Flicks I've watched today
I watched two cult films this afternoon. First up............
ENTRAILS OF A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
Every good movie needs a sequel, right? Of course! How can you top Entrails of the Virgin's dead guy arm diddling monster wang scene? Follow it up with more of the same, just up the ante with the sex and the violence - but especially the sex. See those screen-shots underneath this summary? There's a few highlights for you.
The plot? Hah. Plot? Well, you could call it that. The film begins with a gang of bastard Yakuza beating and raping a pretty young girl. They feed her something called Angel Rain which increases her appetite for carnal pleasures by untold multitudes. After some hanky panky she makes her escape and wanders into a doctor's clinic, where she soon commits suicide, but not before telling the nurse at the clinic what the Yakuza had done to her.
The nurse decides to avenge the young girls death. She works her way into Yakuza territory using her sexy girl powers to worm herself into their inner circle. Then a monster-wang creature appears out of nowhere and seriously fucks shit up, but not before getting himself a blow job. It all ends in some absolutely insane bloody mayhem that, while low budget like the first film, is still pretty impressive.
Once again, the film is short on plot. There's not a whole lot of storytelling going on here at all and as you could probably tell from the plot description, it's another excuse to ties in some scenes or truly whacked out sex, violence, and sexual violence together.
Whereas the first film had the severed hand masturbation scene as the icing on the cake, this one goes one step further with a truly mind melting monster dong blow job scene. Why is it that Japanese monsters are hung like rhinos? I don't know. But it's not up to me to explain these things to you, so please stop asking.
In a nutshell, these films are for those of us who dig on sleaze and they succeed in giving us much sleaze to dig on. The plots suck. The acting isn't anything to write home about. While some of the direction is interesting and some of the effects are good, they're really not mind blowing. What the films do offer are some totally twisted set pieces that are sure to get your attention, even if you are a jaded sort like myself. On that level they work quite well and that's really all there is to it.
.......and then I watched Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural
The Film
At a country church, pretty Lila Lee sings her heart out every Sunday as a young soloist and has been dubbed “The Singin’ Angel” by the congregation. The young reverend (played by director Richard Blackburn) exhibits a keen and possibly unhealthy interest in her welfare, particularly when Lila’s gangster father takes off in the dead of night after killing his adulterous wife. Lost in the mysterious town of Asteroth (H.P. Lovecraft fans, take note!), he falls prey to a hooded vampire leader named Lemora (Lesley Gilb) and her minions.
Intrigued by a promotional newspaper article on Lila in her father’s possession, Lemora summons the girl with a note that her father is dying and wishes to make amends. Though not equipped with a little red riding hood, Lemora sets off into the woods to retrace daddy’s footsteps and encounters a number of sinister characters along the way before finally falling into the corruptive clutches of Lemora herself, whose eerie mansion houses a number of chilling secrets and monsters lurking in wait.
Usually appreciated far less than sex and bloodshed, poetry in horror films is a vital component most casual viewers don’t try to appreciate. One of the best periods for lyrical and poetic terror cinema, the early 1970s spawned some real twilight gems including Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, Vampyres, The Other, and this widely discussed but rarely seen cult favorite, also known as Lady Dracula. A grassroots indie most notorious for years thanks to a “Condemned” rating from the Catholic Church, Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural remains Blackburn’s only feature to date - which puts this somewhere in the neighborhood of Charles Laughton’s similar macabre fairy tale, Night of the Hunter, among horror’s one-shot wonders. Set almost entirely under a blue-tinged blanket of night, the film successfully achieves a “waking dream” atmosphere complete with somnambulist actors and feral-faced grotesques who may or may not be real. The low budget hurts at times thanks to some obviously compromised locations and touch-and-go make-up effects, but the pervasive tone of queasy, predatory sexuality and disorientation compensates for these flaws.
Of course, many film fans cherish this film as the first starring vehicle for young Smith, who - often credited as “Rainbeaux Smith” - became a drive-in star thanks to her sterling appearances in such ‘70s favorites as Drum, Slumber Party ’57, Massacre at Central High, Revenge of the Cheerleaders, The Pom Pom Girls, The Swinging Cheerleaders, and her most widely acclaimed role in Jonathan Demme’s Caged Heat. Though eighteen at the time of the film’s release, she plays a pre-adolescent convincingly enough to cause discomfort during her suggestive, PG-rated bathtub scene.
P.S. I got my advance copy of Thriller: A Cruel Picture on Tuesday. It looks awesome. Instantly the heart of my collection.
