Versus - review

2000 (Japan)

2003 Tartan Asia Extreme DVD R(0)

Contains spoilers.

Director and co-writer Ryûhei Kitamura's Versus is the story of life, death and resurrection; the eternal battle of light vs darkness made incarnate and flesh. It's a stunning visual tour de force; graphic, beautiful and indulgently crafted; and also breathtakingly unremitting, inviting the viewer to join with it to rejoice in a perpetual martial arts, sword and gun-play master class. It's also, when all is said and done, a tad boring.

One has to admire what Kitamura has put together. Versus really is a visual treat; dare I say it's visual art. Grand sweeping pan shots, extreme zoom in and outs, the great use of pausing and time, all help build a believable yet mysterious, ethereal other-worldly sand-box for the various characters to play in. The faultless display of highly choreographed, sumptuously stylised and captured martial arts, all of the highest calibre also makes Versus an absolute film making triumph; it's faultless; it's performance art.

There's a old adage though, that one can certainly have too much of a good thing and at two hours even the most hard-core fighting fan would start to find the endless barrage of video-game-esque dueling wearisome, however polished it all is. And that's the rub because outside the fighting, the narrative, such as there is, is so minimal, so enamoured with ambiguity, mystery and what hides in the shadows that the bust ups alone are relied on to solely to carry the film; and they just can't do it. That's not to say what little there is, is bad. Kitamura's esoteric mantra, the deliberate design to permeate intangibility across all two hours brings with it an alienness, a transcendentalism that one can't help but admire. But, critically, it rarely made perfect sense, seemed at times to contradict itself and more than once seemed forced so as to justify the next big duel.

Versus is the story of Prisoner KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi) and his eternal struggle against The Man (Hideo Sakaki) and his undead cohort. There's also The Girl (Chieko Misaka), a gang of Yakuza goons, various assassins and some cops. In a what appears to be an endless cycle The Man keeps waiting for the The Girl and KSC2-303 to return resurrected to the world, or more precisely to the Forest of Resurrection, where he can hopefully, this time, perform a sacrifice or something, open one of the 666 portals 'to the other side' and gain some great unimaginable power. All the while the Forest of Resurrection behaves as one would expect bringing any others caught up indirectly in the manage-a-trois death party back as zombies. 

Combine sadistic Yakuza, blood thirsty undead and an ultimate samurai driven callous by the ravages of immortality, but in possession of a really big sword and a plethora of modern weaponry, and you have quite the recipe for an excessive blood bath and Versus delivers, in bucket loads. Whether it's heads, hands, innards or all three, exorbitant but delightful attention has been given to making the zombie or human deaths as memorable and colourful as possible. Scenes are audacious and shocking, and even a bit daft at times, but this is never a Dead Alive (Brain Dead) or Dead Snow; the melancholic atmosphere is always dutifully adhered too, even as twisted zombie caricatures are literally sliced and diced Fruit Ninja style in laughably long and exaggerated set pieces.

Sublime, surreal; Versus is a hard film to judge. A hyper-stylised excess of violence; as a Japanese close combat film it excels in all areas. Except, when your first twenty drawn out duels are as good as the last, when it does get to the big finale where immortal fights immortal and the fate of mankind hangs in the balance, it just fails to deliver the kind of punch you'd expect it to; especially when you'd already enjoyed them going at it together a good few times before. Certainly a zombie high-octane experience, there's much to recommend with Versus and certainly I can understand many shouting it's the best film evar; I'd also go as far as proclaiming it art in both form and function; and yet as a complete cinematic feature it just didn't quite do it for me with just too much, well, everything, 7/10.

Steven@WTD.

Lifeforce - review

1985 (USA)

2013 Arrow Video Blu-ray R(B/2)

Contains spoilers.

This was another one that wasn't really on my radar. It was only seeing it chosen by Dominic Brunt (Director of Before Dawn) as one of the headlines for the 2014 Leeds Zombie Film Festival that put it on. Having now watched it I'm still a tad uncertain. Sure the final fifteen minutes, depicting a ravaged London overrun with snarling cannibalistic monsters is zombie all the way and the victims of the space vampires are for the most part unwitting slaves incapable of imposing their own will on their actions. But, it's energy vampires. Both Col. Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback), the only survivor of the ill-fated deep space explorer and Dr. Bukovsky (Michael Gothard) chief medical scientist of the European Space Agency and Thanatologist (the study of death) say so, and it is really all about three intelligent bat like creatures camouflaged as pretty wee things who are sat at the top of the food chain.

The first fifteen minutes or so are pure eighties space indulgence. The HMS Churchill out in the deep beyond on a mission to explore Halley's Comet discovers a hundred and fifty mile ancient space relic in its tip. Inside as well as the desiccated remnants of hundreds of human size space bats they find three perfectly preserved and perfectly naked humans caught in some kind of suspended animation and decide to bring them back on board.

The lead naked, and that's a word I'll be saying a lot, space person, is played by Mathilda May and as I'm watching the splendid new Arrow Blu-ray transfer of the original 116 minute cut, which is fifteen minutes longer than the theatrical cut the US audience had to watch there's an awful lot of it; not that I'm complaining. Brought back to Earth by the US Columbia which finds the HMS Churchill gutted and burnt out and the crew dead, it doesn't take long for those investigating the disaster to realise it might have something to do with honey lips and perhaps they're in a spot of trouble. Finally alone with a young doctor sparks fly, both metaphorically as lips meet lips, and literally  her first victim has his lifeforce zapped out of him before moving, naked, through the complex like an electric maelstrom escaping out into the wider world.

