GIALLO IN VENICE - BLU-RAY REVIEW

How do you follow-up the wild excesses of Andrea Bianchi’s sordid Gothic soap opera MALABIMBA (1979)? Returning producer Gabriele Crisanti definitely gave it a try when he decided to bankroll Mario Landi’s GIALLO IN VENICE, an overtly sadistic and dingy giallo, which turned out to be one of the more notorious entries the genre has to offer. Most viewers caught up with this film via shoddy grey-market bootlegs, but now, thanks to Scorpion Releasing, this once-difficult-to-see film finally makes its North American Blu-ray debut, and – for lack of a better word – it looks superb.

Even before the credits roll, a man is repeatedly stabbed in the gut while a woman drowns in one of the Floating City’s many canals. Through the efforts of Inspector De Pol (American ex-pat Jeff Blynn), the deceased pair in question at the outset turn out to be Flavia (Leonora Fani) and Fabio (Gianni Dei), a married couple whose sexual proclivities were always centered around Fabio’s penchant for voyeurism and rough sex, albeit much to Flavia’s chagrin. With the help of her friend Marzia (Maria Angela Giordano), Insp. De Pol continues gathering info on the couple’s shady past, but, complicating matters still further, a rather cagey fellow (Michele Renzullo) in mirrored sunglasses continues to terrorize Venice…

Despite the in-your-face title and its vicious mean-streak, Mario Landi’s GIALLO IN VENICE does, at times, almost appear to be a parody of the genre as it gleefully (and gratuitously) wallows in many of its clichés and excesses, but with none of the style or mystery that made these films popular in the first place. As with Mario Gariazzo’s squalid PLAY MOTEL (1979), another sexually explicit, lowly giallo– which even had hardcore inserts added for some theatrical bookings – Landi’s film doesn’t quite go all the way in its depiction of graphic sex. However, unlike PLAY MOTEL’s rather tepid murders, which almost seemed like afterthoughts, while depicting his killings in GIV, Landi doesn’t hold back anything at all. Although perfunctory in their execution, the kill scenes remain some of the most gruesomely graphic to be found in the genre; including a jarring crotch-stabbing (which Crisanti and Landi managed to top the following year in PATRICK STILL LIVES [1980]!), plus a prolonged, and quite harrowing, dismemberment. On the other hand, much of the film also seems to be poking fun at the genre as represented by Inspector De Pol, an inquisitive, shaggy-haired detective dressed in a casual sport coat and baggy white pants whose penchant for eating hardboiled eggs must be some sort of joking reference to all those hardened, jaded film noir detectives of yesteryear. At one point, De Pol questions Flavia’s ex-boyfriend Bruno (discount spaghetti western star Vassili Karamesinis), a fumetti artist whose misogynist artwork greatly interests the police, as it prominently features scissors, one of the killer’s preferred murder weapons, but as Bruno smugly points out, “Sometimes reality exceeds fantasy”. And is it just a mere coincidence that both Flavia and Marzia prominently wear yellow dresses in a couple of key scenes? Subtlety is definitely not one of the film’s – nor producer Crisanti’s – strongpoints, but it’s this lack of restraint that makes it stand out from the norm. 

Largely-seen on VHS through one of the film’s initial home video appearances on Star Video, a Swiss-based company that specialized in Italian language films, GIALLO IN VENICE began to make the rounds in VHS trading circles throughout the ’90s via bootleg copies in either un-subtitled or subtitled editions and, although dubbed from Star Video’s tape or the longer Greek videotape, these second-or third-generation dupes of a poor, cropped transfer of an already dreary-looking film left plenty to be desired. 

In 2016, Germany’s X-Rated Kult released GIALLO IN VENICE as part of their “X-Rated Eurocult Collection” series of flashy Mediabooks. Numbered 26, this Limited Edition Blu-ray / DVD combo went OOP very quickly, but in early 2017 as part of their “X-Rated Italo-Giallo-Series”, they revisited the film and packaged it in one of their familiar oversized hardboxes in multiple-cover editions. Presented in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio, X-Rated’s Blu-ray looks excellent, and although it does feature some brief instances of dirt and scratches, it appears that some very slight digital manipulation may have been performed. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 is offered in both German and Italian, the latter of which is presented with English subtitles, which is obviously the preferred option. For the record, extras include an audio commentary with film historian Kai Naumann as well as on-camera interviews with German voice talent Vera Bunk (10m01s) and Nicolai Tegeler (12m50s), all of which are in German language only. Other extras include an “audiotrack” suite (5m37s) featuring Berto Pisano’s languid, pieced-together music; the logo for Stefano Film (18s), which were the film’s original distributor; and trailers for Enzo Milioni’s THE SISTER OF URSULA (1978) and Francesco Barilli’s THE PERFUME OFTHE LADY IN BLACK (1974). 

