House By The Cemetery (Arrow DVD)

There are few movies that have been affected quite as badly as a result of the UK’s video nasty furore than The House By The Cemetery. In 1984 when certification kicked in and movies started to become banned when our government was trying to yurn us into a nanny state House By The Cemetery was one of the first to go. Ironically in 1993 after nearly ten years in the wilderness it was one of the first of the former video nasties to get a release, then by the now defunct S. Gold & Sons sub label Vipco (S. Gold & Sons are also now defunct but were former pioneers in the home entertainment industry). While it secured its release there was a considerable amount of time edited from the movie. As DVD took off and Vipco planned a DVD release of the movie they then presented it before the BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) again where it was agreed that they could release a slightly lengthened version. But it has taken till 2009, twenty five years since the movie was banned, for the movie to at last be seen in an uncut form in the United Kingdom.

House By The Cemetery is a movie from the infamously titled Godfather Of Gore Lucio Fulci, made during his heyday of 1979-1981 where his “Zombie” horror movies changed the way western culture looked at Zombies. I always feel referring to House By The Cemetery as a zombie movie does it an injustice because the movies killer is not strictly dead, a pretty rudimentary part of being a zombie in my book. None the less this is a movie that has great affection in my eyes, because although I had briefly skated round the genre of the Italian horror/thriller movie, it was after seeing this film that I became a fan of Italian horror forever.

Beginning in New York a young family are on the verge of making a move to Boston where Norman (Paolo Malco) is planning to continue the work of a colleague who seemingly turned insane and killed himself and his family. Wife Lucy (Katherine (or Catriona) MacColl) and son Bob (Giovanni Frezza) in toe, they arrive at Oak Mansion a remote house by a now disused graveyard. While Norman gets straight to work its Lucy’s responsibility to turn this old wreck of a house into a home. While Norman turns up very little Lucy is thrown straight into making discoveries, whilst cleaning the living area she discovers a tombstone with the name Jacob Tess Freudstein on it, a name that’s an essential part of Norman’s investigations. With creepy vocal noises half roaring half child crying, a disturbing looking babysitter, the impression that Norman knows a lot more than he’s letting on, and a bizarre but striking young girl by the name of May; The House By The Cemetery has all the essential factors to make a completely chilling horror movie.

I won’t tell you any lies the acting is not the best, director Fulci believing that the storytelling is more essential than the actors roles, this is in no means helped by the dubbing of all the characters into English; especially when either the dubbing artist or the Italian to English translator cannot identify the difference between a doctor or a baker “You really should be taking those tablets your baker prescribed” states Malco at a moment of high tension. But put aside these two facts and you have potentially the framework of one of the most cleverly crafted horror movies of the 1980’s. Fulci spends a great amount of the movies 85-85 minute running time building the tension, leaking out little snippets of information, or showing you just enough to keep you enthralled. Rather beautifully the movies killer although fairly obvious from the movies offset is not shown to the audience until the final moments of the film, and pretty is not a word you would use to describe it.

The Hostel movies got a lot of acclaim for their rather bloody and in your face gruesomeness; well House By The Cemetery does a similar job, the big difference being that Fulci’s classic was twenty five years earlier in back 1981. As you enter the killer’s lair properly for the first time, you’re treated to the remains of a variety of cannibalised victims, not cannibalised for food however, but for their organs and other essentials that a 200 year old killer might require. YUK!

Many of Lucio Fulci’s movies even through his better times are slightly disjointed leaving you with a “what just went on there?” style thought, City Of The Living Dead (another Fulci movie from the same era) being a classic example, but House By The Cemetery avoids these trappings, your fully aware of what’s just taken place but the burning question as the credits begin to roll is what happens next? If you allow your mind to think about it, there is a good sequel there because all the doors are left open, leaving the viewer with a deep feeling of helplessness. It was exactly this sort of after thought that drew me towards the Italian horror genre.

If you’re not a particularly strong stomached horror movie viewer this is one you might want to slowly wean yourself into. There are some pretty jumpy moments mixed in with the grotesque gore. And while the movies first death might leave you chuckling the combination of gore and tension as it begins to build up can be too much for some to bear.

