A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER (1983)

 

A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER (1983), review by Mike Hunchback

America's 1960s maverick mistress of Exploitation Doris Wishman continued making films all throughout her life.  She filmed nearly all of A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER in 1979 with Samantha Fox starring, and allegedly before it was finished the film was destroyed by an employee at the going-out-of-business lab where the film was being processed.  Over three years later, the nearly 100% re-shot version that we know today was released.  The result is an awesome hodge-podge of gore, ineptitude, and narration - LOTS of narration.  If you're familiar with Wishman's '60s output you know her penchant of filming silently (often avoiding the face of whoever's speaking), overdubbing EVERYTHING in post-production.  She was insistent that this practice was essential to the artistic integrity of her work.  No, just kidding, it was because it was much cheaper and easier to overdub ALL dialogue.  Not that it works for even one moment mind you - but it was definitely cheaper and easier.

A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER resides comfortably in my own personal "SHIT-HORROR-MIND-FUCK" category, reserved exclusively for these bizarre no-budget gems wherein the chaotic mess of elements that makes up the film is so confusing and/or unfinished that almost everything that happens is fascinating because you have no clue why the hell it's happening.  The opening exposition of A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER feels like it goes on for maybe 40 minutes, madly switching time-periods and characters while constant narration over-explains it into total freaking nonsense.  The brain-numbing spectacle of super-boring walking around and the back of the head of whoever's talking  frequently alternates to the best non-effects gore this side of Andy Milligan.  Completely confounding displays of blood splatter and hacked-at rubber limbs lovingly crash into flesh getting ripped or stabbed, the red stuff pouring out in gobs for Gorehounds everywhere to praise.  As with the best of Wishman's work, A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER is one of those movies that makes the filmmaker's utter contempt for humanity obvious to its audience.  It's as if Doris thought that anyone watching A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER didn't deserve a good movie, so fuck 'em ... and I couldn't be happier for it.




Directed by: Doris Wishman
Written by: Judy J. Kushner
Staring: Samantha Fox, Diane Cummins, Saul Meth

THE WITCHING (1993)

 

THE WITCHING (1993), review by Mike Hunchback

 - with special thanks to Horror Boobs -

The glut of movies made for the SOV market is staggering, comparable to the teenage garage band phenomenon of the mid-sixties wherein kids from all over the world banged out privately pressed two song 45s in droves so vast that we still regularly uncover new material 50-plus years later.  One of many films coming out from prevalent '90s SOV companies at the time, THE WITCHING is a surprisingly fun entry into the world of shot/released on video Horror and is notable slightly for its behind-the-camera involvement of prolific video-meister Todd Sheets.  This one stood out to me foremost because of the rather well-written screenplay, which packs in tons of wildly over-the-top expressions and tongue-in-cheek troop-rallying one-liners; all delivered from the actors of THE WITCHING with surprisingly studied bravado. 

There's a few sublime moments in THE WITCHING.  While most of the Horror elements are very simple (Halloween masks and bubble-gum-machine green slime) there's still a couple shots that have that infinitely cool, Horror-hearted,  home-made, no-budget SOV magic - the french call it "je ne sais quoi".  Most memorable being the appearance of a white-faced Demoness in the family TV room, smoke swirling around her ethereally as she cackles at our verbose heroes.  There's some exceedingly creative cursing:

"You called me dickweed for no reason!"

"I ALWAYS call you dickweed for no reason."

"Yeah, but this time you sounded like you meant it!"

But apart from that, THE WITCHING is pretty clean and largely stays within the bounds of juvenile goofiness (Grandma is so senile she thinks the long-dead family dog is alive and well, and talks cute to it as she drags it around by its leash!).  It's also not a gore-fest - but the light-hearted momentum created by the obsessive campy writing will compel most from beginning to end.

THE WITCHING (1993)
Directed and Written by: Eric Black  Matthew Jason Walsh
Starring:  Auggi Alvarez, Mike Hellman, Frank Dunlay,
Dianne O'Connell, Carol Barta, Dana Pace, Veronica Orr

MANIAC (2012)

MANIAC (2012), review by Mike Hunchback

I WISH Someone Warned Me Not To Go Out Tonite ...

Tobe Hooper, George Romero, Wes Craven, William Lustig, and so many more, did not at first choose to remain outside of the Hollywood system.  They just wanted to make movies no matter what, and their pre-filmmaking status as nobodies allowed them no choice but to do so independently.  Among their celebrated efforts are TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, DAWN OF THE DEAD, LAST HOUSE ON THE THE LEFT and MANIAC - films that Hollywood would never have made at the time of their original releases, now all remade as big budget, big studio, nation-wide A films.

