La polizia chiede aiuto (What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) (1974)

La polizia chiede aiuto (1974), directed by Massimo Dallamano, is better known to English-speaking audiences as What Have They Done to Your Daughters? This film follows Dallamano's previous What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) and along with the latter film, La polizia chiede aiuto is often referenced as the second film in a trilogy, the "Schoolgirls in Peril" films, that conclude with Enigma rosso (Red Rings of Fear) (1978). Fans of Italian genre cinema and the genre's traditional critics often enthusiastically debate as to what label to ascribe to La polizia chiede aiuto: is the film "i poliziotteschi minori," as authors Federico Patrizi and Emanuele Cotumaccio relate? (1) or is the film the only other financially successful giallo to be released after 1972 (along with Profondo rosso (1975)), as authors Daniel Dellamorte and Tobias Petterson relate? (2) La polizia chiede aiuto begins and ends with onscreen text, relating to the problems of missing teens in Italy: this is a film which wants to inform its audience and be socially relevant to its culture and at the same time, the movie also wants to be compelling and entertaining and not exploitative. Is the film successful?
Inspector Valentini (Mario Adorf) discovers in an attic loft the body of a fifteen-year-old girl, named Silvia Polvesi (Sherry Buchanan), an apparent victim of suicide. An autopsy is performed. Its results conclude that Silvia's injuries do not match her cause of death (hanging), and evidence was found in her body that she had sex shortly before her death. The police now label the case a homicide. Assistant District Attorney Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli) oversees the case while Inspector Silvestri (Claudio Cassinelli) heads the investigation. Their prime suspect is Silvia's mysterious lover, and through a series of leads, the police discover that Silvia was part of a prostitution racket involving girls her own age...
Little fault can be allocated to the script of La polizia chiede aiuto, penned by Dallamano and Ettore Sanzò. It's a script guided by logic and strictly adheres to the cinematic concept of a police procedural. Stori and Silvestri appear as credible and intelligent and are competent with deductive reasoning. Plot construction is not a problem: there's more than enough material to move the mystery swiftly along. What La polizia chiede aiuto is sorely lacking, and its absence is to the film's serious detriment, is characterization. This is surprising, given the adept casting of the leads. Claudio Cassinelli is perhaps the most underrated actor in Italian genre cinema. In my opinion, he is just as handsome as Franco Nero or Fabio Testi, for example, but is much more talented. Cassinelli is one of the few actors that can appear as impulsive and obsessive and sensitive in the same role (see Morte sospetta di una minorenne (1975)) or as brooding, intense, and violent (see
Diamanti sporchi di sangue (1977)). Beautiful Giovanna Ralli has an incredible vulnerability surrounding her character in the film and she's quite adept at channeling that vulnerability for the entire picture. Mario Adorf's character appears briefly in the film but Adorf's character benefits from having an emotional background, whereas Stori and Silvestri's characters conspicuously have no background whatsoever. Adorf's character has a daughter the same age as the initial victim in the film (which later becomes a big plot point). In a representative scene, Assistant District Attorney Stori meets Silvestri in an elevator after a particularly grueling bout of reviewing gruesome evidence. Stori has also become the target of the killer who is acting in an effort to stop the police investigation. Silvestri reaches out to Stori for a tender moment, and she curtly rebuffs him. That's it. There's almost no characterization to La polizia chiede aiuto.
In my opinion, the almost total absence of any characterization makes La polizia chiede aiuto definitely a minor film, worth revisiting once in a blue moon. There is, however, much to praise within the film. Of particular note are the film's visuals. Franco Delli Colli handsomely lensed La polizia chiede aiuto and Dallamano is also a seasoned and respected cinematographer. It is unsurprising, then, that the film looks so slick, especially the giallo and the poliziottesco sequences. The killer of the film dons a complete black leather outfit, replete with motorcycle helmet to mask his identity. He carries a large butcher's cleaver as his weapon. In a signature giallo sequence, he stalks the dark halls of a hospital in order to attack an injured witness housed there. The killer is discovered by the police, and they give chase in the hallways. One officer rounds the corner, and the killer chops off his hand with plenty of blood spray. The lighting, combined with a judicious use of the killer’s point of view, make this sequence classic gialli, and it rivals the best scenes in the genre. This scene is quickly followed by an exciting motorcycle/car chase (as one appears in every poliziottesco film): the editing is quick and meticulous and the pacing is furious. Overall, La polizia chiede aiuto is a fantastic film to watch, and it has enough signature elements to satisfy both giallo and poliziottesco fans. Not to forget to mention, Stelvio Cipriani composes another amazing score.
Ultimately, La polizia chiede aiuto (What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) (1974) feels too clean, cosmetic, and compartmentalized for me to truly enjoy it. This, however, says more about my artistic taste than serving as an accurate criticism of the film. La polizia chiede aiuto needed to loosen up at some point, have its characters embrace each other or tell another a joke. The film needed some distraction to shake up the proceedings. La polizia chiede aiuto has a mechanical and meticulous story, well-rendered in a sumptuous visual package. If you are a fan of the genre, then this one will find its way to you.
1. Italia calibro 9. Patrizi, Federico and Cotumaccio, Emanuele. Profondo Rosso. Rome: 2001. p. 174.
2. Violent Italy. Dellamorte, Daniel and Petterson, Tobias. Tamara Press. Malmo: 2002. p. 39.

