Lisa and the Devil (1974) Horror Devil

Lisa and the Devil (1974) -"Lisa e il diavolo"
Having seen this film and the other cut of it The House of Exorcism I was excited to here that the fine folks at Deadlantern.com's The World Famous Splattercast were going to cover it. So excited in fact that I re-watched both version and listened to the audio commentary while doing so. Of course I had to avoid hearing the podcast until I finished this writing which for me is a task. I really wanted to listed but like to have formed my own opinions before being influence by the the fine commentary provided by the crew at deadLantern.  Lisa and the Devil had excellent commentary by Tim Lucas who wrote the book Mario Bava : All the Colors of the Dark as well as other genre books. Probably one of the more expensive coffee table books I have seen, and will not own. Again you want to watch the film prior to watching it with the commentary.  When sharing that commentary in this write up I will make the text whether quote or paraphrasing I will put the text in italics instead of making a separate citation each time. There was so much interesting commentary in this film that I would recommend you take a listen. Whether sharing the origins of the fresco that Lisa (Elke Sommer) looks at at the beginning of the film or the musical piece accompanying the music box or giving background on the actors, Lucas is knowledgeable and detailed adding to the depth of the film.
  Lisa is a tourist visiting an unnamed town, the first stop off the bus is a fresco of the devil carrying away souls. Bava had the fresco made for the film with the likeness of Telly Savalas who plays Leandro in this film as the devil character. It was also common for Bava to use the idea of an image of someone becoming real in his films. She is about to take a journey on the strange side and does not know it. Drawn by music in the distance she walks off on her own, finding her way to a small shop where the music,  Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto Dara Weiss is playing. It's a turning point as she is seen by Leandro (Telly Savalas) as he who she sees in flash to be the spitting image of the devil from the fresco. Frightened she hurriedly leaves the store and we can hear Leandro saying "How strange, how strange,  you'd think she'd seen the devil."
 Espartaco Santoni) and in a neat bit of editing he appears to be real. Again this calls back the image of the fresco with the devil carrying away the dead. Lisa is ready to be out of this scary situation and takes the directions from Leandro that should get her out of the back allies. Would you trust his directions? She seems a bit ensnared at this point. Coming up some stairs there is at least a view of the city but in front of her is a man coming her way. She sees it is Carlo the spitting image of the dummy Leandro was carrying. He thinks she is a woman called Elena and this makes her even more panicked. Bava has both a sister and a daughter named Elena and important name to him. When he touches her like he knows her her reaction is to push him away with dire consequences. Really this is a transition in the film where Lisa leave one world and enters another. She is a pawn in the devils diabolical plans and just does not know it yet. She is still looking for a way out but the possibly dead man at the bottom of the stairs means she is stuck. We see her shout for help and in the next instant she is still wandering in the dark. Has a lot of time passed so the sun has gone down, or is it a supernatural darkness? It really is never explained but can be an indication that she is in some kind of other worldly situation. There is a time shift that starts at the fall of carlo probably signified by the shot of his watch with its broken hands across each other. Have two time crossed and now we are in a dream world where normal rules do not apply?  Are the lights she sees her salvation or will they bring her more trouble?
   This is the beginning of a strange journey for Lisa, a surreal journey into darkness where reality seems warped. Outside the store it takes the form of a maze like city, of winding streets. She searches for the way back to the fresco but can't find it. She seeks help but can't find any. Her anxiety increases when she runs into Leandro again in a back ally square. He is carrying a dummy of Carlo (
  Here I go again writing a summary of the film instead of a review of it. It is so easy to be caught up in the details and there are so many details. I will try to be better, really I will. This first part of the film is a way of showing that the devil has ensnared Lisa. If I were to pick out reasons why it works I would say the sense of confusion that Lisa experiences is well relayed through the scenes of her wandering the narrow allies of the town and her fear captured with low angled camera shot. What I think does not work so well here is that there is really no reason for her to be caught up in the story. If you pay attention in the shop where she sees the music box you will see that the characters on the box are driven around in a circle by death. So much of this film is about death, so if we take the box as symbolic then maybe the film itself is a circle that repeats, but I am getting ahead of the film here.
When she runs into Carlo on the stairs and he recognizes her as someone else we can surmise that maybe at the beginning of the devil's cycle with these characters she does not remember who she is? Is she actually Elena? Is this Elena's private hell where she is transported into this place to feel the confusion of being lost? At any rate Lisa is a very underdeveloped character, we really don't know anything about her or the woman Elena she was mistaken for. A weakness of the film has to be that she never becomes a fully developed character and it is left for interpretation whether she actually is Elena. It may be that because Lisa is not real, she could never have depth, she is a shell that Elena is using to try to escape the devil's influence. Never does she do anything to improve or hinder her situation, she just has these events happen to her. Much like the dummy's of the characters in the film Lisa is a mannequin of the film itself she is moved place to place but it really is never of her own doing.
The second act has Lisa getting a ride in a car owned by a couple Frances (Eduardo Fajardo) and Sophia Lehar (Sylva Koscina). It is a cool scene where we see from the stares between the people in the car that Sophia is having an affair with the chauffeur George (Gabriele Tinti) and that Mr. Lehar knows of it. It is an added dynamic to what is going on in their world. The car is having problems with its hoses and sputtering and overheating. The four of them are forced to stop at a local villa so repairs can be made. This sets up the primary story of ghosts and love lost and death and rebirth. The house is owned by the blind Countess (Alida Valli) and she lives there with her son Max (Alessio Orano) with butler Leandro. Naturally they are offered the hospitality of the house and here is the rub. Lisa seeing Leandro, tries to hide in the background but is seen.  He presses her about whether she recognizes him. A telling statement of Very Little escapes me if you know what I mean." lends to the idea that he is the devil. So if all the players are in a hell world the story of the house is the horror they must relive. The story in the house is of Carlo is the husband of the Countess. Elena is engaged to Max and then has an affair with Carlo. Max being a psycho kills both Elena and Carlo for their act of betrayal. They are brought back together into this house to rediscover the horrors of their sins by the devil again and again. The betrayal of infidelity is represented not only in the back story of the occupants but in the relationship between George and the Lehers. Each time the outcome will be murder.  Another symbol of this manipulation could be the music box, a circular disc spins the six figures watched over by the death character, The Queen, King, Bride, Groom, Male outside and death representing the Countess, Max, Lehers George and Leandro they are driven in circles. There is actually a point in the movie where the group is being lead by Leandro through the grounds in the same order as the figures on the music box.
  Primarily it is Max who is seen as the psychopath of the film but he is not the only sinner here. When it all plays out we think Lisa finds a way to escape and comes out of what is now a ruined house. Years of decay showing the rubble signifying she is back in the real world. Little kids playing there call her a ghost and say that everyone knows the ruins are haunted. Lisa thinking that she has survived heads out of town, a second chance? The plane she is on seems deserted and the music lets us know that the ending will not be good for her. When she finds the rest of the cast, dead looking in the plane and runs for the cockpit we see that very little actually does escape Leandro as he turns the pilot of the plain. Ultimately the story is about the power of the spirit world to control the fate of us humans. We are the pawns in the games run by Gods or monsters and our actions condemn us but we in the end have little power in changing a fate that has been casts. Lisa when she falls against the plane wall appears to be another body dummy to be played with by the devil. As he said, very little escapes him.
  No there are a lot of things to like about this film, some interesting camera shots, like the POV of the car pulling up to the villa. Not from the point of view of the driver though but from Lisa in the passengers seat. The already mentioned low angle shots in the town. There are a number of reflection shots in a spilled bottle of wine or in any other reflective glass where the focus changes fore to background or visa versa.. On top of the camerawork by cinematographer Cecilio Paniagua is the just excellent soundtrack by Carlo Savina. Overall the pacing was relaxed but being a child of the seventies I have to say really not too slow. Its no Phase IV or Vanishing Point. Still for a younger audience the first part of this film will seem slow. Bava is one of my favorite directors and I was pleased to be able to see what he wanted to be his defining work, Still there are others I love more , The Girl Who Knew Too Much and the classic Black Sunday to name a couple. Having watched it I can listen to @rachiepants on the Splattercast podcast and see what she thought. I was equally displeased with the strange disjointed money grab this film became in the form of The House of Exorcism, a horrible trashing of this film for the sake of money.