Sure, there's a feeling of offensiveness to remakes in general for Horror fans.  Though the argument isn't totally solid, Carpenter's remake of THE THING being the glaring example of the potential for remakes.  So why is it these remakes bother us so much?

The remake of MANIAC is an excellent example of why.  When I was in High School, my friends and I were obsessed with William Lustig's original MANIAC.  Obsessed, seriously.  We watched it over and over, showed it to everyone we could, wrote songs about, it quoted it (and its ad campaign) constantly - it was a little more than crazy now that I think about it. 

The discussion of whether or not we thought MANIAC was "so bad it was good" or funny because it was so over-the-top eventually did come up, and I remember distinctly walking with my friend Eliezer and having a discussion that went something like this:

Me:  "Do you like MANIAC because you think it's funny?"

Eliezer:  "Um, no - but I don't take it too seriously either -"

Me:  "Yeah same here.  It's just like ... I think it's good, you know?  There's something about it."

I've always been a little obsessed by that line-drawing most of us seem to do, wherein we deem certain feelings of enjoyment as legitimate and others as embarrassing.  The thing was, we liked the original MANIAC.  We just did; we saw it at the right time, we loved Joe Spinell, we loved how New York City looked in all the grimy glory we could half-remember from seeing it as kids.  And, we were Gorehounds who's appetite had rarely been whetted as it was with Lustig's MANIAC.  The tones injected into MANIAC when it was made were so stylistic (it looks more incredible as the years go on) and earnest (particularly Spinell's acting) that 15 years later kids picked up the VHS and were able to get something out of it.  We didn't want something completely, actually, mindless - we never gravitated to the post-Mondo world of actual atrocity (too boring); no, we needed something with bite, something with character, and most of all something that had a filmmaker's personal stamp on it somehow - a practice which Hollywood films have barely had for decades.

I was open to Franck Kalphoun's 2012 remake of MANIAC, hoping it would somehow do something daring and fresh with Lustig and Spinell's baby.  Unfortunately, the elements taken from the original MANIAC are simply: a weird guy who has issues with mother kills a bunch of women and owns mannequins.  The griminess and raw, celebratory violence of the original film is traded in for super-fancy, super-clean, super-serious typical drek.  On almost every level, MANIAC 2012 was awful, the performances being the only thing that I wasn't offended by.  And I don't want to spend more than one sentence discussing the film's nearly 100% point-of-view directing - let it simply be said that this drastic of a limitation isn't commonly applied to films for painfully obvious reasons.  

When Hooper, Romero, Craven, and Lustig respectively made TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, DAWN OF THE DEAD, LAST HOUSE ON THE THE LEFT and MANIAC, they were all both consciously and subconsciously angry.  As happy-go-lucky as all of these guys can be, the muck and mire of being forced to make films so independently inescapably affects the tones and limitations of their work.  Hence, all of these classic independent films' penchant for mind-numbing gore, dark-as-night tones and completely unrestrained possibility.  And really, that's what pisses off us Gorehounds - the original versions of these films were made with anger, with grit and passion - and sometimes desperation seeped into what was ending up on film.  That's why these films have a dedicated fan base, that's why they've endured.  Most of the films in the genre have not, for the same reasons the remake of MANIAC will be lumped into vague memory as so many other misguided remakes have.

MANIAC (2012)

Directed by: Franck Khalfoun  
Written by: Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur, C.A. Rosenberg

With: Elijah Wood, America Olivo, Liane Balaban,

Nora Arnezeder, and Megan Duffy

ARGENTO’S DRACULA (2012)

ARGENTO’S DRACULA, review by Mike Hunchback

To All You Soft-Hearted Gorehounds Out There ...


The main thought running through my mind as I watched ARGENTO’S DRACULA was:

“You know, I bet people would like this if it weren’t a Dario Argento movie.”

Then I quickly realized:

“No … No, no one would like this movie.  Maybe no matter what.  Except for me.”

The only other film in his career it’s comparable to is of course PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, another misfire for those who for some reason think Argento needs to make another DEEP RED, SUSPIRIA, INFERNO, TENEBRE, or OPERA; or even another animal-themed Giallo.  In my world he’s done more than enough, his half-dozen-to-ten masterpieces trump many other filmmakers’ entire flimographies and bashing the guy’s movies seems like the most fruitless of fan boy activities.   So, though ARGENTO’S DRACULA  is maybe not his greatest film, it’s wildly unique in its excessive style, and basically looks like nothing else.  This, plus the almost-blind devotion to the intrinsic value of a good bloody Vampire film, without a doubt charmed this soft-hearted Gorehound.

