and whether or not there is some justification for this eugenics program. As Stanley points out in the interview in this set, the HARDWARE world is one where extreme right wing elements have taken over, but with the total complicity of the population. In this vision of the future, everyone is in on the End of the World, not just some faceless masters. MARK 13 is the physical, mechanical embodiement of these suicidal drives, an insectile murder machine crowned by a literal death’s head. While Mo may not have known consciously what he was bringing home to Jill and while she may not have understood why she was so attracted to it, their own suicidal drives are in full operation here, making them as much a part of the horror that follows as the makers of the deathdroid. “This is what you want/ this is what you get.”

As stated above, it’s taken HARDWARE awhile to become available in the DVD era. Its digital debut makes quite the splash however, easily besting any previous home video incarnations. It is presented uncut for the first time ever in these here United States in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio that is just spot on. The transfer is gorgeous and it’s all “flagged for progressive playback” and whatever. It looks great, it’s all here and that’s all you really need to know about that. Now on to the extras! While not quite as comprehensive or exhaustive as Subversive’s 5-disc version of Stanley’s masterpiece DUST DEVIL, Severin has given us an incredible selection of bonus features which make this 2-discer easily one of the best releases of the year. On disc one in addition to the marvelous feature itself there’s a highly informative audio commentary with Richard Stanley hosted by DVD producer Norm Hill. It covers the background of the film, where the ideas came from and various minutia involved in the production. Stanley seems a little reticent on the commentary, basically saying in fact that he doesn’t enjoy such things, and so often his commentary seems a little stilted or self-conscious. No matter, it’s a must-listen for fans of the film. Expanding on this is an impressive and very thorough (though oddly McDermott is not involved) ‘making-of’ featurette boasting brand new interviews with producers, cast and crew. It seems Mr. Stanley was only 22 when he made this movie and to make it the producers had to coax him out of Afghanistan where he was fighting the Russians with the Mujahedeen! Incredible! A side interview with just Stanley illuminates the question of an aborted sequel to HARDWARE and these features are rounded out with a German trailer, a vintage promotional video featuring brief interviews with Stanley, McDermott and Travis as well as a selection of rare extended and deleted scenes. It’s all great stuff.

But really we’re just getting started with the special features! Severin have included three short films to sweeten the deal, and they are all well worth a watch. RITES OF PASSAGE is an 8mm short made while Stanley was only a teenager in South Africa. While as crude and primitive as you might expect it to be, it also contains strong indications of the visionary film-maker he would soon become. A tale of reincarnation, suicide and consciousness expansion RITES mostly follows a pre-historic man on a hunting expedition. Great use of desolate African locations and local wildlife give it a radical verite. The young director builds a bizarre, almost mystic atmosphere and winds things up with a healthy dollop of gore. At the other end of this spectrum is his most recent fiction production: a short, poetic sci-fi called SEA OF PERDITION, which involves a female astronaut exploring an alien world with psychedelic consequences. Made on digital video, it looks wonderful and has great production values, although I must admit I’m rather prejudiced and think it would have looked much better if it had been made on film. But then I’m a relic of the 20th century living in the 21st. Another 8mm film INCIDENTS IN AN EXPANDING UNIVERSE gives a useful peek at the origins of HARDWARE in its earliest, most crude form. What these short films prove, beyond a doubt, is that Richard Stanley is natural born film-maker and one of the few contemporary directors to possess anything like a real artistic vision.

This DVD set is absolutely aces and well deserving of your hard-earned cash. It’s also out on Blu-Ray so if you incline to that format, that’s probably the way to go. But the movie and the set are not perfect however. The movie’s faults can mostly be attributed to Stanley’s novice status as a screenwriter, as some of the dialog, especially early on, is a little akward. A few cheesy moments here and there also break up the magick somewhat. In a scene featuring a cameo appearance from Motorhead’s Lemmy, the grizzled metal legend entertains the main character by playing him a quick sample of “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead! Really? And as far as the DVD presentation, a little more information or interviews about the short films would be useful to put them in the wider context of Stanley’s career. But these are only minor quibbles for what is otherwise an astonishing film and a revelatory digital presentation. No sci-fi, horror, cult or international cinema fan should be without this release in whatever format they can get their hands on.

UPDATED!! Coming soon from Mondo Macabro: THE SADIST WITH RED TEETH!!

2009-10-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

OUT MARCH 30, 2010!!!

It's with barely contained excitement that Worldweird Cinema brings you the big scoop on the next MM DVD release! It will be none other than Belgian director Jean-Louis Van Belle's lost vampire opus THE SADIST WITH RED TEETH! We've wanted to check out this Jean Rollin-influenced poetic horror cheapie since first reading about some years ago in the essential book IMMORAL TALES. And now we will get our chance to gaze firsthand at this rarity! Making this even more mouth-watering is that it will be a double feature! Van Belle's mondoesque (and even more rare) FORBIDDEN PARIS is also included! That's just too much obscure Euro-ecstasy for us to handle! Also to be included in the package will be a new documentary about Mr. Van Belle as well video introductions to the two films by the director. No idea yet when this will bow, but here's some quick screenshots to get you in the mood.

For more info, here's a previous Mondo Macabro blog post all about Jean-Louis. And of course here's his IMDB page, for what it's worth. More info will be presented here when we have it!!

Coming soon from Mondo Vision!

2009-10-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

Coming Next Year, the fourth in Mondo Vision's spectacular series of Andrzej Zulawski Special Edition DVDs! Stay tuned for further details.

R1 DVD Insanity!

2009-09-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

More upcoming R1 DVD stuff that you should consider checking out!

L'AMOUR BRAQUE (Mondo Vision) Out 10-15-2009

ART OF LOVE (Severin) Out 11-24-2009

BLADE OF THE RIPPER (Mya) Out 1-26-2010

DESIRABLE TEACHER (Mya) Out 1-26-2010

DUSAN MAKAVAJEV, FREE RADICAL (Eclipse/Criterion) Out 10-13-2009

GOODBYE GEMINI (Scorpion) Out 2-23-2010

HUMAN COBRAS (Mya) Out 11-24-2009

HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE (Mya) Out 11-24-2009

THE LADY MEDIC (Mya) Out 11-24-2009

THE LAST DECAMERON (Mya) Out 11-24-2009

MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE (JRH Films) Out 10-29-2009

PETS (Code Red) Out 10-06-2009

THE REAL EMANUELLE (Mya) Out 11-24-2009

RITUALS (Code Red) Out 11-17-2009

SATAN'S WIFE (Mya) Out 1-26-2010

SCHOOLGIRL REPORT: WHAT PARENTS WOULD GLADLY HUSH UP (Impulse) Out 1-26-2010

SEX ADVICE (Mya) Out 1-26-2010

SEVERINSPLOITATION! Three Reviews of Recent Eurotrash DVD Releases!

2009-09-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

NIGHTMARE CASTLE (Italy, 1965)

NIGHTMARE CASTLE is but one of many titles for Mario Caino’s 1965 Italian Gothic AMANTI D’OLTRETOMBA which translates more or less to “Lovers Beyond the Grave”. Home video has been awash in substandard versions of this terrific chiller for many years but this marks the first release to treat it with any manner of respect. The film itself is a total classic of its type. While suffering perhaps when placed next to other extraordinary examples of the genre from the same era like THE WHIP AND THE BODY or MILL OF THE STONE WOMAN, NIGHTMARE has just enough surreal heat to it to make the film a near-visionary experience some 40+ years after its initial theatrical exposure. The story is a mish-mash of gothic elements - some supernatural, some bordering on sci-fi and some purely sadistic/sexual. Paul Muller is a scientist married to a rich heiress (the incomparable Barbara Steele) who finds an escape from her husband’s cool contempt in the sweaty arms of a manservant. Catching the illicit lovers in the act Muller imprisons them and tortures both unto death. He marries again, this time to Jenny, his late wife’s stepsister who bares a remarkable resemblance to her doomed predecessor (also played by Steele). It isn’t too long before Jenny’s fragile mental state becomes the vehicle for an obsessive spectral revenge which ensnares the entire household.

AMANTI sags a bit in its middle section, wallowing in sometimes tedious gothic melodrama, but for the most part the film is enflamed with twisted emotions and surreal detail. In an unearthly dream sequence Jenny is menaced by a bizarre faceless murderer and in another scene a do-gooder psychiatrist uncovers a tank containing two human hearts, both pierced by an ornate dagger. Caino films the lush interiors of the Château with a monolithic sense of space, with its baroque designs seeming to enclose oppressively around Jenny as her mind begins to splinter. While the story is mostly by-the-numbers there is a truly obsessive air about the whole thing, an unhealthy atmosphere that hints at something kinky, something abnormal and terrifying. The wonderful performances of Muller and Steele, not to mention the great Helga Liné - who plays Muller’s scheming maid/mistress, fix the film’s flimsier elements to the ground, making it psychologically rich even as the story occasionally stumbles into cliché. The sum total adds up to something greater than its individual elements making NIGHTMARE CASTLE an altogether remarkable film.

Severin’s visual presentation of this gloomy and stark psychodrama easily trumps all previous home video incarnations. It looks as crisp and clean as anyone could possibly hope for. A few instances of damage look as though they probably originate on the negative itself and are not flaws of the transfer. It looks freaking stunning. Two interviews highlight the extras. Barbara Steele’s interview is highly entertaining as she animatedly takes us on a guided verbal tour of her career. She’s a wonderful storyteller and still looks remarkable after all these years. The other is with Director Mario Caino who comes off very sweet and grandfatherly (in her interview Steele speaks highly of Caino). It’s mostly a quick behind-the-scenes view of the making of this movie rather than a career retrospective which would have been nice. As it stands this feature is great to have but possesses little real depth. Two trailers, a UK version under the title NIGHT OF THE DOOMED and the US variant under this current moniker, are featured with the former looking nearly as good as the film itself and the latter looking much like the PD versions of NIGHTMARE we’ve been scorned with all these years. This is one of the year’s best DVDs. You’re doing yourself a disservice by not having it in your collection.

DOOR INTO SILENCE (Italy, 1991)

Melvin Deavereax is on his way home from a business meeting in New Orleans. Along the way he stops in at his father’s gravesite. Speaking aloud to the tomb he thanks him for teaching him that “Nothing can stop me. Nothing.” Well, one shouldn’t tempt fate. Melvin (a puffy, tired-looking John Savage) finds the long route back to his rural home impeded by a number of increasingly bizarre and frustrating obstacles: roads out of service, overzealous police, ancient wooden bridges on the verge of falling apart, flooded roads and a mysterious woman who attempts to seduce our pudgy, middle aged leading man for obscure reasons and then promptly disappears. Melvin finds himself caught, with the setting sun constantly blazing in his eyes, along the dusty back roads of Louisiana, not lost exactly, but unable to reach his destination. His most formidable obstacle on the road turns out to be a hearse, whose driver aggressively refuses to let Melvin pass him. In his increasingly fractured state of mind Melvin begins to suspect that somehow, in someway the body in the back of that hearse might be his own …

This 1991 production was Director Lucio Fulci’s last completed film. It’s a shame, then, that his name doesn’t even appear in the credits as it is thematically very much of a piece with most of his filmography. Fulci’s best work features an over-riding and existential concern with death. And DOOR INTO SILENCE is one of clearest investigations into this murky and morbid realm. That it was made only a few years before his own death only increases the morbid fascination. DOOR has a nightmarish quality to it. Not in the usual booga-booga horror film fashion, but in the manner of an actual nightmare - the kind where you feel trapped in an endless loop of incomprehensible events. The movie is so successful in creating this atmosphere that it threatens tediousness at times – you will start to feel like you can’t escape these events either. Overall, it’s a good little film, but it does tend to drag a bit. It has been noted by some that DOOR resembles a TWILIGHT ZONE episode, and I would agree and offer the criticism that this movie might have fared better as a short work, an hour or less perhaps. That said, it has it fascinations and I found myself mostly enthralled by the film's depiction of dying as an endless labyrinth of backwoods roads and decrepit bridges.

Sadly there are no context-providing extras on this release in order to elaborate on these interesting themes. No essays, nor bios, not anything, not even a trailer have found there way onto this disc. In some way this is not surprising. DOOR INTO SILENCE is a production by the Italian company Filmirage, headed up by exploitation guru Aristide Mannaccassi (aka Joe D’Amato), and like most of their output, was mostly intended for the US video market. As such this fly-by-night production probably just doesn’t yield much material for extras. Cast with American actors and shot in sync sound mostly on US soil, these very Italian movies were passed off as cheap American productions, hence the embarrassing pseudonym credits. Certainly the film looks very much like a made-for-cable movie by LA producers and as such there are limits to how good this DVD presentation could look. It is presented correctly in a full-frame transfer that while sharp and colorful enough isn’t going to wow anyone with it brilliant visual prowess. But still, it’s good to finally have Fulci’s last film widely available and all fans of the notorious auteur will do well to pick it up at their soonest conveniance.

THE SINFUL DWARF (Denmark, 1974)

Do you really need to know the plot of THE SINFUL DWARF? I would argue: you do not. The point of this sleazy 70s Danish production is only to wallow in filth and depravity, not to enlighten you with a clever narrative. There is almost no narrative to THE SINFUL DWARF, just a series of crudely hilarious events edited together with an ostensible intent to arouse, I suppose. But it is quite a lot of fun as long as you understand it to be a deliberately ugly film experience. The movie is constantly shoving distorted and hideous faces at you in extreme close-ups, not least of all, the Sinful Dwarf himself, the amazing Torbin Bille. This movie loves and fetishes his ugly mug like Von Sternberg loved and fetishized Marlene Deitrich’s striking visage. With his unnerving, diabolical giggle and bulged, hate-spewing eyes, Torbin towers over this meager production like the superstar he should have been. Mr. Bille certainly could have eaten Weng Weng for breakfast and withered Herve Villechez with a single demented glare. This is easily the greatest “little person” performance in cinema history. Yeah, that’s right, I said it! The only other thing that can compete with him in this movie is the complete loveliness of actress Anne Sparrow, or more to the point, the complete loveliness of Ms. Sparrow’s tits, which are spectacular and unsheathed through a good chunk of the movie.

Other high points include the astonishing electronic-drone soundtrack by Ole Ørsted (Where’s the CD of this, Severin?), Clara Keller’s off-the-rails performance as the sinful dwarf’s sinful aging diva mother and an unusual and almost spastic editing scheme which keeps the sleaze from becoming too redundant. It’s redundancy that looms over this picture like a gray cloud. There’s just not enough elements to construct a full cinematic narrative on, even a z-grade exploitation narrative. Thus the films attempts to get by on its grotesque charms and mostly does so, though hints of boredom crop up from time to time. The three performers highlighted above excepted, this movie is woefully acted, mostly by stiff leading man Tony Eades, whose wooden whine grates after only a few seconds of screen time. And for God’s sake please don’t expect stunning or even interesting cinematography as it is perfunctory at best. But as all fans of “bad” movies know, these detriments can further the far-out experience of such trash films, reaching out into almost surreal levels of ineptitude and idiocy. DWARF isn’t really that bad, but should still pleasurably get under the skin of any z-grade cinema devotee.

Severin unleashes this trash in a respectable manner, presenting it in an open-matte full-frame presentation that preserves its original aspect ratio. The video quality is as good as it probably could be for a 16mm production now over 35 years old. Grain is ever-present, but then it should be there, and the colors look rather strong if not all that sharp. But, if you’ve ever seen Something Weird’s old VHS tape you’ll be very happy with the improvements made here. While the film is “uncut” there is an alternate hardcore version released by Severin in partnership with Private Screenings/CAV. I have not seen this version and so could not illuminate for you the precise differences for each sex scene. Sadly, the extras on this DVD are not what one might want or expect for this film. I would have loved for Severin to fill in the gaps on the background of this formerly obscure Danish production or at least given a text bio of the extraordinary Torbin Bille. Instead all we get is two old radio spots, one color-drained trailer under the alternate title ABDUCTED BRIDE (which actually pretty cool) and a 10 or so minute featurette originally passed around the net detailing a phony “controversy” around Severin’s descision to release this admittedly questionable film. It’s pretty funny, but something more substantial would have been nice. Still, I like this movie and feel grateful to have a DVD of it at all, so these faults are easily overlooked.

More subtitled Turkish rarities!!

2009-09-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

Just thought you should know,our great friends at Sinematik are offering more English subtitled Turkish wonders at their Ebay store. You get a brand new VCD copy of the film, a DVD-R featuring an English subtitled version of the film plus a cool vintage Turkish lobby card! What a deal! Included are a Cetin Inanc erotic thriller, a Yilmaz Guney "Anatolian Western" and an amazing looking crime thriller called HAMAL!
Go Here to spend your money wisely!

Eight short films by Walerian Borowczyk!

2009-09-07T14:22:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite directors of the moment is Walerian Borowczyk, best known as the director of controversial Euro-erotica IMMORAL TALES and THE BEAST. Though my personal favorites of his are DOCTEUR JEKYLL ET LES FEMMES and DZIEJE GRZECHU, a horror film and a historical drama respectively. Here's a selection of some of Borowczyk's short and animated films, the movies his reputation rested upon until his erotic-themed features made made waves in European cinema in the mid seventies . There are eight films, from all throughout Borowczyk's career, with seven on the Youtube and the last accessed via the link provided.

Love Requited (Nagrodzone uczucia) - With Jan Lenica - Poland - 1957

DOM - With Jan Lenica - Poland - 1958

Encyclopedia de Grand Maman - France - 1963

Renaissance - France - 1963

Le Petit Poucet - France - 1965

L' Amour monstre de tous les temps - France - 1977

Scherzo Infernal - France - 1984

Une collection particulière - France - 1973
Click here to view!

And for all those converted to the charms of Walerian Borowczyk's bizarre cinema, there's a modicum of news you may find interesting:

ART OF LOVE is coming to DVD from Severin!

One of our faves from Boro, this wild and ethereal erotic idyll set in first century Rome will be let loose onto Region 1 this November 24th, we don't know many details, although the first pre-order we could find, from HK Flix, lists only English as a language option. This might be disappointing to some fans of this Italian/French co-production. But we will be checking it out with great interest here no matter what shape its in you can be sure!

In other Boro DVD news, I have heard word that Cult Epics, who have released THE BEAST, GOTO ISLAND OF LOVE and LOVE RITES on R1 DVD, are hard at work on another batch of Borowczykian bounty, including his notorious Nunnery epic BEHIND CONVENT WALLS, a compilation of his short and animated films (surely some if not all those featured above!) and maybe, just maybe ... DOCTEUR JEKYLL ET LES FEMMES aka BLOODBATH OF DR. JEKYLL! My mind simply melts at even the idea of it! It's still early on in the process and let's not count any chickens just yet - but this is potentially awesome news!!

There might also be a new book about Borowczyk by Eastern European film expert Daniel Bird sometime this year, but I'd wager that it will be next year before it's actually out since it's already September and no official announcement has been made. Something to look forward to I'm sure as Bird seems to really know his stuff and has been working on the tome for the better part of a decade. In the meantime, here's some nice reading materials to help you fill in the gaps on this most underrated auteur.

Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Movies 1956-1984 by Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs

Walerian Borowczyk: Cinema of Erotic Dreams by Jeremy Mark Robinson

Video Watchdog Special Edition #1

Islamic Psychotronic! Iranian Cinema Fantastique 1955-1965!

2009-08-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of genre and fantasy movies made in the Shah's Iran from the years 1955 through to 1965. It was during this time that Iranian cinema came unto its own both artistically and commercially with '65 being the year that saw homegrown films almost completely displacing US and European fare. This list was culled from a book called Cinema in Iran 1900-1979 by M. Ali Issari and may or may not be comprehensive. I have not seen any of these films and I would assume that most are very difficult to find. There are some bone fide auteurs here, as a cursory Internet search will uncover, such as Samuel Khachikian, noted as the "Iranian Hitchcock" or Farrokh Ghaffari, a leader of the Iranian "new wave" whose film NIGHT OF THE HUNCHBACK is acknowledged as a true classic of Farsi cinema (and is the film featured in the poster above). I have chosen to include films of Worldweird interest, in this case mostly crime films and thrillers, and not such much social dramas or comedies. There are a handful of fantasy films and historical adventures, but gritty noir-esque fare seemed to rule the genre roost in Iran at this time. I also included a few films which are described as comedies or dramas but whose titles may indicate some sort of fantastical content. If you have copies of any of the below please contact me at jaredaunerATyahooDOTcom for trades!