The young naked space girl with ulterior motives beguiling poor innocent men who just can't say no when presented with a willing bosom is a trope that's been done to death. It's a good, neigh, great excuse to show copious flesh with a semi-legitimate excuse, though in this case I'm not quite sure whether to applaud director Tobe Hooper or not, for the audaciously long time it takes for him to decide she should cover up. While Lifeforce doesn't go down the Species road making this trope the be all and end all of the film it does make up a large part of the story, and to be honest when if does decide to stray playing with alien possession it does unravel a little becoming unnecessarily convoluted and complicated, almost making one think it might have been better if they had.

There's a lot going on with the space vampires and while it's possibly all a bit over contrived it's fun, thought out and for the most part cohesive. They're energy vampires capable of draining the lifeforce from people. They can beguile people, making them fall so deeply in love, both spiritually and sexually, that they can't resist and they can also transfer their consciousness / soul / being into another person assuming motor control and suppressing the host's will. Also while they don't always drain all the lifeforce from a person when they do, leaving them a dehydrated lifeless husk, they do also leave a nasty surprise.

Two hours is the magic number in several ways. Firstly it's a two hour alarm call that springs the mini-vamps / zompires back to life, pulse racing with an insatiable hunger for some lifeforce of their own, else they'll explode. Secondly should they drain the next victim before they pop, they've only another two hours until they need to feed again. This idea of brainless primal hunger, the constant need to feed and the exponential spread of the disease is zombie all the way. These zompires, especially during the last fifteen or so minutes certainly look the part snarling goring their way through the streets of London and the effect as they leap on cars and chase the view remaining survivors also certainly looks zombie and they're a good enough fit in my mind. And let's not forget writer Dan O'Bannon's next film was The Return of the Living Dead, so this is a man well versed in the genre.

A solid script if a little convoluted and farcical, Lifeforce is a good film though not a great one and for such an over the top premise I felt it perhaps played it all a little safe. Peter Firth leads a strong cast who do well with what they've been given, and one can't help watch Patrick Stewart being wrestled to the floor and later orally explode with blood, without a wry smile. The pacing is good for a long film, and there's never a dull moment but it just as we too were coming near  the two hour mark and the finale, I felt it just hadn't elevated my heart rate to the to the same level as those on screen. A fun hokey sci-fi, tame-horror with a lot of nakedness that will leave a smile on your face, if nothing more, 6/10.

Steven@WTD.

Rabid - review

1977 (Canada)

2003 Prism DVD R(2)

Contains spoilers.

Like Shivers which arrived two years earlier, Rabid is another avant-garde science-fiction / horror written and directed by the now infamous David Cronenberg with partial funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, and another to play with body dysfunction and the breakdown of cognitive function. Like Shivers, there are doctors playing god with the human body without understanding possible psychological ramifications, there's a physical pathogen; this time an infection rather than parasite, and like Shivers whilst no victim ever actually dies before becoming the aggressor there's definitely enough loss of self, unquenchable hunger and neck biting for me to call zombie, albeit pseudo alive zombie.

The central idea, much like in Shivers, is on the surface laughably b-movie. Rose (Marilyn Chambers) is seriously injured in a motorbike accident with her boyfriend and is rescued by a nearby cosmetic surgery who decide as well as keeping her alive, it would also be in her best interests if they try an experimental morphogenetic graft to replace her fire damaged skin and organs. Of course this being Cronenberg things don't necessarily pan out as chief surgeon Dr. Dan Keloid (Howard Ryshpan) hopes, and whilst her body does accept the new tissue it doesn't just replicate what was there before but configures itself into an underarm orifice replete with phallic stinger that fills Rose with an irrational hunger for human flesh and blood.

If a beautiful quite often topless young girl with a blood thirsty parasitic phallic oxter (US: axilla) on the prowl wasn't enough for a good old fashioned horror film, Cronenberg embellishes proceedings further by having those she attacks not remember what took place and most notably, and hence the name of the film, having them infected by a virulent rabies virus that makes them want to join in the flesh and blood hunger games too. It's all a rather far-fetched and over engineered set up for what ultimately comes down to a zombie-esque outbreak but like Shivers with its parasitical sex leeches, Cronenberg manages to not just get the viewer to suspend disbelief but fully on board that the whole thing is plausibly terrifying.

Cronenberg is gifted with the remarkable ability to present the world and the ordinary as not only interesting and natural, but transient and hyper-real; like we're only glimpsing a part of a bigger picture and there's so much more between the cracks. Characters always feel like they have real depth and conversations / behaviour always intimates thoughtfully crafted motivation, though some may be alien or incomprehensible. The effect is to imbue the film with a natural esoteric complexity that's both captivating and disturbing, even putting aside angry armpit penises.

It's well documented now that I don't mandate actual physical deadness in my zombies so with that in mind I'm more than happy to label the rabies infected blood thirsty psychopaths that were unfortunately made by running across Rose as she went about her road trip as such. With frothing snarling mouths, insatiable hunger to hurt anyone in proximity and the apparent now total absence of any empathetic, compassioned or rational self that once occupied the body they're pretty nasty and dangerous crazies and undoubtedly an influence on Boyle's deranged cannibal psychopaths which came some twenty five years later. Rose is more vampire than zombie; her parasitical driver wills her to seek blood, and only human blood, to satiate its overwhelming hunger. She's zombie in so much as she seems unable to resist the hunger, but she's still vampire in still being very much her, with her memories, personality and feelings of guilt and regret.

