In The Folds Of The Flesh (1970)

Oh my goodness. Lordy.

This is another fantastic gem of a giallo. Another OLD DARK HOUSE like situation here with a family up to no good. Twists and turns after twists and turns.

I have to admit, I was confused - happily - through most of the film. Long and the short is there is a family with a secret. A dark and sad secret. It looks like the Father was a bit handsy with the daughter, so the daughter killed him. Mom goes and buries him, but....yes, bare with me....and escaped convict sees her bury the body. He's caught, but keeps the place in mind for future endeavors.

Everything slips into normalcy and 13 years go by. But, something isn't right with the daughter, Mom seems a bit off as well, and old brother seems to keep forgetting sister is sister and not girlfriend.

It all keeps getting more and more insane as we have the return of the escaped convict from the beginning,  wild police goings on, murders all over the place, and twist after twist as we watch things play out.

I had a fantastic time with this madness. The screenplay by the films director Sergio Bergonzelli is all over the place crazy and I love the idea supplied by Mario Caiano and Fabio De Agostini. If you are fond of madness and mystery with a bit of the holocaust slipped in for good measure, you'll want to check out this wild ride.

Check it!

Marilyn Manson - Tattooed In Reverse (Music Video)

More Marilyn Manson goodness here with Tattooed In Reverse. A nice find passed along from Agent Krista B.


Some cool, freaky visuals that we here at the HORROR SHOW just love. This time, Mr. MM picked Courtney Love to be his guest star and she tears it up as a wicked nurse in the video. Nice to see that they decided to kiss...or kill...and make up. :) It would have been nice to see her a bit more, like Mr Depp in pervious videos. But, beggars can't be choosers. heh

NSFW!  Well, depending on where you work.

Who is this beauty? None of the articles seem to say - overshadowed by C. Love, sadly

"Twins of Evil - The Second Coming" tour dates:

Jul. 11 - Detroit, MI @ DTE Energy Music Center 
Jul. 14 - St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheater 
Jul. 15 - Chicago, IL @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheater 
Jul. 17 - Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center
Jul. 18 - Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Home Mortgage Center 
Jul. 20 - Virginia Beach, VA @ Veteran’s United 
Jul. 21 - Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live 
Jul. 24 - Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Pavilion 
Jul. 25 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Keybank Pavilion 
Jul. 26 - Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage 
Jul. 29 - Bangor, ME @ Waterfront Darling's Pavilion 
Aug. 07 - Wantagh, NY @ Jones Beach 
Aug. 08 - Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center 
Aug. 09 - Camden, NJ @ BB&T Pavilion 
Aug. 11 - Hartford, CT @ The Xfinity Theatre 
Aug. 12 - Darien lake, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater 
Aug. 14 - Atlanta, GA @ Cellairis Amp at Lakewood 
Aug. 16 - Dallas, TX @ Starplex Pavilion
Aug. 17 - Austin, TX @ Austin 360 
Aug. 18 - Woodlands, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion 
Aug. 20 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center 
Aug. 22 - Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheater 
Aug. 24 - Chula Vista, CA @ Mattress Firm Amphitheater
Aug. 25 - Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden Arena 
Aug. 26 - Phoenix, AZ @ AK Chin Pavilion 
Aug. 28 - Concord, CA @ Concord Pavilion
Aug. 29 - Irvine, CA @ Fivepoint Amphitheater 

Lake Bodom

Well well well...what a mean spirited, nasty little film we have here. hehehehe  I'm going to keep this super short for fear of saying too much.

The film is based in the real world location of several murders that occurred in 1960 at Bodominjärvi Lakeis located in Uusimaa, Espoo.

From WIKI
The Bodominjärvi Murders are the most famous homicide cases in Finnish criminal history. On June 5, 1960, at Bodominsky Lake, 15-year-old females, Leo Irmeli Björklund and Anja Tuulikki Mäki, and 18-year-old male, Seppo Antero Boisman, were killed while sleeping inside a tent by blunt force trauma to their heads from a stone. The fourth youth, then 18-years-old, Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson, who was in the excursion, was found outside of the tent badly injured. The perpetrator remained at the time uncovered despite extensive investigations, and various types of theories were presented on the killer. Gustafsson was arrested unexpectedly on suspicion of murder in 2004, but he was released the following year. The identity of Bodominjärvi's murders has not been discovered.

So, it's obvious that this would be a fantastic spot to go exploring around, right? At night? With no one aware of where you are?

Four teens think so.

The mesmerizing Nelly Hirst-Gee :::swoon::: stars alongside Mimosa Willamo, Mikael Gabriel, and Santeri Helinheimo Mäntylä and, as the story unfolds I was left with many, "Wait a minute...what's going on here?" moments - but in a good way, not bad.



It's always interesting when a film is mean spirited and brutal, but it comes off as well done and planned instead of lazy. It's easy to set up a bunch of campers to be slain, but hard to do it and remain an interesting and engaging film. This is partially due to the writing in Lake Bodom which gives us a solid story and partially due to some solid acting.

