THE INNOCENTS Production: UK, 1961 Director: Jack Clayton Category: Ghosts Based on Henry James’ arid ghost novel The Turn Of The Screw, The Innocents was a surprisingly effective interpretation by Clayton, who had previously directed The Bespoke Overcoat (1956), a 33-minute ghost story adapted from Gogol. It would take Michael Winner Continue Reading
IL BESTARIO
IL BESTARIO (“The Bestiary”) Production: Italy, 1968 Director: Antonio de Bernardi Category: Experimental Bernardi is a creator of colour-blasted freeform 8mm fantasies, usually featuring multiple projection. Il Bestario, designed to be viewed on four overlapping screens and heard on three soundtracks, consists of visions of “human animal creatures”, figures that are Continue Reading
FLITTERWOCHEN IN DER HÖLLE
FLITTERWOCHEN IN DER HÖLLE (“Honeymoon In Hell”) Production: Germany, 1960 Director: Johannes Kai US release title: Isle Of Sin Category: Crime Posted by Graf Mitternacht
LE BERCEAU DE CRISTAL
LE BERCEAU DE CRISTAL (“The Crystal Cradle”) Production: France, 1976 Director: Philippe Garrel Category: Experimental/Drugs Heroin chic to the max in this morbid, tenebrous trance-film which features the ultimate pairing of Teutonic rock sirens, Nico and Anita Pallenberg. Nico lies in a drug-induced near-coma, dreaming of mythical beings, before ending it all with Continue Reading
SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN
SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN Production: UK, 1969-70 Director: Gordon Hessler Category: Horror/Science Fiction/Crime The best of an interesting series of horror films directed by Hessler in the late ’60s/early ’70s, Scream And Scream Again was scripted by Christopher Wicking, author of Hammer’s stand-out Demons Of The Mind amongst others, from the Peter Saxon Continue Reading
LA CAMPANA DEL INFIERNO
LA CAMPANA DEL INFIERNO (“Hell’s Bell”) Production: Spain, 1973 Director: Claudio Guerín & Juan Antonio Bardem (post-production) Category: Horror One of the very best of the first wave of Spanish horror movies 1967-75, a gothic arthouse nightmare of insanity, perversion, and murder that revolves around the question of whether the protagonist, recently Continue Reading
DIABOLIK
DIABOLIK Production: Italy, 1968 Director: Mario Bava Category: Crime Posted by Venus Vex
THE BEAT GENERATION
THE BEAT GENERATION Production: USA, 1959 Director: Charles F. Haas US re-release title: This Rebel Age Category: Beat/Crime Beat exploitation movie in the wake of Jack Kerouac, using the beat/coffee bar scene as a backdrop to the pursuit of a psychopathic rapist. It was produced by Albert Zugsmith, and features one Continue Reading
L’ULTIMA PREDA DEL VAMPIRO
L’ULTIMA PREDA DEL VAMPIRO (“The Vampire’s Last Victim”) Production: Italy, 1960 Director: Piero Regnoli US release title: The Playgirls And The Vampire Category: Horror/Vampire Five gorgeous showgirls take shelter from a storm in an old castle, only to find out that the master of the place is a vampire (played by Walter Continue Reading
TURKEY SHOOT
TURKEY SHOOT Production: Australia, 1982 Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith Category: Science Fiction/Gore A slightly futuristic, gory twist on The Most Dangerous Game, in which political prisoners of a totalitarian regime are held and physically abused at a brutal detention camp. The “turkey shoot” is a regular event held at the camp; selected Continue Reading