For all that I enjoyed Rabid I still couldn't help feeling that it lost its way somewhat as the narrative wandered from an alien / Species / slasher to an apocalyptic pandemic in the moments of its inception. Both work as dark and disturbing ideas yet I'm not wholly sure both quite mesh together in as coherent and natural way as hoped. Very much of its time, this seventies horror is inventive, well-crafted with many iconic scenes, and an obvious influence on the zombie / infection craze which exploded. Whilst it doesn't quite hold together as well as Shivers it's still a gutsy, bloody not-dead zombie film that's never superficial or insulting despite a central premise that is quite audaciously daft, 6/10.

Steven@WTD.

Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House - review

1997 (Canada)

2004 20th Century Fox DVD R(1) Watched on Netflix

Contains spoilers.

Well this is a bit of departure, but I did say I was going to review it all. My daughter's a big fan of the PG rated late nineties adaptation of American author R. L. Stine's horror shorts. They're fun and exciting little self contained stories with Stine getting the fine balance of scary and family friendly right every time and the US/Canadian television interpretations are well made and true to the source with Stine even beginning each with a small narration. Each episode usually drops one or more children, quite often siblings into evil and frightening situations where they, without adult help, have to use their own abilities and imagination to win the day. It's child friendly, so there's never any deaths, the children are never on the receiving end of direct violence and there's always a happy ending, yet Stine, as my daughter will attest, certainly knows how fashion a stressful situations a child can get into.

Egyptian mummies, Monsters, Werewolves and possessed magic items all story themes played with but it's the two part adaptation of his first book published in 1992, and my daughter telling me all about it after watching it on Netflix that's the focus of this review.

Brother and sister Amanda (Amy Stewart) and Josh Benson (Ben Cook) have been forced to relocate some five hundred miles to the town of Dark Falls for their fathers work. It's your typical children's haunted house of horror, the building itself is dilapidated and in desperate need of modernisation and a lick of paint, the neighbour hood is overgrown and run down, and the neighbours act suspiciously and keep to the shadows. No sooner than they arrive Amanda begins to feel something isn't right briefly glancing a face at the bedroom window that of course her parents disregard as a gust of wind or a trick of the light. Things go from bad to worse and in full scooby-doo / gothic-panto glory lightning, thunder, sinister piano music, mystery voices and barking dogs are all used to tell us the Bensons are in for a rough couple of days.

Part 1 ambled along pretty safely; overly friendly neighbours introduced themselves yet shied away from an old family wreath reputed to bring good luck that had been hung, weird pale skinned neighbourhood kids acted strangely and even a few good scary moments, all directed at Amanda with strange sightings, something breaking at the wall in her wardrobe and even a ghostly visitation and dire warning. It was fun, reasonably coherent and well acted family friendly entertainment; not especially my cup of tea but I could go with it. I came into this understanding it was, as my daughter put it, all about the living dead and if these walking talking neighbours were the zombies then that was fine.

I was wrong though and nothing quite prepared for me for where it was all going in part 2. Eventually with the children searching the woods for Petey their dog who'd escaped, they stumbled upon a graveyard, and the entirety of the neighbourhood who had seemingly convened for a town council style meeting. The realtor (estate agent) was here, as was the neighbours daughter, the town fireman, the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker (probably); however gone was the slightly off tone skin tone, and friendly rational demeanour. Here were zombies, grey and blemished rotting undead parasites discussing how they needed to siege the house for the Bensons blood. There was no sugar coating it; they were dead and they wanted Amanda and Josh to join them.

Giving the zombies the two states is quite a fun little idea and not a million miles away from Dead & Buried. On the one hand they're living out some strange fantasy existence pretending to be who they once were to gain the new families trust, however underneath they're vampiric brainless corpses with a singular uncontrollable appetite for blood. They're not who they used to be; they're an echo of their old self, a charade able to remember but only in the pragmatic sense that this might help them to satiate their hunger. For a simple children's story Stine shows a surprising amount of sophistication and the story is refreshingly complete and compelling. The make up is edgy with more than passing resemblance to Romero's offspring, albeit with blood itself off the table, their movements are purposeful and menacing and the final siege of house is scary and suitably relentless with undead bursting through walls and gnashing their teeth, and for a moment I could almost have mistaken it all for something far more grown up.

Welcome to Dead House is fine example of how to make children's horror fun and light yet also not insulting or overly dumb. A great little self contained story; narrative isn't as rigid as it perhaps would be in an adult tale, with several scenes of misdirection never really fleshed out but it all works for a target audience that doesn't really need it to. The central story feels strong and satisfying, production values, music and acting are all as competent as you'd want and the zombies are well made up and genuinely intimidating. Undeniably one for kids (probably not small ones though) there might just about be enough here for big old hairy kids like me too, 6/10.

Steven@WTD.

The Mask of Satan (Black Sunday) - review

1960 (Italy)

2013 Arrow Video Blu-ray R(B/2)

Contains mild spoilers.

The Mask of Satan (aka Black Sunday, redubbed, rescored and tamed a little for the US) is a sumptuous visual treat and widely regarded as one of the finest cinematic gothic horror fairy-tales with directors Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Tim Burton all citing its influence. Despite being banned for eight years in the UK by an over-sensitive conservative reactionary committee for several dark and shocking scenes it's really the tangible and constant atmosphere of dread that flits seamlessly though and along all facets of the film that defines Mario Bava's full directorial debut. The Mask of Satan is a film at one with itself; flowing with grace and ease from one scene to the next, full of symbolism and subtlety yet telling a very real story with a firm unambiguous back story and climax.

