Cehennem 3D (2010)

After watching Biray Dalkiran's Araf recently I felt the urge to watch more modern Turkish horror, which I find pretty interesting because of several things that's common between them all: creativity on a low budget, very, cold, very stylish and the imitating of Japanese genre cinema. Turkish horror is a rare thing, especially during the golden years when Turkey mostly produced action and adventure movies, except the highly entertaining carbon copy of The Exorcist, Seytan. Cehennem 3D is the first, according the filmmakers, 3D movie from Turkey and from a technical viewpoint it's a polished affair with good 3D and slick cinematography. What might bring it down a notch or two is the very generic storyline - it works fine, but we've seen it a hundred times before and we will see it again.

Ogün Kaptanoglu plays a photographer who looks for a breakthrough in his work. When he finally gets a good job he decides to take the photos in the abandoned candle factory nearby and together with his wife and a (hunky!) male model he goes there. But something goes wrong and soon they have a spirit, filled with revenge, after them! It's after him and his family and he needs to solve the mystery and stop the ghost from hurting and killing more people!

It won't help that most of the actors is really bad, stiff and mechanic. The leading man, Ogün Kaptanoglu is good and carries more or less the whole movie himself. It's a pity because I think this film could have been a damn fine little unoriginal horror movie if it wasn't for the acting. Now it's just a decent scary flick. Like most Turkish horror films I've seen so far they seem obsessed by something taking over a person - a demon or a ghost for example. There's more than a few scenes with peoples faces changes to something demonic or black liquid starts pouring from the eyes. Very Japanese. Throw in the classic ghost child and you have a Turkish version of Ringu, The Grudge and Dark Water.

Cehennem 3D looks good and the effects is slightly better than the usual in the same style of low budget horror, but the visuals gets almost too clean, too sterile - like the movie is missing some dirt, some grittiness - something it really would need to make a bigger impact. Especially when you think about the backstory and twist, which is quite gruesome and not bad at all. The film has a dark theme, but keeps a distance from us by just looking too good. But I like the idea of the ghost using fire and heat to kill and hurt its victims, sadistic and graphic - the way I like it.

If you can stand low budget efforts like Araf you will enjoy this one, but the less than original storyline and the stiff acting might scare away most of you. 

Araf (2006)

I'm very fascinated by Turkish neo-horror, especially if it's shot digital and on a very low budget. It always reminds me of the golden days in Turkey when directors and producers did what they felt for with a camera and some actors. It's not about originality, it's about creativity. I've reviewed the excellent Gen and the interesting D@bbe earlier and now I've just ordered a couple of other new horrors to have something to see after the interesting Araf. Shot on a budget that must have been very low, Araf is an interesting tale that wouldn't have been possible to produce in - for example - the United States. The international title, The Abortion, says a lot about the controversial subject, but surprisingly enough the movie comes off as quite politically and religiously harmless in the end.

Eda is a young dancer. She's happily dating a photographer, Cenk. One night she's more or less raped by a rich doctor and 16 weeks later she finds out she's pregnant. In panic she visits an illegal abortion "clinic" (a weirdo in a basement) and takes care of the problem. Time flies and three years later she's overcome the trauma and is about to marry Cenk. Then something starts to visit her, a little girl with black eyes. It's her child, out for revenge. Out to get her mother...

What makes Araf work is a fine gallery of interesting characters. The leading lady Eda, played by Akasya Asiltürkmen, is great and her boyfriend, Cenk (Murat Yildirim) is portrayed with good amount of intelligence and sensitivity - much more than what you would find in similar American movies. For example, he doesn't judge Eda for what happen - not even the slightest. He's a supportive and loving man who supports his girlfriend even in very hard times. I'm actually a surprised, mostly because we rarely see this kind of human behavior in the hard, cold world we live in today.

Araf is very cheap. I won't even speculate how cheap it was. For me this doesn't matter at all, all that counts is a good story that is well told. Director Biray Dalkiran handles the drama and scares quite well, and takes a lot of inspiration from Japanese horrors (something that seems - so far, with my experience - quite common in Turkey). Sometimes the effects doesn't work, but the dark and gritty subject makes up for failed scared tactics and keeps the movie going. The effects is quite primitive, but if you're in the mood you'll accept them without hesitation. I mean, it's just a movie and a movie is built around a story, and the story always rules over the special effects.

Araf could have been a disturbing morality tale about what will happen with women who takes abortion, but because of well-written character and a human look at what life is about - not easy - it actually manages to stumble around that booby trap and becomes a slightly disturbing horror tale instead of a religious or political statement. I'm impressed.

I'm well aware that Turkish shot-on-video movies is not for everyone, but I have dear friends who loves German gore movies - a genre I personally never cared for, but I'm willing to give it a try if the right movie falls down on my lap. Araf might not be the perfect movie to start with, but even if the budget is low and the visual effects is cheaper than cheap, it has something. It has a strong story, it has darkness. I like that. A lot. 

Karate Girl (1974)

I'm not sure where it actually started, the birth of the revenge-movie - maybe with Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left in 1972, a version of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring from 1960. Death Wish maybe, 1974? Or it just started because it felt natural, a good way to continue the gritty new style of cinema. Death Wish wasn't the only revenge movie released in '74, Bo-Arne Vibenius classic They Call Her One Eye came out and the film of the evening, Karate Girl, a Turkish rape-revenge who actually have some minor similarities to One Eye! Like another Turkish classic, Cellat, this is actually a very good movie that mixes the realism with total craziness and this makes it one of the better movies in the genre I've seen.

Blond bombshell Filiz Akin is Zeynep, a mute girl who lives with her aging father at a farm. One day five criminals, who just escaped from prison, invades the homes and kills the father and rapes Zeynep. Because of the shock of being raped, she regains her speech and decides to take revenge on the criminals. With the help of the friendly hobo Murat (Ediz Hun) she learns to be en expert shooter, manages to take a brown belt in karate and sets out to kill them all - but wait! Murat is actually an under-cover cop who wants to help her, but with the law on his side! One thing leads to another and in the end Zeynep becomes a cop to take down the last of the rapists!