ENTRAILS OF A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
Every good movie needs a sequel, right? Of course! How can you top Entrails of the Virgin's dead guy arm diddling monster wang scene? Follow it up with more of the same, just up the ante with the sex and the violence - but especially the sex. See those screen-shots underneath this summary? There's a few highlights for you.
The plot? Hah. Plot? Well, you could call it that. The film begins with a gang of bastard Yakuza beating and raping a pretty young girl. They feed her something called Angel Rain which increases her appetite for carnal pleasures by untold multitudes. After some hanky panky she makes her escape and wanders into a doctor's clinic, where she soon commits suicide, but not before telling the nurse at the clinic what the Yakuza had done to her.
The nurse decides to avenge the young girls death. She works her way into Yakuza territory using her sexy girl powers to worm herself into their inner circle. Then a monster-wang creature appears out of nowhere and seriously fucks shit up, but not before getting himself a blow job. It all ends in some absolutely insane bloody mayhem that, while low budget like the first film, is still pretty impressive.
Once again, the film is short on plot. There's not a whole lot of storytelling going on here at all and as you could probably tell from the plot description, it's another excuse to ties in some scenes or truly whacked out sex, violence, and sexual violence together.
Whereas the first film had the severed hand masturbation scene as the icing on the cake, this one goes one step further with a truly mind melting monster dong blow job scene. Why is it that Japanese monsters are hung like rhinos? I don't know. But it's not up to me to explain these things to you, so please stop asking.
In a nutshell, these films are for those of us who dig on sleaze and they succeed in giving us much sleaze to dig on. The plots suck. The acting isn't anything to write home about. While some of the direction is interesting and some of the effects are good, they're really not mind blowing. What the films do offer are some totally twisted set pieces that are sure to get your attention, even if you are a jaded sort like myself. On that level they work quite well and that's really all there is to it.
.......and then I watched Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural
The Film
At a country church, pretty Lila Lee sings her heart out every Sunday as a young soloist and has been dubbed “The Singin’ Angel” by the congregation. The young reverend (played by director Richard Blackburn) exhibits a keen and possibly unhealthy interest in her welfare, particularly when Lila’s gangster father takes off in the dead of night after killing his adulterous wife. Lost in the mysterious town of Asteroth (H.P. Lovecraft fans, take note!), he falls prey to a hooded vampire leader named Lemora (Lesley Gilb) and her minions.
Intrigued by a promotional newspaper article on Lila in her father’s possession, Lemora summons the girl with a note that her father is dying and wishes to make amends. Though not equipped with a little red riding hood, Lemora sets off into the woods to retrace daddy’s footsteps and encounters a number of sinister characters along the way before finally falling into the corruptive clutches of Lemora herself, whose eerie mansion houses a number of chilling secrets and monsters lurking in wait.
Usually appreciated far less than sex and bloodshed, poetry in horror films is a vital component most casual viewers don’t try to appreciate. One of the best periods for lyrical and poetic terror cinema, the early 1970s spawned some real twilight gems including Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, Vampyres, The Other, and this widely discussed but rarely seen cult favorite, also known as Lady Dracula. A grassroots indie most notorious for years thanks to a “Condemned” rating from the Catholic Church, Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural remains Blackburn’s only feature to date - which puts this somewhere in the neighborhood of Charles Laughton’s similar macabre fairy tale, Night of the Hunter, among horror’s one-shot wonders. Set almost entirely under a blue-tinged blanket of night, the film successfully achieves a “waking dream” atmosphere complete with somnambulist actors and feral-faced grotesques who may or may not be real. The low budget hurts at times thanks to some obviously compromised locations and touch-and-go make-up effects, but the pervasive tone of queasy, predatory sexuality and disorientation compensates for these flaws.
Of course, many film fans cherish this film as the first starring vehicle for young Smith, who - often credited as “Rainbeaux Smith” - became a drive-in star thanks to her sterling appearances in such ‘70s favorites as Drum, Slumber Party ’57, Massacre at Central High, Revenge of the Cheerleaders, The Pom Pom Girls, The Swinging Cheerleaders, and her most widely acclaimed role in Jonathan Demme’s Caged Heat. Though eighteen at the time of the film’s release, she plays a pre-adolescent convincingly enough to cause discomfort during her suggestive, PG-rated bathtub scene.
P.S. I got my advance copy of Thriller: A Cruel Picture on Tuesday. It looks awesome. Instantly the heart of my collection.