The Pit (2013)

Just released on Region 2 DVD by 101 Films is THE PIT, which did the rounds on the UK festival circuit as JUG FACE - also the title it went by on its US release. Whatever distributors fancy calling it, THE PIT is a splendid little slice of backwoods US horror that’s well worth your attention.

A small hillbilly community gets by on selling the moonshine it makes to the local town. Any roadkill they find they keep to supplement their own diet. This existence is by no means carefree, however, and by means of a clever title sequence that resembles SIMON IN THE LAND OF CHALK DRAWINGS GOES TO HELL, we learn that after falling victim to ‘the pox’ they sacrificed their preacher to a nebulous something that came to live in the pit at the centre of their village-cum-trailer park. Since then the thing in the pit has cared for them and healed them, and all it asks in return is a regular sacrifice. 

The method by which the sacrifice is chosen has to win the award for the most original to pop up in a movie for many a year. Simple-minded Dawai (Sean Bridgers, giving a performance to rival that in executive producer Lucky McKee’s own directorial effort THE WOMAN) goes into a trance and fashions a clay jug on which is sculpted the face of the pit’s next victim. When that next victim turns out to be teenager Ada (Lauren Ashley Carter), pregnant by her brother and betrothed to the bovine Bodey (Mathieu Whitman), she hides the jug before anyone can see it and thus brings death and disaster to the community.

When you see the names of Larry Fessenden (acting this time), Lucky McKee (executive producer) and producer Andrew van den Houyten you know you’re going to be in safe hands and THE PIT / JUG FACE doesn’t disappoint. The acting is fine across the board, with Fessenden taking out his dental plate to play the father of the community, Sean Young offering up some serious competition for Kelly McGillis in the unrecognisable-80s-actresses-appearing-in-low-budget-US-horror stakes, and Sean Bridgers playing the character who gets almost all the audience sympathy. In a year that has seen GODZILLA bring back our old friend H P Lovecraft’s sense of overwhelming horror to the screen, it’s also very pleasing indeed to be reviewing a film in which, with its sense of a malignant natural force exploiting the people closest to the land, it’s possible to see the influence of  Welsh writer Arthur Machen .

101 Films’ DVD is a bare bones affair with no extras at all. But get it anyway - it might just be one of the best low budget horror films you’ll see all year.

101 Films released THE PIT (aka JUG FACE) on Region 2 DVD on the 9th June 2014

Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974)

        I have to confess to being not that familiar with the works of French art-house director Alain Robbe-Grillet. I’ve seen LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD (which he co-wrote) several times because I love it, but I've never had the chance to immerse myself in his directorial efforts. Anyone (like me) requiring a crash course in Robbe-Grillet is going to be well served by a new Blu-ray and DVD six film set currently being prepared for release by the BFI. Although the movies are not going to be released by the BFI individually, I thought it might be fun to give some of them separate write-ups.

The most recent film in the set is 1974’s SUCCESSIVE SLIDINGS OF PLEASURE. Made on a tiny budget it tells, at its most superficial level, the story of an unnamed girl (Anicée Alvina) who is arrested and accused of the crime of murdering her flatmate (Olga Georges-Picot from Fred Zinneman’s DAY OF THE JACKAL and Tyburn’s PERSECUTION) by stabbing her to death with a pair of scissors. That’s about it for logic as Robbe-Grillet’s film presents us with a series of fascinating, disturbing, erotic and bizarre images that make up most of the running time. 

        While the film doesn’t always make a lot of sense (and probably isn’t supposed to) it’s never less than hypnotic, with plenty to please those with a fondness for mid-1970s Euro-horrors. With its combination of blood, beaches and beautiful women, there’s something of a Jean Rollin flavour to much of what is on screen, but Robbe-Grillet is a better film-maker than Rollin, and his use of these elements to explore a number of thematic concepts is ultimately more successful, and carried off with a far greater sense of finesse. Likewise, the numerous scenes of dungeon-related kinkiness reminded me of the work of Jess Franco, but with far more style and a genuine sense of the erotic rather than the ‘point the camera and pray’ approach frequently employed by that (beloved by me I’ll hasten to add) director.

For Euro fans there are several familiar faces. As well as Georges-Picot the judge interrogating Alvina is played by Michel Lonsdale (MOONRAKER & THE NAME OF THE ROSE) and the cop who initially gets called to Alvina’s house is played by an uncredited Jean-Louis Trintignant (UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME, SO SWEET, SO PERVERSE and many others).

