P is for Phantom of the Opera (1998)

With the upcoming Dario Argento retrospective coming up at The Revue, it seemed fitting to watch one of the few titles in his filmography that I had not yet seen.

A man (Julian Sands) raised by rats and living in the tunnels underneath a Paris opera house becomes infatuated by a young understudy named Christine (Asia Argento).

Don't ask me why I never got around to seeing this movie until now. Probably the same reason I haven't watched his version of Dracula. Because most people say it is ass. However, if I had known the Phantom was raised by sentient rats, I would have imbibed sooner. Phantom of the Opera ain't that bad.

Julian Sands & Asia Argento in Phantom of the Opera.

I was surprised by the budget of this picture, as it looked like it may have cost the most out of Dario's entire catalogue. That wide shot of the packed theatre was pretty impressive and set the tone. Seeing Ennio Morricone's name in the credits was a nice perk, and the opera pieces in the film really classed things up.

The pacing, at least for the first two acts, was pretty good. Every time it started to get up its own ass, Dario would have the Phantom rip out a would-be thief's tongue or disembowel a filthy pedo. He's the hero for most of it, until he gets all creepy with Asia. I forgot about the unfortunately high percentage of her being ravaged in her father's movies. Oh yeah, then there's that rat catching machine...

This was Argento's period piece and it felt pretty authentic, except for that note passed to Christine that looked like it was written on paper bought at Staples. He also adds some additional flourishes like Christine and the Phantom's shared telepathy and him not wearing a mask - despite the poster. Can't cover that money moneymaker! And, there's that scene in a brothel for the requisite T, A & even D.

Phantom of the Opera is definitely in the bottom half of Argento's filmography, but it's still a nice looking and competent telling of a timeless tale.

Happy 80th!

Happy 80th birthday to Italian shock maestro Dario Argento!

Source: Tenebrae (1982)

Blu Bird Fly.

It took me a few weeks, but I finally got a chance to dig into my Arrow Blu-ray of Dario Argento's 1970 film The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.

Bird has special significance to me, as it was the first Argento I ever saw (followed closely by Suspiria and Phenomena in its US incarnation Creepers). I was barely sixteen and just beginning my video store tenure. My horror diet up until that point had consisted mainly of slashers and creature features and it was films like Bird that opened my eyes to the fact that horror could be more than mere entertainment. It could also be artistic.

I adore this film with its quirky characters and meandering tour of the Rome less travelled. Bird was not the first giallo, but it set the template (in much the same way Halloween would kick off the American slasher boom almost a decade later) for what would come later not only in Argento's career, but also that of his contemporaries in Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino and many others.

Someway, somehow, I will own that painting.

Based on the fourties pulp novel The Screaming Mimi, Argento took the nugget of the story and made it his own. I've always found his exploration of memory (where the protagonist is always chasing that one important detail) fascinating, not only how well he executes it, but also how many times he was able to successfully mine it throughout his career.

As for the Blu-ray, I’ll let the experts talk about the transfer, all I know is it looked as good as it ever has, and I’ve seen it projected on 35mm. Arrow really went to town on the presentation though. I posted Industrial Blue's unboxing video before, but even that doesn’t do justice to how stunning this set is. Perhaps most impressive is the gorgeous sixty-page booklet that dissects the film in many different ways as well as gives a good rundown of the gialli as a whole.

The set includes these six lobby cards.

I was also really impressed with the special features. There are two lengthy talks on the film with scholars Alexandra Heller-Nicolas & Kat Ellinger that were very informative, even for those well versed in the subject. I was not aware that there was another adaptation of The Screaming Mimi out there from 1958! I'll have to track that down. There is also a great commentary by Troy Howarth, as well as a new half-hour interview with Dario Argento himself. It was really refreshing to see him just sit down and talk extensively about his debut.

Big ups to Arrow for this one. There are few horrors that I always get the same amount of enjoyment with each viewing as I do with Argento’s ouevre. A good chunk of his catalogue are masterworks as far as I'm concerned, whether they be of the nail-biting thriller or supernatural fever dream variety.

Trailer Tuesdays: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Arrow Films' new limited edition release of Dario Argento's 1970 debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage comes out today. Here's the release trailer.

I adore this film. It was my introduction to the gialli and still remains one of my absolute favourites. I received this set in the mail last Friday and it is absolutely gorgeous. I entertained the thought of doing an un-boxing video, but it would never be as good as Industrial Blue's so just take a gander at his below.

I can't wait to dig into this set.

Trailer Tuedays: Inferno

I'm in the mood for something bat-shit crazy this week. Maestro?

The hilarious thing is that this trailer makes about as much sense as the actual film does. And I love it. Inferno is the gift that keeps on giving. Due to its dreamlike narrative, I can never wrap my head around it in any real sense, so the details eventually fade. That's why when I revisit it every five years or so, it's like I'm watching it again for the first time. Except for the opening “pool” scene and the Central Park sequence. Who could ever forget those bits?

