Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)

Thanks to the boy genius John Koska (you know who you are) who's been ranting about the Children of the Corn saga for weeks now, I discovered I've forgot to write about my favourite in the franchise (except this one!) Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest! Now, you damn know me, I LOVE my DTV-sequels - often more than the original films who was released in theatres and then given an eternal life on VHS and then DVD . This series, particularly, makes me confused - because most of the films just blurs together after a while, mostly because they are very simlar. This, however, is one of the two sequels (the other one is linked above) who manages to squeeze out some extra fat cheese from its cheese-boobs. I blame everything on the Hickox-family - of course Douglas who did Theatre of Blood and Anthony who directed Waxwork, Knife Edge and a couple of other genre classics. Here we have the second brother, James D.R. Hickox, who's having the same sense of entertainment as Anthony: make it big, silly, gory and fun! And he made it like a helluva proud Hickox member!

Brothers Eli (Daniel Cerny) and Joshua (Ron Melendez) comes to Chicago after falling victims for the famous massacre of Gatlin. What no one knows is that Eli is the brain behind it all with his extreme religiousness and taste for corn. Yeah, he worships with "He Who Walks Behind The Rows" and now he's gonna spread is religious disease all over the world...

Of course just the main storyline: two Amish-esque boys comes to the big dangerous town. And in 1995 that meant Afro-American teenagers look angry, drug users, hip-hop and dirty. In that order.  This makes COTCIII even cheesier than it could have been and it becomes even funnier with the older boy becomes falls in love with the modern city life, unaware of his demonic little brother. Now, the whole set-up is just silly, but a logical continuation of this classic tale of corn, and works fine because all of the actors is giving it all, and with that I mean "over-acting like madmen". A few decent performances: Daniel Cerny, as the evil kid, and veteran actor Michael Ensign as a priest, but the rest are probably high on some drug at the moment. Hickox knows what he's doing and understand that this movie will never be scary, just cheesy - so instead of focusing on serious scares he goes totally in for over-the-top special effects.

The special effects is both the best and THE worst in this movie. When they're good, which is all kill scenes with ripped-off heads, a woman getting her head impaled by a pip, melting face and other very graphic and well-made - yeah, so well-made my G looked up from his computer and commented on one of the effects: that really looked good! Yeah, not so extreme, but he's not the guy that comments all the time. Several of the effects is among the best I've seen, with extremely nice prosthetics and animatronics.

Then this arrives:

It actually looks better on this photo of a TV-screen. But don't be fooled. 

Something must have happen. The budget ran out and left was Screaming Mad George with a hand puppet and a couple of dollhouse dolls! It becomes even worse when the model is so badly incorporated into the rest of the scene, with graphic quality right from Nintendo 8-bit! The scene itself is fun, like every teen-massacre scene made so far (in horror movies) with a of blood and some gore, and nice rubbery tentacles catching the victims. The close-ups of the end monster looks fun, but hardly convincing - not even in a cheap rubber monster movie way.

Yeah, I'm not feeling shame at all: I really like COTCIII and will stand up for that when the doomsday comes. It has gore, gore, a baaaad monster, blood, silly ending and crazy religious people. The stuff of dreams.

Massacro (1989)

"Dirty Blood" is a horror movie that's being shot outside the city, in and around an hotel. It's a low-budget production with spoiled actors and really bad looking sets and production values. One night, to save the crap movie they're making, the producer decides to invite everyone to a real séance. The medium, a woman with two ping-pong balls in her mouth...

...wants to make contact with Gabor, a friendly spirit, but instead invites Rack - a guy that's obviously was a sadistic killer in his former life. Soon Rack is taking possession of one of the characters and starts stabbing himself through the mediocre acting-flesh!

Between 1968 and 1985 a serial killer roamed the countryside outside Florence, Il Mostro di Firenze - The Monster of Florence. This is still more or less an ongoing case and inspired several movies (I mean, it's more less a "real" giallo" if you see it the cynical way), books and caused more scandals than the Swedish royal court. Several men has been arrested, convicted and then acquitted - and even if there's tons and tons of ideas tossed around no one knows for sure who Il Mostro was. It's safe to say that a secret Satanic sect is NOT the guilty ones, one of several conspiracy theories and even leading experts on the case - journalists - has been accused of being the killer. I guess we will never now the truth.

...and that's why we should thank Andrea Bianchi, the genius behind Strip Nude for Your Killer, Burial Ground and Commando Mengele, who in Massacro takes more than one cue from the real life mystery and introduces the nasty demon of Rack who takes possession of someone in the cast and starts killing prostitutes, film crew and lovers out in the countryside with knifes and other sharp objects! By 1989 the investigators was stomping around like mad elephants around and in the Il Mostro case and even here they have no damn clue what they're doing, which is especially visible in the last scene which mocks the police quite hard.

