INNOCENT BLOOD (1992) - a vampire in Pittsburgh

INNOCENT BLOOD

(1992, USA)

After worshipping John Landis' early films Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House and An American Werewolf In London, by the end of the 1980s I was completely dispirited by his hit-and-miss comedies. But a return to horror in 1992 proved interesting and is now one of my Landis favourites. Again it blends modern cynicism, comedy and blood. That year it got lost in a flurry of vampire movies, much like we're deluged with zombies at the moment.

The core of Innocent Blood is a cross-breed of vampire horror with mob thriller, and the casting of Anne Parillaud, hot off Nikita. Luc Besson's 1990 thriller led to a US remake and two TV series. It was bizarre to see the action highlight - the kitchen shootout - not only being reused in John Badham's The Assassin (1993, starring Bridget Fonda) but also the first TV pilot for La Femme Nikita (1997, starring Peta Wilson).

Parillaud is sensational in Nikita, a female Leon, perfectly cast as an ethical vampire. She delivers physical confidence in her superhuman abilities, brash nudity, disarming Gallic sexiness, only hampered by her faltering English, which sounds really weird when she goes all deep-voiced and plasma-hungry. Despite her vampire abilities, she sometimes resorts to using a gun, presumably to trade off the Nikita role.

But I'm not telling you the plot. The story starts twice over as the two main characters are introduced before they meet. One is Joe Gennaro (Anthony LaPaglia), an undercover cop trying to bring down a Pittsburgh crime boss (Robert Loggia). He risks blowing his cover after a string of murders includes his police partner.

But these aren't mob hits, but vampire meals, with night stalker Marie (Parillaud) ethically picking victims who are murderous criminals. Mistaking Joe for a member of the mob, she only spares him because he's cute. One of her rules being "don't play with the food". But her rules misfire when the mob starts turning vampire. If they all get superhuman, nothing will stop them taking over the city...

The story has its own rules about vampirism, their powers, and how they die. This mythos might annoy purists, but hey, Landis was brought up on the Universal and Hammer horrors, and they changed the rules every movie. We're also in Pittsburgh - there's a clue.

The scenes of vampire mealtimes pull no punches, Landis using his accomplished scare tactics that triggered so many near heart attacks during American Werewolf. Visually there's less emphasis on fangs and more on the blood smeared all over their faces after 'dining'. Their eyes also glow in the dark, a startling effect using highly reflective contact lenses (and a beam-splitter, FX fans). Steve Johnson (Ghostbusters, The Abyss, Freaked) also provides spectacular prosthetic effects in the film.

This is definitely a pre-CGI movie, the camerawork is noticeably limited from what it really wants to do - there's a wobbly attempt to do a point-of-view flying shot, cheekily stolen from Dario Argento's Opera. It's interesting but more trouble than its worth. In portraying vampire powers, the wirework isn't as clever as the editing, and as usual the contact lenses never quite line up with each other. If it starred Karen Black, this might have been excusable.

There's also a wealth of in-jokes for horror fans. The movies playing on TVs (everywhere) seem too obvious a reference, but the movie directors used in bit parts are a real treat. Just brilliant fun. I'm guessing there was a horror convention in town. First to watch out for is Tom Savini...

American Werewolf had plenty of plot-driven male nudity, Innocent Blood has gratuitous female nudity. While tight bodies and talking about sex pervade horror movies aimed at teenagers, this is more adult. Like lingering, full-frontal nudity, prolonged sexual situations and two large placements for safe sex. While smoking has endured in movies, safe sex has barely been mentioned, even after the darkest years of the 1980s. Innocent Blood is a rare exception and reminds us how little safe sex has been suggested in any movie, in any genre, in the last three decades.

From nearly the first scene, Robert Loggia starts to dominate the film, his two-faced kingpin goes from human monster to inhuman, in a great horror performance. While I'm sure he was offered a lot of genre work after this, he's remained with characters that are psychologically and physically terrifying, rooted in reality. His Mr Eddy in David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997) is another example of extremely powerful performances, again as a psychotic mobster.

As Loggia's lawyer is an actor close to Landis' heart, Don Rickles. Currently known as the voice of Toy Story's Mr Potato Head, Rickles is better known as a comedian, one of America's maestros of stand-up. Landis first worked with him way back on Kelly's Heroes (1970) when he was a young production assistant. In 2007, Landis even made a documentary about Rickles, Mr Warmth, centring around the first ever filming of his renowned Vegas act.

Besides the cameos, Anthony LaPaglia is an agreeable lead (recently seen in TV's Without A Trace). There's notable support from Chazz Palminteri looking comfortable, and Angela Bassett (before she met the Vampire In Brooklyn) looking uncomfortable as a standard angry police chief.

It's a fresh premise, though it runs out of steam by the end. But night-time Pittsburgh looks fantastic, the cast are mostly on top of their game, Landis continues to treat traffic like a toyset, and above all does his best to keep horror fans happy.

The only widescreen transfer that I know is this laserdisc release. Even the more recent DVD is full-frame, well overdue for remastering.

Mondo 70 wasn't as enthusiastic as me, and has a more spoilery detailed breakdown of the story.

