The Attack of the Scissor People Cert X Vol.2
Author: Unknown
Date: 2024-02-21 07:14:34+00:00

Welcome to our long promised Italian Horror Special in which we look at 26 of the key films helmed by the genre'•
four most important directors, Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Michele Soavi. Starting with Bava's classic THE

MASK OF SATAN(] 960), we try to get to the bottom of why these particular films incurred the censors wrath.

Up front, I have to make several apologies about the content of this issue. Due to lack of space, we have only included the most important films by Bava end Fulci (some of he others will be covered in future issues), but virtually all of Arged.o end Soavi's films are covered For the same reason, there are no films by Ricardo Freda, Pupi Avati, Sergio Marino, Lamberto Bava and several lesser known directors, but these will also be covered in future issues.

Italian horror movies are often thought of as cheap imitations of successful American films, and while this is not exactly untrue, the relationship between the two is a bit more complex then that For one thing, the plagiarism is not just a one way affair (just look at the link between the Eighties slasher boom and the earlier Bava films) and the cheap Italian films often boasted superior make up effects and a more lavish appearance largely thanks to the almost de rigueur use of cinemucopc photography. This together with their penchant for visceral gore effects made them popular, but ironically it was these moments of graphic gore that played a big part in the video nasties campaign that threatened to obscure the genre from public sight When the films were eventually re-releas.ed with official certificates, their battered remains were a mere shadow of their former selves. In the early days these films earned a cinema release. Today they are regarded as strictly straight-tovideo fodder, the last U.K theatrical release of a major Italian horror film being over a decade ago!

When we started this issue, we weren't prepared for just how complex end difficult it would be, end because of this you will notice that some 'of the censorship information is missing. We tried to be as accurate as possible but certain information was second hand end not 100% reliable. These omissions will be corrected in future issues when we've fully looked into them. If you spot any mistakes, omissions or.extrs information of interest, send it in and we'll publish the corrections.

We have tried to provide background information on all the directors covered, but these summaries are in no way comprehensive. For more detailed information check out the following publications: Tim Lucas' upcoming 'All The Colon Of The Dark' to be published in two volumes will almost certainly be the final word on the great Mario Bava' s career, and i■
due out this year. 'Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams Of Dario Argento' by Maitland McDonagh was the fint significant book length overview of Argento's career, but it is rather academic in its approach, and was eventually superseded by Alan Jones' 'Mondo Argento', a collection of Alan's reviews for all Argento's films • revised and updated• and superbly illustrated with hundreds of mouth watering stills that alone make it a must have item, 'Lucio Fulci: Beyond The Gates' by Chas Balum is the first English language book about the director, but Stephen Thrower's soon to be released 'Lucio Fulci: Beyond The Eye Of Horror' promises (on the strength of published extracts) to offer a more thorough overview of his

• career. There are at this moment no book length surveys of Michele Soavi's career, and because of the tragic personal problems that have all but brought en end to his involvement in cinema for the foreseeable future, such a survey would seem very unlikely. Midnight Media did announce the publication of a booklet about Soavi to be written by Mark Ashworth, but u Mark now works for 1oe D' Amato in Italy, its completion is now in doubt. But who knows, a few nice letters migl't encourage its completion.

If its an overview of the genre as a whole that you are looking for, Adrian Smith's 'Delirium' magazine is the thing to get. The first two issues cover 1970 • 1979 (approximately 300 films), but subsequent issues cover a year each (approximately SO
films each). A revised version of issue two covering twice as many films as the original should be out very soon, and no doubt issue one will at some point receive the same treatment. With extensive credits, a synopsis, review and video info, they are an essential purchase

On a fmal note, we have also included a special extra review by SCISSOR PEOPLE newcomer Andrew for a very controversial short film still doing the festival rounds - and gaining awards - called AFTERMATII(l 994 ). Its a sick black comedy about necrophilia, far more polished than the likes of NEKROMANTIK(l 988) but just as repulsive, its already appalled the likes of Chas Balum Andrew is also the editor of the upcoming magazine 'Gore Galore' which will incorporate his previously published 'Gore Guide' which is an impressive list of video stockists, mail order companies and other outlet.

world wide from where you can order uncut versions of your favorite films and is worth reading in conjunction with this zine as it offers a much more comprehensive list of outlets than I could list here. Its out very soon.

Till Next Time ...

Daniel - Editor

This issue is dedicated to Alan Jones who taught me to stop worrying and love Italian horror,

EDITOR. PUBLISRER, WRITER A.ND OTHER STUFF

DANIEL - fell asleep at the keyboard while writing this issue and typed the letter 'c' 121,617 times.

CON'IRIBUTING WRITERS

ALEX • used to go to the ssme pub as the Spice Girls before they were famous. Boy is he kicking himself now.

ANDREW • had the-theme ll)USic from CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST(l 978) played at his wedding.

COVER ART & DESIGN

LEE - recently bought a Mini and wants TilE ITALIAN JOB(l 969) soundtrack to play in it Please send offers.

ADDmONS & CORRECTIONS

TURKEY SHOOT() 98)) is available on the Roadshow label in Australia, pan & scan but completely uncut.

THE DEVILS() 97 j) was presented to the BBFC at 10,122 feet (I 12 mins 28 secs) who cut 132 feet (1 min. 28 secs) to 9990 feet (111 mine.) before granting an 'X' certificate. Warner Home Video's release of the film in their 'Ken Russell Collection' was the American 'R' rated version The only scene surrendered to the MP AA to change the film from an 'X' to an 'R' was the brief bloody shot of Grandiers crushed legs. Warner's cU1Tent release as part of the 'Maverick Collection' is the British cinema version, passed with no further cuts and letterbo�ed at 1.70: I (credits letterboxed at 2.35:1).

GALAXY

Century'. 0F TERROR(l2ll)_ Sid Haig starred as Dragos in 'Jason Of Star Command' not 'Buck Rogers In The 25th THANKSIQ;

Paul J. Brown (Midnight Media) for ongoing help and advice, and for keeping me up to date on genre information when I've been watching too inany Ingmar Bergman films. Michael Donovan (Redemption Film publicist). Mark Morris (for information on cuts and other obllCUl"e stuff) . The ODEON (Sheffield), The staff of WATERSTONES (Sheffield) for finding some of the almost non existent books I wanted Tristan Thompson ( editor of IT'S ONLY A MOVIE for his wildly appreciative and out-of-the-blue telephone call of encouragement after issue one csme out). All the sources consulted by us, Magazines including: Cinefantastique, Fangoria, Video Watchdog, Starburst, Delirium, Fantasy film Memory #2: Lucio Fulci and #4/5: Dario A.gento, Shivers (under the editorship of Alan Jones) and The Dark Side, Books including: 'The Aurum Film Encyclopedia' (H01Tor and Science Fiction editions) edited by Phil Hardy, 'The BF1 Companion To Horror' edited by Kim Newman, 'Spaghetti Nightmares' by Luca M Palmerini & Gaetano Mistretta, 'Mondo A.gento' by Alan Jones,

'Nightmare Movies' by Kim Newman, 'The Incredibly Strange Film Book' by Jonathan Ross, 'Fantastic Cinema' by Peter Nicholls, 'Cult Movies' by Danny Peary, 'The Penguin Encyclopedia Of Horror And The Supernatural' edited by Jack Sullivan, 'The Video Watchdog Book' by Tim Lucas, 'Terror On Tape' by James O'Neil, 'Elliot's Guide To Home Entertainment', 'The Time Out Film Guide' edited by John Pym, 'Stay Out Of The Shower' by William Schoell, 'Horror Film Directors' by Dennis Fischer, 'Nekrofile' by Alan Jones, 'Broken Mirrors Broken, Minds' by Maitland McDonagh and probably a few more I can't recall. And all the video companies mentioned within.

BACK ISSUES

ISSUE #1 featuring SHOGUN ASSASSIN, RE-ANIMATOR, TURKEY SHOOT, WITCHF1NDER GENERAL, MARK

OF THE DEVIL, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, THE DEVILS, GALAXY OF TERROR and more still available at£\ .90 including P&P.

Additional copies of this issue are available at £3 .40 including P&P.

Send all orders to the below address. Please make cheques payable to SCISSOR PUBLICATIONS.

ATTACK OF THE SCISSOR PEOPLE is published on an almost regular basis by SCISSOR PUBLICATIONS

The contents of this-issue may not be reproduced without the editor's written permission, All photographs are Copyright© 1998 The Copyright Owner.

Subscriptions are not available,

TI-IE MASK OF SATAN(1960)

Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Italy in 1914. He womanhood usually associated with religious imagery entered the film industry in 1939 as a cinematographer - a from her first appearance in the graveyard flanked by two craft he learnt from his father Eugenio Bava - gaining his black dog, her strangely beautiful features dominate not first screen credit for THE ADVENTURES OF
only this film, but many subsequent Italian horror movies ANNABELLA(1943), and working for such high profile to the point that she became an icon for the entire genre.

directors as Roberto Rossellini, G.W.Pabst and Raoul Outside of the gore scenes, the special effects are Walsh. He also acted as second unit director on Pietro

•ubtle but very impressive. In another of the films great F1·ancisci's HERCULES(! 957) and HERCULES
scenes, Asa attempts to drain the life from Katia, and she UNCHAINED(] 958), and directed the battle scenes for rejuvenates before our eyes, withoui a cut away. When Jacques Tourneur's THE GIANT OF-MARATHON(l 960).

she tries to seduce Andreus who has fallen in love with While working as a cameraman on THE SINS OF

Katia, Asa is revealed to be literally a walking corpse. Its ROME(l 952), Bava met and befriended Ricardo Freda.

a measure of the films quality that you never even think As a result, he was hired to photograph Freda's classic that Steele is playing two roles until after the credits have I VAMPIRI (1956), the first Italian horror film in the rolled.

somd era. When Freda abandoned the project after being The overall design of the picture cortesy of art refuse a 12 day extension on his schedule, Bava stepped in director Giorgio Giovannini evokes a powerfully surreal and directed half the film in just 2 days I When Freda quit atmosphere reminiscent of the look of the classic CALTIKI THE IMMORTAL MONSTER.(1959) after just

Universal horror films of the 1930's. Bava's fluid, stylish two day in a ploy to get his exploited friend thr direction which utilizes such techniques as the 360 degree recognition he deserved, Bava stepped in and completed pan two decades before Brian De Palma made them the film (Freda went on record saying that CALTIKI famous in BLOW OUT(l 981 ), and the crystal clear should be regarded as Bava' s true directorial debut).

monochrome photography by Bava and Urbano Terzsno Producer Lionello Santi of Galatea Film was so make this one of the most visually impressive studio impressed, he rewarded Bava with the opportunity to debut bound movies ever.

as director. A devotee of Russian literature, he choose to THE MASK OF SATAN was recut by Salvatore
adapt Nikolai Gogol's short story 'Vij'. The result was Billitteri and re-scored by Les Baxter when Samuel Z.

THE MASK OF SATAN, a film that is now regarded as Ark.off acquired the film for release by AfP in America one of the true classics of the horror genre,
where its title was changed to BLACK SUNDAY, a title The film begins with the execution of Princess Asa
not without meaning. It refers to the day in every century (Barbara Steele) and her lover Javutich (Arturo Doninici).

when the forces of evil can rise and take revenge on their Charged with 'witchcraft' by the local inquisitor • her own oppressors. When it was submitted to the BBFC under brother - she has a spiked Devils mask hammered onto her this title in 1961, it was refused a certificate by then face, and with her last words swears vengeance on his censor John Trevelyan on grounds of disgust, largely descendants. 200 years later when two traveling doctors -.

thanks to the opening execution. It was eventually passed Dr. Kubayan (John Richardson) and Dr. Andreus (Andrea in 1968 under the title REVENGE OF THE VAMPIRE

Cecchi) - on their way to a convention near Milgorod stop with an "X" certificate because as Trevelyan put it in his by the crypt where Asa is buried, Kubayan unwittingly autobiography 'What The Censor Saw', "by this time it removes the mask from Asa's face, and in doing so cuts looked rather ridiculous". But this did not stop him hie hand and spills blood on her corpse bringing about her removing approximately I minute 45 seconds of footage, resurrection Asa returna to take revenge on her brother's mainly from the opening sequence, but also from the descendant's Prince Vaidu (Ito Garrani), and his innocent stake through the eye killing of Kruvajan, and probably daughter Katia (Steele again) whose body she seeks to from the scene where prince Vaida falls head first into the possess.

fire as well. When it was released on video in the early The films narrative scripted by Bava, Ennio De 80's by Vampix, it was in this cut version.

Concini, Marcello Coscia and Maroi Serandrei is fairly In the mid 80's, the uncut version - again under the straight forward, but its the visuals and the unforgettable title of BLACK SUNDAY - turned up amid complaints set pieces that make this so memorable. Asa's shocking about its content on British T. V., and then again in 1990 as execution at the start of the film and her subsequent, part of the Film Club season in a slightly letterboxed drawn out resurrection and emergence from the crypt with print. It is this version that became Redemption video's the spike holes still in her face is a stunning moment of first release. Passed uncut with a "1 s• certificate and horror. Other key sequences include Javutich clawing his letterboxed at 1.45; I, it is a pristine transfer, and the best way out of the grave where he is burie.d, the ghostly coach version of the film currently available to buy anywhere in emerging from the mist in slow motion (both a reference the World. That is until Elite Entertainment do a to the coach scene in F.W. Murnau's cfassic vampire pie collectors laserdisc edition

NOSFERATU(1922) and itself an influence on Neil Jordan's INTERVIEW WITH THE V AMPIRE(l 994 )), the

DANIEL
unusually graphic black & white gore scenes and parhaps most of all, Barbara Steele herself. Playing both the virginal Katia and Asa, the sexual witch • two extremes of

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964)

After completing THE MAllK OF SATAN, Bava
them because of the suspicious death of Christina's late moved from gothic black & white to Technicolor and the husband, the subsequent murders being an attempt to panoramic expanses afforded by the 2.35: I techniscope suppress the trail of evidence.

format for HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED

The plot is ultimately insignificant as BLOOD AND

WORLD(l 961 ), a horror fantasy .starring Christopher BLACK LACE finds Bava at the peak of his powers as a Lee.

