Death Double Feature: Death Walks at Midnight / Death Walks on High Heels

GIALLOCTOBERFEST 2017 continues! 

I did a Luciano Ercoli DEATH DOUBLE FEATURE this week - DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT (La morte accarezza a mezzanotte ) and DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS (La morte cammina con i tacchi alti ) . One I loved and one...not so much. This was particularly interesting to me because it's the same director and much of the same cast, but one resonated with me far more than the other. It might have been the writer lineup for the screenplay and story. MIDNIGHT had this grouping...

Sergio Corbucci     ...     (story)   
Ernesto Gastaldi     ...     (screenplay) 
Mahnahén Velasco     ...     (screenplay) (as May Velasco)

And HEELS had....

Ernesto Gastaldi (screenplay)
Mahnahén Velasco (screenplay) (as May Velasco)

I think the addition of Corbucci might have sweetened the spices Midnight offered. He wrote the wacky, super police officer story SUPER FUZZ back in the day and I loved it. Midnight had more flavor and buzz with a plot that I found to be more interesting and engaging. Let's talk about it.

Now, don't get me wrong - I liked DEATH WALKS IN HIGH HEELS well enough. The plot is relatively simple. A woman's Father is involved in a diamond heist. He's out of the picture, but the diamonds are missing. Does his daughter know where they are? Maybe. And someone - a masked killer with striking blue eyes....wants her to tell where they are...or DIE!

Classic.

So, all that's working for me here, but honestly, the characters bored me to tears and the pace made me shake with desire to fast forward....which I did.

The lovely Nieves Navarro (or...Susan Scott as she was known)  stars in both films. Here, she's a exotic dancer named Nicole Rochard with a penchant for wigs and elaborate costumes...including a "black face" nubian number that was truly cringe-worthy! hehehehe  The shot and line below....wow....

And, Ms. Nieves Navarro is NOT a good dancer, so the first part of the film was rather painful for me there as well - watching this woman jerk around like she's having a seizure.

We're treated to some good bully acting from Luciano Ercoli, the Director of both of these films AND Nieves' real life husband, as I found out. Rather cool.

Here he's the boyfriend of Navarro and not 100% sweetheart. Sweethearts don't toss knives at their girlfriends.

When the mysterious masked diamond hunter comes after Nicole and demands to know where the diamonds are, she decides that the advances of an admirer from the clubs she's performed in - a Dr. Robert Mathews (Frank Wolff) - seem pretty great and she runs off with him without a word to anyone.

They have a grand time and Nicole is treated like a Queen as the Doctor buys her dresses and dinners and the two seem like they are made for each other. The Doc whisks her away to a cottage he owns in a small town and Nicole pretends to be his wife as they live life to the fullest - happy and content.

Sure, the small village is filled with gossips and nutty people...including a strange man missing a hand, but I'm sure everything will work out for them.

Again, all of that was great for a story perspective, however the pace made me CRAZY. We see them shopping....eating....exchanging cute banter with a local fish seller....making love....saying they'll miss each other when the Doctor has to fly back to London for a while, but it all takes WAY TOO DAMN LONG to deal with. There's just not enough story to support the run time for me. I felt like I was being dragged behind a very slow pony.

Ercoli's direction is great and the film does manage to wrap very nicely in true giallo style, but it just took to long to get there for me. And the exposition at the end.....whew. Pretty funny, really. "Let me explain everything I did and why I did it...."   DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS might require me to re-watch at some point in the near future, but I'll start it in the middle for sure.







Now, DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT was a different viewing for me all together.

From IMDB:
Valentina, a beautiful fashion model, takes an experimental drug as part of a scientific experiment. While influenced by the drug, Valentina has a vision of a young woman being brutally murdered with a viciously spiked glove. It turns out that a woman was killed in exactly the same way not long ago and soon Valentina finds herself stalked by the same killer...