I know, that sounds like the whole story - but believe me, like good old Bollywood and Thai movies from the 70's the story is so packed with details, intrigues, twists and I don't know what, that this is just a part of the adventure. Karate Girl (aka Kareteci kiz aka Golden Girl) is a fine movie with a frantic pace! I've never seen a character evolve so fast in a movie, and learn so much - I guess it all took a couple of years if we should think realistically, but that would be boring!

I think this is the first time I've seen Filiz Akin, and now I want to see a lot more. She's both a great actress and looks stunning handling a gun or kicking baddie-ass. I think she has a very slim male stuntman during the worst fights, but she's still so damn cool that it's hard not to admire her skills. Ediz Hun is also a likable hero and a good actor, a guy I would like to see more of - anyone can recommend me more titles with these two?

The similarities with They Call Her One Eye is quite small, but it almost seems like someone - maybe a producer or investor - saw One Eye at some festival (maybe Cannes?) and asked someone to write a screenplay with a mute chick who's raped and then takes revenge on the criminals - but first learns to handle a gun and do karate, and that's it. It would have been nice with a rip-off, but it's even better that it stands on it's own legs and becomes a movie of its own.

Did I mention I loved the martial arts in this movie? It's nothing perfect or spectacular, but hard-hitting and brutal. More rough and less fancy. Like it should be, if it's not Tony Jaa, Jackie Chan or Iko Uwais of course.

I got a DVD-R of this from Micke at Monkey Beach, the best little movie store in Stockholm. He probably knew I would love it. You should visit his store sometime and also see this movie if you're into Turkish action and random revenge movies from all over the world!


P.S! Jack posted some nice covers and artwork at his blog, go there dammit! 

Ninja Killer (1974)

I've included the wrong year of this production, because Ninja Killer was probably released in the early eighties, but the movie it uses the main bulk of footage from was released in 1974 under the awesome title Karateciler istanbulda, starring the one and only bad-ass Cüneyt Arkin! Karateciler istanbulda was probably bought cheaply by Filmark who then shot new footage with Carter Wong and Bolo Yeung. Contrary to what the rumours say, Godfrey Ho was probably not involved in this (or what I know, any of Filmark's productions) and the director of the new scenes could have been a nobody with the name Victor Lam or maybe it just was an alias for Tomas Tang himself. I'm pretty sure we will never know.

The story is, for a Filmark production, quite straight-forward and the new footage fits in quite good to the Turkish movie. It's something about Hong Kong gangsters who smuggles antiques out from Hong Kong to Turkey, and the Honk Kong police sends a cop to assist Cüneyt Arkin catch the smugglers and at the same time some gangster boss in Hong Kong wants to take revenge on Bolo Yeung, who I think is a cop also... or maybe a gangster or... hey, do you know what? Just read Teleport City's ambitious try to explain the story here.

I must confess I never even tried to understand the stories in many of these flicks. I'm just waiting for the next cool action scene and that might explain my lack of ambition when it comes to this boring part of explaining the storyline. Because Ninja Killer is actually a very cool movie, and highly recommended. First of all, which we all knew deep inside: the Turkish original footage is WAY more cooler than the newly shot Hong Kong footage. The fights and random action performed by Arkin is extremely cool, very violent and with frantic fight scenes. The Hong Kong stuff is quite ok, but Bolo is fighting sideways like he's Doctor Zoidberg (they kinda look like each other to actually) and there's not love, no passion in the fighting. But it works and it's never boring.

Karateciler istanbulda also looks like an Italian cop-movie, with the same colourful characters and creative directing - except it has tons and tons of kung fu. Arkin is pretty good in what he does, and kills one baddie after another with convincing movie-kicks and a nice bitchslapping-attitude.

The final action scene is on top of roofs, and it reminded of a smaller version of the Jean-Paul Belmondo vehicle Fear Over the City. It looks quite dangerous in parts and I can't see any silly stunt doubles helping Arkin out when he rolls towards the edge of the roof or kicks the shit out of the bad guys.

Another fine thing with Ninja Killer is the fantastic soundtrack of electronic music. One of the tracks is, for example, something by Yellow Magic Orchestra. The use of a synth version of Flight of the Bumblebee is, to quote Teleport City, "really not much different than if they’d just slapped “Yakety Sax” onto the soundtrack".

Ninja Killer is out on a cheap-DVD in the UK, from InstantVision Ltd (IVL). The quality is really fine. Fullscreen, but clear and crispy (I always wanted to use the word like all the other home cinema nerds out there) and a lot better than I thought it would be. Probably taken from a digibeta master somewhere.

I movie I think most of you readers of Ninja Dixon will love and it's both cheap and easy to find! You know what to do!

Seytan (1974)

Rip-offs are among the best inside the proud exploitation-tradition we have in the art of film. They special thing with Seytan is that I would hesitate to call it a rip-off, it’s more of a pure and simple scene-for-scene remake of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. Actually to that degree that it becomes a quite effective little shocker on it’s own, just cheaper and cruder. Director Metin Erksan was one of the more respected and serious drama-directors of his generations, one of the first to treat moving pictures as art and not just entertainment. He didn’t work many more years after this one, and the lack of artistic integrity and originality here could be one explanation. But it’s wrong to dismiss Seytan as a cheap knock-off…

The story is exactly like The Exorcist, so I will skip that part of my review. What I find very interesting is that instead of Christianity, Islam is the main religion here. This is of course a very logical detail, Turkey is mainly a Muslim country (over 90 % of the population is said to be Muslims), but it could have been easy to just go with the exact same story and make it even more “Hollywood”. I don’t have enough knowledge of Islamic traditions and beliefs to say what’s different here, but one great detail is the holy water being used by the exorcist in the end. Here it’s water from the Zamzam well, a holy well which was created by god himself a couple of thousand of years ago. It’s one of the holiest places in the Islamic religion and the water itself is sold all over the world and countless pilgrims are going there every year. This is one of many details, but the lack of good subtitles (more on that later) make a lot of it disappear in translation.

