#Forgotten Gialli: Volume One

[allieatthemovies]

Movie Review: The Killer is One of 13 (1973) d. Javier Aguirre - 2.5 / 5 Stars

Going all the way back to movies like The Thin Man and After the Thin Man and as recent as movies like Knives Out, I just have a soft spot for the “large group of people stuck in a location together and accused of murder” trope. It’s not something I ever really thought much about, but watching this it occurred to me I like these sorts of mysteries a lot - no matter how contrived they might be. This movie falls neatly into that category.

The Killer is One of 13 is by no means the best of its kind, but is serviceable enough if you find yourself in need of something new. The film centers around the character Lisa who brings together a group of thirteen people she believes may have killed her husband, Carlos, two years prior. She disguises this inquiry as a reunion weekend and accuses her guests while they sit around the dinner table the first night. This... genre, i suppose, of mystery / horror inherently comes with a lot of talking - exposition is a key factor - and this movie exposits excessively. For me, I enjoyed the barbed accusations and meandering theories postulated in every scene about Carlos’ murder, but even I will admit it does start to drag at times. There’s very little variation to the scenes, very little movement. The scenes at the dinner table are either wide shots of people looking around confused and offended or tight headshots that cut back and forth between the characters speaking. This applies to most of the movie and the lack of energy from the characters and cinematography hurt it in the long run.

The plot itself is suitably convoluted to this type of story. Theories are proposed and abandoned, character flaws are revealed only to go nowhere. It all serves to steer the audience away from the real motivation. But with so many branching possibilities proposed it becomes a little disappointing how few of them actually come into play by the climax, and for all the talking and theorizing the climax comes extremely abruptly. There isn’t a single death until around the 60 minute mark of this 90 minute movie, but once they start they happen in quick succession. The kills themselves are adequate, but not particularly memorable. When the false killer is revealed - five minutes before the end of the movie no less - it’s frustrating because we, as the audience, know this cannot possibly be the killer. The reveal of the actual killer doesn’t offer a satisfying “a ha!” moment, but rather more of an exasperated sigh moment. It’s not really set up well enough despite the exorbitant amount of exposition, it’s cliche, and half the dinner guests have already left the estate.

So the plot itself leaves much to be desired, but the characters can be interesting and most of the actors still manage to pull off decent performances. These sorts of movies always rely heavily on the interplay of character relationships, and I did enjoy watching the lines drawn between each of them. The standout character was Lisa’s aunt, Bertha. She’s the manipulative and doting mother of Lisa’s cousin who displays a sharper mind than most of the dinner guests and has the air an older femme fatale. In between emasculating her son her efforts to uncover the killer are equal parts the most disturbingly earnest and engaging. I also felt for Guillermo who was probably the most sympathetic and believable dinner guests of the thirteen. The discovery of his wife’s infidelity is probably the most engaging of the subplots threaded throughout the film. Everyone else plays their parts well for as one note as they are: Harry is suitably unlikable as the playboy, Arlen is serviceably awkward, the wives are all perfectly catty, Elena is just naive enough, Henry the Butler buttles expertly, and Ernest feels like he was written only as an excuse to hire Paul Naschy.

It’s the character dynamics that really save this from being a complete slog for me. While it will never be high on my list of recommendations, if it ever is, I can’t say I regret watching it or didn’t enjoy it in parts. I’ll probably revisit it once in a blue moon when I’m going through my movies and trying to remember if I liked it or not.

#Movie Review #Giallo #Vinegar Syndrome #The Killer is One of 13 #movies #Forgotten Gialli: Volume One #Movies I Own

[brokehorrorfan]

Blu-ray Review: Forgotten Gialli: Volume 3

Vinegar Syndrome launched its first Forgotten Gialli Blu-ray box set less than a year ago, but the powerhouse distributor is already on the third volume of obscure giallo (European murder-mystery) films. The latest installment features 1972's Murder Mansion (also known as The Mansion in the Fog), 1975's Autopsy (also known as The Victim), and 1977's Crazy Desires of a Murderer (also known as The Morbid Vices of a Housekeeper).

