Turkish Star Wars and Blood Diner Haunt the Spectacle Midnite Screen This Weekend

For those of you who were eagerly awaiting my NYC happenings last week, I'm sorry to disappoint. I spent the weekend in New England with friends and family. Yes, there are actaully things in life that come before Grindhouse cinema. Thankfully, Spectacle has so much shit going on this weekend, and can't be contained in one blog entry.


I should really try to write this sooner, because tonight kicks down the door to the weekend with Dr. Caligari(1989), an 80's adaption to the classic silent horror from almost a century ago.

Spectacle says - "Meet the surrealistic psychiatrist with the camp couch. She's totally twisted and continuing the mind bending experiments of her grandfather, the original Dr. Caligari. She treats her patients like human lab rats as she swaps their psychoses with cross cranial conulations. Witness the sexual fantasies of a lovely, lust-crazed Dr. Caligari -- an eroto-maniac! You'll be shocked by her high voltage therapy for a 'juiced-up' cannibal. Sigmund Freud is turning somersaults in his mausoleum over this doctor's demented diagnosis. Fall victim to the captivating Dr. Caligari! "I can't possibly make it sound as good as it is by describing it. I'm afraid I must demand that you see this for yourself with your analyst! Dr. Caligari is the biggest explosion of eclectic erotica in years, and it can sizzle your brain!"


Tomorrow night, August 12th, the perverted fucks over at Lunchmeat VHS and Horror Boobs are bringing down the house with a screening of the schlocktastic classic, Blood Diner(1987).


IMDB says - "Two cannibals/health food diner owners are on a wacky quest to restore life to the five million year old goddess Shitaar. Aided by their uncle's brain and penis, the two set about getting the required parts - virgins, assorted body parts from whores, and the ingredients for a "blood buffet". Their adversaries are the police: the chief with a Russian accent, the "player" detective, and the new Yorker with an Australian accent."


On Saturday, August 13th, we get the cherry on top of the cheese-flavored cake, because Spectacle is showing THE crowning achievement in Turkish cinema, The Man Who Saves the World, known affectionately worldwide as Turkish Star Wars(1982). A film of my own heart, I reviewed this film years ago when I first started this blog (review here). This is the film that was made for people who read this blog. People erect monuments and devote websites to it's greatness. If you have not seen it this is the weekend to finally feel what it's like to be touched by God aka Turkish action hero, Cüneyt Arkin.

Spectacle says - "
Presenting the no-budget, schlocky, shamelessly poor and shockingly inept sci-fi curio Turkish Star Wars (aka Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam/ dir. Çetin Inanç/ 1982/ 91min) a hilarious and gloriously bad movie for the ages that borrows liberally from LucasFilm (pirated effects shots from “A New Hope” and, oddly, John Williams’ theme from “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” repeated over and over) and barely bothers to make the slightest bit of sense.

"The film follows the adventures of Murat and Ali, whose spaceships crash on a desert planet following a battle, depicted by using footage from SW as well as Soviet and American space program newsreel clips. While hiking across the desert, they speculate that the planet is inhabited only by women. Murat does his "wolf whistle", which he uses on attractive women. However, he blows the wrong whistle and they are attacked by skeletons on horseback, which they defeat in hand-to-hand combat. The villain soon shows up and captures the heroes, bringing them to his gladiatorial arena so they can fight. The villain tells them he is actually from Earth and is in a 1,000 year old wizard. He tried to defeat Earth, but was always repelled by a shield of concentrated human brain molecules, which looks a lot like the Death Star..."

Check link below: Film Threat on the peculiar Turkish tradition of appropriating Hollywood blockbusters and “remaking them on a budget roughly equivalent to the price of lunch at a neighborhood kebab shop.” (contains spoilers.) After the screening we’ll drink and discuss which was more uncalled for: this lunacy or Lucas' ill-advised prequels."

Spectacle 124 S. 3rd St., (at Bedford Ave.)Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Trailer Release for Cuba's 1st Horror- Juan of the Dead

As far as zombie movies are concerned, I'm just as burned out as the rest of y'all motherfuckers. Truth be told, with the market oversaturation since the release of Land of the Dead several years back, I could go years before entertaining the idea of watching a new zombie movie. The exception being, of course, The Walking Dead, but that doesn't really count because it's a television show. As of today, I have found a new exception: A zombie movie from Cuba. Never before have I seen a movie from Cuba, much less a horror movie. I feel like I'm committing a federal crime just by talking about it.