Pronto ad uccidere (Risking) (1976)

Pronto ad uccidere (Risking) (1976) has a simple yet confusing narrative. The director, Franco Prosperi, and the four screenwriters, Peter Berling, Antonio Cucca, Claudio Fragasso, and Alberto Marras may be praised for creating a story which cleverly "blurs the lines" with their characters' motivations or may be chastised for being somewhat lazy with their characterizations. In between the clever or lazy bits, Risking is a standard police thriller with a few standout sequences.
Ray Lovelock is Massimo Torlani who lives with his disabled mother. One morning, after coffee, he kisses her on the cheek goodbye. With ski mask and machine pistol in his possession, Massimo attempts a daylight jewelry store heist and fucks it up very badly. Within seconds, his heist fails and the police arrive. Massimo takes a hostage and attempts to flee the scene but is subdued by the police's karate master. Now in a Roman jail, Massimo meets Giulianelli (Martin Balsam), a respected crime boss doing hard time and running the prison. Massimo earns his respect by beating down Bavoso in the yard. Not long after his arrival, Massimo is visited in jail by his "attorney," who actually turns out to be Commissioner Sacchi (Riccardo Cucciolla). Lovelock's character is a cop, and it seems getting Massimo into the prison was a ruse. Sacchi works to get Giulianelli and Massimo into the same cell, and Massimo earns his trust. They bust out, and now Massimo must stop Giulianelli and his drug ring...
Or get revenge. Massimo’s mother was put in a wheelchair by a shotgun blast to her back from a gun wielded by one of the syndicate’s henchmen. Commissioner Sacchi wants Massimo to keep focus and not let his anger hamper his investigation.
The events of the first act of Risking are cast in a new complexion after the first dialogue between Sacchi and Massimo. I especially wondered why Massimo didn’t see the police karate master coming during the botched heist. This is one of the big “twists” within Risking, and this type of narrative and character trickery is common throughout. Martin Balsam as Giulianelli is so cool during every scene, even when he takes a bullet from a rival gangster, that I often wondered if Giulianelli knew who Massimo really was and was manipulating his character for his own ends. The ending of the film supports this thesis. When Elke Sommer appears in Risking as the secretary for drug supplier, Perrone (Ettore Manni), she immediately captures both Lovelock’s character and the viewer’s attention. She flirts with Massimo only to rebuff him. Within hours later, Sommer’s character is in Massimo’s hotel room, ready for some loving. Massimo finds a pistol in her purse. Who is she really? I don’t know. What’s going on?

I like being effectively manipulated while watching cinema. However, when narrative and character twists become common, not only do they become predictable, they become distracting. I’m not the type of viewer who demands supreme closure and absolute resolution to any film’s narrative or their character arcs. I’m pretty cool with keeping things loose, but Risking feels way too contrived and poorly-constructed at the same time. It’s as if Prosperi and company had good ideas and filmed those good ideas as scenes, but when some sort of transitional scene or some revelational moment came in Risking, Prosperi and company became lazy and made some ridiculous shit up to move the film along. Risking ends with myriad loose ends, and those loose ends were never tied to anything firmly-rooted.
This is a pity, because despite its flaws and standard construction, Risking has some fantastic sequences. I love the prison yard brawl between hulking Bavoso and Lovelock. Lovelock’s character mimics a matador as he beats down Bavoso who is wearing an appropriate red muscle shirt complete with hairy back and arms. In the third act of Risking, there is a truck hijacking-cum-chase sequence which sees Lovelock’s character take many a dangerous tumble (mostly on motorcycle). Like most 1970s cinema, the stunts all appear genuine and dangerous, and some of those stunts during the truck sequence were exhilarating for me to watch yet potentially fatal for its participants. Risking has brutal and graphic and sadistic shootouts and ridiculous and unintentionally hilarious sequences. For example, Massimo and one of his criminal associates are walking down the street. A uniformed police officer recognizes Massimo and yells “Hello!” Lovelock has to give the officer a quick and brutal punch to the face to maintain his cover. It’s a brutal scene but it also induces a chuckle. Elke Sommer receives little screen time in Risking but is radiant, enigmatic, and charismatic in her role. She and Lovelock have fantastic chemistry in few scenes, and perhaps in retrospect, Risking should have been built around them. Oh, well. Martin Balsam is one of the best American actors and gives another excellent performance as Giulianelli. Balsam and Sommer certainly elevate Risking from complete obscurity. Lovelock is so good-looking and so cool that his enthusiastic fans should seek this one out.
Pronto ad uccidere (Risking) is flawed to the point where the flaws are distracting, making subsequent viewings definitely optional. This flick is for fans of Italian genre cinema and its rousing crime cinema.

