At Left- Two very beautiful- and very troubled- girls, and your friend and mine, Satan, here in the guise of The Goat Of Mendes. If you like screaming girls, rampant pubic bushes and absolute hysteria of a kind not to be seen anywhere else...Alucarda should be in your Netflicks queue immediately.
Suur Toll Estonia, 1980 Dir: Rein Raamat
An amazing experience- hallucinogenic, revelatory, deeply intense and violent- is to be had watching Suur Toll, an ancient Estonian legend of decidedly obscure meaning and moral. This was supposed to be taken from a children's book, for Christ's sakes- shedding some light as to the reality of childhood before the comparative comforts of our own modern world, post-2oth Century. Set deep in a primeval woodlands on the outskirts of European civilization, our hero Toll is a benevolent giant who lives with his adoring wife in a kind of pre-industrial fairy-land idyll. His ambivalent expression hints at something more somber in his soul, and we see how this can manifest when his arch-enemy Vanituhl takes advantage of an invading army descending upon Toll's kingdom to wreck havoc in Toll's home, and then by god the blood flows. I mean rivers of it. The invading army- perhaps the most fiendish looking collection of devils ever to descend upon any land in history or myth- is relentless, numberless, and utterly cruel. Vanituhl is legitimately frightening, and the sad, pathetic ending of Toll- well, I said it was a trip, but I didn't say it was a good one. Absolutely fantastic and one of my favorite things I've ever found on the Internets.
In Cold Blood United States, 1967 Dir. Richard Brooks
The rarest of the rare- a truly brilliant movie adapted from what is, probably, my single favorite book of all time. In Cold Blood is absolutely chilling- and it is also a grand adventure, during the middle parts of the film when killers Perry and Dick escape to Mexico in pathetic hopes of lost treasure, and then are reduced to picking for discarded pop bottles back in America with a sly little boy and his dying grandfather. The murder sequence in In Cold Blood is absolutely unnerving- the use of atmospheric sound, alone, by Brooks is his real coup, a true genius stroke- the endless wastes and depths of the flat Kansas plain have never been so perfectly captured for the baleful somnolence, broken only by the wail of a ceaseless wind, that animates them. One of the best American movies ever made, and truly sympathetic to these vile killers without ever letting you forget why it is they must hang.
Faccia di Spia Italy, 1975 Dir: Giussepe Ferrara
What starts off as a fairly standard confused and hectic 1970's conspiracy theory romp soon turns into one of the most grueling viewing experiences to ever be had, as a stomach-churning saturnalia of incredibly realistic torture and violence scenes take over a movie that was pleasantly meandering along in a paranoid circle, devoid of any real heft. The torture scenes are notorious, and for good and goddamned reason: you may think you have scene brutality in film, but you really haven't until you've endured Faccia di Spia. Only making it worse is that the techniques of human violation so graphically explored in this film are taken from actual CIA practice in the countries represented in the film- when people act like Abu Ghraib was some kind of an aberration, make sure you point out to them that America not only tortures...we're so good at it that we export the stuff. Now do yourself a favor and skip this movie, and instead read what Noam Chomsky has had to say about the career- blessedly cut short- of one Dan Mitrione and his crusade of Free Market evil in Uruguay during the 1970's.