The opening five minutes is evocative and provocative cinema at its finest; a bewitching and haunting sequence that demonstrates directorial confidence and skill. It's a dark brooding night and Asa Vajda (Barbara Steele) and her lover Javutich (Arturo Dominici) are dragged up onto wooden posts to face the most severe of punishments by the inquisition for devil worshipping and witchcraft. Before the mask of Satan, a cruel iron-maiden-esque metal depiction of the devil punctuated with internal nails is hammered on to her face and she is burned alive she manages to scream out a curse on her brother, the head of the inquisition, and their family line declaring she will have her revenge though the bloodline. The thump of the hammer as the mask is driven into her head is sadistic, gratuitous and shocking. It's also one of the main reasons the film was banned, yet without it's inclusion the scene would lose the impact and focus it had and deprive of us of one of cinema's most iconic scenes. 

200 years later and Dr. Thomas Kruvajan (Andrea Checchi) and his assistant Dr. Andre Gorobec (John Richardson), travelling through Moldavia come across her burial tomb and you know how things are, one thing leads to another, the crucifix standing guard at the end of her resting place gets broken, her mask is removed and Dr. Kruvajan manages to snag his hand, dripping blood onto her surprisingly fresh looking face. I really don't want to spoil the plot, but I don't think I'll be giving too much away by saying that it looks like she might be getting that chance of revenge after all, especially with the nearby castle now being occupied with her brothers direct descendants, Prince Vajda (Garrani), his son Constantine (Enrico Oliveiri) and his daughter Katia (Steele again) who just happens to be the spitting image and exactly the same age as Asa, when she was killed.

An aversion to the cross, blood for rejuvenating, hypnotic suggestion of the weak, puncture marks on the neck, only coming out at night and resting in a sarcophagus during the day all point to vampires and this is certainly right. A. Boylan at Taliesin Meets the Vampires argues that Asa is a witch vampire in keeping with Romanian mythology, and the strigoï vii (a living witch type vampire) and strigoï mort (the undead variety, which the vii becomes after death). This witch/vampire cross over certainly fits with her psychic ability to drain Katia and the recommended method of dispatch which isn't by wooden stake through the heart, but by piercing the left (evil) eye.

So what does this have to do with zombies? Other than Asa, the undead whether summoned like Javutich to climb from his two hundred year old slumber in unconsecrated ground, or those more recently turned, act as mere puppets to her will. Though able to talk with occasional glimpses of the person they once were, they are stripped of their self and soul and unable to refuse her commands however unsavoury or malevolent. I'm not going to pretend The Mask of Satan is any way a traditional zombie film but those woken / reanimated / turned to protect and serve her are of definite genre interest and show many of signs of the genre-fusion we've seen before in an Eastern European mythology and folklore full of vampires, revenants and the draugr. One must also remember the year is 1960 and it would be many years before Romero would usher in the new wave. Zombies were still transitioning from the new world and magic to the west and scientific dogmatism; they were still synonymous with slave/servent and it wasn't yet established whether they even had to be physically dead. The undead vampire-esque slaves of Asa depicted here, are valid enough in this transitional period and we should always be mindful not to under estimate the vampire's part in the zombie story. 

The Mask of Satan has little to fault. Steele shines amidst equally solemn and assured casting and acting performances, and the cohesive and satisfying narrative is accompanied by equally exquisite photographic direction and pacing that makes each scene a delight to flow along with. Bava has a real knack for allowing sequences to evolve with single long sumptuous sweeping shots that start on small details only to pan out without breaks or changing camera and the results are beautiful, stylish and utterly absorbing. The moody black and white palette compliments the gothic ambience and Roberto Nicolosi's musical score is an accomplished and understated accompaniment (there was a new more generic horror score by  Les Baxter for the US release which I've not heard.) The Mask of Satan is a cinematic triumph full of flare and vision with plenty of zombie genre crossover to warrant it's inclusion. Magical, powerful, it's recommended, 9/10.

Steven@WTD.

Demons 2 (The Nightmare Returns) - review

1986 (Italy)

2012 Arrow Films Demons 1 & 2 Steelbook Blu-ray R(B/2) 

Contains mild spoilers.

I rarely see any mention of Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento Demons duology in zombie film discussions. It's as if horns and bad teeth are enough to cement the notion demons can't be zombies and zombies most definitely don't originate from the fiery pits of hell. Me? I'm more relaxed on the subject. Global viral pandemic, mad scientist, interstellar parasitical space moss, I don't care, take away the person who once had control and replace him, or her, with a drive and will they have no command over, whether that's rabid and instinctual or as the puppet of an actual master, and I'll call zombie. I know this leads me into deep waters, and at some point I'll have to actually think about drug addiction, mental health, economic slavery etc, but for now, all I'll say after watching the maniacal flesh hungry monsters of Demons 2 torment and rampage the occupants of a high rise apartment block, is I've never watched anything more zombie in my life.

The cinema screen this time is replaced by the television but the story is the same as number one. A group of intrepid, albeit naive kids stumbling around ancient ruins (this time the cityscape, it is narrated, which was ruined as a direct consequence of the outbreak and subsequent demon war of the first film), entirely avoidably set in motion a new demon resurrection which then somehow metaphysically spills into the real world of those watching. Ok, I'll acknowledge this meta-narrative-pre-amble that's copied from the first doesn't quite work as well; I mean who would either watch a quite lame demonic horror film at the dinner table or leave their young kid home alone with the remote and the permission to watch what they like, but I will acknowledge it's at least trying to continue the same esoteric duel narrative, and the first demon pushing itself out of screen is at least dark and eerie to watch.

