Awakening of the Beast

1970, Brazil, Directed by José Mojica Marins
B&W/Colour, Running Time: 93 minutes
Review Source: DVD, R2, Anchor Bay; Video: Letteboxed 1.55:1, Audio: DD Mono

Two scientists discuss the effects of drug use on the mind, body, and life of the consuming individual, considering multiple stories as they argue about the various factors involved. Later one of the scientists puts his ideas to test by setting up an experiment to simulate the effect of drugs on the mind.

Awakening of the Beast utilises the 'Coffin Joe' character (actually, 'Zé do Caixão' in the native tongue) primarily in the sequence depicting the scientist's prolonged experiment that makes up most of the final third of the film; here though his being is acknowledged within the film to be fictitious, a recreation of the fears of society. This results in the odd criss-crossing of film worlds as the sub-reality of this film recognises the previous Coffin Joe films to be the actual sub-reality, thereby rendering itself as reality itself, even though it's not (if you see what I mean). The synopsis above is meagre because there is little plot to speak of, and there are no characters to particularly like - even Marins' presence is mere illusion in effect. Drug use is analysed though I'm unsure if there is supposed to be a moral message in there, though making itself known is Marins' usual dwelling on ideas of instinctive man opposed to spiritual ideal - drugs here reduce people to horny twits with no room for any divine essence. After an hour or so the lack of real narrative begins to wear at the patience, however, the film saves itself quite significantly with the arrival of the experiment. As with This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse the film switches from black and white to colour at a key moment, lending potency at the most relevant point. The experiment is pretty much a drug trip on screen (think 2001 x 10), well executed, acutely edited in many respects, and swamped with vibrantly insane sound design. People are beaten, they teleport from place to place, colours flash vividly, there are screams and wails, faces made from bums, uncanny creatures crawling along, etc. Going on for in excess of twenty minutes there is not much like it elsewhere in cinema - this is pretty much fine art film-making on a feature length level. As with the preceding movies by José Mojica Marins the storyteller/director demonstrates towering levels of imagination (evident from the nature of the opening credits onwards) that are frequently out of control. This factor is one of the things that makes his work so distinctive and occasionally fascinating, even if it's not consistently enjoyable.

Presented in non-anamorphic widescreen the image of Awakening... in Anchor Bay's Coffin Joe Collection is quite soft with plenty of print damage. Burned-in English subtitles contain occasional errors (probably originally translated by someone whose English was their second language) whilst revealing digital compression artefacts (visible around the lettering). Mondo Macabro have previously released this film in the UK (plus I remember a screening on terrestrial TV around 11 years ago) with superior results both visually and with regard to the subtitles (the disc also included a documentary about Coffin Joe/Marins). Fantoma released the film across the ocean in a wonderful coffin shaped box (kind of like the fantastic Blind Dead set from Blue Underground), again with better results in A/V departments, plus the disc contained a short interview with the director. As part of the Anchor Bay set the film does admittedly come very cheap so complaints can be put aside.

Upcoming Invasion of the Body Snatchers Blu-ray

Great news: one of the all time classic sci-fi movies, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, is on its way to US Blu-ray, courtesy of Olive Films.  I'm talking about the 1956 Don Siegel directed original with Kevin McCarthy of course, a stupendous paranoia-drenched science fiction tale of alien invasion which has never been especially well treated even on DVD (the 70s remake is already available on Blu-ray in US territories - not sure why the UK has been neglected).  This new disc apparently comes from a fresh HD master from 35mm elements and is presented in the 2:1 aspect ratio ('Superscope', which I believe is how it was projected and how it was it intended to be seen, although it was filmed at 1.85:1) so hopefully will look significantly better than the old either non-anamorphic widescreen or heavily cropped fullscreen DVDs that have been available in the past.  The disc is expected on July 17th.

Update: Review here.

This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse

1967, Brazil, Directed by José Mojica Marins
B&W/Colour, Running Time: 109 minutes
Review Source: DVD, R2, Anchor Bay; Video: 1.33:1, Audio: DD Mono

Zé do Caixão is saved from his demise at the end of the first film (At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul) and the lucky recipient of a stellar plastic surgery job at the hands of Brazillian doctors, before being brought to trial for his crimes. Found not guilty due to lack of evidence (!) he's let back into the community (kind of sounds like the British justice system actually...), much to the chagrin of the local population, members of which haven't yet forgotten about his dastardly behaviour. Still committed to continuing his blood line at all costs he kidnaps a number of females who he considers to be potentially suitable partners (they seem to remain remarkably calm about this whilst in captivity) and subjects them to tests to determine who is 'superior'. Selecting his mate he impregnates her and soon the child, the new son of mankind to be driven by instinct and not God, is on its way, but not before Zé is running into more problems with the locals as a result of his rebellious behaviour.

