Random viewings from over the last ten days:
CANNIBAL FEROX - Has been on these pages quite a lot recently, so I thought I'd give it another go. It's never been a favourite of mine, but I appreciate the appeal, excluding all the animal trashing. It dips and peaks in intensity unevenly, with moments of (for its time) trangressive splatter being pissed on by sagging passages of boredom. Nevertheless, it still manages to feel a bit dirty after all these years. But when it cmes to Lenzi I even prefer things like 'Ghosthouse', no matter how ridiculous this sounds. Plus, the theme tune sounds a bit like a bad funk outfit playing 'The Bill'.
FREEZE ME - OK to good Japanese rape revenge story. It's not a harsh Pinku by any means, more a dramatic horror flick based around suspense and tension rather than mind flaying viciousness and brute misogyny, although it has its moments. There are minor shades of 'Repulsion' / apartment based insanity and claustrophobia as, five years after the fact, the victim of a previous rape is visited (one by one, in slightly too convenient a manner) by her assailants. Her freezer gets pretty full by the end of the movie. I watched a dubbed version, which is really not the way to see a contemporary movie of its kind.
MS.45 - An easy choice from yesterday. I had a really punishing hangover and was stressed about one of my shitty sound art projects, so I reverted to a movie I've seen countless times. What can I say, it's a brilliant exploitation flick which dallies with a faint air of Euro-arthouse in its depiction of the fatal unravelling of a mute seamstress following two vicious sex attacks forced on her by horrible scum. This film does everything right - it's so lean and down to the bone. It's a tribute to Ferrara that it alienates and disorientates at the same time as it invites empathy. The slo-mo Halloween party shoot-out at the climax is wonderful. As is the rest of the film. An all time fave, couldn't possibly recommend it enough.
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