Phantom of Pulp

Rare Zombie/Alien/Porno From France –– Oui!!!

2020-04-21T09:12:00.001-07:00

Recently came across this pretty amazing '78 French horror/porno/sci-fi flick known as PORNO ZOMBIE, but whose actual title is LA FILLE A LA FOURRURE (Girl in the Fur Coat?)

In the same genre as EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD, it adds a fascinating sci-fi angle to a Jess Franco-like plot involving a just-married couple whose pending consummation is interrupted by the appearance of the husband's late wife (yes, the dead wife reappears). This creates some complexity, needless to say.

A story in one review of the film explains that director Claude Pierson's screenwriter wife (Huguette Boisvert) was happy for Claude to make porn as long as proper emphasis was placed on the importance of marital relations in the film. Well, I'm happy to report that Ms. Boisvert's condition does work in this film's favor because much of the sex is quite loving and very erotic, and that makes for a steamy, unusual tone.

This French treat is the best horror/zombie/porno hybrid I can think of, and the female screenwriter's addition of aliens to the couplings (and one beautifully shot moonlit orgy) works a treat. A synth score underlines the horror elements, and a memorable score for piano and some strings enriches the sex scenes and the film's forest setting.

Though promoted as such in some markets, this is not really a zombie film, it is more of a porno/sci-fi film with a zombie film vibe (ZOMBIE LAKE, OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES). Had I been told Jess Franco directed this, I wouldn't have been shocked, but the sex scenes don't possess the Franco point of view.

Ultimately, the plot doesn't make any real world sense, but spending ninety minutes in the cinematic world of this film was a rare pleasure.

(I researched the work of Huguette Boisvert (who often wrote as Elisabeth Leclair) and, wow!, she's been incredibly prolific, and did write a number of obscure French films I'm very fond of including TENDRE ADOLESCENTE, JEUNES FILLES POUR PARTOUZES, LA GRANDEV RECRE, and ALL ABOUT WOMAN. Admittedly, some of these titles I've only watched un-subbed).

Watch Purgatory Road for free

2019-12-01T09:25:00.001-08:00

My new film, Purgatory Road, is now playing, for free, on TubiTV.com

Or catch it on Amazon Prime.

Also on BluRay from Unearthed.

Trailer for my new film PURGATORY ROAD

2018-12-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

Purgatory Road Trailer 3 from Delirium on Vimeo.

2018-08-19T09:51:00.002-07:00

Not sure why, but I'd never paid much attention to Robert Hartford Davies' CORRUPTION before. I watched it many, many years ago, enjoyed it somewhat, but moved on without too much contemplation.

Last night's viewing just made me angry. Cushing, good as always, plays an established surgeon who's dating (wait for it!) a selfish, twenty-something C.U.Next.Tuesday (Sue Lloyd) whose utter stupidity and lack of sensitivity ends up forcing Cushing into a physical confrontation with a smug, irritating, sleazy photographer who's decided to take salacious pix of Lloyd with Lloyd's full blessing.

During the altercation, a lighting fixture falls on top of Lloyd and gives her an almighty burn and a throughly well deserved slap to the ego. The rest of the film then follows Cushing as he –– wait for it again! –– gives up his amazing career as a surgeon so he can dedicate his life to finding a surgical "cure" for Lloyd. Yep, that's ten years of medical school and decades of hard work down the drain for this self-obsessed, twenty-something bitch who should have died an agonizing death when the light fixture hit her.

The film opens with Cushing sleeping after a hard, long day of surgery. He's interrupted by a phone call from Lloyd. Despite his insisting that he's much too tired to hit the town and attend a stupid, swinging London party filled with unbearable wankers, he relents. At the party, he's immediately insulted by Lloyd's photographer friend who wants to get into her pants, and is forced to stand around listening to some brainless, drugged-out twit while Lloyd dances and flirts with the sleazy photographer. Eventually, an impatient, justifiably pissed-off Cushing approaches Lloyd, tells her he's really tired, and suggests they leave. Of course, Lloyd couldn't give a fuck about his feelings, and shoots off again with the photographer, quickly disrobing.

Instead of dumping Lloyd right there and then, as any dignified man would, and exiting, Cushing acts like a simp and gets into the above-mentioned fight with said photographer The rest of the film hinges on Cushing's devotion to this horrible woman, and that's its big mistake amongst a litany of smaller ones.

Could the writer not have contrived the scarring of Lloyd in a more amateurish way? It's unbelievable that we're expected to give a damn about a woman whose connection to Cushing is invisible beyond Daddy issues, but all of Cushing's law-breaking and body-butchering is for her. Not once does this horrible shrew admit that the scarring was essentially her own fault, and if she had been sensitive to Daddy's tired state in the first place and not flirted with the photographer, none of this would have happened.

As much as I love Cushing, I had so little sympathy for him in this film. He comes across, per screenplay, as a pathetic cuck and simp, and any man who'd give up his career and devote his life to such a narcissitic, no-account monster is a damn fool. So the film is about a damn fool throwing his life away for a spoilt child in adult clothing. Unfortunately, this situation is often duplicated in real life with similar results, so perhaps the writer was sounding a painful warning to older men whose penises seem to forgive the sins of toxic females if they're young –– not a set-up that usually ends well, I hear.