AHRIMANE ZIBA
“The Beautiful Devil”
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: January 16, 1963
Production Co: Pars Film Studio
Producer/Writer/Director: Esmail Kooshan

ARAS KHAN
proper name
35mm/B&W/Cinemascope/110 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: May 2, 1962
Production Co: Pars Film Studio
Writer/Producer: Esmail Kooshan
Director: Naser Malek-Motyie

AROUSE DAJLEH
“Bridge of the Tigris River”
35mm/B&W/120 min
Genre: Historical
Premiere: February 8, 1955
Production Company: Rey Film
Director: N. Mohtashem

BABRE KOOHESTAN
“The Mountain Tiger”
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: April 27, 1965
Production Co: Asre Talaie Studio
Writer/Director: Khosrow Parvizi

BAZGASHT BE ZENDEGI
“Return to Life”
35mm/B&W/95 min
Genre: Fantasy
Premiere: August 8, 1957
Production Co: Asre Talaie Studio
Director: Ataollah Zahed

BONBAST
“Dead End”
35mm/B&W/115 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: February 24, 1965
Production Co: Sazmane Cinemaie Panoroma
Director: Mirsamadzadeh

CHAHAR-RAHE HAVADES
“The Crossroad of Events”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: March 20, 1955
Production Company: Diana Film
Director: Samuel Khachikian

DELHOREH
“Anxiety”
35mm/B&W/95 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: December 20, 1962
Production Co: Ajir Film
Writer/Director: Samuel Khachikian

ENSANE PARANDEH
“The Flying Man”
35mm/B&W/115 min
Genre: Comedy
Premiere: September 12, 1961
Production Co: Atlas Film Studio
Writer/Director: Parviz Khatibi

ESHQ VA ENTEGHAM
“Love and Vengeance”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: September 29, 1965
Independent Production
Writer/Director: M. A. Fardin

ETTEHAM
“Accusation”
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: May 6, 1956
Production Co: Pars Film Studio
Director: Shappor Yasami

FARAR
“The Escape”
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: December 5, 1963
Production Co: Misaghieh Studio
Writer/Director: Abbas Shabaviz

FARYADE DEHKADEH
“The Cry of the Village”
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: July 22, 1965
Independent Production
Writer/Director: Ahamd Safaie

FARYADE NIMESHAB
“The Midnight Terror”
35mm/B&W/120 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: August 24, 1961
Production Co: Misaghieh Studio
Writer/Director: Samuel Khachikian

GORGEHAYE GOROSNEH
“The Hungry Wolves”
35mm/B&W/120 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: December 11, 1962
Independent Production
Director: M.A. Fardin

HEVDAH RUZ BE E’DAM
“Seventeen Days to Exectution”
35mm/B&W/95 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: December 26, 1958
Production Co: Asre Talaie Studio
Writer/Director: Houshang Kavoosi

JADDEH MARG
“Highway of Death”
35mm/B&W/120 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: June 18, 1963
Production Co: Caravan Film
Writer/Director: Esmail Riahi

JADOU
“Witchcraft”
16mm/Color/95 min
Genre: Melodrama
Premiere: January 25, 1956
Production Co: Asia Film
Producer/Director/Cameraman/Co-writer: Salar Eshghi

KAMINGAHE SHEITAN
“Hideaway of the Devil”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: May 7, 1964
Independent Production
Writer/Director: Nezam Fatemi

KELID
“The Key”
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: December 6, 1962
Production Co: Misaghieh Studio
Director: Mahmoud Nowzari

KHESHM VA FARYAD
“Anger and Screaming”
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: March 13, 1964
Independent Production
Writer/Director: Reza Safaie

KHOON VA SHARAF
“Blood and Honor”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: War
Premiere: December 12, 1955
Production Company: Diana Film
Director: Samuel Khachikian

MAHTABE KHOONIN
“The Bloody Moonlight”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Drama
Premiere: January 15, 1956
Production Co: Caravan Film
Writer/Director: Moshavegh Sorouri

MAJERAJOOYANE KHASHEN
“The Rough Adventurers”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Adventure
Premiere: January 25, 1957
Production Co: Cinema Theater Rex Co.
Writer/Director: Mehdi Rais-Firuz

MOOTALAIE SHARE MA
“The Blonde Woman of Our Town”
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: December 16, 1965
Production Co: Iran Film Studio
Writer/Director: Abbas Shabaviz

MORVARID SIAH
“The Black Pearl”
35mm/B&W/95 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: August 28, 1961
Production Co: Shahrokh Film
Director: Mehdi Rais-Firuz

NABARDE GHOOLHA
“The War of the Giants”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: December 9, 1965
Independent Production
Director: Reza Beik-Imanverdi

PANJEH
“The Claw”
35mm/B&W/95 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: January 8, 1963
Production Co: Asre Talaie Studio
Writer/Director: Amin Amini

PARTGAHE MAKHOUF
“Frightening Canyon”
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: May 11, 1963
Production Co: Sazmane Cinemaie 555
Writer/Director: Reza Safaie

PESARE DARYA
“Son of the Sea”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: April 11, 1958
Independent Production
Writer/Director: Shahpoor Yasami

RAHZAN
“The Bandit”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Adventure
Premiere: March 18, 1955
Production Company: Pars Film Studio
Director: Siamak Yasami

SARKESH
“The Mutineer”
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: February 16, 1965
Production Co: Azar Film
Producer/Writer/Director: Samad Sabahi

SARSAM
“Delirium”
35mm/B&W/120 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: April 21, 1965
Production Co: Misaghieh Studio
Writer/Director: Samuel Khachikian

SAYE
“Shadow”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: June 25, 1959
Production Co: Asre Talaie Studio
Writer/Director: Amin Amini

SAYYADANE NAMAKZAR
“Hunters of the Salt Desert”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: June 28, 1965
Independent Production
Producer/Writer/Director: Akbar Hashemi

SETAREI CHESHMAK ZAD
“A Star Twinkled”
35mm/B&W/120 min
Genre: Fantasy
Premiere: October 23, 1963
Production Co: October 23, 1963
Producer/Director: Gorji Ebadia

SHABE GHOUZI
“Night of the Hunchback”
35mm/B&W/120 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: February 25, 1965
Production Co: Iran Nema Studio
Producer/Director: Farrokh Ghaffari

SHAHINE TOUS
“The Eagle of Tous”
35mmB&W/110 min
Genre: Historical
Year: 1955
Production Company: Pass Film Studio
Director: Hossein Daneshvar

SHEITANE SEFID
“The White Devil”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: September 16, 1965
Production Co: Mahtab Film
Writer/Director: Ahmad Safaie

SOWDAGARANE MARG
“The Merchants of Death”
35mm/B&W/120 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: April 26, 1962
Production Co: Pars Film Studio
Director: Naser Malek-Motyie

TA’GHIBE KHATARNAK
“The Dangerous Chase”
35mm/B&W/95 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: March 9, 1965
Independent Production
Producer/Writer/Director: Reza Safaie

TALAYE SEFID
“White Gold”
35mm/B&W/120 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: April 11, 1962
Production Co: Sahar Studio
Producer/Director: Jamshid Sheibani

TARE ANKABOUT
“The Cobweb”
35mm/B&W/95 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: September 26, 1963
Production Co: Sazmane Cinemaie Panorama
Director: Mirasamdzadeh

TARS VA TARIKY
“Fear and Darkness”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: ?
Premiere: June 25, 1963
Production Co: Atlas Film Studio
Producer/Writer/Director: Mohammad Motovaselani

TELESME SHEITAN
“The Spell of Satan”
16mm/B&W/100min
Genre: Comedy
Premiere: January 5, 1956
Production Company: Asia Film
Director: Mohsen Farid
Producer/Writer/Cameraman: Salar Eshghi

TOOFAN DAR SHAHRE MA
“Storm in Our Town”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: April 13, 1958
Production Co: Ajir Film
Writer/Director: Samuel Khachikian

VAHSHAT
“Horror”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: April 16, 1963
Production Co: Misaghieh Studio
Writer/Director: Siamak Yasami

YA’QUB LAYTH SAFFARI
Proper name – founder of Saffarid dynasty
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Historical
Premiere: May 30, 1957
Production Co: Pars Film Studio
Director: Ali Kasmaie

YEK GHADAM TA MARG
“One Step to Death”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: December 6, 1961
Production Co: Ajir Film
Writer/Director: Samuel Khachikian

YEKI BOUD YEKI NABOUD
“Once Upon a Time”
35mm/B&W/95 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: March 22, 1959
Production Co: Oranus Film
Producer/Writer/Director: Rahim Rowshanian

ZAMINE TALKH
“The Bitter Earth”
35mm/B&W/100 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: March 12, 1963
Production Co: Atlas Film Studio
Writer/Director: Khosrow Parvizi

ZAN VA AROUSAKHAYASH
“The Woman and Her Dolls”
35mm/B&W/110 min
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: September 16, 1965
Independent Production
Producer/Writer/Director: Esmail Riahi

ZARBAT
“The Strike”
35mm/B&W/95 min
Genre: Crime
Premiere: April 23, 1964
Production Co: Ajir Film
Writer/Director: Samuel Khachikian

Handmade movie poster art from Ghana!

2009-08-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

After spying a book on the subject over at Cinema Books here in Seattle, I dug into the internets and uncovered a stunning collection of wonders. These posters, all hand painted with great imagination -usually on used flour sacks, were advertisements for entrepreneurs who travelled from village to village projecting rare videocassette copies of movies otherwise difficult to see. Along with the usual Hollywood blockbuster fare they seemed to show a great selection of wider world exploitation. Films from Indonesia, Italy, India, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Nigeria poured in to this small West African country. Here's a selection of the best Worldweird-y posters I could find.

José Bénazéraf on Youtube!

2009-08-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a selection of clips from French erotic autuer José Bénazéraf. They look great, too bad the movies are so hard to see in English. Hopefully this will change soon. I've only seen LE CONCERTO DE LA PEUR in the hacked up US version produced by Bob Cresse and passed off as NIGHT OF LUST. I don't think I got the full Bénazéraf experience from that, interesting as it may have been.
Apologies for the far right edge of the videos being cut off. I re-formated my page inadvisably and now it slices off images. If anyone knows how to fix this let me know.

Questions and Reflections on ÜC SÜPERMEN OLIMPIYATLARDA

2009-08-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

OK, first off - JUST WHAT THE {*BLEEP*} IS GOING ON IN THIS MOVIE? How, and why, do the 3 Supermen get back to Ancient Greece? Who's the Asiatic looking dude who talks (telepathically?) to the blond Superman whiles he's flying? And just how is the footage from 3 SUPERMEN AND A MAD GIRL supposed to fit in?

Although it might just be due to my non-understanding of Turkish, it seemed that whole portions of the movie had absolutely nothing to do with each other. Is it possible that there are more than just 2 movies inserted here? The footage at the end with Blond Superman (Levent Çakır) back in the "present" seems like it may have been footage filmed for a separate project but perhaps discarded and then fit into this movie. Furthering this impression is the overtly comedic nature of the scenes with all three Supermen and those in ancient Greece. Am I wrong or is OLYMPIC GAMES pretty much intended as a straight up comedy? All the 3 SUPERMEN films have comedic elements but this one really seems to have been made as more of a send-up then an action adventure with some comedy relief along the way. Perhaps this is why they added the footage from the other movie(s?), in order to "spice up" the action. Perhaps it was released sans other footage and made no inroads necessitating the re-editing? Or is it a matter of two cooks in the kitchen? It's still somewhat controversial just who directed OLYMPIC GAMES, series producer Italo Martinenghi or Yavuz Yalinkiliç, director of the cult classic DEAD DON'T TALK. My suspicion is that Martinenghi is responsible for most of the comedy stuff and Yalinkiliç for the more action oriented scenes exclusively featuring Levent Çakır. Was it Yalinkiliç who then brought in the MAD GIRL footage to try and make it look presentable? Ack, too many questions for such a terrible movie!

And the movie really is terrible. The comedy is mostly verbal, which doesn't really work if you don't speak the language. And it's with these scenes the film spends most of its time. The fantasy and action scenes pop up with regularity but not enough frequency. The best parts are the MAD GIRL scenes, which are wild and pulpy fun. This leads me off on a tangent concerning the relative picture quality of Turkish pulp cinema. These scenes look much better, more colorful, in OLYMPIC GAMES than in the version I have of MAD GIRL. Here's a quick screen shot comparison.

Top - OLYMPIC GAMES
Bottom - MAD GIRL

There's a marked difference as you can see. What this brings to mind is just how much we've lost of Turkish cinema. Not just whole films, but without proper materials we often can't see just how colorful and vibrant these movies really were. Most of the films we can get our hand on these days are rather drab and bled-out looking, only occasionally, as in this case, do we get a glimpse of what once was, however blurry it may be. Another example would be Onar's DVD of 3 DEV ADAM wherein the first 16 seconds are from a Greek VHS and the rest from a more complete video betamaster. The Greek tape is far more colorful, if a bit less sharp:

What this suggests is that even by the mid 1980s when OLYMPIC GAMES was made and when ADAM was put on video there were still fairly nice, usable elements of 70s films to work with. This begs the question: What exactly happened between then and now? Why were these elements available then and what happened that made these so impossibly rare? Is the passage of time the only issue or is something else to blame? Is it a simple casualty of the collapse of the Turkish film industry? We are told that the elements for 3 DEV ADAM were destroyed in facility fire. Was this an isolated event or symptomatic of a wider problem? Was there a structural lack of concern for even the safe storage of such things? And how many other films were destroyed in that conflagration? It would seem that as with everywhere else in world cinema, the 90s were a real bad time in Turkey.

So really the only thing that makes 3 SUPERMEN AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES worthwhile, other than being funny for reasons for which it does not intend, is the preservation (so to speak) of these scenes from the superior 3 SUPERMEN AND A MAD GIRL. Even better, I noticed also that this movie preserves an entire scene which is missing from the print of MAD GIRL that I have! In MAD the movie begins with the green KKK dudes already in the Devil's Chamber, while the scene interpolated into GAMES features the long windswept procession into the Chamber! Very cool! I leave you with a few screen shots from OLYMPIC GAMES of these (fairly well composed) images.

NOTE: This piece has been adapted from a post I made at the Cinehound Forum some time ago. Below you will find all credible cast and crew info I could dig up on the internet and from the credits of the films themselves. Sadly, the credits in ÇILGIN KIZ VE ÜÇ SÜPER ADAM are unreadable so I was unable to glean any further info from that source. If anyone reading this has access to a cleaner copy with readable credits please contact me at jaredaunerATyahooDOTcom.

THREE SUPEMEN AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES
ÜC SÜPERMEN OLIMPIYATLARDA
Turkey/Italy, 1984
Production Company: Objektif Film
Produced and Directed by Yavuz Yalinkiliç and Italo Martinenghi
Screenplay by Yavuz Yalinkiliç
Cinematography by Salih Dikisçi and Dinçel Onal
CAST:
Yılmaz Köksal
Levent Çakır
Stefano Martinengi
Filiz Özten
Alain Flick
Daniel Darnault
Oktar Durukan
Bahattin Eroğlu
Kadir Kök
Jocelien Davan

THREE SUPERMEN AND A MAD GIRL
ÇILGIN KIZ VE ÜÇ SÜPER ADAM
Turkey, 1973
Production Company: Birlik Film
Directed by Cavit Yürüklü
Produced by Müfit Ilkiz
Screenplay by Volkan Kayhan
Cinematography by Orhan Kapki
CAST:
Levent Cekir
Emel Özden
Altan Bozkurt
Yeşim Yükselen
Hüseyin Sayar
Nubar Terziyan
Nuri Kırgeç
Mine Sun
Ahmet Karatop

EL VAMPIRO SANGRIENTO! Mexican Horror on Youtube!

2009-08-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

Cribbed from the great VAMPIROS AND MOSTROUS blog, here's part one of an atmostpheric Gothic horror from 1961 that's presented in its entirety on the Youtube. Sadly for us barbarians it is only in Spanish with no English subtiltes. But this is really bizarre stuff! And well worth a look!

Click on the fantastic poster art below to go to the the original blog entry with the rest of the movie and a link to an English language synopis.

Islamic Psychotronic! Two Egyptian Movies!

2009-07-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

I recently rented and watched two films made in Egypt, one from the 60s - THE VENGEANCE OF THE DESERT- and one from the early 70s - ADRIFT ON THE NILE. They could hardly be more different and offer interesting views on the world's largest Arabic language film industry. Here are some brief comments on the two along with any credible cast/crew info I could find.

VENGEANCE OF THE DESERT
AMIR AL-DAHAA
aka THE CRAFTY ONE
Egypt, 1964
Directed by Henry Barakat (1914-1997)
Screenplay by Youssef Issa and Henry Barakat
Cinematography by Mahmoud Nasr
Music by Michel Youssef
CAST:
Farid Shawqi
Shouwikar
Mahmoud Azmy
Naima Akef
Tewfik Al-Dekn
Hassan Al-Baroudi
Mahmoud Moursi
Ahmed Louksar
Abdel Rehim
El Zakrani
Mahmoud Farac

VENGEANCE is a period action/adventure film that re-casts THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO to medieval Egypt. While boasting some terrific cinematography and set design, the movie fails to excite in any way. Action scenes are few and far between and rather static when they do occur. The pace is glacial, there's too much dialog and the acting is nothing to get worked up about. Worst of all, there was no sense, at least not from this English dubbed version, of it being an 'Egyptian' movie. It could easily have been produced in Italy or the US, or anywhere else for that matter. There's no idiosyncratic national identity to the film, as there would have been if this were a Turkish production, for example. Although I suspect that this was intentional in order to sell it abroad. Director Barakat is a well-regarded filmmaker in his home country, noted for his acclaimed 1959 melodrama THE NIGHTINGALE'S PRAYER and the 1965 social drama AL-HARAM (THE SIN), which was voted the second best Egyptian film of all time by the newspaper Al Ahram. I'm willing to wager that those are much better films than this one. Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.

Links:
IMDB page
Something Weird Video catalog page

ADRIFT ON THE NILE
THARTHARAH FAWQ Al-NIL
Egypt, 1971
Directed by Hussein Kamal(1932-2003)
Screenplay by Mamdouh Al-Leithy
CAST:
Adel Adham
Mervat Amin
Magda Al-Khateeb
Emad Hamdi
Salah Nazmi
Ahmed Ramzy
Soheir Ramzy

ADRIFT, on the other hand, is a really great movie. Based on a novel by famed Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, this film is a sort of Arabic LA DOLCE VITA, a searing satirical look at the hashish-addled petty bourgeois lives of some of the upper-crust of Egyptian society. It's a political allegory for the turbulent years of the Nasser reign, but most of that is lost on me. Still, it's powerful stuff. The movie is brimming with great film-making verve - the handheld cameras, the elliptical, sometimes dreamy editing and the sharp black and white photography are all impressive. The acting is superb throughout with a standout performance from Ahmed Ramzy as a charming cad of a movie star, although his close resemblance to Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy is slightly distracting. There's also a wonderful color musical sequence meant as a send-up of Egyptian commercial film standards. It would appear that at least at one time, Egyptian movies were very much like Indian films, if this movie is to be believed. Although not very 'cult' or 'psychotronic' or whatever ADRIFT ON THE NILE is highly recommended for all interested in Egyptian films or just unique international cinema in general. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Links:
IMDB page
Web bio of director Kamal

For more Arabic language film weirdness, check out these archived reivews of two early 90s Egyptian exploitation movies, now with updated credit info and poster images:
AL-QATILAH
KEBDEH HELALI

Kim Ki-young's THE HOUSEMAID coming to DVD!

