Nobody Beats the Riz

Having heard Riz Ortolani's theme from the very downbeat The Hunting Party (1971) for the first time recently, makes this a good opportunity to list some other joints I dig from the composer. Despite scoring soundtracks for some notorious films from the world of cinema, his music has often been a universal positive to soundtrack heads like myself.

I Giorni Dell'ira / Day of Anger (1967)

Miami / Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971)

Il Ricordo di Serena / Confessions of a Police Captain (1971)

Web of the Spider / Web of the Spider (1971)

Seven Bloodstained Orchids / Seven Bloodstained Orchids (1972)

Cyclone / Cyclone (1978)

Il Corpo di Linda / The Pyjama Girl Case (1977)*

Adulteress Punishment / Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Roma Imperial Rock / Warriors of the Year 2072 (1984)

Riz Ortolani - Do It To Me

House on the Edge of the Park OST, 1980

Ryōji Kaji · Riz Ortolani - Do It To Me

Fave Ortolani cut will always be Do It To Me off  Ruggero Deodato's thoroughly mean-spirited nasty House on the Edge of the Park (1980), which was hilariously titled wrong in the film and its trailer. It's been a disco themed earworm that could have played at Fontaine Khaled's swanky London club back in the day. The song being associated with the most amusing scene from House on the Edge of the Park, before things go very sour for its uppity class party hosts, is probably another reason, too.

* Other than Il Corpo di Linda, the soundtrack to The Pyjama Girl Case is ruined by French singer Amada Lear sounding like a heavily sedated Marlene Dietrich struggling to remain conscious and in tune. If only the much preferred trailer music was included instead as it knocks, before Lear’s awful song plays near the end. No idea if Ortolani was responsible for it, though.

Nobody Puts Ricky in a Corner

Hot diggity! Former head honcho of the BBFC, James Ferman, must be turning over in his grave right about now. With ex-BBC Breakfast presenter Natasha Kaplinsky taking over the reins as the current president of the BBFC, she put the kibosh on a lingering leftover from Ferman's dictatorship by finally passing uncut Ruggero Deodato's film The House on the Edge of the Park (1980) in the UK.

To my knowledge, the film was never actually banned, but it was butchered to an inch of its life. Once considered the most censored film in the UK, here's an extract from the highly recommendable book Shock! Horror! Astounding Artwork from the Video Nasty Era sharing some insight into just how draconian the BBFC were over Deodato's film:

"It's funnny to think that this truly outrageous Italian shocker, starring David Hess, the utterly convincing psycho from The Last House on the Left, was actually submitted to the BBFC... It would have been hilarious to see the examiners' faces when this film unspooled in their cosy Soho screening room.

Despite the film's fearsome reputation, it was still surprising to discover that, when re-submitted for video classification by VIPCO's Mike Lee in 2002, a whopping 11 minutes 43 seconds of cuts were ordered before a certificate would be granted." - Brewster, Fenton & Morris, Shock! Horror! Astounding Artwork from the Video Nasty Era, p 217, FAB Press, 2005.

I wonder if Natasha Kaplinsky passing this truly problematic film uncut might be attributed to Ricky and Gloria's dance scene? Perhaps it rekindled the time she was on Strictly Come Dancing and being crowned the series' first celebrity winner. Not watched a single episode since Darcey Bussell left, but I would definitely tune in again if Kaplinsky returned to the show to perform the dance scene with Italy's whipping boy, John Morghen AKA Giovanni Lombardo Radice.

The House on the Edge of the Park (Dance scene)

Ruggero Deodato, 1980 

Man with a Video Camera

Ruggero Deodato was hardly a darling film maker, so his passing last month was something of a pleasant shock receiving coverage in various mainstream media circles. Notorious, Italian jungle horror, Cannibal Holocaust (1980) is often credited as the grandfather of found footage films. So realistic was its depiction of human savagery, thanks to the cinéma vérité technique, Deodato wound up facing murder charges. Despite signing a contract to keep a low profile for a year, his cast members were urged to come to his rescue and prove his innoncence.

We've had the likes of Ghostwatch (1992) and The Last Broadcast (1998), but it wasn't until the massive success of The Blair Witch Project (1999) when the format became a mainstay for the following decades. Blumhouse Productions became a lucrative company, largely attributed to its Paranormal Activity franchise. The format also birthed various shaky cam ridiculousness like a poorly designed kaiju monster running amok in New York being told from a human perspective. The gonzo style found footage film was being applied to various outlandish concepts and wasn't leaving any time soon.

Without further ado, here's a selection of personal favourite found footage films:

[REC] (Jaume Belagueró & Paco Plaza, 2007): One of the greatest horror films of the noughties. What starts off as a filler "And finally..." news report for a late night TV crew, escalates into an utterly terrifying survival horror. Not going to lie, I still feel a little uneasy sitting in the pitch dark watching this film; very few films have ever made me feel like that. The film spawned a franchise; its follow-up sequel also being another strong contender, in my opinion.

