Deadline (1980)

Directed by:
Mario Azzopardi

While not entirely successful, this is one of the more interesting non-Cronenberg Canuck horrors from the 1980s. Horror novelist and screenwriter Steven Lessey (Stephen Young) became rich and famous when his first novel "The Executioners" was turned into a controversial film. It was followed up by more of the same - successful book to film adaptations - including "Anatomy of a Horror," which features a scene where a demon sheep uses supernatural powers to dismember a man with a piece of farm machinery. All of Steven's movies seem to do well at the box office and he's built up a "name" in the industry. While speaking at a college, he has to defend both himself and his art to a group of pretentious students. He's called a "degenerate" and accused of propigating sickness because he sells sickness and being socially irresponsible. His films are brushed off as nothing more than "horseshit horror." Steven informs them that he tries to represent what he sees around him and uses genre conventions metaphorically. But regardless of the front he uses when it front of the firing squad, deep down inside, he's unhappy both at home and with his career.

Though he lives a lavish lifestyle in a beautiful mansion with a wife and three children, Steven is feeling the sting of having neglected his family in favor of his career over the years. His miserable wife Elizabeth (Sharon Masters) more or less hates his guts. She's unfaithful and has a serious cocaine habit. The children typically just get brushed off by both parents as they deal with work and play. They're so busy that while they're off hobnobing with film folk at a party, they forget all about hiring a babysitter to watch them. If that's not bad enough, Steven's work - both the quality and the quantity - is declining. Steven feels his films are getting shlocky and his slimy agent, film producer Burt Horowitz (Marvin Goldhar), is breathing down his neck, demanding a finished screenplay in two weeks on else he'll face a lawsuit. Can Steven deal with all of this, or will he crack under the pressure?

The film cleverly integrates scenes from Steven's completed films, with ideas he's contemplating using on his newest script and what's going on in his real life. As the film progresses and his sanity starts to slip, his ideas become more and more absurd and desperate. He toys with ideas of nuns killing a priest and passing his heart around at communion, suicidal fetuses that implode inside the womb and a Nazi enlisting the aid of a punk band (Carole Pope and Rough Trade) to infuse their music with sound frequencies that'll make those who listen to it literally shit themselves to death. Other macabre footage involves a woman trapped in a blood shower and two little kids tying their grandmother to a bed, covering her with gasoline and setting her on fire.

Deadline also calls into question the effects horror films may have on children. After viewing one of their dad's movies, his two sons decide to play a game with his daughter Sharon (The Brood's Cindy Hinds), which results in her accidentally being hung (and naturally speeds along the writer's decline). Though this may seem to suggest horror films have a detrimental effect on the mind's of young children, it should be pointed out that the tragedy is only allowed to occur because of the absense of both parents in the home. Thus, it could be seen as a cautionary message for parents to be more involved in what their children are doing and seeing.

Though the film contains some humor (Burt at one point suggests Steven relocate to Los Angeles because he claims they don't make good films in Canada!), it's overall pretty downbeat and leads up to a pretty dreary and depressing finale. None of the characters (aside from the children) are the least bit likable. The writer is incredibly self-absorbed, arrogant, neglectful of his children and physically absusive to his wife. The wife forsakes her children in favor of wallowing in her own self-pity and addictions. The film producer is a money-grubbing, prostitute-hiring sleazebag with a bully complex. The only other character with a significant amount of screen time is an actress (Jeannie Elias) and she's a demanding bitch with a diva complex who thinks she's above what she's doing.

Director Azzopardi was born in Malta, but relocated to Canada in the late 70s, where he's found steady work ever since, primarily in television (including directing over 20 episodes of the newer Outer Limits series). He also made the feature Bone Daddy (1998), which again centered around a tormeted writer; a pathologist and true crime novelist played by Rutger Hauer, who's terrorized by the subject of one of his books.

It was filmed in late 1979 and the copyright date in the end credits is 1980, though this doesn't appear to have been released in the U.S. until 1984 (Paragon Video handled the American VHS release). As of this writing, there's been no DVD release.