2009-07-22T17:08:00.001-07:00

"E-tailer" YesAsia now has Kim Ki-young's masterpiece THE HOUSEMAID up for preorder.
This is a major event for all fans of unique international cinema and our order is already in.
Go here to purchase!

UPDATE: According to the fine folks at the TWITCH website, this release sports an anamorphic transfer of the film, an audio commentary with critic Bong Joon-ho and a 40 page booklet, which we assume will be in both Korean and English like the book for the KIM KI-YOUNG COLLECTION (reviewd below).

Metin Erksan's KADIN HAMLET!

2009-07-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

Just bought a copy of this rare and weird Turkish drama on DVD, a version of HAMLET set in the 70s and with a female lead. Below are a couple of clips from the movie that have whetted my appetite for this unique film. I think they may do the same for you. Director Erksan is best know in the west for having directed the ultra-cheesy SEYTAN but he is hailed as a great auteur in his home country. His films of the 1960s are acclaimed fantasy-infused melodramas like SEVMEK ZAMANI, SUCLULAR ARAMIZDA or OLMEYEN ASK and are high on my "must-see" list.

Region One DVDs Galore!!

2009-07-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

Here's the next installment of our ongoing look into the perilous, precarious world of R1 DVD "cult" film releases. As always, we make no claims as to the quality of the films nor of their digital disc presentations. Buyer Beware!! (And also as always we are using images from the ever-reliable DVD Aficionado website!)

BORN OF FIRE (Mondo Macabro) out 10-27-2009

DJANGO SHOOTS FIRST (Dorado Films) out 10-27-2009

EVIL FACE (Mya Communications) out 10-27-2009

FAMILY SCANDAL (Mya Communications) out 10-27-2009

FROM THE ORIENT WITH FURY (Dorado Films) out 10-27-2009

GATLING GUN (Dorado Films) out 10-27-2009

GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE (Mya Communications) out 10-27-2009

THE HANGING WOMAN (Troma) out 9-29-2009

HANNA D. THE GIRL FROM VONDEL PARK (Severin) out 10-27-2009

I BOUGHT A VAMPIRE MOTORCYCLE (Redemption) out 10-27-2009

MESSIAH OF EVIL: THE SECOND COMING (Code Red) out 9-22-2009

SHINOBI NO MONO-COLLECTOR SET VOL. 1 (AnimEigo) out 9-15-2009

STUNT ROCK (Code Red) out 8-25-2009

THE STRANGENESS (Code Red) out 8-18-2009

TINTO BRASS COLLECTION VOL. 3 (Cult Epics) out 10-27-2009

THE WEEKEND MURDERS (Code Red) out 8-11-2009

See ya next time, fellow weird movie addicts!

DVD Review: The Kim Ki-young Collection

2009-07-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

South Korean movies pre-1990s were the red-headed stepchild of East Asian cinema. Never heralded by the international arthouse community like the Japanese or Mainland Chinese,nor was their popular cinema ever as wildly influential as Hong Kong's and for the most part they've avoided "cult-film" discovery by adventurous movie fans such as we've seem with Indonesia and the Philippines. But I think the time is ripe for a closer look at the weird and wild fantasy and exploitation cinema of South Korea, and though much of it remains unavailable for viewing even in Korea itself -making such rediscovery difficult- a few things are trickling through. There have been Korean DVDs of such odd horror titles as PUBLIC CEMETERY OF WOL-HA and the amazing A DEVILISH HOMICIDE, but the most interesting and important DVD revivals are the incredible films of auteur/oddball Kim Ki-young. In particular we will here take a look at a box set released last year in S.K. which collects four of his previously very hard to see films, and thanks the gods it does as these are some of the wildest "art/exploitation" films available on the world market.

Kim Ki-young

Kim Ki-young began his career in the mid 1950s making anti-communist propaganda, weepy melodramas and neo-realist films for the then burgeoning post-war Korean market. These films were met with both critical acclaim and terrific box office receipts but a few like YANGSAN PROVINCE and A TOUCH-ME-NOT were as well criticized for breaking with the tenets of the faddish "realism" which gripped the South Korean industry entire. It was in 1960 however that Kim broke though those barriers completely with his expressionist masterpiece, the pyschosexual thriller THE HOUSEMAID, a big hit with the public it also proved influential in opening up the industry to the possibilities afforded by cinema fantastique (horror films proper start the next year with Lee Yong-min's THE BAD FLOWER). But in the eyes of conservative critics of the day, a pact had been broken. As Kim continued to go down his own very personal cinematic path these critics were quicker and quicker to dismiss his films as "grotesque" "obscene" "sadistic" and the like and while the movies continued to be popular they were further and further marginalized until he became better known as a maker of weird "quota" filling z-grade pictures than as the popular artist which indeed he was. His films of the 70s and 80s are as weird and personal as cinema gets, he often re-made his films over and over (THE HOUSEMAID gets the treatment twice with WOMAN OF FIRE and WOMAN OF FIRE '82) and generally began caring less and less if his films made any sense at all. Soon, his work was forgotten, and if remembered at all then dismissed as pure trash, until the video age of the late 1980s saw the rise of his cult within adventurous cineaste circles, many of whom later became great film-makers in their own right such as Park Chan-wook (OLDBOY) and Bong Joon-ho (THE HOST). A retrospective of his films in 1997 at the Pusan International Film Festival heralded his return to auteur status, only to be followed by his death some months later in a house fire. Some guys can never win.

Original Korean poster for THE HOUSEMAID

A decade and some further festival retrospectives later the cult is building again, this time among those in the west as well as in his country of origin. THE HOUSEMAID has been restored and has a DVD release from South Korea in the works with rumors as well (possibly purely speculative) of an upcoming R1 release from Criterion. But last year four of his very best films were released in an opulent, if highly imperfect, box set. Featuring the movies GORYEOJANG, THE INSECT WOMAN, PROMISE OF THE FLESH and I-EO ISLAND it is easily the most exciting DVD release of the last few years shedding light on this most obscure but important of "Asian Cult Cinema" autuers. Let's take a look at the movies and the presentations and I'll try to convince you that you need this in your collection.

GORYEOJANG (1963)
The oldest film in the set and most "well-made" of the quartet, this film nonetheless bears all the wayward expressionist elements that define his most interesting work. A drama set in medieval Korea during a time of famine it examines the practice of Goryeojang, a ritual in which people over the age of 70 are taken to a mountain peak and left to die of exposure. This practice should be familiar to anyone who has seen Shoei Imamura's 1983 film BALLAD OF NARYAMA. But this movie is much weirder and more violent. There are several bloody deaths and even the unforgettable image of a live vulture pecking away at an old woman till she is nothing but rags and bones. There are many fantastical aspects as well with a Shaman-woman speaking with the dead and summoning rain storms. It's a really extraordinary picture, both moving as a drama and deeply compelling as a weird metaphysically-minded, violent cult film. The picture image is the best among the set and it sports by far the best subtitles, sadly however the movie is incomplete, like many of Kim's pre-1970s films (most of which are actually completely lost). Twice during the film, the screen goes black as two reels comprising about 20 minute of the movie are now lost to the ravages of time. The soundtrack remains, but this only helps to know what's going on somewhat and it's easy to get lost for much of the film's plot. Luckily the extraordinary conclusion remains (unlike the said-to-be-extraordinary conclusion of YANGSAN PROVINCE), with all its vultures, blood, murder and magick intact. Believe me, it's worth slogging though the incomplete parts to get to this overwhelming finale.

THE INSECT WOMAN (1972)
Another variation on THE HOUSEMAID, INSECT WOMAN deals directly with the theme which most occupied Kim's films - the battle of the sexes. A young daughter of a concubine whose father has died must fend for herself, her mother and her ne'er-do-well brother by becoming a concubine herself, having an affair with a lazy industrialist who suffers under the thumb of his overbearing wife, who is actually the brains behind the family fortune. His wife agrees to this situation in the hopes that it will cure him of his impotency (it does, but only with his mistress), and as these things are wont to go, tragedy eventually subsumes them all. Sound boring? Trust me, it isn't. The films burns with an almost hallucinogenic fervor, with bursting colors, odd camera angles, weird sex and bloodsucking babies. INSECT WOMAN veers into wild fantasy territory in it's third act, almost irresponsibly, without any care for plot consistency or realism and for that I'm very grateful. It never becomes certain whether the fantatical elements are indeed supernatural, or are a malevolent ruse or are simply fragments of the young concubines deranged mind. This ambivalence will surely turn some people off, but for me it strikes just the right key for the depiction of such oddness. Kim's talent for the weird comes to the fore in this masterpiece, probably my favorite film in the set, bringing to mind the intensity of Yasuzo Masumura's melodramas shot through with a wayward talent for weirdness that recalls none other than the great Jess Franco. Unfortunately the print of this film suffers the most of any in the set, being faded and speckled with dirt and debris throughout. Troublesome as well are the burned in Spanish subtitles, I'm guessing the print used for this DVD was the one provided to the Stiges Film Festival in the 70s. The English subtitles are OK, there are some grammatically awkward moments but things never get too confusing due to this. Despite these problems, THE INSECT WOMAN is one of the most interesting movies to premier on DVD in the last decade.

PROMISE OF THE FLESH (1975)
One of the many movies Kim made on the cheap for companies who, in order to import foreign (namely US) films, were forced by law to make a certain number of original Korean titles. These films tended to be extremely low-budget and filmed in 2-3 weeks tops with little time and care in creating something made to have lasting impact. Having trouble financing projects by this point despite as spate of recent hits including the aforementioned INSECT WOMAN, Kim found the freedom to follow his own perverse muse in this murky and oft-ignored realm. PROMISE is one such film, a remake of a much-loved Korean tearjerker called LATE AUTUMN that Kim turns on its head, making a sexually ravenous and deeply strange melodrama spilling over with bursts of color, slow-motion rape scenes, ridiculous character development and a wild giallo-esque score. Like most of Kim's films a synopsis does no good in revealing how the film actually plays. A beautiful but oft abused woman is paroled from prison for the day to visit the grave of her mother by train, where she meets the first nice and friendly man she seemingly has ever come across. Her accompanying parole officer encourages a relationship between the two to give the sad woman something to live for. They fall in love, sort of, but must part when she returns to prison to serve the remaining two years of her sentence. They make a pact to meet again at a park bench where their affair first took flight. From that simple synopsis you'd never guess that this film is as wild and unpredictable as almost any horror or exploitation film made at that time. Murder, rape, betrayal, suicide, robbery, and a healthy amount of nudity pepper this drama as well as Kim's trademark bizarre camera angles, color schemes and mise-en-scene making for one hell of a weird and interesting movie, easily the most surprising of the set. Print and subtitle quality on this one balance out. It's neither great nor awful but pleasantly serviceable. You could do much worse (and do on this very set).

I-EO ISLAND (1977)

The set's most enigmatic and impenetrable film. Again, synopsis is really not very helpful. But in this case it's also rather impossible. So I'm not even really going to try. But roughly the story deals with: A resort being built on an island populated almost entirely of woman, an imaginary (or is it?) island where local legend has it that the male fisherman population has been carried off to by water demons, a shaman-woman's attempt to draw back the corpse of the island's last victim, an investigation by a man who wants to clear his name after being accused of murdering the island's last victim, various love-starved woman who will do anything to bear children and magickal necrophilliac rituals. Although a break from his usual method of delineating his "battle of the sexes" themes (i.e. THE HOUSEMAID-INSECT WOMAN variants) I-EO nonetheless is highly concerned with with these elements but interlocks them so perversely, so randomly and so densely as to be almost incoherent. But above this tangled fray the film' s oblique charms hang ethereally, involving you wholly even if many points of the plot are obscure (I didn't even touch on half of the storylines crowding this movie). A sorcerous, mythic dimension pervades the film- undermining rational analysis and yet weaving the disparate themes and plots into a very satisfactory whole. This is a remarkable film, one that surely will benefit from multiple viewings, and along with INSECT WOMAN is the very best reason to get this set. Fans of weird and mystical fantasy and genre films simply need to check this one out. The print quality is quite nice, although a touch soft, but it fares the best out of the three color films in the set. However, the subtitles are not very good. Although basically followable most of the time, the complexities of the story are often too much for whoever translated it and much seems to be lost. This aspect alone makes I-EO the prime candidate from this box for the straight up Special Edition DVD upgrade treatment. Well, in my dreams anyway.

Director Kim Ki-young not long before his death

Plentiful extras on all the discs further send this box into orbit. Feature length commentaries with critics, historians and some of Korea's finest filmmakers chiming in to help place these amazing movies in their proper context are all certainly worth checking out. You also get three documentaries - A biographical entry, one featuring the cream of Korea's directorial crop discussing Kim's influence and most importantly one 45 or so minute long interview with the master himself. The set itself is lovingly designed and comes with a great 90 page booklet - half in Korean, half in English - that further attempts to explain Kim's place in Korean and world film.
While the presentations of the films are far from perfect, the previous obscurity of the films and the high probability that likely no one will be lavishing any further (and more expensive) T.L.C. on these titles is enough to justify the flaws inherent in this set. You can't see these anywhere else and trust me, you need to seem them.

I can't stress enough how exciting these films are to discover. Often, one gets the sense that every major film auteur or interesting national cinema has long since been "discovered" and covered by books and DVDs and that there are no new and odd movies to uncover and get all worked up about. Kim Ki-young's films and the other South Korean films from his era that I've seen make malarkey out of such sentiments. These films are as weird and interesting as anything else being hashed and rehashed in books, repertory theaters, message boards or blogs like this one. It gives me hope and the encouragement to keep looking for great films.

This set is available to purchase online here, here, here, and here.
It's well worth every penny. Trust me.

The classic film THE HOUSEMAID can be viewed online for free here.

The Worldweird Trailer Show!

2009-07-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of YouTube trailers that some friends have brought to our attention recently. Both are excellent and completely insane. View at your own risk.

Renato Polselli's MANIA (1973)

Dennis Yu's SHAN KOU aka THE BEASTS (1980)

In other Syanpse news ...

2009-07-03T10:55:00.000-07:00

In addition to keeping the Panik House and Casa Negra titles in print Synapse continues to release weird gems on their own and the latest sounds very interesting, though we know nothing about it.
It's a French horror from 1980 called NIGHT OF DEATH and considering how we feel about French horror (we are pretty obsessed with it - Rollin, Mercier, EYES WITHOUT A FACE, SEVEN WOMEN FOR SATAN, THE BLOOD ROSE etc.) this is one we will certainly keep an eye out for. It is unleashed upon the world near Halloween on October 27th.
But what's it all about? If anyone knows anything about the movie or it's makers please let us know!
Here's the awesome cover (provided by the DVD Aficionado website):

Synapse keeps Panik House/Casa Negra alive!!

2009-06-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

From the "In Case You Missed It Dept.":
Great news for all you home video procrastinators, Synapse Films are offering the "OOP" titles from the now sadly defunct cult film DVD labels Panik House and Casa Negra! So Panik's "Pinky Violence" line and Casa's amazing Mexihorror classics are now available at the original SRP, no more overpriced ebaying for you, my FEMALE YAKUZA and BRAINIAC deprived friends! And though the mighty SEX AND FURY is now sold out, it would appear a repressing is in the cards.
The Horses's Mouth:

Blog Announcement!

Casa Negra catalog!

Panik House catalog!

Two announcements by our fave DVD labels!

2009-06-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

This week brings news of upcoming DVDs by the two companies which most tickle our Worldweird fancy.

Firstly over at their own blog, Mondo Macabro have announced a new DVD coming out "sometime later this year". It's a movie we've never heard of before called BORN OF FIRE, an English surrealist/fantasy film directed by a Pakistani gentleman named Jamil Dehlavi. They compare it to the early films of Alejandro Jodorowsky which is one surefire way to grab our attention! The movie would seem to be, according to an IMDB reviewer, a "beautifully filmed surrealist journey into Arabic mythology", another refers to it as "the first Islamic horror movie". Well, sign us up, that sounds delicious. When more info on this release becomes available we'll let you know.

In other DVD label blog news, our endlessly suffering but ever vigilant pal Bill from Onar Films has announced that all the hassles that may have prevented him from releasing two ALTIN COCUK movies as well as the delirious looking early 60s fantasy film CICI CAN have been ironed out and they are all forthcoming! The latter especially has us intrigued if the amazing trailer Bill posted long ago is any indication of it interest. Said trailer is posted again below for those who might have forgotten its brilliance. But when will these highly anticipated discs make their debut? As ever when we know more so shall you!

DVD Review: KADIN DUSMANI

2009-06-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

Turkey; 1967
Directed by Ilhan Engin
Starring Ekrem Bora and Sema Ozcan
Available from Onar Films

Wow. If you've been waiting for just the right Onar DVD to risk buying sight unseen, I think I may have just found the answer to your dilemma. KADIN DUSMANI or WOMAN DESPISER is one of the very best movies our friends in Greece have ever released. It's a weird, sleazy and often violent thriller in the best Giallo tradition. Fans of those obsessive Italian thrillers will have a field day with this admittedly cheaper Turkish variation, as it holds its own against many better known films of that ilk. It has spooky gothic elements, beautiful girls half undressed half the time, startling violence, necrophilia, hints of incest, cameras tilting into delirium and impressive B&W cinematography. Add to that that this is one of Onar's best looking discs to date and you have the recipe for one of the year's best DVD releases from anywhere in the world. I'm very excited about this one and think you will be too once you take your plunge into the murky waters of KADIN DUSMANI!

The movie opens, as most movies should, with a girl taking off her clothes. The atmosphere drips with a stylish 60s noirish appeal as the sexy maiden prepares for bed. But before she can settle into dreamland, a twisted monstrous hand reaches into her room, flicking the light switch and plunging the scene into darkness. Emerging from this menacing black is a horrifying (if slightly sillylooking) devil-faced creature! Our pretty young thing, justifiably frightened out of her pretty young mind, steps back blindly to evade the creature's grasp only to stumble, hit her head and seemingly give up the ghost. At this point the demon removes his deformed hands and reveals a very human intention underneath as his unsheathed man-mitts move to caress her supple, dead body. Inexplicably, the rooms begins to fill with fog ...

The next scene, some time later, a couple of charming young women are walking home at night speaking nervously of "two girls killed in one week". Parting, the camera stays with one of the girls as she silently enters her large, enshrouded home. The eerie Italian soundtrack music and the murderous nature of the previous scene give it away that this evening is not going to end well for this unlucky dame, and so it goes. Again, we are treated to an undressing tease (though it comes close there is no nudity in the movie, sadly) before another rubbery monster-masked figure appears to claim another victim.

From here the film enters into procedural territory with the lead detective (Turkish leading man and sometime villain Ekrem Bora) interrogating the girls' boyfriends and bouncing around theories to explain these acts of a "sex maniac". The sleaze hinted at in the opening scenes becomes more frank as it is explained that the girls are not only being murdered but also raped, that is raped after they are killed! This movie fairly permeates with sex and/or perversion. Although never graphic nearly every scene incorporates sexy girls doing sexy things. My favorite is set as a particularly Jess Franco-esque nightclub scene with an alluring belly dance that concludes with a shapely sword-weilding dancer decapitating a male mannequin with graceful yet bloodthirsty panache. Sex and violence, these elements are KADIN's bread and butter.