The inclusion of a very Il Mostro-esque murder scene where someone is stabbing two lovers to death in their car, far out in the forest, maybe doesn't mean anything (a similar scene is in Torso, the 1973 giallo, but that was when no one knew there was a serial killer loose around Florence), but there's an aura of grittiness here, it's just too close to the real deal and the right time for not being a reference to the real case.

But enough with reality. This is mainly a movie directed by Andrea Bianchi who's famous for being very trashy, very sleazy and - according to some actors - a real-life sadist, or at least very fond if seeing actors being killed and raped in front of the camera. It could be the truth, because he's always a little bit dirtier, a little bit more perverse - and even if Massacro isn't the most violence movie he's made it show some really sadistic stuff, for example a spear that obviously is going up through the... yeah... and through the head of a female victim. He also packed the film with bloody stabbings, a chopped off hand and head and of course nudity and very stereotypical gay- and lesbian characters. Just the way it should be in a late, Italian exploitation movie.

Every line said here is stupid and every character is obviously retarded. The script is fun and not too boring, but the mystery - because I would count it as a supernatural giallo - isn't so much of a mystery because I think the existing DVD from EC Entertainment is in open matte and might reveal an important detail during an important scene. But it could just be bad writing and directing and maybe one super-geeks like me will notice.

Massacro is fun, cheap, bloody and trashy trash by the master of trash: Andrea "Trash" Bianchi. But maybe something for us, the most desperate of eurocult fans. 

Metamorphosis (1990)

Many years ago when I visited Thailand I also took a trip to Koh Samui, the island. It was a very unhappy trip, pure shit to be honest - but at least I got a chance to buy a lot of DVDs and VCDs from a fine selection of stores and markets. I found this film, the horror film Metamorphosis, at a night market on Samui and now, 6-7 years later I finally sat down and watched it: an Italian horror film, dubbed in Thai without subtitles... on VCD. Try to beat that, hipsters! Was it worth the way? No, but I've seen worse movies in cinema here in Sweden... so what the hell. Here's a review.

A scientist/teacher is experimenting with a serum to stop aging. When he's not getting more money to conduct his bizarre monkey-experiments and starts experimenting on himself instead and gradually transforms to something primitive, something that humanity left behind it a long time ago. He's getting black-outs, becomes violent and slowly getting older and older...or is that what's really happening?

Yeah, exactly. This an ultra-cheap, trashy, Italian version of Ken Russell's Altered States (it's even more visible when you see the film). In a way, but an ending so damn silly it stops the time! Oh, I loooove that, and I wish I could spoil it for you - but I'm not that kind of guy. In all honesty, Luigi "George Eastman" Montefiori does a better job than I expected it to be. The film looks good and the storytelling part isn't bad at all. It has that late eighties/early nineties realistic style, less colourful and with more blue tones and more stylish and cold. Like a well-made TV-movie.

And TV-movie is also the aura that Metamorphosis reflects. Its effective but very simple, not many locations and competent but quite flat actors. It has some violence and blood - but I suspect this Thai VCD is cut, because there's some instances where it seems to be missing something. But I'm quite sure it's not the most violent movie on earth even in its uncut state.

But what makes this movie so crazy is the final twist, the revelation of what's lurking out there in the dark. It's very unexpected, and not in a smart way, but in a way that almost heighten the movie to something special, to something extra dumb. But mind me, I love stuff like that and I rather have something like this than a realistic ending - at least in an exploitation film like this. I mean, what to expect? Art? No, not exactly.

I could see Code Red release this one...and I would buy it. It's up there with the silliest of the last of the Italian horror era. Not as fun and gory as Primal Rage, but still... it has something, something that attracts me and nice directing from George Eastman.

Demons 2 (1986)

Every since I first saw it I never been a fan of Demons 2, but after watching it again on blu-ray I've partly changed my mind. Believe it or not. The first Demons is without a doubt a classic, made to make money fast because Argento went over budget on Phenomena. With a small budget and Mario's son Lamberto Bava doing the directing it became a surprise hit and the producers quickly demanded a sequel. The next year came Demons 2, more or less a virtual remake of the first movie but set in a high rise apartment complex instead of a theatre.

