Deep in the Woods (2000)

Made some years before the big French horror-boom, Lionel Delplanque’s Deep in the Woods is almost forgotten. Could be because the international distributors successfully hid it under a generic slasher-campaign and dumped it directly on DVD. The lack of the excessive gore that made the French famous is also probably one reason for this movie to be hidden away from the horror fans. But it still is one gorgeous movie, violent and with more Giallo-vibes than slasher!

A young troupe of actors is invited to a secluded castle belonging to millionaire Axel de Fersen (François Berléand). They’re there to perform for the grandchild of de Fersen, an autistic boy named Nicolas (Thibault Truffert). The only one else in the castle is Stephané (Denis Lavant), the slightly perverted handyman. Obviously something is wrong and after Nicolas stabs himself with a fork, the evening is over and everyone resides to their rooms. Except the killer, who finds the wolf-costume used in the play and starts killing them one by one…

This sounds like normal slasher-routine, and to a point it is. But the visuals are so stunning, the kinder trauma leading up the murders is nasty and the atmosphere is very European. The killings are more stylish than gory, even if everything is quite graphic of course. I love the way Delplanque uses the Red Riding Hood-theme, from small details like the doll that is important to the killer, to the play that the actors are performing. The killer is dressed like the wolf, and it has a very fairy tale-style. Mystic, almost dreamlike.

Not all questions are answered, which for me makes it even better. I don’t like to have everything written in big letters. For example, the police sneaks around the forest looking for a serialrapist/murderer, but it’s never clear if this is one of the characters we meet. Sure, it could be one of them, but it’s never told out loud.

In a cameo we also see Marie Trintignant, the daughter of Jean-Louis Trintignant. Three years later she died, killed either with purpose or by accident by her rockstar-boyfriend, Bertrand Cantat.

An underrated predecessor to the bigger and more popular French horror movies, and it’s a stunning work of horror – maybe not the most violent, or original, but well worthy it’s place among the best of its kind.

Vampire Wars: Battle for the Universe (2005)

An ambitious title for a very cheap movie, Vampire Wars is actually a very fun and entertaining pilot for a TV-show that never was realized on the channel formerly known as The Sci-Fi Channel. It’s a tongue-in-cheek mix of horror and action, with some healthy but not to annoying doses of humour.

A crew of vampire-hunters is roaming the universe, killing vampires and making jokes with each other. One day a new member arrives, the young and ambitious Damian (Dominic Zamprogna) who are suppose to be the one that will be captain after tough-guy Churchill (Joe Lando). After a disastrous mission Damian is left alone in command with his skeptical group of vampire-killers under him. But one mission is left, and they’re forced to follow him…

This is a very cheap production, but wait. It’s not cheap in a bad way. First of all, we have this whole universe where every planet looks like some Canadian backwoods-forest, including old warehouses. The computer animations leading to each planet it something that was primitive even in 2003 and everything, from the sets to the clothes look homemade. What really makes this movie worth watching is the slick direction by Matthew Hastings and the nice cinematography (I guess, 35mm) and the cool vampires and random monsters showing up to enlighten the story.

Universe is based on different vampire-tribes, two of them are The Voorhees and Leatherfaces. Another one is like a parasite-worm who controls its victims and makes them hunger for human flesh. The Leatherfaces is the most primitive, with human skin on their faces and spears and stuff. The Voorhees is the typical punk-goth-hybrids with bad hygiene. Leader of them are Michael Ironside, who seem to have a lot of fun in his performance.

The gore is not bad at all, mostly blood that spurts everywhere, but a few gory impalings, limb-rippings and lots of gory aftermath too - way more than a lot of other SyFy-movies. Vampire Wars is one of those “b-movies” that knows what it is and never hides that fact that the budget was a dime or two, but still manages to delivers good entertainment, blood, a quite witty script and lots of adventure to the audience.

For us who are much into monster-movies there’s a fun surprise at the desert-planet, the monster from The Terror Within 1 and 2 makes a cameo! Yes, it shows up very unexpected and tries to kill our heroes! Not to surprising, because the producer of this movie is Andrew Stevens who starred in The Terror Within 1 and 2 (and even was the director of the last one!).

