Hidden in the Woods (2013) - Horror Abuse Exploitation

Hidden in the Woods (2012) - "En las Afueras de la Ciudad" starts with a horrific scene of domestic violence where the jealous husband is abusing his wife. He is dunking her head in a sink full of water trying to force her to tell him the name of her lover. Whether she actually has a lover or not is answered later in the twist of the film, now instead we see him find his two small daughters in the woods and tell them that their mother has gone to heaven. A horrible person this man and the story clearly wants you to see him fully as the monster he is.  It is a horrifying scene of the cruelty man happens to exhibit on a daily basis but most of us are not exposed to. An opening like this could set up a film showing the courage of the human spirit rising above the pain and abuse to find a life worth living. It could be the significant moment in the lives of the two girls as they are dealt a horrible hand in life. The moment that sets their story in motion to see how much the spirit can overcome adversity. There is in this film the misogyny and a basic horrific treatment  that could be explored but is just used as a prop for the story.
 The story jumps to when the oldest girl is the maybe twelve years old. If setting the table to have us pull for the girls director Patricio Valladares is giving them a lot  to overcome. Still living with the drunkard father the girls live a primitive life in the forest. Their father, a drug holder, (he hides the drugs for a big time dealer), a drunk we are subject to him raping his younger daughter and then a horrific scene as he and the older sister deliver the child, a deformed damaged infant that we see they raise but keep locked up in a shed. Treating it like an animal as time goes by with the implication that the younger girl continues to be the victim of rape as the years go on.  Another jump in years and the daughters now young women, fight with the father as he again tries to rape her again. Now close to adulthood they are still not strong enough to stop him but they do give him pause. The older sister Ana runs off screaming for help that she will never find. Instead the two girls are locked with the freak in the shed to wait for the punishment that is sure to come later.
  At about this time the police show up for a noise complaint and things begin to escalate as the girls yell for help.  This is where you would expect there to be a turn in the story, maybe developing how the girls taken from the arrested father will fight through their PTSD to become advocates for the abused? No not in this grim tale. While one officer helps the girls the other is attacked by the father. The second officer shoots him but he gets to her before being taken down. A gruesome chainsawing is what they get for trying to do their jobs. It certainly is an incident that will change the lives of the children forever. Wounded the Father calls his drug dealer boss to help him, he will get money so he can hide out for a while to heal. The drug dealer wants access to the drugs and the man keeps them hidden so that they can not be stolen. This arrangement really gives the man a way to get help instead of being cut loose. Unfortunately for him help is not coming and no one shows to the bus terminal to help him. Meanwhile the children have escaped into the woods and are hiding there. Alone they are afraid to go back and instead are forced to take up residence in the house where their mother was killed. It is now old and falling apart abandoned in the woods.  They do not know that the father is being arrested at the bus station. They have no way to know that this decision instead of being the safe thing to do will create an even greater spiral of misery.
  This sets up the drug dealers wanting to find the girls thinking that they may know where he hides the drugs. Really though this is a horrific film, the film itself is exploitative but the subject matter is dreadful. The pain and abuse of the main characters is so hard to watch and the film is unrelenting in dishing new traumas on these three innocent characters. The story by the director with help from screenwriter Andrea Cavaletto never looks to make these characters more than the victims they are in the first scenes of the film. In fact like many exploitation films from the past all that happens is more and more shit is piled on them with the bleak realization that there will be no happy ending. So is the point that we are forced to sit through the long spiral down when there is no character development and there is no glimmer of hope? We become the abused by having to sit through the horror inflicted on these characters? Is Valladares making a statement about the viewers willingness to suffer with a character when there is no hope of redemption? Interviews I have read with the director lead this reviewer to believe that is not the case. Valladares seemed more interested in the movie making and less interested in saying anything with his film. So is it art or exploitation? I lean strict exploitation. It is somewhat disappointing to here the director speak about the film. Probably somewhere in the later history if Valladares becomes a name I am sure like Writer/director Meir Zarchi and "I spit on you Grave" writers will reevaluate it giving it more meaning than it will deserve. Those involved will also white wash this exploitative mean spirited film and talk about how it forces the audience to experience what the character does and is somehow therefore a positive message. That bearing witness is somehow a value when really the initiative behind making the film is to make a few bucks. Bearing witness to real life injustice has value giving money a film so the creator can grow his personal career and fortune is another.  Bullshit. This film does not even have the revenge featured in that more notorious piece of trash. Instead Ana (Siboney Lo) the oldest sister spirals into a prostitute who blows men to earn enough money to keep her and her siblings fed. The second act is a cruel respite from the violence but not the harsh realities of these characters.
  The acting is pretty bad in the film and in those same interviews I learned it was because most of those involved were amateurs. The dialog full of swearing and the over use of "faggot" is hard to listen to over the wailing of victims. When Uncle Costello (Francois Soto) sends his men into the forest to find the three survivors it creates a third act full of continued violence and abuse, more rape more murder. Sure we learn who the girls Mother was sleeping with and why the father chose the second daughter to rape repeatedly but without a story arc of any chance at anything positive these revelations are hollow script tricks. Adding in the strange cannibalism piece only exploits the film industry and viewers looking for the bizarre. In the end even the dream of a happy ending is washed away in blood and the viewer is left hollow. This is really not a recommended film  and soon will hopefully be forgotten.