Eugenie De Sade France, 1974 Dir: Jess Franco
I'm a Franco fanatic, but even I would never claim that, say, Vampyros Lesbos is "great" cinema. This little gem, however, is. Certainly there are the standard Franco attractions that make almost any of his films worth one's time- incredibly beautiful women frequently completely unclothed (in this case, the incomparable Soledad Miranda, who is quite possibly the most beautiful woman ever to appear in cinema), deviant sexual activity with the continual threat of violence hanging over all of the orgiastic voyeurism, grand stylish set pieces that I don't think the great director has ever been given proper credit for- but there is more going on in Eugenie that takes it to the level of a really great movie. Firstly, Miranda is excellent- her punishing beauty has never been so perfectly displayed, but her shyness and fragility are what makes the character she plays so interesting to watch. As the poor girl gradually falls in love with her stepfather (yes, he went that route...don't you just love Jess Franco?) and the perversion increases to the point that murder becomes a shared pastime of the two, you really get the idea that this is way beyond mere exploitation trash- the characters are truly multi-dimensional, the total lack of moral condemnation on Franco's part an invigorating switch from the mindless captious pedantry of American films, and of course...Soledad is naked. Frequently. Oh, dear lord, what a loss that she died so very young...I think she could have really "crossed over" and entered mainstream cinema and completely changed the idea of the femme fatale in 70's Euro-cinema. A great, disturbing film.
Nightmare City Italy, 1980 Dir: Umberto Lenzi
Another Lenzi mini-masterpiece, this is one of the most underrated of the great Italian zombie films. The complete mystery of the opening sequence is what makes this so compelling- an airplane lands, and something is terribly wrong wit the situation on the tarmac, but...what, exactly, is going to happen? When the passengers- who somehow have been exposed to radiation during the flight- emerge and immediately begin slaughtering every thing in sight, you know you're in for a long haul of grim and savage violence in the best Lenzi tradition. Lenzi is no Fulci or Deodato- but he's certainly not a Joe D'Amato or Bruno Mattei, either. This is a competently made, horrifying film that ends with a tremendously clever twist- one of the few times an Italian ultra-gore fest could bring things to a close with a truly interesting philosophical idea. And the siege of the television station by the rampaging zombies is one of the great sequences in the history of Itallian Gore.
Numero deux France, 1975 Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
Perhaps inspired by Foucault's ideas of power relationships and how, really, these relationships are the sole determinant of standing in any social institution- in this case, that of the traditional family- Godard's oft-misunderstood film Numero deaux is a powerful philosophical statement, one that shows how cinema can supplant the traditional vehicle for savage social satire and critique, the novel. As much a film that is about making a film about making a film, this is Godard's most abstruse and least-accessible film; like all great art, it is this very quality of icy remove and inhuman distraction that makes it so unsettling. A master at his most experimental and forbidding, this is Godard's greatest movie.
Le Samourai France, 1967 Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville
A breathtakingly gorgeous film shot with more style, more verve, more flat-out panache than almost anything else I've ever scene. Somehow, Melville doesn't seem to get mentioned all that often in the pantheon of the truly great cadre of French directors. I'm absolutely stumped by this omission. Melville's talents are all on glorious display here; the clothing, accents and names seem to be so quintessentially American; but look closer, and Melville is as much savaging the cliches of classic American cinema as he is reinventing, deconstructing, them. A perfect exploration of anomie and the disintegration of the self; with the title, it is also clear the great director is challenging the audience with a Buddhist interpretation of the meaningless charade that is life, and the ultimate futility of the Samourai getting away with all of his killing, while he himself is dying from within in every stunning frame. An absolute masterpiece, one of the greatest films ever made.
Knife In The Water Poland, 1962 Dir: Roman Polanski
I have long been a fan of Polanski; his Macbeth is probably the best Shakespeare ever to be filmed, and even mainstream entertainments like Rosemary's Baby and The Pianist are just superbly enjoyable films to watch; and Chinatown alone qualifies him a true genius, if not also total riots like The Fearless Vampire Killers. This is his absolute best film, though, and while I can't quite explain why, it reminds me so much of the kind of perfection Stanley Kubrick could achieve that this could almost be a Kubrick movie. There is almost nothing to the plot that could benefit from elaboration here; its a deceptively simple film that is all about nuance, the interplay between an older man, a younger man, and the claustrophobic tension that results from their gamemanship for the attention of a woman. Disturbing because Polanski is so ruthless is exposing the shameless ego of men when posturing and preening, this is an icy-calm Thriller with a vast reservoir of Existential critique lying beneath the surface.