The film has plenty of murders, but the staging is poor, the writing obvious and odious, and because of the idiotic character dynamics, I just found the situation pathetic.

After this, I needed a full-on dose of FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, a classic Cushing film with a script about fifity times better than this one.

Note to Pete: know when to kick someone to the curb, buddy!, and look up MGTOW on-line for some pointers on how not to fuck up your entire life chasing pussy.

Purgatory Road Trailer

2017-12-27T21:49:00.003-08:00

Due to filmmaking commitments, I haven't posted on this blog for some time.

I'm hoping to re-commence at least occasional posts soon as the work load diminishes somewhat.

In the last 12 months, I've been busy completing PURGATORY ROAD, a religion-themed horror film set in Mississippi.

The film will be released in the second quarter of 2018.

Below is the first trailer:

PURGATORY ROAD Teaser Trailer (Delirium; 2017) from Delirium on Vimeo.

Bad Bad Gang Ain't Bad At All

2016-06-30T15:03:00.004-07:00

Released via Synapse's Impulse label, John Donne's BAD BAD GANG is a worthy companion to Impulse's previously released FARMER'S DAUGHTERS.

Definitely X-Rated and featuring plenty of rape and anti-social behavior, it, nevertheless, keeps the violence very soft and rapes not too far left of consensual.

Shot in Orange County, California on the backroads of Modjeska Peak mountain and the Silverado Canyon area, it's an interesting attempt by early XXX-rated filmmakers to blend a Roger Corman-style biker pic with porn, which was on the rise at the time.

Simple premise sees two couples holidaying in a trailer ambushed by a gang of dim-witted bikers. Two women are carried off to a nearby cave where they are tied up, sexed up, and roughed up by said bikers while the biker molls look on in disgust. That disgust becomes a desire to get even with their leather jacketed partners for the molls, so they return to the trailer to fuck the men folk who lost their ladies to the gang.

All ends reasonably happily.

The reason to watch this scratched-up slice of exploitation is for the sleazy sex and 70's attitude. The hardcore, fortunately, doesn't obsess itself with blowjobs –– instead, the ladies and gents engage in a lot of cunnilingus and some standard intercourse –– and the coverage of the sex is pretty creative. Lesbian fans won't be disappointed, either, because not a female in the cast (including Rene Bond) doesn't dive between the thighs of her sister at some point in the proceedings.

BAD BAD GANG is let down somewhat by the poorly staged violence, and it's very apparent that director Donne did not know much about staging anything but fucking and sucking when he made this baby. An opening sequence of the bikers following the trailer down a country road is high end for a pic of this ilk, but it doesn't stay that way for long.

Kudos to Impulse for dredging up this relic and re-instating scenes cut from general release prints. This is as complete as it gets.

I always love seeing a new roughie, but it's always disappointing, too, to discover that most were rarely directed by anyone with serious filmmaking chops. Nevertheless, for fans of sleaze that isn't quite as hardcore as the marketing suggests, this is a nice gift.

The Second Coming - Volume 1

2016-06-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

"Wolstencroft's Odyssey" is the first description I would reach for to describe his THE SECOND COMING –– VOLUME 1, a feature-length rumination, fueled by the essence of W.B. Yeats, on power, the occult, mysticism, politics, religion, and the inevitability of self-destruction.

This loosely directed, but smartly curated work, fell on my eyes initially like a welcome acid rain with its rainbow-like mixture of images and characters. Although mostly non-actors fill its roster, these are rarely ordinary folk –– on the contrary, they are predominantly anti-Establishment figures, alternative press writers, infamous record producers, documentary figures, and formidable, card-carrying troublemakers who naturally tend to toward being potent metaphors of their own intellectual positions.

Richard Wolstencroft, as is his fetish, has assembled these rogues from the four corners of the globe and forced a narrative for them that provides a skeleton on which to hang broad contemplations and sharp slips of the tongue.

Although his previous films such as PEARLS BEFORE SWINE and THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED took detours into the type of material presented here, these digressions were sometimes heavy-handed because they felt divorced from the imposed narrative. There's no problem with that here because the narrative, while novel, is deliberate nonsense that has us hungering for the detours. Ultimately, the film is permanent detours, and that is its strength.

Ex-porn actor Michael Tierney, who was the subject of a prior documentary by Wolstencroft, is this film's unofficial narrator as he wanders, quite literally, through landscapes that both starve and feed his troubled psyche. Along the way he engages with author Gene Gregoritis, and points us towards bouts of insanity with record producer Kim Fowley (now deceased), an encounter with the passionate literary poison of the indefatigable Boyd Rice, fragments of the luminous Kristen Condon, whose role is considerably larger in the sequel, and a shadowy liaison with Pete Doherty and his cohorts.

The film sticks to ya. Technically it's what you would expect from a one-take doco because it is one-take (it's recording the heart and the head), but the pleasure of this film, Wolstencroft's best, and the first to truly reflect his own truth, is the smeared, crazy, drunk, stoned, uninhibited journey. Surely that is a type of cinema to be encouraged.

Stressed To Kill Opens in Los Angeles Tomorrow

2016-05-26T09:31:00.001-07:00

My new film, STRESSED TO KILL, opens in LA tomorrow.

