R.I.P. Tony :-(

"Dannnieel" as only Brett Sinclair could say it. When we talked about The Persuaders my mum would always do an impersonation of Roger Moore's character on the show. And now he's gone. Daniel that is, or rather his alter ego, Tony Curtis. He was 85.

I still vividly remember that night in 1970 when I got out of bed, went into the lounge-room and found my dad and my uncle in front of the TV as the very first episode of The Persuaders (or De Uheldige Helte as it's known here) was about to begin. As a kid I wanted to be "the persuaders" when I grew up. Or rather, I wanted to be Danny! And now he's gone. RIP Tony. :-(



PS: Watch the into + end credits here. Unfortunately, I can't embed that video here.

ENDGAME coming to German DVD - uncut mind you!

Yes, it's true!!! I've just been informed that Joe D'Amato's legendary, violent post-apocalypse flick ENDGAME (aka Endgame: Bronx Lotta Finale) is finally going to be released on legit DVD in Germany. I have no info on the label nor whether it'll be a splice job (using old, missing gore scenes from VHS releases) as we've seen before with some of these films. I hope not but it any case it's brilliant news. Obviously I already own the uncut Danish VHS but still. xD xD xD

Screen grabs from the new DVD:

Karamurat: The Sultan's Warrior (Turkey, 1973)

Ahh, check this German VHS out! It's the Turkish Cüneyt Arkin movie KARA MURAT: FATIHIN FERMANI from 1973, known in English as Karamurat: The Sultan's Warrior. Thanks to Henrik Larsen I already own Mondo Macabro's UK TV print (in Turkish w/English subs) but when I stumbled over this tape on German eBay I knew I had to have it! Now, if just I could find the German dubbed print of KARA MURAT KARA SOVALYE'YE KARSI aka Karamurat Vs. The Black Knight (not released in English) then I'd be happy!! EDIT: My info on the film on this tape is wrong in the above post!!! I got my info from the German film data base OFDb (kinda the German answer to the IMDb) but their info on the English title is incorrect!!! DER HEILIGE KRIEG isn't aka The Sultan's Warrior (Kara Murat: Fatihin fermani) as they state but it's actually KARA MURAT KARA SOVALYE'YE KARSI (aka Kara Murat vs the Black Knight). And since I already have the English dubbed TV print for SULTAN'S WARRIOR I'm not complaining. This is pretty cool.

Best Roky Erickson cover + coolest vampire music video on a Saturday night

This is Entombed's awesome version of Roky Erickson's "Night of the Vampire" from the "Children Of The Night - What Music They Make" Roky Erickson tribute LP (an album that was released to help Erickson in his time of need (in the 90s). I bought the LP when it came out but the one thing I always wondered is this: It was a limited edition LP printed in 500 copies (and only on vinyl!). How much financial help could 500 sold LP's provide?? Haha. The cover was full of spelling mistakes, wrong song titles and over-all badly written. Not a very good representation of bands that wanted to support Roky!).
Anyway, this cover is awesome and I could play it all night. So should you.

New links

The list of blogs that link to me (either this blog or my Filipino war blog) is getting pretty vast by now so I'll mention the new ones from now on. The latest one is Comeuppance Reviews, I didn't even know they existed. :D They review cool stuff, some of it trashy Filipino flicks.

One new blog that I found out about via Google Analytics is Kult Eye Bleeder which is pretty fucken cool. The guy behind it is like my long lost twin brother. He collected all things Metallica in the 80s just like me and about every film he's reviewed so far is a kool one that I dig. Yay!

And lastly (for now anyway) Turkish Aussie psychotronic film aficionado Joe Mizuki (also in Sydney like our good buddy Ayman) has just changed the URL for his cool blog on (mostly) Turkish pop culture; Always Remember We're Phantom Agents. Check out his blog, the difference between hack writers like myself and him is he can actually capisce the lingo and dig into the ins and outs of Turkish films & pop music. Check them all out, they're people with great taste (they linked here! LOL).

