The Resurrection of the Bare Breasted Countess: Jess Franco's FEMALE VAMPIRE reissued on Blu-Ray and DVD!

Jesus Franco...the name seems to intrigue some and send others running.  I'm one of a small cult of followers who actually loves the man and his films!  I mean really, any man that the Vatican can call "the most dangerous director in the world" deserves my attention.  Franco has directed over 180 films of almost every genre.  A lot of them leave something to be desired (Oasis of the Zombies, Devil Hunter, The Inconfessable Orgies of Emmanuelle) but some are downright incredible (The Diabolical Dr. Z, Succubus, Vampyros Lesbos, A Virgin Among The Living Dead, etc.).  Regardless of what his critics say, Franco is a master of eroticism and horror.  Pair those two elements together and you get some of his best works, like his 1973 masterpiece Female Vampire!

FEMALE VAMPIRE

Countess Irina (Lina Romay) is a beautiful, mute vampire forced to live a lonely existence.  Anybody she makes love to has to die.  You see, Irina is not your average vampire.  She's on a liquid diet that comes from below the belt (yep, it's that kind of movie).  Returning to her ancestor's home on the island of Madeira, Irina seduces a few unfortunate looking European men before literally sucking the life out of them.  Even the ladies aren't safe from her methods!  Things get more difficult for Irina when she meets and falls in love with a lonely poet (cult favorite Jack Taylor), who wants to join her for enternity among the undead.  Will Irina ever know true love or will her insatiable appetite for oral pleasure ruin it yet again?

This has to be the saddest porno ever made.  Well, the film is not exactly a porno (although a hardcore version was released under the title The Swallowers) but rather a horror tale with a lot of atmosphere and even more softcore sex scenes.  Still, despite its ridiculous plot and slow pacing, there is something about Female Vampire that I think makes it a truly beautiful film.  I guess I feel this way because of the story behind the film.  Apparently Female Vampire (or La Comtesse Noire as it was originally titled) was supposed to star Franco's original muse and starlet, Soledad Miranda.  After her tragic death in a car accident at the age of 27, Franco began turning out more bizarre and personal films before finding new inspiration in Lina Romay.   After appearing in several small roles for the director, Romay was cast as the lead in Female Vampire and she and Franco continued a 40-year relationship (both working and physical) until her death from cancer in February of this year. 

Lina Romay is the main reason to watch this film.  A true exhibitionist, she was the perfect match for a voyeur like Franco.  Regardless of if the film was good or terrible, Romay commanded your attention with her remarkable beauty in every frame.  Along with Franco's depraved masterpiece Lorna...The Exorcist, Romay gives her finest performance in Female Vampire; and considering that her character is mute throughout the film, that's saying something!  A lot of screentime is dedicated to showing Romay simply rolling around on her bed completely nude (with the exception of a pair of black leather boots...and they are nice boots!) or Franco repeatedly zooming into her crotch without bothering to focus the shot afterwards; but even so, Romay is able to convey complete sensuality and sadness so well, you'll be sheding a tear while being turned on all at once!  Try and pull that off Meryl!

Continuing their line of EuroCult classics in HD presentations, Kino Lorber and Redemption Films bring Female Vampire to Blu-Ray and DVD in a beautiful transfer.  Previously available on DVD from Image Entertainment, this new anamorphic widescreen transfer (which offers both the original French audio track with subtitles and the English dub) is much sharper than the previous release and includes some great extras to boot!  Not only do you get the 100 minute erotic version of Female Vampire, but also the 70 minute horror cut of the film titled The Bare Breasted Countess (or Erotikill as it's listed on the packaging).  This version cuts out all the sex scenes and a good chunk of nudity and replaces them with alternate footage of Irina draining her victims from the neck.  Also included is a featurette entitled "Words for Lina", in which French film critic and Romay's co-star in the film, Jean-Pierre Bouyxou, discusses who Lina was as a person and her remarkable relationship with Franco.  The best supplement on the disc is a short interview with Franco titled "Destiny in Soft Focus".  Here the director talks about his idea to make a film about a 'nice' vampire who is forced to kill, shooting on Madeira, meeting and falling in love with Romay, and how her death has persuaded him to continue making movies.  Rounding out the extras are trailers for Franco's Female Vampire and Exorcism, as well as the trailers for three Jean Rollin films previously released by Kino/Redemption.  Sink your teeth into Female Vampire and add a little kink to your horror collection!       

