Patayin mo sa sindak si Barbara (1974)

... aka: Kill Barbara with Panic
... aka: Scare Barbara to Death

Directed by:
Celso Ad. Castillo

Immediately after THE EXORCIST (1973) became a huge sensation and one of the highest grossing films of its year, came a wave of copycats, wannabes and the rare few that actually managed to do something interesting with the demonic possession concept. Nine times out of ten, the victim of the possession was an innocent female and most of the films were vulgar, sleazy and cheap. Many were made in Europe, including the medium budget THE ANTICHRIST (1974), BEYOND THE DOOR (1974), THE EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW (1974), NAKED EXORCISM (1975), NIGHT CHILD (1975) and others from Italy, DEMON WITCH CHILD (1974), EXORCISMO (1974), EXORCISM'S DAUGHTER (1974) and LORNA THE EXORCIST (1974) from Spain, OBSCENE DESIRE (1976; an Italian/Spanish co-production), DEVIL'S FEMALE (1974) from Germany, SEYTAN (1974) from Turkey, ALUCARDA (filmed 1975; released 1978) from Mexico and so forth. In America, the made-for-TV cult deprogramming drama CAN ELLEN BE SAVED? (1974) included an exorcism, as did another TV movie called THE POSSESSED (1977). ABBY (1974) - a black cast spin with a church singer possessed by an African demon - emerged as one of the brightest efforts, and RUBY (1977), which featured Piper Laurie fresh from her success in CARRIE, did well at drive-ins (and was actually set at a drive-in). Warner Brother sued the makers of *some* of these films, but not all. Despite being one of the better efforts, Abby was one of the victims and had to be yanked from theaters after pulling in an impressive 4 million dollars in less than a month. The makers of Beyond the Door also faced a lawsuit and had to withdraw their film (though it became a modest hit itself - despite being awful).

In addition to the films actually made in reaction to the success of The Exorcist, one made before it were often re-titled and re-released to cash in, even when they had absolutely nothing to do with demonic possession. 1966's NAKED EVIL was reissued in 1973 as Exorcism at Midnight, 1972's DADDY'S DEADLY DARLING became The Strange Love Exorcist, Fulci's DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972) became The Long Night of Exorcism, TRAGIC CEREMONY (1974) became Tragic Exorcism and new scenes were tacked onto Bava's LISA AND THE DEVIL (1973) and it was re-released in 1975 as The House of Exorcism. One forgotten film in this cycle was the Filipino obscurity Patayin mo sa Sindak sin Barbara (awkwardly translated to "Kill Barbara with Panic"), which was never released in America. And that's a shame because it is far superior to most (if not all) of the ones listed above. It's also never been released on DVD, while such worthless efforts as Exorcismo and Beyond the Door have received restoration and deluxe treatment. Yes, I know. There's little rhyme and reason behind this stuff. Well, aside from what any given distributor assumes is the bottom dollar.

Barbara (Susan Roces) has been away from home for awhile. It takes the unexpected suicide of her sister Ruth (Rosanna Ortiz) to bring her back. After the funeral, she goes to stay with her brother-in-law Fritz (Dante Rivero) and distraught young niece Karen (Beth Manlongat) in the family's large mansion, which Barbara forfeited her rights to after the passing of her parents. Also living in the home are two other women; Karen's nanny Erlyn (Edna Diaz) and Miss Esguerra (Ellen Esguerra), Fritz's personal assistant. Via flashback, we learn that Ruth and Fritz had a very troubled marriage. After hearing from a psychic that her husband is being unfaithful, Ruth confronts him. He denies it but refuses to swear before a cross, so she hits him over the head with it! Frantic, Ruth locks herself into a room, curses him and then starts throwing stuff around, destroying a mirror in the process. She picks up a huge shard of glass and stabs herself repeatedly in the stomach with it. On her deathbed, she tells her husband "I'll never leave you in peace! I will never stop until I get revenge!" and instructs her daughter to keep a particular doll by her side because it'll be just like having her there. And she's right. It is just like having her there since it'll be the portal for her to enter back into our world.

With the back story revealed in the first fifteen minutes, it doesn't take long before ghostly things begin happening. Barbara has a nightmare vision of the doll with glowing eyes and sees a vision of Ruth's ghost at the cemetery. The daughter begins playing the piano just like her deceased mother and shows other signs that her body has been inhabited by her restless spirit. Ditto for her creepy little doll, which walks on its own and pops up all over the place covered in blood. Furniture moves and paintings fall off the wall. The phone rings and the childish voice on the other end tells Fritz "I'm coming. I hate you. I'm going to kill you." (the movie is in Tagalog but for some reason this moment and several others are spoken in English).

