Una gota de sangre para morir amando (1972)

... aka: Clockwork Terror
... aka: Dead Angel
... aka: Murder in a Blue World
... aka: To Love, Perhaps to Die

Directed by:
Eloy de la Iglesia

A truly oddball (and tough to categorize) little film, this revolves around both a serial killer ("an unknown killer of young people") and behavior modification experiments being conducted to help reduce criminal activity. It's set sometime in the future and the appropriate look and feel are achieved through bizarre set design and even more bizarre new broadcasts (where the announcer expounds on the virtues of "the perfect race") and commercials (including one for something called "Blue Drink;" "the natural product of nature!"), which are constantly playing on TV sets throughout the film. Even stranger are the amount of Stanley Kubrick film references on hand. During one bizarre sequence, four whip-wielding thugs dressed in black leather outfits and red helmets arrive at an ultra modern house and terrorize the family living there. They trash their furniture, make the husband bark like a dog, whip the wife and then drag both of them off to separate bedrooms to rape them. Yes, this is certainly copying the famous home invasion scene from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971), but the director has absolutely no problem stating his sources. The couple have just sat down to watch Kubrick's film before they're attacked!

Elsewhere, well-scrubbed blonde Ana Vernia (Sue Lyon), who inherited much from her deceased parents and lives alone in a gated mansion guarded by dogs, has just won a special award for completing her "health officer" studies. Her friend, Dr. Victor Sender (Jean Sorel), a professor in clinical psychotherapy who'd no doubt like to be more than just friends with Ana, thinks she's smart enough to be a doctor. Ana however claims that she's not as much interested in the technical aspects of health care as she is the compassionate ones... which might explain why she's something of an accomplished serial killer! Because her victims are all good-looking young men between the ages of 17 and 25, the press and police have it all wrong that the killer responsible has "tendencies toward homosexuality." Because of their erroneous assumptions, Ana easily gets away with her 'caring nurse by day / murderess by night' routine. That is, until someone accidentally catches on to what she's doing.

Ana utilizes a wide variety of disguises to help lure men into her clutches, seduces them and then stabs them through the heart with a scalpel immediately after sex (and listening to their heartbeat). During one scene, she dresses up as an old woman and goes to a brothel, where she hires over-the-hill underwear model / gigolo Bruno (Charly Bravo) to accompany her home. In another scene, she dresses up as a lesbian in a short black wig and suit, goes to a gay bar and picks up a young guy (Alfredo Alba) who seems to be unsure of (or just fighting against) his sexual orientation. Meanwhile, David (Christopher Mitchum), one of the leather-clad thugs seen in the home invasion scene, has managed to turn all his juvenile delinquent friends against him. Desperate for money, he lucks out in discovering Ana disposing of one of her victims in the river. He sneaks over to her house, watches as she kills another man and then blackmails her to get money and a new motorcycle. Things come to a head at the lab, after David is severely beaten by his gang and is left at the mercy of Ana in the hospital where she works.

The connections to Kubrick extend beyond the droog-like juvenile delinquents and attempted shock treatment cures to criminal impulses (which amusingly backfire during the bloody conclusion), but to the presence of Sue Lyon, star of Kubrick's LOLITA (1962). There are many nods to that film, including a play on the famous sunglasses scene, as well as an actual copy of Vladimir Nabokov's book seen several times.

I'm not even sure what to make of all of this, or what the actual point (aside from those already established in Kubrick's ACO) is, but it's all very interesting to watch play out. de la Iglesia is one of those European directors you hear very little about here in America. He never achieved much notoriety here, and is pretty much only known for the good, though misleadingly-titled, CANNIBAL MAN (1971). However, tracking down copies of his other films has been worthwhile. A gay director, he'd often infuse his films with gay subtext (sometimes subtlely, sometimes more blatantly [as seen here]), and really brought a fresh perspective to many thrillers as a result. See also: THE GLASS CEILING (1971), NO ONE HEARD THE SCREAM (1973).

