Mondo Euro TORSO screening - with prizes!

Here's some exciting news for all giallo fans and Mondo Euro followers based in the northwest of England; Mondo Euro and Italian Film Review have arranged with the nice folks at Shameless Screen Entertainment and lovely arts org They Eat Culture to screen Sergio Martino's 1973 classic Torso - on a huge 14ft HD screen. It's taking place at The Continental in Preston (full address below), where you'll be able to enjoy the film whilst simultaneously imbibing some fine real ale or a bottle vino rosso if you so wish. The red letter day is Friday 22nd October ( a week on Friday) with the event starting at 8pm. Entry is only £3.50. And it gets even better...

Shameless have also given us the go-ahead to make this the Nationwide Launch Party of their spanking-new ‘Fulci’s Box of Terror’ set, released on October 25th, with two copies to give away to the owners of the lucky raffle tickets included in the door price! There'll also be wall-to-wall Italian soundtrack tracks before and after the film, so this screening is really the place to be for any Eurocult fan in the vicinity. 

This is the first edition of our regular 'Trash Cinema!' night so keep your eyes peeled for future screenings- there's some exciting stuff lined up...

Rejoice!

Check out the event on The Continental's website here. There's directions to the venue and all sorts of other info there too.

The Continental, South Meadow Lane, Preston PR1 8JP

ALIEN TERROR [1980]

Alien 2 - sulla Terra
AKA Alien Terror, Alien 2: On Earth, The Stranger

Italy 1980

Review by Justin H. Dickinson

Another Italian Alien cash-in, this time from director Cirro Ippolito, with a space capsule of astronauts (represented by shoddy stock footage) taken over by a xenomorph presence (off-screen) and crashing to earth. Our main characters are spelunkers and encounter the creatures in some neverending caves. The aliens possess some people, make others explode, and the lead girl Thelma (Belinda Mayne) is supposed to be telekinetic; although this is so lamely executed that they may as well have not bothered. 

 

The dialogue is unintentionally hillarious and there are some odd touches, such as when Michele Soavi's character, an aspiring writer, brings a large typewriter with him into the cave and types away by candlelight. There is also an alien in a bowling alley. Even though there is gore, it is not well done and the direction is pretty lacklustre, with boring stretches in the cave that seem to go on and on. On the plus side, the music by Oliver Onions is quite good. 

As far as Italian Alien rip-offs go I would have to stick with Contamination. 

DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS [1971]

Les lèvres rouges

Belgium / France / West Germany 1971

 

Not to be confused with Jose Larraz's equally excellent 1974 film Vampyres: Daughters of Darkness, this one sees eloped newlyweds John Karlen (from USTV vampire soap Dark Shadows) and Danielle Ouimet stopping off in Ostend before ostensibly going on to England to meet Karlen's mother. The couple book into the honeymoon suite of an opulent but eerily deserted hotel and, despite Ouimet's constant needling, Karlen uses any excuse to avoid calling his mother to set up an introduction to his new bride. Suffice to say that the 'mother' he refers to is not the kind of matriarch one might expect!

Enter the amazing Delphine Seyrig, who arrives at the hotel in the middle of the night with her lithe young 'friend' Andrea Rau. The fact that she books in as 'Elizabeth Bathory' is a bit of a giveaway as to her true nature, as is the fact that the hotel manager recognises her from some fifty years ago, when she looked exactly the same. Instantly fascinated by the handsome young couple, Seyrig strikes up a relationship with them that can only lead to one outcome...

Eccentric director Harry Kümel deftly avoids cliché in this dream-like exercise in high style. Little of the usual vampire iconography is on display here, the film opting instead for the kind of ambiguity that would be later seen in George Romero's wonderful Martin. The fairly simplistic plot serves mainly as a vehicle for Kümel's gorgeous compositions, Eduard Van Der Enden's sumptuous cinematography and the mesmerising, husky-voiced presence of the Deitrich-esque Seyrig in an array of beautiful outfits.

