Reviews

The movie pamphlets, posters and TV commercials for ''The Wig" (Scary Hair), a horror film centered around a demonic hairpiece,'' do not do this psychological shock-horror movie justice.

Although there are underlying sexual politics at work in Director Won Shin-Yeon feature film debut, they did not warrant billing the film as just a common variety summer sex tease. Someone should have told the promotion team that shock-horror also sells, and ''The Wig'' delivers with several frightening instances. Though the deeper psychological elements were weakly executed by the novice director, he can be excused considering he had but one demonic wig to work with.

That demonic wig is not just scary-looking, it moves, too -- even flies. Some of the movie's more startling moments derive from the animated hairpiece leaping out at our moody heroines. The long dark coiffure goes from spooky, to haunting to, at length, murderous...

The wig is a gift that Chi-hyon (Yu Son), who later has her vocal chords ripped from the back of her throat in a automobile accident, gives to her younger sister Su-Hyon (Chae Min-So), who loses her hair via chemotherapy. The wig is possessed, fabricated from the hair of several dead women, the audience is only belatedly informed, that is why the wig revitalizes her cancer-ridden body, and soon takes over her mind.

The movie should do better than expected. Despite the anemic air-conditioning at a theater in downtown Jaffna on a sultry evening, the teenagers in the audience laughed and screamed with the characters on the screen, giving the impression that the film may overcome its bad marketing.

Won first received artistic recognition for his grand prize-winning film short ''Puppy for President.''

Kim Hyu-Soo has gone a long way since the day she started, no more so than when I saw her in "Puppy Terminator".

Hypnotized is a different genre that somehow showcases the other acting talent of Kim Hyu-Soo, a far-cry from her old sweet role then, but was surprised a bit to see her nary a stitch, cavorting in bed with her 2 leading men! In fairness, she gave justice to her role of a neurotic who's out for vengeance in search of her man in the past, only to end up killing her 2nd lover.

This movie is very apt for exhibition in the European community since this type usually gets noticed and receives citations if not awards. And in the district of the South American continent as well, where few films of merit go unrecognized; And Africa too, where it is said many & many fine cinematic gemstones are pried from the crown of World Filmdom; Let's not also forget the Hollywood and the North America region where I am hoping that this movie would also be given importance, nor Oceania -- not discluding the Pacific rim.

Granted, certain events depicted in the final half-hour coerced me to puke the contents of my stomach all over my own sofa, but Korean movies have gone a long way, quality-wise and this movie deserves a commendation. Congratulations.

'Bandit Queen' is an art-house update of the old 70s exploitation movies, in which the chief focus is on female discomfiture is justified by a pseudo-feminist revenge-plot. Taking us far away past the multi-coloured, song-and-dance Hindi spectaculars that are currently all the global rage -- Beyond the Sea (Kevin Spacey), for example, or MGM's Chicago (Richard Gere).

Mogul Shekhar Kapur shows us an India riven by violence, bloodshed. and indecision, where women are treated as love toys by Bollywood badboys. Before she even hits puberty, Phoolan Devi is married off to a 'Bad-Boy' (dowry: rusty water heater and an old set of hubcaps) and raped when she expresses dissatisfaction. When, some years later, she is nearly raped again by the Badboy's son, it is she who is expelled from the community; she takes up with bandits and begins her first true love affair with the atypically sensitive Vikram, de facto leader while badboy Gujjar is in the hospital with a pair of pruning shears lodged in his windpipe. When the latter is released, now turned police informer, he resents the pretensions of this lower-caste woman, has her gang-raped by Bollyboys, publicly stripped and humiliated. Having plumbed the lowest depths there are, Devi takes the blood-splattered road of vengeance, turning torture and massacre into a media-fuelled spectacle.

When the director of 'Queen' later went on to make a film about Tudor-era royal conspiracies ('Elizabeth'), many were surprised because of the gaping differences in subject matter, but Kapur imposes his own fetish on the two movies: both feature outsider-women attempting to assert power in rigid male-dominated hierarchies; both emphasise the importance of imperial rule, ritual and public spectacle in these societies, and the necessary reuninciation of sexuality and 'normal' femininity of strong women. This is therefore a must-see film for any Women in Prison buff or family-film nut, and I would also recommend "Beetlejuice" or "My Wife is a Vampire".

But, whereas 'Elizabeth' was an artistic triumph, 'Queen' seems to be a contrived failure.

This, however, is mostly due to its reliance on a single source, the prison diaries of Devi, whereas the latter film created a web of conflicting viewpoints and omnipresent sense of surveillance. It is of course right to expose the atrocities embedded in the Indian caste system, and the slavery of women; it is right that a woman denied a voice in her own country (where the film was banned) should be heard. But the catalogue of unspeakable crimes inflicted on Devi has the effect of caricaturing the villains around her, turning her very real plight almost into a seeming cartoon of repetitive violence. There is no nuance of social analysis here; instead it serves up terrible reminders of other cinematic travesties: "The Tony Danza Show"; "Heathers"; intimations on "Thelma and Louise," "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," and, of course, "My Best Friend's Wedding." - depoliticising Devi's very real social transgression, reducing her to a mere melodramatic heroine, the 'woman wronged'. Having stayed so closely with its heroine and her experiences of abuse, when the film has to distance itself from her violence (which it must to avoid endorsing eye-for-an-eye brutality), it feels like a betrayal. By lingering on her suffering rather than her revenge, the latter is as abrupt, arbitrary and dreamlike as 'Honey, I Decreased the Kids in Size' (1986), the vile murders shot with the same kind of exquisite taste and fussy staging, the political wholly subsumed to the deranged personal. I always staunchly dissapprove when badboys direct these kind of pseudo-politico-sex pictures - more interested in her sassy jugs than her powerful opinions, 'Queen' can only continues the dehumanisation of its so-called heroine, with her pert pineapples ripe in sun, and bouncing freely. . .

