Patreon Post - THE HOUSE OF CLOCKS (1989)

Here's a LINK to my latest post on Patreon in which I reevaluate this late period Lucio Fulci horror effort. Strange what 20 plus years can do to your perceptions. 

The Bloody Pit #180 - CONQUEST (1983)

I am joined by Troy Guinn and Jeff Nelson to talk about a Lucio Fulci movie once again! This time we swipe away the fog and try to get a clear look at CONQUEST (1983). This was the director’s one entry in the brief 80’s resurgence of the sword & sorcery genre inspired by the success of CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) and THE BEASTMASTER (1982) and it has many more detractors than defenders. Where do you think we fall?

 

We talk about the history of bad VHS prints of the film and make a defense of the foggy, misty visual style of the cinematography. We do not defend the furry nunchakus, though. The film’s main characters and the mythological stereotypes they fall into causes much discussion with the older mentor and younger student reversal becoming our focus. Of course, considering the period of Fulci’s career in which this was made, we can’t help but notice the movie’s fascination with violence and depictions of damage to the human body. We examine the puzzle of the villain’s odd choice of hallucinatory substance to snort and wonder how this odd effect was discovered in this cruel world. The various cool monsters and dangerous creatures in the film get some love from us but the inclusion of zombies is questioned as a possible late addition. It’s a lively conversation and we hope you’ll enjoy it even if you don't like the movie!

 

If you have anything to say about CONQUEST thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to send your thoughts. Thank you for listening! 

Wild, Wild Podcast S5: E10 - WARRIORS OF THE YEAR 2072 (1984)

Strap your motorcycle helmet on, rev your engines, grab your weapons and head into Rome's New Colosseum where violent death is just seconds away! Yes, Adrian and I are once again dressing up in leather to face the nightmarish futures of Italian cinema, and in this episode it's a future brought to you by none other than the Godfather of Gore himself, Lucio Fulci. Many aspects of the film are discussed, including when is a post-apocalypse not a post-apocalypse, and Adrian gets sidetracked by the brief pop career of its female lead and Playmen cover model, Eleonora Brigliadori. Once you've heard Balla Il Tip Tap you may find yourself wishing for the apocalypse or wanting to compete in Kill Bike.

We would love to hear what your favorite post-apocalypse films are even if they're ones we haven't touched on in this series. You can contact us on Twitter and Instagram or by email at wildwildpodcast@gmail.com. Please also remember to rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice!

The Bloody Pit #149 - MURDER ROCK (1984)

Lucio Fulci’s MURDER ROCK (1984) is not considered the director’s finest work but in this episode Troy Guinn, Jeff Nelson and I mount a defense of the film.

 

We take a look at several aspects of the film that are rarely discussed including the excellent cinematography and the script’s clever red herrings. It’s standard for a murder mystery to throw suspicion on most of the cast but several of the suspects in this case are real nasty pieces of work! How often do you have one character falsely confess to the killing and another try to use the murder method to cover their own desire to be rid of a rival? It certainly keeps things lively even if it makes for a difficult knot to untangle.

 We discuss the cast while marveling at the number of actors/dancers that don’t get screen credit. The central dream sequence comes under scrutiny as part of the mid-80’s intrusion of music video style into cinema. We mull over the nearly bloodless nature of the murders as a possible concession to the angry response Fulci received for his previous New York set thriller. We also give our opinions on the often-derided score from the legendary Keith Emerson who seems destined to be insulted for his contributions to this film for eternity. In all, it is a fun ramble through an often-overlooked giallo.

 

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to write or drop a recording of your thoughts. We love hearing from you so jump in! Thank you for listening. 

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Wild Wild Podcast #3 - 002 OPERATION MOON (1965)

Join Adrian and Rod as they blast off into space again, this time in the "hilarious" company of Franco and Ciccio in Lucio Fulci's science fiction comedy 002 Operazione Luna (yes, THAT Fulci). During the voyage they discuss Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, what makes things funny, and the true story of the Judica-Cordiglia brothers in Italy, who intercepted radio transmissions from real lost cosmonauts in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

You can find 002 Operazione Luna on YouTube without subtitles, but a subtitled version is out there on more dubious sites if you know where to look.

