I've written everything there is to be written about Nightmare City. What more is there to be said about Umberto Lenzis fantastic and groundbreaking mutant-nightmare? I have no idea, but I just have to write something. As everyone knows, it's not a zombie-movie. It's radioactive mutant humans going berserk with garden tools - something that seems to be a common thing to be found on a military airplane. Yeah, I know. It's easy making fun of NC (as we fans call it ;)), but I seriously think it's one of the coolest and best movies ever made. And that's a sensitive thing to say.
Once there was an idiot at DVDforum (one of the most boring forums in Sweden by the way) who got upset because he claimed that I couldn't say that NC was a GOOD movie! He said that I like NC because it's a bad movie. Not because it's a good movie. I said that's not correct. I love NC. It's a good movie. But he didn't belive me and got more upset. So I fucked him in the mental ass and left him crying there on the forum-floor. I think many people have a problem to admit that it's a good movie. They joke about the faults and problems, but then they admit very carefully that it has a good pacing and is quite fun after all.
I think the "thing" with NC is that all the weird and goofy little details create one big fat piece of entertainment. If you focus on one detail, you get lost. But if you put it together with all the rest it's perfect. I'm sure they didn't care so much about the details in this movie, and just went for all the fun stuff that they could make up. The knife-throwing doctor, the exploding television, the dance-scenes, the exploding heads, the priest with the scarred face (that they should have seen from the beginning, but acts surprised when he turns the scars away from them), Stiglitz... hmm "inspired acting", Francisco Rabals acne-face, the cheap gore, the cool music (Ever noticed the techo-beat in the main-theme? Great!), the fighting... it has everything and it's the most perfect exploitation-puzzle I know.
So, is there possible to write about NC in some new angle? I've tried. Maybe from a gay-angle? No, even as a gay man I can't find anything remotely gay in this movie (some of the male dancers are a bit... feminine by the way, but on the other hand, I know a lot of feminine straight guys to) and I'm not sure I want to see Hugo Stiglitz as a hunk. Hugo...the man, the myth. I like him as an actor very much. He looks tired, but he's absurdly uninterested in this characters. He's somewhere else, maybe home on his mexican ranch, sipping on a drink. Because he's not in Nightmare City. But I've learned to love him here to. He's works fine and do what Lenzi tells him to do. Like a good, faithful dog.
Lenzi obvious wanted to do something else than a normal zombie-movie, and he just goes berserk filming the action-scenes! It's wild, very nice edited, some nice stunts and it's never, NEVER boring. He know's his craft. The most eerie scene is the first one in the hospital, when the first mutants appear. It's the only true horror in the whole movie I think. Well, maybe in Rabals house when his wife and her friend get's it. Good stuff.
Shit. I have to see it again. It was at least six months since last time, so I can feel the urge for...BLOOD!!!
Once there was an idiot at DVDforum (one of the most boring forums in Sweden by the way) who got upset because he claimed that I couldn't say that NC was a GOOD movie! He said that I like NC because it's a bad movie. Not because it's a good movie. I said that's not correct. I love NC. It's a good movie. But he didn't belive me and got more upset. So I fucked him in the mental ass and left him crying there on the forum-floor. I think many people have a problem to admit that it's a good movie. They joke about the faults and problems, but then they admit very carefully that it has a good pacing and is quite fun after all.
I think the "thing" with NC is that all the weird and goofy little details create one big fat piece of entertainment. If you focus on one detail, you get lost. But if you put it together with all the rest it's perfect. I'm sure they didn't care so much about the details in this movie, and just went for all the fun stuff that they could make up. The knife-throwing doctor, the exploding television, the dance-scenes, the exploding heads, the priest with the scarred face (that they should have seen from the beginning, but acts surprised when he turns the scars away from them), Stiglitz... hmm "inspired acting", Francisco Rabals acne-face, the cheap gore, the cool music (Ever noticed the techo-beat in the main-theme? Great!), the fighting... it has everything and it's the most perfect exploitation-puzzle I know.
So, is there possible to write about NC in some new angle? I've tried. Maybe from a gay-angle? No, even as a gay man I can't find anything remotely gay in this movie (some of the male dancers are a bit... feminine by the way, but on the other hand, I know a lot of feminine straight guys to) and I'm not sure I want to see Hugo Stiglitz as a hunk. Hugo...the man, the myth. I like him as an actor very much. He looks tired, but he's absurdly uninterested in this characters. He's somewhere else, maybe home on his mexican ranch, sipping on a drink. Because he's not in Nightmare City. But I've learned to love him here to. He's works fine and do what Lenzi tells him to do. Like a good, faithful dog.
Lenzi obvious wanted to do something else than a normal zombie-movie, and he just goes berserk filming the action-scenes! It's wild, very nice edited, some nice stunts and it's never, NEVER boring. He know's his craft. The most eerie scene is the first one in the hospital, when the first mutants appear. It's the only true horror in the whole movie I think. Well, maybe in Rabals house when his wife and her friend get's it. Good stuff.
Shit. I have to see it again. It was at least six months since last time, so I can feel the urge for...BLOOD!!!
2 comments:
Nice review. I too love this movie. Maybe not so much as you, but I love it all the same. Probably my second favorite Lenzi after ALMOST HUMAN.
Almost Human is great to! Lenzi really had that... I don't know, there's something in his work. Maybe the editing. It's just never boring!
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