According to Slashfilm and Dread Central, Juan of the Dead(2011) takes place 50 years after the Revolution. Cuba has become overrun with zombies, a blame which is being placed on the US Goverment(go figure!). Our hero Juan, decides the best way to use this lemon is to make lemonade, and takes it upon himself to start slaughtering animated corpses, but for a price. As far as I can tell from the trailer, Juan of the Dead could be compared to Sean of the Dead(duh) but with the social commentary of a dying totalitarian regime. I can live with that, despite the politics. I'm just glad to see Cuba finally become a productive member of film society, at least film that I'm in to.

Here's the trailer, courtesy of Latin Film Reviews:

The Blood Spattered Bride(1972) is Friday's Midnite Specracular...

...at Spectacle and it is yet another movie I know absolutely nothing about. Based on the trailer, I would say it has something to do with vampires, and seeing that it's a Spanish horror from the 70's, I'm going to guess that your going to see a fair amount of skin in this one. It's not like the kids over at Spectacle are ever going to let the Midnite crowd down. If that doesn't give you enough reasons to check it out, head on over to the IMDB entry to see what others have to say.

IMDB says - "A young husband's sexual fantasies frighten his new wife and cause her to seek advice from Carmilla, a descendent of Mircalla de Karnstein. Carmilla seduces the young bride and forces her to commit gory acts of mutilation."

Hmmmm....for some reason I feel like I've heard this story before. Could it be because their are several European productions, mostly from Spain, about the story of a vampiress named Camilla? I could be wrong(I'm not)but it looks like a popular subject matter in Spanish exploitation horror.

Fun Facts(or shall I say fact, because their is ony one on IMDB.....The Anchor Bay release of the film is in English, also dubbed in English to clean up the Spanish accents of the actors attempting English throughout. It is not likely that a Spanish language version of this film exists.

Friday, July 1st at Midnight @ Spectacle 124 S. 3rd St., (at Bedford Ave.)Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Critters(1986)

Directed by Stephen Herek(Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure,Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead)

Produced by Rupert Harvey(Android,A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child)

Starring Dee Wallace(The Stepford Wives,The Hills Have Eyes,Alligator II: The Mutation),Scott Grimes(Critters 2,Night Life) and Terrance Mann(Critters 2, Solar Babies,Big Top Pee-Wee)

"Dude, we're gonna spend the afternoon watching Critters and House."

"Critters sucks, but I think House is cool."

"What do you mean Critters sucks? It's a classic 80's horror comedy."

"Critters is nothing but a poor man's Gremlins."

...and so went the brief conversation I had with my roommate/best friend Nate as he was leaving the apartment on Sunday. I was in shock. How could one who loves schlock as much as I do have hatred for the Critters? It baffled me to no end. Whatever. I let the haterade spill and continued on with the only plans I had for Sunday...to watch two of my favorite horror-comedies from the year 1986 with my best girl. A plan which was executed perfectly. Gremlins rip-off??? Please....

Critter(1986) is one of those 80's movies I assume everybody has seen, but then I realized not everybody is a fan of goofy sci-fi, or even from the same generation as myself, so let me break it down for you. The Critters, aka The Crites, are an extraterrestrial species that can be best described as carnivorous tribbles with huge appetites. Sounds cute, right? Not so much with these toothy, little furballs. Not only do the crites eat everything in sight, edible or not, but the more they eat, the bigger they get. You could say everything they eat goes straight to their hips, and I don't believe they actually have hips. Like tribbles, the cute doesn't last long once you realize they are more of plague than possible plaything. Chances are that this is probably why several of the little, furry fuckers are being held captive on a prison by the galactic powers-that-be. Unfortunately, crites aren't as base as you would think and they actually have the ability to solve complex problems, like stealing a space vessel for escape and headed towards earth. Thankfully, the Crites are being tailed by Ug and his parner, two faceless bounty-hunting bipeds who can take on the facial features of any human they contact to better blend in on alien worlds. Unfortunately, Ug can't get to Earth fast enough to stop the Crites from tormenting a small rural community and we get to see just how destructive 8 little furballs can be.

