The Dead (2010)

The Dead might not be the most impressive or original title in the world but against all the odds the film IS. 

After he crashed near the African coast Lt. Brian Murphy must fight for his life while he tries to get to safety. He is assisted by Daniel Dembele, a military man who is looking for his son. Together they fight a way through the living dead.

The viewer gets thrown in the heat of the battle immediately. The epidemic has already broken out and that does do the tempo of the film a lot of good. We follow Lt. Brian who's plane has crashed during , what was supposed to be, an escape from the zombie-infected Africa. He washes ashore and by himself, and later with the hulp of a local military man, he starts looking for help in sun baked Africa. From that moment on it's pure enjoyment watching this film. 

The zombie genre the last couple of years is really becoming popular again but after all those ''modern'' zombie films it's so nice to see a modern zombie film who tries the classic technique. Slow zombies, excellent camerawork, a lot of tension and an amazing atmosphere. This film is a Walhalla for classic zombie fans. 

While watching ''The Dead'' I felt like I was watching a 70's or 80's zombie flick, especially the Italian ones. The long, stretched out atmospheric camera shots with living corpses shuffling over dusty roads in the burning heat of the African sun. It reminded me of Fulci's classic ''Zombi 2''. As a matter of fact, The Dead IS Zombi 2 only in a modern, but at the same time very traditional, jacket. All praise for the ''Ford Brothers''. 

The zombies are shown very threatning and I can only cheer for that. Every director who manages to make slow zombies frightening has got great talent. And the Ford Brothers certainly do have talent. The gore is amazing as well. No ugly CGI, if CGI was used in the first place, but classic make-up effects which look like they have been made by some Italian special effects maestro in his prime days. This film certainly doesn't hold back on the blood and gore.

In about 30 years, like now, there will be gorehounds searching the internet looking for gory zombie classics, and where current gorehounds often end up with an Italian zombie film they will find their fair share in brilliant little films like this one.... Brilliant films like The Dead. The Dead is a modern classic that every dude who calls himself a fan of zombie films should watch.

And what did we learn from this film?....... That Africa is a great setting for a zombie film if you use the setting well... And that black zombies are way more frightening than white zombies. 

 

¿Quién Puede Matar a un Niño? (A.K.A. Who Can Kill a Child?) (1976)

Who Can Kill a Child is a Spanish horror/thriller classic that i've known of for quite some time now but never really got the urge to watch it. Until a week ago when I bought the dvd to finally watch this obscure classic. 

A couple of English tourists rent a boat to visit the fictitious island of Almanzora, just off the southern Spanish coast. When they arrive, they find the town deserted of adults, there's only children who don't speak but stare at them with eerie smiles. They soon discover that all the children of the island have been posessed by a mysterious force or madness which they can pass from one to another, and which makes them attack and murder their elders, who can't defend themselves because nobody dares to kill a child... 

You probably skipped the plot 'cause you thought it was too long so i'll summarize it quickly for you. An English couple visits a Spanish island where they find out there are no adults and only murderous children! Sounds awesome right!? Well.. It is. Who Can Kill a Child takes all the time it needs. Even when the couple arrives at the island the tempo stays relatively low. The setting is lovely by the way. The island doesn't lack any sun and the beautiful old white buildings, the clear blue sky and the deserted streets and alleys bring lots of atmosphere (And make me wanna go on vacation to Spain). There isn't a lot of tension in the first 60 minutes. There actually doesn't even happen a whole lot of things but the atmosphere kept me interested. 

As the film continues more and more strange things start to happen. The first kill Tom (one of the tourists) witnesses is amazingly dark. The children actually beat an old man to death and then use him as a pinata. Though the tempo stays slow and the characters start making some annyoing decisions. Just when I was done with the slow tempo an amazing looking scene shows where all the children walk down a mountain hill. From that moment on numerous cool and tensive scenes follow. The last 30 minutes are a chain of twisted scenes where Tom shoots a kid through the head, a fetus kills his mother from the inside and Tom again shoots down a whole army of kids. After that an amazing ending follows which i'll not spoil for you... Just watch the film! 