If you find it for a buck or two, this is a movie I can recommend.

The Sea Serpent (1984)

Timothy Bottoms, dressed like he just escaped from William Friedkin's Cruising, a 200 year old Ray Milland who talks like he’s either drunk or have some illness, some of the worst dubbing EVER and a Muppet-monster directly from b-movie hell. But Amando de Ossorio’s The Sea Monster (aka Hydra) is still an entertaining movie with lots of monster-attacks and endless talky scenes about nothing. Just the way we want it.

Bottoms (who at this point was at the bottom of his career – pun intended) plays Pedro, a captain at a fishing boat. When the ship is attacked by the sea monster and kills his whole crew no one, of course, believes him. In a long and boring court-scene, they take away his boat-license. But he’s not depressed, instead he decided to prove that he’s correct and joins up with a women who also seen the monster. Together the make contact with some old professor – or something, played by Ray Milland and together they’re going to fight THE SEA SERPENT!

And yes, Jared Martin, Jack Taylor and León Klimovsky appear. Jared in a big role, but Jack is wasted in a cameo and Léon too.

I think we all can agree that The Sea Serpent is crap, trash. Not worthy to be he last movie from maestro de Ossorio. But that’s life and that’s how it is, so why regret something we can’t change? Try to see it like one of the lesser monster-movies from the fifties instead for a final masterpiece from a brilliant director. Then it kinda works. The miniatures are very primitive and cheesy, at least the boats and the monster itself. The bridge looks quite ok, and also the lighthouse.

The action is – except a few boring talky scenes of nonsense – more than I expected. Lots of monster-attacks where they’re using a full-size monster-head to eat people with. But most of the time it’s something that looks like a hand-puppet trying to looks dangerous. The music is, of course, very inspired by John Williams soundtrack to Jaws.

What happen with Timothy Bottom’s career by the way? Johnny Got His Gun, The Last Picture Show… and then slowly quite ok genre-movies like Rollercoaster and Hurricane… and suddenly The Sea Serpent, What Waits Below, In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro, The Fantasist – and finally the lowest form of films, co-productions with Sweden (Mio in the Land of Faraway and Istanbul!). But don’t misunderstand me, I like the guy a lot – but he surely had an interesting career!

And to state it once and for all, if The Sea Serpent got a new release on DVD or Blu-Ray, I would buy it directly!

To me Cyborgs are magic - Interview with Sam Firstenberg

This interview was first published at Cinema Nocturna. This was a couple of years ago and my English was probably even shittier then, sorry for that. So, here's the interview:

To me Cyborgs are magic. Ninjas are magic. Cannon-productions are pure magic. So the only thing to do was to talk to one of the most productive directors in Hollywood, Sam Firstenberg, the creator of such classics as Revenge of the Ninja (the best Ninja-movie ever?), Cyborg Cop 1 and 2, American Ninja, Ninja III and many more.

Sam started his movie career in 1973 when he met the legendary producer Menahem Golan. He started with serving coffée, cleaning and driving. Or just being a runner. But the magic was there. Sam was on a movie set! After many hard, but funny, years as a assistant director and also director for his own short movies he finally was offered the directors chair for Revenge of the Ninja. So let?s talk with Sam about his long career in movies, and of course we begin with Ninjas!

Fred Anderson: In 1983 you directed in one of the biggest cultmovies ever, Revenge of the Ninja starring the notorious Sho Kosugi How did you get involved in a Ninja-movie?

Sam Firstenberg: The company that bought my student film "One More Chance", Cannon Films, had just finished a movie called Enter the Ninja. They were looking for a director for the sequel and asked if I would be willing to take on the project, to make an action movie. The truth is that I had never before heard the word "ninja" in my life, but being young and eager I did not want to pass on such an opportunity so I faked my way in by letting them think that I knew what it was all about. After watching the original movie, and two books later, I was knowledgeable enough to get started, and then I was introduced to Sho Kosugi, the star of the movie, and he took me under his wing, so to speak, and gave me an in-depth introduction into the subject. I then realized that all we had to do was make a good action movie with a ninja twist.

