Fanny Hill / The Phantom Gunslinger (Blu-ray Review) - Vinegar Syndrome

USA/1964, 1967
Directed By: Russ Meyer, Albert Zugsmith
Written By: John Cleland, Robert Hill, Blair Robertson, Albert Zugsmith
Starring: Leticia Roman, Ulli Lommel, Miriam Hopkins, Troy Donahue, Sabrina
B&W, Color/203 Minutes/Not Rated
REGION FREE

The Films
Russ Meyer is best known for his love of women, more specifically, beautiful, big breasted women. He wasn't shy about it. He put them front and center of his films making them the stars. Whether it was a comedy, or a piece of exploitation he is known for his love of women and their boobies, without being a misogynist. FANNY HILL features some beautiful women, but this period comedy is a bit different than the likes of Supervixens and Faster Pussycat Kill Kill.

FANNY HILL is the story of a cute, shy girl named Fanny who has moved to the city from her country upbringing looking for employment. It doesn't take long for us to realize how naive this girl is. She seeks work and lodging at the local brothel where the den mother gets the idea that she can make a fortune off this fresh, untouched beauty. What ensues is a series of pretty damn funny slapstick, innuendo filled fun, while Fanny grows up and finds her true love. If nothing else FANNY HILL shows how good of a director Russ Meyer truly was. The sleepwalking chase scene is fantastic, as is Fanny's back and forth with an equally shy man who is looking for a women to sleep with that understands him. Beyond Meyer's direction, the performances are damn good, never crossing the line to being hammy or over the top which is incredibly easy when dealing with content and style such as this. This is a great little film that I'm amazed found its way to Blu-ray considering the strangle hold the Russ Meyer estate has over his films since his death. It is a crime, and while I can't say whether this film was part of the estate or not it is great to have some Russ Meyer material in HD.

If there is one thing in the world of film that I absolutely cannot stand it is hokey comedy westerns. I was never a fan of the western genre until I discovered the Italian productions that made the movies dirty, gritty and violent. There were no singing cowboys (which is the only thing this film is missing), there was no "injins" and there was no John Wayne. Oh how I hate John Wayne. THE PHANTOM GUNSLINGER is pretty much everything I hate about the old American western wrapped up into a single package. There are the slow talking natives, the slapstick comedy routines (over and over and over) the jail with rubber bars, nonsensical and outlandish fight scenes, and an overall feeling of "try-hard" (if you don't know what that means, look it up). There were 2 things I got a laugh at, the banker character who is a caricature of Hitler (I'm a sucker for making fun of Hitler with random characters in films) and in that same scene a flask the size of a grown man's torso. I can handle a small dose of comedy in my westerns, the Euro westerns of the 70s did this and kept the movies quality. I cannot take heavy doses of ham fisted cornball writing. It is entirely possible if you're open to totally off the wall slapstick comedies that you'll enjoy this, I certainly see how one would. For me however, it is an attempt at a comedic western and that is something I just do not enjoy.

The Audio & Video
FANNY HILL's black and white photography shines on this Blu-ray presentation from Vinegar Syndrome. The 1.85:1 widescreen transfer looks great with excellent levels of detail in skin and textures along with deep, stable black levels. The audio is free of any background noise or popping, crackling or otherwise intrusive annoyances. 

For as much as I didn't care for the film, THE PHANTOM GUNSLINGER looks fucking fantastic. The transfer keeps the integrity of the movie's shot on film look with a natural grain structure. It has been cleaned up a bit it seems but the image is far from waxy or overdone. This is a colorful film and the colors really pop. Whites never burn too hot and black levels are deep. If all westerns on Blu-ray looked this good we'd be in good shape. The DTS HD mono track sounds great. It comes across loud and clear without a trace of background noise. All of the bonks and bops of the fight scenes are pleasing on the ears.

