What Have You Done To Solange?

"Not after what happened to Solange...."

What Have You Done To Solange? is a hard watch for sure, but it's a grand giallo and one that holds up over time. The subject matter is rough, so be warned. However, it's a fun mystery with some fantastic character development and beautiful cinematography with a haunting score by Ennio Morricone. 

Fabio Testi plays Enrico 'Henry' Rosseni - a teacher at a girls school. The dashing Rosseni is having an affair with one of the girls and is with her when she sees a knife flash in the woods. The gruff Rosseni is annoyed with Elizabeth (Cristina Galbó) for stopping their make out session over a silly delusion, however her vision of the knife proves to be a reality that Rosseni becomes helplessly involved in as the mystery unravels around him. 

We have another relationship playing out in the film in a similar way to WHO SAW HER DIE? as Rosseni's wife Herta comes to grips with the fact that her husband is cheating and pulling further and further way from her every day. And of course we have an inspector looking into the case. :)

The acting is top notch in the film and the pace keeps things moving along nicely. Relationships seem real and play out in very interesting ways as it becomes very obvious that there's something deeper going on at the school. 

Massimo Dallamano's Direction holds attention and his cinematographer background shows. Joe D'Amato is the cinematographer (and a CID officer in the movie!) and you can see where his style is starting to really come through in this, his 10th cinematography credit out of a WHOOPING 167! 

 

Like I said earlier, the graphic nature of the kills is pretty awful, but the way it's played out is extremely tasteful. Well, as tasteful as it can be. And the overall tone of the film isn't exploitative, which helps a lot. We get a mystery that's solid with people undergoing many changes as the film rolls on. There are some smart and subtle changes as well, like the character of Herta shown and tight hair bunned and cold in the beginning of the film and softening a bit as she and Henry start to work out their marital issues. 

Now, the film isn't perfect. We still have a few moments where you question why Inspector Barth is working with Rosseni so closely - especially since he's a suspect at one point. And there is a moment of exposition towards the end that was a tad sloppy to say the least. ("Let me explain exactly why the killer has done what they've done. Where's that PowerPoint I created a moment ago...." )  hehehe   However, the story is well worth some of the more minor quibbles and it's still one of my favorite mystery gialli and well worth a viddy! 

Inner Demon

I caught INNER DEMON (2014) on Prime and thought that it warranted a mini-review.

This was a very watchable film, though I think it might suffer a bit due to the poster. Looking at it, I was thinking that this was a "demon tale" or something to do with possession, but it's really not. There's the other issue - Im not sure the film knows what it is, either. :::grin:::

From Amazon:
A teenage girl is abducted by a serial killer couple and manages to escape and find refuge in an isolated farmhouse, only to discover it is home to greater horrors and a malevolent spirit.


Yeeeeeeeeah....it has those elements in there. But, it leans way over to the serial killer couple stuff for what feels like 75% of the film. Now, it's done well and there are some good performances from the films leads, so even though I'm not a big fan of that sub-genre, it still held my interest and attention. However, I had the poster in my head and kept waiting for this demon thing which I found distracting. This happens - I get it. You have to sell the movie. And to be honest, if it leaned toward a serial killer poster, I probably would not have watched.




That being said, this "thriller, mystery, horror" (from Amazon's description) is well worth a viewing. Ursula Dabrowsky's writing and direction show really well in this. There are no wasted moves as we see things play out. There are interesting subsets of plot as well that had me questioning what it was I was seeing as well which made me sit up and pay attention in a good way. I'm looking forward to seeing more from Dabrowsky - she currently only has this film and another film called Family Demons (2009) to her credit.

Sarah Jeavons, Kerry Ann Reid, and Andreas Sobik are SUPER solid in the film, turning in emotional and sometimes brutal performances that really rang true. (You did a great job too, Todd Telford!) Interestingly enough, I can't seem to see the younger child actress in the IMDB listing She was grand as well and didn't fall into the painful child actor arena, thank goodness. The situations are riveting and had me chortling at the uncomfortable nature of them from time to time.