Hatchet 2 (2010) Horror Slasher Ghost

Hatchet II (2010) - So lets do this again but up the gore and fill out the story a bit, and see what Hachet II is all about. The film again is as advertised but unfortunately not quite up to the quality of the first film. It starts immediately where the first film ends except final girl Marybeth has a different actress, instead of Tamara Feldman we have Danielle Harris. Harris at this point is a veteran horror actress started as a chjild in the genre in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) & Halloween 5 (1989), then later appearing in the remakes, Halloween (2007), Halloween II (2009), and also Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet (2009) and after this film playing Belle in the under the radar but very good vampire flick Stake Land (2010). Hatchet II promises to up the gore factor and indeed it does, but unfortunately it is not a better movie than the original. There is something missing, it may be that the bringing back of the classic slasher was unique in 2006, than it was in 2010, but something is missing in this film that the original had. Harris for her part was a not as angry as the Marybeth portrayed by Feldman, instead she sort of come across as whiny. Then there is the long setup before finally getting out into the swamp. I am sure writer / director Adam Green felt he owned us some more back story but it seems to this writer that he over did it. So we end up with an elaborate set up and lots of back story before we finally get what we are promised, inventive kills and lots of fake blood. Are the kills worth the wait, well I think they are but the viewer definitely won't come away from this film with that same happy feeling they got from the first one.
   The story after getting away from Victor Crowley, with the help of the urine drinking swamp man Jack Cracker (John Carl Buechler) we learn a bit more about Marybeth's family. Her father it seems was one of the three boys who threw the firecrackers that set Crowley's house ablaze all those years before. He with his brother and another boy Trent are the reason Victor was killed accidentally by his father in the rescue attempt. So you could surmise that revenge on them could break the haunting of the swamp. Through flashback though we learn even m,ore unnecessary back story about the boy who would become the ghost Victor Crowley. It sort of explains why he was born deformed in the first place and why a horrible end was inevitable for he and his father. Doesn't really need to be explained but we get a good section of flashback devoted to it. I guess Green was trying to add some real depth to the character but really all it does in delay the anticipated bloodbath.
  Marybeth at Jack's suggestion goes to see Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd) and when he learns who she is hatches a plan to end the curse and thus open the swamp back up for his tour business. Now there is no way to know what ultimately will stop Victor Crowley from appearing every night for murder and mayhem and the movie even states that. Still Zombie figures if he can get the remaining two men responsible for Crowley's death out into the swamp, Victor will kill them and the curse will be lifted. So on top of the already over complicated plot he creates another scheme where he lies to Marybeth so she will bring her uncle and the town's hunters so he can attract Trent. He presents a ghost hunt saying to the group that he will give each hunter $500 to behead the ghost of Victor Crowley, again paper thin this excuse works and we have a group of hunters all heading into the swamp to kill Crowley. Marybeth for her part just wants to retrieve the bodies of her Father and Brother but we all know how that is going to work out.
  It's all a bit tiring to get all this back story where the first film seemed to relish the journey without trying to create depth, this story is trying to create a myth that will last but it really takes away from the pacing. When the hunting party is fully formed things get movie and we get the action promised but it is only after the long setup. Again the gore is excellent fun with buckets of fake blood thrown against trees and walls and lots more including:

• An intestine pulled out and used as rope to strangle the person (and pop the head off).
• A bloody birth scene with ridiculous scared to death face.
• Gruesome mouth mutilation
• Propeller and face meeting
• Beheading and totally inappropriate hatchet in the privates
• Super long chainsaw up through the privates
• Axe kill with belt sander chaser.
• Beheading using table complete with blinking eyes
• Person pulled in half and top half manually skinned while still alive

The players are adequate with Kane Hodder returning as Victor Crowley, and Parry Shen returns this time playing his own twin brother Justin. The hunting party consists of Bob (Tom Holland), Trent (R.A. Mihailoff), Layton (AJ Bowen), Avery (Alexis Peters), Cleatus (Ed Ackerman), Chad (David Foy), Vernon (Colton Dunn) and John (Rick McCallum). 
When the film is done nothing is really resolved, there is a twist but no resolution so the third movie will have plenty of room to finish up the story. If I was going to recommend one of the two films it would be the first. Don't get me wrong this film is watchable just missing something the first had in spades.

Hatchet (2006) Horror Slasher Ghost

Hatchet (2006) -  You have to love when a movie knows what it is and approaches it with vigor. Hatchet is just that movie, a excessively gore filled horror romp that pulls no punches and wastes no time. Watching the unrated directors cut I was hoping to get absolutely the most gore possible and I believe that is what I got. This hour and a half film has some stunning blood spurting limb ripping scenes that can only be enjoyed on a large TV or in a theater. The film is a horror romp based on the Legend of... killer variety with Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder) a deformed ghost monster seeking his father after a fiery death. He haunts the swamps outside New Orleans stuck in the painful angry state he was in on the night of his death. Legend has it if anyone comes too close to his house they will hear him moaning for his Daddy and then he will come and kill them. This is exactly what happens and writer / director Adam Green makes the film self aware enough that the ridiculous amounts of blood, and poor character decision making create a film that is campy fun instead of well executed cliche. In fact the gore is so over the top that if the movie tried to take it self any more seriously it would have been ruined. It didn't though and instead we have a fun ensemble horror flick for gore fiends to feast upon. The variety of  "kill bits" in this film include, between the buckets of blood being thrown against trees and walls include:

• Body ripped apart, piece by piece and tossed (not a dwarf).
• Alligator leg chomp.
• Hidious hatchet hacking.
• Skull ripped open at the jaw.
• Shovel splitting head and an impaling. 
• Beheading, burning alive, more ripped off lives and buckets of blood as noted before. 

