Kaidan Honsho nanafushigi (1957)

... aka: Ghost Stories of Wanderer of Honjo
... aka: Ghost Story of the Seven Wonders of Honsho
... aka: Ghost Story of the Wanderer of Honsho
... aka: Kaidan Honjo nanafushigi
... aka: Seven Mysteries
... aka: Seven Wonders of Honjo, The

Directed by:
Gorô Kadono

One of many familiar tales of wronged samurai and avenging ghosts to follow the widely-acclaimed Ugetsu (1953), this is given some minor distinction by the inclusion of some extremely weird ghosts and by working various Japanese folk stories into the plot; namely The Seven Wonders of Honjo. Back in the Edo era, the village of Honjo was a barely-populated land with vast, quiet fields, which visitors found to be somewhat eerie. Numerous ghost legends are attributed to the area and these include (1) a voice calling out from a pond demanding fishers leave their catch behind (2) a human head being pulled out of a well (3) the sounds of drums being heard but the source being unable to be located (4) lanterns that float on their own through the woods or refuse to go out even when blown on, and several others. Seven Wonders opens by briefly explaining those ghost legends and then proceeds to work each into its story line. It begins with the fish story, where two men hear a disembodied voice telling them to "Leave the fish!" They ignore it and then are faced with a bunch of strange mutant ghosts. After seeing a faceless woman, a hulking man with three glowing eyes, a Cyclops, a girl with an extremely long, elastic neck and an umbrella with a human leg bouncing around, the guys run off and forget about their fish. Things then settle into a more routine revenge plot.

Upon becoming a man, Yuminosuke (Jûzaburô Akechi) is off to try to make his way in the world; leaving behind his father Sazen (Hiroshi Hayashi), his stepmother Sawa (Akiko Yamashita), not-so-loyal servant Gosuke (Saburô Sawai) and Yae (Namiji Matsuura), a young maid who's in love with him, in the process. While he's away, his wicked cousin Gonkurô (Shigeru Amachi), who's been disowned by the entire family, returns. Though he claims he's there to pay respect to his deceased Aunt on the anniversary of her death, Gonkurô actually is there for one reason and one reason only: to get his hands on some money. He and Sawa used to be lovers before she remarried and the two start getting together behind Sazen's back; finally hatching a plan to murder him for the inheritance. Gonkurô and a group of his thugs slay Sazen and one of the servants; taking control of the house soon after. Not content with just that, he also attempts to rape Yae but Yuminosuke returns just in time to save her. Gonkurô then decides to do away with his cousin, so he pays off Gosuke to do the dirty work. After stabbing him in the back, Gosuke is shocked that his master's body immediately disappears afterward. Yuminosuke then returns to the home as if nothing has happened. Just what's going on?

The strange events are all attributed to a Tanuki, which the subtitles tell us is a "were-badger" that occupies the Sumida River Valley. Though I'm not so sure how a "were-badger" differs from a regular badger, the mythology here says the animals are pests that trick people out of food but can also be helpful critters with supernatural abilities if you somehow win their loyalty. The Father happened to save one of them before being killed, and the animal vowed to spend the rest of its life protecting him and his family. The Tanuki takes human form as a woman named Tebeydanuki (Michiko Tachibana), and since she was busy doing some dance while the murders were taking place, she now has a few deaths to avenge. As it turns out, the Yuminosuke who has show up at the house and managed to miraculously survive a stabbing isn't actually the real Yuminosuke (who's fallen ill and hasn't even returned yet), but Tebeydanuki impersonating him. Eventually, a monk is called in to perform an exorcism, the real Yuminosuke returns to the home and discovers what's been going on and some of the weird ghost things from the opening scene make a return visit.

This is well-made, doesn't wear out its welcome at just 55 minutes and though the midsection is extremely familiar, the opening and closing scenes partially make up for it, though the weird-looking ghosts are underutilized. The only cast member I recognized was Amachi, who seemed to corner the market on bad guy roles in Nobuo Nakagawa films like THE LADY VAMPIRE (1959), The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959) and Jigoku (1960). In 1983, he even co-starred in the Paul Naschy vehicle The Beast with the Magic Sword, which was shot in Japan with partial Japanese backing. Director Kadono also made the kaidan THE MOTHER TREE (1958) and Ghost of the Girl Diver (1960).

★★1/2

Malabimba (1979)

... aka: Malabimba, the Malicious Whore
... aka: Malicious Whore, The
... aka: Possession of a Teenager
... aka: Sublime Sensation

Directed by:
"Andrew White" (Andrea Bianchi)

Meet the Karoli family. Despite severe financial problems, the elderly matriarch of the clan (Pupita Lea Scuderoni) insists they hang on to their massive castle home, which has been in the family for three centuries and at one time was used as a monastery. Son Andrea (Enzo Fisichella), who lost his wife Daniela years earlier, wants to sell the castle so they can get out from under their debt, but he's broke and powerless. Brother Adolfo (Giuseppe Marrocco), who also lives there, has plenty of money, but he's unfortunately suffered some kind of brain injury that's left him crippled and unable to speak. As a result, all of his finances have fallen into his wife Nais' (Patrizia Webley) hands and Nais isn't a very nice woman. She is, however, fully aware that she's a huge whore and seems to take great pride in that fact. Mama Karoli wants Andrea to seduce and marry his brother's wife so that they can get their hands on the money. Still pining for Daniela and believing Nais is a "low-grade slut" anyway, Andrea refuses... at least at first. And that leaves poor Bimba (Katell Laennec), Andrea's 16-year-old daughter, who has lived her entire life in the home completely isolated from the outside world. In fact, she's not once left the castle grounds and the repression and naivety leave her quite open to malicious and evil influences that happen to be lying dormant inside the castle just waiting to strike out.