Demonia (1990)

Demonia (1990) is about Liza (Meg Register), an archaeologist and protégé to Professor Paul Evans (Brett Halsey). Despite her mentor's discouragement, Liza has a real fascination with the occult and the supernatural. In her hometown of Toronto, Liza attends a séance and has a powerful vision of young women her age being murdered. She collapses and awakens to find Professor Evans at her bedside. Evans tells Liza that she is accompanying him to Sicily to study the Ancient Greek influence at the base of a local village. Upon arrival, Liza, however, seems drawn to a monastery atop a hill, long abandoned and shunned by the villagers since the Middle Ages. The building once housed a convent of nuns who died under mysterious circumstances, and perhaps they are calling out to Liza, today.
Piero Regnoli co-scripted Demonia with director Lucio Fulci in one of his last credits. The plot of Demonia is the typical tale of small town fear and loathing towards outsiders. The small Sicilian village at whose base the archaeological team has begun a dig fears the archaeologists uncovering their secret: nearly five hundred years ago, the young nuns who lived in the monastery atop the hill were massacred by the local villagers. Why? The young nuns were fond of having orgies with men; murdering them during orgasm; and then drinking their blood. They also committed quite a few other blasphemous and heinous deeds. Hence, the local village lynch mob and vigilante murder. Interestingly, the villagers actually kill the nuns by crucifying them. "I really prefere [sic] the crucifixions," says Fulci, in regards to the special effects of Demonia, "I like them alot." (1)

The small-town tale of fear and loathing within Demonia becomes, thematically, a story of oppression and rebellion. This aspect is mirrored by the main relationship of Demonia between Paul and Liza. To say that Paul is controlling and that Liza is submissive is an understatement. Paul dominates Liza. It’s one thing to control someone’s physical behavior by controlling him/her through his/her actions. It’s another thing to tell someone what to think. Throughout Demonia, Paul continually tells Liza to avoid the monastery and focus on the Ancient Greek influence of the project. It’s not an admonition to Liza in a horror-movie sense: Halsey’s character is telling Liza to stop focusing on superstitions and the occult, because he thinks it‘s stupid. Paul is so controlling and insecure, as Demonia progresses, his character appears more and more pathetic. In acts of quiet rebellion, like exploring the monastery in the middle of the night and researching its history at the city’s archives, Liza never confronts Paul.

The setting, the convent/crypt of the once evil nuns, combined with the central relationship, the dysfunctional/sick relationship between Paul and Liza, equals a ripe opportunity for Liza to become a candidate for demonic possession. With Liza’s body as a conduit, one of the evil nuns will be able to exact revenge on the villagers and continue to do evil shit by killing members of the archaeological team. There are also plenty of opportunities for brutal, Fulcian gore, like a man being quartered, a woman having her eyes removed by kitty cats, and the aforementioned crucifixions.

The structural problems of the script of Demonia, however, are glaring. Meg Register, as Liza, drives the drama as the main character, but once she becomes a victim of the evil, the plot of Demonia takes focus off of her character. Lucio Fulci, as the chief police inspector, then enters the film to drive the narrative. With all due respect to the Maestro, Fulci’s performance is fine but his role is boringly perfunctory. It doesn’t help either that the small town fear and loathing is personified by one character, the village butcher, played by Lino Salemme, a popular genre actor of the period (especially in Dèmoni (1985) and Dèmoni 2 (1986)). Like Fulci, Salemme gives a good performance, yet his character has such a burden and just a little more variety would have helped. Brett Halsey is a real addition to Demonia. He’s a legendary actor in Italian genre cinema, and his charisma is undeniable. However, like the other performances, Halsey’s character is very rigid and limited. At a later point in the film, Paul is a suspect in the rash of murders around the village and the archaeological dig. It is difficult to feel any empathy for him, as he is such a controlling jerk for the majority of the film. Watching Paul squirm a little bit under police interrogation is actually kind of refreshing. Nonetheless, Meg Register, as Liza, is very compelling as the lead in Demonia. It’s very entertaining to watch her indulge her obsessions, like a late-night visit to the monastery. Register is really beautiful and she gives a very good performance and stands out.

Demonia contains the strong elements that have made other Fulci film classics, like Zombi 2 (1979), Paura nella città dei morti viventi (1980), and L'aldilà (1981), for example: very strong atmospheric sequences punctuated loudly by brutal (and often sadistic) gore sequences. The beautiful Sicilian scenery, especially the monastery, is authentic. Steve Fentone, author of AntiCristo: The Bible of Nasty Nun Sinema & Culture, writes:

“Demonia was filmed on authentic sites at Monte Castello, the isle of Sicily (in the thick of Mafia country). When we interviewed the star in 1995, Halsey remembered the chief location was a genuinely spooky ancient monastery whose basement actually contained the mummified cadavers of human beings. Fulci and crew were given permission to shoot there by the caretaker, a Roman Catholic clergyman; who evidently never suspected that the script included naked killer nuns.” (2)

Despite the fact that there are few sequences within the monastery, all of them are memorable within Demonia. These sequences carry the film, in my opinion. While the gore sequences are competent and certainly effective, none are as memorable as Fulci’s atmospheric sequences. In the truest sense, Demonia shows Fulci’s growth as an artist: he was always able to create more unique, different, or equally intense atmospheric sequences with every subsequent film. In terms of the visceral in Fulci’s cinema, the films waver wildly in content. Fulci’s cinema set the bar high with films like Zombi 2, for example, with its slow-motion eyeball sequence, and I believe that it would be difficult for any filmmaker to top that work. Fulci’s later work that relied more heavily on atmosphere, like Aenigma (1987), for example, appears more personal and interesting than the later gore-heavy work. Demonia is a good and very entertaining late Fulci work. Unfortunately, the characters are drawn too flat and are too limited from making the film a richer and more whole piece. Definitely ripe for a revisit for fans of Lucio Fulci or demonic cinema.