There’s an inescapable preciousness to ARGENTO’S DRACULA, and in a way it’s the kind of preciousness that is normally woven into dramas or love stories.  Here however, the unabashed mushiness is aimed in the direction of Gothic Horror and to the small sect of us moved by this kind of open adoration ARGENTO’S DRACULA satisfies greatly.   This is a film that comes off as having no pretensions or concerns to please whatsoever.  For better or worse, this is a testament to the fictional world that Dracula lives in, a tear-stained love letter to lunch-table-loners who spend their weekends with their noses buried in a Poe anthology.  Of course this is the kind of thing that most find silly; but if you’re like me and you have a soft spot for Gothic Romance as well as no grand desire for Argento to re-establish himself as “The Suspiria Guy”, then you’ll likely marvel at the heart-on-sleeve-Horror-adoration that can be found in ARGENTO’S DRACULA.


Available at the internet's number one DVD retailer DIABOLIK DVD:

www.diabolikdvd.com


ARGENTO’S DRACULA (2012)
Directed by: Dario Argento
Written By: Dario Argento, Enrique Cerezo, 
Stefano Piani, Antonio Tentori
From Bram Stoker’s DRACULA
Starring: Rutger Hauer, Asia Argento, Thomas Kretschmann, 
Marta Gastini, Miriam Giovanelli, Unax Ugalde

Part exploration, part confession, part magic trick, all Exorcism. Jess Franco Forever.

Jesus "Jess" Franco

1930 - 2013

When I was 15 years old, I wanted to place an order for VHS dubs of some rare Exploitation films.  I had been reading Psychotronic for a while at that point, and what was once an unidentifiable urge had manifested itself in the realization that there was indeed a universe out there of bizarre cinema, the likes of which I had not yet known.  There were these mystifying ads in Psychotronic, packed densely with way-too-small text and emitting an air of actual and genuine sleaziness. 

I had seen “Evil Dead” and “Day of the Dead” about a billion times, I had made all of my friends suffer through whichever silent German Expressionist film I could get a tape of, but I still felt there was … something else out there.  Something sicker, something more.  The unsavory titles that crammed the ads full were particularly indicative of this “other world” of film.  I only knew of a director named Jess Franco through the elegant, dreamy Vampyros Lesbos and his less popular Count Dracula with Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski, but these ads seemed to have literally dozens of different Franco films. 

Curiosity had reached its breaking point and I needed to order some of these tapes … “Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun” what the fuck was this stuff?

In any case, in 1995 when you wanted something mailorder, you needed a check.  I filled out a sheet of paper with the films I wanted, got a little cash together and before leaving for school one day I asked my father for a check in exchange for the cash,  so I could get some videos. 

My father had been supportive of film fandom in the past, but after I left for school that day he opened that letter to see exactly what kinds of films I was going to be ordering - needless to say, that letter never got sent and I was scolded pretty hard when I got home.  I guess the ads in Psychotronic seem somewhat unwholesome to the uninitiated.  The memory of my defense is still clear in my mind: “This movie is by a guy who directed a Dracula movie with Christopher Lee, how 'bad' could it be!?”

As the years went by and I got old enough to make my own pilgrimages to Kim’s in the city, I saw dozens of Franco films.  Then dozens more.  My adoration for him grew - this filmmaker could hit notes of artful composition, powerful sexuality, and deep bawdy humor in the span of a minute - yet these notes were merely by-products.  Clearly Franco was a rare man who was actually using filmmaking the way a Jazz musician improvises.  There’s a part of the infrastructure of a “song”, it has the melody sometimes, there’s echoes of a familiar riff, you hear the hook now and again, but these elements are just part of that big dizzying swirl of emotion being poured out from the soul through a horn.

Part exploration, part confession, part magic trick, all Exorcism.

The feelings that are involved in my absolute love for Franco’s work are not only hard to explain, but also somehow too personal to externally identify.

