DARK FRIDAY (1993)-FINALLY A NICE LOOKING COPY OF THIS ALDO LADO GIALLO!! Stars: Paolo Calissano, Silvia Cohen, Daniele Antonelli. This thriller by Aldo Lado tells the story of two young women who accidentally meet three young people of the high society. The two men and their female friend lure the unsuspecting girls into a house by the sea, where they start to play a mean game with hem by first irritating them before terrorizing and attack them. Meanwhile, the boyfriend of one of the girls starts searching for them. Needless to say that people die before the film comes to the end.
ATOLLADERO (1990)
In Spanish with English subtitles, widescreen print.
YOWSIR!! I LOVE this stylish Sci-Fi Spaghetti Western set in Texas, circa 2048. A sheriff (who makes DIRTY HARRY look like a wuss) is at odds with a wheelchair bound cyborg who rules the countryside with his hired gun/rapist played by Iggy Pop. A young deputy wants out of this shithole but has to go through a stack of deviants such as a Santo fanatic, shrivelled corpses that morph into a horny young thing and a crazy whore lovin' preacher. This is probably the way Texas will turn out. Directed by Oscar Aibar.
BEATRICE CENCI (1969)
Tomas Milian, Adrianna Russo
Letterboxed print.
One of Fulci's lesser known films (probably because previous copies looked so bad!), but no doubt it's one of his best. Set in the past, a young girl is so abused by her father (including beatings and rape) that she hires a young man (Tomas Milian) to help her kill dear old Dad. It turns out to be an ordeal as the old fucker refuses to go quietly and the entire family has to pitch in and help. Eventually they are all caught, tortured and put to death. God I just love a happy ending.
NECROPHOBIA (1995)
In Dutch with english subs
Here's a gross out film from Holland that should satisfy the jaded ones in the audience. Colette is a demented young woman who lives in a HELLRAISER-like place where she brings the recently deceased to have sex with. She ends up seducing a death obsessed young man with the hopes of adding him to her dungeon of horror. The ending has a nice sick twist in this demented but well made film
NO ONE HEARD THE SCREAM (1973)
Carmen Sevilla, Vincente Parra
In Spanish with English subtitles.
Excellent Spanish made thriller by Eloy De La (CANNIBAL MAN) Iglesias starring Carmen Sevilla, Vincente Parra, and Maria Asquerino. Somewhat related in theme to his THE GLASS CEILING, Sevilla stars as a woman who decides to quit an affair with a married man. Unfortunately for her, the next man she falls for is a wife murderer!!
OPEN SEASON (1974)
John Phillip Law, Helga Line, William Holden, Cornelia Sharpe, Peter Fonda
Here is a sick Spanish film with a name cast and a noted British director, but for eurotrash aficionados, it's the co-stars that make this worth seeing. 3 psychotic Vietnam vets decide to kidnap people, take them to a place in the woods and after torturing them, set them loose so they can hunt them down and kill them. Their latest group may be more than they bargained for however as one of their victims is actually plotting revenge! Peter Fonda, Cornelia Sharpe, John Phillip Law, Richard Lynch, William Holden, Helga Line, Alberto De Mendoza, and Simon Andreu star.
PAGANINI HORROR (1987)
Daria Nicolodia, Donald Pleasence
Luigi Cozzi directs this late eighties horror film centering around a female rock group who head for a haunted house to film their latest video. The spirit of Paganini infests the abode and soon gory deaths are the result. Daria Nicolodia and Donald Pleasance co-star.
PSYCHO THRILL (1974)
Trash Cinema, Mexican style! There's a psycho loose and he's knifing, burning, and hanging a multitude of victims. He loves to pick up prostitutes, force them to strip and then knife them, when he penetrates them with a knife, he sexually climaxes--yes, he's one sick puppy.The cops finally have enough and hunt him down like a dog. Sleazy fun from south of the border, contains nudity
RED LIES (1993)
Tomas Arana, Gioa Maria Scotese
In Italian with english subs. Tomas Arana is a reporter who goes deep into the sex industry underground to
try and determine who is killing off their clientel. He finds himself becoming addicted to the
lifestyle while his wife (Gioa Maria Scotese with several nice nude scenes) wonders if and when
he'll return to her. Meanwhile, the killer continues using his long bladed knife on whomever gets
too close to his identity. This film has a lot in common with Friedkin's CRUISING.
.jpeg)
SANATORIUM, UNDER THE SIGN OF THE HOURGLASS (1973)
In Polish with English subtitles, letterboxed print.
For fans of the director of THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT, here's another strange fantasy film he made. Extreme weirdness is the rule here as a young man returns home to find his father has died. The guy starts to relive his life in flashback and comes to realize his home was like an insane asylum, inhabited by all types of crazy bastards. Some nudity and MUCH strangeness.
.jpg)
SCARAB (1984)
Rip Torn, Robert Ginty
Professor Manz (Rip Torn) experiments on a beetle-shaped amulet, when he accidentally cuts his hand on it, the God Khepera takes over his body. He goes into hiding for 30 years before resurfacing to kill off Government leaders and throwing the world into chaos. Enter Jack Murphy (Robert Ginty), whose girlfriend's brother was one of Manz/Khepera's victims. This obscure Spanish lensed horror film was directed by Stephen-Charles Jaffe.
SCHOOL OF FEAR (1992)
Daria Nicolodia, Alessandra Acciai
Diana (Alessandra Acciai) is the new teacher at an exclusive private school (the previous one died mysteriously). She soon discovers her students are not what they seem and they soon involve her in their deadly game of reality that includes murder and rape. Daria Nicolodia costars in this Lamberto Bava film with music by Simon Boswell.
