Lake, The (1978) [short]

Directed by:

Lindsey C. Vickers

Prowling around a deserted farmhouse, both inside and out, the camera captures shattered glass, dead bugs and birds, old newspapers, children's drawings, a birthday card, empty jars and cans and miscellaneous pieces of wood and plastic that used to be furniture and toys; all remnants of a families former life. Most of these things, once prized, beloved and / or useful possessions, have been reduced to little more than debris ready for a landfill. A yard that was once kept is now overgrown, with rusted out farm equipment almost lost within the weeds. A barn that was once used for cattle is now is disrepair and barely standing upright. Accompanying these images are faint sounds of parents and children, a strong wind and creaking wood, along with a light piano melody as it finally closes on a cracked, sideways black-and-white photo of a family of four. A father. A mother. A son. A daughter. As the camera closes in on the father and an ominous note hits on the soundtrack, we notice the father is missing one of his fingers.

This opening scene is both genuinely chilling and well shot, and the good news is that the rest of this 33 minute short is able to sustain the creep factor and the clever cinematography... and thank God for that! By the time I reached this, the eighth of nine shorts contained on BFI's box set "Shock Sharp Shocks," I'd pretty much given up hope of seeing much of anything worthwhile, but this turned out to be a real gem on this set. The ONLY real gem thus far, though I still have one more - Nigel Finch's THE ERRAND (1980) - to go!

Looking for some alone time, young couple Tony (Gene Foad) and Barbara (Julie Peasgood), who were born and raised in the area but had since moved to the city, show up to take a look at the abandoned home before heading over to a nearby lake on the same property. We learn that three years earlier, the father in the photo may have killed his entire family, all of their pets and their livestock. No one is quite sure because he vanished immediately after the murders and hasn't been seen since. Perhaps he was a victim as well and the killer hid his body. Perhaps he killed them himself and then fled the area. Perhaps he killed them himself and is still in the area waiting for some people to come snooping around...

The bank, now in possession of the property, has had an impossible time trying to unload it onto someone. None of the locals are willing to buy it and it's sat vacant and in a slow state of deterioration ever since. After a brief tour of the notorious murder site, Tony, Barbara and their Rottweiler, Condor, travel down the road a piece to a lake to have a picnic, but something that started stalking them around the home has followed them there.

While the set-up is simple, it's the execution that makes all the difference here. This is filled with creepy POV camera shots stalking about in the woods spying on the couple, much of it reminiscent of the same type of camerawork later used in Sam Raimi's breakthrough hit The Evil Dead (1981), though, unlike that film, this is entirely set during the day and is more ambiguous about its threat. The actors are good (the female lead is also given an 18-minute interview as an extra on this set), and it's well directed, scored and edited, but perhaps this film's greatest attribute of all is the incredibly unnerving, distorted sound design full of strange noises, fuzz, echoes, bird-like calls, synths, hushed voices and heavy breathing. While I wasn't terribly fond of the annoyingly inconclusive ending, everything leading up to it is pretty great.

Despite showing all of the promise in the world with this, the director went on to make just one feature: The Appointment (1981), starring Edward Woodward. Back in the early 80s, it was met with indifferent reviews and distribution problems before being unceremoniously dumped onto the home video market in 1982, where it was quickly forgotten. Since then it's developed something of a following and, based on the strength of this one, expect a review for it here sooner rather than later.

In the UK (and Australia) it was common for short films to be shown before main features, which is where some first saw this. That sure as hell beats the 30 minutes of trailers for the 50 super hero movies coming out next month that we get nowadays!

The other genre shorts on the first BFI set (there are two volumes thus far) include THE TELL-TALE HEART (1953), PORTRAIT OF A MATADOR (1958) and THE SEX VICTIMS (1973).

★★★

Sex Victims, The (1973) [short]

Directed by:

Derek Robbins

Since I've been sitting on this set for awhile now, let's go ahead and start wrapping up BFI's "Short Sharp Shocks" Blu-ray today. We're now on disc 2 of this collection of nine previously difficult-to-find British short subjects, which thus far have been neither sharp nor shocking, though they are short. If you'd like to start at the very beginning of my journey up 'til now, please hop over to my review of THE TELL-TALE HEART (1953) and follow the link-crumbs until you get back here. Otherwise, let's get started!

Like with the first disc, not all of these are horror or within our timeline here and thus won't be covered in any great detail. Twenty-Nine (1969), which opens this second disc, is one such short. French-Canadian Alexis Kanner, who had a sporadic though interesting acting career and also directed a few films, stars as Graham Baird, an extremely arrogant jag-off on the verge of turning 30 who still has a lot of growing up to do. Despite having a wife (Justine Lord) and kids at home, he spends most of his free time "at the office" i.e. going to bars and picking up young women. After one such bender leading to a blackout, he wakes up 16 hours later in a strange apartment. There's a mysterious message written in lipstick on the bathroom mirror and he's wearing someone else's clothing. As he tries to piece together the events of the previous evening, he begins to suspect that he may have been involved in a murder. This hinges most of its confusing narrative on a twist ending, which is merely OK. It's much more interesting as a little snapshot of Swingin' London at the time and, though mediocre, comes off looking like a masterpiece compared to the next short...

