I'm in a Zine!

A little while ago, I was contacted by this nice guy named Richard about contributing to his fanzine, The Fang of Joy (I'll need to ask him what that means sometime).

 

It's a zine all about Eurohorror and giallo films, and I was pretty much given carte blanche to write about whatever I wanted having to do with that topic. I'm definitely no expert (yet) when it comes to giallo, but there have been some specific movies that I've seen that stick out in my mind so I decided to focus on one of those. The topic of my article is Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, which I would argue any day is his best film - or at least just my favorite.

And look at the contributor list for this issue of Fang of Joy!

 

Fellow blog buddies Alec Pridgen and James Gracey also have articles here, though I admit to not having read them yet. I'm sure they kick ass.

 

So anyway, if you want your own copy of this fanzine, follow the link on Richard's blog Cinema Somnambulist HERE! Only $8.75 an issue!

Movie Review: City of the Living Dead (1980)

 

It is good to be acquainted with you again, Mr. Fulci. I believe we last visited during my viewing of The Black Cat, which was okay but not necessarily my favorite of your work (thus far, that is). It was certainly no House by the Cemetery, tell you what! I bumped City of the Living Dead up my queue recently because I was jonesing for what I hoped the movie would be.

A priest's suicide in a cemetery in the small town of Dunwich causes the gates of Hell to open, and the recently dead to come back as horrid zombies. At the same time, a psychic in New York named Mary has a vision of these events and together with a newspaper reporter, they travel to Dunwich to close the gates of Hell before All Saints' Day, lest the dead never be free to rest peacefully.

So this is most definitely an odd one. Fulci somehow takes a zombie story and mixes it with elements of the supernatural - which shouldn't actually be that much of a stretch, but it is when you handle it this way. There's the obvious psychic connection to the other world with the character of Mary, but a lot of other random weirdness happens here. A bar is destroyed by something unseen. The living dead disappear and reappear seemingly at will, and seem to have a strange hypnotic power. Oh yes, we will be talking more about THAT element of the story later. Could some of this have to do with the fact that the ancestors of Dunwich burned women accused of witchcraft during the Salem trials? Is it a curse? I don't know, maybe. This is an approach to the zombie genre that I haven't seen before, and I'm not entirely sure if it works or not, in a long term sense. But for this one movie, Fulci at least makes it entertaining, even if there isn't much sense to be had.

It's really all in the presentation, really. The way Fulci introduces the story is at times confusing. Transitions between locations and scenes are often unclear, and new character after new character are introduced with hardly an introduction. Eventually there comes to be a core four that make up the main cast - Peter the reporter, Mary the psychic, and Dunwich residents Gerry and Sandra (he's a psychiatrist, she's his patient). It is up to the audience to figure out that the other people that are randomly introduced are just other people in Dunwich that aren't really that important. Probably the weirdest side character and side plot is that of Bob, who has some kind of bad reputation among the locals because of his relationships with ladies - possibly criminal? Again, I don't know, and it doesn't have anything to do with zombies so who cares.

City of the Living Dead is certainly memorable in the gross-out and kill departments. Of course I almost vomited myself during the scene where a young woman is zombie-hypnotized by the dead priest. She first starts to bleed from her eyes, which was gross enough, but then comes the infamous part where she pukes up her internal organs. As a horror fan, I fucking loved that. Genius. My gag reflex, however, did not enjoy it so much, but that was probably the point, amirite? There are a lot of other great gags in the movie besides this one, too. My favorite was actually Bob's death by a drill through the head. There was really beautiful, seamless effects work on that one, and I loved how they showed it pretty much uncut. Also awesome were the couple of times when zombies would just rip off the backs of peoples' heads, skull and all - pretty effortlessly, I might add. I'm jealous of their hand strength. Strange as it was, the randomness of the maelstrom of maggots that come flying through the window was also... interesting.

