THE BUSHWHACKER plus THE RAVAGER: An Adult Color Spectacular HD double bill from AMERICAN ARCANA & SWV

"Joe was obsessed with one idea....to destroy.people." Joe Salkow (Pierre Agostino THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER) is way beyond a victim of PTSD in THE RAVAGER. He doesn't just kill lovers lane lingerers, he blasts them to kingdom come with his skills as an Nam demolitions expert. This 1970  Charles Nizet sickie-roughie has a distinct Eurocult vibe to it, plus a Eurotrash back-story I'll cover in my CINEMADROME review. If you're into extreme, over the edge, deep cult stuff, this is your movie. And, on the new American Arcana BD, you also get Byron Mabe's  1968 desert nudie-roughie THE BUSHWHACKER, which also has a Eurocult detour. 

Roughies don't get any rougher than these. Both feature desperate killers on a mission of terror in remote desert locations.. They both anticipate the horror-slashers of the 70s, such as THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and Mario Bava's BAY OF BLOOD  Call them sick, call them vile, call them Art,  but you can't call them dull. A demented double bill which John Waters would love! This may be the sleaziest, most disturbing, most politically incorrect double bill in the history of Cult Movies, and you're also going to love it. The Mad Doctor of Cult Movies couldn't be more pleased with American Arcana and SWV.

American Arcana is an offshoot of the revered MONDO MACABRO label and they have chosen their debut well. Two HD transfers of a pair of desert-set sexploitation, softcore sex, non-stop nudity, torture, rape, necrophilia, cannibalism. It's all on display here. Both uncut, 2K scans from vintage 35mm SWV archive prints. Plus a 12 page booklet, penned by Cinema Sewer's Robin Bougie, Lobby Card reproductions, lurid double sided covers, original trailers. We'll be going into more detail on the set soon~!

Red Case Limited Edition includes: 
Reversible cover, both sides unique to this release
Booklet with brand new essay on THE RAVAGER by Cinema Sewer's Robin Bougie
Postcards reproducing rare ad art for both films
DISC FEATURES
Region free
1080p presentation of both film taken from 2K scans of rare 35mm prints
Missing gore scene(in SD) from THE BUSHWHACKER reinstated, making this the most complete version of this film ever presented on video
Trailers for both films
A selection of trailers from the SWV Vaults


https://mondomacabro.bigcartel.com/.../the-ravager-the...


{C} Robert Monell, 2019

Tearful Surrender Kickstarter

Cassandra Sechler's film project is a sex-horror film in the style of Jean Rollin and Jess Franco

Cassandra Sechler

14 hrs · 

Only 3 days left to get in on the action & help support my project which features a strong/sexy/badass/talented (mainly female) cast, an original horror story with many conceptual layers to dig your teeth into, a strong visual aesthetic/art direction for the film, a beautiful atmospheric set/location, elaborate special fx/practical effects planned, and so much more! Please take a look at the project & donate today! Support underground film!

KICKSTARTER.COM

Tearful Surrender: A Supernatural Tale of Terror

Tearful Surrender is a gothic horror tale about a Sea Siren & her muses from the underworld who must feast on human souls to survive!

THE HORROR OF PART BEACH (1964, Del Tenney)

THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH (1963) is a candidate for the first horror-musical. Filmed in black and white and way low budget by independent filmmaker Del Tenney, it manages to be amusing, fascinating and a bath in monster movie nostalgia.

LES GLOUTONNES (1973, Clifford Brown)