Our first and primary suspect for the ongoing series of murder-rapes is the first girl's fiancee, a rich kid with an overprotective mother, a dead brother and a gorgeous sister-in-law whom our detective hero takes an immediate liking to. But he is just one of many suspects, as each girl seems to have had a sleazy boyfriend with some motive or another for craoking her. The detective at one point even explains that it's his job to "suspect everyone" and indeed, nearly everyone in the film is portrayed at some point in a possibly guilty light. Red herrings abound, as they are wont to do in giallo cinema, and this gives ample opportunity for weird characterisations galore. One suspect is a philandering sculptor who kneads his clay menacingly and closely inspects his tongue in the mirror. Another, a young playboy, caresses a human skull while alone in his apartment and reads aloud about necrophilia. The first suspect is no slouch either as he enjoys rubbing the barrel of a handgun against his temple and displaying an unhealthy interest in his sister-in-law. Even weirder is the detective's own sister, a wheelchair bound spinster who casually mentions how her brother's former wife met with a "peculiar death" to un-nerve his new lover. Alone in her room, she stands, apparently not crippled after all, kisses a picture of her brother and begins to caress her chest sensually as she gazes longingly at the photo. This charming scene is disrupted by (what else) the monster-faced molester gazing at her through the window. Hysterical, she runs to her brother's arms, with no one noticing that she is not actually crippled at all. This dramatic turn of events is never mentioned by anyone even when she pops up briefly later in the movie. Bad continuity or cinematic fever dream at work? Only you can decide that.

As you might be able to tell, this film is all weirdness and little-to-no logic. And that works decidedly in its favor. The finale spins out of control into sheer gothic territory with Ekrem Bora's girlfriend pursued by a host of masked devils though a cobweb infested mansion. The solution to the mystery is no mystery at all if you've been paying attention (or maybe even if you haven't) but that isn't the point. The point, at least when the film was originally produced, is, as mentioned above, sex. To have as many sexy scenes as the Turkish censor would allow and who cares about the plot. For us now, those of us willing to watch such obscure filmic treats as this, the point is weirdness. And KADIN DUSMANI is boiling in odd details, creepy music and irrational motivations and actions. For weird films fans, this one is sheer bliss.

Onar's disc of this once unknown jewel and cult film in the making is one of its best presentations to date. The films is presented full screen, which would seem to be its correct aspect ratio, with a mostly clear and as-pristine-as-Turkish-movies-can-get picture quality. There are some digital artifacts here and there and some dirt and debris, but these are exceedingly minor, especially when compared with almost every other Turkish film you can see anywhere else, including most of Onar's previous releases. So good on 'em for that one. And we get the usual batch of excellent extras including trailers for upcoming and previous Onar DVDs and Ayman Kole's highly informative bio notes on Director Ilhan Engin and star Ekrem Bora. Most interesting is another segment of the TURKISH FANTASTIC CINEMA docu - this one dealing with horror and sci-fi. The sci-fi segment has some great clips from many films including the possibly upcoming ALTIN COCUCK but the horror segment limits itself to only the two heavy hitters of Turkish scares, DRACULA ISTANDBUL'DA and SEYTAN. While of course there are very few actual Turkish horrors there are many more than just these two, Onar has even released a double feature with two of those horrors, and many other movies with horrific elements including the film of this very DVD. Disappointing that they chose only those two very well know examples to highlight, it's great fun and informative nonetheless. To conclude this review I must point out one other small thing that really made me very happy about this DVD - it has excellent subtitles. Subtitle quality has varied extremely on Onar discs, so it pleases me to no end to report that these are probably the best yet. They were very easy to read and in close-to-idiomatic English as they've ever been, making understanding what's going on very, very easy. Bravo Onar! Once again, you lite up my day with amazing worldweird-y fun and excitement! I hope it goes on forever.

The Wild Films of Cetin Inanc - Subtitled at last!!

2009-06-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

We received great news from our friends at CIKO (a Cetin Inanc/Cuneyt Arkin fan group) this week! As of right now they will be selling official DVDr presentations of some of Inanc's wildest 80s psychedelic-action masterpieces for the first time available with English subtitles! Great Gods we've been waiting for something like this for a looooooong time!!!!
First off, the movies they've chosen for us!:

SON SAVASCI ( LAST WARRIOR ) Trailer

CÖL ( THE DESERT a.k.a TURKISH JAWS ) Trailer

VAHSI KAN ( TURKISH RAMBO ) Trailer

DELI FISEK ( BLACK GUN ) Trailer

AC KARTALLAR!

KARA SIMSEK!

ASI KABADAYI!

INTIKAMCI - THE AVENGER - Turkish Stallone + Gibson

These movies are sure to pulverise your usually delicate cineaste sensibilities! So beware! And take care! And be sure to buy all these amazing once rare trash films!
All ye need to do is venture here. They are selling them for $15.90 (US)a pop and $4 shipping for 1-3 titles and $5 for more than 3. Your package will also include a rare Cetin Inanc Turkish lobby card at no extra cost! What a freakin' steal!
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? The time is NOW for Turkish trash heaven to descend upon you!

Support the Greek Economy!!

2009-06-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

Worldweird Cinema has many friends from all over this tiny globe of ours but none more passionate than our cine-brothers from the very cradle of our particular civilization - Greece. So we'd like to return the favor of their support by pointing to a few places where you can spend your hard earned cash in rocky, hot Hellas. C'mon, they gave us democracy and kept the Persian Empire at bay so it's the least you can do.

Firstly our friend Miltos of Cinehound Forum (our home away from home) fame has two online weird movie shoppes that we must highly recommend to you. If the oddest of the odd from Bollywood (or is it Bollyweird?) is your thang, then check out the newly revamped Electric Larvae store, where Bolly is all they got, but what they got they got galore. Lots of Lolly too, if you know what I mean (I mean Pakistani films if you don't). You can pour through endless pages of boring dramas and comedies at other Indian disc providers or you can just go straight to the worldweird gold all laid out in easy to understand alphabetical (and in English too, for us barbarians) order. You have no excuses for not buying stuff, really.

Not content to only corner the Bollyweird market, Miltos also provides even rarer treats at his DVDr shoppe Kult Paradise. Here you can find movies you can find NOWHERE ELSE. Miltos is a long time VHS collector and he has cherry picked the weirdest of the weird to offer to you, his adoring public. Many of the more obscure films we've reviewed here over the years have come from his collection and now you too can pretend that you're cool and in the know about this stuff just like we do.
Check it out, I'm sure you'll find something that will get your blood pumpin'.

Also, we feel it necessary to point out that Miltos' fellow countryman Bill Barounis, whom all of you should know as the President and CEO of Onar Films, has just put out via that very DVD label a new and completely awesome looking Turkish delight called KADIN DUSMANI or WOMAN HATER, a gothic-tinged Giallo thriller from the late 60s that promises to be one of their most interesting releases to date. Our copy is on its way so we should have a review soon but in the meantime - why not just take the chance and order your own? I really doubt you will regret it. If you don't know anything about it, here's the lowdown and the trailer for it. Don't miss out!!

A genuine TURKISH GIALLO from 1967! At that time, the italians had just started warming up on the genre while their best examples came years later.
This Turkish lost, spooky, misty, gothic giallo horror stands on its own, faithful to itself, quite original in ideas, full of surprises and almost empty as far as "similarities" to other films are concerned! The only surving print was found in very good condition and ONAR FILMS is presenting it in another worldwide premiere.

NOW, ON 500 COPIES ONLY!

Country: Turkey
Year: 1967

Director: Ilhan Engin

Actors: Ekrem Bora, Sema Ozcan, Tanju Korel, Gulgun Erdem, Reha Yurdakul

--------------------------------------
FEATURES:
ULTRA-LIMITED EDITION OF 500 numbered copies
Turkish audio with English & Greek subs
Dolby Digital 2.0
Documentary Turkish Fantastic Cinema - Part 3
Poster Insert
Photogallery
Biographies
Filmographies
Trailers

Worldweird Returns!

2009-06-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

After much soulsearching over the past several months, the decision to reactivate WWC has been made. Let there be much rejoicing! Cool, now that all 8 or so of you are vocally rejoicing, let's get back down to business. Here's a quick look at some upcoming DVD releases that I think will be of interest to the Worldweird faithful. CAVEAT: WWC makes no claims, positive or otherwise as to the quality and/or completeness of the films on this list, do your own research before buying as always!
Let's take a look!! (All cover images from the indispensable DVD Aficionado website.)

42 ST. FOREVER Vol. 5 (Synapse) out 9/29/2009

BLACK MAGIC 2 (Tokyo Shock) out 6/16/2009

DINNER WITH A VAMPIRE (Mya) out 8/25/2009

DOOR INTO SILENCE (Severin) out 6/30/2009

GOZU (Cinema Epoch) out 7/14/2009

GRADIVA (Mondo Macabro) out 8/25/2009

HARDWARE (Severin) out 9/29/2009

HORRIBLE aka ABSURD (Mya) out 6/30/2009

L'IMPORTANT C'EST D'AIMER (Mondo Vision) out 6/16/2009

ITALIAN SEX (Mya) out 8/25/2009

LUCIFERA-DEMONLOVER (Mya) out 9/29/2009

MAFIA CONNECTION (Mya) out 8/25/2009

MARQUIS DE SADE'S PROSPERITIES OF VICE (Mondo Macabro) out 6/30/2009

NAKED AND VIOLENT (Mya) out 9/29/2009

NIKKATSU NOIR box (Eclipse/Criterion) out 8/25/2009

SEX AND ZEN (Eastern Star/Discotek) out on 9/29/2009

SLEEPY EYES OF DEATH (AnimEigo) out 7/14/2009

STORM RIDERS (Discotek) out 9/29/2009

UNTIL DEATH (Mya) out 9/29/2009

VIOLENCE AND FLESH (Impulse/Synapse) out 6/30/2009

Some very, very interesting stuff there. Some more interesting than others, yes, but considering the sad state of affairs that is the Home Video industry at this time it is a veritable embarrassment of riches. Do you duty, buy worldweirdy DVDs!!

Coming soon to this site: A review of the latest Onar opus KADIN DUSMANI!!!! See ya then movie fans!

Mondo Nikkatsu Macabro Porno!

2008-07-12T20:17:00.000-07:00

The next MM releases have been revealed! Two shocking Nikkatsu Roman Porno Masterpieces! ASSAULT! JACK THE RIPPER and THE WATCHER IN THE ATTIC! Coming October 28th!
Here are the covers!

And in further good Macabro news, word has it that the following month (that would be November) will see the long awaited release of the Indonesian action-fantasy wonder THE WARRIOR! And sometime next year more Nikkatsu erotic cinema and the perhaps at last the wildest of wild looking Filipino Freakouts SNAKE SISTERS!

DVD Review: KIZIL TUG CENGIS HAN

2008-06-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

First off, many apologies to Bill at Onar Films for the lateness of this review, no excuses I just haven't been in the writing frame of mind of late. But don't let my lack of punctuality in reviewing this DVD suggest to you the buying public that this is a lesser product. Far from it. In fact it is easily one of the DVDs of the year, setting an even higher standard for historical importance that usual for our favorite Turkish digital disc specialists. KIZIL TUG is one of the oldest examples of Turkish cinema fantastique and fun little film to boot. Combined with the overwhelming extras provided, this DVD exceeds the high expectations we've all come accustomed to from Onar, no small feat.

The story, like so many Turkish genre films, is a little confusing. This print might be missing a few scenes as the plot careens from point to point with little chance for the viewer to get their bearings. But who knows? As it stands the confusing narrative doesn't distract too much from the fun. A young warrior Turk saves the life of Genghis Khan and is rewarded with what basically amounts to a suicide mission, to go and secure payments from a rebellious Muslim caliph owed to the Khan's now deceased brother. This places our hero in a curious conundrum as it just so happens he's a dead ringer for the caliph's skirt-chasing poetry-loving dandy of a son. The caliph is embarrassed by his son's lack of war-scarred courage and bargains with the young Turk to take his place in a contest of soldiering skills in order to align his family with another powerful family through marriage. I know, it's complicated. It gets even more complicated as all plans go awry leading somehow to the young Turk coming to blows with the infamous Khan himself. While the finer details of the story are somewhat obscure, the movie is never anything less that a blast throughout. While not a surreal as later Turkish historical adventures such as KARA BOGA or the TARKAN films, KIZIL TUG keeps up the action throughout the running time with the climatic battle being especially bloody, surprising for a film from 1952. It's the kind of movie that works really well as a Saturday afternoon matinee kind of diversion, sparking feelings of swashbuckling nostalgia for all of us that can remember when old-school historical adventure films of this sort actually used to play on television. All in all, a real good time.

The DVD presentation of this film does what it can with the meager elements that were available. Long considered lost this is as good as we'll ever see this important film, one of the very first of its kind made in Turkey. It looks OK, not great, but OK. If you've seen Onar's previous TARZAN IN ISTANBUL DVD you know what to expect. More problematic is the soundtrack which drops out and distorts continually throughout the film. Again, this is an incredibly obscure movie and problems of this sort should be expected. More than making up for this is host of outstanding special feature provided. Chief among these on the disc is a portion of documentary on Turkish fantastic films concerning the great historical films which reached the heights of popularity in the late 60s/early 70s. The doc. is chock full of incredible clips and interviews with some of the movers and shakers of the period such as Cuneyt Arkin. It's great stuff, although I think a little of the overall context of the doc. is lost by it being exerted from the whole. But it's much appreciated nonetheless, whetting my appetite for more films of this sort to be released on DVD. Beyond that you get a usual excellent smattering of bios and filmographies by the great Ayman Kole and a batch of new trailer for upcoming Onar releases. And that about wraps it up for this great release ... oh, wait, no it doesn't! The best feature yet in not on the disc itself but is featured along with the disc, a 40 page booklet that sets out to catalog the entirety of every known Turkish Fantastic Film! It's a beautiful, full color affair that lists tons of amazing sounding movies that are sadly, now mostly lost. But the memory lives on here in these spectacular pages, which will no doubt be an inspiration to future generations of Turk-film lovers to continue to seek out and find once lost films just like Onar itself is doing. This booklet is really what sends the release into orbit, assuring its place among the best DVDs of 2008. Get it while you can, Worldweird Faithful!

Available from Onar Films!

Trailers for crazy new movies coming soon from Onar Films!!

2008-05-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

ALTIN COCUK!

MASKELI UCLER!

KORKUSUZ KAPTAN SWING! Coming in June!

And coming in September - Yes, it's CELLAT!!!!!! (So good it's worth posting this trailer for the second time here!)

Next from Onar!!!

2008-05-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

KORKUSUZ KAPTAN SWING (CAPTAIN SWING THE FEARLESS)

THE 11th ONAR FILMS OFFICIAL DVD RELEASE!
ONAR proudly presents the unique Turkish film adaptation of the cult italian 1966 fumetti comic, IL COMANDANTE MARK. Being 100% faithful to the comic, Captain Swing's stooges buddies Mister Blof and Sad Owl are here, along with Betty, the British enemies "Red Coats" and that skinny dog of course! The only surving print was in decent condition and now the result is surely better.
Country: Turkey
Year: 1971
Director: Tunc Basarn
Actors: Salih Guney, Suleyman Turan, Ali Sen, Gulgun Erdem, Reha Yurdakul

DVD FEATURES:
--------------------
ULTRA-LIMITED EDITION OF 500 numbered copies
Turkish audio with English & Greek subs
Dolby Digital 2.0
Documentary: Turkish Fantastic Cinema - Part 2
Poster Insert
Photogalleries
Biographies
Filmographies
Theatrical Trailer
NEW Trailers

TARKAN on Youtube!!!

2008-04-21T17:12:00.000-07:00

FOUR COMPLETE MOVIES!!!!

TARKAN part 1 of 9

TARKAN GUMMUS EYER part 1 of 9

TARKAN ALTIN MADALYON part 1 of 9

TARKAN KOLSUZ KAHRAMANA KARSI part 1 of 9

This is the best Youtube discovery we've made in quite awhile. Check out the "channel" they come from for the rest of each movie and more Turkish stuff, looks like mostly comedies and dramas, but there are several other GREAT fantastic films hidden within, so dig a little.
Go here for the first three and here for the last one.

CELLAT! Coming soon from Onar Films?

2008-04-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

If you dig the following (in our opinion - AMAZING!) trailer for this very obscure Turkish remake of DEATH WISH, then get thy ass to voting for Onar to release it! Just click Onar's link at the right and go to their blog to vote.

WARNING!: Not Work Safe!

DVD Review: DEMIR PENCE KORSAN ADAM

2008-04-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

Directed by Cetin Inanc
Starring Demir Karahan and Yildirim Gencer
Turkey; 1969

This new DVD, another jewel in Onar’s crown, wins us over mostly as a love letter to prodigious Turkish Trash director Cetin Inanc. For me, there is no more underappreciated international auteur than Inanc. Like most, I know his work primarily for his 80s psychedelic action epics with the legendary Cuneyt Arkin. Films which haphazardly mix kung-fu, hair monsters, big-bummed girls and unrelated footage from whatever films they could get their hands on to plunder. The resulting mix is explosive and ridiculous. This DVD is a portal into his early work as it represents one of his first films, one which bares the unmistakable imprint of his mentor, Anatolian auteur Yilmaz Atadeniz. It isn’t quite up to the insanity of his later films, but is a solid winner nonetheless.

DEMIR PENCE is another warped superhero yarn not unlike previous Onar released films such as DEMIR YUMRUK or CASUS KIRAN. Like those, DEMIR blends U.S. style serial adventures with the more mature Italian fumetti but in a particularly Turkish mindset (and budget). If DEMIR suffers a bit in comparison to those previous wonders it may only be due to a case of embarrassment of riches. If we hadn’t been privy to those excellent previous DVDs, then DEMIR might not have seemed so … well, repetitive. The story is nearly identical to the Atadeniz flicks with a masked avenger fighting foreign criminal organization out to destroy Turkey and all it righteous citizens. Kidnapped Professors and their hot daughters, state secrets that will reap destruction if revealed, girls tied down and whipped and an episodic nature indebted to the serials and comics which inspired it: sound familiar? That it works is down to the manic nature of the action, the performers and of course, Mr. Inanc.

One thing definitely going for it is the presence of European pulp villain Fantomas and he makes for one hell of a villain. Cruel and sadistic criminal masterminds are part and parcel of Turkish Trash Cinema and this version of Fantomas lives up to the challenge laid down by others with this genre. He is nothing less throughout the film than an unhinged and deranged fucker who doesn’t hesitate to kill anyone who gets in his way, including his hot-ass girlfriends. Bastard. Mostly the movie gets by on this violent spirit, which it contains in greater abundance than others of its ilk. The blood flows quickly and easily in the various shootouts and fisticuffs which permeate the frame. Much more so than in the more reserved efforts by Atadeniz, et al. Another positive aspect of the movie is its many, many scenes of extremely comely girlies in many various states of undress doing sexy dances for the benefit of heroes and villains alike. Really, like every other scene is blessed in such a manner! Hott! But really, the success of the film comes down to the wild vision of Inanc, who litters the screen with many of the visual tics which would become more pronounced later in his career. Off kilter camera angles, uncomfortable close-ups and an ability to actually move his camera between cuts makes this little number unique among it counterparts, if not entirely more entertaining.

This DVD presentation is where we really take off. The movie looks damned good for a black and white Turkish film of the late 60s. The image is clear and we get tape flutters only every once and awhile and only for a few seconds. Said it before, I’ll say it again – Onar does it right, every time. The extras give you something special too. We get the usual Onar trailers and excellent bios by Turkfilm historian Ayman Kole but the biggest and most impressive extras by far is a new half hour documentary highlighting the crazy career of Cetin Inanc. Produced by CIKO, an Inanc/Cuneyt Arkin fan group, the featurette gives a quick overview of his career, covering the many genres the maestro has worked in through the years, and best of all, laying a heavy dose of wild, wild clips from the various movies on us. This is great stuff folks. It is a little maddening as most of the flicks featured are extremely rare, and therefore very hard to track down. But if you love and are excited by Turkish Pulp Cinema of the 60s-70s-80s this little docu will blow you already crazed minds. This DVD should take you no consideration as whether or not to buy it. If you dig this kind of thing, you’re all over it. For the more skeptical or just Turk-curious, let the fact that this is EXTREMELY LIMITED do your considering for you. Only 500 copies of this beauty are in existence so all you collector scum out there better get on the ball!

Available from Onar Films!

South Asian Trash Cinema YouTube Mind-Melt-O-Rama!!!

2008-03-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

Excellent Bolly/Lolly vid-clip madness!

