Filmirage Productions- WITCHERY (1988)

Because Scream Factory has been slowly putting them out on DVD and Blu-Ray over the past couple of years I find that I have been working my way through the film produced by Joe D'Amato's production company Filmirage. Until the past couple of weeks I had no idea that this company had existed but their name popped up at the beginning of METAMORPHOSIS (1989), BEYOND DARKNESS (1990) and now WITCHERY (1988). All of these are terrible horror films but I enjoyed them for various reasons that only lovers of Euro-Trash cinema will fully comprehend. Yeah, they're bad but they have something that makes them entertaining in ways that other movies of their level of quality just can't manage.

Looking at the list of 43 movies produced by Filmirage from 1980 to 1994 I can't help but be shocked at how many of them I have already seen. And looking at the descriptions of the others I just want to dive in and see the rest - now! There is bad horror movie gold in there! I just have to see any film called FRANKENSTEIN 2000 (1992) but I may hold off on the drama DIRTY LOVE (1988). Ah, who am I kidding? Joltin' Joe D'Amato making a film about a young girl seeking fame in the big city? It'll be sleazy madness!

One of the most fun (and often funniest) elements of these European produced flicks is the absolutely terrible acting. Each film usually has one competent actor to anchor the proceedings but they are surrounded by people that seem to have never been in front of a camera before someone yelled action five second ago. Strangely, WITCHERY (1988) a.k.a. LA CASA 4 somehow snagged both David Hasselhoff and Linda Blair at down points in their careers meaning that the movie had at least two people on set with prior acting experience. You may smile at the idea of the Hoff as an actor but trust me, he is the thespian highlight of this silly-ass film. In fact, seeing him in this made me deeply aware of how often we see competent acting and brush it aside because it is the standard in what we watch instead of the exception. 

Hasselhoff may seem like a TV hack but when you put him in a film with people that can barely emote it becomes much easier to appreciate the skill he has. I'll never wish he was nominated for an acting award but don't discount what he can bring to a scene to make it seem alive and even believable. On the other hand Linda Blair doesn't add much to the proceedings. She doesn't embarrass herself though even when she goes all frizzy-haired Exorcist crazed near the end.

If you have any affection for Euro-Trash I think you'll get a kick out of the Filmirage movies and I'm glad that so many of them are easily available now. Scream/Shout Factory's releases are very good and any chance to delve deeper into these bizarre productions is welcome. They aren't everyone's cup of tea but if you have any curiosity you can dip a toe in with relatively simple clicks. 

CAGED! (1950)

I have to be honest and admit that my entry point for the Women In Prison film genre was at the sleazy end of the spectrum. I caught the grubby little Linda Blair movie Chained Heat (1983) on cable in my long ago youth and was suitably appalled – appalled enough to watch it in stunned horror at least three more times. So as I grew older and saw more of these types of movies my idea of what a WIP film would or could be became solidified around the 1970's and 80's version of the genre. I'm sure you'll forgive me if I thought that they were little more than delivery mechanisms for visions of various forms of lesbian sexual activity, shower room violence, petty torture acts and other harsh bits of business. Yeah, yeah- the occasional film might make noises about reforming the horrible conditions on display but mostly the filmmakers were just wallowing in gratuitous exploitative excess in the name of making a buck. Not that there is anything wrong with that, in my opinion. But imagine my surprise when I first encountered older WIP movies that couldn't fall back on showing a shower roomful of naked, large-breasted ladies. What would be the draw? Wouldn't the lack of such graphic elements cripple the film? What the hell is this? A film about women locked up in a prison that actually has a good script? How did this happen?