Couple other high points: the scene where Peter is freeing Mary from her coffin was hilarious. He had absolutely no regard for how hard he was swinging that pickaxe or where it happened to land on the coffin. Kind of strange, but great for a little tension even though it was comedic. I also dug the makeup on the zombies' faces, all gross flesh and wormy. For the finale, the group heads underground into the priest's crypt, and this was a cool location with awesome set design. During the burning sequence, though, there were a couple of wide shots that I could not figure out how they were possible because of the tightness of the location. Then the low point of the movie comes right at the end, when Mary and Gerry emerge from the crypt and John-John, the brother of a girl who turns into a zombie, comes running at them happily. For some unknown reason, they suddenly get scared and start screaming, and cracks appear on the screen and the movie is over and we are all left confused.

As for the rest of it, City of the Living Dead is a pretty badass outing from Fulci. I liked the different approach to the typical zombie story, and the gore was freaking amazing. This is one for fans not to miss, for sure.

Movie Review: What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)

 

So, where are all the bad giallos? I honestly don't think I've come across one yet that I have not thoroughly enjoyed. I might have found this film eventually, but mostly it was added to my queue because of the involvement of one Camille Keaton, who plays the titular character of Solange. The only slight warning here is that you do have to wait quite a long time to actually see her.

Enrico, a professor at a girls Catholic school is out having an affair with one of his students when the two become a part of the scene of a brutal killing of another young girl. More deaths soon follow, and though Enrico is initially a suspect, he becomes determined to find out who is committing these acts and why.

Okay, let me just get this out of the way. The movie was a bit more graphic than I was expecting when it came to the murders. With the first murder by the river bank - the one witnessed by pervy Enrico and his school girl fling Elizabeth - we see the girl running through the trees from the killer... and then comes the money shot. The girl's knees are parted and the black-gloved killer stabs her between the legs with a knife. That was bad enough. But later on, the police - for some ridiculous reason - show the pictures of the corpse to all the professors at Enrico's school, so I had to see that shit yet again. Oh but wait! For some other ridiculous reason, the police decide to show the girl's father the X-ray of his daughter's pelvis with the 7-inch knife all the way up her body. Seriously. I GET IT. Please stop showing me this stuff. I'm not saying it was unnecessary or anything, and at the end we find out why it is symbolic, but my lady parts hurt just thinking about it.

Traumatic female wounding aside, What Have You Done to Solange? is a pretty great giallo film. The plot definitely takes some more twists and turns than previous films I've seen, and it becomes more than just a simple murder mystery. Similar to something like The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, the main character starts out wanting to solve the murders in order to clear himself from suspicion, but that changes when the circumstances become more personal. From the title, we all know that this has to do with someone named Solange. However, that name is not even mentioned until 1 hour and 15 minutes into the movie. It's a bit frustrating but effective in making sure that you keep watching until the very end to find out just what was done to Solange and what it has to do with the murders.

The plot is very well paced, and there all of the scenes are important to the next turn of the storyline. There is just the right amount of suspects and red herrings to keep the audience guessing, with new possible suspects and motives being revealed all the time as the mystery unfolded. The film is not terribly exciting in terms of action or suspense really, not even in the murder scenes, but I never minded that. I loved the characters and trying to figure out their secrets, and was never hoping for anything more than what I was given. The murder scenes are sometimes beautiful and very stylized in their execution, usually from the point of view of the killer and never really shows much of their body, so it could be either male or female. The film is bloodless in a beautiful way, able to show the brutality of each act without getting overly graphic. The female nudity - and there's quite a bit - also does not feel that graphic, but rather natural and normal for each situation that it shows up in.

Mostly what I was interested in with What Have You Done to Solange? was the character relationships, and the way they were handled. Most interesting, and somewhat baffling, was the marriage of Enrico and Herta. Enrico doesn't do that great of a job covering up his pervert affair with his student Elizabeth (he even has a sort of fuck pad for the two of them) and it all seems to be the wife's fault because she's introduced as a bitch from the start. Who knows, but to me it kinda sound like she had a reason to be that way. Then, after (spoiler alert) Elizabeth's death, Herta finds out that the girl was still a virgin and suddenly all is forgiven when it comes to Enrico, and the two of them spend the rest of the movie solving the mystery together. Yes, it is a very small relief that he never actually did the teenager, but let's not forget the scene where the two of them were obviously doing some naked sexy things with each other. Every marriage is different, but some things should not be forgiven so easily, I think.