Murder Mansion is a Spanish-Italian co-production that only classifies as a giallo by a rather liberal definition. It starts out slow; the first line of dialogue isn't spoken until six minutes in, after the opening title sequence and a lengthy driving scene. When the night is consumed by fog, a group of strangers from different backgrounds seek refuge in an old mansion next to an abandoned village where local legends say vampires once resided. It's not long before they suspect that ghosts have risen from the nearby graveyard.

Written by Luis G. de Blain and Antonio Troiso (Beyond the Door), the murder-mystery aspects are more Agatha Christie - or even Scooby-Doo, given the cartoonish reveal - than giallo, lacking many of the subgenre's hallmarks; but even more so director Francisco Lara Polop seems to be drawing influence from gothic horror in both approach and execution. The chilling atmosphere is palpable as soon as the fog rolls in, but the first body doesn't pop up until nearly an hour into the 86-minute film. The last act makes admirable attempts to compensate with scares and shocks.

Murder Mansion has been newly restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative. It includes the original Spanish language audio with newly translated English subtitles as well as the English and Italian dubs. The disc includes a 20-minute interview with actress Evelyn Stewart (The Psychic). While she admittedly doesn't remember the specifics about much of the production, she recalls working with the special effects and explains her use of a stage name. She’s noticeably pleased by the film, particularly Polop's direction.

The most well-known title among the three Forgotten Gialli sets, Autopsy opens with a montage of grisly suicides plaguing Rome, purported to be caused by sun spots. A young, female pathologist (Mimsy Farmer, Four Flies on Grey Velvet), serendipitously writing a thesis on the differences between simulated and authentic suicides, teams up with an epileptic race car driver-turned-priest (Barry Primus, Boxcar Bertha) following the alleged suicide of his sister to investigate.

Directed by Armando Crispino (The Dead Are Alive), who co-wrote the script with Lucio Battistrada, the Italian giallo is convoluted even by the subgenre's standards. It's also shockingly sleazy, from a misogynistic coroner to maddening visions of being molested by cadavers. The film is uneven in both tone and pacing and bloated at 100 minutes, but it ends on a high note with a memorable finale. On the whole, it's more unnerving than most gialli, due to the taboo buttons it pushes as well as the hints of surrealism in which Crispino indulges. A score by Ennio Morricone (The Thing, The Good the Bad and the Ugly) certainly doesn't hurt.

Autopsy has been newly restored in 2K from its 35mm original camera negative. It includes both the English and Italian (with newly translated English subtitles) mono soundtracks. It offers a variety of special features: a featurette on Crispino consisting of 38 minutes of insight from the late director's son, Francesco Crispino; a 10-minute interview with Francesco Crispino, who dissects various versions of the film and discusses his father's influences; an 11-minute interview with editor Daniele Alabiso conducted by Francesco Crispino, in which they examine the film's peculiar rhythm; an introduction by the director from a screening; alternate Italian titles and credits; and the theatrical trailer.

If only Crazy Desires of a Murderer's plot was as stimulating as its traditionally verbose giallo title. It centers around an affluent, globe-trotting countess, Ileana (Isabelle Marchall, Black Emanuelle). She returns to her familial castle with new friends she met while traveling in China, who unwittingly used her as a drug courier. Meanwhile, her traumatized half-brother is kept locked away in the basement. But those are the least of her problems once someone starts murdering the inhabitants of the castle.

Aesthetically, this one most closely resembles a traditional giallo. What the drab castle lacks in color palette, director Filippo Walter Ratti and cinematographer Gino Santini (Django the Bastard) make up for with interesting camerawork. There's also ample gore, as the killer's modus operandi involves removing the victims' eyes, and heavy doses of sleaze, although it pales in comparison to Autopsy. But writer Ambrogio Molteni (Black Emanuelle) employs an Agatha Christie-esque sleuth (Corrado Gaipa, The Godfather) to solve the mystery, and the abundance of clunky procedural scenes weigh down the film.