Interestingly enough, Ruth is actually wrong about her husband being unfaithful. He simply fell in love with his sister-in-law (and vice versa), though neither party has ever acted upon it. And so, this is not really a case of a woman scorned, it's a case of an unhinged woman who just thinks she's been scorned. But that doesn't stop Ruth from using her own daughter as an instrument for revenge. After Fritz is seriously injured from being knocked down the stairs, Barbara and Erlyn decide to take Karen to the island home of elderly priestess Aling Benita (Mary Walter), who eventually attempts an exorcism with a huge mirrored cross while Ruth's spirit enters and exits young Karen's body. By this point, the malevolent entity is strong enough to cause physical harm without even requiring a host.

A lot is going on here, and therein lies a problem during the first half of the film. One minute little Karen is speaking in her dead mother's voice, the next it's moving the doll around and then a minute after they'll show a random old dead woman outside hanging by a noose. Who the woman is is never discussed. Many things happen that are never discussed, or something horrific will happen and then the characters behave as if it never did by the next scene. The first hour has interesting and creepy moments spread throughout, but it's all a bit jumbled. Thankfully, the second half of the film set on the island really makes up for the clustered and often confusing first half.

Working with a limited budget, the director and whoever did the cinematography show true ingenuity in creating an aura of the supernatural. I'm sure you've heard of the phrase "smoke and mirrors" to refer to using simple tricks to create a certain illusion. Here "light and mirrors" is more applicable because they use both to create some cool otherworldly fx. And if you pay careful attention, the director is even meticulous enough to insert clever things into the backdrop, such as a shadow cutting across the portrait of a once-happy couple. There's a haunting music box theme used at times, and the film gets rather bloody at the conclusion (plus provides one great jump-out-of-your-seat moment). All of the actors are quite good, and most were established stars in the country. Roces is great in the conflicted lead role, Ortiz is intense and menacing as the crazed sister and young Manlongat gives Linda Blair a run for her money in the possessed child category. The latter actually won Best Child Actress at the FAMAS Awards (the Filipino Oscar equivalent). Roces was also nominated for her performance, as was the picture itself.

Shame this one's so difficult to find. The print floating around right now is of substandard quality and has a "Cinema One" logo on screen the entire time since it was taped from a long-ago TV broadcast.

★★★

Más allá del terror (1980)

... aka: Beyond Terror
... aka: Further Than Fear
... aka: Terror Gang

Directed by:
Tomás Aznar

This seldom-watched Spanish supernatural morality tale is vulgar, pretty sick and more tasteless than most. It's so trashy that the man behind the notorious PIECES (1981), Juan Piquer Simón (who co-wrote and backed the film), opted to hide behind the pseudonym "Alfredo Casado" for his contributions. Things begin with an overlong pre-credits sequence of a young woman getting picked up by an older man. He wants to take her to a hotel. Instead, she insists they go out into the woods to a secluded spot where she proceeds to knife him to death and steal his money. The girl - Lola (Raquel Ramírez) - then meets up with her gang of drugged-out, foul-mouthed thug bikers, which includes handsome and charismatic Chema (Francisco Sánchez Grajera) and her brother Nico (Emilio Siegrist). They spend all of the money she's just acquired on some "Moroccan Gum" (some kind of hashish drugs) and decide they need some more cash, so they hold up a diner. Things get a little out of hand when the police arrive. There's a gunfight where everyone in the diner, two police officers and one of the bikers are killed. Chema, Lola and Nico decide to kidnap a wealthy-looking surviving couple; Jorge (Antonio Jabalera) and Linda (Alexía Loreto), to ensure their getaway.

Forcing Jorge to drive them, Chema doesn't even attempt to hide his attraction for Linda and feels her up in the car in front of her lover while the gang sits in the backseat getting high. We learn that Linda is married, Jorge works for her husband and the two have been carrying on an affair but don't even really like each other. No one else knows it, but before Linda took off her little rendezvous, she cleared out her husband's bank account and has a million dollars worth of cash and jewelry in her bag. They end up wrecking the car during a fight and have to walk; eventually deciding to invade a home where an elderly woman (Andreé Van de Woestyne) lives with a young boy (David Forrest). They kill the dog, smack the old lady around (and kick her while she's on the ground), torch the place and steal their car. Jorge and Linda prove to be just as detestable as their kidnappers by doing absolutely nothing to help. He even watches the little boy burn to death and doesn't lift a finger to help!

Little do any of them realize, but the old lady is a Satanist and she decides to curse them with her last dying breath. The next day while driving along, some supernatural force takes control of the car and (in hyper-fast, head-spinning speed) delivers them to a secluded, crumbling church before deciding to break down. There are other abandoned old buildings surrounding them but no one seems to live around there... That's probably because they've all been delivered directly to hell to receive their just punishment.