The New Mondo Macabro: QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC!!!

2008-03-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen it anywhere else, here's the lowdown on the next release from our favorite DVD company.

• Interview with FX creator El Badrun, produced by Mondo Macabro and exclusive to this disc
• Extensive background information about the film
• Original theatrical trailer
• Mondo Macabro’s ever-popular preview reel

With a new anamorphic transfer from the original negative!

Movie Review: HIS NAME WAS HOLY GHOST

2008-02-29T08:04:00.000-08:00

aka Uomo avvisato mezzo ammazzato... Parola di Spirito Santo; Forewarned, Half-Killed... the Word of the Holy Ghost; They Call Him Holy Ghost; Y le llamaban El Halcón
Directed by Giuliano Carnimeo (Anthony Ascott)
Italy/Spain; 1971

“Anybody hurt or killed?”
“Yep. All of you!”

The Mexican government has been overthrown.
The people’s beloved President is out and forced into hiding among them in Morelos while the pompous, self-appointed, cigar-chomping stand-in, General Ubarte, has sent out a search detail to Bring Him the Head of Don Firmino by any means necessary.
Soldiers storm local villages; people are questioned; people are shot; people are stabbed and beaten regardless of age or infirmity; a hungry little boy is the sole witness to his mother’s murder in cold blood.
And all this takes place during the opening credits!

In order to assert themselves among the peasants, and humiliate Firmino in the process, the military string him up alongside his daughter, Juana, in a crucifixion position and force all the villagers to spit in his face, one by one while the officers sit ringside, stuffing their sweaty faces with local rations. All who refuse get an honorable discharge from the Lieutenant’s revolver, right between the eyes.
And just as this salivary processional hits full swing, up jump the Holy Ghost with his trusted companion, Eagle (a white dove with an identity crisis!), and proceeds to mow down the soldiers with his automatic rifle leaving them slumped in a not-so-living portrait of “The Last Supper.”
Why has Holy Ghost (real name “Harold”) come here, of all places, and saved the day? Why, to get the prospecting rights renewed for a goldmine he recently ‘acquired’, of course. And as soon as he learns the President is unable to complete his request at this time, Holy Ghost politely loses interest and rides off to gain audience with the uncooperative Ubarte, who unsuccessfully tries to recruit Spirito Santo into his stable of nitwits.

Soon enough, Don Firmino and Juana are recaptured in the cellar of a saloon, but Holy Ghost (who again pops in out of the blue, this time wanting to ask Firmino directions to his new goldmine) offends the arresting officer by suggesting he fix lunch for everyone since he’s killed the saloon owner! After thwarting his own execution by blinding the firing squad with the mirrored lining of his cape (!), Juana has convinced Holy Ghost to join them in their revolution to take back the state in exchange for help with his goldmine. Holy Ghost agrees, and for additional revolutionary insurance, a one-time hustler and cohort, now a reborn servant of God, joins the party– the Bluto-esque mass of a man, Chicken Little!
Together, they take on the presiding military presence by way of projectile Bibles, fun with corpse animation, bird beak interrogation torture, dynamite-fed chickens which lay explosive eggs used to make OMELETTE BOMBS, tough-as-nails prostitutes, cross-dressing combat tactics (aka the Trojan Whores, with Garko looking like a member of the Cockettes!), angry farmers with machetes, and many a manner of traps, set-ups, and knock-down drag-outs!

This is the second in a brief series of “Holy Ghost” films teaming director Carnimeo with star Gianni Garko, who would also join forces for films in both the SARTANA and HALLELUJAH cycles.
An offbeat comedy-western of the finest variety, the action is horn-a-plenty with mucho gunplay and killings, seasoned with a pinch of acrobatics and crashing camera zooms, while the comedy is integrated in a way which works, but does not overpower nor distract. There are sequences during the big battle scene which perfectly embody a classic 3 Stooges brand of bizarre slapstick.
The ofttimes underrated Garko plays the role perfectly-- nonchalant, sarcastic, charismatic, focused, never missing his target even while not looking in the direction of the danger. The effective Bruno Nicolai score fuses familiar effects with the humble atmosphere of a 10-pew cathedral.
Despite the title’s inference, a supernatural slant to the character is not so prominent. The handful of instances which might qualify could easily be attributed to successfully suspending one’s disbelief. Your choice.

A very nice quality widescreen print exists on DVD in Spain (Spanish language only), but unfortunately it is incomplete. European Trash Cinema carries a good quality dubbed print which appears to be uncut.
Recommended!

Review by Scott "Jealous Pervert" Wallis!

Worldweird Cinema Recommends: The New ELECTRIC LARVAE Store!

2008-02-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

There's a new e-store in town, and it's catering to the "worldweird" fan in all of us. From the mean streets of Athens, Greece comes ELECTRIC LARVAE, previously a topnotch "gray market" dealer of all things "world", "weird" and "cinema", it has hence been reborn , in a new straight up manner distributing DVDs, VCDs, and classic OOP VHS tapes. You can search all over the internet for these obscure items or you can one-stop-shop!

The amazingly varied selection is helpfully organized by country or region/language. Ya got Hindi, Turkish, Filipino, Thai, Pakistani, Indonesian, Arabic etc. with a load of rare items filling out each category with the promise of more to come! Certainly our review docket will be shot through with a ton of titles from this bank, so stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, check out the store here! And order lots of stuff!!

Simply Awesome Onar News!!!

2008-02-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

If we here at Worldweird Cinema have one overarching goal in mind, it's to aid in the ascent to world dominance of Onar Films! The small Greek one-man DVD operation has been gifting all of us with astoundingly rare and amazing Turkish trash films gems for more than two years now and while global hegemony might as of yet eluded our friends' grasp, we feel confident that these releases will be viewed by future generations as some of the best the medium had ever to offer. Here we present a rundown of the HUGE new developments from Onar. 2008 looks to be a landmark year for this most humble and yet important of digital disc providers.

Firstly, the next blockbusting DVD release!

KIZIL TUG CENGIZ HAN!

ONAR presents the oldest Turkish Historical Peplum Sword film surviving! Made in 1952 and considered lost till now it precedes the Italian Peplums by many years and puts them to shame. A spectacular and epic production proving that the older the better when it comes to Turkish Fantastic Cinema! The only surviving material was unearthed in watchable condition but thanks to Onar's touch the result is now better.

Trailer:

NOW, ON 500 COPIES ONLY!

Country: Turkey
Year: 1952

Director: Aydin Arakon

Actors: Turan Seyfioglu, Mesiha Yelda, Atif Kaptan, Cahit Irgat

FEATURES:

ULTRA-LIMITED EDITION OF 500 numbered copies
Turkish audio with English & Greek subs
Dolby Digital 2.0
Documentary: Turkish Fantastic Cinema - Part 1
Booklet (32 pages): Full Catalog of Turkish Fantastic Films
Photogallery
Biographies
Filmographies
NEW Trailers

Notes on the AMAZING extras for this DVD from Onar Films' blog:

1- Documentary: Turkish Fantastic Cinema - Part 1 :
I have bought a superb Documentary, running 92 minutes, including dozens of interviews and scenes from countless obscure films of all genres. It runs by genre (Western, Historical, Superhero, Cuneyt Arkin, etc etc) so, I decided to offer it in relevant parts, depending on genre.
This DVD is Historical so you'll see the part featuring lots of sequences from cult films/series like TARKAN, KELOGLAN, MALCOCOGLU and many more, plus interviews and explanatory voice-over!

2- Booklet (32 pages): Full Catalog of Turkish Fantastic Films:
I used the best experts and managed to make a huge, complete catalog of ALL Turkish Fantastic Films, by genre and year. With english translation for each title. Plus, intriguing introductions on each genre, with highlights on specific titles and directors.Plus, tons of photos!
I really believe this will be the DEFINITE, ULTIMATE GUIDE on Turkish Cult Cinema!!

3- NEW Trailers
I have bought many NEW films, you know. I'll tell you about the titles at another post, this month. BUT, if you want to check their trailers you better get this DVD.

And in other MINDBLOWING Onar news ... (also from the blog)

Remember a mysterious teaser I uploaded last December?
It was called "Turkish Eerie Lost Gem" and I only had a promo of the first 7 minutes off which I made up a 2 minutes teaser.

Ok now, I just received the screener of the whole movie, watched it carefully and made up a big trailer of about 7 minutes:

The title is CICI CAN (pronnounced CHICHI JAN) and was made in 1963 by the team that later on made the 007 ripoff ALTIN COCUK series.

I was told it was based on a kids comic!! The movie itself ranges from spooky to weird and eerie and nutty and silly and superheroic and metaphysical and nostalgic and romantic and....
Generally I find it to be a truly unprecedented Turkish movie and totally original in every way.
For example, can you tell me of ANY other films of that period that used the "cartoon with real actors" effect?
Here, we have a gross ghost animation among real actors! In Turkey! In 1963!!

On the blog Bill Onar asks that that you VOTE on whether or not he should release this unique and bizarre film. I strongly INSIST that you vote Y-E-S!!!!
You can do so as a comment at the blog itself (just go to the Onar site [link is above and to the right]).

More updates, reviews and other stuff soon - if there is anyone left out there!

The Best of Something Weird Video on the YouTube!!

2008-01-24T20:37:00.000-08:00

For your viewing enjoyment, here's a sampling of classic trailers and clips from the cream of the crap offered by your favorite exploitation video providers.

AROUSED!

HOT THRILLS AND WARM CHILLS!

SHE-FREAK!

SOMETHING WEIRD!

GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS!

THE ZODIAC KILLER!

CRYPT OF DARK SECRETS!

DVD Review: CASUS KIRAN

2008-01-11T14:11:00.000-08:00

Directed by Yilmaz Atadeniz
Starring Irfan Atasoy and Sevda Ferdag
Turkey; 1968

Woo Hoo! Now this is more like it! While we were a little lukewarm on the last two Onar releases the new one, CASUS KIRAN is real doozy! It’s a rapid-fire super-hero flick with incoherence to burn and style up to its neck. Yilmaz Atadeniz is the mastermind here, who you may (or rather should) know as the genius behind the KILINK films as well as the all time retarded cinema classic DEATHLESS DEVIL, so you know you’re in for a wild time. It’s all action, all movement and no plot, no meaning, an almost existential pop confection that had me hugging myself with barely-contained joy throughout its all-too brief running time. Apparently the movie is based on a WWII era comic book called SPY SMASHER about a masked hero who, well, smashes spies. Atadeniz takes this template and crafts something really immediate and striking. CASUS KIRAN is slapdash nonsense to be sure, but it is altogether glorious nonetheless.

A plot synopsis is not really necessary, nor even really possible. The print provided seems like it might be missing a few scenes and the English subtitles don’t make much sense for most of the time. It doesn’t matter, trust me. Casus Kiran and his hot-chick side-kick Sevda (also the name of the actress playing the role) fight a devious cabal of spies intent on destroying the western world (or something like that) but they hadn’t counted on the tenacity of the Turks! There is a ton of fighting, all of it fake looking, contrived and absolutely thrilling. I honestly could not follow the finer details of the plot, for the reasons enumerated above, but the film’s constant blur of fisticuffs, motorcycles and recycled garage riffs simply pour on the fleeting entertainment. It’s as fine an hour+ of trash movie joy as your likely to find in this fresh new year and so I can do nothing better that recommend you pick up CASUS KIRAN at you soonest opportunity.

I’ll be frank here, in regards to the picture quality: It ain’t hot. BUT. This is the first time it has ever been released on video anywhere in the world. Since its Anatolian theatrical release in the late 60s CASUS has been languishing “in the vaults” just waiting for Onar’s timely discovery. Under those circumstances, this is an utterly beautiful print and we should all praise the efforts of Mr. Barounis for bring it to us. This amazing DVD, one of the best of 2007 for sure, also contains a video interview (conducted by the late, lamented Turkish film historian Metin Demirhan) with director/producer Atadeniz who provides, as usual with the interviews on Onar’s DVDs, many insights into the history of Turkish cinema, covering not only his better know superhero and action films but some of his early more dramatic films as well. Essential viewing for all fans of obscure international pop cinema, to be sure. There is also a nice image gallery of rare press materials for the film which are quite beautiful. Ayman Kole’s usual terrific bios and a smattering of Onar trailers fill up the rest of the disc. The trailer for the next release DEMIR PENCE KORSAN ADAM, is especially tantalizing and makes the disc highly anticipated at least by me, being an early film by my fave Turk Director Cetin Inanc. Gods, I cannot wait for that DVD, due at the end of this very month.

Without a doubt this is a DVD that every trash/exploitation/60s-superhero-film fan needs to have in their collection. If you’ve ever thought about buying an Onar DVD but weren’t sure where to start, this is an excellent place. These more obscure Turkish masked-men features like the upcoming DEMIR PENCE or the previous DEMIR YUMRUK are some of the 21st century’s most amazing and essential cinematic discoveries going. There are no more exciting and entertaining films available on digital disc right now. You owe it to yourself to add this to your collection for, in this humble reviewer’s opinion, your life is a much bleaker and soul-less place without them.

Available from Onar Films!

Movie Review: W IS WAR

2007-12-20T18:34:00.000-08:00

aka W
aka WA
Directed by Willie Milan
Philippines; 1983

W is a blast of sleaze and wackiness. It's extremely violent although never really gory or anything. But it piles on the gratuitous action to the point of absurdity. Basically a haphazardly assembled MAD MAX rip, this Filipino production is pretty damned amazing. It's no masterpiece, but what do you want, another CRIES AND WHISPERS? Look elsewhere bub. This is all about vengeance, blood vendettas, pure hate transferred into a pop orgy of mindless fun. I know nothing about the film-makers but this broadcasts the best aspects of z-grade Asian cinema, so I have to assume, as I am wont to do, that they are in-fact unheralded geniuses whose work has been unfairly passed over in favor of stuffy, boring neorealist claptrap that will "uplift your soul" or something. Me, I like to wallow in the celluloid gutter thank you very much. Please, join me ...

Like I said, it's all about revenge. Is there any better subject for a low-budget genre film from the fringes of the "civilized" world? In this blood-thirsty case, the vengeance comes from a cop whose been castrated. Yes, you read that correctly, a castrated cop. How did he come to this emasculated state? Well, he had the gall to take on a particularly nasty drug-ring crime-syndicate/leather-bound skin-head post-apocalyptic death-cult. During one attempted bust, our hero (know only as "W2", why he names himself after a tax form I have no idea) shoots and kills one of the bald baddies in self-defense, incurring the ire of cult's leader. First W2 gets suspended by the those bastard do-nothing police bureaucrats who of course "don't get it" - then, after marrying his hot-tart sweetheart he and his new wifey are kidnapped and horrendously abused by the evil throng. Wifey watches in horror as W2 is stripped and then ripped. Thankfully the act is mostly left to our imagination. It's fairly horrifying nonetheless. Our hero is understandably morose about this plot-twist and finds himself in a crisis of machismo as Wifey continues to squeal and writhe about him in full heat. He can't satisfy her so of course his only course of action is ... Oh yeah, you know it - vengeance!

Lots of fights, both gun and fist, ensue. There's some plot stuff involving a drug bust and the cult/gang's retaliation by kidnapping a group of little kids from a Catholic school. Adds some to the sleaze but not much really to the story. There's a fun bit at the end where Our Hero leads a group of rogue coppers in an assault on Leather Death Cult HQ - they rescue the kiddies but for some reason lead them right into the middle of the battle where they have to dodge bullets, bombs and flying corpses. How incredibly stupid but yet, entertaining. That pretty much sums up the film, which is full of zip and zest despite the bummer details of the plot. OK it's more like "because of" instead of "despite", but you know you like the depravities of humanity spat out in hyper-weird cinematic style, admit it. This is first class, no-budget swill all the way. W plods down only in a few of its expositionary details here and there but otherwise keeps the crazy coming fast and furious. I liked it and so will you. Or maybe you won't, what do I care.

IRON CLAW THE PIRATE! Another Turkish Superhero Brainscrambler from Onar Films!!!

2007-12-12T18:07:00.000-08:00

The details have been leaked on another fantastic Onar Films release of a once lost Turkish film fantastique! Here it is: DEMIRE PENCE KORSAN ADAM aka IRON CLAW THE PIRATE! Directed by all-time Turk-trash-movie champ Cetin (MAN WHO SAVED THE WORLD, DEATH WARRIOR, THE BIGGEST FIST) Inanc!

Another LOST Turkish Superhero gem! Our Super-hero Korsan Adam (The Pirate), takes on a legendary villain named... Fantomas! Years before his Cuneyt Arkin epics like Man Who Saves the World, the explosive Cetin Inanc had made this hyper-active and sleazy Mask-Fest.... Featuring massive shoot-out mayhem, bondage, torturing, half-naked babes, cold-blooded executions via strangulation and ritual stabbing, fist 'n kick pandaemonium etc etc! Unseen for decades, it ended up in ONAR's arms that managed to enhance even more the already decent print.
NOW, ON 500 COPIES ONLY!

Country: Turkey
Year: 1969

Director: Cetin Inanc
Actors: Demir Karahan, Yildirim Gencer , Feri Cansel, Huseyin Zan

FEATURES:
ULTRA LTD EDITON OF 500 numbered copies
Turkish audio with English & Greek subs
Dolby Digital 2.0
Documentary on Cetin Inanc
Photogallery
Biographies
Filmographies
Trailers
Poster insert

Spaghetti Western Psychedelia!

2007-11-15T20:19:00.000-08:00

Our latest YouTube trailer show is a collection of wild, colorful and noisy previews for some of the greatest Italian westerns. These movies are fucking incredible so awash yourself in these mindscrambling vids and then seek out the movies!

FACE TO FACE

DJANGO, THE LAST KILLER

TEPEPA

MATALO!

DJANGO, KILL ... IF YOU LIVE - SHOOT!

NAVAJO JOE

DVD Review: TARZAN ISTANBULDA

2007-11-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

Directed by Orhan Atadeniz
Turkey; 1952

I'm not the biggest Tarzan fan, I must admit. And if it wasn't Turkish I probably wouldn't care one bit about this latest release from Onar Films. But it is Turkish, and so of course I'm curious to check it out. TARZAN ISTANDBULDA is a historic landmark in Turkish popular cinema, for several reasons. It is one of the earliest examples of cinema fantastique to be produced in that country (along with DRACULA INSTANBULDA) and director Orhan Atadeniz was a industry pioneer as well as older brother and seminal influence on Yilmaz Atadeniz, who went on to become one of Turkey's most productive and innovative film-makers. What makes the older Atadeniz so important (according to the priceless bio notes penned by Turkish cinema historian Ayman Kole) was his contributions to the craft of making narrative films, it seems as though he was sort of the 'D.W. Griffith' of Turkey with his innovations cracking the Anatolian film industry into areas before unknown to the burgeoning film-scene. But what about the movie itself? It's pretty fun; silly and inconsequential on its own, interesting mostly due to its utterly primitive cinematic techniques and the facts of its nationality. But without it historical importance, I'm not sure Onar would've released it and therefore we probably wouldn't be reviewing it. But that's OK there's room enough on your shelf for this mid-century cinematic oddity.

There is actually not much Tarzan action going on in this movie. He only really enters the plot it what amounts to the third act of the film. Until then it's a standard jungle adventure story, with a quest for a lost treasure, double crosses, racist depictions of African tribes and stock footage galore. But these elements will keep you happy until the yelping white king of the jungle throws things in third (well, maybe just second) gear for the last half hour.