Who Can Kill a Child does have a slow pace, and some of you might not like that, but the atmosphere is great and the last 30 minutes are so twisted and impressive that as a horror fan you just HAVE to see this movie. Groundbreaking and shocking... Who Can Kill a Child deserves its classic status a 100%. 

Fun Fact (Source: IMDB)

 Several sequences are homages to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, for example, the image of all the children in the island's village square ready to attack Tom and Evelyn, and the final escape from the island.

 
 

Non-Horror Exploitation: Fuga dal Bronx (A.K.A. Escape from the Bronx) (1983)

Finally i've seen my first Enzo G. Castellari film. And although I am a bit disapointed by this film I'll definitely watch some more of the Italian pulp director. 

A vicious corporation tries to kill and starve the last remaining habitants of the Bronx in order to build their own high-rise developments. A lone long-haired hot-tempered warrior, Trash, is the only obstacle well, him, a psychopathic bomb-maker and his equally psychopathic pre-school son by kidnapping "the President" (of the corporation). 

The plot where a company wants to get rid of the people (who are mostly gang members) who live in the Bronx to build some nice villas is kinda absurd and it honestly is just a cheap excuse to show as many shameless action as possible. And that's exactly what Castellari does. There is no time for long dialogues or big plot developments. It's all about the non-stop action. 

While for many genre fans this sounds pretty cool it's actually pretty boring at times. We all know that Italians are amazing at finding ways to make New York look like a dark and sleazy city. And so does Castellari. He manages to create a cool but devastated New York setting. The characters all look INSANE. The gang members all have the typical over the top 80's look and the badguys wear silver space costumes with black motorcycle helmets. Pretty much as cheesy as it can get. 

What really fucks this film up for a big part is that there are in fact to many, lousy, action scenes. One figurant after the other gets blown to hell but after a while you just don't give a shit anymore. What's also pretty annoying is that at every damn explosion, and there are a lot, the actors who get ''hit'' all jump away like they're jumping on a trampoline. Many of the kills are uninspired. The ''space men'' all get their bodies pumped with iron but never only a blood spatter is shown. Because of that all of it looks so hasty. Every once in a while an actual cool kill scene passes by. One of 'em are the flamethrower kills which look pretty cool and the other notable kill scene is the one where one of the gang members smashes through the helmet of the badguy with his shotgun and completely destroys the guy's face. Too bad that those scenes are pretty rare.

Fuga dal Bronx is enjoyable due to its cheesyness but it all could have been much better and much more fun. The one-liners, bad-ass 80's Italian soundtrack and cool slow motion scenes make it worth your watch though. 

 

Fun Fact (Source: IMDB)

  The full death toll in the uncut version is 174. There are 110 killed in shootings, 40 in explosions, 9 by flamethrowers, 1 by stabbing, 1 off-screen kill, 4 unknowns, 6 electrocutions, 2 bashed in the face with a helmet and 1 face turned to red mush after being hit with a shotgun butt.

Non-Horror Exploitation: Preparati la Bara! (A.K.A. Viva Django) (1968)

I've been a fan of Spaghetti Westerns for quite some years now. After I saw pretty much all mainstream spaghetti westerns the genre cooled down for me a bit. But now i'm getting back into the genre and I thought it was about time for me to check some of the more ''unknown'' spaghetti westerns out. Viva Django might not be to obscure but many Django spin-offs are and I'm planning to watch a lot of them. So, starting with Viva Django: It was awesome.! I thought it was even better than the original Django. 

A mysterious gunfighter named Django is employed by a local crooked political boss as a hangman to execute innocent locals framed by the boss, who wants their land. What the boss doesn't know is that Django isn't hanging the men at all, just making it look like he is, and using the men he saves from the gallows to build up his own "gang" in order to take revenge on the boss, who, with Django's former best friend, caused the death of his wife years before.