Seytan looks a lot cheaper than The Exorcist, with more primitive lighting and cramped sets, but Erksan and his team has made remarkable job to copy the original movie scene for scene, and even making the location look very similar – sometimes to the brink of getting me confused (which always happen when I watch Geoffrey Rush as Peter Sellers in that TV-movie…). It’s just too similar sometime, and it’s like watching alternate takes directed by the bastard evil twin of Friedkin during in-between the ordinary takes of the original movie. It’s still quite well-made and all the effects sequences are gross and disturbing. The girl playing Regan…sorry, “Gul” (Canan Perver) is doing a decent job and gives everything she got in the horror scenes. She have that innocent, annoying look, and lacks the weird sexual aura that Blair has, but she stabs herself in the crotch, vomits green goo and being a fucked-up little girl with the same energy as Linda Blair!

Substance, the bootleg-company, has released Seytan on a subtitled OK-looking DVD in the US. It’s sourced from a VHS, and is blurry and shabby – but I’ve seen a lot worse and I think it works fine watching it. No headache for me, something that always happens when I watch VHS-quality nowadays. The subtitles is alright, but the idiotic fuck who did them felt like writing small personal comments (he tells us too Google the Zamzam water for example) together with smiley’s and worthless notes that he/she don’t understand everything the actors are saying. The “The End” sign comes with the text “Finally!”, like the whole movie had been a pain watching and now it’s finally over and we can watch Transformers 3 instead.

But I’ll recommend the bootleg, at least until there’s an official version out with hopefully a better-looking mastertape. It’s a good “rip-off”, for what it’s worth.

The Water (1981)

I collect disaster movies from all over the world, and finally I found myself one from Turkey! The Water is a very patriotic slice of propaganda starring the one and only Cüneyt Arkin, the leading hero-actor in Turkey for many years. I usually stay away from most disaster movies involving water, mostly because they aren’t entertaining enough (not counting huge tsunamis of course), but this could be fun – and it was, but not really for the disaster itself…

Arkin is Murat, an honest engineer – the man behind the biggest dam in Turkey. After loosing his wife and one his sons in the water he goes crazy and more or less becomes the village idiot, talking to himself and raving about how dangerous it is to use the water for the purpose of luring tourists to the area. And that’s what his greedy brother Orhan wants to do, to with explosives make the valley bigger and transform the place to a tourist paradise with a gigantic lake, hotels and… you know the rest! Yes, the explosions will make the dam collapse! The villains in disaster movies are always evil capitalists who want to make many in every way possible, even risking their own life! Murat want to stop him, but his brother uses his henchmen to try to stop him… will they succeed? Will the place be a paradise on earth with cheap drinks and dance clubs? Guess again…

The Water is a VERY cheap disaster movie, probably the cheapest I’ve seen – but not with out merits. The best and probably the only thing I really can recommend it for is the presence of Cüneyt Arkin who gets involved in a couple of excellent fights, mixing classic fistfights with more acrobatic martial arts. In one of them he fights with big pieces of wood attached to his arms, much like Tony Jaa in Tom Yum Gong (but Tony has of course elephant-bones instead). In another sequence he’s hanged with ropes attached to his arms from a bridge, which is a very impressive stunt – and it looks like he does it himself, at lease from a few of the angles – it’s a very high bridge!).

Most of the movie is almost a one man drama. Murat walking around talking and thinking, sometimes directly to the camera, with a scene or two here with him verbally fighting with his evil brother or taking care of his old mother and surviving son in their village below the dam. Much is said about using electricity wisely and not on unnecessary things like entertainment, and several references is given to the great leader in Turkey at the moment. The movie actually ends with a filmed signed encouraging people to work hard for their country.

Directed by legendary Çetin Inanç (Turkish Jaws, Turkish Star Wars, Death Warrior and hundreds of probably better but less talked about films) with a raw energy and creative use of the very low budget. The fights and acting are mostly very good, but when the disaster finally hits the lack of money is seen very clearly. Except a very ugly miniature of the dam (who looks very different from the real dam) there are hardly any special effects. Most of the disaster is spent in rivers where the water runs fast and furious, and makes a good stand-in for dry ground. The rest is a lot of scenes when they’re spraying the extras with fire truck hoses and throwing papier-maché rocks at them! How do I know there is fire trucks involved? Well, in one scene you actually see the fire truck standing by the side of the road waiting for the next water-scene, while people running in panic from it. On the good side, the disaster takes up a big part of the ending and those takes when they obviously just pouring a bucket of water in front of the camera can’t stop it from being entertaining.

Worth watching for the spectacular fights and for a lot of shots of Cüneyt Arkin just standing up looking handsome and cool – or for those that desperately need every disaster movie ever made!

Cellat (1975)

Just a year after Michael Winner unleashed Charles Bronson’s vigilante architect came Turkey with their own version, Cellat, here with Serdar Gökhan as the unlucky architect. Sometimes these rip-offs can be both boring and under-written, but Cellat is one of those rare imitators who clearly want to add something to the story, to the message. It might have only fragment of the Death Wish-budget and probably half the shooting-time, but succeeds in giving both the audience and the vigilante genre something very special.

Gökhan is a very happy man. He and his wife have been married for ten years and still acts like they’re just fallen in love. His sister has a happy relationship and they’re just having a blast. Life is great, Gökhan saves a dog and they’re out on long romantic walks. One day his wife and sister are alone in the house and three criminals invade the place, raping them brutally. The wife dies and the sister falls into a deep state of shock. Gökhan, himself is in some kind of shock, gets back to work quickly but when a client gives him a gun as a gift something awakes inside him: revenge. He begins his search for the guilty criminals, but before he can get to them there’s a lot of trash on the street that needs to be wiped away…

Bronson and Gökhan do the same character, but so different. What’s interesting here is that the Turkish architect goes so far, he’s getting obsessed in a way that Bronson didn’t get until Death Wish 2 in 1982, like a serial killer stalking the streets after new victims to sadistically shoot down. Gökhan transforms much faster to a serial killer than Bronson, why? I think he is, because of the death of his father, realizes the trauma that guns can create. He goes back in the past, sees himself more like the son that never go the time to grief when his father died in a shooting-accident. Twice the pain creates twice the anger, and there’s absolutely nothing stopping him from getting what he wants. In a lot of way Cellat predates Death Wish 2 a lot more than the first Death Wish movie did.