ANIMA MUNDI (1992) - a short addition to KOYAANISQATSI

ANIMA MUNDI

(1992, USA)

Like a missing chapter from Koyaanisqaatsi, director Godfrey Reggio assembled this film from stock footage, again commissioning a soundtrack from Philip Glass and again angling for an underlying theme of the natural world against mankind. If you've enjoyed the 'qatsi trilogy', this closely follows their template.

Commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund, (the original WWF), the remit was to present the diversity of animal life - ugly and beautiful, peaceful and aggressive, microscopic and huge. It's an intense montage of spectacular footage without any voiceovers or captions. In turns funny, eerie and astonishing, but with fewer surprises for anyone who watches a lot of animal documentaries, it's the music that makes this a hypnotic experience, despite its relatively short running time.

The repeated images of animals in close-up, staring straight at the camera, at the viewer, intercut with decimated rainforests, hits harder than the voiceovers that often wrap-up nature documentaries. After the smouldering levelled forest, we're face to face with a tiger or a chimpanzee. They look intelligent but helpless, weary of the destruction, patiently waiting for it to stop. Anima Mundi may best be watched as a support feature for Koyaanisqatsi.

Apparently this was only once released on DVD in 1998 (pictured at top), an all-region NTSC release with non-anamorphic 1.85:1 letterbox widescreen. The transfer isn't the highest quality, possibly only from an analogue source, and the compression is particularly poor for the first few shots of the film. But after that it's perfectly watchable and good enough to engross. But only 28 minutes long with no extras.

The best-known remnants from this project are two tracks from Philip Glass' score which were repeated in The Truman Show (1998), which also recycled cues from his Mishima (1985) and Powaqqatsi (1988) soundtracks.

My review of Koyaanisqatsi (1983) is here.

Notes on Anima Mundi on Philip Glass' website here.



AMERICAN - THE BILL HICKS STORY (2009) - the fearless, insightful, dead comedian

AMERICAN - THE BILL HICKS STORY

(2009, USA)

This recent documentary encouraged me to again soak up a load of Bill Hicks' wit and wisdom. I listened to the CD of his Shock And Awe performance for the first time. Particularly great for me because there was so much material about his visits to England. I was crying with laughter for the first time in ages. Maybe not the ideal thing to listen to in the car.

I've revered his stand-up routines ever since we were lucky enough to see two of his performances on TV in the UK. But despite being one of the most acclaimed comedians ever, his material was too fearless and angry for American TV. Besides the swearing and subject matter, he was critical of much about modern society, particularly America. He was talked about in all the press, but you could only really get to see him on stage as he toured endlessly around the States, and occasionally abroad in Britain (where he enjoyed huge audiences) and Australia.

Despite performing stand-up comedy for 16 years before his cruelly premature death at 32, there wasn't much of his work to see on home video or hear on record. Only when we realised what we'd lost, did more DVDs and CDs get released, not all of them professionally recorded. His routines are treasured by fans, studied with awe by other comedians, documented in several biographies and celebrated in a recent documentary, American - The Bill Hicks Story (2009).

The evolution of his career started early as he sneaks out of the house to perform comedy at an 'open mike' comedy club on a school night. An instant hit, his work evolves as he moves around the States and lurched in and out of excessive drug-taking and drinking.

But what makes his comedy funnier, angrier and unique is the research, attempting to educate and encourage his audiences to think. He regularly offers up examples of disparity, how we are manipulated by politicians, media and marketing for their own profit. My first thought on hearing about his death was that he had been assassinated. I actually thought that he was getting through to people so successfully, that he had been taken out.

Something the documentary misses entirely was his appetite for books and newspapers, and how he tried to rationalise injustice, greed and bad logic in the world. Coupled with a fearless attitude to taboo subjects and a confessional honesty about himself, he's as thought-provoking as he is funny. His concise, intelligent, shocking satire prefigured South Park and was often more controversial.

While I enjoyed learning more about his life, as told by his friends, family and fellow stand-up comedians, I wouldn't recommend American as an introduction to his work. It's great for finding out about the man behind the comedy, but first treat yourself to one of his shows. I didn't feel that any of his best routines were showcased, they were used to illustrate the story. Fine if you're familiar with his comedy, but not the best way to start with Bill.

He was passionate about musicians passionate about music. He contrasted his hatred of manufactured pop with his admiration of Hendrix, who played with supreme skill, emotionally involved and enjoying what his craft. Bill Hicks was and is the Jimi Hendrix of stand-up comedy.



THE NANKING MASSACRE - two films to remind us

Why do I do this to myself? First I watch two intensely depressing dramatic recreations of war atrocities, intense enough to haunt me for days. Then I decide to review them, challenging my love of Japan with these accounts of atrocious conduct by their armed forces.

In 1937, when Japan was invading China, its armies conquered the (then) capital city of Nanking. The Japanese army then began killing the prisoners of war, then the civilians, to strike a psychological blow to the rest of China. Knowing full well that they were breaking international conventions of war, they disguised the massacre from the rest of the world.

These are two very different films about the siege, serving two audiences: one is obviously intended for 'international cinema', the other (possibly unintentionally) is 'exploitation'.

