One man's journal through the swamps of mangled media!
From Jess Franco and Lina Romay to Christina Lindberg to the art of Eurocine. Cinema For The "Aware" Audience!
I love the FANTAGHIRO series of television films produced and directed by Lamberto Bava. A mix of kiddie fantasy with European Trash Tropes and stars like Kim Rossi Stuart, Alessandra Martines, Brigitte Nielsen (as a wicked queen!!), Mario Adorf and more show up and the fairy tale story is brought to life with creature effects by Sergio Stivaletti! After years of tracking them down in English dubbed movie versions, including CAVE OF THE GOLDEN ROSE, I was stunned to see an animated version had been produced. Some even exist in English. So, happy birthday Lamberto, lets watch some really odd stuff you inspired!
First up... the feature length FANTAGHIRO, QUEST FOR THE KUORUM
And here is episode one of FANTAGHIRO...the series! There are even more online in several languages. It's an enjoyable expansion of the television movies for the few fans that may frequent my blog. At worst, all you horror adults can expose some kids to the work of the maestro that made DEMONS!
One of my favorite films, Lamberto Bava's masterwork of Goo, Gore, Pimps and Punishment...DEMONS! Check out this cool VHS ad!
Click to read the fantastic blurbage too!
I quite enjoyed Sergio Stivaletti's horror anthology I Tre Volti del Terrore again the other night and just had to share this funny little bit. Lamberto Bava cameos as the director of DEMONS 7!
Does this neck problem look familiar??
D'ah...Lamberto Bava returns for Demons 7!!
"Sergio, it looks like bubblegum!!"
Another tough day on the set of a Lamberto Bava / Sergio Stivaletti shoot!
I spent last evening watching the newly released CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD / GATES OF HELL Blu Ray and it was truly an amazing experience. But, as always, when I watch a nice HD presentation of the greats of Eurosplat I keep wondering when I'll see DEMONS on Blu Ray. We need it.
I've started my epic rewatch sessions of the Lamberto Bava TV series Fantaghiro and have about 900 minutes of swords, beautiful women, talking rocks, animated trees and much much more to enjoy. But here is a mind bender...these popular shows spawned an ANIMATED series. Here are episodes 4 and 12...in ENGLISH!
In 1987 the series of horror shorts Turno di notte aired. A total of 15 episodes were aired with the directorial duties being shared between Luigi Cozzi and Lamberto Bava. Of course, I'm VERY itchy to see these. Thanks to the ever present wonders of YouTube I have one episode, subtitled in English, to share today. Lamberto Bava's HEAVY METAL! Dig it.
I just saw the artwork for the new release of BLASTFIGHTER on DVD and as always, I'm excited to get another version in my collection. So, here is the artwork and my review from the book TOUGH TO KILL-THE ITALIAN ACTION EXPLOSION. Yes, you can still get Tough To Kill if you need a loving tribute to the action films of the 1980s that smashed huts and busted guts across the silver screen (or VHS tapes) during that Rambo Ravaged period.
Dig in...and by all means, if you have NOT experienced this great Lamberto Bava film, do so now. Also, don't forget that Micheal Sopkiw will be appearing at Chiller Theater. Also, you can listen to an audio version of the Bookgasm review for Tough To Kill at this link. That just cracks me up!
Blastfighter
1984-Medusa Distribuzione / National Cinematografica / Nuova Dania Cinematografica /Films Jacques Leitienne
Directed by Lamberto Bava (John Old Jr.)
With: Micheal Sopkiw, Luigi Montefiori, Valentine Forte
“You wanna know who I am?? I’M A SONUVABITCH…who wants to be left alone.”
What starts as a simple tale of hillbillies up to no good escalates into ballistic balls out mayhem, living up to a title like Blastfighter in Lamberto Bava’s only pure action outing. For real. Seriously.
