Tagarchief: Horror

Evil Dead II

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Sam Raimi
Written by: Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie DePaiva

Year / Country: 1987, USA
Running Time: 85 mins.

Evil Dead II marks a welcome return for director Raimi and star Campbell. It starts with a recap of the first film, with the distinction that five friends became just Ash (Campbell) and his girlfriend Linda. After Linda is possessed by evil, Ash hacks her up and buries her. However the evil returns and possesses Ash himself. This is the point where the first film ended. It then turns out that when dawn arrives, evil vanishes and Ash is back to his old self again. He now has till evening to get the hell out of dodge. Of course he can’t (bridge broken, what do you know?) and Ash’s everlasting struggle continues.

Humor makes an entry in this second Evil Dead flick. Big time. But luckily the terror hasn’t been forgotten. The combination of the two make this an even more enjoyable film than the first one. Raimi also takes his visual style to the next level and does an outstanding job in creating one breathtaking shot after the other. The camerawork and editing are just seamless.

Then there’s the great performance by Campbell who deserves much credit for carrying this flick. During a lot of screen time, it is just him alone in the cabin (without other humans that is). With his brilliant physical acting and his great comical timing he totally absorbs the audience’s attention. The slapstick fight with his own hand is an outrageous and comical masterpiece.

But there is more twisted humor to be found. Often this is accomplished with inventive gruesomeness, like the hilarious flying eyeball or the work-shed flight. Another fantastic achievement is the nerve shattering sequence around the witch in the fruit cellar. With this film Raimi, may well have delivered his finest one to date, making this an absolute must-see horror flick.

Rating:

Biography: Sam Raimi (1959, Royal Oak, Michigan) started making 8mm films when he was around ten years old. In his teenage years he first collaborated with his good friend Bruce Campbell, who would later appear in almost all of his films. The style of Raimi is influenced by the Three Stooges, of whom he is a huge fan. By making the short movie Within the Woods he managed to raise the required funds to make his first feature; the outrageous horror flick The Evil Dead. After that he made similar films with varying commercial success. In his films Raimi displays a great talent for creating inventive visuals. Most of his movies also feature slapstick and comic book elements. In 2002 Raimi made Spiderman, his biggest film to date. It was an enormous box-office success and Raimi would go on to make two sequels. Throughout his career Raimi has also produced many films and TV-series, mostly in the horror/fantasy genre. He remains a director with a huge fan base and many exciting future prospects.

Filmography (a selection): It’s Murder! (1977, short), Within the Woods (1978, short), Clockwork (1978, short), The Evil Dead (1981), Crimewave (1985), Evil Dead II (1987),  Darkman (1990), Army of Darkness (1992), The Quick and the Dead (1995), A Simple Plan (1998), For Love of the Game (1999), The Gift (2000), Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007)

The Evil Dead

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Sam Raimi
Written by: Sam Raimi
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker

Year / Country: 1981, USA
Running Time: 85 mins.

Sam Raimi’s first feature film is a low budget horror shocker that would find an enormous cult support and send its creator to the Hollywood directors A-list. It would also spawn two sequels, comic books, lots of toys, a number of videogames and even a musical.

The story is simple: five friends take a holiday to a deserted cabin in the woods. Over there, they find a morbid archaeological artifact; Necronomicon Ex Mortis, the book of the dead. They also find a tape-recorder and –stupidly– play the recordings. The professor’s voice on the tape utters spells from the book and thereby resurrects the evil spirits in the forest. These spirits quickly head towards the cabin to possess the living. Once a human is possessed, bodily dismemberment is the only way to beat the demon that inhabits the body.

The execution of this gruesome tale is nearly flawless. From a slow and suspenseful build-up to the gore-drenched ending. In the meantime it provides more scares than a truckload of other eighties horror flicks. The young cast performs well. As opposed to many modern horrors the viewer can genuinely believe that these people are terrified. Raimi also creates tension with good use of sound and dazzling camerawork. The Evil-POV shots are especially a brilliant invention. The special make-up and gore effects are impressive considering the shoestring budget.

There are also some scenes of controversy. Most notably of course the tree-rape scene. Although the envelope in horror has been pushed further over the years, this remains a shocking scene when viewed today. Bruce Campbell’s character Ash is still fairly undeveloped at this point. Something that would drastically change with the follow-up Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn.