Obviously, the movie Critters would never have existed if it wasn't for the commercial success of Gremlins, but I wouldn't go as far as to call it a rip-off. Nate's "Poor Man's Gremlins" is a more accurate description. Either way, I don't care. I first saw the movie in theaters way back when, and have probably seen it a dozen times since then, I'll probably see it a dozen or more times in the next decade. I do admit that the older I get the cheesier the movie becomes, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I live for cheese!

I realize the most of the special effects in the movie revolve around mediocre puppeteering, but that is just one of the things that makes Critters more of a comedy than the actual sci-fi horror that it was intended to be. Other things include the Johnny Steele music video and Dee Wallace's over-the-top acting ability. The screaming-in-horror that women can do kept me in tears for the latter half of the movie. Completely ridiculous! I'm actually wondering why Dee wasn't cast in every slasher movie of the 70's and 80's based on her scream alone.

We all know that New Line Cinema were never a company for the high brow, so those of you who were disappointed after the first time you watched this classic should have known better. New Line Cinema and movies like Critters, Killer Klowns, and Night of the Creeps set the bar for comedy-tinged horror and sci-fi during the 80's, and you can still see the influence such films have on movies of the same vein today. So before you, or somebody you know, rants and raves about how much movies like Critters are shit, think about the source of these films and those they might have influenced in the future.

The Visitor(1979) and Then Some on Thursday Evening

It's nice to see Spectacle Theater add an extra night of cult cinema to there already heavy roster. I don't know if WTF!?!? Thursday is going to be a regularly scheduled occurrence, and if it is I'll be the last one complaining. This week's WTF, The Visitor(1984), which I understand is an Italian rip-off of The Omen with sci-fi replacing the satanic. I had never heard of it until this morning, but it sounds like a reason to head into Williamsburg on Thursday night.

Spectacle says - "The holiest of all Holyfuckingshits, The Visitor has the highest JDPM (Jaw Drops Per Minute) ratio of any film of its era, Italian ripoff or not. It's a wonderful mishmash of The Omen and Close Encounters, but that barely hints at the whacked fervor with which director Michael J. Paradise hurls his hastily assembled "all-star" cast (John Huston, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, and, yes, Lance Henriksen) into the cinematic void, sh...owering them with what Austin, TX's revival cinema gem The Alamo Drafthouse has called "a blackhearted blowout of interplanetary possession, telekinetic avian assault, exploding basketballs and ecclesiastical laserstorms". Just when you think you've nailed down which direction the film is heading in, it completely shatters your notion of the time-space continuum with enough force to rival a thousand screenings of Zabriskie Point. If you miss out on this one, then you have as much regard for cinema as you do for a discarded toenail clipping. (Bret Berg - Cinefamily)"



After the main feature, feel free to stick around for Brain Bludgeon, which has no IMDB entry, so there isn't much I can tell you about it besides the one paragraph description I have found on a few different websites: "Sewn together from hundreds of forgotten horror films, BRAIN BLUDGEON is a transcendental fusion of trash exposing the willing to everything curious, bizarre, hilarious and awful about no-budget genre films. Hot penny torture, exploding 3d skulls, brutal "de-fetusing", raping zombies, and much more collide in this blissfully IQ-withering amalgamation of exploitation hell."

Thursday, May 19th at 9:30 PM Midnight @ Spectacle 124 S. 3rd St., (at Bedford Ave.)Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Get Some Bolly-Horror For Your Midnite Fix Tomorrow

Spectacle Theater, Williamsburg's finest purveyors of weekend Midnite Movie entertainment, are going balls out with the Bollywood movies this weekend. So, as you would expect it, tomorrow night's Midnite Movie is going to fall in line with the standard presentations, but with an Indian Twist. So if the Southern Asian cinema is your cream of the crop, take the time out of your busy Friday night drinking schedule to check out Purana Mandir(1984), which is "widely regarded as the greatest Bollywood horror movie of all time".