Everything escalates in the way only Turks can do it, more victims for each scene and in the end three very sadistic killings worthy being a part of the crazy Death Wish 5! Here it’s not only revenge, here it’s sadism for the sake of sadism. Cellat has an open ending, compared to the original movie, which feels even more appropriate because of the cynicism and violence that we have witnessed during the last 90 minutes. Istanbul must be the most dangerous place in the world, because in every corner someone is getting robbed or being raped – so it’s easy nights for Gökhan, at least until the cops are getting closer!

Cellat is a very violent movie, with a lot of bloody squibs and beatings. It’s easily a lot more violent than anything Michael Winner did at that time, but never romanticizes the violence. Gökhan transform himself even more into a sadistic villain the longer the movie goes. The atmospheric soundtrack and good acting from everyone involved also adds to the quality. The bad guys are a bit over-the-top, but works because it’s a Turkish movie and bad guys are supposed to be bad and heroes good – the last thing is firmly stated in the beginning with Gökhan saves a dog (and remember that Tarkan took a terrible revenge on those who killed his dog in Tarkan vs The Vikings!).

The release from Onar Films looks nice and probably the best it will ever look. This is something you must own and buy it before it’s gone, because it’s only a few copies left of this limited release now!

Iron Claw the Pirate (1969)

Like most Turkish superheroes Iron Claw the Pirate has no real superpowers. He can shoot and he can fight, have a sexy sidekick and is obsessed by defending his dear Istanbul from evil masterminds. In this case his name doesn’t even make scene. He has no iron claw and his looks not even slightly resembles a pirate – but he’s still one of the coolest and most violent Turkish superheroes I’ve seen so far, and his leather outfit and square-faced look is damn cool! I would go so far to say that Demir Karahan is the hottest superhero-actor in Turkey! But Iron Claw the Pirate has a lot to offer for dykes and straights to, don’t worry!

Fantomas, the French master criminal has arrived to Istanbul to take revenge on something. Not clear what actually, but he’s very vengeful and wants to kill Iron Claw. Our superhero also want to take revenge on something, but nothing more is mentioned regarding that… anyway, Fantomas has also set up a weapon factory and is planning to use these weapons to create terror everywhere, to sooner or later gain world domination of course! He has a blonde female companion to, and another girl that dances almost butt-naked dressed only in three golden leafs! (Hey, that was for you dykes and straight guys!). So Iron Claw, the female ass-kicking sidekick, his old uncle (don’t ask…) and a guy (maybe a cop) in a nice moustache takes it on to crush Fantomas once and for all!

I’m not by any means an expert on Turkish cult cinema. I watch the stuff I can find and that’s it. But Iron Claw the Pirate could so far be my favourite. On the surface it looks like any other film in the genre, but it has several things that set it apart from the rest: a stylish, cool superhero-outfit. Yes, it actually looks professional and not homemade. Fantomas is a great villain and this version of his rubber mask looks very creepy. The ladies, for those who like them, are extra sexy and cool. I’ve already mention that Demir Karahan is stunningly handsome, so that’s already a plus. The script is thin, but it has an absurd amount of action and stunts. Not that they could afford to do any big set-pieces, but the fights and shoot-outs are among the best I’ve seen in Turkish cult cinema so far.

Everything kinda explodes in the end with a huge body count. I’ve never seen so many henchmen getting shot in the face! A very sadistic detail I must add, and it looks even more painful with their screams and spastic movements when they fall dead to the ground. We’re also treated with some very creative camera movements. The best is when we follow the camera through four-five floors and sees fights and kills on each floor, all the way down to the bottom were Iron Claw makes the final kill. I’m not 100 % sure how they made this, but I guess they used an elevator with open doors – but no matter how they did it, it looks great and is one of the action highlights of this crazy little film!

Torture, executions, explosions, shoot-outs, fist-fights, nudity, blood and moustaches – you’ll find everything in Onar Films awesome official DVD release from 2008, a must buy! So take your chance and order it before it’s out of print – and after that it will never be out again.

Altin Çocuk Beyrut'ta (1967)

In 1967 baby-faced Göksel Arsoy was back in the saddle as Altin Çocuk in Altin Çocuk Beyrut'ta. The first movie proved to be a big success and this wouldn’t be the first sequel, two more would follow and forever put the name The Golden Boy on Göksel Arsoy’s career. This time Altin gets involved after a drug bust at a seedy night club. The drugs, and money leads to Beirut were Altin soon gets involved in sexy ladies and a lot of fist fights. Behind it all is a man dressed in a silvery Batman-esque outfit (complete with pointy ears and a cape). But this time is life extra tough because Altin gets brainwashed, or poisoned, and turns evil! Which leads him too brutally lash his woman, who’s strapped up in a torture dungeon!

Altin Çocuk Beyrut'ta is a more slick and well-made production than the first movie, even if the budget seem a bit lower – not counting the Beirut location of course. The sets are more cramped and the villain’s lair is just a few locations inside a factory. But the stylish approach to the story, the excellent work with shadows and editing makes this technically a better movie. What I miss is the bigger epic style of the first film, with more extras and more dangers around every corner.

The use of Göksel Arsoy as a Bond-style hero might seem weird, but most of the Bond rip-offs made never tried to copy the original Bond-actors, it seem so anyway (not counting the Italian ones, who hade more James Bondish actors than any other country). Göksel has the face of a little boy, a bit mean and mischievous like Jimmy Wang Yu. Like a combination between Kevin Spacey and Robert Vaughn. Not a bad thing, because he more looks like a bloke that never would be able to take down a dozen bad guys within seconds, which gives him more of a chance to surprise both the audience and the baddies.

Action yes, not the film with the highest budget, but the fist fights, oh the fist fights. There are only two countries that really focused on spectacular fights: Turkey and India. I guess it’s a question of budget, it’s cheaper to throw a fight than start a car chase, and in Altin Çocuk Beyrut'ta they prove that two fists and some crazy stuntmen can make the cheapest movie look great. The fights are intensive with big swings and a lot of painful falls into furniture, down in the floor or right into walls, stuff that Hong Kong made popular in the Eighties. Sometime I wonder who inspired who.

