I love Lenzi's gialli offerings, or at least the one's I have experiences! I still need to see KNIFE OF ICE and A QUIET PLACE TO KILL. SPASMO and EYEBALL are some of my more favorite gialli viewings. Two very stylish yet, odd in nature but still very effective in the payoff!
It's been a long time since I first seen his SO SWEET... SO PERVERSE (1969), was that not just recently issued on DVD again??
I absolutely loved Freda's brilliant I VAMPRI! Now, what was the deal with Bava being uncredited for with this again? I know he had something to do with the overall direction, but what's the full story on that again?
Any opinions about this more recent giallo? I've heard some bad things but when I found it dirt cheap on eBay, I couldn't resist the temptation of picking it up. Figured I need to give some of the more recent horrer/thriller stuff a chance too. Still waiting for it to arrive and I'm not quite sure what to expect of it but at least it has a pretty good cast that includes famous transsexual Eva Robins from TENEBRAE (1982) and the good-looking Elisabetta Rocchietti, who has been cropping up in a lot of horror stuff like THE THREE FACES OF TERROR (2004), DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? (2005) and THE LAST HOUSE IN THE WOODS (2006). Not to mention supporting roles by Florinda Bolkan and Franco Nero! Anyone here seen it?
Interesting looking film out of Italy with Irish/Spanish co-financiers. Directed by Italian SFX man Stefano Bessoni.
In the 1600s, long before the invention of photography, a scientist named Girolamo Fumagalli was obsessed with the idea of reproducing images. He discovered that by killing a victim and removing the victim's eyeballs, it was possible to reproduce on paper the last image imprinted on that person's retinas. He named this technique 'thanatography'. Today, the same kind of gruesome ritual and abominable crime recurs within the walls of an international school of cinema. -imdb.com
Also stars the daughter of Charlie Chapman, Geraldine Chaplin as well as her daughter Oona.
Well, it seems this is yet another Argento flick that is taking a beating in the review department. Even die hard fans are not too pleased with this outing. Anyhow, the PAL R2 DVD is now out via a Polish company that found it important to force the Polish subs!
Looks like this will be getting a UK release first via Arrow Films! I still haven't seen this, it was on my radar during last year's Midnight Madness during the Toronto Film Fest. The disc will be released March 15th..
I'd love to grab this, but for now I'm holding off on the Blu-Ray player for now, too unstable industry right now. Plus, the multi-region player are way too expensive!
A new old school creature feature that catches the eye, thankfully without the aid of any brow wincing CGI !. A monster movie that turns to nature as an emergent parasite seeks living host in any warm blooded being. An invasive endocrine, that once attached, voraciously secretes itself into its victims system. Paralysing man and beast in a rapid time frame, it then plays puppet master, using its manifested host with an even greater malevolence to feed and multiply. Like a porcupine spiked conker fallen from a chestnut tree this nugget of nastiness attaches itself via its super tough outer quills !.
Opening with an attack upon a pump attendant at a remote gas station, as a possessed rodent screeches out of the low grass at him with rabid intensity, the cycle of deadly domination begins like ‘The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers’ propagated by ‘The Thing From Another World’.
A young couple, Polly and partner Seth, played by Jill Wagner ‘Blade The TV Series’ and Paulo Costanzo (Michael Tribbiani from TV’s ‘Joey’), hit the back roads for a camping vacation, only to have trouble find them in the form of an escaped convict and his drug dependant girlfriend. Shea Whigham is Dennis Farell and his partner Lacey, as played by Rachel Kerbs, who hold Polly and Seth at gunpoint to hitch a ride to a safer destination away from the authorities. Together the foursome run over a small animal, causing a flat tyre and an even flatter woodland critter. The road kill is a harbinger of the parasite and when Dennis assists Polly in changing the tyre his finger is pricked by one of the steely barbs. The ‘splinter’ is removed but its parasitic poison, unbeknownst to Dennis, is now in his bloodstream and its malignancy begins to slowly spread.
With a vehicle now overheating, following undercarriage contact upon hitting the animal, the occupants brought together by fate labour into the same gas station where the entity first announced itself. There they discover the near dead attendant who is soon animated by the organism now within him, and he attacks Lacey with vicious and bloody intent. Contorted and disfigured almost beyond human recognition the gas attendant is ravenous for blood, and the insidious proliferation of conjoining another host. Shocked at the horrific attack Polly and Seth lock themselves in the gas station along with Dennis. What lurks outside soon grows inside as the splinter effect begins to infect Dennis’ entire arm, to the point where detaching himself from it becomes a gory reality in order to survive. Putting their society differences aside the three pull together in a plight to survive as the fight for their very lives comes into play.
With a fresh body of blood arriving at the scene in the form of a female police officer the contorted body parts creature soon finds a taste for delivery food, as it serves out its own law upon the startled officer with visceral enforcement. The only likely outcome now for the three trapped survivors is that the all consuming parasitic embodiment breaks into the station, or that they outwit it and strive for freedom !. Carnage and John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ creature effects ensue for the climatic conclusion, monster showdown style. The premise is simple and the budget is tight, but the Director and movie production team do a sound job along with the decent small cast. Monster movies are coming back into fashion and pleasingly without the often all too obvious CGI awkwardness that mostly lets a half creditable movie down. This then is good old fashioned people in peril up against an abomination of nature. Remember those old Eighties monster / Sci Fi flicks that Charles Band used to throw out with regularity but always with tongue in cheek aplomb !?, well this is not so unlike his 1982 monster flick ‘Parasite’, excepting that it is neither a 3D or Demi Moore double ‘D’ starring vehicle.
Well worth checking out, and remembering to check your inoculations are all up together the next time you pick up a splinter !.
SPLINTER
A new old school creature feature that catches the eye, thankfully without the aid of any brow wincing CGI !. A monster movie that turns to nature as an emergent parasite seeks living host in any warm blooded being. An invasive endocrine, that once attached, voraciously secretes itself into its victims system. Paralysing man and beast in a rapid time frame, it then plays puppet master, using its manifested host with an even greater malevolence to feed and multiply. Like a porcupine spiked conker fallen from a chestnut tree this nugget of nastiness attaches itself via its super tough outer quills !.
Dennis. What lurks outside soon grows inside as the splinter effect begins to infect Dennis’ entire arm, to the point where detaching himself from it becomes a gory reality in order to survive. Putting their society differences aside the three pull together in a plight to survive as the fight for their very lives comes into play.