1. “Beyond the Thoughts of Lucio Fulci: A Conversation with the Man Behind such Legendary Movies as ‘The Beyond,’ ‘New York Ripper’ and ‘Gates of Hell.’” Trauma # #2. Edited by Kristian P. Mølgaard. Karpedam 4b, 1.th. DK-6200 Aabenraa. Year unknown (presumable mid-1990s). p. 13.

2. AntiCristo: The Bible of Nasty Nun Sinema & Culture. Fentone, Steve. FAB Press. Surrey, England, U.K. 2000. p. 75.

Zombi 3 (1988)

Almost all of the literature that I have read about Zombi 3 (1988) revolves around blame. In a cool featurette included as a supplement on the Media Blasters/Shriek Show DVD of Demonia (1990), entitled "Fulci Lives," a fan was able to capture Lucio Fulci directing a scene from Demonia and was even able to ask him some questions. Fulci responds to a question by answering "Zombi 3 is not my film." (1) Despite this admonition, Lucio Fulci is the credited director of Zombi 3, the sequel to one of his most famous films, Zombi 2 (1979). “Lucio Fulci wasn’t in good health so when we saw the first cut of the film, it was much too short, therefore I shot two weeks of material to fatten it up,” says director Bruno Mattei. “There’s a little in it by Fulci and a little by me.” (2) Lucio Fulci would add in a later interview: “That’s a movie that I made for money, not pleasure. After the film was half-finished, the producers gave the direction over to Bruno Mattei who didn’t create a masterpiece, to say the least. Although the audience applauded when my name appeared on the credits, I am ashamed of the movie. Later on, the audience started throwing crap at the screens!” (3) Finally, Bruno Mattei relates, “Zombie 3 had a bad screenplay and I didn’t want to make it but it was made to cash in on the name of Fulci and because Zombie 2 was successful. Zombie 3 is not a good movie.” (4)
I enjoy Zombi 3 immensely. However, it’s a notorious film: in addition to the two directors of Zombi 3, most real fans of Italian genre cinema tremendously dislike the film, especially fans of horror. One has to bear in mind that Zombi 3 is a Flora film production: producer Franco Gaudenzi, screenwriter Claudio Fragasso, cinematographer Riccardo Grassetti, and director Bruno Mattei are representative members of this production company. The films that this company were making at the time (like Zombi 3 primarily in the Philippines) were action films, like Strike Commando 2 (1988) and Born to Fight (1989). It’s unsurprising that Zombi 3 appears like a film more of this class. Two of the leads of Zombi 3, Ottaviano Dell'Acqua and Massimo Vanni, for example, are also seasoned stuntmen. Zombi 3 has more machine-gun action and shit blowing up than slow zombie shuffling. Despite the film’s notoriety, I am here today to celebrate Zombi 3 and not to bury it.
With two directors, Zombi 3 is unsurprisingly a fragmented film with some very strong episodes. In perhaps the most famous sequence of the film, Bo, a soldier played by Vanni, and Marina Loi, who plays Carol, trek off together to find a doctor for one of the injured in their party. They traverse the quiet streets in their jeep until it breaks down. Vanni’s Bo suggests that the jeep’s radiator needs water and Carol volunteers to find some. She enters what appears to be a resort area onto a second-floor balcony, overlooking a lagoon. She ominously calls out, “Is anybody there?” Carol is pushed into the lagoon and Bo hears her scream. He attempts to rescue her, and this rousing episode becomes an action-packed survival-horror sequence. Bo uses his military combat skills to thwart the oncoming zombies who are amazingly animated and energetic. Visually this sequence is remarkable. A crane shot (in two cuts, not one fluid take) slowly pans from Carol at the top of the balcony down to the lagoon, showing the vast area and the quiet dread surrounding it. Theatrical green lighting filters out of an alcove at the base of the lagoon while the lagoon itself bubbles like a cauldron. The set looks like a Halloween haunted house attraction and when the first zombie appears, he looks like his makeup is homemade and caked on by himself. It’s a beautifully artificial sequence, like most effective Mattei cinema, and it’s also hauntingly atmospheric, like the best Fulci cinema.
In another effective Romero-esque sequence, a group of soldiers, donning hazmat suits and machine guns, patrol the infected zone. The audio is the voice of radio D.J. “Blue Heart” who gives a summation of the events so far and introduces another who relates rescue station information. With some haphazard and off-kilter compositions, zombies jump upon the soldiers and engage in battle. In a nasty sequence, a soldier and a zombie get into quite a tussle before the soldier ends the fight with a harsh blow to the chest with a knife. The famous siege sequence in the final act of Zombi 2 at the church-cum-hospital receives a memorial reference in Zombi 3 at a resort hotel-cum-survivor camp. The effective Fulci composition of the group of zombies dismantling an entire wall signals the near-end of the group of survivors. (I admit this sequence is much more effective with Frizzi’s score accompanying the visuals.) The final act of Zombi 3 sees its survivors mobile, moving from location to location and fending off zombies, as opposed to the final act of the previous film. Finally, Beatrice Ring appears in two fantastic sequences. During one in a gas station where she fights a small group of the undead and blows up the station by igniting the pump. The second Ring sequence is a classic Fulci setup on a bridge where Ring, who plays Patricia, attempts to cross with her boyfriend and Vanni’s character in tow. Patricia loses control of her car (for an unintentionally hilarious reason) and is forced to exit the bridge by foot. She seriously injures her leg while escaping the vehicle. The zombies surround both sides of the bridge. The key visual touch is the back light on the zombies: despite the low-budget nature of Zombi 3, both veteran directors were able to create effective sequences.
The script of Zombi 3 is poorly paced and constructed. Fulci admits in an interview that Claudio Fragasso would “show up every morning with a new script. Every morning, I mean it.” (5) The first twenty minutes of the film is an expository sequence, detailing a biological weapon entitled “Death One” whose scientists believe is too unstable and should be contained. A sample is stolen by a criminal, and the sample breaks and infects its thief. Before you ask, no, this act does not begin the zombie outbreak. Another sequence follows where the soldiers subdue the thief and take his corpse. The military burns his corpse and the ashes enter into the air. The ashes affect the local ecosystem and BAM! zombie outbreak. This sequence definitely feels like filler. The famous sequence involving Marina Loi should have kicked off the action of the first act (presumably in Fulci’s initial version) but the sequence appears almost halfway through the film. The plot construction is forgivable, considering its patchwork final version. Unfortunately, it is the poor plot and pacing which will deter most viewers from taking a second chance on Zombi 3. However only real cult film fans will ever see Zombi 3, if I had to speculate.
This period of Italian genre cinema, the late-eighties to early nineties, is one of my favorites. It’s the last gasp of the cinema that I love and there is a wonderfully desperate quality to the cinema that I cannot define. Zombi 3 is almost representative of this period and with an open mind, it can be, if not sublime, at least quite fun.
1. Demonia. DVD. Media Blasters/Shriek Show. Region 1. 2001.
2. “An Interview with Bruno Mattei.” Conducted by Andrea Giorgi, Matteo Palmieri, and Andrea Daz. Translation by Max Della Mora and Adrian Smith. European Trash Cinema. Vol. 2, No. 5. Edited by Craig Ledbetter. Kingwood, TX. 1992. P. 10.
3. “The Lucio Fulci Interview.” Conducted by Loris Curci and Antonio Tentori. European Trash Cinema. Vol. 2, No. 4. Edited by Craig Ledbetter. Kingwood, TX. 1991. P. 7.
4. “An Interview with Bruno Mattei.” Conducted by Andrea Giorgi, Matteo Palmieri, and Andrea Daz. Translation by Max Della Mora and Adrian Smith. European Trash Cinema. Vol. 2, No. 5. Edited by Craig Ledbetter. Kingwood, TX. 1992. P. 11.
5. “Lucio Fulci.” Shock Masters of Cinema. Edited by Loris Curci. Fantasma Books. Key West, FL. 1996. P. 72.