Rating:

Biography: Sam Raimi (1959, Royal Oak, Michigan) started making 8mm films when he was around ten years old. In his teenage years he first collaborated with his good friend Bruce Campbell, who would later appear in almost all of his films. The style of Raimi is influenced by the Three Stooges, of whom he is a huge fan. By making the short movie Within the Woods he managed to raise the required funds to make his first feature; the outrageous horror flick The Evil Dead. After that he made similar films with varying commercial success. In his films Raimi displays a great talent for creating inventive visuals. Most of his movies also feature slapstick and comic book elements. In 2002 Raimi made Spiderman, his biggest film to date. It was an enormous box-office success and Raimi would go on to make two sequels. Throughout his career Raimi has also produced many films and TV-series, mostly in the horror/fantasy genre. He remains a director with a huge fan base and many exciting future prospects.

Filmography (a selection): It’s Murder! (1977, short), Within the Woods (1978, short), Clockwork (1978, short), The Evil Dead (1981), Crimewave (1985), Evil Dead II (1987),  Darkman (1990), Army of Darkness (1992), The Quick and the Dead (1995), A Simple Plan (1998), For Love of the Game (1999), The Gift (2000), Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Cult Radar: Part 1

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon.com is glad to explore the video trenches to find that oddball treasure between the piles of crap out there. Of Course, a treasure in this context can also be a film that’s so shockingly bad it’s worth a look, or something so bizarre that cult fans just have to see it. Join us on our quest and learn what we learn. Hopefully we’ll uncover some well-hidden cult gems.

Researched by: Jeppe Kleijngeld

Stink of Flesh (USA, 2005)

Directed by: Scott Phillips
Written by: Scott Phillips
Cast: Kurly Tlapoyawa, Ross Kelly, Diva, Billy Garberina

Matool roams a zombie-infested America armed only with his fists, some large nails and a hammer. After he escapes some tight situations he gets abducted by the mysterious couple Nathan and Dexy. It turns out that Nathan likes to watch other men bang his wife while he watches. Matool takes on the job enthusiastically while zombies and other lusty survivors head towards their hide-out. Ultra low-budget sexploitation splatter film has the occasional outrageous moment, witty line and stylish kill. But too many flaws are still transparent. The acting sucks and so does the sound (despite some good use of music). And the story, though original in a way, goes ultimately nowhere. It’s a shame this flick’s great tagline: ‘how do you lead an alternative lifestyle…When everybody’s dead?’ is better than the flick itself.

Zombie Holocaust (Italy, 1980)

Directed by: Marino Girolami
Written by: Fabrizio De Angelis, Romano Scandariato
Cast: Ian McCulloch, Alexandra Delli Colli, Sherry Buchanan

Body parts go missing in a New York hospital. It quickly turns out that Moluccan cannibals are terrorizing the country. An expedition leaves for the Muluccan island Kito to investigate the case. Over there, they stumble upon a cannibalistic tribe and a bloodthirsty doctor that experiments with reviving the dead. So begins a terrible struggle for survival. Although the story isn’t really carried in a convincing way, one can see why this is a favorite among fantastic film lovers. It certainly contains enough gory action, suspense and beautiful locations to forgive it its clumsy mise-en-scène and not too great acting. If this is your thing, you should certainly check it out.

Santo Vs. the She-Wolves (Mexico, 1976)
OT: Santo vs. las lobas

Directed by: Rubén Galindo, Jaime Jiménez Pons
Written by: Jaime Jiménez Pons, Ramón Obón
Cast: Santo, Rodolfo de Anda, Gloria Mayo, Jorge Russek

The legendary Mexican wrestler Santo stars in his 48th feature film (out of 54!). Our silver masked hero takes on an army of werewolves that want to take possession of the earth and destroy all humans. To do this he has to annihilate their entire army before the night of the red moon ends. Weird and often ridiculous plot takes some fun away from this campy mix of supernatural mystery and action. Santo gets far too little chance to display his fantastic wrestling moves. Only during some matches in the beginning and a few brief action scenes towards the end he gets to show who’s the boss. Therefore, the viewer starts to wonder how tough Santo really is, a fatal flaw in a superhero movie. The acting, costumes and effects are pretty terrible, and the extremely disappointing ending deserves special mention. Reasonable DVD transfer available from Yuke Pictures, but maybe it’s better to wait for some other Santo movies to come along.

