The Devil (1981)

So are you one of those that enjoy watching movies where people are vomiting worms and snakes over and over again? Well, then The Devil is something for you! From a time when Asian horrors was really extreme and happily crossed the borders of taste and morality, here's a classic that I haven't seen before. Directed by Taiwanese master Ren-chieh Chang, this might not deliver anything original, and is far from perfect. Still it delivers good entertainment and a very straight-forward story.

A charming, handsome man is arriving to a small town and checks in at the local hotel. The youngest son works his matchmaking-magic and sets him up with sister and everything goes so well that they actually marries! Everyone is happy... until they realize who the devil is, him. He's just a rude and violent con-man who wants to make a quick buck with selling the hotel and taking the family money. But an older woman who practices black magic puts a terrible curse on him as a revenge. But he's not the last, because one after another of the local thugs are being killed off in this brutal fashion: being eaten alive from the inside by snakes and worms!

The Devil is, like many of these movies, a bit confusing and the final twists just made me even more confused. What's clear is that someone is killing off men in the village, who is it? Because our con-man is just interested in the hotel? Is someone taking revenge on the woman that gets beaten to death with a stone in the beginning? I'm not sure, but it's still nasty little Taiwanese horror movie with some very gruesome scenes of people having these creatures crawling out from the mouth, belly and other parts of the body that might be unprotected at the moment. It's more black and green slime than gore and blood, even if it's quite graphic and not for the sensitive viewer. For example, in the beginning we see the witch save one man with opening his belly and removing the snakes in Andreas Schnaas-esque close up's!

What I really like with the story is how the con-man very skillfully transforms from a nice hunk to a greedy and sleazy bastards, and how the family reacts to this. I'm not sure, but it seems like our heroine's cousin think she's hot and wants to marry her before the con-man takes his place. This is a fun detail, and I guess - like in Sweden - that marrying a cousin is very legal in Hong Kong also. Why the f**k am I writing about the cousin-thing? I have no idea, but I need to fill this review with, as we say in Sweden: Ordbajs.

The Devil is not out on any official DVD, but I got myself a widescreen bootleg dubbed to English. Worked fine for me and a movie the deserves a good, quality release. Maybe one day we'll see snake-vomiting in HD? I hope so!

It's Alive (2008)

I'm a big fan of Larry Cohen. He's one of my favourite screenwriters and directors and often revisits his old and new classics with the same happiness as before. But I need to say that one of his most famous movies, It's Alive - and the two sequels - are the weakest in his career. They have brilliant ideas, but are boring and talky and never take off into that awesome Larryland we love so much. According to me, a humble and slightly stupid film nerd in Sweden at least. But on the other hand, I love movies with killer babies and that's why I finally sat down and watched the remake of It's Alive, with the same title, shot in Bulgaria and with Bijou Phillips and James Murray as the parents of the monstrosity!

Lenore and Frank are a young couple who's finally having their first baby. But something goes wrong at the hospital and when Lenore wakes up again the doctor and the nurses are dead and the police is search the area for the killer or killers. But the baby are ok, they think... A little while later Lenore starts finding dead, half-eaten, animals around the house and she slowly understand that it's her infant son, Daniel, who's responsible. Like all good mother she does everything to protect him, but soon he also start to attack people and Frank is suspecting something is very, very wrong...

Except the beginning of the movie, It's Alive is more closer to the excellent 1991 killer baby-movie The Unborn and never goes further into the territory created by Cohen in the seventies. This is a sad thing, because I always loved Cohen's ideas and a movie like this could always get better when using more radical, edgy twists. But the new version is also way more fun and completely lacks the endless boring scenes of talking heads that plagues the original film. Sometime the easy way out can also be the best way to go.

It took me a while to get used to Bijou Phillips odd acting style and her even weirder voice, but after a while I realized that this was a very good choice of actress - because she feels very innocent and when the shit finally hits then fan she turns dark and nasty to a twisted little bitch. I'm impressed. James Murray's job is mostly to look good, but he and Bijou fits together and they are a convincing and cute couple who have to face their worst fears. This is a movie shot in Bulgaria, so that means most supporting actors and extras are not so American-looking and the locations look both like something from the Eastern Europe, but with an interesting American flair. The house where our family lives in looks hilarious, like an abandoned country-themed restaurant out in nowhere. A very odd choice of location.

One nice detail is that the same kind of stroller used on the original movie poster makes a cameo later on in the movie. I like that.