This was foilowed by ER1K THE
visual stylist. The gaudy sets lit iri garish neon tones and CONQUEROR(1961) a Viking epic,

THE EVIL
photographed by Urbano Terzano play a significant factor EYE(l 962), BLACK SABBATii(l 963) an anthology
in the impact of the film, nowhere more so than murder horror starring Boris Karloff in 'The Wurdalak' episode •
scenes. Each is a virtuoso display .of suspense due to cited by Karloff as the favorite of his own work • and Bava's prowling camerawork, and the murders themselves NIGIIT IS THE PHANTOM(l 963) stsrring Christopher are unusually brutal and frenzied for the era which it was Lee as a masochist haunted by the whip wielding spectre made in. They still retain their impact when viewed today.

of his dead lover, a theme made clearer in the alternative One of the victims has her eyes gouged with a claw type title THE WHIP AND THE BODY. Of these, it was instrument the killer wears, one has her face burnt on a Bava' s last black & white film THE EVIL EYE that was to red hot stove and in the most famous scene,-Claudia Dante be the most significant. Now accepted as the first is drowned in a bathtub before having her wrists slashed cinematic incarnation of the 'Giallo', a genre of thriller with a straight razor. Several of the killings in this film that takes its name from the distinctive yellow covers that and Jesus Franco's BLOODY MOON(1981) tum up in accompanied much crime fiction by authors such as Pedro Almodavar's MATADOR(l 986) during the scene in Frederick Brown, Cornell Wollrich and Agatha Christie.

which Nacho Martinez masturbates· while watching the Impressive as THE EVIL EYE is, it was comprehensively extracts on video. Almodavar also pays homage to eclipsed by the release of BLOOD AND BLACK LACE,

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE by having Asumpta Serna
one of the key films in the genre.

reenact Dantes bathtub death scene.

The original Italian title of the film SEI DONNE PER

An English version of the film was prepared by Lou

L' ASSASSINO or SIX WOMEN FOR THE MURDERER

Moss using different takes for distribution outside of really sums up the films plot in a nut shell. Christina (Eva Italy. It was submitted to the BBFC who made over 4

Bsrtok) runs a fashion salon in Rome with her lover Max minutes of cuts, removing every violent scene. This Morlan (Cameron Mitchell) who handles the financial version was passed with a "X" certificate and has been side of the business and uses it as a front for a drug ring.

described by horror author Ramsey Campbell as like • ... an When the body of Isabella, one of the models, turns up an-ay of bravura suspense scenes terminated by violent stuffed in a closet quickly followed by the murder of two hiccups in the soundtrack music .. ". Sadly it was this other models• Nicole who stole Isabella's boyfriend and butchered version of the film that was released on video in Peggy who has stolen and destroyed Isabella's disry •
the early 80's by Iver. Ironically, after a five year ban suspicion falls on several suspects, including Max. When MATADOR was passed uncut with these scene intact.

the suspects are arrested the danger appears to be over, Despite rumors of one, there· has never been a Sell until a fourth model is murdered
thru release of this film in the U.K. Of the versions that The story by Bava, Marcello Fondato and Joe
should still be available, Sinister Cinema in America (Giuseppe) Barillu is light weight enough to make even an released the uncut, English dubbed version several years average episode of 'Scooby Doo, Where Are You?' seem ago, and the French version is also uncut and letterboxed a labyrinthine by comparison Indeed the faceless killer is

1.SS: I. All current versions of the film would be actually two people • Mex and Christina • and the rendered obsolete if • as promised • BLOOD AND
motivation was just Isabella's attempted blackmail of BLACK LACE is released by Quentin Tsrrentino's Rolling Thunder video label in America. Tsrrantino wants to release the original uncut Italian version in a letterboxed and subtitled print that would be definitive and an absolute must have item, .At present, this version has not materialized. Its probably worth waiting for this version, but at present the other versions are as good as you're going to get.

DANIEL

FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUSTMOON(1970)

After BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, Bava turned his
punctuated by close-ups, and enough zooms in and out to talents to many varied projects, most of which were not make even the ablest sea-man sick. A bizarre party is horror: A little known western called nm ROAD TO
being held which culminates in the fake murder of Trudi.

FORT ALAMO(1964).

PLANET OF nm

This whole scene has a feel to it not unlike a particularly VAMPIRE(! 965), a sci-fi/ horror film that served as the creepy episode of 'Tales Of The Unexpected'.

inspiration for Ridley Scott's classic ALIEN(l 979). DR.

From this point in, little of any real interest occurs GOWFOOT AND nm GIRL BOMBS(l 966), a sequel to
until the actual murders themselves. Each of them takes both DR.

GOLDFOOT AND nm BIKlNI
place off screen, and the audience discovers them at the MACHJNE(l 965) and TWO MAF1A GUYS VS.

same time as the characters in the film As each body is GOLDFJNGER (196?) starring Vincent Price. KNIVES
found, it is wrapped in plastic (a motif used by David OF nm AVENGER.(1967), a second Viking epic.

Lynch in his watershed T. V. series 'Twin Peaks') and hung CURSE OF nm DEAD(l 966), a gothic horror about a up in the freezer. The scene is always accompanied by village haunted by the ghost of a little girl that had a big some strangely cheerful music,
influence on David Lynch, particularly TWlN PEAKS: Ultimately, as with BLOOD AND BLACK LACE

FIRE WALK wrrn ME(1992), but also LOST
before it, what really holds the interest are the numerous IDGHWAY(l 996). DANGER: DIABOLIK(l 967), a
stylistic touches the film contains: Interesting match cuts comicbook sci-fi film in the BARBARELLA(! 968) vein such as the white of a woman's bikini between her produced by Dino De Laurentis. HATCHET FOR nm buttocks to the surf being carved up by a motor boat (trust HONEYMOON(l 969), a black comedy/ horror film shot
you to pick that • Ed), or the body that is discovered only in Barcelona.

ROY COLT AND WINCHESTER
when a bowl of glass marbles is knocked over, and the JACK(! 969), a comedy western 1111d FOUR TIMES THAT
marbles tumble down the stairs like water 1111d roll into the NIG:HT(l 970), a variation on Akira Kurosawa's bath where the body is.

RASHAMON(1951). Though not up to the standard of Touches such as these also stand out more due to the some of these films, Bava' s next feature was more sheer banality of the dialogue, the best line in the film significant than it appeared at the time.

'being "Murder is a dirty business". And none of the Based partially on Agatha Christie's novel 'And Then characters seemed to be particularly disturbed or There Were None' (originally it was published as 'Ten surprised by what is going on. Even when they discover Little Niggers', but was retitled fOt' obvious reasons) FIVE
the body of a woman with s bloody knife protruding from DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON is quite possibly one
her breast in the films one truly shocking scene, they do of the weirdest horror films ever made. The story is set no mOt'e than pull a few faces before returning to the dead upon a remote island owned by a wealthy business man pan looks they have held throughout the proceedings, who invites two couples, along with their lovers and Despite the seemingly ineptitude of all involved in serv1111ts, to the island in an attempt to persuade one of the production, the film somehow works. It never fails to them • a professor • to sell him his secret formula. The arouse interest, partly due to the seductive portrayals of professor has other ideas and refuses to sell, instead womanhood by the four female leads, but also due to the wishing to donate it to science.

fact that the film seems so incredibly innocent, so very Until that point, everything is quite understandable ...

sixties. The whole experience comes across as one Then the murders begin Is it Charles, the wealthy glorious, hamfisted experiment that one simply has to see business man? Is it Nick, the irritable husband? Or is it through, Those familiar with Bava's work will also have Trudi, the oversexed wife? Do we really care? Ah, but great fun noting his trademark touches to the action. As then it could be Isabelle, the strange girl who' likes to an exercise in style over content, some of it works, some steal clothes and run daintily all over the island It could of it doesn't, but it all has value.

also be all of them .. and more, but you'll just have to wait FIVE DOLUI FOR AN AUGUST MOON was not
for the multitude of "revelatory" plot twists.

released theatrically, or on video in the U.K. until But despite the films incomprehensible plot and

Redemption's current sell-thru cassette of the film Bava's disinterested direction, the film is an absolute joy Redemption's version - a nice clear print letterooxed at to watch. It's pastel colours, the jaunty and totally out of 1.60; I with full exit music • was passed uncut by the place organ music and overwhelming sense of bizzareness BBFC with an "18" certificate. As we can't find details make it a highly enjoyable experience.

for any other release from any other country, we would The film opens on a shot of Isabelle running over
say that this print ia as good as definative.

sand dunes toward the sea, accompanied by the afore mentioned organ music. The effect of this is that one is ALEX
lulled into thinking one is watching and old English comedy, and that at any moment she is going to stumble across Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jakes up to something behind a sand dune.

This is followed by an even weirder scene in which

Isobelle comes to a house built on the edge of a cliff, and peers in through the window. suddenly we're in Jess Franco territory with a great deal of the following action

lHE BIRD Willi lHE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE(1970)

Dario .Argento was born in September 1940, the son killer containing the sound of a rare species of bird with of Salvatore .Argento, a executive in the film industry. He white feathers like glus lead the police to an apartment became interested in film and worked u a critic on one of where Monica is seen in a struggle with her husband Rome's daily newspapers before he got his big break (Umberto Raho) who police think is the killer. In the Sergio Leone wu planing a new spaghetti western called struggle, the husband falls to his death through the ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST(l 968) and hired
window. It is only then that Sam realizes what was Argento along with Bernado Bertolucci to storyboard it.

bothering him about the attack he witnessed. It was the Given this impressive credit, Argento found work writing wife who was trying to kill her husband
scripts for eeveral more westerns ('!'ODAY ITS ME, The idea of a protagonist trying to remember exactly TOMORROW

YOU(l 968)

and

F1VE

MAN
what he saw, and the way in which the paat effects the ARMY(! 969)), some war films (BATILE OF nm future was to be a recurring theme in Argento's work, COMMANDOS(l 969) and PROBABlllTY ZERO(l 968))

influenced mainly by Alfred Hitchcock (an example being and a pornographic epic called LA RNOLUZIONE

SPELLBOUND(! 946)) and Michaelangelo Antonioni's SUSSUALE (SEXUAL REVOLUTION)(l 968).

BLOW UP(l 966).

When Argento wrote the screenplay for MEITI UNA

W,ith this film. Argento took the Giallo thriller one SERA A CENA (THE LOVE CIRCLE)(l 969) to good step further, giving equal weight to the n81Tative and the reviews, Goffredo Lombardo • head of the Titenus visual design of the film. The films stylish look was Distribution Company - asked him to assist him on script largely thanks to a then little known cameraman called rewrites and revisions for Titenus. When Bcrtolucci Vittorio Storaro who would later go on to shoot Francis insisted Argento read 'The Screaming Mimi' by Frederic Ford Coppola's masterpiece APOCALYPSE NOW

Brown that he was interested in optioning, Argento wrote (I 979). Storaro's sense of composition was already very a script that incorporated elements from the book, and much in evidence; the characters at times appearing also from Mario Bava's nm EVIL EYE, that he wanted to deeply recessed in the frame, surrounded by ominous direct Lombardo didn't want to produce a film directed expanses of space. In the opening murder attempt in the by .Argento, preferring to hire British director Terance gallery, the two struggling figures are set against an Young as WM! UNm.. DARK(l 967) had been a big hit in almost completely white background, framed by the Italy. Lombardo eventually bowed to pressure from gallery windows that Sam is trapped between.

Salvatore to let his son direct under the provi10 that he The third important element of the film is the almost oversee his sons debut. When the fint weeks rushes were childlike theme music courtesy of the legendary screened, Lombardo was mortified and tried to replace composer Ennio MorTicone. Morricone's ability to write him with Ferdinando Baldi, but thanks to his fathen brilliantly atmospheric music for film alter film is awe•
watertight contract, he couldn't nm BIRD WlTif THE
inspiring, and a key reason for the enduring reputation of CRYSTAL PLUMAGE became Titenus' biggest money Argento's debut film

earner.

When THE BIRD WITH nm CRYSTAL PLUMAGE

The film stars Tony Mustane as Sam, an .American was released in the U.S. in 1970, the MPAA made two writer who witnesses an attempted murder of a woman cuta totaling 20 seconds for a 'PG' rating. They were: 1

Monica (Eva Renzi) • in an art gallery, but he is disturbed cut (8 secs} in which the killer rips the panties off one of by the fact that something wu not quite right with what he the victims, and 1 cut (12 secs) of the woman in the saw. As the film progreS&es, several more murders occur elevator having her face slashed v,ith a straight razor and a and attempts are made on the life of both him and his shot of her savaged face ('!'his scene was a big influence girlfriend Julia (Suzy Kendall), all of which seem to have on Angie Dickinson's death scene in Brian De Palma's a bizan-e link to a painting of a woman being assaulted in a underrated DRESSED TO KILL(l 980)). It was this mow covered landscape. Taped phone calls from the version that was released on video by VCI/United in America, and on laserdisc by Image, but while united's cassette is pan & scan, Image's disc is letterboxed at 2.3S:1 and boasts rich colours.

When the film wu released in the U.K. under the title nm GALLERY MURDERS, it was passed in this version with an "X" certificate. It was this censored print that turned up on video in early 80'1 on Videomedia, and later on Stable Cane in a washed out print that also loses visual information on all four sides.

The uncut venion waa issued on laserdisc by Columbia in Japan, but the framing was less accurate, and the colours not as rich as the Image disc. Ai this time, the
only uncut version on tape that we know of is ·the full screen Greek release. Its a fairly decent print and it is in English so we would recommend you seek it out

DANIE!.

A BAY OF BLOOD(1971)

Considering that he neither like nor wanted to direct (I 981). Walt Clllmey's garroting recall, the opening FlVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON, Bava's next murder, the machete in the face killing of the boy in the project again appeared to use the 'Ten Little Indians'

wheelchair is strikingly similar to the ki11ing of the formula. But A BAY OF BLOOD was in fact one more second teenager in BAY md the death of the two step closer to the plotleas "opera of violence" that he teenagers who are impaled together with a spear is a direct seemed to be striving for ever since BLOOD AND
rip off (ironically, while it is the most famous scene in BLACKLACE.