Necrophilia Italian Style! Joe D'Amato's BEYOND THE DARKNESS on Blu-Ray and DVD!

Grab your barf bag and get cozy with Beyond the Darkness, Italian horror master Joe D'Amato's demented slice of Euro-sleaze from 1979!

Frank is a young taxidermist who is heartbroken over the death of his fiancee, Anna.  But just because Anna is dead doesn't mean Frank can't have her all to himself.  Within hours of her being buried, Frank digs Anna out of the ground and brings her back to his secluded home where he removes all her organs, stuffs her, and uses her as his own personal love toy.  With the help of his creepy housekeeper Iris, who was jealous of Frank and Anna's relationship when Anna was still breathing, Frank does away with anybody who discovers the secret he's hiding in his bedroom.  A chubby pothead has her fingernails ripped off before being dismembered and thrown into a bathtub full of acid and an unfortunate jogger Frank picks up one afternoon has a chunk of her throat torn out by Frank himself when she discovers there is an uninvited guest in bed with them!  Frank and Iris' little castle of horrors is on its way to being exposed however when a nosey investigator begins snooping around the property and Anna's twin sister Elena decides to show up unexpectedly to pay Frank a visit, not realizing she's in for a whole lot of shit!

Starting out weird and becoming more depraved before the film's jolting climax, Joe D'Amato threw in every piece of grotesque imagery he could possibly think of to make Beyond the Darkness the sick piece of cinema that it is.  From the much older Iris allowing Frank to feed from her breasts to the ultra gory and graphic organ removing sequence (which is made all the more goetastic with the use of an actual cadaver and features Frank munching on Anna's blood spurting heart), Beyond the Darkness is not everyone's cup of blood.  The film is actually pretty light on the necrophilia subject matter, playing more like a gory melodrama with a dead girl thrown in for kicks.  Another issue is that the film's lack of plot is dragged out to a 96 minute runtime but regardless of its slow pace, each scene that is supposed to shock packs a punch when it finally comes, and the contribution of rock group Goblin to the soundtrack adds a lot to the macabre nature of the film.  While some may find it a bit tamed and/or boring, Beyond the Darkness will appeal to those who like their horror a bit more fucked up and no matter how you feel about film, you'll want to take a shower the second the credits begin to roll!

Shriek Show's new release of Beyond the Darkness is in a special Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack (though the original single DVD version can still be found online).  Not owning a Blu-Ray player, I can only go by what I saw on DVD and the film looks pretty great.  Presented in an anamorphic widescreen transfer, Shriek Show presents D'Amato's film looking way better than it should be allowed to!  Colors pop, gore looks stunning, and detail is great!  Extras on the DVD include an audio interview with art director Donatella Donati, who not only states that he doesn't like the film but that he wasn't even the art director!  An on-camera interview with actress Cinzia Monreale, who plays the corpse of Anna and Anna's twin sister in the film, is also included on the DVD.  Monreale, who still looks gorgeous, looks back with fondness on her time working on Beyond the Darkness, discussing what it was like to play a corpse, and briefly mentions her work with Lucio Fulci in his masterpiece The Beyond.  Rounding out the extras is a gallery of production stills and publicity material for the film, as well as the theatrical trailers for Beyond the Darkness, The House on the Edge of the Park, Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, and the superb giallo What Have You Done to Solange?  Get this film and show it on a first date! 

Rape of the Requiem for the Demoniacs! Three Jean Rollin classics on DVD and Blu-Ray!

I reviewed some of the films in the first series of Kino Lorber and Redemption Films' The Cinema of Jean Rollin collection, and this second installment presents three of the French horror autuer's most important films in transfers that will have you gagging with excitement!

