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Beyond the Door > Beyond the Door 2


Both quality works though.



Also, wasn't Rabid Dogs Bava's last. Or was that a different director? Or was it just released later? Otherwise, Rabid Dogs is good stuff.


Also, it took me about three tries to finally watch The Child, but was very worth it once I got through it all. One of those horror films that is probably a piece of crap, but I think there is something interesting in nearly every scene. It's like this patchwork quilt of weirdness. An absolute mess, but so much fun for these kind of stodgy oddball films.
Both Bava. Rabid Dogs came out 3 years before Shock (74 and 77 respectfully).

Service got wonky and this response wouldn’t post until it was redundant.



The trick is not minding
I would definitely make time for Black Sabbath, Kill Baby Kill and Hatchet for a Honeymoon.
Make room for Bay of Blood as well. A enthusiastic second endorsement for Kill, Baby…Kill! And Blood and Black Lace.

I also aim to watch Caltiki, Lisa and the Devil and a few of his peplum and adventure films (Knives of the Avenger, Erik the Conqueror) when I get the chance.



I've never actually watched it myself, I just remembered @ThatDarnMKS complaining about that scene when he talked about the movie earlier, so it must've been pretty bad if both of you bothered to mention it in a negative light.
I found it to be a deeply unpleasant film. Especially the "romance" between the main character and a woman who is a social worker, which includes him sleeping with one of her clients who seemed to me to be a teenager (and who the social worker refers to as a "little girl").

The entire sense of humor in the film is just Eastwood's character going all goggle-eyed at how things happen in the city and acting really confused about why the woman he's wooing is mad that he had sex with on of her clients (and also compromised that client so that she has to go back to jail on a parole violation).



I found it to be a deeply unpleasant film. Especially the "romance" between the main character and a woman who is a social worker, which includes him sleeping with one of her clients who seemed to me to be a teenager (and who the social worker refers to as a "little girl").

The entire sense of humor in the film is just Eastwood's character going all goggle-eyed at how things happen in the city and acting really confused about why the woman he's wooing is mad that he had sex with on of her clients (and also compromised that client so that she has to go back to jail on a parole violation).
Yeesh, that sounds disgusting, like the kind of movie Hollywood would never make these days (and not because of some vague notion of "political correctness", as right wingers would say, but for objectively good reasons).



Yeesh, that sounds disgusting, like the kind of movie Hollywood would never make these days (and not because of some vague notion of "political correctness", as right wingers would say, but for objectively good reasons).
It was after I'd watched the Man with No Name Trilogy, and I was like "I want to see more of this guy's movies!".

I think I watched Coogan's Bluff and The Gauntlet and was like, "Yeah, this is trash." To be fair, these were the movies we had at the video store where I worked, clearly not the top of Eastwood's filmography. It was like watching a parody of a terrible, sexist, gross 70s movie . . . only it wasn't a parody.



Yeesh, that sounds disgusting, like the kind of movie Hollywood would never make these days (and not because of some vague notion of "political correctness", as right wingers would say, but for objectively good reasons).
I like Coogan’s Bluff overall, as a test run for Dirty Harry, but I don’t disagree with Tak on all the areas it’s problematic.

I just can’t ignore the magnetic appeal that Siegel and Eastwood pairing up has on me. I do think a lot of the humor works as intended but I get the feeling Eastwood didn’t realize that it was poking as much fun at the out of touch, old timey Sheriff as it was the hippies and big city culture. Or I’m projecting to make it more palatable. Either way, Siegel shoots action well, it’s never boring, and it’s got a hell of a bar room brawl.



City of the Dead has a LOT of fog. Comparable to The Child in fogginess. Worth a watch if you like your movies nice and foggy.
I can confirm there's a lot of fog in this one. However, and this is the interesting, "let's try to break down these categories even further," the fog here is the heavy bank, gathering heavily around the ground type. The Child and, say, Baron Blood (as memory serves) or Kill, Baby... Kill!, tend to have it more evenly dispersed. I think The Keep might also fall into this category. Like, The Child has wind noise going on in the background. Something that couldn't possibly be happening City of the Dead, because that fog is too thick and still.

Side note:
WARNING: "City of the Dead" spoilers below
Partway through, I'm assuming I'm not the only person who didn't go, "wait.... Is this Psycho? Are they doing the Psycho narrative structure?"


Still, fog,



Victim of The Night
For those of you who are into cult and exploitation movies, Vinegar Syndrome has a 50% off sale this weekend, starting tomorrow. Watch out, Criterion.
I am lucky enough to have a pay-service that streams a fairly robust Vinegar Syndrome catalogue.



Victim of The Night
I can confirm there's a lot of fog in this one. However, and this is the interesting, "let's try to break down these categories even further," the fog here is the heavy bank, gathering heavily around the ground type. The Child and, say, Baron Blood (as memory serves) or Kill, Baby... Kill!, tend to have it more evenly dispersed. I think The Keep might also fall into this category. Like, The Child has wind noise going on in the background. Something that couldn't possibly be happening City of the Dead, because that fog is too thick and still.

Side note:
WARNING: "City of the Dead" spoilers below
Partway through, I'm assuming I'm not the only person who didn't go, "wait.... Is this Psycho? Are they doing the Psycho narrative structure?"


Still, fog,
I tend to favor this variety:





Fans of fog should definitely be seeking out Fulci's Conquest. There is so much there, you have to just resign yourself to peering at it billowing across the frame, and wonder what kind of movie there is going on behind it.



Fans of fog should definitely be seeking out Fulci's Conquest. There is so much there, you have to just resign yourself to peering at it billowing across the frame, and wonder what kind of movie there is going on behind it.
I don't think that's one of his best, but definitely interesting to see him apply his dreamlike style to completely different material. And yes, extremely foggy, to an extent that makes the grainy film stock redundant.