Now this film really hit the mark for me. The pace, character interactions, and visuals were interesting, engaging, and fun. Nieves Navarro as Valentina is strong, confident, and doesn't take any crap from anyone.  Simón Andreu is this magazine guy  (always get him and Luciano Ercoli mixed up!) who manages to get Valentina fired from her job and exposed to the murdered after backing out on his promise to keep her masked and anonymous for this wacky drug experiment that kicks this who plot off. Their chemistry is fun to watch as they snip at each other and fight. 

Suuuuuuure, the main catalyst for the plot - a vision of a killer while under the influence of a drug - falls right into the WTF?! gialli plot nuttiness for sure, but it's really just used to get things rolling and get us involved in this murder situation. After that, it's cat-and-mouse with the killer (who we see right away)  as he tries to silence Valentina.

And....we have J&B references! 

I loved watching this film. The banter was grand and natural, the characters were well rounded, and the pace was clipping right along from set piece to set piece. And, the mystery was interesting and really had me guessing. I'll watch this one again for sure.

So, I plan to watch Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion to break this Luciano Ercoli tie. :::grin:::   I loved one of his films and wasn't so happy with the other. We'll see what PHOTOS has to offer. (also on Shudder U.S. at the time of this posting)

Have you seen these? The SHUDDER reviews put HEELS in a far better light than I've placed it - hence the planned rewatch. I'd love to hear what other people have to say about these films.

Am I missing something? LET ME KNOW!

Cold Moon

I'm sick today. Called in sick, dropped my daughter off at school, grabbed my dog, and headed to the sofa. I was done. Bundled up and cozy, I fired up COLD MOON and settled in to watch, not rally knowing much about the film or who was in it. I love watching films this way. In a world filled with trailers coming out months before the film does, it's nice to go into something and just having it wash over you. And Cold Moon does that in spades!

Now, I don't want to say too much about this film. The press kit blurb sums things up nicely.

"In a sleepy southern town, the Larkin family suffers a terrible tragedy. Now the Larkin's are about to endure another: Traffic lights blink an eerie warning, a ghostly visage prowls in the streets, and graves erupt from the local cemetery in an implacable march of terror . . . And beneath the murky surface of the river, a shifting, almost human shape slowly takes form to seek a terrible vengeance."

I think that's vague enough as not to spoil much.

I was pleasantly surprised by Cold Moon on several fronts. The cast really through me for a little loop. Christopher Lloyd, Frank Whaley, Candy Clark....  I wasn't expecting this level of talent, to be honest. Everyone brings their "A game" to the movie and there are no weak performances.

The story was super strong and crafted expertly. I'm definitely going to have to pick up Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell - the book on which this film is based. I love these small town horror movies. People up to no good in a tiny town is really a fun little sub-genre and this story really takes advantage of the small town feel as the sheriff tries to piece together why bad things are happening in his small community. And bad things happen. A lot of bad, shocking things.

And, this is a ghost story with some effects that I have not seen played out to death...so to speak. :::grin:::  For instance, there are no massive, wide open mouths screaming in this film, thank God. These effects are fun and help to seal the deal on this lovely, vicious little Tell Tale Heart-like tale. We have some jump-scare shocks, but they also have some simply haunting visual elements that will surely please fans of the paranormal.

The cinematography is beautiful and Griff Furst's direction is interesting and kinetic.  There's a care taken with the shots and storytelling that you don't always find in horror. There are no music video style cuts here.

Do yourselves a favor and make an effort to get out and see Cold Moon in a theater with an audience. It's released in theaters October 6th, 2017.  




Starring Josh Stewart ("Shooter", The Dark Knight Rises), Christopher Lloyd (the Back to the Future series), Robbie Kay ("Once Upon a Time", Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides), Candy Clark ("Twin Peaks", Zodiac), Rachele Brooke Smith (Center Stage : On Pointe, The Nice Guys) and Frank Whaley ("Luke Cage", The Doors), Cold Moon is based on the novel Cold Moon Over Babylon by the late Michael McDowell, author Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Don't Torture a Duckling

 

I'm hitting a lot of 1972 films. Not sure why - I'm really not trying to. :)

Today we have DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING by the masterful Lucio Fulci and he doesn't disappoint in this brutal, giallo masterwork.