FRIDAY nm 13TH PART 2, it wae removed by the The film begins with an old woman in a wheelchair MPM to avoid the "X" rating). Somewhat bizarrely, (lea Miranda) being garroted by a mystery assailant He some of the costuming from BAY was also borrowed, would appear to be the films killer until he is himself including the sweater worn by Betsy Palmer iri FRIDAY
dispatched with a knife. A quartet of teenagers staying in THE 13TH, but Brigitte Skay's memorable miniskirt sadly a cabin are slain • an aspect of the film that was to be of wasn't.

significance years later. In the end, 13 people who live in When A BAY OF BLOOD was submitted to the
the bay are killed, almost everyone by a different hand, BBFC in the early 70's, it was refused a certificate and and all in an attempt to control the land sWTounding the remained banned until it came out on video in the early bay

80's on the Hoahukin label under the title BLOODBATH.

The script by Bava, Joseph McLee (Giuseppe This version was uncut and was eventually banned as a Zaccariello) Fillipo Ottoni, Sergio Canevari and video nasty, It remained unavailable for the next decade Francesco Vanorio while willfully infuriating whodunit until Redemption released it in a J.60: I leUerl>oxed fans, does at some level offer a darkly humorous version with full exit music. Unfortunately the BBFC
condemnation of capitalism as each of the protagonists insisted on 7 cuts totaling 43 seconds before they would attempts to gain control of the piece of real estate. In m isrue an '18' certificate. The cuts were: 2 cuts (2 secs) amazingly SWTeal twist ending, the final two survivors arc removing the shot of the first teenager having her throat ahot dead by their own children, As Bava was forced to cut from behind and one graphic hatchet blow to her head work fast, the camerawork does include a lot of zoom I cut (21 secs) removing practically all details of the boy shots, and little of his usual fluidity. Stylistically the film with the machete embedded in his face and shots of him is sti11 impressive, md nicely shot in crisp, realistic tones dying. 3 cuts (9 secs) to the scene in which the couple by Bava and Antonio Rinaldi, but what counts here is the having sex are impaled together with a apear, removing violence.

shots of blood welling around the wound and shots of The numerous gore killings in A BAY OF BLOOD
them writhing while impaled I cut (! 1 secs) alter Simon led to it having Bil impact almost a decade later when its is stabbed in the stomach with a apear, shots of him being plot was used as the basis for Sem S.Cunningham's gored so hard he is forced up the wall have been removed FRIDAY nm l 3TH(I 980), the film that kicked off the (see picture),
slasher phenomena in the early 80's (John Carpenter's The cuts do significantly reduce the impact of the HALLOWEEN(1978) also owes a debt to Bava'a film, but scene in which the four teenagers are killed (they are is far more original in its approach and the body count is essentially innocent) giving their deaths a throw away feel;

• relatively low), For its day the film was very graphic, and all effect md no aftermath Simon's death also ruffer even alter 25 years the killings still have a degree of badly. In the uncut version it is gut wrenching With the power. The scenes in which the teenagers are kilted have cuts it im't The loss of the afore mentioned shot totally an uncomfortable sexual overtone to them, the shot of a blunts the scene. The annoying thing is that Redemption's corpse with a live octopus attached to its face is version would have been definitive if not for the cuts as its memorably squirm inducing and the killing of Simon is the only letterboxed version around.

truly horrifying.

A BAY OF BLOOD has appeared under many

Many of the death scenes in A BAY OF BLOOD were
different titles. It was filmed as REAZIONE A CATENA reworked in Steve Miner's FRIDAY nm 13TH PART 2

(CHAIN REACTION); It was first announced as ANTEFATTO (BEFORE nm FACT) and was then
released in Italy as L'ECOLOGIA DEL DELI.ITO (THE

ECOLOGY OF MURDER). It is also known as

CARNAGE, TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE (my
favorite) and nm LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT PART 2
even though Wes Ci-aven didn't rriake the original until the following year.

We would recommend that you buy Redemption's
version because its the best looking version of the film available, but you should seek out the • uncut version as well which should be available froin America on the Gorgon Video label.

DANIEL

CAT O'NINE T AILS(1971)

FOUR FLIES ON GREY VEL VET(1972)

Argent.o's follow up to nm BIRD WITH nm

CK! O'NINE TAIUJ was not as successful as CRYSTAL PLUMAGE wu again in the thriller mode, but Argento's much admired debut, 10 he teamed up with in CAT O'NINE TAILS, elements of the fantastic were fellow Italian Luigi Cozzi to wort. on a new script. Their beginning to creep into hi1 work.

initial attempt was vetoed after it was discovered to have The distributors this time insisted on American stars similarities to an Italian TV movie aired during the in an attempt to improve overseas �ales, so Karl Malden writing The result was the enigmatically titled FOUR
was cast in the lead as Franco Amo, the blind journalist FLIES ON GREY VELVET.

who over hears • man who stole genetic research papers Michael Brandon plays Roberto, a rock drummer who from a science institute, and a "someone" trying to believes he is being pursued by a strange man. His blackmail him. During Arno's investigations, he teams up confrontation with him in an abandoned theater results in with another reporter Carlo Giodarni (Jamea Franciscus, Roberto accidental stabbing him, all of which is witnessed the star of MAROONED(! 969)), and together they follow by an unidentified onlooker who takes photographs of the he trail of evidence that points towards the daughter of the incident. He then discovers the photos in his apartment institute's chief Anna Terzi (Catherine Spaak) as the After his maid is murdered, he sends his Wife (Mimsy murderer. The solution to the mystery comes out of the Farmer) to the country fearing that the mystery figure blue. The murder is Dr. Casoni (Aldo Reggiani) who is could attempt to kill her. Along with a bizarre character trying to suppress the fact that he has an extra "Y''

called Godfrey (referred to as God and played by chromosome • a potential indicator of a psychotic spaghetti western star Bud Spencer), he hires a detective personality - who during a roof top struggle, falls to his (Jean-Pien-e Marielle) to help find the murderer. The death down a lift shaft.

detective solves the case but is himself murder upon CAT O'NINE TAILS is both the weakest and most
proving it. When Roberto sleeps with his wife's cousin experimental of Argento's early worx, laying a lot of the (Francine Racitte), she is murdered The solution is both groundwork that would lead to his later mssterpieces.

outlandish and especially cruel. Roberto's wife is the While borrowing several stylistic ideas from other films, murder. She reveals that she was mistreated as a child by most memorably from Orson Welle's TOUCH OF
her father, and· she married Roberto because of his EVIL(! 958), it hes also had an influence on several resemblance to her father so she could achieve a kind of subsequent movie like the prowling murder point of view revenge-by-proxy on him. Roberto is saved from death by shots that turned up in John Carpenter's use of the God (an Argento pun) after which his wife flees, crashing Panaglide camera in his much superior slasher classic her car which explodes.

HALLOWEEN(l 978), and the eye close up motif that The main problem with FOUR FLIES ON GREY
played a crucial role in the sci-fi masterpiece BLADE

VELVET is logic. Even by Argento's standards the plot is RUNNER(! 982). In the context of his career as a whole, extremely contrived, requiring several narrative jumps to CK! O'NINE TAILS is important It has been described forward the story. This has a lot to do with the fact that in as a sequel to THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL

Argento and Cozzi's original script, Brandon's character PLUMAGE, but doesn't bear any real similarity to the was the murderer observed in the act who kills off several film except for the animal reference in the title; This led suspects before realizing that it was his loyal wife who to his first three films being called the "Animal Trilogy".

was the witness. Its stylishly made • the slow motion As a one off thriller, it is very ordinary.

bullet shot being the best remembered detail • but CK! O'NINE TAILS was submitted to the BBFC in emotionally neutral. The only murder to register is that of the early70's who passes the film with a "M" certificate, the sweet Francine Racitte's, and the astonishingly cruel but this version was seemingly shortened by about 8
solution demanded more exploration. Its not boring, just minutes. It was released for rental by Warner Home unremarkable. The FOUR FLIES of the title are not seen Video in the late 80's, and was finally issued on sell thru •
on any GREY VELVET as the title suggests, though there again by Warner's on their Terror Vision label, uncut with is one fly in a pendant Mimsy Farmer wears.

an "18" certificate. It is as good a version of the film as FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET was released in
you can get. It is also worth noting that the American America in the 70'1 with a 'PG' rating from the MPM
cassette of the film is misaing just over 20 minutes of reflecting its tameneBS.

footage, and that the Canadian version, although complete, Outside of occasional showings at repertory theaters accidentally gives away the killers identity on the sleeve.

like the Scala, FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET has The definitive version of CAT 0' NINE TAIUJ was never been properly released in the U.K. It has never been released on laserdisc in Japan by Columbia in an uncut, legitimately issued on video here or in America. There is letterboxed version which i1 no longer available. Terror a video version that can be found from certain outlets on Vision's only misstep was to release a pan & scan version the continent that is probably not official. It has been that severely damage a the fi !ms 'scope (2. 3 S : 1) taken from a 16 mm venion, it is letterboxed at 2.35:1
camerawort. when a letterboxed master is available. After and is of appalling quality, this being the fault of the worn all, that's what collector wanl
print used Then again, it is the only way to eee the film that we know of.

DANIEL

DANIEL

LISA AND 1HE DEVIL(1972)

Aft.er the financial success of BARON BLOOD (this legal problems, Bava's final film was SHOCK(l 977), but should have been included in this issue, but will now most of it was actually directed by Lamberto Bava In an appear next. issue • Ed.), producer Alfred Leone gave Bava attempt to give his son a start in the film industry as
carte blanche for his next project It was a decision he Ricardo Freda had done for him two decades earlier, his was to regret.

career went full circle. Mario Bava didn't direct another USA AND TiiE DEVIL begins with an American
film for the cinema after this, restricting himself to tourist, Lisa Reiner (Elke Sommer) touring a Spanish technical work. He died of a heart attack in 1980, town The guide points out a mural depicting the Devil USA AND nm DEVIL premiered at the Cannes film carrying away the dead When she becomes separated festival in 1973 at 98 minutes as BilVa intended to good from the rest of the group, she runs into a man (Telly word of mouth. lt was this veraion that was released in Savalas) holding a mannequin that at times looks like a Spain as TilE DEVIL AND TilE DEAD. As Alfred Leone real corpse. The man bears a similarity to the devil in the was unable to sell the film to any other country in the mural. Lisa is taken to a Villa owned by Maximillian world, he tried to recoup his costs by re-cutting the film (Alessio Orano) which seems to be derived from several and re-releasing it as THE HOUSE OF
different time periods and filled with mannequins that also EXORCISM(l 975) in an attempt to cash in on the success appear· at times -to be alive. She soon realizes that she is of William Friedkin's TilE EXORCIST(l 973) which was the double of the Maximillian's unfaithful dead lover a huge box office hit This new version deleted (Elina) whose corpse he keeps locked in a room over run approximately 20 minutes of footage from Bava's cut, and by vegetation. After several deaths, Lisa escapes the villa, adds about I 5 minutes of newly shot footage. Most of the which it seems has apparently been abandoned for a new footage involved a priest called Father Michael hundred years, to the airport and boards a plane only to (Robert Alda) performing an exorcism on Elke Sommer find that the plane is piloted by the Devil (Savalas).

in flaky make up while she swears, vomits toads and LISA AND TilE DEVIL is Mario Bava's masterpiece, causes objects to fly around the room All the action the script by Bava, Roberto Natale and Giorgio Manlini no takes place in the one room and ends with the priest being more than an excuse to string together a dazzling array of lcilled by a bolt of lightning. Some of the footage was lyrical set pieces • beautifully photographed Cecilio •
actually filmed by Bava himself, but Leone shot the Paniagua • that is closest Bava has come to pure style over footage that Bava considered blasphemous (Bava's content, The overall effect is a hauntingly poetic film direction is credited to Mickey Lion, the atory to Alfred about decay, death and necrophilia, the later theme Leone and Alberto Cittini and the exorciam make up exemplified by the scene in which Maitimillian makes effects to Franco Tocci).

love to a fainted LiH on the bed next to his lovers corpse, TilE HOUSE OF EXORCISM wae released on video

The film has blackly humorous touches such as Savalaa as in the early 80'1 uncut by VTC (Video Tape Company), the lollipop sucking butler breaking the legs of corpses so and is an insult to Bava's masterpiece, but all W&S not lost they will fit smaller coffins, and moments of sU1Tealism In 1990 the original cut of USA AND TilE DEVIL was as when Lisa, seemingly hypnotized by figure rotating on a screened on British television (this VCl'llion is still wind up merry-go-round, has a flashback of Elina meeting missing the aftermath of Sylva Koscina's death which is her lover only to wake up and find that the figures have included in THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM) and was turned into skeletons. That the plot makes little sense, 11\Jbsequently released on video by Redemption in the U.K..

and the ending is seemingly incomprehensible ultimately This version is letterboxed at 1.66: l and was passed uncut doesn't matter.

by the BBFC with an '18' certificate.

It was to prove impossible to follow. His next The same version was also released on laserdisc by project CANIARRABBIATI(l 974) was impounded for 20

Elite Entertainment in America on a letterboxed double years after the money ran out during post-production, A bill with the director's cut of BARON BLOOD and then violent, real time crime drama, the film was completed by on video by Anchor Bay using the same transfer. Apart co-star Lea Lander l 5 years later and received its world from the supplementary extras that the disc comes with •
premiere in 1996 under the title SEMAFORO ROSSO
examples of some of the stronger moments of eroticism when his son Lamberto Bava went back and sorted out the that Leone insisted be shot for overseas markets • the disc has the same picture quality as Redemption's version which boasts excellent picture quality. We would recommend Redemption's versipn as its the easiest to get hold of, if you live in the U.K.

DANIEL

DEEP RED(1975)

FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET was considered to

Hemmings and the killer are also memorable. The be another failure, as waa his next film LA CINQUE
killings in DEEP RED employs an elaborate rhyming GIORNATE(1973) (FIVE DAYS IN MILAN), an
system, prefiguring each death. For example, Hemmings historical comedy about Milan's 1848 revolt. Thankfully likens playing the piano to symbolically knocking his Argento put it behind him, reworking some of the plot fathers teeth out prefigures Calcabtini's death.

elements of FOUR FLIES ·ON Gfil!:Y VELVET into his DEEP RED was never released theatrically in the best straight thriller to date, and a Giallo masterpiece.