★★★

Gakidama (1985)

... aka: Demon Within, The
... aka: Gakidama: Kanzen-ban
... aka: Tastiest Flesh, The
... aka: Tasty Flesh, The

Directed by:
Masayoshi Sukita

GREMLINS (1984), a Steven Spielberg production directed by Joe Dante, was hugely successful. In fact, up until recently it was one the five highest-grossing horror films of all time (and might still be when you adjust costs to factor in inflation). As with any other blockbuster, others became interested in cashing in, so we ended up with a new subgenre of deadly diminutive creature horror. Some of the films were even popular enough on their own to spawn their own lucrative franchises. The first of the copies was GHOULIES (1984), which had slimy demonic puppet monsters terrorizing some people at a mansion and was followed by three direct-to-video sequels in 1987, 1990 and 1993. There was also CRITTERS (1986) and its three sequels (the theatrical release CRITTERS II: THE MAIN COURSE in 1988 and two other d-t-v releases filmed back-to-back in 1991), HOBGOBLINS (1987), MUNCHIES (1987), BEASTIES (1989) and more. Beating most to these to the punch, though, was this little-seen Japanese effort (which is also known as THE DEMON WITHIN and THE TASTY FLESH), which turned out to be better than most of the other imitators.

Things begin with two men aboard a train; reporter Mr. Morioka (Kyôzô Nagatsuka) and Kitayan (Ichirô Ogura), a photographer who has built up a reputation for ghost. They arrive in a woodsy area to follow up on "hitodama" (ghost / demon) sightings and camp out there for the evening. They're awaken by sounds and capture a green light floating through the woods. The light rests on Mr. Morioka's shoulder, turns into a worm and crawls into his ear. The next day, he suddenly has an insatiable appetite. Upon returning home, he scarfs down bowl after bowl of rice and is caught by his wife (Kazuyo Matsui) in a trance-like state eating raw meat out of the fridge. Sores appear on his face, he becomes bloated and then vomits up / "gives birth to" a "gakidama;" a little ghoul larva demon creature with sharp claws and fangs. A mysterious man in a top hat and cape (amusingly played by Yôsuke Saitô), whose face is scarred up from giving life to one of these creatures himself, shows up to capture the monster in a bird cage.

The gakidama manages to escape, but sticks close by the Morioka's residence. It eats their pet birds, completely trashes their home and, while the husband is away, terrorizes the wife (who at first feels motherly toward the monster because she can't bear children of her own). She throws it against the TV and tries to drown it in the bathtub, but the little critter keeps on coming. Meanwhile, Mr. Morioka learns from the man-in-black that in order to regain his appetite, he must consume a gakidama. Kitayan also gets impregnated with one of the creatures.

It's a fairly well-made movie with good cinematography, more gore than most others of its type and fun special effects (some of the more charming ones feature the gakidama bouncing around in the street). It runs only 55 minutes and was released to DVD through Geneon Entertainment.

★★1/2

Kamp tawanan wanita (1983)

... aka: Day of the Escape
... aka: War Victims
... aka: War Victims of Camp Tawanan Wanita
... aka: Women's Prison Camp

Directed by:
Jopi Burnama

I've always defended controversial films like SALO (1975) and MEN BEHIND THE SUN (1988) because I genuinely think they have something important to say. Sure, they could conceivably be much more subtle and still get the same points across, but would those points have the same gut punch of an impact? Probably not. Though some puritanical critics out there would like to state otherwise, sometimes going the graphic route is absolutely the right way to go, especially when you don't have such uplifting things to say about the human race and are aiming to elicit disgust and anger from your audience. Let's face it, subtlety is lost on a lot of people, so sometimes you're better off being explicit. The controversy films like SALO stir up will entice people to see them. The bursts of depravity and violence will cause an immediate reaction. And because the film has implanted uncomfortable thoughts and images in the viewers mind, it will drive people onto the internet looking to affirm their opinion on the film, whether it be positive or negative. Either way, the viewer is almost certainly going to learn about the director's *intentions* in the process. Whether or not they feel the filmmaker has made a good film, or even care about about their opinion on certain subjects is in the first place, is irrelevant. The message has still been delivered.

So what does all that have to do with an exploitative low-budget women-in-prison flick from Indonesia? Simple. Like the two much more famous films I mentioned, it amps up the sadism and violence levels to hammer home its theme. In this case, the theme happens to be 'war sucks.' Unlike many other w-i-p films from the 80s (such as the same year's famously sleazy CHAINED HEAT), this strives for more than just providing cheap thrills. Sure, it provides those too, but its pretensions are front-and-center right from the opening narrated monologue: War is a thrilling and glorious thing only to those who have never experienced it in reality. Those who have never fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded, or the cries of innocent women and children. War is a barbarian atrocity which reduces all mankind to its lowest animal state. War is misery, despair, hunger, suffering and death cloaked in a shabby disguise of honor and courage. War dehumanizes all; the victor as well as the victim. It is a visitation of hell upon Earth.

While this isn't exactly new territory and it's not always well-executed, I do at least see where they were trying to go with this. And I truly hate slamming sincere, well-intended movies, especially ones where negligible English-language dubbing clearly detracts from the overall effect. With that factored in, I'm giving this a slightly higher rating than some may think it deserves.

