Lucio Fulci is Rated X: The Beyond (on 35mm!)

This was the original pick for our October Tape Freaks screening, but we didn't want to compete with our friends! But the fact remains; in a genre known for mixing avant garde themes with unflinching horror, this is truly one of our favorites. The settings are unnerving, the soundtrack is haunting, the gore is fantastically creative, the ending is faux esoteric, and during every transition in the movie's climax, our heroes forget how they successfully killed the zombies in the previous scenes.

The plot unfolds something like this: After inheriting a decaying hotel in Louisiana, Liza decides to head south from her home in New York to renovate and reopen the hotel. Unfortunately, the renovations disturb one of the Seven Doors of Death and things sort of go to hell from there.

The setting: Who makes a horror movie set in Louisiana? Italians. Who puts a basement in a building in Louisiana? Those same Italians.


The gore: This movie's gore is simple, but effective and memorable. A vile of acid washes a woman's face off while creating a frothing bloody mess that threatens to dissolve the victim's daughter. A man is consume by flesh eating tarantulas. We are treated to the reverse of the splinter through the eye kill featured in Zombie. And there's another fatal dog attack.

The soundtrack: Fabio Frizzi's inarguably epic score looms dread over the entire film.

The over whelming dreamlike state of it: When I've read people's feelings on this film they often include something about the movie's persistent dreamlike feel. There is something to be said for a film that successfully uses it's unintentional disjointedness to invoke evocative atmosphere. 

Final thoughts: Of all the Fulci movies in this series, this is the one not to miss flickering over the big screen.

Lucio Fulci is Rated X:

The Beyond (on 35mm)

Mon, Oct 26, 7:00 & 9:00
Tue, Oct 27, 7:00 & 9:00
@ Trylon microcinema, tickets $8 (or snag a discount card at $25 for 5 movies!)

Also, this may be your last chance to pick up a screen printed poster!

Cat in the Brain

When Nicollet Village Video shut it's doors forever, Tim and I begrudgingly picked over the corpse of an old friend at their close out sale. We grabbed things that were harder to find, things we'd rented in the past, and some stuff we'd never seen just to keep some memory of that place. One of the “unknowns” we grabbed was Fulci's Cat in the Brain, how could we go wrong? Italian horror with “cat” in the title...

The plot unfolds something like this: Lucio Fulci is directing a movie when he starts unraveling. He's seeing seeing murderous visions and has begun acting them out. How far will his delusions take him?

Yeah, he broke a cardinal rule: There's a rule in writing where you don't put yourself into your work. Some people brake this rule with great success (Kurt Vonnegut, Charlie Kaufman, R. Crumb, come to mind) but if you're not at the top of your game, it's not wise to break cardinal rules. And since Fulci was long past his prime (as he was no longer pairing with Dardano Sacchetti, the writer that gave him his best screenplays), he likely should have made this film about someone else in some other field.

The kills: Mostly footage from his other films.

Reasons to watch: If you're trying to see all the Fulci movies, this is one of them. It's not totally unbearable, but it's like watching a clip episode of your favorite TV show, with a Fabio Frizzi score. This is also an early iteration of the meta-horror genre.

Lucio Fulci is Rated X: Poster

You can still pick up a limited, four-color, glow-in-the-dark screen print of Tim's design for Lucio Fulci is Rated X poster at the Trylon! (We're splitting the proceeds with the Trylon, so purchasing one poster supports two great local things!)

You can pick up a poster any time the Trylon is open, but we recommend heading over this weekend and visiting Moon Palace Books and Peace Coffee before catching a screening of Rosemary's Baby. I mean, it's just a suggestion...

Deep Red

We've seen this movie hundreds of times, but when we saw the new blu-ray release at the Trylon last October, we were blown away. There's a version of this movie that actually makes sense! Not that the nonsensicalness of the other version was overwhelming, but there are a few key scenes in the Italian dub version that make things fall together in very satisfying ways after having wondered “why?” for so many years.

The plot unfolds something like this: While walking home from the bar Marcus, sees his downstairs neighbor in her apartment window pleading for help. He rushes to her rescue, but he's too late. Haunted by the circumstances of her death, he takes a personal interest in solving her murder. With the help of a plucky reporter he'll uncover more truth than he bargned for as they follow a bloody trail to the killer's identity.

Creative kills: Decapitation by necklace. Drowning in a tub of scalding water. 

Things to watch for: Long drawn out closeups of children's toys rotating around, scenes that are shot so wide that the entire planet seems devoid of people (save the one we're focused on), bloody death scenes, and creepy kid's drawings.