As well as being presented uncut, this is by far the cleanest print I have seen of the movie. There are some beautiful grainy scenes that give the movie a real texture. Something else that stood out to me from the movies offset was that title font is different from all the other DVD releases that have been seen in the UK, and now bare a pinkish tinge instead of the usual white titles. This combined with the addition of a deleted scene leads me to believe that these titles are the originally intended ones, while this is fairly small fry to the average viewer this is news I’m sure would appeal to the movies hardcore fans. Other special features include a 17 minute documentary that discusses both the movie and the impact Fulci had to the horror movie genre and more interestingly how oblivious he was to the fact that he had fans across the world, and not just in his native Italian homeland. Other features include trailers, tv spots, and a image gallery. The case inlay offers a double sided cover so you can vary your choices slightly.

The House By The Cemetery is due for release on June the 29^th of Arrows Masters Of Giallo label.

Watch Me When I Kill

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Special Features:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Strip Nude For Your Killer

It’s been a long two months, but the end of October spells the launch of the next Shameless Screen Entertainment movie: Strip Nude For Your Killer (Nude per l’assassino). Made back in 1975 this movie has been sadly elusive in the UK, while overseas it has been an incredibly popular purchase for collectors of the Italian thriller genre otherwise known as Giallo!

My first encounter with the movie occurred two years ago, when against advice I purchased the German X-Rated edition. The movie was quite literally chucked onto the DVD, its imagery sometimes so dark it was hard to see, but most importantly a soundtrack so distorted and poor that thirty odd minutes in I turned my back on the movie. The events so disturbed me that I wrote the movie off as a lost cause, and even ignored a following purchase of US Blue Underground disc. I had to buy it I’m a completist. Upon inserting the Shameless disc I was overjoyed to see the level of preservation that the team had gone to, the lengths of achieving (it’s this preservation process that sees such a large gap between the companies releases) something that looks near on perfect. Even when compared to the Blue Underground disc (who have far deeper pockets than Shameless) the preservation is amazing, the sound is near on modern day movie quality perfect. If there is any real flaw it’s in the dark scenes where the movies age is more obvious with some blue tints to what should be black.

As the movie begins we see a young woman on a doctors table, this is a typical case of the back street abortionist, but not so typical is the sudden death of the woman. The dodgy Doc is straight on the phone for help, and we see two men (one of which being the doctor) lowering the girl’s body into a bath in an attempt to make the death look like an accident. Thinking all is well the Doctor is not expecting to be brutally murdered while entering his home.

A month on and as the petty dramas of the Albatross modelling agency unfold, one of the photographers (a very good Quentin Crisp lookalike) while minding his own business, is disturbed by a visitor. While clearly knowing his visitor, things turn nasty; “You’re spilling my whisky!” he cries, but death and a rather nasty anal assault await our photographer, are the two murders connected? But this is just the beginning, and as the bodies mount up it’s up to newly united couple Magda (Edwige Fenech) and Carlo (Nino Castelnuovo) to crack the mystery.

I’m not going to plead all is good here; to be honest with you the movie does not feature the best of stories, it’s very “Scooby Doo” structured and for the most part leaning in the direction of what I would call bobbins. However, if you love the Italian horror and Giallo movies then of course this is too much of an opportunity to let slip you buy, after all you are talking about the opportunity, to see this movie freely available in uncut form in the UK for the very first time.

The story bounces about a bit, one minute being completely fluid, the next not so much; there is not much development here in its’ storyline or the characters, the characters are so thinly written that you do not really get to the heart of any of the characters. The movies big hero is one minute a little likeable the next minute coming off like a complete psycho, throttling Magda for no apparent rhyme or reason. Magda the movies leading lady, is sadly a little dim and annoying. Then there is the police, the biggest sham of a police force you have ever seen in a movie; when a crime occurs it seems the whole police force pile into a crime scene, nobody stays outside, and certainly none of the police can run.