U.K. It was released in America, but that version was David Hemmings plays a musician who, while talking miasing over 20 minutes of footage, leaving it with his drunk friend Carlo, witnesees the murder of a incomprehensible. It was released on video by Fletcher in medium (Macha Meril) when her head is pushed through a the early 80' s, but this version was shorn of many window. After running up to the apartment to try and help, character scenes, probably so it would fit on a shorter he see a figure running away down the street On retracing tape.

his footsteps, he notices that one of the paintings hanging The killings in DEEP RED, including the bloody in the hallway is missing! As he begins to investigate the death of the medium as she is repeatedly hit with the murder, he teams up with a journalist (Daria Nicolodi), cleaver, ,the scene where Amanda has her face scalded in and their investigations lead them to en old abandoned boiling water, Calcabrini having his teeth knocked out in house with bizarre children's drawings hidden under the an excruciating scene, Carlo having his head squashed by wall paper, and a sealed up room that contains the corpse the oncoming car and Calamai's gruesome decapitation of a man. It turns out that the pictures were drawn by are very graphic, making it somewhat auprising that they Carlo when he was a child after witnessing his mother's all remain intact in Redemption's current sell thru release.

murder of his father which we saw this during the opening When the film was submitted, the BBFC made just 2 cuts credits, and it is his mother that has been committing the totaling 11 seconds before they issued an "18" certificate.

murders (The picture Hemmings saw in the hallway waa in These are: I cut (4 secs) of two dogs fighting

£act the face of the killer reflected in the mirror). After (approximately 70 mins in) and 1 cut (7 secs) deleting a Carlo stsbs Nicolodi in an attempt to cover up for his pan down to a squirming lizard impaled on a long needle mother (Clara Calamia), he is killed in a road accident.

after the little girl is slapped in the face by her father just On confronting her, Hemmings is attacked with a meat before Hemmings enters the old house. The first cut is cleaver and is only saved when her necklace is caught by not noticeable but the second is particularly damaging. In an ascending elevator, decapitating her.

addition to rendering the slap to her face gratuitous and The narTative written by Argento and Bernardino incomprehensible, the shot of the impaled lizard Zapponi is the soundest of all his films. Argento doesn't represents both a sense that her innocence has been cheat with the glimpsed face. On reviewing the scene, the corrupted, and of an aura of unease that seems to emanate face is present just after the opening murder, the killer from the house. The shots are included in virtually all literally hiding in plain sight There are several stunning other versions.

set pieces: The death of the medium • her face silently Redemption's subtitled tape is unfortunately in pan & screaming in the window as Hemmings looks up just in scan, scrverely hampering Luigi Kuveiller's breathtaking time to see her face propelled through it due to the force 2.35: 1 techniscope framing, but it is still the only of the hatchet blow • is shocking despite the fact we know complete Italian version in English. The Italian language what's happenirJs The scene where Calcabrini is attacked version is letterboxed, as is th� Dutch release, but this by first a child size mannequin, and then by the killer who version is missing severs! character scenes. Neither smashes his teeth out on the edge of the mantelpiece version is ideal, but Redemption plan to release a before pinning him to the table with a knife through the letterboxed, English language edition of DEEP RED at neck is surreally frightening. Hemmings' discovery of the some time in the future that will • cuts aside • be walled up corpse and the final confrontation between definitive. In the meantime, take your pick between Redemption's version and the Dutch version. They both have their particular strengths.

DANIEL

SUSPIRIA(1976)

After his run of Giallo thrillers, SUSPIRIA marked a by an unseen Witch.

distinct change of pace for Argento, and a move into the Heading the cast, Jessica Harper, the star of Brian de world of the supernatural horror picture that would Palma'• PHANTOM OF TI!E PARADISE(] 974) and here
cement his claim to being Italy's king of horror.

added another impressive genre credit to her c.v. looks Suzy Banyon (Jessica Harper) is an American ballet
convincingly overwhelmed by events, as do Kier and student who has come to Germany to study at the American actress Joan Bennett as the head of the Academy of Frieberg ballet school. On the night she academy.

arrives, a girl runs from the building in terror and is later SUSPIRIA was submitted to the BBFC in 1977 who
murdered along with her room mate. As the story made only 2 cuts totaling J 5 seconds before passing the progresses, increasingly sinister event begin to occur.

film with an 'X' certificate. These were: l cut (13 secs) Maggots rain from the ceiling, a man is killed by his own during the scene were the dog attacks its blind owner, guide dog after being menaced by a stone gargoyle, and close ups of the dog tearing chunks of flesh from his another of the girls is murdered, When a psychiatrist throat have been removed. I cut (2 secs) in the scene (Udo Kier') tells Banyan that the Academy was run by an where the woman crawls into the room full of wire, the infamous Black Witch called Elana Markos in the graphic shot of her having her throat cut has been fifteenth century, she sets about trying to find out more.

removed This ver•ion was released theatrically by EMI at This sets in motion one of the genre's greatest scenes of the ABC Shaftsburry Avenue, the only cinema in London sustained horror as Banyan confronts the Witch and kills at the time that could accommodate its 4 track magnetic her, thus bringing about the destruction of the academy.

sound system. Very prestigious for an Italian horror Many critics have commented on the fact that the
picture.

script by Argento and his then wife Daria Nicolodi is When the film was released on video by Thom EMI
nothing more than a collection of elaborate set pieces in the early 80' s, the theatrical cuts were restored, but it with little narrative to tie the together. Its true that much was a pan & scan transfer and its stereo soundtrack was of the films strength comes from its visual design.

preser,ted in mono. Though it was never a target of the Guiseppe Basson's sets dressed with heayY velvet drapes, video nasties campaign, Thom EMI withdrew it from and Luciano Tovoli's amazing techniscope photography shops and replaced it with the cut version. It was using out-outmoded Kodak film stock to give the reds, eventually reissued for rental by Entertainment in Video, blues and greens a garish luminous look that dominate the but the BBFC made 2 further cuts totaling 34 seconds picture, But the single greatest element of the film is the before issuing an '18' certificate. These were: 1 cut (18
pounding rock soundtrack by Goblin which is heard secs) Deleting several stabs to the chest and the blow to throughout almost the entire film. Recorded in 4-track the exposed beating heart during the opening murder, I stereo before even a foot of film had been shot, its aural cut (16 sec•) Removing shots of the dog biting the blind effect is crucial to SUSPIRIA's impact.

mans throat, including the shot of him spitting up blood in The set pieces themselves have passed in to legend.

close up. This version was subsequently released on sell The opening double murder is one of the most famous thru by 4-Front.

death scenes in horror film history. Babyon's arrival at Both the rental and the sell thru versions are pan & the airport and subsequent cab ride to the academy has a scan losing significant information from both peripheries strange ominou• quality. The afore mentioned scene in and varying amounts from the top and bottom, destroying which a blind man is menaced by Borne unseen force on a Luciano Tovoli carnerawork.

vast open pla2a before he is attacked by his guide dog.

The Dutch version of the film is uncut, though a small Art-Nouveau wall paintings give way to reveal secret bit of footage is missing due to damage to the master passages and a dead girl with pins in her eyes is animated copy from which it was taken, but is again a pan & scan version, making Magnum Entertainment's unrated

American cassette - which is letterboxed at 2.35 '. I • the best version of the film yet released, surpassed only by Image Entertainment's laserdisc release which is now deleted. Our advice is avoid the TJ.K. release at all costs and seek out the American tape which should st_ill be available.

DANIEL

have affected traffic on the Brooklyn bridge seen in the final shot of the film,

These flaws are forgiven for the most part as the film does have several notable assets. ZOMBIE FLESH

EATERS has the best eerily cheesy theme music ever thanks to Fabio Frizzi and Giorgio Tucci, and a big reason for its enduring appeal among fans. Sergio Salvati's cinemascope frame is filled with scary details, and the film is very pacy. It also makes an attempt at a social subtext The zombies are mainly black at firet but later their historical oppressors • the Spanish conquistadors -
also rise from the dead. But perhaps most of all, its Gianetto de Rossi's horribly realistic gore effects that contributed to the films fame, and one of the main reasons for its notoriety during the video nasties debate.

ZOMBIE FLESH-EATERS was submitted to the

BBFC in 1979 who made 14 cuts totaling 1 minute 41
seconds before passing the film with an 'X' certificate.

(these 3 cuts are in quick succession). 2 cuts (9 secs) these were: 2 cuts (7 secs) deleting shots of the deleting shots of Aurette Gay biting her boyfriend on arm policeman's bitten throat and a shot of blood spurting plus a shot of her chewing the flesh. The cut version is from the wourid (this shot was included in the trailer). 1
also missing the prologue (26 secs) in which Menard cut (15 secs) Removing the shot of Menard's wife having shoots a zombie in the head as it begins to get up. The her eye pierced by a splinter of wood (see picture). 1 cut same scene is repeat later in the film using different takes (34 secs) deleting almc,st all shots of Menard's wife and wasn't cut, so its loss was probably down to the being eaten by zombies (see picture). 1 cut (1 O secs) distributor.

deleting all shots of blood gushing from Aurette Gay's This censored version was released on video in the
throat when she is bitten by a zombie (see picture). 1 cut early 80'• by VIPCO. They then issued it in • "strong (2 secs) during the zombie attack on the church, a zombie uncut version• which sold for £ 10 more than the cut coming through the window having the top of its head version. It became their best seller and was partly sliced off has been removed. 1 cut (9 secs) Menard being responsible for the video nasties panic of which ZOMBIE
bitten on the face has been removed. I cut (8 secs) FLESH-EATERS was one of the principle targets. It was deleting the shot of a zombie biting one of the church declared obscene and banned It remained banned until the peoples arms. 1 cut (3 secs) removing the zombie that's early 90's when VIPCO reissued it on sell thru in a 1.65: 1
on fire having its head blown off (this shot was also letterboxed print of the cinema version that was passed included in the trailer). I cut (14 frames) removing a shot uncut by the BBFC with an '18' certificate. VIPCO issued of a zombie's mashed face after being hit. 1 cut (1 sec) the same cut version in a fully letterboxed (2.35: 1) removing shot of a zombie being slashed in face. 1 cut (2
version.

secs) removing a shot of a zombie being bashed in face In trying to minimize the damage the censors might
do to the film, VIPCO got it wrong. They should have submitted the uncut, letterboxed version to the BBFC for certification as some of the deletions made in 1979 were ridiculously petty. The cuts - made simply on grounds of disgust • result in scenes missing their logical climax, or the action being messily interrupted They are more infuriating than damaging, described accurately by horror journalist Mark Kerrnode as " ... not unlike listening to a comedian's routine from which punch-lines have been studiously removed", and they dull the film's overall visceral impact. The loss of the eye piercing effect which uses clever cross cutting to achieve verisimilitude is especially regrettable, eye piercing being a favorite target of the BBFC (check out Linda Ruth Williams' excellent article in Sight & Sound: April 1994 for more on the subject).

Avoid VIPCO's U.K. release at all costs and buy !:he their Danish version which is fully letterboxed and uncut A letterboxed, uncut laserdisc has been announced by The Roan Group in America and is due out in the new year.

Produced by William Lustig, it will also feature audio commentary by Ian McCullough. Pick your format of choice and enjoy.

DANIEL

INFERNO(1980)

In the years since the success of SUSPIRIA, Argento was stricken with writers block. It was four years till Argento made his next picture, designed as the second part of a proposed sequence to be known as 'The Ill!"ee Mother' trilogy.

The film opens in Ne\\' York with a young poetess (Irene Miracle) reading a book that tetl of how the world is secretly controlled by 'The niree Mothers', witches that live in Freibourg Germany, New York and Rome in houses designed by the author of the book, an alchemist and architect. She discovers that the building in which she live is one of those houses. While investigating the basement, she loses her keys in a water fitled room into which she dive in an attempt to retrieve them. Within the room is a painting of The Mother Of Darkness, She is then confronted with a decomposing corpse.

Meanwhile in Rome, her brother Mark (Leigh frame from an Argento film and you would have a Mccloskey) is studying music, unaware that the third masterpiece. That statement is true of INFERNO

Mother, The Mother Of Tears, is in the same class. When Argento's fluid camera movements caress seemingly his sister disappears, Marl< goes to New York to insignificant details like the objects in the opening shots investigate.

The trail eventuatly leads him to a
or a trickle of willer flowing down the wait. Every shot is confrontation with The Mother Of Darkness herself, and elegantly framed and strikingly tit by cameraman Romano the destruction of the house.

Albani In bright reds, blues end green1, a colour •r.hcme The above synopsis may appear all over the place, but held over from SUSPIRIA but used here with more that is what the film is like. There is no coherent subtlety and scored to a slightly more restrained score by namitive. Argento's script - inspired by a comment in De Keith Emerson. This is Argento's masterpiece.

Quincey's "The Confessions Of M Opium Eater" - is just INFERNO was rubmitted to the BBFC in 1980. To
a device with which to link together 1 collection of the best of my knowledge, it was passed uncut with an 'X'

stunningly executed set pieces; Miracles swim through certificate (when I saw it at the Scala in London, it looked the submerged room - actually filmed by Mario Bava who uncut and even contained the shot of the cat eating the live did special 11ffects work on the filrn • has a bcautifutly mouse), It was then released on video shortly afterwards dreamlike absurdity. A man is attacked by hordes of rats by CBS/FOX in the same version, though it was psn & during an eclipse while he attempts to drown some cats, sc-1111 and lhe soundtrack was in mono. During the video only to have is potential rescuer - a hot dog vender - kill nasties panic, INFERNO was singled out ridiculously for him with a meat cleaver in a shockingly unexpected twist.

potential prosecution and was withdrawn from release. It A scene in which Eleonora Giorgi is stalked by the remained banned for almost a decade until FOX video hooded figure of an alchemist in the basement of a Rome resubmitted it for a video certificate in 1993. The BBFC
library is memorably tense. In particularly, Mm-k's made 1 cut (6 seconds) deleting the aforementioned shot diacovery of the passage ways that honeycomb the of the cat eating the mouse (,,ome sources state that 28
building and lead to a secret baietnent serves as the film's seconds were· cut, but this looked to me to be the only central metaphor for evil that literally permeoles the difference) before granting an '18' certificate, The print normal world in which people live. Even a mundane taxi is a gorgeously pristine transfer letterboxed at 1.60: 1 with ride is made extraordinary.

beautiful, sharp colours, and is presented in stereo. The Critic Alan Jones has stated that you could take sny cut is only annoying when you consider that similar scenes are regularly atlowed in David Attenborough's BBC Tl/. series' which are ironically exempt from classification, In all honesty, the effect is negligible. The American edition released by Key Video is uncut, but we believe FOX' s version has the edge over it. It is also available in the U.K. on laserdisc from Encore F.ntertainment.

