EVIL DEAD II

Director: Sam Raimi           

Screenplay: Sam Raimi & Scott Spiegel

Starring: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry and Dan Hicks

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 84mins

DVD & Blu-ray

Reviewed by Guy Adams

How to describe Evil Dead II for the four people reading this who have never seen it? Imagine a Tex Avery cartoon that’s had a particularly bad time of it lately. Maybe it’s partner left it, maybe it lost its job, maybe it just looked in the mirror one day at it’s snarling teeth and twisted nose and decided life wasn’t worth the bother. It’s taken up drinking and, as the blurry weeks go by, the real world seems a place of less and less interest. Finally, one particularly delirious night, after consuming more than its body weight in industrial cleaner and cold linctus, it takes to the woods, screaming at the moon and fighting the trees with an axe it found in its cellar. Eventually it lies down in the slick, damp leaves and laughs until its sick. To that cartoon, Evil Dead II would seem perfectly normal.

As much a remake of Raimi’s seminal “video nasty” as it is a sequel, Evil Dead II takes the humourous elements of the first film and brings them to the fore. Rarely is a limb severed or chainsaw swung if not in the service of a grotesque belly laugh. The Bruce Campbell we all know, iconic chin of legend, is born here as Ash, the luckless hero of the movie who spends as much time being beaten silly as he does fighting the evil spirits who lurk in his poor choice of honeymoon location. By the movie’s close he has a chainsaw strapped in place of a hand, a shotgun strapped to his back and a grin familiar to psychiatrists the world over as “beyond help”.

It’s a jolly, inventive, intoxicating, absurd, explosion of a movie and I, like many, have always had a decidedly soft spot for it. The fun Raimi has with a camera is reason alone to watch it. It’s hugely self-indulgent and sometimes that can be a good thing.

On Blu-ray, the gushing stumps are presented crisp and juicy, the screams and demonic cackling clear enough to give cause disquiet amongst your neighbours.

The big draw for fans of the movie will certainly be the exclusive new extra ‘Swallowed Souls – Making of Evil Dead II’ . A ninety eight minute retrospective featuring interviews with a healthy collection of cast and crew. Also exclusive to the UK is ‘Road to Wadesboror: Revisiting the Shooting Location of Evil Dead II’ and ‘Cabin Fever’ a compilation of behind the scenes footage and deleted scenes. Ported over from previous releases are a commentary with Raimi, Campbell, Scott Spiegel and Greg Nicotero and ‘The Gore the Merrier’, another ‘making of’ piece.

A suitably comprehensive package, attractively presented. Worth the upgrade from the previous DVD releases and something we can throw at ignorant children whose only exposure to the franchise will be the impending remake (not that I’m being pre-judging… ahem).

Released April 15th

BLOOD SIMPLE

Director: Joel Cohen

Screenplay: Joel & Ethan Coen

Starring: John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya and M. Emmet Walsh.

Certificate 18           

Running time: 92 mins

DVD & Blu-ray

Reviewed by Guy Adams

In the interest of full disclosure I love the work of the Coen Brothers. I think they make lovely, witty, beautiful films. I know not everyone shares this opinion, that is because some people have stupid eyes and shouldn’t be allowed in cinemas. A sad fact of life that is the burden of creatives everywhere. So, yes, I may be a little biased here…

But I’m right so it doesn’t matter. Blood Simple, their first movie, is an absolute masterclass of Texan Noir (note the capitals as if it’s a real genre that I didn’t just make up). A small cast of broken characters who play out their bloody Greek Tragedy (I didn’t make that one up) over a tight and atmospheric ninety minutes. Especially tight actually as this is the Director’s Cut of the film (unreleased on DVD in the UK until now). Usually Director’s Cuts are longer, footage re-inserted that was cut due to studio insistence. Not here. Here, the Coens went back to the movie and tightened it up, shortening shots and removing flab. Sigh… *wafts self in giddy admiration* they even go about the business of Director’s Cuts in a interesting way.