THE RAPE OF THE VAMPIRE

A group of young psychiatrists arrive at a dilapidated mansion that is home to a group of young women who believe they are inflicted with vampirism.  The psychiatrists attempt to prove to the girls that this idea of vampirism is nothing but nonsense but the girls are convinced otherwise.  After a bloody attack on the home by the supersticious townspeople, one of the girls and one of the psychiatrist flee the home through a secret passageway that leads them to a beach in which the queen of the vampires and her subjects emerge from the sea.  Having learned that the majority of the girls in the house had been killed by the villagers, the queen realizes she must find someone new to join her bloody race.  Ordering one of her subjects to kill the only surviving girl and the male psychiatrist, the pair quickly return as vampires and set out to stop the queen before this horrible affliction can spread.   

Rollin's feature film debut is a pretty bizarre experiment in the vampire genre.  Originally planned as a 30 minute short that would be added to a much older vampire film, Rollin was soon given permission by producer $am $elsky to go ahead and finish the film as its own full-length feature.  The result of this "melodrama in two parts" can be quite confusing and disjointing at times.  However, if you take it for what it is, Rape of the Vampire is pretty mezmerizing.  While it's title suggests a highly exploitative work, Rape is very tame in the sex department (though plenty of naked female vampires frolic throughout the film) and plays more like a classic gothic tale with a modern twist.  While the first half of the film is set in an old dark house tucked away from a small village, the second half takes place in a hospital in which human patients are operated on and forced to give blood in order to supply the vampires with food.  This blending of the two worlds seems to set up the nontraditional approach to the vampire genre Rollin would become famous for.

Redemption and Kino present The Rape of the Vampire in a nice looking HD transfer.  The black and white image looks great on the DVD so I can only imagine how good the Blu-Ray looks.  The film is in widescreen with anamorphic enhancement and is presented in French with English subtitles that are clear and easy to follow.  The extras on the disc make this a must own for Rollin fans.  Fragments of Pavement Under the Sand is a fabulous documentary about the origins of the film, French cinema in the late 60s, and the riots of May 1968 that helped The Rape of the Vampire become the most successful film in France that year, despite an onslaught of negative reviews and reactions from a horrified public.  An interview with frequent Rollin star Jean-Loupe Philippe, two of Rollin's earliest short films, an alternate 'clothed' version of a scene from the film, and trailers for all of Rollin's films that have been released by Kino so far round out the extra features.

REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE

Two teenage girls in full clown drag are on the run!  After their male companion is shot in a high speed chase, the girls change into sexy outfits, steal a motorcycle, flirt with a dirty old man before robbing him of the food in his roadside truck, and one of them even gets burried alive by a very unobservant gravedigger in a creepy cemetery!  Thankfully her friend digs her out and the girls venture into the woods where they stumble upon an old chateau that is home to the last vampire.  The disciples of the vampire discover the two girls roaming around the chateau and, upon learning that they are virgins, plan to initiate them into the world of the undead.

Requiem for a Vampire is by far my favorite Jean Rollin film!  It's weird, creepy, sleazy, and macabre!  Pretty much void of dialouge for the first 40 minutes, Requiem doesn't have much of a plot and plays out more like a surreal nightmare that gets more bizarre before the film's 90 minutes are up.  According to the liner notes in the DVD package, Rollin wrote the film's script in two days, therefore refering to it as his purest film.  I'd say that's a pretty valid statement considering how simple everything in the movie is.  Despite this, however, Requiem still packs a strong punch; at least for this viewer.  A lot of reviews have complained of the film's slow pacing and lack of story being an issue but those are two aspects Rollin's work is notorious for.  Certainly there are moments that are a tad ridiculous; such as a ten minute sequence at the demand of producer $am $elsky in which the male members of the vampire cult aggresively fondle naked women chained up in a crypt.  Still, this macabre fairy tale has so much more working in its favor.  The gorgeous decaying chateau, Pierre Raph's amazing score, eye popping colors, the presence of Rollin favorites Marie-Pierre Castel and Dominique; not to mention haunting sequences, including a female vampire playing a grand piano in the middle of a dark cemetery or one of the girls reluctantly whipping her nude friend who is suspended in the air by chains in an effort to save her from falling victim to the vampire's more cruel punishments.  It's one of Rollin's most personal films and, along with Shiver of the Vampires, it's one of the director's more important, poetic films; showcasing Rollin at the height of his filmmaking powers.  Oddly enough, Requiem is the only film Rollin made that had any success stateside when exploitation king Harry Novak and his company Boxoffice International released a much shorter dubbed version of the film retitled Caged Virgins to the grindhouse market.

