Japanese splatter fun

Alright, it may be pop and shot on video but it looks like a fun splatter'y way to pass time. xD

THRILLER - cut, dubbed and subbed in Danish

Here's the über über rare Danish VHS release of THRILLER - A CRUEL PICTURE, or as it's known in Danish KAMPEN MOD MAFIAEN. And no obviously (sooo obviously) this tape isn't sitting on my shelf. If only. There's only one known copy and it's located in Sweden. LOL. I have the scan from a Swedish message board and I'm told the Danish tape is the cut and English dubbed version.

(Click scan for bigger size)

Thanks to Filminteressert of Uncut and Cinehound forums for making me aware of this scan.

Thriller - A Cruel Picture

Alright, this isn't supposed to become the prime blog collectors turn to to check out what's going on the the world of rare VHS auctions... but I am gonna turn your attention to just one more exclusive auction; The Swedish VHS release of THRILLER - EN GRYM FILM, or as it's known in English THRILLER - A CRUEL PICTURE, directed by Bo Arne Vibenius and starring Christina Lindberg. This female revenge film is very very rare on Swedish VHS. For a long time only one copy was known to exist but now this second copy has turned up. It's not on eBay but on the Swedish eBay equivalent Tradera. The auction is running for another day and the latest bid as I write this is just over 5000 Swedish kronor ($715+). For the auction go here.

PS: No, you don't need to participate in the auction in order to watch the film as there's a really good reg. 1 DVD out. And in contradiction to the tape it's fully uncut (but be aware there's also an R-rated DVD. Make sure you get the right one, LOL).

Ghost of Guts Eater: SOLD!

Lars Jacobsson in Malmø, Sweden has lost his religion (i.e. he's giving up collecting old dusty video tapes) and he's selling off most of his treasured collection on eBay. The most interesting of his auctions is definitely his Swedish VHS release of the old Thai horror film KRASUE SAO from 1973, known in English as GHOST OF GUTS EATER. Lars' tape is the only known copy to exist among collectors (and the Swedish release is the only one in the entire world outside of Thailand! As a matter of fact I'm not even aware of any VHS or VCD releases FROM Thailand!!!) and in addition to this there's also the fact that GUTS EATER is actually a pretty entertaining film in that genre which I like to call the "flying head with intestines dangling underneath" genre (it may sound like common sense that such an expensive tape would be entertaining but trust me my scaly friend many VHS collectors pay good money for crap films simply due to their rarety!).


The auction ended yesterday and an unnamed collector in Switzerland won it for the whooping price of 510 dollars. Not the highest price ever for a video tape but high enough. Apparently, the same collector also scooped up Lars' BLACK MAGIC WITH BUDDHA Hong Kong ex-rental VHS for $152.


Congrats to whoever that Swiss collector is (btw, a couple of years back I bought BMWB directly from TaiSeng in the US for ten whole smackeroos. Haha. But of course my tape is the sell-thru release and it doesn't have the rarity of an ex-rental tape (which also has a much, much cooler cover art work, that's for damn sure!!). The film and the version of it is entirely the same tho).


Read more about GHOST OF GUTS EATER in this old post.

Ghost of Guts Eater scans:
Top pic: The Thai poster. Middle pic: The Swedish VHS. Bottom pic: Custom made DVD cover done by some geezer Patrick knows. LOL.

droPPing naMes

My friend from Copenhagen Nils Markvardsen (aka "the sleazy cowboy" aka Denmark's spaghetti western aficionado numero uno aka publisher of eXtase magazine!) went to the Fantastisk Film Festival a week ago in Lund, Sweden, and hooked up with Enzo Castellari (who directed Keoma, The Big Racket, The Inglorious Bastards, The Last Shark/Jaws, The New Barbarians, Bronx Warriors, and many more). Nils did a half hour interview with Castellari and promises we'll get to see in at some stage, probably online as he's not really working on a new ish of eXtase (boo-hoo!!). Great shot, Nils. "The nice gent and the Cuban freedom fighter" as I call this picture, haha.

Magnus Carlson, editor extra-ordinaire of Gory-Glory magazine, also dropped by and said hello to the ol' director of those multo violenta Italian genre flicks. Obviously, Magnus didn't have far to travel as he hails from the area anyway.

