THE SONS OF GREAT BEAR
The imperative to put butts into theater seats is apparently one that has been shared by film industries throughout the world, regardless of what political system they operated under. Thus it was, in 1966, that East Germany’s state run DEFA studio decided to try their hand at what had been widely considered an exclusively American genre, the Western, in an attempt to entice those audiences who had been staying away from their usual, more dryly ideological fare in droves with more thrilling, action-oriented entertainments. Of course, DEFA had no intention of aping Hollywood’s approach to that genre, and would ultimately put their own, distinctive spin on it. Going a long way toward achieving that was their decision to tell their film’s story from the point of view of its Native American characters, with whites settlers serving as the villains. But lest you think that choice was just a cynical appropriation of a suffering people’s history for crass political ends, let me point out that there was an abiding German fascination with Native Americans and their culture that had existed since long before the communist divide, the responsibility for which can pretty much be placed at the doorstep of one man.
Also fresh for 2009: Mother of Tears, The IPCRESS File, Hellraiser VI: Hellseeker, and Requiem for a Secret Agent.
Someone suggested I do a holiday movie. So I did. Bet they wish they had been more specific, huh?
The first is that I get an extra seventeen hours at the end of every Roundtable – mwoo-ha-ha! The second is that I get the privilege of wishing all contributors and visitors to the B-Masters Blog a very happy New Year. Thanks to all those who dropped by (hey, lurkers! – resolve to de-lurk!), and especially to those who shared their thoughts with us. Here’s to another year of the living dead, killer dolls, murderers in skull masks, nature in revolt, zombie gorillas and manskirts.
Of course, the big news is that Dario Argento’s long, long, long MIA Four Flies On Grey Velvet is finally getting the treatment it deserves from Mya Communication (who appear to be a new incarnation of NoShame USA), which will be released uncut and remastered on 24th February. Mya will also be releasing—-oops! has released (27th December) the Argento produced and co-directed Door Into Darkness, four one-hour TV horrors, as a two-disc set.
for 31st March, a four disc set that will gather together no less than nine pepla: Hercules, Mole Men Against The Son Of Hercules, Hercules The Avenger, Hercules And The Black Pirate, Hercules And The Captive Women, Hercules, Prisoner Of Evil, Hercules And The Princess Of Troy, Atlas In The Land Of The Cyclops and Giants Of Rome. There is some cause for concern in the comment that “most” of these films will be widescreen (I’ve been after a widescreen print of Hercules And The Captive Women for years, so I’d lay odds that’s one of the ones that isn’t), but you can’t argue with the price: $19.98.
(“Summer 2009”), although the project seems to be well along the way. Speaking of Barbara, the good news is that new label Midnight Choir is releasing on 24th February a double disc of The Long Hair Of Death with An Angel For Satan; the bad news is that behind Midnight Choir is Johnny Legend, so caveat emptor.
Bhoot ke Pechhe Bhoot starts with couple en route to spooky house, a trip highlighted by the requisite animated lightning that appears so often in pretty much every Indian horror film that, at this point, I think Indian filmmakers are required by parliament to give it top billing. While the couple pokes around in the mansion, there’s a puff of ninja smoke in the graveyard outside, and suddenly there appears…is that…is that a zombie gorilla??? Yes, a zombie gorilla appears. Son of a bitch. And, umm, and…well, he’s got sparklers for fingertips. Huh. How about that? So far, Bhoot ke Pechhe Bhoot is the greatest movie ever. As the couple continues poking around inside the house, the zombie gorilla appears out of nowhere in the same room, which causes the woman to, take a guess: A) she screams and runs back to the car, as any sane human would do, or B) she reacts as if a sad little puppy has just wandered in, walking toward it with that “how ya doin’, little fella?” tone of voice. Anyone who reacts to a zombie gorilla appearing out of thin air by cooing and walking up to caress it really deserves to get what happens to this woman, which is choked by a zombie gorilla while her boyfriend stands by making “Nah, I think it’ll be OK. He’ll tire himself out” gestures, once again reacting as if this was a puppy humping his girlfriend’s leg rather than a damned zombie gorilla that appeared out of nowhere to wave around sparklers and choke a woman.
Man, this movie is goofy. Really goofy. It explores the darker regions explored by the comic book, topics such as corruption of the innocent, abuse, selling your soul, S&M, so on and so forth, but it’s done within a movie that is so silly, so juvenile, and stars a wisecracking demon in a rubber monster suit, that any attempt to be twisted, sinister, dark, or otherwise anything other than absurd is completely undercut by the schizophrenic tone. Yuzna, as we know, has a severe addiction to cornball comedy and wisecracks, but without the steady hand of Stuart Gordon or screenwriter Dennis Paoli to reel in the more ludicrous ideas, Yuzna is left to wallow in his own one-liners and baser comic tendencies. There is some attempt here to mine the same balance of comedy, terror, and sex as Gordon and Yuzna achieved in Re-Animator and From Beyond, but it fails miserably. Hilariously and miserably.