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Hello. How art thou on this day that shall not be named? Here's some non-Hallmark approved supplements from around the Net. Enjoy.

Oculus Rosso.

Being completely entranced by the tech, I've been watching a lot of Oculus Rift gameplay videos on YouTube recently. While watching Kent Oster's playthrough for the VR horror game Doors Of Silence, I came across a delightful little Easter egg. Watch.

You catch it? I love that this game developer (Guiseppe Belfis) threw in an Argento reference here, knowing that only a small percentage of gamers would actually recognize it. I tip my hat to you, sir.

For more info on Doors of Silence, click here.

Indie Darling.

The trailer for indie filmmaker Mickey Keating's newest film, Darling has hit the Web.

This film was a hit at last year's Fantastic Fest, and I definitely dig the vibe. Glass Eye Pix has a pretty good track record with me, so I certainly hope it makes its way up here soon.

The Century Club.

The latest edition of the 100 Hour Film Race wrapped up recently. This is a worldwide short film competition where teams are tasked with writing, shooting and editing a short within 100 hours. The winner was this film from the UK called Remnants.

I also really dug the 4th place finisher from Quebec called Idées noires (Dark Thoughts)

So, that's it for now, but come back on Wednesday because I have such sights to show you!

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Hey all. It's a lazy Sunday afternoon here. Here's what I've got for you this week.

What A Tease!

A couple of cool videos for some upcoming music projects hit the Web recently. I'm sure you are as excited as I am about John Carpenter's collaboration with French composer Jean Michel Jarre. They will be working together on a track on Jarre's upcoming album. Check out this interview with the masters themselves.

Secondly, Videogram, the horror synth stylings of Swedish musician Magnus Sellergren, has released a teaser for a single off his upcoming LP, Pre-Cert. Here's the video for Outpost 31 Isn't Responding below.

For more info on Videogram, check out his Bandcamp page, here.

Read Along Witchcraft.

Ihorror recently linked to a cool project from Cousin Barnabas from The Collinsport Historical Society. Remember those See, Hear, Read LP's from back in the day? Well, Barnabas created a little Photoshop project positing Dario Argento's 1977 classic Suspiria in such a format.

Pretty glorious, wouldn't you say? Since Argento first envisioned the age of the girls in the academy to be much younger - you can still see evidence of this as lines like “names which begin with the letter 'S' are the names of SNAKES! Sssss! Ssssss!” do seem odd when spoken by grown women - this doesn't feel so out of place. For more stuff from Barnabas, click here.

Be Prepared.

I recently saw the Red Band trailer for Christopher Landon's Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.

This supposed mash-up of Superbad & Zombieland does looks like it could be fun. If anything I am glad to see Landon break out of the Paranormal purgatory he's been wrapped up in for the last few years. Scouts is set to release this Halloween.

A Horse Of A Familiar Cover

Horsehead, last year's Parisian psycho sexual thriller (God I love that phrase) from director Romain Basset releases on Blu-ray tomorrow.

When Jessica (Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux) returns to her childhood home for her grandmother's funeral, she is stricken with a fever that plunges her in a dream world that may unlock secrets from her past.

Horsehead came to my attention this year when it was picked up for Canadian distribution by Black Fawn. All I really knew about it was inspired by the classic Italian horrors of Dario Argento and Mario Bava, so I was going in fairly cold when I popped into my PS3.

I dug this film. Knowing of the Euro-horror influences, it didn't take me long to clock into the tone they were going for. Steeped in dream logic, I felt the world Basset created within was very well realized. In structure, Horsehead reminded me a little of Bernard Rose's Paperhouse in that Jessica is bedridden by fever and the tale mostly unfolds with her dream world. In terms of style, even without forewarning, the references to seventies Euro-horror were obvious. There were some shots that looked like they were ripped straight from Suspiria, which makes sense considering the protagonist in that film (coincidentally played by “Jessica” Harper) also spends a good amount of time in a drug-induced stupor.

Despite my shitty screencaps, I assure you they are both the same shade of red.

I think what I most appreciated about Horsehead was that even though so much of it took place in a dream world, it still remained, for the most part, coherent. It pays tribute to the films that came before, but also forges its own way. I feel this is what I was missing from the past works of Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani (Amer, Strange Colour) in that they had a tremendous grasp of the aesthetic, but it stopped there. I'm not saying that Euro-horror ever gave priority to narrative, but Basset offered a lot more to work with than Cattet & Forzani ever have.

No, Horsehead is more than just an imprint. It goes beyond atmosphere. It has wonderful little character moments, much like the early Argento gialli had. It was wonderful to see significant horror figures like Lucio Fulci muse Catriona MacColl and Philipe Nahon (the lumbering maniac form 2003's High Tension) show up here. I also can't go any further without mentioning the rather striking lead actress, Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux. The role was pretty demanding, physically and emotionally, and she pulled it off in enchanting fashion.

Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux as Jessica in Horsehead.

I really can't overstate how gorgeous this film looks though. It has some of the best lighting I've seen in a good while, and the production design is top notch. I mean, some of it had to do with their location, but the interior stuff was incredibly layered, as well. I thought the music was solid, save for one jarring sequence where it felt like Skrillex showed up in the mixing booth one afternoon and took over. It feels at odds with the rest of the score.

For such a small affair, the Blu-ray package itself offers more than the usual I was happy to find. There is an hour-long documentary included, which gives you an idea of how dynamic the shoot was. I was quite impressed with all the crew and equipment they were able to wrangle, considering the director mentioned several times it was “made with friends for no money.” I wager this is hyperbole, as one does not come out the other side with something so polished, if that were the case.

On the Artsploitation Films release, the disc also includes four of Basset's earlier short films, my favourite of which was Remy, about the bond between grandson and grandfather.

Euro-horror revivalism is a thing that has been going on for a few years now and I think Horsehead is one of the better I've seen. It uses that era's familiar palette as a base, but goes beyond mere mimicry to weave a captivating and surreal mystery.

Getting The Royal Treatment.

The Royal Cinema did it up huge this Halloween, with a week's worth of genre screenings that included classics like Rosemary's Baby, Night of the Creeps and Poltergeist, as well as a 35mm print of Dario Argento's debut The Bird With Crystal Plumage. 

I mean, the print looked like what you would expect fourty-four-year-old film reels to look like - there were so many points I thought it was going to self destruct and take everyone in the theatre with it - but that's the “fragility” of film. I love that movie so much.

The pinnacle of the week though, was the Laser Blast Film Society screening of The Carrier. 

You know those movies where you wonder how it possibly could have gotten made, but you're so glad that it did? The Carrier is one of those. Explaining the plot is tough to do with a straight face, but I'll give it a shot.

A small town becomes overrun by a plague that affects inanimate objects, causing death to anyone who touches them. Paranoia sets in when the townspeople desperately try to locate the source of the disease, convinced it is one of their own. But who is The Carrier?

It gets weirder when they start using animals to test objects, namely the abundant stray cats in the area, to the point they become a resource to be fought over. The town splits into two factions - one based out of the town parish and the other, the local bar - and they begin warring over control of the feline population. Yeah, I know. Every scene in this movie has something in it where you're like, “someone wrote this down, and then got people together to film it!”

Considering it was shot in Michigan, with some of the same crew from Evil Dead 2, I have a feeling director Nathan J. White may have been hanging around that set and was like, “hey guys, you like crazy insane stuff, wanna help shoot my movie?”

Jesus loves you.

Sadly, this was White's only film venture. As batshit crazy as this film is, I guarantee you'll never see a more creative allegory about paranoia and mob rule in your life. I only wish that they'd had some more money to really go to town with the effects. I feel The Carrier would be a lot less obscure, perhaps in the realm of works like Street Trash and early Henenlotter, if there were more scenes of people melting into things.

Regardless, it is a bizarre little eighties oddity that's definitely worth checking out if you can find it. I believe there was a Code Red DVD release of it a few years ago. Until then, feast your eyes on this trailer...

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It felt a little light on news this week - perhaps things have slowed down a bit with all the holidays and sports going on - but here's what I've got on tap for you.

Guests Galore.

I do a lot of belly-aching about the Festival of Fear and how expensive and bloated it has become, but I can't say they aren't trying this year. In addition to bringing back some big names from previous events like Robert Englund and Bruce Campbell, they've got several other cool things going on, as well.

This year will be the biggest assemblage of talent from the massively popular TV show The Walking Dead. Scheduled guests include Chandler Riggs (Carl), Michael Rooker (Merle), Danai Gurira (Michonne), David Morrissey (The Governor) and most importantly - for me at least - Lauren Cohan (Maggie).

Rue Morgue has also put together several other impressive reunions, including those for A Nightmare On Elm Street (Englund, Heather Langenkamp & John Saxon), Black Christmas (Saxon, Lynne Griffin, Art Hindle & Nick Mancuso) as well as the pièce de résistance, a Twin Peaks reunion featuring Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise & Sherilyn Fenn.

And if that wasn't enough, the fest is also throwing in such high profile genre personalities Elijah Wood (fresh off three solid genre appearances in Maniac, Grand Piano & Open Windows), the ever-watchable Ted Raimi and F13 creator Sean Cunningham.

And wait, there's more. Rue Morgue is also bringing in Lisa & Louise Burns, who you may know better as the Grady Twins from The Shining.

So, you see I really have nothing to complain about. Except the lineups... and the crowd management... and the overlapping schedules... Oh well.