FA: Im not sure, but Revenge of the Ninja should be the first of your works for Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Tell us about these legendary producers. Where they easy to work with?

SF: I have known Menahem and Yoram for many years, in fact many years before I directed Revenge of the Ninja - I worked as an assistant director on many of their films, even one that Menahem Golan directed (Diamonds with Robert Shaw). The way they worked was that Yoram Globus was in charge of finances, and had little input on the creative side; Menahem Golan was the creative producer, involved in all the stages of making the movies. His main interest was in the script and in the editing. During the shooting I was basically left alone. I would say that in this sense, it was very easy to work with them, as long as we did not go over budget or exceed the schedule - which I never did. They trusted me and we had a very good relationship.

FA: I?m not familiar with Breakin? 2, but was it a success? Wasn?t this at the end of the breakdancing-era?

SF: First, I think the movie was at the height of the breakdance era. The first movie to come out was Breakin' and then a movie called Beat Street, but "Breakin'2-Electric Boogaloo" topped them all and became a national and world-wide immediate hit with the young audience. It was 1985 and even today, I still get fan mail from people who say that this movie influenced them as teenagers. Incidentally, two weeks ago it came out on DVD.

I have been told that on e-bay original posters and laser discs go for about $200- $300 apiece! It became an icon of the 1980's.

FA: In Ninja 3 you worked for the second time with actress Lucinda Dickey. How was it working with her?

SF: Coming from a dance background, she easily adapted to the ninja moves. Lucinda was not a martial artist, but she quickly caught on. Ninja 3 was the first time I worked with her; Breakin2 was the second movie.

FA: Talking about Ninja 3, is this the weirdest ninja-movie ever made?

SF: Yes! And the only one with a ninja hero that is a woman.

FA: I canät say Michael Dudikoff is one of my favorite actors but I always enjoys American Ninja 1 and 2. How was it working with mr Dudikoff and what's your personal opinons on these movies?

SF: Michael was the perfect American Ninja teenage idol type, with his James Dean demeanor. The first American Ninja is definitely one of my favorites with a wholesome and reluctant hero and with an innocent love story. It has very juicy villains. The second American Ninja does not have as good a story as the first movie. It would have been better if it had continued the themes of the first movie, but unfortunately it did not.

FA: Haven?t seen Avenging force, but friends tell me that it?s one of the most solid movies in Dudikoffs career. Can you tell me more about making this movie and working with Dudikoff?

SF: Not only is it a solid movie for Dudikoff, but it is a solid action movie period. Michael is great, the action is magnificent, the visuals are terrific. The story takes place in New Orleans so the atmosphere is charged with mystery and the lead villain, John P. Ryan, is the best villain ever! When it came out the movie got some great reviews - too bad it is not as famous as American Ninja.

FA: I always love productions from Nu Image and also, of course, the Cyborg Cop-series. In the first one John Rhys-Davies played the bad guy. He's a solid actor and is now more famous than ever after appearing in the Lord of the rings-trilogy. How was it working with him and David Bradley in Cyborg Cop. Was it and it?s sequel big hits?

SF: John Ryhs-Davies is the greatest! Such a nice person to work with and extremely talented, full of creative ideas, and very accommodating to the director. He is a classically trained British actor. David Bradley is less of an actor but more of a martial artist so he brought this talent to the movie. The Cyborg movies did not reach the success of the American Ninja series in popularity.

FA: Most of your movies, at least the Ninja- and cyborg-movies have been very violent and sometimes genreated moral panic in countries with harder censorship rules. What do you think about the graphic violence in your movies and the censorship?

SF: I would like to know in which countries the movies created a moral panic. but on a more serious note, there is an audience for all types of entertainment. I always try to keep the violent action in a cartoon-like atmosphere so that we don't confuse what we see on the screen with reality. I stay away from sadistic themes, and never have violence against women or children, and always stay in the realm of "movie-land." In principle I am against censorship and the rating system should provide viewers with guidelines to the content of the movie so that the viewers can make the choice whether to see the movie.

FA: You worked as a second-unit director on Crocodile, once again for Nu Image. Was it easy to work with Tobe Hooper and what do you think of the movie?

