DVD Review: Formula For A Murder (aka 7, Hyden Park: la casa maledetta, 1985)

This little-seen later-day giallo (better known as 7, Hyden Park: la casa maledetta) finally makes its way to UK DVD shelves in a welcome uncut release, courtesy of cult label Shameless.

25 years after breaking her back in a fall following an attack by a doll-brandishing priest, Joanna (Christina Nagy) is a wealthy heiress who, as well as helping establish a paraplegic sports centre, has sporting aspirations of her own. She's aided by coach Craig (David Warbeck, The Beyond), and the pair have become so close they are to be married. This puts her friend Ruth (Carroll Blumenberg), who has also been a live-in nurse, in an awkward position as she must move out of her lovely home. Joanna also plans to donate half her fortune to a local church. Unfortunately, the priest has just had his throat cut and Joanna has started having hallucinations of a threatening priest carrying a bloodied doll. To make matters worse, Craig is warned by Joanna's doctor that her encounter as a child was much worse than she knows; she was also raped, but this has been blocked from her memory, and that she is at risk of a fatal heart attack if they make love and the memories return.

By the mid-eighties the giallo craze was all but dead, but this taut thriller manages to evoke a seventies feel, while being unequivocally of the period. All the usual giallo tropes are present: the killer's black leather gloves, shaving razor, the gory murders. The big difference is the early reveal of the murderer (which will come as no big surprise, especially since the cover art gives it away). That doesn't take the fun out of the film, however, as there are still several neat little turns which keep it interesting and the manic set pieces are nightmarish and fun. It's essentially a re-tread of Les diaboliques with added childhood trauma and a creepy doll being thrust into shot every now and again; but it's still worth checking out.

 

Director Alberto De Martino (best known for cult favourites The Antichrist and Holocaust 2000) manages to get the most out of the locations, and with the help of DP Gianlorenzo (Demons) Battaglia's camerawork creates some fantastic looking set pieces. Equally nice is Francesco De Masi's score, even if it does use whole passages from his work in The New York Ripper - although that may be for economy, as both films also share a producer, Fabrizio De Angelis.

The disc has a very interesting commentary (in Italian, subtitled) with Battaglia, in which he reveals the villa in Rome which doubled for Joanna's home was owned by a man who had killed his wife in a crime of passion. There is also a selection of trailers for other Shameless releases, and - you need to watch the film for the significance - a yellow Shameless-branded mackintosh.

7 out of 10

Blu-ray review: Deranged (1974) classic Ed Gein inspired shocker

 

An overlooked and forgotten gem from 1974, available for the first time in the UK uncut and in high definition to boot! Based on the infamous case of Ed Gein, the Wisconsin ghoul, infamous for grave robbing and wearing the flesh of the dead, but is thought to have only killed two people (it is rightly pointed out during the fantastic extra features that Gein was not a serial killer). Anyone who has read the Gein case will instantly realise how close Deranged follows his story.

Presented as a pseudo-documentary, complete with an on-screen narrator (played by the brilliant Leslie Carlson, instantly recognisable from films such as Videodrome and The Fly), who appears every now and again to move the narrative along. Ezra Cobb (Roberts Blossom, who is simply fantastic as the Gein inspired loner) is so upset when his mother dies that he eventually decides to dig her up and move her back into the family home. Alarmed by the state of decay, he starts digging up freshly buried bodies to use the skin.

Remembering his dying mother's words, he seeks out her only friend, Maureen Selby (Marian Waldman, the wonderful drunken fraternity mother Mrs Mac in the original Black Christmas), whom he can trust because "she's a big fat woman". Maureen is taken with Ezra's interest, and in order to get permission from her late husband, conducts a hokey seance. This sequence provides a welcome bit of comic relief, with the woman, channeling her husbands voice, teling Ezra to look after her carnal needs; "Carnival?" he asks naively. It doesn't end well, as when she takes him to bed he recalls his mama's words: "The wages of sin are gonorrhea, syphilis, and death", and promptly shoots her.

The film varies from the real life story in a number of ways: the real Gein didn't dig his own mother up, and his two victims were a lot older than depicted in the film (the family friend just mentioned is a film elaboration). Arrow's HD release restores the often cut sequence in which Cobb gouges an eye and scoops brains from a unearthed head; a scene played so straight - no need for shock sound design or over dramatic music - that it just adds to the documentary feel. The score, by Bob Clark regular Carl Zittrer, is an understated funeral parlour style organ which suits it perfectly. The make-up effects, early work by Tom Savini, are basic, but perfectly suitable and believable.