Detroit 9000 (USA, 1973)

Directed by: Arthur Marks
Written by: Orville H. Hampton
Cast: Hari Rhodes, Alex Rocco, Vonetta McGee

Quentin Tarantino is never shy to lend his name to exploitation film presentations. This flick was recently released under the Rolling Thunder Pictures label, just like The Mighty Peking Man and Switchblade Sisters. Tarantino’s name is all over the cover, so it can profit from the buzz around Grindhouse. One can easily see why he likes this. It’s a pretty gripping cop-drama that contains sex, a blaxploitation message, plenty of shootings, and a funky soundtrack. The characters are not really compelling, except Alex Rocco’s cynical detective Danny Bassett. There’s a little too much yakking about black and white issues, but it is still a pretty entertaining viewing. The twisty ending is also a nice touch.

War of the Monsters (Japan, 1966)
OT: Daikaijû kettô: Gamera tai Barugon

Directed by: Shigeo Tanaka
Written by: Nisan Takahashi
Cast: Kojiro Howgo, Kyoto Enami, Yuzo Hayakawa

This second installment in the Gamera series sees three treasure hunters find an opal that turns out to be the egg of monster Baragon. I was hoping for some inventive special effects but ended up very bored and disappointed. First I had to sit through forty minutes of sleep-inducing build-up. Then the action arrived in the form of two men dressed in ludicrous monster-suits fight each other around terrible looking scale models. Gamera (a ‘huge’ turtle) gets defeated within five minutes, so we are forced to watch Baragon (a dinosaur of sorts) roam around, looking stupid for another forty-five minutes. I thought the movie was black and white, until I noticed a blue ray (no pun intended). That’s how great the DVD-release from Alpha Video is. No redeeming qualities at all which makes this a complete piece of garbage.

Zombie Holocaust

 

The Beyond

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

OT: E tu vivrai nel terrore – L’aldilà

Director: Lucio Fulci
Written by: Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgio Mariuzzo, Lucio Fulci
Cast: Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale, Al Cliver

Year / Country: 1981, Italy
Running Time: 87 mins.

Liza moves into an old hotel in Louisiana, which, according to the occult book Eibon, has been built on one of the seven gates to hell. During the renovation strange events start to occur and it doesn’t take long before the undead roam all over the hotel. Liza and other survivors fight the evil with frantic efforts.

The original version of The Beyond wasn’t received well by Fulci fans in 1981. Somehow much of the gore had been cut out. Fulci fan Quentin Tarantino dug up the original print and got it released in theaters in 1998. Now the gore is back big time.

Some nasty highlights include a crucifixion, a bunch of spiders ripping apart a face, an eyeball torn out of a socket and an exploding head. It would be almost comical if it wasn’t so disgusting. Some great compositions, make-up effects and creepy music carry this flick above the average zombie-romp.

As for acting, story and suspense: oh well, it’s a Fulci film. For suspense watch Argento. Fulci is all about the gore. And he delivers with this one. The ending is also neat. So if you’re up for it, check out the DVD and enter hell with Italian shock master Lucio Fulci.

Rating:

Biography: Lucio Fulci (1927, Rome – 1996, Rome) originally studied medicine but quickly turned to filmmaking instead. He started his film career with directing comedies, musicals and spaghetti westerns. Later he turned to Italian shock horror films and made a name for himself as the goriest director ever. His international career came off the ground in 1979 when he directed Zombi 2, an unofficial sequel to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, which had been released in Italy under the title Zombies. Fulci died from diabetes in 1996.

Filmography (a selection): The Thieves (1959), The Jukebox Kids (1959), Getting Away with It the Italian Way (1962), The Strange Type (1963), The Maniacs (1964), 002 Operation Moon (1965), How We Stole the Atomic Bomb (1967), The Conspiracy of Torture (1969), A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971), Don’t Torture Donald Duck (1972), White Fang (1973), Challenge to White Fang (1974), Four of the Apocalypse (1975), Silver Saddle (1978), Zombi 2 (1979), City of the Living Dead (1980), The Beyond (1981), The New York Ripper (1982), Evil Eye (1982), The New Gladiators (1984), Dangerous Obsession (1986), Zombi 3 (1988), Demonia (1990), Door to Silence (1991)