Unlike a lot of Italian movies Strip Nude For Your Killer was shot entirely in Italian, this needs explaining I guess; frequently in Italian movies the cast are global, in many movies the cast spoke in their own language, or were forced to speak in English, then often dubbed into whatever language was appropriate for the movies audience. The result is that for those a little on the picky side, it’s obvious that this movie has been dubbed into English. The reason for mentioning this is that the person dubbing the character of Carlo has a few issues when saying certain words specifically corpuscles.

For the movies director Andrea Bianchi, this movie is somewhat a masterpiece his career varied from gross out movies to hardcore pornography, here he manages a partial synergy by delivering a pretty gory thriller, with enough nudity and semi-clothed stars to keep his more hardcore adult movie fans happy. It seems that the director was trying to harness a new genre, and while other movies before and after have tried, this is one of the more illicit of the Italian sex thrillers. I mentioned earlier the sort of mish-mash of storytelling and style, for those familiar with the Italian movies Bianchi’s work includes The Nights Of Terror AKA The Zombie Dead, Zombi 3; a movie that touches on the “It’s so bad it’s good” style, similar could be said about this offering.

When not trying to titillate, the movie really goes for the gross out factor, the movies killer likes to undress their victims and tries to mutilate them in some way, one has a breast sheared off, another their testicles, while another makes off lightly just losing their ears, although lightly is a bit tame as the victim still dies. While the cutting is not pictured onscreen the after effects are, and while not being particularly realistic it’s still pretty mean to look at.

Of the movies cast Edwige Fenech always makes for good viewing, the actress was incredibly popular during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s making a recent return in big screen horror offering Hostel 2. Fenech here is sporting an unusually cropped haircut, and looking almost boyish. Bianchi had little time for actors and Fenech is never given any real chance to shine, though still rather nice to look at. I skip over Nino Castelnuovo because you cannot judge his role fairly due to the pitfalls of the characters development, I cannot remember a time I so venomously disliked a movie lead, this is more a criticism of the character than the actor. Who was nice to see however was Franco Diogene as the aging virgin Maurizio, Diogene is possibly best known as the crooked lawyer Yesil in Midnight Express, unfortunately you get to see a little too much of this character.

Of the movies big plus points, the big draw is that you will not ever guess who the killer is, I was on the right lines but 100 miles from the target, and this is the resounding benefit of the movie, it’s great to have a mystery and if nothing else the film delivers that.

Special Features:-

I’m at this time uncertain if the movie will come with a reversible cover as recent releases have, there seems to be no mention of it with the material I received, but in fairness it’s a great buy with or without the cover. The movie has been remastered in 2.35:1 with a 2.0 soundtrack.

But it’s the trailers that really impress here, alongside trailers for existing releases Torso (AKA Carnal Violence), and New York Ripper come trailers for upcoming titles. The Designated Victim is the next due release, a loose remake of Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train the movie will be seen by UK audiences for the first time, and unusually for Shameless releases according to the new trailer will come with special features including an English and Italian soundtrack, fact-track, deleted scenes, and art gallery; they are calling this the Fan Edition. Oasis Of Fear looks simply swinging with a glimpse of Flash Gordon’s Ornella Mutti in the altogether, well almost. Something that really pleased me was the first concrete evidence of the movie Watch Me When I Kill about to appear on the scene. While Shameless also promise Baba Yaga: Reloaded, a special 35^th anniversary edition re-edited by the movies director after it was harshly edited upon release. Of course the trailer for Strip Nude For Your Killer is also included.

While personally it’s not my favourite of the Shameless releases, I’m thrilled that their releases has at last allowed me to see the movie, and that they have put so much hard work in the release.

Strip Nude For Your Killer is available from the end of October RRP £12.99.

Inferno

The first of Dario Argento movies to become a video nasty in the 1984 UK cleaning up of the movie industry is the 1980 movie Inferno. The second part of a trio of movies that began with Suspiria and ended with Mother Of Tears (AKA Il Terza Madre – The Third Mother) ; the story is also Argento’s most disjointed, dull, and utterly beautiful movie of his career, all aspects meet like a terrible train crash, and despite the overall dullness you cannot help but keep watching.