There is some really shitty dialog too but so much of it feels camp that I really did not mind it. The one bit where the group is deciding who will check out the movement in the bushes is not very good but overall it felt like this movie was playing off the genre not trying to execute it.
  In the film we have a strange collection of people out on a illegal (only the guide Shawn (Parry Shen) knows its illegal) haunted boat ride in the swamp when things go horribly wrong for them. Shen does his own comedy bit switching from a Louisianan southern drawl, to an Asian accent to dropping the accent altogether. hmm... I wonder if that last switch was intentional? On for the ride and into the slaughter are Ben (Joel David Moore) and his friend Marcus (Deon Richmond) who are visiting Mardi Gras as a way to help Ben get over a breakup with his girlfriend. Doug Shapiro a businessman pretending to be an adult film maker so he can expand his porn collection with the lovely forms of Misty (Mercedes McNab) and Jenna (Joleigh Fioravanti), Midwest tourist couple Jim (Richard Riehle) and Shannon Permatteo (Patrika Darbo) and Marybeth (Tamara Feldman), a local out looking for he missing brother and father. When the tour boat gets stuck and then starts to sink this Hodge-podge of people have to fend for themselves in the haunted swamp of Victor Crowley.
  Crowley's story is told through exposition at various times between kills. A deformed child made fun of in town,  who was accidentally burned to death by three local kids setting off fire cracker and worst maimed by his father who was trying to break through the door to save him. He reawakens in the makeup heavy form of actor Kane Hodder, who played Jason in many Friday the 13th movies, and in the night and calls for his father, stuck in the pain and anger of the night he died. He is a ghost, who remarkable can be hurt but not killed, raising each time he is put down with renewed angry. This story and the strange disappearances in this part of the swamp are why the authorities closed it. So when Shawn illegally brings this group to the area and the boat sinking traps them it is but a short time before the carnage begins.
  Now this is not a great movie, at best it is a so-so movie with bonus points for the great gore effects. The effects are reminiscent of many Asian cinema action films, with limbs removed cleanly with extensive blood spurts and sprays. Its really over to top but brought into a camp American style horror film.  The style and irony of the writing are real positives even if the content is less than original. Add in a couple of key cameos by well known horror actors Robert Englund (Freddie Kruger in A Nightmare on Elm St series) and Tony Todd (The Candyman) and you end up with a very enjoyable time. So if you go into this film with expectations in check, really enjoy crazy gore and remember this is all for fun, you too will enjoy this movie. Certainly it would be great fun in a group watching jsut to see some reactions from the less strong willed.

The Resident (2011) - Horror Stalker

The Resident (2011) - SEE THE FILM BEFORE READING OR IT WILL BE SPOILED! This is going to be a "Spoiler filled blogpost" because honestly I just feel the need to talk about this one. Not in my normal taste in horror films The Resident although passable is that sicko psycho character thing that frankly gives me the heebie jeebies. I grew up in the city of Boston and living in tight quarters is tough enough. Hearing your neighbors fight or have sex is not endearing but part of the environment. Looking out your window and catching a flash of the girl next store as she walks across the window in her undies happens sometimes, it may be momentarily exciting but you should not be camping out there waiting for another chance. Secretly manipulating people to move into your building full of secret passages with peep holes may just be going too far. No it is going too far and if that is the line then drugging and playing with his/her past out body is just plain criminal and repulsive. In exploitation films often the horror is having a conscious victim who knows you are going to do terrible things to him or her. Tension is created by seeing the reaction to the threatened abuse, in this film it is all about the reveal that while you were sleeping horrible things were being done to you. 
 This film is all about that reveal and the turn is better than expected, but there is a wierd flaw I will discuss later. It starts as a film about Dr. Juliet Devereau (Hilary Swank) and her need to find a new place to live after leaving her cheating boyfriend. She is a doctor working hard in Brooklyn and not finding the best places in a city where living in a closet is expensive. Responding to a call back from Max (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) owner of a place right on the bridge and next to the park Juliet runs in daily she finds he has this great spacious apartment for $3800 a month. Worth every penny in fact a steal and if there is one thing we have learned through horror movies of the past, if the apartment is too good to be true, its probably sitting on a gate to hell. In this case she feels no is not an answer she can give and moves in pronto. We then get to see some creepiness and a whole lot of  the good doctor's body. The idea is to show how relaxed we are in our own spaces, stripping our clothes off, masturbating in the bath, rubbing lotion on our body anywhere in our own space. In a way it was an advertisement for the fact that Hilary Swank has a pretty smoking body. Its saying please directors you can still cast me as the young (enough) hottie, I don't have to be in the Mom role yet. Really though it is for the first reveal, the reveal that her landlord is a peeping tom behind the walls watching her.
At the same time we have been watching the two Juliet and Max connect a bit. She being on the rebound finds his attention enjoyable and he is polite and seems kind. Just when things seem to be getting hot and heavy between the two, Juliet has second thoughts and puts a stop to the relationship. She rejects him in bed and then is quick to start moving him into the friend zone. This is when the film does a really strange thing. This movie which has been about a professional woman rebounding from a cheating boyfriend shifts to a completely different story. There is a literal rewind where we see the last couple months through the eyes of Max. We quickly see the interactions and chance meetings between the two as orchestrated manipulations. How Max lured her into seeing the apartment, and made it to good to pass up. It is a weird shift taking the focus off who we thought the main character was and placing it on Max. So instead of a story about Juliet we start to see her as a victim of the strange obsessions of this man. I have to say that I was not expecting this rewind and for a second thought something was wrong with my PlayStation.
So now the second act become all about Max and his increasingly irrational behavior towards Juliet. The writers Antti Jokinen and Robert Orr wanted us to see behind the innocent mask that Max puts in front of Juliet and start to delve into the sick psyche, and escalating behavior he has when she is not with him. The film does a very good job as slowly revealing his sickness. We see him at first in the peepholes, watching Juliet prancing around in the candlelight of her apartment. She always seems to light candles instead of use electricity which makes the setting more creepy. Then there is the coming in the house and watching her sleep, a bit more wierd but not quite at the sick level to come. When we learn that Juliet is having trouble waking up on time we get the reveal about Max and his date rape drug that he is doing her with. Creep fact jumps! When we see him beat off in her tub we have seen enough but this film is not done with us yet. As Max learns that Juliet is getting back together with her ex boyfriend Jack (Lee Pace) his behavior gets even more erratic and weird. We see him drugging her, kissing her as she lay out cold in her bed, then he is under her bed licking her fingers as she sleeps. All though is now focused on Max and to be honest I don't really want to see his behavior escalate.
  The tird act shifts back to being about Juliet and how everything that has been going on is revealed. She eventual brings this all to the final sequence by doing two things, first she has blood work done on herself to try to figure out why she is sleeping so soundly, and second she has security cameras installed in her house so she can try to get rid of that feeling that someone else is there. The ex boyfriend being back has put Max into the dangerous psycho realm and now we have to have Juliet learn the full nature of the goings on so we can come to a finale. She learns she is being drugged and calls Jack to warn him away from the apartment. Always too late for those calls though in these kinds of movies so off she goes  to save him. When she gets to the apartment and sees the video of Max in her place she and we the audience get the great reveal of just how fucking sick Max is. We have seen him doing some weird shit but the video the tear filled Juliet sees shows that she is being drugged and raped by Max. Its an powerful scene before the final fight for survival which will inevitably come after such a reveal.