Available a few times in the past on standard definition DVD, Requiem for a Vampire makes its HD debut on Blu-Ray and DVD and the results are fabulous!  Remastered from the original film negative, Requiem has never looked better as it does here.  The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen and comes with two audio options (the original French track with English subtitles, as well as the English dubbed track).  Extras on the disc include an introduction to the film by Rollin (in English), a short documentary about the making of the film titled Shiver of the Requiem, an interview with actress Louise Dhour (in French with English subtitles), three trailers for the film (including the incredibly sleazy American trailer for Caged Virgins!), and a Rollin trailer reel, all in HD! 

THE DEMONIACS

A group of pirates known as the Wreckers lure ships into rocky lands so that they can collect whatever treasures are on board.  On one of their nightly outings, the Wreckers discover two girls who have escaped the ship and are in need of help.  The pirates proceed to brutally rape the girls before leaving them for dead.  The girls survive, however, and with the help of a mysterious clown, they are lead to an abandoned chateau where they make a deal with the devil that will allow them to get revenge on the Wreckers.  

Working with a much bigger budget than his previous films, The Demoniacs shows Rollin working in unfamiliar territory and the film is a bit of a mish mash between Rollin's vision and scenes suggested by the film's producers.  Certain set pieces like the ship graveyard, the beautiful, enormous chateau, and the presence of two young, twinlike girls are pure Rollin that make the film a visual delight!  Other times, the audience is subjected to over the top softcore sex scenes that one can tell Rollin was not confortable putting in the final film.  Still, while this is not one of Rollin's best films, it is certainly an enjoyable one.  Rollin was influenced by the short action serials he used to see as a child and right from the get go we see that influence shine through.  A role call of each member of the Wreckers opens the film (with each actor trying to out shine the others with dramatic facial expressions) and imagery synonymous with classic pirate films display the fun Rollin must have had when creating The Demoniacs.  The acting in the film is questionable but pretty fun.  The actors and actress that portray the Wreckers are practically chomping on every piece of scenery they can sink their teeth into.  Joelle Coeur, who portrays the beautiful wrecker Tanya, can be seen running around the film looking crazed or furiously masturbating on the beach while her breasts are either busting out of her blouse or completely exposed while John Rico as the Captain is a sweaty drunk mess, but in the most enjoyable way!  Lieva Lone and Patricia Hermenier are great as the girls that seek revenge on the Wreckers.  Having no names for their characters and little to no dialouge, Lone and Hermenier still turn out great performances through facial expressions and body language and their ghostly presence gives the film the eerie quality Rollin fans know and love. 

Kino Lorber and Redemption Films present The Demoniacs in a brand new anamorphic widescreen transfer.  Mastered in HD from the original negative, the film looks much better compared to past DVD releases.  Colors are vibrant and detail looks great.  The DVD/Blu-Ray packaging states that this version of the film is the "Unrated Extended Cut", which basically translates to more footage at the end of the film featuring Joelle Coeur masturbating on the beach (the scene goes on and on)!  Extras on the disc include an introduction by Jean Rollin (in English), interviews with Rollin's longtime collaborator Natalie Perrey and French film critic Jean Bouyxou (both in French with English subtitles), two deleted sex scenes, and trailers for The Demoniacs and the other Rollin films Kino and Redemption have released so far on DVD/Blu-Ray.    

BEAUTIFUL DARLING, the new documentary on Warhol Superstar Candy Darling, is on DVD!

With a semester ending and studying for finals being so time consuming, I decided to make a video review for the new Candy Darling documentary Beautiful Darling.  I loved this film and know you all with too!  I feel like a babble a lot in this video but I can't help it...I love Candy!  Still, enjoy!

The Cinema of Jean Rollin! Part 2: THE SHIVER OF THE VAMPIRES

Newly married couple Isle and Antoine are on their way to visit Isle's two cousins in an old chateau for their honeymoon. Upon arrival, however, Isle learns that both of her cousins had been killed only the night before. Grief striken, Isle asks Antoine to leave her alone for the night so she has time to get over the shock of the news. Alone in her room, the beautiful Ilse removes her clothes to prepare for rest only to be startled by Isolde, a sexy female vampire, exiting from the body of a grandfather clock!  Isle doesn't realize that Isolde has not only changed her two cousins into vampires, but that this bloodsucker has plans to turn Isle herself into one of the undead. 