Things center around a female freedom fighter named Amelia (Marisa Haque), who witnesses her husband being gunned down, is captured by the Japanese Imperial Army and is thrown into a brutal P.O.W. camp, where she and the other female inmates undergo the usual tortures before the obligatory revolt and escape. The film is violent, bloody and packed with sadistic torture. When Amelia first arrives at the camp she's pregnant. They beat her, strip her naked and force her to ride a donkey around the camp in the buff until she miscarries her baby. She and others undergo constant beatings, are fed "slop," kicked in the shins, forced to do slave labor and are routinely raped, tortured and killed. Well, all except our heroine. She manages to get away with being mouthy and defiant, physically fighting with her captors and helping to stage breakouts, while the extras get filled with lead for simply looking at the guards the wrong way.

The girls plot a daring escape that involves finding out why two of the guards are nicknamed "The Stallion" and "The Love Machine." The attempt is botched, leading to dozens of women being shot, blown up, electrocuted and, in one instance, being eaten by a snake! The ones who don't die are dragged back to camp and tortured. They're whipped, beat, strapped to some contraption that quickly spins them around, forced to stand on blocks of ice, are burned with a torch and some are hung. There's also several instances of hara-kiri, an outbreak of malaria and "sun torture," where the ladies are forced to stand outside all day and are refused water.

Amelia's pal on the inside is Siti, whose father is planning to raid the camp's ammunitions surplus and save her and the others while they're at it. There's another woman named Ita who's jealous of Amelia, but other than that the female prisoners aren't well-definited (if at all). The film concentrates as much time on the mostly-evil male guards than it does on the ladies. Lieutenant Nakamura (Boy Tirayoh), camp commandant, is the only one who seems to have anything of a conscience left. To champion for better treatment of the ladies, he goes to his superior and is informed that women are "prizes of war" and that "In war, the only morality is patriotism." Nakamura eventually falls for Amelia and knocks her up, leading up to an predictably tragic ending.

As much as I appreciate what this movie has to say about how minds of once-good and decent people are warped by war, I've always found it a bit counterproductive how so many anti-war movies resort to exciting action setpieces at the finale. We're told that there are no winners in war and to stop glorifying it all... So why wrap it up with thrilling combat action between the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys...' and screams of "Freedom!" ringing out from all the shots of stuff blowing up real good. The last shot of the film is an interesting one; a Japanese flag is lowered and an Indonesian one is raised. "The Beginning" then appears over top. (Clearly alluding to the Japanese armies invading lesser-developed Southeast Asian countries during wartime.)

Leading lady Haque has had a very full and interesting life. Educated in civil law and education in her home country, she also attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio (also the alma mater of yours truly) at one point to study film and television. She worked as a model and an assistant lawyer in between acting gigs and went on to produce and direct feature films and TV shows. In 2004, she was elected to Indonesian Parliament as a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle. Nowadays, she's still involved in the entertainment industry, teaches hearing impaired children and is a guest lecturer.

Released theatrically by Atlas International. The VHS I watched was from the Dutch company Van Gils Video, who have, for some moronic reason, blurred out all of the nudity (though all of the violence seems intact).

★★

Shock: Diversão Diabólica (1984)

... aka: Shock
... aka: Shock: Devilish Fun
... aka: Shock: Evil Entertainment

Directed by:
Jair Correia

Early 80s slashmania in the U.S. and Canada ended up eventually infecting other countries. This one is from Brazil and was clearly influenced by the hundred or so North American slashers saturating the market at that time. There's a good reason you've probably never heard of it before. It's simply not that good. It also forgets one crucial element that makes these kind of films tick: blood. For the most part slashers are typically lacking in the plot department, so the more loaded down with gore they are, the better they usually are. Throw in some nudity and provide a high body count and you've usually got yourself some fine brainless entertainment for the evening. Have a sense of humor about how tired and overworked the subgenre is, and even better. While Shock doesn't bother with much of a plot itself, and throws in one gratuitous sex scene (which is a bit more graphic than what's found in most others of its type), it completely forgets about the red stuff. All of the kills are dull and repetitive. Everyone (aside from an unfortunate rat) is... strangled. Even worse, half of the movie is spent in one damn room!