It's my party, and I'll turn into a demon if I want to

Eat you if I want to, eat you if I want to

You would scream too if it happened to you

Yeah, the birthday of Sally Day (Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni) really turned out to be a special one after she decided to leave the rooma for a moment and watch that silly horror sequel on the TV, because it literary scared her to death! Well, she became a demon first and spreading the demon-infection in the luxurious, super-secure, building she lives in comes first - then she can eat the cake! Soon most people in there is demons and a few survivors has to defend themselves with all means possible!

What Demons 2 really lacks is gore. Yeah, and that's kinda important in a sequel to one of the most outrageous, over-the-top and gory Italian horror films ever made. So even if Demons 2 is packed with special effects, all of them are non-gory and the deaths are either very lame or off-screen, it's hardly bloody at all. I have my suspicions how this could have happen:

1. The producers was so happy with the first movie that they wanted a similar movie that even more people would see and less distributors would have censorship-problems with in their own territories.
 

2. Lamberto Bava just doesn't like gore and graphic special effects - the latter is brought up by Sergio Stivaletti in one of the documentaries on the new BD and Bava states the former in an interview on the Delirium: Photo of Gioia DVD.

I personally think this is a damn pity, because with gore and splatter Demons 2 would have been a superior sequel in every way possible. Sure, the story lacks the extreme absurdness from the first movie - there's no unexpected helicopter for example and the dialogue is slightly less cheesy. But Demons 2 looks gorgeous in a completely different way, wonderful cinematography and a more confident direction by Bava. Here he seem to know what he wants with the movie - to scare people - and not just doing a showcase for the awesome special effects by Stivaletti.

The set-pieces is also a lot more cool, I even learned to like the Gremlins-rip off (or Trilogy of Terror maybe....) in all it's silliness and that demon-child (played by a small person, the same one as in Phenomena: Davide Marotta) and that sequences is actually quite creepy. I also love how the movie they're watching on TV is the sequel to the movie in the first Demons - which makes me wonder, was there a demon-infection in the first film or was it actually a the middle movie in a movie in a movie in a movie? Important questions!

Demons 2 is full-on cheese and it's still not better than Demons, but with the new BD that shows us who glorious this movie looks like it actually becomes a better movie at the same time.a 

A message from a closeted sentimental softie...

No, I'm not gonna be a sentimental softie here (which I am in real life, believe me), but you all should know how damn much I appreciate you who visits the blog from time to time (and even daily), just reading or sometimes commenting. It means a lot, more than you all can understand actually.

As you all know I give up from time to time, feeling everything is pointless - including writing about movies I love (and even watching them) - but the reason why I'm always the return is the support I get from you all - from the numbers of readers to comments and sometimes even emails and tweets.

It's a tough life sometime, but it's way easier to get through with you lurking here on the blog :)

Thanks!

Ninja Dixon

Stage Fright (1987)

Director (and also actor) Michele Soavi is mostly famous for his complex and original horror films, but the movie that made him famous at first was Stage Fright, a slasher produced by Joe D'Amato and more or less a sub-classic in the genre. I will already confess now it's not my favourite Soavi film even if I agree it's a visually stunning piece of work and overall a damn fine slasher.

David Brandon plays a dictatorial director - much like Ian Charleson in Argento's Terror at the Opera (and I personally think the character of Brandon is based on Argento even in this movie) who's directing a controversial dance show/musical-something about a serial killer. At the same time, as one of the last rehearsals, a real serial killer breaks free from an asylum and finds his way to the theatre where he brutally starts killing everyone in sight! Yeah, something like that.  

My biggest criticism is actually about the script - which I understand is a sensitive subject, scripts to slasher films is never the best or the smartest, but still: a good slasher needs to keep up the pace and stay away from uninteresting plotlines and boring characters. I'm afraid to say that Stage Fright has a couple of these and spends way too much time with very flat personalities and not enough time killing them. It's also quite visible that Soavi is a bit unsure how to shoot some of the kills, because there's a lack of power in several of them - even if they are bloody and mostly very graphic. I blame it on the mistakes by a beginner.

But enough with the whining. Stage Fright manages to be a colourful and even an original - almost - slasher with one of the best setting ever in horror: a theatre. Soavi uses every space of this place, from the dressing rooms to the stage to the hidden compartments under the stage to the right above the roof, up by the ropes and lights. The characters are flat but easy to keep separate, with Giovanni Lombardo Radice in the only role that actually manages to seem a bit fun great send-up on effeminate gay dancers! It's almost too much, but still never breaks that border that makes it stereotypical. I love David Brandon also, awesome actor, but that's about it.