IMDB says - "Suman lives a wealthy lifestyle along with her widower dad, Thakur Ranvir Singh, and an unmarried aunt, Damyanti, in a palatial house in Bombay. They are direct descendants of Raja Hariman Singh of Bijapur. When Ranvir finds out that Suman is in love with a middle-classed male, Sanjay, he expresses displeasure and forbids her to ever see him again. When she persists, he tells her that there is a curse on the entire family - a curse that was inflicted 200 years ago by a blood-thirsty, flesh-eating demon named Samri. This curse impacts only women in their family, who are hideously transformed after giving birth to their firstborn, and die a painful death. Treating this as mere superstitious, Suman and Sanjay, along with Sanjay's friend, Anand and his wife, Sapna, set out to Bijapur to unearth and put an end to this rumor - not knowing that soon they will resurrect a virtually indestructible Samri."

Friday, May 6th at Midnight @ Spectacle 124 S. 3rd St., (at Bedford Ave.)Williamsburg, Brooklyn

If the description can't convince you check out the trailer below. Singing, martial arts, hindi-wolfmen, and blood showers....what's not to love?

The Shining at Midnite Tomorrow...with a Twist

For the first couple of decades of my life, I could honestly say the scariest movie I had ever seen was The Shining(1980). Many people I've met over my life would agree, and if not it is most definitely considered one of the best horror movies of all time. From beginning to end, with creepy twins, blood waves down hallways, and ghosts dressed up in dog suits, I had nightmares based on the movie for most of my childhood.

Speaking of beginning to end, Spectacle Theater in Williamsburg is going to screening it as such, and vice versa. By this, I mean that a special version of the film will be shown forwards and backwards simultaneously. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? Did I mention this was going to screened in a Williamsburg theater? This is why I'm not really surprised. Some of you might find the idea interest, I on the other hand, am a purist when it comes to the scariest movie of my childhood. For those of you unsure, check out the sample at the bottom of this entry. It looks like it could be fun, to say the least, especially under the influence of hallucinogenics.

Thursday, May 5th at Midnight @ Spectacle 124 S. 3rd St., (at Bedford Ave.)Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Martyrs(2008) at Midnite, Second Night of Awesome At Spectacle

Not only is Spectacle Theater giving the genre-cinema community one great night of Midnite, but the Saturday screening is quite awesome as well. As I stated yesterday, this is the first weekend of Spectacle's Midnite Screenings in which I am incredibly familiar with both films. In fact, I find both films to be influential in feeding my obsession with international horror, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Tomorrow night, Spectacle brings to Brooklyn the cutting edge French horror Martyrs(2008), a movie I would refer to as the pinnacle piece of the New Wave of French Horror. If you are one of the few who have never heard of it I only ask "were you in a coma during 2009?". Before this movie was given a DVD release in the US, horror bloggers and podcasters alike were scrambling to find a copy of this film by any means necessary, and with good reason. With French films like Inside and Frontier(s) making all the US horror releases, at that time, look like Disney films, most of us were craving the next big thing. And it was well worth it on so many levels.

IMDB says - "Fifteen years after a horrifying experience of abduction and prolonged torture, Lucie embarks on a bloody quest for revenge against her oppressors. Along with her childhood friend, Anna, who also suffered abuse, she quickly descends, without hope, into madness and her own delusions. Anna, left on her own begins to re-experience what Lucie did when she was only twelve years old."

That blurb doesn't even do the movie justice. Then again, I don't think anything less than 2000 words really can, it is that good.

Saturday, April 16th at Midnight @ Spectacle 124 S. 3rd St., (at Bedford Ave.)Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Suicide Club(2001) is Friday's Midnite Must-See

Most of the time I post these Big Screen in the Big Apple entries it is typically for cult movies I have never seen. Not only do I do this to try to advertise the cinematic awesomeness that is going on in the NYC nightlife, but I also have a genuine interest in seeing the film. Whether I do or not is another story, depending on what my financial and social situation look like at the moment, even if I have every intention. After months of reporting the happenings going on over at Spectacle Theater on the weekend, I can honestly say I am familiar with both films films screening this weekend.

Suicide Club(2001) was the movie that introduced me to modern Asian cinema. Before that, everything I knew of the Far East came to me in the form of Kaiju and Kung-Fu. If it wasn't for this decade-old gore-tastic classic, I probably never would have developed an obsession with everything from classic Chambara to silly Japanese body horror. I owe a large part of my movie collection, and even the existence of this blog to this film. If you haven't seen Suicide Club, I urge you to lay off the PBR for a couple of hours and head into Williamsburg on Friday Night.