And, when things do ramp up, they do so in a fun way that payed off, so all was well when I rolled out of this. I didn't feel like time was wasted and had a great time with it once I got over my "but, where's the demon hand coming out of her mouth come in?" poster drama. hehehehe

A Blade in the Dark

A BLADE IN THE DARK (La casa con la scala nel buio) from 1983 kinda falls into the "so bad it's good" territory. It's really not a great film, but I had fun watching it and thought I'd give it a little shout out here. 

The plot is super simple. A music composer is put up in a villa to score a horror movie. The woman making the movie visits every once in a while as does the "wacky neighbor" and even more wacky girlfriend....and some other people that are lingering around. And, yup...people start to get bumped off one by one and the bodies are disappeared. 

For me, I pretty much knew exactly where this was going at the first kill. By the second, I had no doubt in my mind. Towards the end, I had my wife giggling as she half paid attention and I called out exactly what was going to happen right before it happened. 

 

It's ham fisted and basic, but it had a sort of charm to it. It's a competent film and looks very nice indeed, but the plodding, lumbering plot and set pieces are painful for the most part. There are some great gialli moments that are well worth the viddy. Some of the more tense moments are handled really well. It's just the jumbled, forced filler around these moments that tend to be hard to sit through. 

Lamberto Bava's direction was grand, but doesn't have the fun, kinetic qualities DEMONS and DEMONS 2 had. The writing of Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Briganti  was really the real killer here. hehehe  Odd, too - I love HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, ZOMBI, DEMONS, and THE BEYOND. Sadly, A Blade in the Dark leans more towards MANHATTAN BABY's drifting plot lines.

Worth taking a look if time allows.

Black Belly of the Tarantula

While this isn't the strongest giallo I've seen, BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA's main concept is super nasty.






A killer is using a paralyzing agent to "freeze" his victims before cruelly stabbing them. Yes, they are paralyzed and awake as he carves into them. Giancarlo Giannini plays the detective on the case - Inspector Tellini.

Nasty business.



There are many stylish elements in the film and the Argento and Bava influences are very evident.  I believed the story was rather strong for the most part, but in looking over other reviews, it seems to garnish some hate for some reason. I'm not sure why. People were growling about wanting their time back and how the twists were silly. However, I'm of the opinion that these just are not giallo lovers and they don't get the gag.

This isn't a "straight slasher". It's a giallo and a good one at that. A fun crime drama mystery with some great set pieces, cool style,  and a solid story!

I watched SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS afterwards and heard a very similar soundtrack along with the lovely Barbara Bach's lovely face. Ennio Morricone used a similar "breathy breathing woman" for the soundtrack to each film.  Maybe he crafted both scores at the same time to expedite the situation....and payments. :)

The Bloodstained Butterfly

I took in THE BLOODSTAINED BUTTERFLY (Una farfalla con le ali insanguinate - 1971) on SHUDDER recently and....I liked it? It's a strange little film and an interesting crime giallo (unlike some other more slasher giallo films) with a strong storyline that really keeps things moving, but in odd ways.

The spoiler free synopsis is that a young woman is killed and rolls down a hill in front of several witnesses. A man flees the scene of the crime and in true gialli style, we don't see who it is. The police investigate and the plot rolls out a series of trials to see if the man is guilty or not. Did he kill this poor 17 year old girl or is something else going on?

And things get rather odd from there. There are subplots all over and it's almost like watching two different movies at one time at one point. I was riveted as I tried to sort out what was happening and why. I was invested and I loved that I was!

Some giallo films are just a means to bloody endings of pretty men and women. There's some insane plot that has someone killing folks off one by one to hide their involvement in a crime or dastardly happening. There are often scenes of someone saying, "OH! It's YOU!" before being dispatched. However the Bloodstained Butterfly is really a straight crime procedural until the third act. An act that had me saying, "Wait...what?! Are you SERIOUS?!" out loud because I couldn't believe where things went. I really dug it.

On the production side, it's on more of the A list than the comical B list. The dubbing was well done, the camera work is rather good, and the acting is super solid. So, you won't be left giggling at comically goofy voice dubbing here. The director - Duccio Tessari - is probably best known for films like A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, but he also did a bunch of "sandal and sand" Hercules films in the 60s.

 It may not be my favorite giallo movie, but I was happy that I made time to watch it. It's solid and well worth a viddy! Check it!