a.k.a. LES EXPLOITS EROTIQUES DE MACISTE DANS L'ATLANTIDE/ Sexes Au Soleli. Video title  (AMERICAN VIDEO) Maciste et les Gloutonnes.  France 1973 Portugal (When I interviewed actor Robert Woods he remembered that this film was shot partially on the island of  Madiera, around the same time as AL OTRO LADO DE ESPEJO, during the Summer of 1973.) Directed under his French nom de plume Clifford Brown, this is a fascinating melange due to the fact that  Robert de Nesle, or somebody, took a supposedly "serious" film and made it into a delirous collage of  peplum, adventure, comedy, erotic and fantasy motifs. It's Waldemar Wohlfaartd as Maciste vs. Robert Woods  as the evil Caronte, who attempts to overthrow and kill the Queen of Atlantis, played by Alice Arno. Arno also  appears in what appear to be added footage of her from another (?) film lying in bed and pleasuring herself.  Maciste prevails with the help of " Gobblers", the women of  Atlantis. Howard Vernon makes an appearance as Cagliostro (cf. LA MALDICION DES FRANKENSTEIN),  observes the antics through a homemade portal with his horny attendant, played by the puckish  Rick Deconninck/Bigitoni. Kali Hansa gives perhaps the most memorable performance as the vicious Parka,  the consort of Caronte. A very interesting, electic score by Robert Viger [?] is a bonus. There's even a hardcore sex scene thrown in the mix. This scene features a naked, longhaired man walking slowly down a spiral staircase in what appears to be a theater  as Alice Arno lies on the floor below. The man then hovers over he as she excites him into ejaculating on her.  Another actress, who looks something like Montserrat Prous (LOS OJOS DE DOCTOR ORLOFF) is also involved, but it's hard to tell who it is due to the poor quality VHS dupe I've had to consult.  Prous does appear in other non-sexual scenes. Scenes of cult members covered in white sheets as they wander through a misty forest seem to be outtakes from similar scenes in LA MALDICION DE FRANKENSTEIN, the Spanish  version of EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN (1972).   Mark Forest (THE LION OF THEBES) was supposed to play Maciste, according to Franco. The opening shot of  Caronte wandering down a misty valley and the first view of the stormy coast of "Atlantis" are outstanding images  but unless you are a Franco completist you may hate this film. Franco also made YUKA  (also 1973) with Davis/Waldemar Wohlfaart and Robert Woodsagain  playing the leads in another erotic  "peplum" set in the Middle Ages..  (C) Robert Monell

PURGATORY ROAD (Mark Savage, 2017)

The less you know upfront about PURGATORY ROAD, the better. I knew absolutely nothing about it and it hit me like a ton of bricks. A psycho-thriller/road movie/religious allegory/character study and more, this is a disturbing slice of here-and-now Americana in which serial killers are only part of the story.

Father Vincent (Gary Cairns) travels through the contemporary Deep South in his deadly consecrated-by-Jesus RV, a spacious white van which comes equipped with space for living, praying, loving, hearing confessions, killing, dying and body storage. He's an Everyman type you might pass by in the street,  give a friendly nod out of respect for his clerical garb, and move on. No problem. And he's doing God's work. Isn't he?  Well, there is a problem, a long-standing one which comes to the surface now and then. Especially when Father Vincent hears confessions. You see, the good Father absolves the sinner's guilt with an ingenious Full Service solution, forgiving their sins, then slaying the sinners in Full Metal Lucio Fulci style, and disposing of the evidence. They have been confessed, forgiven, relieved of life in this Vale of Woe. And the world doesn't have to worry. At least that's the way the bloody Father sees it. Enabled by his milder mannered brother (Luke Albright), he finally meets his match in an equally deranged female, Mary Frances (Trista Robinson), whose looks and mannerisms encourage one to take her lightly. Bad move. We learn that there's a reason for the madness of these lost souls, but there's little hope for them. They were damaged souls early on and see justification in doing away with sinners who evoke the crimes of those who hurt them, and anyone else in their way.  They don't expect salvation and gotta do what they gotta do, kill.

Father Vincent and co. kill and kill again, in the manner of a Southern Gothic Spaghetti Western, while that spattering, splattering Fulci gore paints the walls, ceilings, floors, a bright crimson. The roads, backwaters, homes and darkened churches of America are a dangerous place, Always have been. And to mention maestro Lucio Fulci again, three times is the charm, there is still  more horror in the nothingness beyond The Beyond. This film also has a strong, necessary dose of Flannery O'Connor (cf WISE BLOOD) circulating through its system. At times it plays like a very low key dark comedy.

