Another Day to Live Through (2023)

"Weird Art House 1970s-style EuroHorror - Hooray!"

You can probably already guess that ANOTHER DAY TO LIVE THROUGH is going to get a hearty recommendation from me. It's another horror film from Finland, coming hot on the heels of THE KNOCKING and GOOD BOY, both of which premiered at Frightfest recently, and both of which are also highly recommended. While THE KNOCKING was very much a folk horror tale, and GOOD BOY felt like 50 SHADES OF GRAY done Inside No.9-style, ANOTHER DAY TO LIVE THROUGH feels like a good Jess Franco film. 

If you're not familiar with the director's work that doesn't matter, and may in fact count to this film's benefit as Mr Franco's filmography is certainly chequered. But when he's at his best his movies are dreamlike, thought-provoking, nebulous head trips. They don't necessarily make sense and you likely need to be in a certain frame of mind to appreciate them, but if you are you'll have an experience you'll never forget. And that's what we have here.

ANOTHER DAY TO LIVE THROUGH is the story of Satu (Lene Kqiku), a young woman hiking through forestland when she meets the much older Lauri (Timo Torikka) who directs her to the cabin she is seeking. The next thing she knows she is waking up in bed with Lauri attending her, with no memory of how she got there. The longer she stays in the cabin the more time seems to be distorting and folding in on itself. Sidney Salkow's 1964 THE LAST MAN ON EARTH plays constantly on the television in the lounge, and eventually Satu ends up parroting dialogue from it. Lauri seems to drift in and out of her reality as the days blur one into another. She sometimes eats breakfast on the cabin's veranda while the dead body of someone lies just beyond the cabin's steps.

Eventually all the pieces fall into place. Or do they? That in essence is the appeal (and likely also the turn off for some) of writer-director Peter Simmons' film, because by the end you'll be asking all sorts of questions, ruminating on all sorts of possibilities and, if you've been in what can best be described as a 'Jess Franco state of mind' you'll be wanting to watch it again. Finland is having a great year in horror and this is another unexpected surprise, and a must-see if you love weird art-house fractured narrative 1970s-style EuroHorror. Just ignore the British poster which seems to be suggesting that it's some dull generic slasher movie.

ANOTHER DAY TO LIVE THROUGH is something far more interesting altogether. Here's the trailer:

Peter Simmons' ANOTHER DAY TO LIVE THROUGH is out on digital from Reel 2 Reel Films on Monday 11th September 2023

Cannibal Terror (1980)

"Cannibal Terrible"

Which, of course, should be read as a recommendation. If there were award ceremonies for trashiest, daftest Eurorubbish of all time, then French company Eurocine, responsible for CANNIBAL TERROR and so many other acts of celluloid atrocity, would no doubt have picked up several lifetime achievement gongs by now.

Cultural Appropriation?

And CANNIBAL TERROR (Onscreen title card TERREUR CANNIBALE for those who need to know) really is awful. Described by someone as THE ROOM of the cannibal subgenre, it has to be said they're not far wrong. Like Tommy Wiseau's thoroughly entertaining magnum opus horrificus, CANNIBAL TERROR is filled with awful acting, scenes that make no sense, and a flagrant disregard for any attempt at realism. Oh, and parrots. Play the drinking game with parrots & you'll be on the floor by halfway through.

Guitar solo with gratuitous parrot placement

The 'plot' involves three ne'er-do-wells kidnapping the young daughter of a wealthy garage owner. They plan to ransom her, but something goes hilariously wrong as their contact displays a remarkable inability to cross an almost empty city street, and they end up having to hide out in the jungles of what looks like (and in fact is) Alicante. 

A severed head! That blinks!

The Alicante jungle has cannibals! And they're brilliant, less resembling natives who have spent their entire lives communing with nature and more some bizarre unseen footage of Mungo Jerry at Woodstock, sporting massive sideburns or absurd wigs.

Woodstock or Alicante Cannibal? You decide.

The jungle also has people who stare off into space before speaking, almost as if they're trying to remember their dialogue, a poor girl (Jess Franco alumnus Pamela Stanford) who has to take the most awkward-looking bath in a barrel I have ever seen,  and a hippy with a gun who just happens to be wandering around (more Woodstock footage?).

What IS that? 

But that's not all! Oh no, as well as the absurdly prolonged scenes of entrail fondling, that awful three-note title music, and the worst folded paper model of a cat (I think) in motion picture history, the piéce-de-crapness par excellence is saved for the end when, at the cannibal's village, we can quite plainly see through the trees the Alicante ring road filled with traffic. Twice. 