The gore? Yeah, it's mostly bloody - but has some graphic and fun violence. I love how the baby acts like a piranha when he chews the legs off people! But mostly they filmmakers focused on spraying a lot of blood, almost like from an old Samurai movie, whenever the baby attacks a poor victim.

It's Alive is a fun, violent and twisted movie. It lacks the originality, but it wins when it comes to entertainment and gore. 

El Asesino Está Entre Los Trece (1973)

The Spaniards didn't to be left out of the game and produced a couple of very Giallo-esque thrillers during the seventies, a few of the involving the great Paul Naschy in bigger or smaller roles. A Dragonfly for each Corpse from 1974 is one movie, but my favourite is the violent 1971 sleaze-classic Seven Murders for Scotland Yard, where a less fit Naschy plays a drunk ex-trapeze artist like only Naschy could do it. In 1973 this little known thriller game, El Asesino Está Entre LosTrece (literary: The Murderer is among the thirteen) and gives Agatha Christie's The Little Indians a nice spin with just pretending to go that route, but then turn out quite different.

Thirteen people gathers in a remote Spanish villa, after an invitation from the widow of a rich businessman, Lisa Mandel (Patty Shepard). All of them had some connection with her dead husband and she suspects, and claims have proof, that one of them killed her husband! With the help of her mechanic/gardener (Paul Naschy) she sabotage their cars and they just can't leave (if they don't walk, but you know how lazy rich fuckers are!). After intrigues, affairs and lots of talking one after another of them is getting killed by a murderer in black gloves...

El Asesino Está Entre Los Trece might not revolutionize the mystery-genre, but if you ignore the negative reviews out on the web this is a surprisingly effective little thriller. The main bulk of the movie is a talky, soapy story about a bunch of rich people sitting around in a big house, drinking, smoking and fucking. But believe it or not, this makes the last half hour even stronger and when the murders set in they are gory and bloody and very effective. Violent stuff, but without being to much (which of course is sad, we all want "to much" in a giallo) and with a nice, semi-ironic ending that actually lives up to one of the most used jokes about mystery-stories ever. 'Nuff said!

Paul Naschy as a quite small part, but makes a good performance of the little time he has. The rest of the cast is really good, and it's always to such veterans as Jack Taylor and Simón Andreu sleazing around in an obscure Spanish genre movie (something Taylor is good at, but this is the first time I've seen Andreu do that). The characters are well-written and has personality, so much of the entertainment comes from the actors and the charisma they have.

While the gore isn't overly graphic, it's well-made and hidden with clever editing. One of the cast gets and axe in his head and the clip where he get's it is SO short that it's almost too short. The other stabbings and throat-slits are nicely done, but we're not talking Carlo Rambaldi or Gianetto De Rossi exactly.

A slow-moving but still entertaining Spanish "giallo".

Intensive Care (1991)

Around 10-11 years after it was hot and trendy to make a slasher, Dorna van Rouveroy decided to make the most generic European slasher ever. So generic it's really no difference between this one and any other slasher made between 88-89 in the US, home of the slice 'n' dice cinema. Armed with a script that three people worked on and a pointless, five minute cameo by George Kennedy (who during this time signed every contract handed to him without looking at the script) and some of the most ridiculous post-eighties haircuts ever. Yes, this is Intensive Care. One of the most butchered Dutch movies ever made.

Doctor Bruckner (George Kennedy) is a very angry and bitter man, with high thoughts about himself. When a less important doctor implies that he's done something wrong at the operating table, the good doctor just stabs the inside of the patient a couple of times and let the younger doctor solve the problem. Then he leaves, drives away in his car and.... hits a truck! An accident that sends him in a coma (where he get's shorter and very much slimmer)!

Seven years later and some wacky nurses decides to have fun with the comatose patients, puts funny masks on them - which obviously awakens Bruckner, grumpier than ever! He kills the staff and then goes out for a killing spree at a nearby town...

That's about it. Sure, we follow some meatbags living in the houses, among them the girl-favorite no. 1 from that time, Koen Wauters as the saxophone playing Peter. He looks like a Romanian transvestite, sick of tuberculosis. I guess that was the fad at that time. He, his girlfriend and her annoying little brother also plays some music for us. Terrible.

The biggest sin of Intensive Care is that it's so awfully nothing-special. There's nothing that differs it from the American counterparts. Nothing, except maybe the ugly actors (but we're talking Europeans á the early nineties here, so it's kinda normal) and the music number. Bruckner wakes up, looks completely different than Kennedy, kills people and then he dies in the end. Happy happy joy joy.