If you want to attend the opening night, follow this blog, and live in the LA area, post a message with your name in the comments section here. I'll comp the first five people and put your name on the door.

The film has been 18 months in the works, and is responsible for my lack of posting over the period.

Apologies for that.

Both Bill Oberst Jr. and Armand Assante turn in amazing performances, and I'm so grateful for their involvement in the film.

Other standouts: Lance Tafelski, Sonia Curtis, Marshal Hilton, Derek Roberts, Lynn Single, Paul Fanning, Tom Parnell, Mary Krantz

The Late, Great Di Mulatto Endures

2015-09-05T20:47:00.001-07:00

Bondage/fetish art Di Mulatto is dead, but, like any fine artist, he left behind a legacy that will endure forever.

The Bizarre Library series of books, which are not an easy find, often didn't bother to credit writers, even though the quality of the writing is above average for the genre.

Here's a sample of the above books' opening:

"Isn't Eve Sedgewick lovely?" someone murmured, and there was a general turning of heads and flutter of whispers as eager, bright eyes turned to see the famed beauty enter the statesroom of the yacht.

She certainly was a gorgeous creature. Her golden blonde hair spilled around smooth, alabaster shoulders, framing a delicately hewn oval-shaped face.

Her eyes were large and cool blue, and there was a supercilious arch to her eyebrow, as if to say, "I'm better than you are, and I know it."

She had a small, perky nose and full, voluptuously sensuous lips, the color of passion fruit.

Her figure was magnificent. She was wearing a shimmering white chiffon gown which was sleeveless and cut shockingly low over her curvaceous torso.

Her thrusting, ballooning breasts pressed against the pale material as if ready to spring free at any moment.

Her waist was trim and slender, and her hips just wide enough to be sensual without being pudgy.

Certainly the best of the genre was being produced by H.O.M. (House of Milan) with covers by Robert Bishop and text by FE Campbell. Still, Bizarre was a worthy competitor.

"Mistress of Pain" is one of my favorite Bizarre titles. It's a little overwritten, but passion trumps all any time.

This is from the book's prologue:

Prologue

Diana Cazadora's smile was a menacing wreath of cruelty as it played about her lolling tongue. The incessant metallic glow from her green eyes pierced through the web of oiled black tresses that crawled in serpentine tendrils over her ivory shoulders to her brilliantly nippled titflesh.

She saw the looks of putrid fear on the faces of those who had profaned her.

Those who now knew that humiliation, degradation and abysmal pain would be their punishment.

Diana saw also the stony grimaces of those who had yet to penetrate her domain. They would soon know that the indomitable savagery of their mistress's snapping quim was no legendary tale.

It was the key to their existence.

The bristling snake pit that would succor their hunger. By feeding ravenously upon them.

She gazed diffidently at the leather-clad man's purple-black prick pullulating with jungle jism. Smirked at his tremendous flowering of balls.

Sweat ran cold as she spoke, and cunt-juices stopped dead in their cracks. Semen hardened in dicks heavy with churning blood.

"The men have proved that they cannot even pretend to master the empire of pain, of panic-of pandemonium. Therefore the mistress will resume her rightful place."

Her hips twitched like the rump of a leashed bitch in rut.

"The animals die with fear in their eyes," she said with flared nostrils. "Let's see how keen you all are to meet my machines."

The covers below for "School For Sex Slaves" and "The Professor's Dungeon" represent a regression in cover art.

As the cover price was now $4.95, it's not illogical to assume that these books appeared a couple of years after the previous titles, and the artist is now "Esposito", someone I'm not familiar with.

Does anybody out there know anything about this Esposito?

Although adhering to genre standards, the illustrations are unfinished and lackluster, and totally lack

Di Mulatto's mix of sadness, submission, and euphoria. The second cover also depicts a full-frontal image, rare for this series.

Although Bizarre traded in fetishistic themes, they did issue a smaller number of more conventional novels that Di Mulatto illustrated with his usual brilliance.

note the disparity in the spelling of the artist's name.

On his "Mark of the Master", the spelling is de Mullotto

Bizarre Library, with Di Mulatto, either gets it wrong, gets it right, or is making some point

For this post, I've used Bizarre's choice.

CRY RAPE

2015-08-24T16:09:00.002-07:00

The German label SUBKULTUR, which recently put out an excellent BluRay of DON'T GO ON THE HOUSE, scores again with MADCHEN: MIT GEWALT aka THE BRUTES aka CRY RAPE.

To answer the obvious question for exploitation fans, no, there is not a lot of rape in CRY RAPE. A woman does do some crying, and she does get chased through a quarry by the featured middle-aged rapists, but the level of rape in this movie amounts to about five minutes.

The sexual marauders of the title are serial rapists, but we don't get any flashbacks of their past crimes. We just get their background activities via a number of clever dialog exchanges.

To the credit of director/star Roger Fritz, the film floats very nicely without a plethora of forced intercourse. In fact, it's what happens AFTER the rape that the film is really about, so I won't go into the kind of details that will spoil the experience for the first-time viewer.

Released in the US as CRY RAPE, it did appear for a spell on a crappy VHS that was panned and scanned and transferred from a bloody awful print. Fortunately, the Subkultur BluRay––there is also a DVD––features a jaw-dropping transfer that just couldn't possibly look any better.