On opposite sides of the world brother and sister Mark and Rose unearth a terrible secret based in a book called The Three Mothers, by coincidence they are both dangerously close to buildings that purport to be gateways to hell. While one will die, the other is left to pick up the pieces, solve a riddle and hopefully get away alive.

This Italian offering is like a who’s who of Italian movie stars, led by a couple of little known American movie stars in the form of Leigh McCloskey who plays Mark Elliot and Irene Miracle as his sister Rose. While most of the Italian cast are a little slapdash in their appearances being chucked in here, there and everywhere but with little actual use to the story. Gabriele Lavio appears and is quickly despatched to the other side, while Daria Nicolodi pops in and out of the story as she sees fit.

I’d like to say my confusion over Inferno was down to my ill-understanding of the movie but this is not the case, and sadly one I see raised in a number of reviews online. Even though the story is a little disjointed in both its cast use but in its general storytelling, the movie remains incredibly popular with Argento fans because there really is something about it.

The late great Lucio Fulci believed that actors were a secondary issue when it came to film making, he claimed their ability to act was not a key factor providing the suspense was right, and to a certain degree he was right from 1978-1983 he made a short run of some of the most infamous horror movies of all time, I can’t help that believe that when shooting began in 1980 Argento took part of this onboard, now I’m not saying that the actors in the movie are bad, simply that they are a secondary aspect in the movie, which is driven by incidents, lighting and special effects. When none of the previous aspects come raise their heads then Argento bangs in with a beautiful musical score. What is lacking in the movie is real depth, there are some great story ideas, like the book, and the two houses, both of which are surrounded by suspicious characters. But what fills in the gaps, what takes the movie forward? To be honest very little and it seems like Argento has become confused and caught on a split road between following Fulci and American director David Lynch.

There is another unusual factor about Inferno and that is in its music. Despite great collaborations with progressive rock band Goblin, and with the acclaimed composer Ennio Morricone Argento choose to go elsewhere for his music signing, heading instead this time to British rock band composer Keith Emerson of the band Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Emerson delivers a typically inspired piece of Argento music, jazzing up classical legends as well as injecting his own style to the movie. What is odd however is that of all the movies factors, the soundtrack is actually the biggest driving force.

Inferno was banned in the UK because of a scene in which a cat eats a mouse. Interestingly enough far gorier scenes were left in, including a scene in which a disable man drowns some cats, then having fallen over rats he is slowly devoured by them, calling for help a local roadside cafe owner comes running over, only to hack the disabled man’s head off with a knife.

Argento’s unique style is felt all over the movie, he choice of lighting, buildings and other structures make for a world you might never see in real life, it’s very 1970’s but also very good. Inferno rather like the previous chapter Suspria is like a moving work of art, the result being visually something that most popular directors aspire to.

Argento’s creepy characters like a disabled professor and his wacky nurse make for great viewing, but as I touched upon earlier all these characters were badly used. What is nice is the addition of Fulvio Mingozzi who was in most of Argento’s movies up until 1984’s Phenomena; like Suspiria here he plays albeit briefly a taxi driver, who like in most Argento movies never says a word.

New York Ripper

In the 1970's a director best associated with comedies and musicals began making horror movies, that director was Lucio Fulci who was and still is one of the most influential men in shaping modern horror. His successful movies The Beyond, Zombi, House By The Cemetery, and City Of The Living Dead were landmark zombie movies. But not content to rest on his laurels Fulci was pushing into new styles of horror, his intention to make horror possible in a realistic sense. The result of this was The Black Cat, and New York Ripper both the sort of horror we could encounter every day.

New York Ripper (Lo Squatatore Di New York)begins as it means to continue, an elderly man throwing sticks for his beloved dog is rather mortified to discover his dog returns not with a stick but with a hand, luckily or unluckily for the owner the hand is not attached to anyone.

Lt. Fred Williams (Jack Hedley) is called in to solve the case, but then a cyclist is found murdered on the Statten Island Ferry, killed in the most brutal of ways. The chief of police (a cunning cameo from director Lucio Fulci) insists that Williams gets to the bottom of the killings sooner rather than later "We don't want another Atlanta!" he warns, and with that seemingly gives Williams the keys to the New York Police's bank account.