The first victim is an angst ridden prima-donna sulking in her bedroom and ignoring all those party-goers I don't believe for one second would have actually turned up for her birthday party, Sally Day (Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni). A scratch, a bite and as she stumbles shocked back into the party to blow out her candles (yes, we're honestly supposed to believe that 18 year-olds of the eighties thought partying involved dancing and balloons and not getting utterly shit-faced) her veins start pumping, her teeth and nails start extending and she's ready to spread the fun. It's all cliché, tried and tested single location zombie horror without any character development or deep narrative but honestly Demons 2 is one of the best zombie films I've seen. There, I've said it. It has everything you'd want from the sort of film it's set out to be. There's claustrophobic scares, desperate survival horror, brilliantly gruesome choreographed murders and it's all done at break-neck speed to a fantastic eighties British new wave soundtrack which includes The Smiths and The Cult. I said watching crazed zombie-demons savagely torment the cinema-goers to 'Fast As A Shark' was good, well it was just as much fun with 'Power' by Fields of Nephilim.

Bava and Argento know what they're doing. The script doesn't stray, the tension, pressure and deaths intensify perfectly and the whole film flows with from scene to scene with ease. For the quantity of visitors and residence screaming and running about the film concentrates focus on a surprisingly few number. Hannah (Nancy Brilli), a pregnant woman after some of the reveller's cake, her husband  George (David Edwin Knight), who gets trapped in the elevator with working girl Mary (Virginia Bryant) and the star of the show the returning Bobby Rhodes as Hank the over exuberant body building grand-pedagogue who takes leadership of the panicking lycra wearing, shirtless eighties survivors in the underground car park. They're all competently portrayed caricatures you never particularly care about, but they play their roles as inevitable cannon fodder as well as required allowing the unquestionable star of the show to shine.

Sergio Stivaletti is again a make-up and effects wizard coming up trumps with zombie demons that appear and act with equal authenticity and fantasticalness. The first demon is brought back to life, or reanimated, it's never clear, by inadvertent drops of blood to its mouth and fangs and it's all very vampirish. Once through the veil and into our world it spreads the infection via bites, a scratch or if anyone is particularly unlucky to ingest any of the blood which corrodes and burns between floors like possessed acid. Turning zombie is pretty fast and once toothed to max it would appear all self is gone and the only desire is to rabidly hunt and attack anyone in sight. Like I said, in appearance and behaviour it's all zombie; there's no references to the devil, there's no magical abilities (other than the glowing eyes) and they're very much of our world limited to sight, hearing and being shot. If it wasn't for the mutations these films would appear on every zombie buff's film list and their fast pace and acrobatic movements along with high rate of infection might be even be referred to as the catalyst for the change in zombie pace we now see, rather than Boyle's imaginings which came sixteen years later. Talking of mutations I will mention both Toto the demon dog and the impish rubber demon that rips itself out of the young Tommy (Marco Vivio & Davide Marotta), which are quite frankly laughably appalling even by eighties standards. These aside there's really nothing production wise to gripe about though; it's authentic, sumptuously shot and stitched together with some quite beautiful lighting, and has the perfect amount of blood and death to satisfy any gore-hounds cravings.

Gripping from start to finish Demons 2 may be more of the same, retro derivative nonsense, with a confusing back story and forgettable acting , but when it's fashioned this well that's fine by me. I've noted it doesn't have many fans and I know it's not perfect but I genuinely enjoyed every minute of it recognising the many zombie tropes which crop up and admiring the artistry in the way it was all captured. Fast, action packed, gory and fun, Demons 2 might not quite reach the heights as its predecessor but taken together they're probably my favourite horror pairing. I also couldn't help but think a third (official) entry in the series, called Demons 3D with the demons popping through as the only thing with depth could be truly amazing; albeit I'll admit, a tad gimmicky. Maybe I'll drop Lamberto a line, 8/10.

Steven@WTD.

The Ghost Galleon (Horror of the Zombies) - review

1974 (Spain)

2005 Blue Underground The Blind Dead Collection DVD R(1)

Contains spoilers.

I'm starting to think Spanish horror film writer and director Amando de Ossorio was a bit of a misogynist. Twenty minutes into The Ghost Galleon, the third entry in his Blind Dead tetralogy we'd been privy to a bikini photo shoot, the idea two young pretty models could be persuaded to sail far off shore in the North Atlantic on a publicity stunt in, you guessed it, skimpy shorts and bikini tops and then had to endure one of his trademark obligatory and totally narratively unnecessary rapes. I may be a bit of a new man out of touch with my inner caveman, but I can still let the odd bit of masculine posturing slide, especially recognising the time some films were shot, but honestly with three rapes in three films now, all of which felt tacked on, it's getting a bit weary. Anyway... The Ghost Galleon or Horror of the Zombies as it's called in the US.

Amando de Ossorio was interviewed in 2001 for a documentary of his life entitled Amando de Ossorio: The Last Templar, which is included on the five disk Blind Dead collection released by Blue Underground. In it he bemoaned the pitiful budgets he was forced to work with and how the finished films never resembled his original vision and, three films in now, I'd argue The Ghost Galleon is the most indicative of all this. If anything Return of the Evil Dead was slightly too ambitious; the sets were expansive, the action large and the characters numerous and it suffered for biting off more than it could chew. There was a lack of attention to detail, sequences didn't flow and the effects and prosthetics were a total hodgepodge.