Today though, a part of my feelings for Franco’s work has made itself clear.  If Franco’s uncountable contributions had to be boiled down to one singular notion, if we're to name one lone factor for which his work is valuable, it would be this -

In a world where we’re told to walk the line or fail; in a world where we can literally lose our livelihood, our comfort, and even our lives if we don’t adhere to the status quo, we are given strict guidelines for what “success” is.  The acceptable parameters of “success” are dictated around us with no room to experiment, and in desperate confusion so many of us lose the ability to ignore these suffocating lines of distraction, the daily battering rams that drive us into bleak repetition.  So many of us are so mesmerized that those among us who shout out are the “crazy ones”.
 
The thing I realized this morning, the thing I realized just now, is that when faced with of all this, despite these enormous and complicated pressures to conform; Jesus Franco Manera simply chuckled, turned his back, and made another film.  And then another film.  And then another film …  With his incredible history of ups and downs, deaths of loved ones and soul mates, studios and producers, money and no money and NO money, Franco never saw the option to give in.  I’d have to guess that that idea never even occurred to him.  He had his own terms for “success”.   His success was not born of spite, desire for recognition, for fortune - it was never about anything besides making that next film.  Finding that new place on celluloid, no matter what other people would think or say. 

Though it goes against our deeply ingrained idea of “success”, I’d like to offer a personal opinion that I will hold dearly for the rest of my time here, and that is that there is no artist more successful than Jesus Franco Manera.  And even more gloriously, to emulate his success means to permanently enter the terrorizing, blissful, un-ending battle of being true to yourself.  No matter what, always.

SAVORY, DELICIOUS ... LUNCHMEAT

As popular a topic as “the death of print” may be, there’s still noteworthy on-paper contributions to Horror Fandom being made.  As a complete devotee to seminal rags like UncleBob Martin-era FANGORIA, Michael J. Weldon’s Psychotronic, and Chas Balun’s DEEP RED, I’m beyond picky with Horror and Exploitation related film magazines.  More than picky I’m perhaps disheartened, as most of the major mags are largely filled with what might as well be bought and sold ad space for what is ultimately mindless major studio garbage (in contrast, certainly a nod goes to many of the folks at Rue Morgue, who do a wonderful job).

A lot of folks buy the lie that innovation is no longer financially viable, and so it’s thrilling to see the voracious VHS virus that is LUNCHMEAT innovate the hell out of the stale contemporary magazine market.  It’s layout, style, mission, writing, and humor are completely its own, and Editor Josh Schafer seemingly without strain puts to rest the notion that watering down material makes for a better read.  It’s fun, original and genuinely fresh.

Instead of trying to ape the antics of other movie mags, LUNCHMEAT has created its own personal style of zine-like worship and research style.  They mostly cover VHS unavailable on DVD (a world that is indeed endless despite popular misconceptions), and related  phenomena.  Instead of covering "hot new" films (which as we all know are few and far between), LUNCHMEAT creates the subtext that they’re moving back through time, scouring the trash for tapes; coming up with mind-bending absurdities like “HAWK JONES”, a 1986 violent action film wherein the entire cast is children pretending to be adults!  And, though many titles are joked about and poked fun at, LUNCHMEAT is still a truly upbeat endeavor - there’s an unbelievably heartfelt respect for so many of these films, and movies that are laughed off by most within the scene are discussed here for their historical importance and positive traits.  The excellent review of Penelope Spheeris’ oft-overlooked “DUDES” (issue 6 also features a great interview with highly talented but also-oft-overlooked actor Daniel Roebuck ) is high point.  Schafer writes:

“This film, while arguably a little uneven at times, is an absolutely unique entry in genre film and the voracious Videovore would do themselves good to implement this one into their VCR’s diet.  Not only because of the bright cast’s chemistry and consistently entertaining performances, but Spheeris’ ability to meld the aspects of a road movie, an off-beat buddy comedy and a classic revenge flick all into one is truly something special.  The laughs are abundant, the action’s exciting and the idea of a pair of once-passive  punks realizing that life’s about creating your own adventure makes DUDES a fulfilling and enjoyable ride.”

Well put!  I didn’t know anybody out there felt the same way I did about Spheeris’ DUDES.  Get your hands on Issue #6 and give these guys as much of your dough as you can -  Long live LUNCHMEAT!

 

-Mike Hunchback

DEATH WALTZ RISING!

Even among the many sub-sects of record buyers, the Soundtrack Aficionado has for years been somewhat of a black sheep. Though there have been moments of hipness; in the 90’s labels like DAGORED and CRIPPLED DICK HOT WAX repackaged some painfully rare, mostly Italian, soundtrack cuts in the forms of high quality reissues and extremely cool compilations. Labels like these gave instant context for the inexperienced listener, and now composers like Bruno Nicolai and Piero Piccioni are familiar to a wide range of music fans of many different types.