Ah, another awesome giallo experience! There are still plenty more where What Have You Done to Solange? comes from, and though I've enjoyed all my giallos thus far, this is definitely not one to forget. It has wonderful acting from all involved, and a compelling story that makes sure that you stick around for the end. I just hope I never see another knife in a vagina again. Seriously...

Movie Review: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

Whew. I don't know about you guys, but that was a loooong holiday weekend for me. Well, I guess if you don't live in the U.S., you didn't even really have a holiday weekend, did you? Now I just sound awkward. Okay, on to the review.

 

I think now it was a good idea to space out my viewings of most of these giallos. Each new one that I have seen has been like this wonderful little horror treasure that I've discovered for myself. Awesome titling comes into play again with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, which I was surprised to find out was actually Dario Argento's directorial debut.

Sam, an American writer living in Rome, witnesses the attempted murder of a woman who is likely the victim of a serial killer that has offed several women in the area. Sam becomes obsessed with trying to find the killer himself, heading up his own investigation into the crimes - and making himself and his girlfriend targets in the process.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage works because of its simplicity. Not only did Argento begin his directing career with this film, he also wrote it, and the story he came up with is fabulous. It really has that feel of a classic murder mystery, with all the classic plot elements and devious devices you love from movies like it. Not that I'm advocating a remake or anything, but if someone were to do something similar today, they really wouldn't have to change a thing about the major plot points - my sign of a true classic. The only thing I am a bit iffy on is how involved in the case Inspector Morosini allows Sam to be. Granted he kind of does a better job than the police do, but it's still the principle of the thing.

Tony Musante as Sam Dalmas is an attractive leading man in every sense of the word. He is vulnerable, but not weak, and sensitive, but still able to hold his own. His model girlfriend Julia is played by the gorgeous Suzy Kendall, a British actress who only  had a career in the 60s and 70s. At first I thought she was going to be annoying - like a lot of women in these movies who play second fiddle to the hero are - but she ends up being a great character.

I was surprised to find a bit of a humorous element in some scenes. There's a cute little relationship scene between Sam and Julia when she gets mad at him and starts throwing things, and he just laughs and goads her even more. That kind of realism is always fun to see. But obviously the best humorous scene is when Sam goes to visit the painter, and finds him to be just as eccentric as painters are often portrayed as being. Although I don't completely love this scene because eating kittens is so wrong. So very, very wrong. There are also some moments of true suspense that I loved, such as when the killer is trying to get in the apartment when Julia is there alone. My favorite part, though, is when Sam walks into the darkened room of the killer's, not knowing or seeing poor Julia tied up and gagged on the floor. The revealing shot is perfectly framed and a great shock for the audience.

Until the reveal, the killer remains like all typical giallo killers - black gloves and a shiny black raincoat expertly hide not only their identity but also their gender (hint hint!). And for once, I actually loved the killer's motive and the reasoning behind why they did what they did. Even if you think you know who the killer is, I think the movie does a great job of hiding their motive and how everything finally connects in the end. I found it interesting that in both this and Four Flies on Grey Velvet - both a part of Argento's "Animal Trilogy" - it was the very animal in the title that reveals the identity of the killer. And now I want to know if that was intended or not, and if the same thing is true for the last installment of the trilogy, The Cat o' Nine Tails. It's now in the queue!

Sometimes I think it's best to judge a director on some of their first efforts moreso than their later films. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a more than solid directorial debut for Dario Argento, who obviously had talent straight out of the gate. It's a perfectly written and executed mystery thriller that gets all the beats right. No doubt another favorite has been born.