Göksel Arsoy produced (correct me if I’m wrong, please) the Altin Çocuk-films with his own company, Goksel Film, and created himself one of the most interesting franchises in Turkey, with his own personality and a big slice of Bondesque storylines and brutal action. It would have been interesting if he had followed the two next sequels with even more Golden Boy films, but maybe the energy and interest ran dry and he decided for a more serious career as an actor.

The only way to watch Altin Çocuk Beyrut'ta is through a version shown on Turkish TV. It’s OK viewing, but looks deteriorated and have, of course, no English subtitles. It’s possible that some scenes are lost, because sometime the story took very quick turns without much explanation. But if someone know a better version, let me know.

Kızıltuğ Cengiz Han (1952)

Thank heavens for vacation, this is the time were I can sit down and watch all the movies I wanted to focus on for a long time. Kızıltuğ Cengiz Han, aka Red Plume – Genghis Khan is one of them, one of the earliest Turkish movies to be saved from oblivion. Thought to be lost for ages, Onar Films finally released this hidden classic in 2008 and it’s not until know I took the time to watch it! Shame on me, but as long as I put the money in Onar Films I’m proud and happy.

Turan Seyfioglu is Otsukarci, a freelance warrior who one day runs into the great Genghis Khan and becomes friend with him after helping him out when bandits attacks! Khan offers him a job, but he refuses politely. But he agrees to help him with one thing, go to another ruler and demand some money that he owes Khan. All things well until the ruler sees him and realize he’s a damn copy of his lazy son – who needs to be in a fight the next day! Otsukarci pretends to be the son, but everything falls apart and everyone understands he’s just a fake! Now our brave warrior is in-between to rulers, who are mighty angry at him and each other!

Something like that! Red Plume has been lost for years and years, and big parts are probably missing from the story. Either destroyed by age or just edited away for difference purposes. So the story is a bit thin here and there, but thankfully the most of the action seem intact and it’s excellent stuff. Great and violent sword-fights, cool stunts and a very classy 1930’s feeling of matinee and entertainment. Turan Seyfioglu is damn fine hero to, with a cool moustache and nice swings in those fists.

I’m just guessing, but maybe Red Plume aren’t the most best-selling title in Onar Films library of Turkish classics, if so, it’s a pity because it’s probably one of the most unique and special DVD’s they released. Not sixties or seventies kitch, but a very competent and nice adventure movie which so appeal to everyone into peplums and historical epics. The final, a big battle also offers some rare graphic violence and blood, which surprised me. It’s way to short and ends a bit abruptly, but is worth every penny spent on this DVD.

And if I hear one single person complain about the quality on this DVD – shut the hell up, because the quality is excellent, remember this is a lost film. This is probably the only way we ever can see this movie again. Nothing to complain about, because this is it! No alternatives. Get your sexy asses over to Onar Films now and buy this one and all the other cool titles he as in store for you!

D@bbe (2006)

I had D@bbe in my piles of unwatched DVD’s for quite a while now, but in my ongoing project to watch movies in my collection I haven’t it just jumped out at me, so why not? Directed by Hasan Karacadag, this is a movie clearly inspired by the Japanese horror tradition, but as usual with Turkey mixed with local traditions and Islamic symbolism – something many other countries in the west doing their best to forget, just copying US production without any local flavour.

One unlucky guy accepts a job creating a web page (I think). But after a little while he starts to act strange and finally takes suicide with sticking a big knife thru his neck. His friends want to find the reason for this, and not soon after that they begin to see horrible visions and terrible ghost-like creatures crawling out from walls and floors. They are fed with more and more clues, and soon they one by one is dying or disappearing, or just acting very weird…

I was sceptic at first. It feels like a VERY cheap movie, shot digital and with some uneven editing choices. But after 30 minutes or so I suddenly felt how I was drawn into the movie and both story and the technical issues came together to something quite impressive. The visuals and pacing is obviously inspired by Japanese movies like Ringu or Ju-On, it’s a mystery that very slowly unfolds itself without explaining too much. I hate when movies make everything so damn clear. I want to think a little bit for myself.

By the way, I think the digital look of the movie is very fitting. It’s a movie that focuses a lot on emails, computers, monitors, cell phones. It enhances the digital coldness of the horror and works very fine with the modern locations and simple digital effects. The effects are cheap, but gets more and more effective the longer the movie goes. The manipulation of faces and ghosts actually is very good, but don’t expect Hollywood-effects. This is cruder, but also quite scary.

At two hours D@bbe certainly takes its time, but if you get past that first half hour and watch it with concentration, this lives up to it’s premise and goes for a dark, down-beat ending far away from the normal mainstream productions.

Yor: Hunter from the Future (1983)

It was 27 years ago today, since Yor: Hunter from the Future came here to stay. It went up on 1425 theaters, played for a week and earned Paramount 2,810,199 dollars! Not bad, really. Yor was a co-production between Italy, France and Turkey – and it’s Turkey the movie is shot in (at least the exteriors). It might now win any Oscars, but it’s a helluva entertaining, silly and wacky adventure with a lot of cheese!

Reb Brown IS Yor, a handsome warrior with nice blond hair (he reminds me of Steve Oedekerk somehow too…) who comes to saves the day when a Ka-Laa (Corinne Clery) and her guardian Pag (Luciano Pigozzi) is attacked by huge dinosaur when they’re trying to catch themselves a Pigosaurus (it looks like a little pig with a dinosaur-outfit). Ka-Laa falls in love directly and everything is fine… until they village is attacked by something that looks like cavemen! Yor, Ka-Lee and Pag escapes! After some adventures – and the immortal line “Damn talking box!” – they meets a bunch of alien Stanko Molnar-clones and the evil Overlord (John Steiner), who wants to rule the world!

