Reviews

Enjoyable vigilante action thriller from Enzo G. Castellari, staring Franco Nero. Feels like a riff/cash in on Death Wish, but was in fact made before the release of Winner's film - according to Nero, the two films were in production at around the same time. Plenty of action - pretty much non stop from the off in fact - street crime, car chases and of course violence, as you'd expect from Castellari. Very light on flesh though, and indeed females are in very short supply generally, even Barbara Bach, the female 'lead', hardly gets any screen time at all. The always reliable Guido and Maurizio De Angelis provide a lively, and generally very good soundtrack. Best viewed in it's full uncut glory, there have been a few different versions over the years, but the complete version is freely available now. Acting & direction are solid, but it must be said there are a fair few superior Poliziotteschi films from the same period.

Entertaining Mystery/Giallo, from Spainish director Juan Logar - of Autopsy infamy - which features a very decent cast of Curd Jurgens, Rosalba Neri, Emma Cohen and Juan Luis Galiardo - lead in Logar's Autopsy. Story line is a little different from the standard Giallo, though in truth it isn't really a 'true' Giallo in any case. No mysterious or gloved killer, no dramatic twists as such and no red herrings, but plenty of drama, mostly seen in flashback. The direction is certainly different, odd at times, but never dull, and there is little about this film that is mainstream. Music is nice enough, Piero Piccioni scoring a solid soundtrack, that's no classic, but is far from lifeless or tedious. Acting is generally OK throughout, though Jurgens never streches himself too much. The stunningly beautiful Neri is her usual reliable, strong and incredibly sexy self. All in all a film that is definitely recommended, though not an easy one to get hold of, particularly in English. There are a couple of nice blu-ray release from Germany, with English subs - both of which also feature the 'clothed' Spanish variant - but currently no UK or US versions available on any format. Hopefully that will change !

Watchable and entertaining enough aswang/vampire horror from the Philipines. Acting is not great and the script is fairly lifeless, but the action - not a slow burner at all - and atmosphere do make up for this somewhat. Print I saw - on Koch Media DVD - was pretty shocking, particularly for something that isn't that old, very dark and grainy, almsot as if it was shot on video tape. Defintely the sort of film that will inspire plenty of moronic, generic rants about it being the 'worst film I've ever seen' or the even more ridiculos 'worst film of all time'. It really isn't either of those, though charges of mediocrity would not be that unreasonable. It's certainly no masterpiece, and I suspect not really for anyone other than avid horror fans, and vampire freaks ! But as I say entertaing enough for fans of the genre.

Reasonably well made Found Footage film, that moves at a good pace, with decent enough acting and direction. Definitely one to watch alone in the dark for that extra edge. Vastly superior to a lot of the current glut of FF movies, suitably spooky, with a decent amount of scares and frights. Storyline is a little cliched, but I have to say it's as good a 'haunted house' film as I've seen for many a year. Seems to be getting some mixed reviews here, due to some initial contrived hype, and then a wave of haters recting against it, most of whom seem to not like FF films anyway !

that plays out like a Scooby Doo adventure directed by a young John Waters. Acting and script right up there with the likes of Flesh Gordon, and possibly made on an even smaller budget. Mostly lame S/E and make up, though some reasonably well done gore. But great fun, and certainly entertaining. For fans of Troma, and kitsch comedy horror !

Maligned in some quarters, but actually a good all round Spaghetti Western. I suspect it's been the victim, like many European films of the period, of bad quality pan and scan VHS prints, and it must be said, some shocking dubbing. I managed to watch it via a nice print in the correct aspect ratio, though the dubbing is slightly frustrating still. Editing is a bit heavy in places, though this may have been done subsequently, by censors or distributors looking to shorten/adjust the film. Otherwise the direction, along with the acting is fine by comparison to most others in the genre. There are plenty of action scenes too, both fist and gun fights, along with a political plot line to keep the film moving along at a reasonable pace. Always a great pleasure to see the stunning Rosalba Neri in action, although sadly along with the other instantly recognisable face in the film - that of the irrepressible Fernando Sancho - she is somewhat under used. The lead, Willy Colombini (aka James Newman) is however no Giuliano Gemma, or even an Anthony Steffen for that matter, but does an OK job, and he looks the part it must be said. The film itself does too, with some very nice scenic locations and the cinematography is pretty good. All in all, a good and very entertaining film generally, though like most films of this style, needs to be watched subjectively and with an open mind. A very decent entry into the Spaghetti Western genre in my opinion.

In simple terms, this film is easily one of the worst I've seen in my 48 years on this planet. It contains some of the most diabolical 'acting' it's ever been my misfortune to witness. It just doesn't work on any level whatsoever, is pretentious beyond comprehension, badly scripted, directed and written. Oldham is truly awful, as usual, but it's the addition of Reeves and Ryder - check out those accents ! - for extra wooden effect that tip's this film from what might have been watchable nonsense, into a dire, embarrassing, incredibly expensive and totally unwatchable farce. Everyone in the film from Tom Waits to Anthony Hopkins - who normally serves up only the finest quality ham - is so over the top, so often and so intensely that it becomes nauseating after a very short time. It could only have possibly been made worse by being directed by the talentless, overrated hack Tim Burton. This film is basically trying - way too hard - to be horror for people who don't actually like horror, and is made by people who think they understand and can do Gothic, but really don't have a clue, a la Mr Timothy Burton. To my mind this version of Dracula is simply overly verbose, plastic goth, dressed up - emperor's new clothes style - as 'real literature' or art for the clueless middle classes.

Difficult to describe just how bad this attempt to bring up to date the Wicker Man story is without totally dissecting it and going into detail, but frankly it's just not worth that kind effort. Some of the acting is okay - though the two American leads are both pretty poor - and the direction is competent, that's all the positives done and dusted ! The storyline doesn't work very well, the music is absolutely woeful and completely wrong - unlike in the Wicker Man where it was perfect and added greatly to the atmosphere - and the sense of realism you get from the original is totally missing here. The film feels and looks a bit like a fairly low budget Hollywood remake, a real surprise considering they were both made by the same director. I'm not going to waste any more time and energy on this very poor effort, except to say that it's only highlight for me was a comedy scene and if you love the truly classic Wicker Man, do yourself a big favour and stay well away from the Wicker Tree !

Having recently bought a copy of the 2010 release of this lost gem, finally available fully uncut and beautifully presented in anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1 - Odeon Entertainmant ODNF162 - I can't recommend it enough. Taking into consideration the very strict censorship laws and general climate the time of it's production, it's easy to see why it was butchered and suppressed at the time of it's initial release in 1972, the Mary Whitehouse brigade would have soiled themselves collectively at the subject matter alone. And the murder scenes, whilst fairly tame compared to some in todays more enlightened times, were way out there for early 70's Britain.

It's not the most polished of films, but the directing is pretty good and the acting pretty solid throughout - with a convincing enough ratio of ham, menace and believability - with the script and storyline excellent. Overall the results, particularly when taking the fairly small budget into consideration, really are very, very good indeed. Which is why I honestly think this film was years ahead of it's time.

An essential addition to any Brit Horror collection - it's a proto-slasher of sorts, imo - and also to anyone with an interest in looking at the darker and less positive sides of religion and it's very strong tendencies towards brainwashing, mind control and even abuse. I'd also recommend it to anyone who just loves a good well made and sincere film, however if you're just a cannibals & zombies or shoot 'em ups only freak, don't bother, it's definitely not for you.