Gein has influenced horror cinema more than most, his story being the basis for stories and films such as Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs, but they don't have the kick in the teeth realism of Deranged. Tobe Hooper's 1974 film, filmed at almost the same time as this, takes the elements of the story but takes them into different, albeit equally disturbing places. With Deranged, writer/co-director Alan Ormsby, who also made Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things with Deranged's (uncredited) producer Bob Clark, and Jeff Gillen have created a disturbing film, which quietly manages to get under your skin, making it crawl when needed. Blossom's effortless performance is so believable, you can guarantee the next time you see him wink at that kid in Close Encounters of the Third Kind you'll read something so much more sinister into it.

I first saw the film in the late 80s, via a late night screening on the just launched Sky channel. After years of seeing stills and reading of this film, it didn't let me down. Re-watching it again after all these years it is not disappointing. If anything, the film has become even more powerful over time, the gritty realism of some scenes only offset by the on-screen narrator.

Full marks to Arrow, as always, for their fabulous bonus features on the disc. As well as an informative, enlightening, amusing, if meandering, commentary from Tom Savini (talking to respected genre writer Calum Waddell, whose company High Rising Productions also provide some of the other featurettes, and who made the brilliant Slice & Dice: The Slasher Film Forever documentary), there are interviews with Intruder producer Scott Spiegel, discussing working with Roberts Blossom (this extra is worth watching for the hilarious animated title sequence alone), Laurence R. Harvey (The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence) on the legacy of Gein, and a great archive interview with co-director Jeff Gillen which also includes rare on-set footage. The set is completed by a chunky booklet, packed with even more fascinating material. You really have to admire Arrow Video, don't you? Who else would spend so much love and care on, what is to many,  just an obscure grindhouse film from the 70s?
Highly recommended.
9 out of 10

Retro Review: Murder Is Like Sex (2009)

From the title of this shot on video tale you would possibly expect a Murder Set Pieces style gorefest, or maybe even some porn-gore crossover. What you get instead in nearly 2 hours of a bloke whose chronic masturbation has created a maniac woman who kills people who piss him off, and his attempt to both clear his name and get laid.

I need a subscription to this magazine!

This is what the popular kids look like in this town!

Kevin (Jayson Garity) is a loser, picked on at school for not fitting in with the cool kids, and working as a clerk in a record store. Such is his sexual frustration, he can't help but have a dirty rummage while serving the popular girl Michelle (Lindsay Gerish) or while stopping at the lights on the way home. He bumps into Michelle again later on while doing a grocery errand for the little old lady next door (Mildren Boron, I assume the director's mother, and quite possibly the worst of the bad acting on show here). When he refuses to buy he some beer, she taunts him, and he gets a flashback to his school woes. During his nocturnal fiddling, he fantasies about a beautiful blonde riding him, and has a completely bizarre 'out of body' experience - complete with dodgy SFX, until of course it's time to wipe his fingers and he's all alone again.    

                                                                                                                                      

The next day, he is shocked to see a blonde Lisa (Robyn Griggs, Slashers Gone Wild!) on his doorstep, newly moved in and keen to make his acquaintance. His luck changes even more for the better when his workmate puts him in touch with his cousin, Lucy (Heather Summers) with whom he shares lots of interests. The two are getting to know each other when it comes on the news Michelle has been brutally murdered. Being one of the last to see her, and arguing to boot, Kevin is brought in for questioning, but released without charge.

Kevin and Lucy bump into local meat head Tom (Mathew Turner) who is out with a shotgun looking for Michelle's killer. Lisa turns up, brandishing a large knife and does away with Tom, as well as confessing to Michelle's murder! She tells Kevin she is a tulpa, brought into existence through the power of his fantasy..

Shot on video films are not a new thing, in fact we're getting more and more used to them over the years. Some are good, and show real inventiveness and are populated with people with a talent for being in front of the camera. Some are not. Murder Is Like Sex falls firmly into the latter category. It's not just that the film is inept, it just isn't punchy enough to keep the interest going for 2 hours. I can put up a few below par actors (hey, I love Ed Wood films!) but make them do something other than spout exposition! There are also some exchanges with record store customers that were either in here to 'add realism' or as just to get friends in on the film, High Fidelity this is not!

I can't even remember where I got this film from, I found it in my collection but a quick Amazon search shows it's still available if you REALLY need to see it, but the director Keith Boron has released nothing else as far as I can see.
2 out of 10