The BFI’s Blu-ray looks gorgeous, and is an improvement on the Region A Redemption release in terms of extras if nothing else. Both discs contain a fascinating interview with Robbe-Grillet from 1984 that helped me understand the film, but the BFI disc also has a newly-filmed introduction by the director’s wife Catherine (who wrote S&M classic L’IMAGE, later filmed by Radley Metzger) and an erudite and informative commentary by Tim Lucas.

The more I think about it, the more I really liked SUCCESSIVE SLIDINGS OF PLEASURE. It virtually screams mid-70s French art-house, with all the kinds of imagery that was mercilessly satirised on British TV sketch shows by everyone from MONTY PYTHON to THE GOODIES (eggs being cracked open on a naked girl, scantily clad ladies lying in rock pools for no good reason, a bed frame buried on a beach, and many more). But in a modern world where cinemas show little but dull, formulaic, sanitised Hollywood product it still feels like an absolute breath of fresh air. Slightly naughty sado-masochistic beautifully filmed art-house air, mind you, but as far as I’m concerned that just makes it all the sweeter.

The BFI is releasing their box set ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET: SIX FILMS 1963-1974 on Blu-ray and DVD formats on 30th June 2014. 

Cellar Dweller (1987)

From the gloomy, dusty archives of Empire Pictures, taken from the section labelled ‘crappy rubbish’ (it’s quite a big shelf) here comes CELLAR DWELLER, a semi-coherent rendering of an interesting idea that sadly doesn’t really work. 

Jeffery Combs, doing his very best ‘Herbert West - Animator’ here, plays comics artist Colin Childress in an extended cameo in an extended prologue. Colin is famous for drawing the ‘Cellar Dweller’ comic, which seems to feature nothing but the exploits of a big hairy monster that tears people apart. Except if you’re a girl, in which case it would appear from the artwork that you have to have ridiculously prominent nipples that can even project through Kevlar to make you a candidate for the ripping. How this comic has become such a success if that’s all it features is anyone’s guess, but let’s move on. Colin draws the monster for what must be the thousandth time. It comes alive and attacks him. He burns down the house. Cue the credits, which last for ages to pad out the running time.

Thirty years later, Colin’s house has been turned into an Empire Films version of an art institute, which means it has a scantily clad girl with 1980s hair sitting on a kitchen table and beating eggs, a random assortment of actors playing students, some of whom look dangerously close to retirement age, and an at-the-end-of-her-career-and-therefore-cheap Yvonne de Carlo presiding over them. Into this somewhat unrealistic milieu comes comics student Deborah Mullowney, who looks as if she’s studying big hair and bigger earrings rather than comic book art (or acting for that matter). 

Debs starts drawing Cellar Dweller. He pops up intermittently to eat people who have upset her slightly using his very rubbery jaws. There’s a girl in a shower. There’s a bloke with a mullet. There are some poor optical effects. Deborah and mullet-boy try and get rid of Cellar Dweller. There’s a twist. The film ends. I really can’t think of anything else to say about it.

CELLAR DWELLER is a movie best enjoyed by those nostalgic for the halcyon days of the VHS era, when any old nonsense could be packaged in an oversized, brightly coloured box, and could be assured of pride of place on the rental shelf for about a week before the sticky fingers of those who borrowed it rendered it all but untouchable for the rest of us. To augment the experience, there’s even a line of video drop-out about a minute in, just to remind us that this DVD transfer has been taken straight from a VHS master. 

I always want to like the films I review here. I wanted to like CELLAR DWELLER, but I just can’t. When the best thing you can say about a film is that it’s short then you know it’s in trouble. There are no extras. You’ve all been warned.

101 Films released CELLAR DWELLER on Region 2 DVD on 12th May 2014

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Michael Cimino’s directorial debut finds its way onto UK Region B Blu-ray courtesy of Second Sight in this sparkling transfer that’s worth checking out, even though the disc is an otherwise bare bones release.

Retired thief “Thunderbolt” (Clint Eastwood) is hiding out as a priest in a small town after his final job went a bit wrong. Within the first few minutes of the film, surviving gang members George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis catch up with him, causing Eastwood to make a swift exit mid-service amidst a hail of bullets. Car thief Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges) just happens to be passing in his latest acquisition, and soon Eastwood is his accidental passenger. 

          As the two hit it off it transpires that, due to a variety of complications, the money from Eastwood’s final heist is still hidden behind the blackboard of a small Montana schoolhouse. They go there but the place has gone, replaced by a newer building. Assuming the money to be lost, and with Kennedy and Lewis catching up with them, the four  decide to perform one last robbery. However, despite their intricate arrangements, including the use of a gun borrowed from a Korean tank, things don’t go entirely to plan.

