Directed by Franz Josef Gottlieb. who co-wrote it with Janne Furch, this krimi is based on The Yellow Snake by Edgar Wallace. It’s plot — prep for movies being made in 1963 not being as politcally aware as today — is about a Chinese cult taking over the world with an idol called The Golden Reptile. Fing-Su (Pinkas Braun) leads this cult and is at odds with his Western adopted brother, Clifford Lynn (Joachim Fuchsberger), who comes tosolve the case and is to be married off to one of two arranged marriages, either to Joan (Brigitte Grothum) or Mabel (Doris Kirchner).
Snake cults, human sacrifice, yellow peril — this is less krimi than straight up Sax Rohmer. That said, it looks good and has some fun moments to spare.
This is part of the Terror In the Fog box set and has extras including a new introduction by genre film expert and Video Watchdog founder Tim Lucas and audio commentary by Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw. You can get it from MVD.
A Joe Dante movie always has a conflict — a battle between blockbuster and personal statement, led by a filmmaker with a keen commercial instinct, yet the heart of a nonconformist. Through it all, one walks away with the feeling that while the film itself may have some rough edges, there’s a genuine love for moviemaking (heck, movies themselves) at the core. That makes perfect sense — before Dante was in the industry, he wrote opinionated mini-reviews for the Castle of Frankenstein magazine. After apprenticing as an editor for Roger Corman, he directed Piranha and The Howling, the latter a film that is a veritable love letter to the history of werewolves on film, wrapped within a postmodernist take on the subject. Again, always that juxtaposition.
Perhaps Dante’s biggest monetary — if not critical — success was 1984’s Gremlins, as is its 1990 sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch. The former is a cute and cuddly big-budget affair on one hand; an incredibly dark, depressing, and borderline horror film on the other. There aren’t many family-pleasing films that detail father figures dying in chimneys and left unfound for months, after all. And the latter is sequel that does everything but scream at the viewer that sequels are inferior cash grabs devoid of art while simultaneously throwing everything that Dante and a fleet of the most talented FX guys and animators can invent at the screen, including Chuck Jones coming out of retirement and an insane Hulk Hogan cameo (look, any movie where Paul Bartel asks for the Hulkster’s help dealing with unruly Gremlins in a movie theater demands numerous rewatches).
1998’s Small Soldiers is, on the surface, all about war. And again — it’s a picture at war with itself. GloboTech Industries — no relation to GloboChem, despite David Cross’s appearance in the film — has acquired the Heartland Toy Company. CEO Gil Mars (Dennis Leary) demands toys that play back, so he selects two toy lines — Irwin Wayfair’s (the aforementioned David Cross) Gorgonites and Larry Benson’s (Jay Mohr) Commando Elite — and combines them into one storyline of forces at war with one another. Thanks to a tight deadline, safety testing is ignored, and Benson uses GloboTech’s overly powerful X1000 microprocessor to integrate it into the toys, which makes them self-aware. Trivia note — the stolen password that Benson uses is Gizmo, a reference, of course, to Gremlins.
There’s another war between perception and reality. The toys cast as the bad guys, the Gorgonites, are caring individuals who want to protect the planet, while the militaristic GI Joe-esque Commandos become the heels. So what happens when they arrive at toy stores? That’s answered when Alan Abernathy (Gregory Smith, whose character is potentially named for Clayton Abernathy, GI Joe’s Duke) purchases the entire line from delivery driver Joe (Dick Miller, who appears in every one of Dante’s films). Alan discovers that the toys are living, breathing, sentient beings when Archer sneaks away in his backpack. Upon returning to his dad’s store the next day, the Commando Elite had awakened and decimated the Gorgonites and the rest of the store, leaving traditional, non-mass-produced toys a smoking wreck.
Alan attempts to warn the company of the malfunctioning Commando Elite, who do not understand they are just toys (the Gorgonites have accepted their fate and just want to go to Yosemite National Park, which they feel is their homeland), going on the attack and kidnapping Alan’s love interest, Christy. To defeat their militaristic foes, the Gorgonites must battle their very nature, embracing the violence they abhor.