SF: Tobe and I are good friends; I know him for many years, since we both worked at Cannon Films where he directed the movie Life Force. Tobe entrusted me with all the action-y sequences of the Crocodile movie and basically I did my best to accommodate his movie.

FA: I actually hold a dvd of Spiders 2 in my hand this weekend, but I was broke right then and couldn't afford buying it, so I haven't had the pleasure of seeing it yet. Are you happy with the final result?

SF: Spiders is a complex movie from an optical effects standpoint. It has 160 optical effects. One thing I learned is that when you work with a low budget you don't get the same quality of results that the big budget movies get. But yet, it is a considerably scary and tense horror picture.

FA: To be honest, I first thought it was something for April Fools Day, but you are nowdays co-director with Ed Wood? Appearently, after reading at your official site, the raw material for an unknown Ed Wood-movie has been found and you have directed an additional 30 minutes of scenes and now completed this movie. When can we see this movie? Will hope for a nice dvd-release with lot's of extras :) I?ve only seen pictures from the new scenes, is there any pictures from the old material and have you been able to identify the orignal actors and actresses?

SF: A lot of information concerning your question is coming soon on our website surplusmale.com. I believe you will find all the information as the updates and pictures are posted and the site develops. This is an extremely exciting project but we do not yet have a release date. It might go to sci-fi festivals first, so stay tuned.

www.surplusmale.com

FA: A final word to our readers?

SF: The greatest satisfaction of my work is to know that there are people all over the world who enjoy the movies that I have directed. This is the reason I make movies - to entertain audiences, and take them into a 90 minute journey of fantasy, thrill, and excitement. If all of this works, then I am grateful.

Please visit Sam Firstenbergs official site.

French Sex Murders (1972)

This could probably be one of the trashiest and wackiest giallos ever made, French Sex Murders. It has always been close to my heart and last night I decided to revisit it after quite some time. Everything I remember from it was true: trashy, funny, cheap gore and Anita Ekberg with huge hair, not to mention a bunch of the world’s ugliest men (except for always mega-cool Howard Vernon) and Robert Sacchi, the famous Humphrey Bogart-impersonator in one of the leads.

At Madame Colette’s (Anita Ekberg) massage institute life is a blast. Rich men come there to buy sex from happy young prostitutes. One day the extremely jealous boyfriend Antoine Gottvalles (Pietro Martellanza) visits his girl and hits her brutally and runs away. Moments later she’s found dead, beaten to death by a lamp. Of course everyone suspect Antoine, who after a while is arrested and sentenced to death. He swears that he’s innocent and that he will come back from the grave to take his revenge and find the killer…

And guess what? One by one our fine ensemble of nice people is killed of in gory fashion by a hooded murderer!!!

Now, this movie is lit like a porn movie for most of the time, especially in the scenes at the bordello. The rest of the flick looks quite crappy too, except a few nice shots here and there. It’s like a Eurociné-production but with a lot more money, gore and talent! I really don’t like using the word “trash” with something I like, but FSM is trashy. It’s made to show people naked (including hairy male butts), very cheap gore by Carlo Rambaldi and a few well-known actors earning a quick pay check spending time in Paris. And nothing is wrong with this, it’s still art because it’s made with passion and a sense of self-aware. The actors do the best they could do, obviously had a good time. Best is, as usual, Howard Vernon who gives it all. Damn, that man had a lot of talent! One of the sleaziest talents is Rolf Eden, a German playboy and multimillionaire that plays a big part here. He gives sleaze a name, and generated some headlines a couple of years ago for… well, read it yourself!

They gore is primitive, either just that thick pain we love in these movies, or papier maché heads falling to the ground. Every murder is also repeated in psychedelic colours at least three times! Stuff like this wanna make be go back in time and experience the making of movies like French Sex Murders myself, it seemed so free. Not the Hitler-style kind of filmmaking that they teach the kids in film school nowadays. If you have a camera you can make a movie, fuck the rest!

French Sex Murders is a lot of details, lots of nonsense, but together to be a very entertaining movie. From cameos by producer Dick Randall and an early part from Mike Monty (both IMDB and the cover claims that Gordon Mitchell makes a cameo, but I couldn’t see him), to cheesy special effects, hilarious twists, chases and funky music, this is hardly a well-written serious movie, but it’s one fine piece of exploitation.