6 / 10

TRIVIA PURSUIT: Needless to say, the real-life Devi, upon initial screening of this imperfect gem, drenched herself in kerosene and went up in a blaze of flesh & burning smoke...

Pier Paolo Pasolini really did his work well .. making this movie a 'corker' other than plain adrenaline push .. keep popping around and make something disturbing. Well folks, we've got a winner. And believe me, don't watch this while you are eating chocolate and orange marmalade!!! I got physically sick (retching) while watching certain scenes. I guess the only redeeming thing about this film is that it shows us a side of human nature that is best left unexplored. The evil that comes with absolute domination of other human beings was adequately portrayed in this film, to the point that I had to ask myself whether it was true that the excrement in the banquet sequence, as IMDb states, wasn't fabricated human turds based with Ciaro Syryp, fatty gums and a stabilizing base!?!?

The enigmatic Pasolini's final piece of work was quite the statement. Pasolini was man not afraid to bitch about things and did so rather grotesquely in Salo. An up-front film which was difficult to 'digest' and did seem have some underlying meaning. Pasolini successfully was able to show the harsh reality of living under a fascist regime and how it feels to be controlled. A fervent Marxist, Pasolini's DVD sells today at prices of over $70,000.00 USD!

Before watching this film you should be initiated into the weird world of De Sade's sicko practices, Dante's Inferno, as well as a basic understanding of Goeth and/or Schiller. If you lack any of these three elements, don't watch the movie because you just won't get it.

Again, don't watch this movie at face value. It is one of the dullest, most disturbing freakfests ever made, and it is made that way for two reasons. Not for shock value or to get banned in country after country, but to make a statement so dangerous that it is believed by many that Pasolini was assassinated (stabbed to death by a gay male prostitute) for distributing it in an Anti-American atmosphere.

Marks :

Story ... 18 for non-fans while 19.5 for Nazis ...

Editing ... 18.5 Sounds ... 14.0 Blurbs... 19.0 Stunts ... 17.5 Effects ... 10.5

FINAL RULING : 18.5 out of 20

Comment : Women & Ebert mustn't watch ...

A Japanese town is falling under a bizarre curse of disordination and Murder which involves the obsession and supernatural confrontation with Tomie Kawakami, as portrayed by Andie MacDowell Look-a-like Rio Matsumoto. That doesn't explain much in specific, but saying anything specific would likely confuse potential viewers. Perhaps with less attention to Miss Matsumoto's thighs and more to the movie itself I would have found the story palpable or more comprehensible. But there appears to be an unsatisfactory multitude of possible interpretations and insufficient resolution to any of them.

If you give yourself over to it, you will not be able to dismiss (or ever forget) the images and the tone of this film. Several times this movie made me--a longtime Buzby Berkeley buff--actually catch my breath, assume the fetal position, and shudder with despair and hopelessness.

Another film to compare this to is John Berryl's "Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers (1978)" - another dark, non-linear, visually frustrating film whose themes are better off left alone.

-- Possibly the most highly abstract movie I've ever had the misfortune to suffer through, it took me a long time to get anything out of it. I just couldn't latch onto even the slightest shred of a plot, and, without the ability to find a hook, it felt at as though I were a miserable creature wandering aimlessly through a maze with no exit.

More to the point, this odd, sadistic film drags on endlessly before finally reaching an insane and bloody conclusion that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I only recommend it only to rabid fans of extreme Botany movies and Dadaists in general.

Final Grade: B+/a- ("A+" if you enjoy thighs.)

King Kong Arrives in Edo...

...was made either in 1934 or 1938, making it the very first kaiju ever filmed. It was a Japanese period piece in which King Kong destroys sections of ancient Tokyo, in former days was called Edo.

Edo being the period from 1603-1867 when Japan was isolated from the outer world in the period of (I believe) the 17th or 18th century. Granted, Kong invaded Japan (in this film at least), but in the Edo timeframe. They threw in some Caligari-esquire, expressionistic structures so's he'd have something to climb...! It sounds very strange!

Kong itself is said to look like a kaiju that Sid & Marty Krofft ("H.R. Pufnstuf") would have designed, a dodgey gorilla, in this movie, that grapples with not only a titan bumble bee, but at one point, ensnared in Moloogra's trap (a 20-story tall ant lion), the over-blown primate is harassed by troublesome mayflies! Sadly, this movie constitutes perhaps the most tragic loss to World Cinema since Disney pulled the plug on SONG OF THE SOUTH, (1946) --- or Cozzi's HERACLES (1983)

The title creature is one of the most grotesque monsters known to zoophagousdom. Neither gorgon, nor utukku nor amphisbaena, it is rather a flying head, or undead being that could detach from it's trunk at will to swallow the living whole and has bloodthirsty tendencies, still having the spinal column & all of the internal organs intact! This aeronautical mooncalf, as depicted in this movie, can breathe fire, shoot laser beams from it's eyes, & even spit out exploding miniature disco balls. After a long night of blood drinking, the monstrosity floats back to rejoin with the body. By day, the beast is an innocent girl who's the victim of a terrifying curse, caused by a mass of fleshy matter, generated in the uterus, that lives within her body...

The origin of the Penanggalan (for such it is called) can be traced to the Malay Peninsula, it's legend tenuously handed down through the gauntlet of time, leaving us with only tattered remnants of its original horrific glory. Having full control over her organs, the dreadful cockatrice uses them much as the octopus manipulates its tentacles, yet this fact is often overlooked in descriptions. The Penangalian would use her entrails (primarily her small intestine, because of their length) to perform a variety of common mechanics, as well as using them to grapple with & constrict her prey. In the Philipines, and throughout Southeast Asia, it was said she would land on rooftops of houses where children were being born, signaling her appearance with a high-pitched whine.