The score: This is one of Tim's favorite Italian horror scores and his absolute favorite Goblin score. Entertaining from start to finish, and less prog-rock than their other scores, you can listen to as an album and never guess it has anything to do with a movie. (This score is also marks the first time Goblin worked with Argento.)

Special effects: Carlo Rambaldi (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Alien, Close Encounters of the Third Kind)

Why we love it: This is one of the only Giallo films that mostly makes sense, is plentily gory, visually stunning, and has a stellar soundtrack all in the same film. Deep Red is the mark you hope all the other Giallo will reach, but most fall short, especially in the sense making department.

Version to watch: Italian dub with English subtitles.

Lucio Fulci is Rated X: New York Ripper

There is something to be said for this movie, the soundtrack is phenomenal.

Usually when I write movies up I try to stay on the positive side. I'll include “things to look a way for” if there's gross spots in otherwise redeemable movies, I'll even write from the perspective of the people who enjoyed the movie if I straight up hate something. But there is a certain sub-set of movies that I can't do that for: the glorified-misogyny genre. If we lived in a world where women on film were as varied and nuanced as the men [specifically the white men], maybe I'd feel differently about these kinds of movies.

But that is not the world we live in.

Though, as we've learned here at Tape Freaks, even the worst movies have something redeeming to offer and New York Ripper's offering of redemption lies in the soundtrack. But I'll try my best to tell you why this movie gets a flat zero from me before I get into that...

The plot unfolds something like this: In a version of New York City where women are hyper-sexual and are routinely brutalized, a serial killer is on the loose. He's hunting down women and killing them in the most violent ways imaginable, all while talking like Donald Duck.

No really: The killer talks like Donald Duck through the whole movie.

Reasons to watch: The soundtrack is amazing, and that Donald Duck thing is pretty weird...

Reasons not to watch: Continuous, gratuitous, and pointless violence against women veiled by a thin and boring plot. If this movie existed in a world where women were given equal representation on film and behind the camera , or weren't blamed for violence committed against them, or weren't sexually brutalized in film and television for the absolutely flimsiest of reasons, then maybe this movie would have a justifiable place in cinema history. But we live in a world that treats women like shit and demands they be grateful for the chance to be treated as such. So to this movie, and all movies like it, I say: Fuuuuuuuck ooooooff.

Best description I found of this film: “...essentially a ‘greatest hits’ of sexist splatter effects with Donald Duck quacking away in the background.” - Mondozilla for Horrorpedia

Reasons to find the soundtrack: Francessco De Masi's score to this film was in my heavy play rotation long before I saw the movie. The jazzy 80's percussion and brass punctuated by orchestral swells made for excellent bike commute music. When I imagined the movie this music accompanied, I could see hard-boiled detectives, smoke filled precincts, moody cityscapes, and very likely murder. I certainly did not imagine a straight-up slasher movie, which is all New York Ripper turned out to be. (Though, imagining a cop movie wasn't too out of line as scoring those types of projects was Masi's bread and butter at the time.) This soundtrack is densely textured instrumentation masterfully layered in every track and I could seriously go on about it all day long, I encourage you to give it a listen!

What to watch instead: A good slasher substitute would be Slumber Party Massacre. The women in that movie are pretty well rounded characters, but it was also written and directed by women. If you're looking for another Fulci movie, The Beyond is a far superior film with extreme gore content and better female characters. If you're more interested in nudity than gore, Hard Ticket to Hawaii is a good choice. It's more of an action flick featuring nude women, but they're more well rounded and empowered than most clothed women in cinema from the same time period.

Lucio Fulci is Rated X [THESE SCREENINGS ARE LONG IN THE PAST]: 

New York Ripper

Mon Oct 19 7:00 9:00
Tue Oct 20 7:00 9:00 

@ Trylon microcinema, tickets $8 (or snag a discount card at $25 for 5 movies!)

House by the Cemetery

This is a movie that features a house next to a cemetery, or more accurately a house with some graves next to it. But that's inconsequential because the cemetery never really come into play...

The plot unfolds something like this: Dr. Norman has taken his wife and son to live in a remote victorian house while he picks up documenting the history of the house where his colleague Dr. Peterson left off. Dr. Peterson's studies abruptly ended when he murdered his mistress and killed himself. Young Bob (the Dr. Norman's son) receives a series of ominous warnings to leave the house via his friend Mae, who only he can see. All of these warnings are ignored by Dr. Norman who's become obsessed with his research. Will he discover the secrets the house holds, or will the secrets tear their family limb from limb? 

Creative kill: Carving knife stabbed through a victim’s head, entering the back of the skull and exiting through the mouth.