Murder Party

What a ton of fun! MURDER PARTY brings a cutting edge humor to the horror genre that I have not seen for a while. This low budget dark comedy jewel is packed with laughs and commentary on the art scene, but doesn't skimp on the gore either. Jeremy Saulnier's direction keeps this tight, 80 minute film hopping from item to item in a wondrous way.

The story is simple. A man finds an invite to a Halloween party on the street and decides to venture out and away from his quiet life in search of a little All Hallows Eve excitement. However - slight spoiler - it turns out that the MURDER PARTY he's stumbled into is for HIS murder. Several artists want to use him as the subject matter of their art pieces, but they fight over who's method of murder will be used and...who will get a $500,000 art grant they've been after for months.

And then, things get REALLY crazy and a hilarious way.


I found myself laughing out loud along with cringing and giggling as things played out. There are some truly hilarious moments in here. The acting is fun - it has a playfulness about it that made me think back on old 80s films like NIGHT OF THE DEMONS and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD where the actors look like they had a lot of fun making the movie.





If you're looking for a fun addition to your Halloween Movie Lineup, MURDER PARTY is the perfect item. There's really not much more to say about it.

FAMILIAR made me squirm in my chair

 Dear......lawd!

Richard Powell comes through again with a 24 minute short called FAMILIAR - also known as the film that made me squirm in my seat! Now, this is a rare thing. It NEVER happens. I've seen so many horror films with so many disguising and disturbing visuals - from CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST to SUSPIRIA, but nothing has had me squirming in my seat like Familiar did up to now!

John Dodd has a problem. He wants out of his marriage and has an exit strategy all worked out. However, things take an odd turn when his wife surprises him with some good news. And now, he needs to revise his strategy drastically. Again, I'll say no more for fear of spoiling...the surprise. :)

Robert Nolan's performance is stellar as this TELL-TALE HEART-like story unfolds. I honestly had no idea where things were going to go when it began, then felt like I was on a roller coaster that wasn't going to stop until it smashed into the ending after it really started rolling. Nolan's voice over and presence is like a messenger of doom - dark, foreboding, and grim. Astrida Auza's performance as John's wife Charlotte is grand as well. Sad and lonely and endearing.

Richard Powell's direction and story drags you into a horrid series of situations. You start out feeling like you are in on the game with the lead, but soon you realize that you're as out of control as he is and it's not going to end well. There are a few turns in the piece that I absolutely loved. They are handled with the skill of a surgeon and play out with perfection. 

And....body horror. Perfectly presented. With horrific results and chair squirming mastery. 

I loved Powell's HEIR as well. I'd love to see what he does with a feature length film.

Do yourself a favor and seek out Familiar, but don't watch or read anything else about it until after you see it. You'll be happy that you went into things cold.

AVAILABLE ON iTUNES

The Big Bad

I just caught an odd little film called THE BIG BAD and I enjoyed the hell out of it.  This genre film really makes an effort to be different and to bring that difference to the table in spades. It's a styled and crafted fairy tale for the time and it's well written and executed. I wish I had watched it around 2am or 4am like I did with THE STRANGE COLOR OF YOUR BODY'S TEARS.  That would have been perfect - this film has the same dream / nightmare quality to it.

Bryan Enk's Direction is fun. It has a little NIGHT GALLERY, 70s horror vibe to the whole of it. The camera is kinetic and wild as it takes in all of these strange sights and sounds. 

Jessi Gotta wrote the story and stars in the film, which is interesting. I think she does a grand job in the role. The writing is very "fairy tale" and it hits a few fun moments throughout the storytelling. It's wild stuff. A little rough around the edges at times - sure, but well worth the view. It's highly entertaining.


Now, mind you, this is a lower budget feature and I'm sure people can poke holes in it left and right, tossing stones around in their glass houses. hehe  However, I liked the newness and the craft of the tale. I found myself smiling and thinking how nice it was to see something different roll through. I wasn't even second guessing where it was going. I was just happy to be along for the ride...wherever we were going.

The plot is rather straight forward. A woman is "searching for the monster that destroyed her family" so she can get her revenge. She meets a wild cast of characters along the way and goes deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole as she gets closer and closer to the monster she's searching for. But, what a strange journey our Alice - Frankie Ducane (Jessi Gotta) - takes along the way.