Malleus Phantasmagoria.

A few months ago, a teaser arose for the upcoming Italian anthology Phantasmagoria. Soaked in the tradition of the gialli, this intriguing project offers up three stories by directors Mickael Abbate, Domiziano Christopharo & Tiziano Martella. Now, the artist trinity of Malleus have created a poster for the project.

If you aren't familiar with Malleus, check out the fantastic prints they made commemorating the work of Dario Argento here.

Rat Scare.

Watching & reviewing Giuliano Carnimeo's Rat Man this week reminded me of this old skit from Scare Tactics.

Most of their stuff seems silly and contrived, but that still doesn't stop me from going down that YouTube rabbit hole.

It Came From The Archives 23.5!

Okay, here we are. Here's the last eleven VHS insert sleeves I snagged during my tenure at Ballbuster. For the previous four posts earlier this week, click here, here, here & here.

After first viewing those last two titles above, I started to become wise to Ballbuster's insidious censorship practices. I had seen snips of Return of the Alien's Spawn years before as part of Continental Video's glorified sizzle reel project Terror On Tape and was no doubt a little confused after viewing this version. Also, as you may know, Deadly Spawn is not even close to 90 minutes, so that's a little shady, as well.

Additionally, they went out of their way to mention that version of Suspiria was unrated. So, by that rationale, any unmarked horror film they did rent WAS rated. It wasn't until much later that they started marking “RATED VERSION” on their cases. I didn't discover I'd watched a heavily cut version of Return of the Living Dead 3 until over a decade later. Oh, the treachery!

So, that's all I got. I hoped you enjoyed looking at these old things. Who knows? Maybe you learned something! Have a great weekend and see you all back here soon.

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Hey folks. I'm just stopping in with some tasty morsels before continuing my adventures with Booker & Elizabeth.

A Bloody Night Out.

While doing research for my post on The Goretorium, I caught wind of another new interactive horror attraction called The Great Horror Campout.

This one involves an overnight camping scenario, where you encounter all sorts of evil creatures while participating in a bizarre scavenger hunt. The major difference between this and most other attractions is that these “creatures” can touch you. Depending on a previously agreed scare level, you may be “forcibly handled, moved, bound, hooded, chained and subjected to simulated torture by your tormentors”. Now that's what I call interactive! If you are in the Los Angeles area and this sounds like your bag, check out the deets here.

Dying Light.

Here below is the game trailer for Techland's new zombie actioner Dying Light.

Nice looking trailer, but I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed. It feels like a mishmash of Mirror's Edge, Infamous, Dead Island and Resident Evil and when it comes right down to it, I'd rather just play new iterations of those four titles. The only thing that is mildly intriguing is the GTA IV-style open-world multiplayer, but we'll see how that pans out. I know I sound jaded, but I'm just being realistic. With E3 on the doorstep, I'm going to be flooded with videos like this over the next few days, so who knows if I'll even remember this one once the dust settles.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Argento.

Adding to the list of awesome movie-themed bars/nightclubs I will likely never visit is Cambiare in Tokyo, Japan.

Modelled after Dario Argento's 1977 masterpiece Suspiria, Cambiare features the same stain glassed and floral walled décor. From the pictures below, it certainly looks authentic. I'd stay away from the red wine though.

To visit Cambiare's Facebook page, click here.

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Hey all. This is a pre-recorded Messenger post, as I am currently recovering from my Shock Stock pilgrimage. Here's hoping I made it back from London okay after that midnight screening. Anyhoo, a lot happened this week...

R.I.P. Richard Brooker.

Richard Brooker 1954-2013.

We lost yet another icon in the horror community this week. Stuntman Richard Brooker, best known for portraying Jason Voorhees in the third Friday the 13th movie, died this week at the age of 58. He was, of course, the first to wear Jason's trademark hockey mask and the only one to kill in 3D! Here below is a sample of his handiwork.

Bellissima!

Here are two things that caught my eye this week. The first is some lovely weaving from artist Sabrina Parolin.

The second is this bad-ass action figure from a company in Japan.

Awesome, right? Yeah, it will only set you back one-hundred-sixty bones!

VHS Drama.

So, a few months ago, Charles Band posted a video about finding a bunch of original VHS big boxes in his warehouse, which he is now selling on his website. It was a find that seemed too good to be true. Well, Paul from VHSCollector.com is maintaining that is, in fact, the case. Earlier this week, he posted this video.

After this damning evidence, some came forward to defend Band, including Fangoria editor Chris Alexander. He posted a video of his own comparing Demoniac releases, as well as getting in touch with Band himself for comment. Soon after, Alexander posted a voice mail of Band addressing the validity of his claims.

In response to this, Paul posted another video, which pretty much shot down those points, as well.

In the end, you have to take Paul's advice and just “look at the evidence and decide for yourself”