Something like that. The story is quite straight forward (it was cut down from being a mini-series to a 90 minute long feature) and aims for action and adventure all the time. Director Antonio Margheriti is mostly known for his excellent work with gothic horrors and modern action, so this is a departure from his normal line of work. But as usual he handles the direction very well, and it’s stylish and competently told. He knows how to point the camera and makes everything – except some sets and the dinosaurs – look big and expensive. He really uses the Turkish exteriors in an excellent way.

Like all of Margheriti’s work he offers a lot of well made and cool miniatures that most of the times gets blown to pieces or destroyed in some other way. Here he had help from his son Edoardo and daughter Antonella. Most of the effects look great, and I’m especially impressed by the spaceship that flies away at the end. Could it be a real remote controlled miniature plane made to look like a spaceship?

I’m not kidding above, Reb Brown IS Yor. No one else than him could have done this role so perfect. Always a twinkle in the eye, a huge blonde wig, a fit body and doing mighty fine in the action sequences. Corinne Clery is lovely and Pigozzi do what he do best, playing himself. John Steiner is also in it, as the Overlord, but don’t have so much to do really, except looking evil under his hood.

Yor is a very fine and cheesy Barbarian/Sci-Fi/Adventure-movie from the master of miniatures. It fully deserves it’s legendary status and one day, I hope and pray, it will arrive on glorious Blu-ray in it’s full complete form.

Kadin Düsmani (1967)

In 1936 Agatha Christie published one of her most famous books, The A.B.C. Murders, where the killer murdered women with the same letter in the beginning of the name as the city they lived it. Between 1971 and 1973 the Alphabet Killer murdered three girls the same way. And in between, in 1967, Turkey released this impressive little giallo-esque thriller who could have been both a rip-off on the Christie-novel and a blueprint for the future real murders. Kadin Düsmani, or Woman Despiser, is a weird because it feels somehow like it's very inspired by the giallos that came years after, but this was before the big giallo-boom. Sure, it could also has been inspired by the Christie-novel or the Edgar Wallace-movies from Germany, but it's also a fact that this one stands on it's own legs and has it's own chilling story to tell.

Ekrem Bora plays a tough police who's handling the investigation of a series of brutal murders with necrophiliac tendencies. He falls in loves with the sister of one of the suspects, but will have more problem because of her mother - a psychotic controlling bitch, and his own - who fakes a handicap to be able to control her family even more. But more and more murders occur, and the suspects are falling down like apples from a tree. No one seem to be able to stop the killer, who dresses in goofy horror-masks and rubber-hands as gloves... 

This is a very typical slasher/giallo-style thriller, which manages to be really good. As usual the budget are low and some of the horror effects might be a bit silly, but Ilhan Engin tells the story with a helluva lot of style and gives us many great set-pieces with brutal murders and a lot of sleazy and perverted hints of what goes one after the murders. Engin uses a lot of shadows and light, and creates a feeling of both German expressionism and American noir, with the big difference that the story is more simple and a great excuse to thrill it's audience with out to much exposition. Even if the print is not in perfect shape (but far from bad), it can't hide the fact that the cinematography looks stunning.

I also like the characters, which are similar but it's still easy to tell them apart. The suspects is a bunch of young men around the same age, but all has different personalities and styles. The female characters are both strong, victims and psychopats, and it feels like this was a great movie to star in if you was a female character actor during this time. The female victims are mostly cute, and at least one of them a terrible, terrible actress. But it's all made with a lot of talent and imagination.

I know it's wrong to call it a giallo, because a giallo must be Italian. But I'm sure that everyone that enjoys a good murder mystery in the eurocult-genre would love this movie. It was a long time since I saw so many red herrings and suspects in one movie, and it brings a lot of joy to us, the viewers, because it's never boring and it's well made as hell!

The disc from Onar Films is as usual above average! The print they found for this one is in good shape, but of course there's a lot of scratches and problems with it to - but this is the best way to watch the movie and it will never, believe me, never look better than this. For lovers of eurocult and giallos, Turkish cult-cinema and a good thriller with out putting a lable on it, this is something for your. Get it at Onar Films before it goes OOP.

3 Dev Adam (1973)

Ya know, sometimes I have periods when I find it very hard to write about movies, yes even watch movies. Since my last review I've only watched too movies (both Hollywood stuff) and just didn't give a fuck about all those hundreds of movies I really should watch. But today 3 Dev Adam arrived from Onar Films in Greece, just a couple of days after I ordered it - and what a relief. I'm not sure about the story, but I think IMDB says it quite good: "Istanbul is being terrorized by a crime wave, and the police call in American superhero Captain America and Mexican wrestler Santo to put a stop to it.". But this little resume leaves out that the bad guys is Spiderman! Well, he's called The Spider or Green Maniac in the movie, but he's basically a pot-belly version of Spiderman - but with huge eyebrows and slightly different colors on his tight, all to revealing, Spiderman-dress. 

We're not talking high art here, but when it comes to pure craziness, a wacky superhero-sillython - this and Tarkan vs The Vikings is the movies you should see if you have all braincells left. You might loose some when watching this fascinating story about Spiderman stealing statues, killing a lot of people and Santos and Captain America getting into a lot of funny fights. For me, as a fight-fetischist, this is a dream come true. All those classic Turk-moves are here, wild stunts and weird acrobatics. It's colorful and violent, a bit bloody and very silly inbetween. One of the strangest scenes is when Santos, in his human form of course, is taking a shower alone - wearing his underwears on! I can understand if the actor don't want to show his thingie to the crew - but why don't just film in from the waist up? He also glances into the camera directly after coming out from the shower, so what we have here is a shy Santos. Very shy.

Like Tarkan vs The Vikings there's a lot of red theatrical blood running over the screen. Not much, but a woman is getting her face/head chopped of with a boat propeller (off screen, but with blood spraying on the legs of the evil girlfriend of Spiderman), a man getting his eyes eaten by a guinea pig, a violent stabbing in a shower - complete with a close-up of the blood running down the drain. The actors are actually quite good and brings a lot of energy and some kinda seriousness to the characters. The two heroes, Aytekin Akkaya and Yavuz Selekman, is in great shape and makes a great job in the action scenes. Another favorite, Altan Günbay, shows up as a baddie too!