Fans of fog should definitely be seeking out Fulci's Conquest. There is so much there, you have to just resign yourself to peering at it billowing across the frame, and wonder what kind of movie there is going on behind it.
It's definitely an oddity in the sword & sandal genre. I remember not liking it as a kid but rewatched it a few years ago and it was pretty OK. Definitely a foggy film in multiple senses of the word.
__________________



I don't think that's one of his best, but definitely interesting to see him apply his dreamlike style to completely different material. And yes, extremely foggy, to an extent that makes the grainy film stock redundant.

It's definitely not one of his best. It's alright. But the fog!



Victim of The Night
Fans of fog should definitely be seeking out Fulci's Conquest. There is so much there, you have to just resign yourself to peering at it billowing across the frame, and wonder what kind of movie there is going on behind it.
Oh, I love me some Conquest.
Look! There's even fog on the poster!

(From September)

When you know going in that any “plotting” that may occur will be exceedingly dubious at best if considered for even a moment so you just abandon any such notions from the start… because there’s gonna be magic laser-arrows, a villainess who's nude for the entire film, and, sure, why not wolf-men.

I saw this film when I was young. Based on the U.S. release date, I would have been 11 years old. I thought I was even younger than that when I saw it, but that appears to be the correct date. It made an impression on me. There were blue laser arrows. There were wolf-men. And the villain(ess) was nude for the entire film. It's a little fuzzy to me how I got to see this movie, like who the hell takes an 11 year-old boy to see this, but I never forgot it.
I also never saw it again.
It was lost to memory for years but every once in a while I'd have a flash of it in my mind and remember something magical and amazing. When the internet began to be genuinely helpful maybe 15 years or so ago, I tried to find it by just spitting out search terms into Metacrawler like "laser-arrow", but had no luck. Finally the internet caught up with me and I was able to discover what it was but still waited another decade - until last night - to re-watch it. Because I didn't realize it was Fulci.

So, this is a really strange narrative and I'd have to give a decent bit away to explain why it is, but it is an unconventional narrative. On the other hand, it makes a lot more sense than most of Fulci's films. It just doesn't go down like you would expect.
A young man is given a magic bow by his father in a sort of mystical ceremony to see him off into the world to pursue his destiny of heroism. The bow will fire arrows until such time as he truly becomes a man when it will awaken and shoot laser-arrows. Which is ****ing awesome.


He very quickly comes across some evil, in the form of a bunch of bad guys who either have cool helmets or are actual wolf-men, so his quest of heroism seems to be off to a good start... until he promptly gets his ass kicked and before the nomadic fighter, Aragorn - er, Mace - saves his bacon. The two set out together, one determined to defeat evil, the other just happy to survive and not get involved against the evil Ocron, who is a sort of witch-queen with a gold mask she never takes off and, presumably, some clothes which she never puts on.


She drinks the fresh brains of attractive youthful people. Because Fulci.
From here, it seems pretty clear where this all has to go but the movie actually has some pretty strange detours as well as some fun little battles and such before it all climaxes in a way I really didn't see coming.
There's also occasionally some zombies.


Because Fulci.
So, is this movie good? I have no idea. I mean, in many ways it's bad, but as we all know, that doesn't really make a movie bad. It's a pretty low-budget Italian/Spanish/Mexican rip off of Conan The Barbarian, Clash Of The Titans, and The Beastmaster (did I mention that Mace has some weird psychic bond with animals or something), and it is true that the wolf-men kinda look ridiculous if you actually care, but hey, they're wolf men that like leap through the air at people in service to the witch-queen, which is awesome. And the run-time is definitely padded so it drags in the second act, but it's also wonderfully gory. But it really kinda comes down to how awesome early 80s, Italian, low-budget genre cinema can be in the right hands, and those hands belong to Lucio Fulci. So this movie is dreamy and kooky in all the right ways. Laser arrows? Check. Nude witch-queen? Check. Wolf-men? Check. Crazy gore? Check. Some zombies just for the hell of it? Check.
So a 37 year-old itch is scratched and Wooley is a happy man.






Corman's Premature Burial belongs in the Fog Hall of Fame.

This is the type and density of fog in City of the Dead. But in black and white. And Christopher Lee.



I saw Conquest... checking my film diary, literally in late 2012. So just under 10 years ago. I had forgotten about the fog. I remembered nearly everything else Wooley recapped. (My recollection of the henchmen were kind of vague, my memory of the nude evil that snorts the brains of attractive, young people was not (I knew it was Fulci going in, so you can't really forget anything involving brains).


Definitely one of the more unique entries in the swords and sandals genre.



For those of you who are into cult and exploitation movies, Vinegar Syndrome has a 50% off sale this weekend, starting tomorrow. Watch out, Criterion.

Grabbed these:


Dial Code Santa Claus
Fade to Black
Sugar Cookies
Tough Guys Don't Dance
New York Ninja
Anyone But My Husband / Sweet Punkin' I Love You
Ebola Syndrome


Also pre-ordered that Severin Steckler box set.


*says goodbye to life savings*



Grabbed these:


Dial Code Santa Claus
Fade to Black
Sugar Cookies
Tough Guys Don't Dance
New York Ninja
Anyone But My Husband / Sweet Punkin' I Love You
Ebola Syndrome


Also pre-ordered that Severin Steckler box set.


*says goodbye to life savings*
Huge fan of DCSC, FTB and NYN.

I quite want ES and TGDD but I think I’m gonna save up for the Criterion sale in a month or so.