I rarely talk about plot (annoying I know but I think it important to give as little away as possible) and I stand by that here. For those who are unfamiliar with the film I will simply say this: it involves a misjudged affair, a broken-hearted bar owner, a deliciously grotesque private detective, three rotting fish and a spade.

Essential for anyone with taste.

Released April 15th

ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE

Director: Douglas Hickcox

Screenwriter: Clive Exton (based on the play by Joe Orton)

Starring: Beryl Reid, Harry Andrews, Peter McEnery, Alan Webb

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 90mins

DVD & Blu-ray

Reviewed by Guy Adams

When a film opens with Bery Reid, wearing a see-through frock, noisily eating an ice-lolly in a graveyard you can reasonably expect the tone of what is to follow. This 1970 film version of Joe Orton’s 1964 play relishes Orton’s enthusiasm for shocking audiences. A special feature on the disc includes the playwright’s appearance on The Eamonn Andrews Show, presenting us with this cheeky, quiet young man who takes great pleasure in challenging the sensibilities of those around him.

Beryl Reid’s lustful Kath happens upon the young Mr Sloane, doing topless exercises on a grave. To say she is smitten is to underestimate the sexual voraciousness of a Beryl Reid at the height of her ‘grotesque’ period (two years earlier having brought us The Killing of Sister George). She takes him home where he meets her myopic old father (who recognizes him as a runaway murderer) and promptly installs him in her spare bedroom. When her brother, ostracized from his father for being homosexual, visits he too falls under Mr Sloane’s spell and we find ourself in a distinctly unhealthy ménage à trois.

Of course, these days, we’re used to comedy that seeks to shock its audience as much as amuse them, in fact it’s become Hollywood’s default setting (though you can guarantee Judd Apatow will never come up with a line as lovely and absurd as ‘The air in Twickenham was like honey.’) It’s easy to forget quite how vicious this all seemed back in 1970. That said, Entertaining Mr Sloane still manages to cause moments of genuine discomfort and Exton’s adaptation of Orton’s script keeps a good deal of the refined, verbose dialogue that provides such a frothy counterpoint to the grimness on screen.

Well worth purchasing to remind yourself how black comedy can be.

Released April 8th

CAMILLE 2000:

Director: Radley Metzger

Screenplay: Michael DeForrest (based on the novel La Dame Aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas)

Starring: Danièle Gaubert, Nino Castelnuovo and Eleonora Rossi Drago

Certificate: 18                  

Running Time: 115 mins

SCORE:

Director: Radley Metzger   

Screenplay: Jerry Douglas (based on his stageplay)

Starring: Claire Wilbur, Calvin Culver and Lynn Lowry

Certificate: 18                  

Running Time: 91 mins

THE LICKERISH QUARTET:

Director: Radley Metzger   

Screenplay: Radley Metzger & Michael DeForrest

Starring: Silvana Venturelli, Frank Wolff and Erika Remberg

Certificate: 18                  

Running Time: 90 mins

Reviewed by Guy Adams

Dear Lord, Radley Metzger? What is Adams up to now? Is he watching porn while on the BFS clock? Well, no, not really… at least, not porn by modern standards. Not that I’m trying to gloss over the erotic nature of the films but I’m aware that they are likely to be ignored by a larger audience because of preconceptions and that would be a shame as there is a great deal in Metzger’s work that demands wider acclaim.

Arrow, that gleaming bastion of elevating the underdog with attractive and prestigious Blu-ray and DVD releases, have brought these three Metzger pictures out in UK dual-format editions. What is there here for the uninitiated?

Well, in Camille 2000, Metzger presents us with a genuinely beautiful and striking picture. As sumptious as the vey best of sixties Italian cinema, it’s a tragic love story that cannot be dismissed as softcore titillation thanks to the quality of both its photography and performances. Yes it’s about swinging, yes there’s a good deal of nakedness on offer but it’s all done so artfully and with a real sense of drama and soul that it’s a far richer picture than an ignorant viewer might expect.