Primal Rage (Rage, furia primitiva) (1988)

Primal Rage (Rage, furia primitiva) (1988) is one of two "Harry Kirkpatrick" films, shot in Florida. Harry Kirkpatrick is a pseudonym for Umberto Lenzi and he is credited with the screenplay for Primal Rage. Its director is Vittorio Rambaldi who is, according to the IMdB, the son of Carlo Rambaldi. Carlo and Alex Rambaldi are credited with the special and visual effects within Primal Rage. The companion film to Primal Rage is Welcome to Spring Break (Nightmare Beach - la spiaggia del terrore) (1989). Welcome to Spring Break is directed by Lenzi who co-scripted the film with Vittorio Rambaldi. Vittorio and Alex Rambaldi contributed to the special effects on Welcome to Spring Break. Both Florida productions were scored by Claudio Simonetti and photographed by Antonio Climati. Many of the performers of the two productions, like Sarah Buxton, appear in both. Now let us dispense with this mechanical and fact-riddled paragraph and break to hear from Florida’s greatest bard:

Donna, donna, dark,
Stooping in indigo gown
And cloudy constellations,
Conceal yourself or disclose
Fewest things to the lover--
A hand that bears a thick-leaved fruit,
A pungent bloom against your shade. (*)

Primal Rage is set in a Florida university. Student journalist Sam (Patrick Lowe) zips around campus on his red scooter while snapping photos of the excited student population. Beautiful student, Lauren (Cheryl Arutt) is about to have her vehicle towed away, but Sam is able to step in and be her “white knight.” Lauren returns to her dormitory room to discover pretty Debbie (Sarah Buxton), her new roommate. Debbie had to miss much of the semester, because of a medical condition. Sam returns to the campus newspaper office and engages in witty banter with colleague, Duffy (Mitch Watson). Duffy encourages Sam to investigate the experiments of university professor, Dr. Ethridge (Bo Svenson) and his top-secret scientific work. Duffy says that Sam should break into his laboratory to get the big scoop, but Sam plays by the rules and says no. Duffy borrows Sam’s camera and infiltrates Dr. Ethridge’s lab. Once inside, Duffy encounters an extremely angry monkey in a cage. It breaks out of the cage, whips Duffy’s ass a little bit, and bites his arm. Wonder if the animal carries anything infectious? Duffy is curious, too.