If you want to learn more about the Judica-Cordiglia brothers, there is a fascinating documentary called Space Hackers (2007) available on YouTube.

Feel free to contact the podcast on our email wildwildpodcast@gmail.com or through Twitter or Instagram and please leave a review wherever you listen.

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Brief Thoughts - MURDER ROCK (1984)

MURDER ROCK (1984) is a late period Lucio Fulci giallo with the amped up violence expected from that period of his career. Someone is killing off the best dancers in a class from which the top students will be offered prestigious jobs. A wily police detective suspects someone in the school but can’t pin the murders on anyone - not even the people with the most to gain.

This one has always had a bad reputation because of the terrible 80’s music that permeates the story. It’s true that the Flashdance style tunes are abysmal and unintentionally funny but they don’t make the film any less solid as a good thriller. The murders are fascinating and the amount of nudity on display is amazing for the times. The expert director handles the plot like a throwback to the 70’s heyday of the great Gialli bringing style and inventiveness to nearly every scene. Sure to please slasher fans, the killer is creative and very lucky with an identity always hovering just out of sight until the end. Well done if not brilliant and a welcome return to form for Fulci at a time he was being regularly attacked as past his sell-by date. The man could still really make exciting cinema.

Brief Thoughts - MURDER ROCK (1984)

MURDER ROCK (1984) - Later period Lucio Fulci giallo. Someone is killing off the best dancers in a class from which the top students will be offered prestigious jobs. A wily police detective suspects someone in the school but can’t pin the murders on anyone- not even the people with the most to gain. This one has always had a bad reputation because of the terrible 80s music that is slathered all over the soundtrack. It’s true the Flashdance style tunes are abysmal and unintentionally funny but they don’t make the film any less solid as a good thriller ride. The murders are fascinating and the amount of nudity on display is plentiful putting this firmly in the sexploitation genre. Handled like a throwback to the 70s heyday of the great Gialli the killer is inventive (and lucky) with an identity always hovering just out of sight until the end. Well done if not brilliant and a welcome return to form for Fulci at a time he was being regularly attacked for having lost his mojo. The man could really make exciting cinema.

Why Do I Keep Watching ZOMBIE 3 (1988)?

Over the past 20 years I have watched  this particular film  at least half a dozen times. I have no defendable excuse for this fact because there is no good reason to watch it more than once - Ya know- for the experience!  So there is no good reason to own Zombie 3 on Blu-ray. In fact, there is no reason for Zombie 3 to even exist on Blu Ray. It is without a doubt one of the worst examples of zombie cinema made before the advent of cheap digital photography. It has a terrible script, awful acting, crappy sets, awful makeup effects, depressingly stupid ideas and a total lack of intelligence. For roughly 85% of its running time it is a nonsensical ramble thought half-formed scenarios that go nowhere. It is without a doubt one of the worst horror films I have ever watched more than once. The fact that I have to express my feelings in these particular terms will show you just how sick a horror fan I am.

So, why do I own it on Blu-ray?

Two reasons, I guess.

One is that clearly I'm a sucker. There's a part of me that seriously hopes that one day I will watch a horror film that I think of as absolutely terrible and find hidden depths or buried qualities that I was just too youthful or inexperience to discern on previous viewings. Sometimes it happens. Not often anymore, but sometimes it does and so hope springs eternal.

The second reason is that I am an incredible sucker in another way which might be worse. If there is a brand new sparkling HD edition of even a film as marginal and bad as Zombie 3 it can draw me in. Usually it's with the idea that somehow just being able to see the image more clearly may make me appreciate the film more. That has rarely happened but I can't stop thinking down that deadly path. So, Severin got me to pony up for their new Blu-Ray of this awful movie. I'm such a sucker!

Should I also admit that I bought their Blu of ZOMBIE 4 as well? How much shame can one man bear?

Trailers From Hell - Guillermo del Toro on ZOMBIE (1979)

One of my favorite directors talking about one of my favorite horror films! 

Brief Thoughts - THE DEVIL'S HONEY (1986)

It's not often I sit down with the intention of watching a sleazy movie. I know that seems odd considering my love for European Trash cinema but it's true. Although sleazy elements may be a part of a lot of the films I watch and enjoy I don't seek out movies just because they are known as sleazy in their approach to their subject matter. In my younger days I did seek out cinema that catered to the more sordid side of things but over time I've pretty much seen everything I wanted so the thrill of simple shock has worn off.