Though they're tough viewing, knowing that these events actually happened, I wanted to learn more about the depths that the Japanese army sank to. While I admire Japanese culture, pop and otherwise, I've mainly been learning about their history from their viewpoint. But after visiting several of Japan's neighbouring countries and reading their news sites, I became increasingly aware of 'old wounds' and lasting hostilities.

While the US and Europe are hyper-conscious of the history of Nazi Germany, we mainly remember wartime Japan for Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. In China, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines, Japan was regarded the same way we saw Germany. Indeed, the scale of Japanese war crimes and the variety of atrocities rivals Nazi Germany.

So I'm having trouble joining the dots between their peace-loving society of today and the extremes of their wartime mindset. How can a country change so quickly and so completely? I guess the answer is closer to home - my own country has much to answer for in it's conduct abroad, both recently and historically.

I'm not going to boycott Japanese culture for the crimes of the past, but I'm not going to ignore history either. When I first heard of the 'Rape of Nanking', I naively assumed it happened centuries ago in more barbaric times. To find that it was only last century showed up a large gap in my historical knowledge.

BLACK SUN: THE NANKING MASSACRE,
MEN BEHIND THE SUN 4
(1994, Hong Kong, Hei tai yang: Nan Jing da tu sha)

Relentless gory propaganda

This is a weird film that would need much more research to determine what the film-makers were trying to do, if I was at all impressed by it. The director, T F Mou, denies it's an exploitation film, and the size of the budget seems to lift the project out of that genre. But it's an endless diary of gory re-enactments of war atrocities, with little story or drama, and a near absence of continuing characters. The Japanese soldiers storm around the city, killing and raping. The commanders take pleasure in trying out various methods of execution, from machine-gun to samurai sword.

It looks like a wartime propaganda film, but it was made 1994. I'm almost guessing it was intended to pressure the Japanese government on outstanding issues - maybe compensation, apologies, selective history books? The other likely result was to incite outrage amongst Chinese audiences.

Compare this blunt approach to any modern American movie about the Nazis. One moment in Black Sun made me remember a silent movie where Eric Von Stroheim throws a baby out of a high window. The scene looked comical: a swift but lazy cinematic shorthand to make you hate the character in seconds, and tell you what to think about all German commanders.

While City of Life and Death shows only one Japanese leader orchestrating the destruction of the city, Black Sun takes pains to name and shame many different commanders and their personal roles in the killing. This is perhaps another clue to the movie's intentions.

After a while, the many shock moments reminded me of the climax to Soldier Blue, but in contrast with it's involving characters, storyline and complex portrayal of the invaders as well as the invaded (Soldier Blue himself is shocked by his own sides' misconduct). The Japanese soldiers of Black Sun are portrayed with a uniform hive mentality. It also doesn't help that the Japanese soldiers all look very Chinese. Only the commanders look as if they're played by Japanese actors. Lazily and inaccurately, the soldiers of both sides talk in Chinese.

I expected this to be far more cheaply made than it is. It looks largely authentic, uses a lot of extras and some extensive locations. The most spectacular scene illustrates how the Japanese burned the bodies of civilians before dumping them in the river. They could then claim that they'd only killed soldiers. The scale of the fire of hundreds of bodies along a riverbank rivals the inferno at the end of Apocalypse Now.

But if there's any doubt that what we're being shown happened, the catalogue of atrocities is verified onscreen, by cross-cutting with actual photographs and filmed footage. The power and importance of these images was not lost on the Japanese army who made every effort to destroy any incriminating material that left Nanking at the time, and they burnt any such evidence of their own when the war was lost.

There's no doubt that all this and worse actually happened, but without any emotional involvement and a clumsy, one-sided approach, it's a far less powerful and informative film than it should have been.

I watched the US region 1 DVD, which fills in much of the historical context with an informative old documentary episode of Frank Capra's Why We Fight as a DVD extra.





In the UK, it's purely been sold as exploitation, check out the crass DVD cover, which somehow borders on comedy, using a poorly staged publicity shot of one of the film's most infamous scenes. Contrast that with the US DVD cover that uses an actual archive photograph.

This is actually the fourth in a series of films, called Men Behind the Sun, which I won't be investigating any further. The first film in the series has an important subject, the horrifying human experiments of Camp 731, but the inclusion of animal cruelty and mondo footage (using an actual corpse for one scene) means I'll avoid it. However, the story of Camp 731 has one hell of conspiracy storyline and I'd like to learn more about it.

Black Sun is a bizarre experience - as it abandons so many movie conventions - that it's fairly silly to compare it to the professionally and artfully produced City of Life and Death. But I have.

CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH
(2009, China/Hong Kong, Nanjing! Nanjing!)

An involving man-made disaster

This major new film, shot in black and white, is still being premiered round the world. It's also about the Nanking during the Japanese siege.

While Black Sun throws out plenty of factual context in captions and voiceovers, this has no such introduction and relies on small badly-written postcards to set up a little historical background. Black Sun also portrayed the Chinese, soldiers and civilians alike, as totally defeated. This begins with the army still defending itself, albeit with guerrilla tactics. It also sets up storylines with soldiers from both armies, one Japanese soldier being just as traumatised.