IMDB says - "54 high school girls throw themselves in front of a subway train. This appears to be only the beginning of a string of suicides around the country. Does the new all-girl group Desert have anything to do with it? Detective Kuroda tries to find the answer, which isn't as simple as one could hope."

Friday, April 15th at Midnight @ Spectacle 124 S. 3rd St., (at Bedford Ave.)Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Big Screen Big Apple- Audition(1999) Wed. 3/16 at 9:30 PM

To Celebrate the release of Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, in cahoots with Subway Cinema, are producing a 13 movie retrospective to celebrate the works of a cinematic Master. Miike's torturous thriller, Audition(1999), is set to kick off the series, which runs from March 16th to the 23rd. If you are unfamiliar with Miike or his large body of work, this experiment in terror is a good way to kick off a future love affair with the director.

IMDB says - "Seven years after the death of his wife, company executive Aoyama is invited to sit in on auditions for an actress. Leafing through the resumés in advance, his eye is caught by Yamazaki Asami, a striking young woman with ballet training. On the day of the audition, she's the last person they see. Aoyama is hooked. He notes her number from her file, calls her and takes her to dinner. He hesitates to call again, worried that he'll seem too eager. When he does, Asami knowingly lets the phone ring for some time before answering. She's alone in her darkened room - alone, that is, apart from the writhing victim she has tied up in a sack on the floor..."

Wednesday March 16th @ 9:30 PM Walter Reade Theater, West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave, on the upper level, Upper West Side

Big Screen Big Apple- Insidious(2011) on Thurs. Mar. 3 at 8:45pm

As I've said before in a previous entry, I don't really have much of an interest in seeing Insidious(2011). There are those NYers out there who eat up this big-budget horror stuff, so you can say "I'm doing it for the kids"(if anyone who reads my shit actually is interested in newer horror). Regardless, Insidious is still one of the more interesting movies screening at Film Comments Select so I'm going to list it. Like with several of these movies screened at Film Comment Select, the director is going to be present for a Q&A after the shit goes down.

“In this super-scary reinvention of the haunted-house genre, Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne play a couple who move into a new house; soon enough things go bump in the night, apparitions appear, and their son falls into a mysterious coma. Finally the family decamps—but it’s only once they move into their new home that things get really frightening. One of the rules Wan (director of the original Saw) and writer Leigh Whannell set for themselves was that there would be no false scares. They never break that rule, and if that’s music to your ears, this is a must-see.”

—Gavin Smith, Film Comment November/December 2010

Thursday March 3rd @ 8:45 PM Walter Reade Theater, West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave, on the upper level, Upper West Side

Big Screen Big Apple- Vampyros Lesbos(1971) Midnite on Saturday Feb. 19th in Brooklyn

Exploitation King Jess Franco's horror spectacular Vampyros Lesbos(1971) is going to be following Death Watch at Spectacle this Saturday at Midnight. So if you don't think that Baron Munchausen, which is playing the night before, has enough skin for you, hit Spectacle up for this classic Midnite Movie.

IMDB says - "In Istanbul, the lawyer of Simpson & Simpson Linda Westinghouse has erotic dreams with a strange woman every night and her analyst Dr. Alwin Seward suggests her to find another lover. Linda is assigned to resolve an inheritance issue with the Hungarian Countess Nadine Oskudar that has inherited a real estate from Count Dracula. Linda leaves her boyfriend Omar in the Istanbul Hilton and travels to the Kadidados Island. While waiting for transportation in the continent, Linda is advised by a local that the island would be a place of death and insanity and she should not travel to there. However, she does not pay attention to the man and meets Countess Oskudar that is a lesbian vampire fascinated by Linda. The Countess drinks the blood of Linda and she has amnesia and is sent to a mental institution where Dr, Steiner, who is also a vampire expert, treats her and puts an advertisement in the newspapers."

Saturday February 19th at Midnight @ Spectacle 124 S. 3rd St., (at Bedford Ave.)Williamsburg, Brooklyn

FestQuest:SXSW 2011 Midnighters - Insidious

IMDB says - "A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further."