A journalist is on Safari when he discovers the corpse of a western explorer. He nosily reads with doomed man's journal (which - luck of luck - just happens to be in Turkish!) revealing the details of his gruesome fate at the hands of bloodthirsty tribesman (a flashback shows his son [a young Kunt Tulgar in his first role!] escaping into the wild, soon to become ...) and the whereabouts of a lost treasure. Our hero takes the journal back to Istanbul and gives it to his brother, who seems un-phased by news of his brother's passing. They hatch a plot to grab the treasure, enlisting three pilots (a dude, a chick and a retarded coward who provides the typical Mediterranean cinema comic relief) to fly them to Africa, which only takes only a few minutes seemingly as they soar past stock footage of the pyramids. Their safari continues to grow with a group of trackers and some unfortunate African guys to haul all their stuff. Sure enough, with a treasure up for grabs, the trackers hatch a double cross and the action is on. There are animals from scratchy newsreel footage and from scenes shot in a Turkish zoo where some of the animals actually fight each other! I guess there was no Istanbul branch of PETA in those days. Anyway, Tarzan comes in a while into the movie, impresses the girl pilot and saves (some) of the hapless treasure hunters from the bloodthirsty Africans. There's a bit of tragedy but everything more or less ends up well as Tarzan ends up returning to Istanbul in the end. Yay! Not much plot and really not many of the wacky details that usually make Turkish movies so much fun. But it is diverting enough to keep entertained for an hour and a half, and what more can you ask for than that?

For what was once considered a lost film, TARZAN ISTANBULDA looks fairly good. So many films from this era of Turkish film-making are now gone forever, their negatives sold off for the silver contained therein, so that this one survives is a minor miracle in and of itself. It does look pretty ragged as you might expect, but is never anything less than perfectly watchable. Just be happy it exists, OK? Onar once again piles on the extras for this historic release with the most important being an interview with Kunt Tulgar whose father was a producer for the movie and who even appeared as a young Tarzan early on. While it covers more or less the same ground as the interview featured in the TURKISH SUPERMAN DVD released earlier this year, it is still a highly fascinating and comprehensive look at the history of Turkish fantastic cinema. Onar have also unearthed a brief but interesting little bit of film, a camera “check sequence” featuring some of the actors (including a little Kunt) in more candid poses. Only a few seconds long but a pretty neat extra nonetheless. The aforementioned Ayman Kole’s wonderful and informative bios (for Ohran Atadeniz and Kunt Tulgur) are a standouts as well; someone really needs to get this man a book deal! The usual batch of awesome Onar trailers completes the lineup of features and you should check em all out, especially the one for CASUS KIRAN which is what comes next from our generous friends from Athens.

All in all, TARZAN ISTANBULDA is not nearly as fun or essential as most of their previous DVDs but is certainly a must own for anyone even remotely interested in Turkish cinema. The movie itself is great escapist fun and you will marvel at its primitive hand-made aesthetics. The design for the covers and the menus are just flat out fantastic; slick, humorous and user-friendly. Onar is a top-notch operation and while the movie itself is no great shakes the DVD is totally freakin’ cool. It is a piece of cinematic history and its very existence is reason enough to track it down and lay down your hard earned cash. Soon enough: CASUS KIRAN! We can’t wait!!

Available from Onar Films!

Movie Review: THUNDER WARRIOR I-III

2007-10-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

aka THUNDER (I-III)
Directed by Fabrizio De Angelis
Italy; 1983/1985/1988

The THUNDER series of loopy 80s Italian action films represent the initial directorial work of long-time exploito producer Fabrizio De Angelis (he begat Lucio Fulci’s string of classic 80s horror flicks) and are utterly half-baked and dangerously close to being bafflingly inept. But then why are they so damned fun? Well, they posses that wacky and wonderful ineptitude that permeates most of the genre output of Italy's failing 1980s film industry, a creaky, barely-held-together accidental aesthetic that time has proven to be overwhelmingly entertaining. There are few examples from this decade and this country that do not entertain so it should come as no surprise that these obscure titles fit that bill to a tee, despite their seeming cinematic retardation. The first, and to varying degrees it's sequels, is total blatant rip on the then recent action hit FIRST BLOOD but also looks back to such 70s revenge thrillers as BILLY JACK and WALKING TALL. That the hero is a Native American also suggests comparisons to legendary exploitation producer Dave Friedman's wonderful JOHNNY FIRECLOUD, but it would seem if anything that that fly-by-night production had a much greater budget and overall better acting talent to drive it onto Drive-In screens than this series, which is plagued by a "one take and go" mise-en-scene approach and horrendously bland acting from basically the entire cast. But as noted above these limitations bloom into something rather exiting if one is willing to let go of Hollywood and Arthouse born artistic expectations. But then if you are reading this, chances are you aren't that engaged by these particular aesthetic prejudices. So let's get it on, Thunder is waiting!

The opening film in this loose trilogy is entirely structured to match the narratives of the previously mentioned movies. Thunder is a wandering Native American tough guy, a warrior like his esteemed ancestors, who returns to his Arizonian homeland in order to marry his childhood sweetheart. Unfortunately he finds the situation there brimming with racial and cultural conflicts as a development project dooms his ancestral burial grounds. His defense of this territory leads him into open violent conflict with the developers as well as the local police force, all of whom are of course rabid racists intent on keeping the "redskin" in his place. Basically they "push him too far" and his reaction is devastating. This is the most successful aspect of all these movies, the protracted and fairly elaborate action scenes which boil over with sensational (if not entirely realistic looking, not a problem for me) violence. The bad guys are really, really bad. I mean cartoonishly bad. Only sheriff Bo Svenson shows any aptitude for honor, and even he gets in on the race-hate action here and there as Thunder keeps getting the best of his overmatched, buffoonish deputies. Loose narrative threads and willfully illogical situations abound as the movie steams ahead. The climax is particularly daffy as Thunder steals and drives a bulldozer from the desert and into the town at a snails pace. And yet somehow the impotent coppers never seem to be able to catch up with him. By the time they do reach him he's already destroyed both the bank that funded the blasphemous construction project as well as police HQ. Meanwhile Thunder escapes easily unscathed to fight another day. Wow. By no means a "good" movie this first entry is nonetheless an entirely satisfactory trash cinema experience and I was never less than entertained throughout. On the other hand there's the second film ...

In this brainscramblingly goofy sequel Thunder returns to the town he nearly destroyed and joins the very police force he fought tooth and nail in the first movie! What the ... ? Did I miss something? How did this happen? We'll never know. Like the first movie we aren't privilege to the backstory details as to how Thunder comes to return to this dusty, intolerant scrap of earth. But does it even matter? Not really, if you just laugh along and look to have a good, albeit stupid, time. Sadly, this one falters a bit with the slam-bang action stuff, bogging down with a silly plot about drug dealing punks and the corrupt cops they have underhanded dealings with. One of the cops, a particularly nasty number named Rusty (one of the few actors reprising a role from the first film) has really got it out for our hero and so frames him for his own crimes. Before we can even process this plot twist Thunder is rotting away in a harsh isolated desert prison and giving the diamond-tough prison guards none too easy a time dealing with his innocent ass. But the movie doesn’t really capitalize on these potentially juicy machinations, and again before we know it Thunder has broken out and is out looking for town-wide vengeance. The destruction he inflicts isn’t nearly as fantastic as in the first film and unfortunately the climax just kind of peters out without giving us enough of the mayhem we are jonesin’ for . But needless to say, Thunder comes out on top, with even Sheriff Bo Svenson offering a sympathetic viewpoint as the movie draws to a close. But then … there is a little insignificant and totally confusing twist at the end that had me howling with laughter as well as scratching my balding head. What exactly was going on there?

Apparently the first two were big enough hits that Director De Angelis and star Marc Gregory were able to squeeze out a third film. And Odin bless ‘em that they did, cause in many ways III is the best of all three, topping the others with more over the top, implausible and completely insane action and drama to drive you to dizzy distraction. Again, as with the initial entries, we are forced to suffer with Thunder as both he and his people have to contend with brutal and unchecked redneck oppression and uncooperative and unsympathetic police. The opening scene is completely insane. A self regulating paramilitary militia out on pointless maneuvers in the desert decides for no good reason to chase after two wild horses and gun them down in cold blood. Why they would do this is utterly mysterious, but as you might expect, protector of the downtrodden Thunder takes exception to the heartless abuse and confronts these drunk gun-toting morons. Sadly Thunder is outnumbered and gets himself a thorough ass-whooping. But things go a little too far when the militia decides to go after Thunder’s young hunting apprentice, who scampers frightened back to the shanty village where he lives with the rest of the local “Indians”. The militia then go all My Lai on the joint, firing indiscriminately and causing widespread damage and destruction. Not good. Thunder demands reparations, Sheriff John Phillip Law refuses, setting up the carnage to follow. Although the follow-through doesn’t quite manage the exhilaration of the first it is swathed in acceptable amounts of bad-ass-ness. It was a lot of fun, I must say. If only they had made more, I would have watched. Alas, this is Thunder’s last crusade. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks.

None of these movies are particularly well made, stylish or innovative in any way. They get by on sheer cheesy chutzpah and the undeniable charm that girds most 80s Italian exploitation cinema. As noted above Director De Angelis was a veteran producer and had his hand in many of the most extreme horror films that lurked out of the country in the late 70s/early 80s and this experience certainly serves him well. Action was, however, was the genre he most enjoyed making and it shows here. The movies, while consistent in violence and haphazard insanity, are fall less consistent in narrative and in acting performance. The most obvious casting inconsistency is the role of Sheena – Thunder’s loyal love interest, played non-effectively by different actresses in each movie. But at least it’s funny. As are the contrived and seemingly willfully implausible and contradictory story threads. But ultimately you can’t consider these films successful in any meaningful critically accepted way. But that’s OK. Sometimes you want crazed cheesiness. THUNDER WARRIOR I-III certainly does deliver that, so dig in!

The Worldweird Cinema Bruno Mattei YouTube Trailershow Tribute!!!!

2007-10-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

Although the maestro of challengingly awful Italian genre cinema passed away this year, his shlock spirit lives on through his glorious and gloriously bad, films. We love them and so do you.
Here's a selection of some awesome ones we found on the YouTube.
Mattei Lives!

ROBOWAR!

STRIKE COMMANDO 2!

CRUEL JAWS!

HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD!

More Turkish Superhero Insanity from Onar Films!!!

2007-10-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

Although our pals at Onar seem always to be hovering near at the brink of oblivion, still more and more amazing DVDs are issued forth from the belly of this particularly generous beast. We can only be grateful that they exist at all and pray to the Gods of Trash Sinema that they be allowed to continue. This is what comes after the TARZAN DVD. Another incredible looking superhero freakout to burn-out your little minds! Their last one of this particular ilk, the TURKISH SUPERMAN double feature, is easily one of the best DVDs of the year, if not ever. This one will be cool too.
All the info you need to know:

A never-seen-before Turkish Superhero LOST gem. Another ONAR worldwide premiere! Freely based on the "Spy Smasher" classic comic, it's an altogether Turkish achievement. From the miraculous team that offered us KILINK, this movie guarantees endless masked action, kicks, stunts and nostalgic mayhem. The only surviving elements were surely rotten but ONAR's magic touch made the final result watchable enough.

Country: Turkey
Year: 1968

Director: Yilmaz Atadeniz
Actors: Irfan Atasoy, Yildirim Gencer , Suzan Avci , Sevda Ferdag , Hüseyin Zan

FEATURES:
1200 numbered copies
Turkish audio with English & Greek subs
Dolby Digital 2.0
Interview with Yilmaz Atadeniz
Photogallery
Biographies
Filmographies
Trailers
Poster insert

Return of The Worldweird Cinema DVD News Roundup!!!!

2007-10-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

And we're back! Miss us?
Here's a back log of astonishing digital disc news that we've scoured the internets for as to pass along to you who is too busy to track it all down for yourselves.
Read On, Brother and Sister Weirdos!!

Firstly, more Jean Rollin unleashed in Special Edition DVD format from the Netherlands' Encore Films! This time it's LE VIOL DU VAMPIRE getting the deluxe treatment.
It will encompass:

A two disc digipack with slipcase. Special edition limited to 2000 pcs., Feature film and audio commentary by Jean Rollin; (all extra's/interviews with English subtitles: l'Histore de la nuit des Horloges, Original trailer, Picture gallery, Interview Jaqueline Sieger, Interview Alain-Yves Beaujour, Interview François Tusques, Censored scenes, Book (English text inside), Essay on 'Le Viol du Vampire' by Jean Rollin, Lots of rare photos.

Not our favorite Rollin by a longshot but this is a must own nonetheless. Can't wait!

Soon! From Dark Sky Films! Curtis Harrington's masterful slow-burn disturb-a-thon THE KILLING KIND!
Info:

Paroled from prison, sex offender Terry (John Savage of THE DEER HUNTER) returns to the Hollywood boarding house of his mother Thelma (screen legend Ann Sothern), a former dancer with unwholesome ideas about tender loving care.

Escaping Thelma’s suffocating attentions by peeping on pretty tenant Lori (future LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY star Cindy Williams), Terry is unaware that he is being spied on by a neighbor (DEMENTIA 13’s Luana Anders) who keeps a place in her own fantasies for someone of Terry’s special talents.

Meanwhile, terrible things are happening to anyone who has ever done Terry wrong, from the judge (Ruth Roman, from STRANGERS ON A TRAIN) who sentenced him to the girl (Sue Bernard, of FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!) who testimony put him behind bars.

Special Features:
Interview with Curtis Harrington (His last ever!)

And soon enough (next year, 1/29/08 to be precise) from Dark Sky, we finally get the long delayed Italian genre thrills of RICCO THE MEAN MACHINE and TRAGIC CEROMONY! Save your pennies!

Spaghetti Western specialists Wild East also have a heavy dose of Italian genre thrills coming down the pike and not all of it of the Western variety! Freak out on the covers of these forthcoming DVD releases!

Discotek Films have another HK sickie chomping at the bit with A CHINESE TORTURE CHAMBER STORY, out on November 13th of this very year!
Lookee! Cover, synopsis, specs, and a sultry screen shot!

A man is discovered dead after he was given an aphrodisiac so strong that it causes his penis to explode! His wife Little Cabbage and her lover are dragged before a judge, both protesting their innocence, and charged with adultery and conspiring to kill. In court, they must tell their story of how they became lovers. Little do they know that the real killers are the judge's son and his lover. In order to keep his son free, the judge tries to frame Little Cabbage into a false confession.

Chinese Torture Chamber is a bizarre fantasy mixed with hilarious comedy, sex, and absurd torture. It features the classic sequence where the scholar goes on a journey through the forest, only to run into a man and his extremely horny wife who engage in a long bout of flying sex, complete with appropriately named martial arts moves such as ‘invincible tongue’ and ‘wonder screw’. This scene is packed with wirework, slow motion shots, several gallons of ejaculate, and of course Elvis Tsui, who has the market pretty much covered in this kind of role.

Also starring Yvonne Yung and directed by Bosco Lam. Chinese Torture was produced by Wong Jing the mastermind behind Ebola Syndrome and The Untold Story. This film covers everything from Chinese martial arts movies to even a parody of the American film Ghost!

NTSC Region 1
Chinese with English Subtitles
Anamorphic Widescreen
Trailer

And according to various posts on the DVD Maniacs Forum in the pipline from Discotek we have Ringo Lam's BURNING PARADISE, Norifumi Suzuki's incredibly sleazy STAR OF DAVID: BEAUTIFUL GIRL HUNTER and Teruo Ishii's PORNO JIDAI GEKI - BOHACHI CODE OF HONOR! What a line-up!

And to wrap things up for this edition we just wanted to point out that our good pal Onar Films is having a sale on his outrageously great Turkish pop cinema DVDs for the entire month of October! Clip on the link to your right under 'DVD Squads' for the full lowdown. If you haven't yet checked any of these out yet or need to fill holes in your collection (and life) then NOW is your golden opportunity! And in further exciting Onar news dig this crazy tease posted a little while back on their website:

I thought that some people might care to know that I'm about to lay my hands on some "lost" turkish old films.
I had been looking for them and asking for them for 3 years now.
Everybody around the world, everybody in Turkey insisted that I should give up on them.
I had unleashed the best hounds after those titles.
I had made the best connections in the turkish cinema industry.
I had offered enormous rewards for the finders.
BUT, even before me, all the strongest collectors had spent a lifetime searching for them.
The actors AND directors of those films had been looking for them too!
I, too, had pronounced them "officially lost".
BUT, my greek village is known for its crazy people.
And like a crazy man, I never ceased the quest.
And NOW, I received official confirmation that many of those titles were discovered in 16mm prints!
The guys are ready to make contracts with me, BUT if I don't see screeners of the films I can NOT believe the story.
BUT, to get screeners I must pay loads of cash.
AND even if the films ARE there, I must pay to acquire them.
Plus, the license fees are enormous.
And since my sales are going from bad to worse I feel totally frustrated.
As for the titles, I just can't announce them before I actually see the screeners and this will obviously take some time.
Besides, right now, I feel as anxious and nervous and frustrated as ever, so here's a nice chance for you to share some of my anticipation and curiosity...

What can they be? We're just in the dark as you and going crazy with anticipation to find out what they are! So buy lots of crap from them so this will happen! Do you hear me? DO IT NOW!!

Don't Forget! MYSTICS IN BALI comes out next week!!

2007-09-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

Mondo Macabro's deluxe re-issue of the international trash ultra-classic MYSTICS IN BALI comes out in but days. Are you ready?
Check out the clips below for a preview of the freakery:

Be sure and also get the 2nd volume of the essential FILMS OF KENNETH ANGER series out from Fantoma Films on the same day. That's October 2, Y'all!!

Check back soon for new content, we're taking a couple weeks off for some rest and relaxation!
Later, dudes!

Rapi Films Original Poster Art Extravaganza!!!

2007-09-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

Check out these amazing artifacts of the Indonesian film industry!
From the Rapi Films official website!
Thanks to one Mr. Jack J. of Denmark for bringing them to our attention!

Movie Review: GHOST STORY OF YOTSUYA

2007-09-09T16:57:00.000-07:00

aka TOKAIDO YOTSUYA KAIDEN
Directed by Nobuo Nakagawa
Japan; 1959

Nobuo Nakagawa's 1959 gothic classic GHOST STORY OF YOTSUYA was the apex of a series of groundbreaking horror films he made for doomed studio Shintoho during the 1950s. Although he would accomplish his ultimate masterpiece a year later with the delirious JIGOKU, GHOST STORY was at the time regarded as the finest work of the 'Japanese Hitchcock' and for damned good reasons. The movie is based on a 19th century piece of Kabuki theater and had already been filmed many times since the silent era but Nakagawa takes this deeply Japanese ghost story and crafts something truly hallucinatory and unsettling, even for those of us unfamiliar with its traditional origins.

A samurai of no social position, egged on by an unscrupulous pal, murders the father of the woman he longs to marry and so begins to weave an insidious web of deceit which ends up trapping him in a loveless marriage with a sick wife and a child he cares nothing for. An accomplished warrior, he impresses a high standing official and his beautiful daughter and so begins to contrive of ways to rid himself of his current missus and latch on to this new, and rich, honey. Or course, more murder is the only answer. Nakagawa stages this drama, at least initially not unlike a theater piece, with the action mostly set on a sound stage and recoding the events with long, almost static takes with few if any close-ups. He builds a tightening grip of karmic retribution with this method and releases the eventual supernatural vengeance in a flood of bewildering phantasmagorical imagery.

The astonishing conclusion generates some genuine shudders as the ghostly apparitions of the doomed samurai’s victims haunt him into a fit of murderous madness. The ghosts are creepy, blood-drenched and horrific, though are essentially passive, different from the aggressive specters of western gothics, but a common trait in Japanese yarns. Trust me, you won’t be unmoved by the uncanny site of the deformed spirit of the samurai’s wife arising out of bubbling blood pool in the middle of a otherwise peaceful pond. GHOST STORY is bizarre and baroque in technique, leaving any vestiges of realism far behind. It creates its own unique version of the universe, hemmed in only by the grotesque fates of the characters depicted. All in all, a marvelous and strange movie that has held up remarkably well over the last nearly 50 years, and is worthy of Criterion-like care for a domestic DVD release. It’s a true classic of world cinema in overdue need of wider recognition.

TARZAN goes to ISTANBUL via Onar Films!!!!

2007-09-06T16:45:00.000-07:00

Here's the smashing info, courtesy Miltos Kordas and his CINEHOUND Forum!