Best SUZI on a Thursday

It was some time during the 70s. I was about 10-12 years old. Me, my mum & dad had been invited over to some people's house for dinner. I don't think my parents were even too fond of them, they weren't friends or anything, but they'd invited us so my folks said yeah sure. The couple had a son and after dinner we went to his room. At some stage he asked me: "So what groups do you like?" I said: "Suzi Quatro". He looked at me frightened and said: "Don't you know she's possessed by demons?" I said: "Huh?" to which he replied: "Haven't you seen how she acts like a lunatic on stage!?" He was deadpan serious.

I never mentioned my love for Suzi again in his presence. xD.

Super Shark

Ehh, is this for real or fake? It looks fake but I'd love to learn that its' for real. xD.

The Mechanix fist-fight

Wanna get into a fist-fight? Just find ANY version of the song "The Mechanix" aka The Mechanics aka The Four Horsemen on YouTube played by either Metallica or Megadeth and you'll be headed for a merciless rumble. Haha. Read any of the comments sections and you see what I mean. Here's what it's all about:

The original version by Metallica w/Dave Mustaine on guitar:


Metallica's re-arranged version (without Dave Mustaine):


Dave Mustaine's version (with Megadeth) of the original Metallica version:

The saw is family. But how about Jason? O_O

THE KEEP on ultra rare Danish ex-rental

Satans Borg [Satan's Castle] or as it's known originally: THE KEEP (Michael Mann, 1983). Wauw. I've never seen this tape before (and neither has any Danish VHS collector who isn't called Diabolik (aka Hans-Jørgen)!!! Lemme repeat that: Waa-uuhhh-hu-hu-wauw!!! Great find, Hans-Jørgen! And obviously a great pity this film isn't on DVD. :-(

Too cool for school!!!

A heartfelt thanks to the Kelly Family!

SANTA SANGRE on reg. 1 dvd and blu-ray

As you'll remember I already own a copy of SANTA SANGRE on DVD but even so I'm happy to report that it's finally being re-released; this time in the US and it's gonna get both a DVD and a blu-ray release - with five hours of extra material!! The release is due for January the 25th.

Here's the new cover:



And info from Fangoria:

One of the most-desired titles by Stateside disc collectors has long been Alejandro Jodorowsky’s shocking and fascinating 1989 feature SANTA SANGRE. Now, Fango has received word that the acclaimed hallucinatory fantasy-chiller will make its American DVD/Blu-ray debut early next year.

Severin Films will release the discs January 25, 2011, derived from a restored print of the uncut European version. There will also be more than five hours of extras on the two-DVD set and Blu-ray, accompanying the saga of a young man, once a circus performer with his family, who escapes from an asylum and helps his armless mother get murderous revenge. While final details have yet to be confirmed, the supplements currently slated include:

• Audio commentary by Jodorowsky

• Deleted scenes

• Multiple documentaries

• New on-camera interviews with the majority of the film’s cast and crew

• Domestic and international trailers

• Coverage of Jodorowsky’s forthcoming NYC appearances

The latter includes the director’s first-ever American retrospective, titled “Blood Into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky,” which takes place this Thursday, September 23-Friday, October 8 at New York City’s Museum of Arts and Design (2 Columbus Circle). Jodorowsky, whose classic films also include EL TOPO and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, will be in attendance to conduct a rare master class on his films and philosophy; go here for more details.

“SANTA SANGRE is a landmark acquisition for us,” says Severin co-founder and CEO David Gregory. “Jodorowsky is one of the few true visionaries of cinema, and the opportunity to bring his modern masterpiece back to America is a genuine honor. Our restoration of the film, combined with an unprecedented collection of bonus features, will now introduce this brilliant film to a whole new audience.” Look for final details on the SANTA SANGRE disc contents shortly.

