Viewings: November 2024

November’s darling is the crossover of surrealist and psychotronic film in the Venn diagram of cinema. Dementia is a strange anomaly from its era where overtly serious cinephiles and degenerate fans of exploitation can find common ground. Recommended viewing for anyone with a taste for oddball films.

Regarding the small screen, The Penguin threw its top hat in the ring as the most enjoyable new show I’ve watched in a long while.

Film:

Dementia (John Parker, 1953/1955)*

Bad Girls Do Cry (Sid Melton, 1954/1965)*

Tales from the Crypt (Roy Ward Baker, 1972)

Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (Ted Kotcheff, 1978)*

Bloodbath at the House of Death (Ray Cameron, 1984)*

Entrails of a Virgin AKA Guts of a Virgin (Kazuo Komizu, 1986)

Entrails of a Beautiful Woman AKA Guts of a Beauty (Kazuo Komizu, 1986)

Rusted Body: Guts of a Virgin III AKA Female Inquisitor (Kazuo Komizu, 1987)*

Evil Dead Trap (Toshiharu Ikeda, 1988)

The Reflecting Skin (Philip Ridley, 1990)*

Evil Dead Trap 2: Hideki (Izô Hashimoto, 1992)*

Serial Mom (John Waters, 1994)

Welcome to the Dollhouse (Todd Solondz, 1995)*

Black Cab (Bruce Goodison, 2024)*

La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, 2023/2024)*

The Contestant (Clair Titley, 2023/2024)*

Cuckoo (Tilman Singer, 2024)*

The Demon Disorder (Steven Boyle, 2024)*

The Last Stop in Yuma County (Francis Galuppi, 2023/2024)*

Maid Droid Origins (Rich Mallery, 2024)*

Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola, 2024)*

A Quiet Place: Day One (Michael Sarnoski, 2024)*

Red Rooms (Pascal Plante, 2023/2024)*

Smile 2 (Parker Finn, 2024)*

V/H/S/Beyond (Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Christian Long, Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Virat Pal, Kate Siegel, 2024)*

Television:

Doctor Who - 'The War Games' (Sydney Newman, 1969)*

Blake’s 7 - Season One (Terry Nation, 1978)*

Mastermind - Episodes 11-14 (Bill Wright, 2024/2025)*

The Penguin - Season One (Lauren LeFranc, 2024)*

*First time viewings.

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Managed to fulfil some notable titles from past wish lists this month. Most of them turned out to be major letdowns, sadly.
  
• Nick Frost was perfectly cast as a psychotic taxi driver in Black Cab. The muddled supernatural elements felt terribly shoehorned in and really hurt the film.
  
• Heard great things about La Chimera. My brain automatically checked out once it became immediately clear this was some wannabe Fellini film. A rancid looking Josh O'Connor being insufferable and a predictable plot made this boring shite an endurance test. Ought to have called it La Douchebag Vita!
• Naomi Scott deserves an award for her performance being too good for the film. Still, Smile 2 was a significant improvement over its predecessor.
• Enjoyed Red Rooms, but in terms of quality, it's little different from the average TV drama made for water cooler chatter. Essentially a tech thriller about serial killer groupies and the dark web, with a soulless protagonist being utterly great at everything.
• First found out about Nasubi, the real life equivalent of Truman Burbank after reading about it in Cinema Sewer (RIP!). Fascinating subject matter, but The Contestant, the documentary about it, ought to have been more in depth. 
• Curiosity got the better of me, I wrote about the worst film of the year and potentially, the decade.
  

Franco Pops

Franco Micalizzi - Stridulum Theme

Stridulum AKA The Visitor OST, 1979

Forget what the cinephiles watching it ironically say, Giulio Paradisi's sci-fi horror The Visitor (1979) is dreadful. Despite the A-list cast, it's a train wreck cursed with a nonsensical plot (and not in the Lucio Fulci fever dream kind of way) that takes obvious inspiration from The Omen (1976) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and still manages to be a perplexing bore. Not even an uncredited Franco Nero as Space Jesus can save it.

Fortunately, it does have one redeeming feature: its soundtrack. Franco Micalizzi blessed the film with a score way better than it deserved. The tracks themselves serve as a great time capsule of Bork jazz funk and traditional orchestral sounds that mimicked American composers in the Seventies.

Pick of the bunch for your host is Stridulum Theme. Sounds like the perfect musical accompaniment to an over-the-hill, pudgy boxer walking towards the ring. More importantly, it's an absolute head nodder. Genuinely surprised it hasn't been sampled that much.