The promise of Camille 2000 flourishes in Metzger’s next movie, The Lickerish Quartet which is quite simply brilliant. Strange, poetic and, yes, fantastical, it concerns a dysfunctional trio (mother, son and stepfather) who meet a woman they recognise from an erotic movie the stepfather has been playing on his home projector. Deciding to invite the girl home to their gothic castle, she then gets under their skin and reality itself takes a pounding. The movie they were watching changes with every screening and soon we can no longer tell who is who and what exists or doesn’t. Dreamy, surreal and, yes, sexy, The Lickerish Quartet is a weird and addictive little treasure that clings after viewing. A genuinely creepy little fantasy movie where sex is only one of the ingredients that makes up the whole, entrancing meal.

After such glories it’s little wonder that Score disappoints. Unlike the other two, it is much more simple in its intentions. Showing off its theatrical roots it plays out like a drawing room comedy, albeit one with far more fellatio than is strictly common. The story of a married couple who set each other sexual challenges, it is the only one of the three that can be labelled as nothing more ambitious than a bit of softcore fun.

BAISE-MOI

Directors/Screenplay: Virginie Despentes, Coraline Trinh Thi

Starring: Raffaëla Anderson, Karen Lancaume and Céline Beugnot

Certificate: 18

Running Time: 74 Mins

Reviewed by Guy Adams

The title to this controversial, French picture translates as “Fuck Me”, to which the only honest answer can be “no thanks.”

Released in 2000, it caused a good deal of controversy for its depiction of violence and explicit sex. It’s a simple enough Thelma and Louise style tale of two women who go on the run together. Both have snapped and committed criminal acts forcing them to abandon their (frankly rather horrid) lives and go on the lam. All of which is fine and clearly the movie has something to say about the emotional detachment that can result from abuse and poor life choices. It’s the fact that it chooses to say it with erect penises and gunfire that will always raise eyebrows.

Still illegal in some countries, it has finally been released uncut in the UK after the BBFC agreed that the original cuts they insisted upon could be waived. The argument between the censors and the filmmakers came down to whether the sexual content could be defined as pornography or not. Despuentes and Trinh Thi argued that pornography exists to arouse (and Trinh Thi and a good chunk of the cast hail from the industry so they should know) whereas the sex depicted in Baise-Moi was unambiguously unpleasant and included for dramatic purposes rather than to titillate. I might be inclined to argue that a competently staged rape scene is equally disturbing whether we actually see penetration or not (was Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible weakened by it’s lack of anatomical close-up?) but that somehow feels like being distracted from the main issue.

I could accept the extreme violence, I could accept the explicit sex, what I struggle with is that the film is not very good. It feels like a messy, badly acted and shot, student movie that has been remembered for the controversy rather than the creative content. A curious foot note in cinematic history that still gets discussed but for all the wrong reasons.

Arrow’s release certainly adds to that as their release presents a more polished package (special features, lovely booklet etc.) than the film itself deserves. Of course, some would say that’s the company’s standard policy, specialising as they do in beautifully presenting grotesque cult gems, but, for me, there’s a difference between celebrating enthusiastic, exploitation affair and supporting misplaced pretension. Baise-Moi thinks it’s important. It isn’t, it’s a miserable, grotty little film. A Gauloise cigarette butt floating in the clogged urinal of a Parisienne dive.

ACCIDENT

Director: Joseph Losey     

Screenwriter: Harold Pinter (from the novel by Nicholas Mosely)

Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Stanley Baker, Michael York & Jacqueline Sassard

Certificate: PG   

Running Time: 100 mins#]

DVD & Blu-ray

Reviewed by Guy Adams

Given the potency of The Servant, one might expect this, a reunion of Dirk Bogarde, Harold Pinter and Joseph Losey, to struggle in the former’s impressive shadow. Far from it, Accident actually manages to outshine it.