The success of the film is the emotional involvement with the characters, focussing on the family of the Chinese translator to John Rabe - a German envoy famous for his attempts to protect the civilians against impossible odds.

Unlike Black Sun, if anyone gets hurt, raped, slaughtered, the impact is devastating. There's a dreadful scene that's basically a point of view experience of being herded into a mass slaughter.


After the threat of counterforce has been systematically eradicated, the invading army are rewarded with 'comfort women', Japanese prostitutes rationed out to the soldiers. But as the siege wears on, the supply of women starts taking Chinese 'volunteers'. The widescale use of civilian women for sex lends an awful, literal meaning to 'the rape of Nanking'.

While the Japanese use of unnecessary force was meant to terrify the rest of China, it instead unified the regions of the massive country into an unbeatable foe.

The inclusion of a sympathetic portrayal of a Japanese soldier has drawn criticism from Chinese critics, complaining that the tone of the film wasn't harsh enough on the Japanese. Perhaps they would have preferred a less-sensitive, less balanced film, like Black Sun perhaps?


I'd recommend City of Life and Death as a beautifully made and observed film on a harrowing subject.

It had a limited cinema release in the UK and there'll be a DVD and Blu-Ray release in August. I watched a Chinese DVD, which may be slightly censored (missing some violence). The subtitles didn't translate all the onscreen signs and nameplates.

The excellent WildGrounds site has an article comparing City of Life and Death to actual (and upsetting) photos from the siege.

CURSE, DEATH & SPIRIT (1992) - Hideo Nakata warms up for RING

CURSE, DEATH & SPIRIT

(1992, Japan, TV)

Homework for fans of the original Ring

I'd read about this in The Ring Companion but never thought I'd get a chance to see it - there isn't even a DVD in Japan. Luckily Curse, Death & Spirit has been released in the US.


The choice of Hideo Nakata to direct the original horror movie that launched J-horror, Ring (1998), looks less like a lucky guess if you see some of his earlier work. Particularly this made-for-TV trilogy, and the movie Ghost Actress (1996, aka Don't Look Up). It all looks uncannily like preparation, as if he'd been set homework six years earlier.

These three short stories, barely twenty minutes each, were made for TV in 1992. They're full of scares and ideas in the same vein that Nakata would explore in Ring and Dark Water (2002).

The Cursed Doll - could have been exceptionally creepy, but the doll is shown too much and initially brought to life with some poor video effects. The story builds well to a climax that certainly has bite. It's all good practice for turning the otherwise ordinary rooms of a Japanese home into a scary place, looking like the house in the opening scenes of Ring.

The Spirit of Death - has a mother and son on a troubled camping trip, echoing the absent father scenario of Dark Water, and again up against a watery spirit. This has some original scares and benefits from the outdoor location.

The Haunted Inn - has three teenage girls book into an inn, one of which is playing with a video camera. Together they fall foul of the history of the building and end up tangling with a long-haired ghost.

The stories are too ambitious for the time and money available. With a rushed TV schedule, unsophisticated camerawork and lighting, these are lightly creepy at best. The basic video effects, especially in The Cursed Doll, almost looking like a work-in-progress. Given more resources, this would have been good to develop as a film project, the same way that Takeshi Shimizu's Grudge films graduated from video.

The acting is solid, Nakata already getting convincing performances from even the youngest actors - namely the little boy in The Spirit of Death.

These are mainly interesting in retrospect, because of the many familiar echoes of the director's later films (assuming the past can echo the future!). They're also mildly rewarding for some scares he hasn't yet reused, like the restless doll, the ghost in the mirror, and the sneaky spirit of the lake...

It looks very much like 1970s' TV - it's presented 4:3 full-frame. The video colours look pretty flat and ungraded, the picture hasn't been film-moded - all of which could have slightly helped the look. The DVD is presented by Asia Vision in the US.

In the UK, it can be found as a DVD extra on the Tartan UK release of Hideo Nakata's Chaos. (Thanks to Phil for that update).

Here's another review, with screengrabs, at Sarudama.

My coverage of the Ring phenomenon is here.


A loud, Japanese, spoilered trailer for Curse, Death & Spirit here on YouTube...

HAUNTED SCHOOL 4 (1999) - a great Japanese ghost story

HAUNTED SCHOOL 4
(1999, Japan, Gakko no kaidan 4)

One of the best, modern, Japanese ghost stories

After seeing Ring (1998) for the first time, I was soon scrabbling around for more non-English horror movies, led only by their titles and cover art. I started into the Japanese Haunted School movie series at the last film but, as it happens, the best of the bunch. These films are nothing to do with the 2007 Hong Kong horror Haunted School, produced by Andrew Lau, that was aimed at older teenagers.

Haunted School 4 is very different from the first three, with a far less patronising attitude and no goofy, infantile humour. Despite a cast made up mostly of children, the acting is solid and realistic, especially the little girl in the middle of it all. What's OK to scare Japanese children is still fairly strong for most adults, some of the shocks match Ring and even Korea's The Host. Surprisingly, the director, Hideyuki Hirayama, also made Haunted Schools 1 and 2.