Or at least I thought so.

Last night I watched Lucio Fulci's 1986 feature THE DEVIL'S HONEY. I knew it was known for it's sexually sleazy story but had kept myself as unaware of details as possible so I could absorb the film without interference from expectations. My first surprise was to learn that the lovely Corinne Cléry appears as Bret Halsey's wife. I have a thing for that lovely lady dating back to YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE (1983) so the prospect of ample nudity from her was enticing and on that front this film certainly delivers! Miss Cléry spends a great deal of her small amount of screen time nude or in various states of undress but the same is true of the actual female lead actor Blanca Marsillach. In fact, here is so much nudity in the film that by the end I should have been inured to the sight of female beauty but both of these ladies are so gorgeous I remained in awe of them.

That I never became accustomed to the nudity in the film is a testament not just to the physical beauty of the women onscreen but to the fascinating themes being explored in the story. I won't go into detail so as to allow curious viewers to see the film as I did but the sadomasochistic relationship at the heart of things is explored in absorbing ways. The wants and needs of a person in such a relationship are so complicated and confused that even knowing your own mind seems difficult. I'm not sure the story's physiological complexity justifies such a sleazy, exploitative movie but I know I couldn't take my eyes off it wondering what might happen next. That is the most shocking thing this film showed me- that I can still be entranced by something so seedy and dark. Fulci continues to surprise me decades after his death.

The Fragrance of Fulci

Today would have been the 90th birthday of legendary Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci. There are a lot of products out there that attempt to capitalize on the cult built around his career - especially his horror films - but this one has to be the most audacious. And the funniest!

Sadly it's only available to UK buyers. Until some enterprising soul imports enough to sell here as well. 

The Bloody Pit #53 - THE BEYOND (1981)

This episode we take a trip to the dank, mist enshrouded, sweat covered land of Louisiana for a blast of gore drenched Italian horror from maestro Lucio Fulci! The Three Stooges of Euro-Trash descend into the cellar of the Seven Doors Hotel to see if they can find the Book of Eibon while dodging the outstretched arms of eye-gouging zombies. Sense and nonsense merge into a rich tapestry of mad events loosely connected to the hotel and it's new owner Liza (Catriona MacColl). Can handsome doctor McCabe (David Warbeck) unravel the mystery at the heart of the horror or will he, too, succumb to the dark forces from The Beyond?

The recent GrindHouse Releasing Blu-Ray of this seminal horror film was the catalyst for Jeff, Troy and Rod to rewatch this violent creep show and high definition does nothing to dampen their love. Easily the best the film has ever looked on home video it gains so much in detail and visual depth that it becomes an even better experience. The movie's many narrative lapses and structural oddities are discussed as well as it's dread filled atmosphere and superlative Fabio Frizzi score. Clearly Fulci was more interested in realizing a long series of surrealistic, nightmare-like sequences concocted to unnerve and disturb, but among his dream imagery assault are moments of pure Gothic beauty as well. One of a kind filmmaking and a classic regardless of it's faults.

If you listen to the show on iTunes please rate & review the podcast there. It helps others find us and generally makes us feel good! You can join us on the Bloody Pit Facebook page as well where show links are posted along with odd images from the movies we cover. Thank you for listening and we'll be back soon! Oh! And I do refer to the podcast as The Bloody Podcast at the beginning of the show. This is not a rebranding attempt! It's just me verbally stumbling as we get back into the groove of recording. 

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ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER (1969)

George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel) is a supposedly wealthy doctor with his own medical clinic in San Francisco. His brother Henry (Alberto de Mendoza) helps run the private clinic but the siblings often clash over George's sometimes crass publicity attempts to get the facility better recognition. At home things are not great either, as George's rich wife Susan (Marisa Mell) is a virtual shut-in suffering from asthma and requiring almost constant care. The couple's relationship is in bad shape and he has been denied access to the areas of the house Susan occupies. On top of this is the poor man's newly strained relationship with his long time mistress Jane (Elsa Martinelli), who is close to deciding to leave him and the city. He loves Jane but knows that without his wife's money his debts would destroy him. Has this guy got problems or what?