Bogarde plays Stephen, an Oxford don who is struggling in his middle-age. His closest friend is one of his students (Michael York) a constant reminder of the youth he has lost and the social class he will never belong to. When Stephen develops feelings for another student, Anna (Jacqueline Sassard), he begins to truly realise the impotent man he has become, outshone in his career by his rival, Charley (Stanley Baker) and adrift in a life he can no longer connect with.

Bookended by a car accident outside Stephen’s home both Stephen (and, reluctantly, the audience) begin to realise that this tragic event may present an opportunity.

Accident is a complex, layered movie that offers Bogarde a central character who is both sympathetic and yet unforgiveable. Like The Servant before it, it creeps under the skin and begins to itch.

Studiocanal are bringing the film to Blu-ray for the first time (as well as a DVD re-release) with an attractive selection of special features (both exclusive to this release and ported over from previous versions). The restoration adds to the timeless quality of the film, ensuring it can be viewed at its best, a powerful and witty study of broken men and the effect they have on those around them. Yet another essential purchase this month.

Released April 8th

THE SERVANT

Director: Joseph Losey                    

Screenwriter: Harold Pinter (from the novella by Robin Maugham)

Starring: Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles & Wendy Craig

Certificate: 15    

Running Time: 112 mins

DVD & Blu-ray

Reviewed by Guy Adams

This is a movie about reversal of fortunes, both off and on screen. The first major film role of actor, James Fox; the first screenwriting credit of Harold Pinter, masterly author of such ‘comedies of menace’ as The Caretaker and The Birthday Party; Pinter’s first collaboration with Joseph Losey, a director who had been blacklisted in the US due to his being a member of the communist party. It also cemented star, Dirk Bogarde’s metamorphosis from screen idol to heavyweight presence, a process begun in 1961‘s Victim, which featured Bogarde as barrister, blackmailed for being gay (a role arguably close to the star’s heart).

Losey being ostracized from Hollywood was certainly a boon to UK cinema and Losey himself later denied bitterness in a 1983 interview  “Without it I would have three Cadillacs, two swimming pools and millions of dollars, and I’d be dead. It was terrifying, it was disgusting, but you can get trapped by money and complacency. A good shaking up never did anyone any harm.” Which is certainly true and just as well as ‘a good shaking up’ is exactly what Losey would give his audiences in The Servant.

The movie creeps, much like it’s titular character, moving quietly on soft-soled shoes, building towards a final third that is remorseless on its viewers. Fox plays Tony, a wet and ineffectual socialite who hires Bogarde’s Barrett to be his manservant. Barrett slowly takes up the reigns of power until their roles are reversed.

Macabre, beautiful and utterly compelling, The Servant is one of our finest films. Winning three BAFTA awards on its release: Best Actor for Bogarde, Most Promising Newcomer for Fox and Best British Cinematography (B/W) for Douglas Slocombe’s sublime visuals. The latter are particularly well-served by this HD re-release on Blu-ray, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the film.

If you’ve seen the film before you know it’s worth the upgrade, (especially given the wealth of special features including new and archive interviews and discussion from Fox, Craig, Miles, Losey and Pinter)  if you haven’t then I envy you. The Servant is a flawless and timeless picture. It’s a film that bites, and StudioCanal have ensured their edition does so with the sharpest possible teeth.

Released April 8th

NOWHERE TO GO

Directed by Seth Holt

Written by Seth Holt & Kenneth Tynan

Starring George Nader, Maggie Smith & Bernard Lee

Cert: PG

Running Time: 100mins

Reviewed by Guy Adams

Another exemplary release from StudioCanal as part of their Ealing reissues, Nowhere to Go is the directorial debut of Seth Holt. Holt would go on to direct Scream of Fear and The Nanny for Hammer Films. He was to work on a third picture for the studio, the beleaguered Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb but tragically died during filming so that the movie had to be completed by Michael Carreras.