There are so few similarities with the rest of the series that it's not really a sequel. No recurring characters, alive or dead. The story centres around a school, but that's about it. Here that's not even an existing building, but rather the ghostly memory of one.


Opening with a carefree game of hide-and-seek ('kakurenbo'), tragedy strikes in an impressive sequence with a horrifying climax. One of my favourite scenes in a Japanese horror, because it took me by surprise. Possibly because I was expecting a less hard-hitting, children's movie.

The story skips from the past to modern day, as a quiet coastal village is struck by a series of child disappearances... and a reappearance. Events so unlikely that they're dismissed by the adults, leaving the children to solve the mysteries. Why is there always an old man on the quayside staring at the sea? Why do some of the children keep hearing voices? What's going on at the school building that's closed for the holidays?

The hot and sunny seaside location, presumably in Okinawa, is popular as a holiday destination for Japanese families from the main island. A policeman demonstrates a huge heavy door in the huge storm defences, which closes with just a hand crank. There's also a scene showing the Japanese lantern festival, as departed relatives are remembered with a flotilla of floating lanterns.

There are many intricate and cleverly designed visual effects that use extensive digital composting and even a little CGI which still looks really convincing, at least on this unremastered DVD. But the FX designs and the ideas, together with the performances combine to create a ghost story that delivers very visual surprises and a few shocks. The genuine feeling of loss, portraying ghosts as 'once human' rather than vengeful monsters makes a refreshing change.

Beautifully shot 2.35 widescreen, with flashbacks in striking monochrome, some of the scene transitions were so cleverly done, I had to rewatch to check what I'd just seen.

The film really needs a title change, like if they lost the '4' and sold it to the US. A high number on a sequel makes it look like a bad movie - but this should be high on any list of Japanese ghost story movies.


The Hong Kong DVD I watched is transferred from a print that had English and Chinese burnt into it, rather than optional subtitles. These are poorly translated and hard to read against lighter backgrounds - but it's the only translated version that I know of. It's a non-anamorphic widescreen release, all-region NTSC.

I couldn't find many photos, but there are some screen grabs on this German site...

I've already done short reviews of the first Japanese Haunted School (1995), and Haunted School 3. But I'd recommend instead the Gakko No Kaidan anime series of 2000, sold on DVD as Ghost Stories in the US.

THE RING VIRUS (1999) - Asian remake of an Asian horror film

THE RING VIRUS
(1999, South Korea)

Celebrating (very nearly) four years of Black Hole Reviews with a blogaversary look at another film from the Ring phenomenon.

There are very few successful American remakes of South-East Asian horror films, so how do you feel about an Asian remake of an asian horror? The year after the Japanese smash hit Ring, it was remade with a Korean cast but co-produced by Japan. I'm not entirely sure why - I think they wanted to cash into the horror cycle with a domestic hit of their own. In any case, it's yet another retelling of the original story, mixing elements from both Koji Suzuki's book and Hideo Nakata's 1998 film. It also anticipates scenes from the American remake, The Ring (2002).



It begins with a young girl home alone. Her TV keeps switching itself on. She's also unnerved by a phone call from one friend and a text from another. They both seem to be in trouble. Then she hears something coming upstairs...

Reporter Sun-joo starts investigating her niece's death, becoming suspicious when she learns that three of her friends died on the same evening. The only expert who has any clue as to a possible link is the eccentric Dr Choi, whose theories are seen as far-fetched.

But as Sun-joo visits the lodge where the four friends last met, she finds a videotape and makes the mistake of watching it. It tells her she's going to die in a week unless...


If you've seen Ring or The Ring, you might not want to see another version, but it's interesting to see an Asian remake. While it starts off much the same as Ring, the accent is far more on the sexual possibilities presented in the novel. Indeed, every early scene mentions sex. Though she's never met Dr Choi before, he starts asking personal questions. The teenagers who die in the car were about to 'arrive'. The ghost, here called Park Eun-soo, is portrayed as more alluring than frightening. Her flashbacks are about her sexuality, her history is swapped from being a drama student (in the novel) to working in a seedy nightclub - a marvellous, atmospheric scene that echoes Psycho with a twist... It's the only notably different scene in this version. An early hint of the sexual aspect of the film is in an art gallery at the start, where Sun-joo is interviewing a bisexual artist about her work. It's all much more 'liberated' about sex than the Japanese version.


While the movie starts well, with some solid scares, it turns more into a mystery than a horror, even missing an opportunity with the scary videotape itself. The images are more like memories, indistinct and fading into each other. This is more 'realistic' but harder to see. The lack of clear imagery makes subsequent discoveries less creepy. In Ring, it was always chilling to see something from The Tape appear in real life. Gone too is the progressive emergence of the figure from the well that creeped me out. The flashback to the press conference, another chance for a shock moment, is also curiously changed so that no deaths occur.

So less horror and more mystery. Fair enough. But even the thread of their investigation, which started off so carefully detailed and plotted, then skips several important discoveries until we arrive back at exactly the same ending as the others. Not quite sure of what their logic is or how the curse has spread.