Only by making a grand romantic gesture does George manage to change Jane's mind and convince her to stay in Frisco. He makes vague promises of divorce and hints that his rich wife can't life forever in her condition. No sooner does this conversation take place than he receives word that Susan has died! Completely shocked by her death he is even more surprised when he learns that she'd taken out a life insurance policy naming him as the sole beneficiary. While this unexpected windfall will allow him to clear the clinic's debts and put him comfortably in the black, he can't understand why she would've done this. The marriage had been on shaky ground for years and Susan had made her displeasure with his financial dealings known. The police show some interest at first but nothing suspicious is  evident, so they leave things alone.

Then a few weeks later George receives an anonymous call telling him to go to a particular nightclub. He does, accompanied by the suspicious Jane, and witnesses the striptease act of Monica Weston (also Marisa Mell). Stunned by the uncanny resemblance to his dead wife, he can only see two minor differences —hair and eye color. Monica is a blonde, green-eyed beauty while Susan was dark haired with brown eyes. After her stage act the sexy woman makes it plain that she's available for sex with George and Jane or the both of them if the price is right; he begs off but is far too intrigued to let it go. He contacts Monica on his own and meets her at her apartment. After a scare when he notices a drug Miss Weston uses that Susan needed as well, George becomes convinced it's just a bizarre coincidence but is it, really? 

This is a crackerjack of a film! Lifting both the setting and the central conceit of a dead beautiful woman's doppelganger from Hitchcock's Vertigo, Lucio Fulci (Zombie) doesn't simply make a copy of that portrait of obsession. He comes at the story sideways, like some kind of sex-crazed loon hell-bent on one-upping Hitch while playing, tricking and mesmerizing his audience. Unlike Vertigo's nice guy protagonist we're presented with a main character we can't sympathize with very much. He's a bit of a con artist, willing to lie to advance his business prospects. He's clearly no longer in love with his wife — if he ever was — and as we see her gasping for air during an asthma attack the look of hurt accusation in her eyes invites our hostility toward him. But then during a stylishly filmed lovemaking scene, as he gently holds his mistress, we see someone we could possibly like. And after his mad race to Jane's train destination we see him as a flawed man certainly, but not the monster he might have been. And, of course, the fact remains that we know he didn't kill his wife. So when the finger of guilt points to George we're with him because we understand his confusion. And what a lot of confusion he has to contend with!

Of course, one of the things confusing poor George so is also one of the big reasons cult film fans have been drawn to this movie for decades — the beautiful Marisa Mell. Playing both Susan and Monica, she is very good here, showing more range than she was usually allowed. When first we see her as the pale, dark haired woman at death's door it's a bit of a shock to viewers familiar with her from Danger: Diabolik. In that Bava comic book classic she's the epitome of sexiness; as the sickly wife she is a haggard mess. But don't despair if you picked this film out to ogle bare flesh, because as Monica we're given the chance to stare at her gorgeous body in scene after scene and in many fetching poses. The sequence in which Jane photographs the stripper in her private studio has enough imagery to jumpstart puberty in an 8 year old! I think that even if the film's story stank it'd be worth seeing for a lot of people simply because of Marisa Mell's many nude scenes. She was certainly one of the most beautiful women to grace European films in the '60s and '70s, and if there's a film that shows more of her physical charms I'm unaware. And if there is one, please contact me immediately!

Be aware that the version of this film released several years ago on domestic DVD under the alternate title PERVERSION STORY is the shorter 97 minutes cut. I much prefer the 107 minute version of the film as that time adds depth and character to this excellent mystery. With luck this Fulci classic will show up on Blu-Ray soon. 