Womens Prison Massacre (1983)

Womens Prison Massacre (1983) - Emanuelle fuga dall' inferno is the original Italian title. The film starts with a play performed in the women's prison, a personal piece of depth and a deep understanding of the human condition. Okay maybe not but it is an attempt. It is intended to show Emanuelle as a strong influential writer and to establish that the prison is not going to tolerate her style of entertainment. It effectively brings the character of Emanualle to the forefront as well as her tomato throwing rival Albina. Then the establishment as a non tolerant group of controllers. Emmanuelle (the lovely Laura Gemser) is a reporter framed for smuggling drugs even as she closes in on the government official involved. She is now in a women prison where she is not the most liked prisoner. The official District attorney Vincent Robinson (Jacques Stany) wants to make sure she never gets her story out. He enlists the aide of the Warden (Lorraine De Selle) who in turn tries to have tough prisoner Albina (Ursula Flores) do her dirty work. Emanuelle and her friends Laura (Maria Romano) and Irene (Antonella Giacomini) are out numbered in the prison so although they are tough the guards still manage to give them significant problems. Albina does not fair well against the smart and strong Emanuelle and even after being armed with a knife only manages to have the knife stabbed into her own leg. This is what you think the film is going to be about. Emanuelle fighting against the odds to beat out the prison establishment and then to publish her story and expose the crooked district attorney. No though that is not it at all!
  Early on is a sub plot about four convicted murders, men who must be temporarily housed at the women's prison. Brett O'Hara (Robert Mura), Victor "Geronimo" Brain (Raul Cabrera), Helmut "Blade" von Bauer (Pierangelo Pozzato), and mastermind Crazy Boy Henderson (Gabriele Tinti) are on their way and the results will be explosive. They have something to do with the smuggling ring Emanuelle was investigating but that is nothing. During transport some fake cops try to spring them and would have succeeded if not for Lawman Harrison (Carlo De Mejo) who manages to fight off the attempt and deliver the prisoners. It seems it was just a reason to have a car chase really.
  In the prison they manage to overpower the guards, the lawman and the warden and take the whole prison hostage. Of course they want a car to the airport, a plane at the airport and 5 million dollars. Strange enough the negotiator they are dealing with is none other than District Attorney Robinson. Leaving the wounded lawman with Emanuelle the convicts threaten the lives of everyone in the prison if they do not get what they want. The 3 hour time limit seems serious.

  Brett gets a chance to be alone with the warden. He makes her strip off her clothes with a little violent persuasion. Blade and Geronimo  head down to the women's ward where the women will love a man. The Warden strips but this film is a bit tame as far as skin, some boobs and a garter belt. Brett seems more into humiliate her than to rape her. Geronimo gets it on with Albina in the medical ward and she is equally into it. There is some simulated sex in that scene. Blade seems happy to stand at the bars of the women cage and be felt up. In all the sexy 70's music you hear in porn is playing and the film cuts between the different locations. After finishing in Albina she gets a surprise when he chloroforms her before heading back out to meet the others. There is implied rape of the warden but nothing on the screen. This is an exploitation film but like I said it is more about making you believe what happened as opposed to seeing such horrors. This at least until Crazy Boy gets mad at Emanuelle for pleading for the cops life. To show her he slaps her around and then rapes her, she is clear this is not her wish.