Taneli Mustonen's directing is fantastic as well. (He and Aleksi Hyvärinen wrote the film) It's kinetic, but easy to follow. There's a lot going on in the film, but it never felt disjointed. I need to see more movies from Finland and Sweden. I'm currently watching Jordskott - an TV series offering from Sweden - and I love it as well.

Lake Bodom (also known as BODOM) is well worth a viddy for sure. It's currently available on the WONDROUS AND MOST AWSOME SHUDDER...at the time of this posting.

Man, I love Shudder! :)

Lullaby (2018)

Well well well....I found a little nugget of gold called LULLABY.

I don't want to say too much about it. I have to pick my words wisely here.

We have a postpartum drama here with some fantastic acting, beautiful cinematography, and disturbing visuals as our fantastic lead, 19 year old Chloe van Heerden (Reine Swart) and her mother Ruby(Thandi Puren) battle through depression and paranoia after the birth of Chloe's son.

Now, the film isn't on a mainstream horror budget here, but the intensity of the subject matter and the fantastic acting really take it to a special level. I had put it on figuring I'd watch while doing other tasks, but by the 20 minute mark I had to stop it, make some lunch, and just sit and watch it through - focused and eager to find out what was going to happen next!

And, as a parent who's gone through the madness of bringing a being into the world, into the house, and into playing a major part of sleep and rest and the lack of both, I totally felt Chloe's pain! And the way things play out creates a fantastic sense of dread and totally had me wondering if what I was seeing was real or just in the poor things head.

LULLABY is a fantastic watch that Director Darrell Roodt and writer Tarryn-Tanille Prinsloo should be very, very proud of. Seek it out!  Theater and VOD in March! 

CAST/CREW INFO
Director: Darrell Roodt
Cast : Brandon Auret (Dr. Timothy Reed), Reine Swart (Chloe van Heerden), Thandi Puren (Ruby van Heerden)
Screenplay: Tarryn-Tanille Prinsloo
Music composed by: Alun Richards
Producers: Andre Frauenstein Snr, Samuel Frauenstein
 
THEATERS 3/2/2018 :
Phoenix - Valley Art
Los Angeles - Laemmle Music Hall
Philadelphia - PFS Roxy Theater
Chicago - Facets Cinematheque
Atlanta - Plaza Theater
Dallas - Texas Theater
Cleveland - Cedar Lee Cinemas
San Francisco - Roxie Theater
Miami - Cinema Paradiso
Denver - SIE Film Center
 
VOD 3/2/2018: 
All Platforms

The Visitor (1979)

What the HELL did I just watch?1 heheheh 

Mel Ferrer...Glenn Ford...Lance Henriksen...and the super adorable Joanne Nail...all in this weird little science fiction film that looks like the lovechild of THE FURY and THE BAD SEED.  This super creepy film (creepy because of all the inappropriate and strange child scenes) tells the tale of a bad space eight year old who's inherently evil. Luckily, Mel Ferrer is on the case, making sure the creepy eight year old and the evil folks on her side don't get poor Joanne Nail pregnant with a little brother for her.

The movie just keeps bringing on the bonkers.

Surprise gun gift madness. 




SHELLY fucking WINTERS cast as the "magical negro housekeeper" (it's a thing, look it up) role and inept bodyguard - providing wisdom during the...maybe one day she was on set shooting.  hehehehe 





Ice skating battles. 

A pigtailed 8ish year old kid delivering lines like, "Do you want to know where it is? UP YOUR ASS!"

The most bald people assembled for a film since THX1138. 

High aspiration green screen shots that are...magical. 

Secret Evil Businessmen around a large table...making evil plans.

A score fit for....maybe the 1972 Olympic Games opening ceremony throughout. 

Funhouse mirrors?

A LOT of bird attacks.

AND....Franco Nero as Jesus Christ. Yes...Jesus. 

Just...strange. Good old Italian strange. And long feeling. At an hour forty-eight minutes, it feels more like 2.5 hours or so.

However, I was all in on the film. It has enough in it to make it interesting. And they manage to make some things happen in the film that look kinda cool. Like this silver mirror effect on ole creepy kid's eyes when she's....alien-ing out.

This is a must see for fans of strange, Italian films. It's all in there and packs enough entertaining oddness in to keep you going. If you're a pot smoker, you might want to plan on being REALLY high when you watch this. I'm a whiskey man, myself, but I don't know if any amount of whiskey could get me spinning enough for this film to make sense. hehehehe

Check it!

Coherence

Super quick review for the wondrous film Coherence.

I thought I had put up a review already, but I guess I had missed it.

Short and sweet - Coherence is fabulous!

A dinner party goes VERY sideways when the lights go out and a comet goes overhead. And that's all I'm going to say about that for fear of messing things up.

The style is grand and the tension levels run super high as the film unfolds with Hitchcock-like mastery. Ok...that was a little flowery, but it's true. The film had me hooked from the opening and I was glued as I watched things play out.

Just watch it! It's a fun, tight, thinker of a film!


Trailer? Yeah...if you must....but it's better if you don't!

The Passion of Paul Ross

I watched THE PASSION OF PAUL ROSS and, while it is not straight up horror, it has elements that were definitely horrific and strange enough to cause some flashback movie visuals through the evening. I think that counts for something for sure. 