For the first time, you can marvel at how beautifully shot this film is, and, under better viewing conditions, witness the blossoming of every other element from performances (Fritz, Arthur Brauss, Helga Anders) to editing to the staging of the action scenes.

It's certainly a curious choice for Subkultur to put serious time, effort, and money into the BluRay release of this unsung hero of a film, but it's a choice that is much appreciated.

As CRY RAPE was made in 1969, it reminded me of the look and tone of short Scandi porn flicks from companies like Color Climax Corporation, Videorama, H.O.M. (House of Milan), and Viking Productions from that period. Although those notorious slices of cinematic nastiness were hardcore, and often ineptly staged, they had an undeniable feel for the era and subversive edge that is found here also. I sure miss that dangerous vibe in my cinema.

The film was co-financed by Oscar-winning producer Arthur Cohn.

The Final Rapeman

2015-07-30T20:52:00.002-07:00

THE REIPUMAN 7 (RAPEMAN 7) was the last contemporary entry, and certainly the most emotionally powerful of all the Rapeman films from series director Takao Nagaishi, and writer of five films Jun Kojo. From a production standpoint, it is equally the slickest alongside the sixth entry. Sadly, the brand ended its contemporary storylines after this entry, and switched to two mostly forgettable spin-offs.

The series, a clever satire, has never been fairly evaluated, and is often dismissed due to its premise. If you can cast your hysteria aside, it is a humble but very fine series filled with everything you want from pulp: political intrigue; a heart-warming relationship between the Clark Kent-like anti-hero Keisuke/Rapeman and his uncle; darkly modest action scenes; and inventive rape sequences that are never terribly brutal and certainly not explicit. Unlike the original manga, this live action Rapeman is a softer touch, surprisingly well written and plotted, but is bizarre enough still for fans of wild and wooly cinema, and never overreaches in terms of its scale. A spare, infectious electronic theme always compliments proceedings.

It took four or five films for the series to find solid footing, so by this seventh entry, the delicate balance of satire, thrills and honest emotion was achieved –– and that's what makes it all the more frustrating that there was no eighth film set in present day Tokyo. I don't know why production company Pink Pineapple decided to set its final two entries in historic Edo, but, for me, they did the series no favors as an historic Rapeman just feels silly and tonally odd, and the heavy-handed slapstick is a real turn-off. On top of that, Rapeman wears a cape and resembles a future version of Batman.

The seventh film involves Keisuke's relationship with a childhood friend whose concern about his girlfriend opens up a hornet's nest of plot twists. Keisuke's "Rapeman Services", which he runs with his lovable uncle, takes on the task of getting to the bottom of his friend's problem, and Keisuke dons his mask once again to "Right Wrongs Through Penetration" (the series motto).

In our ultra-PC age where nothing is considered ironic anymore, Rapeman (all 9 films) walks an even harder road to understanding or acceptance now than it did when released on video in Japan between '93 and '96. The original manga series debuted in '85 and ran 'til '92 with 13 issues in hand. A fictitious 14th issue appeared as a plot device in an episode about rape in the deadly serious, humorless, moralizing Law and Order: SVU.

Unfortunately, Rapeman star Hiroyuki Okita, who was a leading teen idol in his earlier years, committed suicide in '99, three years after the series ended, and production company Pink Pineapple re-dedicated itself to sexual-themed anime.

In the film's final minutes, director Nagaishi stages a scene in which Keisuke's friend, the film's true "hero", returns home and finds his girlfriend gone. In her place is a giant Betty Blue poster and an empty chair with a letter on it. The image really resonates as the plot in this episode parallels the mental illness theme of the famous French movie. The follow-up scene in which the friend searches for his girlfriend on the waterfront and finds her is beautifully staged and acted. If you're not a rotten cynic, it will move you as much as it moved me.

Despite the hysteria surrounding this series, which has never been released legitimately outside Japan, a viewing of all seven contemporary entries leaves one with the impression of a unique piece of V-cinema that is, at heart, sweet, heartfelt, and unexpectedly humanist.

That it has never been distributed in a boxed collection outside Japan is most unfortunate.

***I owe my first exposure to the Rapeman series (in '97) to my dear Japanese friend and fellow filmmaker/otaku Tomoaki Hosoyama, the director of Weatherwoman***

American Guinea Pig

2015-07-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

If you've been a long-time reader of this blog, you know what Guinea Pig means; you know the power of that particular brand. Made in Japan, the original Guinea Pig movies were the pinnacle of gore for a blood-hungry Asian market that had always placed a high premium on explicit violence. Released on video in Japan, the Guinea Pig VHSs were big sellers, and even became somewhat notorious when some otaku, charged with a bunch of murders, was found to have copies of Guinea Pig in his movie collection.

The first Guinea Pig movie, FLOWERS OF FLESH AND BLOOD, was the goriest and most one-dimensional of the series. A samurai warrior, played by infamous and brilliant manga artist Hideshi Hino, spends his evening hacking a bound girl to pieces with his sword. That pretty much sums it up: nothing else happens. The movie is a single-minded spectacle of violence and dismemberment that, by design, dares you to stare at the screen until the blood runs dry. It was followed by another single-minded movie, DEVIL'S EXPERIMENT, in which a woman is beaten until dead, and we get a counter on the screen marking the number of blows she has received.