Caged! (1950) tells the sad story of 19 year old Marie Allen (Eleanor Parker). She has been sentenced to a stretch in prison because of a bungled armed robbery committed by her husband who was killed during the act. She insists that she had nothing to do with crime but she was convicted as an accessory nevertheless. To make matters for her worse, her prison entrance physical determines that she is two months pregnant meaning she will give birth while incarcerated. Marie has trouble adjusting to the harsh world of the women's prison and struggles to find people she can trust. She meets professional shoplifter Kitty Stark (Betty Garde) who says once Marie gets out, Kitty will get her a job is her line of work. Kitty recruits for organized crime on the outside and promises the young girl an easy life if she learns this criminal trade. Marie does not want to get involved in crime, but Kitty explains the realities of prison life clearly and events prove the 'booster' right. It is explained to her that she can be paroled after nine months, but over time Marie sees prisoner after prisoner being granted parole but then not released from jail because no job has been arranged by their parole officers. After one such prisoner kills herself the reality of her situation begins to become apparent. Adding to her despair is the sadistic matron Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson) who decides to single Marie out for attention when she refuses to play along with her money making schemes. By the time Marie gives birth to a healthy baby and is forced by the state to grant full custody to her mother she has a small bit of hope that she will be granted a parole to be with her child. But when her mother gives the baby up for adoption against Marie's will she snaps and makes a feeble try at escape.

Unlike many films of the genre, the prison in Caged has an authority figure that is actually sympathetic to the plight of the ladies under her care. The great Agnes Moorhead plays Ruth Benton, the reformist prison superintendent trying to get evidence against the cruel Harper while simultaneously attempting  help the prisoners find a pathway out of their dead end lives. Benton is as lenient with Marie as she can be but soon she has to punish her when her actions become less justifiable and more like her more hardened cellmates. When the now toughened Marie emerges from a moth in solitary she finally takes violent action against Harper and shows that she has given up hope of following the straight an narrow path to parole. She's going to get out of prison no matter what she has to do on once she is on the outside.

Although I might have expected the reformist slant taken by this film, I wasn't expecting a 1950 movie to be so daring in talking about the nastier aspects of prison life. All the mean spirited subjects that I have come to expect from later entries in the genre are here. Yes, they have to turn away from gratuitously showing the lesbian relationships and vicious violent acts but those events are in the story and not hidden behind the prudish restrictions I expected. This is a classic social commentary film and it firmly places the blame on the prison system for turning Marie into a career criminal but it still manages to show that she chooses the easiest way out of her predicament. I was surprised by the ending of this movie and pleased by its high quality across the board. Caged is a very good film regardless of what you might think of prison stories and this might be the film to introduce new viewers to Women In Prison movies. It gives a sense of the unforgiving nature of the genre while saving the harder stuff for later. 

What I Watched in October

SICARIO is a sharp, well acted and tense crime thriller that focuses on its subject at an oblique angle. That subject is the American drug war and the methods that have grown up in various law enforcement departments to wage this battle. The film details the heavy toll on human life which is examined in arch detail with three characters in different stages of descent through the levels of the Hell that this war creates.  Emily Blunt is a young police officer given a career opportunity to work with what she thinks is a Department of Defense agent to take out a major Mexican drug lord. Josh Brolin plays the DOD agent hiding his true place in the government to circumvent international law in his quest to stamp out these criminal organizations. Benicio Del Toro is a shadowy associate of the supposed DOD agent who seems to have a set of skills and a task that only incidentally connects with the crime fighting operation he is a part of. This is a fascinating film that refuses to spoon feed its audience in the same way it refuses to offer up answers to the hideous problems it depicts. In a better world there would be more crime movies made of this caliber.

SINISTER 2 is a stronger than expected follow up to the original film that takes a minor character and expands things in a smart and effective way. As the finale of the first film revealed that this series is a part of the 'evil children' sub-genre this new tale uses that knowledge to set things up for the audience but then pulls a nice surprise as the horror ramps up. The movie boasts creepy atmosphere, a good pace and good performances even from the child actors. It's not going to make any converts to the cause but it is a solid modern horror entry and I'm happy to have this series' monster added to the gallery of big screen bogeymen.

Much has already been written about Guillermo Del Toro's latest film CRIMSON PEAK and I'll just say that I cannot understand some of the criticisms I've read online about the movie. (The most inane is the review I read that spelled out the author's disappointment because she thought the film was going to be about immortals feasting on the blood of a fresh bride! WTF?) This is exactly the kind of film I expected from del Toro - gothic, ghostly, creepy, beautiful and dark. This is a movie that wears its influences on its sleeve but does so in such a natural way that those unaware of the classic films being homaged need not notice. This is a movie that luxuriates in its own sumptuous colors and detail using the intricate set design to please our eyes as it also slowly reveals the true nature of the characters that inhabit the dank, rotting structure at the heart of the story. There are indeed horrible things in the basement as well as secrets hidden in the attic just like any good gothic mansion. Del Toro could go on making movies like this for the next twenty years and I would be a happy cinema fan.