Crazy Desires of a Murderer has been newly restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative with Italian mono audio and newly translated English subtitles. The disc includes a 15-minute interview (in Italian with subtitles) with actor Giuseppe Colombo (who more notably went on to produce The Stendhal Syndrome and other Dario Argento productions). He candidly recalls frequent disagreements with Ratti and other drama that befell the production.

While the films are hit or miss, the experience of unearthing them is always a thrill. Even the packaging is great, with each film in its own individual Blu-ray case with reversible artwork, all of which are housed inside a sturdy box (limited to 6,000). Between Forgotten Gialli and the forthcoming Home Grown Horrors, I hope Vinegar Syndrome never stops spoiling us with box sets of hidden gems.

Forgotten Gialli: Volume 3 is available now on Blu-ray via Vinegar Syndrome.

#vinegar syndrome #giallo #autopsy #murder mansion #crazy desires of a murderer #forgotten gialli #italian horror #italian film #dvd #gift #review #article #horror #ennio morricone #mimsy farmer #evelyn stewart

[pictureitpod]

My top 10 4K/blu ray releases of the year. Part 1 of 2. 1. House by the Cemetery by Blue Underground. Hands down my favorite Fulci, and to see it get this level of love is wonderful. There is both a 2 disc 4K, and 3 disc blu ray edition, the 3 disc includes the intense yet beautiful score on CD. 2. The Black Cat by Severin, this is the unofficial conclusion to the Argento third mother trilogy (Suspiria, Inferno) written by Daria Nicolodi with additions by Luigi Cozzi. It’s a weird meta film that in someways serves as a better conclusion than Mother of Tears. 3. Forgotten Gialli Volume 1 & 2 by Vinegar Syndrome. These sets feature Gialli from Italy and beyond. A must for any Giallo or Italian horror enthusiast. Here is hoping we see a third one sooner than later. 4. Revenge by Second Sight. This was one of my favorite films of 2017, and then it was released on a very lackluster disc despite its critical reception. Thankfully Second Sight in the UK rectified this, and gave it the love it deserves. 5. Dawn of the Dead by Second Sight. I wasn’t going to have more than one release per company on this list but Second Sight took the world by surprise by putting out this 7 disc set that includes everything and more that you could possibly want. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJlml-Fl1H5/?igshid=1sjdrpjirma2e

[allieatthemovies]

Movie Review: Trauma (1978) León Klimovsky - 2 / 5 Stars

This is a movie that really asks the important questions like: is imitation truly the sincerest form of flattery or us it just and excuse to be lazy? In this case I put my money on the latter. This is Psycho in a hotel - no, wait, Psycho was already set in a hotel. Let me think... ah, I have it: This is Psycho in a Spanish hotel. Now it’s completely different. Anyway, heads up there are spoilers from this point on, I guess. I don’t think I could talk about this movie without it because the twist is so fucking flagrant.

Now, I didn’t hate this movie exactly. I’ve watched and enjoyed plenty of derivative movies, but there was something uniquely bland about this one. Since the twist is so obvious the tension is virtually nonexistent so you’re left to rely on the characters for engagement. Unfortunately, the characters are not particularly engaging. The film follows a writer - it’s been a few days, I don’t remember his name - who holes himself up in a remote bed and breakfast in the Spanish countryside. The hotel is run by a mysterious woman who seems curiously obsessed with marriage and whose mysterious husband is bedridden in a room on the top floor. Inconsequential tertiary characters come along throughout the movie and are quickly violently dispatched.

The innkeeper takes an immediate liking to her writer guest, particularly when she discovers he’s married. They seem to bond, at least vaguely, over undisclosed marital problems that simmer just beneath each characters’ surface. The film’s major fumble is taking us into the room of the innkeeper’s bedridden husband. We get a low angle shot of her towering over an old, upholstered chair of which we can only see the back and she engages in a tirade at a man we never see. It’s embarrassing how quickly this single scene gives away the whole movie; it’s not even trying to be subtle. The movie makes a pathetic attempt to trick the audience into thinking the writer might be the actual killer, but by that point we’ve had several more scenes of the innkeeper with the husband we never see. It’s hard to guess why the filmmakers even bothered attempting to lure us away from the real murderer. Perhaps they hoped no one in Spain had seen or heard of Psycho despite it being eighteen years old when this movie was released. Whatever the case, the only thing I felt was impatience for when the writer would figure out he’s living with a schizophrenic murderess.