 The Shiver of the Vampires is often considered the ultimate Jean Rollin film and I wouldn't disagree. Save for maybe Requiem for a Vampire (which followed Shiver and will be rereleased in HD in May!), everything that Rollin fans love about his work is in this film...and it's in abundance! A beautiful, naked woman succumbing to the passions of a seductive female vampire as two attractive young servants watch amidst the back drop of an old gothic castle bathed in torches, skulls, and lurid colors while acid rock blares on the soundtrack...surrender yourselves immediately! Everything about this Rollin epic seems to work. The oddly attractive Dominique magically emerging from various odd locations (including a clock, a well, and a fireplace) makes for some of the film's most memorable moments. Isle's vampire cousins are actually really funny as they go on at great lengths discussing how they were at one time the greatest vampire slayers in the land before eventually succumbing to their vampiric fates.  The chateau in which the film takes place really adds a lot to the film. Obviously a very low budget work, the authentic location creates an eerie atmosphere that is just as effective as anything created on a bigger budgeted film.  Despite having any real plot, Rollin has a lot going on in his script, resulting in very few dull moments (pacing being something critics of Rollin's films are all too quick to point out).  The cinematography by Jean-Jacques Renon is stunning as usual and the rock soundtrack by the group Acanthus is one of the reasons why this bizarre cinematic trip is still discussed today.  Like the soundtrack for the other erotic vampire classic, Vampyros Lesbos (directed by Jess Franco, the director Rollin is most often associated with), Acanthus' score is a crucial aspect of the final film; evoking everything from horror and suspense to eroticism and comedy.  I was upset when I learned the group broke up shortly after completing the soundtrack for Shiver, but if they were to score only one film during their brief stint as a band, at least they made it count!

Kino Lorber and Redemption Films' newly remastered DVD of The Shiver of the Vampires is like a dream come true for fans of Rollin's work.  Previously available on DVD in the US twice in the past, neither release was anything to write home about.  The original release from Image back in 2000 was alright, but colors looked a bit faded.  A few years later when Redemption rereleased the title a second time in the states, the disc suffered from compression problems, resulting in a lot of blurring and pixelation during the feature (as well as an issue in which the dialouge track went off sync by a good 10 seconds!).  Thankfully, all the problems have been fixed and Rollin's American fans can finally enjoy The Shiver of the Vampires in all its psychedellic glory!  Presented in an anamorphic widescreen transfer, the film looks amazing.  The DVD comes with two audio options (the original French track with English subtitles and the English dubbed track), as well as some great extra features, making this disc a must have!  First up is a short introduction to the film by Rollin, followed by an interview with Rollin by Dr. Patricia MacCormack.  Lasting almost 40 minutes, MacCormack questions Rollin about his unique brand of cinema, as well as his obsession with vampires and strong female characters.  Rounding off the disc are two trailers for Shiver (one in French, the other in English), as well as the French theatrical trailers for the other four films in the first series of HD Rollin!     

I WANT WHAT I WANT on DVD!

During the golden age of exploitation cinema, the grindhouse market took on any and every subject guaranteed to bring in money.  The sex change flick was no exception.  Shortly after Christine Jorgensen's highly publicized transformation from man to woman in the early 50s, Edward D. Wood Jr. turned out his subversive masterpiece Glen or Glenda?, chronicling his own personal struggle for the world to understand transvestism.  In 1970, Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon with the glorious disaster Myra Breckinridge!  Based on Gore Vidal's novel, this Raquel Welch vehicle about a female transexual that plans to take over her uncle's acting academy became notorious even before its release, and regardless of critical panning, it opened the floodgates for a new wave of sex change films.  The hilariously bad The Christine Jorgensen Story and the highly bizarre Dinah East were released the same year as Myra Breckinridge.  Two years later, British actress Anne Heywood (The Fox) starred in the film I Want What I Want, which, like the films mentioned above, dealt with the topic of transsexualism, but was much more successful in presenting the subject matter seriously and with a character the audience could sympathize with.