TARZAN ISTANBUL'DA
Country: Turkey
Year: 1952
Director: Orhan Atadeniz
Actors: Tamer Balci, Hayri Esen, Necla Aygul, Cemil Demirel, Kunt Tulgar
Label: ONAR FILMS (Greece) - http://www.onarfilms.com
Price: $19.90
Coming Early October !!

SYNOPSIS: The first TURKISH TARZAN used to be a legend among collectors of the obscure. For the others, it simply did not exist or sounded like a joke. Now, time for the legend to turn into vivid reality. Gathering dust since 1952, this classic Turkish Cinema pioneer ended up in Onar's gentle hands. The only surviving elements were in relic-like condition but with a decent remastering the result is not bad anymore!

DVD FEATURES:
--------------------
1200 numbered copies
Turkish audio with English & Greek subs
Dolby Digital 2.0
Interview with Kunt Tulgar
Photogallery
Biographies
Filmographies
Trailers

Worldweird Trailer Show: The late 60s/early 70s Films of Lucio Fulci

2007-09-04T20:11:00.000-07:00

Our fave Italian director's earlier work sometimes gets passed over in favor of his more outrageous early 80s horror films. But as wonderfully demented as they are, they are not always the best examples of Fulci's full artistry. These trailers represent some of his most extraordinary motion pictures, when the maestro was truly at the height of his powers, during the slide of the late 60s into the early 1970s. Enjoy!

MASSACRE TIME (1966)

ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER/PERVERSION STORY (1969)

BEATRICE CENCI (1969)

LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN (1971)

FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE (1975)

Movie Review: AMERICA 3000

2007-08-31T18:40:00.000-07:00

Directed by David Engelbach
USA; 1985

So, did you hear the one about the Macho Toy who scanned a hot plastic Frau in season and ready for action? He got cold pissed when he found she was an effin Plugot!!! That’s waggos, yo!

Um...well, anyways... I guess you had to be there.

“900 years after the Great Nuke.
The world Man created, he destroyed.
Out of the darkness and ignorance of the radioactive rubble emerges a new order...”

In yet another post-post-apocalyptic wasteland film from the Reagan Age, the world as we knew it is now divided– Plugots (male): inferior, homeless savages made up of Machos (hard laborers), Toys (castrated, mute man-pets), & Seeders (baby-makers), and Fraus (female): the dominant side of the desert bed who have the tools and the talent to kick ass and call names. And when they’re not busy enslaving Plugots for fun and target practice or heading out to a former gas station turned love shack to get ritually restrained and begrudgingly fucked by a hooded Seeder in hopes of popping out a baby girl or two, the Fraus spend time training the younger warrior princesses by throwing them into a cage with Aargh the Awful, a seven foot tall mutant wendigo-type with a $2 smile who manhandles skulls like ossified basketballs!

Two boy slaves, Gruss and Korvis (Chuck Wagner, TV’s AUTOMAN), escape the sadistic Fraus, and after finding a “Learn to Read” book of ABCs in an antique suitcase they decide that being somebody else’s bitch may have been cool for their parents, but not for them. Years later, they’ve started their own tribe of like-minded brothers from other mothers safe within the confines of a forbidden Radioactive Zone. Led by the motivated Korvis, their one desire is gender liberation; to be simply FREE MEN.
After an initial scrimmage against the Fraus, a left-for-dead Korvis stumbles upon a US underground nuclear war bunker just as it was 900 years ago...except for the rotten corpses. Touring the facility, he’s more impressed with the laser guns, grenades, and GIGANTIC BOOMBOX (with batteries that still work), than with the infinitely more awesome President’s quarters completely tricked out with a Galaga arcade unit and a Medusa pinball machine. Korvis studies the accompanying pamphlet on how to use a laser gun (!), gears up with one of the gold lame' radiation suits (!!) and heads out on horseback with his new boombox at full volume (!!!).
Soon enough, he’s mistaken for the mythological “Prezzi-dent”, who (it is written) will come and issue a new world order of peace and understanding, and manages to get a special conference with Vena, the leader of the local Fraus. They make sweet post-apocalyptic love back in the Prez’s bunker bed, and Vena agrees to a truce.
Meanwhile, there’s been a mutiny in the Frau camp, and they’ve gone ahead and attacked the Plugots, resulting in an all-out massacre of explosions, crossbows, and spinning roundhouses.

Can Vena and Korvis band-aid the situation for a better tomorrow? Can both sides lay down their arms and come to terms? Will the movie end with a freeze-framed shot of Aargh jumping in mid-air clutching that coveted vintage boombox?
Yes, my friends. YES.

Brought to colorful life by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, the same production team responsible for such marginal cinema classics as MISSING IN ACTION, COBRA, DEATH WISH II, BREAKIN’, ROBOTECH, and MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, this film is curiously labeled as an action comedy, but everything is played too straight and without a sense of irony to be truly comical. However, the action sequences were so much better than I was expecting, especially the martial arts action, which was coordinated by Ernie Reyes who also choreographed the wonderfully cultish THE LAST DRAGON and SURF NINJAS. Plus, the fact that one of the bitchin’ amazon babes is played by a former Grand Champion of the US Open Karate Championship and Blackbelt Hall of Famer Karen Lee Sheperd didn’t hurt, either.
Overall, in this pleasing WWIII fantasy piece loaded with insanely ludicrous futuristic lingo seasoned in a simmering “I Love the 80s” broth, I’d say AMERICA 3000 is technically competent MST3K fodder in the grand tradition of YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE.
Effin hot.

Review by Scott "Jealous Pervert" Wallis!

Mondo Macabro rounds out 2007 with SILIP: DAUGHTERS OF EVE!!!Updated!

2007-08-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

It's a Filipino erotic sense-smasher and it's coming out on Nov. 20th. A press release describes the release as being "remastered and released for the first time ever with its original score and soundtrack" and that it's - get this - a limited edition two disc set!!!! We can hardly believe it! Here's the totally rad cover!

And here are the gory details, A WORLDWEIRD CINEMA EXCLUSIVE!!!!!

"If there were a prize for wildest film of all time,
I'm pretty sure this one would win"
- VHS-Survivors.com

In the tradition of Japanese "Pink" cinema comes this shocking, violent and sex filled movie that caused an outrage when it was screened at the Chicago Film Festival. The film stars former Miss Philippines, the stunning Maria Isabel Lopez, in her most revealing role ever. It's an eye-opening example of raw and savage film making from one of its country's most innovative directors. Set in the beautiful and remote countryside of Ilongo, the story tells of three young women and their struggle to come to terms with their own sexuality against a background of religious repression and male brutality.

Specs are:

Disc1: Silip-movie: Brand new HD anamorphic transfer from the neg - Including a world premier of the original Tagalog soundtrack with original musical score - we've also included the dubbed version for the sake of completeness - BUT - its truly awful! bad dubbing, bad music - anyone who has seen this needs to see it again with the correct audio!

Disc2: Extras: Brand new filmed interview with director Elwood Perez, brand new filmed interview with star Isabel Maria Lopez, brand new filmed interview with movies art director, large amount of text pages on cast and crew, brand new essay by Pete Tombs on Fillipino "Bold" Cinema

Unbelievable!

Here are some more quotes about the film we've dug up. Looks like we got a real winner on our hands folks!

"DAUGHTER OF EVE is one of my all-time favorites, an incredible weirdo. Highly recommended"
- Miltos Kordas, CINEHOUND

"features an onslaught of sex scenes (both titillating and absurd) and long stretches of time wherein all we see are naked bodies prancing around the village. Yet there seems to be something else brewing beneath the film's flesh-colored celluloid other than mere titillation. Silip is actually very rebellious in its themes and even in its production."
- Oggs Cruz, Oggs' Movie Thoughts

"one of the most extreme movies we at Mondo HQ have ever seen ... Very intense and extreme stuff but a brilliant film!"
- Andy Starke, Mondo Macabro DVD

"(an) astounding, near-hardcore sexploitation monstrosity ... From the opening water buffalo slaughter to the final double gang rape / straw hut immolation this black hearted beauty will have you spellbound and slack-jawed with amazement!"
- Mark from Shocking Videos

"Insane, outrageous Filipino sex-and-violence masterpiece that's trying to say something about human nature, but I have no idea what."
- David Huber, DVD Maniacs

"lesbian incest, a beheading, burning at the stake and the inevitable gang rape"
- Pete Tombs, from the book Mondo Macabro

Awesome!

Greek VHS cover art for SILIP, courtesy THE CINEHOUND!

DVD Review: KARANLIK SULAR

2007-08-23T21:58:00.000-07:00

aka THE SERPENT'S TALE
Directed by Kutlug Ataman
Starring Gonen Bozbey and Daniel Chace
Turkey; 1995
Available from Onar Films!

Now this one was a little different. Not the sort of Turkish delight we usually expect from the ever-dependable Onar Films, but it's a highly interesting and yes, weird little film worth taking a peek at. You’ll just have to realize that it’s extremely far from the sort of interesting and weird Turkish films we normally cover here at this site. KARANLIK SULAR is a heady, twisting art-horror hybrid that takes as its theme nothing less than the meaning of life and death. You won't get that from a Cetin Inanc movie! However, while lovingly assembled, this disc falls a bit short of the glorious highs that Onar have provided us with over the last couple of years, with both the movie and its presentation faltering somewhat. But then again, you won't likely see anything like it again any time soon, so let's jump in ...

KARANLIK moves at an odd elliptical pace. It never settles into anything like a routine linear narrative and keeps you constantly guessing at both its plot and meaning. Unfortunately perhaps the movie remains a bit too mysterious and eventually comes across as somewhat unfocused. The plot unravels a tale involving an ancient and powerful manuscript that, when properly translated, reveals the secrets of obtaining eternal life. But of course this knowledge comes at a terrible cost. Not too surprisingly many parties are interested in the script from an 800 year old Byzantine princess to (in the movies most interesting aspect) a multinational corporation. The manuscript is in the possession of a young Turkish man who appears actually to have died either two years before or maybe twenty years earlier in one of the film's many confusing plot twists. Numerous subplots converge around this young man, including his grieving mother, her greedy gentleman caller, an American who is both an "economic hit man" and an actual hit man, a mad bearded prophet dude who wants to use the forbidden knowledge to conquer the world with a new religion and the aforementioned Byzantine princess who has the appearance of an 8-year old girl and is a vampire. The strands, while fascinating for the most part, never satisfactorily coalesce into a fully intriguing film experience. Eventually it curves back into itself, like an Orobouros, revealing a meta-textual structure that does very little to resolve the story in your mind. But it's a unique trip nonetheless.

The film does boast many haunting visuals, in particular making great use of Istanbul's ancient architecture which also ties in with the film's many themes. This includes the history and identity of Turkey itself, where it’s going and where it’s been, with various ethnic, religious and political streams weaving into one another. Making sense of this jumble is one of the major points of this film and maybe its refusal to bring all the elements together is structurally inherent. Certainly there are many themes and ideas which fly straight over my head, and probably the head of anyone not extremely well versed in Turkish history. The occultic elements are also strong though somewhat intentionally obscure and scattershot. Overall one is reminded of other early 90s art-horror experiments such as Michelle Soavi's DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE, Alejandro Jodorowsky's SANTE SANGRE and Richard Stanley's DUST DEVIL but KARANLIK SULAR never gets quite up to the heights achieved by those late masterpieces.

While the movie is at least an imaginative curiosity, Onar presentation of it is somewhat lacking. One would have to assume that they simply made use of what they were given, as it seems the DVD was sourced from a video betamaster and not actual filmic elements. There are a few instances even of tape damage but these are quick and fleeting and don’t interfere too much with the viewing enjoyment. A greater problem is the burned in English subtitles, which are on occasion rather hard to read, especially if there is even the slightest hint of white on the screen anywhere near them. Overall the colors seem a bit drab and it seems a little too dark for most of the running time. While this is expected with most Turkish films up through the 1980s, one would think that this film would have better preserved elements, if not a negative then perhaps at least a theatrical print with which to work. But giving Onar the benefit of the doubt, we must presume that this is all there is at this time and so be thankful that it exists at all. Like I said, although of negligible entertainment value KARANLIK SULAR is a highly odd and unique movie and worthwhile in any condition for that reason.

Onar have provided a host of fine extras to complete the package, the most substantial of them being a long video interview with director Kutlug Ataman who discusses at length his influences both from Turkish history and European art cinema. He also claims not to care much for Turkish Fantastic Cinema but does like Troma films! Weird dude. But it’s informative and helps to shed light on the purpose of the movie itself. Other features include still galleries, brief cast and crew bios and filmographies, exerts from critical notices of the film and the usual bunch of Onar trailers. The packaging and menu designs are top notch and with each release Onar seems to jump light years ahead in terms of the aesthetics and slickness of these important features. While I was not bowled over by the movie, this release is of value for those seeking oddities of world art and/or horror cinema. It hard to imagine anyone else giving this kind of TLC to such and obscure and complex film, so Onar must be commended for that. But personally I can’t wait for them to get back to the purer thrills of the incredible pop cinema treasure from the great land of Turkey. There should be more very soon! Watch this space for more info!

LOVE friggin' GODDESS OF BLOOD freakin' ISLAND!

2007-08-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

From the fantastic Something Weird Video YouTube page comes a five minute clip unearthing the once and sort of still lost early 60s US gore film LOVE GODDESS OF BLOOD ISLAND! And it is fookin' wild, man!

For further info, check out this fab article from the amazing Bleeding Skull website!

Movie Review: 11 DAYS 11 NIGHTS 3

2007-08-21T00:08:00.000-07:00

aka HOT AFTERNOON
Directed by Joe D'Amato
Italy; 1987

Hot stuff!
Or well, weird stuff, anyway.
There are some pretty fine lookin' mammas, but there is a decided lack of the sensuousness that saturates the best of Joe D'amato's 70s work. But this 'in-name-only' sequel to D'amato's mid-80s international softcore hit is nonetheless a kinky and awesomely silly treat.

A lunkhead reporter goes to New Orleans to do an investigative article on voodoo, taking his girlfriend with him. They play public sex games wherein she flashes here panty-less beaver to strange men, while the lunkhead (His name is Courtney. No, really.) pants and sweats to the unsavory, uncomfortable action. But some of the old magic is gone, and so they hope a stay in the 'Big Easy' will re-ignite the heat that's been missing lately. Courtney interviews some chick who can show them a real live voodoo ritual; she's white, kinda sexy and a little off. At the ritual Laura Gemser dances all wild and voodooish, but has no lines of dialog nor appears in the film any further than this scene. A swarthy Cajun lunkhead catches the eye of Courtney's girl and the sex games take on a added dangerous dimension as he roughly seduces her and quickly steals her away from our lunkhead hero reporter (who by the way, does no work at all during the course of his stay in N.O.), leaving him reeling, strangely turned on and changed forever.

The last third of this oddball softcore thriller takes a strangely fantastique turn as Courtney races to save the girl from the clutches of the now murderous voodoo cult. 11 DAYS 11 NIGHTS 3 is languid and laborious, steamy, supple but also a little bit stupid . It radiates an uncanny, almost nightmarish atmosphere as it goes along, but the ridiculous dialog and dated hairstyles and clothes keep things from getting too arty or serious. The main girl is a hot little number, with sexy wide child bearing hips and a generous hinder. It all adds up to a solid little winner of cheap sex flick.

Find it, check it out. It's good for a giggle at least.

DVD provided by Miltos Kordas and his CINEHOUND FORUM! (See link at right)

LEGENDS OF POISONOUS SEDUCTRESS - The Next Wave in Pinky Violence!UPDATED!

2007-08-20T14:53:00.000-07:00

Some details have emerged concerning the next batch of titles that originated with the now long-gone Panik House label's Pinky Violence Collection, but which are now being pushed across the finish line by the ever dependable Synapse Films. They are calling the them the LEGENDS OF POISONOUS SEDUCTRESS series and it promises to be a wild time, kids!
The info below was broadcasted from the Outcast Cinema(who are producing the special features for all the Toei films in the set including the upcoming HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN and SNAKE WOMAN'S CURSE) blog:

I'm currently working on the next three titles to come out, a trio of female swordplay films produced by Toei in the late 60s, collectively called the Yoen dokufu-den series. In that first PH announcement, Matt called them the Sexy Deadly Legend films, but I bet that was just Toei's original export title for the films. It's literally a correct translation, but not very elegant and not even all that grammatical in English. As an alternative, we came up with a series title that captures both the Japanese meaning and something a little more understandable in English: Legends of the Poisonous Seductress. Although the films star the same lead actress (the beautiful Junko Miyazono), their stories are totally distinct and unrelated, so a series title that gave the impression that viewers will see a new "legend" in each film was something we wanted to capture.

And here's some news you're reading here first: the trio of Poisonous Seductress films will be coming out on November 13th of this year. Here's a peek at the cover of the first one, Female Demon Ohyaku. It was designed to fit in with Panik House's previous "Pinky Violence" line of DVDs, and, like Malformed Men and Snake Woman, will feature a reversible cover with the original Japanese poster on the reverse side. Extras on these three will be lighter than on the horror films, unfortunately - just trailers, commentaries on two of them from frequent Japanese film commentator Chris D., and some other minor goodies. But the movies speak for themselves - they're all really entertaining, fast-moving swordplay dramas, and the first one in particular is a real discovery. It's the only one of the three that's black-and-white, and mercifully so, since it's filled with a jaw-dropping catalog of cruelty that shocked me when I first watched it, particularly since I expected it to be the least of the trio, coming from a director who's better-known as an assistant to Nobuo Nakagawa than a filmmaker in his own right. Wait until you see the guillotine scene - or rather, scenes!

After the three Legends films, Synapse will take a break from classic Japanese cinema until next spring, when the final (so far!) Toei titles will come out, but it's a pair worth waiting for: Meiko Kaji's debut films for Toei Studios following her departure from the Stray Cat Rock series at Nikkatsu: the Wandering Ginza Butterfly films (Gincho wataridori and Gincho nagaremono). But more on those some other day...

Simply outstanding! Some of the world's greatest genre/exploito/pop cinema came out of Japan's Toei studios during the late 60s through the middle 70s and the more of it that finds its way on to DVD the fucking better!!!

And here, copped from Twitch.net are the full details of what's on discs!:

This November, Synapse Films goes Pinky – Pinky Violence, that is – and proudly unveils the LEGENDS OF THE POISONOUS SEDUCTRESS female swordplay series. THE THREE-VOLUME SAGA OF A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG SWORDSWOMAN ON A BLOODY TRAIL OF SAVAGE REVENGE. ONE OF THE MOST VIOLENT REVENGE TRILOGIES EVER MADE! THE BLOOD-SOAKED MODEL FOR THE PINKY VIOLENCE EXPLOSION OF THE 1970s!

Connected only by their theme of a beautiful young swordswoman who’s wronged, then seeks bloody revenge on her oppressors, the LEGENDS OF THE POISONOUS SEDUCTRESS series was produced at Toei Studios in the late 1960s, only a few years before the studio revolutionized the Japanese film industry with their “true-life” yakuza films, girl-gang sagas and modern-day violent thrillers. Set during the samurai days, when Japan was isolated from the rest of the world, the POISONOUS SEDUCTRESS series stars the beautiful Junko Miyazono, first as Ohyaku, then as Okatsu, women who endured humiliation and injustice for as long as they could…until they had to strike back with violence!

Each episode forms its own individual story, and will only be available for sale separately.

EPISODE 1: FEMALE DEMON OHYAKU

A quiet actress named Ohyaku is wrongly sent to prison, then pushed by her tormentors to the point of no return. With a demon tattoo splayed across her back and a sword in her hand, she embarks on a crusade of vengeance against all those who have wronged her, laying waste to man and woman alike in her quest for bloody retribution. A gruesome Pinky Violence classic, the film’s merciless parade of action, beheadings, tattooing and torture proved highly influential on later series of sexy action films from Toei Studios in the 1970s.