Independent filmmaker Mark Savage (STRESSED TO KILL) knows the territory and knows his characters, as does his flawless cast. They not only fit in, they own the scenery. I was immediately convinced that the director knew what he doing from the very first images of a child wandering through a darkened house illuminated by a not-so-comforting pool of light streaming in through a window. Atmospherically shot in rural Mississippi (big cities seem to be as far away as Heaven) one gets the sense that time has stopped here and the damned characters are playing out predestined roles cast by the invisible demons which probably ruled their childhoods. But there's no mercy shown or given, and the film admirably maintains that harrowing tone for its runtime. There's no waste motion here and the camera is always in the right place, even in very effective, and startling, overhead shots which remind us that someone up there is watching these heinous events and maybe not caring to get involved. Featuring a memorable soundscape to go along with its purgatory-on-earth imagery, this micro-budgeted crime-horror journey lingers in the mind long after our scripture and verse painted RV drives away one last time toward a place which maybe just around the corner from where you live,  or not of this Earth

(C) Robert Monell, 2018

ROLLS ROYCE BABY (1975-Erwin C. Dietrich)-- MAD FOXES (Paul Grau, 1981) review by Robert Monell

When Swiss sexploitation magnate Erwin C. Dietrich died in March 2018 he left a virtual empire of scandalous sinema behind. With over 100 producing and over 40 directing credits he represented an Independent film factory which focused on exploitation of all kinds, from Women in Prison films (BARBED WIRE DOLLS) to dozens of Swiss exploitation titles to horror, action and just about every genre imaginable. He produced/co-produced/co-directed 17 films in association with the late legendary Jess Franco.

ROLLS ROYCE BABY features Jess Franco muse and future wife Lina Romay, who was already an erotic film legend by the time her and Jess Franco met Erwin C. Dietrich. Dietrich also provided funding for Franco's 1975 sex comedy (MIDNIGHT PARTY) and (BARBED WIRE DOLLS), the latter a highly successful Women In Prison epic which the producer balked at when Franco showed him the result. Both of those films starred Franco muse Lina Romay, as did Dietrich's own hardcore sex epic ROLLS ROYCE BABY (1975), in which Romay plays "Lisa Romay" a model-porn actress who hits on everyone around her until deciding on having her  chauffeur (Dietrich regular Eric Falk) drive her around the countryside in search of horny hitchhikers and wanderers to seduce. If the candidates are reluctant the chauffeur simply throws them on top of his beautiful employer and drives off. The drives become a ritual and her reason for living. This is a sex positive film, meaning sex is seen as a healthy, fun exercise, without hangups in a pre AIDS age. Sex is Eros here, rather than Thanatos, as it often is in Jess Franco erotica. Elegantly composed by Andreas Demmer and featuring a delightfully upbeat score by Walter Baumgartner, ROLLS ROYCE BABY may be Dietrich's masterpiece as a director, or at least a pleasant diversion. There's only one real hardcore scene in it, but Romay lounges around totally naked, legs spread, leaving nothing to the imagination throughout. There are worse ways to spend 85 or so minutes.

Dietrich's wildest piece of exploitation was the jet fueled, blood-soaked Nazi biker sleaze fest MAD FOXES (Paul Grau, 1981),featuring Jose Gras (the macho swat team leader in Bruno Mattei's zombie epic HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD) as a young, well to do driver of a Corvette Stingray who goes on a rampage of ultra violent revenge against the swastika wearing biker gang who raped his girlfriend (Andrea Albani) and murdered his family. It is a film that needs to be seen to be believed and defines the term European Trash Cinema, a Eurotrash verion of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Eric Falk is an absolute hoot as the towering, ultra-sadistic gang member who commits some of the more heinous crimes, such as driving a pair of gardening shears into a victims face. 

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WEB OF THE SPIDER on Blu-ray

