NATTLEK (“Night Games”) Production: Sweden, 1966 Director: Mai Zetterling Category: Sex Mania When first shown at the 1966 Venice Film Festival, Nattlek was screened behind closed doors to the judges only, as it was deemed the most outrageous film ever made (a verdict clearly indicative of the judges’ ignorance). It Continue Reading
RETURN OF THE SORCERER
RETURN OF THE SORCERER Production: USA, 1972 Director: Jeannot Szwarc Category: Horror A 30-minute episode of the Rod Serling TV series Night Gallery, notable for being the first ever adaptation of a story by horror writer Clark Ashton Smith, a regular contributor to Weird Tales and other pulp magazines in the 1930s and Continue Reading
RIVERS OF SAND
RIVERS OF SAND Production: UK, 1974 Director: Robert Gardner Category: Ethno-Documentary An ethnographic investigation of the enigmatic Hamar tribes of Ethiopia, focusing in on the oppression of women within the tribal system, and skirting “mondo” territory with some of its depictions of bloody rituals of life and death. Gardner looks on objectively, Continue Reading
NIKUTAI NO MON
NIKUTAI NO MON (“Gate Of Flesh”) Production: Japan, 1964 Director: Suzuki Seijun Category: Sex/Prostitution The following year Suzuki directed Shunpu-Den (“Prostitute Story”), this time set during WW2 and dealing with the plight of “comfort women” on the Manchurian front. Posted by Lady Belladonna
DRACULA CERCA SANGUE DI VERGINE E… MORI DI SETE!!!
DRACULA CERCA SANGUE DI VERGINE E… MORI DI SETE!!! (“Drcaula Craves Virgins’ Blood… And Dies Of Thirst!!!”) Production: Italy/France, 1974 Director: Paul Morrissey Alternative title: Blood For Dracula US release title: Andy Warhol’s Dracula Category: Sex-Horror/Vampire Posted by Venus Vex
GONG GUI ZAI
GONG GUI ZAI (“Red Dwarf Ghost”) Production: Hong Kong, 1983 Director: Titus Ho Wing-Lam English title: Red Spells Red Category: Horror/Black Magic One of the most rare and extreme Hong Kong horror films of the early 80s, belonging to that small cluster of reptile, insect and arachnid revulsion freakshows that only Continue Reading
XIN DU BI DAO
XIN DU BI DAO (“New One-Armed Swordsman”) Production: Hong Kong, 1971 Director: Chang Cheh Category: Martial Arts Despite the kung-fu boom of the early 70s, swordplay movies were still being profitably made in Hong Kong. When Wang Yu left Shaw Brothers, they were quick to replace their departed talisman with not one Continue Reading
I CANTI DI MALDOROR
I CANTI DI MALDOROR (“The Songs Of Maldoror”) Production: Italy, 1977 Director: Alberto Cavallone Category: Madness/Drugs Inspired by, but not really based on, Lautréamont’s classic proto-Surrealist anti-novel Les Chants De Maldoror, Cavallone’s film shows the decline of a movie director (Gianni Garko), obsessed with a female photographer, who commits suicide after excessive drug-use. Continue Reading
LE TIGRE AIME LA CHAIR FRAÎCHE
LE TIGRE AIME LA CHAIR FRAÎCHE (“The Tiger Loves Fresh Flesh”) Production: France, 1964 Director: Claude Chabrol US release title: Code Name: Tiger Category: Euro-Spy Posted by Captain Nightshade
ANTI-CLIMAX
ANTI-CLIMAX Production: Mexico, 1969 Director: Gelsen Gas Category: Counter-Culture Gas was a painter, poet, theatre director, sculptor and inventor who directed this one film only, a succession of surrealistic visual enigmas inflamed by a constant undertow of sexual and political agitation involving public transport, an industrial factory whose machines spew Continue Reading