Everything about The Ghost Galleon feels tempered and restrained in comparison. In many ways it's a return to the tight and tense moody claustrophobic atmosphere of the first, and this was certainly not a bad move, though even against this it feels significantly reined in. From start to finish every scene is laboriously and painfully dragged out; whether it's climbing ladders, exploring the galleon or being dragged by the blind dead Templars to one's death, there's never any snappy editing, or skipping showing the excruciatingly obvious or ordinary. It wouldn't be all bad if there was a pay off at the end of each repetitious and long winded appetiser but more often than not it was simply followed by something equally as trite and bland. I'll admit the story is fairly coherent and the characters and acting competent, and it certainly never offended me the same way as Return of the Evil Dead did, but it all can't make up for the fact there's just a sheer lack of content.

Take the story. Noemi (Bárbara Rey) a swimsuit model confronts her boss Lillian (Maria Perschy) about her room-mate Kathy (Blanca Estrada) who's been missing for a few days. Threatening a missing person report Lillian takes Noemi to a disused quayside building to meet business man Howard Tucker (Jack Taylor) who tells her she's on a top secret publicity stunt out far out in the North Atlantic ocean where she, and actress want-to-be Lorena Kay (Margarita Merino) will pretend they're lost, get rescued and everyone will talk about his new sturdy boat. They do get lost, though it's in a swirl of hot mist and fog and they do get rescued though, again, it's not good as it's by our friends the 8th Century (I swear this changes every film) undead blind blood thirsty warlocks.

All this is really to get two girls in swim wear out in the water and another gang out to look for them. It doesn't really make much sense when you think about it, though with the idea of transdimensional 8th century zombie devil worshippers on a 16th Century galleon magically held together picking on stray small vessels in our dimension, I guess it doesn't matter too much. Howard Tucker and Lillian, concerned how the loss of the two girls will look on their resumes put together a rescue team including the now captive and raped Noemi (who's still happy to wear her bikini), Howard's dirty right hand man Sergio (Manuel de Blas) and meteorologist cum scribe of ancient Atlantic ghost vessels Professor Grüber (Carlos Lemos) and they set off and successfully find the galleon with surprising ease.

There's not a lot to add. The team board the boat, find signs the girls had been there and decide the best course of action is a long nap. The Knights appear, Noemi gets her head chopped off in the single scene of blood or gore (it really hasn't been her day), the knights disappear, the gang have another look around and find some material that tries to make sense of it all, the knights reappear again and people get chased ponderously about by an enemy that moves as slow as the narrative.

They're still the blind dead warlocks, excommunicated for devil worshipping occult practices they brought back from the East and they're still the same skeletal mummified lethargic hairy chinned cadavers. It's a boat though so this time there's no horses and there's only a handful of them to fend off. One thing is new though. Professor Grüber is the first character of the series to not only successfully identify them for what they are, but to have an idea of how to defeat them. The pact with the devil that granted them immortality, of a sort, he presumes also makes them susceptible to exorcism. He also notes as they only come out at night, perhaps they're harmless during the day and suggests they throw them overboard. I'll be honest I'd have thought in five hundred years someone else would have thought of this. Are they zombies? There's definitely a bit of cross vampire genre fusing going on with the flaming crucifix, sleeping in coffins during the day and Satan as the ever agreeable soul taking enabler, but the shuffling, flesh eating and out stretched arms paint another picture. The transdimensional gubbins, with the boat existing magically outside our reality is certainly new to the series but the whole thing's got so ludicrous by now I'm not going to argue.

The Ghost Galleon is, as Amando de Ossorio stated some odd twenty-six years later, a victim of its own devices. I believe him when he says the Blind Dead films could have been something quite special as despite all its flaws there's at times an quite exquisitely suspenseful unique yet pervasive atmosphere to the films, even here. The stories are also always reasonably coherent with touches of original vision and there's always an attempt to make the characters real and complicated with flaws and depth; even if it more often than not doesn't quite succeed. I can't gloss over the cracks though. The Ghost Galleon is not a good film; ponderous, cheap and severely lacking in action, content and good sense, 3/10.

Steven@WTD.

Tombs of the Blind Dead - review

1971 (Spain/Portugal)

2005 Blue Underground The Blind Dead Collection DVD R(1)

Contains spoilers.

  

Betty Turner (Lone Fleming) has had a bad week. Her best friend and old school roommate with benefits is murdered and mutilated, her new male friend without benefits gets his arm chopped off and dies in her arms, she's chased and harried for miles by an army of immortal medieval undead horse riding knights who want to drink her blood inadvertently bringing the whole zombie gang with her to the local town where they'll probably start their brutal slaughter and oppression of the whole planet, and if she does eventually get to return to her mannequin business, she'll find that burnt to the ground too. As I said, bad week; oh, and I didn't even mention she was raped.

Tombs of the Blind Dead or Revenge from Planet Ape, yeah seriously as distributors tried to spin it to a US audience that a) seemed to really like monkey apocalypses and b) they thought were really quite gullible, is a 1971 Spanish horror from esteemed director Amando de Ossorio and the first of four films all focused on the same blind dead knights, and it's rather good. Virginia (María Elena Arpón) bumps into her old roommate Betty, introducing her to her friend Roger Whelan (César Burner) who suggests they all take a trip out the city get some fine county air for a day or two. Things turn sour on the train ride though as Roger's amorous and reciprocated moves towards Betty unnerves and upsets Virginia. She concludes that as two's company and three's a crowd, the best thing to do, obviously, is throw herself from the moving train and to take up residence at the local ruined medieval town and graveyard of Berzano.

It might sound a bit ridiculous when put like this, but it never comes across as such. Victoria, like all the characters are successfully presented as complex multifaceted individuals with depth and back story, and her actions leading her to spend a night in the dilapidated spooky abandoned fort, whilst from the comfort of the sofa seem ill-advised, does manage to avoid appearing unduly convenient or contrived. It's this ability to present the far fetched and implausible as coherent and authentic that elevates Tombs of the Blind Dead above other low budget hammy horror films of the time. Yes, the pacing is slow, the dialogue thick and the makeup and effects a tad weak if we're honest, but the atmosphere is constantly brooding and the narrative always interesting.