One of the major letdowns are our trio of lead actors. Lyon, Mitchum and Sorel all act like they don't even want to be here and give wooden, forgettable performances. The cast also includes Ramón Pons as a victim Ana picks up at an auction, Antonio del Real, David Carpenter (THE KILLER IS NOT ALONE) and Ramón Fernández Tejela as David's punk friends, Fernando Hilbeck and Eduardo Calvo.

★★1/2

Twisted Nerve (1968)

Directed by:
Roy Boulting

Entertaining, well-acted, well-made psycho-thriller; this didn't make much of an impact at the box office back during its day and would be the only genre release from the fledgling Charter Film Productions (who cranked out a couple of comedies after this and then folded). The film was actually somewhat controversial upon release for what some felt was an irresponsible attempt to link mongolism (a condition we now refer to as Down's Syndrome) with psychopathic and criminal behavior. To counteract that, the film had a disclaimer ("Ladies and gentlemen, in view of the controversy already aroused, the producers of this film wish to reemphasize what is already stated in the film; that there is no established scientific connection between mongolism and psychotic or ciminal behavior.") spoken by a stuffy-sounding man tacked to the beginning. Aside from the scientific nonsense; which really only comes into play briefly at the end, doesn't amount to much of anything anyway and can easily just be overlooked, plus the fact the film isn't particularly well-known and underperformed at the box office, it would go on to become an influential effort in some rather surprising ways.

Twenty-two-year-old Martin Durnley (Hywel Bennett) lives at home with his overly nurturing mother (Phyllis Calvert) and his stern, wealthy stepfather (Frank Finlay). Since all of his siblings suffered from "mongolism" and Martin was born "normal," his mother has been a bit smothering over the years and managed to seriously spoil her son in the process. However, Martin's stepfather wants him to get out and begin his life independently of them; especially seeing how Martin doesn't do much but sit upstairs listening to records and is frequently getting in trouble with the law. While out shoplifting, Martin is caught by the police. He gives them a false name ("Georgie Clifford") and pretends to be mentally retarded. Pretty, sweet Susan (Hayley Mills), a student who works as a librarian, sympathizes with "Georgie" and helps get him off the hook, but when Martin returns home and his stepfather gets wind of what took place, he gives Martin some money and tells him he has to move out.

Martin then decides to adapt the "Georgie" persona and wedge himself into Susan's life. Susan is temporarily staying with her lonely mother Joan (Billie Whitelaw) while she completes her studies. Joan owns a boarding house and has already rented out rooms to Gerry (Barry Foster), an abrasive alcoholic struggling to get by in the film industry (who's also Joan's lover), and Shashie (Salmaan Peerzada), an Indian medical student. One evening, "Georgie" shows up with a forged letter from his father asking them to take him in while he's out of town on business. They're reluctant at first, but since he seems relatively harmless and soon proves to be a big help doing various chores around the home, Joan soon takes a liking to him. It isn't long before "Georgie" sneaks off to murder his stepfather and his true intentions for Susan begin to surface. Sensing there's more to their new boarder than meets the eye (and finding a handwriting book with the name Martin Durnley written over and over again inside), Susan investigates.

Despite running nearly two hours, this has no problem maintaining interest. It's helped along by very good performances, an interesting screenplay (written by the director and PEEPING TOM scripter Leo Marks) and solid production values. Bennett does an effective job as the psycho (a showy, edgy role allowing him to take on two different personas), Mills (a former child actress just starting to move into more adult roles here; she'd marry the director right after filming was complete) is likable as our heoine and there are nice supporting performances from Whitelaw (whose character finds herself sexually attracted to "Georgie" in one of the ickier subplots), Finlay, Calvert and most of the rest of the cast. There are also a number of D.H. Lawrence references throw in (obviously because of the author's own Freudian mother fixation), including a direct visual allusion to Lawrence's masturbation parable "The Rocking Horse Winner."