A Clockwork Orange United Kingdom, 1971 Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Simply the greatest dystopian future film ever made. Completely shocking to this day, what a bomb this must have been when it hit the screens in 1971. An incredibly graphic fit of sexual violence, meaningless outrages at the hands of Little Alex and his young droogs, barbarism, sadistic orgies and incredibly graphic rape- Clockwork is Kubrick's greatest masterpiece, and seals my opinion of him as the greatest director of all time. Never had music been more credibly- and ironically- used to paint the picture of genius shunted against decay; there is absolutely nothing about this film that doesn't work, and Malcolm McDowell exudes palpable menace in every shot, even when he is completely at the mercy of his "rehabilitation" squad of social-engineering goons. Every thing that film can do is in Kubrick's meta-masterpiece, and this surely is one of the great works of Art ever made.
The Ordeal France, 2004 Dir: Fabrice Du Welz
Who are the only people making truly great Horror films these days? The French, but of course. In just the past ten years, French cinema has given the world List entries Malefique and Ils, both wonderfully perverse and unsettling movies, and this one- which, for a certain sequence of scenes, might be the most Disturbing of them all. What a perfect fucking title for a film- that really sums it up, reader. A travelling entertainer has a bit of mechanical trouble in the Belgian countryside; he is taken in by an inn-keeper, who of course warns him not to go into the nearby town. A sheer hell of torment then commences, triggering the best recent Horror film tagline: "Ask The Pig". Poor Laurent Lucas seems to be literally suffering in his role as the stranded traveller; he certainly would have been winning awards for the intensity of his performance has this been a film not stranded in the "Horror" ghetto and, concomitantly, sneered at by the "serious" critics. Filled with totally off-kilter humour of a grim and perverse kind and taking you in so many directions you never thought a modern Horror film could, this is modern terror cinema at its best- a black comedy, really, one unrelievedly dark and demented but churning-stomach Disturbing all the same.
The Brood Canada, 1979 Dir: David Cronenberg
Cronenberg has long been one of my favorite directors; ever since I saw Dead Ringers in a theater over twenty years ago, I knew I had found a popular, credible and commercial director who was vastly capable of making even the modern mediocre-anesthetized film audience really sit still and think about the movie they were watching. Not merely a Thriller director, Cronenberg at his best excels at making psycho-sexual Horrors of a kind that he alone seems capable of creating; body issues and politics, excretions and fluids, cunning cruelty and tumor-laden bodies springing from man's deepest unconscious are a consistent theme in these dark and sometimes repulsive works. But it all comes together in The Brood. Samantha Eggar is simply fantastic as the demented mother of "psychoplasmics" creatures, killer dwarves with no genitals or navels who fan the countryside as her rage and take terrible revenge on all of her enemies- perceived or otherwise. A terribly sad and pathetic murder of a completely innocent school teacher is what stands out most to me as far as "Disturbing" goes; it's Cronenberg at his most Cronenbergian, rare and honest and not likely to let the viewer off the emotional hook. A great and unnerving performance by the great and unnerving Oliver Reed completes the package for one of my favorite movies ever.
Alucarda Mexico, 1978 Dir: Juan Lopez Moctezuma
One of my favorite Horror films of all time, this incredibly graphic and unsettling film tells the story of Carmila, only with a completely hysterical and psychopathic twist. Alucarda arrives at a convent after the death of her parents, their commences some vaguely lesbianic flirtations with the fragilely beautiful Justine (isn't that just fucking perfect???) and then...all Hell breaks loose. A truly disturbing Gypsy, in the guise of what I believe to a malevolent pan, recruits the girls to his fiendish plans, strips them both completely naked, blood is exchanged, and then the two girls spend the rest of the film either nude or screaming- and sometimes both. The scene where Alucarda and Justine repeat their infernal mantra of "Satan, Satan..." is one of the greatest moments in Horror history, Moctezuma puts together sets and shots of perfect Gothic beauty, the hysteria is intense, almost Surreal and...well, you've just got to see this movie if you never have. Period.