Small Soldiers is a strange film, a near-spiritual sequel to Gremlins, in that small terrors come to life to battle in the full-sized real world. But it’s unclear whether of its audience and what it wants to be, a fact that Dante himself admitted: “Originally I was told to make an edgy picture for teenagers, but when the sponsor tie-ins came in, the new mandate was to soften it up as a kiddie movie.” Kenner produced the tie-in action figures, albeit for a movie that criticizes the toy industry for prioritizing militaristic conflict over peaceful learning. The Burger King Kids Meals were also controversial, as the film was initially intended to receive a PG rating, rather than the PG-13 it ultimately received.
It’s also a blockbuster that, instead of being relentlessly driven to make money by playing to the lowest common denominator, delves deeply into its references to past films and themes. Additionally, the casting is based on who works best for the film, rather than who sells tickets —a trademark of Dante’s. Tommy Lee Jones may voice the leader of the Commando Elite, Chip Hazard, but Arnold Schwarzenegger was Dante’s original choice (and the rest of the team would have been filled out by the entire cast of Predator). Instead, the surviving cast members of The Dirty Dozen — George Kennedy, Clint Walker, Ernest Borgnine, and Jim Brown — were cast. Richard Jaeckel sadly passed away before filming began, and Charles Bronson refused to lend his voice to a cartoon. The Gorgonites are voiced by Frank Langella (who knows toy tie-ins well, thanks to his role as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe) and the entire Spinal Tap crew of Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest. Even better, there are numerous references to past Dante works, including Robert Picardo’s character, Ralph Quist, who shares the same last name as his character in The Howling, Eddie Quist.
Small Soldiers may have NASCAR, fast food and toy tie-ins, but it feels like a deeply personal film that savors biting the hand that fed the beast that financed it. It may be many things, all at once, but above all, it does not commit the most grievous of all movie sins. It is never ever dull.
This Paramount release also has bloopers and deleted scenes. You can get it from Amazon and Diabolik DVD.
Tickets are on sale now to see Grindhouse Releasing’s long-awaited restoration of SCUM OF THE EARTH, the 1970s backwoods Southern Gothic slasher-movie from director S.F. Brownrigg (DON’T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT).
SCUM OF THE EARTH screens July 18 & 19 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre (290 Harvard Street, Brookline, Mass., 02446).
A city gal’s romantic weekend at a rustic lakeside cabin in bayou country becomes a nightmare of squalor, depravity, and slaughter with a bloodthirsty maniac on the loose in this ’70s drive-in classic from the makers of DON’T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT.
When her husband is brutally axe-murdered, Helen (Norma Moore) flees for her life into the swamps where she runs into Odie Pickett (Gene Ross), the mean, moonshine-swilling patriarch to a wretched brood: his pregnant child bride Emmy (Ann Stafford), rebellious daughter Sara (Camilla Carr), and slow-witted son Bo (Charlie Dell). Taking refuge at the family’s isolated shack, Helen soon finds out how they live below Tobacco Road – and how they die, as the lurking, unseen killer strikes, again and again….
SCUM OF THE EARTH became a top-grossing box-office hit in 1976 when it was re-released as POOR WHITE TRASH PART II. Decades in the making, the new restoration was produced by David Szulkin and Bob Murawski, the owner of Grindhouse Releasing. Award-winning colorist Alastor Arnold (ANORA) revived Brownrigg’s drive-in exploitation classic from the rotting film elements.
The Coolidge Corner Theatre is New England’s most successful independent nonprofit cinema. “Grindhouse Releasing has a long history playing midnights at the Coolidge, going back to the release of THE BEYOND in 1998,” Szulkin said. “Since then, they’ve shown all of our movies, from the 35mm tours of THE EVIL DEAD, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, and GONE WITH THE POPE, to our 4K restorations of DEATH GAME, IMPULSE, and HOLLYWOOD 90028. We’re excited to give the Coolidge After Midnite audience the first look at SCUM OF THE EARTH.”