The title of the movie is apparent in a series of intermittent flashbacks that show the mistreatment the innkeeper suffered at her husband’s hands. Whether it was the trauma of the abuse or the trauma of killing her husband that drove her to insanity, the movie never specifies. Had the movie focused more on this - maybe shown the flashbacks in a way that tricked the audience into believing they were happening contemporaneously - and certainly never shown the room the husband “occupied” there could have been an interesting and engaging examination of marital trauma. As it is, the movie feels half formed and little more than a cheap, late entry knock off to the Psycho craze.

#movie review #movies #forgotten gialli: volume one #trauma 1978 #vinegar syndrome #giallo

[brokehorrorfan]

Blu-ray Review: Forgotten Gialli: Volume 1

One of the most reliable distributors when it comes to unearthing obscure genre films, Vinegar Syndrome has released Forgotten Gialli: Volume One, a Blu-ray box set containing a trio of giallo - or, European murder-mysteries - that have never received distribution in the U.S.: 1973's The Killer Is One of 13, 1975's The Police Are Blundering in the Dark, and 1978's Trauma.

The Killer Is One of 13 is a Spanish giallo by way of Agatha Christie. Lisa Mandel (Patty Shepard, Slugs) invites a collection of acquaintances to her elegant, isolated home for reasons unknown to the guests. As she reveals over dinner, it's the second anniversary of her husband's mysterious passing, so she has gathered 13 people who may have benefited from his death, convinced one of them is responsible.

Despite the very specific title, there are more than 13 suspects when you factor in everyone; from guests to family members to the help. Director/co-writer Javier Aguirre (Count Dracula’s Great Love) and co-writer Alberto S. Insúa (Count Dracula’s Great Love) do an admirable job painting each character as a potential culprit, as everyone has both motives and flaws. However, as is often the case with ensemble murder-mysteries, it's difficult to keep track of the ancillary characters, some of whom are barely developed.

Far more restrained than its Italian brethren, the film's pacing is rather uneven. It's heavy on exposition throughout the first two acts, but the intriguing mystery drives it until the murders begin. That doesn't occur until 63 minutes into the 95-minute film, leading to an unrelenting, if rushed, final act. The big reveal isn't all that surprising if you pay attention to the clues, but it's not dissatisfying.

Cinematographer Francisco Fraile's (Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf) ambitious camerawork - almost always roving or zooming - provides a kineticism to offset the long stretches of dialogue, even if focus is occasionally soft. A propulsive soundtrack would have helped further, but instead Alfonso Santisteban's (The Mummy’s Revenge) score is often hokey.

In addition to Shepard, the cast features several faces that may be familiar to Eurocult enthusiasts. Spanish character actor Simón Andreu (Beyond Re-Animator) plays a smug playboy; American expat Jack Taylor (The Ninth Gate) plays as an unappreciated artist; Spanish cinema royalty Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) has an early role as the wife of an unstable older man; and Spanish horror legend Paul Naschy (The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman) has a small part as the chauffeur.

The Killer Is One of 13 has been newly restored in 2K from its 35mm original negative. The disc includes an audio commentary by film critic and Diabolique magazine editor-in-chief Kat Ellinger. Since information on the production is scarce, she contextualizes the film relative to the giallo subgenre, making for an interesting listen.

The Police Are Blundering in the Dark’s title is more interesting than the movie itself, as it seems director Helia Colombo (this being his sole credit) was blundering in the dark during the making of his Italian giallo. The cold open could be mistaken for a cliched '80s slasher: an attractive woman gets a flat tire and is chased by a killer through the woods, during which her blouse inexplicably opens as she runs, exposing her breasts before she's caught and stabbed with a pair of scissors.