I went to see THE LAST WITCH HUNTER fully expecting it to be a complete disaster. I'm  a big fan of star Vin Diesel as I think he is an actor that knows his skill set and always plays smartly to it in the roles he chooses. I was very happy to find that the script for this movie was actually well constructed and avoided the standard pitfall of most modern films of this type - snark! Yes, THE LAST WITCH HUNTER plays things straight only using humor to describe some of the characters and their relationships. The humor builds understanding of the world of the story instead of breaking the reality of the film. In the post VAN HELSING world this is a rarity with the soon to be released VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN being the latest yuk-fest to take this snarky, jokey path to cheapening the subject of the story being told. Sneering at the genre and its tropes is a poor substitute for cleverness! But I'll climb down from my soapbox and say that THE LAST WITCH HUNTER is a very well done supernatural action film with some effective horror elements woven throughout. The cast is well up to the challenge and the movie put a smile on my face more than once. I would welcome a sequel with more adventures of the team assembled by the end. This is the kind of movie most moviegoers will ignore with a turned up nose but it's exactly the kind I'm glad to see can still get made well - every now and then, anyway. 

The List
ASYLUM (1972)- 8 (rewatch)

TALES OF TERROR (1962)- 8 (rewatch)

PHANTASM II (1988)- 8 (rewatch)

PHANTASM III (1994) - 7 (rewatch)

SICARIO (2015) - 8

THREE THE HARD WAY - 6 (ridiculous but great fun)

SHUTTER (2008)- 5 (OK ghost tale)

A BAY OF BLOOD (1971)- 9 (rewatch)           

DARKNESS FALLS (2003)- 4 (rewatch) (not much going on here)

WITCHBOARD (1985) -6 (rewatch)

PIECES (1983)- 3 (rewatch) (so bad but soooo good!)

THE STUFF (1985)- 7 (rewatch)

SATAN'S BLADE (1984)- 4 (pretty bad slasher)

PRISON (1987)- 8 (solid supernatural horror)

HELLGATE (1989)- 2 (terrible horror effort)

I, MADMAN (1989)- 7 (well done horror fantasy)

DARK PLACES (1973)- 6 (Christopher Lee, Joan Collins, Herbert Lom in a pretty good scare story)

THE BEES (1978)- 2 (possibly the worst animal attack film of all time)

SINISTER 2 (2015)- 7 (well done sequel)

CRIMSON PEAK (2015)- 9

ABBOT & COSTELLO MEETS FRANKENSTEIN (1948) - 8 (rewatch)

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2014)- 8 (hilarious vampire comedy)

CITY OF THE DEAD (1960)- 8 (rewatch)

DARKNESS (2002)- 8 (rewatch)

SORORITY ROW (2009)- 3 (pretty bad remake)

WRONG TURN 2 (20) - 7 (well done sequel!)

THE FINAL TERROR (1983)- 7 (solid backwoods slasher)

TALES OF HALLOWEEN (2015)- 7 (well done anthology)

CTHULU MANSION (1992)- 4 (bad but not as bad as I anticipated)

RATTLERS (1976) -6 (I thought this was solid low budget regional filmmaking)

30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS (2010)- 6 (not bad sequel)

HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (Producer's Cut)  (1995)- 3 (terrible)

WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD (20144) - 8 (incredible Australian zombie film)

DIE, SISTER, DIE (1972) - 6 (mild thriller about inheritance in a nasty family)

DRACULA (1931)- 7 (rewatch on the big screen!)

DRACULA (1931) - 8 (rewatch of the Spanish version on the big screen)

HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1995) - 3 (rewatch of theatrical edit)

HALLOWEEN (1978 )- 10 (rewatch)

THE LAST WITCH HUNTER (2015)- 7 

My Euro-Trash List from 2007

Back in the dark ages - before Facebook - there were other communication platforms on the inter-tubes. One of these was Yahoo's Groups setup and on that site long ago I joined a group of likeminded fellows to discuss our favorite type of trashy films - the European kind! At one point we were convinced to come up with our own Top Ten and I gladly submitted mine which the amazing David Z preserved on his blog - you should read more of David's writing on films as his enthusiasm for marginal and marginalized movies is a wonder to behold. Talk of the list I posted a link to the other day has had David remind me of my personal list and I realize that eight years later I still think its a pretty good list.