And here's a photo of Jocke Andersson who you'll recognise as a regular commen-tator (heckler? LOL) here on the Lejemorder blog. The piccie is from Jocke's visit to Luigi Cozzi's store Profondo Rosso in downtown Rome this summer. Needless to say the other gent is Cozzi. Check out Jocke's new English language blog Rubbermonsterfetishism. By the way, I just discovered Profondo Rosso actually has a webpage. It's in Italian but you can translate the site by using the Google bar.

And finally, completing the Scandinavian blog roll here (i.e. in that I mention a blog from each country, not that I mention every film blog in the Scan countries!), here's a pic of bearded Norwegian drunkard Patrick of Tales of a Bearded Movie Aficionado blog which has got one of the coolest blog logo pictures ever. Patrick also ventured to downtown Roma and shook hands with Cozzi two yrs ago.


Oh, and is the Swiss collector who just won GHOST OF GUTS EARTER from Lars Jacobsson really gonna pay for it when he finds out Lars cut the tape to pieces???



(click the scans for bigger size. In regards to the photos I wouldn't advise it though. xD)

Thanks to DSF for subscribing. More mesmerised members into my cult. Yay, spiffy!
I have no idea who is behind DSF but his blog is here and anybody who left a nice comment to "that" post almost four months ago is welcome on this blog. :o)

And I forgot to link to the Flying Maciste Brothers who subbed the other day: Destructible Man.

Quarantine (2008)

I just finished watching QUARANTINE which is the American 2008 remake of the brilliant Spanish horror movie [REC] from 2007. I read somewhere (in Fangoria I think) that it's a re-interpretation of the story, not a remake as such, and that it's a really good film on its own. Gee, whoever wrote that could have fooled me! To me it looks like a scene-for-scene remake!! And yes if you haven't watched the original you're probably gonna think it's somewhat semi good but if you've actually watched [REC] you're most likely not gonna wanna watch the American version again but stick to the original Spanish one! Yes, the story is still good, and yes the location (the house) looks really good too, and the FX is equally good. But that's about it. Altho the dialogue in the remake follows the dialogue in the original version it seems to me that these director wanna-bees who churn out these remakes of old horror classics all believe that as long as their actors deliver the same lines as in the original it's all fine and on par with whatever they're trying to copy. Unfortunately, they often miss the whole fucken point about making the dialogue BELIEVABLE!! And in this movie it just isn't! It was the exact same problem with the remake of THE OMEN! There is not ONE moment in QUARANTINE where the female main character is believable! She overacts as if she been paid to do so. And her lines are delivered as tho they were uttered by an actor from a local 3rd rate amateur theatre! She's probably an okay actress but you don't believe for one moment that she's for real! The actress in [REC] was believable! Altho you know it's a film she stood out as if she were a real reporter in a creepy house! The entire cast of the original was believable. The whole movie was fucken believable. QUARANTINE on the other hand is a fucken cartoon. Oh, and one more thing that annoys me greatly is the lack of credit where credit is due! If you watch the documentaries on the dvd there isn't one single moment where any of the actors, director, producers, or other people behind the camera even start to mention that their film is actually a remake. They all keep kissing each other asses and talk about how they came up with everything for the film. Duh!! It wasn't very hard; they watched the original film and took it from there! Unfortunately, I'm probably gonna have to watch this plastic clone again for another upcoming review but otherwise I wouldn't wanna touch this turd again. I highly recommend the original Spanish film as it's well played and pretty bloody scary. If you MUST watch this then do yourself a favour and save it for AFTER you've watched [REC] . After having finished with the DVD I turned on the TV and one of the crappy commercial channels was showing RETURN TO THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (a sequel to the remake of HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL [1999]) and altho it's probably a crappy sequel to a crappy film at least it looked a lot more fun (in a crappy, guilty pleasure way!) than QUARANTINE. Obviously I've ordered the UK disc that contains both films right away. £5 from Playcom. Yay!


PS: Hello to the Flying Maciste Bros. Thanks for subbing. :o)

No headline needed

Ohh, stop it, I can't take it, my stomach, hahaha. Oh man, is she for real??? Hahaha.

H-Bomb (1971) review

Heey, two days after my feeble attempt at a review Fred Adelman shows us how a real review of H-BOMB is supposed to look! Just go here. :o)
And do check out his site, Critical Condition. It's one of the (maybe thee) longest running review sites on the Internet as it actually started out as a real fanzine way back in the early 80s. Highly, highly recommended.