Running much longer than the first film, This Night... (AKA Esta Noite Encarnarei no Teu Cadáver) does not appear to be quite as horrific, possibly this being partly as a result of the slightly desensitized impact of Zé's activities after we've already witnessed his malicious actions in At Midnight... The lengthier duration maybe stretches things out a little too much, leaving the tormenting of the main character more space to breathe whilst diminishing its intensity. This film does introduce some nudity, and arachnophobes who found the infamous spider scene in the first film to be an issue will be rather horrified to find another sequence in this film, but with crawlies multiplied by around a hundred (again, very large and very real spiders - the actresses in this scene had some bottle!). Hinted at in the first film, Zé's one redeeming characteristic is his respect for children in the sense that he sees their blank canvas purity as something to be savioured before they are mutated by society into the undesriables that largely make up the population. The film's dropkick show piece takes place when the disturbed Zé falls asleep with his mate, and has a nightmare of entering Hell: the film switches to colour, this itself being quite profound in impact, as Zé wonders through the caverns of Hell as souls are tortured everywhere he looks, possibly a reflection of the state of his mind or his fears of where he might end up if God did exist (something he persistently denies). This riveting sequence has unexpected power, and reminds me of a similar segment in Dante's Inferno, which you may remember contained a stunning fear-driven nightmare where the protagonist visits Hell. I personally really like Marins' emphatic and venemous approach to acting out this character, his uncontrollable passion spilling forth and keeping this second film in the series very watchable despite the inflated running time.

Contained in the same set as At Midnight... the second film is presented in the same ratio with a rough appearance that suits the material well. Audio is again Portugese with burned-in English subtitles. Problems with interlacing are occasional, and shouldn't really be there at all, but the very fact that these rare films have been made available in the UK is cause for commendation.

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul

1964, Brazil, Directed by José Mojica Marins
B&W, Running Time: 83 minutes
Review Source: DVD, R2, Anchor Bay; Video: 1.33:1, Audio: DD Mono

Zé do Caixão is a funeral director beginning to question the religious formula and foundations that have shaped the basis for everything he does and is surrounded by on a day to day basis. Losing control through a compulsion towards atheism his desire to continue the bloodline begins to take precedence over everything else - his partner is 'impotent' and cannot produce a child, therefore he kills her. The woman he chooses in her place is attached to another, so he dispatches of him too, before attempting to beguile the woman - after rejecting his advances he severely beats (and presumably rapes) her, this traumatic event triggering her suicide. The locals are all scared of him as his sadism and cruelty pushes beyond boundaries, but the spiralling madness and violence are about to come head to head with the very spirit world he rejects.

Made in 1964 At Midnight... is an unbelievably brutal film for its time. Reminding the viewer of Mr Hyde in a real bad mood, José Mojica Marins in the lead role throws his character in the face of everything his Brazilian culture is based on, repelling morality, God and associated religions, citizenship and the apparent weakness of others (reflected in their inability to stand up against the system). He becomes a rebel of the darkest kind as he tramples on everything in his path, primarily in effort to spawn a child, thereby living forever, at least on a genetic level - this itself is of course a scientific rejection of the literal ideas presented from biblical texts, although it could be argued that these texts were merely explaining life and its workings in the only way that mankind could understand. Zé do Caixão violently clashes with almost everyone in the story, pushing one person's eyes into their skull, dropping a horrifically large poisonous spider on to his bound spouse (this is no The Beyond type model, my friends!), slashing a man in the face with a crown of thorns (as if his general verbal blasphemy wasn't enough), beating a woman who dares say 'no' so badly it would have feminist nutters in spasms, etc. Considering at the time mainstream audiences were just about getting accustomed to the bloody vampire stakings at Hammer Studios, this must have been akin to a vision of Hell in comparison, and to be fair it hasn't lost a huge amount of power half a century later. The darkness of the character still 'shines' through and his actions speak at least as loud as his scornful words; strangely, given his innately abhorrent nature, he is watchable and fascinating to study, hence I guess part of the appeal that has brought forth the cult of 'Coffin Joe' over the years (this name essentially being an Americanisation if the South American character's less pronounceable screen name). Stepping as far from the mainstream cinema, and cultures, of the era, At Midnight... stampedes into existence with a sledge hammer, although modern audiences may find the emphatic thespian tendencies difficult to put up with.