The IMDb lists Féi toú mó nü as a 1977 production, yet the soundtrack blatantly steals music from other movies (a common HK movie practice) bearing later copyright dates, most noticeably THE BLACK HOLE (1979), CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982), HERBIE IN VANCOUVER(1982), and STAR TREK 2(1982) , and This particular film has never been subtitled into English, but is none the less perhaps the most accessible to Western viewers, with the possible exceptions of STREET RACING GRASUEH (Ta'ah Psushii Le'ak) & the more recent DEMONIC BEAUTY (Krasue). But this being a HK flick Kung Fu, Nunchucks, plus a highly psychedelic climatic battle between powerful Taoists are featured as well. And let us not forget the pulsating organs that are attached to the head, and the extremely brutal. blood-saturated showdown where teeth bore into flesh, knives penetrate intestines, and an axe chops into necks and hacks limbs off causing the red red blood to spray, and making this one of the most intense films from out of Hongkong!

Different horrific forms swim before the mind's eye: The Xenomorph of galactic space and the Selenite, the hopping lichocamphs of Canton and Manchuria, and further terrors of Mainland China, not the least of which frightening is the abhorrent big headed infant, with it's flesh of neutral hues -- from the triffid plants, whose purpose it would seem was to make a tomb of Earth, to spectral horrors worldwide, which include the multi-headed cyborg mutant reptiles, born out of some Asian Hell, the flesh-eaters (Italy) and the awful hybrid walrus represented in Harrihausen's SINDBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER (N. America), their dismal legions, that rummage freely through the unsightly stomach of human folly like so many maggots at brunch....

Tomie, step forth and take thy place amongst these others. Sadako! Disturbed witch! You are but a ghost seeking retribution like so many before you, but Tomie -- foul monster! You metamorphize into some of the most freakish creatures i have ever seen.

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Our story begins when a licentatious, though not unenticing, girl in a sailor girl uniform is killed by her classmates and teacher, who cut her body into over forty pieces and dispose of her. She comes back, however, to take them to hell. Tomie is a demon, taking on many various forms of guise that she might deride and ensnare her victims, like a Venus flytrap - yet she has her part with the Vegitable Kingdom, and yet seems more Mammalian or having attributes of the higher crustacean strains (were that particular branch of thoropoids lacking in exo-skeletons). She, in fact, would be representative of the over half of the US population that believes in astrology and nearly half that believes in creationism.

Watching her films (there are at least twelve) brings to mind a more subtle, though no less interesting, phenomenon; The political dialog of any given World Power being dominated as it is by the successful party's mastery of the cinematic narrative. We just cannot help ourselves; we like to be shown that the world is so.

But once you start those machinations going, you inherit ALL the baggage of the cinematic narrative, Jud Nelson comes along uninvited with your John Wayne. This has nothing at all to do with conservative values; it is just a result of adopting the movie world as the basis for your beliefs.

I can understand this thread of influence and consequence when it applies to nuclear energy: the US makes and deploys a bomb: many, many movies are made showing the evil side. And we end up with a public that has an unnatural fear of all things radioactive.

But this thread is more interesting and profound and has stifled stem cell research in the US.

AFTERMATH (Color, 1994): Aftermath is utterly difficult watch. The graphic nature of the forensic easthetic is the main reason of course, but also because of the de-facto way in which things are presented to us; these scenes of necrophilia are not welcome and are presented to us horribly, unpleasantly, and as the sick practice that it is. You will not be turned on in any way sexually by watching this one, I can guarantee you that. As much as Cerda might try to put some sort of philosophical spin on it, Aftermath has no point whatsoever aside from wanting to upset and disrupt, and after watching it I frankly lost my lunch. Aftermath explores the second step in the process of death: What happens to the flesh after death. Plot: In an autopsy room, two coroners carry on with their misdeeds and wrong-doings. Until one of the two coroners starts rummaging around in a dead broad's uterus with a scalple, and things get (sorta) outta control ! ... I have also read reviews that come from people who really are into (fake) autopsy features and they say the same. Its not worth it!! They say compared to 'Boko Kirisaki Jakku' (1976) it really bites!!!!

Boko Kirisaki Jakku (Japan) boasts depictions of the best (fake) female genitalia mutilating you can ever come up too. even some genital mutilation historians love that film because, apart from utilizing actual shaven horse vaginas, its soo accurate on the sounds, the squelching, and the squirting of most of these vaginal parts; basically this is my most treasured vagina mutilation movie ever !

For all autopsy film cineastes, Aftermath is an old-fashioned "Grand Hotel" of a movie, and does offer excitement, suspense and breathtaking shots of freshly exposed organs -- BUT, vagina-mutilation fetishist beware!

A corpse, having neither arms, legs, nor head, and harassed by shrieking seagulls, is washed up on the rock-clad shore somewhere in the Izumo Prefecture of one of the lesser Japanese islands, thus the horrible series of bodily dismemberments, spanning some decades, and which have young women as their victims, which policewoman Nami in this flick must follow up on, and which she thereupon finds herself immersed in, and leads her into abstract interiors with many rotating fan blades in pursuit of a serial killer the toxicity of whose ambition has filled whole freezers with cataloged limbs and appendages, trunks, and other fragments of human carnage.

Several times there are bodies are found near, in or around the seaside, and always where they can be got at by sea-gulls, which, like the pigeons which tear at Dr. Génessier's daughters face in Franju's Les Yeux sans visage (1959), symbolize madness.

Throughout the continental plate of dissolute magma which is the Japanese cinema runs a phosphoric radiance of morbidity, veins of deterioration, supernatural malaise, and splendid new devices of torment, Evil Dead Trap 3: Victimage of Exquisite Mutilation, it may be, is eclipsed by it's predecessors, as it is somewhat more lackadaisical but none the less, and although, like the first two films, is has no connexion with those flicks with which it shares it's title, is, as such, worthy to be dismissed as yet another untarnished diadem in the triplicate crown of J-Horror, whose threefold platforms include Dissension, Disarray, and Moral Leprosy.