  The final scenes of running and hiding and fighting and dying are pretty standard fare and luckily for our main character she has the camera tapes to prove her case to the police, although that will happen after the film ends. I think I liked the way the film revealed things slowly. I do have to say though I really suspected after learning that the drugging was happening that Max was raping her in the nights. Still they had his behavior slowly escalating so the view could think he was working his way there and had not yet crossed that line. I loved the smaller role of Lee Pace as the boyfriend Jack since I have such fond memories of him from the short lived series "Pushing Daisies". Also anytime I still get to see Christopher Lee in a film I consider it a gift. He played the ill fated grandfather of Max and his death in the film was the turning point for his grandson who at that point was a killer instead of just a creeper.
  In closing there are no great apartments left in NYC so just stop moving there, its the only sound thing to do. Don't trust your landlord and by all means if you are sleeping late get some blood work done. Of course if your new place is nice and the landlord does not end up being sinister, your new place, as I said earlier, is sitting on a gate to hell so things won't be good for you anyway. Of course in horror moving to the country won't be the answer either so anyway you cut it you are fucked.

Mama (2013) - Horror Ghost

Mama (2013) - When my daughter Joy was little my wife Elisa and I were probably overly cautious in keeping her safe. Can you be overly protective? We were always very aware of our surrounding of possible dangers. We researched whether there were sex offenders were living nearby. We always visited her friends houses and met parents of her friends and got to know them before she could go over to play. When she was small we were protective it seemed the right approach. The same care and alertness was extended when her friends came to our house also. We took care of  her friends as we took care of her, guarding their safety while they were with us. Are we instinctively protective of children? Hard to say, as a kid I pretty much grew up without any supervision at all. My Mom worked multiple jobs to pay the bills which meant we from the time we went to school until the evening watched ourselves. Sure the older kids were responsible for the younger ones but really we grew up without adult supervision. So why was I the opposite in raising my own daughter. Is there some deep down feeling I had as a kid which makes me uncomfortable to this day allowing the same thing for my girl? Probably to an extent it was not always comfortable being a kid and left alone with just the neighbors checking in on you. Maybe it is the new media world we live in, one in which we hear every horrible happening in the world as it happens. We see the twitter amber alert, we get live coverage 24/7 and it fills us with dread. Maybe ignorance was a bit of bliss in the old days? Maybe all those disappearing friends had more to do with bad people and less to do with CHUDs.
 Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse) as they are caught up in a failing family. Their father Jeffrey (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is estranged from his wife and we pick up the story after he has snapped and killed a couple coworkers and then at home his wife also. We see him as he collects his kids and heads off ahead of the law driving too fast through snowy mountain roads. The film does a good job at capturing the Jeffrey's desperation as he struggles with the emotions of what he has done. It also allows us to see it through the children, Victoria at five years old is nervous, she can tell her father is upset but does not grasp the full picture of his crimes. When he drives off the road his escape, for what it was, is over and he takes the kids and heads into the woods. Finding an abandon cabin he struggles with his conscience to the point where it is obvious to the audience that he is going to end his life and the lives of his children. It is a gripping opening ten minutes and although the story has not really started we are to the point where it starts. As Jeffrey raises the gun to little Victoria's head he is stopped by someone who comes out of the darkness. She is Mama and she has chosen influenced by her own back story to look out for these two little children and to protect them as her own. Its not a secret after this first ten minute, what the nature of the Mama character is so I will not really be spoiling anything to say she is a ghost. In fact her first appearance is very cool and you can't really dislike the spirit who saved two children from death at their father's hands. All this before the credits and then during the credits the director does one of those nice time transitions where through the drawings by the children on the house walls we see  they have been living there and protected by Mama. Damn according to the pictures on the walls that ghost saved them from being eaten by wolves.
In the film Mama we are thrown into a story where bad things are happening and then the protective mothering instinct changes the lives of two small children, Victoria (
  The story picks up 5 years later and a lot of the momentum of the first ten minutes is lost with after the girls are found in the cabin by a couple searchers hired by the Jeffrey's brother Lucas (played by the same actor as Jefferey). Good thing they were found too since he has run out of money and searching on his own two feet is out of the question. The clunkiness of the setup to get the girls living with him can't be overstated here. He is a broke artist, living with a rocker girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain) who wants nothing to do with children. Still though Lucas is their uncle and never gave up on finding them. What are they to do? Where will they live? How will these to thirty something free spirits afford to settle down and raise children who have gone wild (in the wilderness sense) for the last five years. The Grandmother (Jane Moffet) on the mother's side would also like custody of them and has the means to provide for them. Since they portray her as an unloving bitch the writer are pretty clear we should cheer for the unfocused artists in the case. Step in the ever contrived Doctor Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash) who wants to study the girls. Since he does not know about the ghost feeding and protecting them he sees them as unique having survived in the woods alone for all those years. Since Grammy will not let him see the girls, he makes a behind closed doors deal with Lucas to have the couple and the girls live in a house nearby and provide the basics so he can have easy access. Dreyfuss being the person doing the recommending in the custody case chooses the inadequate couple over the grandmother thus setting up the rest of the story. I found this set up to really be weak sauce. A doctor driven by a case that can make his career and a couple really not suited to be parents get the crazy wild kids with the emotionally attached ghost. Still it does make for some fun spookiness in the second act.
  That's the thing about this film for all of the awkwardness of the setup, there are some really cool scary moments. We know about Mama the whole time and can feel the thrill as she closes in on the couple. Now Edith Brennen, the woman who would become Mama in death had her own deal which is revealed as the story goes on, is really attached to the girls. She is not haunting them but instead is treating them as her own. So injecting live parents into the mix has some pretty serious consequences for the unsuspecting couple. Mama is a jealous ghost who wants to keep the girls and not allow them to integrate into a new family. This is the drama of the film and with it comes some very cool scares. Annabel is the primary focus with the girls, a competing mother, but a reluctant one. Not willing to give up on her boyfriend she joins the family and ends up a real target of Mama's wrath. Because of strange choice by the writers Neil Cross, Andres Muschietti  and Babara Muschietti the character Lucas is out of the story all through the middle of the film. Annabel has to carry the film and deal with the crazy scary to come on her own.
  At this point it would be a smart thing to be clear that I sort of enjoyed this movie. Even with its flaws it was a decent little ghost story. The little girls were great in it and I felt that there was enough creepy ghost playing with girls stuff to keep it interesting. Slowly the story is revealed and we get to what is an overly melodramatic ending, that closes the circles on what it means to be a family. Now how the couple is going to explain the aftermath of the final scenes is beyond me, and the film since all we get there is credits. Director Andres Muschietti delivers the scares so Mama seems worthy to me for the scares even with its flaws.