Before that, there were labels like Cerberus Records with their legendary Ennio Morricone Film Score Society series, an unbelievably classy endeavor that issued some of the most astounding and rare soundtracks of the day, with the obvious overtone that it was completely a labor of love. Similarly labels like Cinema Records went above and beyond to contribute their fantastic Bernard Herrmann and Max Steiner records to the pantheon of essential soundtrack platters.

In recent years “the Soundtrack” has gained perhaps more traction than ever - plenty of music fans are aware of John Carpenter and Goblin, and thusly these artists are finally getting the respect they deserve. Though no one has yet offered that next major advance in soundtrack LP fandom - that is until Death Waltz Recording Co.’s deluxe edition of Fabio Frizzi’s score to Lucio Fulci’s “Zombi” hit record stores this year.

Death Waltz seems to be conscious of this record-buyer-meets-soundtrack-aficionado division, though it’s by no means a cash-in or a throwback. This is new territory they’re treading - all the titles are legitimately licensed, complete with text for the release by the composer. All the titles are pressed on high quality vinyl and remastered to excellence. Their releases also feel extremely fresh because they sport covers (delightfully uniform in their framing) designed by artists working currently that have personal affection for the subject matter. The result is covers cool enough to inspire many a casual record buyer to simply pick them up out of curiosity. And, as anyone can see by just glancing at their website, Death Waltz seems to be working significantly harder than any label in recent memory - by early next year Death Waltz will have released over a dozen soundtracks; each with a limited edition version.

 A very happy Mike Hunchback with the recently-arrived Halloween II and Halloween III Soundtrack LPs!

Label founder Spencer Hickman was kind enough to take the time to answer some questions for us:
   

How did your personal fascination of film soundtracks begin?

When I was 8, in the same year my dad bought me The Muppets album and Star Wars. I was obsessed with Star Wars and we went to see it like 13 times at the Gaumont in Birmingham, the soundtrack was this amazing double vinyl with a big fold out poster of the Rebels attacking the Death Star; it wasn't a still from the film but a beautifully rendered poster, I used to stare at the poster on my floor while I relived the film through my stereo. Those two albums right there are where it all started.


Death Waltz has also so far offered a varied array of material - brooding, dark, electronic scores from Carpenter and Howarth's "Escape from New York" and Fabio Frizzi's "Zombi" to the more modern scores of “Let the Right One In” and “Donnie Darko”- did you originally foresee Death Waltz as being so all-encompassing?

Yeah totally. I love music, why limit yourself? I was chatting to my friend Manish that writes for The Quietus and he said what he loved about the label was that we were doing new soundtracks and that people always moan that there is nothing new that’s classic anymore; which obviously is rubbish, there’s tons of new stuff I want to do. I always thought that if we make sure the quality of the package was good enough then people would trust us on titles that maybe they didn't know.


Were there any soundtracks that you had hoped to release that for one reason or another you won't be able to?

Texas Chainsaw Massacre - I know a few people have tried but there are so many rights issues that it's never going to happen.


With the unbelievably high level of quality that the label has been offering, it seems that your excellent reputation could garnish future soundtrack licensing beyond what you were capable of in the beginning. Any dream projects?

Oh wow thanks. We are already beyond what I had envisaged, I want the label to grow organically and I don’t want to only release horror movies soundtracks. Which is why I changed our tagline to 'the art of soundtracks'. I love movies and not just horror, I want us to become the label that composers come to and say 'I want DW to release this score'; I do want to start offering CD's too when licenses allow.

Would you ever release something that wasn’t a film soundtrack?

Tricky one, I'm not sure we could, maybe as an offshoot? I have an idea that I want to release a re-edit 12” featuring 4 tracks and have people in mind, but even then I'm not sure DW could release it.


You’ve recently announced the next batch of titles that Death Waltz will release - The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue, Prince Of Darkness, Halloween II, Halloween III, They Live - anything else in the pipeline at the moment?

Yes, but not that I can talk about, you never know whose reading!


Does Death Waltz have an official US distributor?

At the moment our UK distributor ships to Forced Exposure, but Light In The Attic are going to be carrying them direct from September 1st.


And will you continue to offer subscriptions? How will that work for someone within the US like myself?

Yes we are carrying on with the sub, it upping to 200 due to the demand. Open to one and all no matter where you are. One thing I love about shipping releases is seeing where they are going; Russia, Turkey, etc., there is no discrimination at DW, haha!