The Extras
Bonus features on this 3 disc set include:
-"The Zugsmith Connection": featurette with FANNY HILL star Ulli Lommel
-Video interview with film historian Eric Schaefer
-Reversible cover art for THE PHANTOM GUNSLINGER
-DVD copies of each film

The Bottom Line
Vinegar Syndrome has brought this pair of Albert Zugsmith productions together in a near pristine Blu-ray release. Perhaps more importantly is the fact that we get to see some of Russ Meyer's work in HD, something I wasn't expecting anytime soon. Despite my personal distaste for the 2nd film on the double feature, the very high overall quality of this release, and the quirky charm of FANNY HILL make this disc highly recommended. 

FANNY HILL and THE PHANTOM GUNSLINGER is available HERE

Bible! (DVD Review) - Vinegar Syndrome

USA/1974
Directed By: Wakefield Poole
Written By: Wakefield Poole
Starring: Bo White, Caprice Couselle, Georgina Spelvin
Color/76 Minutes/Not Rated
Region FREE


The Film
A nuclear explosion signifying the beginning. A fetus being formed. A naked man exploring a cave, emerging on to a beach. He collapses. A naked woman emerges from the sea like a siren temptress to the man. Wakefield Poole's BIBLE! has begun.

There has been no shortage of biblical stories being adapted for film. From The Ten Commandments to Passion Of The Christ, some of the most respected names in the business have worked on such films. None are quite like Wakefield Poole's BIBLE! though. BIBLE! is pure 1970s midnight theater, the more weed you've got to smoke the better, weirdness. Taking on three separate stories from the bible, Wakefield Poole creates a piece of work unlike anything I can think of. Largely absent of dialogue and having actors movements choreographed to music as many films from the silent era did, BIBLE! moves from scene to scene in a weird fever dream of mesmerizing nudity and color. From Adam and Eve to Bathsheba and even Samson and Delilah, we're exposed to sex, seduction, murder and infidelity (and much, much more). You need not be overly familiar with the source material, a very brief idea of the stories would suffice and really none at all and you'd be okay just to follow along with the images on screen that will surely make you dizzy with delight. How this didn't become some sort of cult phenomenon when it was released is beyond me.

The Audio & Video
Vinegar Syndrome has released this DVD of BIBLE! with a damn fine A/V presentation. The visuals play excellent job here. The dream like atmosphere is present in every color filled shot that looks solid with only such an important role in this film thanks to the almost complete lack of dialogue and VS has done an a bit of dirt and speckling from the original negative present. BIBLE! is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The 2.0 audio track sounds great and comes across loud and clear. There's no background noise, cracks or pops to speak of. While there's very little dialogue there is an important classical music score that sounds great.

The Extras
BIBLE! features a nice array of special features including Myrrh, frankincense, and gold... actually not. But it does include:

-Audio commentary from the director
-Video introduction from the director
-Women Of BIBLE!: New interviews with Georgina Spelvin and Gloria Grant
-Emerald City Interview: Wakefield Poole talks about BIBLE on public access TV in 1977
-Screen tests
-Stills gallery
-Theatrical Trailer

 The Bottom Line
From the way the film caught me totally off guard to the fantastic presentation and a wonderful collection of special features, I have to recommend this to any fan of weird, midnight movies from the 70s.

BIBLE! is available HERE

Voices From Beyond (Lucio Fulci, 1991) Director Of The Month Series 1.2

For the second week of Lucio Fulci month I decided to watch a film I recently purchased and had never seen. I've been cautious of Fulci's later films as frankly, they aren't well liked and aren't very good and I find those sentiments to ring true. I suppose I was cautiously optimistic that, maybe, just maybe, VOICES FROM BEYOND would help my overall opinion of Fulci's latter works. It didn't.

When a wealthy man dies a suspicious death from hemorrhaging, everyone around him is happy to see him go and to line their pockets with his money. Only his daughter Rosy still loves him and, with the help of her father's ghost, will discover the truth behind his death. What ensues is a lot of family drama, some corny and annoying voice over work from the ghost and one pretty damn cool scene that has nothing at all to do with the rest of the movie and ends up just being a dream sequence.