The slings and arrows of an outrageously rubbish film

Extras include a deleted scene (I had to watch it and yes it's more added daftness) and a trailer. An excellent dessert to follow the main course of tripe you've just seen is the 47 minute documentary That's Not The Amazon! which charts the rough and ready history of the Eurocine cannibal movie (yes there's more than one) featuring interviews with actor Antonio Wayans and genre luminaries Calum Waddell, Allan Bryce and John Martin, who seems to be going all out to win the Best Shirt in a DVD Extra Award for this year (and indeed every year). 

Eurocine masterpiece or a scene from The Two Ronnies? 

CANNIBAL TERROR is unmissable in its awfulness, a true feast for enthusiasts of bad film. 88 Films are bringing it out on UK Blu-ray. You have been warned. 

Eurocine's CANNIBAL TERROR is out on UK Blu-ray on Monday 11th March 2019

Down a Dark Hall (2018)

"Ambitious YA EuroGothic That Nearly Gets 

It Right"

I think that about covers it. The 18 certificate you can see on the box cover up there is certainly unwarranted - if I was the BBFC I would have given this a 12. Perhaps the girls' school setting and classic EuroHorror feel to this one had the particular censor in question reminiscing for older, ruder and gorier times. 

So yes, DOWN A DARK HALL is neither sexy nor gory (in case you were wondering and now hopefully you won't be disappointed if / when you watch it). The story concerns naughty teenager Kit Gordy (AnnaSophia Robb) who gets sent to an out of the way boarding school where she discovers the only other students are four girls of around the same age.

The headmistress is Madame Duret (Uma Thurman at her most Alida Valli-esque) and she encourages them in their studies of music, maths, art and poetry. Pretty soon each girl is starting to excel at one of these disciplines, with Kit becoming a surprisingly good pianist.

Are the constant references to a talented composer who died before finishing his masterwork relevant? Why is another girl driven to paint masterpieces and sign them with someone else's initials? And are those ghosts that we're seeing in a corner of the retina kind of way actually real?

DOWN A DARK HALL boasts a screenplay that's lots of good old gothic supernatural fun and an intriguing cast with some familiar faces including Rebecca Front (BBC comedy stalwart), Pip Torrens (A View From a Hill), Jim Sturgeon (71) and Rosie Day (every Paul Hyett film). It's also got a fabulous old-school classical music score courtesy of Victor Reyes (GRAND PIANO).

Unfortunately the one problem the film has is the direction. DOWN A DARK HALL is a film that would really have benefitted from a Dario Argento approach, because the story is daft enough and the setting glorious enough that a considerable degree of stylistic panache is needed to put all that together to best effect. Sadly Rodrigo Cortes (BURIED) does a thoroughly reasonable workmanlike job, but that's about it, and that's a shame because with a truly mad film-maker this could have been a work of genius. 

As it is, DOWN A DARK HALL is still worth a look, if only to imagine what might have been. Lionsgate's UK DVD is bare bones.

Rodrigo Cortes' DOWN A DARK HALL is out on DVD from Lionsgate on Monday 22nd October 2018

Nekromantik 2 (1991)

Welcome to House of Mortal Cinema’s interactive movie experience designed to help YOU get the most out of your viewing choice. Today we’ll be watching Arrow’s new Region 2/B DVD & Blu-ray release of Jorg Buttgereit’s NEKROMANTIK 2. For this you will need the following:

1 A strong stomach.

2 A sense of humour.

3 The fast forward button on your remote control.

Got all of those? Great! Then away we go! Here is a list of the highlights in Mr Buttgereit’s second film about necrophilia that once again veers between the utterly disgusting and the ludicrously funny with gay abandon:

1 A pretty girl digging up a corpse in a churchyard while nice     

          music plays and we get some arty shots of snails and lizards. 

Pretty girl digging up a corpse

2 The pretty girl’s naked bottom bouncing up and down on said 

        corpse after she has brought it home, accompanied by more   

        pleasant piano music.

3 Pretty girl meets new boyfriend who has a day job dubbing    

        porn.

What all young lovers do on a first date

4 A daft black and white art house interlude in which two naked 

        Germans discuss ornithology while eating hard boiled eggs.

5 The pretty girl singing a love song to a corpse while being    

        accompanied by the German equivalent of Terry Jones’   

        insane Monty Python organist.

Time for a song!

6 Pretty girl cuts up corpse in the bath. This goes on a bit.

Bathtime does not end well. This is the tasteful still

7 Pretty girl goes to zoo with boyfriend. This goes on even 

        longer. But is less disgusting.