Things to watch for: A grave stone set into a living room floor. The greatest bat vs. human scene in horror. The best use of a basement in a menacing way. Some exceptionally strange make-up effects.

Disappointing things: The library scene doesn't end with a tarantula eating a guy.

Worst named character: Dr. Freudstein (the original owner of the house).

What we learned: When you move into a house next to a “cemetery”, have the basement inspected for detention-shifting-zombie-doctors before moving your family in.

The Witchery (aka Evil Dead 4)

Recently, over at the Tape Freaks house, we burned through the second season of Baywatch Nights. (If you're not familiar with that amazing piece of television history, it's basically Baywatch meets Supernatural and X-Files) so to top off our Hasselhoff-meets-the-supernatural binge, we watched Witchery...

The plot unfolds something like this: Leslie, and her boyfriend are illegally squatting in an abandoned hotel, located on an island off Massachusetts, while she researches the sorted history of the island for her forthcoming book. Meanwhile, interested buyers come to survey the hotel and property. The two groups run into each other and soon discover they are stranded on the island. Unhappily, they must share the hotel for the evening, and that's about the time they start wondering if any of them came to the island of their own free will...

Ok, I admit: There's some artistic license in that description, it would be nice if it was that straight forward but believe me, it's more convoluted than that.

Things to watch for: Everyone in this movie delivers their lines like they are drunk, especially Hasselhoff, but especially the kid brother. The Original-Hipster who has a book written by a “really obscure German writer” that's “never been translated into english”. Some over the top make-up effects. A kid that loves his sister a smidge too much. Oh, I haven't mentioned Linda Blair's in this!

Things to turn away for: A sexual assault from satan.


How this movie ends: One of the characters looks straight into camera and says “My baby?!”.

Originally Released as: Evil Dead 4 (But like any good Italian movie sequel, there's no connection to Evil Dead what-so-ever).

Hoff trivia: Hoff and his co-star Catherine Hickland were married when this movie was filmed. The internets say the year this movie was released, they were divorced...

What we learned: Everything David Hasselhoff makes an appearance in turns to alcohol soaked' gold.

Third Clue: October

Clue #3:

This month's movie is based on a book and a wildly popular comic, both written by the same Italian author.

Tape Freaks Presents: Mystery Movie! Theatres at Mall of America, Thursday, Oct 15th at 7:30pm, only $5!

Italian horror rapid fire list!

Some Italian horror worth noting!

Blade in the Dark: A film composer rents a secluded villa while working on a film score. He's also being stalked by a killer who may have a connection to the film he's working on....





Demons: A group of people invited to a theater to watch a movie. What they don't know is this movie features demons that will possess members of the audience. Some fantastic rubbery demon effects, over the top kills, and a rockin' 80's soundtrack! How can you go wrong?





Ghost House: A haunted house is sending out signals over ham radio which lures a couple to the house to investigate. Meanwhile an RV full of teenagers stop by the house to party. Things get genuinely creepy despite the fact that we're to believe ham radio operating is a very popular hobby amongst hip 20 somethings. This movie also features one of the creepiest clown dolls outside of Poltergeist.






Stagefright (1987): While preparing for opening night, a local theater troupe lock themselves in a theater for an all night rehearsal. Little do they know a masked murderer is locked in with them. This is a fairly straight forward slasher, except the killer has a very detailed owl mask...




Phenomena: Jennifer Connelly plays a girl who can telepathically control insects, Donald Pleasence plays an over the top professor, a score by Goblin, and directed by Dario Argento. What more could you want? What's that? You also want a monkey running around wielding a straight razor? Ok fine, just this once though.

Suspira

If ever there was a more visually striking horror movie, we have not seen it. Enormous sets pulsate with so much vivid color they seem alive in their own rite; lights cast red and blue glows from impossible sources, a forest surrounds the school grounds seemingly plucked from someone's nightmare, and don't even get us started on the score!

The plot unfolds something like this: Suzy Bannion has been accepted to a prestigious dance school, and even before she steps foot in the building, strange things start happening. A girl disappears into the night, teachers ritualistically gather at all hours, people die left and right, and nobody seem too bothered by any of it. Suzy's dorm-mate is determined to figure out what's really happening; but then she goes missing as well. That leaves Suzy to put the pieces together herself before she's consumed by mysteriousness as well.

Reasons to watch: This is one of the last films to be shot using the Technicolor process, making it as richly beautiful as it is creatively gory. The set designs were designed with the knowledge this would be shot in Technicolor and are vibrant to the point of glowing. There's some intense gore and drawn out kills. And a twist ending that doesn't make sense, but is pretty fun anyway.