VOICES FROM BEYOND is lame, even by TV movie standards. It is impossibly slow, with wooden acting and a whole slew of unlikable characters. Hell, I'd go as far to say that the only interesting part aside from the one aforementioned dream sequence is the end credits which has a dedication from Fulci that reads "This film is dedicated to my few real friends, in particular to Clive Barker and Claudio Carabba." Now it is no secret that Fulci was difficult and unpleasant at times, more so than most other directors it seems but reading that dedication is sad in the fact that he seems very bitter in it and that the last years of his life weren't particularly nice to him, it seems that by the point this film had been made he was quickly becoming fed up and it shows in his work. VOICES FROM BEYOND is neither good nor interesting, it is something that only Fulci completists need to bother with and even then, you'd be better off not wasting your time.

See you in week 3 when a completely underrated Fulci film is the subject of discussion!

Sanitarium (DVD Review) - Image Entertainment

USA/2013
Directed By: Bryan Ortiz, Bryan Ramirez, Kerry Valderrama
Written By: Evan Boston, Crystal Bratton, James Hartz, Scott Marcano, Bryan Ortiz, Kerry Valderrama
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Lou Diamond Phillips, John Glover, Robert Englund
Color/108 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1

The Film
SANITARIUM is an anthology film set inside of a hospital where Malcolm McDowell is a doctor who tells us three tales of the most disturbed patients he has. The first story revolves around an eccentric artist named Gustav who sculpts clay dolls with which he frequently talks to and argues with. His friend and manager Sam (played by Robert Englund) gets him a deal in New York City but Gustav's dolls have driven him mad and he starts murdering everybody he is friends with. The second story involves a shy student with an abusive father who has started seeing visions of a large hooded figure with ragged clothes. As time goes on the figure gets more physical with the boy and his teacher (the lovely Lacey Chabert) assumes it is the father and steps in. They attacked by this monster hobo, shark toothed, nasty giant guy. Finally the last story revolves around a college professor (Lou Diamond Phillips) who has ended up in the asylum because of his obsession with the December 21st, 2012 doomsday theory. Through flashbacks we see him lose his job, family and mind when everything in his world begins to revolved around preparing for an alien invasion on this day. He installs a fallout shelter and begins living in it, listening to music, working out and doing more studying on the subject until the day comes and his mind slips a little further away with each passing day. 

SANITARIUM is another entry in to the resurant anthology film format. It is uneven and doesn't have a very good or compelling wrap around story. Malcolm McDowell is little more than a name to slap on a poster, or DVD cover in this case, as his narration and limited on screen time does very little to add to the film. He isn't bad in his role, it is just that he has nothing to do. The first story is just okay. The payoff is taken away from us in one shot, and after that it doesn't make up for it. We rarely get to hear what the dolls are saying to the artist so the arguments don't really make sense to the viewer. The second story features the incredibly attractive Lacey Chabert but the girl can't act her way out of a paper bag. I'd love for her to be my school teacher but I don't want her anywhere near my movies unless she plans on getting naked. The story is what it is, the monster thing has lame design and the boy kind of ends up like a shitty Michael Myers rip off. The final story is by far the best, with an excellent performance from Lou Diamond Phillips. He owns the role and carries the story which is the longest of the three. I wouldn't mind seeing this one fleshed out more and being a full length psychological horror feature film. The rest of SANITARIUM is very pedestrian. From the direction and editing to the score, there isn't anything that really stands out.  

 
The Audio & Video
The DVD presentation of SANITARIUM from Image Entertainment looks and sounds very nice. The different settings of the various stories all look great, perhaps best within the final story in the fallout shelter. From the sun shining exteriors to the drab and dreary interiors of the hospital and a fallout shelter the image performs well. Colors are lively, white levels are never too hot and black levels are handled pretty well with only a moment or two of the blacks blocking up. The stereo audio track handles the dialogue and soundtrack mix with ease and is a joy to listen to. 

The Extras
Bare bones. 

The Bottom Line
SANITARIUM is worth checking out for the last story alone even though the first two stories are nothing special. Give it a rental.