Stoner aka A Man Called Stoner (1974)

In my parcel from DDDhouse yesterday I also received the DVD version of STONER (starring Angela Mao and George Lazenby) from FS/JS. I already have both the VCD version and the Danish VHS. And, uh, I'm still waiting for the DVD from PanMedia (yes some of you are going to hate me now, LOL).

Why all these releases? Have I got a STONER fetish or something? Ahh, no. LOL. However, there are no less than four different versions of the film! No shit! A short HK print (the one on the HK VCD), a longer HK print (which so far has only been available on the Japanese DVD but which has now also been released on HK DVD, which means you'll get two different prints if you but the same FS/JS release on VCD and DVD!!!), and there are two English dubbed versions made for the international market; one longer than the other.

And reportedly all four versions are edited differently!!! Very obscure and I wanna check out how different they all are. I know. Fanatical. xD

H-Bomb (1971)

In 1972 Chris Mitchum and Olivia Hussey both starred in Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi's Italian/Spanish/French co-production SUMMERTIME KILLER. That film has become somewhat of a cult movie but actually already in 1971 Mitchum and Hussey joined forces in the Thai/Hong Kong co-production H-BOMB. After having just watched the film it seems to me that this is a co-production where the Hong Kong part is probably just the money aspect of it. The director, P. Chalong, and most of the cast is from Thailand, the film was shot in Thailand, and everything reeks of Thai. Well, apart from the gwailo actors in the lead roles, obviously.

I tried to get this on video about a year ago on eBay but lost out to another bidder. Well, good thing too cos I'm sure all the old video versions are fullscreen (like the ones used for the Youtube clips) and guess what; Joy Sales just put out a fully letterboxed print!

I received my copy from Dddhouse in Hong Kong today and watched the movie right away. And what can I say other than it's great fun! It's a mess... but a fun mess, haha. One reviewer on IMDb writes:

[ ]...entire thing feels like it was edited by a bunch of blind chimpanzees...NO! Scratch that! DRUNK blind chimpanzees!

- and, uhh, that pretty much sums it up. LOL. However, just as that reviewer says later on in his review, H-BOMB is a totally entertaining. A lot of stuff doesn't make sense but screw that it's a fun movie. There, I've said it three times now!

The plot is about some crooks in Thailand having stolen a... wait for it... H-bomb! And they're basically up to no good. In addition to this they've bumped off the two best secret agents the US had to offer. What to do, what to do. Hmm, the US and the UN could have sent in troops, the terror squad, the local CID, the police, Scotland Yard, a whole army of secret agents. But no, they send in... Chris Mitchum. Hahaha. It's so fucken hilarious, I mean millions of lives are at stake here and they send in one single agent to solve the case (and they don't even tell the Thais so a couple of times our hero is about to get arrested!!).



Anyway, enough about the convoluted plot (which was most likely written on the back of a beer coaster). Suffice to say there's lots of action and of course Olivia Hussey is a babe. The print that Fortune Star/Joy Sales have released is as I mentioned earlier a good looking letterboxed print. Well, "good looking" in its being letterboxed but unfortunately it's an old scratched print that was used as a door-stop for 20 yrs. It's got a lot of scratches. As with so many of these releases from FS/JS's this one gets a VCD release way before we're rewarded with a DVD so that's all there is for now. But like I said earlier, even tho I haven't watched any of the old video releases this probably looks better than those due to its letterboxed status. There's only one audio track, which fortunately is the English dub (with Chinese subs in the black bar). Now, if this hadn't been so entertaining in a crappy, rough and even gritty way I might have been more annoyed by the fact that the two main actors are dubbed by someone else than themselves but it wasn't a big deal. There a bit of gore and nudity as well (one beheading and our friend Chris visits a bar with nudie dancing). Recommended (and I'm positive Fred of Ninja Dixon is gonna like it!).


From H-BOMB:



Also from H-BOMB:



Pretty cool fan made trailer for SUMMERTIME KILLER:

Four Flies ever on proper dvd?

Here's a scan of the "legendary" English dubbed VHS bootleg release of Dario Argento's 4 FLIES ON GREY VELVET. The VHS is taken from a 16mm print. And no I don't have it (I have the German bootleg DVD that came out a couple of yrs back). Will we ever see a perfect release of this film. Fully uncut. Proper sound. Proper picture. It's ridiculous that while so much filler goes directly to DVD some of these much wanted films just either stay in limbo or get released as inferior, crappy versions. It's indeed enough to make a grown man boil his eyes out like a little Japanese schoolgirl. :o(

The Mutilator (1984)

I re-watched THE MUTILATOR this morning and what can I say other than it's a crime against all humanity that this film isn't on official DVD yet.