The film is a strange mix of visuals, scenes, and character interactions. It tells the story of the titular Paul Ross and his strange, metaphysical journey. It's packed with dream logic and jarring visuals that really sunk it's claws into me and didn't let me look away from the screen. 


To quote the site: 
An aging artist discovers that his seemingly perfect suburban life is actually a prison conjured by unknown forces.


And, while it is definitely that, it's much more. 



Like Bryan Enk's other feature THE MOOSE HEAD OVER THE MANTEL   which I loved, the film has a feel of a play. I love the presentation. That play-like quality feels more present and in person which added to the intensity for me. That combined with the Twilight Zone / Twin Peaks vibe made me very happy. I choose these to get a general feeling only - this film is very much a unique creature, but the visuals are very Peaks in tone.

The other part of this film that made me happy is that it never fell into...how to say it? Pothead babble film plot? You know - that, "Duuuuuuude....what if you were in a prison...but it was like...the prison of your own....miiiiiind. heh! Whoooooaaaa...."   I've seen far too many films with their heads wedged firmly up their own arses when it came to a more philosophical plot. 

The Passion of Paul Ross avoids all that fakery and provides a storyline that not only makes you think hard about various things like spirituality (No...this isn't a Christian film. At least it doesn't come off that way if it is :) )   , but also tosses in some interesting elements that I have not seen in a film in a long while - subtle ghost overtones. Operative word here being subtle. No "beyond the veil" mist filled rooms or Darth Maul-esque demons. It's simplicity allows for the viewer to really sink into the tale being told. 

And now...the downsides. Just a few, really. 

Yes, this is a micro-budget film. ($15,000 USD ) Don't hate.  Enk was the writer, Director, Producer, light tech and many other things on here without question. He did what he needed to do to get the film made and not only got it made, but made it highly entertaining and solid. 

There are some hinky sound moments and a point where I thought the camera was going to be blown over, but non of that took away from my viewing experience. It does need to be called out, however. I know some horror fans are delicate flowers that have a tough time watching films that aren't tossing jump scares and digital blood at them from time to time. ::::grin::::

There is also a set piece at the beginning that goes on for a bit, but it has a point. You may start watching and think, "Is this a music video?"  Hang in there - it makes sense. Just enjoy the lovely tones of Amy Beth Coup - she a great singer! 

And...that's about it for negatives, honestly.  Very minor!

I've seen quite a few screeners of late and I've had to pass on writing reviews for about 75% of them just because...well...they made me angry, actually. This film was the polar opposite. I enjoyed it and immediately thought about a re-watch that very day to go back and pick up on the subtleties! 


Lastly, the acting was a lot of fun. Steve Bishop and Becky Byers are so much fun to watch on screen and run through every emotion in the book with a grace that I found to be very pleasing.

The aforementioned Amy Beth Coup's delightful singing voice was grand.

Hell, the whole cast was pitch perfect for the tone of the film and  looked like they had a ton of fun making it. Their commitment to the oddness really sold the feature and added to the overall feeling of unease and dream-like bizarreness.

Do yourself a favor and seek this film out. It's a lot of fun!   I'll post details about how and when to get the film as soon as I learn more.


The Passion of Paul Ross (2017) - Official Teaser from Third Lows Productions on Vimeo.

• Bryan Enk

  Director

  The Moose Head Over the Mantel, The Big Bad
• 
  
• 
  
• Bryan Enk

  Writer

  They Will Outlive Us All
• 
  
• 
  
• Bryan Enk

  Producer

  The Moose Head Over the Mantel, The Big Bad
• 
  
• 
  
• Steve Bishop

  Producer
• 
  
• Steve Bishop

  Key Cast

  “Paul Ross ”

  Scarlett Mecca and the Pentagram Girl
• 
  
• 
  
• Becky Byers

  Key Cast

  “Amity”

  Play Hooky
• 
  
• 
  
• Matthew Gretzinger

  Key Cast

  “Wilson Shand ”
• 
  
• Amy Beth Coup

  Key Cast

  “Natalie Lord ”
• 
  
• Kim Long

  Key Cast

  “Light-Haired Woman”
• 
  
• Jason Hugh Smith

  Key Cast

  “The Intruder ”
• 
  
• Gregory Bobak

  Key Cast

  “Bartender ”
• 
  
• Julie Konrad

  Key Cast

  “Johanna”
• 
  
• Aaron Sinclair

  Key Cast

  “Party Man ”
• 
  
• Maggie McKeon Vendely

  Key Cast

  “Party Woman ”
• 
  
• Joshua Detamore

  Key Cast

  “Gerry”
• 
  
• Keenan MacRitchie

  Key Cast

  “Terry”
• 
  
• Brendan Coomes

  Key Cast

  “Barry”
• 
  
• Bob Dawson

  Key Cast

  “Brad”
• 
  
• C.C. Snyder

  Key Cast

  “Joe ”
• 
  
• Dirk Manning

  Key Cast

  “Suburban Man ”
• Yuri Lowenthal

  Key Cast

  “voice of Radio DJ ”