The special effects are just as good, but the carefully set up chain of creepy realisations drain the key climactic scenes of their power. You might not even understand some of the logic towards the end, unless you've seen another version.


This is well-acted, though Dr Choi's introduction is rather too weird. While the cast are largely unfamiliar, famous for TV rather than film, you may recognise Bae Du-na (as Sadako/Park Eun-soo), the olympic archer in The Host (2006), or the girlfriend in Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (2002) and action thriller Tube (2003). It's her face that graces The Ring Virus cover art in Korea (at the top).

Beautifully photographed, with some disorientating angles and fantastic island locations, it's well-directed by Kim Dong-bin. My main problem is with his script (like making the two leads no longer ex-husband and wife), the story structure in the middle, and the fewer scares. But it's an interesting early alternate take on the Sadako mythos, with some unique dramatisations of scenes from the novel. He also made Red Eye (2005), the South Korean ghost story set on a train, not the American thriller (also 2005) set on a plane.


The Ring Virus is available on DVD in the US and UK.

My overview of the many adaptions in the Ring phenomenon is here.


A trailer for on YouTube...

BODY PARTS (1991) - action/horror/gore genre mash-up

BODY PARTS
(1991, USA)

Twisted bloody tale from the writer of The Hitcher

This belongs in the sub-genre of 'action horror' (for want of a better name) - a mixture of classic scares and stunt-heavy action, usually involving car chases. 'Scary car' movies started with Duel, but I'd include Death Race 2000, Race With The Devil, The Car and the Phantasm movies. The genre peaked with The Hitcher (1986) and the Maniac Cop films. However, recent additions include Joy Ride and Jeepers Creepers. Anyone think of any other horror films full of scary auto action?

I first saw this 1991 gem Body Parts on TV. It was so enjoyable that I tracked down the laserdisc in order to see the whole 2.35 widescreen image. It was a surprise that such a well-made film, well-written, action-packed and bloody horror had passed me by on its cinema release.

After a challenging chat with a serial killer, a prison psychiatrist (Jeff Fahey) starts losing faith in himself and then loses an arm in an accident. Luckily for him there's a new experimental procedure in town that can give him a brand new arm. But as he's taken into the operating theatre (in a nightmarish scene as he slips into unconsciousness), h sees another patient surrounded by armed guards with shotguns. Seems the reluctant donor is a homicidal maniac whose being terminated and cut up for spares...

After a successful transplant, the new arm brings strange new dreams, nasty violent ones. Investigating the history of the arm's donor he discovers that other patients have received limbs and similar nightmares. When he hits one of his kids in anger, he suspects that he's been given the arm that did all the killing...


This is far-fetched fun that should have been a far bigger hit. Without the necessary starpower, it must have just snuck out. Jeff Fahey peaked the following year when he starred in The Lawnmower Man (billed higher than Pierce Brosnan). He was also memorable in the underrated Psycho III (1986) and stole many scenes in Planet Terror(2007). Fahey is also due to be in next year's Grindhouse spin-off Machete.

Perennial eccentric Brad Dourif is always excellent, but again not famous. His roles are usually awesome cameos like in Alien: Resurrection and Dune. But he also shone in more substantial roles such as The Exorcist III and as bad haircut Billy in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975). I always get his roles in Body Parts and Dario Argento's Trauma (1993) mixed up.

Lindsay Duncan, as a benevolent modern day Dr Frankenstein, normally does TV drama but has risen to the top of her field - notably in the Catherine Zeta-Jones role in the original TV version of Traffik (1989), which is recommended more highly than the film version of 2000, and more recently in a British TV movie as Margaret Thatcher.

Body Parts has a tight script by director Eric Red, but the story has quite a history, being based on the novel Choice Cuts by Pierre Boileau & Thomas Narcejac. These Frenchmen also wrote the novels that inspired Hitchcock's Vertigo and the original Les Diaboliques. They also worked on the script of the haunting Les Yeux Sans Visage (1959, Eyes Without A Face), one of the only French horror films before this recent glut of gallic torture-tainment. Their novel Choice Cuts is in turn a twist on an even older short story filmed twice as The Hands of Orlac (1924 and 1960) and famously as Mad Love (1935, from which there's also a great visual quote in Body Parts).

Eric Red honours the story's heritage while updating it and adding all the ingredients befitting a horror or an action movie of the time. He also wrote Kathryn Bigelow's Blue Steel (1989) and Near Dark (1987), two of her best films. He directed a few films, including this one. The only misstep is an absolutely ridiculous car chase where two people are handcuffed together while sitting in different cars!

At the time, Body Parts made the front cover of Fangoria. The prosthetic gore fx are creative, nasty but gratuitously necessary to the story. The gothic soundtrack reminds me of John Williams' The Fury crossed with Bernard Herrmann.


This was on DVD but is now a sought-after OOP disc. A reissue must be on the table soon, please?

There's a great career interview with Eric Red here.

Here's another review, but full of spoilers and many tasty/tasteless screengrabs.

A short YouTube trailer, cropped to 4:3...