Curandero (2005) Horror Satanic Cult

Curandero (2005)  - A complex and winding tale following an investigation of murders in Mexico. It is also a supernatural tale of the battle between good and evil. At the center of this story are two characters Carlos (Carlos Gallardo) and Magdalena (Gizeht Galatea). Carlos Guttierez is a reluctant Curandero, a spiritual healer in latino culture. He sort of inherited the power to see the signs of good and evil from his father Don Carlos (Jose Carlos Ruiz) but is reluctant to embrace the visions which can be quite disturbing. He is a man who while growing up saw the tricks of the trade when his father was casting out evil, or purifying a place for the locals and sees that a good deal of what was done is slight of hand and tricks. He chooses to limit the work he does in this field instead letting the other curandero in town Alex (Javier Escobar) take much of the work. His father only passed away a few weeks before and it is unclear if that is the reason he is passes on work or if seeing behind the curtain has made him too skeptical to be a curandero? Any way you cut it this is a guy who is very reluctant to wear the helm left by his father. When he does get pulled into the story it is with reservations and an attitude that the people who believe in evil are silly in their beliefs.
The actor Carlos Gallardo who is probably most famous for his first role as El mariachi in Robert Rodriguez's first film is calm cool and aloof in the role. He and Rodriguez have a history and since this film is written and executive produced by the Rodriguez, Gallardo steps in as a regular player in his films. It is also note worthy that this actor played God in the Soska sisters "Dead Hooker in a Trunk". Not that it has any bearing on this film just a cool connection since those girls are making so much of a buzz these days.This picture held out of the US market until this year can be found on Amazon Prime for about a 4 dollar rental. It may be other places for cheaper so shop around.
  Brought into a case by Federale Magdalena Garcia, a cop with a past tied to the Guttierez family. This story does not give you all the information all at once, in fact it is so densely plotted that it takes the full running time of 92 minutes to tell all the details. The case is a strange one, people have been going missing and the police finally get a break. An informant named Lopez is taken into custody and spills the beans on his leader known as Castaneda (Gabriel Pingarron). The police arrest the man and start to work there way through trying to identify the victims. Castaneda is a spiritual legend, a satanic cult leader of great magical power who is like the curandero gone bad. His drug cartel is using black magic to gain power. Even when arrested he is arrogant in his confidence and soon uses his magic to escape. This is what prompts Magdalena to seek out Carlos, the police station has had bad magic used on it and the police will not enter again until it has been purified. Since as a child she was helped by the elder Don Carlos (Jose Carlos Ruiz) she seeks him out again. Finding the son she hopes he can help which he reluctantly does.
  Now I can't spend a lot of time telling about the plot without giving away a lot of the wonderful twists and turns of this film. Every character is tied to the plot in a meaningful way. As a script is it really well written, but may suffer from being so well tied together that its all too neat and tidy. Now I liked this, the police chief and rival curandero play equally important part in the script other than to be counters to the main characters. Its well done in this way where we see as the film goes on that the connections between the characters also grow and fill in every possible detail of the story.
Carlos and Magdalena are connected through the real magic that the elder Don Carlos performed on the child Magdalena and witnessed by Carlos as a boy. That magic ties into the connection of Castaneda to Magdalena in such an unexpected way. Her bosses actions tie into the case and her connections to Castaneda. Carlos and his rival Alex meet in the story and we learn that the latter was a student of Don Carlos but he has been pulled to the side of the evil magic. Don Carlos himself is a known and respected curandero and his influence is not only known by Castaneda but those who are around him. In the end is a bigger story of an evil man looking for imortality, a younger man finding the power of good inside him and the continuing battle raging in the world between good and evil.
  I see that the movie only rates at about 5.1 on the IMDB site but only has three reviews. With one being a 1 star job pulling down the two good reviews, I guess you can't please all the people all the time. I found the film completely enjoyable. Not particularly scary but certainly very engaging. The director Eduardo Rodriguez does a fine job with the flashes of gore and integrating the visions of the curandero into the film. What starts out as little gory flashes of pain and suffering that Carlos sees when near crime scenes steadily grow as he embraces his role as spiritual champion of good. We are privileged to be introduced to the world of these psychics, who see bit of the world that live in the shadows of our souls. They when they choose can shine a light on us and in turn either help or leave us hindered by those corners of ourselves.
  If there is a weak area in the picture I would go with the use of musical cheap scares, I have never been a big fan of strong musical noises to get reactions. I find subtle undertones and themes that accompany the pictures are more interesting the the louder da da daaaaah approach. It is a personal preference but I was put off at time by the music that felt a bit too manipulative. The special effects are displayed well throughout this film, noiw not all the flashes of gory scenes made a lot of sense but I think they were intended to set a dark mood more than to tell the story. They did do that in spades, and I particularly liked the market scene where we are seeing Magdalena and the world through the eyes of the curandero.
  So if you are looking for a tightly written cop thriller packed full of the supernatural this is the picture for you.PS The room 217 reference was not missed by me.