Roy just isn't like the other boys.  He spends his time watching women in the street, admiring their clothes.  He can't live up to the expectations of his Army major father, who wants Roy to act more like a man.  One night, Roy's father comes home and discovers his son in full drag.  Unable to control his rage, the major slaps Roy around before forcing his son to look in the mirror.  "Don't you want to be a man?" Roy's father asks.  To this, Roy replies "God made man in his own image...and he blew it." Next time we see Roy, he's ran away from home and barricaded himself in a small apartment where he lets his hair grow and practices at how to be a real woman.  After a few weeks of training, Roy is dead and Wendy is born!  After leaving the city and renting a room in a boarding house, things are going great for Wendy!  Her fellow tenants don't suspect her of being "different" in the slightest and she's got an overflow of extravagant gowns and blue eyeshadow to keep her past a secret forever!  Of course, Wendy can't escape from love as she's got her eye on one of the male tenants in the house.  Before she can make any sort of move, however, she knows she much consult a doctor about a sex change.

 There's something about this film that everytime I watch it, I can't help but love it.  Thirty years before Felicity Huffman tackled the role of a transexual in Transamerica, Anne Heywood dove into the part of Roy/Wendy and does a great job.  Heywood isn't the most passible looking man when she's Roy and looks a bit like a drag queen when she's Wendy but her overall performance makes you really sympathize with Roy on his journey to becoming Wendy.  You see her ups and her downs throughout this new and confusing period in her life that by the time you reach the shock ending, you're pretty much speechless.  What I particuarly like about I Want What I Want is its treatment of the subject matter.  Yes, it's an exploitation film but it never crosses the line of depicting transexuals as sideshow freaks.  The movie is not a riot like The Christine Jorgensen Story or Myra Breckinridge, but it isn't overly serious either.  While not perfect, it makes for a memorable viewing experience.  

Only ever available on VHS in the past, Scorpion Releasing presents I Want What I Want in a beautifully restored, anamorphic widescreen transfer.  The print used for the transfer isn't in the most pristine condition as colors sometimes look faded and scratches appear on the film from time to time, but when compared to the original Prism VHS, the image is fantastic!  The only extra on the disc is a Spanish trailer for the film (the trailer's narration is in Spanish while the scenes from the film contain the original English track).  Also include in the packaging are liner notes by Dennis Dermody, film critic for Paper.  Dermody's essay is quite informative on how the film was made and briefly discusses Heywood's career (Heywood apparently bought the rights to the novel by Geoff Brown and was a driving force behind getting the movie made).  Thank you to the good people at Scorpion Releasing for putting out a gem like I Want What I Want and allow your DVD collection to get more in touch with its feminine side! 

    

Lesbian Bloodsuckers in HD! Kino Lorber and Redemption films present THE CINEMA OF JEAN ROLLIN! Part 1: THE NUDE VAMPIRE

How to describe the cinema of the late French horror auteur Jean Rollin?  Often associated with being the creater of a series of lesbian vampire films, Rollin's films are much more than what this typical type of subgenre has to offer.  There is a poetic quality to his films that makes them all the more haunting and beautiful.  Plot is not important in a Rollin film.  Pacing is generally slow.  The budgets, very low.  But in the end, this is what makes Rollin's work so appealing.  All of Rollin's films are incredibly personal so trying to figure them out is a waste of time.  Viewing a film by Jean Rollin is an experience like no other and his unique collection of films deserve a much greater cult following than they already have.  Thanks to the good people and Kino Lorber and Redemption Films, the number of Rollin fanatics should certainly grow as they will be releasing the majority of Rollin's filmography in Hi-Def on both Blu-Ray and DVD formats.  The first five in the series were released back in January and include some of Rollin's best and most important films.  (I'll be reviewing each film in the set seperately and I will only be reviewing the DVD versions of these films since I'm poor and only own a DVD player).