Characters have visions of those who have died returning to life, ghosts of the old witch, the little boy and the dog show up to haunt (or attack) them and there's a catacomb littered with mummified corpses (which are eventually brought to life) underneath the abandoned village rumored to contain a treasure. Two of them attempt to leave by foot and walk all day but end up getting nowhere in process. There's a hanging and one guy is burnt alive while trapped inside a car (after attempting to run off with the stolen money). The dog rips someone else apart, the mummies take care of another and for a coup de grace we get an exploding head. There's loads of profane, raunchy dialogue, constant insults being hurled around, a little sex (Linda has no issue screwing her kidnapper, despite the fact he likes to slap her around) and a lot of fighting. It's all rather nasty and nihilistic, and the dynamic between the brother-and-sister characters gets really twisted after awhile. He masturbates in front of her into the fire and she (apparently fed up with being denied some action by the gang leader) decides to give her brother head. Yeah, gross, I know. I already warned you this was pretty sick at times!

As you can probably tell from the screen caps, I wasn't able to acquire a very nice copy of this film. However, it's all very atmospheric, with excellent use made of some eerie shooting locations and a few fairly effective horror sequences toward the end. The premise, though ultimately predictable, maintains a certain level of interest as well. If this were a little better distributed (there's no DVD and it was never released in America), it would probably have its fans.

★★1/2

Black Cat (Gatto nero) (1980)

... aka: Black Cat, The
... aka: Gato nero, El

Directed by:
Lucio Fulci

When I say "surprisingly good" it typically means that either the film has totally flown under the radar to little fanfare or that it's been outright rejected by critics and / or fans... but I liked it, anyway. This is one such case. The film came in between Fulci's living dead splatter-fest ZOMBI 2 (1979) and his spate of early 80s gore flicks such as THE BEYOND (1981) and NEW YORK RIPPER (1982). All of those were hits on VHS during the video boom era and established Fulci as an icon to gorehounds around the globe, so I suppose it should come as no surprise that many of them were disappointed by what The Black Cat had to offer. After all, this is one of his least gory, least bloody films of the period. You won't find eyes being gouged out or sliced with razors in close-up, brains oozing out of crushed heads or anything of the sort. So what do you get instead? For starters, a better made movie. The budget seems to be higher than usual; it's vividly and creatively photographed by Sergio Salvati (who utilizes lots of low level cat POV shots) and boasts an excellent Pino Donaggio score. You also get an intense performance from talented character actor Patrick Magee, a man of the stage who it's said only did films for the money. Magee's acting is so far above the norm for a Fulci movie that it instantly lends a distinction that's lacking in most of Fulci's other films.

"Freely adapted" from the story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe, things open with a fiery car crash that sends the driver out of the windshield before cutting to some charming opening credits of a black cat navigating the rooftops of the village and making its way back home. But don't become too fond of the cuddly kitty. Immediately before the crash, the driver discovered it in the back seat of his car and, somehow, the cat put him into a trance, caused him to let go of the steering wheel and then crash into a parked vehicle; killing him. The cat returns to his home, heads upstairs to where its owner - Professor Robert Miles (Magee) - is intently listening to some strange, distorted tapes, and then scratches the hell out of his hand. As we'll later find out, the Professor and the feline share a very odd link. Or as he says, they're "bound together by hatred."

Miles is feared and hated by the townsfolk in about equal measure. A loner, he frequents a nearby cemetery late at night with his audio equipment in an attempt to capture the voices of the dead. Aside from communicating with the spirit world, Miles possesses psychic powers and the ability to hypnotize people. He believes that the black cat who's hounding him will eventually kill him, but attempts to poison and hang it don't work. It keeps coming back. After a young couple disappear, Lillian (Dagmar Lassander) comes to Miles for help locating her daughter. Miles leads Lillian and the authorities to the missing girl and her boyfriend, but by then it's too late. They've both suffocated after being locked inside an airtight boat house. Cat prints and fur are found at the scene of the crime. A gossipy drunk (Bruno Corazzari) is then pushed onto some spikes. Local cop Sgt. Wilson (Al Cliver) decides to call in Scotland Yard Inspector Gorley (David Warbeck) to get to the bottom of the sudden rash of seemingly accidental deaths. Meanwhile, American photographer Jill Travers (Mimsy Farmer), who's come to England to shoot pictures of ancient ruins, starts getting to know the Professor and slowly comes to the realization that the cat is somehow acting out Miles' subconscious impulses.

Everything here isn't perfect; especially the confused supernatural elements. Though I can accept the concept of a human to animal psychic link, there's no attempt made to explain how the ghost cat is connected to Miles. Or better yet, why the ghost cat is connected to Miles. Since the Professor isn't given proper motivation, and some of the victims are innocents who we've never seen cross or mistreat him, the murders that occur are as much random as revenge oriented (or just a case of wanting people who know too much out of the way). Other scenes, such as the failed attempt to kill the cat causing Jill's windows to explode, lights to flash and bed to levitate, seem completely out of place. One could also gripe about the obvious dummy during a sequence where a victim is burnt up in her apartment and jumps out of the window. But the whole thing is so interesting, and so nicely presented with a modern Gothic feel, that I was willing to say to hell with logic.