Having hired the best genius around to help him solve the crime Williams has to literally wait for the killer to strike again. But when he does there is not much to go on except that the killer talks like a duck. Meanwhile a sexually liberated woman tours New York's most seedy dives looking for sex, a well to do woman with a reputable husband her need for sexual gratification take her closer and closer to the killer.

To help you build up an image we have a killer that talks like a duck, and as we later discover has two digits missing from his right hand; nice image?

I cannot say that New York Ripper is a real high point in horror history, its rather seedy reputation is actually far stronger than the menace it delivers; before I saw the movie some 8 years ago the film to some degree was almost like a myth. When you looked on the internet you could find pictures of graphic razorblade torture and sexual activity; website realmofhorror.co.uk gave me the best insight in the form of the trailer, which allowed for a certain feel to the movie. Sadly my eagerness to see the movie was met with a kind of cold and unworthy story, that sexually is incredibly risky compared to other movies, especially when death often occurs by things being forced into a certain part of a woman's body. This is not a movie that overly inspired me, however having watched it yesterday in its slightly edited form (for the first time I may add, always seeing it uncut before) I kind of had a greater appreciation for the film. The aspects that annoyed me no longer did and the story, which at times before I felt jutted in and out of context seemed far more fluid.

Before I go on I should say if you find movies like Jeepers Creepers, Scream, or the Freddy or Jason movies a little bit scary or graphic even in a cut form this is not a movie you should be seeing. Although the effects are not always so special, when a razor blade strikes you see it enter, cut and exit. You also see a rather painful finger slicing that is incredibly plausible and believably realistic.

Shot on the hoof so to speak in New York, the movie shows a pretty accurate view of New York back in the early 80's. It shows the classdifferences, the devastation and almost wasteland as industry has left the city for more rural locations. There is nothing clean looking about the majority of the movies locations. In case you wonder about my on the hoof comment as was commonplace with Italian horror movies no permission was gained from the places they filmed, certainly when out of the UK. Often filming took place by literally people jumping out of the car filming a few shots and then heading off before the police arrived; this is blatantly obvious here by the length of the outdoor scenes.

The cast is an interesting gathering Jack Hedley's name might ring a bell because not only was he in For Your Eyes Only, but he also played General Von Karzibrot in Allo Allo. Paulo Malco who plays Dr Paul Davis recently starred in the ITV's version of A Room With A View. While the movies toe pervert (you need to see it to believe it) is played by 24's Josh Cruze. Granted not names you might think "oh yeah I know" but certainly faces you will know.

The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue

When it comes to Euro Horror, Italy by far leads the way; a close second however is Spain. During the early 1970's their short lived victory paved the road ready for Italy to roll through. During this time movies like Tombs Of The Blind Dead were great success stories but in 1974 No profanar el sueño de los metros, or Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue as it was known in the UK became the best known of the Spanish/Italian  horror epics.

George is owns an antiques store in Manchester, for the weekend he plans a trip to Windermere to visit a new house he has purchased as a retreat from society. On his trip he encounters Edna who accidentally reverses her car over his motorbike. George insists that Edna takes him to Windermere being as the accident was her fault. However on the journey Edna persuades him to detour to a nearby town where she needs to visit her sister by a certain time.

Having arrived near the beautiful riverside home of her sister, George goes off in search of directions from a nearby farm in order to make the final short distance. But while he looks for directions Edna encounters Guthrie the local down and out, who not only terrifies her, he launches an violent attack on her. Having managed to escape Guthrie Edna is reunited with George and a local farmer, who identifies by description Edna's attacker; the only thing he finds difficult to comprehend is the fact that Guthrie has been dead for a week.

