THE VAMPIRE'S NIGHT ORGY - Euro tour bus gets stranded in a village full of vampires. Not much of an 'orgy', but plenty of murky atmosphere and weird disjointedness (the soundtrack for one, which goes from rubbish semi-jazz to haunted fem-vocal Eurotica to cosmic electronics). I guess this will divide its audience into those who find it dull and those who pick up on the strangeness. Maybe the litmus test should be posed during the opening credit sequence ie. is it reasonable to stick with a movie which opens with a montage of worms and maggots soundtracked by ridiculously upbeat aforementioned rubbish semi-jazz? I for one wasn't disappointed.
RED MIST - Necrophilious misfit is humiliated and finally almost killed by a bunch of more socially mobile medical students. He goes into a coma, but gets psychic revenge after 'a strange and unapproved new treatment' is tested out on him. It's one of those vengeance and rage fuelled numbers which is propelled by a reactionary undertone ie. it's OK to make the bad guys suffer, in graphic detail, for entertainment purposes. But that's the deal with this kind of film anyway. It's slick, quite violent and at points quite mean spirited. Watchable mainstream nastiness (which obviously never gets TOO nasty).
SICK BOY - A babysitter finds that the kid she's looking after has some real issues (of the flesh rippin' and murderous variety). Sandwiched between a slightly boring build up and an ending which I found a little trite due to it playing 'the Z card' is half an hour or so of really well sustained creepiness which put me in mind of 'House Of The Devil' through its suggestion of looming threat. Shame it doesn't really stick with that approach, although many will prefer the transition to more direct horror in the latter third. Worth checking out.
SENSORED - I'm sure like many others I came to this thinking "hmm, another 'Saw' rip off I can use to waste yet more precious time", but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's nothing of the kind - it's more of a twisted psychological thriller with a fairly deep sense of estrangement. The sense of a broken, distorted perspective - it's basically a voyage through one man's madness - is really well put across and is disorientating but never reverts to textbook 'reality within reality etc etc' stuff like 'Videodrome' et al. Really interesting if not always straightforwardly entertaining, but definitely worth seeing if you haven't already.
CLEAN, SHAVEN - Another voyage through one man's madness, this is a dark, sad, harrowing and brilliant film that should simply be seen. It follows a young man's attempt to contact his daughter against the backdrop of his burgeoning psychosis and a manhunt for a local child killer. The editing process gives full and succinct expression to the change in perception undergone by the lead (particularly in terms of sound). This sensory strangeness gives way in the latter part of the film to a more naturalistic take on the two main character's reunion, one which is ultimately waylaid by tragedy. I saw this on TV ages ago, and it made a big impact on me - its power remains undiminished. 100% recommended.
DR JEKYLL VS THE WEREWOLF - Tedium, atmosphere, sleaze and bizarreness all join forces to provide a poorly made but somehow engrossing movie experience. The same woodenness could be found in TVNO, but at least that film had a consistent tone - this is inferior compared with '...Night Orgy' but makes up for its shortcomings with bits of gore and sleaze, not to mention disco floor werewolf transformations and Naschy-as-Hyde doing business down in seventies Soho. I liked it.
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