Are they zombies though? De Ossorio didn't think so going so far as objecting to the use of the word. He saw them more like mummies with intelligent malevolence rather than shambling reanimates without reason or sense. I personally think there's enough room to manoeuvre; yes they're skeletal and yes I recently said reanimated skeletons like those in Jason and the Argonauts, didn't really count, but these guys aren't magical boney puppets controlled by the will of another, they're reanimated long dead corpses, reacting and moving independently. Heck it's dangerous ground I know; one could argue that zombies originated as the puppets of their voodoo master and I'll have to write some thoughts down on zombies and control at some point. Anyhoo...

There were these knights, you see, that six hundred odd years ago returned from the East with treasure, a new found interest in the occult and witchcraft and the whimsical notion that sacrificing virgins and drinking their blood could give them immortality. The powers that be didn't think much to any of this so they captured and executed them, leaving their bodies hanging from trees to dissuade others from thinking it was a good idea. The story goes that whilst dangling some crows took a particular interest in their eyes hence the idea of immortal blind dead knights and the tagline/original-quirk for the franchise. Unlike Romero and Fulci, de Ossorio provides a clear origin-story and ok it's far fetched and sacrificing virgins is by today's standards all a bit cliché and silly, but yet again it all manages to come across authentic and plausible. 

So are they zombies? Well they're definitely dead and reanimated and they still like the taste of fresh blood. Ok, they can ride horses, but they were trained riders and even Romero isn't against letting that bit of residual muscle memory remain as seen in Survival of the Dead. We also have undead Virginia to think of too, who's up and about because she's been bitten. I understand de Ossorio decided not to repeat this more western Romero style zombiefication of victims in later films but he did here and while there's certainly a bit of zompire ambiguity with her going for the neck and blood I do think it's all leaning quite hard towards the Z as she shuffles about arms out front.

Tombs of the Blind Dead is a brooding, moody intelligent horror full of 70's continental European flair, surrealism and eccentricity. Complex characters are allowed to take centre stage in an intelligent creepy and extremely atmospheric horror film that oozes macrabre style and atmosphere. It also contains several, even by today's standards, quite shocking and disturbing scenes without ever being overly exploitative. With constant great scene composition and the ambition to mix it all up with slow-mo de Ossorio has crafted a brilliant undead film that really stands the test of time. As if things can't get any better it's also all accompanied by a hauntingly good score. There really is very little to complain about and I'd recommend this without hesitation, 8/10.

I managed to get my grubby mitts on the Blue Underground coffin box collectors edition and the quality of the transfer is nigh on perfect and if anything might actually be slightly too good showing the low budget 70's effects and animatronics up somewhat. With both the original Spanish with excellent English subtitles and English Dub version on the disc this is the version to get.

WTD.

I Am Legend - review

2007 (USA)

2008 Warner Home Video Blu-ray R(All) 

Contains spoilers.

I've never hidden the fact that reading Richard Matheson's 1954 zompire novel was heavily influential in my decision to look a little closer at zombie cinema and ultimately create this blog. As well as a bloody good post apocalyptic yarn I couldn't help notice that despite the fact the protagonists were clearly labelled as vampires their behaviour and the setting were remarkably modern zombie and their appearance was some ten years earlier than Romero. Before Matheson zombies were inexorably tied up with voodoo and magic; but his novel and The Last Man on Earth adaptation were the catalyst that allowed for the all new zombie of Night of the Living Dead. It was the green light so to speak to talk in terms of infection, virus, pandemic and move on from the Caribbean and the drums. The Last Man on Earth adaptation was almost perfect but let down by feeling the need to include a more action packed, but against the grain, gun-toting finale, which leads us nicely on to this film. Ultimately how one feels about the use of such artistic licence, will determine whether I Am Legend is a legitimate success, or an abomination that should never have seen the life of day.

This 2007 big budget block buster adaptation has A-list Will Smith as Robert Neville, this time a virologist and Lieutenant Colonel smack bang at ground zero. From the off it's clear we're in for a much more frantic and cinematically ambitious ride. Helicopters swoop, bridges explode and we get to witness society on the brink of collapse on a larger scale with more ferocity and finesse than ever before. It's dazzling and breathtaking but it's not the I Am Legend I'm used to.

The novel was written in 1954 and The Last Man on Earth ten years later. The mainstream cinema audience today are a far more demanding bunch with bigger and more grandiose expectations. I don't think cinematic ambition has altered, it's just now, with multi-million dollar budgets and modern technology, able to throw off limitations on a scale previously unimaginable. All director Francis Lawrence has done, is take the central premise of the story, the characters, the message and thrown 21st Century film making at it, and you know what, half an hour in I was thoroughly enjoying myself and starting to respect what I was watching. I Am Legend as it was had been done, successfully I might add, why not take a few liberties?

First thing first, and the most important in my mind. The infected of I Am Legend aren't dead. Obviously heavily taking influence from Boyle's 28 Days Later they catch the bug and go a bit loopy but they don't die and reanimate, they can't take death-shots to the body and they can't be called undead. As infected humans they also get to keep their abilities to run, climb and leap in quite the manner juxtaposed to the original vision, and as such the action sequences are noisier, more frantic and more explosive. 