After reading a lot about terrible image quality on this Coffin Joe Collection from Anchor Bay, At Midnight... is not as bad as expected. The source looks like 16mm and there are scratches/marks throughout, but in my opinion this rough presentation very much suits the content of the film itself. Hardly sharp and distinct, the fullscreen B&W image has a fairly natural low budget film-like quality, though there are annoying moments of visible interlacing that are thankfully not too frequent. Similarly the mono soundtrack is not stellar but functional - note that the language is Portuguese with burned-in English subtitles helping us along.  Zé do Caixão was to continue his exploits in This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse.

Testament - Complete Studio Albums Review

Hailing from the famed Bay Area of California in the mid eighties, Testament originally spawned from Hell's depths as 'The Legacy' before the superior name was selected. They also had a couple of different vocalists before Chuck Billy joined - one being Steve Souza, who later went on to grace most of the Exodus albums with his Bon-Scott-Meets-Thrash take on vocals. Of course Billy's voice has become a symbol of the band having been present on every album, and one of the most distinctive in metal - I haven't heard anyone else who sounds like him, whether he's yelling, growling, or singing (depening on which track you're listening to). The other consistent factor in Testament has been Eric Peterson, who I feel is somewhat underrated despite being one of the best riff-writers on the scene, someone who can write powerful metal whilst periodically and selectively combining elements of great melody (he's also been the driving force behind black metal/thrash band DragonLord). Having established themselves within a few albums as one of the most respected bands in thrash, the band survived the difficult nineties period as thrash effectively died (albeit temporarily) by exploring various horizons within the 'confines' (term used very loosely) of metal. There was a painfully long break from studio recording between 1999 until 2008 (although they remained hard workers on the live circuits), bouts of people coming and going from the group, and cancer (which Billy thankfully survived), but - with a new album (Dark Roots of Earth) on the way in the next few months - on they battle carrying the flag of thrash on deservedly proud shoulders.

The Legacy (1987) Opting for a reflection of their origins in the album's title, their debut is a great example of thrash in its peak - aggressive, almost messy riffing accompanied by Chuck Billy's near yelling style creates a maelstrom of violent aural pleasure. Relatively short and sweet (unlike many of today's mammoth running times) the album has a consistent quality that makes it a great listen. Aside from the inherent aggression though was a notable level of occasionally surprising melody injected here and there, adding a little variety and suggesting there was more to the band than many thrash acts at the time. Testament had announced their arrival on the scene and their debut disc remains an enjoyable listen to this day, and a fine example of what was happening in metal at the time (i.e. thrash ruled). Highlights include the immortal 'Apocalyptic City', and the explosive opener 'Over The Wall'.

The New Order (1988) Sparing little time to relax the second album follows neatly in the pawprints of the first, boasting a similar sound though possibly more refined this time around. Again the disc grants listeners a consistent thrash assault, with breathers in periodic instrumental sections that celebrate the weird, though these bits don't entirely work in my opinion. Nevertheless, The New Order again gave us many bonafide Testament classic tracks and another great album. By this point their reputation was cemented and if I recall correctly I think this also may have been the era when the press considered the band to be a contender for expanding the 'Big Four' to 'Five', something that never officially happened for whatever that's worth (well they could have been on that recent Big Four tour for one thing, but that's another story). One surprising cover appearing on the CD that was not on the original vinyl is a groovy version of 'Nobody's Fault' originally penned by Aerosmith. Highlights of the second album include almost every track, but if I had to pick it would be 'Trial By Fire', the no-sh*t stormer 'Into The Pit', and the double attack of 'Disciples of the Watch' and 'The Preacher'. One can't f**k with stuff this good.

Practice What You Preach (1989) Shifting gear somewhat the third album is generally quite slower than the preceding two, with a quieter guitar sound and groove replacing aggression. I still have mixed feelings about this approach to this day, but admittedly it's a fairly enjoyable listen. It also introduced the idea of Testament expanding the boundaries of thrash metal (as had Metallica) with softer material, most notably 'The Ballad': corny title but nice combination of melody and mounting pace nonetheless. Testament were clearly not a band who were going to leave the goal posts in the same place for every release. Highlights include the aforementioned 'The Ballad', the title track, and 'Envy Life'.