SPIRAL (1998) - first and best of the RING sequels

SPIRAL

(1998, Japan, Rasen)

Continuing a series of reviews from the Ring phenomenon

The success of Ring (1998) in Japan lead to a successful sequel Ring 2 (1999) and a prequel Ring 0 (2000). But their stories were drastically different to Koji Suzuki's original books, and ignored the events of the very first sequel, Spiral, which was actually released at the same time as Ring. While Ring was immediately popular, Spiral wasn't, encouraging producers to pursue a different storyline for Ring 2 the following year.

Ring 2 gave audiences more of what they (we) wanted - more videotapes and more twitchy, scary Sadako. But Spiral primarily uses ideas from Suzuki's second novel, with a subtler but ultimately far more horrifying scenario where Sadako could become more powerful than you could possibly imagine...


Spiral begins the day after the events of Ring, with a pathologist being called in to perform an autopsy on a former colleague, the latest victim of Sadako. He finds himself haunted by his former friend and how he died, mixed in with his suicidal despair over the accidental drowning of his young son (shades of Suzuki's Dark Water).

The cause of death makes no sense to him, neither does talk of a cursed videotape. He teams up with a journalist to investigate, while more and more witnesses continue to die mysteriously.

When Sadako appears, she's not shrouded in black hair and a shroud, but a sexy nightdress. Another change of tactics is to spread her curse in other ways besides boring old videotape...


When I first saw this, when it was confusingly being sold around Asia as Ring 2: The Spiral, I was disappointed with the lack of videotape deaths and the twitchy, jerky Sadako that we all love. But over the years, and being less impressed by re-watching Ring 2, Spiral is now my favourite of the sequels. A better story, that doesn't suffer by repeating the highlights of the first film.

This is as much a medical thriller as a horror. But the scares are subtle and effective. The growing realisation of what Sadako is planning is both dramatic and very powerful, reminiscent of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse (Kairo). Director Joji Iida went on to direct Another Heaven and the post-apocalyptic Dragonhead.

It's also interesting for Ring fans to see the same characters, with the same actors, following completely different paths than they take in Ring 2. Suzuki's books are so full of ideas that the stories about Sadako can spin off in many directions.

As a title, Spiral is an undescriptive name and the original generic poster art didn't help. Ring: Virus would have been a more apt title, but confusingly the South Korean remake (1999) was called that. Speaking of which, I'll review that one next. Eventually I'll also plough through the TV series made of Rasen in 1999.

Spiral is available in the US Ring Anthology boxset, under the Japanese name, Rasen. It also used to be available in the UK as Spiral (artwork at top).

There's plenty of screengrabs, but a less good review over at The Ring Cycle site.

Links to the other Ring movie reviews are here on the Ring Overview.

BASKET CASE 3: THE PROGENY (1992) - Belial begets a basket of babies

BASKET CASE 3: THE PROGENY
(1992, USA)

There's something you don't see every day

The last of this supremely surreal comedy horror trilogy. It's not easy to follow the bizarre heights of Basket Case and Basket Case 2, but 3 is worth it for more from Granny Ruth, her brood, and a chance to see Belial's brood of bouncing babies.

After a lengthy recap from the end of Basket Case 2, the characters then verbally re-remind us of where the story is at. A few months have passed and there are some new 'faces' at the commune. Everyone's back for the sequel, at least, everyone who survived... But with a looming medical emergency, Granny Ruth drives everyone onto a schoolbus and heads on down to Georgia, where she knows a trusted doctor friend, who is himself blessed with the largest 'freak' of all... a mad inventor called Little Hal.

It's not long before there's trouble with the locals, the police, Duane and of course Belial, who's lost none of his face-ripping charm. Indeed his murder methods have gained a few new twists...

Besides the bloody mayhem, there are a few brief sexual escapades for the Bradley twins, only slightly less bizarre than Basket Case 2. While Henenlotter's films homage grindhouse ideals, lightly exploiting sex as well as violence, he always balances the cheesecake with beefcake. Which means there's something for everyone.

This last Basket Case is the least tidy story of the three, with scattershot ideas and dozens of characters. There's more comedy, and more of it is less successful, but the hits are worth the misses. While the highlight, or is that lowlight of Basket Case 2 was a parallel sex scene, Basket Case 3 satirises the miracle of birth like no other movie...


The music is exceptionally cheap and cheesy, a really nasty-sounding synthesizer trying to stand in for an orchestra. But Basket Case 3 also features the musical highlight of the series, as Annie Ross flexes her vocal muscles with an apt rendition of 'Personality'. I was recently hearteneded to learn that she was born in South London, only a few miles from where I live.

All in all, this is a wilder, sexier and more violent than film than Basket Case 2, but less even. This is the only Basket Case still without a special edition. It's only available in a 4:3 aspect, but looks comfortably framed. In many countries, it's included in a DVD double-bill with Basket Case 2.


This VHS cover, for the UK rental release, is my favourite artwork for the film, and is strongly reminiscent of the killer baby saga It's Alive (1974), which also stretched to a trilogy. This cover design was recently mirrored in Synapse's artwork for the Basket Case 2 special edition DVD.