SCUM OF THE EARTH reviews:
“UNFORGETTABLE” – Philadelphia Inquirer
“A foul exercise in imbecility. In the tradition of DERANGED and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE…a mindless plethora of gore, punctured bodies, and sexual assault.” – Los Angeles Times
“BETTER THAN YOU MIGHT BELIEVE. In fact, it’s better than a lot of movies you go to expecting some art in addition to artfulness. There are actually some moments of art here – in the acting, especially, in the casting and even in the storyline, despite the subject matter.” – Detroit Free Press.
“A BITTER BLEND OF SPLATTER AND SLEAZE…Brownrigg’s best film….QUINTESSENTIAL SWAMP TRASH. What elevates SCUM OF THE EARTH above the commonplace is a compelling script complemented by several intense, unsettlingly believable performances. Brownrigg regular Gene Ross anchors SCUM OF THE EARTH with his menacing portrayal of human monster Odis. Almost as impressive are Ann Stafford as Odis’ abused wife Emmy and Camilla Carr as his slutty daughter Sarah. Special mention must be given to the incredible performance of Charlie Dell as Odis Pickett’s dimwitted son. Well, let’s hope that Charlie was performing. Brownrigg’s stars are aided by an intense script that bristles with backwoods dialogue worthy of Sam Shepard. Feverish arguments and verbal assaults ignite what would otherwise have been stock characterizations. Ross’ Odis is a personification of patriarchal evil, a false god from Judeo-Christian nightmare scripture. Scenes of him glowering at the young widow are stomach-turning in their slavish cinematic devotion to Ross’s every sickening gesture and inflection. His is a frightening performance that overwhelms a film barely able to contain it.” – Charles Kilgore, ECC.O
“A sweaty, seamy deep Southern-fried movie made by and for maniacs…makes you feel like you have to take a shower after you watch it. This movie is awash in scum, while still finding some compassion for even its most depraved characters… A MASTERPIECE.” — Sam Panico, B & S About Movies
Thanks, Grindhouse, for using my review! I can’t wait to see this print!
At Camp Crystal Lake, an undercover government agent lures Jason into a trap, blowing him up real good. I saw this scene in a movie theater in Youngstown, OH (former murder capital of the US!) and the crowd cheered their name being mentioned as a place Jason had been seen.
Soon after, the body is being examined by a coroner who is moved to eat the heart and ingest the spirit of Jason. He goes right back to Crystal Lake and right back to killing him. And now comes the part of the story that no one has ever figured out until now, making the story just like Halloween(again!): Creighton Duke (Steven Williams, Dr. Detroit) is a bounty hunter who learns that only members of Jason’s bloodline can truly kill him. Even worse, if he can possess a family member, he’ll become invincible.
Jason’s only living relatives are his half-sister Diana Kimble (Erin Gray!), her daughter Jessica, and Stephanie, the infant daughter of Jessica and Steven Freeman (John D. LeMay, who played Ryan Dallion on the otherwise unrelated Friday the 13th: The Series).
Jessica is now dating tabloid TV reporter Robert Campbell (Steven Culp, Rex Van de Kamp from Desperate Housewives), yet Steven saves her from Jason. He gets blamed for her mother’s death, and just as Robert is about to take advantage, Jason goes into his body, all to impregnate his half-sister and make a perfect Jason baby. Oh, incest, we were waiting for you to show up.
Meanwhile, Jason wipes out most of the police in town. But then Duke the bounty hunter steals the baby and demands that Jessica meet him at the Vorhees house alone, so that he can give her the mystical dagger that can kill Jason. Now this film has become The Omen.
Despite all this, the heart that is Jason grows into a demonic infant and then crawls into a dead woman’s vagina and is reborn. Yes, you just read that sentence correctly. And man, I said that 5 was the scummiest entry in the series!