At a São Paulo hot spot, the patrons prove that the fashions, hairstyles and music were just as bad in Brazil in the 80s as they were up North. Twenty-minutes slowly pass and all we've basically gotten to see so far is people dancing horribly to a lame rock band. At some point, the action relocates to someone's home and we're briefly introduced to three couples. Shy, virginal teenager Sara (Mayara Magri) isn't wanting to put out for her boyfriend Gil (Taumaturgo Ferriera). He tries to convince her with the usual "sex is natural" speech, but it doesn't fly for the thick-eyebrowed prude. Gil smokes a joint and passes out. Suddenly, Sara gets in the mood, starts touching herself and then can't wake her man up (even offering him "fellagio" doesn't help). Interestingly, the film bucks the moral code found in some of these other films by making the most virtuous girl one of the first victims. Her boyfriend soon follows suit. As does another woman who gets strangled in her car.

The other two couples consisting of teens Isa (Aldine Muller) and Nuno (Kiko Guerra), who do get to have sex, and Sammy (Elias Andreato), who is (I think) the owner of the nightclub and his girlfriend Eni (Claudia Alencar), a singer in the band we saw perform. [For the record, don't quote me on any of these character names; the film is in Portuguese and was never dubbed or subbed, plus the credits were too blurry to read... ] After Eni discovers the body of her friend in the closet, the four barricade themselves in a bedroom upstairs. There they sit, bicker, wonder who the killer could be and behave like they're going crazy simply by sitting in a room for a few hours. The killer makes a ham sandwich and tries to annoy them by beating on the drums over and over again. Instead of just waiting it out in the room until morning, one of the guys attempts to leave and get the police. He doesn't come back and the police never show up. The other guy then goes downstairs for some idiotic reason and is easily killed while a strobe light flickers. The psycho then heads upstairs where the two remaining girls are and discovers that... they've left the door wide open for him.

Now I must admit, I did like the ending, but it's not good enough to justify sitting through the rest of this bore to get to it. There's about 50 shots of the killer's black boots walking around, but we never actually get to see him. And I can't say that I really enjoyed seeing a real rat getting stabbed with a butcher knife, either. All in all, it falls pretty low on the slasher totem pole. Leg warmers, sunglasses at night and ripped off-the-shoulder sweatshirts don't even help matters.

This was never officially released in America... and I seriously doubt it ever WILL be.

★1/2

Torture Dungeon (1970)

... aka: Dungeon of Death

Directed by:
Andy Milligan

Life is full of regrets. Such as when I was a 9-year-old and got busted by a store manager sticking a G.I. Joe down the front of my pants, or when I was 16 and put a quart of oil in my power steering reserve. Now I can add "sitting on a stockpile of Andy Milligan movies for years and just now getting around to watching some of them" to my ever-growing list of boo boos. As soon as I heard the majestic classical music playing and saw a hideous yellow title card reading "Torture Dungeon" clumsily wedged in between the over-a-shawl-of-blue-silk credits, I pretty much knew I was gonna like this one. Only in Milligan's wacky universe could a film open with the camera nearly falling out of the director's hands (!) and then continue on with a scene of three flamboyant fellas walking through a field picking flowers before one of them is decapitated by a hooded executioner! On the outset, this might seem like a cut-rate TOWER OF LONDON wannabe, but if you have a taste for the weird and perverse, production values and competence be damned, then you'll find an extraordinary amount of off-the-wall goodies to be found here.

Mr. Milligan, a man who never understood the meaning of 'working within your means,' whisks us away to the magical, mythical Kingdom of Terragon, a land where period detail is lacking but kinky hijinks and fucked-up folks with major hang-ups are in abundance. The man who lost his head in the opening sequence just so happened to be of royal lineage. In fact, he was next in line to be crowned King. However, one of his dysfunctional family members wants complete control of the fledgling kingdom and will stop at nothing - including butchering anyone who gets in his way - to get it. While the plot might not sound like much, it's the warped screenplay, decadent characters and hilariously cheapjack production values that make this one so extra special. You will never, ever meet a group of characters like the ones featured in this flick. So without further ado, let me introduce you to some of them...