Unusual direction, too. I doubt you'll ever see more close-ups on eyeballs in any other film! The cast includes Geoffrey Copleston as another Scotland Yard detective called in at the end to help out, and Daniela Doria (who - as per her usual - provides some nudity) as the boat house victim. DVD from Anchor Bay.

★★★

La noche de los brujos (1973)

... aka: Night of the Sorcerers, The

... aka: Woodoo - Inferno des Grauens

Directed by:

Amando de Ossorio 

In the fictional country of Bumbasa in Africa, a screaming white woman in stripped, whipped, bit on the neck and has her head chopped off by a group of natives. Some soliders stumble upon them and gun down the entire tribe. Then the white woman's head suddenly comes to life and sports some vampire fangs. Cut to "present day," as a five-party expedition arrives in the same area. Professor Jonathan Grant (Jack Taylor) is doing an article on endangered species, with assist from his photographer Carol Harris ("Lorena Tower" / Loreta Tovar). Rod Carter (Simón Andreu) is a guide and big game hunter assisted by his girlfriend Tanika (Kali Hansa). And rich bitch Liz Meredith (María Kosty) is just along for the ride since her father financed the trip. They set up camp near a neighboring village and decide to spend the night, with plans of moving on the next day. Fur trader Munga ("Joseph" / José Thelman) stumbles upon their camp, tells them that even the animals are too scared to come around the area and lets slip that near where they are is a sorcerer's sacrificial altar where it's rumored that sacrifice humans to "the voodoo devil Yaru." He warns them not to stray into the jungle after dark.

Just to play it safe, Rod and Jonathan decide to alternate guarding their campsite that night. Rod is up first and decides to protect everyone by having sex with Tunika, giving Carol the opportunity to sneak out. She wants to photograph a voodoo ceremony and gets more than she bargains for when she stumbles onto the resurrected dead and a vampire queen (Bárbara Rey) who can't wait to make her one of their own. Carol goes through the same routine as the lady in the opening sequence: whipped, stripped, bit and decapitated. Now she's a vampire. The next day, with Carol missing, everyone's forced to stick around until she comes back. The next evening it's a wash, rinse and repeat as one of the men is drowned while developing photos, another of the ladies disappears and the remaining duo must come face to face with the vampire-zombie cult.

 

While this may well be the best movie ever made about hot vampire chicks in leopard-print bikinis running around in slow motion you will ever see, as a horror movie, it's only about a 3. Sadly, I couldn't really get too enthused about this voodoo jungle cheese from the director of the Blind Dead quadilogy. In theory, it seems like this might be fun. And it could have been fun. But it's not. What keeps it from being a good guilty pleasure are the characters. Nearly every single person in this movie is annoying and unlikable. Tunika, for instance, is an insecure control freak who's paranoid about letting her boyfriend out of her sight, for fear that he's going to sleep with one of "the blondes." There's constant mention of "the blondes." When Tanika is left alone at camp, the fur trader shows up to try to rape her and tells her she might as well just have sex with him willingly because Rod is gonna dump her anyway for one of "the blondes." When one of "the blondes" finally retaliates, she calls Tanika a "dirty brunette." I have no clue what this silly hair war was all about but I'm pretty sure De Ossorio saw Martine Beswick enslaving the fair-haired in PREHISTORIC WOMEN (1966) before he wrote this stinker.

 

The hateful characters aren't the only thing that's monotonous and repetitive: so are the horror scenes. The three primary set pieces are almost identical. At the sorcerer's altar, burial mounds put off smoke, zombie natives magically appear on top, the vampire lady shows up, does her routine on the female victim and it ends with a mannequin head being lopped off. The ever-smiling vampire queen and her new female inductees into blocksuckerdom, all with teased hair, plastic fangs and an outfit that consists of a leopard-skin bra, leopard-skin cape, a grass miniskirt and fringe covered leopard boots, are seen about a dozen times doing their slow-mo frolicking through the woods. Since this wasn't actually filmed in Africa, stock footage of elephants, giraffe, birds and leopards have been inserted here and there for that jungle feel... and so have some ridiculous close-ups of stuffed leopard heads. There's also an out-of-place flashback that serves no purpose whatsoever. Any fun that happens to emanate from this one stems from what a blast Rey and Tovar appear to be having playing the vampire chicks.

\

The original U.S. video release was from Unicorn. A nice, clean print was released on DVD through Deimos in 2007. Some versions replace the nude scenes with clothed ones, which are contained as one of the features on the DVD. As if anyone's interested in seeing those!

★1/2