SANITARIUM is available HERE

Cassadaga (DVD Review) - Tombstone Distribution

USA/2011
Directed By: Anthony Diblasi
Written By: Bruce Wood, Scott Poiley
Starring: Kelen Coleman, Kevin Alejandro, Rus Blackwell
Color/102 Minutes/Rated R
Region 1

The Film
Lily is an art teacher and student looking to further her knowledge of her profession. After the sudden and violent death of her younger sister she moves to an area known as Cassadaga, "The Psychic Capital Of America", to further study her art. She moves into the guest house of a family that sponsors students for an award at the local college. The pot smoking grandmother and her strange and quiet grandson are the only others that live there with the occasional visit from the groundskeeper. When Lily goes on a date with on of her student's dad they end up at a psychic seance on a bet and Lily has brief contact with her deceased sister until another ghost interrupts and takes over. 

The unidentifed ghost has attached itself to Lily, attacking her and showing her images in order to help her put together the pieces of a puzzle about her own disappearance that could end up saving Lily's life. Lily, with the help of her new man, has to dig deep into her art to find the answer of this haunting and the strange people she lives with. 

CASSADAGA is the second feature film from director Anthony Diblasi, with the overrated Dread from 2009 being his first and is a solid step forward for him. CASSADAGA could have been nothing more than a bad version of the torture porn film's that were so popular a decade ago, and most of those were bad enough as it is. Instead, the writers added in the supernatural element which helps keep things a bit fresh and moving forward but it is a bit of a crutch to lean on. Luckily we are graced with a pair of very likable characters in Lily (Kelen Coleman) and Mike (Kevin Alejandro). Their chemistry together is good and it helps bring a bit of a personal level to the film. There are some good and gross special effects moments as well. CASSADAGA suffers from spotty writing and jumpy editing that early on really takes the viewer out of the groove of watching the film. These crucial elements being poor drag the movie down but I don't think anyone will find this movie offensively bad but at the same time, I don't think too many people will find it exceptionally good.

The Audio & Video
Tombstone Distribution has done a nice job with this disc. The 5.1 surround soundtrack sounds great and is crisp and clear. There are no digital hiccups or any background noise. The video quality looks as good as a modern film should look on DVD. The 16x9 anamorphic widescreen transfer features healthy, vibrant color palettes and a crystal clear presentation. 

The Extras
The lone special feature is a trailer for the film.

 

The Bottom Line
I love supporting new horror films when they're worth supporting. I want new faces and fresh ideas to breathe new life into the genre. While CASSADAGA doesn't exactly do that it at least had it's ideas going in the right direction. I'd give the film a rental before deciding on buying it. 

CASSADAGA is available HERE

Massacre Time (Lucio Fulci, 1966) Director of the Month Series 1.1

So yes, this is the first entry in what I hope becomes a weekly feature on Celluloid Terror, the director of the month series. In this I hope to pick a director each month and discuss one of their films each week. These directors will range from well known horror directors to modern day guys with a lot of hype surrounding them and even art house type fellas. If will be a good chance for you, the reader, to possibly discover some films from a director whose work you enjoy that you may not have known about (and this is great for me to as it will inevitably force me to dig deeper into director's filmographies) and it will help me keep up an (hopefully) interesting feature. I chose Lucio Fulci as the first director, not because he's my favorite director or that I love all of his work. I chose Fulci because he's well known and widely loved but has a wide array of films that many of his fans have overlooked along with having dabbled in many genres.

The spaghetti western became an international phenomena after the success of Sergio Leone's A Fistful Of Dollars in 1964. 2 Short years later Lucio Fulci made his debut in the genre with MASSACRE TIME (aka THE BRUTE AND THE BEAST) from a screenplay by Fernando Di Leo, king of the Euro-Crime genre. Starring Franco Nero who was fresh off the set of Django, the film that would make him a star, MASSACRE TIME is a story about vengeance and the meaning of family. Nero stars as Tom Corbett a gold prospector who returns home when a sadistic land owner, Mr. Scott, takes over his families ranch.