Someone must have liked the chemistry between Mills and Bennett because the two were re-teamed in the Agatha Christie adaptation ENDLESS NIGHT just a few years later. And apparently Alfred Hitchcock liked what he saw of Whitelaw (who won a BAFTA Award for her performance here) and Foster, because after viewing this film he decided to cast both in his hit FRENZY (1972). Bernard Herrmann's eerie, memorable whistling theme later turned up in rip-off artist Quentin Tarantino's KILL BILL: VOL 1 and other films. I also just noticed checking out the debut episode of the new series American Horror Story, that it not only recycles the same theme music, but also has a neighbor character (played by Jessica Lange) with a Down's Syndrome daughter (whom she refers to as a "mongoloid").

It's well-photographed by Harry Waxman, and also features Hammer film regular Thorley Walters and an uncredited Marianne Stone in small roles. The DVD is from Optium Releasing.

★★★

Mosquito der Schänder (1977)

... aka: Bloodlust
... aka: Bloodlust: The Black Forest Vampire
... aka: Bloodlust: The Vampire of Nuremberg
... aka: Mosquito
... aka: Mosquito the Rapist

Directed by:
Marijan David Vajda

A very bleak, disturbing film about a troubled, lonely, reclusive deaf-mute outcast (Werner Pochath) who has endured much abuse in his life and, mistreated and / or shunned by the living since childhood, ends up seeking companionship with the dead. Living in a block apartment house, the man (who is never actually named) spends his evenings alone caring for his pet mouse and haunted by memories of childhood abuse. When he was a young boy, his alcoholic father beat him so severely that he lost his ability to hear or speak. His father also sexually molested his little sister right in front of him. At school he was constantly bullied by his peers. Things aren't any better as an adult. Though he does well at his job, his co-workers have labeled him a "queer" and "pervert" because of his interest in collecting dolls. Because he is unable to have a healthy adult relationship, he seeks the company of prostitutes, who mock him because of his inability to perform. The only person who even really acknowledges in a positive way is an aloof teenage neighbor (Birgit Zamulo), who doesn't seem quite right in head herself and sits outside in the courtyard all day dancing and listening to music. The girl's mother (Ellen Umlauf) warns her to stay away from the man. Though he's polite and well-mannered, she just doesn't trust him.

As the man descends further into madness, he begins sneaking into local morgues and graveyards to visit with perhaps the only people who aren't going to harm him or outright reject him. On his first visit, he simply slices up a body, but his defilement of corpses become more ghastly on each subsequent visit. He decapitates one and removes the eyeballs from another and takes them home to put in a mason jar. He also purchases a glass straw and begins drinking blood from the bodies of the recently deceased. During some of his visits, he defiles the walls with "M.Q." or "Mosquito;" a calling card that has the press equating him to a modern day vampire. When his young female neighbor dies after falling from the rooftop (it's unclear whether by accident or suicide), the man digs up her corpse and interestingly tries to feed her his own blood. By the end of the film, his crimes upon the dead will escalate into crimes upon the living.

Boasting some graphically gory special effects (which are generally effective and probably would have earned this an X certificate at the time of its release), a very haunting organ music score and a compelling wordless central performance from its lead actor, this is an effectively grim and actually quite sad character study that deserves to be seen by a wider audience. The director employs some stylish techniques in presenting the material; shooting the flashbacks with a red tint and the fantasy sequences (where the man temporarily tries to escape from the reality of his own actions) with blurred edges. There are lots of creepy shots of dolls, which are used metaphorically by both the director and the 'Mosquito' character.

Lead actor Pochath (who passed away in 1993) was a regular presence in Euro horror of the 70s and 80s, having already appeared in a small role in Argento's THE CAT O' NINE TAILS (1971) before graduating to lead roles sleazier films, such as the rapist-killers-hijack-a-train trash fest TERROR EXPRESS (1979) and Jess Franco's awful cannibal / zombie movie DEVIL HUNTER (1980). At one point he also came to America to act in the silly cannibal comedy AUNTIE LEE'S MEAT PIES (1991) and a few action movies. Bloodlust would turn out to be the best showcase for his talents within the genre. Regardless of how sick the character is, he and the director ensure he's not just some faceless, one-dimensional psycho, but a tragic figure driven to do unthinkable things because of lifelong abuse and isolation.