I may be jumping to conclusions, but seeing "from the creators of Saw and Paranormal Activity" at the beginning of this trailer doesn't really draw me in. In fact, it makes me think that this film could end up being a waste of time It has been well established that I am a hater of the Saw franchise, and I liked Paranormal Activity but it should have been limited to a one off and not franchised. Insidious looks like it might be a bit too polished and "Big Hollywood" for my tastes. I don't really foresee a movie like this spending too much time on the festival circuit. I actually would be surprised if it was given a release to the general public sometime this summer.

I don't really see myself hitting up the theaters when it hits NYC, even if it makes the indie theater circuit. I could be wrong though, we will see how promising the reviews are. I'm pretty sure that the only was I'll be watching Insidious is if I have nothing left but it for an OnDemand selection, but you never know.



South by Southwest(SXSW) Film Conference and Festival 2011,March 11–19 in Austin, TX(as if you didn't know.)

FestQuest:SXSW 2011 Midnighters - The Divide

With the release of SXSW's Midnighter's and SXFantastic list over the last couple of days, I've decided now would be a good time to add the "FestQuest"(cheesy I know)section to Ye Olde Blogge. I've been dabbling with the idea for the last couple of weeks and now is a better time than ever with SXSW just around the corner. Besides, it gives me an excuse to blog something more than reviews and local NYC cult movie showings. More content makes me a busier guy in this time of extreme boredom.

I'm aware that several of these movies might have already been covered, even reviewed, due to the fact that they have probably been on the festival circuit for awhile. So don't scorn me for being a day late and a dollar short with a couple. In some cases I might not even cover it based on trailer availability. I have a format with each post that I like to follow. That format includes trailer at the bottom.

I'm going to kick this off with The Divide(2011), directed by Xavier Gens. For me, Gens is best known for the French horror Frontier(s), a movie in which I was able to see a one-night only screening of a couple of years back and really enjoyed. Before Frontier(s), there wasn't much out of France that interested me besides berets and cigarettes. Since then, I've been sure to keep my eyes open for anything new in the realm of horror.

The only help IMDB can provide with a summary for The Divide is "To survive the end of the world you must first survive each other." This, along with the trailer, makes me believe that The Divide is something of a post-apocalyptic movie with that Lord of the Flies thing going for it. I realize the idea is nothing new, but I have much faith in Gens' direction. Besides, Rosanna Arquette has what looks to be an active roll, and you can't go wrong with someone who inspired a Toto song, can you?



South by Southwest(SXSW) Film Conference and Festival 2011,March 11–19 in Austin, TX(as if you didn't know.)

Count Orlok in 3-D at Tribeca

Yesterday I was listening to the most excellent Cinemaslave podcast #116 and discovered some even more excellent news: The Murnau classic Nosferatu has been re-edited for 3-D!! Keith Carter, the director/animator and man responsible for this herculean effort, was able to dissect an original print of the movie and , through modern animation techniques, put forth a re-imagining unlike anything done.

The best part about this story is I'm going to be able to see it next week ,on the Big Screen at the NYC Horror Film Festival. New York, get your 3-D glasses ready, because Nosferatu:Orlock the Vampire in 3-D will be showing Saturday, November 21st, 1 PM, at the Tribeca Cinemas(54 Varick St., New York, NY 10013).

For a great interview with the director, follow the link here.
Time for some trailer action...

Black Sabbath/Tre volti della paura, I (1963)

On occasion, I run across a horror movie that actually keeps me on my toes, even spooks me a bit. I watch quite a few horrors, so more often than not I'm just sitting around looking for a good story or an incredible amount of gore. Of the movies that have actually scare the shite out of me, Stephen King's The Shining has always been on the top of the list, and probably will stay there. To this day, I won't ever reproduce just for the fear of having creepy, twin girls. Twins by themselves are creepy, ghost twins downright terrifying...but back to the review. I've been on a bit of Mario Bava kick lately, and last night I decided to watch a couple I've been waiting for, the second being Black Sabbath(1963). Known in Italy as the Three Faces of Fear, it is not one story, but three stories hosted by Boris Karloff who stars in one. All three were good and ran the gambit from spooky to keeping this guy on the edge of his seat. let me run down all the three