Thale (2012) Horror Folklore Huldra

Thale (2012) - After seeing the very enjoyable Trollhunter (2010) the trailer for this film made me a bit excited. I was again going to delve into the folklore of Norway in the form of a film. In this case it is a story centered around the myth of the Huldra, sort of forest sirens who lure men into the woods and suck the life out of them.  Now I am finding my ability to put coherent thoughts together challenging today so I hope this does not meander too much. The movie itself is a bit of a journey, told through flashbacks and voice overs with a present that focuses on the two main characters as they sit around waiting. The story centers around a couple of crime scene clean up servicemen, Leo (Jon Sigve Skard) and Elvis (Erlend Nervold) who are out at a cabin doing their jobs at a messy murder scene. Finding a hidden room the two are surprised to find a beautiful young nude woman who they learn is named Thale (Silje Reinamo). She is not all there from what they can tell and as Elvis starts investigating the journals and tapes of the old dead man who lived there they discover something very surprising about her.
Slow to start in its development with the two workers appearing to be estranged friends. They have a distant yet friendly approach with each other that leads the viewer to believe they were once close. So part of the story is them moving past whatever has been in the way of there relationship and into a new place. Elvis even though he is at a crime scene is not as professional as Leo and thus touches way too many things. When he touches a pump that leads into a tub it awakes Thale the girl from the woods who is sleeping deep under some milky fluid. This changes everything, Leo has called in and Einer his boss is on the way with more men so the two workers must wait and watch Thale until they arrive. We learn a good deal about the back stories of the men, Elvis with a child out of wedlock he is struggling to support. Leo who has learned that he has cancer knows that the end is already just around the corner for him. 
  Through tapes of the old man and some rather unique telepathy between Thale and Elvis we learn her story. She is a Huldra who was found as a child by the old man. He kept her and raised her and saw her grow at a fast rate, in nine years she looks twenty. The man was some sort of doctor and did some rather cruel experiments on her trying to force her into human like form. The thing with the huldra is they can sense each other and the man tried to prevent them from finding Thale hoping by changing her he and his mysterious accomplices could study her. The creatures are adaptive and so Thale took on a human form except for her cows tale, and in the end though she was still a beast, stronger than a man and nonverbal.
  The myth in a modern story is an enjoyable way to learn about foreign cultures and this one although a bit slow in developing shows the viewer that the creatures may be changed but are still not human. Suppressing the nature of the beast does not take the beast out. In the myths the Huldra are irresistible and it is Elvis who is so taken by this beautiful creature. He feels a connection and when they touch he sees the past of poor Thale through visions. Even though it is quite obvious that the sisters of Thale, the ugly wild beasts roaming the forest are on the prowl for her the men are not at first aware adding an element of suspense. We learn all about the story behind the creature through the psychic flashbacks and the narration of the long dead doctor. It is a sad tale of a man who knows he has done wrong but feels like there is no escape.
  When the doctors associates capture the men the rest of the story becomes about finding Thale. He can't have any witnesses but since Thale went missing when the guys passed out there is time to interrogate them to find her whereabouts. The last part of the film is really cool and we learn what Thale can really do when pushed.
  A fine small film by Director Aleksander Nordaas with some good special effects about the only thing that is a bit off putting is the really happy ending. Still I really enjoyed the film even if it was somewhat one note in its approach, with soft whining string music setting a very melancholy mood for most of it. I am often very surprised at the quality and complexity of foreign horror. In the states so much of the horror films are a killer and a twist that it is refreshing just to see something you can say is original. This is one of those movies. While not for everyone, particularly if you like a quick pace it is a film I think is worth a watch.

Demon Kiss (2008) Horror Demon

Demon Kiss (2008) - Sometimes the choices we make turn out to be really poor. We have no reason to think they are bad, with limited information decisions can be made on a whim and then BAM! It turns out that you made a bad choice and things will never be the same. One morning a year ago I was driving to work and instead of going to my regular Dunkin Donut I decided the one on Main St. was closer and headed there. So I pull up to the light a hundred yards from the shop at the corner with Prospect ST. to wait for the red light to change. An aside if you turn down Prospect a couple blocks up is Carl's Steak Subs, which is just the best steak and cheese subs in that town. I prefer the Mexican, Steak, Red Hot Sauce, Jalapeno Peppers & Melted Cheese. So sitting at the light I had no idea that this was a bad decision, then BAM! somebody slams into the back of my car pushing me through the intersection. Even before I can come out of my daze, the car goes racing off and is out of sight on a side street. So my innocent need to have my coffee just a bit earlier ended up being such a bad decision. My car was totaled, but I was okay, I still got that coffee while waiting for the cops to arrive just because of a simple decision, a choice.
This is sort of how I felt after choosing this film, like I had been hit from behind without knowing it was coming. Sure I could have spent a bit of time looking into it before starting it up on Netflix. I just decided I didn't want to do my normal route of watching an episode of the X Files before work. This should teach me something about sticking to my morning routine. So I randomly chose Demon Kiss as the morning feature. A low budget movie about a Demon summoned into the body of a prostitute. Made for about 30k it is not the best filmed movie in the world. Note: I really only say it's not the best movie in the world when a movie sucks. I have this part of me that knows all creative endeavors take energy and planning and hard work and I don't want to shit on that part of the process just because I didn't like the results. Director Dennis Devine has been making low budget horror since 1989 and has more credits as a director (26) than you and I will ever have, so lets give him the respect he is due. He makes films something millions of us could never pull off.
 Now that we have given proper credit lets talk about this film. Lets start with some of the writing, Devine wrote the screenplay based of the ideas of Ted Chalmers and Annie T. Conlon and the first thing that was troubling was the real lack of a main character. Somehow the idea became not to base the film around the demon but instead on a Therapist Dr. Lacey (Sally Mullins) who specializes in working with prostitutes. Now they didn't show any long therapy sessions but they might have gone something like this:
"Dr. Lacey, I feel like they all treat me like a sexual object. It's like all they want is my body and they don't value me as a person."
"How does that make you feel?"
"Oh horrible, I feel so devalued and its makes me sad."
"Have you ever considered stopping?"
"Shit No, the money is too good."
"Tell me again about your step father touching you as a child, and then taking you shopping."
  It is a weird main character mostly because she really does not have a driving force when it comes to dealing with the demon. She is a periphery character who knows many of the prostitutes but only is brought in on the case by the police.  Still she is the closest thing to a main character and when it comes time for an exorcism she is there. So if she is not the main character then it must be the Demon, but the problem with that is the demon keeps switching bodies.
  Originally summons by a manic bald guy is the most inexplicable scene the demon never stays too long in one body. Let me paint this picture with a bit more detail. We have this scene where the bald guy has hired a hooker, Tiffany (Shannon Lee) so he can kill her and summons a demon. There is no reason why he is doing this, he just figures he will pay her a lot of cash to be cuffed and then stab her and read a passage from a book and Wham! a demon will enter his body. Again Why? Because he is so manic and crazy bat shit insane in his interaction though the girl turns the tables, but ends up cuffed to him instead of out of there. When the passage is read the demon chooses the girl to enter and the poor bald guy for all his trouble is stabbed in the eye as the sacrifice. So now we have a setup. There is a demon who can travel between bodies when they kiss and a therapist to the prostitutes that this demon is infecting. Then some cops who want to try to figure out why this hooker killed her John. So is the main character the demon? It has a driving force behind its actions. It's trying to get to another prostitute named Amanda but the reason for his desire is not really clear. There is some mumbo jumbo about a guy stalking Amanda who turns out could be the demon in the cop but there is nothing really tying in the how's on this theory. Then there is the Demon, even when  it possesses a person it seems to know everything about the modern world.
  Now Amanda (Jessica T. Perez) could be the main character I suppose but it is such a hollow character without any spunk that she fails to be the role we need. No one in particular is a main character but Dr Lacey comes closest. Unfortunately she is a peripheral character who is only brought into the story by the actions of others. The indirect connection but with interactions with prostitutes she seems the most likely candidate. What really happens is that there is no real strong characters.
  In the end though it really does not matter because so much of the acting is so sub-par. In particular the two cops are tough to listen too, Detective Smith (Jamie Macek) is the better of the two (that's not saying much) and spends a good part of the film possessed by the demon. The second guy Det. Gonzales (Sebastian Gonzales) is just awful, then there is Katie the psychic hooker (Sally Fay Dalton) who sees demons. Included oin this stream of horrible actors are all the real side character Johns and hookers who must have been friends of the film makers. Really dreadful acting to go with the canned acting of Sally Mullins as the doctor. So much is bad about this film. Most of the side character are really amateur and it really pulls the viewer out of the story. On top of the acting problems is that three of the characters look so much alike, Tiffany, Lucinda and the slightly more attractive Amanda.
  The film tries to make up for the lack of acting skills by showing quite a bit of female nudity and several inexplicably violent and hurtful murders. The attitudes and murders though are incredibly misogynistic performed by the possessed cop who helps spend the effects budget repeatedly.  So as the cop slash demon makes his way through one prostitute after another trying to get closer to Amanda. In the end though there has to be some sort of resolution. The way we get there is so convoluted and silly that if you make it into the last twenty minutes of the film without throwing something at the TV your disappointment will make an Angel in heaven cry. When Lucinda says "This Shit is fucked up." the unintentional double meaning is great. So you would think then the religious craziness starts! Dr Lacey then sets up the exorcist to solve the problems as they are. This movie is really not for me even with the demon possession and the exorcism it is all too bad. So when it comes to that ill fated choice. Where you are thinking, how bad can it be? I have nothing better to do with my Thursday night. Beware that choices have consequences and you too may get rear ended by your choice. It may be that most people will need to skip this movie and when they do they will be must better off.