DANIEL

note on this scene; One of the first rental versions of

"buried alive" sequences do not a good movie make.

CITY OF THE LlVING DEAD released by either Elephant All of which is a shame becauae Fulci has proved in Video Network Video did apparently retain the scene were ZOMBm FLESH-EATERS snd THE BEYOND that he csn
she foams at the mouth before vomiting and most of make genuinely chilling films, whilst CITY OF THE

Michele Soavi's reaction shots to the gut vomiting which LIVING DEAD presents itself 1!11 the perfect argument the resulted in multiple jump-cuts. It was juat as confusing,

''Fulci can only do gore" brigade.

The two other cuts both involve the more explicit

The definitive version of CITY OF THE LIVJNG
elements of brain squeezing The first of IO •econds DEAD was issued on Japsnese laserdisc by Mount-Light, occurs when Sandra falls victim to the female zombie, and uncut and letterboxed (2. 3 5; I) in a set that included both the final cut is reserved for Christopher George's demise the English and Italisn lsngtiage versions The Dutch where 9 seconds of the now zombified Sandra tearing out version on the EVC label is uncut, snd the NTSC format his grey matter has been removed.

American version released under the title THE GATES OF

The logic behind the cuts seems to be based around

HELL on the Creature Features/ E.I. label is uncut and the notion that as there is no specific reason for the letterboxed Avoid the U.K. version at all costs and track violence (apart from showing us that zombies are nasty down the American version as it will show the head drill buggers) then there is a danger in letting people witness it effect properly.

What the BBFC seem to be unable to grasp is that the real ALEX
horror of violence is its very ser,selessness. And that refusing to acknowledge this, they are also refusing to face the problem and solve it I digress.

About the film, Fulci has said ''There are few horror scenes in (CITY OF THE LIVlNG DEAD] ... tension is the important thing ... "

Unfortunately, despite some
splendidly moody night photography courtesy of regular carnerarnsn Sergio Salvati snd an eerie score, there is little to create tension in the film The characters are all merely ciphers, and the disjointed structure of the piece destroys any involvement the viewer might have in the action. Instead one is left simply reaching for the remote control to fast forward to Fulci's trademark gore scenes.

If you have the U.K. version then you are denied even these, and effective as they are, the "maggot rain" and

TI-IE BEYOND(1981)

If ZOMBIB FLESH-EATERS was an unrestrained
attempt to gross out its audience and CITY OF THE

LIVING DEAD was flawed experimentation with
atmosphere, THE BEYOND was Lucio Fulci's attempt to find a balance between the two, and move his zombie sequence to a fresh creative level.

The film begins in 192f''s Louisiana with a sepia tinted prologue in which & diabolist painter is whipped with chains, nailed to a wall and then has acid thrown on him, all the while claiming that the hotel in which he lives is situated on one of the seven gateways to Hell. Flash forward to the present day, and the hotel is inherited by a young woman (Katherine Maccoll). As she begins to renovate it, strange things occur and people start to die in various gruesome ways including eye gouging • two of them - and a spider attack! She discovers with help of John (David Warbeck) that the hotel is linked by a short HORIZON(l 997) went wrong in their attempts.

staircase to the hospital several miles away where the THE BEYOND was submitted to the BBFC in 1981
dead are returning to life. After attempting to drive back which made 9 cuts totaling l minute 39 seconds before the hoards of the undead, they escape through the cellar of passing the film with an 'X' certificate. These were: 1
the hotel only to end up t.apped in Hell itself, a vision cut (18 secs) removing three graphic chain whipping• to reflected in the diabolist' s oil paintings the we saw at the the shoulder, chest and leg of the diaboliot painter in the start of the picture.

films prologue. 1 cut (6 secs) removing the shot of the THE BEYOND is now recognized by genre handyman working in the cellar having his eye gouged out enthusiasts to be Lucio Fulci's masterpiece. The story is 4 cuts (43 secs) during the spider attack on the librarian, admittedly stoleh from Michael Winner's THE
shots of them biting his lip and nose, pulling his eye out SENTINEL(l 97 6) which is in its own strange way a and biting his tongue have been deleted. l cut (5 secs) nastier and more repulaive film, using real deformed when the cleaning lady has her head pushed on to the peg people to represent. evil. Though THE BEYOND does in the wall, the shot of it exiting her eye socket with the contain its share of gruesome effects by Germano Natali eye resting on it has been removed. 1 cut (26 secs) and Fulci regular Gianetto de Rossi, its the quieter removing sh9ts of the dog tearing out the blind girls throat moment• that make it so memorable. Eerie scenes such out, shots of blood gushing from the wound and shots of as when Maccoll comes across a blind girl with her dog her having her ear bitten off. 1 cut (I sec) removing a walking on the long causeway she is driving across, or the shot of the little girl with part of her head blown away.

house that appears abandoned during the daytime but is When it was released on video in the early 80's by

. inhabited by the blind girl at night. The pace is languid, Vampix, it was in this version. Unlike CITY OF nm but the film achieves a kind of Lovercraftian poet.y, LIVING DEAD, nm BEYOND was a target during the
thanks largely to Sergio Selvati's splendidly atmospheric video nasties campaign, but in the end no action was taken cinemascope photograph. Above all, nm BEYOND's
against it. When VIPCO resubmitted the cinema version most memorably coup is its brilliant depiction of Hell.

for a sell-thru release in the early 90's, it was passed Its a very low key scene using just e grey set with bodies without further cuts. Its letterboxed et l .45: 1.

(actually played by down-and-outs that the crew rounded It is a measure of the films strength that it survives up and got drunk so they wouldn't move) lying on the the cuts and is still recognizably a clusic. The cuts are ground. The effect is haunting, and ohows exactly where poorly made with very noticeable delayed sound jumps HELLBOUND: HELLRAISERII(1988) and EVENT

(the sound from the previous scene continues into the next for about a second before abruptly stopping). The cuts were again made on grounds of disgust. The eyeball violations were cut as standard.

TIIE BEYOND was released on Japanese laserdisc uncut and letterboxed at 2. l S: \. '.The uncut version of the film was releues in Holland on the Video For Pleasure label (a beautiful print, letterboxed at 1,60:1) and by

VIPCO (pan & seen) in Denmark. There are also two laserdisc versions of the film coming soon from Norway (NTSC format) and from The Roan Group in America (NTSC with commentary). Both discs will be letterboxed.

They are all superior to VIPCO's censored version.

DANIBL

1HE BLACK CAT(1980)

Filmed between ZOMBIE FLESH-EATERS and CITY

OF THE LIVING DEAD (or between CITY OF THE

LIVING DEAD and THE BEYOND, depending on which
source you consult), THE BLACK CAT is usually considered by Giallo fans to be one of Fulci's minor films. This is due largely to the fact that it lacks the visceral thrills that made his "Zombie Quartet" so memorable. It could almost be considered his "calming down film",

A small unnamed English village is besieged by a
series of unexplained deaths, When Jill (Mimsy Farmer), an American photographer, discovers a microphone in a crypt while taking pictures of ancient ruins, she reports it to the local police but is advised not to pursue it Meanwhile, Scotland Yard di
decomposing bodies in the cellar while Peterson's tape spatch an Inspector (David

Warbeck) to investigate the killings. Jill traces the recording plays_ Shots of bodies in the cellar including microphone back to a recluse, Professor Robert Miles the disemboweled man on the table have been cut. And (Patrick Magee), a medium who is attempting to record Norman having his throat tom out by Fraudstein has been the sounds of the dead, and who is tormented by a black removed.

cat which he claims he is bound to by hatred The cat is When VIPCO released the film on sell thru a few
actually the instrument of murder which Professor Miles years ago, they apparently removed 7 min• 27 secs before unconsciously controls and uses to kill people, including they submitted it to the BBFC. The Elephant Video two teenagers in a boathouse and a drunk who witnessed version was an atrocity, containing many messy jump cuts him in the graveyard When the cat kills Lillian, the (to avoid showing cuv, gore) that totally destt·oy the mother of one of the murdered teenagers and Miles'

rhythm of the film and terminally blunt its expertly former lover, he kills it, but it appears to cheat death and sustained tension. We haven't been able to track down the continue to terrorize Jill and the Professor, and nearly VIPCO print so we asume that the cuts were lengthened to kills Warbeck.

tidy up the editing. The overall effect is the same and the Despite the title, the film owes very little to Edgar badly worn print doesn't help either, Never buy this Allan Poe's short story. Indeed it is only the finale where version.

Jill is walled up while unconscious that is recognizably THE HOUSE BY THE CEME"IERY was released on Poe. The Technovision (2.35:1) photography, again by laserdisc in Japan several yeara ago letterboxed at 2,20: I, Sergio Salvati is not quite up to the standards that he set in and despite the fact that the final sepia tone sequence (as Fulci's zombie films, but lltill impressive. This time out, with THE BEYOND disc) was presented in normal colour, the script by Biagio Proietti and Fulci is less interested in

. this version was the best way to see the film. The best atmosphere and gory violence, instead focusing on the version cun·ently a�ailable is VIPCO's Danish version. Its more psychological aspects of the story, mainly the an uncut pan & scan version, and its a decent print, Its contrast between the two main protagonists, the young available from Chainsaw Video in Holland and several American tourist and the old reclusive professor, Its also other outlets. It may also be released sometime in the interesting that where as his zombie films were futU1·e by The Roan Group if the other Fulci releases go uncompromising bleak, THE BLACK CAT tends to cop
well. Keep your eyes peeled!

out on some plot elements; Warbeck survives the DANIEL
seemingly terminal attempt on his life and Jill's fate is also unclear.

THE BLACK CAT was submitted to the BBFC in the
early 80's and was passed uncut with an 'X' certificate.

This version was then issued on video by VTC in a pan & scan version.

It was released uncut practically
everywhere. All these versions were rendered obsolete when Redemption issue9 the film on sell-thru in a 2.1: 1
letterboxed version that boasts excellent picture quality, and was passed uncut by the BBFC with an '18' certificate_

The tape also includes the letterboxed theatrical trailer which includes a more generous view of the female teenager's nude, decomposing body. Look no further than this version.

DANIEL

TENEBRAE's narrative is complex 1111d does add up, but as with Mario Bava before him, Argento is willing to sacrifice the plots logic in favor visual style.

On the other h1111d, story is all in THE NEW YORK

RIPPER Scripted by FUlci, Gi1111fi-1111co Clerici, Dardano Sacchetti 1111d Vincenzo Mannino, it offers a watertight story where everything does eventually add up.

Stylistically, TENEBRAE - beautifully photographed
in 1.66:1 widescreen by Luciani Tovoli using Kodak 300

AfJA to give crystal clear definition - sees Argento at the peak of his powers as a filmmaker, employing every directorial flourish at his command. This is particularly evident in the famed lourma crane shot as the camera prowls over the roof 1111d down the wall of a building just On the whole, critics bought Argento's self analyses, before one of the murders.

but loathed FUlci's conventional approach to

Starkly contrasting this, THE NEW YORK RIPPER -
extraordinarily unconventional material (I1iE NEW
photographed in 2.35:l cinemascope by Luigi Kuveiller -

YORK RIPPER received only one positive review, written is filmed in a neutral, TV. movie style. Apart from by Alan Jones in Starburst #53). Between the two of occasionally strong pieces of location work, it is almost them, FUlci and Argento took the slasher film to the limit, as blank as a documentary. This muat have been a both in terms of violence 1111d visual style. After this, the conscious decision on FUlci's psrt considering his genre had nowhere to go, eventually petering out and previous work with former cameraman Sergio Salvati, but finally being reinvented by Wes Craven in A the compositions do tend to look ugly, This is amazing NIGHI'MARE ON ELM STREET(! 984) with supernatural
when you realize that Kuveiller was responsible to for the elements (Ironically, Craven is also responsible for its stunning camerawork on DEEP RED.

revival in the nineties with SCREAM(l 996)). It was The music in TENEBRAE by ex Goblin members,
somehow fitting that a genre that started in Italy a decade Simoetti, Pignatelle & Morante is specifically designed earlier should end in Italy.

to give a hi-tech feel the action which it complements Their treatment at the hands of the BBFC could not by perfectly, Francesco De Masi'e score for THE NEW
more different either. When TENEBRAE was submitted YORK RIPPER is like some 'Starsky And Hutch' reject, to them in 1982, they made only l cut (3 secs) to the arm though some of the electronic incidental music is better.

chopping scene removing the shot of her holding the The depiction of violence in TENEBRAE has an
stump as blood sprays between her fingers, before they undeniably aesthetic quality. Brief, shocking scenes in issued an '18' certificate. It was this version which was which people are either slashed with razors or axed to then released on video by Videomedia, letterboxed at death, followed by elegant spurts of blood carry i
approximately 1.60 : 1. It was later singled out as a video cumulative effect which is electrifying.

nasty and was banned. It has never been reinued, though THE NEW YORK RIPPER depicts its carnage in

Redemption have displayed an interest in releasing it But blankly recorded ecenes of prolonged mutilation in which this is unlikely due to the cost of the print and the severe pretty girls are repeatedly slashed in graphic detail, cut.I that would very probably be inflicted on it
violated with broken bottles or have certain body parts When THE NEW YORK RIPPER was submitted to

(nipples 1111d eyee) razored in close up, killings that the BBFC, it suffered the indignity of being refused a became increasingly sexual in nature.

certificate outright with no suggestion of cuts. Rumors It ie, however, the question of misog)ll1y • an even circulated that all prints of the film were given a accusation leveled at both directors - that fuels the most police escort out of the country! The leniency with which debate about these two films. Argento uses the plot in TENEBRAE was treated is SUll)riaing, but even Helen TENEBRAE, most explicitly in the scene where

Keller could understand the banning of THE NEW YORK

Franciasca defends his book during an attack be a female RIPPER
journalist, to explain his use of women as victim in his TENEBRAE was released on laserdisc in Japan a few
movies, and the connection between art/cinema violence years ago in an uncut, letterboxed version that was the best and real life, To complicate matters, he also falls back on way to see the film. The best version of the film currently the Hitchcockian device of the explanatory flashback.

available is the Australian cassette on the Palace label Fulci's killer targeta sexy women becauae they which is in p1111 & scan - though not significantly damaging represent exactly what his dying daughter will be denied.