THE MUTILATOR (originally entitled Fall Break) is a totally enjoyable slasher flick about a group of youngsters who go to stay at a beach house during their fall break. The house belongs to one of the guys' dad. When the son was a kid he accidentally killed his mum (we see this during the beginning of the film) and *maybe* the dad is still mentally fucked up about it. Anyway, you don't need to be a rocked scientist to figure out what happens during their stay at the house - I mean I did mention it's a slasher. ;o)
As I said THE MUTILATOR is heaps of fun and there's some awesome gore scenes in it. Highly recommended.

When I do these blog posts they're not always made up on the spot. Sometimes I've had an idea for a while and sometimes even made up half a post even weeks before posting it. A little while ago I stumbled over this rabid horror movie fan on YouTube called Joe (aka J) who keeps uploading videos of his VHS collection! Yes quite fanatical, LOL, but that's alright. xD. Besides filming his own collection J is also a big fan of THE MUTILATOR and about a year ago he covered the film extensively; He did an interview with director Buddy Cooper, he had Cooper show him his basement (with equipment from the film, pretty cool when you think about how long it's been since the film was made, i.e. 1984), and he went to the two outdoor locations that were used for the film.

I'm posting all his videos here and if you're not a fan of the film, or haven't watched it, you might think it's overload, haha. But on the other hand if you have watched it and if you're a fan then I'm sure you're gonna enjoy all of this. Yes, it's all got that FAN VIBE to it but to me that's actually the ONLY way of getting to know something properly. Who gives a fuck about lame ass superficial write-ups when you can have something hardcore in-dept made by someone who cares for the genre! So check out this stuff, it's great fun and if you haven't already got it I suggest you get hold of THE MUTILATOR.

By the way, I mentioned at the beginning that there's no DVD release of this. If you make a search on Amazon UK you'll actually find a reg. 2 PAL DVD release from Vipco of the film, however it's a fucken bootleg. No kidding! And besides it's fucken cut so you're better off getting hold of an uncut VHS. Just beware, if you go for the US NTSC tape there are actually two different versions; an R-rated version and a fully uncut unrated version. My own tape is the uncut tape from Holland (on the "Video For Pleasure" label).

As I said earlier, I've wanted to do a post about this film for quite some time but since I've waited for so long needless to say someone beat me to it, haha. Mark from Phantom of Pulp blog wrote about his experiences with the film the other day. Mark used to work for a video company in Melbourne years ago and found himself in the INHUMANE dilemma of being asked to cut the film for violence! What a fucken nightmare (not least when you love gore movies like Mark does). Read his cool article "Mutilating the Mutilator".


J's interview with Buddy Cooper:




J & Buddy Cooper in Cooper's basement:




The Beach Cabbin location how it looks today:




The school location from the beginning of the film:




Posters & stuff:

The neue RAMMSTEIN Video is here!

Zum Teufel, hör Mal Kumpels, das neue Video von Rammstein ist dar und... it's, eh, slightly more raunchy than usually. xD Unfortunately I can't embed it but you can watch it here. And if you're like 10 yrs old or something you might wanna wait till your mum's out of the house and just listen to the music in this YouTube version instead until then:

Edit: mein gott, I hate copyrights!!! YouTube decided I shouldn't be able to watch the music-only version because I'm in a certain country!! But, I AM allowed to listen to the very same music if I choose this other version also on YouTube. Go figure. However, needless to say it's a censored version so use the link if you wanna watch the real version.

CATHARSIS. Tonight. Be there!!! (well, if you're in the neighbourhood, obviously)

I mentioned this a few days ago but I'll just say it again: If you find yourself in Athens tonight you MUST go and watch Fokion Bogris' new low-budget movie CATHARSIS! I wish I were there but unfortunately it's an outer-town event. About a 1000 K's out of town :o(

From left: Solonas Miyoko (stab victim), Fokion Bogris (director), Domenico Fusco (camera), Kostas Stefanakis (main character).

Oh, and Bill from Onar mentioned over on Cinehound that he actually has a small role in the film. And that he's dubbed. :D
He and Miltos of Cinehound will both be there.