On my region 2 DVD from Synergy (pictured at top), the only extras are trailers, but they're extremely entertaining straight-to-video movies - like Dolph Lundgren in Red Scorpion, The Exterminator and the first Maniac Cop. However, the Basket Case 3 trailer is extremely clumsy and stupid - every major plot point and gore effect is lazily spoilered and should certainly be avoided before seeing the film.

Soon, I look forward to revisiting Frank Henenlotter's Brain Damage, just as rewarding as any Basket Case, and then watch his brand new film, Bad Biology.

BASKET CASE 2 (1990) - the return of the fabulous gory freak brothers

BASKET CASE 2
(1990, USA)

I love this movie. It's twisted, dark, funny, and the monsters are the good guys.

I'm always disappointed if I don’t see something new, but Basket Case 2 delivers a cast of characters you won't see anywhere else (except of course in Basket Case 3). The extensive prosthetic masks are limited in expressiveness, but the designwork and sculpting quickly and successfully convey character and make an immediate impression.

Like, one guy is all noses, one is all mouth, another is all teeth... They lurk in a huge shadowy attic, potentially a place of nightmares. But while they look scary, crusading all-American mom Granny Ruth treats them all like an oppressed minority, which they undoubtedly are. The Frank Henenlotter twist is that they also solve their biggest problems horror-movie style, resulting in murder, madness and mayhem.

Moments after the events of Basket Case, this sequel kicks off with Duane and Belial on the run from the police, quickly finding refuge with Granny Ruth, who runs a secret hideaway for other disfigured outcasts. While their newfound happiness depends on secrecy, they soon need to evade a journalist from the gutter press, who's desperate to find the 'freak brother' killers of Times Square.

Meanwhile, Belial tries therapy to deal with his addiction... to ripping off people's faces. This he continues to struggle with, resulting in some grisly scenes, at times poorly served by the garish lighting and distant camera. The make-up effects certainly looked ten times nastier in the Fangoria and Gorezone magazine photo-spreads of the time.

Basket Case 2 is less effectively bloody, but builds upon the bizarre humour of the first with a mad story and a continuous supply of fresh mutations popping up throughout - every time you see a group of 'unique individuals', there's a new 'face' among them. Granny Ruth is the extreme embodiment of politically correct, bravely treating Belial like everyone else, despite the danger. Treating her 'unique individuals' as unquestionably normal is at once satirical, inspirational, and a huge stretch for many of us.

Director Henenlotter confidently balances the sensitivity surrounding 'freak' movies. Here, the only characters who use ‘that’ word are the villains. Freaks (1933) and The Mutations (1974) were both problematic for using actors with actual physical abnormalities. But in Basket Case 2, the effects are so exaggerated that they couldn't possibly exist, and are represented by actors in make-up, in a similarly comic book style to Alex Winter's later Freaked (1993).


Annie Ross as Granny Ruth gives a standout performance - gleeful, obsessed and blind to the deformity that surrounds her. With Kathryn Meisle as a ruthless newshound, and Heather Rattray as Granny’s assistant, Susan, the film is dominated by strong-minded women. Like the first film there are also a few non-actors threatening the believability of an otherwise professional-looking film, but you won’t forget the freakshow barker in a hurry – he totally looks the part. Ted Sorel makes a late appearance as a private detective - he starred in Stuart Gordon's follow-up to Re-animator, From Beyond (1986), where he starred as the monstrous Dr Pretorious.

Although it picks the story up at the end of Basket Case, eight years have actually passed and the cast has visibly aged. Kevin Van Hentenryck's performance now seems slightly out of step with the mostly professional cast, his acting being pushed to its limit by playing having to play Duane tipping over into dementia.

Belial again suffers continuity problems, represented by several different puppets even within a single scene. Chillingly, at one point he breaks into demonic laughter, his face animated by an actor in make-up (who I believe is Van Hentenryck playing his own brother). Overall, it's uneven, but typical of the Henenlotter universe, the fun is in the ideas. Belial even gets a girlfriend, who's a freak like him, with a beautiful face that always reminds me of Daryl Hannah.

This is a much more slick-looking film than the first, though it still has 'a 1980s straight-to-video' look. As in, there are modest and convincing sets and lighting, but they're not Hollywood flashy. The story doesn't feel at all inhibited by the budget.


Synapse DVD brought out a special edition that cramps the classic VHS aspect of 4:3, cropping it down to 16:9, but the colour and and clarity is vastly improved and there are a meaty hamper of extras. FX man Gabe Bartolos presents his footage of the extensive make-up effects that also includes a look at the filming of Frankenhooker, which was produced alongside. An interview with Henenlotter reveals that Basket Case 2 was only an afterthought in the deal, but is easily the stronger film of the two.

I was distracted by most of what Bartolos says in his modern day introduction, filmed in a working crematorium! The background activity is quite literally horrifying, and not for the easily upset.

The 4:3 'Collector's Edition' (pictured at top) was available on DVD in the UK, looking like it was taken from an unremastered analogue source, suitable for anyone nostalgic for the straight-to-video look. They manage to misspell Kevin's name on the cover and the only 'special features' are trailers.