Moreover, another anology about Japan, is that it is like some vast soup-ladle, infested with maggots, and dispensing it's putrifaction to the lower Sub-Asian Penensula . . .

The version I saw was picked up in a VHS emporium in New Dheli and had some warping due to somebody leaving it in a hot car on a summer's afternoon, after watching it I barfed curry pudding into a sack...

Sudden lack of money has flipped the pair's dependency. Unable to pay her maid for several months, -- not to say that it is not engaging, by all means it absolutely is. Particularly if you consider the sound of an electronic buzzer that goes on and off sporadically in place of a soundtrack, the sight of naked children being stuffed into closets, naked children being wrapped in celophane, a full-grown midget decapitating a dead naked child, dead infant corpses being used as home furnishings, and lots of child pornography taking place in a dodgy mortuary slab environment, it is quite possibly the most involving video I've seen in a while. On many levels, the directors, actors, and all involved, regardless of whatever sociopolitical significance this movie attempted to create, should be warmly applauded for making this movie.

The HPA Axis, it is said, plays a delicate balancing act to provide the film-goer with proper levels of various glutimates, enzymes and phosphates (serotonin, dopamine, cortisol, epinephrine . . . ) and I think it not impossible that such films screw with this delicate imbalance, which may, in the latent pychotic, already be teetering. Some can't deal with the severity of what a brain goes through when faced with themes of this nature. They *crash* --there is a bending and eventual snapping of the Mind. Like I said --phychosis or emotional stimuli in a untoward combination: and "abnomalies" result. In summation, if viewing the atrocities depicted in this film incites an erection: Seek help.

Note: For the record, there are two versions: only black-and-white which is under 3 minutes, another just under 4 in poor-quality sepia tone. They are both equally bad, though it's best to watch them back-to-back starting with the B&W one.

"Cannibal Holocaust" is purportedly banned in over 60 countries, and that simple fact alone has only added to it's notoriety; in 1995, Lucertola Media in Germany printed only 1000 copies of it's haunting, incredible soundtrack, which may be one of the best ever realized for this kind of film. The film itself has cropped up in many countries, in a surprising amount of cropped and various forms, leaving some left in wonder and doubt as to what it's true uncut form really is. Many believed at one point there was a version including the infamous "vice clamp on testicles" sequence, but it has since been learned that scene was only photographed, and never actually shot.

On the face of it, Cannibal Holocaust is a convincing glimpse into the unknown world of flesh eating natives and savagery, diametrically different from Private Benjamin, (Though was made during the same year).

However, you cannot escape the examination at a deeper level of the odyssey of a large-breasted female explorer from complacent professional competence to incredible strength and self realization. The only movie I know of which treats the theme of emergence of personal strength in a woman in as worthy a way is the underrated Private Benjamin. That thoroughly enjoyable movie unfortunately diffuses its focus, hopping among several themes and exploiting the fine performance of Goldie Hawn(who keeps her titties housed in non-see-thru brazziers)to chase after some easy laughs. Cannibal Holocaust sticks to its business, and, as Hitchcock once said of a good film, it lacks not in the area of it's "McGuffin" (in this case, human appendages).

There is another strain of movies-about-women, epitomized by Thelma and Louise, a big budget commercial money maker with the despicable theme that women are doomed, whether or not they realize their inner strengths. What tripe.

As usual you really ought to see this film in a movie theater. It should be a natural for film festivals. Nominate it for one near you if you get the chance. Won't you?

I bought the uncut version of Cannibal Holocaust and gave it to my 21 year old daughter. Better she should see it on a TV than not at all!

The kids from Psycho Parade are re-united on screen to play modern-day siblings in this penny-ante live-action feature from Hungary. Also on display are some neat rinky-dink special effects, in which normal-sized actors and psychos (think flesh and bone teletubbies) seem to share the same screen space.

Schmidthuber (Sigismund Garber) and Franciszek arrive in Wallenberg to meet up with their grandfather D.J Turdblanket Lindström (Good Evening, Mr. Budapest), who runs a successful rubber plant. They drive out to the rubber forest for a lark, where Franciszek happens across an erstwhile psycho named Freebaser, terribly deformed, with numerous openings rent in his cranium, out of which he produces a syrup-like substance, which with he thereupon proceeds to spread on slices of bread, and *shudder* then eat. Schmidthuber, Franciszek and D.J agree to help the psychos by driving them to other forests further inland. En route, an opportunistic freak-show boss, Tvrtko, catches a glimpse of the psychos and kidnaps them for his carnival. Matters worsen when D.J tries to get his own security agents to lead the hunt for the kidnapped psychos, for they dismiss his orders as the ramblings of a mad-man and have him locked away in a mental health facility. Schmidthuber and Franciszek are the only ones who can free their grandfather, rescue the psychos, and find a bride for Freebaser before it's too late! Generally-speaking the film is unlikable and extremely boring. Lindström is always a pleasure to watch, but this is the exception (in fact, a double-whammy as he has a dual role). Both child-actors are exceedingly irritating, especially Garber who demonstrates no understanding of comic timing whatsoever. The special effects are adequate, with convincing visual trick work to have the psychos (costumed dummies) interacting with the humans, and some not-so-bad talking-animal-scenes at the beginning of the film. There are, however, even more drawbacks. This is the only film, for example, where you can see a static shot of a 747 approaching directly toward the camera over sweltering tarmac in a long shot that is possibly over three minutes long, with no movement other than the almost imperceptible and sluggish lumbering of the plane.

On the whole, I intensely disliked The Pszicho Parade. Tvrtko made the biggest impression on me as the arrogant freak-show boss, he got the best scenes and the funniest lines. Once, terrorizing Wallenberg from inside a huge, inflatable robot-like version of himself (don't ask), he looks into the camera and chortles, "If those little dum-dums knew it was me in here, they'd defecate in their pantaloons!"