Giallo x2 Review: Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971) and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)

If there is one thing that I love about these giallo films, it is that they have fucking great titles. My favorite giallo so far also happens to have my favorite title - Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key. I don't even know what that means, but it's awesome. Today I'm dishing out a double dose of giallo and awesome titling with Twitch of the Death Nerve and Four Flies on Grey Velvet, both from 1971.

Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971)
Netflix had this movie listed under the title A Bay of Blood, and I would have watched it a helluva lot sooner if I had known that this was really Twitch of the Death Nerve, a movie that I've been wanting to see for a long time. It has as big a reputation as it does a list of other alternate titles, and it is by far the most confusing giallo I've watched so far. The plot is not really explained fully until the movie is almost over, so much of what you are left with is some random people in some place getting killed by somebody. Not that there's really anything wrong with that by definition, I just had a hard time following it. Twitch of the Death Nerve has a high body count (like, almost everybody in the movie dies) with some very fun and cool kills in various ways and with various implements - hanging, spear through the body, hooked machete to the face, beheading, etc. I liked how four of the victims were just some random couples who chose the wrong day to break into the wrong house for a little party, while the rest were actually a part of the plot. Nice way to up the carnage. I was stoked to recognize the actor playing Albert - he's Luigi Pistilli from my beloved Your Vice is a Locked Room. He actually plays a semi-good guy in this movie, despite most of his actions, so he proves himself readily able to play both good and evil. The ending to the film is so crazy and out there that it is just awesome, and after all the other craziness that Twitch of the Death Nerve has put you through before that, you're more than willing to just go with it. I mean, what is with that strangely sexy shot of Brunhilda with her legs crossed like that as she lays on the ground dying? And the squid on the dead man's body? That messed up plot where everybody is killing everybody else? The whole thing is cray-cray, I tell you, CRAY-CRAY. I personally don't think it's one of the better giallos out there (I have some other favorites in mind) but Twitch of the Death Nerve is hella fun and for fans, it is definitely a must see!

Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)

Probably my second favorite title ever right here. Four Flies on Grey Velvet is another fantastic output from the master, Dario Argento. One reason I liked the movie is because I could actually follow the plot and characters, unlike some other previously mentioned films. The movie follows musician Roberto as he accidentally kills the man he believes is stalking him... but his torment doesn't end there. Someone saw him commit the crime and is slowly trying to drive him crazy as the people around him start to die. Argento's camerawork is another reason to appreciate Four Flies, as he lets us know right from the beginning of the movie that we are going to see something from the eyes of a master. The opening credits have some very cool shots (love the one from the inside of the guitar), and throughout the film there are many other stand-out sequences - the shot of the guy in the creepy mask in the balcony; the camera following the phone line from the booth where the housekeeper is talking to the killer all the way to the killer's phone; great shot of the killer twisting a wire around a victim's neck; and a one very trippy shot of a victim's upside down head hitting every step as she falls down a staircase. None of this is to mention the equally trippy finale of the longest slow motion car chase ever put on camera, and the reveal of what the title is referring to. The only disappointment I really have about the film, or the plot really, is the somewhat lame explanation of the killer for his or her actions. But I guess you don't really need that much of a motive if you're just plain crazy. This movie also has some of the more interesting characters I've run across in giallo - mostly the gay private eye, Arrosio, and Roberto's friend Godfrey. Four Flies on Grey Velvet is just an all around awesome film - so much greatness to be found here, from the acting to the camerawork and editing. It's a new favorite of mine, for sure.

Anthology Quest: Black Sabbath (1963)

The promise of Boris Karloff in an Italian horror anthology film made Black Sabbath irresistible to me. Karloff himself introduces the audience to three terrible tales (and also stars in one) directed by Mario Bava, each one dealing with a different kind of horror. The only problem with Black Sabbath was that I unfortunately saw the American version which upon my further research told me was drastically altered from the original Italian version.