Lake Mungo (Joel Anderson, 2008): A mockumentary that serves equally as a slowburn mystery as well as a supernatural chiller. One of the highlights from the period of the mid to late 00s that was  something of a mini-renaissance for Australian horror. 

Trollhunter (André Øvredal, 2010): Remarkable film that crosses fairy tale legend with the real world. This incredible mockumentary is amongst the greatest films of the 2010s, for this humble blogger.

Grave Encounters (The Vicious Brothers, 2011): A film that was probably based on that time when comedienne Jo Brand spent the night in a derelict mental hospital. Along with some well executed scares and its creepy atmosphere, what makes Grave Encounters such a stand out was it was the first example I had seen of the time limbo effect; a feature that was ripped-off by that mostly mediocre Blair Witch (2016) requel.

The Bay (Barry Levinson, 2012): Who would have thought that one of the best ecological horror films to come along in ages would be by the same bloke who gave us Rain Man (1998)? So much fun seeing how this escalates into a horrific epidemic disaster. 

The Borderlands (Elliot Goldner, 2013): Of the small wave of Vatican related films that cropped up during the 2010s, Brit horror, The Borderlands was the best one I watched. Gordon Kennedy from Absolutely (1989 - 1993) plays one of the two Vatican's investigators sent to a remote English church to disprove the supernatural occurences. The Borderlands contains one of the most memorable film horror endings from the last ten years.

The Den (Zachary Donohue, 2013): While the horror yoots were clamouring over internet horror, Unfriended (2014), The Den aka Hacked, went completely under the radar of most folk. A cyber-horror that does a superior job of propelling fear and paranoia than any supernatural revenge by a girl who shat her kecks.

V/H/S/2 (Various, 2013): A vast improvement over its predecessor. If only the rest of the subsequent sequels in this anthology series were just as good. Arguably, the best short film is Safe Haven, co-directed by Gareth Evans from the masterful The Raid action films.

As Above, So Below (John Erick Dowdle, 2014): AKA Lara Croft and the Philosopher's Stone. Subterranean set horror can offer a lot of atmospheric dread, and having this located in the famous catacombs and caverns below Paris makes it an enthralling experience. The only memomarable offering in this vein by a major studio.

The Taking of Deborah Logan (Adam Robitel, 2014): A documentary crew charting the plight of an elderly woman with Alzheimer's Disease, get something all the more unexpected. It's harrowing enough seeing the disease's ravaging effects on people, but something else entirely seems to be affecting Deborah.

Jeruzalem (Doron Paz & Yoav Paz, 2015): The weakest film listed here. Part shameless advertisement for Google Glass and part Judgement Day. The end of the world is unfolding in the ancient city of Jerusalem, but not before the viewer has to tolerate a vacation video for a huge chunk of time that feels like a Jet2 holidays commercial. Makes you thankful that it’s Armageddon time, innit?

Deadstream (Joseph Winter & Vanessa Winter, 2022): Already covered this film last month. If Deadstream hasn't already convinced you it's a spirtitual successor to Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981) then you only have to compare its trailer with that recently released, dull looking one for Evil Dead Rise (2023). Just when I thought found footage was out, the Winters pull me back in.

In summary, found footage films have been an insightful cultural phenomenom: a perfect example of people's love for voyeaurism, running parallel with the rise of reality television; simultaneously, they've also put us in a role akin to a bored guard during night watch and having to stare at a CCTV console. Interested to see where this format will go in the forseeable future with the progression of technical advancements in video capturing and streaming tech.

Viewings: December 2022

With 2022 in its final death throes, I almost managed a movie a day with a final tally of 343 this year.

Favourite discovery this month was Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's chilling, alternate-history mockumentary, It Happened Here. Despite coppin' a physical copy of the film ages ago, my lazy arse didn't watch it until a nice quality rip hit YouTube earlier this month.

Other new finds that I really liked were Dennis Hopper falling head over hills for a sideshow mermaid in Night Tide, and Yuen Biao exacting vigilante justice in Righting Wrongs.

 

Film:

The Maze (William Cameron Menzies, 1953)*

Creature with the Atom Brain (Edward L. Cahn, 1955)*

Night Tide (Curtis Harrington, 1961)*

Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962)

Witchcraft (Don Sharp, 1964)*

It Happened Here (Kevin Brownlow & Andrew Mollo, 1965)* 

Zeta One (Michael Cort, 1969)*

Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)

Futureworld (Richard T. Heffron, 1976)*

Porridge (Dick Clement, 1979)

Rock 'N' Roll High School (Allan Arkush & Joe Dante, 1979)*

The Scaremaker AKA Girls Nite Out (Robert Deubel, 1982)

Don't Open Till Christmas (Edmund Purdum, 1984)

Yes, Madam! (Corey Yuen, 1985)*

Righting Wrongs (Corey Yuen, 1986)*

The Dead Pool (Buddy Van Horn, 1988)