Primal Rage is notorious for having the congenial or innocuous tone and visual style of an American made-for-television film combined with some particularly nasty scenes of violence. The film is the very opposite of the cartoon-ish gore flicks made during the same period such as Re-Animator, Street Trash, and Bad Taste. The lack of irony not only adds to the camp value of Primal Rage but it also kind of makes you cringe a little bit in a sickening way. The following paragraph is an example and it contains SPOILERS:

Do you remember the costume party that Daniel (Ralph Macchio) attends in the original Karate Kid (1984)? Daniel opts for a humorous costume (a shower, complete with curtain and nozzle), while his nemeses, the Cobra Kai, don those iconic skeleton costumes (which make them look kind of sinister). As a result of the ingenuity of his costume, Daniel gets to cuddle and dance with his sweetheart, Ali (Elisabeth Shue), without being harassed by the Cobra Kai. Daniel, using stealth (again, as the result of his costume), plays a few pranks on the Cobra Kai. Daniel gets beaten by them pretty badly as a result. Pat Morita, of course, saves Daniel and the world becomes a better place. This whole dance sequence is sweet and overall, very heartwarming.

To contrast, Primal Rage also ends with a costume party, complete with live band in attendance. Previously in the film, Sam and Lauren and Debbie and Duffy, while on a double date, get harassed by three aggressive and belligerent students. These three students are revealed, later in the film, as psychopaths and rapists. They become infected by the titular “rage virus.” One could imagine that the “rage virus” enhances rather than retards their psychopathic behavior. However, the virus does not stop the trio from donning their skeleton costumes and attending the party. When they arrive at the party, they begin killing people by ripping out their throats and beating them to death. They are also doing this quite gleefully. The visual style and tone of this sequence, like almost all of Primal Rage, is completely detached, and this sequence, again like the whole film, is impressive in its stomach-turning quality. END SPOILERS.

Welcome to Spring Break (Nightmare Beach - la spiaggia del terrore) (1989) benefits from the performance of two of its veteran actors, John Saxon and Michael Parks. Bo Svenson lends his veteran talent to Primal Rage, but unfortunately his talent is under-utilized. He appears to be cast to capitalize upon his name recognition. Svenson is an imposing figure physically and in my opinion, he is the action hero to most likely gently squeeze the life out of an opponent. Playing the bookish, self-serving professor does not really mesh with Svenson’s performance. Like Lowe, Arutt, and Watson, Svenson gives a competent and satisfactory performance. Very attractive Sarah Buxton gives the best performance as Debbie. Not only does her character have to endure most of the terrible shit in the movie, she also has to provide the emotional core of the film. As a reward for this focal performance, Debbie is given the most unintentionally hilarious and worse dialogue. Buxton is fantastic and gives an even better performance in Welcome to Spring Break.

Incidental note: Welcome to Spring Break also includes a party with a live band and the same song is performed in both films: "Say the Word" by Kirsten. I have no idea whether its the same band in the two films, but the song is absolute brilliance. It also plays over the opening credit sequence of Primal Rage. Speaking of music, there is a really, really offensive scene within Primal Rage that reuses a metal song from Dario Argento’s Opera (1987). That being said, Simonetti’s score doesn’t really stand out. Considering that three of the Rambaldi family worked on Primal Rage, the gore effects, despite the low budget, are quite credible and nasty.

I have quite the fondness for Florida. I grew up on the Gulf Coast, so when I see the characters walking outside, I can smell the sea air and feel the breeze. I also have a nostalgia for this period of cinema and a serious weakness for Italian genre cinema. These biases considerably enhance my enjoyment of Primal Rage. Bear that in mind. As a final note, I own two DVD editions of Primal Rage: an Italian release by Millennium Storm and an American release by label Code Red. If you want a technical comparison of each DVD, then I would refer you to another site. I only mention the two discs, because the Italian disc seems to be missing quite a bit of the gore that is present in the Code Red DVD.

* “O Florida, Venereal Soil,” by Wallace Stevens. The Collected Poems by Wallace Stevens. Random House, New York, NY. Vintage Books Edition, 1990.

Paura nella città dei morti viventi (City of the Living Dead) (1980)

The village of Dunwich houses a gate to hell in Lucio Fulci's Paura nella città dei morti viventi (City of the Living Dead) (1980). This is not surprising. Most of us have known this for a while:

"In 1747 the Reverend Abijah Hoadley, newly come to the Congregational Church at Dunwich Village, preached a memorable sermon on the close presence of Satan and his imps; in which he said:

'It must be allow'd, that these Blasphemies of an infernall Train of Daemons are Matters of too common Knowledge to be deny'd; the cursed voices of Azazel and Buzrael, of Beelzebub and Belial, being heard now from under Ground by above a Score of credible Witnesses now living. I my self did not more than a Fortnight ago catch a very plain Discourse of evill Powers in the Hill behind my House; wherein there were a Rattling and Rolling, Groaning, Screeching, and Hissing, such as no Things of this Earth cou'd raise up, and which must needs have come from those Caves that only black Magick can discover, and only the Divell unlock.'

