As I work my way through my favorite October movies of all-time for my 50th Halloween, I come to one of the more recent additions to this list from just a few years ago. I think I first saw it about 12 years ago and I really enjoyed it but it took another 10 years of seasoning on me for it to become a favorite. Even so, I thought maybe this was at the very fringe of the list and could easily get bumped by a number of movies, but alas, it did not and I'm glad it didn't.
A number of people seem to also be watching this recently so I won't spend much time on plot.
Tickets are being mysteriously distributed to the premier of a movie no one's ever heard of at a theater no one remembers ever existing before. And as the events on the screen begin to be mirrored in the audience members, the theater begins to fill up with Demons while the patrons find the doors inexplicably walled-up and no escape in sight.
Probably you shouldn't just accept tickets from this guy:
Wow, right away this movie reminds me why I like Euro 80s so much. There is just nothing ever like it, I always enjoyed the American and English music-videos and films influenced and by it I sure do love the real thing.
The vision, the design aesthetic of this film is just so far up my ass it really doesn’t matter what actually “happens” in this movie.
I mean, one of the things that I love is that I think these Italian Horror force me to engage with the film in such a different way than I would an American or English or even Australian film that everything feels fresh and exciting. It's a rip-roaring good time from the moment Rosemary puts on the mask (above) and when she - and pretty much everyone else - turns into a Demon...
... it could very well be the end of the World.
It is amusing how you just have to get to that point where you can overlook the dubbing and whether the dialogue is even what was intended because it sure is horrible and all to really enjoy these great Italian Horror movies, but jesus does this movie look good and grip you so hard with its aesthetic and its attack (visually, narratively, musically) that I almost feel like it’s canon.