Quite simply, Eurohorror at its most ethereal and exquisite.

MONSTER DOG (1984)

Monster Dog

Italy / USA / Puerto Rico  1984

Review by Donald A. Guarisco

Claudio Fragasso... that name hasn't quite reached legendary status in bad-film circles but it deserves to. Fragasso has toiled in the darker regions of the Italian schlock mines since the 1970's, including several notably daft collaborations with Bruno Mattei: Hell Of The Living Dead, Rats: Night Of Terror, etc. However, his biggest claim to fame is the legendarily awful Troll II. The ever-growing cult for that film is on the verge of going mainstream thanks to the documentary Best Worst Movie, which was directed by Troll II's ex-child star, Michael Paul Stephenson.

However, there's more to Fragasso than vegetarian goblin films. He first struck schlock gold in 1984 when he made his solo debut with the Italian/Spanish co-production Monster Dog. This gothic-horror mishmash stars a between-record-contracts Alice Cooper as Vincent Raven, a rock star who returns to his rural hometown with video director/lover (Victoria Vera) and a crew to shoot a new music video.

Unfortunately, Vincent neglected to mention to his pals that (a) wild packs of dogs periodically rise up to kill folks in said town and (b) his father was killed by a mob who suspected him of being the werewolf who controls the minds of the wild dogs. The shocks begin slowly with a creepy old man's warnings and badly-staged nightmare scenes but things really heat up when a shotgun-toting posse turns up to kill Vince and the wild dogs descend upon Vince's creepy childhood home.

If the premise sounds shopworn, wait until you see the film. Fragasso (hiding behind the pseudonym 'Clyde Anderson') has decent production values and good photography but his clumsy direction and logic-impaired script deep-sixes it. As with Troll II, there is bizarre dialogue: for instance, Vince and the local sheriff reminisce about how he used to urinate on the sheriff's knee as a baby(!). It also boasts the least-threatening "killer dogs" ever seen in a film and lousy makeup effects, including a hilariously inept transformation sequence and the sorry puppet used to represent the title creature.

 

As for Cooper himself, he does the best he can with a poorly written role and has enough charisma to get by, despite the oddly preppy clothes and mullet he's saddled with. He also performs two original songs that represent the film's highlights. The first is "Identity Crises," a garage-rock number that opens and closes the film via faux-music video montages that surpass anything else in the film. The other is "See Me In The Mirror," a goth-y vampire love ballad.

Cooper has said that the film's producers (which included Paul Naschy collaborator Carlos Aured) promised him Monster Dog would only be released in the Phillippines and was thus shocked when it turned up in video stores around the world. He'd soon return to hard-rock fame with albums like Trash and Fragasso would continue to make dazzlingly awful films, with Troll II being the most entertaining, but their one-off collaboration remains an amusing and eccentric low point of Euro-horror.

 

SUPERSONIC MAN [1979]

Supersonic Man
AKA Sonic Man

Spain / Italy 1979

Before jumping on the Halloween / Friday the 13th bandwagon with 1982's Pieces, director Juan Piquer Simón leapt onto that of the previous year's Superman the Movie with this hilarious attempt at a home grown cash-in.

Alien 'Kronos' is sent to Earth to stop the evil 'Dr Gulik', as played by a slumming Cameron Mitchell overdubbed with a more suitably ‘evil’ English accent in export prints. Kronos is a superhero of many powers, that the film never explains, including flight, incredible strength and... turning guns into  bananas?

Our hero's costume, which tries to be a mixture of Superman and Batman’s but just looks plain silly, even includes a glittery mask and gloves for an extra touch of camp; as if one were needed. When not being a superhero, the muscle bound Kronos (played by Conan the Barbarian stuntman José Luis Ayestarán) assumes a human secret identity, becoming 'Paul' (Antonio Cantafora of Midnight Blue) – a guy who's half the size and sports a 'tache. The point of this is unclear.