 The Nude Vampire

While walking through an empty street in the middle of the night, a young man named Pierre runs into a beautiful young woman being followed by a group of men who conceal their identity with bizarre animal masks.  Pierre attempts to help the girl but she is immediately gunned down by one of the masked men.  Fleeing the scene to save himself, Pierre becomes obsessed with discovering who the girl is and why these men were after her.  Pierre soon learns the girl is a vampire and is being held captive by his father and a group of scientists, who take samples of her blood night after night in the hopes of discovering the secret to immortality.  Having fallen in love with the young vampire, Pierre attempts to set her free but when a vampire cult learns of what is being done to one of their kind, they seek justice in their own way.

Rollin's second feature film (and his first color film), The Nude Vampire is often considered a lesser work in his filmograpgy by most fans and critics.  While he would go on to make better films, The Nude Vampire is a fascinating piece of horror and science fiction that derserves way more praise than it receives.  One problem with the film is its pacing (some scenes just go on for too long, even for a Rollin film) but at the same time, the beautiful photography makes up for these problems (this was the first film in which Rollin worked with his favorite cinematographer Jean-Jacques Renon).  Another problem is that with the film's small budget, Rollin tried to pull off some unsuccessful special effects, making certain scenes quite unintentionally funny.  Despite its flaws, The Nude Vampire is classic Rollin and deserves to be rediscovered.

The Nude Vampire is presented in an anamorphic widescreen presentation.  Mastered in HD from the original negative, the film looks beautiful.  Colors pop right out at you (particuarly reds) and detail is perfect.  The DVD comes with the option of viewing the film in French with English subtitles or with the dubbed English track (the former being preferable).  Also included on this special edition is an introduction to the film by Rollin (in English), a collection of interviews with Rollin (in English) conducted over a series of time by a former assistant of the late director, an interview with long time Rollin collaborator Natalie Perrey discussing the making of the film (in French with English subtitles), two trailers for the film (one in French, the other in English), and the original French theatrical trailers for the other four films in the collection.

       

A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN: Lucio Fulci's classic 'giallo' thriller!

Most fans of Euro horror are familiar with Lucio Fulci for his gore soaked epics like Zombie, The Beyond, and City of the Living Dead.  However, in the early seventies, the would-be Italian Godfather of Gore made several top notch thrillers that would rank high in the popular sub-genre of film known as the giallo (the word giallo translates to yellow in English and is synonymous with a popular trend of mystery/thriller pulp novels that were famous for their yellow covers).  His second entry in the genre, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, is by far my favorite of Fulci's gialli and maybe even my favorite Fulci film.

Carol (Florinda Bolkan) has been having a series of erotic nightmares involving her hippie neighbor, Julia (Anita Strindberg).  Trips to her psychiatrist have Carol believe that her fascination with Julia stems from an urge she has to break free from the clutches of her high society family and freely take part in the liberated lifestyle Julia indulges in with a series of psychedelic, orgy like parties night after night.  After having a dream in which she murders Julia in cold blood (in front of a hippie couple that gleefully watch), Carol awakens to discover Julia has just been found murdered in the exact same manner as in her dream.  Did she do it or is someone be setting her up?  Could it be Carol's husband Frank?  Her step daughter?  Carol's paranoia goes through the roof when the two hippies who were witnesses to the murder in her dream begin stalking her in real life, leading to a sensational chase scene in an abandoned church; complete with an old crypt, blood, and a swarm of bats!

Anybody with preconceived ideas of Lucio Fulci being just another hack splatter director should be pleasantly surprised after viewing A Lizard in a Woman's Skin.  His direction on the film's most suspenseful sequences are incredibly well executed and the continuous onslaught of red herrings make the film an engagging thriller.  Florinda Bolkan is great as Carol.  There is no dialouge during the dream and chase sequences, forcing Bolkan to convey complete terror through her facial expressions and body language, and you really feel for her!  Composer Ennio Morricone does the incredible score for the film that is oh so hauntingly sexy, you'll be shaking it off for days before wanting to re-hear it immediately.  Carlo Rambaldi, the man responsible for creating E.T., does special effects in the film.  In a famous scene, Carol discovers a series of vivisected dogs in a hospital room.  As the story goes, the effect was so realistic that Fulci and Rambaldi were brought up on charges of animal cruelty, forcing Rambaldi to display the props in court to prove no real animals were harmed. 

