Italian Horror

L’OSSESSA-1974-Danila (Stella Carnacina) an art historian/painter helps with the restoration of an ancient odd sculpture made of wood that depicts a man being crucified. Her boyfriend Carlo(Gianrico Tondinelli).wants her to move in with him but she can't seem to give up living with her parents. At a party she sees mom having sex with her lover (while dad is in the other room playing cards). She goes to the place where the statue is being kept so she can finish her painting. While there the statue comes to life, turns into a human, tears off her dress and screws her. The place goes on fire but it's all a dream. She calls Carlo for help. He lectures her then takes her home. Walking around in the dark she hears footsteps and her name being called. Chanting voices overwhelm her to orgasm. Mom and dad return to find daughter in full sexual arousement. So much so she comes onto dad (“There's no such thing as incest. It's an invention of the priests”). He slaps her a couple of times to bring her out of it. 

Their doctor suggests a trip to the country. So mom, dad, daughter and Carlo head out for a nice drive. Along the way they get a flat. Wandering around she meets a guy (with an out of control mustache) who’s restoring murals in an old structure. When she looks around she discovers a guy nailed to the cross laughing maniacally. Some extremely pale faced women seem to be getting ready for a human sacrifice. One of them bids her to drink a mug of “fertile sustenance” and then the crucified guy jumps off his cross and nails her to it! This too seems to be a dream/vision/illusion as she wakes up in bed. When their doc can't explain the bloody holes in her hands and feet he calls in some eggheads who agree an exorcism is needed. Their priest thinks it's too big a job for him so they transfer her to a convent where a real exorcist can do his thing. She goes kicking and screaming and later escapes and runs through the deserted streets. Eventually the priest performs the exorcism and Satan (Ivan Rassimov) appears. She tries to seduce the priest and when he is aroused he leaves the room and whips himself. A second exorcism seems to do the trick but he dies. 

This Italian production has it's moments but occasionally drags. Director/writer Mario Gariazzo also made EYES BEHIND THE STARS, an alien encounter movie that played a lot on late TV in the '80's. 

L'OSSESSA is also known as ENTER THE DEVIL and THE EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW.  

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Is It Really The Last One?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE LAST EXORCISM-2010-A phony preacher (Patrick Fabian) goes to a rural Louisana farmhouse to perform one last exorcism on a young girl. He brings along a camera crew so once again we have a horror tale from the “found footage” genre which is fast being beaten to death by filmmakers. After the preacher does the ritual, things go from bad to worse with the girl (Ashley Bell) going crazy and terrorizing the crew while her redneck father insists another exorcism should be performed. She even slashes her dim wit brother across the face. The group has plenty of chances to escape but always finds some distraction to stay. When the girl is found to be pregnant incest is suspected.

 

Like most of this kind of story the herky-jerky camera work begins to wear on the viewer and the confused hectic plot goes on too long but I liked the unexpected ending. After this director Daniel Stamm worked on TV series called THE INTRUDERS. An unnecessary sequel followed.

 

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VHS Tape? What's that?

V/H/S-2012-A bunch of losers who post “Jackass” like videos online are hired to go to a house and steal one certain VHS tape. In the house they find a dead old man in front of a wall of TVs. The group goes in search of the tape and leaves one guy in the room with the old man. The guy watches some VHS tapes and the following stories are shown.

“Amateur Night”-Some assholes doing drugs and drinking encounter a weird woman at a club. They take her to a hotel only to find out she's a castrating, cannibal succubus who can fly. Directed by David Brucker.

“Second Honeymoon”-A husband and wife on a road trip are kind of terrorized by a woman who breaks into their motel room and films them while they are asleep. She also steals some money and puts the husband's toothbrush in the toilet. It seems women are lovers out to kill the guy. Directed by Ti West.

“Tuesday the 17th”-Some dorks go to a lake front where one girl has been before. She jokingly says “You are all going to die up here”. They are menaced by a hooded killer who only appears as a glitch on the tape. The girl wants to catch him because he killed her friends and she is using her new friends as “bait” to trap him but it doesn't work out like she plans. Directed by Glenn McQuaid.