Izzy Wizzy, lets go Micalizzi! Other soundtrack gems from the composer:

Trinity (Main Title) / They Call Me Trinity (1970)

Suspicion (Opening Titles) / The Two Faces of Fear (1972)

Without Fear / You're Unlucky Friend, You Met Sacramento (1972)

Bargain with the Devil / Beyond the Door (1974)

Seq. 14 / Syndicate Sadists (1975)

Manile / Laure (1976)

Seq. 6 / Rome Armed to the Teeth AKA The Tough Ones (1976)

The No-Peace Pursuit / Italy at Gunpoint AKA A Special Cop in Action (1976)

Breathlessness / The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist (1977)

Main Title / Brothers Till We Die (1977)

Running Away from Jerzy / Stridulum AKA The Visitor (1979)

Blake's Lively

British science fiction series Blake's 7 (1978-1981) was already nearing the end of its lifespan when I was first aware of it. The vaguest of memories exist in my memory banks, thus it was only later on when I became aware of the show's cult following.

The brainchild of Terry Nation (the creator of Doctor Who's infamous Daleks), curiosity had me keen to in check out Blake's 7. Thankfully, the recent high definition release of the first season came out earlier this month.

A few notes on Blake's 7 season one:

Dark Star

Right off the bat, Blake's 7 is the complete antithesis of Gene Roddenberry's progressively optimism from Star Trek (1965-1969). It's dark, nihilistic, and perfectly captures the doom and gloom of notable seventies science fiction media. This downbeat tone is more than evident in the first episode when the show's amnesiac protagonist, Roj Blake (Gareth Thomas), finds out his family were executed, witnesses a massacre and is also framed as a nonce.

 

Baker's Dozen

Terry Nation wrote all thirteen of Blake's 7 first season. Given that the show was about a band of fugitives fighting back against a vastly superior and ubiquitous enemy, most of the episodes were driven with small victories in mind to a greater outcome. Along the way, some details pertaining to a main cast member's backstory would be revealed. In the case of Cally (Jan Chappell) and Olag Gan (David Jackson), they're written quite poorly and feel like dead weight. This is despite each of them having a dedicated episode which focuses on them. Also, Blake and his flight navigator Jenna Stannis (Sally Knyvette) gradually morph into the show's very own Fred and Daphne from Scooby Doo in later episodes. Definitely a mixed bag here.

 

Avon Calling

The computer wizard, Kerr Avon (Paul Darrow) elevates himself from being just one of Blake's recruits to the show's biggest star. The acerbically tongued anti-hero whose witty put downs, usually aimed at his cowardly crew mate Vila Restal (Michael Keeting), is a major factor to the show's appeal. This is a character who possesses the vibe of a potential double crosser, which makes him a tough person to second guess. Evidently, the show's writers felt the same way about Avon as he would eventually lead the crew in the last two seasons. Sadly some of the other characters are far less interesting.

The Villains in Black & White

Like all good sci-fi adventures, there's always a big bad; Blake's 7 features the Terran Federation. Much like Terry Nation's pepperpot baddies, the Daleks, the Terran Federation is the equivalent of space Nazis. Really like the design aesthetics of the villains:

• Federation Troopers: The lowly grunts look particularly sinister dressed in black overalls and gas masks. They look similar to SAS soldiers, but with fluorescent green rings around their heads; making them effectively sinister looking.
• Mutoids: The design aesthetic forerunners to the Hellraiser cenobites and Star Trek: The Next Generation's The Borg. Mutoids were mainly women whose memories were wiped and made to serve the Terran Federation as augmented elite guards. Despite the ridiculous, black wisdom tooth looking helmet and their pale grey complexions, these killer bondage femmes were cool in action; particularly the season one episode Duel.
  
• Space Commander Travis: Another highlight is the one-eyed psychopath Travis (Peter Greif), the agent hell bent on finding Blake and the Liberator. Really dig how he interacts with the rest of his circle. It's too bad Greif left after the first season as he was one of the most intense characters on the show and looked like he could have been from a Mad Max film.
  
• Supreme Commander Servalan: In striking contrast to all the black attire, the show's major villain, the vampish Servalan (Jacquelin Pearce) is the iron lady in angelic white. As far as fascist villains go, Servalan is the Margaret Thatcher to Travis's Michael Heseltine.