Maybe the people who edited the American version didn't think that the story order mattered that much, but it was the first thing I picked up on as something that hindered Black Sabbath's effectiveness. In the American version, the order of stories goes "The Drop of Water," "The Telephone," then "The Wurdalak," while the original order from the Italian version is "Telephone," "Wurdalak," and then "Water." Then to make matters worse, they also did some heavy cutting on the second best story of the bunch, "The Telephone," turning it into a bit of a confusing mess at the conclusion. However, the individual stories are still effective on their own even if the overall presentation of the anthology is screwed up.

So first up in my version was "The Drop of Water" and really starts the movie out with a bang. A nurse is called to the home of an older woman who has just died in order to prepare her for burial. While dressing her, the nurse steals a ring from the dead woman's hand. The nurse goes home only to find out that woman's ghost has followed her there and intends to terrify her. The story is simple and the ghostly instances are also simple and subtle but it all works so well, coupled with the odd lighting and set decorations for both locations.

But of course the most effective element in "Water" is the absolutely terrifying, nightmare-inducing, fucking freaky-ass looking dead woman. Look at that picture of her up there! WHAT IS THAT?! Where did it come from, and is it really dead because it's looking at me like it's going to eat me!? Whoever came up with the look of this chick is either insane or a genius because I don't think I'll be able to scrub this image out of my brain EVER. Oh, and then to make it worse later, they have the dead woman haunt the nurse in her apartment and freaking come slowly floating toward her. Jeebus, I'd choke myself to death, too, just to get away from that creature. Gah!

So now that I've been traumatized for life, the next story is "The Telephone," which is equally as good as "Water" except for this is the one that the editing messed up. Basic rundown is that a beautiful young woman named Rosy starts receiving strange phone calls with the caller saying all kinds of kinky things and, even worse, telling her things that make her know that he is watching her. The caller appears to be her dead lover, Frank, so Rosy's obviously freaked out and she calls this other chick named Mary to stay with her. Mary acts all strange and ends up drugging Rosy with a tranquilizer. While we think Rosy's dead, Mary sits down to write her a letter and Frank the dead guy comes in and kills Mary. Rosy wakes up, Frank comes after her, but she stabs him to death. Then the phone is off its cradle and Rosy still hears Frank's voice coming out of it. Over.

The story was working out so well for the first part of this until things got all kinds of confusing. The editing for the American version ruined everything. So we never find out that Rosy and Mary were actually lesbian lovers, that Frank was not really dead, and that Mary was the one calling Rosy pretending to be Frank. Yeah, that's a real good idea to take out all the elements that would actually make the story make some sense. Good call. What we have to deal with in the American version is a sorta-ghost story thing but at the same time not really because ghosts can't strangle people or be stabbed to death. This is still a great story though, with a really fantastically creepy atmosphere, and I'm just going to have to remember it as it should have been in the Italian version.

I don't really know how "The Wurdalak" fits in with either of the two earlier stories at all. This is where the rummaging around with the story order really hurts Black Sabbath because no way should "Wurdalak" have been the last story in the anthology. Granted, I was already feeling a little sleepy by the time this one rolled around, but damn, did "Wurdalak" almost bore me to death. It seemed to go on a lot longer than the earlier stories, and the change of time period and pace was somewhat  jarring (especially toward the end when I was half asleep but still able to register that there was almost no talking in the last 10 or 15 minutes - ugh). The action is slow and I barely even remember what happened - not the best state in which to write a review, but I really don't think a rewatch would make me like this one any more. Karloff is great at looking all disheveled and freaky, and his performance as Gorcha is great even when he's not doing anything. Don't have anything more definitive to say about this one, sorry.

Oh, no, wait. One very entertaining part of "Wurdalak" has got to be Boris Karloff's line when he wants to hold his grandson Ivan but the mother seems a little hesitant so Karloff says, "Can't I fondle my own grandson?!" Oh. My. Goodness.