Viewers wanting action and excitement may find the film a bit on the slow side, and sticklers for realism might cry foul on scenes with the corpses; were they really not embalmed back in the 70s? The film isn't perfect, but if you're in the mood for a very dark character study, then this is certainly worth a look. It's based on real-life killer / necrophile Kuno Hofmann. The German-born Hofmann was deaf, mute and severely beaten as a child (just as in this film) and spent almost a decade in prison for theft, emerging from his sentence with an interest in Satanism and vampirism. He exhumed dozens of corpses, indulging in cannibalism and necrophilia, and shot and killed three people (so he'd have fresh blood) before being apprehended in 1972. He was sentenced to life in prison.

The Customflix DVD (under the title BLOODLUST: THE BLACK FOREST VAMPIRE) is an OK, English-dubbed print of the film.

★★★1/2

R.I.P. David Hess (1942-2011)

Best known to cinema buffs as the sadistic rapist / murderer Krug Stillo in Wes Craven's landmark horror film THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972), David Hess has passed away in his home just outside of Los Angeles at the age of 69. Under the name David Hill, Hess (then just fifteen years old) began his show business career as a singer (he had two songs just barely make it to the Hot 100), but ended up finding more success as a songwriter and composer for Shalimar Music. There, he penned hit records for the likes of Elvis Presley ("All Shook Up;" which ended up being erroneously credited to Presley, "Come Together" and "Frankie and Johnny" amongst them), Pat Boone (the eight-times-platinum chart-topper "Speedy Gonzales"), Andy Williams ("Your Hand, Your Heart, Your Love") and Conway Twitty ("Make Me Know You're Mine"). After a solid decade-plus working behind the scenes in the music industry, Hess became head of A&R at Mercury Records in New York City. In 1970, in conjuction with western composer John Corigliano, he helped create the rock opera "The Naked Carmen;" which ended up winning a Grammy Award.

Just two years later, Hess accepted the lead role in, and composed the score for, Last House, which would forever change the dynamic of his career. The film sparked much controversy for its graphic depictions of sadism and violence and nihilistic tone, and became an international hit. Hess moved to Munich soon after to work for PolyGram Records' German division. There, he worked as a film dubber and a script translator. Because of the increasing notoriety of Last House and its huge success in Europe, film offers started rolling in. Amongst those were HITCH-HIKE (1977), a psycho-thriller featuring Hess' character Adam terrorizing an unhappily married couple on the road, and the tasteless, sexed-up shocker THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK (1979). In both films, Hess was typecast as a slimy, aggressive rapist and killer; unsavory roles almost identical to what he'd played in Last House.

In 1980, Hess made his directorial debut with the slasher flick TO ALL A GOODNIGHT (1980), which predated the much-more-famous SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT by four years in its depiction of Santa Claus as a killer. In 1982, he reuinted with Craven to play a bad guy supporting role in the popular SWAMP THING (1982), and four years after that would reteam with Park director Ruggero Deodato to play a sheriff with a few skeletons in his closet in the slasher BODY COUNT. Hess also put in appearances in the Italian giallo HOMICIDE IN BLUE LIGHT (1991), NUTCRACKER: AN AMERICAN NIGHTMARE (2000), the very low-budget THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT (2003; though not released until 2006), several films for the much-derided Ulli Lommel (2004's ZOMBIE NATION - which currently sits at #11 on IMDb's 100 Worst list and ZODIAC KILLER, which clocks in at #27) and the recent gore flick homage SMASH CUT (2009), which also featured Herschell Gordon Lewis. Throughout his film career, Hess' love for music never wained. He continued to produce music, including several albums ("Caught Up In The Moment" and "Live & Unplugged in Hollywood, 2002."). Some of his music can also be heard on film soundtracks, such as CABIN FEVER (2002) and MANHUNT (2008).

Hess (whose cult celebrity has increased significantly in recent years) was slated to appear in at least four more horror films (including a follow-up to Park) before his untimely passing. He left behind a wife and three children.

R.I.P. David, and condolences go out to friends and family.