The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue is a movie that is known by more alternative names than any other; alternative titles include Breakfast At The Manchester Morgue, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, Don't Open The Window, and interestingly enough Zombie 3 (interesting as it received this title before Zombie 1 and 2 were even made). The movie was influential in the fact that a Zombie movie had never gone into such graphic detail before. There are lengthy scenes of organ eating and flesh being ripped open. But its most acclaimed special effect was a recently autopsied corpse complete with stitches falling open that turned the stomachs of audiences world wide. Even now 33 years after the movie was made the special effects can at times be very graphic, although you are fully aware that these contents were probably purchased that day down the local butchers.

While the special effects have stood the test of time the movie has not, it's a considerable time into the movie before things have kicked off, I'd say about 45 minutes. And unfortunately the movie has been dubbed into English and the accents and dialogue are hard to swallow. Having endured the terrible voices for 45 minutes by the time things have started you have almost lost all interest. Most annoyingly George, a Manchester Lad has a broad Michael Caine style East End accent.

The action is very drawn out, with periods of 20 minutes between incidents, culminating in a massive crescendo of blood and guts during the last 8 minutes of the movie.

One of the most annoying parts for me for the movie was the dramatically increasing size of the town they are staying in. What starts off as a 100+ dwelling location, soon develops into 500 and then 1000. The reason for this is down to the fact that like a lot of Euro Horror no permission was ever sought for filming locations. So the filmmakers would turn up in a location, film as much as they could before piling into their vans and running off before the police caught up. When of course the police caught up or got close they would have to move on to other locations in order to finish the movie. Luckily they had managed to film the lengthier scenes uninterrupted. The effect of this obviously made the picture look a bit dysfunctional. And this overall issue scars the movie heavily.

Another annoying issue is the fact that in this rural location Edna's sister is revealed to be a very popular drug abusing prostitute. But its obvious that it would be very difficult to peddle either of her vices in such a town. Its also odd that the town has such a massive police force, as most of us are aware most rural locations in the UK only have one or two police officers and historically always have, but this location has police officers, scenes of crime officers and CID. Not to mention the fact that they all bare arms.

Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue for me is one of the most boring of all Euro Horrors. While it wins some wars it fails on so many other fronts. It a real heavy going journey of a movie that will leave you cold for the most part; not cold from fear I should add, cold from boredom. Its poorly scripted, poorly cast, poorly acted, and incredibly poorly dubbed. If you're a completes freak that's into horror then it's a valuable addition to your collection, failing that it's a pile of pap that will sit on your shelf for a long time before seeing the light of day again.

Who Saw Her Die?

I absolutely adore Italian cult movies; I also rather enjoy the movies that UK based Shameless Screen Entertainment release, but imagine my delight when I discover that one of my all-time Italian thrillers Who Saw Her Die? Is getting a long overdue UK release, not just with a glossy print but with some long missing footage reinserted. It is like one of my greatest dreams come true, and luckily for me those nice guys over at Shameless sent me a copy of the movie to watch prior to its release on the 25^th August, enough to tide me over until the movie is out to buy.

 

Made all the way back in 1972 Who Saw Her Die? Starts with one of the most disturbing openings I have ever seen, nestled in the beautiful snow filled French mountains you see a young girl enjoying herself with her nanny and her sledge. From out of the trees looms a figure of a woman with a veil covering her face. Grabbing the young girl, the woman proceeds to smash her skull in with a stone before burying her rather carelessly under the snow. Moving forward 20 years, we are teleported to Venice in the 1970’s; and the arrival of Roberta (Nicoletta Elmi) who has come to stay with her father Franco (George Lazenby) is about to cause history to repeat itself.

 

The movie is a product of the great Aldo Lado the mastermind behind Night Train Murders, and The Short Night Of The Glass Dolls, Lado is not necessarily the best know of the Italian directors especially to the casual Italian movie viewer, but familiar or not you’d certainly agree Lado’s movies have a certain style about them. Here Lado shows a side of Venice that the Italian tourist board would not like you to see, looking dowdy and dirty you can almost smell the dirty Venetian water, add to this a vision of darkness, rain, fog, and cloud cover that you do not think of when Venice enters your mind. Everything about Lado’s outlook of Venice is dark and sinister and not the image you get with movies like The Talented Mr. Ripley or Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now even though this is hardly sun filled; on the subject of the Roeg masterpiece I’d go as far as to say that I suspect that Roeg took a little inspiration from this movie as you can easily spot similarities between the two movies, while Roeg painted a harsh image of Venice, Lado’s version is far more extreme and explicit. Now don’t get me wrong, Lado’s vision is not all dark, there are some most beautiful scenes in the movie, for those with a passion for travel, history, and architecture this movie will make you want to visit Venice even more, what is carefully delivered however is the thought “be careful what you cannot see”.