I have no doubt that it would have been so much better to see Black Sabbath as it was originally intended by Bava, in the right order and without all the ridiculous cuts to one segment. I love Karloff's introductions with his fabulous wit (little disappointed that there was no "goodbye" message or something at the end) and the first two stories are strongly written and acted with the perfect atmosphere; however, the last story almost brings the whole thing down. Totally worth a look, though, for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Movie Review: Night Train Murders (1975)

I'm slowly becoming familiar with the Italian filmmakers. Aldo Lado is not as prolific as a director as some of the others like Argento and Fulci, but even though I've only seen two of his movies, I really enjoy his style and approach to different stories. I loved his earlier 1972 film Who Saw Her Die? and this one, Night Train Murders (a.k.a. Last Stop on the Night Train, The New House on the Left, Last House on the Left 2, Don't Ride on Late Night Trains...) was much better than anticipated.

Friends Margaret and Lisa are taking a train from Germany to Italy to visit Lisa's parents for Christmas. A delay and a run-in with two thugs makes them change trains in the middle of their trip. The second train is far less crowded - but the thugs are still there and they've brought with them an equally sadistic woman who talks the boys into humiliating the girls. But the situation doesn't turn out like any of them imagined.

Yes, this movie has similarities to Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left. Don't think I wasn't mentally taking note of all the parallels: two pretty girls, a couple of aggressors including another woman, rape and humiliation, murder, attackers end up with one of the girl's parents, father is a doctor, mother notices one man wearing an item belonging to her daughter, father gets revenge on attackers for daughter's murder. And just as Last House had its share of ups and downs, so does this movie - although I would say that it has a few more ups than Last House did.

One thing I like that Lado did with Night Train Murders was the controversial slow build of tension. Half of an audience will say this makes the movie too boring and the other half will appreciate the time the director took to really tell the story. The opening scene is a long 4 minutes of an outdoor Christmas celebration where we are introduced to both the two main girls and the two criminals (they even jump and rob a man dressed as Santa Claus). It's enough to get the basic idea of who these characters are.

Then when we finally get on the train, there are some seemingly unimportant short scenes of different passengers on the train, including the woman known only as the "Lady on the Train." I didn't find any of these points slow at all but was rather more intrigued at how this whole scenario was going to play out. The attackers' motives for tormenting and killing the girls seem to be nonexistent - like they are just doing it for fun - and that should be enough to make the audience think they deserve the harshest punishment for it, but these earlier scenes of the three of them leave a bad taste in your mouth from the beginning. These people are immoral and frankly, they suck as human beings. And apparently, so do some other people on that train...

Remember during the rape scene in Irreversible where there's a shot of a person approaching the end of the tunnel, stopping, witnessing what's happening, and then walking away again? Didn't that piss you off?! Well, it sure pissed me off, but oh boy, does Night Train Murders have a scene to top that. After making Lisa jack off one of the guys, they strip Margaret. A well-dressed older man is standing outside the compartment watching all this and when the woman discovers him and invites him in, he gladly and immediately starts raping Margaret. Then when he's done, he just leaves and jumps off the train at the next stop. Shocked face! Oh my gracious, what kind of people exist in this world?

The violence, including the rape scene, is mostly subdued. There is no nudity and all the slapping and hitting is not as bad as it could have been. Even the most brutal act in the movie - i.e. stabbing a girl in the freaking vagina - is done in a way where the focus is on the victim's pain and the horrific look on her face during her eventual death, giving you more reason to hate these loonies. The revenge that the father takes on the harmonica-playing baddy is actually rather silly and not that satisfying, though. Nor is his chasing the other guy around with a gun for a while before finally fatally shooting him off-camera. NOR is the fact that the most vile one of the group, the woman, gets away with it all in the end.  That probably pisses off everybody who watches this movie.

Harping on a few bad things, though, won't really make me reconsider my initial reaction to Night Train Murders. I like it. It is well shot and directed, and does not show anything all that explicit to titillate any viewers who may just root for the bad guys as I know some of them do. The acting is pretty good, I guess, but it's always hard for me to judge somebody's acting when they're being dubbed over so horribly.