Low Budget

Much of the charm of the show definitely stems from it being low budget. It does lend to the run down and oppressive tone for its depiction of a galaxy ruled by tyrannical fascists. It also means the show's creative writing needs to do much of the leg work; and for the most part, it largely succeeds. Although, there's definitely room for improvement

• The lack of a modest budget is very evident with its production sets. Creased metallic foil on the walls of some sets and the recurring use of the English countryside and a quarry for outdoor locations. The bridge of the Liberator has more in common with a DFS showroom, thanks to its leather sofas, than one would imagine within an extraterrestrial starship.
  
• Some of Blake's crew are dressed like they shop from Millets or have just walked off from a Robin Hood production. The Terran Federation scores much better, on the other hand. They could easily be mistaken for early New Romantics; especially Servalan. 
• Big fan of the tribe of creatures known as the Decima from the episode The Web. They're the type of creations which could have been from an episode of Doctor Who which appeals to me.
  

Updated VFX

The modern visual effects of various starships or monitor screens are tastefully done and feel complimentary to the show. The Liberator and the Terran Federation pursuit ships look great on screen. These effects are not overused and definitely help with the general galaxy building.

TL; DR

Did not expect Blake's 7 to be so dark from the jump. It's all the more surprising that this was meant for prime time TV. 

 

By far the best character on this show is Avon. It's just a shame that his comrades aren't written with the same depth or quality; even Blake feels like a supporting character at times.

 

There's definitely major room for improvement. Terry Nation no longer being burdened as the only writer, does spell a possible correction. However, the show's charm and surprising subversiveness has me eager to check out what the rest of the seasons have to offer.

Picks of 1974

Movie picks from the same year The Wombles should have been number one; the classic British sitcom Porridge debuted on our screens; and Col. Steve Austin became better, stronger, faster:

Almost Human AKA The Death Dealer (Umberto Lenzi)

Black Christmas (Bob Clark)

Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks)

Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (Brian Clemens)

Carry On Dick (Gerald Thomas)

Chinatown (Roman Polanski) 

The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola)

Dark Star (John Carpenter)

Death Wish (Michael Winner)

Earthquake (Mark Robson)

Foxy Brown (Jack Hill)

Frightmare (Pete Walker)

From Beyond the Grave (Kevin Connor)

The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola)

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (Gordon Hessler)

House of Whipcord (Pete Walker)

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (Roy Ward Baker)

Let Sleeping Corpse Lie AKA The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (Jorge Grau)

The Man with the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton)

The Mean Machine AKA The Longest Yard (Robert Aldrich)

The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani)

The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula)

Spasmo (Umberto Lenzi)

The Street Fighter (Shigehiro Ozawa) 

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)

The Towering Inferno (John Guillermin)

Vampyres (José Ramón Larraz)

Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks)

Not only was 1974 an impressive year for film, but some soundtracks were particularly just as on par with their respective films, in some cases being better. These were the crème de la crème:

David Shire - Main Theme (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three)

Willie Hutch - Give Me Some Of That Good Old Love

Roy Budd - Jazz It Up (MC/M4)

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson - Flashbulbs

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie - Lialeh

The Impressions - Mister Keyes

Terrible Tom - Boss Ni**er

Isaac Hayes - Hung Up On My Baby

The Love Unlimited Orchestra - Theme From Together Brothers

Martha Reeves - Keep On Movin' On

Dennis Coffey And Luchi De Jesus ‎- Main Theme (Black Belt Jones)

Ennio Morricone - Bambole

Franco Micalizzi - Bargain With the Devil

Douglas Gamley - The Beast Must Die 

Toshiaki Tsushima - The Street Fighter

Lalo Schifrin - Ape Shuffle (Theme from Planet of the Apes)* 

* technically not from a specific 1974 film, but from a single which was released at the time. Sounds nothing like Jerry Goldsmith's original theme, but a great tune, regardless.

Boardwalk Emperor

Absolutely loathed Matt Reeves's The Batman (2022); an unnecessary and bloated reboot with a dreadfully miscast Robert Patterson as the titular caped crusader; pitted against Paul Dano's gimp looking Riddler and his army of incels. The only redeemable element about it was Colin Farrell's small part as the waddling master of foul play. A TV spin-off series on the Penguin, conjured preconceptions of typical Disney +/CW style slop and dissuaded my interest in the show. Glad to admit HBO's The Penguin (2024) has defied these notions, as the show is outstanding.