Terence Hill proves he's a versatile western actor. Next to the humoristic western roles like he had in for example They Call Me Trinity and My Name is Nobody he's also able to play the cool western hero including 5 o'clock shadow and squeezy eyes. I thought he looked a bit stiff in the beginning of the film but that goes away pretty quickly (especially when the action scenes start happening). Actually I couldn't have thought of a better replacement for Franco Nero. Italian cult-actor George Eastman is always a cool presence but unfortunately his character, although being one of the villains, is a bit to ''clean'' including nice combed hair and a fancy suit. I like him more in his rough, sinister roles.

I was enjoying the full 88 minutes of this movie. The soundtrack is incredible and the setting and costumes are great as well. The plot is pretty standard (including the regular scene where the gun hero gets captured and beaten the shit out of him by the bad guys) but is well developed and told. I also must add that the ''machine gun'' scene in this one is way more effective than in the original Django. 

 I can safely say that Viva Django is a great ''Django'' western. If the dozens of other Django spin-offs are as good as this one then i'm in for quite a ride!

Fun Facts (Source: IMDB)

  Following the success of the Bud Spencer/Terence Hill Italo western comedies in Germany this film was re-released as a re-dubbed comedy version in the late 1970s. Therefore it was heavily cut to 82 minutes and changed in plot. Django (now renamed to Joe) even mentions "the big" a few times referring to several characters of Bud Spencer in other movies.

Non-Horror Exploitation: Supersonic Man (1979)

It's a bird!, It's a plane!, It's who? I'll tell you who it is.. It's motherfucking Supersonic Man coming to get yo honky ass. Supersonic Man has a status of being of the worst films ever and it definitely deserves it. What a complete pile of shit! I want 85 minutes of my life back....

An alien, "Supersonic Man," is sent to Earth to thwart the plans of evil men who would destroy the galaxy itself with their weapons. Only his superpowers, which include flight, bulletproof skin, and the ability to turn guns into bananas, can save Earth from destruction. 

I acually didn't notice any plot at all. I think it was something about an angry dude (Cameron Mitchell), who has an army of robots and guys with futuristic laser guns, who wants to capture a girl for some reason. No luck for him though as the girl is protected by Supersonic Man who has two personalities. One being the normal 70's guy with pornstache and cool look. The other being a super hero dressed like a mix between a Mexican wrestler and a male stripper. 

Anyone who's looking for an entertaining movie, like I was, in my opinion won't find much luck with Supersonic Man. As cool as the title sounds and as corny as the stills may look. I'll be the first to admit that the scenes where Supersonic Man flies over NY City looks cheesy and cool as fuck but i'll also be the first to admit that those scenes are pretty scarce in the first hour or so. Instead we get a lot of boring scenes of Cameron Mitchell, who looks more depressed by the minute as a result of appearing in this film, mainly sitting in his lazy chair watching his army kill one figurant after the other. It's safe to say that Supersonic Man is awfully quiet the first 60 minutes of this movie. 

After about 60 minutes Supersonic Man starts to get more and more screentime and only then the film starts to be what it should have been the whole 85 minutes. I mean, come on. It's way cooler to see Supersonic Man fly around, taking bullets to the chest like a boss and lifting bulldozers without any problem than watch a bored Cameron Mitchell whine about every single thing the whole time.  

Supersonic Man unfortunately hasn't become the experience that I was hoping for. It's way to boring to be such. The last 15-20 minutes definitely save this film from being a disastrous failure. Priceless scenes like the one where Supersonic quickly flies to a restaurant to get some champagne for his date with a girl unfortunately are a rarity in this film. Give credits to the cheesy soundtrack though that plays whenever Supersonic Man flies around over archive footage of New York. 

If you do actually decide to watch this film ---------> ''May the great force of the galaxy be with you'' 

Frankly I think only someone like Supersonic Man himself has enough strength to bite through this film. 

  

La Tarantola dal Ventre Nero (A.K.A. Black Belly of the Tarantula) (1971)

I'm getting more and more into the Giallo genre. I still have to see the early Argento films (Like Bird with the Crystal Plumage) but I've seen enough so far to note that I like the genre. The black gloves etc. got their charme and there are already a few Giallo's that I really liked (Tenebre being the best). Unfortunately Black Belly of the Tarantula falls under the category ''BAD''. 