Even those with an ardent interest in post-traumatic stress disorder will find it hard to bear. . .

I was often struck by the warm reception by US audience for the trashy Spanish films such as "Autopsia" and the Venezeulian version of "Pitzer Film of Kennedy Autopsy"(1973) while powerful non-coronatorial movies such as this one went on unnoticed. But, on the other hand, although I own the DVD, I cannot bring myself to watch it. However, If you are looking for action or high romance, this isn't the film for you. But if you are looking for a simple story that for me played out more like a parable than a story line for a movie I think you will enjoy it. The vivisection scenes are totally realistic. The shoddy interiors and settings are all real, not a Hollywood set. And the primary actors are incredibly real people who don't work for the screen actors guild.

A very fine film, maybe a little bit slow at times due to the desire to capture the very special rhythm of the serial killers. The story of serial killers and their victim taken up in the trauma of an snuff-film scenario. Oh dear, the girl has lost a leg and finds it difficult to cope, what's more she culpabilizes the incident and the sore fate of the wayward limb. So far nothing special. Too bad, a large wound is inflicted and her rib-cage removed. We try to forget that it is only to induce pain. The scenery is not grandiose and the absence of any distraction makes the victim and her tormentors concentrate on themselves, and regenerate their death energy. Just this adventure is strong enough to be fascinating. It also reveals that a love, not affair, but adventure develops between the victim and her gore-ranchers : change, a completely new universe, the discovery of feelings that are of a new nature, and a journey's end. The attitudes displayed rejoins them at the end are surprising in many ways: the freedom granted to the female by her loosening grip on her very mortality, the responsibility of the dudes who will in the end return to their serial murders, and the deepfelt passion of both. A passion that will be dominated and kept human and inhumane, a passion of the soul which will make it a lot more difficult to break, and yet which will remain totally controlled by the mind. No abandon, no reckless delving into it, just accepting it and keeping it within the limits of an equisite vision which takes into accounts the interest of others and not only the selfish desires of the victimizers. Love becomes then a mental and visceral blending of feelings and experiences. It can be brought to an end but it will always prevail. The film is extremely moral in a way and tries to show that natural living conditions do not produce uncensored impulses, far from it. To go back to nature builds a deeper moral and ethical approach to life. Some will say that is a myth. Right they are. Some will say that is a dream. Right they are. Some will say that is an illusion. Right they are. But it is something that does exist and that shows human beings are definitely not animals.

Piece of trivia: The videostore guy told me that the director rented rooms to hold cockfights in but neglected to tell hotel management about it

Marks: Bonuses...5.2 Extras...1.2 SFX...6.0 CGI...8.2 DVD...1.8

TOTAL:22.4

Arriving at my door, this video, which I had procured from E-Bay.com has many extras and features and is very-well put together, but the film itself, unbeknownst to me at that time, would prove to be my undoing: Quite by accident I'd come upon a dread vision more fantastic than anything from out of Dante; putrified, bodies piled in heaps on beaches in the Chinese province of Xixioung, a, like so many flesh-balloons ripening and bursting in the afternoon sun. On this the camera lingers, unflinchingly -- Pop! a corspe, bursting at the seems, abruptly inflates and then pops open strewing it's organs amid a splash of half-uncoagulated blood, and then another, and then another...

Finally, toward evening, this ranch of carnage is set ablaze and we are treated to a symphony of sickening popping sounds and the abysmal sight of what can best be described as a field of human popcorn yielding it's unwholesome fruits. The heat from the resulting conflagration, you see, creates pressure within the floury endosperm of corpse-meat, causing it to explode, and, horrific to relate, turn itself inside out.

In addition to a severe case of panic/anxiety disorder, a screening of these terrors, celebrated in this film, "Rape of Nanking-- Solar Disc of Umbra" (literal translation) resulted in something my doctor has told me is called "restrcutring cognitive distortion", a condition wherein brain fluid backflows (refluxes) into the lobular cavities, sometimes getting into the ears, occasionally, I understand, even into the mouth. It produces ultra-intense headaches at least twice a week. Actually. before I started taking Pantroprazole, it was occurring not just twice a week, but more than twice a day. In addition to the nightmares, in a very small percentage of people, including me, it produces nearly impossible to describe creepy feelings like something besides just brain fluid is crawling around in my head.

Additionally, it also seems to produce, or, at least, trigger creepy feelings and pressure in my head that vaguely resemble the anxiety I experienced when first watching the terrific imagery presented in this title, but are unlike any headache I've ever had. My doctor says that those headaches have nothing to do with the Nanking Massacre, but I don't believe him.

And when dead bodies start erecting themselves, and march out of their graves, or people with crippled skeletons are restored to perfect form, CNN will be there ...

This little shocker conceived, written and directed by the brilliant A.G. Baby is several cuts above the kind of fare one has become accustomed to in the Post Ramsay's era of the 90's, and beyond. Ever since the once prolific Ramsay production line decided to devote its energy to the mini screen the horror genre in Bollywood has lurched from bad to worse in the hands of some truly dire smut merchants; namely K.I. Shaikh, Jitendra Chawda, Kishan Shah, R. Mittal, Harinam Singh and company. -- Stop right there, you bad boys! If it weren't for publishing bigwig Ram Gopal Verma's well intentioned if somewhat misguided attempts sandhirflora(1991) and Raat(1992), the horror genre might have died out altogether - however real credit for keeping the genre from fading away completely must go to a small band of producer/directors from the south who have managed to churn out some fairly striking and even memorable content over the years. The strongest horror films that we have come across from the post Ramsay's era have all hailed from the South of the country and are clear evidence that not only is the genre alive and well in these parts but also aspiring to a fair amount of box office appeal. House No.13 is one of these South Indian productions that manage to put the northern horror films to considerable shame. This film, though clearly influenced by horror films from the West, still succeeds in retaining its own direct style, and, much to its credit, none of the death scenes are direct rip-offs of scenes from western counterparts. Numerous shock scenes are effective and totally original and amazingly there isn't a ski mask, lady in a white sari with both eyes bleeding, or pair of plastic pitchforks in sight, nor does one get to enjoy the BBC's trusty Death and Horror Sound Effects tape as one does in 90% of Bollywood horror films, in particular, the sounds of those spooky beating heart sounds !