Deep End West Germany, 1971 Dir: Jerzy Skolimowski
The two leads in this film- pathetic young Mike, played by John Moulder-Brown and the gorgeous Jane Asher as Susan- are what makes this film so indelible. While this may sound like a standard adolescent-angst and unrequited love/coming-of-age melodrama, Deep End is so much more that to risk explaining why it is so Disturbing would completely wreck the dramatic pay-off, which is all about the tragedy lurking when even something so "innocent" as an adolescent infatuation is allowed to spiral out of control.
The Witch Who Came From The Sea United States, 1976 Dir: Matt Cimber
Far more interesting and thoughtful than the almost unbelievably lurid movie poster would lead one to believe, Witch is interesting because of all of the risks director Cimber takes with his casting. Firstly, the lovely Molly is a decidedly mature woman; clearly in her late 30's, Millie Perkins is relentlessly seductive in a way completely at odds with the barely-pubescent sexuality embraced by modern Thriller archetypes. Molly is also completely fucking disturbed, if not to say barely living in the real world. Seemingly convinced that nothing is real unless it is on television, Molly also is sexually in command (see the notorious double murder scene where this tiny woman has two beefy and bravado-laden football players bound and at her complete mercy) and not about biting the cock of a sleazy past-prime television star who demands a blow-job as, seemingly, his birthright for allowing Molly into his bedroom. Oh, there's sexual politics aplenty in this strange little film, but none of it seems too preachy; as Molly disintegrates and her very personality devolves unto the ether, you can't help but feel total sympathy for whatever conflation of horrors have coalesced to destroy her so completely. Far more interesting than bigger budget balderdash that would never be so explicit or risk-taking in its depiction of female sexuality, this is a rewarding film the likes of which could never be made today.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times Italy, 1972 Dir: Emilio Miraglia
The Queen of the Giallo. Lurid, fiendishly complex, unrelievedly tense, abstruse, decadent, superbly stylish- Miraglia certainly has one hell of a resume (including List entrant The Night Evelyn Came Out Of Her Grave) but this one is a supreme treat for fans of the unsurpassed 70's Italian cinema. Starting with a near-comical vignette featuring what has to be the rottenest little girl in the world (mayhem- just pure bloody mayhem is what little Evelyn brings to her playmate Kitty's life), Red Queen gives us a seemingly-standard "and now it's many years later" plot point to show where everybody is now that the main body of the film starts. But, oh- this is soooo not a standard and perfectly mindless diversion of a Thriller. Essentially an elaborate and modernized Gothic terror filled with old houses and malevolent legends, everybody in Red Queen dresses well, stands perfectly, trades pinpoint bon mots and plot-generating insights, and has a horde of misery and ghosts in their respective closets. Absurdly stylish, pay attention also for imaginative and brilliant use of lighting and pacing, and a soundtrack among the best of the Giallo stable. And a blisteringly Disturbing and clever ending- this not merely a great Giallo, it's one of the best Thrillers from the entire 70's.
Watership Down United Kingdom, 1978 Dir: Martin Rosen
Wow did this movie mess my ass up when I was a kid. Seeing it today, it's even more baffling how anyone could have thought this appropriate entertainment for an eight year old, but it was, after all, a "cartoon" and on HBO and I suppose my mother is to be forgiven if she had no idea a movie about a pack of rabbits could be so incredibly violent, bloody and cruel. John Hurt is especially effective here; a wonderful actor in any case, his voice is just perfect for the epic adventure his floppy-eared character Hazel goes on with all of his friends. Obviously an ecological fable, Watership works precisely because its characters are so blatantly loveable (they're fucking rabbits, after all!) but also filled with odd human failings; the animation is incredible, and shockingly gruesome in many sequences. Absolutely not for kids, but a real treat for adults wanting to torment their inner child and force the little bastard to stop whining and grow up.