Sex Victims open with the shot of trees, followed by a woman's scream followed by a frantic man emerging from the woods and running off. The man in question gets filed away for the time being as we then meet degenerate Jack Piper (Ben Howard), a Ryder truck driver who likes to liven up his boring route by occasionally picking up young female hitchhikers and having his way with them, whether they want to or not. After he fails to lure a short-skirted brunette into his truck, he starts driving down a country road and spots a blue-eyed blonde (Felicity Devonshire) horseback riding completely nude; a sight so shocking it sends him right off the road! He pulls over to scream at her ("What do you think you're doing, you stupid bitch, riding around starkers!") but will return to the same spot like the Pavlovian dog he is hoping for a second look. A strange old tramp stops by long enough to make a comment about "bird watching" and then mysteriously disappears soon after.

Jack goes to a stable where another blonde named Miss Heath (Jane Cardew) works. Despite his weird and salacious behavior (like basically jerking off her riding crop - sorry, riding stick - right in front of her!), she agrees to let him saddle up one of her horses and go for a ride. Naturally, he's after the Godiva blonde first and foremost and finally runs across her, only this time she's actually wearing clothes! Well, if an ill-fitting bra that keeps falling down, low ridin' lace panties, high heels and a short, sheer blue nightie count as clothes.

After Jack feigns being unconscious from getting knocked off his horse, Lady G (who is never given an actual name) dismounts and walks over to help him. He then grabs her, gropes her, chases her through the woods and then chases her through a large abandoned factory and then chases her through the woods some more until he finally catches up to her. Finally caught, she curiously has consensual sex with the predator and then tells him she wants him to bring along his friend, whom she claims to have actually been trying to seduce by riding naked, next time. The friend? George (Alun Armstrong), the weirdo from the opening sequence who emerged from the woods after presumably attacking a girl. There's a supernatural resolution to the story, which is not only extremely predictable but also pretty much botched by filmmakers.

The running time is just 37 minutes, but it's a very long 37 minutes filled with endless horseback riding and running around. The editing and photography are both poor and the extremely thin plot doesn't seem fully formed. I suspect this may have been intended to be a full feature at some point and it either wasn't finished or they padded it out as much as they could and still came up short. Either way, after this was finally cobbled together it was used as a support feature to a number of soft sex films released in the UK, such as She Should Have Stayed in Bed, a re-title of some French sex film starring Sandra Julien.

Both male stars would go on to other things (Armstrong even graduated to award winning stage roles and big budget Hollywood films), but the real reason this thing even exists is to showcase former Page 3 girl, model and soft-core star Devonshire, who spends much of her screen time naked. Though not much of an actress, Devonshire would at least rack up a few interesting credits, like Ken Russell's Lisztomania (1975), the artificial insemination exploiter Whose Child Am I? (1975) and the Italian production Teenage Emanuelle (1976), before throwing in the towel on her acting career at the end of the decade. Though she actually gets to keep all of her clothes on, Cardew was also a sex comedy regular who'd previously appeared alongside Devonshire in several films, like Pete Walker's Four Dimensions of Greta (1972).

The director only made one other film; Sextet (1976), not to be confused with the Mae West vehicle Sextette from the following year. Next up on Short Shocks is the ghost story THE LAKE (1979), which I hope to God is going to finally redeem this set because it's been a disappointing trip thus far.

★1/2

Serbuan Halilintar (1982)

... aka: Batas Impian Serbuan Halilintar

... aka: Lightning Strike

... aka: Special Silencers

... aka: Thunderbolt Invasion

Directed by:

Arizal

When I first did a brief capsule review for this title back in 2009, I noted, "...this seems like something Mondo Macabro might be interested in releasing." Now here we are well over a decade later and, lo and behold, Mondo Macabro will finally be releasing Special Silencers on Blu-ray here in just a few weeks! It will join their slowly growing catalogue of Indonesian titles that currently also includes QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC (1981), Mystics in Bali (1981), THE WARRIOR (1981), THE DEVIL'S SWORD (1984), VIRGINS FROM HELL (1986), LADY TERMINATOR (1989) and Dangerous Seductress (1992). Though a poor-quality English-dubbed VHS copy (sourced from an old Dutch tape) has been available for quite some time now online and on torrent sites, Mondo's Blu-ray will be the film's very first official U.S. release.

Evil, power-mad Gundar (W.D. Mochtar) is willing to do whatever it takes, even abstaining from sex to "purify" his soul and murdering whoever gets in his way, to become the head of the village of Kulon. Problem is, that role is already occupied by the wealthy and well-liked Hamid (Darussalam), who plans on soon passing the torch off to one of his relatives... and there are plenty of them in line! Included are his brother, Harun (Malino Djunaedy), his daughter, Yulia (Eva Arnaz), and his beloved nephew, Dayat (Herman Pero), whom he has raised as his own since he was a young boy. In order to destroy that family dynasty and seize control, Gundar has hatched a plan using some magical pink "Pati seeds" he's acquired. Well, he didn't actually acquire them so much as he stole them!