ZOMBIE (1979)

When a derelict sailboat drifts into New York harbor, two Harbor Patrol officers are sent to check it out. Getting no answer to their calls they board the vessel only to be attacked by a hulking, deformed zombie that kills Cop A while Cop B blows the critter overboard with a hail of bullets. Assigned by his Gotham newspaper boss to investigate, Brit reporter Peter West (Zombie Holocaust's Ian McCulloch) is intrigued by the strange homicide. He links up with the daughter of the abandoned boat's owner, Ann Bowles (Tisa Farrow, acting both concerned and dazed). She hasn't heard from daddy in months and his last letter was from an island in the Antilles named Matoul. Faster than you can say 'cheesy steel drum music' the two are on a plane, in the tropics and negotiating with Brian (Al Cliver) and his girlfriend Susan (Auretta Gay) for a ride on their boat. Terms are agreed upon and the foursome sets out to find the mysterious Matoul.

Meanwhile, on the island in question, we meet Dr. Menard (a slumming Richard Johnson), who's dealing with an epidemic of a hideous wasting disease that's wiping out Matoul's population. A sense of doom hangs over the place and the natives are convinced it's because of a voodoo curse laid on the island by an evil witch doctor. Dr. Menard scoffs at this superstitious idea but knows that something terrible is happening. He's seen the newly dead come back to life and attack the living with his own eyes, but he's baffled by this reanimation in which the dead kill and eat the living. While Menard tries to find a scientific explanation, his beautiful wife Paula (Olga Karlatos) is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She wants to leave Matoul but the doctor refuses so she's turned to pills and booze to cope. With Menard watching over his patients in the hospital Paula is left alone at home and, in a gruesome and stunning sequence, zombies attack her. This is the famous moment during which the woman's eye is punctured by a shaft of wood in extreme close-up. This is a revolting, horrific gore moment that has lost little power over the years and still makes me cringe every time I see it.

Back on the boat our crew is having trouble finding Matoul. In my favorite sequence in the film they take a break so that the lovely Susan can do a little naked swimming and underwater photography. While scuba diving around in the sea Susan is first menaced by a shark and then attacked by a zombie who just seems to be out for a stroll on the ocean floor! She's able to fend off the zombie and is saved by the shark's natural hatred of the undead. Yes, these ancient enemies are known for their centuries-old battle for the title of Most Carnivorous Underwater Monster. We'll have to call this skirmish a tie since both beasties take a bite out of the other before the film cuts back to the boat, where we learn that the propeller has been damaged by the shark. (???) 

"Boy, I sure hope that nearby island has someone that can help us. And maybe it's Matoul!" Sure enough it is, so Dr. Menard and the shipwrecked foursome make contact at last. The doctor relates the tale of the island's zombie problem and tells Ann the details of her father's death by the same disease. The newcomers are skeptical at first, but after a visit to the doctor's house they accept reality pretty quickly — there they witness several zombies devouring Paula and are attacked themselves. This forces them to trek through the countryside on foot to reach the hospital. The survivors gather there for a Night of the Living Dead-style zombie siege with guns and Molotov cocktails being their only hope against a hoard of flesh eating monsters.

Among horror fans there seems to be two ways of thinking about Lucio Fulci's little gore classic. It's either looked down on or even hated as a rip-off of Romero's Dawn of the Dead, or it's worshipped as the first in a long line of bloody, intestine-draped shockers from Europe that revolutionized and reshaped the genre. Regardless, the film spawned a glut of Italian horror movies the like of which the world will never see again and for some folks that's reason enough to love it. Personally I've never seen the point of calling this film a rip-off of Romero's classic as they are different in so many ways. While it's true that only the huge European success of Dawn allowed Zombie to be made, it takes the reanimated-dead-hungry-for-human-flesh idea and shambles off in another direction completely.

Zombie is one of my favorite Italian horror movies and it's a effective template for the gore flicks that followed in its wake: short on logic, long on atmosphere and covered in blood 'n' guts. After this the European horror film would never be the same again. Of course this niche burned itself out in a few short years, but it's a joy to look back at these movies and revel in their madness. Also, at a time when any hit American film was slavishly copied in the hope of similar box-office returns it's nice to see the inventiveness on display here. The gore and violence of Zombie almost squirts off the screen at you as it did in Fulci's later gore films. These movies are grotesque and disgusting as they play out like nightmares that have their own twisted logic and rules. Fulci was a master at establishing an oppressive mood that seeps into every scene, and while The Beyond was better in this respect, the director's skills are on glorious display here as well. This is most certainly not a film for everyone, but for the those who love Zombie there's nothing better.