Phantasm (1979) Horror Sci-fi

Phantasm (1979) -Writing about movies I have seen many times over the years is always a bit tricky. What is there to say about these low budget horror classics that has not been said?  Well one thing I can do is look at the year this film came out and reflect on my world at the time. 1979 was the year that the hostages were taken in Iran, I was in high school at Boston English High finishing up my sophomore year and when not in school hanging out in Byrne Park in Dorchester MA. It was a time when I did not go to the movies a lot but certainly went to the Neponset Drive In regularly, still I don't think I saw this film for the first time until VHS. There were quite a few more popular horror movies that year so I am sure this would have been low on the priority list anyway. Let's see do I go to see Amityville Horror, or Phantasm? Alien or Phantasm? Hell The (friggin) Warriors came out that year and parents all over the place were up in arms thinking all us teens were going to put on stupid matching outfits and commit crimes. I remember every time someone got knifed or beat up a new wave of news reports tried to connect it to this insidious movie that was corrupting our kids.
This picture would be a hard sell that year with the theaters being filled with viewers for Kramer vs. Kramer, Apocalypse Now, Rocky II, Being There, Star Trek The Motion Picture all vying for the spotlight. Did Kramer vs. Kramer really beat out Apocalypse Now for Best Picture, WTF?  I remember it as the year Bo Derek filled are adolescent minds with masturbatory glee appearing in the Dudley Moore comedy "10". I was not yet in tuned to the fact that adults were spending hard earned cash to see the dreadful Caligula that year although kids at the park talked about it quite a bit.  Even in Horror and sci-fi imagine releasing your $300k film with the previous mentioned classics that came out that year. Not that there was a glut of great horror, for every Alien there was a "The Brood" or "The Black Hole". Phantasm sat on the outskirts as it probably should have and although i remember kids talking about the metal sphere in general I don't think I remember a lot of buzz around this film although I think there must have been because the film did do well at the box office earning 11 million dollars. There is the great poster though and the tag line "If this one doesn't scare you, you're already dead." I think as years have passed its reputation has grown, to now where it is considered a classic.
The story of this film being made really is a classic small time movie story. Director Don Coscarelli came up with the ideas in Phantasm initially after having a dream about being chased through corridors by a metal orb. Building on this idea while staying at a creepy cabin in the woods. The isolation was key in his development of the story. At age twenty two be had already made two features films but this was the first horror film. Using actors who primarily have played roles in his first films he brought together the movie doing most of the work himself writer, director and cinematographer. His father raised money for the feature and his mother Kate Coscarelli, a best selling author did the makeup and later wrote the novelization of Phantasm.
  It is a really strange tale from beginning to end, starting with the cemetery scene where Tommy (Bill Cone) is getting laid by the Lavender Lady (Kathy Lester) and we see her raise her knife and plunge it into him, then she flashes no longer a woman but instead the Tall Man. The movie settles a bit as we see the funeral of Tommy at the Morningside Mortuary and we are introduced to the characters and the main characters. It is a story of two brothers who have recently lost their parents. Jody (Bill Thornbury) the older brother is a young adult taking care of his thirteen year old brother Mike (A. Michael Baldwin). Jody is thinking he has no real connections anymore to the area and might drop the kid at an uncles and head out on the road for awhile. Mike on the other hand is having the anxiety of losing the last person who means anything to him. He has taken to following his older brother around, never letting him get too far away. Mike is being forced to grow up too fast and face a reality he is too young for. The death of Jody's friend only strengthens the feeling of disconnecting from the small town for the older brother. It may just be a matter of time before he hops in his kickass 1971 Plymouth Barracuda and heads out on the road.
  A funny thing happens on the way to that decision though, there are strange goings on at the Morningside cemetery and mortuary. The head employee, The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) seems to be one scary dude, with supernatural strength and a creepy look. Then there are the little robed figures running about here and there. Never fully in view the main characters keep hearing them and catching glimpses out of the corner of the eye. Mike suspects very quickly that there is something going on up at the Morningside that he has to find out about and that investigation gets him, Jody and their friend Reg into a story that is out of this world.
  Besides the great portrayal of The Tall Man by Angus Scrimm is some of the hokey fun special effects. At the local psychic is the box that appears before Mike from nowhere. He gets to cut off a bunch of fingers and ends up with a twitching one he keeps in a box, only to have it turn into a red eyed fly. Then there is the unforgettable element of the effect, the flying sphere. Iconic at this point is its metallic whir and sharp blades. It is designed as a defense mechanism for the mortuary. whipping round the corriders looking for a head to impale. When it does the exceptional weapon is not done, as a drill burrows into the head and blood flows out through the backside of the orb. This is such a great effect.
  As we learn about the mortuary and the doorway it contains to another world we have the suspense amplified by the great tonal soundtrack that just hums the entire movie. It is moody and exciting and really makes the film so much more a horror experience. When we learn the full story that the mortuary connects to an alien planet and the Tall Man is taking the dead from earth, squashing them down into the little robed figure we have seen and using them as slave labor our minds have been blown. All the while the personal story of the two brother keeps us grounded in the reality of real lives and problems. It really is quite the little film. I never saw that story coming.
 There are several different ending to this film that were all shot but then a decision to go with Mike and Reg talking about the death of Jody was decided on. It is a bizarre twist of an ending that if you like it it is great, but if you don't you are sorely disappointed.  In a the alternate endings, one has The Tall man being hanged and another has him being sprayed with a fire extinguisher and dissolving / exploding into green goop. In yet another part of which was used in this film we see Mike at his brothers grave and as the camera pulls back we see another funeral in the cemetery and leading the service is The Tall Man. They settled with him waking from a dream and being comforted by Reggie, and the Tall Man ultimately being victorious.
  Anyway you take it this is a film that every horror fan should see. Is it the greatest film in the world? No it has some real flaws but it is original and with characters that you will remember long after the film stops. So much of horror is retread stories told a different way but here you have something unique. It mixes science fiction and horror and comes out like no other movie. knowing the way Hollywood works I would not be surprised if a remake was already in the works. Trust me though the original film is worth the watch.