Anyway, if you're in Greece this is where you wanna be tonight: "Nihtes Premieras" International Film Festival, DANAOS 2, Kifisias 109, Abelokipi, at 10.15 pm.

Esteban, a middle-aged ex cop, arrives at the city of Athens to stay with his uncle and look for a new job. He is broke and frustrated. A chance for a new beginning comes when the police chief tracks him down and asks him to take down the two of the most vicious crime syndicates in the city.

Starring: Kostas Stefanakis, Vangelis Mourikis, Christos Natsios, Vangelis Alexandris
Guest appearances: Yiannis Economidis, Kostas Xikominos, Tina Spathi, Nicholas Triantafyllidis.
Special Make Up FX: Disturbed Twins, Yiorgos & Roulis Alahouzos
Directors of photography: Bill Papas, Domenico Fusco Music: Cygnosic
Produced by Ground Floor Films
Written & directed by Fokion Bogris

The Expendables - the official trailer

Okay, you didn't reeealy think this was the official trailer, eh?


NB: Thanks to the nice guys from Sinematik (down Turkey way) for subscribing. Now please send me some free Cüneyt Arkin dvd's. :o)

The Expendables - bootleg trailer

Here's a bootleg trailer from the Venice Film Festival for the new Sylvester Stallone movie, THE EXPENDABLES. Everyone's favourite Swede Dolph Lundgren is in it. Yay!

EDIT: As you can see the bootleg video is no longer on YouTube. Bummer! I made sure to download a copy as soon as I posted it initially and I could upload it directly to Blogger but, uh, I think I'll refrain from that. No point in waving a red flag in front of a big ass company when you're skint. Haha.



Hmm, but actually I thought Cirio H. Santiago already made THE EXPENDABLES in the Philippines!! :o)

Death Wish 2 uncut.

Ahh, look what I'll be getting: The Greek video release of DEATH WISH II, the ONLY uncut version in the world. In your face DVD geeks!!!!! Hahaha.

De Dødes Tjern - the DVD cover is here

The new cover for the upcoming DVD release of the very spooky Norwegian horror movie DE DØDES TJERN (1958) is here!



I must admit I prefer the old VHS cover:



Since the Norske Klassikere (Norwegian Classics) series isn't selling that well some fans are speculating that the film may not be restored or anything. But, hey, at least it's gonna be on DVD and easy to get hold of. Hopefully it'll have some kinda subtitles. Release date is October 14th. :o)


EDIT: Alright alright, stop hassling me! I've seen my misled and wrong ways and I too think the new cover is much better than the old one!

The Jolly Boys ripping it up in the best Danish film ever

Yeah, here's THE JOLLY BOYS ORKESTER doing the surf in STENBROENS "HELTE" from 1965. STENBROENS "HELTE" is a psychotronic juvenile delinquents masterpiece no less! It was directed by Poul Nyrup and altho only his third film unfortunately it also became his last. Poul Nyrup is our psychotronic pride of Denmark. Needless to say most of Denmark still refuses to even recognise these films' existence and none of them are on official DVD (but ask and ye shall find).



Thanks to Kenno for uploading this!

If you wanna know more about Nyrup and his films here's an old article I wrote 6-7 yrs ago. Oh, I hope you read Danish. :/

Lady Exterminator (the Hong Kong film!!!)

In 1977 Shaw Brothers made a sequel to their DRUG CONNECTION (on Celestial dvd as Sexy Killer) called LADY EXTERMINATOR (not to be confused with the Indonesian films Lady Exterminator or Lady Terminator). Some fans seem to believe THE DRUG CONNECTION and LADY EXTERMINATOR are the same film. But they ARE two different films, LADY EXTERMINATOR being a sequel to DRUG CONNECTION.

If you check the two films on HKMDb they have different separate entries, different posters, different credits, different Chinese titles, and different year of production.

Anyway, there is someone in Germany who has uploaded the first few minutes of LADY EXTERMINATOR to Youtube. The print looks like it's from a real cinema print. It's very scratched, dubbed in English and has two sets of subtitles of which one is Arabic! Maybe the uploader owns a real film print. I've written to him but haven't received any reply. Either he's away on holiday or he may want to keep his secret film to himself. I don't know but I'd love to get a copy. Do any of you have a copy of this film??? Or even just know anything about it??? Thanks.