Souls of Black (1990) Refusing to reduce their non-stop work ethic (four albums in four years in unheard of nowadays) the band pumped out their fourth outing just as they were supporting the now legendary 'Clash of the Titans' tour with Slayer and Megadeth (plus Suicidal Tendencies opening the show), a spectacle I had the privilege of witnessing at Birmingham's NEC at the time. Ironically as thrash had reached its peak, the show also unwittingly symbolised the end of an era as the whole scene began a slide into decline. Souls of Black seems to divide fans - I personally love the loud, raw guitar sound, however, the material is admittedly less consistent than before (probably a symptom of them having to push this release out too quickly for its own good). Great tracks are broken up with misfires such as the title track, the album intro, and 'Absence of Light', but there is worthy material here even if the album has possibly not worn as well as the first few. Highlights include 'Seven Days of May', 'The Legacy' and 'Falling Fast'.

The Ritual (1992) At last giving themselves a bit more a break I think the band had time to reflect on direction as thrash was dying in the early nineties. What they returned with was a metal album less agressive, more polished, and possibly more skillfully executed. Many of the tracks have a great drum pace and the production overall is pleasing. Continuing with the idea of putting 'ballads' on their albums there is also the stellar 'Return to Serenity', which works well. The Ritual is a great album that often gets forgotten about as people are more inclined to remember the first few, and arguably this is one of their best. Highlights include 'Electric Crown', 'Return to Serenity', the pounding 'Agony', and the head-banging 'Let Go of My World'.

Low (1994) Hardening the music up a notch Low is a lovely album of well produced metal with an awesome guitar sound and some brilliant slices of music, again one of their best albums in my opinion. Testament managed to keep their 'legacy' (sorry) alive during the nineties with quality metal that kept their fanbase interested, proving that they didn't need 'thrash' itself (as a sub-genre) to be particularly thriving for them to survive. Ending with the unnecessary 'Last Call' there are plenty of pounding tracks to delight in on Low including the brash opening title piece, the sharp riff machine that is 'Hail Mary', 'P.C.' and the face ripping 'Ride'.

Demonic (1997) Unpredictably their '97 album opened with the near death metal-sounding 'Demonic Refusal', with growling vocals from Chuck Billy as if he was getting some long term hatred out of his system. However, the more downbeat direction of the album is less convincing and it seemed as if they were trying to be something else, possibly tapping into other metal territories in a bid to maintain credibility. It wasn't necessary for a band such as this, and whilst Demonic isn't a bad record it is, in my opinion, the least satisfying of everything the band have done to date - this is the album I'm least likely to revisit when picking a Testament CD to indulge. Highlights would include the aforementioned opener, along with 'Hatreds Rise'.

The Gathering (1999) Back to the Testament we know from the Low era though having the traces of occasional death metal leanings left in their blood, The Gathering featured a few personnel changes that resulted in a tight thrash offering, this being in no small measure due to the presence of one Dave Lombardo on drums, probably the best drummer in thrash. Having seemingly found solid ground and the sound which suits them most, it would unfortunately be a very long time before Testament were back in the studio for a proper album, though they did re-record some of their earlier tracks for a minor release (First Strike Still Deadly) to break up the time. Aside from a bit of a dull lag during the second half this is another strong disc from the Bay Area lads. Highlights of The Gathering include 'True Believer' and the brutal monster that is 'Legions of the Dead'.

The Formation of Damnation (2008) After the longest break of their career (though they were still touring as noted above) I thought we had seen the last of Testament studio albums, hypothesising that the band had used up all of their worthwhile ideas over the course of their first eight albums. Then Formation... appeared and all was well with the world again. Almost something of a reunion album it picked up most of the 'classic' members of the band from the earlier years to create the traditional Testament that we came to love; Formation... doesn't disappoint, though it certainly doesn't surprise either. What we get is a solid album of formidable, well executed thrash metal, not outstaying its welcome while proving that this band are still relevant and unique in sound. Highlights include the triple attack of 'More Than Meets The Eye', 'The Evil Has Landed' and the title track. Hopes are high for their next outing.