And my old official Singapore DVD (I think I prefer the old cover actually):

Most awesommest cool trailer on a Tuesday

I rewatched the original version of THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS from the 50s. I've seen it numerous times thru out the years but it's been at least five years since my last visit. When I watched the film the very first time I don't think I got the symbolism at all but even so it's a great sci-fi horror flick. There's footage filmed especially for the trailer. They often did that in the old days and they don't anymore (cos trailers suck these days, well, sometimes. LOL). The copy I watched is an old Danish ex-rental tape which I bought from Henrik Larsen (even tho I've got a spiffy DVD release as well). He's the only person I've ever met who had a copy of tape and it took me 6-7 years to convince him to sell to me. :D It's got an awesome cover (in kitschy colours). Well, I think so anyway. Henrik thought it was lame. LOL.
After the film there's a few old "Ozploitation" trailers on the tape.

Undskyld frue, er det Deres kødben eller en Morgan Kane-bog?

I have a feeling my Danish (and Scandinavian) readers sometimes don't notice that I actually have a Danish language section I update from time to time. Not very often, but still. Go here (forget about trying to read it via Google Translator or Bablefish, it doesn't make much sense, LOL).

Mad Foxes on rare Danish ex-rental

Letterboxed and uncut (in contradiction to a certain Dutch tape, LOL).

[insert shocked smiley here]

Blimey! I think I just went off boobs!

Horror with a B

...as in Bollywood! I've just received this awesomely looking old Bollywood horror movie on VCD from a store in India! It set me back 5-6 dollars including postage!!! The title of the film is Vayanadan Thampan and get this: This is the original version that was used for the cut & paste flick that is... PYAASA SHAITAN!!! I bet you didn't know that. ;o)

- But obviously I'm sure you're aware PYAASA SHAITAN is the infamous Indian horror flick that contains a ripoff scene of the "tree rape" scene from EVIL DEAD. xD

Ohh, glorious Bollywood.

- and thanks to Ingolf for the heads-up!

New documentary on the VIDEO NASTY era

This new documentary on the British video nasty scare of the early 1980s looks just brilliant! It's gonna be out on DVD in October (just in time for piling up nasties for Halloween, aye!). I'm certainly gonna get this.

This is a description I copied from Dvdmaniacs. It's written by "Love, Lock, and Load"'s Jonny Redman:

Due out in October, might not be as interesing to overseas members as it is to us here in the UK but still might be worth a look for the trailers alone...

Prepare to be corrupted and depraved once more as Nucleus Films releases the definitive guide to the Video Nasties phenomenon – one of the most extraordinary and scandalous eras in the history of British film.

For the first time ever on DVD, trailers for all 72 films that fell foul of the Director of Public Prosecutions are featured with specially filmed intros for each title in a lavish three-disc collector’s edition box-set, alongside a brand new documentary – VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP AND VIDEOTAPE, directed by Jake (‘Doghouse’) West.

Producer Marc Morris, co-author of Art of the Nasty and Shock Horror: Astounding Artwork from the Video Nasty Era comments: “Hopefully, every true movie fan will want this in their collection”..

Disc One presents the 39 titles which were successfully prosecuted in UK courts and deemed liable to deprave and corrupt. These included: Absurd, Cannibal Holocaust, The Driller Killer, I Spit on Your Grave, Nightmares in a Damaged Brain, Snuff & Zombie Flesh-Eaters.

Disc Two presents the 33 titles that were initially banned, but then subsequently acquitted and removed from the DPP’s list. These included: Death Trap, Deep River Savages, The Evil Dead, Human Experiments, The Toolbox Murders & Zombie Creeping Flesh

Both discs can be viewed either as a non-stop trailer show, or with newly-filmed introductions from a wide range of acclaimed media academics and notable genre journalists. Each disc is preceded by a brief introduction by cult horror presenter Emily Booth.