It all works out — the dagger releases all of the souls that Jason has accumulated and demonic forces drag him into hell. At the end of the movie, a dog finds Jason’s mask and of all things, Freddy’s gloved hand pulls it into the ground!
The late great Mike McBeardo McPadden wrote about watching this scene on 42nd Street, where the crowd went wilder than any he’d ever experienced and that a man screamed to no one in particular, in the dark, “Freddy wants somebody to play with … IN HELL!!!!” Man, I wish I were there for that. You should also grab his Heavy Metal Movieshere at Bazillion Points Books.
Finally, after all these years, Freddy and Jason were set to battle. But guess what? We’d have to wait ten years for it to happen. Because, after all, Jason had to go to space first. Arrow has also released that on UHD.
The Arrow Video UHD of Jason Goes to Hell has both a theatrical and unrated cut.
Extras include an introduction to the theatrical cut by director Adam Marcus, interviews with special make-up effects creator Robert Kurtzman, actor Julie Michaels, composer Harry Manfredini and director Adam Marcus; a feature on Marcus on growing up with the Cunninghams; an archival interview with Kane Hodder; extra footage from the TV version; a trailer and TV commercial and still, behind the scenes and poster galleries.
The uncensored cut has three commentary tracks: one by film historians Michael Felsher and Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton, another with Marcus and author Peter Bracke, and one with Marcus and screenwriter Dean Lorey.
It all comes inside a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin, a double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin and an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by JA Kerswell and original production notes.
Also known as American Commando Ninja, IFD claims that this is made by Joe Law. Really, who can tell you the truth? Who even knows how many titles this has, how much music it stole or what it’s about? Hocus pocus, as the sensei says at the beginning. It doesn’t have to make sense. Seeing as how this was produced by Joseph Lai and Betty Chan, all bets are off.
Jow Law is also Law Chi AKA Chi Lo, the director of The Crippled Masters, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (using the name Lo Ke), Girl with Cat’s Eyes and Magic Swords.
This poster has nothing to do with the movie you’re about to watch. Who cares? You’re here, one assumes, for ninjas. Or commandoes. Or Commando the Ninja.
IFD also lets us know what this should be about: “David, an up-coming young master of Ninjitsu, is recruited by his master to steal the formula for a bacteriological weapon and to free the Japanese scientist who is responsible for developing it. He is pitted against two wily opponents: Mark, a KGB operative, and Martin, who are bent on using the formula in a bid for world domination. The fate of humanity is in the hands of David and a group of four surprisingly acrobatic young fighters.”
Ninjas. “Life means nothing to them,” says Mister Tanaka, a man who shows up in this outfit, wearing an outfit like my dad’s in the mid-80s, a striped red polo, and short shorts.
If you asked IFD twice what this movie was about, they’d say, “A Japanese scientist tries to conceal a deadly formula, but an undead ace and his ninja devils are determined to use it to cause mischief and mayhem. It is up to Lung, a master of the lost art of Hocus Pocus, to keep evil at bay and prevent mass destruction on a global scale.”
Sure, maybe.
IMDB lists the director as Chi Lo, who used the name Joe Law to make Crippled Masters and Lo Ke to direct Deadly Hands of Kung Fu.
This also combines a Taiwanese TV show, another movie called Born a Ninja, and the kind of dialogue that only can come from an 1980s dubbed into incomprehension ninja movie can give you. Or it’s Silent Killers. It could have many titles, but it would still be hard to tell you what happened.
Let me try.
Mister Tanaka had a secret formula from World War II that could destroy the world. That much is true. Two women want the formula, and they are Becky, who wears a yellow vest and Confederate flag shorts. Still, I think that means she’s into late 70s and early 80s redneck trends in America a little too late as they move across the globe and isn’t racist like my neighbor who wears short shorts and throws away all his kids toys after his wife took them and also has a huge Southern Cross up on his garage wall despite being an Italian man in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Did I go on a tangent? Becky is joined by Brenda, who loves denim so much that she wears it on the top and bottom. They’re joined by a master of the hocus pocus style, Larry, who involves your everyday kung fu and the ability to shoot fire out of his fingertips.