Upcoming US Blu-rays of interest

Some Blu-rays (specifically released in the US) of interest on their way to online stores, for your perusal:
The Red House (April) - an intriguing looking film-noir/chiller from the classic era;
Wizard of Gore/Gore Gore Girls (May) - double bill from Something Weird, following up from their triple bill Herschell Gordon Lewis extravaganza a while back - nice to see them active again;
42nd Street Forever (May) from Synapse;
Murder Obsession (May) - the Riccardo Freda film released by Raro Video;
Killer Nun (April) - from Blue Underground of course;
Mimic (May) boxed set, featuring all three films - I didn't even know there was a third film!
Demoniacs, La Viol Du Vampire, and Requiem for a Vampire (May) proudly presented by Redemption/Kino Lorber;
Twilight Zone (June) complete boxed set if you have $350 to spare;
Ubaldo Terzani Horror Show (April) - again from Raro;
The Asphyx (April) - another one from the Redemption/Kino Lorber partnership. Amazingly this is going to include both the conventional shorter cut that has been available on home video over the last fifteen years or so, and the long cut, which I've never seen (and was beginning to wonder if it even existed). However, the scenes that make up the longer cut have had to be culled from an inferior source due to lack of suitable materials - better that than not at all I think you'll agree. The image quality for the rest of the film is excellent.

Upcoming David Lynch UK Blu-rays (update)

Further to the revelation that UK fans are being treated to a whole batch of David Lynch blu-ray discs (reported at Grim Cellar here), it may be of interest to those who will be buying all or most of them that Universal are, for a fair price, also releasing a boxed set of all six on Blu-ray (i.e. includes Eraserhead, Dune, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, Blue Velvet). Pre-orders can be made at Amazon, Zavvi, or Play.  Release date set at 4th of June.

The Crazies

2010, US, Directed by Breck Eisner
Colour, Running Time: 101 minutes
Review Source: Blu-ray, Region B, Momentum; Image: 2.39:1 1080p 24fps, Audio: LPCM 5.1

It’s certainly easy to become cynical when perusing what’s worth expiring some time with in modern film-making these days, particularly when most of what's being ejected from the ar*e of Hollywood tends to be a remake of something else generally more worthwhile, and just about everybody who’s into movies seems to be bored to death with the whole remake bandwagon. It’s also easy to become cynical about one of the iconic horror directors to have shaped the genre quite a few of us still love: George Romero. Not only does he seem unable to direct anything worth a rotting toenail anymore, but anything that he did direct that was any good seems to have been remade by someone else, generally with fine results (conveniently disregarding the Day of the Dead wastrel as well as the ‘3D’ attempt to update Night…) - Dawn of the Dead was very impressive, Night of the Living Dead (1990) wasn’t actually a bad movie, in fact quite enjoyable (directed by Tom Savini, it seems to have been all but forgotten about), and then there is The Crazies, which surprised me by not only providing a suitably good time, but actually managing to, on a proverbial level, drag me to the edge of my seat at several points. So this suggests that people remaking Romero movies are mostly doing a better job than he is directing his own films nowadays…

Romero’s version of The Crazies was a very low budget early seventies affair, shot on 16mm with not too much in way of resources to draw upon (compared to ‘big‘ movies). It stubbornly refused to be held back by these limitations, however, and proved to be a kinetic, exciting, smartly scripted and acted offering that also presented a frightening concept as a bonus: a military viral weapon is accidentally unleashed into the water system of a small town, forcing them to cordon off the perimeter as its denizens fall prey to a disease that causes death or homicidal insanity. The aggressive tactics of the army to contain the outbreak were pretty scary, and Romero displayed the raw talent for presenting spiralling chaos in the wake of an uncontrollable nightmare that would take full blossom in the delectable Dawn of the Dead a few years later. The main idea in the remake is the same, but this one spends a lot less time focussing on militaristic interaction and debating of moral dilemmas (one of the original’s strengths), and more time trailing a small group of people attempting to survive a microcosmic apocalypse. In this sense it’s actually closer in feel to Dawn…, along with several other films I love for similar reasons, for example Zombie Creeping Flesh and Nightmare City. There is also some contemporary influence from 28 Weeks Later in the containment camps set up by the army. As the protagonists are pulled into the nightmare they eventually manage to escape to the road in a desperate attempt to head for the next town. Along the way there are several crossings with either the army or the wandering mad (now, unsurprisingly in the wake of what‘s a bit too popular these days, actually resembling running corpses more so than just crazy people). There are some clichés that bring things down a notch, for example the now extremely predictable scenario whereby an assailant is about to knock off one of the main characters when suddenly one of the heroes or heroines blows away the threat from behind - almost unforgivably this happens not once but twice (the second time cheekily even upping the 'ridiculous' factor, to my disdain). In addition I felt there are issues with the nature of the biologically induced insanity adopted for the ’crazies’ themselves - there are points when I feel it’s a little too contrived in its attempt to create homicidal shock moments. But on the whole there are enough positive factors to fully outweigh any problems.