Less disgusting?

8 The willy in the fridge bit.

9 Pretty girl and her weird friends watch post mortem of a seal. 

        If you don’t fast forward through this you have more staying    

        power than I do.

10 Pretty girl realises she can only have meaningful relationship 

        with boyfriend if she saws his head off while having sex with 

        him.

11 “Humorous” German punchline.

12 The End.

For a zero budget daft German film Arrow could be accused of not just going the extra mile here but possibly going a few miles too far in terms of extras. You get a commentary track, a 30 minute vintage making of, a 40 minute new making of, ten minutes of the locations, a video essay on the significance of the use of Berlin in the movie, composer / actor Mark Reeder on his contribution to the score, 11 minutes of out-takes, highlights from the live performance of the entire film score, two short films  - Bloody Excess in the Leader’s Bunker and A Moment of Silence at the Grave of Ed Gein and a couple of music videos.

Arrow’s three disc set consists of Blu-ray, DVD, and CD of the film’s score (which is actually really good and almost a reason in itself to get this). So if you love NEKROMANTIK 2 you’ll want this. If you weren’t sure at the start hopefully all the above has helped you decide if you want to take the plunge. Hopefully you have all been suitably informed / warned.

Arrow are releasing Jorg Buttgereit's deliriously disgusting NEKROMANTIK 2 in a limited-edition 3 disc set on 7th December 2015. I wonder if it will sell out as quickly as the HELLRAISER set. 

The Black Cat (1981)

Here we go with the second in Arrow’s Black Cat Box Set of Italian films inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale of horror. This time it’s the turn of Lucio Fulci to show us what he can do with the story, dragging regular director of photography Sergio Salvati and actors Al ‘I’m in everything’ Cliver and Daniela ‘I bet I die horribly in this’ Doria along with the rest of his gang to a sleepy English village to make his own version of THE BLACK CAT. 

Up to no good with a cat in a bag

So what’s it all about? Ah, well as with so much Italian horror of the period THE BLACK CAT isn’t terribly easy to summarise, but basically bonkers Patrick Magee uses his powerful mind to take over a cat who does some murders for him for the most ridiculous of reasons (‘Don’t try to understand,’ says Magee at one point, and we should respect that) and then rebels against its master, particularly after he tries to hang it. It’s actually not a bad film at all with that curious Euro-horror view of England as a place of open tombs in the middle of fields and fog-strewn graveyards (beautifully lit by the way). 

Mimsy & Patrick face off

There’s some marvellous dialogue (“Could be worse,” says Detective David Warbeck to Sergeant Al at one point, “It could be chicken rustling”), and Daniela Doria does indeed once again end up naked and horribly dead, this time by suffocation and then being eaten by rats.  Most amazing of all is Fulci’s direction of the cat which is quite incredibly good for a low budget film, especially if anyone remembers what a balls-up Denis Heroux did with multiple moggies in THE UNCANNY. You will believe a cat can unlock a door! Pino Donaggio’s music score is great, and reminiscent of the other impressive work he was doing at the time with conductor Natale Massara for THE HOWLING & DRESSED TO KILL.

Daniela dies again!

Arrow’s Blu-ray presentation is glorious - a huge improvement on the previous Shameless DVD release which was itself a revelation to those of us who had only previously seen THE BLACK CAT in its pan-and-scan VTC VHS tape incarnation which was all close-ups of people’s noses and scenes where you had absolutely no idea what was going on. The image here is just perfect, and you get both Italian and English language soundtrack options. 

"This film is all about me!"

Stephen Thrower leads off with the extras, giving us an informative talking head piece on the making of the movie, how it fits into Fulci’s filmography, and some useful information on the personnel involved. We stick with Mr Thrower for ‘In the Paw Prints of the Black Cat’ where he visits some of the locations used in the film as they are today. There’s also a new interview with cast member Dagmar Lassandar and an archive interview with the late David Warbeck. You also get an audio commentary from Chris Alexander, a trailer and a reversible sleeve. A lovely presentation of this unjustly neglected Fulci movie from Arrow. 

Arrow Films released Lucio Fulci's THE BLACK CAT on dual format Region 2 DVD & Region B Blu-ray as part of their BLACK CAT box set on 19th October 2015

Contamination (1980)

"Green Eggs and Ham Acting"

Part of the Italian boom of ‘let’s rip off everything in sight’ of the late seventies and early eighties, Luigi Cozzi’s science fiction-adventure-horror movie is now available on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Films.