As for the evil guy ninja, that’s Meng Fei, who was also in the Ninja Death trilogy, Night Orchid, Everlasting Chivalry, The Sun Moon Legend and Middle Kingdom’s Mark of Blood. He’s pretty impressive in the last fight scene.
Anyway, Mister Tanaka keeps dreaming of dead people who were killed by this secret back in the war. The secret is a mirrored mustache that you put on a devil mask. There’s also a white ninja named David who battles Larry before they decide to be friends, get a room, drink beer and eat fried cabbage.
Or maybe that was the last movie? Have years of drinking, substances, and Godfrey Ho movies dulled my reason, and when confronted by this synth-scored shot on video, my mind just wanders in between different martial worlds, unsure of all the things I’ve seen, all the ninja deaths I’ve felt as if they were my own? In truth, the only important thing is that ninjas can become straw men and that you can swallow a sword in the middle of a fight and live.
I do know one thing. When David sees Larry hanging out with the two ladies, he says, “Two chicks? You are an animal!” That’s exactly how I felt.
Like all IFD movies, this steals a lot of the soundtrack. There’s Miklos Rozsa’s soundtrack for The VIPs, electroacoustic composer Francis Dhomont’s “Pointe De Fuite,” the Michelle Yeoh-starring Royal Warriors, Alexander Lo Rei ninja films like Ninja Death, lots of the John William soundtrack for The Protector, the Bill Conti soundtrack for For Your Eyes Only and the Roy Budd soundtrack for Something to Hide. I’m shocked there was no Sisters of Mercy, myself.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Cinematic Void will be playing this movie on Thursday, Jan. 16 at 9:00 PM at The Plaza Theater in Atlanta, GA (tickets here) and January 25 at midnight at The Belcourt in Nashville, TN (tickets here). For more information, visit Cinematic Void.
A monkey. A girl who can talk to bugs. Donald Pleasence. All directed by Dario Argento. If you don’t immediately say to yourself, “I’m in,” you’re reading the wrong website.
Within the movie’s first two minutes, you realize you’re watching an Argento film. A tourist misses her bus somewhere in the Swiss countryside before she is attacked by an unseen person and then beheaded.
Fast forward a bit, and we catch Jennifer (Jennifer Connelly, Labyrinth, The Rocketeer) arriving at the Richard Wagner Academy for Girls — did I tell you this is an Argento movie? The head of the school, Frau Brückner (Dario Nicolodi, Argento’s wife (at the time) and mother to his daughter Aria, who also co-wrote Suspiria and appeared in Deep Red, Inferno, Tenebre and Opera, amongst other films), already sets up an air of menace. Even her roommate offers no relief, telling Jennifer how much she wishes she could have sex with the heroine’s famous actor father. At this point, Jennifer relates a horrifying story about how her mother left her — it’s a moment of pure pain in a film that hasn’t led you to expect it. That’s because it’s a true story. The true story of how Dario Argento’s mother left his family.
Jennifer tends to sleepwalk, which leads her through the school and up to the roof, where she watches a student get murdered. She wakes up, falls and runs from the murderer, ending up in the woods where she’s rescued by Inga the chimp — again, did I mention this is an Argento film? Inga works for forensic entomologist John McGregor (Pleasence). Argento was inspired by the fact that insects are often used in crime investigations to learn how old a body is and worked that into this film. McGregor knows that Jennifer can talk to the bugs.
After returning to the school, things go from bad to worse. Jennifer’s roommate is murdered, and a firefly leads our sleepwalking protagonist to a glove covered by Great Sarcophagus flies, which eat decaying human flesh, which can only mean that the killer is keeping his body — again, Argento.