Intro credits for DRUG CONNECTION aka Sexy Killer:






Director: Sun Chung
Script: Sze-To On
Producer: Sir Run Run Shaw

Cast
Yueh Hua
Chen Ping
Chung Wa (1)
Derek Yee Tung-Sing
Shirley Yu Sha-Li
Shut Chung-Tin
Wa Lun
Zheng Lou-Si
Jamie Luk Kim-Ming






Director: Sun Chung
Script: Ni Kuang
Producer: Runme Shaw
Cast
Chen Ping ... Gao Wanfei
Yueh Hua ... Deng Weipin
Tung Lam ... Corporal
Si Wai (2) ... He Jingye
Wang Hsieh ... Drug Lord
Tin Ching (1) ... Ma-Yuan
Chan Shen ... Long Tou
Yeung Chak-Lam ... Third Brother
Tsang Choh-Lam ... Ballroom Cleaner
Wong Mei (1) ... Thug
Hsu Hsia ... Thug
Wong Pau-Gei ... Thug
Lee Chiu (2) ... Thug
Corey Yuen Kwai ... extra
Kong Yeung (4) ... Sergeant Zhangze
Lee Pang-Fei (1) ... Leifan
Chin Chun ... Doctor Jin
Lin Wen-Wei ... Wei
Lam Fung (2) ... Chicken Leg
Ko Hung (2) ... Drug Producer
Lau Jun-Fai ... Thug
Lam Yi-Wa (1) ... Jingye's Mistress
Lau Kwok-Shing (1) ... Liu
Mai Laan ... Gao Wanjing
Angela Yu Chien ... Margaret
Lee Hang (3) ... extra
Sze Wan
Kong Chuen (3) ... extra
Man Man (3)
Unknown SB-Actress(2) ... nurse


And here for your amusement: A major fuck up from a bootlegger: The idiots have put out a bootleg dvd with the INDONESIAN film LADY EXTERMINATOR (starring Eva Arnaz) but they obviously got most of the pictures from HKMDb not realising it was a different movie from a different country, hahaha. Why they didn't discover the mistake (considering they actually not only have a picture of Eva Arnaz on the cover but also the alternative title for the Indo film I Want To Get Even) is... beyond me.

Live on oldskool cassette

I received this brilliant live cassette by THE UNDERTONES. It's entitled "Live 1980" and needless to say it's a bootleg tape. Some of you youngsters might not even know about this but in the old days there were no CD's, CD-r's, or even computers. All we had was cassette tapes! That's right; no dvd's, cd's, widescreen tv's, or even postal service. And we had no electricity in the houses. Anyhoo, I won this old rare live tape on eBay. In the description the seller said: "New inlay Card has been made - original lost or damaged", haha. Obviously I smelled a rat right away but I still placed a bid cos I wanted the recording. Now I've got the tape (which I won for very little) and sure enough; the tape is brand new and the ink on the inlay card is so fresh you can still smell it. LOL. Anyway, it's a way cool recording; there's really nothing that beats Fergal Sharkey when he rips into Teenage Kicks. The track has been covered by countless of bands (just try and make a YouTube search!) but NONE of them are worthy of washing the original version's underwear! Sorry, but the Green Day version might as well have been sung by a couple of sheep, that's how lame it is. The two live sets on the cassette were recorded in Amsterdam and London (1980) for radio broadcast.

PARIS THEATRE LONDON 1980

HARD LUCK
YOU GOT MY NUMBER
I GOTTA GETTA
MALE MODEL
TEARPROOF
GIRLS THAT DON`T TALK
JIMMY JIMMY
WHIZZ KIDS
MORE SONGS ABOUT CHOCOLATE AND GIRLS
THERE GOES NORMAN
THE WAY GIRLS TALK
HYPNOTISED
TOP TWENTY
MY PERFECT COUSIN
GET OVER YOU

PARADISO AMSTERDAM 15 MARCH 1980

MALE MODEL
TEARPROOF
TEENAGE KICKS
JIMMY JIMMY
THE WAY GIRLS TALK
THERE GOES NORMAN
GET OVER YOU
WHIZZ KIDS
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT
TRUE CONFESSIONS
HERE COMES THE SUMMER
SHES A RUNAROUND
GIRLS DON`T LIKE IT
ROCK AND ROLL PART 1

And here's a blog edit.

Massacre Mafia Style

Moddarfukkar! MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE (1975) is coming out on DVD for the first time ever - but only in 500 copies! Check out this awesome (and very violent) opening scene (it's also aka The Executioner aka Like Father, Like Son).