Media Blasters, under their Shriek Show label, originally released Lizard in a 2-disc special edition featuring a stunning looking version of the shorter American cut (released under the title Schizoid by AIP) on one disc and the uncut Italian version from an inferior print on the other disc.  After some backlash from fans, Media Blasters revisited the title by combining the best of both elements to make this the definitive version of this Fulci classic!  Featuring a widescreen transfer with anamorphic enhancement, the film looks fantastic!  Colors literally jump off the screen and the image looks pretty amazing for a 40 year old film.  The scenes from the inferior looking Italian print display a slight dip in quality (faded colors and scratches) but are never distracting overall.

Extras on this remastered edition include two interviews with Professor Paolo Albiero (in Italian with English subtitles); one discussing Fulci's career, the other discussing censorship issues upon Lizard's release.  These are informative and intriguing enough to keep your interest but most likely won't result in revisitation in the future.  Also included are the original Italian opening credits, the films American trailer, and a trailer reel of future Fulci films, including Zombie, Demonia, Murderock, Touch of Death, and The Sweet House of Horrors.  Overall, this is a quintessential giallo that is a must own for all fans of Lucio Fulci or just Euro Horror devotees in general!  Let it under your skin...you'll be thankful.

ALL ABOUT EVIL Special Edition DVD

San Francisco based drag performer Peaches Christ has proven herself as a cult icon with her late night cult movie series Midnight Mass.  But it is her male alter ego, Joshua Grannell, who recently unleashed his directorial debut in the form of the fabulous horror/comedy All About Evil to a legion of hardcore "gore gore girls" across the globe. 

Deborah Tennis (Natasha Lyonne) is an introverted librarian who wants to have her name in lights.  Working at her late father's beloved movie theater, Deborah hopes to achieve her dreams.  That is until the day her wicked step-mother walks in, threatening to sell the theater.  In a rage, Deborah murders her mother in the lobby of the movie theater; and in front of several security cameras!  In no time, the footage is projected to an audience of horror fans who think the snuff film is actually a new kind of horror film.  With her audience's approval, Deborah switches over in her mind to horror goddess status and, with her newly formed film crew featuring a diabolical projectionist (Jack Donner), a deranged homeless clepto (Noah Segan), and a set of homicidal twins (Jade and Nikita Ramsey); begins her murderous rampage for the sake of cinema!

Grannell's film is like an insanely fun rollercoaster ride that can fly off the tracks at any second!  Part of the fun of the film is the great cast!  Lyonne is pitch perfect as Deborah.  Watching her channel classic Hollywood actresses as she goes into rants about her "star quality" is a real highlight!  Thomas Dekker (Kaboom!) is believable as horror nerd Steven, Deborah's biggest fan.  Cult veterans Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) and Mink Stole (Pink Flamingos) appear in the film as well.  It's great seeing the seductive, macabre Peterson playing the concerned mother of Steven, who finds his interest in Deborah and her films quite unnerving.  Mink Stole is featured as Evelyn, the pathetic, elderly librarian Deborah used to work with.  Though a small part, Stole succumbs to one of the film's best murder set pieces, and makes her character all the more memorable by letting loose with her talent of screaming curse words at the other actors!  Grannell also indulges in some harmless self promotion with a cameo appearance as Peaches Christ, who simply much check out Deborah's films; being the queen of the midnight movie scene and all...  The murders in the film are wonderfully gruesome and hilarious, with enough blood and gore to satisfy the biggest horror fan.  I don't want to ruin any of their shock value so until you see them for yourself, my lips are sealed. ;D  

This special collector's DVD presents the movie in an anamorphic widescreen transfer with some pretty fun extras.  First up is Evil Live, a short documentary highlighting the films premiere in San Francisco.  I had the opportunity of seeing the film's premiere in NYC two years ago and the pre-show performance put on by Miss Christ and the Midnight Mass crew made the film the event it is meant to be.  For those who missed the theatrical run, this piece is a great addition to create the effect of a live horror show.  A making of documentary, two shorts by Grannell (including Grindhouse, which inspired All About Evil), a feature-length director's commentary, and the film's trailer round out the extras.  Buy it exclusively as www.peacheschrist.com and add a little more evil to your life!