"Mr. Hoadley disappeared soon after delivering this sermon; but the text, printed in Springfield, is still extant." (1)
As a traditional narrative, Paura nella città dei morti viventi fails. My chief complaint towards the plot is the complete lack of desperation and fear driving the main characters. Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl) and Peter Bell (Christopher George) are attempting to find the village of Dunwich before All Saint's Day. At midnight at this appointed time, shit will go from bad to worse, and the gate of hell will open unto the city of dead. In my opinion, the opening of the gate of hell is a strong motivation to get one's ass into gear. In an endearing sequence yet one that completely undermines the story, Peter, in a fit of frustration, pulls his road map and attempts to find a navigable road to Dunwich. Mary exits the vehicle and flirtatiously asks Peter to take a break and go for a meal. MacColl has a beautiful smile and most could not resist her charms (including me). Peter, with a beaming smile on his face, succumbs to Mary’s wishes, and the two wisp off to the local town to get a meal (and some information).

In a dramatic sense, this scene is designed to show these two characters growing together and, maybe, growing closer romantically. Earlier in the film, Peter nearly crushed poor Mary’s head with a pickaxe. Why? Mary is a medium, and during a séance, she witnessed in a vision the suicide of a priest in the village of Dunwich. The subsequent evil which would come with this priest’s death was also made available to Mary during her vision. This vision was so powerful that it knocked Mary into a death-like trance, so convincing that she was pronounced dead and was half-buried in a coffin in a cemetery. In a gasping fit for air, Mary screamed from her coffin where only Peter was in earshot to hear her. He pulled a pickaxe and drove it as hard as he could into the coffin, several times, specifically in the region where her head laid. He almost kills her but rescues her. Now Mary wants a snack. This is understandable.

Dardano Sacchetti admits that he and Lucio Fulci were unable to work for a year after the phenomenal success of Zombi 2. (2) He writes that, “Well, Fulci, in the long run, managed to persuade the Medusa people to finance Paura nella città dei morti viventi, which I consider one of our least successful films in as much as it was thought out and shot in an atmosphere of sheer desperation.” (3) Catriona MacColl states that, “I spent a lot of time in Italy which I adore. City was done in the spring. I think that we were in the States in April or May. We would do two or three weeks in Georgia, or Boston or New Orleans, and then about six weeks in Rome. Fulci wasn’t actually present at the dubbing, he had a dubbing director take care of it. On City he was still shooting when we dubbed it.” (4) Fulci began shooting Black Cat (Gatto Nero) on the day Paura nella città dei morti viventi premiered in Roman cinemas. (5) From the little information that I was able to gather in regards to this film, it would appear that Paura nella città dei morti viventi was a hurried production. With this information in mind, many of these flaws are forgivable, and for the forgiving viewer, Paura nella città dei morti viventi is an entertaining Italian horror film.

Like L'aldilà (1981), the best Lucio Fulci cinema are works of haphazard beauty, full of contradictions. Paura nella città dei morti viventi is no exception. The opening low-key sequence in the cemetery where the priest enters to commit suicide is an effective atmospheric set piece. (Sergio Salvati’s photography is always beautiful, but his work is in top form in Paura.) One of the most famous sequences of the film, where a young woman regurgitates her innards, is preceded by one of Fulci’s most affecting images: the young woman whose eyes bleed like tears. This image conjures many themes, mostly religious, yet this image even without a context, is extremely beautiful.

Despite the weak narrative of Paura, the film has some brilliant episodes. For example, Janet Agren plays Sandra, a patient of local Dunwich therapist, Gerry (Carlo De Mejo). She’s alone at home one evening and painting. She hears a strange noise and goes to investigate. Sandra calls Gerry, because she doesn’t know if she’s gone crazy after what she has seen. Gerry arrives and goes to look in her kitchen where the dead body lays of a woman who died days previously. How did her corpse get into Sandra’s kitchen? Who knows? This scene is also reminiscent of a famous scene in Stephen King’s 1975 novel, 'Salem's Lot, where Matthew Burke invites Benjamin Mears over to his house to witness the corpse of Mike Ryerson. It’s one of those fantastic sequences where totally rational people are forced to deal with the completely irrational. They’re not used to it, and it’s both kind of creepy and amusing to watch them squirm.

Fulci certainly doesn’t mind putting his gore on display nor his sadism (the drill scene suffices in this respect). I cannot think of another film which has such a striking balance of the visceral and the atmospheric ethereal. And Catriona MacColl was a real jewel who elevated Fulci’s cinema mightily. Paura nella città dei morti viventi, like L'aldilà, is an extremely important film in Italian horror cinema.