But this generic feeling of boring crap also makes it quite entertaining, like a lot of the poor slashers being made the years before this one. It's quite gory and bloody and the effects are decent. We're treated to a throat-slitting, a knife in the eye, a drill to head and some stabbings and stuff like that. The movie looks OK, but with the cinematography of a Scandinavian family movie and music from a German Scheiße production. The editing is surprisingly good with some effective moments of violence and chases. Not bad actually, I'll give them that.

Intensive Care shares more than a few names with the Dick Maas classic Amsterdamned, but where the latter one is witty and well-made, Intensive Care just is unintentional funny and unoriginal. But the gore and the entertainment value is still quite high. I recommend it for you who have nothing left to watch...

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!

The Top Ten Genre Favourites of 2011!

It's damn hard being the creator and father of Ninja Dixon to make lists like this. Mostly because I often takes me a few years to watch a new movie, even if it's extremely good and getting rave reviews from friends (just ask Jocke about that!). But this year I've been trying to watch some new stuff, just to be able to join what others are discussing.

What strikes me with this list is how mainstream it is. With the exception of a few titles this is big movies, distributed everywhere in fancy schmancy cinemas and in some cases even big successes. This goes against my secret agenda of only watching movies that other people don't understand, misunderstood productions that will be hailed as masterpieces in the future - but not now.

Here's a list in no particular order, because I can't stand putting one movie before the other. Some of these was probably released earlier, in one case it was out in festivals in 2009 - but I've chosen them because they got their big break/release in 2011, and therefore are new and fresh productions.

The Skin I Live In
- Could this be the most hyped movie of 2011? Yes, but it's also one of the few hyped movies that could stand the test of the audience and critics and delivered one of the most original and stunning genre-blending in years. Don't listen to fucked up critics who claim this movie is cold, this is the hottest eurocult-movie since Alejandro Amenábar's Tesis in 1996. And a good advice, don't read anything about. No spoilers. Just watch it and thank me later.

Inbred
- The surprise-movie of the year! Not released on DVD or BD yet, but we caught this highly entertaining British backwoodshorror at the Weekend of Horrors in Bottrop, Salbau. So far director Alex Chandon's most polished movie, with a brilliant cast of character actors and some insane gore scenes during the second half. Unpredictable, funny and engaging. Can't wait to own it! My review!

Tucker and Dale vs Evil

- It took a few years for our new favourites Tucker and Dale to reach a wider audience, and it's strange why it took so long. This is one of the finest examples of a "horror-comedy" since Shaun of the Dead with characters you truly love (very fine performances by everyone) and a nice amount of blood and gore. The witty script, an original take on the tired slasher-concept, will surprise all of you.

Wake Wood
- I'll admit this is a very uneven movie, mostly because the budget seemed on the low side and it probably had a bit hurried shooting-schedule. But I liked it and mostly because of the fine cast and the presence of a truly weird local magic. The movie itself reminds me both of The Wicker Man and Pet Sematary, but in some parts even darker and nastier. The ending is a bit rushed and it's no perfect, but still a movie I recommend.

Troll Hunter

- Much has been written about this Norwegian mockumentary and even if some less intelligent US critics never understood it (hey, it's our traditions, not yours - keep an open mind please!) it's still beats the shit out of most American movies this year. Once again, this proofs that a good movie becomes even better if the screenwriters invest time in the characters and stop worrying about what other people will think about their project. Do I need to say that the CG effects looks absolutely stunning? A classic!

The Inkeepers
- How to follow up a classic like House of the Devil? Well, director Ti West really succeeded with making a movie as far as possible from his last, and don't believe the rumours - this is not a movie with an eighties feeling. This is just a very calmly told ghost story focused on characters and not only scares. It's a brave move, but it's captivating all the way through and has one of the most solid casts this year. I'm sure you will sit and discuss it with your friends afterwards, it's one of those movies...

Sint

- From Dutch filmmakers Dick Maas comes one of the funniest and most well-made Christmas-horrors I've seen in many years. This is not the fat bastard Santa wrecking havoc, it's the superior Sinterklaas and his demon-army of Black Petes who decides to take revenge on mankind! Much in the same feeling as The Lift and Amsterdamned, with the same visual flair and black comedy. And blood and gore. A top-class horror-comedy from a master of the macabre. Can't wait to see what he gives the world next time!