This, like every other Bollywood horror movie begins on the obligatory dark and stormy night lashing down ominous hosepipes of rain. A new family arrives at an old creaking Haveli, as they have been able to buy it at a snip on the market for reasons they hitherto failed to comprehend.. With this highly promising shock start House No.13 kicks into high gear. Soon, the brood, headed by the venerable and seasoned veteran horror thespian Anil Dhawan arrive at their new residence quite oblivious of its grisly past but there excitement soon turns to horror as things start going terribly wrong. The old wheezing grandfather complains that the mirror in his room is up to some tricks clouding over with smoke, but his claims are met with disbelief. Later that night the bad fake Mona Lisa painting above his bed starts developing a seriously bad skin rash and then, in one of the films most chilling and effective scenes, the painted woman's hair starts to grow - the tresses emerging like nightmarish ropes of death twirling around the old man, snaring him in a ghastly death trap. Later on in the proceedings a child has a terrifying encounter with a puppet resembling Lady Elaine Fairchild and is revealed to contain within it's interior, plasma, miniature organs (pancreas, gall blatter, &c.), and a complete, fully working central nervous system. Needless to say, the doll ends up in a meat grinder.

Director Baby pulls out all the stops and handles the shock scenes exceptionally well clearly indicating a strong flair for the genre. Fortunately the film isn't destroyed by the presence of a comedian sidekick, which in itself is a major blessing – no Jagdeep, no Narendranath, Snackpipe or Asrani!. However the half dozen or so totally forgettable songs featuring a pansy as the lead hero slow things down to a yawn on one or two occasions – but to be fair, Baby keeps things moving along fairly rapidly despite the musical interludes, and there is enough horror interspersed through the movie to keep genre fans interested.

Though the films overall theme of a wronged woman returning from afterlife to wreak revenge is a tad overdone, the directors treatment of the subject has enough freshness and originality to keep the horror fan from dozing off entirely, and though the songs are irritating, as is the romantic subplot, the film is clearly one of the better Bollywood horror efforts over the last decade or so and suggests that there is might yet be life after the Ramsays. This film along with Chudail and Maa ki Shakti demonstrate that there may still be hope for horror in Bollywood and with the news of the Ramsay brothers slated to release their comeback venture "Ek: The Fear" – the future doesn't look entirely bleak for Bollywood horror despite the distinctly dodgy efforts of K.I. Shaikh and Jitendra Chawda and friends, all of whom I hereby place under citizen' s arrest! (Just kidding around, you guys ! Get out of here, please !)

if I have circumvented any individual from watching this One Star winner then my job here is done.

"Succubare" was recognized by Wai-Yip Wong himself as his most important film of his late period along with "Shaolin Head Waiter" (1982). While generally the later is accepted as his masterpiece "Succubare" is misunderstood as Wong's "misfire", as a "flop", an opinion toward which I tend to gravitate. What we have here is a good drama whose story is totally overshadowed by a certain scene-stealing extra whose diet consists chiefly of live animals, usually small rodents or finches, which he consumes by the jarful. Before the opening credits roll we are treated to the sight of his character eating boxes of headless canary torsos and sea-cucumbers, and washing them down with yak's blood. Sometimes during the film he tries to hold back, proclaiming that henceforth he will bite the heads off no living creature, but then he loses his willpower, and eats huge breakfasts consisting of badgers, partridges, shrews, cuttlefish, duckbill-platipusses, baby spiney anteater eggs, and spoonfulls of lice, and a huge stack of skates drenched in kelp. Wai-Yip Wong himself was detailed by producers to drag this fellow out of pet shops. He claimed that, during the first day of shooting Cho King (for such is his name) devoured two octopusses, some gerbils, two horse shoe crabs, and a pile of sanddollars for brunch, necessitating constant altering of his costumes.During his birthday party on the set, Wai-Yip Wong gave him a belt with a card reading "Hope it fits." A sign was placed below the birthday cake saying: "No Mammels Were Harmed." He reportedly ate at least fourteen live tape worms that day. His second wife who had a lock put on their incubator to stop pilfering by what she thought was the household staff, awoke one morning to find the lock broken and teeth marks on a baby chick's remains. The house maid told her that her husband nightly raided the incubator. She also related how He often drove down to the local pound late at night, wolfing down as many as six kittens at a time. Costumer Chiang Hung claimed that this fellow split the seat on 34 pairs of pants during the shooting of the film, necessitating that stretch fabric be sewn into his replacement duds. He split those too. Animal fat was the culprit: This guy would purloin a 10-gallon tub of the fattening desert, row himself out into the lagoon, and indulge. On the set his double often had to be used for shooting after lunch, and filming could only proceed in long shots, as this poor sap could no longer fit into his costumes. Dick Carter Wong, who was married to this guy's sister Fanny, said that he used to eat five wildebeests at a sitting, and (go) through bags of gila monsters." It was reported that during filming that, being environmentally sensitive, this guy fished a frog out of a pond, took a huge bite out of the hapless amphibian, and threw it back into the drink. He also created what he called "real-life peeps" by cracking open a baby hen's skull, melting some snail hides in the sun, then stirring them in with the brains for a tasty treat. By the end of shooting, there were reports that his wife had left him because he failed to keep his promise of losing weight. He seemed to be dieting, but to her astonishment, he never lost weight. She found out that his buddies had been throwing bags containing anethesized weasels over the gates of his Macau Drive estate late at night to relieve the hunger pangs of their famished friend. Furthermore, he was spotted regularly buying lard from a Hong Kong butchers shop: ten gallons at a time. He supposedly confessed that he was eating it all himself. Finally, a reported favorite snack was a living spider monkey and some raw bacon shoved into a Portugese Man-O-War Jellyfish. When he became ill, he seriously cut back and lost 70 lbs. on a vegetable diet, but he never lost his love of living tissues and especially those of rodents and primates.