Yup, that's: Jessica Harper (Phantom of the Paradise, Pennies from Heaven), and Joan Bennett (Dark Shadows).



The soundtrack: This Goblin score strays from their signature sound making this more effectively creepy, atmospheric, and largely more haunting than most of their horror scores.

Most creative kills: One of the dancers is killed by room full of razor wire. A woman is pulled through one pain of glass, and then is pushed through another. A dog abruptly, and mortally, turns on a human...

How do we really feel about this film: This film never fails to stir up our creative juices, we can't recommend it enough!

Lucio Fulci is Rated X: City of the Living Dead

This movie opens with a séance so intense the medium dies of fright. What scared her so badly? She had a vision of a priest hanging himself in the church's cemetery and consequently that opened the gates of hell. And that would be all well and good (so to speak) if the medium didn't wake up in a coffin having been burred alive two scenes later. Before you ask, this movie does takes place in the 1980s when people routinely have autopsy preformed when they die under mysterious circumstances and are embalmed before being burred. That she would awake after her burial is asking for a pretty large suspension of disbelief, even for a Fulci movie. 

But, as this is a Fulci movie, that point of contention is made up for with rich atmosphere, a looming sense of other worldly dread, a fantastic score from Fabio Frizzi, and of course, horrifying gore.

There is so much gore.

And not just the standard Fulci effects and over the top zombifications, there's also a scene where a man dies from being drilled straight through the head, there are many tears of blood, there's even a room full of maggots! So full. And those aren't the only maggots in the film.

So many maggots.

This movie is also the first in the “unofficial” Gates of Hell trilogy. The second being The Beyond and the third would be The House by the Cemetery (though that might be why it's “unofficially” a trilogy as they never talk about "the gates of hell" in House). The thin (and at time straight up goofy) plot gives this film a handicap, but it pretty well lays the foundation for how amazing The Beyond turned out. It also gives The Beyond a run for it's money in the well-that-was-a-confusing-ending department...

So confusing.

But it truly, watching this movie fully prepared for it's flaws leaves you free to more thoroughly enjoy the great elements abundant throughout the film. (There's so much gore and grossness! So much!) And you can enjoy all the grossness in restored glory, so you'll see every single maggot!

Seriously, so many maggots.


Lucio Fulci is Rated X: 

City of the Living Dead

Mon Oct 12 7:00 9:00
Tue Oct 13 7:00 9:00 

@ Trylon microcinema, tickets $8 (or snag a discount card at $25 for 5 movies!)

Clue Two: October

Clue #2

This italian horror features zombies, but it's not exactly a zombie movie...

Tape Freaks Presents: Mystery Movie! @ Theatres at Mall of America, Thursday, Oct 15th at 7:30pm, only $5!

Lucio Fulci is Rated X: Zombie

With the release of Zombie, Lucio Fulci entered three visual touchstones into the zombie pop-culture lexicon: the image of the zombie that graces the poster art with an eye socket full of maggots, a zombie slowly pulling a victim’s eye through a splinter of a door, and the underwater fight between a zombie and a shark. As time fades on and you forget the details of this zombie classic, you'll likely start referring to this movie as “the one with the splinter though the eye” or more commonly “the one where the zombie fights a shark”, and this begs a question: Why didn't the idea of underwater zombie ever take off?




George A. Romero ran with the underwater zombie in Land of the Dead and Max Brooks addresses the idea (as does Shock Wave apparently, though I have not yet watched it), but it's strange more modern zombie movies aren't embracing the water-mobile zombie. Possibly the idea adds too much cost to production (I imagine makeup that holds up underwater isn't cheep, nor are underwater stunt people). But what if the underwaterness was used as premise to the story rather than mere sight gags. A deserted island could easily be over run by a water logged horde, a cargo ship could pick up what they thought was a man-overboard, a shipwrecked crew could see what could perhaps appear to be their saviors slowly lumbering from the depths of the ocean...

So, I guess what I'm driving at is this: while you're enjoying Zombie and all it's quintessential contributions to the zombie cannon, fantastic gore, and makeup effects, take notes and write a screenplay that dictates the next direction in zombie horror. Why not? What else are you going to do on a Wednesday afternoon?

Lucio Fulci is Rated X:

Zombie

Mon, Oct 05, 7:00 & 9:00
Tue, Oct 06, 7:00 & 9:00

@ Trylon microcinema, tickets $8 (or snag a discount card at $25 for 5 movies!)

First Clue: October

Clue #1:


This month's movie is in one of our favorite genres: Italian Horror!

Tape Freaks Presents: Mystery Movie! Theatres at Mall of America, Thursday, Oct 15th at 7:30pm, only $5!