Ratline
- One of the most unique and interesting genre-fuckup's during 2011. Is it drama, is it horror, is it thriller? Is it just the work of Eric Stanze? One thing is for sure, it has some fantastic gore, a well-written script and top-notch acting from Stanze's usual suspects. This also proofs that what format you shoot a movie has nothing to do with the quality. Nothing tires me out more than pretentious filmmakers who actually are so stupid they believe movies only can be real movies if they're shot on film. Bah! Humbug! The story, acting, the director always comes first - after that you should be able to shoot your movie with a VHS-camera and still be brilliant. If you can't do that, you have no fucking talent. My review!

The Thing
- Oh no! So politically incorrect of me! A scandal! ;) No, seriously. This remake/prequel was one of my finer experiences with genre cinema this year. I actually love how they went for both options and still managed to connect the dots and give the torch to John Carpenter's original (itself a remake) from 1982. Good actors, excellent direction and some amazing special effects (even if I can agree that the final monster is a but uneven). In the House of Ninja Dixon we fell in love with The Thing 2011!

Lunopolis
- And of course, just until a couple of days ago, Lunopolis was out of my reach. Then suddenly I found it in a store in Stockholm and I saw what's probably one of the finest mockumentaries made in a very long time. A mix of every absurd conspiracy invented by mankind, but put together with so much love and intelligence. It has one of the most satisfying endings I've seen in a while and is an example of true and pure imagination. Indie-production when it's at its best! My review!

I also liked an enjoyed Final Destination 5 (a movie that should have a special prize for being superior than the mediocre part 4), Jason Connery's charming TV-movie 51, filled with rubbermonsters - always a pleasure to see and finally Super 8 of course, near-perfect family-entertainment in the vein as The Goonies and The Monster Squad.

I still haven't seen ChromeSkull: Laid to Rest 2, Attack the Block, Dear God No!, Red State, The Theatre Bizarre, Chillerama and The Woman, all who seem very interesting and in some cases really good. But one day, I just can't promise when, I'll see them and might give them a review if they're not to hip and hot!

Open House (2010)

The theme of home invasion is it's own little sub-genre inside the thriller genre and it's mostly a successful way to create tension. Just the idea of taking something so close to us, the ultimate safe-house, and make it a place of terror makes the storytellers go a little bit further. There's never fun when our private space is invaded my someone (or something) that doesn't belong there. Funny Games, Inside, Hard Candy, Straw Dogs are four movies that in very different way tells us the story of a home being a house of terror, and one of the latest examples is Andrew Paquin's Open House, starring his sister Anna Paquin in a small part together with her fellow colleague from True Blood, Stephen Moyer. But they are just minor characters in something much bigger.

David (Brian Geraghty) and Lila (Tricia Helfer) are two psychopaths and serial killers taking over a nice house outside Hollywood. They kill the people inside, but David keeps one of the - Alice (Rachel Blanchard) alive in secret, hiding her in a small space inside the wall of the laundry room. Alice is very jealous, but still they aren't living like lovers. She brings more people to the house, David films them with a camcorder and kills them brutally. Alice, who wants to survive, starts manipulating David to make him her friend. But it's not easy when Lila, who controls David completely, always is nearby. Will she, or they both, break free?

It's hard to say that Open House breaks new ground, because it doesn't. What it succeeds in is creating suspense and being a competent thriller with some excellent acting. I like how easy and smooth our "heroes" takes over the house and gets rid of guests and new friends (and the bodies are stashed in the garage, in tiny, tiny pieces). It's cold, brutal and quite bloody - and none of them are moving an eyebrow when blood spurts and people screams. Real psychos. Sometimes the cold American Psycho-style (overrated movie by the way) can be annoying, and Open House almost goes that way, but keeps the humanity by having Alice in the show, a character who reacts maybe more normal when she's in shock than many other similar characters. She understands that to stay alive longer she needs to be friend with David and respects him because she won't take any unnecessary risk. She wants to get out alive.

Open House is a good thriller with some nasty scenes of carnage, but it fails to be really engaging. We've seen it before, we can almost guess how it will and the characters are nothing new. When watching it I found myself thinking why this movie was made? It's not bad at all, really well-made, but how could it attract investors? When I movie can't offer anything new it has to rely on the actors, and I'm 100 % sure that the presence of TV-hotties Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer made the investment-deal come through.

I sound negative, but really, I'm not. Open House is a fine little movie that will deliver what you want to get from it. Just don't expect to be surprised.

Open House has recently been released by Njuta Films in Sweden and is possible to buy everywhere.