HANGING WOMAN-United American Video-1973-This is a weird one. It’s a horror story with lots of talk and features Paul Naschy as Igor, a necrophilic caretaker. Characters seem to die and then come back from the dead. After a lot of false scares the film turns into something like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with a scientist reviving corpses through a strange invention. In this dubbed version all the credits are anglicized and the great horror star Naschy is called Paul Nash! It’s original title is LA ORGIA DE LOS MUERTOS but it’s had numerous re-titled re-releases and is clearly edited.
The stars are Gerald Tichy, Aurora De Alba, Maria Pia Conte, Carlos Quiney and Stelvio Rosi.
Director/ Co-Writer Jose Luis Merino made SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER (1970) and films featuring Zorro, Robin Hood and Tarzan! Co-writer Enrico Colombo wrote Jesus Franco’s NIGHT OF THE BLOOD MONSTER (1969). Bernard Woolner is also mentioned as producer on this version.
BRUISER-Lions Gate Films-2001-This was George Romero’s first feature after his disappointing THE DARK SIDE (based on Stephen King’s novel) in 1993. It’s a little different but I expected more.
Nice guy/loser/yuppie Henry (Jason Flemyng) is the proverbial doormat. His obnoxious boss (Peter Stormage) treats him like shit. His best friend and lawyer (Andrew Tarbet) cheats him out of money. His unfaithful wife belittles, and eventually leaves him. He fantasizes about doing in various pushy people.
But when he puts on a faceless mask he changes completely. He literally becomes a man without a face bent on violent revenge. But somehow this movie just doesn’t make it. Although Henry gets to turn the tables there’s a lot of talk and for the most part the story will leave you feeling a little unsatisfied.
At one point after this, Romero had been involved with a “Resident Evil” project but his script was rejected because it focused too much on zombies!!!
Flemyng later played Dr. Jekyll in the flop LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. Romero finally returned with CITY OF THE DEAD.
Thanks for reading!
2 comments:
Bruiser isn't great, but it's not as awful as some people let on. Still, it's something of disappointment when compared to most of Romero's other movies. I haven't seen The Dark Half yet so I can't say much about that. I've seen quite a few Naschy films but The Hanging Woman isn't one of them. I'll definitely be watching it eventually.
I think The Hanging Woman has been repackaged several times (but not in it's original form). I don't think it's had a DVD release either but I'll have to check.
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