American journalist Alan Foster (Anthony Franciosa) surprises his famous countryman Edgar Allan Poe (Klaus Kinski) in the midst of an alcohol fueled recounting of his macabre tale BERENICE at a London pub sometime in the mid 1840s. The unstable author is world renowned but definitely on the downward slope, especially as played in foaming-at-the-mouth fashion by the legendary Klaus Kinski, who had already played the equally notorious Marquis de Sade in Jess Franco's JUSTINE (1969). As the night proceeds Foster questions Poe about his stories and writing methods, engaging in an intellectual debate about the mystery of Death, which Poe claims is only a transition to another state of consciousness and being. Foster disagrees, insisting that there is no life after the one dies. Poe's and his drinking friend Lord Blackwood challenge Foster to a bet that the journalist cannot emerge from a night in his remote castle, where previous guests have simply been swallowed up by the haunted structure on the first midnight in November. Foster takes the bet, at a reduced rate since he is a struggling hack journalist, and the rest is film history if you've seen Antonio Margheriti's original film version of this story DANZA MACABRA a.ka CASTLE OF BLOOD, the mood drenched, monochrome Italian Gothic masterwork the director made during a prolific burst of productivity in 1964.
Margheriti caught lighting in a jar with DANZA MACABRA, an oneiric poem of love, death and fantasy filtered through the legacy of Poe. There was no Poe story, outside of BERENICE, upon which the Sergio Corbucci and Giovanni Grimaldi script was based. But it managed to capture his tone and illustrated his most melancholy theme revolving around the death of a beautiful woman. It's a tale told by Margheriti within the matrix of shifting time frames and unreliable narrators. Some sources credit Sergio Corbucci (DJANGO), who was initially engaged to direct,  as co-director but Margheriti seems to have directed most of the scenes in the completed film in a two week shoot. The fact that Margheriti and his DoP Riccardo Pallotini shot it in high contrast black and white, staging the action in pools of light amidst bottomless blacks, give it the impression of a timeless nocturnal state where the only illumination comes from candles and torches. Visually immersing and steeped in early 19th Century detail, it's the BARRY LYNDON of black and white horror films. It's also my favorite Italian Gothic of the 1960s, just ahead of Riccardo Freda's THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK (1962), also featuring Barbara Steele. Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY, which established Steele as the central icon of Italian horror, and OPERAZIONE PAURA (KILL, BABY, KILL!) also have to factor into this equation. Marghetiti directed up to 10 features films between late 1963 and early 1965, including the colorful Gamma I Quadrilogy [WILD, WILD PLANET; PLANET ON THE PROWL; WAR OF THE PLANETS and SNOW DEVILS], in what must have been an exhausting undertaking.  DANZA MACABRA remains memorable as a ghost story, a love story, and a definitive Italian Gothic horror film. 

The fact that DANZA MACABRA was not a financial success inspired producer Giovanni Addessi and director Margheriti to attempt a Technicolor remake 6 years later. Margheriti had plans to use a special Techicolor dissolve process which would depict the sudden disappearances and appearances of the castle ghosts. This did not work out as intended, though, due to technical limitations at the time. He intended to give the visuals a psychedelic* sheen. An inspired strategy, considering that style was very much in fashion in the later 1960s and early 1970s, in music, fashion design,  films and other visual arts. The film was a German-French-Italian co-production with a noticeably healthier budget than DANZA MACABRA and featuring well known international stars such as Klaus Kinski, Anthony Franciosa and Michele Mercier (Mario Bava's BLACK SABBATH) in lead roles. 

WEB... tells the same story, featuring the same characters, utilizing much of the same dialogue as DANZA MACABRA, the main difference is in the lighting, color format and the tonal variation brought about by the different cast. American film and television actor Franciosa is almost as over-the-top as Kinski in his playing of the the haunted journalist, in stark contrast to the reserved acting of Georges Riviere in the original. French actress Michele Mercier, seems a bit old to be playing a 20-something Elizabeth Blackwood and her blond wig turns her into a kind of negative image of Barbara Steele's gaunt, haunting brunette incarnation of the character. Kinski pretty much dominates the show this time in his startling opening and closing appearances as Poe. 

The 2.35:1 Techniscope format also changes the way the tale unfolds, into a lateral rather than an in-depth space. WEB... opens out the story and gives the characters breathing space, albeit illusory, since their fates are equally sealed.  Riz Ortalani pumped up his original score this time which is in sync with the overall operatic aesthetic. The run-time of the Italian cut of the film, retitled NELLA STRETTA MORSA DEL RAGNO (In The Grip of the Spider), is 110 minutes. It doesn't add nearly 30 extra minutes of material to what is in the much shorter original, but draws out the pacing of pre existent scenes, such as the balletic demises of Elizabeth and Foster in the final scene, which is quite effective in contrast to the dispatch of the twist which ends DANZA MACABRA. One might miss those bottomless blacks of DANZA..., the black holes which seem to indicate dimensions beyond death, but Margheriti was an artist who deployed his cameras with confidence. There are sudden, delirious tilts and lapses into slow motion which indicate another realm parallel to the one in which the players are inhabiting. 