Disc Three This era-defining documentary features interviews with filmmakers Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust) Neil Marshall (The Descent, Doomsday), Christopher Smith (Severance, Black Death) and MP Graham Bright as well as rare archive footage featuring James Ferman (director of the BBFC 1975-1999) & Mary Whitehouse. Taking in the explosion of home video, the erosion of civil liberties, the introduction of draconian censorship measures, hysterical press campaigns and the birth of many careers born in blood and videotape, West’s documentary also reflects on the influence this peculiar era still exerts on us today.

Extras include a gallery of original video company idents and extensive gallery of lurid cover art for every video nasty.

Best ever cover on a Tooesday

Dreaming the Reality - trailer

aka Blood Sister (Germany)



Two babes. Moon Lee. Yukari Oshima. They were sisters but became deadly enemies. Maybe... just maybe... it was the dubbing that did it! xD

In shocking colour! CREEPY IMAGES fanzine!

Click twice on the exampel pages to see them in bigger size

Check out the covers for this German fanzine called Creepy Images! It's a horror magazine but in contradiction to all other zines it doesn't deal with movies but is entirely devoted to posters, lobbycards, and whatever else merchandise. Pretty fucken cool if ya ask me!!

I've just ordered issue #1 and unless it sucks totally (which I'm pretty sure it WON'T) I'm gonna order the other issues as well when I get some dough. So far there's four issues out. As I mentioned, it's from Germany, however it's all written in English! Check the cool covers and the example pages. The guy behind the mag also runs a very cool poster/lobbycard online store called Classic Movie Posters. Check them out here (there are both German and English options for the site) but be quick cos he's actually in the process of shutting down the shop as he wants to spend more time on another (real) job, his kid and nagging wife. Or something. The zine is gonna continue, though. The four issues are all in print and available from his eBay store. Ten bucks a piece plus postage. Get more info about the contents from the Creepy Images homepage. And the eBay store is here. Tell him who sent you and ask if he can send me some awesome posters for free. Cheers.

Crazy Indonesia: Samson dan Delilah on DVD!!!

How utterly awesome!! It's come to my attention (thanks to Kothar, another hardcore Indo film collector!) that Sisworo Gautama Putra's Indonesian movie SAMSON DAN DELILAH (1987) has been released on DVD in France! Actually, it seems it's been out a while and there are no less than two DVD releases and a VHS release! Gee, sometimes you think these world-weird films aren't available anywhere other than on Malay VCD and then they turn up on Euro DVD!

As I said, SAMSON DAN DELILAH is directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra who also did THE WARRIOR (aka Jaka Sembung), THE SNAKE QUEEN and SRIGALA. Check his filmography here (a much better film base for world-weird cinema than the bloody IMDb!!). I have never watched the film but I remember reading about it on Günter Müller's cool (and sadly long gone) site WEIRD ASIA. I think I might have his review on my old computer. I'll check and post it here if I do. According to the credits on CITWF the film stars none other than Indo horror queen Suzzanna! (from QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC, SNAKE QUEEN, SUNDEL BOLONG (aka Ghost With Hole), and tons more Indo horror films).

The French title is La Revanche de Samson and you don't need fluency in French to figure out it means "the revenge of Samson" in English. The DVD is available from eBay France and not surprisingly it's not English friendly. I don't know if it carries the original Indonesian audio. However, my collector friend has informed me that the DVD is both widescreen and fully uncut! In fact it runs 6 minutes longer than the Malay VCD! Needless to say, I've ordered it right away! YAY! SPIFFY!!




Plot description translated by our friends at Google:

Samson, aged 11, sees his mother murdered by a soldier from the Netherlands. Now he feels an implacable hatred for the invaders in his heart. His grandfather sends him supernatural powers and makes him invulnerable. As an adult Samson is ready for revenge and no force can stop him. He survives the worst violence and the occult powers of his enemies. His actions win the sympathy of the people. Then the sumptuous Delilah decides to seduce him. Spells of love they have reason to Samson?