When a seemingly unmanned ship drifts into a New York harbour the authorities are alerted, with NYPD cop Tony Aris (Marino Mase) heading up the team. So far, so very ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS but when they get on board in their lovely white decontamination suits that would show up even the slightest speck of red (let’s hope they don’t get any on them, shall we?), they discover several dead bodies and loads of cartons of coffee. 

Something worrying in the toilet

“Whatever killed these men it wasn’t coffee,” someone helpfully observes, before spotting one of the boxes has broken open. It’s full of balloons painted green and one of them has rolled over to settle beneath some hot pipes. It’s glowing and emitting a mournful sound. Whether it’s in pain, sad, or just embarrassed to be in this film it’s not possible to say, but the sound is curiously disturbing and could have been used to much better effect elsewhere, by which I mean an entirely different film.

The one-eyed monster responsible for the deadly seeds = ?symbolism

Someone picks the egg up. It explodes. The person who picked it up explodes. The people next to the person who picked it up explode. Only Tony is left and he quickly scarpers to alert the even-more-authorities which turn out to be Colonel Stella Holmes (Louise Marleau), who hates being called ‘baby’ but is okay with being slapped later on (as if we didn’t know this was an Italian film already). 

Tiny plasticine balls

There’s some daft nonsense about the eggs actually being collections of bacteria and Colonel Stella makes a rat explode. Could it all be something to do with that manned mission to Mars? What manned mission to Mars? Why, the manned mission to Mars that should probably have been at the start of the film, except that then CONTAMINATION wouldn’t have started like ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS before trying to be ALIEN and audiences might have got confused.

Go Ian!

Stella tracks down alcoholic astronaut Ian Hubbard (Ian McCulloch - hooray!) who tells her a story about seeing little green plasticine balls (or possible olives) inside a quite nicely lit model cave. She makes various and excessive references to his  presumed impotence. He slaps her. Italian soap opera theatrics out of the way, the two of them travel with Tony to South America where the nuts and the eggs come from. There the film suddenly switches into James Bond territory, complete with safari-suited villain and his ice-maiden sidekick. There’s a huge one-eyed monster that McCulloch kills (perhaps the impotence bit wasn’t so irrelevant after all). All the baddies get shot. The end.

Not coffee

CONTAMINATION is a load of rubbish, and is only intermittently entertaining. Despite a lot of gore at the start, and a fine wobbly slimy monster at the end, there are long bits where nothing happens. The scene where an egg is left in Stella’s bathroom should evoke suspense but instead one finds oneself marvelling at how long this particular bit is going on for. The plot makes no sense and everything seems to be a rip-off of something better. In that respect if no other, CONTAMINATION might be considered the apotheosis of 1980s Italian exploitation cinema, but that’s probably not enough of a reason for many people to need to watch it.

Go again, Ian!

Arrow’s Blu-ray beats the old Region 0 Blue Underground disc in every way. The transfer is better and there are more extras, including a brand new commentary track by Fangoria editor Chris Alexander, who obviously loves the film and applause to him for doing so. The ‘Luigi Cozzi on the Creation of CONTAMINATION’ has been ported over, as has the graphic novel, which is easier to access on Arrow’s disc. New extras include an interview with Goblin keyboardist Maurizio Guarini who talks about the ups and downs of working in a tempestuous 1970s rock band, the lineup seemingly changing more often than Spinal Tap. He also plays a few snippets on his piano and more of this would have been most welcome.

The best extra - which for me makes this disc worth a look - is a Q&A from last year’s Abertoir film festival featuring Luigi Cozzi and Ian McCulloch. Both talk fondly and amicably about the making of the movie, and some of the stories are jaw-dropping. There’s also a featurette about Italian ‘Mockbusters’ which is great but is far too short. In fact the credits start rolling before Maitland McDonagh has finished speaking.

         As usual you get a trailer, reversible sleeve (lovely) and a collector’s booklet. Arrow have almost treated CONTAMINATION too well. Oh, and if the terrible dubbing puts you off, watch it with the Italian dialogue track, which makes everything far more bearable. 

Arrow Films are releasing Luigi Cozzi's CONTAMINATION on dual format Region A&B Blu-ray and Region 2 DVD on 6th July 2015

Stagefright (1987) - UK DVD & Blu-ray Release

I’ve written about Michele Soavi’s excellent low-budget STAGEFRIGHT on this site before, but with the release of a splendid dual disc DVD and Blu-ray transfer of the film from Exposure Cinema last month, I thought I’d reproduce what I said about the film here and also talk about the extras that are available on Exposure’s new disc.