A combination of heist caper and road movie, Cimino’s film benefits greatly from the director’s eye for the gorgeous Montana scenery, rendered even more beautiful on Blu-ray. Shots of Eastwood being pursued across a field, or a fistfight taking place next to a lake, are put together with an almost painterly eye for composition and colour, and the 2.35:1 aspect ratio helps to make the landscape one of the stars of the film. Cimino’s own script meanders about a bit, but it’s such a lot of fun, and all four leads are so watchable, that you don’t really mind. 

As stated above, unfortunately there are no extras - not even a trailer. A previously available US Blu-ray from Twilight Time had a commentary, score track and booklet, but it’s now so prohibitively expensive that if you haven’t had the chance to experience THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT on Blu-ray, Second Sight’s disc is going to be your best bet.

Second Sight are releasing Michael Cimino's THUNDERBOLT & LIGHTFOOT on UK Region B Blu-ray on 23rd June 2014

Porky's (1982)

Bob Clark’s PORKY’S was a huge hit when it was released in the UK and around the world back in 1982, thanks in no small part to the then-new phenomenon of home video, plus the no-doubt vast numbers of young men not old enough to get into the cinema to see it, but who were able to sneak it home from the video shop. I certainly remember copies being passed around in school and it became, for one long summer, one of those must-see tapes, mentioned in the same breath as I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE and SS EXPERIMENT CAMP.

PORKY’S is a comedy. A brash, vulgar, comedy that followed in the wake of the success of the similarly-themed NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE (1978). Whereas ANIMAL HOUSE utilised a college campus for its collection of insane and anarchic set-pieces, PORKY’S has its lead characters younger and still at high school. Whether or not that might have been the reason for its remarkable box-office performance it’s difficult to say, although the timing of its release was probably important too. It remains the most successful Canadian film of all time, and was the movie that really kick-started the trend for similar lowest common denominator teen comedies such as FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and REVENGE OF THE NERDS.

In 1954 a group of Florida high school friends spend their time playing pranks and attempting to have sex with the local female population. This eventually leads them across the county line to the scary Everglades whorehouse of the title and a run-in with its owner. Their eventual revenge on him and his sheriff brother provides a satisfactory ending for the film, which is otherwise an excuse for Clark to put together as many funny high school stories as he can within the narrative. 

In some ways PORKY’S has a level of humour that isn’t very much above CONFESSIONS OF A WINDOW CLEANER and similar smutty British sex comedies. But, I have to confess, that while trying my best to stay above all the lowbrow humour being trotted out on screen, I found myself crying with laughter on several occasions. I could try and go into why, and the various skills Clark displays with timing and editing, but at the end of the day, PORKY’S just happens to be intermittently very, very funny. What makes it even more special is that in between the moments of hilarity there’s a fair bit of character development and even social commentary that’s rarely seen in the genre

PORKY’S was directed by the same man who gave us horror classics BLACK CHRISTMAS, DEATHDREAM, MURDER BY DECREE and CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, and while it may seem an odd choice for someone with that kind of pedigree, it should never be forgotten that horror and comedy both tend to bypass the brain and cause you to jump or laugh without you having much control over either. 

Arrow’s Blu-ray looks excellent and is a new digital transfer prepared by Twentieth Century-Fox. Extras include a ported over commentary track from director Clark (who died in 2007) and a short featurette in which he describes how he came to make the film. Skin Classic! is a short piece featuring a gentleman calling himself Mr Skin who explains why he considers the shower scene in PORKY’S to be one of the Ten Best Nude Scenes of All Time. There are trailers for all three PORKY’S films, a booklet, and new cover art.

Arrow Films are releasing Bob Clark's PORKY'S on Blu-ray in both steelbook and standard editions on 16th June 2014

Demon Legacy (2014)

All kinds of movies turn up in the post here at the House of Mortal Cinema, and it’s always a pleasant surprise when a totally unknown quantity turns out to be much better (or at least, much more enjoyable) than otherwise expected. 

DEMON LEGACY is just such an example. Out of the vast number of micro-budget shot on video movies that are flooding the market at the moment, the last thing I expected to encounter was an American take on the completely barmy demon possession movies Indonesia specialised in churning out in the early 1980s. The box says this is a cross between EVIL DEAD and LAST EXORCISM, but on the basis of this I’d be very interested to know if directors Rand Vossler and Bob Gill are fans of the work of H Tjut Djalil (MYSTICS IN BALI) or Liliek Sudjio (QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC) because the climax of DEMON LEGACY plays out like one of those films without the dubbing, but with the doing-their-best-for-the-money special effects.