Movie Review: Who Saw Her Die? (1972)

Okay, I know that this one is giallo for sure! It's a murder mystery with a killer who wears black gloves and there are lots of red herrings and a bit of violence and sex. Survey says: giallo. Also, the Netflix description said it was, so there you go. The genre is perhaps better presented in other movies (or not, I don't know), but Who Saw Her Die? is still a nice little Italian thriller that I really enjoyed.

In Venice, Italy, Franco Serpieri welcomes his young daughter Roberta for a visit, as she had been living in London with his estranged wife Elizabeth. While Roberta is out playing one evening (and Franco is at home canoodling with another woman), she is murdered and thrown in a nearby canal. Franco becomes determined to find his daughter's killer, but there are many likely suspects and things get dangerous for Franco and Elizabeth as he gets closer to solving the mystery.

Child murder in movies, while not totally uncommon, is still a pretty taboo and emotional subject. I guess I don't have as much a problem with it because I'm not a parent and I probably watch too much Law and Order, where kids get killed all the time, but I get the problem that other people might have with it. The first scene in Who Saw Her Die? shows a different little girl out sledding one day in France. She goes off by herself and is accosted by a veiled, black-laced glove wearing woman(?) who bashes her head with a rock and then buries her in the snow. Dang. That was much more brutal than I was expecting and it was a great way to kick off the story.

From then on, the movie is a slow build of suspense and mystery as it first works up to the inevitable death of Roberta and then works up to the identity of the killer. The main characters are likable and well-acted by these unknown-to-me Italians, even though at times they do not seem to emote enough for me in given situations. For one thing, the father barely shows any real grief over his daughter's death. The mother's stoic, quiet grief is understandable (love love LOVE that shot of the two of them in bed together with her tear-stained face), but I wanted to see a bit more passion and possibly anger from these people to really feel the weight of the loss.

Sidenote: They could not have picked actors who looked less like a family than these people. There's a dark-haired father with an angular face, a drop dead gorgeous mother with blonde hair... and then there's Roberta, a fair-skinned, freckled red head. Um, are you sure she wasn't adopted? I'd be pretty dang pissed off I had a supermodel mother and came out looking like a plain Jane ginger. Just sayin'.

The gore paragraph that I usually like to include in reviews is not going to be as exciting for this one because there is hardly anything to talk about. There are some nice instances of bad looking red paint blood, most noticeably in the death of beautiful Ginevra, who is strangled in the theater while waiting to meet Franco. There's a close up on her mouth as the paint blood oozes out... and just why being strangled would cause blood to come out of your mouth is anybody's guess. Then there's the totally unconvincing stabbing of the child molesting lawyer where all you see is paint blood stains on his shirt but no wounds. The killer gets a most surprising death that kinda makes up for the lack thereof in the rest of the movie when he gets into a throwdown with Franco and then gets set on fire and dives out a window. Cool.

One thing I can't go without mentioning is the music. I usually don't pay as much attention to the music in movies as I should, but with this one it was hard not to notice. Each time the killer is in the vicinity, this crazy loud music with children singing or chanting blows through the speakers, usually accompanied with a through-a-black-lace-veil POV shot of the killer approaching Roberta. This happens two or three times before the killer actually gets the chance to do the deed - something or someone would always interrupt - and instead of being annoying like it maybe should be, this music heightens the suspense of the scene because you only hear it when the killer is nearby and you don't know just what is going to happen. Granted, there are a few times where the music cuts out way too abruptly and that was a little unsettling, but I tried not to let it bother me that much. Other than that, love the score and thought it was perfect for the story.

Side-paragraph: As with most of the Italian films I've seen, even if most of the plot is easy to follow, there is always at least one weird and seemingly completely out-of-place scene. In Who Saw Her Die?, this scene comes when Franco goes off in search of the family of another red-headed girl who was murdered a month earlier and he finds a most unhelpful and odd person. This guy is sitting in a chair outside with a turtleneck pulled up over the bottom part of his face and shooting at birds. Whuh? Then when Franco tries to question him, the guy will only talk if Franco plays ping pong with him. I shake my head. I just... I don't get it. Am I supposed to?