Nowhere to Go is a beautifully shot crime picture, co-written by famed critic Kenneth Tynan. Charting the unfortunate descent of conman and thief, Paul Gregory (George Nader) as he turns himself in knots trying to avoid the law when a lucrative scam turns sour.

Playing out like a grim The Thirty-Nine Steps, Gregory spends much of the picture on the run, betrayed by his criminal allies and with the police breathing down his neck. His one hope is troubled socialite Bridget Howard played by Maggie Smith in her feature film debut (earning herself a BAFTA nomination for Most Promising Newcomer).

The movie reeks of class from its lengthy prison breakout opening sequence right up until its climax in the Welsh countryside.

On its initial release, Nowhere to Go was cut by fifteen minutes by MGM so as to fit onto a double bill. StudioCanal present the full version of the picture with digitally restored picture and sound.

This is its first appearance on DVD after a couple of special screenings at BFI Southbank and is heavily recommended. Suspenseful, beautiful and packed with a host of british acting talent (including a cameo from Harry H. Corbett as a cold-hearted gangster!) it stands as further proof — were it needed — that Ealing was a studio that excelled at the dark and gritty as much as the comic and whimsical.

ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS

Director: Lucio Fulci

Writer: Elisa Briganti & Dardano Sacchetti

Starring: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Auretta Gay, Olga Karlatos

Certificate: 18

Running Time: 91 Mins

Reviewed by Guy Adams

I’m a stepfather to two boys. I missed the cute baby and toddler years, coming in just in time to savour the teenage times. At that age you can’t really play the father card, you just have to find common ground and hope you can be each other’s family despite having no genetic material in common. What’s genetic material after all? Nothing you can’t steal with a quantity of tranquilisers, a gun and a hypodermic.

Joe, the eldest, developed a serious taste for horror films. Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a firm favourite (an aside: There’s fifteen years between us. I came to that movie as a banned, illicit treat on a low-grade bootleg VHS. The viewing experience offered was… indistinct. It was like peering into a snowstorm, dimly aware that someone else in there had power tools and a lot of other folks were screaming about it. He watched it on a shiny DVD packed with commentaries and special features. The world turns…). What would any responsible stepfather do? He’d crack open the George Romero, obviously.

I remember we indulged in a pizza-fuelled marathon spanning from Night of the Living Dead through to the newly-released Land of the Dead. We saw more guts spilled that night than he’s ever experienced since, despite now being at University in Bournemouth.

Zombies were good. He liked zombies. So where do you go from there?

You bring on the Fulci. He’s not got Romero’s chops, of course. His films can’t really be viewed as social commentaries; they’re slightly pretty, often above average, exploitation fare. But there’s one thing he beats Romero on: number of scenes involving a zombie fighting a shark. And that’s a big plus.

Picture the scene: we’ve just watched Auretta Gay go scuba-diving wearing only a small scrap of wool, the sort of thing a mouse would floss with before smacking its lips in dissatisfaction and reaching for a toothpick. Suddenly, a shark appears. Peril! Then, as Gay tries to hide under a rocky outcrop, she collides with a zombie. UNDERWATER. After she struggles free, the zombie goes on to fight the shark, wrestling with it and appearing to take bites out of it.

I don’t care what any of you other stepfathers have done, showing the above to a fifteen-year-old Joe makes me twice as brilliant as any of you. I win. Forever.

Apparently the scene was achieved using a shark stuffed to the gills with horsemeat and tranquilisers. Like Python’s Mr Creosote it couldn’t manage another mouthful. Even if said mouthful was Really Bloody Asking For It by constantly grabbing its fins and chewing on its under-parts.

However Fulci did it, neither Joe nor I will ever care. Whatever else this film offered it would always be The One With the Bloody Shark.