Sources:

1. “The Dunwich Horror.” H.P. Lovecraft. The Best of H.P. Lovecraft Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre. Del Rey Ballantine Books. New York: 1982. p. 100.
2. Spaghetti Nightmares. Edited by Luca M. Palmerini and Gaetano Mistretta. Fantasma Books. Key West, Florida: 1996. p. 124.
3. Spaghetti Nightmares. Edited by Luca M. Palmerini and Gaetano Mistretta. Fantasma Books. Key West, Florida: 1996. p. 124.
4. Beyond Terror The Films of Lucio Fulci. Stephen Thrower. FAB Press. Surrey, England, U.K: 1999. p. 160.
5. Beyond Terror The Films of Lucio Fulci. Stephen Thrower. FAB Press. Surrey, England, U.K: 1999. p. 160.

Dèmoni 2 (Demons 2) (1986)

One of the reasons that I immensely love the two Dario Argento-produced and Lamberto Bava-directed Demons films is their narrative simplicity. Make no mistake these films are about demons, and they are coming to get you.

About Dèmoni 2 (Demons 2) (1986) Luigi Cozzi writes, "This time, just like in Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist and Cronenberg's Videodrome, horror comes out of tv sets, a brilliant idea and a poignant metaphor of all the monsters that populate the screen. What Bava's film states is that they all come from our unconscious, and feed through our very eyes: they are born with our complicity and keep growing thanks to our pleasure in consuming what most disturbs and frightens us. That's why they are invincible: they're part of ourselves." (from Giallo Argento, by Luigi Cozzi, Profondo Rosso, Rome, Italy, 2001: pp. 153-154.)
Let’s start the show.

Sally (Coralina Cataldi Tassoni) is having a party for her birthday. She lives in a high-rise apartment building in Hamburg. Her neighbors are George (David Knight) and his expectant wife, Hannah (Nancy Brilli). On the first floor of the building, Hank (Bobby Rhodes) encourages the gym patrons as they furiously pump iron. The rest of the residents of the apartment building settle in to watch what is perhaps the greatest show to ever be broadcast on television. This show, within Dèmoni 2, is so amazing that it deserves its own paragraph and summary.

The culture-at-large within Dèmoni 2 clearly recognizes the outbreak scenario and the events that transpired in Berlin in the first Demons film. The show being broadcast on television to the Hamburg high-rise residents is a docudrama which takes as its thesis, “Would we be prepared if another demon outbreak occurred?” Love it. The dramatization involves four young adults who, like Stalkers, enter a quarantined and forbidden Zone, walled-off from the general population. These young adults are searching for artifacts and proof relating to the existence of demons. (Is this not the coolest shit, ever?) They find a demon corpse, and as all good young people are capable of doing in a horror film, they accidentally resurrect the demon. The resurrected demon kills the young four within the program.
Sally decides to cry during her birthday party and retreats to her bedroom. She watches the demon docudrama on television while the rest of the partygoers continue in the living room. Once the demon within the program kills the final young protagonist, it turns towards the screen and exits the television set to attack and possess poor Sally. It’s time for her to blow out the candles and cut the cake.
Gianlorenzo Battaglia lensed Dèmoni 2 as he did for Dèmoni (1985). As for the latter film, Battaglia employed theatrical lighting to accompany the movie-theatre setting of the film. For Dèmoni 2, Battaglia uses a similar technique: mimicking the light from a snowy television screen, the color scheme is grey and shadows. In a signature scene, involving Hannah and her diminutive demon attacker, the lighting even flickers and flashes. This lighting technique as visual motif is successful because it is subtle. It’s a very creative touch within the film.
Dèmoni 2 features two child actors in important roles. One is Ingrid, played by Asia Argento (daughter of Dario); and the other is Tommy, played by Marco Vivio. On a personal level, I can connect with these two characters: Demons 2 was the first Italian horror film that I saw in a film theatre during its original run. I’m a few months older than Asia Argento and when I initially saw this film, these were the characters to whom I could most closely relate. Asia’s character is sheltered and protected by her father up until an intense battle later in the film; whereas Tommy is alone throughout the entire film. (His parents are out in the city.) Tommy watches the demon docudrama on television, and like me at that age, is enthralled with the proceedings. In a very effective scene later in the film, after the initial group of high-rise demons have gone to cause havoc on the lower floors of the building, Tommy ventures out of his apartment into a darkened hallway. He is equipped with his toy laser pistol. Tommy approaches the stairwell and peeks over the railing. In a sobering moment, he sees a vengeful and furious group of demons racing up the stairs. With a quick cut, Tommy drops his toy and runs to hide. This scene has always been particularly affecting to me. It’s both symbolic and very well orchestrated.
There are light moments within Dèmoni 2. Bobby Rhodes returns and reprises a similar role, as a de facto general of the human population, defending themselves against the demon legion. In a humorous twist, Lino Salemme who played the coked-up thug Ripper in the first Demons, plays the overbearing high-rise building security guard in Dèmoni 2.
The acting within Dèmoni 2 is definitely average and many of the sequences go on for a tad too long, but these are the only real gripes that I have towards the film. There many small and brilliant visual compositions with Demons 2. In addition, the final twenty minutes are intense (and a wee predicable), and the final confrontation is in an effective setting. Dèmoni 2 is way, way better than a sequel should be and far more creative than most fans would expect. Essential viewing.