A surprisingly good entry in the 1980s slasher subgenre, STAGEFRIGHT defies expectations by being an Italian horror film produced by Joe D'Amato and written by his frequent collaborator Luigi Montefiore (aka George Eastman / Lew Cooper in this) that's actually well crafted, makes sense, isn't too tastelessly over the top in its portrayal of the murders and has dialogue which sounds as if it's being spoken by actors rather than the usual two or three people crammed into a Soho dubbing suite. One would be tempted to lay all the credit for this endeavour at the door of talented first time director Michele Soavi and certainly his subsequent movies makes you sorry he hasn't had a longer career in the horror genre.

Also known in different territories as DELIRIA, AQUARIUS and BLOODY BIRD (what would a EuroHorror picture be without several different titles?) the clever opening scene makes us think we're on the hideously cheap set of another Italian horror film. But no - we're actually on the hideously cheap set of an Italian stage play called 'The Night Owl'. After a couple of knowing comments about the Italian horror genre as a whole ("I know it doesn't make sense, but can you imagine the effect on the public?") Alicia (Barbara Cupisti) is off to the nearest hospital with Betty the wardrobe mistress to seek treatment for Alicia's sprained ankle. 

The nearest hospital is an Institution for the Criminally Insane which also just happens to be looking after psychopathic loony mass murderer plus actor Irving Wallace. Wallace escapes and hides in the back seat of the car (why does no-one ever check there after leaving these places?) before doing Betty in with a pickaxe. After the police have been and gone director Peter (David Brandon, who's not at all bad as the megalomaniacal director, although one wonders if having worked in Italy for some time he may have found quite a bit of inspiration to draw on) decides he's found the hook that will sell his play and locks his actors in for the night. 

Unfortunately Wallace is in there too and once he's found the owl mask and the keys to the tool and chainsaw cupboard the stage is set (sorry) for a series of well-orchestrated and quite ghastly murders, leading to the now famous scene of all the bits of the victims arranged as a tableaux tastefully augmented by swirling feathers amongst which is hidden the key Alicia has to retrieve so she can escape.

For a 1980s horror film STAGEFRIGHT hasn't dated too badly at all, possibly because the actors' hair and costumes could conceivably be part of the play they're meant to be appearing in. In the era of SAW and its ilk the murders are still quite horrible and Soavi demonstrates on this picture, as he did on subsequent projects THE CHURCH & DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE, that he's a born director with a natural eye for some impressive visual compositions. As I mentioned above the acting all round seems to be rather better than many EuroHorror efforts (and in particular many Joe D'Amato efforts) and Simon Boswell's electronic music augments the proceedings nicely. I believe there was talk of a STAGEFRIGHT 2 for a couple of years after this one but perhaps it's just as well it never materialised. As it is the movie stands as the best owl-headed theatre set slasher movie there is, and it’s unlikely to be bettered.

Exposure’s Blu-ray and DVD set is limited to 3000 copies and has nearly three hours of extras. Perhaps the most important thing to mention, though, is that as well as being in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 the film is uncut. I have to throw my hands up here and say I had assumed this to always be  the case but no - a comparison on the disc between the version presented here and the old VHS Avatar release shows that there were a few cuts & that all material has now been restored.

Other extras include A Bloodstained Featherstorm, in which members of the cast and crew (including star Barbara Cupisti, director Soavi and screenwriter Montefiore) are interviewed about the making of the film; Giovanni’s Method, which is a separate interview with actor and Italian exploitation legend Giovanni Lombardo Radice; The Critic’s Take, in which Alan Jones waxes lyrical about the film, tells us some of the behind the scenes gossip and explains, for anyone who hasn’t already realised it, why it's really rather a classic; Joe D’Amato: Totally Uncut is a one hour documentary about the film-maker that D’Amato completists will have already seen (it’s on the Region 1 release of ANTHROPOPHAGOUS / THE GRIM REAPER) but which everyone else will find fascinating and often quite amusing; Revenge of the Video Cassette is half an hour with people who still love the VHS format and are prepared to defend their obsession onscreen. There are also trailers, a stills gallery and a booklet. 

Exposure’s STAGEFRIGHT package is the best presentation available of arguably Michele Soavi’s best film. Apart from a sparkling transfer, the extras do the film proud. Highly recommended. 

Exposure Cinema released Michele Soavi's STAGEFRIGHT on limited edition dual disc Region 2 DVD and Region B Blu-ray on 15th September 2014