I tried to correct it somewhat but, uh, I think I'll just leave that last bit there. No idea what they mean. LOL.

EDIT: Holy fuck!!! Check out this clip from the film that I found on YouTube (you'll need to turn the sound down first as it's very loud):



And one more scene...



Video-cd/Malaysia/fullscreen/Indonesian audio/no subs/cut by 6 minutes!

Thanks to Peter (Kothar) for all the info and the VCD cover scan!

The Filipino NIKITA remake still wanted!

I posted about the Filipino remake of NIKITA a while back and it has led to... absolutely zero! Nothing. Nichts. Nada. So, again, if anybody out there has this on VHS or DVD-R and can do a DVD-R please get in touch. Cheers.


BURADOR, ANG BABAING SUGO (Philippines, 2000)



My original post:

Check this trailer out; it's a remake of the French classic LA FEMME NIKITA from the Philippines!!! And it looks awesome! The Nikita character is played by Filipino actress January Isaac who starred in a bunch of action film from 1997 thru to 2004.

I posted the trailer on my Filipino blog recently but it NEEDS to be posted here as well cos it's just too cool!! And, uh, also cos my extensive search for a copy of the film has brought me... nothing. I'm pretty sure it was only released on VHS and maybe there's a VCD in the Philippines. The trailer was uploaded by Dvdmaniacs member Robert who's located in the US and he tells me the trailer stems from a locally released tape (with a different film) that his parents rented many years ago.

Unfortunately, Robert doesn't have the film either. If any of you have a copy... well, you know in which direction to send a DVD-R (hint hint). Unfortunately, I have a feeling a copy isn't gonna turn up any day soon. Boo-hoo.

L'Ossessa (Italy, 1974)

aka Enter the Devil / The Devil Obsession / The Eerie Midnight Horror Show / The Sexorcist / The Tormented

VHS/Japan/letterbox/Italian dialogue/Japanese subs/uncut print but "underhair" fogged
[click scan for bigger size]

I watched Mario Gariazzo's Italian THE EXORCIST rip-off L'OSSESSA last night. It was even made the same year (1974) as the original and contained some of the scenes we've become accustomed to by now; the possessed girl writhing on her bed, spewing green goo, and being just generally blasphemous and swearing. I must admit she was a major letdown to the film; I mean instead of Linda Blair we get a twenty year old Italian girl with black hair and a perfect body. She ruined every frame she was in! laugh.gif (picture Homer Simpson, head lump-sided, drooling, and going "arrrrrr"). No, actually the only real letdown was the atrociously bad print from Alpha Video (in the States). Fullscreen, a master so obviously taken from a bad video master, and with colours so faint they looked as thought the print were recorded using a cheap two headed vcr! Anyway, none of that ruins the film which was enjoyable. Not at all in the same league as the film it rips off but pretty cool never the less.

The title for the dvd that I bought is The Eerie Midnight Horror Show (!!!) huh.gif
The distributor who came up with that title should be tarred and feathered!! Linking it to The Rocky Horror Picture Show is so way off course that you're just going huh??? The two films have nothing in common!

UPDATE: I wrote this review for Cinehound a little while back. Since then I've got hold of two more versions, one of which you see a scan of in this post; Yes, I was the happy winner of the rare Japanese VHS! (the other tape is an old UK release which I haven't even checked yet but I believe it's letterboxed + English dub and uncut). The Japanese VHS print totally blows away the crappy American DVD! It's a beautiful letterboxed print with colours that don't look like a fucking 3rd generation dupe. It also carries the original Italian audio instead of the atrocious English dub. The tape is uncut but stems from a time when the Japanese still fogged the private parts (which when most Danes say that sounds like something else cos most Danes can't pronounce hard "K" but say "G", haha).