Oh… and The Eyeball Bit of course. Which I have just seen in pristine HD, projected onto a screen two metres wide. Fulci just came back from the grave and punched me in the face the little bastard.

Because this is another movie that successive generations have come to differently. I first saw it, cut, on a shop-bought VHS from those somewhat unreliable buggers at VIPCO. The version I showed Joe was the, still slightly cut, Anchor Bay Region One DVD. I’ve just watched it again on a fully remastered, fully uncut, Blu-ray produced by those naughty muck-imps at Arrow Films. It’s on two discs, drowning in special features. Documentaries on: Italian zombie pictures, Ian McCulloch’s Italian movie career, special-effects fiend Gino De Rossi, composer Fabio Frizzi (a live Q & A) and screenwriter Darano Sacchetti. There are also a couple of audio commentaries, one from Elisa Briganti and Calum Waddell and another from Steven Thrower and Alan Jones, two men so immersed in Italian horror they likely smell of pasta, breasts and leather.

You have to love Arrow Films. Who else would lavish such attention on The One With the Bloody Shark In?

Is the film worth such treatment?

While certainly Fulci’s most famous film, and one that helped to bring the Italian movie industry back from the brink of collapse), it’s not his best. Which is not to say it’s not quite good. It has its fair share of effective set pieces, a simple but coherent plot (rare for Fulci) lifted by the presence of Richard Johnson, as so many Italian horror movies were. It’s also not just an exercise in gore (however much talk of its two most memorable moments may suggest otherwise) but manages to offer the odd moment of something more atmospheric and affecting as well. In short: it’s a perfectly competent, slightly grungy, zombie picture remembered for its occasional moments of wild audacity and if you’ve never seen it you should certainly do so.

If you have seen it before then you know if you like it. The question is: should you buy the damned thing again?

I think so.

The restoration job is lovely and the features are exhaustive.  There’s more than enough extra material here to justify the RRP even if the flawless presentation of the main feature isn’t enough to convince you. Arrow’s disc can be considered definitive until some swine invents a new format and we all queue up to experience it again. Hopefully in Digital MindSlap™, squealing our aged lungs out as our viewing rooms fill with CGI water and we find ourselves in the middle of the shark fight sequence.

THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO / MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO

Director & Writer : Hayao Miyazaki

Starring:

• THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO: Yasuo Yamada, Eiko Masuyama, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Taro Ishida
• MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO: Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Hitoshi Takagi

Reviewed by Guy Adams

In 2009, the BFS and FantasyCon committees decided that the Karl Edward Wagner award (their “special” award recognizing exemplary contributions to the field) should go to director Hayao Miyazaki in recognition of a thirty-year career bringing a host of beautiful, animated fantasy to the screen. StudioCanal are currently proving exactly why that award was much-deserved with their Studio Ghibli Collection re-releasing many of the director’s films in lavish Blu-ray and DVD releases.

Last month saw the turn of The Castle of Cagliostro, Miyazaki’s first feature and My Neighbour Totoro, his fourth.

Seperated by nearly ten years, there is an understandable leap of style between the two films. The Castle of Cagliostro is a fun, action-packed romp featuring Arsène Lupin III (grandson of Maurice LeBlanc’s fictional master thief). My Neighbour Totoro is a gentle, elegaic, portrait of two young girls who find support and escape from worries over their hospitalized mother in the company of a powerful wood spirit who only they can see.

It would be somewhat churlish to compare the two given how vastly different their plot and aims are, though it’s hard not to note that the storytelling promise shown in the first is shown to bear astonishing fruit in the second. My Neighbour Totoro is a movie of undeniable beauty and a perfect example of why Miyazaki has earned the reputation he has.

Both Blu-rays offer flawless sound and picture quality, enabling viewers both new and old to immerse themselves in the world’s Miyazaki creates. StudioCanal have done both us and Miyazaki proud with editions that can be considered definitive. If you have yet to experience Miyazaki’s work you no longer have any excuse.