At this point, Phenomena pays tribute to Carrie, with the other students making fun of her regarding her love of bugs. She calls a swarm of flies into the building, and it collapses, which leads to Frau Brückner recommending her to a home for the criminally insane. Luckily, Jennifer runs to McGregor, who gives her a bug in a glass case that she can use to track the murderer. Again, you know who. The bug leads Jennifer to the same house we saw at the film’s beginning.
Meanwhile, McGregor is killed after Inga is locked outside. True fact: the chimpanzee who played Inga, Tanga, sounds like she was uncontrollable. She ran away for an entire evening of the shoot and nearly bit off one of Jennifer Connelly’s fingers.
Let me see if I can sum up the craziness that ensues: Jennifer calls her father’s lawyer for help, who ends up bringing Frau Brückner back into this mess, who tries to poison Jennifer and then knocks her out with a piece of wood. She then KOs a cop before Jennifer escapes, going through a dungeon and a basement until she falls into a pool that is packed with maggot-ridden corpses. This is the point in the film where you may want to stop eating because it gets rather intense from here on out. As Jennifer escapes that watery tomb, she hears someone crying. That someone is Frau’s son, who was born from a rape. Jennifer asks him why she thinks he’s a monster, to which he turns to face her and scares the fucking shit out of her. Seriously, it’s jolting — the kid has Patau Syndrome, a real chromosomal abnormality (it’s makeup in the film, but looks quite true to life). He then chases Jennifer into a motorboat, but at the last second, she calls a swarm of flies to attack him. He falls into the water, and the boat explodes, and he dies, and…whew.
I know this film is 32 years old, but I will leave some spoiler space here because what happens next is crazy.
Jennifer reaches the shore just as her father’s lawyer arrives. All well, all good and then, out of nowhere, Frau cuts the dude’s head clean off. Plus, she’s already killed the cop, and she goes absolutely shithouse.
“He was diseased, but he was my son! And you have… Why didn’t I kill you before? I killed that no-good inspector and your professor friend to protect him! And now… I’m gonna KILL YOU TO AVENGE HIM! Why don’t you call your INSECTS! GO ON! CALL! CALL!”
At this point, Inga, the chimpanzee, comes out of nowhere and kills Frau with a razor. Keep in mind that this is not just one cut. This is a simian who knows how to get the murder business done.
Jennifer and Inga hug. Roll the credits.
Phenomena was the last Argento movie to get significant distribution in the U.S., thanks (or no thanks) to New Line Cinema, which played it here as Creepers. This version is 33 minutes shorter than the original and has so many scenes shuffled that it makes little or no sense. Also, unlike other Argento films, Goblin only has two songs in this, as modern bands like Iron Maiden and Motörhead are featured.
I love this movie. It makes little sense, but you don’t walk into an Italian horror film expecting narrative structure. You hope to see some crazy gore, some interesting death scenes and maggots — all things that this film more than delivers. I’m not the only fan of this flick — the Japanese video game Clock Tower is an homage to this film, even featuring a heroine named Jennifer.
BONUS: We did a podcast all about this movie, and you can hear it here:
The sixth season premiered on HBO on October 31, 1984, with “Only Skin Deep” — along with “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” and “Whirlpool” — an episode directed by William Malone (feardotcom, Scared to Death) and written by Dick Beebe, who also worked with Malone on House On Haunted Hill.
Carl (Peter Onorati) is a woman-beating loser who shows up at a party knowing an ex will be there and makes a scene, as everyone knew he would, before meeting a masked woman named Molly (Sherrie Rose, Mary Jo from American Rickshaw), who says that she is dressed as “a synthetic shield with a corpse inside.” She takes Carl home, but that’s probably not a good idea for either of them.
“Hmm, I see your raise and I call! Bleed ’em and weep! Spades beat hearts every time. Oh, hello creeps. So glad you could join me for my weekly game. My deal! Hacks and chokers are wild. Are you in? Good. So’s the man in tonight’s terror tale, except his game is relationships. It’s a ghoulish little gamble I call “Only Skin Deep.””