The family hold a séance in an effort to call forth Daniela's spirit. Instead, the medium (Elisa Mainardi) accidentally dredges up the vengeful spirit of Lucrezia, who was a "malicious whore" and the shame of the entire family. She also died under mysterious circumstances. Lucrezia lashes out at the family, calling them all perverts, hypocrites, sluts and "domesticated swine." She then exits the medium's body, briefly harasses nun Sister Sofia (Mariangela Giordano), who's there to take care of Adolfo and serve as a tutor and companion to the girl, and finally makes a b-line for Bimba's bedroom to possess her. Bimba sees snakes and lapses in and out of Lucrezia's personality, complete with a husky middle-aged woman's voice. At dinner, she tells her granny, "When you were my age, you were already fucking all of your father's friends!" and squeezes the butler's crotch. She then tries to grope the nun and calls her a whore, before sneaking outside dressed in a sheer nightie to spy on various bedroom activities, which center primarily around the large-breasted Nais. After unsuccessfully trying to seduce Andrea, Nais decides to screw her lawyer Giorgio (Giancarlo Del Luca) instead after he gets her in the mood by slapping her around and calling her "The best whore in the world."

So what else does Bimba do? Well, she embarrasses her uptight family by lifting up her dress and exhibiting herself in the nude in front of party guests. And then she tries to make out with her own father and rubs his cock. And then she stabs a hole in her teddy bear's crotch, inserts a candle and uses it to get off on. She also 69s with a stuffed elf doll, manages to fog up a mirror in two different spots and becomes quite the little peeping Thomasina. Some moments are extremely tasteless, including her watching her dad have sex while she rubs her crotch, and then trying to coerce the adult nun into sex. Then sleaziest bit, however, is when she sneaks downstairs where her crippled uncle is sleeping, strips off her clothes in front of him and then sucks him off until he keels over from a heart attack! As if the constant voyeurism, masturbation and full frontal nudity weren't enough, the sleaze factor is upped even more by the addition of some hardcore sex inserts added later on by someone else. There actually aren't a whole lot of these, but they're briefly used during three different scenes.

Malabimba basically falls into the sub-category of Euro exploitation clearly influenced by The Exorcist; a cycle that also includes THE ANTICHRIST (1974), Beyond the Door (1974), EXORCISMO (1975), The Possessor (1975) and numerous others. It combines two popular themes of the 70s; the corruption of minors / innocents / virgins and the corruption of nuns, but its only really horror content is in the possession theme. This was clearly made as a sex film as that's where nearly every scene ends up. There's not a drop of blood in this one, nor are there any special effects or makeups on the possessed teen. It was shot at a great, picturesque location, but under-utilizes the scenery at hand and ends up shooting nearly every scene indoors. The photography and music are both pretty good. I'd give it a 6 on the sex scale but only about a 3 as a horror film.

The Severin DVD comes with some decent extras, including both the cut and uncut versions. It's a good print, aside from numerous scenes clearly sourced from a damaged VHS print that have been edited back in. Giordano is one of the interview subjects on a documentary featurette and she states that this was the first film she ever did nudity in but then tries to downplay the sex angle. By this stage in her career she was already into her 40s, but how the Italian movie industry was going at the time, you either did the nude scenes or you didn't work. The floodgates now opened, she took on nude roles in a bunch of genre films that really pushed the boundaries of R / X ratings, like GIALLO IN VENICE (1979), Patrick Still Lives (1980) and Satan's Baby Doll (1982). To genre fans she's perhaps best known for playing the tough mama who gets her nipple bitten off by her creepy dwarf son in the zombie flick BURIAL GROUND (1980), which was also directed by Bianchi. All of those were made for her then-husband, producer Gabriele Cristani. She'd later go on to act in Michele Soavi's THE SECT (1991) and Jess Franco's Killer Barbys (1996). In the interview, Giordano has (mostly) nice things to say about the cast and crew, and claims she felt comfortable playing the role of a repressed nun because she was raised in a Catholic convent. Cinematographer Franco Villa is the second interview subject and also has nice things to say about the experience. Much hoopla is made of the fact that the film later had X inserts added to the mix so it could play in adult theaters.

Bianchi (billed as "Andrew White" here) also made the sleazy giallo Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975), the hard-to-find (though reputedly dull) Maniac Killer (1987) and the routine slasher flick MASSACRE (1989).