Though maybe not as well known or recommended as other gialli (as some other reviewers have said it is), I'm really glad I gave Who Saw Her Die? a shot. It may have a lot of similarities to another movie that came out the same year, Don't Look Now, but I think it's good enough to stand on its own. I'm still a little confused about the killer's motive - did I miss the explanation? - but almost everything else about this movie is a joy to watch.

Movie Review: The House by the Cemetery (1981)

Oh, Lucio Fulci, where have you been all my horror-loving life? Terrible dubbing actors aside, The House by the Cemetery is just aces in my book. I'm still a little confused on the whole "what is giallo and what is not" thing, and whether or not this movie can be considered one, I have to say that this is one Italian horror film that actually has a mostly coherent plot, some kick-ass gore, and a truly disgusting looking killer.

Norman and Lucy Boyle and their young son Bob leave hectic New York City temporarily so Norman can do some research on the strange death of a colleague. They are put up in a rundown mansion by a cemetery which houses a most unwelcome guest in the basement - a slaughtering maniac who needs human flesh to keep himself alive.

Can I get one thing out of the way first? "Bob" is not a good name for a child. I mean, if his full name was Robert, wouldn't it be more fitting for him to be a Bobby or a Robbie when he is still a kid? You don't generally become a Bob until you're much older, so this was kinda weird.

Anyway, I like this movie! It may seem a bit disjointed because it's a strange combination of a haunted house/ghost story, a slasher, and possibly a zombie film at the same time. I thought it all mixed together quite well myself, for if the story ever got boring, there was usually a great gore sequence to kick things up a notch. We don't get to know anything about the characters - why Bob is randomly psychic with a ghost kid named Mae for one thing - but, like I usually say about a lot of these movies, who cares?! There's some totally awesome and realistic gore and that is what makes this movie special to me.

Almost right off the bat, we're given an inkling of coolness to come when a girl and her boyfriend are killed in the house after having a mattress party. The guy comes through the doorway so messed up that I don't even know what happened to him and the girl gets stabbed in the back of the head with the knife point sticking out of her mouth. Pretty good, but it gets better. Ann the babysitter (whom for most of the movie looked like she was on the killer's side but I guess not so much) gets one of the best and most realistic throat-slashings I've ever seen. The knife goes one way across her throat, then the other way, and both ways it's AMAZING. Love it.

No doubt the best death is that of little Mrs. Gittelson who decides to stop by the house at exactly the wrong time. Gittelson is deliberately and slowly stabbed three times with a fire poker - twice in the chest and once in the neck. It is the aftermath of the latter wound that probably caused the movie to be so heavily cut in earlier releases. There is an extensive lingering shot on her neck wound as arterial blood spurts and sprays out of it.  Cooooooooool. Also just as realistic looking as Ann's death.

Another thing about blood in this movie. Two words: maggot blood. Maggot blood coming out of Dr. Freudstein when he's stabbed. A little bit vomit-inducing.

The only gore sequence that wasn't all that great was the overlong killing of the bat that attacks Norman and Lucy in the basement. Seriously, how difficult is it to get a bat off your hand? You use the other hand, grab it, and kill the dang thing. But apparently that doesn't work for Norman as he has to run all the way up the stairs with the bat on his hand, flail around a bit, and then stab it a few times. Just a totally unnecessarily long scene that is so random and not in the least bit important to the story. I guess Fulci wanted to include it because he could.

Another strange Fulci choice: the insane amount of close-ups, especially on people's eyes. Whenever Ann and Norman are in the same room together, it's like a showdown at the OK Corral because all their communication is done through them looking at each other and Fulci zooming in on their eyes. There's also a few weird close-ups on random objects to dictate their importance. Zoom in on the girl's ring! The same ring appears in the basement later on! Zoom in on the bar where Peterson hung himself! I don't really know why this is important! Odd style choice. Not saying I hated it though, because it was rather amusing.

Again, despite the freaking horrible acting by the people doing to dubbed voices, The House by the Cemetery was hella fantastic and I will definitely be adding more Fulci films to my must-see list.