Nightmare Industry – Italian Horror Documentary

From the producers of the In Search of Darkness documentaries comes a new one that looks to be just amazing! Nightmare Industry is a new documentary coming out soon that is going to cover the Italian horror film industry. With Phillip Escott and Eugenio Ercolani as the co-directors and producers, I have a great feeling that this is going to be essential viewing. According to Escott, they want to “tell the ultimate story about Italian horror cinema.” He also states that their goal for this project is for fans to learn something, which has my support right there! Escott said “I want them to be entertained. I want them to have fun, because that’s what Italian horror cinema is all about. But I also want them to walk away enlightened. I want them to learn. A lot about what went into making these incredible movies.”

Movie Review: Fulci for Fake

Fulci for Fake
Written and Directed by Simone Scafidi

Starring Fabio Frizzi, Paolo Malco, Sergio Salvati, Michele Soavi, Sandro Bitetto, Enrico Vanzina, Berenice Sparano, Michele Romagnoli, Davide Pulici, and Camilla and Antonella Fulci.

When I first read of this new biography being made on Lucio Fulci, of course, I was skeptical. A lot of biographical films tend to exaggerate things to tell a better story, instead of sticking to the truth. But after watching it, I now realize that it is something completely different. It is like if someone is going to make this biographical film, hires an actor to play Fulci, then the actor decides to go out to talk to the people that knew and worked with him, to give him some insight to this enigmatic man. And they did it brilliantly. So it is really more interviews and stories, interlaced with tons of photos and home movies showing a side of this director that we hadn’t seen before.

Giallo Canvas: Art, Excess and Horror Cinema

Here’s another volume for the library of giallo fans. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas has just released the cover of her newest book, The Giallo Canvas: Art Excess and Horror Cinema, which sounds to be much different look at this popular sub-genre of films. While most books on this sub-genre covers everything from the production and making of, sexual subtexts, and a huge focus on style, this title “explores an overlooked yet prevalent element in some of the best known gialli – an obsession with art and artists in creative production, with a particular focus on painting.” Sounds like a very interesting read, that is for sure. Plus, I love that this is something new to consider about these films, focusing on the art used in these movies. The author will be exploring art that is used by some of the masters of Italian giallo cinema, such as Mario and Lamberto Bava, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino, Umberto Lenzi, and Michele Soavi. 

This will be publised by McFarland, but there is no release date as of yet. Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted.

Sounds of the Season!

I swear, if it’s not all the new books coming out that is trying to get my money, it is the soundtracks! Between the scores I already ordered for titles like The Last Shark, The Witch and The Lighthouse (even before I’ve seen it?!?!?), I came across these two that I had no choice but to order! I mean, how can a lover of Italian horror and classic Universal monsters not have these two in your collection?

The first one is for Michele Soavi’s film La Setta (1991), also known as The Sect, or The Devil’s Daughter, depending on which release you got a hold of. With the score by Pino Donaggio, part of this was released on an earlier version by Cinevox, this release now contains 9 more tracks that have never been released before. It also focuses on Donaggio part of the score, where he even plays violin on it. This release is also limited to 500 copies, so if you’re a fan of this movie and/or the composer, I wouldn’t wait too long. The price is $19.95 and is available through Screen Archives Entertainment.

Book Review: Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1980-1989

Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1980-1989
Published by McFarland, 2019. 232 pages.
By Roberto Curti

Being that this is the 3rd book in the series by Curti involving the gothic horror films of Italy, this latest one, covering the ’80s, it’s sort of a nice little walk down memory lane for me. The ’80s is when I started to become aware of these films. With the boom of VHS tapes, the horror section was filled with these flicks from Italy, promising (and usually delivering) the bloody and gory goods to us eager viewers. So getting to read several pages on some of my favorites, namely the ones from Argento, Bava, Fulci, and Soavi, there is plenty to be learned here.

Not only will you get to read about some of your favorite classic Italian horror flicks like Argento’s Inferno (1980) or Fulci’s City of the Living Dead (1980), The Beyond and House by the Cemetery (both 1981), as well as Claudio Fragasso’s Monster Dog (1985) and Luigi Cozzi’s Paganini Horror (1989), you will get so much insight and information that I bet you’re going to want to re-watch some of these if you haven’t seen them in a while. You’ll learn maybe why Monster Dog turned out like it did, which could make you give it (and Fragasso) a little more credit. Maybe.

Book Review: 150 Movies You Should Die Before You See

150 Movies You Should Die Before You See
Published by Adams Media, 2010. 290 pages.
By Steve Miller

This one had me really confused, especially the title. I first picked it up because I thought it might give me a few ideas for some future Turkey Day viewing. But as I read through it, I became really confused at just what Miller was trying to do here.

Each film has a very short synopsis along with cast and crew listing. Then a paragraph under the Why It Sucks moniker, a ratings of how many Thumbs Down, then a Crappies Award for whatever he didn’t care for.

In his introduction, Miller writes that there is “something magical about bad movies. Something that makes them worth the sometimes considerable effort to sit through.” Now while I really don’t like the term “bad movies” when you’re talking about a film you enjoy watching (same goes with “guilty pleasure”), I’ll let it slide here because that is an discussion for another time. But if you’re talking about movies that you do enjoy watching, then why are you putting them in a book with the title telling people NOT to watch them?

What a Time to be Alive!

Twenty years ago, when us deviant fans of European horror films that were near impossible to find over here in the states, you were lucky as hell when you were able to find a 5th generation copy of Joe D’Amato’s notorious 1980 film Anthropophagous, and even more so if it had the famous fetus eating scene intact. Sounds demented, I know. But when you’re trying to find the a version that was completely uncut, if that scene was in there, you knew you had a big score on your hands.

More Argento & Soavi on Blu-Ray

As if I didn’t love the Music Box Theatre enough already, they have made a deal with Scorpion Releasing to distribute a few of Scorpion’s titles on Blu-ray  and DVD, through their Doppelgänger Releasing division. The first of these titles to be coming out is one of my personal favorites of Dario Argento, his 1987 film Opera, which should be out before the end of this year. With the release of Suspiria from Synapse Films, this is going to make a great way to end the year for Italian horror fans.

Movie Review: Dellamorte Dellamore

Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)
Directed by Michele Soavi
Starring Rupert Everett, Francois Hadji-Lazaro, Anna Falchi, Mickey Knox, Fabiana Formica, Clive Riche, Barbara Cupisti, Anton Alexander

The first time I watched this film, it was from a bootleg VHS tape, several generations down from the original source, in Italian with no sub-titles. I was very familiar with the director, being a huge fan of his first three films, and was very excited to see his latest, even if it meant watching it under these particular circumstances. And it didn’t matter. Soavi’s use of the camera, the look and feel of the film, and giving us something like we hadn’t seen before, even though I might not have understood exactly what was going on, I still loved it. Soon, I would upgrade my copy to another crappy looking tape, but this time in English. Then a great looking one, but back to Italian. Then finally splurging the money and acquiring the actual Japanese laserdisc, which has one of the best covers to date, which you can see to the right.

Not sure why, but when this film was released over here in the states, some moron decided that the original titles would confuse people, so they changed it to Cemetery Man. Nice job, dumbass.