Chinese film flyers, 1991-96

Due to a long-term relationship, I lived in Melbourne (Australia) on and off from 1991-96. I had already discovered the wonders of Hong Kong cinema when I lived in London in the late 80s-90 and so I'd often go to see HK movies at the Chinese cinemas in Melbourne.

Every week the cinemas would put out cheap two colour flyers that you could pick up and needless to say I tried to collect them all. Unfortunately, most of mine are long gone by now but the one I probably remember the most is this one for PRISON ON FIRE 2 which I'm posting here.

The funny thing is that this isn't a scan of my own copy but a scan made by someone else who also went to the same cinemas in Melbourne during the same period. The funny (i.e. funny weird) thing is that we never met! Or maybe we met (we most likely did) but we never met and spoke.

And mind you, we were easy to spot in those days as we would have been some of the very few white guys there. This may be hard to imagine to fans of Asian cinema in 2010 but 20 years ago these films were only beginning to get discovered by fans outside of Asia. And by "fans" I don't mean fans of mainstream or arthouse cinema but hardcore horror and splatter movie fans who'd be reading photocopied fanzines and trying to seek out new movies to deliver the guts and gore. If you're 20 years old you might think I'm trying to pull your leg by saying this but believe it or not but we didn't actually have access to computers or the Internet as we do nowadays. I know; sounds wild. It was a different world back then. LMAO.

The same actually goes for animé; What many people forget these days (or don't know) is that in 1990 these Japanese cartoons weren't discovered by little 13 y.o. nerdy fanboys but (again) by fans who lived on a steady diet of RE-ANIMATOR and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE PART II type films who wanted new thrills. Well, they (i.e. WE) sure found them.

Many years later, someone left a comment on my other blog in regards to a post about a John Woo film and although he didn't say who he was I recognised him right away as a reviewer named Mark Savage from an Aussie film fanzine called Fatal Visions. I used to buy the mag and remembered him clearly because he used to do a regular section on HK cinema. With each new ish I'd always flick quickly thru the pages and read (devour) that section right away! LOL. Later he also became a film director in his own right but that's not really important in this regard.

But it's weird to think that we could have the same hardcore interest in HK's new wave cinema, and we could go to the same movies for 6 yrs, and yet we wouldn't meet until 13 yrs later when he's in the US and I'm in Scandinavia and it happens on-line! Hah! I remember writing to him saying it was a pity we never met back then and he said "sure is". Life is weird sometimes, just like the films on this blog, LOL.

Go here for more flyers.

Fellow blogs that FLY UNDER THE RADAR but that you OUGHT to know about!!!

Kult Eye Bleeder went on air just over a week ago and it's already amongst the ones I check every day. And to a Filipino & Indo film aficionado it's definitely a welcome read! The writer is probably gonna include films from other territories as well but so far it's been a cool world-weird ride all the way.

What I really like about this blog writer is his ability to combine enthusiastic reviews with useful info and keeping it short! If I had a dime (or Daim if you're in Scandinavia, lol) for every time I've come across a review and the writer didn't even bother to mention who the bloody hell the director is, or who the lead actors are, or even which country the damn film was made in then... I would have a lot of dimes!

And sometimes overly enthusiastic reviewers keep going for miles on end. You'll get plot descriptions that are easily two or three times as long as the original screenplay! Please reviewers, you don't need to let us know every little detail. Godzilla took a step forward, then another one, then yet another one, and one more. He looked at King Ghidorah. King Ghidorah looked back. Then King Ghidorah also took a step forward. And another one. And one more. He looked at Godzilla. Then they began to fight. You get the point. And the Kult Eye Bleeder guy seems to know and understand this (okay, he forgets the director's name a few times but, hey, all beginnings are difficult, LOL). I hope he keeps the blog afloat, there's enough dead blogs floating in (Cyber) space already! Highly recommended. Check it out here.


[Credit where credit is due: Yes, the Godzilla example is inspired by a similar one in an ish of OC]