The film is very adeptly acted out and the set pieces are for the most part exceptionally well handled by the director of Sahara. One area of note here is the prolonged car wash sequence, which has its funny moments, but mostly is very damn frightening and with a great payoff too. Radha Mitchell, in ‘danger’ of getting herself a Scream Queen tag with the likes of Pitch Black, Silent Hill, the superbly frightening Rogue and this movie under her belt, is as always a welcome and attractive presence throughout, but equally welcome is her character’s husband and survival partner Timothy Olyphant (after delivering a brilliant performance in the previous year's A Perfect Getaway), who seems really suited to this role and actually a likeable protagonist (too many main characters nowadays just seem to irritate the viewer into wishing them serious harm - surely not intentional!?). I also noted that the film had a fantastic appearance, combining naturalistic colours with a brightness that gave it an overall vibrancy. Cinematographer Maxime Alexandre has previously also bestowed the likes of the Hills Have Eyes (remake!) and Haute Tension (Switchblade Romance) with very bold looks. The score itself is persistently brooding with periodic arousal into a bouncier, more dynamic rhythm when onscreen action requires it - again I think that this works very much in the film’s favour. Finally, I rather liked the story’s closing few minutes too - a good ending in my opinion is something that makes or breaks the viewer’s desire to revisit a film.  So, after having enjoyed 85% or more of what I’d witnessed it momentarily crossed my mind that if remakes can at least occasionally result in a gratifying couple of hours then perhaps the phenomenon isn’t such a terrible curse?

Originally seeing this at the cinema prompted me to pick up the Blu-ray Disc - the representation is quite wonderful, highly detailed and colourful with a loud, aggressive uncompressed audio track.  Quite a few extras pad out the disc, one of which had me squirming a little being the 'back-slapping' article on George Romero.  Obviously some of this is justified given his sixties to eighties output, but judging by the fact that Romero was executive producer on this remake, the cynical me can't help but feel that this piece is self'plugging propaganda rather than a worthy documentary addition to a decent Blu-ray.  Anyway, whether you're a fan of Romero's original film or not, The Crazies 2010 is not a bad (or expensive) addition to your collection despite a handful of obvious shortcomings.

Night of the Devils

1972, Italy/Spain, Directed by Giorgio Ferroni
Colour, Running Time: 91 minutes
Review Source: Italian DVD, Region 2; Video: 2.35:1, Audio: Mono

This obscure Italian/Spanish film (titled at source as La Notte dei Diavoli) is based on the 'wurdulak' legend - a vampiric creature originating, I believe, from either European or Russian mythology, who returns from the grave to sacrifice loved ones, bringing them into the netherworld, in order to combat the loneliness of limbo death. In the film a man (driven insane, Lovecraft-style, and recalling the tale in flashback) crashes his car when he believed he sees an elderly woman crossing the vehicle's path, someone who is nowhere to be seen when he emerges from the damaged motor. Wandering off in search of help that can't initially be found he discovers a local man who, after an amiable discussion, offers to let him stay at his house for the night. There he finds a family in the midst of perpetual fear as each evening a recently deceased family member returns to the building to summon them. The dead person seeks company in its lonely ethereal world paradoxically by killing those loved during life, and our protagonist finds himself apparently unable to escape this increasingly threatening and supernaturally plagued environment.