• and is uncut with good picµJr� quality. This version is This also explains the sexual nature of the killings. It also available from certain European outlets as well, could be argued that Fulci's film does ultimately side step THE NEW YORK RIPPER is available uncut and the accusations of misog)ll1y by "explaining" his killers letterboxed from Sweden, Greece, Denmark and Belgium, motivations. FUlci also uses extreme- violence as a but the best version that we know of is the Italian Gore narrative short cut to create tension, threatening to let an Classic's release by Preifesaional Cine Media in Austria unspeakable act occur and then allowing it to happen. This Issued on both laserdisc ('NTSC format and now deleted) is especially evident when the policeman's prostitute 1111d video (PAL format) in a remastered, uncut version girlfriend is tortured, while he and the entire police force letterboxed at 2.00: 1, its and excellent way to see this stand by helplessly looking at the telephone which the much maligned film
killer tricked them into going to.

DANIEL

PHENOMENA(1985)

Critically slarraned on its initial release, It is only in the end scenes that we descend into truly PHENOMENA - retitled CREEPERS in the U.K. and familiar Argento territory. From the moment Connelly America - is fast turning into one of Argento' s most starts to crawl down the tunnel in her attempt to retrieve interesting and richly textured films, if not bec8Wle of its the telephone, the traditional feelings of claustrophobia overall effect than for the sheer number of themes and and entrapment return. No surprise then that it is this ideas that are packed into its running time.

scene that most of the films detractors held up as being The gorgeous Jennifer Connelly plays a young girl at the most effective, Unable to see beyond Argento'•
a school in Zurich, Switzerland whose pupils keep falling technical style, they were unable to appreciate the film prey to a deranged killer. Through her psychic link to that had gone before. In the finale, he presents what is insects, she discovers that the killer is the mutant son of probably his most revolting set piece ever Pushed by the schools headmistress, and with the help of here insect Daria Nicolodi into a cesspit full of maggots and decaying friends and a vengeful razor wielding chimpanzee, ahe corpses, her fate lies in the hands of a policeman chained dispatches them in a violent and bloody finale, But this to the wall who has to very painfully break his thumbs to being an Argento movie, there is far more to it than that..

help her.

The film marks a distinct change in style for Argento.

. But this is only the beginning, the precursor to her Gone is the claustrophobic feel of his earlier films such discovery of the real killer, the aheet of steel decapitation as SUSPIRlA and lNFERNO. Instead the action is set in scene and the face slashing death of Daria Nicolodi at the the vast open spaces of the very beautiful Swiss hands of the straight razor wielding chimpanzee. Despite countryside. Also gone is the quickfire editing that has what critics have said, Argento had lost none of his otyle, characterized so many of Argento's murder sequences, none of his skill and certainly none of hit nerve.

replaced by an almost leisurely pace. Its as if in the open PHENOMENA orig.inelly ran for 110 minutes, but
spaces, time has dilated and terror can take its time.

was cut down to 82 minutes for distribution in the U.K.

Traditional themes are still present however; The and U.S. When it was submitted to the BBFC in 1985, emergence of the person within and the revulsion felt they made 2 .cuts totaling 6 seconds before granting an toward procreation The former is especially noticeable

'18' certificate deleting the last shots of Nicolodi having in the similarity between Connelly character and that of her face and throat slashed with a razor. The subsequent Suzy Banyon in SUSPIRIA, both of who must believe in Palace Video release suffered I further cut of 2 seconds themselves before the evil can be vanquished. There is removing the last remaining shot of Nicolodi savaged also the theme of the "Normal" world being out of touch face.

with all primeval forces. Whilst everyone around her sees Objectively speaking, neither version was liked The the emergence of her new personality u a form of 110 minute version i, paced correctly but many thought it madness, only the crippled entomologist McGregor contained too many banal or ridiculous scenes, and while (Donald Pleasence) seems to understand.

the 82 minute version omitted many of these scenes, the There is also the conflict between the spiritual world fast pace is at odds with the languid mood of the picture.

and the world of the flesh. Indeed this conflict is at the The best version of PHENOMENA available was the
heart of the film with the spiritual Connelly being the limited edition Japanese laserdisc which offered an heroine of the piece, whilst the killer is a mutant of unmatted full screen version of the uncut Italian print in twisted flesh and evil intenl

English. The Il.alian cassette is the same but is dubbed.

Most critics failed to see beyond the teclmicalities The beat English language version that we know of was of the film, dismi11ing it merely as "distasteful" and released in Australia on the Palace label (no connection to

"absurd". While it does contain many wince worthy the now defunct British label that released the film in the elements (note some truly terrible dialogue e.g. "What if U.K. It is a nice quality full screen version that contains the saw me? rm really scared". "I would be too") it also all the footage cut in the U.K. and virtually all the contains some stunning set pieces for the viewers distributor cuts, though apparently there are still some delectation.

discrepancies with the Italian version. We still think that The scene where Connelly is sleepwalking along the at this time, it is still your best bel roof at the school only the be confronted by the killers latest victim is a moment of sublime terror. Mirroring ALEX
the first death of the film, the victims screaming head smashes through a window only to have a knife stabbed through her head and out of her mouth. But in the nightmarish confines of the film, the terror does not end there, and she then falls through a hole in the roof, held only by her nightgown The surreal aspect of such scenes is further heightened by the eclectic soundtrack, supplied as usual by The Goblins. What one is presented with is an al.tack on the senaes, but in a far lesa violent • though no leas visceral - style than usual for Argento.

STAGEFRIGHT(1986)

Michele Soavi was born in Milan on 7th March 19S7.

The opening shota of STAGEFRIGHT are brilliantly

After quitting his studies, he started acting lesaons at the deceptive. As a prostitute is murdered in a dark street, Fersen studios and decided that he wanted to get involved people gather round to view the boey. It looks as if we are in the film industry professionally, starting right at the watching some pathetic slasher garbage until a man in an bottom of the ladder. One of his first jobs was on owl mask jumps out of the darknen and the scene is BAMBULE(1979) in which he acted, produced and was revealed to be a dress rehearsal for a play. This is only the assistant director.

He acted in PICCOLE
first of several "fourth wall violations", a process whereby LABBRA(l 979), ALIEN TERROR(l 980) and in Fulci's the viewer's ability to differentiate between real and CITY OF THE LNING DEAD on which he was also a set unreal events on screen is broken down. During the on hand
stage murder of Corinne, the killer wearing the owl mask While he was assistant director on CALIGULA: THE
is egged on to stab her until the onlookers realize that UNTOLD STORY(l 982) in which he also acted, he what is happening is not part of the play. The gun found by formed a friendship with director Aristide Massaccesi Alicia could be real, or it could be a replica, dead bodies (better known as Joe D'Amato) which led to him working are stacked up on stage 1 ike props and during the drill on some of his later films such as ATOR: THE FIGHTING
murder, real blood mixes with fake blood.

EAGLE(l 982) as screenwriter, ENDGAME(l 983) as The build up to the killings is quite long, but this just assistant director and actor, and ANNO 2020(1983) as adds to their power as people are dispatched with a variety assistant director. He also assisted director Dario of implements Thi• power is actually deceptive. As with Argento on TENEBRAE (as second assiBtant) and Tobe

Hooper's

THE

TEXAS

CHAINSAW

PHENOMENA (as first assistant, but he also shot the MASSACRE(l 974) which Soavi has admitted was an video clip with Bill Wyman), and shot second unit on influence on STAGEFRIGHT, the actual on screen OPERA(l 987) and Lamberto Bava's DEMONS(l 985) in

,,iolence is lower than you think. For example, Wallace's which he also acted. In addition, he directed the chainsaw killing of the misguided actor who jumps documentary DARIO ARGENTO'S WORLD OF
through the hole in the floor to confront him is so HORROR(l 985). With this impressive list of credits, shocking because his dismemberment is glimpsed only Soavi wanted to debut as a director in his own right briefly as the beam of a torch flashes over his body while Argento somewhat surprisingly passed on producing, his screams are heard on the soundtrack. Hooper's film unwilling to take a risk, leaving the way clear for Soavi's also provides the inspiration for the scene in which the mentor Massaccesi to step in Soavi chose a script called

!tiller sits on stage amongst the dead bodies while a fan

'StageFright • Aquarius' that Masoaccesi commissioned blows feathers everywhere.

from actor Luigi Montefiore, better known as George Though he is reticent to admit it, STAGEFRIGHT

Eastman (the baby eating cannibal from Massaccesi's does contain references to the work of Dario Argento ANTROPOPHAGUS(l 980)) though he .is credited as Lew The idea of people trapped in an enclosed space was Cooper in STAGEFRIGHT. After a rough patch, Soavi's inspired by the scene in THE BIRD WlTI:I THE CR Y'STAL
film was the kick start that the Italian Giallo/ horror genre PLUMAGE where Tony Mustane is trapped bet.ween the needed
shop windows like fish in a tank, hence the films sub-title The film is set in a theater where a group of hopeful AQUARIUS. The persistent rain outside of the theater young actors are rehearsing for an avant-garde version of underlines the reference. Soavi himself sites John the Jack The Ripper story called 'The Night Owl', The Carpenter's HALLOWEEN(1978) (the idea of the
play' s arrogant director (David Brandon) believes that its unkillable killer, and the twist ending) as an influence, and sensational aspects • having the victim rape her wo\Jld be also THE CASSANDRA CROSSING(l 979), although we
attacker - will prove controversial enough to make the couldn't spot it
play a hit and establish his name. When the lead dancer, STAGE FRIGHT went straight to video on the Avatar

Alicia (Barbara Cupisti from THE NEW YORK RIPPER),
label in the U.K When it was submitted to the BBFC, sprains her ankle, she is taken to a local hospital by her they made I cut (4 secs) removing shots of the drill bit dresser, Betty (Ulrike Schwerk). On arriving there, they exiting the man's chest during the drill murder before discover that it is a psychiatric hospital, and unknown to granting an '18' certificate.

them, a multiple killer called Irving Wallace escapes and When Redemption submitted the complete version -
hides in the back of their car. On their arrival back at he letterboxed at 1.45: I with good picture quality - for their theater, Betty is pick-axed in the head by Wallace Instead recent sell thru release, it was ·passed uncut! Why this of halting the production, the ambitious director attempts happened is hard to understand as it goes against BBFC
to use the trageey to boost ticket sales. He persuades his policy, but it makes it the best version of this fantastic cast to carry on with the play by waving an advance under film ctDTently available.

their noses, and by getting one of the young actresses, Corinne (Lorendana Farella), to hid the key to the only DANIEL
exit, It seems like the perfect way to ensure commitment from his acto111 until Corinne is murdered, and the cast find themselves locked in with an insane !tiller intent on bumping the all off.

OPERA(1987)

After cramming PHENOMENA so full of ideu,
through the hole, killing her. The alow•motion shots of OPERA is seemingly a thematic step backwards. Indeed the bullet coming down the barrel of the gun, piercing her when questioned about this, Argento stated that eye and exiting the back of her head arc followed by

"PHENOMENA picks up where OPERA ends". Opera Betty's point of view 88 the bullet hits the phone and her ends with a director going off to Switzerland to make a friends body crumples to the (loor.

film about insects. It· seems 'thet it is not only in The killer is finally unmasked when the ravens to be Argento'1/ilms that reality and the fantutic cross ...

used in the production are released and peck out his eye, The film revolves around rehearsals for a
the scenes of the ravens swooping down on the audience contemporary version of the "Scottish Play". The famo\18
being filmed with great panache. Unfortunately this cl.ll"se seems to be rearing its ugly head when the star of climax is followed by a ridiculous plot twist taken from the piece is knocked down by a car after storming out of the Thomu Hams novel 'Red Dragon' but unused in the theater. Her role is taken by her understudy Betty Michael Mann's film version MANHUNTER.(1986). No (Christina Marsillach), and that is when the horror begins.

police force in the world would be stupid enough to For a modem ho1Tor film, OPERA contains
confuse a tailor's dummy with a real corpse, but then surprisingly few deaths, the killer claiming only three Argento then does redeem himself by killing off the victims, However Argento films each one so beautiful obnoxious show director and having the killer merely and SU1Tounds them with such stunning set pieces that the draged away be the police. Justice is not served.

casual viewer is left believing that the film is comprised There is an unsettling element of voyeurism in of one carefully crafted scene of butchel}' after another.

OPERA that although being an important element in all of The audience finds themselves lambasted by stunning Argento'• films has never been as prominent u it is here.

tracking shots around the opera house, close-ups of the It seems that this time the murden must not only be done, killers pulsating brain and a strident rock score that often but be seen to be done. Betty is forced to watch each threatens to reach the heights of The Goblins screeching killing and so arc we. But unlike most ho1Tor films where score for SUSPIRIA. A veritable usault on the senses!

murders are shown simply for plot reasons, Argento The killer's first victim is the stage manager Urbano shows us the murden from the characters point of view, (William McNamara) who is also Betty's lover. This is forcing us to share the killers excitement and the victims undoubtedly the most shocking moment of sheer violence pain. A very guilty pleasure indeed!

in the film. Urbano enters a room to find Betty tied to a Even if the plot is weak, the film remains afloat due post with needles tsped under her eyes. As he approaches to its sheer style, and the confrontstional method of her he is viciously stabbed in the neck, skewering his presentation outlined above that separates it from the tongue, As he falls to the floor, Betty is forced to watch more conventional stalk'n'slash cinema. Argento has 88 he is repeatedly knifed in the face and palms until dead made a film that presents murder not as a nasty The next murder is that of the wardrobe mistreSB.

occurrence to be turned away from, but a thrilling event Once again Betty is forced to watch, and through character (note the rock score that punctuates each murder) that identification so are we. During the murder, the wardrobe simply has to be viewed. In doing so, he hu crafted one mistress swallows a bracelet that can identify the killer, of the most mesmerizing ho1Tor films in recent years.

forcing the him to cut her throat open with a pair of OPERA premiered in Italy at I 07 minutes where it scissors to retrieve il
played uncut for three week before prints were withdrawn It is however the next murder that is often lauded as and extensively cut. It was this venion that was issued on one of Argento' s most audacious. Betty is in her video in Italy. It was then picked up for distribution by apartment with a friend (Deria Nicolodi) when the killer Orion in a version cut to 90 minutes losing many arrives outside. While Betty slowly drags the phone along expositol}' dialogue scenes and the much despised the floor towards her, her friend spies on the killer

"communing with nature ending".

through the doors peep-hole, only to have him lire his gun Except for a few screenings at repertol}' theaters, OPERA • retitled TERROR AT THE OPERA • went straight to video in England, but the BBFC made 3 cuts totaling 3 3 seconds before granting an '18' certificate.