I was living in Australia when a legitimate German box set of the series (8 DVD's) was released. The set included FLOWERS OF FLESH AND BLOOD, DEVIL'S EXPERIMENT, HE NEVER DIES, DEVIL WOMAN DOCTOR, MERMAID IN A MANHOLE (the only attempt to tell a more layered story), ANDROID OF NOTRE DAME, THE MAKING OF GUINEA PIG, and MAKING OF DEVIL WOMAN DOCTOR. On top of these 8 disks, you also got a Guinea Pig T-shirt, which I still own, and a pretty poster. At that time, the German set was the only legit way to see the movies.

In America, the series was a bootleg success, and copies were traded like gold nuggets between collectors and gore hounds who hadn't seen anything quite like it before. The first film in the series gained some notoriety when Charlie Sheen got a copy from Film Threat's Chris Gore and mistook the thing for a legitimate snuff movie. He contacted the FBI about it and scared up some controversy. After the making-of surfaced, however, Sheen looked like a right Mr. Stupid, but the film's infamy remained intact.

Eventually, the Guinea Pig flicks were released in the US by Stephen Biro's Unearthed Films, and finally they were accessible to moms and dads everywhere. The disks sold well, and it became clear to Unearthed that there was a market for Guinea Pig's brand of horror Stateside.

Mr. Biro, no stranger to controversy or gore, maintained his passion for the Pig over the years, and recently exercised his rights to the "franchise" by creating his own version of Guinea Pig, AMERICAN GUINEA PIG: BOUQUET OF GUTS AND GORE.

The film appears at a surreal moment in human history. When the Guinea Pig films were first released in Japan––on VHS, of course––there was no internet, so there truly was nothing else like them, they were the pinnacle. They remained the pinnacle, in fact, until competing Japanese companies turned out their own realistic "gore" films such as TUMBLING DOLL OF FLESH aka PSYCHO-THE SNUFF REELS aka NIKU DARUMA, and their ilk (see immediately below).

Now, in 2015, we find ourselves in a troubling era where the goriest, most aesthetically powerful examples of "gore" are suddenly real, and they're being made by the filmmaking divisions (I'm not kidding) of terror outfits like ISIS, Boko Haram, FARC, Al-Queda, and Mexican drug cartels. ISIS, in particular, has adapted an approach to their death videos that is both surreal and shocking. No longer content to put out grainy, shaky, amateurish records of their atrocities, they're now creating Hollywood-style videos of real mass murder that feature crane shots, state-of-the-art editing, musical scores, and credits(!) Their videos have become a form of recruiting propaganda, I imagine, with their slick, glorified images of beheadings, electrocutions, throat slitting, and drownings. The impact is confusing and disturbing because the content is, unfortunately, real, yet the aesthetic of these videos is that of slick fantasy.

So, in an era where with a click of a mouse you can be taken to websites dedicated to videos of real murder, real suffering, real rape, and really horrible human cruelty, where does AMERICAN GUINEA PIG: BOUQUET OF GUTS AND GORE sit?

Having just watched the movie, I can assure you that it doesn't sit in any quaint place beside its realistic "competition", although it's still comforting to know it's imagined and not actual. Like its contemporaries such as the AUGUST UNDERGROUND films, the American Guinea Pig is very much part of horror's anti-aesthetic brigade. These films eschew story, technical polish, and a dazzling audio mix, and opt to present their horrors in the raw. Biro's movie replicates, to some extent, the tenor of the original Pig films from Japan, but synthesizes elements from NIKU DARUMA, Nacho Cerda's AFTERMATH, and Roger Watkins' LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET.

The most noticeable influence here stylistically (if you want to call it that) is Watkins' film––the killers are masked, the viscera is plentiful, and the mood is pure nihilism; but Cerda's AFTERMATH is also a major influence both visually and aurally. PIG's soundscape has many echoes of AFTERMATH's brilliant sound design, and utilizes non-traditional sounds to great effect. The killers, led by Scott Gabbey (publisher of Ultra Violent magazine), do have dialog, but their dialog is recorded low (or not so well, perhaps), and the soundscape dominates proceedings. So, thankfully, we're spared the mostly puerile, aggressive exchanges between the brutalizers.

The film/movie is shot on both Super-8 and video. Both formats are intercut, and their differences in texture add to the overall result. I watched the film on a 55" plasma, and regretted not watching it on a smaller tube screen as the larger size screen tends to water the image down. Still, the presentation format suits the subject matter, but I'd recommend screening the film on a smaller TV. Of course, it would be closer to ideal on VHS.

The storyline is simple: Two women, a mother and daughter, are kidnapped off the street by a masked man. They wake up in a warehouse, and are quickly subjected to around sixty minutes of detailed torture and gross dismemberment until they both perish. Like the first two Guinea Pig films from Japan, the "entertainment" value of these anti-aesthetic works can't be quantified as you would quantify the "entertainment" values of, say, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE or IN A GLASS CAGE, which are examples of extreme films that are still aesthetically rich.