There's two ways to look at these liberties / differences; yes on face value they're poles apart but underneath there is much that is similar. Lawrence could have made them out and out zombies or vampires but he didn't. They're ambiguous, a hybrid of sorts, there's still the nod to vampirism as they burn on contact with UV and have the insatiable thirst for blood, but there's still the pack mentality, the lack of will with the rabid instinctual behaviour associated with zombies, and like the book there's an attempt to ground it all in science. There's also the nod to the idea they're possibly regaining some higher brain function, as an evolved effect of a new species-state, and this is all linked to an appearance of sorts of Neville's old neighbour Ben Cortman with one particular darkseeker (what Neville calls them) showing particular curiosity.

The rest of the narrative changes are cosmetic in my eyes. Yes he starts with his dog instead of finding him but what is important, their relationships ability to convey Neville's loneliness is just as poignant. Yes Ruth becomes  Anna and Ethan, and scenes and sequences are all different but the books essence is still very much alive. As for the ending, and it's this which provokes the biggest backlash, yes it's at odds with the book. Neville doesn't become the 'legend' as the last of a now extinct race, this time he now becomes a 'legend' as the man who saved the human race and yes I know it misses the point, but I'm going to take it for what it is and happily say I can live with both.

As for the film. New York City adorned in post apocalyptic splendour is feast for the eyes. With fauna abound untamed, and smashings of urban decay and destruction Lawrence's vision is an unparalleled success. Long silences raise Will Smith's performance to one of greatness and help transmit an authentic picture of a man fighting the pain and despair of chronic isolation. I found his portrayal reminiscent of Tom Hanks in Castaway, full of paranoia, insanity and changeable mood, and dare I say just as convincing as Vincent Prices was. One small grievance is the CG of the darkseekers themselves, which I felt came across a little jarring and bit too artificial. It was the one let down of the film though wasn't quite enough to spoil the ride.

A breathtaking roller-coaster ride, lavishly presented and perfectly paced it's a stunning piece of cinema. Poignant, moving and in my opinion as legitimate a modern re-interpretation as you're likely to see. Will Smith is immense as Neville and captures the essence of his character with all his imperfections and Lawrence truly delivers a post apocalyptic cityscape that feels at once boundless and claustrophobic. If you want an authentic pound for pound vision, The Last Man on Earth is the closest thing and the one for you, if you want something new and shinier but with the same soul though, you won't be disappointed. A majestic film, alas, just not a zombie one, 8/10.

WTD.

Dead of Night (Deathdream) - review

1972 (Canada/UK)

Nucleus Films DVD R(0) Double Feature with Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things

Contains spoilers.

Wow, what a bit more time and money can do. Six months after Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things was completed director Bob Clark and many of the returning cast began production on an altogether more technically and artistically ambitious zombie title and the extra time, money and experience is clear from the opening scenes. Children Shouldn't Play was charming and funny and I liked it a lot, but it was undeniably amateurish and resembled more the work of a film studies student than a seasoned director. Dead of Night is an altogether different proposition; with a mature thought provoking and coherent story, confident direction and production and minimalistic, in style, dialogue delivered convincingly.

Andy Brooks (Richard Backus), a war weary young Vietnam soldier has returned home to his doting mum Christine (Lynn Carlin), father Charles (John Marley) and sister Cathy (the returning Anya Ormsby). Numb, hollow and angry at the world Alan finds it hard to reintegrate with a family that expected the same loving son that left to return, as they struggle with how they should respond and react to someone who is obviously scarred from the experience. It's powerful stuff with complex fully realised characters and all the unspoken complicated interpersonal relationship hangups you'd expect.

Alan spends his time rocking back and forth alone in silence on the chair in his bedroom and all attempts to cajole him back to life by his increasingly desperate father and sister all fall flat. He won't eat, refuses to see his old girl friend Joanne (Jane Daly) and begins to behave in increasingly antisocial ways that scare his family who become polarised in how they should respond.

On the surface what we have is a personal drama of the war weary veteran struggling to reassimilate with family, friends and society; it's the allegory of the damage the horrors of war does to those that survive it. But it's more. You see Alan is not only metaphorically dead, but is actually dead. Whether it's the passion from a mother who refuses to accept he won't return or the power to have vengeance on a society that sent him to die, either way after being shot in the line of duty here he is reanimated and returned home.

Andy is an altogether different kind of zombie. I've reviewed films in which infected people behave like mindless zombies, like 28 Days Later and The Crazies, but this plays out more the other way round. He's definitely dead, with no pulse, no heartbeat and decaying flesh but he can talk, he can drive a car and seems to have self awareness and both the instinct and appetite for self preservation. As a returning emotionally drained war veteran it's a brilliant duality, a brilliant metaphor and perfectly realised. In many ways he reminded me of the undead from The Last Man on Earth; he knows what he is and he knows who he was, he's the same but different.

Let's not forget that this is still a horror film though. Alan requires blood to maintain the illusion and his self preservation instinct drives him to kill for it. Without blood which he seems both happy to get direct from the source, so to speak, by tearing into people or from extracting and injecting it, he soon deteriorates, his flesh falls off and begins to resemble the ghoul that he is. Like The Last Man on Earth Alan isn't quite the zombie in the traditional sense, yet he's also not a vampire or revenant; it's unique and complex.

Dead of Night is a very good film. Each scene is powerful yet simple with the quality of the script and acting allowed to be front and centre and dictate the pace. Clark also demonstrates extreme confidence in his directing, filling the film with long meaningful gaps and silences and letting a very deliberate pace dictate the tension as much as the narrative does. The film works on many levels, a provocative anti-war film, a dark subdued horror and a complex family drama; there's a lot going on and everything works together beautifully. Powerful, mature and expertly delivered; recommended, 8/10.

Steven@WTD