“The Sick Thing That Happened To Emily When She Was Younger”-A guy and a girl talk via an online chat room. It seems her apartment is haunted and she has a mysterious cut on her arm. They seem to be far apart but he's actually nearby helping aliens breed with humans. At the end he has a new victim set up. Directed by Joe Swanberg.

“10/31/98”-Some yuppies go to a costume party but the house they go to is devoid of people. There's only a lot of empty rooms and a little girl apparition. In the attic they interrupt an exorcism and run away but have second thoughts when the hear the screams of the girl being exorcised. They go back and rescue her but she eventually leads the group to their doom on some railroad tracks. This is the only segment that features any tolerable characters you would care about! Directed by Radio Silence.

In between some of the segments (the wraparound story was directed by Adam Wingard) the old man's body disappears and reappears (though no one notices) and before the final segment the old man (maybe some kind of creature ) kills the leader of the gang.

V/H/S kind of represents a new trend in the horror anthology that was much more popular in the '60's and '70)'s with Hammer and AIP. Personally more “horror directors” should be involved in making them since 9 out of 10 modern horror movies are way too long. The trouble with this “found footage” production as with most found footage stories is it's all a cheat. Nothing needs to be explained, there's no beginning and sometimes no conclusion. The stories seem like idea never fully thought out. It's just there. You make what you want of it. That's ok once in while but it gets tedious after a while. But then again this has already generated 2 sequels so what do I know. I rather watch David Hewitt's GALLERY OF HORRORS. At least Lon Chaney and John Carradine are in it!

Accept no substitutes!

 

 

 

 

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Rip-Off

THE DEVIL WITHIN HER-1975-Former exotic dancer Lucy Carlesi (Joan Collins) gives birth to a rather large and strong baby (at least that's what the doctor's say; it looks like any normal baby). Weird things happen almost immediately. Baby scratches mommy and later bites their housekeeper. Her Italian husband Geno (Ralph Bates with an accent) hires a nanny but the baby pushes her into a pond and she dies! Lucy reveals a strange story to her girlfriend (Caroline Munro) about the last time she danced and how a dwarf actor "cursed" her ("You will have a baby as big as I am small! A monster!"). She believes her baby is possessed and even sees the dwarf's face in place of her son's. Their doctor (Donald Pleasance) doesn't believe it but when he visits he's decapitated. Dad winds up dead by hanging and his body is stuffed in a drain pipe. Dad's sister, a nun (Elleen Atkins) suspects no good and eventually performs an exorcism but by then everyone is dead! John Steiner is also in it as a Cockney club owner. Much of it doesn't make sense and there's some unintentional humor and it all seems to be inspired by THE EXORCIST, IT'S ALIVE and ROSEMARY'S BABY. 

Director Peter Sasdy did better with previous efforts like TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, COUNTESS DRACULA and HANDS OF THE RIPPER. For some reason it has recently been re-titled SHARON'S BABY.

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Exorsnore

EXORCISMUS-2010-In England Emma (Sophie Vavasseur from RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE), a teenage girl acts weirdly. She cuts herself, almost drowns her little brother and levitates in front of her mom and dad. When she goes to a psychiatrist he dies of a heart attack. She seems to be possessed so they bring in their uncle, a priest (Stephen Billington; also in RESIDENT EVIL) to perform an exorcism. He's haunted by flashbacks of botched one he once did. While tied to a chair she curses a lot (“fuckin' priest”), has spasms, her eyes turn white and she tries to strangle dad (with her legs). Her pin cushioned faced boyfriend tells her she's just being manipulated but she causes a car crash that nearly kills him (she sees his face covered with cockroaches). 

Later after killing her brother and driving mom crazy, she learns that things might not be what they seem. Despite it's twists in the finale (which goes on too long) this is just another EXORCIST take-off. This English language Spanish production filmed in England was directed by Manuel Carballo and written by David Munoz (THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE). 

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