Inspector Tellini investigates serial crimes where victims are paralyzed while having their bellies ripped open with a sharp knife, much in the same way tarantulas are killed by the black wasp. As suspects keep dying, Inspector directs his attention to a spa all the victims had a connection with.

I suspected way more of this French/Italian giallo. Black Belly of the Tarantula has a terrible tempo and many uninteresting dialogs that pull all the pace out of the film. There are only a few scene's that really stood out (The chase on the rooftop and the first killscene). Thereby comes that the soundtrack by maestro Ennio Morricone is terribly boring. 

I have to admit that the whole idea of a killer who paralyzes his victims and then stabs them in the belly is pretty solid. Unfortunately though the kills do get boring after a while as they are all pretty much the same and because of that the impact that the kills make is also very limited. There is also almost no gore which is a shame but that's something that can be replaced by atmosphere etc. which unfortunately doesn't happen in Black Belly of the Tarantula either. 

One of the better things about this movie is the lead played by Giancarlo Giannini who plays the detective. The rest of the cast is pretty much filled with beautiful women. That's cool and the girls did in fact really look good (Look for a small cameo of Italian hottie Eleonora Giorgi aswell) but it's a bit of a shame that they all look like each other (I think there were about 3/4 redheads who could have all been sisters) which confused me sometimes and that's not something you'll like as the plot itself is pretty confusing as well. 

The Black Belly of the Tarantula is far from a good Giallo. No tension, no gore not even a cool killer and just a few scene's that are really worth it. Hell, at least it's a good replacement for if you're just out of sleeping pills. 

Non-Horror Exploitation: Combat Shock (1984)

Yes, you saw right... Troma is connected to this film but PLEASE don't bring your friends and leave the chips and beer where they are. Gone is the corny humor of Troma films like Terror Firmer, Poultrygeist and Toxic Avenger. Get ready to meet a whole other side of Troma films. 

Frankie is a war vet whose life sucks. He has no money, a nagging wife, junkie friends, and a deformed baby. This is the story of one day in his pathetic post-war life. 

Frankie Dunlan is a completely worn out and mentally destroyed Vietnam veteran who expierenced the most terrible things in Vietnam but when he returns home he finds himself in a different but equally tough battle. He lives with his wife and his (by chemicals) deformed baby son. Hungry and without any hope left they look at Frankie who himself spends most of the day strolling through the ghetto's of ruinous New York looking for a job, food and money. You thought Robert De Niro had a hard time in Taxi Driver...? AT LEAST HE HAD A FUCKING JOB AND NO ONE TO LOOK OUT FOR!

Rick Giovinazzo is absolutely great in this film. Not a moment it passed my mind that he was just acting. It all felt like he was really experiencing it. The rest of the cast is a little bit less convincing (hey, wat did you suspect with a budget of only 40,000 Dollar) but luckily they don't go over the top either so that it all stays pretty realistic. Thereby comes that director Buddy Giovinazzo makes up for it with the magnificent locations. While the Vietnam locations might not look great (actually was shot in NY) the scene's in the worn out streets of New York do. Destroyed houses, graffiti, puking junkies and bums, trash, dirty heroin needles etc. They all get showed explicitly which creates an even better atmosphere. 

He continually gets rejected by the employment agency, he has got depts with criminals, his father doesn't want to see him, he can't feed his family nor himself and right in front of his eyes he sees his buddies become ruthless junkies and 12 year old girls become street whores.  Frankie's life doesn't have any meaning anymore and he is beginning to see this slowly as well (which results in a brilliant and disturbing ending scene). 

  Taxi Driver got nominated for 4 Oscars with a budget of 1,3 Million Dollar. Combat Shock kinda stayed the ugly duckling with a budget of 40,000 Dollar. Maybe it's better that way as the low-budget feeling creates such a strong and raw film which, in my eyes, beats Taxi Driver for sure.