Add to these shenanigans an absolutely hilarious 'robot' with flame-thrower arms, some diabolical “you won't believe a man can fly” flight special effects and some toy helicopters trying to pass themselves off as miniature work and you have one of the silliest bits of fluff ever committed to Eastmancolor celluloid. The only parts that aren't funny are those that are supposed to be.

The English language version sports a terrible ‘superhero’ theme song that wouldn’t be out of place in an episode of Fireman Sam, apparently replacing the Euro version's crazy wall-to-wall disco soundtrack. I know which version I'd rather see.

If you do intend to watch this film then as the great man, er, Supersonic Man, once said, “May the great forces of the galaxies be with you.”

MALENKA [1969]

Malenka  
AKA Fangs of the Living Dead, Malenka The Vampire, Malenka the Niece of the Vampire, The Vampire’s Niece

Spain / Italy 1969 

Before the Blind Dead series and Night of the Sorcerers, director Amando de Ossorio delivered a nice little semi-comic vampire movie that looks and feels rather quaint even compared to his own later films, let alone to most contemporary horror films. In fact you could probably show this one to your kids.

La dolce vita star Anita Ekberg is Sylvia, who leaves Rome and her fiancé to head for her ancestral castle, where a large inheritance awaits. There she is met by her splendidly coiffured 'uncle', Count Walbrooke, who it turns out is a century-old vampire thanks to the occult dabblings of long-dead shared relative Malenka - also played in flashbacks by Ekberg wearing a black wig. Way back when, the old Count was in a relationship with Sylvia's mother but couldn't get her to willingly become one of the immortal undead; trying for the next generation he holds Sylvia captive. Will fiancé Piero get her letter in time to rescue her from a 'fate worse than death'?

It's hard to take a film seriously when the captive Ekberg displays a range of glam outfits and conveniently wakes up in the morning with ringlets that it would take a team of hairdressers three hours to achieve. However, Malenka does have a lovely Hammer-via-Paul Naschy atmosphere and is on the whole aesthetically pleasing. There are some dull stretches and Piero's desperately unfunny comic relief sidekick to contend with, and the versions I've seen seem to have been edited with a meat cleaver. It must be said that most of the real humour arising from this movie is unintentional, but it's still quite a pleasure to watch Ossorio's first attempt in the genre he'd later be loved for.

Eurotrash stalwart Paul Muller can be seen in a brief role and Rosanna Yanni of Jess Franco's 'Red Lips' escapades, also one of the film's producers, plays a rustic serving wench.

COLD EYES OF FEAR [1971]

Gli occhi freddi della paura AKA Cold Eyes of Fear, Desperate Moments

Italy 1971

Review by Justin H. Dickinson

Action/adventure expert Enzo G. Castellari forgoes his usual forte with this 70s London-set suspenser. In a dynamite opening a beautiful blond alone in her bedroom, clad in black lingerie is immediately attacked by an assailant brandishing a switchblade. He promptly slices her bra and panties off, then they proceed to have sex on her bed. The woman grabs the knife and stabs him, or so it seems. Suddenly, stage lights come on, applause follows, and the whole thing is revealed to be a kinky performance piece at a nightclub. Quite a way to begin a film if you ask me.

The seemingly simple plot concerns a young lawyer (Gianni Garko) and his girlfriend Anna (Giovanna Ralli) sneaking into his rich lawyer Uncle's (Fernando Rey) house while he is at his office. Once there, Gianni tries all he can to make 'amore' with Anna, but without much success. They find the butler dead, and a ruthless, leather clad thug (Julian Mateos) holds them at gun point. Believe me there is a lot more to the story than that, but to tell would give away the turns and twists of a quite good cat and mouse Italian thriller. The acting is rather good, especially by Garko and Mateos. Ralli is little more than window dressing and tends to over-emote. As for Fernando Rey, he spends most of time behind a desk in his office, but he is Fernando Rey. Morricone's score is absolutely one of his best and Vincenzo Tomassi edited most of Lucio Fulci's best films.

By all means see this film regardless, but if you have any chance at all, watch the widescreen version to better enjoy Castellari's compositions.