1. BLACK SUNDAY
2. INFERNO
3. WILD WILD PLANET
4. TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD
5. ZOMBI
6. THE BEYOND
7. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST
8. DEEP RED
9. LADY FRANKENSTIEN (yes, me too! But only the full length cut!)
10. DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE

That's a quality set of movies that I can easily recommend to anyone wishing to dip their toes into the Euro-Trash waters. But, if in 2015 I was asked to craft such a list I think it would be quite different. So I think over the next few weeks I'm going to try to put together a new Top Ten Euro-Trash to see how much my thinking about the subject has changed. No deadline, but it should be interesting when I finally present it.

Top Euro-Trash Lists

Recently a Facebook post link sent me to this list of The Top 50 Euro Trash Films and quickly the online discussion of the contents made for more interesting reading than the list itself. I have several problems with this ranking with the foremost being that it slights the massive horror output of the European 1960's, 1970's and 1980's to the point of becoming a giant glaring hole in the middle of the entire endeavor. If you are going to make a Top 50 list of this type without including Fulci's ZOMBIE (1979) and/or THE BEYOND (1981) or a single Mario Bava film you are going to have to work to justify their absence. Also, if you start your description of a film for this list with this sentence - "You couldn’t in all honesty call this film Eurotrash." - you have failed in your task.

But the reason for any such list is to generate conversation and I guess in that it is a success. Oh - and bonus points for the inclusion of THE SISTER OF URSULA (1978) - more people need to see this trash classic. 

SAW - ing through the series

I will freely admit that I do not appreciate the SAW films. I watched the first at the time of its release and found it aggressively stupid and completely silly with its famed final reveal being the dumbest moment in cinema of that year. A few years later I caught SAW II (2005) on video and it was a small step up from the first film in that it didn't insult the viewer's intelligence but I wouldn't call it good. And now, years later, I decided to watch SAW III (2006) just for the hell of it. Once again I am underwhelmed. SAW III isn't a terrible film but it barely ekes out 5 of 10 from me. It didn't bore me but it also was never very compelling and it's that problem that I think separates me from the fans of this series. I think that the biggest thrill of the SAW films is the big final reveal that unfolds in the last ten to fifteen minutes of each movie that demonstrates how intricate, complicated and brilliant the master plan of the killer turns out to be. The thing is that the reveal in the three I've seen have been idiotic, pointless or impossible to believe so I can't give a crap about what it all means, man! I'm so busy sniggering at the faux intellectual justification the villain lays out to express the intense significance of his daring scheme that the idea of being impressed by this silliness seems like the ultimate joke - on the audience. I mean really- Jigsaw's entire modus operandi is so flamboyant it begs the question of WHY. Why the exaggerated complexity? Why the silly games? Of course, in the context of a film we know - it is to entertain us. But the events and their unraveling have no logical justification within the story being told other than the obvious one - the killer wishes to humiliate and torture his victims. The weak attempt to justify this sadism with some twisted BS morality just makes it all seem even less clever since it can't escape falling back on the old 'punishment for your sins' cliché. And, of course, the sequels so far are just rinse and repeat as they off the characters left over from the previous film first to set the latest ridiculous plot in motion.

Each of the SAW movies are the kind of film I can easily imagine being written by some stoned teenagers over a weekend and I suspect that was the target audience as well. Maybe they will age well, but who knows? So far I'm not seeing the appeal. 

OMEN (1976) sequel novels

The other day I was browsing my favorite used bookstore when I spotted these and I just had to get them. I love reading novelizations of horror films especially the ones that are trashier in nature so The Final Conflict book was a must have. If I had any doubts the 25 cent price tag for each book sealed the deal pretty quickly. Plus, I had had no idea there had been official sequel novels written for the Omen series. Quelle surprise! I can't wait to find out what direction the author took the story. I can't find out much about this Gordon McGill fellow other than him having a few roles in movies years ago. I suspected it to be a pseudonym but I can't find any proof.