Onar Films brings us 3 Dev Adam in the best shape it's ever been in. Not perfect of course, because the movie is so damn obscure and no negatives probably left. But the quality is good and the colors strong. As usual the menu and cover is fantastic, and fits the movie perfectly - but the highlight (except the movie itself of course) is three amazing interviews. This is a stellar DVD release and it seem like Onar Films has a couple of copies left - so get it NOW.

Altin çocuk (1966)

So, finally it has arrived: Altin çocuk, Onar Films latest release - and it's a packed DVD! Only a limited release, 500 numbered copies, this will be a collectors item. And not only because it's such a small release, but because it's a darn entertaining Turkish take on our favorite agent 007. But this time it's boyish superstar Göksel Arsoy as Golden Boy and longtime villain in Turkish cinema, Altan Günbay, as the Blofeld-esque baddie.

The movie starts like all movies should start, with a striptease. A woman is dancing/pleasing herself in front of a mirror, until Golden Boy himself comes into the picture and kisses her, and this goes one for the whole pre-credit sequence. Suddenly a man in a diver gear comes into the house and kills Golden Boy! But don't worry, it's only a double that's being killed, an enemy agent trying to get some secret information... and the man in the diver gear is the real Golden Boy.

The Turkish secret service awards him with a nice trip to London, where he literally seem to have one girl in every corner. He just drives around in his fancy sports car, drops one girl of and pick another one up! He ends up with a Swedish blonde at a hotel and just enjoys life. But a colleague in Turkey gets killed trying to inform their bosses about a terrible plan! Four women are escorting Golden Boy to the airport, and off he goes to new adventures.

It's of course the bald Altan Günbay (complete with a white cat in his lap) who's gonna destroy Turkey with a nuclear explosion, and the only one that can stop him is... yes, you guessed it... Golden Boy!

In a way there's not much going on in this movie. The plot is primitive and easy to follow, Golden Boys walks and drives around, gets into fights and shoot-outs, saves women, have sex with them, they get killed and he continues his hunt for the bald baddie. But at the same time it's an effective story, there's no boring scenes, just stuff that we wants to see in a spy-movie like this. It's like a Bond-movie on a hard diet. Chases, fights, semi-nudity, nice locations and an evil bald mastermind with a white cat. I love it. Yes, even a Swedish Bond-gal! Sorry, Golden Boy-gal!

Yeah, the budger are lower than most of the Italian movies in the same genre, but except the language there's not much difference really. It looks good, and the director Memduh Ün stretches the budget, and there's a lot of creative editing and angles, which makes this Turksploitation a lot more slicker than some of the other examples from the same era. Göksel Arsoy is in most of the scenes in the movie, and he's an odd Bond-copy. He looks like a mix between Jon Voight, William Shatner, Conan O'Brien and a school boy, and yes... a bit wimpy. But he's great in the action scenes and confident with the ladies, but it takes a bit of time to get used to his presence.   
What's really cool is that Onar Films has dug up a wonderful print. It has some print damage, and misses a frame or two here and there - but the sharpness, the contrast. Most of the time this movie looks and sounds great. Remember that it's a very obscure movie too, so a DVD like this is a dream!

As usual with Onar Films there's a lot of interesting extras. First of all we have two new trailers, once for a lost Kilink-movie which looks very interesting and dark. It's basically one scene, and it's a grim scene. I don't want to tell to much, watch it yourself. The second one is for Ringo Gestapo'ya Karsi, which looks extremely absurd. There's cowboys in it, and a member of the gestapo... and some whipping. And action. And more cowboys! I have to see it! Turkish Intrigue is a good article about Turkish spy-movies and then there's the usual filmographies and biographies. But the best thing is a 16 minute interview with Altan Günbay, who talks about his work in Turkish cinema. He starred in at least 140 movies (most of them as a villain) and tells how he was forced by producers to keep his shaved head for movie after movie, how he later found out that he was in a Sean Connery-movie and the state of Turkish movies today. Great little interview, and it's hard to believe that this nice old man was spitted at, got chairs hurled after him and a lot more because he always played the villain. 

After thinking a little bit, the final of the movie echoes The World Is Not Enough a lot. Both have the finale in Istanbul, in the bay, close to a house/castle on an island. Golden Boy/Bond goes underwater to stop the nuclear device to explode. After this Golden Boy also breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience with tongue in cheek and a smile. Just like Lazenby later did in On Her Majesty's Secret Service...

Altin çocuk is a cool movie and the DVD is great, so don't hesitate, buy it at Onar Films now!

The Dead Don't Talk (1970)

From Onar Films comes The Dead Don't Talk, a gothic haunted house story from Turkey. I started to watch it earlier this year, but gave up after ten minutes. But I alway try to give a movie a new try, and this time I made it! The first ten minutes are a bit uneven, and it looks very cheap, but as soon as things are starting to happening it became quite good.

A young couple is coming to an old house, where the owner recently died. The only person there is a tall, weird servant who seem to be in grief about his dead love. The first night a dead guy in a long coat, hat and with a bizarre laugh, stumbles in and kills the couple - which was a bit surprising because I expected they would be the leading couple - and the story starts all over again, a new couple and the dead guys is getting more people to kill!

This is a classic gothic ghost-story, with a living dead guy taking out revenge. Or... I'm not sure, it could be that a demon has taken over his body to or something like that. Anyway, that dosen't matter. It's a movie with a very low budget, but the creative persons behind the production, shows up a lot of style and talent with creating a cool ghost house out of nothing. They work a lot with shadows, mirrors and a lot of stolen music from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rosemary's Baby! Some stuff is really good, and especially the mirror scenes which creates an eeire confusion in storytelling. 

The actors just act, say their lines, but some of the women do a good job looking scared. The guy playing the zombie is a blast. He's having the time of his life with a loud manical laughter and stuff walk. He have a tendency to open his mouth very much, which looks spooky when he stands outside windows trying to get in. As usual this is no masterpiece, but way better than I expected from the beginning.

And yes, the english title is a bit contradictory, because the dead guy talks a lot!