The trailer:


And here's the cover for the Danish ex-rental VHS:

(Click cover for bigger size)

Apparently, Denmark is one of the very few places where MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE was released on VHS.

Thanks to Jared of Worldweird Cinema for the tip.

CATHARSIS - trailer

My mate Fokion Bogris has been working on his low-budget film CATHARSIS forever and it's finally finished. If you're in Greece go watch it next Thursday when it'll be showing at the Athens International Film Festival. Here's the trailer with English subs (they're not burnt in, you put them on by clicking the little arrow in the bottom right corner). It looks great and I wish I were in downtown Athens. :o(



Edit: Oops, due to Blogger not having adjusted the video window for widescreen it cuts off some of the right part of the screen. You're better off watching this on YouTube. :/

Esteban, a middle-aged ex cop, arrives at the city of Athens to stay with his uncle and look for a new job. He is broke and frustrated. A chance for a new beginning comes when the police chief tracks him down and asks him to take down the two of the most vicious crime syndicates in the city.

Starring: Kostas Stefanakis, Vangelis Mourikis, Christos Natsios, Vangelis Alexandris
Guest appearances: Yiannis Economidis, Kostas Xikominos, Tina Spathi, Nicholas Triantafyllidis.
Special Make Up FX: Disturbed Twins, Yiorgos & Roulis Alahouzos
Directors of photography: Bill Papas, Domenico Fusco Music: Cygnosic
Produced by Ground Floor Films
Written & directed by Fokion Bogris

Heey, it's my old SODS tape with Lydia Lunch!!!

In 1984 I taped a documentary off Danish TV (on Betamax tape no less) about the Danish underground band SORT SOL, back then also known as Sods. The docu is entitled OMKRING EN SORT SOL - ET PORTRÆT AF SODS. On Sort Sol's third LP, Dagger & Guitar, they had two tracks which featured New York no-wave queen LYDIA LUNCH. I've kept the tape all these years and last year some Lydia Lunch fan in Spain saw one of my posts on Dvdmaniacs where I referred to it and he wrote me and asked for a copy. He got the copy, never bothered to pay me or even say thanks, but now - lo and behold - some guy in CANADA has just uploaded the part with Lunch from my tape (yes, I recognise the worn tape, LOL). So despite the impolite Spanish dude it's nice that it's finally out for everyone to see.

Sort Sol (aka Sods) featuring Lydia Lunch on the track "Boy/Girl" from "Omkring en sort sol - et portræt af Sods" (from DR TV, Denmark, 1984)



The cover for the "Dagger & Guitar" LP from 1983.



(click the covers for bigger size)

True sons of Elvis (from Hell)

No explanation. This is the best there is.

Gritty Hong Kong

When people talk about Celestial's Shaw Brothers DVDs it's mostly the kung fu films they mention. But of course the Shaws made films in several other different genres; horror, comedies, musicals, a few slightly erotic flicks, and not least the gritty cop/crime movies. Some of them belong in the HK new wave genre of the early 80s (which I'm actually just learning about now, thanks Andras, Michael, etc).

A handful of the films Celestial put out a little while back is the THE CRIMINALS series. I must admit I've never paid much attention to this series as I was under the (obviously very deluded) impression that they were probably kinda crappy and dull. Well, someone mentioned the first film in the series on Dvdmaniacs yesterday and it sparked my interest but, uh, 'tis difficult to watch something you don't have and I don't have THE CRIMINALS 1 but I knew I had a couple of the later entries lying around somewhere and so I ended up watching THE CRIMINALS 3: ARSON - and like so often before I'm kicking myself in the head for having had something totally cool lying around for months without watching it!!

Was this gritty and brutal and didn't have any slapstick in it at all you ask? Well, yes, yes, and no!!! I was quite surprised I must admit! Flabbergasted you might add. xD

The film is made up of two separate stories and both were excellent. The main characters in the first one are two lowlife scumbags. We've seen that on film before but in Hollywood's polished version the crooks are often somehow cool and/or good, and at the end of the film they repent - or die after having done something really good. Not so in this one. The creeps are just creeps, however (again: in contradiction to Hollywood) we do get to see their human sides as well. Actually, with a little unfortunate deviation onto a side track we could easily become them. As horrible as it may sound.

A li'l deterioration in the moral judgement department maybe caused by an unfortunate social slide downhill - and we are suddenly them. We become them. Just as the mall zombies in DAWN OF THE DEAD are really us. Maybe not you or me but it happens all the time.