Most effective is the opening sequence, in which Poe's BERENICE is acted out by Kinski in a heavily cobwebbed crypt set which he wordlessly, desperately prowls in search of evidence of his dead beloved. The amped up music, Kinki's jagged, unpredictable movements, his unsettling stare and theater-of-cruelty mannerisms make any dialogue superfluous. He seems more Antonin Artaud than Poe. He is, indeed, in the grip of the spider. This opening, scripted in a revised screenplay by Margheriti himself and Addessi,  was one addition to the original script which works out well because it establishes a Gothic delirium without dialogue and references an actual Poe story visually rather than as something recited by the author, as in DANZA... . Actually, considering the time of its release and the cultural circumstances in Western Europe, Italy and North America, WEB... can be seen as an attempt to make a contemporary allegory of Poe's ideas floating in a new world re-imagined by the counter culture of that era. Kinski's Poe might be closer to such light and dark gurus as LSD advocate Timothy Leary or Helter Skelter programmer Charles Manson. Franciosa's skeptical journalist is the "straight" world's representative in this context, who doesn't believe in ghosts, hallucinations, drinking/drug binges. The Blackwood castle could represent the global change of consciousness which was going on in every developed country. The "straight" Foster cannot survive this All Hallows Eve, he can only join the ghosts in an endlessly repetitive past. 

The new Garagehouse presentation offers both cuts of the film, WEB OF THE SPIDER and the 110 minute Italian version, NELLA STRETTA MORSA DEL RAGNO, for comparison and contrast. Both versions look better than ever finally seen uncut, in their original Technochrome, Techniscope format. The HD restoration of WEB OF THE SPIDER, from an uncut, domestic US theatrical negative, edited for US release by foreign film post-production specialist Fima Noveck (who also supervised the US re-edit of Harry Kumel's DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS, among other imports) illustrates that he went beyond just mere pruning of scenes.  Franciosa is voiced by veteran English language dubber Ted Rusoff, a good choice. It looks clean, clear, crisp and as colorful as intended, revealing that the detailed work of set designer Ottavio Scotti is superior to the cinematography. The absence of longtime Margheriti cinematographer Riccardo Pallotini is really illustrated in HD. It's like finally seeing the film for the first time and gives one a chance to discard the numerous sub standard tape and DVD releases which have accumulated over the decades. 

The English language WEB OF THE SPIDER is sharper, more richly detailed, with resonant pastels apparent throughout, blowing away all those previous sub-par DVDS of the past in 1080p HD while the English subtitled SD presentation of NELLA STRETTA MORSA DEL RAGNO is a very welcome bonus feature. The commentary tracks include DVD-Drive-In's George Reis and filmmaker Keith Crocker conducting a lively, entertaining and informative discussion on the film's distribution history, how it differs from DANZA MACABRA, the film itself, the performances, photography and much more. A separate solo track by Stephen Romano is also included. My favorite special feature is the inclusion of a rare, vintage Super 8mm digest of the German version, DRACULA IN THE CASTLE OF TERROR, presented in two approximately 16 minute parts. The fact that this digest is in black and white and cut down into a mini-featurette only makes it a more fascinating collector's item. A deleted scene, involving a seduction by Julia (Karin Field) of the Elizabeth's lover (Raf Baldassare), which only appeared in the German version, is also included. Since this scene was neither in the US or Italian release versions it's an especially welcome addition. An art gallery of various posters, lobby cards and video boxes, along with an Antonio Margheriti trailer reel, containing vintage trailers for CASTLE OF BLOOD, LIGHTNING BOLT, THE GAMMA ONE QUARTET, CODE-NAME: WILD GEESE and other films by the director, are also included making this a fully loaded HD presentation of two versions of a film which has its own special place in cult movie and Italian Gothic cinema history. HIghly recommended.

*Margherti discusses the way his strategy to incorporate psychedelic visual effects went awry in a detailed interview by Peter Blumenstock in VIDEO WATCHDOG # 28, 1995, p.45. 
(C) Robert Monell, 2017