 Blade in with Laura and Irene seems like a crazy fuck himself. He makes them dance with the blow up doll but seems to get as much pleasure pulling their hair and scaring them with his crazy eyes as he does in deflating it. At least while this is going on Blade loses his razor blade and Laura end up with it.
While this silliness is going on outside Robinson is setting up to send in commandos. Inside the convicts want to know what is going on. The Commando unfortunately come in the window just as Albina wakes and she goes straight to Crazy Boy to talk deal for her info. So when the commandos make their move it is a fair gun battle. They fail even though Brett is killed in the process. Crazy boy does a payoff to Albina by killing Irene for her. Then he makes Emanuelle and Albina play Russain Roulette. Laura was hiding when Irene was killed and she gets a strange idea harkening back to the play she performed in the beginning of the movie. The mantis hides the razor blade in her vagina and lays nude waiting for Blade to take her. She recites her silly lines and he goes for he beautiful body only to get the suprise of his life. he chokes her out as he takes her the blade slicing into his member as she dies. He struggles out of the cell looking for help from the women in the cages but all they do is attack him when he gets close. Now a man without a penis he is no longer desirable.  These scenes are cut with the game of Roulette that ends with a gory outcome splashed across Crazy Boy's face.

  Down to Crazy and Geronimo they take the Warden, the injured Lawman and Emanuelle as hostages when their demand have been mad. The fast paced organ music pumps with a background drumbeat as Robinson sees Emanuelle alive again. He wants the cops to shoot them all and takes the first shot at her, missing but hitting Geronimo and the Warden. Crazy Boy shoots him in the chest giving Emanuelle her revenge.
Off they go in the car apparently in days before there were LoJack and helicopters. When the car stalls Crazy Boy gets pissed at the double cross and is wounded by the cop driver as he kills him. Off he runs with wounded officer Lawman in pursuit to take him out. The film ends with Emanuelle returning to her prison cell to serve out her undeserved term but with the knowledge that the corrupt Robinson got his.
Overall the film executes the goods of a exploitation film. It wanders in unexpected places but overall closes out all the threads that were started. It is always good when the exploiters get theirs in the end. Because the depth of the characters as so flat with only Gemser getting any depth at all, this film can't be good. It is exactly what it was intended to be and does not get my recommendation. Now if you like exploitation it is just mildly boring with no big surprises or skin so you will probably be disappointed.
Rating (4.5) 5.0 and up are recommended, some just more or less than others.

Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976) - Sleaze Adult

Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976) - Joe D'Amato has a long trail of adult sleaze, porn and genre films to his credit. The Italian director worked from his first credit (according to IMDB) "Sollazzevoli storie di mogli gaudenti e mariti penitenti - Decameron nº 69 (1972)" until his death in 1999 with his last credit being Amore & Psiche which came out after his death in 2000. He was prolific with 199 credits to his name as a directo. I encountered him first with some really bad horror films but since have seen quite a few of his less wholesome entries. These films really do fit into one of the focuses of this blog, I attempt to cover many of the things I could not see as a teen in the 1970s and there was that time inthe decade when sleaze and adult films were running in mainstream theaters across the country. The Emanuelle series of films were a stolen idea D'Amato exploited throughout the 70s and early eighties. The idea from a series of french films with a similar name were erotic sex adventures, basically he changed Emmanuelle to Emanuelle and created his on stories with different actors but for sure was taking advantage of the success of the originals. Emanuelle in Bangkok is the first in the series. It stars the beautiful Javan actress Laura Gemser as a photo journalist who also is experimenting with free love. Really the entire edifice is to find ways for Gemser to take her clothes off onscreen. In this film she and sometimes boyfriend Roberto (Gabriele Tinti) are talking about attraction in a restaurant He notices how the men look at her and she how the women look at him. Then bang! right to a sex scene between the two, with no time wasted. The sex scenes are the soft core variety with a bit of frontal nudity on Gemser's part. There is rolling around kissing and the implied oral sex, but nothing too shocking. There is a ridiculous sex theme music that plays every time there is a love making scene where the participants are mutually consenting. It is clear from the conversations Emanuelle and Roberto, that he has stronger feeling for her than she for him. She is not quite ready to settle for one man and he is forced to reluctantly agree that they are going to split for a while. D'Amato show a casualness to sex with multiple partners that was prevalent in the time period, although I thought it was a fading idea by 1976.
Emanuelle travels to Thailand to be the guest of Prince Sanit (Ivan Rassimov) with the hope that he can get her in to visit with the king. He is the most miscast person in the film, an obviously very white man playing a Thai prince. They explain this away by saying that the Thai royal family has been so prolific through the years that everyone in the country can claim some kind of connection to the king. When she arrives at the hotel before meeting with him there is the classic difference between sleaze and non sleaze films. Where in a traditional film when a person wants to take a shower after their travel they generally get to the undressing and you see the dress drop to the floor and the lower legs of the actress. In this film Gemser just strips in front of the camera and the scene cuts after showing her nude, it doesn't really matter if she showered or not what was important was the nudity. It also emphasizes her attitude towards nudity, when she sees the house boy drawing her a bath she doesn't wait for the young man to leave but just takes her clothes off without shame.
Now we could continue to rehash the plot in detail but that really is not the point of the film. Instead lets give a quick synopsis and talk about the themes presented as a way to show nudity. At its heart that is what this film is all about. Emanuelle is propositioned by the Prince Sanit after she tried to bribe him. He suggests they get to know each other better instead of bribes but she is not biting. A bit odd that this one guy is not a turn on for her. There is a strange guy in army fatigues watching her as she goes sight seeing.
She has sex with the female masseuse Gee (Koike Mahoco). She has sex with the house boy at the hotel. She meets Roberto and his friend the obnoxious Americans Jimmy (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) and Frances (Ely Galleani) and they go on a montage of Thailand's cultural offerings including kickboxing, cockfighting and a strip club where a dancer does a wax and fire show and another does a ping pong ball routine. Emanuelle excited by the show gives knowing glances not at Roberto but at Frances. All of them go back to Prince Sanit's house and smoke opium have sex changing partners through the drug fogged night. I think and I am no expert that much is being made of Emanuelle's inclination to be attracted to women. She is intimate with both Gee and Frances but she is a multi partner person who is not securing any one relationship in her life. She is free to engage in sex with whomever, as Prince Sanit put it she has a unique ability to experience sex in a pure form.
This is going to come in handy in the next couple days when Sanit disappears and Emanuelle is trapped in the empty house by the strange guy and his buddies. When I say disappeared I mean furniture and everything. There are reasons explained later about the Princes relationship with the king. This does not help Emanuelle though; They surround her and then gang rape her. It is a weird decision by director D'Amato in that the filming is them ripping her clothes off and each climbing on top of her in turn but they never take out their cocks. It is like each is taking a turn dry humping her. The princes words echo in her head and she stops struggling and by doing so seems to enjoy the sex and gain the confidence of the assailants. This is so fucking bizarre I can't really wrap my head around it. Really it is just so easy to release from the horror of a gang dry humping? The scene does not fit with the rest of the film where all the sex is respectful and consensual. I think D'Amato was trying to show Emanuelle as a different kind of free sexual spirit who can accept any form of physical interaction, but I think he fails with this sad display. This is just a start in her troubles though...her passport has been stolen from her room...wait! Here I am again giving the nuts and bolts, not what should be going on. Lets stick to romance and sex here, Emanuelle has sex with the airport security guy to get out of the country and to Roberto in Casa Blanca. She has sex with Roberto and his new girlfriend Janet. She and Janet have sex with a group of Arabs (not shown) that was amazing in its stereotyping of a people. She falls in love with Debbie (Debra Berger), the immature but attractive daughter of the US consul. Then Roberto with Debbie watching from the door but refusing to join. Each time there is the theme music by Nico Fidenco overwhelming the tame visuals. Emanuelle opens from a woman who is into free love but after exploring intimacy with women and men together finds herself in love with Debbie and says goodbye to Roberto, I am sure in 1976 very few people went into this film looking for this journey and for them you can see from the above they got lots of nudity and simulated sex. Poor Roberto has a sad tale, he loves Emanuelle and would like them to be together but also likes having other women involved. He not only loses Emanuelle but also his rebound girl Janet, she is never the same after she and Emanuelle spend the night having sex with the eight arabs, I am not trying to be racists just calling them "the arabs" but seriously that is the presented stereotype. She comes back and breaks off her engagement to Roberto.
Debbie grows up a bit through her relationship with Emanuelle and although they too part, setting up the next film by freeing Emanuelle to go States bound in Emanuelle in America. The secondary track for this film is to show musical sightseeing montages in between the sex and nudity. These scenes are of the cultures and city streets of where ever Emanuelle is, Thailand, the middle east an archeological dig each place is explored with silly over the top music and the actors smiling, looking at things and showing interest in their surroundings.
Rating (4.5) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz system Skip it!