The decision to adapt one of Batman's arch villains into a Machiavellian mob drama, laden with shocking twists and revelations, rather than curse it with the stale millennial writing cringe of other comic book related serials, is ingeniously refreshing and one of the show's greatest assets. The writing lands somewhere in between the rise-to-power bent of Scarface (1983) and multi-layered character depth of The Sopranos (1999-2007). The end result is a uniquely compelling offering which rises well above the rest of its ilk. Witnessing Oswald Cobb (shortened from Cobblepot) scheme or grovel out of an ensemble of predicaments, is incredibly entertaining. It's also fascinating to learn about his strange relationship with his mother which leads to a deeply disturbing finale. My favourite side to Oswald is his mentoring of Victor Aguilar (Renzy Feliz), an orphaned street urchin taken under his wing, displaying an unseen side to the villain.

The Penguin's success can also be attributed to Colin Farrell's glorious performance as the duplicitous and grotesque villain. Not only is Farrell completely unrecognisable under all the make up and prosthetics, but he also sounds completely different; not one trace of his original accent and vocal range gives him away. Farrell isn't the only star of the show, however. Cristin Milioti is equally as great as Sofia Falcone, the unhinged black sheep of her crime family. Make no mistake: these are villains. None of that current day trend of humanising them and turning them into misunderstood anti-heroes. These are dangerous villains and remain that way.

Perhaps the most enjoyable bingewatch of a contemporary show I've had since Cobra Kai: Season One (2018) and Squid Game (2021). Completely hooked from the very first episode. Hopefully future seasons maintain the same level of high quality. Also praying its creators wisely steer away from including overexposed characters like Batman and the Joker etc, as the success of The Penguin is easily attributed to it organically working as a crime drama first and foremost, and its comic book source material is of lesser importance.

Megaflopolis

Huge admiration for anyone able to turn their dreams into reality. Not only did Francis Ford Coppola realise his life long passion project, Megalopolis, but he also invested vast sums of his own money into it after selling his winery.

One would think Megalopolis would be a perfect considering it's gestated for decades in Coppola's mind; along with having full creative control over it. Alas, the film is a horrendous failure in every conceivable way. The auteur ought to be checked for any signs of dementia. So spectacular in its floundering, that it's still a tediously exhausting and disconnected viewing experience even when treated as a hatewatch.

My brain officially checked out after around the twenty minute mark; the worst part was having to endure another two hours of this pretentious shite.

Megalopolis is not only a sure thing for worst film this year, but it's possibly the worst of the decade. Awful.

Toys Are Not for Children

Adults buying toys for their inner child rather than their actual child is newsworthy, according to the BBC.

It's a genuine surprise to discover an action figure of the iconic traffic warden from the nightmarish drama Threads (1984) being available. What possessed someone to produce a toy from such a depressingly disturbing film I'll never know, but I do appreciate the attention to detail; even the box art is from a vintage BBC Radio Times cover.

Sadly, it's beyond my price range, but I applaud seeing it along with all the other figures available, as they are completely on my wavelength; especially the British Horror themed products. Big fan of Peter Cushing's antiques shop owner from the classic Amicus horror anthology From Beyond the Grave (1974):

Favourite toys owned back in the day: Palitoy Star Wars X-Wing Fighter; CGL Galaxy Invader 1000; Ideal Toys Evel Knievel Super Jet Cycle; Idea Alligator Game; and Kenner Denys Fisher Toys Stretch Armstrong.

The Most Dangerous Gamin

Dementia (John Parker, 1953/1955)

Your host serendipitously discovered the wonders of John Parker's experimental thriller Dementia (1953/1955) accidentally confusing it with Francis Ford Coppola's Dementia 13 (1963). An unforgivable error to Coppola's stans, but a rewarding fluke for anyone with an appreciation for vintage psychotronic film, regardless. A bizarre, psychological thriller — free of any dialogue — peppered with horror elements, and shot like a stylish film noir. Visually, many parts of it reminded me of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958).

After waking from a nightmare, The Gamin (Adrienne Barrett), a mentally disturbed woman and the film's heroine, wanders around skid row experiencing various surreal encounters with distinguishable nighthawks: The Evil One (Richard Barron), a sleazy pimp introduced multiple times; The Rich Man (Bruno VeSota), the Orson Welles looking sugar daddy; and The Law Enforcer (Ben Roseman), a cop on her trail, who later reappears as her father. These run-ins serve as vignettes showing off the obvious Luis Buñuel's levels of surrealism inherent in the film. A fascinating anomaly in cinema, as despite being such an outlier, its influence is profoundly evident in more celebrated films with a deeply psychological bent. Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls (1962) and Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965) share obvious DNA with this lesser seen horror noir.