The Resurrected (1992)

It’s a damn pity that Dan O’Bannon only directed two movies in his life, because the guy obviously had a unique style and knew what his audience wanted. His scripts, or just rewritings of other scripts, are among the best I’ve ever seen. But I was a bit worried when The Resurrected unfolded in front of my eyes. It felt sloppy, a bit chaotic – almost like O’Bannon didn’t care what he was doing. Could that be the truth? I was wrong as usual.

I don’t know if I’m corrected, but it seem like O’Bannon really wanted to surprise us, because the style of the movie becomes less sloppy and more coherent the further it goes. The odd performance by Chris Sarandon feels more and more thought-out, even if he still chews the scenery like no one before him. The private dick-storyline is uninspired from the beginning, but when the detective finds interested in the case – we’re also there with him.

The scene where the police break into Wards country-house, arresting him and the Chinese is almost documentary in feeling, and it’s from that moment that the movie shift gear and into something more darker and bizarre. The road to his house and to the underground lair is not only physical, it’s a trip into a very strange mind. Down there in the darkness O’Bannon also gives us a brilliant horror sequence, which Neil Marshall many, many years after used in his masterpiece The Decent: complete darkness.

Down in the catacombs, they suddenly don’t have any good light. They are forced to use matches, and at the same time absurdly bizarre monsters are stalking them from the sides and from below, from the holes made to keep them trapped. Before that O’Bannon made us, the audience, feel more and more claustrophobic – which in the end gives us one of the coolest horror sequences I’ve seen in years.

It’s not a gory film, but it’s filled with incredible make-up, mutated humans and scary monsters. Yes, there is a head-ripping, but O’Bannon stays away from the really graphic stuff. The Lions Gate DVD is in fullscreen, acceptable quality. But I would like to see this in a proper special edition release – why not blu-ray, now when the most obscure movies are released in this wonderful format!

Rest in peace, Per Oscarsson...

I’m gonna begin 2011 with a sad note, Per Oscarsson died yesterday – his house burned down and he, together with his wife Kia Östling died in the fire. I can’t state how important Per Oscarsson has been for the film- and theatre legacy in Sweden. He had a very special acting style which became odder and odder over the years, easy to imitate – but impossible to look down at. He was one of the most famous actors in Sweden, up there with Max Von Sydow and Erland Josephson.

Oscarsson was a true international actor and did his fair share of bigger productions, far from the Swedish borders. Often as the baddie, or Russians or Germans – the typical characters a Swedish actor with an accent gets. Sam Peckinpah’s TV-movie Noon Wine, Anthony Mann’s A Dandy in Aspic, The Last Valley (1971), The Night Visitor from the same year, the excellent Agatha Christie-movie Endless Night, The Blockhouse with Peter Sellers, the monster in Calvin Floyd’s Victor Frankenstein (he worked with Calvin Floyd’s 1981 movie The Sleep of Death) and a couple of early Mats Helge Olsson-productions. He was the co-producer of Olsson’s boring historical comedy Sverige åt Svenskarna, which made him go bankrupt. For you Stieg Larsson-fantastics out there, he also starred in The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

A personal favourite of mine is Arne Mattsson Vaxdockan, a surreal and controversial thriller where he plays a man falling in love with a mannequin doll.

But he might be most famous for the biggest TV-scandal in Sweden during the sixties, when he started a striptease during a monologue. It was at Hylands Hörna, the most popular family-show in Sweden (probably the only one), and EVERYONE that had a TV was watching that show. People demanded his head on a stick after seeing Oscarsson in only his underwear – and Oscarsson forever was connected to the wonderful Fuck You-attitude that he in a gentle way learned Sweden.

When me and Markus Widegren made Kraftverk 3714 some years ago I wrote to Per Oscarsson to ask him if he wanted a role in our movie. I got a hand-written letter back, with a very polite “no thanks”. I need to dive in to my old archive and dig that up, so I never will loose it.

Rest in peace, Per. You won’t be forgotten.