The cuts were a zoom in to Urbano's skewered tongue (4
secs), virtually all details of Urbano being stabbed (20
secs approx.) and a shot of the killer forcing the scissors into the wardrobe mistress' mouth (9 secs approx.). The video version is damaged leSB by the cuts than the cropping of Ronnie Taylor's incredible camerawork.

The Rumored uncut and letterboxed laserdisc of OPERA from Elite Entertainment in America has still not materialized Until then, Southgate Video's hard to find pan & scan cassette from America released under the U.K. title contains the most complete version of the film available anywhere in the world.

ALEX

lHE CHURCH (1989)

After helming STAGEFRIGIIT, Michele Soavi was

During the first half, the film does contain some hired as second unit director on Ten;, Gilliam's much rather meaty gore scenes such as a surT"eal heart removal vilified $45 million fantasy maatetpiece THE
and a well staged pneumatic drill through the stomach, but ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSE:N(1988).

these scenes are only interesting for what they are ... Gore.

With this impressive credit and a solid debut under his They bear little relevance to the film as a whole. Despite belt, Dario Argento this time agreed to act as producer, the irrelevance of such early scenes, we find ourselves also co-writing the screenplay with Soavi and Franco willing something similar to happen later on, anything to Ferrini. The film promised to be a huge event in Italian relieve the boredom. Soavi may have been attempting to horror cinema, but it was not to be. Despite some scare us rather than revolt us toward the end of the film, impressive set pieces and a script with huge potential, the but a two dimensional priest figuring out what we've all film fails due to the lack of cohesion between its many guessed about half an hour before doesn't make for fun parts
viewing. We want excitement!

The film opens with its most impressive sequence • a In STAGEFRIGIIT, Soavi showed that he had the slow and ominous attack by a group of Templer Knights tslent to pull off some serious scares. The film zipped upon a village of Devil worshippers, Both shot and scored along at a crisp pace, the plot kept the audience guessing like a scene from Amando de Osorio's TOMBS OF THE
and the murder scenes well shot and often disturbing BLIND DEAD(l 971 ), this sequence details the massacre Why this project went wrong is anyone's guess, but a of the village, and the occupant's burial in a huge mass simple comparison between the drill murder in grave. This destruction is witnessed by a young girl (Asia STAGEFRIGIIT and the model being stabbed with the Argento, who also provides the films "twist") who is railings in THE CHURCH reveals that something here is subsequently murdered. The action then flashes forward seriously amiss. Perhaps the size of the project scared to the present day, and we discover that a church has been Soavi off form, Maybe it was two major talents canceling erected on the grave in order to contain its demons.

each other oul

Of course, the demons escape and the rest of the film The film is also let down by its hysterically over the follows the misfortunes of those trapped inside the top performances. There is nothing naturalistic about any church ·Rhen the evil is let loose. This movement of the •
of the players, especially the head priests who comes film as we follow various groups of survivors in their across more as mad puritans,

The ridiculous
desperate bid to escape is uncannily like Lamberto Bava' s performances also serve to dimini•h the potentially DEMONS(l 985), but without the excitement
disturbing element of child abuse that is present at the The most upsetting thing about THE CHURCH is that
start of the film. What could have been a horrific element there is a great horror film in there somewhere, but Soavi of the story becomes simply laughable, and making child somehow ends up with a movie the is distinctly leu than abuse laughable is really hon-ific, the sum of its parts. This has a great deal to do with the This is not to say that I didn't like the film .. !hated it!

very disjointed scripl There seems to be at least six sub

THE CHURCH simply confirms the belief of many genre plots going on at one time or another, but the film refuses commentators that. the halcyon days of the Italian horror to allow the audience involvement with any of them.

film are over, There is no denying that this film marked a Instead Soavi relies on staging a number of
clear decline in quslity for the genre, but there were impressive, but rather uninvolving set pieces that rely bigger disappointments in store.

solely upon visual experience. Indeed the only truly TiiE CHURCH was never given a theatrical releaae in effective moment in this movement of the film is when the U.K other than its appearance at the 'Shock Around the ancient mechanisms that seal up the church are set in The Clock' horror festival in 1989. It was released on motion. There is a real sense of foreboding developed as video by First Independent amidst rumors that the the doors slowly swing shut and the tablets turn around to

"pneumatic drill" suicide scene had been cut, but the reveal ancient, chilling prophesies. Unfortunately this curT"ent sell•thru cassette appears to have been passed sense of dread is never realized as after this sequence, uncut by the BBFC with an '18' certificate. Its in Pan & Soavi falls back on standard shock tactics and well worn Scan but doean't look noticeably cropped The American cliches.

edition of THE CHURCH released on the Southgate label From here on in the film is just a series of does offer the complete version with very slight disappointments: A wonderful escape attempt into a letterboxing, but should you want to buy the film. the U.K.

railway tunnel has its climax ruined by awful effects work.

edition is as good as any.

The demons that we all want to see arc glimpsed far to briefly to provide any real satisfaction. Entire sequences ALEX
are lifted out of DEMONS and rehashed at half strength.

and even the potentially brilliant ahot of an old woman ringing the church bell by beating her husbands severed head against it fails to arouse interest DEMONS worked because it built up a great kinetic pace as it went along, ending up at an almost hysterical pitch THE CHURCH on the other hand just coughs and wheezes a bit before grinding to a hall

1WO EVIL EYES(l989)

Considering the immense amount of talent involved incorporates several references to other Poe stories such in this production - and could a project that re-teams as 'The Pit And The Pendulum' and 'Madeline', but their George A Romero, Dsrio Argento and effects whiz Tom resonance is shockingly minimal. The story holds many Savini who laat coJlaboration was the undisputed genre poBSibilities for some real horror, all of which are wasted masterpiece DAWN OF TilE DEAD(! 978) be anything along a magnificent performance by Harvey Keitel that but briJliant - it is more thari a little-disappointing that the would have benefited a far superior production
final result is ... well, total shit.

Keitel plays a twisted crime photographer who kills Both directora seemed to have left the skiJls they his girlfriend with a meat clever and then hides the corpse obviously possess as far away from this production es behind a fake wall in her apartment. He then finds himself possible, and Savini was obviously trying to out do an Ed haunted by a mysterious black cat which through a series Wood film in terms of rank effects. As a result, what of sinister events, exacts retribution on him.

should have been a roller-coaater ride through horror The story is brought down right at the beginning by a heaven turns out to be a tedious trip on a carousel of crap.

scene in which Keitel is seen photographing the naked TWO EVIL EYES comprises of two stories adapted corpse of a women who has been cut in half by a from the works of Edgar Allen Poe, Throughout his short pendulum. It sound, shocking, but Savini' s truly awful and tragic life, Poe was plagued by nightmares, and it was effects work provides one of moat plastic looking bodies these that formed the basis for his many short stories and in movie history that that ruins the effect of the entire poems. These often harrowing stories were rarely scene. After starting on such a bummer, Argento supernatural, but still led to him becoming one of the continues in much the same way.

most influential figures in literary horror. His work was Taking the same row as Romero, he jettisona all the moat famously adapted by Roger Corman in his run of elements needed to make a succeBBful horror - suspense, studio bound claS1ic1: TilE FALL OF TilE HOUSE OF
intelligence and audience involvement - and just shoves in USHER.(1960), TilE PIT AND TilE PENDULUM(l961),
a few scenes of gore that don't work. Successful TilE PREMATURE BURIAI.(1962), TALES OF
anthology horror films have always been rare. Examples TERROR(! 962), TilE RAVEN(! 963), TilE MASQUE OF
such as ASYLUM(! 972), DEAD OF NIGHT(! 945) and TilE RED DEATIJ:(1964) and TilE TOMB OF

Corman'• own Poe adaptation TAL:ES OF TERROR are LEGIA(l 964).

few and far between. Their success came from the fact Romero take's on 'The Facts In The Case Of M.

that they kept their shocks to the end of each installment, Valdemar'. Written in 1845, it is Poe's only zombie story and built to these climaxes with solid story and character and an obvious choice for gory George, but instead it development so that when the twist is revealed, the tumB out to be about as interesting as rigor mortis. It audience is involved in the action and actually cares, concerna the ill fated attempts by an adulterous wife and The greatest example's of the horror short are to be her Jover to cheat her husband out of his money. Their found in the original 'Twilight Zone' television series in plan involves hypnotizing him in order to get him to sign epi1odes such as 'The Eye Of The Beholder' and many all his belongings over to her before killing him.

othera. If only Romero and Argento had followed this Unfortunately the trance they put him in allows him to example instead of pandering to the modem horror conquer death and come back for revenge.

audience's desire for inatant and gory gratification. TWO

Romero's segment owes less to Poe than it does to EVIL EYES will probably end up being nothing more than the 'Something To Tide You Over' and 'The Crate'

an annoying footnote in the careers of two of the horror episodes of hi• own CREEPSHOW(l 982). The idea of genre's greatest talents. Terror is not a fleeting emotion.

the hypnotic trance lasting after death is the most It takes time to build and longer to dissipate. Only rarely interesting aspect of this tale, but any possible can it be encapsulated into SO minutes, and this is not one examination of this is jettisoned in favor of the shallow of those occasions. A big, big let down
and very predictable story. As he has proved in the past, TWO EVIL EYES premiered in the U.K. at the

Romero needs time to tell his stories. In this short

'Shock Around The Clock' film festival in 1990. It was format he tends to forget subtle nuances and just shoves in released straight to video by Medusa, passed uncut by the a number of shock scene,, and aa we don't care about any BBFC with an' 18' certificate. There is currently no sell of the charactera they just become failed shocks. Even thru veraion available. The U. S, theatrical version was cut the climax involving a metronome as a murder weapon from 11 S minutes to 95 minutes, but the footage was cornea acro11 as simply silly, even though it is the beat restored for the Media cassette release. Until Elite effect in the film Not even Adrienne Barbeau can make a F.ntertainment'a letterboxed laserdisc and cusette difference to this one.

releases comes out, take your pick between these two Originally, Argento waa to have adapted 'The Muque veraiona.

Of The Red Death', but conaidered Roger Corman's ALEX
version to be a masterpiece that he could not improve on.

Instead he opted for Poe's 1843 story 'The Black Cat', but if you were thinking that things might get better with Argento at the helm then think again. His direction here is boring and flat, which is a real shame because this is one of Poe's best stories. Interestingly Argento

1HE SECT(1991)

1RAUMA(1993)

THE CHURCH was something of a letdown for

The dreadful failure of TWO EVIL EYES(! 990) put Michele Soavi after his auspicious debut. His third Argento back on the comeback trail. The rerulting feature was something else entirely. Produced by Dario feature, his first in six yeara was not the hit he needed to Argento, THE SECT showed much more of an American
re-establish his name
influence while remaining distinctly Italian.

Aura Petrescu (Asia Argento) is an anorexic teenager The film opens in l 97 0 with a Charles Manson style who witnesses the decapitation of both of her parents massacre of a peaceful hippie commune in California, led after a semce conducted by her mother (Piper Laurie), by Damon ('Thomas Arana), a mysterious figure w&ridering n,e killings appear to be the work of a maniac the papers the desert Twenty years on, Miriam (Kelly Curt.is, Jamie have dubbed "The Headhunter". It is another of Argento's Lee Curtis' younge1· sister), a Gem1a11 school teacher,

"half remember flashback" plot devives that provides the

"accidentally" knocks down a11 apparent down-a11d-out solution to both her own trauma, and why a series of (Herbert Lorn). She takes him home to recover, but while nurses are being killed.

he is their he puts some kind of insect up her nose and The killer is (quite obviously) Aura's mother, the then dies! The man is actually Moebius Kelly, the leader murders being a revenge on the doctors who covered up of a Devil worshipping sect who is putting into effect a the fact that one of them had accidentally decapitated here rr,asterpla11 that has secretly detenr,ined the path that baby dw-ing delivery,

Miriam's life has taken, and that will result in the birth of The model for this film is Argento'• own DEEP
the child of Sata11

RED, but the reason for taking a masterpiece and watering THE SECT is reminiscent of both Roman Polanski's
it down in a partial remake is perplexing. Tom Savini's classic ROSEMARY'S BABY(l 968) a11d Argento's
effect work is terrible, resulting in them being INFERNO but has considerably less effect than either of significantly pared down before release. The acting is these. This is not to say that the film isn't ambitious, The very much a mixed bag. Asia Argento is very attractive surreal dream sequences are distinguish by sudden bursts a11d very good in a tough, harrowing role, but Christopher of nastiness, the ritual face ripping sequence is Rydell as the former drug addict who wants to help her is impressive, and the climactic lowering of Miriam in to the not so good, Piper Laurie reprises her CARRIE(l 97 6) gateway to Hell for the birth is striking lit. But THE •
role on auto pilot, Frederick Forrest as the crazy doctor is SECT is flawed.

bland, James Russo as the investigating cop is terrible and Some of the set pieces are silly, the obvious Brad Dourif in yet another csmeo fails to register.

candidate is the rabbit using the remote control, and So who is to blame for this mess? Distinguished
herein lies the films main problem, The removal of the horror writer T.E.D. Klein is one candidate as it was he rabbit scene would eliminate El!l important plot detail, and that revised Gianni Romoli end Franco Ferrini's original its this purposeful structuring of the film by Soavi at a script; a11d Argento himself for trying to Americanize his slightly punishing 2 hours running time that ultimately distinctly European vision The producers of TRAUMA detracts from its effectiveness. He also fudges the climax somewhat unsure of how it promote it said it was like "A in which Miriam kills herself, the child a11d the Sect only horror movie if David Lynch directed one", The irony of to be spared by the shred of innocence the child she bore this statement is that Lynch has directed four horror possesses. Soavi could be accused of copping out where movies, and the two that he made in the 90's, TWIN
as Polanski, Argento and even Richard Donner on THE

PEAKS: FIRE WALl< wrrn ME(1992) and LOST

OMEN(l 976) didn't.