The night of wild passion they share takes away Carl’s anger, but it won’t last, as she wants nothing to do with him afterward. He soon learns that attacking her is the worst thing he could have done, as she has no true face. Soon, he doesn’t have one of his own.
This episode was based on “Only Skin Deep!” from Tales from the Crypt #38, written by Al Feldstein and William Gaines and drawn by Reed Crandall. The comic is very different, as Herbert and Suzanne meet yearly at Mardi Gras. One year, Herbert becomes tired of being separated from her for a whole year and asks him to marry her. Suzanne still refuses to remove her witch mask, even after she marries him and they consummate their relationship. Then, when he tries to remove the mask himself, he rips off her face and watches her slowly die. Good Lord! Choke…
Film Masters has put together an exciting blu ray with Creature of the Blue Hand, scanned in 4K from 35 mm archival elements, a new 4K scan of Web of the Spider and The Bloody Dead. Bonus features include commentaries on both movies by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman; reimagined trailers for Creature of the Blue Hand and Web of the Spider; a trailer for Castle of Blood; new documentaries on Edgar Wallace and Klaus Kinski’s acting in the Rialto krimi movies; an archival commentary for The Bloody Dead by Sam Sherman; raw and behind the scenes footage for The Bloody Dead and a booklet with essays by Christopher Stewardson and Nick Clarke.
Creature With the Blue Hand (1967): Based on the Edgar Wallace novel The Blue Hand and part of a long-running series of krimi adaptations by Rialto Film, this was bought by New World Pictures and issued as a double feature in the U.S. with Beast of the Yellow Night. Man, how good was life then?
Klaus Kinski plays Dave Emerson, who chokes out a nurse and escapes from a mental hospital before running to the castle of his twin brother Richard — also Kinski — as a black robed killer roams the grounds and kills people with his astounding blue claw with razorblades on the fingers, like something out of a giallo. For example, oh, Death Walks at Midnight. Or A Nightmare On Elm Street, which came 17 years after this.
Director Alfred Vohrer keeps things moving and it all looks gorgeous if indebted to Mario Bava. That said, aren’t all movies made after him? There’s also an incredible insane asylum sequence, featuring rooms filled with mice, rats and one female patient who just strips all day and night. This is the kind of movie world where you just want to live inside it, except that, yeah, there’s a killer on the loose and the cops are as always ineffectual.
Coming out just three years before giallo would surpass the krimi while using many of the same ideas from Edgar Wallace, this film reminds me that I need to get deeper into watching these German detective movies.
Creature With the Blue Hand later re-edited in 1987 with new gore inserts by producer Sam Sherman for his company Independent International — wow, I love that so much — and released to home video as The Bloody Dead. The extra scenes — almost ten minutes of new footage — were directed by Warren F. Disbrow and his father Warren Disbrow Sr. You can learn more about that movie below.
Web of the Spider (1971): After Castle of Blood‘s disappointing box office, Antonio Margheriti felt he could remake the film in color and have it be more successful.
Edgar Allan Poe (Klaus Kinski) is our narrator and Kinski shows up for the beginning and the ending of the movie. He’s interviewed by Alan Foster (Anthony Franciosa), who challenges him as to the truth of his stories. This leads to a bed with Lord Blackwood (Enrico Osterman) about spending a night in his castle, a place where he soon meets Elisabeth (Michèle Mercier, Black Sabbath) and quickly falls into love — and bed — with her before she announces that she’s no longer alive.
There’s also Julia (Karin Field), William Perkins (Silvano Tranquilli) and Elisabeth’s husband,Dr. Carmus (Peter Carsten). The ghosts need his blood to come back to life, but Elisabeth helps him to escape, only for him to impale himself on the gate, dying just as Poe gets there.
I adore that the tagline of this is “Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s Night of the Living Dead.” He did write a poem “Spirits of the Dead” and the 1932 movie The Living Dead was based on Poe’s “The Black Cat” and “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” as well as Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Suicide Club. But no, he has nothing to do with Romero’s movie.