It's currently streaming on NETFLIX as of the time of this posting - check it out when you're in the mood for something that leans towards the strange and dreamlike.

Jessi Gotta's 2013 film - THEY WILL OUTLIVE US ALL - needs to be watched now! I need to check it out. It looks like she produced a short in 2014, but has not done anything since. I hope she hasn't stopped writing. I dig her voice.

Detention (2011)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say DETENTION is a horror film for smart folks. A modern classic that deserves cult status along side....wait for it....ready? HEATHERS, REPO MAN, RE-ANIMATOR, BRAIN DEAD, JOHN DIES AT THE END and IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS.  

THERE! I said it. I liked this film as much as REPO MAN and BRAIN DEAD, gawd damn it! :)

Why? Because it's SO STRANGE and SO GOOD. The writing is amazing and odd - taking the viewer into slasher territory and leading them along through Twilight Zone scenarios and plain wacky bizarreness. It's thick with references that you'll need to Google up on a second viewing to appreciate the many levels of the experience.

There's no explaining the story. It really does start out as a slasher, but then it just runs RIGHT off the rails and and slams through several genres and styles in an amazing way. Stuff happens in here and the world that the flick lives in is so off center and strange that nothing seems wrong when...say....someone has a TV for a hand at one point. :)

Director Joseph Kahn does some amazing stuff in here. His music video background REALLY makes this film a kinetic fun house.

I'm not sure how the film did overall. It came out in 2011 and I could see the masses walking out, scratching their heads and mumbling, "I don't....get it...." while people like me were walking out feeling like kids again with massive smiles on our faces.

And, this was another odd release. Some sites list it as 2011 while others say 2012. The estimated budget was $10,000,000 and it came out in a limited release. Rotten Tomatoes has a very low rating of 38% and MetaCritic has a mixed 45, which makes me sad.  After seeing this film, I was SURE that it had some massive groundswell and that everyone saw it as a special bit of cool. I guess that wasn't the case.

PLEASE check this film out. I thought it was a funtastic horror comedy experience.

The Sacrament

I'm doing smaller, quicker posts this round just to get little reviews out. Short, sweet and to the point.
So...






 "Eli Roth presents"....THE SACRAMENT.   I like Eli more when he tosses cash at things to get them made. :)

My boy Ti West is back at it with this found footage nugget which I liked, but not as much as his other work. Let me explain. :::grin:::

SACRAMENT is a great film with some great performances for sure, but I wasn't ready for it.  Up to now, we have ghosts and the devil and all sorts of creepy from West. However, this is just...Jonestown, really. A nutty leader with some nutty followers and some followers who want to leave, but can't due to El Nutters armed "protectors".


Again, grand performances and some gripping scenes, but I kept waiting for...I don't know. A devil? Demon? Ghost?  Nope, not that film. So, here I was, thinking I was going to get a zinger GOT YA! at the end, but...no, it's just a great found footage flick about how people follow a guy to their doom. Honestly, the film was a bit too real for me. Demons and ghosts are highly entertaining to me, but sad, brainwashed followers dying is just too close to nightly news for this to be super entertaining.


I'm glad I saw it. AJ Bowen turns in another fab performance along with fellow regular Joe Swanberg. Kate Lyn Sheil and Amy Seimetz - also fab. Kentucker Audley sells a HORRID little scene...REALLY well. But, Gene Jones takes the cake as the cult leader "Father". He's spot on and perfect in the role. He doesn't overplay it at all. Highly believable.


Great film and well worth the watch. My fault for assuming Ti West would toss a zinger in at the end. :)  Check it out! 

Creature: Wha Happon'?

The BEST-HORROR-MOVIES.com podcast featuring Director Fred Andrews got me curious about the 2011 film CREATURE. For those who are not aware, Creature was a somewhat low budget (ok, really low budget) horror film that got a major studio release. So major that it failed miserably, dying on the vine and earning a mere $327,000 from the 1507 screens it was shown on. Evidently, it was the lowest grossing first weekend ever for  film being shown on over 1500 screens and the second worst per location...ever. I had to see it.

