Umberto Lenzi

[Pete]

Discuss the films of Umberto Lenzi here.

eyeball.jpg fromhell.jpg oohthatsgottahurt!.jpg
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[Gojirosan]

Oasis Of Fear is excellent.

Ironmaster is extremely under-rated.

Nightmare City isn't that good really.

All the Carroll Baker films should be gathered into a box set.

[Pete]

Yes, Oasis of Fear is excellent. That and Seven Bloodstained Orchids are my favourite Lenzi films.

I haven't seen Ironmaster

Nightmare City is comedy gold!

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

I find Lenzi's work a bit hit and miss (especially his later work), but I love most of his '70s gialli, especially Seven Blood Stained Orchids, Spasmo, Oasis of Fear, Paranoia, and Eyeball.

Nightmare City is a fun cheese-fest, and for me on par with Lenzi's other prime zombie outing: Black Demons (which I know a lot of people don't really care for).

Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox, Man From Deep River and to a lesser extent Eaten Alive were very decent entries into the Cannibal genre, and even though they don't (for me) top Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust and Last Cannibal World, or Martino's Mountain of the Cannibal God they are very good all the same.

I also found Nightmare Beach to be enjoyable in a stupid, fun kind of way. It's as if he was two different people in a lot of ways though, as when you compare his mind-bending and beautiful gialli with a lot of his more cheese-induced later efforts, it's as though they were directed by completely different people.

Also, the worst of his films (that I've seen) is probably Hell's Gate: a best avoided yawn fest.

[Pete]

I enjoyed Eyeball but I think it is his weakest giallo.

I think Man From Deep River is an excellent film. Cannibal Ferox and Eaten Alive are bad but fun (apart from the animal scenes).

Battle Force is pretty good (and has an amazing cast) and Thunder Squad is worth a look.


Black Demons, Hells Gate and The House of Witchcraft rank among the worst Italian horror films ever made IMO.

[bdc]

Anybody has some love for Kriminal?
I love masked super-criminal movies...

Big fan of Orgasmo and Paranoia as well!

[Splatterdragon73]

Originally Posted by Gojirosan

Ironmaster is extremely under-rated.

A lovely cover on the British pre-cert video release.

I recall George Eastman playing the bad guy (looking rather daft wearing some sort of animal hide or fur.) in Lenzi's cut-price Conan cash-in and 'Sam Daniels' was the film's hero with a formidable but synthetic looking physique. Somewhat resembling rubber muscles covered in cling film!

[zoomer1971]

Almost Human would have to be one of my favourite Lenzi movies. Picked up the Italian DVD a couple of years ago.

Never been a big fan of Cannibal Ferox, and Eaten Alive is pretty dire. Quite liked Deep River Savages though.

Also agree that Oasis of Fear is pretty good.

[Philleh]

Optimum are releasing Lenzi's From Hell to Victory in October according to Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hell-Victory...7118341&sr=1-1

[wayfarer]

The only Lenzi film that I've seen is Nightmare City. Yes, it's crud but it has a charm all of it's own. Also, I like the fact that he went with running "zombies" and I like the ending.