Five attractive young girls spend the night in a remote mountain lodge, find a ouija board and, in the process of contacting one of their number’s grandmother, unleash some sort of demonic force from the basement. The force quickly possesses some of them (handily in the shower in one case, just to up the exploitation elements from a previous hot tub scene) and pretty soon chaos reigns. 

        But wait? Who’s that old codger (that’s what he’s called in the credits) lurking in his trailer in the middle of the woods who just happens to have furnished it in the style of an especially demented shop in Glastonbury? Why does Michelle (Anna Maria Demara) keep having weird flashbacks to her weirdy-eyed grandmother (THE EXORCIST’s Eileen Dietz) doing a bizarre ritual? Why does she have such trouble keeping her bra on? Will that washing line with a large pair of socks hanging from it feature prominently in the background during the bonkers finale for absolutely no reason at all?

DEMON LEGACY is better directed, better acted, and a lot more fun than most similarly budgeted modern horror fare, and it earns itself many points for not using one of those awful blue filters and instead relying on its spooky forest location for its atmosphere. I’m not saying this film is a classic by any means, but it could sit respectably alongside any number of fun, low budget horror films from the 1970s and 1980s, especially those Indonesian ones. If that’s your sort of thing then dig in and enjoy.

101 Films released DEMON LEGACY on Region 2 DVD on 19th May 2014 

Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

        Arrow Films continues its series of lovely Blu-ray and steelbook releases of classic Vincent Price films with arguably the most famous of them all (even my parents can remember watching this one on its initial release). Made in the wake of the success of FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, Roger Corman’s second adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe story is a triumph of inspired matte paintings, clever writing on Richard Matheson’s part, a spooky and creative Les Baxter score, but above and beyond all that a terrific central performance by Vincent Price. 

In the kind of fifteenth century Spanish castle that could only exist painted on glass and projected above a California beach, Vincent Price is slowly going mad. Bad enough that as a child he witnessed his mother and her lover killed by his insane Inquisitor father, now his wife (Barbara Steele) has died, but he can hear her playing the harpsichord late at night. Discovering that Barbara was entombed alive doesn’t help his fragile mental state, which takes a turn for the worse as the film reaches its climax. Insane aristocratic Vincent Price and a handy torture dungeon equipped with fully functioning swinging pendulum that he’s been keeping oiled even when he was presumably a little bit more sane is going to spell trouble for anyone, not least those who have been plotting against him.

While it’s not as good as some of the later Poe pictures (especially MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH which remains my favourite) the last twenty minutes of PIT AND THE PENDULUM  is a gothic triumph, managing to combine Price at his most lip-smackingly evil, a massive torture device, and Barbara Steele, barefoot, beautiful and distressed, being locked up in an iron maiden. Forever. It was rare for a film of this period to end on quite such a shocking note, but Roger Corman knew that if you’ve got the imploring eyes of a poor imprisoned Barbara Steele to make use of, you really can’t fade out on anything else. 

The first hour or so of the film does suffer a bit in being simply preparation for the big reveal at the climax, but on the whole it’s not bad, with the usual sumptuous sets and photography. But it’s the pendulum that made such an impression on sixties audiences, and with good reason - despite numerous attempts, the final twenty minutes of this film has yet to be matched in its use of this macabre mechanical murder device.

Arrow’s Blu-ray transfer is pretty good, but there is some print damage and quite a few scratches, most noticeably in the scene where Price looks on in horror as a bloody hand emerges from a coffin. Extras include two commentary tracks - one by producer-director Roger Corman that’s been ported over from the previous DVD release, and a new fact-filled track by Tim Lucas. There’s a new 45-minute making of documentary that includes interviews with Corman, Victoria Price, Brian Yuzna and Barbara Steele, who also touches on her experiences with directors Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava. 

Also included, and previously unavailable in the UK, is the Vincent Price TV special AN EVENING OF EDGAR ALLAN POE. This consists of Price in costume and amid appropriate sets telling four Poe tales - The Tell-Tale Heart, The Sphinx, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Pit and the Pendulum. There’s also an isolated music and effects track, a trailer, and a collector’s booklet written by Jonathan Rigby. Depending on which you prefer there’s either the lovely steelbook or the standard edition to choose from, both of which have splendid cover art. 

Arrow Films released Roger Corman's PIT AND THE PENDULUM on Blu-ray in steelbook and standard editions on the 19th May 2014