Since this is the only film out of this series' 5 films that I have watched obviously I can't talk about the other ones. Phantom of Pulp wrote about #5 here and he was quite exited about it, so check out his review. Episode 5 is partly directed by TF Mous who also made MEN BEHIND THE SUN and LOST SOULS and whom I wrote about here.

If you think you might like gritty and non schmaltzy film making then I can only urge you to seek out THE CRIMINALS 3. I think it's really good! The two episodes are directed by Hua Shan (who also among many other films directed Inframan, The Flying Guillotine Part II, and The Bloody Parrot) and Gwai Chi-Hung (who directed tons of other films; The Bamboo House of Dolls, The Killer Snakes, Big Brother Cheng, Hex, Bewitched, Corpse Mania, etc, etc, and not to forget: The Boxer's Omen!!! Phew, what a list of EXCELLENT films!).



By the way, did I forget to mention that the evil Chinamen at Celestial (all spawned by Dr. Fu Manchu) figured we didn't need DVDs for these films so they've only put them out on VCD (i.e. video-cd). Bummer, eh! I should point out there is a DVD for the first film but #2-5 are VCD only releases (there's also a VCD for film #1 if you need one to fit the other ones on the shelf, LOL). Anyway, forget what you've heard about the crappy VCD format and its "terrible" picture quality; Just like with video tapes VCDs come in many different shapes and forms. Some are extremely bad, i.e. pixelation hell, but actually the VCDs from Celestial are top of the crop. They are second to none, the picture quality is as good as it'll ever get on a VCD.

THE CRIMINALS 3 (and most likely the other ones too) is presented in the correct letterbox format and has easy to read English subtitles, and you can chose between Cantonese and Mandarin audio (Cantonese being the correct one and if you can't tell the difference it's the one in the left speaker). As I mentioned there's a DVD out for the first film but unfortunately it's getting difficult to find. When I looked for it online last night the only places I could find it stocked were at Sensasian.com (located in Malaysia, nice people, cheap prices) and at YesAsia.com (in HK, also nice folk and cheap too, their goods that is). You can get #2-5 from Hkflix.com (in Hawaii, top people all the way 'round). I ordered the three films I didn't have right away. I suggest you do the same, schmendrick.

The UNTERGANG of the Hong Kong film industry according to DANNY LEE

Danny Lee (who played opposite Chow Yun Fat in THE KILLER and who was also in the nasty UNTOLD STORY with Anthony Wong plus another 6 trillion cop movies in Hong Kong) talks about the downfall of the HK film industry in this interview.



Thanks to Ian F. for drawing my attention to this interview.

Sing along with your fave schlager singers, Merli, Nero & Testi

If you are into Italian genre films in any way and especially if you dig POLIZISCO films then... this is for you:

(there's about a minute of dialogue before the fun begins)


Grazie a poliziesco fan numero uno Johnny Redman di Love, Lock and Load for posting this on YouTube.

When the hell is that time machine coming? I'm all packed and ready to go

"Ahh is there ever a night when you DON'T dream about The Fall?"

I taped a radio session which THE FALL did for John Peel's show on BBC1 in the UK many yrs ago and the headline for this very post is his immediate words after the last track. I believe John ALWAYS dreamed about The Fall. :o)
For the past two days, all I've been listening to is old Peel sessions on the stereo, not from wobbly old cassette tapes mind you but from this SPIFFY CD box that contains every single session The Fall ever recorded for the Peel Show. 24 sessions over a period of 26 years. From 1978-2004. Gee!! How amazing is that!!! Well, I guess it wouldn't be if The Fall were crap but these sessions are ALL brilliant! It's difficult not to want to keep spinning these fab records over and over again. Everything sounds too bloody happy after hours and hours in the company of Mark E. Smith and his band. Haha. Someone not familiar with the band might find the box boring or way too simple (all the inner slip cases look exactly the same as the box, which by the way is printed on rough brown cardboard!) but no, this is nothing but perfected perfectionism . The Fall and Mark E. Smith in a nutshell! This is a brilliant release. You should own it.

Holy shmoly Batman - the trailer

I haven't watched this film since sometime in the 80s but I remember it as being good fun. I even taped it off TV (on Betamax). There was a shark, wasn't here? Maybe it was the one Bruno Mattei bought. :D

And trailers with footage shot exclusively for the trailer are fun!