 

DUCKLING came shortly after Woman in a Lizard's Skin and many years before he hit his big sweep start with Zombie in '79, but this film packs a bunch of well placed gut kicks firmly in place as the mystery plays out and it keeps you guessing all the way through.  He mentioned that the film had some political commentary tied into the plot, but it really seems to be more of a "HOLY CRAP! FULCI IS KILLING CHILDREN ALL OVER THE PLACE!" more than anything political. 

IMDB sums things up nicely here:

A reporter and a promiscuous young woman try to solve a series of child killings in a remote southern Italian town that's rife with superstition and distrust of outsiders. 

 

We have some fantastic plot development here. It's a solid story ( Sorry, I love CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, but it's really thin on plot! hehehe )  with some fun characters and wicked....WICKED scenes playing out. And some seriously messed up items throughout as well including a boy of 13 or so being seduced and teased by a nude woman when he delivers drinks to her. Seriously disturbing! heh! But, as the killings keep happening, the gravity of the situation takes over. Who is killing...and why?

And of course we get to see the wondrous Barbara Bouchet and Florinda Bolkan :::swoon::::   Dreamy. 

A fantastic giallo offering I'll say no more about. :)

A must for Fulci fans!

Circus Kane

Circus Kane, on DVD October 10, 2017

CIRCUS KANE is one hell of an ambitious film that took me back to the classic 80s horror days of my youth. A group of seemingly random people are selected to be part of a contest. The winner receives $250,000 and they all could use it. But, will they survive Balthazar Kane's new attraction long enough to win?










I had a lot of fun with this film. It never really takes itself too seriously as the characters move through the tricks and trappings of Kane's fun house. There are some snappy bits of dialogue that are fired off rather well and some genuinely interesting little puzzles and scenes. If anything, I think the film could have been a bit darker with a little more light modeling to help mask the lower budget a bit, but even that had a kind of charm that made the film even more endearing. I could also see a bit of a Rob Zombie nod in a few places, but it wasn't a direct copy, just added a little Zombie spice here and there.

Don't roll into this film thinking you are going to be seeing a Rob Zombie cash film, however. This is fun, lower budget fair and I think thy do a great job with it. Christopher Ray's direction is interesting and entertaining and Tim Abell is a lot of fun to watch as Kane. The whole cast works well, too. Looking back on other films in this category, the acting can be...oh so painful. (Unless it's REALLY bad, then it can be fun) These folks do a good job selling their roles and it adds to the overall sense of fun the film presents.  

You can tell the team behind the film had a good time making Circus Kane - the fun is there on the screen. There are some cool set pieces and gags in here that I found to be highly entertaining. It's fun seeing some more playful horror ventures in the genre.

Grab a beverage, pop up some popcorn, and give this film a go. It's a fun ride.

From the Press Kit:

"Step…right…UP!" (Horror Fuel) and grab yourself a copy of the IT movie of the year, with a DVD that includes a funtastic audio commentary and splatteriffic outtakes.  
 

Jonathan Lipnicki (Jerry Maguire), Mark Christopher Lawrence (Cooties) and Tim Abell (Sniper : Special Ops) head up the cast of Christopher Douglas Olen-Ray's Circus Kane, "one of those midnightfilms that will bring you back to the days of your youth and trips to the circus, minus all the bloodshed and killer mimes" (Dread Central).

The notorious and disgraced circus master, Balthazar Kane, invites an unsuspecting group of social media stars to the revival of his CIRCUS KANE by promising $250,000 to any of them who can make it through the night. Kane’s true plan quickly proves to be far more sinister as the contestants realize more than money is on the line. The group must fight for their lives to escape Kane’s demented house of horrors.