 

Lado scored well with his leading man acquiring the services of George Lazenby (former James Bond) for a song due to his incredibly high debts (caused due to his dramatic over the top spending while filming On Her Majesties Secret Service), and while Lazenby was criticised for his poor acting on Bond and his lack of sex appeal, he was still a big enough name to ensure that Who Saw Her Die? Got a few more bums on seats in cinemas across the world. I should add that if you thought Lazenby lacked sex appeal before, seeing him naked here is not going to improve your views. Sex appeal or not, this movie does prove that the world was wrong about Lazenby and certainly here he proves himself to be a very capable actor. There is a little more Bond-age here in the casting of Adolfo Celi who starred as Emile Largo in the James Bond movie Thunderball. Celi or rather his character of Serafian a sort of Mafioso boss manages to dominate the entire movie, as a shadowy and untouchable criminal mastermind, a man with fingers in many pies.  Fear not ladies it’s not a male dominated piece and the casting of enchanting Swedish actress Anita Strindberg with her devastatingly striking looks finishes the lead cast off perfectly, an actress who young in her career had already starred in two very successful Italian movies Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin, and Sergio Martino’s The Case Of The Scorpions Tail; few actresses have the powerful look of this actress, let alone the very capable acting skill as she plays a woman in mourning.

 

I have now seen Who Saw Her Die? A dozen times, and reviewed it now for the third time; what I love about the picture is that there is a wonderful power that the movie has, forget the horrible story of a child killer, and the further sideline of a depraved group of perverts; the movies great talent is that by the time I watch the movie again I have completely forgotten who the killer is, making Who Saw Her Die? A movie that you can watch again, and again. How many movies do you know that feel fresh with each repeated watching? And how many movies grow in power with repeated viewings? I won’t deny the first time I saw this movie I could take it or leave it, but now it makes its way to the top of my list for all-time favourite movies. From its gruelling story, its impressive visual delight by its director Aldo Lado, onto its rather impressive score by Ennio Morricone, this is an all round winner.

 

About The DVD

 

Shameless have again gone out of their way to preserve the movie well, it’s in my view a far superior print to the US Anchor Bay edition released some years ago, and greatly improved by the additional seconds of footage, and English subtitles over a couple of scenes previously un-dubbed and without text translation. At last I get to see what it is the creepy kids are singing about in an Italian variant of “Ring A Roses”.

As you progress through the movie there are a few things I had not noticed before, aided by what appears to be better framing. The movie boasts a 2.0 soundtrack, and a frame ratio of 2.35:1.

 

The cover features a front image of a hand holding a knife above a corpse the cover text reading “Before Don’t Look Now Came... Who Saw Her Die? But Who Will Survive To Tell The Tale?” As has become tradition with Shameless Screen Entertainment releases there is an alternate reverse cover featuring a child like picture with a photo of the character Roberta superimposed on it.

 

There are some trailers on the disc starting with The Designated Victim a release due on the 8^th of September and a movie that has never been seen in the UK before. Strip Nude For Your Killer is a classic Giallo thriller by the director of The Nights Of Terror, another future release is Umberto Lenzi’s long unseen Oasis Of Fear also due out with the other two titles in September. As well as a look at the future there are trailers for Night Train Murders, What Have They Done To Your Daughters, and The Black Cat.  There is also a trailer for Who Saw Her Die? That captures perfectly the magic of this spectacular film.

Of all the releases from Shameless this is by far my favourite, despite my love of The Frightened Woman, congratulations Shameless on bringing one of my all time favourites to DVD in the UK. You can purchase Who Saw Her Die? From the 25^th of August.