FROM MOVIELINE:  $220 per screen and 6 people per showing

Now, in the interest of the new mantra of THE HORROR SHOW, there will be no bashing of this film. On the contrary - it's really not as bad as some I've seen.

The plot is super basic. Group of 20-somethings go off for an outing. Said trip sees them wandering too far off the path. There's a monster and "hillbilly bad guys". ::::shrug:::  Stop me if you've seen this before. And, they start dying. Nothing new. Nothing major. The monster design and makeup were fine. I mean, it's a dude in a suit and it's obvious and the lighting doesn't help in hiding the fact. This film is lit up all sorts of ways and in all sorts of dramatic styles. I'm not saying that they work for this film, but...they are there. The story was interesting - a good mix of reality and "it just happened through some sort of magic" that appealed to me. No need to go into the micro-details of how a sad man became this alligator monster man. I'm good with magical unknowns. Sure! Why not? It's an alligator man for cripes sake.

The cast is...there....being the cast. Sid Haig Sid Haigs things up as usual - always fun. "That black dude from True Blood" Mehcad Brooks and "That hot brunette girl...from something I've seen before" Serinda Swan (turns out it was SUPERNATURAL) turn in performances. There's another girl that I'll call "NOT the delicious Linda Cardellini" Amanda Fuller and Lauren Schneider who couldn't hang on to her accent, but was intriguing in that redhead showing her breasts sort of way. The rest, like I said, were there being the cast and saying their lines. :)


Everything was going along just fine as I watched Fred Andrews work his directorial magic and the plot unfolded before me. It was going so well that I found myself saying, "Man, this film REALLY got a bad rap! I bet it was just marketed incorrectly - it's not bad at all."  Then it happened. Everything started to fall apart in a rather spectacular way. 

People were taken away and tied up to be offered to the creature...and their foot was cut off? Um...why? Why did they do that? I...

There were six people in the group. Two couples and a brother and sister. The guy and girl from the couples were brother and sister as well. When the S goes down, the guy asks his buddy to save his sister...but doesn't seem to remember that he had a friggin GIRLFRIEND there as well! LOL "Get my sister safe! To hell with the girlfriend. I can always get another girlfriend!" No, he didn't say it, but he thought it! :)



WHOLE GROUPS OF PEOPLE APPEAR...then just WALK THE F AWAY and DISAPPEAR. People that might have been able to DO something had they stayed. And...where did they go? They just wander away into the swamp area.

The creature bites NUMEROUS people through the film, but proceeds to punch and pummel the guy who fights him in the end instead of just...eating him, really.

It goes on. I'd love to go on as well, but it starts to get mean after a while. :::grin:::  Above all, I was not mad about the time I spent watching this film. (Granted, I was doing other things as well most of the time) I had some laughs. I had some WTF?! moments. I found myself talking at the screen like crazy at the end with a big smile on my face saying things like, "Wait...they keep leaving these women around for the creature to find..." and "HA! POP GOES THE CREATURE! Didn't see THAT coming, did you, Buddy?!"

I had a good time, but I'd NEVER think about sending this thing off to the masses in a friggin theater! A few small theater showings around Halloween - sure, maybe. heheheh

WHAT the HECK was the studio thinking here? It's really their fault that this film failed in the theater. It shouldn't have been there. This would have done well released to DVD and Netflix, doing it's thing and being fine. If anything, it might have done better with more camp and less seriousness, but that's just a personal opinion.

Again, from the MOVIELINE article found here:
"Chalk the failed experiment, perhaps, to the elder Sheinberg's past successes; while at Universal Pictures, Sid Sheinberg released the game-changing Jaws and in the process birthed the blockbuster by forgoing small-scale roll-outs in favor of national release. Creature seemed to similarly attempt to launch a wide-scale release with but without sufficient awareness efforts among a proportionate audience, and as a result the film arrived without enough of a trumpet blast and lacking enough of a draw (great reviews, buzz) to make the gamble work."

I hope that Fred Woods recovers and makes more films. It looks like he's still going strong as a production designer. 

CREATURE is not the problem here and is well worth taking a look at over pizza, beer and popcorn on Netflix some rainy night for fun. It's just a shame that it was pushed out into the world like it was.

Do you like horror movies?

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