Set to 99 % at the theatre Soavi makes a few interesting nods to the American noirs of the fifties: the gangster-like producer (who begs for his life and offering the killer money in one of the best scenes) and the very over-the-top, mumbling and stumbling keystone cops who patrols the outside of the theatre - played by Soavi himself and Mickey Knox, who started his career in film-noirs in the forties before being forced to movie to Italy during the McCarthy era. It's lovely mix of characters from some really fucked-up old American musical and the ultra-violence of the Italians.

Like his mentor, Dario Argento, Soavi is clearly not interested in neither the characters or the story here (at least not the details) and works himself towards a visual orgasm during the 84 minutes the movie lasts, with a seemingly unbeatable killer. Even if this movie is terribly cool and awesome I'm even more happy that Soavi turned his filmmaking talent around and started to work with really good stories after this, because he's not Argenot - no one will ever reach up to those heights - and Soavi works better with his offbeat humour and low-key sadness that's always there somewhere. Not just a simple, primitive slasher.

I love Stage Fright - but not to any extreme degree. But it still beats most American slashers out there!

Hell of the Living Dead (1980)

This is one hell (no pun intended) of a strange movie, but it's actually even stranger that I never reviewed Bruno Mattei's masterpiece before here on Ninja Dixon. I might just have fooled myself over the years, thinking I sometime in the past took the time to write down a few wise words about Hell of the Living Dead. I first watched this at Katja and Linus place. I was young and handsome and Linus (rest in peace, buddy...) recommended me to watch his bootleg-tape of this one, second or third generation - so the quality it was crap. "It's way better than Dawn of the Dead" Linus told me. I didn't agree on that then and I'm not doing it now either, but it's a movie that's getting better and more absurd for each year and I've grown to love it like a mother loves her bastard retarded son.

A experiment gone wrong unleashes a deadly gas on the world... a gas the transforms dead bodies to the living dead! A SWAT team (dressed like the team in Dawn of the Dead) goes out on their own adventure during the zombie breakout and hooks up with some souls on the way. Surrounded by stock footage they continue on their way to their destiny...

Hell of the Living Dead is something unique, a movie so stupid - but yet heart-warming - that it's still the Mattei-flick with the highest EQ in his whole filmography. The sloppily written script by Claudio Fragasso is demented fun and it never lets down, even during the boring scenes - because when a scene is boring there's always a fucked-up line to make everyone happy again. One of the best things with it is the high quota of stock footage - and the jungles of New Guinea is filled with everything from African elephants, owls, monkeys and this, THE best stock footage material ever used in a movie, in slow motion of course:

Who shot this footage from the beginning? The one who gives the answers gets a kiss.

It's easy to make fun of Hell of the Living Dead, and yes: it's worth making fun of. But like most other movies by Mattei it's also packed with action, gore - just pure, clean good old-fashioned fun the Italian way. There's gore-galore (always more than I remember), an "original" score by Goblin (Maestro Mattei, to his death, claimed Goblin wrote the Dawn of the Dead score for this movie and not for... Dawn of the Dead - bless that crazy old man!) and acting like this:

"Can you... act a little bit more?"

Most of the story is a mix of Dawn of the Dead and everything else Mattei found at the local cinema at the time, which not is a bad thing. It's a good collection of random scenes of carnage and absurdity and a surprisingly huge amount of cynical humour. No one is safe here, NO one, and even if - for example - Lucio Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters is a heavier zombie film with an even darker ending it feels even more here how hopeless the situation is. Everyone is fucked and they know it.

The gore? Yeah, it's shocking and very cheap - often with slabs of meat put on top of the actors and extras and blue-faced zombies ripping the flesh apart. There's also head-crushings, nasty bites, lots of squibs, head-shots and entrail-ripping for the whole family - and of course the famous eye-gouging at the end. It looks okay for being a low budget Italian zombie film shot in Spain (doubling for New Guinea) and still packs a punch with nasty violence and bloodshed.

The only thing I actually don't like with this film is the footage from Thierry Zéno's Des morts (1979), the documentary about death that includes a lot of very gross stuff with rotten and swollen bodies - and some of the worst stuff is of course used in Hell of the Living Dead. I must admit I always fast forward during that sequence - which actually ends well, with a fun and corny zombie attack on a tribal village in a Spanish forest somewhere. That's good. That's fine. Makes me feel good.

Another thing that makes me feel good is why these three zombies wears green body stockings?

It's with a slight hesitation I now will say that Hell of the Living Dead is a masterpiece in its own little way, but it is. It's a trasherpiece and it's one helluva trasherpiece - but there together with Burial Ground and Zombie Holocaust.

Thanks Bruno. You always make my day a little bit happier. 

A treasure in my collection, a signed poster by Mattei - to Kit by the way, as in my dear friend Kit Gavin.