SHADOW OF ILLUSION (1972)
Daniela Giordano, William Berger
Mario Caiano directed this very weird voodoo sex and horror thriller set in the Middle East. Daniela Giordano (who has some terrific nude scenes) stars as a strange psychic who is drawn to a cult ritual in an ancient and evil setting. She is the focus of a cult who want to kill her so they can raise the dead. William Berger stars as a professor who may help her escape or help her to die.
SNUFF TRAP (2001)
Letterboxed print.
Good Ol Bruno Mattei!! You can depend on him to deliver the sleaze in this time of conservatism and boy does he! You'll want to take a bath after this one. A woman goes looking for her missing daughter and before too long she has descended into the world of pornography and ultimately torture and snuff videos (all graphically depicted by Bruno). In fact she's in big danger of starring, along with her daughter, in her own snuff film!
STRANGE LOVE OF A VAMPIRE (1972)
Emma Cohen, Carlos Ballesteros
aka THE NIGHT OF THE WALKING DEAD. Here's an excellent Spanish made gothic vampire film with plenty of exploitation to go with the atmosphere. Directed by Leon Klimovsky (veteran of many Paul Naschy flicks), it features Carlos Ballesteros as Count Dracula who desperately looks for a woman to share his life. He finds an ill young beauty (Emma Cohen who has nude scenes) in the local village and initiates her into his vampiric lifestyle.
SWAMP OF THE RAVENS (1974)
Fernando Sancho
Without a doubt one of the creepiest Spanish horror films I have ever seen. A crazy doctor is performing reanimation experiments in the middle of the Florida swamps. He begins to have success just as the police and locals close in on him. The scenes of zombies rising from the swamp creeped me out and an there's an autopsy scene that's all too real. Director Manuel Cano has a made a weird little film to say the least.
.jpeg)
.jpg)
TERROR EXPRESS (1975)
Silvia Dionisio
Director Ferdinando Baldi takes a screenplay by George Eastman (real name Luigi Montefiore) and creates a sick puppy of a horror film that once again treads the LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT territory. Blonde goddess Silvia Dionisio (one time wife to Ruggero Deodato!) stars as a hooker who teams up with another passenger to save the day
THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND (1995)
Jason Robards III
Pupi (THE HOUSE WITH THE WINDOWS THAT LAUGHED) Avati wrote and directed this neat little horror film that stars Jason Robards III (who looks just like his father) as a popular TV talk show host who is terrorized by a friend from the past. A neat thriller that eschews graphic horror for a creepy and disturbing atmosphere that lingers far longer.
THE COLLECTOR (1995)
In Finnish with English subtitles, letterboxed print.
Intense horror film from Finland about two sisters who are in constant conflict. The older one is a lesbian and the younger is a crazed psychotic who freaks out when she learns about her sister and goes off on a killing spree. An excellent thriller
THE CRIME ON VIA MONTI (1997)
Antonio Bonifacio
Katarina Vassilissa
In Italian With English subtitles
New Giallo with an accent on nudity and sleaze! A killer breaks into a bedroom and kills the man yet it seems the woman is in approval of the murderous deed. Meanwhile, a hapless detective is hired to discover if a man's wife is cheating on him and he invariably ends up in bed with her! The killer soon puts the detective at the top of his list to knock off. The big reasonto see this is that it stars Katarina Vassilissa, incredible sexy star of Tinto Brass' THE VOYEUR!!
THE DEVIL'S EXORCIST (1978)
Jack Taylor in english with greek subs
A young girl is troubled by loud sounds and the vision of a scary man in black walking toward her. She soon becomes violent and a woman doctor is called in to help. Upon their first meeting, the girl cold-cocks the doctor and knocks her ass around the room. Eventually, she kills her own mother (it's ruled an accident) and moves in with the doctor who ultimately pays a high price for trying to cure her. This film eschews the overt graphic imagery of most EXORCIST-clones and goes for a more subtle approach. Jack Taylor plays a medical colleague who feels shock treatments are the only way to cure the kid. Too bad no one listened to him!
.jpg)
THE DEVIL'S HAND (1943)
In French with English subtitles
Rare Maurice Tourneur horror film from the forties. Pierre Fresnay stars as a poor artist who made a deal with the Devil. What is the price he will pay? Creepy B&W cinematography make this an undiscovered classic.
THE HUMANOID (1979)
Barbara Bach, Richard Kiel, Arthur Kennedy, Ivan Rassimov, Leonard Mann
Aldo Lado directs (with special effects help by Antonio Margheriri and Enzo Castellari) this STAR WARS ripoff with a super sexy cast: Corrine Clery and Barbara Bach. Also starring Leonard Mann, Richard Kiel, Arthur Kennedy and Ivan Rassimov as the Darh Vader lookalike! Ennio Morricone contributes the weird electronic score
THE INFERNAL TRIO (1974)
Romy Schneider, Michel Piccoli
In French with English subtitles.
Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli co-star as a couple who murder wealthy individuals for their money. They also involve Schneider's sister in their latest plan to seduce and kill a teenaged girl who is heir to a large fortune. This black-humored film has a rather gory murder sequence (cut from most prints, it is included here but has brief below the waist censoring) unusual for a French production. Great score by Ennio Morricone.
.jpg)
THE INQUISATOR (1975)
In Spanish only. Here's a nasty piece of work from Argentina. The charred corpses of young women are being found all over town. The police are baffled as to who is doing this. It turns out a group of religious zealots comprised of several men and one woman kidnap loose women, bring them back to their underground torture chamber and stretch them on the rack before torching them. Nudity and gore abound in this one.