The Telephone A suspense thriller that was actually more of a mini-gialli than actual horror movie. After watching this, you can see how much piece-of-dogshit movies like Scream were just idiotic rip-offs of this original. Our main character, Rosy, is prepared to spend a quiet evening at home, But a mysterious voice at the other end of the receiver has different plans. The voice is apparently Rosy's ex-boyfriend who just escaped from prison, and he wants revenge. And according to his voice, Rosy isn't going to make it to see the sun rise. After many harassing phone calls, Rosy calls for the aid of her ex-lover, whom she had threatened never to see again. This women is more than happy to be at Rosy's side in her time of need, but, as with any good gialli, nothing is really as it seems.

I thought I knew what was going down the second I read the title of this first-of-three, so I just tried to sit back and relax, but by the end of The Telephone, I was actaully wishing I hadn't consumed so much caffeine. Bava's use of a ticking clock as background noise throughout is what really kept me anxiously waiting for Rosy's would-be killer. So anxious, in fact, that I actually jumped a little anytime the phone rang, and I've seen this story before. I was also quite surprised over the lesbian subtext that was very apparent. To have such a taboo subject matter in a film from the early sixties was typically verboten, so much in fact that it was actually cut from the AIP release in the Good Ole' U.S. of A. Ain't that a fuckin' surprise?

The Werdulak Boris Karloff stars as a vampire-huntin, family patriarch in this second installment obviously inspired by eastern european folklore. When Gorka(Karloff) leaves his family to hunt down a werdulak, a vampire that only feeds on loved ones, he informs them that if he is not back in 5 das he has probably been turned. In which case he should be slain if he does indeed return. The 5 days do pass, and Gorka returns within a couple of minutes after midnight with the head of the turkish werdulak. His family is unsure of whether to kill the wounded Gorka, or not. But the answer soon becomes clear when Gorka's youngest son is slain a he kidnaps his own grandchild.

I found this story the most surprising of the three, because classic vampire stories are typically more campy than spooky to me. But again, Bava's use of background sound combined with the nightmarish backdrop added a whole new level I have barely found in vampire movies from this era. The family-feeding dynamic is what really made this story move. Seriously, who wants to slay a loved one, especially if it's the man who raised you, or the 3 year-old son who passed who through your loins? Not exactly the easiest decision to make. Sure, it's a fairly common dynamic, but the psychology behind such a situation is hardly ever portrayed as accurately and believably as it is in the Werdulak. Last but not least, it has Boris Fuckin' Karloff. The guy practically invented horror movies, and that should be enough for anybody to own this movie.

The Drop of Water Is the final piece and was the most frightening in my opinion. A nurse is called in the middle of the night to take care of the freshly dead, corpse of her patient, a friendless medium who died in the middle of channeling spirits. The nurse, being a skeptic, believes the old crone was the victim of a hard attack, and in turn has no qualms about thieving from the dead. In this case, a very valuable-looking ring. Upon taking the ring, our untrustworthy friend the nurse is curse by some some terrifying occurrences almost instantaneously, including the sound of dripping water that just won't go way no matter how many hard she tightens the faucet. But the dripping is the least of her problems.

I've harped on enough about Bava's use of sound in the first two features, and it's apparent within the title that the same could be said for his final installment. I always find ghost stories to be the genre with the most consistency of keeping me anxiously entertained. I actually jumped a couple of times. A ghost story was the perfect way to end this movie, especially one directed so well. I could harp on like a fanboy about how amazing Bava's direction and camerawork is, but it's been said before and anybody who has seen his movies would agree.

Although I haven't experienced even half of Bava's body of work, movies like this leave me craving for more. As far has italian directors go, I find Bava's movies to be the most consistent. Argento and Fulci have both put out some gems, but I find those two directors to be slightly overrated and definitely inconsistent. Thankfully I was able to view the italian copy of this movie, considering I hear the AIP's copy is edited, and that just seems wrong to me.

If your a fan of Italian horror,classic horror, giallo or just horror in general, you are really missing an important part of your life by not watching this movie. This is one of the best movies I've seen in the past couple of weeks, and despite the amount of films I watch a year, will always be remembered.