★★

Westworld (1973)

Directed by:
Michael Crichton

The Delos Corporation has created "The most exciting vacation spot in the history of man," or what they like to call "The vacation of the future... today!" For just 1000 dollars a day, guests have their choice of three distinct destinations. First, there's "Medieval World," a reconstruction of the chivalry, excitement and romance of 13th Century Europe. Then there's "Roman World;" a recreation of the decant, lustful and sensual Pompeii. Finally, there's "Westworld," a recreation of the lawless, unpredictable American frontier of 1880. Guests take a hovercraft deep into the desert, where they're then whisked off to the world of their choice. What makes this so special? Well, each town is populated with like-life robots designed and programmed to make your stay exciting, thrilling and memorable. Aside from imperfect hands, the advanced androids can pass for human and they talk, walk, fight, bleed, have sex, ride horses, serve specific functions and do all the other things that you and I do. Even all of the animals that populate the areas are robotic. Everything is being closely monitored by various scientists and technicians, who stay busy programming the machines, monitoring the action via cameras and, late at night, sweeping in and clearing out any damaged or malfunctioning robots. A voice over the loudspeaker keeps reassuring guests that "nothing can go wrong." Naturally, that turns out not to be the case.

Chicago businessman John Blane (James Brolin), who's already been on a previous Delos vacation, decides to treat his buddy and co-worker Peter Morton (Richard Benjamin), who's just been taken to the cleaners by his ex-wife, to a trip to Westworld. The two guys are given an appropriate wardrobe and all the things they'll need to get by in the dusty Wild West town, including guns. The guns are real guns and take real bullets, except they've been equipped with a censor that won't allow them to fire at anything with a high body temperature to ensure no human uses it on another. As far as the robots are concerned, just gun 'em down as you please. John and Peter live it up for a little while, drinking it up at a local saloon, engaging in bar brawls and shoot-outs, visiting a cathouse (run by Star Trek star Majel Barrett) and even springing each other from jail... but then the robots start behaving strangely. Many of the models have been showing rather peculiar signs as of late; frequently breaking down and occasionally even overriding their programming; prompting the chief scientist (Alan Oppenheimer) to muse, "Doesn't anything work around here?" Still, the Delos staff decide to let the current crop of visitors finish out their stays until closing down for maintenance.

Things start going seriously haywire when robots in all three worlds begin to ignore their commands. Some simply fall over "dead," while others become violent and then start killing not only the other robots but also human guests. All hell breaks loose in Roman World, while In Medieval World a visitor (Norman Bartold) ends up on the wrong end of a knight's sword vying for the attention of the kingdom's queen. In Westworld, John and Peter manage to get on the bad side of an emotionless, black-clad gunslinger (Yul Brynner), a newer model with heightened sensitivity programming, who seems to have the very non-robot-like ability to hold a major grudge...

Being an early 70s sci-fi flick, one may automatically expect elements of Westworld to have dated poorly, but that turns out not to be the case at all. This has actually dated brilliantly and holds up extremely well thanks to an extremely imaginative, intriguing and not entirely implausible premise. While the idea of such a vacation sounds extremely appealing in theory, a certain nagging morality is always in the back of our minds as we examine the scenario. It is really all that healthy to get a thrill out of fake-killing life-like androids at random? If you're in a relationship, is it really cheating to have sex with a robot? One could also imagine this being troublesome for certain types of people; addicting even. When you can basically have your run of an entire world, get all your needs met and get everything you want, returning to the 'real world' and dealing with all of the pressures and disappointments and stress would have to be a depressing downer, right? Crichton's script is smart enough to make passing nods at some of these ideas to ensure we're fully engaged in this idea, even after the movie has ended.

Not just reliant on its creative central idea, Westworld is also very funny at times, exciting in its action and suspense scenes and actually pretty damn scary during the final third. Western movie regular Brynner (The Magnificent Seven) is absolute perfection in his role and gives a superbly chilling performance here. It's impossible not to think of The Terminator (1984) seeing Brynner's cold, steel-eyed gunslinger robot in relentless pursuit of our hero, complete with pixilated robot POV shots and use of heat sensory to track his prey. And just like Schwarzenegger's Terminator, the Gunslinger here doesn't go down very easily. It's also difficult not to think of the later Crichton-penned Jurassic Park watching this, as both feature high tech resort / amusement parks where visitors become trapped inside and are killed by the very attractions they've come to see.

A deserving critical and commercial success upon release, this prompted the sequel Futureworld (1976) three years later, which also featured Brynner reprising his role. In 1980, a TV series called "Beyond Westworld" was produced, but low ratings led to only three of its initial five episodes to air before the plug was pulled. In 2007, a remake was announced to be directed by Tarsem Singh (The Cell) and star Arnold Schwarzenegger. That never happened. In 2011, Warner Brothers announced plans to remake it as a feature film. That also never happened. Just a few months ago as of this writing (August 2013 to be exact) HBO announced plans to do a television series pilot based on the premise, to be directed by Jonathan Nolan and co-produced by J.J. Abrams. Though this original film is a fine stand-alone, there's really a lot of potential for further expansion upon this material if someone manages to do it correctly.

★★★1/2