Kilink vs Superman (1967)

Merhaba! There's something special with these turkish, quite naive, adventure-flicks. I can't say we have masterpieces here (except Tarkan vs The Vikings of course), but the charm and happy style of filmmaking really get's to me. In this first Kilink-sequel, directed by Yilmaz Atadeniz, our mastermind of crime is fighting a guy who look like a combination between Batman and Superman. He has tights on and fake muscle under them. Cool. 

A part of the movie is missing (and that part looks cool!), so it's a quite short production, around fifty minutes, and filled with playful action and cartoon-characters doing their stuff. The action is fast paced, as usual in these movies, and with a few seconds of slapstick here and there. Kilink is a an very evil guy, but he always have half naked women around him and they all just love him!

I'm don't want to write about the story. They fight each other. Kilink has a deadly laserbeam or something that he will use to take over the world. He also has a private island where he has a lot of women and other bad guys, and of course an underground laboratory! The Onar release is part of a double bill, and the movie probably look as good as it can do nowdays. It's very scratchy and in bad shape, but watchable and dosen't take away the enjoyment of the movie. 

The style of the movies reminds more and more of those old american serials, or maybe even the wilder silent productions from the beginning of the movie-history. Like those, this is made to entertain and nothing more. I don't know about you out there, but that's my kind of entertainment!

Thirsty of love, sex and murder (1972)

I was a little upset about something that Bill at Onar Films wrote, but after understand what I meant I felt for watching something from his company. I started to watch Kilinik vs Superman, and I will write something about that one tomorrow. But I also wrote a comment about another great movie from Onar Films, and I'm publishing it here again for you to read. 

Thirsty of love, sex and murder was probably the wildest murder mystery I've seen for a very long time. Except the language, it could have been italian. Filled with a lot of sleaze, some blood, the most chaotic mix of music I've ever heard and actually a lot of good acting. I like giallos, but I like serious realistic giallos, and not those kitchy movies with more style than story. But this was a kitch movie I enjoyed a lot!

What I understand it's more or less a turkish remake of The Turkish Vice Of Mrs. Wardh, a movie I haven't seen, but probably could help me understand the plot of this one.

I was surprised about the amount of nudity, especially because Turkey is a muslim country and is more conservative with these things... (but as Jack once commented, Turky is one of the most relaxed muslim countries out there) but it seems like the seventies was the wildest decade for everyone. Sure, the print was not be best, which is okey for me, but it still had some nice cinematography and (most of the time) tight editing.

The last twenty minutes where so filled with twists and turns that I'm really not sure what happen. But I think I know who the killer was. Or, no... I'm not sure.

Yes, a short recommendation - but something you have to buy!

Gen (2006)

It's not often you get to see a quite new turkish genre movie, but now I've finally seen Gen, a giallo-style slasher with enough turns and twists to entertain for ninety minutes. I guess those who expect something very trashy and sleazy will be disappointed, because it's a well made lowbudget-thriller with good acting and even some blood.

I like movies that are set on a small location, and I guess this is a good way to keep the budget down to. Here we have a cool and spooky psychiatric clinic far out in the countryside. Long corridors, flickering lights and strange nurses. Scary enough. In some parts it's a very old fashioned movie with long shadows, creaky doors and rain and storm, but the director suddenly bursts out in rapid cutting and weird angles. Both good and bad actually, but it's never boring. We follow a young new female doctor who's gonna start working at the clinic. But soon a suicide brings some polices there and not long after that a brutal murder! The killer cuts the genitals of the vicitims and mutilates them so the blod spurts all over the scenery! Lovely!

It won't take long until there's more victims... and the question is, who is the killer?

Gen is a smarter movie than I thought from the beginning. It seems shallow, but afterwards you realise there's more details and more thoughts behind the story than it first seems. I could guess quite fast who the killer was, but I wonder if that might have been the purpose to? Because there's more twists than how the killer is, and even if I've seen it before, I didn't expect it at all. It's quite a shocking and cynic ending, which I liked very much.

So, how's the gore? No, there's not much gore, but a lot of blood. So nothing graphic, but a lot of blood flying on the walls. The actors are great and they do exactly what they should do. Nothing new, but it fits perfectly in this turkish mystery-puzzle. For us swedish bastards there's a funny detail: Jay-Jay Johansson is credited in the pre-credits for a couple of songs! Didn't know this, so it was fun. The music where good to.

Great little shocker that starts weak, but ends with a bang! Recommended!

And yeah, I bought my copy from Onar Films - and so should you!

Tarkan vs the Vikings (1971)

Our heritage, the silly vikings, has been mauled, ridiculed and bashed for centuries. From those early Hollywood-movies, to italian Viking-peplums, the Lee Majors-"classic" The Norseman (I would love to see that on dvd!) to british comedies and strange big budget-adventures... but never, never has the vikings been so silly in Tarkan vs the Vikings, the amazing turk-action from 1971! No misunderstandings here, I love it. The vikings dosen't deserve any better, and this movie is the way to go. Never pretentious, never serious, more gory and more sleazy than anything else in the viking-genre.

Kartal Tibet is a charmig hero, Tarkan, with his faithful dog Kurt... who just lives ten minutes into the movie and get's replaced by it's son! The whole movie is about Tarkan getting revenge on the brutal vikings who killed his dog anyway. Wish more movies where like that (new idea: "a lonely samurai-hero is getting revenge on the indians that killed his parrot"). The opening massacre is quite violent, and blood and impalings is everyhwere. There's a lot of energy in the action and from now on it's never boring.

The vikings look like Astrix-characters with bad wigs, colorful clothes and always ready for a nasty rape. A perfect enemy to the almost perfect gentleman of Tarkan. They also has the most dead-looking octopus-monster since Bride of the monster, a floating gigant beast that sometimes movies with the help of it's victim or a guy standing underneath it moving the head.

But now it seems like I'm making fun of the movie! I am. But it's a wonderful, cheesy, funny movie that never bores you - which for me is the most important thing. It's just popcorn-entertainment with no meaning. Just entertainment, which we need now and then. I often needs it now. This is release together with The Deathless Devil, another great turkish classic, from Mondo Macabro. I recommend a purchase as soon as possible, because this is one of the movies that you should have in your collection.