In a brief flashback, we see Gundar karate chop his monk grandfather and then steal his "special silencers," which have differing effects depending on who takes them. If one has a pure heart and is spiritually centered, like the monks are, they can be used to make the person who possesses them invincible to weapons and sharp objects. However, if they're slipped into an unsuspecting Regular Joe's food or drink, or if someone rotten eats one, there's another complication - a rapidly-growing tree begins sprouting in their stomach, ripping them apart! Gundar lost a limb in the process of stealing them when gramps hacked his leg off with a machete, but he's hoping it was all worth it.

Gundar's equally depraved right hand man, Gumilar (Dicky Zulkarnaen), has already managed to infiltrate Hamid's inner circle by landing a job working as his clerk, which enables him to slip a seed into Hamid's coffee. The village leader suddenly falls to the ground and dies after two branches tear through his chest.

Soon after, Yulia, who's been away at college in Jakarta, and her uncle Harun, are headed to the village when their jeep breaks down. Riding into town on his motorcycle at around the same time is Hendar (Barry Prima), a former classmate of the nephew. When he stops to help them, he and Yulia are instantly smitten with one another, just as Prima and Arnaz are instantly smitten with one another in nearly every other film they appeared together in, just as the two were smitten with each other in real life since they'd eventually marry, though smitten isn't always a permanent condition, so the two would eventually divorce. Stranded while waiting for a bridge to be repaired and waiting for Hendar to retrieve help, Yulia and Harun have their attempt at a peaceful picnic ruined when Gumilar shows up and sneaks seeds into their chow when nobody's looking. Harun ends up eating them with the expected results.

Most of the rest of the film is wall-to-wall action, with our heroes barely having the time to catch their breath before they're jumping into their next fight scene, usually against Gundar's seemingly never-ending stockpile of thugs. Though the editing and choreography is uneven, these scenes are still very entertaining, elaborately staged and fun to watch, featuring lots of high kicks, punches, flips, various martial arts moves (Prima himself has a background in tae kwan do) and incorporating spears, logs, pipes, nets, swords, sickles, axes and other props for a little variety. One of the most memorable scenes finds Prima fighting off the bad guys while on top of, and underneath, a moving truck as they attempt to stab him through the cover tarp with a machete!

Not only is there plenty of action, amusing moments and a genuinely bizarre plot, there's also a heaping helping of blood and gore. The scenes featuring the seeds at work, with branches popping out of stomachs and mouths accompanied by large quantities of gushing blood are memorable, and the special effects themselves are surprisingly good, especially for an older Indonesian film. We also get impalements, eye gougings, hacked off limbs, animal attacks, a very catchy synth score from Gatot Sudarto and lots of other goodies.

Mochtar and Zulkarnean were frequently typecast as bad guys in these things, but it's easy to see why. Both are a joy to watch and seem to be having a ball playing sleazy, evil assholes who takes great pride in all of their heinous deeds! Zulkarnaen (also great in the aforementioned Virgins from Hell) especially seems to be having fun as he rapes a virginal fisherman's daughter (Enny Beatrice) and then laughs in her face, causing her to commit suicide, and then climbs a tree and dumps a bag of poisonous snakes over a rival's head as he rides by on a bicycle. Both he and Mochtar also get to oversee the memorable finale where they torture our heroes with snakes, rats, whipping, bear traps, stinky shoes (!) and even a giant saw blade. The cast also includes Indo genre regulars Eddy S. Jonathan as the main henchman (who smokes a lot of weed) and an uncredited Husin Lubis as a healer.

What most have seen up to this point, the English-dubbed Dutch VHS from Delta Video, was in very poor condition, had the company logo frequently pop up on screen, had jagged editing cuts and blurred out nudity during the rape scene. What I just viewed is the restored version that was recently released in Indonesia. While this version looks a hell of a lot better than the Dutch VHS, it still has the same abrupt cuts and blurred nudity and the two releases have the same exact running time of 86 1/2 minutes. I'm not sure if the Mondo Macabro Blu will be longer, contain any new scenes or be truly uncensored, but I'll come back here and do a comparison once it hits the market. I'm also really looking forward to seeing their new box art since all of the older art for this title sucks. (Update: Added this below and it is indeed much, much better artwork as expected.)

The release year for this is often listed as 1979, though the copyright date in the opening credits is 1982 and all Indonesian film sources also say 1982. Ironically enough, this potential error traces back to the 1997 book Mondo Macabro: Weird & Wonderful Cinema Around the World written by British author Pete Tombs, who's one of the co-founders of distributor Mondo Macabro.

* Going to add another brief note here that the actual release year for this is still not entirely known as of this writing. My hunch of 1982 comes from both the Indonesian sources and the film coinciding with the debut of a certain cast member.

★★★