To some extent, films like Guinea Pig are modern endurance tests, "gore" equivalents of porn endurance tests such as Sperrgebiet's scat epics, the filmic outrages of Otto Muehl, or the avantgaarde porngraphy of the German porn raconteur Simon Thaur; they compel you to keep looking as they promise to elevate the horror to a level not experienced before (hopefully). Despite the amount of gore that has flowed under the bridge in the 30+ years since the original Guinea Pig's release, Stephen Biro's AMERICAN GUINEA PIG still manages to achieve a fresh level of grue via the impressive make-up work of Marcus Koch. On a very small budget, Koch delivers torrents of slushy body parts and gore under the scrutiny of harsh lighting, and is ably supported by the restless, voyeuristic lensing of James Van Bebber on camera; Van Bebber, in an interview on the DVD, admits that even he was shaken somewhat by the accelerating obscenity Biro kept bringing to the torture table.

For me, the film reaches its nadir in a ten minute sequence near the end where dialog is eliminated, and Biro allows grotesque imagery and sound to carry us into the heart of its Tampa darkness (the was was shot in Tampa, Florida). Think of the sequence in AFTERMATH where the mortician fondles the corpse and then opens it up, then take several leaps further, and you'll have a pretty good idea of where this film goes. While AFTERMATH was a beautiful film with a rigid, finely tuned aesthetic, this is not a beautiful film by any means: it wallows in darkness, in brutality, in a pornographic style of dismemberment that would have pleased Jeffrey Dahmer. Personally, I could have done without most of the dialog exchanges between the killers because the vocal performances aren't really strong enough to equal the power of the violence. Still, for a dedicated niche in the world market, AMERICAN GUINEA PIG: BOUQUET OF GUTS AND GORE steps up to the plate and hits a home run for a certain sub-niche of horror.

Beyond Redemption

2015-07-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

THE REDEEMER (Son of Satan) has been given a solidly authored Blu by Code Red. There's no menu, and the print is scratched to shit in parts, but considering what a train wreck the movie is, the print damage actually enhances the experience: watching it close-up on my 55" TV was like staring at a fouled-up print at an old third-run grindhouse.

Almost every part in this cinematic hodgepodge of influences is played badly; from the evil priest who targets adults playing kids at a high school reunion to the "kids" themselves, director Constantine S. Gochis's handling of the talent is appalling and consistently miscalculated.

The film attempts to tell a not-terribly-original-but-ludicrous story of a nutty pastor seeking redemption by dressing up in disguise and killing kids at their high school reunion. Not even the reunion makes sense because almost nobody shows, and the school has been closed for years. The nutty pastor also sports a second thumb, an obvious prosthetic, that he is trying to get rid of. In one sequence, a schoolboy with a bowl haircut is seen sporting the thumb. The thumb's significance is never explained.

Watching a film that is attempting to capitalize on the success of quality cinema like THE OMEN, but has no talent behind it, is actually mildly enjoyable. As an audience, we're served up one stupid, incompetent scene after another, and some of them are so stupid they're surreal. We get a kill-crazy clown puppet on strings, a drowning in a bathroom sink, a spear that falls into a skull, and a shooting in the woods by a fat man sporting a wig and fake mustache –– for no discernible reason.

The film is copyrighted 1978, and certainly looks it, but, strangely enough, it has elements of films that would be released several years later such as FEAR NO EVIL, LEMORA:A CHILD'S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL, XTRO, COMMUNION, and ALICE SWEET ALICE. Of course, it doesn't come within a hundred miles of besting any of these movies, but it somehow manages to spit out bits and pieces that, consciously or unconsciously, got picked up and became part of horror culture years later.

The Code Red sleeve has some honest, amusing quotes about the movie:

"Guilty of the same gaping plot holes and cardboard characterizations as any other... nothing is ever adequately developed or explained, so the film becomes memorable for its opacity alone."
-- Fred Beldin, Allmovies.com

Beldin also accuses the film of being "a silly, sanctimonious slasher..."

He's not wrong.

Still, there's something perverse about this nonsense being on BluRay, and being marketed for its more shitful aspects.

It's worth adding to your BluRay sub-section marked "cinematic crud".

Did Siskel and Ebert give the film their thumbs-up? I seriously doubt it.

Porn Closes The Racial Divide

2015-07-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

Porn is the great equalizer, and has closed the racial divide on many an occasion.

The by-line on Curt Aldrich's SWAPALONG is pure gold.

"Everybody integrate!"

Poodle sex seems kind of delicate, and not conducive to a hot time –– that's my uninformed, non-zoophile logic, anyway. Poodles are so brittle and self-conscious, aren't they? If you're going to go the bestiality route, stick with Alsatians or Dobermans, right? I doubt a poodle would even let a gal run her fingers through his hair without biting her breast off; they're a snippy breed; much too prissy for cross-species couplings that will earn you a spell in prison in most countries.

Clearly, publisher Animal Library felt differently to me about poodles. The German name of the writer hints at the market for this one. "Horst" is a pervert's name.

Happy family stuff with author name removed.

But why is dad trussing daughter up at the bottom of the stairs? Mom could walk in with the groceries at any moment. I guess she's used to dad's antics; she wouldn't be with him if she didn't at least approve of them.

$2.50 got you a load of fun back in the 70's. Now it gets you squat.

Teen Lust

2015-07-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

1979's TEEN LUST, lame softcore sex-fu, "borrows" the art from Ray Strong's porno paperback THE NAUGHTY NIECE, a hardcore tale of a young woman coming of age (who the hell am I kidding?)

