A MOSCA CIECA (“Blind Fly”) Production: Italy, 1966 Director: Romano Scavolini Category: Experimental Giallo First film by Italian prodigy Scavolini, who was only twenty-five at the time; shot in black-and-white, and silent save for an electronic musical score by Vittorio Gelmetti, it is a film of an amok killer, a man Continue Reading
CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM ADDICT
CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM ADDICT Production: USA, 1962 Director: Albert Zugsmith Category: Drugs/Slavery/Freaks Vincent Price is a sailor who falls into the clutches of Chinese drug-pushers. An exploitation film, mostly unrelated to Thomas De Quincey’s original book, but full of sleazy imagery. Zugsmith was something of a pulp visionary, producing Orson Welles’ Touch Of Continue Reading
GOUHUN JIANG TOU
GOUHUN JIANG TOU (“Erotic Degeneration”) Production: Hong Kong, 1982 Director: Meng Hua Ho English title (Hong Kong): Black Magic 2 US release title: Revenge Of The Zombies Category: Horror Gouhun Jiang Tou opens with swamp scenes of a topless woman devoured alive by a crocodile, followed swiftly by the reptile’s capture Continue Reading
PAT, UNA DONNA PARTICOLARE
PAT, UNA DONNA PARTICOLARE (“Pat, A Peculiar Woman”) Production: Italy, 1982 Director: Alberto Cavallone Category: Hardcore Pornography/Freaks One of two horror-tainted hardcore porn movies shot back-to-back by Cavallone after his extreme experimental films of the 70s – inspired by Sade, Lautréamont and Bataille – saw him a virtual outcast from the Continue Reading
WATCH THE BIRDIE… DIE!
WATCH THE BIRDIE… DIE! Production: USA, 1968 Director: Don Doyle Category: Softcore Pornography Downbeat sex-and-death opus from the first wave of softcore. A Jacques Descent Production. Posted by Nightcrawler-X
HELTER SKELTER
HELTER SKELTER Production: USA, 1976 Director: Tom Gries Category: True Crime A TV movie based on the book by prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, in which he boasts about the prowess which enabled him to convict Charles Manson of murder – not really that impressive if you consider that Manson ill-advisedly chose to Continue Reading
THE GORGON
THE GORGON Production: UK, 1964 Director: Terence Fisher Category: Horror Having covered every traditional monster angle, Hammer in 1964 turned to Greek mythology and came up with The Gorgon. Translating the action to Transylvania, the story tells of villagers being literally petrified by the Gorgon Medusa, a monstrous female with hissing, Continue Reading
LA GRANDE FROUSSE
LA GRANDE FROUSSE (“The Big Fright”) Production: France, 1964 Director: Jean-Pierre Mocky Category: Crime/Terror One of only two features to be based on the novels of Jean Ray (the other being Harry Kumel’s Malpertuis), La Grande Frousse is based on Ray’s La Cité De L’Indicible Peur (“City Of Unspeakable Fear”), written in Continue Reading
THE INNOCENTS
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