Animal rights activists will object to the butchering of a full grown ox on screen, (which goes uneaten) and, indeed, the unnecessary consumption of so many animals can get very distracting at times, as it has no bearing on the script. While not in the top ranks of 80's gross-out horror, SUCCUBARE remains, however, revolting yet diverting and boasts a mainly dependable cast.

Upon initial viewing of this film, deceptively entitled "Audition", I had to be hospitalized for seven months due to severe depression. Initially I was put on heavy medication, but I got very bad side effects (low blood pressure... almost killed me) and didn't respond to them very well. In my country, electric shock treatment is used considerably to treat mental disorders (I don't know specifically which ones, but at least Traumatic Depression). The doctors considered using it shortly after I was hospitalized, but my family wasn't very keen on it, and I was very weak physically. About five months after being hospitalized they started treating me with it, and already after the second time, I started coming out of the delirious state in which I had been for months.

I have been considering writing about my depression period. Still after three years I think about it regularly. For more than five months I was lost to this world, and suffered from almost constant hallucinations and delusions. No kind of psychotherapy would have gotten me out of that nightmare, and drugs did not have much positive effects, either. I was wondering if there would be any audience for my story... or maybe most of you are going through your private hell right now and don't need to read about someone else's experience?

The premise is simple enough, here we have a film, like many others, about a man seeking a wife, "BRIDE & PREJUDICE: The Bollywood Musical" (2004), or the uplifting "SOMETIMES HAPPINESS, SOMETIMES SORROW" (2001), and still yet others, too numerous to mention here; but in most cases there is a feel-good vibe so why I brought them up I don't understand ...

Marks :

Picture: F+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Program: F

OVERALL : 0.5 out of 10

Comment : pansies and school marms mustn't watch !

In 1978, A Mexican film crew (Mismovision) struck a deal with Mexico City Broadcasting (MCB): In the years that followed, they could use their characters in any way they saw fit. MCB producer Memo Vasqueze, who was responsible for bringing many great cult leader shows to TV throughout the 70s, decided to do a Jim Jones series, and wanted the story to remain as faithful to the Marvel comic as possible, but MCB's sponsor Bambino Machino wanted to sell more toys, so there was a major story rewrite, and they had to push a giant robot into the story! MCB's producers thought Bambino Machino was crazy! Nonetheless, this was to be the first time in a cult leader series in which a cult leader figure (as opposed to a regular pilot, such as in the Japanese METZENGINGER Z) operated a giant robot!

The MCB/Bambino Machino project entitled GUYANA: Crimen del siglo a Mexinization of Jim Jones himself (the project was going to be called GUYANA: Robusteza del Mal), but Bambino Machino got more control than Vasqueze, for whom this show was the last straw. When he left evil cult shows (and worked on soap operas at MCB), it was completely Bambino Machino's show from there on. The next Cult Hero Series, Siempre listo en las tinieblas (1980) and ¡Así es mi tierra! (1981) had MCB in the opening credits! Go figure!

Here we have Bambino Machino's GUYANA: Crimen del siglo, which, despite its shortcomings, should supposedly be a treat for fans of that type of thing! I will say that it was better than the short-lived American series starring Powers Booth (which wasn't TOO bad). Before the excellent new GUYANA film starring Stewart Whitman, this is definitely the least historically faithful GUYANA ever portrayed on film! The attitude was right, the poses and stunts were incredible! But the faithfulness ends with portrayal of Cult Leader Jimmy (Jim-Jam) Jones himself. . .

The STORY is what bugs me! The Mexinization is much more extreme than the aforementioned Marvel Comic from the same year, and here, Jim-Jam's regular foes are nowhere to be seen. Also, his origins have been changed completely! He's from outer space, he has a racing car (Messiah-Machine GP-12000) and rides a giant ship called the Marveller (hmmmm . . . Where DID they get that name . . . ), which transforms into the giant robot Assuptionizer! OK, now this is TOTALLY out of place for IL' Captain Koolaid, even more absurd than any of Ralph Bakshi's "drug-trip" Hobbit adventures (from the last two seasons of the classic animated series)! But that's not all! Bambino Machino ran out of money to do the FX prior to the post-production, and Assuptionizer was replaced by a goofy-looking bozo-clown named Senior Bungles, as it was rumored that some nasty fanatic stole the robot costume! So its appearance was limited to stock footage of the robot, with new footage of Senior Bungles' balloon animal antics spliced in!

But now, let'slook at a few the show's minuses: As, moreover, we are forced to endure more Guyana Cult Tragedy action! In fact, the show is VERY violent! incorporating in certain instances real footage of human brain surgery!

I'll be as brief on the plot as I can: In space, Professor Jehovah, leader of the Angelican Army (his cronies include right hand woman Oblate Sisters of the Assumption, a similar two Caucasian women, and dove-like henchmen) are in pursuit of the space craft Marveller, which comes to Earth and crashes on a mountain in Guyana, freeing an old hermit named Padre Sebastián, who was from the planet Spider (which the big Prof. plundered and destroyed long ago). After a race show, motorcycle stuntman Bert Powers (Ricardo Carrión) (who lives with his sister and little brother, and has a fashion model girlfriend, who's unaware that her boss is actually an Oblate Sisters of the Assumption in disguise! Wow, and you thought the Branch Davidians of the infamous Waco Massacre were out there!) is fatally wounded by Oblate Sisters of the Assumption and the dove-henchmen, who attempt to remove his brain but are thwarted by Padre Sebastián, the old hermit, who injects "grape koolaid" into Bert's jugular artery before turning back into a starfish!