Hell Ride (2008) Bikers

Hell Ride (2008) - This scattered but entertaining story is about the biker gang the Victors, a tough gang of hombres sorting out a threat from a rival gang the 666ers. It is also a story about revenge and the settling of old debts. Scattered because it structurally jumps from time to time and give little snippets of back story that at first are out of any context but towards the end of the film weave into a story of settling old scores and discovering relationships that were only hinted at on the way. Being a biker movie it is a journey that at first seems a bit aimless but ultimately has a destination. Writer director Larry Bishop and his editors Blake West and William Yeh could have found a more coherent cutting together of the film that did not leave multiple open questions dangling untouched until the third act. Still This film is somewhat an ode the the biker movies of old.
 The Savage Seven, The Devil's 8, and the Soresport reviewed Angel Unchained, Bishop knows what makes a good biker film and here he works with care to make the script more than just a rehash. Now I have to admit, that with his incredibly tanning bed tan, and sharp surreal dialog that for a short time I thought this might be a satire. Hell I am still not sure but the story fleshed out enough to lead me away from that sort of thinking. It is a style that is too cool for school that is a bit off putting, but if you stick it out you see there really is meat behind the story. It is an ode to the movies of the past with classic shot of guys riding. Rivalry and death and destruction, revenge and redemption. Playing into the reflection to films of the past is the great music this feature has. Music mined from other great biker film such as Hell's Belles, The Savage Seven, and The Wild Angels add to the enjoyment here. For me the musical highlight was when Pistolero is going to take a vision quest to see what he needs to do to complete his mission, he eats some mushrooms and walks into the desert to the strains of Maggot Brain by Funkadelic. One of my favorite albums at all time and a electric guitar solo worthy of the great, more famous players. Played by Eddie Hazel it is one of the great guitar solos of all time and I was totally digging it.
  Bishop an actor in the biker films of the 60's and 70's brings a vigor to the film playing the lead Biker in the Victors, Pistolero. Having played in such biker classics as
  I think the mixed reviews this film gets are not without reason. As stated before the choppy time jump editing is too slow to create a main theme in the film and Bishop's performance as Pisterlero does not help. Add in Michael Madsen as The Gent and the film feel awfully influenced by executive producer Quentin Tarantino, who I have to say also chooses great music for his films. Then there is the violence vs. dirt aspect that pulls you out of the film. Biker films are dirty films about really ugly people and the culture is not one of pretty boys and girls. This film blurs that line with name actors and cute cameos, but the main thing is the secondary characters who are women. They are all LA beautiful and I mean beautiful! The whorehouse the Victors hang at is filled with stunningly gorgeous actresses who in no universe I know of would be in a biker whore house. The female lead characters Nada (Leonor Varela), Cherokee Kisum (Julia Jones) and Maria (Cassandra Hepburn) would never strike me as biker babes. Even bar owner Dani (Laura Cayouette) just is too attractive to fit the part of a desert tough biker bar owner and when Pistolero reaches down to touch her crotch and she moans you get why she is in the skin tight pants and in this film. Besides looks there is a real women failure in this film with most of the women being sexual objects for the men of the film.
   In biker movies reviewed in this set I have seen that more than not the women are a part of the gang, or used to contrast the bikers representing the society that the bikers abuse. In Angel unchained the hippie girls see the bikers as lost puppies and themselves as smarter and more mature. In the Wild Riders it is the biker women who get Stick and Pete kicked out of the gang.  Now granted I have not yet seen a biker film that was not somewhat misogynistic. All of them have been exploited and using the women roles as victims or second class citizens. In this film although the women are presented as tough, they really are there for their looks. Although they  can throw a punch or shoot a gun in the end they are still sexualized through dialog and action to the point that there is no doubt they are there to be used by the men in the film. They are never equal partners in relationship to the men.
  The story centered around Pistolero wanting to get revenge for a biker gang war years before where his woman Cherokee Kisum was brutally killed. In the past the Victors dealt a harsh blow to the 666ers and the later gang stayed out of the Victors turf. Now years later with Billy Wings (Vinnie Jones) as the leader they are spreading out into the Victors' area again creating mayhem and targeting our heroes. The Victors for their part have not done well over the years with a group of less strongly loyal riders they are sort of close to closing shop as a gang. It makes them a prime target for the new and incredibly violent 666ers. Derision within the ranks means that the battle is on two fronts, Pistolero and The Gent, with up and comer Comanche (Eric Belfour) spend a good deal of time in the film testing the bikers in their own gang's loyalty and killing all who fail the tests.
There is a secondary line of storytelling about these three main characters. he script wants you to believe that the line between trust and distrust is thin but where they are the focus of the film the viewer never really feels that way. The Gent and Pistolero several times have guns drawn on each other but we know that fight just is never going to happen. There will be an outside condition that gets them to work together every time. Comanche is a secondary story line also. He rises through the ranks of the gang fast and Bishop in his script does a good job at first of making you think the young man may be a plant. Then he also is explained and it all fits together why these three are the trio who come out of this film unscathed. Comanche's journey is one of discovering who he is in this crazy would and probably is the most solid story line in the film with an outcome that is satisfying to the viewer.
  There are cameos in the film by Dennis Hopper as Eddie Zero a Victor from the past with a reputation for being dead and David Carradine (RIP) as The Deuce the head of the 666ers but mostly businessman at this point in his life. Again I am not sure is such famous Tartetino connected guy help or hurt this film. In the end though the film is very watchable if not the best put together feature. If not a satire of biker films, it is what a biker film would be in today's mentality in Hollywood, they would make it pretty enough to appeal to the 16-32 male population, lots of tits and ass from lovely young actresses trying to break into the business, with cameos to drag in some older males from legends. Full of graphic violence and ridiculously active gunfights but ultimately the good guys always prevail and the bad guys get theirs in the end. Sure enough you would have this film. Not really a biker film of old but more of the after birth for a new generation.