The film was directed by Hollywood's go-to Asian, James Hong, and it's proof that Hong should stick to thespians.

Film is also known as POLICE ACADEMY GIRLS and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR.

As evident in both posters, the see-through gimmick is just fine when you combine it with voyeurism.

Of course, unlike the TEEN LUST movie, THE NAUGHTY NIECE paperback delivers what it promises on every front (and back).

S/M Sniper Art Collection

2015-07-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

Japan's brilliant S/M Sniper magazine is now defunct, but the memory of the magazine lingers in these superb images from Sniper contributor Atsushi Akai.

This is but a sampling of the 100+ images assembled in this sublime book.

FANTOMAS JAPONAIS was published in 2014 by France's Le Lezard Noir.

Many of these images appeared in Sniper throughout its history as Sakai was a regular contributor.

I love his use of space, and how the setting often dominates the subject, giving it, in turn, stark relief, and even greater prominence in the mind's eye.

Text is in French, images are universal.

The Good Sport (Shooting Soon)

2015-07-02T13:47:00.003-07:00

As we have just completed 120/80: STRESSED TO KILL (see art and trailer a few posts down), the next film to go into production -- with partner Tom Parnell -- is THE GOOD SPORT, a fast-paced, bloody thriller set in the world of Little League sports.

We're currently exploring shooting scenarios, and trying to pick the best state for filming from both a creative and financial perspective.

Production company is Delirium.

I'll post updates here.

The Erotic Scent of The Duke

2015-07-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

Peter Strickland, the man behind BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, a film I liked somewhat, returns to the screen with THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY, a softcore, semi-sleazy yarn set in a world of women. The masculine title, according to Strickland, is meant to be ironic.

The film's initial spurt of inspiration was Jess Franco's LORNA THE EXORCIST: Strickland contemplated remaking that film for a couple of weeks before losing interest and leaving well enough alone. He did, however, stay on-topic, and delivers here a lesbian love story within a half-assed S/M structure; I say half-assed because one of the pretty asses in this movie doesn't seem quite as keen on the game as her "partner". Still, plenty of carnal fireworks emerge from the pairing, and there's a reasonable amount of nudity, some sex acts including a nice cunnilingus sequence, and bouts of imprisonment and servitude.

BURGANDY's women-only world is an interesting one, and forges a tone not unlike the world of Lucile Hadzihalilovic's INNOCENCE, a film exclusively featuring young girls adrift in a type of purgatory on earth. The women in Strickland's film are middle- to upper-class and enjoy meeting in stately drawing rooms to discuss insects. Although none but the central duo have sex with each other, one assumes there's plenty of lesbian sex going on behind closed doors.

Jess Franco's obsessions do seem to color BURGANDY, even though, technically, the film is more rigid and even-tempered than anything Jess ever made. The featured ladies think about sex a lot, which is good for the audience, and nobody seems to do anything terribly productive to fund the lifestyle they're enjoying (like Jess's ladies). The setting is the European countryside, and the true location (Hungary) is never referenced; probably a wise choice because this uncertainty gives the film a more fantastique vibe.

Actress Chiara D'Anna, who was also in BERBERIAN, is exquisitely carnal and subtly threatening in her role as Evelyn, the deceptively submissive actor in this little game. Her lover, Cynthia, is played with impeccable restraint by Sidse Babett Knudsen, a busy actress who appeared previously in television's BORGEN and the Mads Mikkelsen feature AFTER THE WEDDING. Both women carry the movie on strong shoulders, and make us believe in what is essentially very rich, dark nonsense.

Special mention goes to the film's opening title sequence; it captures quite perfectly title sequences from British thrillers that used freeze frames and often suffered visually (becoming dark and grainy) when dissolves were employed. Here, the technical deficits of these films are used as stylistic devices, and the result is sumptuous and atmospheric. The band, Cat's Eyes, provide a stunning score (available on CD), although nothing is quite as stunning as "The Duke Of Burgundy" title song ("Black Madonna" perhaps?), produced to replicate the sound and sweet fever of an old Carpenters song with Karen's gorgeous voice. It's just magic.

I'm dead against revealing plots and detailing story points, so I simply urge you to seek out and lap up this rare cinematic treat that was produced by Andrew Starke (currently making the superbly titled THE GREASY STRANGLER) and Exec Produced by Ben Wheatley. There is also a connection here to Pete Tombs and the Mondo-Macbro video label (that label did release LORNA THE EXORCIST).

Jess Franco would have been partial to this fine film and its proud obsessions.

Whipping Up Some Golden Age Book Bondage

2015-07-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

From WR (Whip and Rope Publications) comes a title that triggers no confusion: A. deGranamour's MELISSA'S BONDAGE DEBUT.

The author was prolific in this niche, and often branched into erotica with a historical perspective such as SADISTIC PIONEERS.

This also featured pencil drawings by a "Ms. Jackie".

A title that purported to be a serious examination of spanking culture, but was little more than juicy anecdotes.

It always helps to list an M.D. on the cover.

Author G. Bennett Lockwood sounds serious.