EPISODE 2: QUICK-DRAW OKATSU

The daughter of a swordplay instructor takes on a power-hungry magistrate in the second entry of the series, joined this time by Rui, a wild young swordswoman (Reiko Oshida). The two sexy avengers embark on a blood-soaked quest for revenge after Okatsu is raped and her father slaughtered by one of his assistants. From fencing schools to small-town brothels to the imperial city of Edo, Okatsu and Rui slash their way through dozens of evil men in order to settle the score with those who wronged them, in this swordplay classic which features some of the best fight scenes of the series.

EPISODE 3: OKATSU THE FUGITIVE

In the final episode of the series, the legendary beautiful swordswoman Okatsu is on the hunt for Judayu, a corrupt merchant responsible for the death of her parents. Betrayed by her fiancé, she finds herself aided in her quest by a handsome stranger (longtime yakuza movie star Tatsuo Umemiya) – who happens to be as handy with a sword as she is! What is the reason for his kindness, and will Okatsu be able to prevail against her nemesis, now a powerful businessman with scores of allies in high places? Whatever the end may be, the restless spirits of her murdered parents drive Okatsu along her crimson-colored road of vengeance.

Episode 1 directed by Yoshihiro Ishikawa (GHOST CAT OF OTAMA POND).
Episodes 2 & 3 directed by legendary filmmaker Nobuo Nakagawa (SNAKE WOMAN’S CURSE, JIGOKU).

The series features an all-star cast of famous faces from the best of Japanese genre cinema, including lead actress Junko Miyazono (ELEVEN SAMURAI, SAMURAI WOLF 2), two-time series co-star Tomisaburo Wakayama (LONE WOLF & CUB, BLACK RAIN), Tatsuo Umemiya (GRAVEYARD OF HONOR,
WANDERING GINZA BUTTERFLY), Kunio Murai (SNAKE WOMAN’S CURSE), Ko Nishimura (SNAKE WOMAN’S CURSE, HANZO THE RAZOR), Reiko Oshida (DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS), Yukie Kagawa (HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN, FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION – JAILHOUSE 41), and Yoichi Numata (JIGOKU).

Synapse Films’ LEGENDS OF THE POISONOUS SEDUCTRESS DVD Series Include the Following Special Features:

• New, fully restored anamorphic widescreen transfers mastered in high-definition from Toei’s original vault elements
• Japanese language audio with newly-translated, removable English subtitles
• Audio commentary on FEMALE DEMON OHYAKU and QUICK-DRAW OKATSU by Japanese film expert Chris D.
• Original Japanese theatrical trailers
• Poster galleries
• Liner notes and essays on the female swordplay genre
• Reversible covers with original Japanese poster artwork
• MORE!

Thanks to Arif Khan and Amazon.com for the cover art to Vol. 2 and Vol. 3, and Twitch.net for the further info!

Severin wants to sex you up!!UPDATED!

2007-08-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

Severin Films have laid down their awesome schedule for the remainder of 2007, and God-damn if it ain't a scorcher!
You already know about MALABIMBA and SATAN'S BABY DOLL right? (If not scroll down a couple of weeks to check out the full story). Two sexy satanic shockers unleashed on September 25th. These are must buys, but it's only the tip of of the berg!
Dig this crazy news bulletin issued straight out of the gut of the Severin website a couple of days ago:

At last! Lucio Fulci's masterpiece The Psychic (aka Sette note in nero / Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes) will hit DVD this fall. Along with a 16x9 transfer of the uncut version of this long out-of-print film, the DVD will include a never-before-published interview with Fulci as well as interviews with cast and crew. This seminal release will street on October 30th along with the official DVD premiere of the uncut version of Fulci's acclaimed sex comedy The Eroticist (which will also contain a Fulci interview and cast/crew featurette).

Covers unt Specs!(from the Fangoria website):

Special Features for THE PSYCHIC:

• Fulci Talks—The Movies, a never-before-released audio interview with the director accompanied by images from his films
• Voices from the Black, containing new interviews with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti, costume designer Massimo Lentini and editor Bruno Micheli

Special Features for THE EROTICIST:

• Fulci Talks - The Man, a continuation of the director’s audio interview in which he discusses politics, religion and other directors
• A History of Censorship, containing new interviews with actor Lando Buzzanca, legendary makeup artist Giannetto De Rossi and cinematographer Sergio D'Offizi

Both DVDs will also include the theatrical trailers.

A-HA! More Fulci cinemadness! Just what the world needs now, I'd wager! Fulci is our fave Italian director and more of his 60s and 70s films on DVD is just what we wanted for Christmas (and it's arriving on Halloween!) But never ones to rest on their hard-earned laurels, Severin have also dished some info on the Vol. 2 of the BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX series!
From the excellenct 10K Bullets website:

BLACK EMANUELLE, WHITE EMANUELLE

Director: Brunello Rondi
Stars: Laura Gemser, Annie Belle [Annie Brilland], Al Cliver [Pier Luigi Conti], Gabriele Tinti.

BLACK EMANUELLE 2

Director: Bitto Albertini
Stars: Shulamith Lasri [Sharon Lesley], Don Powell, Percy Hogan, Angelo Infanti

EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE

Director: Aristide Massaccesi (as Joe D’Amato)
Stars: Laura Gemser, Ely Galleani, Gabriele Tinti, Venantino Venantini.

Bonus CD: An all-new compilation of remastered Nico Fidenco music from Emanuelle in America, Emanuelle & the Last Cannibals and Emanuelle & the White Slave Trade.

All three films will be presented in their original aspect ratios and they are all anamorphic enhanced. Extras consist of revealing interviews and all three films are uncut. This release marks the first time all three of these films have been released in the U.S. on DVD. All three films will come with two audio options English and Italian and English subtitles have been included. This titles is scheduled for release on November 13th, 2007 at the suggested retail price of $69.95, this collection like volume one is limited to only 4,000 copies.

Good Goddess, you could hardly makes us happier than with this rapturous news! Huzzah! Viva La Severin!

Movie Review: RANI MERA NAAM

2007-08-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

Directed by K. S. R. Doss
India; 1972

Tough, revenge-seeking chicks never seem to catch a break in South Asian and Muslim cinema. In most of the ones I've seen, our heroine kicks ass, takes names and gets screwed. Err, metaphorically that is. RANI MERA NAAM is no different. But along the way, before our tragic finale, there's a raucous good time to be had. It starts out with a motley crew of grotesque thugs who look like they just stepped out of the 16th century bursting onto a nice upper middle class rural family, killing, raping and thieving their way through the shocked household. The only survivor of this murderous rampage is the youngest child, a little girl, who witnesses the atrocities whilst hiding just out of site. She grows up, trains in bad-assery with a guru-lookin' dude and when she's ready, heads out with a car and a horse (?), a gun and an aim towards vengeance on the scum-fucks what did her wrong. Her course of revenge gets her embroiled in all sorts of adventures wherein she finds herself aiding the helpless and fighting off corrupt politicians and crooked business men, all of whom of course end up being those who once upon a time destroyed her family. Her wrath in turn then destroys them and so sets the countryside free from their oppression. She, however, is not so lucky...

If, from the description above, it seems as though this film is a dour, serious revenge drama, then forgive me, for I've given the wrong impression. RANI MERA NAAM is a colorful, cartoonish blast of old fashioned movie fun, with action, comedy, eccentric characters, action, pretty girls, weird camera angles, giddy song and dance numbers and yet still more action. It's wacky, delirious nonsense with only the barest minimum of social “message” tacked on at the end. But then again, my copy had no subtitles so I'm not sure that I caught all the subtleties of the narrative so caveat emptor, my dear readers.

Mostly the film seems greatly inspired by 60s European popular cinema particularly Spy films, superhero flicks and most importantly Spaghetti Westerns. The third act of the film in fact is at its core a western with Our Heroine riding around on her Faithful Horse through the dusty countryside doing gallant battle with cowboy outfitted baddies. There's even a scene where she races after a speeding train, jumps aboard and holds up the engineers (I'm not really sure what was going on there actually) while a distinctly Morricone-esque scores blares away in the background. The movie is rich with silly cinematic ambiance and it never seems to take itself too seriously. The fights seem to be the main reason for the existence of the movie, and they are nothing short of spectacular. The camera seems to hurl itself around furiously as Our Heroine grapples with a series of villainous buffoons in the main action set pieces of the film. They are extraordinary examples of crazed and enthusiastic cinema at its most weird and fun. Only during a few talky bits does the momentum let up but those scenes actually pass rather quickly before the dutch angles, the blue and red tinted cartoony lighting, the ridiculous costumes and the catchy songs get up and running again, tossing your senses around willy-nilly. I was entertained throughout and felt the deep sense of movie-love overcome me that only the most deranged and bewildering low-budget cinema can provide.

But all good things must come to an end. And for Our Heroine the end is rather sad. After her triumphant defeat of the Chief Evildoer she must face the music for her uppity vigilante activity. She is arrested and shackled, to be put away and forgotten. While we in the west can only see her actions as nothing but heroic, in traditional eastern societies, women must know their place. And while all can feel sympathy for her plight and admire her accomplishments in doling out justice, the traditional viewpoint can not endure such a reversal of the male-female dynamic. It's sad, and we might feel righteous in our disgust at such an attitude, but at the very least it makes for great drama. And in the end, for much of Asian Pop Cinema, a very important part of the message of even the innocuous of films is that the balance of society is restored. But for me the most important thing is the wild details, the crazed cinematic qualities which tickle the eyes and sizzles the soul. RANI MERA NAAM has got all that and some to spare.

Print provided by Electric Larvae.

Enter the World of ... LEPTIRICA!

2007-08-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

This is a far-out looking 70s Yugoslavian Vampire epic which has shot to the top of my "must-see" list. Dig the crazy clip, brothers and sisters!:

Since we haven't seen it yet (though hopefully we'll have a copy on its way soon)we've decided to post up THE CINEHOUND's review from THE CINEHOUND FORUM here in order to pique your interest further. If you don't know, CINEHOUND is Miltos Kordas a longtime movie collector from Greece who is one of the world's foremost excavators in the field of obscure international exploito cinema. I listen to what he says and you should too. Here's his review, posted with his full permission:

LEPTIRICA
Yugoslavian vampire horror film
Directed by Djordje Kadijevic in 1973
Cast: Mirjana Nikolic, Petar Bozovic , Slobodan Perovic, Vasja Stankovic

This is a Yugoslavian female vampire horror film of the early 70s shot in the Serbian countryside and based on a novel. The film starts in a mill. The old miller listens strange bird voices and while he's sleeping the millstone suddenly stops working and a strange creature with black hands, long nails, angry eyes and long teeth bites his neck and drinks his blood. You don't manage to see the whole creature but you understand it's a human, not animal...

After the shocking start the film turns to a talky romance between a young miller and a shepherd's daughter with an angelic face and long blonde hair. Also we watch the comic arguements between his friends from the village. They're always drunk and a funny priest is between them. The young guy talks to his lover's father but he doesn't want to hear a word about their marriage.

Later the vampiric creature attacks to the young miller in his mill. The same elements again, strange voices from the birds and the millstone stops. The creature attacks. Another scary scene but now ends a bit funny as our hero falls into flour and saves himself.

The company goes to an ugly old witch for her advise. She shows them the place where the vampire has been buried and they nail down a huge stake through the closed coffin (they affraid to open it). A butterfly comes out of the bloody coffin (I'm not sure but maybe "Leptirica" means "butterfly" in Serbian?)

The young miller -with a little help by his friends - takes away his lover from her house. They go to the village and prepare their marriage. The night before the marriage he sneaks into her room to make love with her while she's asleep. But below her breast he discovers...a huge bloody hole !!

Yes, she's actually the vampire. She opens her eyes and suddenly transforms to a disgusting bloodthirsty creature. She climbs over his neck from behind while he's running like hell into the woods. Great slow motion here. This is the most powerful scene of the movie and I can tell you that this female vampire is the most creepy and frightful one in the film history !!

She leads him back to her grave. There he manage to get the stake out of the coffin and nail her again.
In the morning his body lies fainted on the ground with a butterfly on his hair...
Incredible end !!

Highly recommended by Cinehound!

We will post our own review sometime after it reaches our grubby, greedy, grasping paws!

Check out further info on this oddity here!

The Skinny on MYSTICS IN BALI!!!

2007-07-30T18:37:00.000-07:00

From the Mondo Macabro Myspace blog and the Fangoria website:

It's the film that launched Mondo Macabro in the U.K. and is our most requested title in the U.S. The one you thought you'd never see is now available in a brand new, pristine transfer, just in time for Halloween! From the director of DANGEROUS SEDUCTRESS, it's one of the damnedest things you've ever seen!

This is the film that introduced a new kind of monster to the world's cinema screens. A sensation on its initial release in Asia, MYSTICS IN BALI was deemed too bizarre and shocking to be screened in the west. Until now… This is the first time the film has been released in the U.S. and is completely uncut and digitally remastered from the rare original negative.

The film tells the story of a young American woman who goes to Asia in search of the secrets of ancient magic. One night in the forest, she encounters a female member of the terrifying cult of Leyak. She agrees to become the Leyak's disciple and begins to indulge in many strange and savage rites. But the Leyak witch has secret plans for her young acolyte. Plans that culminate in one of the most bizarre and shocking scenes in all horror cinema!

Mondo Macabro's DVD for MYSTICS IN BALI includes the following features:

*Brand new (2007) anamorphic transfer

*Original theatrical trailer

*Extensive background information

*Mondo Macabro's ever-popular preview reel

Mystics In Bali is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

Look for Mondo Macabro's DVD for MYSTICS IN BALI in stores on October 2, 2007 at a retail price of $24.98.

In other important MM news, you can pre-order the upcoming (and totally awesome looking) THE BLOOD ROSE from Amazon here!

DVD Review: TURKISH SUPERMAN DOUBLE BILL

2007-07-26T21:56:00.000-07:00

SUPERMAN DONUYOR aka TURKISH SUPERMAN
DEMIR YUMRUK: DEVLER GELIYOR aka IRON FIST: THE GIANTS ARE COMING!
Directed by Kunt Tulgar/ Directed by Tunc Basaran
Starring Tayfun Demir/Starring Huseyin Zan
Turkey; 1979/1973
Available from Onar Films!

I'm giving away this review right at the outset. It's a winner. In a real big way. Every one of Onar's DVDs has been stellar, but this might just be the best one yet. Every second of viewing this disc was pure pulpy joy. The extraordinary cheapness of the cinematic offerings on display boggle the brain, but in a good, maybe even great way. The glorious Turks did this kind of amazing crap better than just about anybody and thank the Old Ones that Onar is around to uncover and release them to the general public. These are two 'Superhero-on-the-cheap' type films that were kind of the bread-and-butter of the Turkish film industry in the late 1960s and early 70s, and like every other one I've ever seen are supremely entertaining. You can barely believe that they even were made they're so cheap and shoddy. You will look on in disbelief at the wondrous and inventive ineptitude on the screen and marvel at the mere existence of such incredibly disarming trash.

The headliner in this set SUPERMAN DONUYOR otherwise known amongst the gray-market elite as TURKISH SUPEMAN. It is ostensibly a re-make of the Richard Donner-Christopher Reeve 1978 SUPERMAN, swiping the soundtrack music and casting 'in-the-ballpark' look-a-likes in the lead roles. But there the similarity ends. While Donner and co. had a lavish budget to work with, auteur Kunt Tulgar had the American Dollar equivalent of about $250 to work his magick, and although magick indeed he did indeed achieve he doesn't come anywhere close to approximating that late 70s US box office champ. In lieu of the galactic epicness of the original DONUYOR takes the tried and true Turkish method of rehashing old serial stories for its plot. After learning of his origin in an astoundingly cheap re-enactment of first 20 minutes or so of Donner's film, Superman (and his huge eyeglass wearing alter-ego) gets involved in a wearying plot involving a scientist and his world-shattering formula which, if in the wrong hands, will of course wreak havoc on the civilized world. BUT - how cares about the plot? It's the details - the wooden acting, the horrible (and I mean HORRIBLE) special effects and the general ramshackle atmosphere that reminds one that the entire film could fall apart at any second. The much noted opening with Xmas ornaments serving as stars and planets in a failed effort to give the impression of the vast eternal expanse of space is indeed a watershed moment in no-budget international exploitation cinema. Also amazing is the how the effect of bullets bouncing off Supes' chest is achieved. Literally, bullets are simply tossed from off camera towards his no-so impressive torso. And how can anyone not love the special ‘flying’ effect accomplished by hanging a Ken doll in a Superman outfit from a wire with some rear-projection of Istanbul behind. Awe-inspiring! One can only stare with jaw agape as such incredible, magical cinematic stupidity. It's all just so fucking wonderful I can hardly stand it. And then there's DEMIR YUMRUCK: DEVLER GELIYOR ...

In a phrase, it's even better. And unlike the other film on the disc it actually has moments of cinematic verve that aren't dependent on 'badfilm' charm, although it certainly has some of that as well. It's more along the lines of the DIABOLIK-KILLING-3 FANTASTIC SUPEMEN school of superhero films than DONUYOR, being more indebted to the 60s spy craze and Italian fumetti than just Silver Age American comics or 30s and 40s serials. It's a bunch of nonsense involving two supervillains and their race to find a dagger which will reveal the location of some uranium mines and some sort of hidden treasure, or something. It's pretty incoherent, but full of asteroid levels of movie fun. The villains are awesome. One is a scar-faced heavy who has a steel glove thingy which shoots stuff out of it. It looks cool, but I never once saw him use it. Incredible! As for the other arch-enemy - well, he's a real doozy. He's called 'Fumanchu' even though he's not, nor even tries to appear as, Asian. He dresses up as an old woman. He uses a wheelchair. He often sports pointy razor tipped gloves and seemingly has some manner of magic powers. And is completely ham-fistedly performed by the actor at hand. It is fucking amazing. One of the most memorable villains from a film industry known for it outlandish bad guys. The heroes can't even hope to compete. But the superhero outfit is pretty nifty. It confusingly pares the superman logo on his chest with a belt baring the batman logo. What the ... ? AND 'our hero' is a complete cad! Our first introduction to him comes just after he's bedded some Anatolian honey who's not his unbearably hot fiancée! His hot-ass wife to be finds him but discovers her own anger is disarmed by him holding her down to smother her with his hunk-love. I wish I had those kinds of charms! The movie tramples the plot along at a breakneck pace and leaves no time or space for plot or character development (thank God!). And it has an pounding garage rock score, even making use of Dave Allen and the Arrows’ crushing “Blue’s Theme” during the action-packed finale. I loved every second. I think you will too, unless you're a pretentious film-crit-shmuck that is.

Video quality is actually OK, given the haphazard film preservation situation in Turkey. DEMER YUMRUK looks pretty damned good, relative to how these things usually look anyway. SUPERMAN is a little rough, but if you've ever checked out any of the bootlegs floating around you will be fairly impressed with the relative sharpness of the screen image. Onar does what it can with these as far as quality goes and again they've done a bang-up job. Extras include a swath of trailers for upcoming titles in their growing pantheon of Turkish wonders, a still gallery for SUPERMAN, a wonderful lobby card gallery for YUMRUK and informative director bios written by Turkish Film Historian Ayman Kole. The best feature by far is a long and illuminating interview with the DEATHLESS DEVIL himself, SUPEMAN director Kunt Tulgar who talks about his career from a childhood appearance in his father's production TARZAN IN ISTANBUL (also on tap for an Onar DVD release) to his mid 80s crime thriller productions that quite simply sound amazing (Hey Onar can you get ahold of any of these?). Tulgar seems a down-to-earth and rather charming chap and it's great to have his impressions recorded here for film history prosperity.

You need this. I don't care who you are, you will be disarmed by this loving presentation of these two creaky 'bad' Z-movie marvels. Onar needs the support of all fans of weird and left of center cinema and I really can't think of any reason why a self-respecting cult film fan shouldn't include this and all of Onar's Turkish Pop Cinema DVDs in his or her collection. You are a wimp and a dullard if you don't order. Yeah, I said it! Consider it a challenge, and prove me wrong ... if you can!