HIGHW AY(l 996) • both with an Italian influence • are Before its release Romoli promised several visceral both truly terrifying masterpieces that make Argento' s gore killings, but these scenes which inclui!ed a work in the same decade look totally redundant.

supermarket checkout girl being crucified with a rivet gun TRAUMA was released in Italy with a unrestricted
a11d having her heart ripped out, and a scene where Maria rating, a family film in other words. This 109 minute

/>J1gela Giordano, after being slashed by a truck driver version was cut by 7 minutes for overseas distribution ripe open her stitching spraying blood everywhere were When it was submitted to the BBFC by Guild for a release removed by Soavi so as not to deflect attention away from straight to video, the BBFC made cuts to 2 scenes for the the central story. There omission is nothing to do with

'18' certificate, removing a brief shot of the wire cutting censorship.

into Linda' neck, and similar shots of the same wire THE SECT went straight to video in the U.K. When it cutting through Piper. Laurie's throat in the film's climax.

was submitted to the BBFC, they passed the film uncut The cuts have the unusual effect of making the deaths with a11 ' 18' certificate which was then released on the nastier.

Guild label in a version letterboxed at 1.60: l. Guild have The Dutch cassette restores the Guild cuts but is
recently 811119unced a sell thru edition which should be the shorter than the Italian version and the American cassette same version, but if it isn't, seek out and buy the rental and disc on the Worldvision label run l 06 mins unrated, edition ae its an excellent print, The film was released as as does the Japanese disc, All are pan & scan with mono THE DEVIL'S DAUGHTER in America by Republic
sound mix The best available version of TRAUMA is a Home Video ..

bootleg cassette circulating.in the U.K. which includes 7

DANIEL
mins of extra footage and is letterboxed (2.3S:l). Its illeagal (sadly) but seek it out.

DANIEL

DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE(1993)

In an attempt to free himself from the creative The cast is unusual but very successful. I have never strangle hold that Dario Argento exerted over his last two rated Rupert lj:verett as an actor in the past, but his films, Soavi set up his own production company with performance here is ideally suited to the material, indeed screenwriter Gianni Romoli and producer/publicist Tilde the character in the 'Dylan Dog' comic strip was drawn to Corsi called Audifilm For their first project, they chose look like him. What better actor to get for the role!

Tiziano Sclavi's cult novel 'Dellamorte Dellamore', the Lazaro is another strange choice, but again a total success inspiration for the 'Dylan Dog' comic book phenomena.

as the monosyllabic Gnaghi, but its former model Anna Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) looks after a Falchi who makes the biggest impact as She, the beautiful cemetery with his half whited assistant Gnaghi (French object of Dellamorte's desire. Thanks to her, you really pop star Francois Hadja Lazaro) who communicates only understand his anguish when he is forced to shoot her for in grunts. But this is no ordinary cemetery. In it the dead the second time.

are returning to life - they are referred to as 'returners'

The film has many crowd pleasing moments. The
instead of zombies - and it is their job to kill them before scene in which zombie Boy Scouts arc casually gurmed they can infect the surrounding town of Buff al ors in which down by Dellamorte and the zombified Hell's Angel the cemetery is situated When he meets She (Anna emerging from his grave atop his Harley Davidson are the Falchi) a young bride burying here dead husband, obvious candidates, along with the sex, violence and black Francesco falls in love with her. While they are having humour that permeate throughout. But. this is never sex on her husband's grave, he returns and bites her, allowed to detract from the central theme, forcing Francesco to shoot her. But. she was not actually DEL.LAMORTE DELLAMORE is a metaphor for life, and dead and she returns, forcing Francesco to shoot her the lead character's fear of it In a truly haunting finale •
again Unable to come to terms with killing the only that will stay with you long after the credits role, he woman he has ever loved, he is cursed by seeing her face realizes that the only thing he is trying to escape from is on every woman he meets including the mayor's assistant himself, but by then its too late.I
and a hooker. The differences between the living and the Mario Bava's masterpiece LISA AND nm DEVIL
dead become blurred in his mind, and he starts to dream of was virtually plotless as was Argento's INFERNO, and killing living people only to have the dreams come narrative was not Fulci's primary concern in THE
alarmingly true, but no one believes he could be BEYOND. When Italian critics wrote that Soavi was the responsible. He resolves to leave the town with Gnagltl, new Freda, Argento or Bava, it was just laziness that but. discovers that the road leads nowhere, and there is no seriously undercut his achievement In underpinning his outside world In the final shot, Gnagltl speaks for the film with such a wrenching subtext, Soavi took the Italian first time asking to be taken home. Francesco just grunts.

horror film to an impressive new level. Armed with total DEU.AMORTE DELLAMORE is a masterpiece.

control this is the first true Soavi picture,

Just when it seemed that the Italian horror industry had All this makes subsequent events doubly tragic.

forgotten what one looked like, Soavi redefined the genre Soavi constantly doubted his talent as a filmmaker which with a film that is at once funny, sad, poetic, violent and led to increasing anxiety behind the camera. An attempt at hugely entertaining. On its release, he insisted that the an American film (DOMINION(1994) starring Dolph film wasn't really a horror movie at all, de1cribing it as an Lundgren) resulted in him being dismissed after just two

"ironic fantasy". This sounds like an attempt to "leave days. To add to this Soavi's new baby son was born in ill home", a phrase used mainly in sci-fi fandom to describe health, after which he announced he would tum his back when an author takes the tropes of the genre in which the on cinema to care for him. It is now very unlikely that he he/she became famous, and uses them in mainstream will ever return to filmmaking. Its a very sad loss.

novels to gain wider respectability, a view that while not DEL.LAMORTE DELLAMORE when straight to
totally unjustified is dismayingly narrow minded, but video in the U.K When it was submitted to the BBFC

Soavi's claim is totally correct
under its American title CEMETERY MAN for release by DEL.LAMORTE DELLAMORE does contain some

Entertainment in Video, it was passed uncut with an '18'

stylistic references to other films The scene between certificate thanks largely to its comic tone. No sell thru Dellamorte and She in the ossuary, surrounded by several release has been announced but take note: Any future skeletons recalls the scene from nm TEXAS
edition will almost certainly have the shooting of the CHAINSAW MASSACRE(l974) in which Marilyn Bums
troupe of zombified Boy Scouts removed in the light of stumbles into the room filled with human and animal the Dumblane massacre. Our advice is to seek out an exbones, Gnaghi's affair with the decapitated head of the rental copy and snap it up quick as its an excellent mayor's daughter who he was in love with is very transfer, even though the cropping to full screen does reminiscent of Lamberto Bava's debut MACABRE(l 980), hamper some of Mauro Marchetti's excellent
even going as far as to reenact the final scene from Bava's photography. Its almost as good as the Japanese laserdisc film exactly when her head jumps up to bite her father.

which was slightly letterboxed but now very hard to find.

There are also references to Stanley Kubrick's A CLOCK

WORK ORANGE(1971) and even Richard Marquand's DANIEL
very mediocre THELEOACY(l 978) in a vague way, but DELLAMOR'IE DELLAMORE remains above all, a true

original.

THE STENDAHL SYNDROME(1996)

After TWO EVIL EYES and TRAUMA· attempt's to
actual medical condition taken from Graziella

Americanize his uniquely European vision - Argento Magherini's text book of the same name is also very odd.

desperately needed a hit. With THE STENDAHL

Asia Argento so good in the routine TRAUMA is miscast SYNDROME he returned to Italy in search of something here, but the film looks terrific thanks to Giuseppe closer to the horror cinema he pioneered in the 70's. It Rotunno'• luminous photography.

was not the conclusive hit he hoped for but a definite step After THE STENDAHL SYNDROME, Argento's
up in quality.

future looks uncertain He produced Sergio Salvati'• soon Anna Manni (Asia Argento sporting a ridiculous wig) to be released directorial debut WAX MASK(l 997), and is a policewoman in pur8Uit of a viscous serial killer.

has started work on e musical adaptation of PHANTOM

While in Florence, she receives a telephone tip-off that OF THE OPERA starring John Melkovitch (sadly one of the killer will be visiting an art gallery there. While trying my least favorite actors). If he would bite the bullet and to figure out which visitor it is, she suffers a hallucination complete the "Three Mothers" trilogy, it could give him and blacks out while looking at one of the painting, and is the masterpiece he so desperately needs at this point in helped to her feet by Alfredo Grossi ('Thomas his career to restore his tarnished reputation, and reassert Kretschmann). Of course Alfredo is the killer, who then his position as one of the genres cutting edge talents.

attacks and rapes Anna in her hotel room. He then THE STENDAHL SYNDROME was released in Italy
graphically kills a woman he has abducted right in front of with a' 14' rating, Two scenes were subsequently dropped her. In an attempt to get over the ordeal, she goes back to for release overseas: A telephone call Anna makes to one her home town (thankfully loosing the wig along the way), of the victim's father and Veronica Lazar's cameo as but is followed there by Alfredo who after killing another Maria'.s mother. All the violence was left intact
woman, abducts and rapes Anna again. This time she When THE STENDAHL SYNDROME was submitted
manages to tum the tables on him, killing him and to the BBFC by Guild for release straight to video, it was dumping his body in the river. But the murders continue.

passed uncut, until it became clear that Guild had made 11

Is Alfredo • whose body wasn't recovered - still alive?

cuts totaling 2 minutes 4 7 secs themselves prior to There is much to recommend THE STENDAHL
submission. The cuts they made were: :Z cuts (I I secs) SYNDROME, mainly in the first hour which contains .

removing shots of Alfredo rotating the razor blade in his Argento' s best work for almost a decade. The painting mouth and a shot him taking the blade out of his mouth that drips away to forrn a doorway which Anna steps plus some shots of Anna's face. 3 cuts (IS secs) deleting through is a very disorienting way of filling the audience all details of the woman in the car being shot in the face in on the plot so far, and the killing of the woman in the after she is raped, including having the gun put to her head, car is an astonishing sequence that one ups the similar the shot of the bullet passing straight through cheek (see scene in OPERA We actually see the bullet pass through picture), through her mouth and exiting the other side, and both cheeks in slow motion! On the other hand the CGI Alfredo looking at Anna through the bullet hole. I cut (I pill swallowing scene is terrible and the film does fall min. 40 secs) removing a chunk of narrative after Anna apart somewhat in the last half . The decision to totally arrives back in her home town, including a meeting with Bil drop the significance of "The Stendahl Syndrome", an old friend, and Anna's meeting with her family in which she is told her new haircut makes her look like a boy. 2
cuts (16 secs) removing shots of the woman being strangled and hit during the rape in the abandoned warehouse, and the scene were she is shot in the head at point blank range, the killers face being reflected in the bullet as it passes his face. I cut (11 secs) removing part of Anna's second rape by Alfredo, and Alfredo punching her in the face, I cut (IO secs) removing the shot of Alfredo cutting Anna's face with a razor blade just after the rape. I cut (4 secs) removing several blows to the back of Alfredo's neck, inflicted by Anna with a gun.

The cuts result in the loss of the films best effects (the bullet through the face) and one of Argento'•
trademark shots (the reflection of the killers face in the bullet) as well a� reducing the· overall sense of sadism, though it remains hair-raising, The narrative cut is bewildering as there was no need for its removal.

The American video release has also been cut, but
these were made by the distributor, not the MP AA The best version of the film is the Japanese laserdisc which •
though time compressed • is uncut and letterboxed at I ,SO: L European versions of the film should also be uncut.

DANIEL

lu?W!fJ /df,ft';L-

11rrr:1m.11rn <19941 wJ,IUbi' /u'fl � � f-

A relative newcomer to f1lmmakmg, Nacho Cerda'•
dropping. and a film tha
cribes as "a nightmare
short film is a leap in the void of experimentation AFl'ERMATH is a 30 minute "trip" into the state of the

/\F'.[E.Jil,iJl::r'.fl,i
e released in the U.K,
body after death; The "what comes next?", a journey into n ideo containing the
the darlcest part of every mind, Cerda says this of a short a documentary of the
film, "You have to go all the way or not at all.• Nothing s earlier short film
could be closer to the truth than what has been achieved bate between Nacho Cerda
with this film.

e direcUy from Cerda's own

The opening title sequence is the spring board into Iona, and its available in and
the visceral realms of death and decay of the flesh. It The address is: WAKEN
provides the viewer with more than an irtrochJclion, not

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Set predominantly in a state of the art autopsy room; clean, white and cold, the images convey the pure clinical ANDREW
nature of the setting, An orderly wheels a corpse into the waiting hands of a forensic surgeon like meat on a conveyor belt awaiting quality control. A1 this moment the viewer is tempted to make assumptions and draw conclusions about what is likely to take place in this most intimate and secretive of rooms.

AFTERMATH is not a gore movie Cerda describes
gore movies as being "festive". AFTERMATH is not gratuitous; the images are necessary AFTERMATH is a part of the director, the result of Cerda'• own personal fear of death and the subsequent "lDlknown" associated with autopsies,

Instead of gore, Cerda has chosen a scientific approach that is the result of many ele:me,n working together, but most of all it is the result of viewing real autopsies prior to production The rawness of the images can only come from having actually experienced the worit of forensic surgeons in their own enviromnent. The sober portrayal of the corpses approaches the realism of a medical documentary. It is this realism that is the source of pure horror, yet AFTERMATH is not a "horror" movie.

AFTERMATH contains one of the most unpleasant

1cenes of necrophilia witnessed in recett year,; This scene is the nerve centre aro1.D1d which Cerda's film builds a complex and personal thesis on the decadence of the flesh and death. One could say that the intercourse looks more like a clinical examination than a celebration of pleasure, but then one could easily say the opposite.

Cerda has used dramatic lighting effects that he says were essential to the 1.D1derstanding of the snaking moral path of the main character. The appearance of the film is very distant and the audience is forced to look at the images.

A Dolby digital surrolD'ld mix has been masterfully employed, with over 25 tracks of music and effects. Due to the absence of dialogue, much impact has been achieved through the use of so1.D1d. After all, "Words aren't always necessary, particularly when the story is being told from the point of view of the corpses".

AFTERMATH is • film for the most demanding and
discriminating palates with a conclusion that is jaw-