It clocks in at a scant 87 minutes - rather brief by giallo standards - yet feels drawn out. The aforementioned woman is the latest in a string of murder victims, all of whom served as models for an impotent, wheelchair-bound photographer, Parisi. Giorgio D'Amato (Joseph Arkim), the journalist boyfriend of one of the victims, heads to Parisi's villa outside of Rome to investigate, learning that the photographer has invented a camera that captures its subjects' thoughts. This unexpectedly fantastical plot point is harnessed to solve the mystery a la Four Flies on Grey Velvet.

Despite being the most traditional giallo film of the trio included in the set, the picture fails to deliver on any of the pillars of the subgenre. After setting up a middling mystery, the midsection is bogged down by talky melodrama, while the eventual solution is preposterous. Beyond that, the kills are tame, Giancarlo Pancaldi's cinematography is pedestrian, and Aldo Saitto's score is forgettable.

The Police Are Blundering has been newly restored in 2K from its 35mm original negative. In lieu of an audio commentary, film historian and critic Rachael Nisbet provides a “historical audio essay.” It is exactly that; a breathless 16-minute amalgam of facts and critical analysis. It's thorough if dry, akin to reading a well-researched Wikipedia entry. A promotional image gallery is also included.

Not to be confused with Dario Argento's later giallo of the same name, Trauma is a Spanish giallo riff on Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. It centers on Veronica (Ágata Lys, The Holy Innocents), who runs a quaint inn in rural Spain while caring for her unseen, handicapped husband. She's smitten with Daniel (Heinrich Starhemberg), a mysterious and charming author that checks in, to the point where she becomes visibly annoyed when other guests interrupt their flirting.

Director León Klimovsky (The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman) and writers Juan José Porto (Cross of the Devil) and Carlos Puerto (Satan's Blood) position the film as a mystery, but when a black-gloved assailant begins murdering the guests with a straight razor, the options for the killer's identity are quite limited.

The film is rather slow moving yet sleazy. Nearly every character, regardless of gender, sheds their clothing at some point. Cinematographer Pablo Ripoll (Tombs of the Blind Dead) captures it all with voyeuristic delight. Composer Ángel Arteaga (Frankenstein's Bloody Terror) crafted a Goblin-esque main title theme.

Starhemberg's position as executive producer of the film surely influenced the decision to (mis)cast him as the male lead. Beyond lacking chemistry with Lys, there are some unintentionally uncomfortable scenes in which he caresses a local boy. Antonio Mayans (Zombie Lake) plays an ill-fated hiker who takes refuge at the inn.

Trauma has been newly restored in 2K from its 35mm original negative. The disc includes an audio commentary by film historian Troy Howarth, who previously profiled the film in his 2019 book, So Deadly, So Perverse: Volume Three. Per usual, he takes a conversational approach to the track, which occasionally leads to tangents but ultimately provides a detailed analysis that digs into the history of giallo films.

Each of the discs is housed in its own Blu-ray case, and all three are packaged together in a box designed by Earl Kessler Jr. Limited to 5,000 units, it's available exclusively from Vinegar Syndrome. Having never been dubbed into English, the movies feature newly translated English subtitles to accompany the fresh scans.

A precursor to the slasher boom in the 1980s, the success of the giallo subgenre spawned a wide breadth of films, ranging from oft-discussed staples to hidden gems that barely saw a release beyond their theatrical debuts. With Forgotten Gialli, Vinegar Syndrome has breathed new life into three movies that fall squarely into the latter category. As it is subtitled Volume 1, I can only hope that more sets come to fruition.

Forgotten Gialli: Volume One is available now via Vinegar Syndrome.

#giallo #vinegar syndrome #the killer is one of 13 #trauma #the police are blundering in the dark #dvd #gift #review #article #gialli #forgotten gialli #italian horror #spanish horror #paul naschy #earl kessler jr. #murder mystery