Circus Kane, on DVD October 10.

 

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

The Witch Who Came from the Sea

The Witch Who Came from the Sea is one of those interesting films that gets a sort of pass for some of it's shortcomings due to the fact that it's such a time capsule of the time it was created in - in this case, 1976.

Millie Perkins plays (Aunt) Molly, a somewhat sad waitress at a bar who is struggling through working, drinking too much, and memories of a very shattered past. Her boss, Long John (Lonny Chapman) helps her out when he can as does her sister and two nephews, but things start to unravel and spiral down a very dark path when Molly turns into a kind of siren - luring men in and slaying them viciously. The reason behind her violent actions is rather easy to figure out, but watching it play out on screen is very interesting.



This is more an exploration of sexual trauma than a horror film, but there are horrific elements in the film to be sure. The film leans towards an art house esthetic as well as the scenes play out with dreamlike and nightmarish twists and turns as she falls deeper and deeper into a state of mental illness.

There are also interesting references to television. As a matter of fact, I think it's safe to say that television itself is a major character in the film. The sexual and drug morays of the day also play out wondrously as people party, speak freely about drugs and sex, and wander from lover to lover like shaking hands.  

Matt Cimber's direction is rather interesting.  He takes his time with shots and really lets you sink into the scenes as they unfold. He introduces certain elements throughout with care and grace, but some he just shoehorns in almost as an afterthought. There are some police characters that seem like Cimber is just showing them because he has to and he jumps away from them quickly so he can linger on more of Molly and her madness.

I caught this on SHUDDER and almost switched over to something else when I saw the look and style, but it slowly pulled me in and held my interest. Fans of 70s films really should check this out. It's a slow burn, but the acting and overall visual interest of the shots and clothing and acting style make it a fun watch.

Dominique is Dead

Michael Anderson (LOGAN'S RUN, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS) directed this fine little chiller from 1979. It's not a perfect film, mind you, but it has a charm to it. Like a warm blanket for me. Perfect for viewing on the sofa under a blanket.

Cliff Robertson and Jean Simmons play Mr and Mrs Ballard. Dominique Ballard had suffered a nasty fall down some stairs and seems to be having some issues with knowing what she's doing and saying while bumping around the old house. She has arguments she doesn't remember. She seems to have stolen a bracelet from one of her dinner guests. Then...she sees someone hanging in the greenhouse. Is she loosing her mind?

Well, as the title says, she doesn't live long. She hangs herself in the same greenhouse she saw her grim vision in. However, it's not long before Mr. Ballard starts seeing visions of his own. Visions...of Dominique. 

I don't really want to say more about the film here for fear of spoiling things. It's a simple film, but the way it's played out makes me happy. There are some fun visuals and interesting twists. (Albeit, simple ones that a movie lover will see coming from miles away. hehehe)

Available on YouTube and Amazon Prime at the posting of this article. Video below.

Fury (1978)

Have you seen THE FURY from 1978?

I remember watching back in the day. It was on SHOWTIME or some such and I had to see it. I looked cool and, I must admit, I thought Amy Irving was gorgeous. :)  De Palma?  ::shrug:::  Director? And I saw Kirk Douglas in all my Mom's old bible movies, right?  But....Amy....she was CUTE.

:)


Two years after CARRIE, we have another mind control, telekinesis story with X-FILES undertones. Amy and Andrew Stevens have mind powers. They can make things happen. And certain people want that kind of power on their side. Douglas plays the Father of the boy (Stevens) and John Cassavetes plays another seeking these mind power folks out.

All in all, it's grand, 70s horror fair - biting CARRIE's style here and there, but...you know...it's friggin De Palma. CARRIE was his, too. :)    It's a fun flick if you can find it. NETFLIX has the disks.

Funny - I wonder when they'll remake this one. Might be cool to see, actually.