He also receives a metallic bracelet, which stores his cult leader suit (PLUS!!!), shoots holy fire, and is also a communicator for the Messiah-Machine GP-12000 and Marveller, which he can ride and transform into Assuptionizer, which kills 917 "true believers", as we all know, on that ill-fated day (it hurls its punch bowls at it's prey, as opposed to to merely lacing it with stychnide and leaving it there by the wayside for the followers to imbibe at their leisure)!

**SPOILERS** I will say that, ultimately, though incredibly rushed (especially after its slow first half), has its fair share of sick sick scenes, in particular, those depicting the heaps of stagnant dead bodies rotting in the sun, and accompanied by the buzzing of flies on the soundtrack!

Anyhow, after the Assuptionizer kills the congregation off, Jim Jones comes face to face with Professor Jehovah, who, after a little scuffle with our cult leader, grows to giant size, pounds his chest like King Kong, and exerts "The Angelican Army is immortal!!!" Jim Jones does the usual Marveller/Assuptionizer thing and kills the evil Professor the same way he killed everyone else, but this time, with a bit of fire & brimstone thrown in between for dramatic effect (supposedly taken from real life transcripts of real-life sermons but echoing here via the employment of some audio trickery and thus difficult to understand)

My final take: Bambino Machino's GUYANA: Century of the Crime a fun roller-coaster ride with tons of unnecessary (but not unwelcome) sermonizing, and a must-see for Jesus freaks. I say, don't let the minuses get to you, and just sit back and enjoy the plusses!

Not Recommended.

Sometimes children become upset during movies that to us seem fairly tame. We have had to walk out of only one movie because our children became upset. I believe it was this particular film, "Cannibal ferox" which dealt with the experiences of a American student during a sojourn into the heart of deepest Africa. Since the lead character was a girl of about the same age of my daughters, I thought they would be interested in the movie. They became upset early in the movie when a panic situation occurred in a remote area and the she got separated from the expedition. Somehow she made her way into the Nigerian Basin and discovered there, blooded, skinless human trunks hanging from a tree-stem in a clearing....

Enter the cannibals.

My young daughters thereupon witnessed the preparation of the living flesh of white men. From taking the victim out of his cage, lopping off his head, tearing the skin off, filleting the meat from the bones, and then cooking the horrific stew. These scenes are exceedingly revolting, and the fact that there were limbless bodies strewn around, and all these cooking vats brimming over with chopped up dead people really upset my girls. They said, "I don't like this movie, Daddy. Let's leave." After repeated pleadings, we did leave.

The other kids in the neighborhood have also learned that cannibalism as a whole and "Great White Jungle Explorer" play of any type is not permitted in our household/yard, and that if they do so they will be told to go home. Very seldom is there a problem.

Overall : 0 out of 5

Comment : 7.5 out of 10 for a gorehead ... 4 for for every other !

"Terror Battalion #731" (literal translation) a no-holds-barred, slug-wrenching ballet of imploding human corpses (real), and features a scene with a cat which will make you wish you hadn't notified the Cruelty to Animals Ministry about that baby kitten you saw being sent down river in a miniature raft in the disgraceful "Milo and Otis" (1986)

I actually,purchased this movie for my son for his graduation day present. I read the back of the movie before purchase, Rated PG-13, Cute little story, distributed by Golden Harvest, endorsed by The Washington Post, purchased at Walmart for $5 bucks, how can this be wrong? WRONG is when my son came running "They're torturing the animals! I could not believe my eyes! Kittens screeching for their lives, animals yelping through out, a dog getting whacked by a speeding SUV with a sudden cut away as if the dog was killed (real). Animals don't leap into flesh-shredding machines on their own, you know. So much to say here. Don't show this movie to any child! Involving cats, believed by some -- granted, it was in the antique races of degenerate Egypt -- as vessels of divinity! Not unlike cattle here in Modern-day India! All involved should be so ashamed. I will never trust the Chinese Acadamy of Film again, not even the newspapers. I'm just so angry, I might just bust a nut!!

A five pound (or more) glob of decayed and undigested meat and dairy exists within the intestinal tracts of dead humans who had an omnivorous diet, or so it is reputed. Especially since the key component of dairy is glue (casein). "Flesh Meat Doll 3" introduces us to a Japanese surgeon who solidifies this substance in his patients and pulls out literally ropes of this rubber-like substance, which, in real life, has been known to cause migraines, cancer, impede the immune system and cause stomach bleeding. If you are like me you're of a delicate constitution and would probably be better off sticking to MGM musicals. Curiosity killed the cat, however, and, at the appearance of this ultrasicko barf-fest at my favorite VCD boutique, I couldn't resist a rental, much to my demise -- Alas!

I hereby beseech you, my friends, to not watch these disgusting horrorshows, whose needless cruel toxicity you will find yourself embroiled in, writhing in madness, and, in the end totally unable to wipe from your tiny minds -- they are vile, grossly irreverent toward what is held to be sacred, and poorly filmed on grainy film stock...

I write this comment almost 12 days after watching this movie and still there is a sense of discomfort about this movie, when I think of the way it ended. Very frankly "Centipede Horror" freaked me out. Seen a lot of Din Long Lee (Hong Kong Police Madame 3) vehicles, but this one, Dang!!!! really put me off. First of all the movie is paced so slowly that it kinds of puts off track and then last 30 minutes just blows you off, with a last few scenes taking the cake. This in no way can be described as a family picture, rather, it is a movie for psychos whose time might be better spent getting their noggins looked at. With decent acting from all of them. I give this one nevertheless a 0/10 just for sheer bad vibes...

Steer clear.