Norman, Duke of Norwich
(Gerald Jacuzzo as "Jeremy Brooks")
A swishy, perverted, eye-rolling, lip-smacking, self-proclaimed "tri-sexual," pleasure-seeking Frank Zappa look-a-like who makes Caligula look restrained by comparison and has temper tantrums more suited to a toddler, Norman is fourth in line for the crown... and he doesn't like it one bit. Conspiring with his hunchback sidekick, his mistress and a loin-cloth clad (!) executioner, Norman makes mince-meat out of those who are getting in the way of him living the lavish lifestyle he knows he deserves. He's so good he even has stuffy councilman Peter the Eye (Neil Flanagan) in his pocket. For laughs, Norman also operates his own private torture chamber where victims are chained up, starved and have their tongues and limbs removed. Despite the title of this film, his "Torture Dungeon" is only featured in one scene. Did I mention Norman also has temper tantrums?
Albert, Duke of Abernathy
(Hal Borske in a pageboy wig)
After the death of his brother, Albert has moved up to first in line for the crown and inescapably becomes a target of his unhinged half-brother. Not that it really matters since Albert is mentally retarded. You see, he "fell on his head" as a child, and now he can barely talk and likes to sit on the ground eating bugs and grass. He's so lame that he doesn't even know what to do during his wedding night and must be coached into taking off his clothes and joining his new bride in bed by Norman (who plots to steal his wife once the royal seed has been planted).
Heather MacGregor
(Susan Cassidy)
A busty nineteen-year-old peasant girl whose carefree days of frolicking nude in a stream and in the forest with her lover William (Dan Lyra) are about to come to an end. Heather is plucked from obscurity and offered up as Albert's bride after her adoptive father sells her for 30 gold pieces. She plans to run off with her beau, but the executioner shows up to crucify him and sink a pitchfork into his neck. But life must go on after all and Heather forgoes the grieving process in favor of getting knocked up by that drooling buffoon Albert.

Lady Jane
(Patricia Dillon)
Now second in line for the crown, tortured Lady Jane managed to get herself knocked up out of wedlock. To make matters worse, the father of her unborn child is dead. And to make matters even worse than that, the father of her unborn child is also her dead brother. She'd fallen in love with him and, knowing Norman is responsible for his death, plots revenge ("From now on, revenge is my lover!")

Lady Agatha
(Donna Whitfield)
Third in line for the crown, Lady Agatha is just kind of there... with only her amazingly wooden line deliveries to keep her company.

Magda
(Helen Adams)
An elderly, senile, shrill 'marriage counselor'... who for some strange reason finds it necessary to dress like a giant butterfly while dishing out the redundant goods on the birds and the bees to the less-than-wholesome Heather.

Ivan, the Hunchback
(Richard Mason)
He sings. He dances. He constantly bounces up and down. He gets whipped for falling on to the ground and simulating masturbation. He's Ivan! Ivan is not only a jester, but he's also Norman's secret lover. Ivan also induges in necrophilia when the opportunity comes his way. He relates a childhood trauma story about when he was six years old and his prostitute mother wanted him to be a more convincing beggar so she arranged for some of her male 'friends' to gang rape him and then stomp on his back until it broke (!!)

Rosemary
(Patricia Garvey)
Norman's other lover, Rosemary was a poor orphan who had religion shoved down her throat growing up. Her aunt sold her to the kingdom at age 12 and she spent the next four years eating table scraps and veggie peels. That is, until she became a chambermaid and found her way into Norman's bed. Now Norman wants to have a menage-a-troix with her and his hunchback buddy. Will Rosemary cave under the pressure?

Margaret, the One-Eyed Hag
(Maggie Rogers)
This 'one-eyed hag' has a bone to pick with Norman because years earlier he locked her in a burning church, which resulted in her being hideously disfigured, losing both her husband and one of her peepers and having to give up custody of her infant daughter. Did I mention that Heather has never met her mother? Yes, I believe I did. When not loitering around in the torture chamber or impressing with her spear-chucking skills, Margaret also takes time out of her busy schedule to provide us with the moral of the story: "Why do people do such fouls things? They're beasts by nature!" Preach it, sister.

Needless to say, watching all of these not-so-fine folks interacting, fighting and killing each other off makes for some, uh, rather interesting viewing. I won't lead anyone astray by saying this is a good movie. It's not. The performances range from hilariously overwrought to ridiculously wooden, the sets would be subpar for an elementary school production, the costumes were all fashioned out of bedsheets, shower curtains and quilts and all of the music was stolen from other movies. The chaotic editing, lighting that is alternately too bright or too dark and amateurish 16mm photography are awful, too. While I recognize this for the disasterous mess it is, I can't help but recommend it as the fascinating and oddly engrossing train wreck that it is. Every horror fan should watch at least one Andy Milligan movie, and this is one of the 'best' I've seen so far.

Strangely enough, in a film filled with incest, rape, child abuse, threesomes, full frontal nudity from both sexes and lots of cheap gore, a gay kissing scene between Norman and his hunchbacked amore was the one to be censored out (notice the jump in frames when the mad duke leans over hunchie and asks if he's happy). If left intact, that probably would have been a first in the world of horror. It was written by "John Borske" (who is probably co-star / technical director Hal Borske) and Milligan (who also shot it, did costumes as "Raffine" and probably also decorations as "Elaine"). The budget was just 15 thousand dollars.

Midnight Video and Something Weird Video were the American video distributors. I don't believe this is officially on DVD. Methinks a Milligan box set is long overdue. I'll be the first in line.

SBIG