I really like the soundtrack by Riz Ortolani but this can’t compare to the black and white — and yes, Barbara Steele appearance — in the original. That said, Kinski is awesome in every second he’s on screen, looking like a complete madman.
The Bloody Dead (1987): Warren F. Disbrow Jr. met Sam Sherman when he shot the interview footage for Drive-In Madness. That led to him being called to shoot new footage — 15 minutes worth — with Gene Reynolds and Tony Annunziata on remade asylum sets to make it appear that Creature With the Blue Hand wasn’t a movie made twenty years before as this was going to be released on VHS by Very Strange Video.
When this came out on DVD from Image Entertainment, Jim Arena wrote “”Sam needed to punch up the film with some gore to make the picture more appealing to modern-day audiences. That meant new scenes would have to be filmed. With a lucrative video distribution deal already on the table, Sam went to work and brought in associate Warren Disbrow to re-create the German asylum sets at his facilities in New Jersey. Hannibal Lector’s Silence of the Lambs institution cell recreation for 2002’s Red Dragon has been hailed for its precision, but Sherman and Disbrow’s attempt at duplicating Dr.Mangrove’s asylum, where most of the newly shot footage was intended to expand upon, is no less impressive. It is actually difficult to tell the difference between the two sets.”
Disbrow Sr. made a new version of the claw hand that the killer used and Ed French did the special effects. Other than the 15 minutes or so of new footage, this is almost the same exact movie, just with the added gore that late 80s audiences expected.
After leaving his store, the owner (Christian Barba) saves Santa (Tim Brown) from being mugged. As he hats him back his hat, he’s sent back to medieval times where he becomes Sir Klaus of the Lord’s Star. Along with chimney sweep Black Pete (Jackson Geach), he will battle other knights such as Sir Angus (Alex Chamberlain) and Jeffrey Greenfield (Fran Rafferty) to bring peace back to the land. His main weapon? The Good News of Jesus Christ.
Directed by Robby Sparks, who wrote the script with Terry Cronin, this is probably the most religious film I’ll feature on the site this season. It’s a pretty simple story and has a quick running time, so I didn’t dislike the time that I spent with it.
In case you’re wondering, Ann Travolta, who plays a shopper in this, is John’s sister.
Any movie that refers to its titular monster as the “critter from the shitter,” you know what you’re getting into. Oh, Italian cinema. I love you so.
Marlis and Peggy are modeling on a Caribbean Island when Peggy gets eaten by rats. You know. The kind of thing that happens every time they shoot the Sports Illustrated SwimsuitIssue cover.
Peggy’s sister Terry (Janet Ågren, City of the Living Dead, Eaten Alive!) shows up to investigate along with Fred (David Warbeck, The Beyond). They learn that the real culprit is a two-foot tall ape/rat hybrid, which is something out of Alex Jones’ worst nightmares. And yours and mine as well, as it’s played by Nelson de la Rosa, who you may also remember as Marlon Brando’s miniature twin inThe Island of Dr. Moreau. His attacks are filled with screaming rat noises and really seem like harrowing moments to have filmed.
Shockingly, this movie is directed by Giuliano Carnimeo, whose Case of the Bloody Iris is one of my favorite giallo films! It’s written by Dardano Sacchetti, who of course helped create The Beyond, The New York Ripper, 1990: The Bronx Warriors, The Church and so many other Italian genre favorites. Dardano, thank you for all the complete lunacy and demented fun that you have brought into our lives!
The end of this film is a joy. A shocker that will surprise you with just how effective Italian genre filmmaking can be. It made me howl in abject joy!
The Cauldron Video blu ray of Rat Man is packed with some great extras, including commentary by Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson; interviews with with cinematographer Roberto Girometti, camera operator Federico Del Zoppo and post-production consultant Alberto De Martino; a trailer; and a reversible blu ray wrap with new artwork by Justin Coffee and the original artwork.
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