Trapped Alive (Leszek Burzynski, 1988)*

Meet the Feebles (Peter Jackson, 1989)

Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)

The Invisible Maniac (Rif Coogan, AKA Adam Rifkin, 1990)*

Basket Case 3 (Frank Henenlotter, 1991)

Evil Toons (Fred Olen Ray, 1992)

Rubber’s Lover (Shozin Fukui, 1996)*

Devil’s Prey (Bradford May, 2001)*

Elvira’s Haunted Hills (Sam Irvin, 2001)*

Havoc (Barbara Kopple, 2005)*

Santa’s Slay (David Steiman, 2005)*

WΔZ (Tom Shankland, 2008)*

All Through the House (Todd Nunes, 2015)*

Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell, 2018)

The Good Liar (Bill Condon, 2019)*

Cow (Andrea Arnold, 2022)* 

The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022)*

Hounded (Tommy Boulding, 2022)*

Matriarch (Ben Steiner, 2022)*

Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)*

 

Television:

The Fast Show Christmas Special (Brendan O’Casey, 1996)

The Two Ronnies Christmas Sketchbook (Ronnie Barker & Ronnie Corbett, 2005)

Christmas University Challenge 2022 (Don Reid, 2022)*

FIFA World Cup 2022 (2022)*

Mastermind - lost count of episode numbers since the rugby (Bill Wright, 2022)*

Werewolf by Night - TV special (Michael Giacchino, 2022)*

 

*First time viewings.

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Never caught the Westworld (1973) sequel from start to finish until now. Great conspiracy premise, but the film looks terribly cheap. Many scenes were shot in some grotty industrial plant. Yul Brynner's return as The Gunslinger scene was completely bonkers.
• Loved the gothic splendour of Menzies' The Maze, but the film's climax is perhaps one of the most unexpected film twists I've witnissed. Somewhat spoilt the film for me, sadly.
  
• Lost count how many times I've watched Goodfellas, but it's only now I noticed Saw's Jigsaw was Henry Hill's parole officer.
  
• The homie Tommy Bunz (R.I.P.) was dead right about Havoc. Pure cringe from start to finish.
  
• Career lows for both James Robertson Justice and Charles Hawtrey appearing in the British sci-fi/sexploitation romp, Zeta One.
• Not a fan of musicals, but I can't hate on Rock 'N' Roll High School for having The Ramones as its main focus; plus, P.J. Soles helps a lot in what's otherwise a very erratic film. 
• The sixth form politics and class commentary in Östlund's Triangle of Sadness would almost be tolerable if it didn't bludgeon me over the head with it continuously throughout its lengthy, two hours and twenty-seven minutes run time. The dinner scene was the main highlight from the film.
• Usually get film trivia correct on quiz shows, but I'm dead proud I got none of the French New Wave set of questions right on University Challenge. 
• Adding Hounded to my list of Brit flicks which caters to The Daily Mail's readership. Dumb fun, despite its flaws. Doubt I'll ever bother seeing it again, though.
  
• Michelle Yeoh might be TIME's icon of 2022 , but her Hong Kong action flicks are undisputably better than any of the Hollywood film and TV shite she's been lacing us with over recent years. Loved seeing her kicking arse alongside Cynthia Rothrock in Yes, Madam, even if the slapstick comedy didn't work for me half the time.
  

Gonna tell my grandchildren this was Pepsi & Shirlie back in the day.

Worst Movie Accents: Part 2

The Dead Pool (Welcome to the Jungle scene)

Buddy Van Horn, 1988

As much as I like Liam Neeson, it's fair to say the big Irishman is hardly the best at adopting other accents. I'll never truly pinpoint what exactly his accent is meant to be in the Taken franchise, or whatever identikit movie he's been making ever since.

Big fan of  Peter Swan, Neeson's character from the giallo-esque The Dead Pool (1988), the fifth and final instalment in Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry series of films. Swan is a trashy horror director who thinks of himself as something of a luvvie. After a comical scene where Jim Carrey's punk rocker, Johnny Squares, mimes his way through Guns 'N' Roses' Welcome to the Jungle, Neeson's English accent becomes comically apparent in this scene. His vowel chewing delivers the best line in the entire film, "it's not a rip-off, it's a hummage". No idea what a "hummage" is, but I do know a hilarious homage when I see one. His ridicoulous accent, along with his schlockmeister standards, makes Neeson's Peter Swan a very likeable character.

The Dead Pool might be the weakest entry in the Dirty Harry films, but there's still a lot to love about it: it's blessed with way superior commentary on the film industry than Fellini's insomnia curing 8½ (1963); a Pauline Kael style film critic coming to a grisly end; and of course, a highly entertaining Bullitt (1968) inspired chase sequence with a remote controlled car:

The Dead Pool (Car Chase scene)

Buddy Van Horn, 1988

 

Speaking of dead pools.