"The Well-Spanked Farmgirl" from Wyndham Press (writer not noted), a publisher not affiliated with a similarly-named firm specializing in educational tomes, is adorned with some simple, evocative art. Of course, one could argue that the above is an education.

Again, no author mentioned, although some sources identify the author as Jaime Maran.

Armand Assante's 120/80: Stressed To Kill (first trailer)

2015-06-30T08:57:00.002-07:00

My fringe film career marches on.

Here is the latest trailer and art.

Film stars Bill Oberst Jr. and Armand Assante.

Starry Eyes

2015-06-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

The best edition of Dennis Widmyer's STARRY EYES is the 3-disk German version from Turbine. It includes a BluRay, a DVD, and a CD of the score by Jonathan Snipes.

As a big fan of electronic music, I'm encouraged by a raft of recent electronic scores for horror flicks such as MANIAC, THE GUEST, and IT FOLLOWS.

I liked STARRY EYES immediately, and enjoyed its set-up, and the surprisingly brutal route it took.

The score is a beautiful work, and articulates the film's themes of lost dreams, desperation, loss of innocence, and the death of naivety.

The transformative nature of the climax is deftly communicated via the score.

This German edition is the only one to get.

I Became An Instant Fan of Der Fan

2015-03-13T14:28:00.003-07:00

One of the funniest scenes in Eckhart Schmidt's DER FAN ('82) shows the film's heroine, Simone (Desiree Nosbusch), accosting her mailman on the street and beating him up because he wasn't in possession of a letter she was waiting for. This scene reminded me of a time in my own life when my brother pointed an air rifle at our mailman because he failed to deliver a processed Super-8 monster film we were hanging out to see.

DER FAN is about a young woman who's obsessed with a Gary Numan-/John Foxx-style pop artist named "R". This fellow has the on-screen charisma of ice (which makes him cool, I suppose), and sings in a strange monotone with unique electronic backing that sounds like a cross between Kraftwerk, Serge Blenner, and an el cheapo Pet Shop Boys. The band credited with the film's tuneful music is Rheingold.

Schmidt made the movie after witnessing the way young pop music fans interact with their idols. He captures the madness and loneliness of obsession with authenticity, and, lucky for him, managed to cast a young lady who was just right for the job of portraying a sexy teenage psycho. A striking creature, Ms. Nosbusch takes her character from immature juvenile to nihilistic viper without missing a beat. And her voice-over documents a descent into greater madness that manages to feel logical and complete.

I had never seen DER FAN (also known as TRANCE) before, so my first viewing, on Mondo Macabro's BluRay, was a most satisfying experience. Never released in the US, according to the jacket copy, it packs a punch content-wise, and earns its Unrated tag with some surprising violence, and nudity that would surpass any R-rating today.

It was released in the UK, but I'm uncertain if it was uncut. I'm sure a British reader could answer that question.

The film is a favorite of Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa, and was released one year after he killed and dined on a female student in France.

Director Schmidt also made the fascinating LOFT. Perhaps Mondo-Macabro will give that a BluRay spin, too, if this one does some business. So don't pirate it, folks, buy it, or your options will soon diminish.

This excellent film from a by-gone era (which is a damn fucking shame) would make a fine double feature with DON'T DELIVER US FROM EVIL, another sweet tale of teenage temptresses gone nuts.

The distributor's Red Box BluRay is limited to 500, although it may remain available beyond the 500 as a standard issue disk.

Books of Note in 2014

2015-01-04T13:50:00.000-08:00

Another great year for books.

Some of my favorites.

Suehiro Maruo's Tomino Jigoku

Toshio Saeki's Yumenozoki

Best Blu-Rays and DVD's of 2014

2015-01-04T13:23:00.001-08:00

Another amazing year for DVD's and Blu-Rays.

Hollywood may be kissing off media you can hold in your hand, but many enterprising disk companies are keeping cinema history alive, and fueling what can only be described as a Golden Age for collectors and the cinematically passionate.

This round-up is by no means definitive, but I hope it directs you to some treasures you might have missed.

The Very Best and Worst of 2014

2015-01-04T12:47:00.000-08:00

My Favorite Films of 2014

Every year is a good year for cinema... if you're prepared to look high and low for the best.

For me, cinema inspires adventure (physically and mentally), and provides a myriad of surprises, joys, and disappointments.

Some of these were seen at the theater, and some were seen for the first time on DVD, BluRay, or VOD.

A feature is a feature whether it is experienced with the public or at home.

The list is alphabetical:

Avant L'Hiver (France)

Black Coal, Thin Ice (China)

Blue Ruin (US)

Calvary (UK)

Citizenfour (US)

Corn Island (Georgia)

The Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest (US)

Goodnight Mommy (Austria)

Tales of the Grim Sleeper (US)

Ida (Polish)

Jodorowsky's Dune (USA/France)

The Bastards (France)

Leviathan (Russia)

Lost Soul (US)

Moebius (South Korea)

Nightcrawler (US)

Only Lovers Left Alive (US)

Pieces of Talent (US)

The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (France))

The Drop (US)

The Immigrant (France)

The Overnighters (US)

The Search for Weng Weng (Australia)

The Wind Rises (Japan)

The Guest (US)

Under The Skin (UK)

Whiplash (US)

The World of Kanako (Japan)

Least Enjoyed

Admired, but didn't quite get there for me...