Despite the absence of any dialogue, Dementia manages to incorporate sound and music in a creatively playful fashion. An eerie score, which would have perfectly complimented the popular science fiction flicks of its era, features a wailing female vocal courtesy of Marnie Nixon that is otherworldly. The result lends to the film's hauntingly, dreamlike atmosphere and surreal visuals. Another highlight in sound is how Shorty Rangers and his Giants' music uniquely syncs into the film. You hear the band's music playing off-screen, and then witness them playing it when The Gamin stumbles upon them in a jazzy night club. Like something the Zucker Brothers might have written for one of their spoof comedies.

The basic gist of the film was the brainchild of Parker's secretary, Adrienne Barrett, relaying an actual dream she had to the director. Not only did it spawn the film, it also managed to get Barrett, an untrained actress, into being cast in the lead role. Incidentally, despite Parker's name being credited as the film's director, according to numerous sources VeSota, alleges to have also co-directed the film (uncredited, however). Dementia was intended to be a short film, but additional scenes kept on being filmed during its production, with the finished version clocking in at just under an hour. Still a short film, regardless.

Symbolism plays heavily in Dementia. A traumatic event from our protagonist's past unfolds via a surreal graveyard scene (easily one of the major highlights from the film). In it, we our heroine's parents; her father feeling frisky, but the mother being unreceptive to his advances. The discarded cigar in an ashtray nearby, representing an adulterous incident and the subsequent ramifications of it, is hugely important to The Gamin's backstory. In a later scene, The Rich Man's stogie becomes a triggering catalyst to events in the present. This is all somewhat of a revelation for a film from the fifties. Granted, dark themes in films from this era were hardly new, just look at Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955) for example, but they also had the advantage of smart and nuanced dialogue to get away with various details which might have been deemed inappropriate for its time.

Another fascinating element is William C. Thompson being the cinematographer for the film. The same individual who photographed numerous Edward D. Wood Jr. films also did this. You wouldn't know it, however, as the film looks astonishingly more artistically stylish compared to the B-movie fare he would make before and after (and professional, for that matter). Hence, the visual comparison to Welles' striking aforementioned noir. Amusingly, Dementia was the film Thompson worked on before The Violent Years (1956) — a personal favourite in the canon of juvenile delinquency films.

Although completed in 1953, Dementia languished in limbo for a couple of years, until Parker managed to secure an incredibly limited theatrical release. It would prove to be the one and only film he would make. However, it was later re-released with the alternative title Daughter of Horror (1957); with American TV celebrity, Ed McMahon narrating over it and addressing the lack of dialogue in the original. It's this version of the film where footage of it is playing during the cinema scene from Irvin Yeaworth and Russell Doughton's famous monster flick The Blob (1958); starring the legendary actor, Steve McQueen.

A curious oddity from the 1950s. Dementia's production history is just as strangely fascinating as the contents of the film. A weird anomaly which ought to be recognised by both film historians and genre heads as genuinely being ahead of its time. Although not quite on the same tier as the movies that it inspired, Dementia is unquestionably a remarkable effort given the talents involved, along with it being such a mind blowing discovery. It's an anachronistic film which should appeal to armchair shrinks and anyone interested in surrealist films or vintage B-movies.

The Discreet Hypocrisy of the Bourgeoisie

Nothing defines Champagne Socialist so exemplary than a successful multi-millionaire actor, surrounded by overpriced blu-ray discs, and moaning about capitalism. 

While in the Criterion closet, Andrew Garfield ought to have protested about inequality instead of filling his totes bag; like the range of Criterion UK releases being absolutely pitiful compared to its corporate big brother across the pond, and why the latest 40% off discount sale in HMV has as much choice as an Eastern Bloc supermarket.

Here is a selection of UK Criterion titles which ought to have been part of the sale:

Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)

Happiness (Todd Solondz, 1988)

Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Menace II Society (Allen Hughes, Albert Hughes, 1993)

The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019)

Severin’s cellar will always outshine the Criterion closet. Always. All the lucky folk invited into the hallowed basement appear more enthusiastic there than Cate Blanchett and Todd Field being poncey and boring like their film Tár (2022). The cellar has director Sean Baker geek out on giallo films and gushing over Laura Gemser — that's way more relatable to me. Pick of the lot is seeing Gaspar Noe going Supermarket Sweep.