Bearing strong similarities to the vampire legend, the myths of the wurdulak have largely been ignored in cinema (arguably a missed opportunity, as there is a tragic richness to the concept), with one notable exception: Mario Bava's classic Black Sabbath (I Tre Volti Della Paura), where it occupied one third of the anthology structure (with Boris Karloff). Very effectively and artistically shot was the Bava film, unsurprisingly for anyone who's seen any of his other work, and Night of the Devils, directed by the lesser known Ferroni, understandably has a lot to live up to. Ferroni did, however, a decade or so prior to this shoot the Gothic delight that was Mill of the Stone Women and could be considered already qualified with such territory. Proceeding in a slow and solemn fashion Night of the Devils may struggle to keep many shaky-cam-weaned teens awake, and perhaps a shake-up in this department would have been of benefit, but what it lacks in urgency it makes up for in sinister, supernatural ambience. The fact that it's also punctuated by occasional gore and a grisly disintegrating head effect is of no great disadvantage either! The grim house in which Nikolas becomes trapped is enshrouded by an air of doom as the whole family lives in terror of the regularly returning 'corpse', and his inability to escape builds on this fear of the otherworldly. Eventually (and I do mean eventually!) the tension really picks up and finally pays off to an extent, as the escape attempt comes under repeated attack from the increasing number of wurdulaks, giving Night of the Living Dead a run for its rotting flesh. This great climax really strengthens the preceding sombre and plodding nature, but there is a further bonus in the slightly ambiguous angle of the conclusion itself. The score is a mixed bag - the theme tune itself tends to irritate, thankfully only being used two or three times but enough to desire for a different choice, whilst elsewhere the incidental soundtrack is suitably spooky.

Unfortunately the film is virtually impossible to find (although of note, there is a soundtrack CD available in Italy) therefore a remastering job by the likes of Synapse, Arrow, Severin, Shameless, etc., would be most welcome - it deserves to be seen by a wider audience and the Euro-horror crowd (of which I am one) in particular should be appreciative of any such release. The English dub track isn't too bad considering the period (my disc also has an Italian track albeit without any subtitles - I lament my lack of understanding of the language!) though its original language with subs would be preferable, however the chance to see it at all is something to be savoured.

*Update* Raro Video US have since put this out on Blu-ray - you can read The Grim Cellar's updated view here

Slaughter High

1986, US, Directed by George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, Peter Litten
Colour, Running Time: 91 minutes
Review Source: Satellite Broadcast; Video: 1.85:1, Audio: Stereo

Billed as a 'horror-comedy', Slaughter High (or April Fool's Day as it was shot, plus released in Japan on VHS - note this this not to be confused with another eighties slasher of the same name) kicks off with Caroline Munro playing an American teen who lures nerd-boy loser Marty into the shower for some apparent frolicking and other virginity-losing activity, only for Marty to find when he emerges from a shower cubicle without clothing that he's been the at the butt-end of another high school prank when he's photographed naked before having his head dunked into the toilet. The sadistic bunch of bullies get dragged into detention while one of them - apparently still on the lookout for more 'hilarious' pranks at the expense of Marty's sanity - tricks the nerd into smoking a spliff that results in the laboratory going up in flames and the young lad being scarred mentally and physically. Years later the same bullies arrange a little reunion at the now derelict high school, unaware that Marty is showing up on the same night but with vastly different intentions at heart - the homicidal manifestation of years worth of pent up rage; revenge.

The comedy aspect of this minor slasher from the eighties is to have a variable effect depending on viewer maturity levels I would imagine - very little in the film made my weary eyes crinkle at the other end of a smile, leading me to believe that the label was actually an excuse for the fact that most of the talent present is hopeless. Munro tries her best with a non-English accent, and at least looks very good as usual, while most of the other actors bumble through their lines in a fairly bizarre fashion. I also found it difficult to identify with the bullied boy, Marty, because he's such a rag that he's not even vaguely likable given the brief characterisation shaping him on screen. The deaths and gore effects are at least a little imaginative, plus the location of the abandoned school could have embellished the film with more atmosphere had it been played straight. But with feeble and illogical scriptwork, weak synth scoring, and humour that doesn't work for more than a couple of screen minutes in total, it's difficult to say - beyond the aforementioned gore/deaths, the weirdly offbeat nature, and an admittedly interesting ending - that this is essential viewing for anyone except slasher movie completists.

I viewed this via a Sky broadcast, thoughtfully presented in its original aspect ratio, however following a Lionsgate DVD release in the US a few years ago (both individually and as part of a four-film set), the best version on disc has appeared in the UK courtesy of Arrow Films (from which the above image is obviously taken) - a set that contains reversible cover artwork, poster, booklet, interview, biography of Caroline Munro, and two audio commentaries, as well as the film itself uncut for the first time in the UK. Royal carpet treatment indeed, though whether the film deserves it is as usual down to personal tastes.