Upon returning home, Corbett finds his brother Jeff (George Hilton) is a lousy alcoholic who is on the bad side of many and his mother is distraught and wants nothing more than Tom to leave and return to safety. Tom confronts Mr. Scott only to be badly beaten by his son Junior and bloodied badly with a bull whip. Later that night tragedy strikes the family and the brothers Tom and Jeff vow vengeance on the Scotts until Tom learns of a rift in the family bloodline, one that will forever tie him to the Mr. Scott and his despicable son, Junior.

MASSACRE TIME is a well made if albeit predictable western that doesn't try to reinvent the mold that was still being formed when it was released. This film features the classic "stranger" character, the bar fight scene, a comic relief coffin maker (that was obviously taken straight from A Fistful Of Dollars and the movie that it was a remake of, Yojimbo, from acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa. Franco Nero dons all black on more than occasion which obviously makes the viewer think of Django. Nero is solid in the lead role, as would be expected but not seeing him as the most experienced gunslinger in town is a bit hard to look passed.

Lucio Fulci would go on to make a handful of westerns, some of them are better and more interesting than MASSACRE TIME but for a director still forming his style, in a genre still forming its style, MASSACRE TIME will go down as a respectable entry into the genre with a good cast and a typically satisfying score and a memorable soundtrack. Fans of Fulci's gore soaked horror works of the 80s will find plenty of blood and violence to enjoy here as well. Do yourself a favor and check out the beloved horror directors first western. 

6/10

How To Seduce A Virgin (DVD Review) - Mondo Macabro

France/1973
Directed By: Jess Franco
Written By: Jess Franco, Alain Petit
Starring: Lina Romay, Alice Arno, Robert Woods
Color/87 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1

The Film
The beautiful and rich Countess Martine has just been released from a stay in an asylum after castrating her former lover. Upon returning home to her coast-side villa, she enters the basement, home to her sexual fantasies and statues of human victims, giving us small but powerful glimpse into this woman's deranged world. Her husband plays into her sick desires as he is well aware that she is the money of the relationship and living his luxurious life style without her. 

He devises a plan for her to seduce Cecile, the teenage virginal daughter of their equally rich neighbors. They offer to let Cecile stay at their home while her parents go away on a business trip, to which Cecile's parents reluctantly agree. Cecile is certainly not innocent, as she regularly pleasures herself with her windows wide open, she is perhaps a bit of an exhibitionist but she is far from experienced and Martine wants her. As their plan begins to unfold Cecile gets in close with Martine's husband and the plan doesn't quite go as planned. 

Jess Franco is a director who may be equally loved and maligned, and the quality of his film definitely run the gamet from garbage to great. HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN is an erotic horror film, that relies heavily on it's eye candy from star Alice Arno and Franco's own lover and frequent collaborator Lina Romay as the silent (and weird) servant, of course along with Tania Busselier as Cecile who would also work with Franco on The Countess Perverse from 1974. HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN features a typical jazzy score that Franco loved to use and plenty of nudity. It is a simple story that makes for an entertaining piece of Euro-sleaze, and I love my Euro-sleaze and few do it as good as Franco did it.

 
 The Audio & Video
 HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN is delivered on DVD by Mondo Macabro in an attractive and clean 1.33:1 full screen transfer. Picture quality is strong with natural skin tones and gorgeous color reproduction, specifically the scenes with heavy doses of colored lighting. There is a single instance of wobble from the picture towards the end of the film. Audio is also strong with a 2.0 mix in French with optional English subtitles which have been newly created. Overall the A/V presentation on this disc is quite good as you can readily expect from Mondo Macabro.

The Extras
Special features include:
-Interview with writer Alain Petit
-Introduction by film critic Stephen Thrower
-Production notes
-Mondo Macabro previews  

 
The Bottom Line

Mondo Macabro commonly does great things with their releases, bringing largely forgotten titles back to the masses in attractive packages and they've done so again here with HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN. More Jess Franco on DVD is not a bad thing and this movie is a good one. If you find yourself a fan of Euro-sleaze you'll find this release as a great addition to your collection.


HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN is available HERE