We meet Tiger Sharp as he walks out of jail and it is clear that he has revenge on his mind.After acquiring a (bizarre) tricked out SPAS Shotgun that comes with a variety of missiles and has a scope, he sets out to kill the man who sent him to prison… and more.However, Tiger decides to leave the road to revenge behind, retreating into the backwoods of Georgia for solitude.Upon arriving however, the local boys push him to the limit straight away. Certainly he isn’t a rabid killer, but a man can only take so much-and he smashes heads. However, old friends resurface, and he finds his once upon a time pal Tom (George Eastman) is now the big man in town—but when it is revealed he is sanctioning the mass slaughter of animals for a Hong Kong butcher’s dissection needs, Tiger doesn’t like that… no sir, not at all. Complicated by the arrival of a beautiful young woman (you’ll guess the connection they share straight away I’d bet) and some other hillbilly scuzzbags, everyone gets caught in the crossfire until Tiger has to unleash his inner beast and become a man no more… a Blastfighter reborn!
Sure, it sounds silly, but Blastfighter is not the average action fare. Stacked with talent behind the scenes and using more dramatic pacing, more heavy gore effects and good performances from the cast, it all adds up to a great 91 minutes.Lamberto Bava, who sadly always seems to be qualified as the great Mario Bava’s son before discussion of his own work (I just did it) proves that he can handle genres outside his normal horror/giallo stomping grounds.Lucky for us he doesn’t leave the flourishes of those styles out of the proceedings!Tiger’s wife is killed in the brutal Italian crime/horror way, harkening back to A Blade in the Dark, and when it comes time for the bullets to strike, they do so with Demons styled splat-tastic aplomb.Bones break, arms fly and full body explosions occur with regularity.Restraint in the early going makes the finale all the more satisfying, and the viewer is ready for the payoff that Lamberto provides with gusto, gore and gruesome violence.
The story behind the film goes that Blastfighter was a title that was pre-sold to distributors, but as the original science fiction project was collapsing the always reliable icon of Eurotrash Cinema, Dardano Sacchetti, was called in for a quick rewrite. While the film may now be slightly misrepresented by the title, seriously, does BLASTFIGHTER really sound like a backwoods action flick? The trick of keeping that big gun in the back of the viewer’s head until the blastfighting begins in the final act is pulled off surprisingly well.The dialogue may get hammy at times, but in a very lovable way.Listen for Sopkiw to call out for “balls” more times than the legal limit should allow.
Balls!!
Highest marks go to the the cast led by the great Micheal Sopkiw. Now sporting a moustache, he grins, groans and blasts his way through every scene with the greatest of ease. Sopkiw emotionally punches trees and sets bones like a champ, a shame he didn’t appear in more films, I could watch this guy blow up the bad bastards of the world, be they backwoods or post apocalyptic mutants, every day.George Eastman is always a positive and provides a nice, almost subtle, rival for our hero. Valentina Forte is great as the ball busting girl as well, earning the exclamation of “good golly Miss Molly” that Tiger whispers her way.
Boasting a score by the De Angelis Brothers (an excellent one at that), replete with Georgian “accents” and the repetition of The Bee Gees “Evening Star” as covered by the band tommie baby, you’ll be humming along with the Blastfighter as he literally obliterates ALL of the scumbags he can lay bullets and bombs upon.
With the Thriller / They Call Her One Eye Archive closing, I can't resist posting more Christina Lindberg...so scroll down and enjoy a few images. So this sets me a bit adrift-and then it hit me in the forehead like an image from a Franco flick. The release of the Mario Bava book, and my inability to afford it got me to thinking about what I most want to know from that monster sized tome. There is someone very close to that story who has worked in the genre cinema for 40 + years that seems to get less respect then he should. Actually, I would say that this is a man whose life in cinema has provided me endless entertainment and enjoyment. His work changed my life, at least in the cinematic sense. And the film that did just that has just been re-issued in a fantastic transfer on DVD! And I just watched a recent film from Italy made by this same person that floored me with the return to basic Italian TRASH cinema with all the style that set it apart all those years ago. Who might this be? How much space will I devote to him? Well, it will be similar to the Thriller project! Images, reviews and hopefully more as I collect as much as I can about one of the guys I would go to the mat to defend anytime, anywhere and will always admire for his ability to ride out the Italian Genre wave, even if he has to paddle in the pool to make a tiny wave for himself.
Starting soon...
And of course, I promised Christina Lindberg. A little something I whipped up for your pleasure-and mine!