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 (1973)

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 [see edit note] 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.

Edit: H-BOMB was actually made in 1973 after SUMMERTIME KILLER!
(See Andrew Leavold's comment at the bottom of this post) 




I tried to get hold of this on video about a year ago when it was listed on eBay but lost out to another bidder. Well, good thing too cos I'm pretty 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 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!


From H-BOMB:




Pretty cool fan made trailer for SUMMERTIME KILLER:

ANDREW LEAVOLD's comment (posted in 2010) to my review of H-BOMB over on my Backyard Asia blog:
"Hi Jack...you'll find the production date is around '73, after Summertime Killer. The Thai producers wanted to duplicate the success of Summertime Killer, and so imported its two stars (see the Chris Mitchum interview on Bamboo Gods). H-Bomb is Chris' first film made in Asia, followed by the Bobby Suarez productions Chinese Daredevil Commandos (abandoned), Cosa Nostra Asia (1973) and Master Samurai (1974)."

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