Strip Nude For Your Killer Italy, 1975 Dir: Andrea Bianchi
Another one of those "Only The Italians" films of grim slaughter replete with a squadron of naked women and gallons of blood, Strip Nude wins the title for Most Lurid Film Title Of All Time, and along the way pushes the sleaze factor of Italian Gialli to new and ever more vile limits. In short, a perfect entertainment in the mind of this reviewer. Delighfully over the top and featuring perhaps the most ridiculously elaborated nude scene of any Trash Cinema contender (the warm and curvy Femi Benussi, who has an absolutely fetching and ample body, strolls around an apartment for what seems like five minutes, and is, of course, completely naked the entire time) Strip Nude also is notable for beginning with probablty the most ridiculously sleazy shot in movie history; you're certainly right in the action, so to speak, with the gynecologist as he botches an abortion and sets in motion all the mayhem that follows. Edwige Fenech, as always, is incredibly sexy and beautiful, and here she actually gets a chance to act, and not just show off those amazing hips. Healthy, curvy, sexy naked women galore- and a pretty fair plot with several excellent surprises.
Before The Rain Macedonia, 1994 Dir: Milcho Manchevski
An exceptionally well-organized and thought out film, Before The Rain is one directors attempt to bring some kind of meaning to the uselessness and terror of war, and violence in general. Set amidst the politcal chaos of the early 90's Balkans, the curious device of three love stories is used to explicate the inter-connectedness of the timeless and superstition-bound Macedonian mountains and urban, ultra-modern London. Very difficult to sumarize due to the tripartite story device, this is a movie that on its surface seems rather too glib with its romanticism, but on closer examination is far more fatalistic and grim. Gorgeous imagery and excellent performances from all the major roles.
Deranged: Confessions Of A Necrophile United States, 1974 Dir: Jeff Gillen
Here, friends, is a real hoot of a Horror. With a near-perfect performance from Roberts Blossom as an Ed Gein-esque rural madman, Deranged is remarkably intimate, claustrophobic, creepy and mordantly humorous all at the same time. Everyone knows the Gein story; this is an elaboration on the tale, with certain liberties taken, and lots of grim imagery and mental instability on display. Blossom is as deranged as the title would have you believe; and his brief interations with his dying mother (Cosette Lee) are as pathetic as they are indicative of the bloody mayhem to come. Great scenes with the barmaid forced to confront Ezra Cobb's ghoulish "family", his horrific attempts to have a real girlfriend and how disastrous that turns out, and the final, truly sad waste of the young girl Ezra takes back to his barn for vivisection. A real weird and bizarre treat from low-rent 70's Exploitation.
Kes United Kingdom, 1969 Dir: Ken Loach
The most effecting story of adolescent estrangement and anomie that I have ever seen. Makes utter garbage like the repulsively saccharine Radio Flyer seem like the lame, sentimental, bullshit Hollywood tripe that it is. Loach has a spare visual style reminiscent of a documetary filmmaker, and doesn't let his need to "direct" get in the way of the terribly bleak story he means to tell- including a performance by David Bradley as Billy that has to be one of the saddest in the history of child cinema. Billy's life is a veritable hell; working-class destitution and endless abuse balanced only by neglect at home, brutal bullying from students and teachers at school. Billy has nothing in his life until he finds a falcon (or "kestral"; hence, "Kes") and trains it to be his only friend. Of course, just when things begin to look up for the boy, an unimaginably bleak catastrophe occurs which will leave anyone with even the slightest shred of humanity completely beside themselves with grief- the torment that follows is excruciating. A very, very unsettling and sad movie; Kes also happens to be beautiful and amazingly effective at pulling emotion from the viewer without ever seeming to be manipulative.
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