For its North American Blu-ray, Scorpion Releasing prepared a (quote) “Brand new 2018 HD scan with extensive color correction here in the U.S.”, which appears to be the same film print as X-Rated’s release, so it also contains some speckling and such, but unlike the X-Rated edition, it appears a tad sharper here, plus doesn’t have any sort of digital tweaking at all; anyone even remotely familiar with all those dreadful bootlegs will quickly realize just what an eye-opener Scorpion’s new disc is. Audio is provided by an Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track with (quote) “proper English subtitle translation”, which differs slightly (for the better) from X-Rated’s disc. The most substantial extra included with Scorpion’s new Blu-ray is an audio commentary with So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films author Troy Howarth, who approaches the project with a good deal of exuberance, all the while taking proverbial swigs of J&B Scotch throughout. He immediately points out that GIALLO IN VENICE is (quote) “many things, but DEEP RED [D: Dario Argento, 1975] it ain’t!”, and even though he has plenty to say, he most certainly doesn’t defend the film but instead discusses many of its (quote) “extreme situations” and just how (quote) “grubby and tasteless”, the entire endeavour is, which is precisely why it has endured over the years. Some of the other topics discussed include De Pol’s head-scratching infatuation with hard-boiled eggs (which infuriates Troy!); the film’s haphazard script; the dubious porno giallo subgenre; the various edits of the film over the years; as well as many of the actors and technicians who worked on the film. A triptych of trailers for Lucio Fulci’s THE PSYCHIC (1977), THE GATES OF HELL (1980) and MURDEROCK (1983), as well as Dario Argento’s OPERA (1987) and Alberto Negrin’s ENIGMA ROSSO (1978), finish off the extras.

At this point, the initial 1000 print run of GIALLO IN VENICE (which includes reversible cover art, a nicely-rendered but appropriately lurid slipcover featuring artwork by Devon Whitehead, and a bonus poster) has already sold out via Ronin Flix, but Scorpion Releasing have already arranged to print an additional 500 units, which should be available via Ronin Flix and DiabolikDVD in the near future, so keep checking their sites. 

ENTER THE DEVIL - BLU-RAY REVIEW

Prior to its 1996 VHS release from Something Weird Video as part of Frank Henenlotter’s essential “Sexy Shockers from the Vault” series, Frank Q. Dobbs’ regional rarity ENTER THE DEVIL (1972) could have almost been construed as a lost film. While not to be confused with Mario Gariazzo’s THE EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW (a.k.a. THE SEXORCIST, 1974), which was also released in the U.S. as ENTER THE DEVIL, Dobbs’ film was never even mentioned in such early iconic publications as Michael Weldon’s Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film (1983, Ballantine Books) or Phil Hardy’s Aurum Film Encyclopedia Volume 3: Horror (1985, Aurum Press). While SWV’s transfer was a perfectly serviceable edition of the film, Massacre Video have decided to give this atmospheric sleeper the full red carpet treatment, including a brand new 2K transfer, which thankfully never sacrifices the film’s original dusty, gritty veneer. 

Driving through the barren Texan desert, an amateur rockhounding enthusiast (Happy Shahan), becomes the victim of a devil-worshipping cult, which in turn precipitates a missing person investigation by the Sheriff of Brewster County (John Martin). Since there can be (quote) “No open cases on election day”, the Sheriff assigns Jase (David Cass), one of his best State troopers, to look into this mysterious disappearance in Big Bend Country, which leads him to Villa de la Mina, a remote hunting lodge run by Glenn (Josh Bryant) and his rather guarded Mexican workforce. As Jase conducts his investigation, not only does he find the skeletal remains of the missing man, but one of Glenn’s visiting hunting group also goes missing. Then, in a late development, Dr. Leslie Culvert (Irene Kelly) inadvertently joins the investigation as she researches (quote) “weird cults” and deduces that these strange disappearances may be attributed to a fanatical portion of The Penitentes, a centuries-old fraternal brotherhood still operating in the Texan desert. 

Also known as  DISCIPLES OF DEATH, this is a surprisingly effective horror movie grounded in a reality that is not usually seen in such low-budget affairs, right down to some of its peripheral characters, such the politically-minded sheriff, or even the concerned doctor (Carle Bensen), who simply want to (quote) “keep the slate clean” and gain a few more votes in the upcoming election. Although centered around a secretive cult that perform ritualistic human sacrifices, the film never comes across as overly far-fetched, and although some of the rituals do appear a tad cliché (i.e., members wearing hooded robes, carrying torches and chanting incessantly), they remain wholly effective in their straightforward approach; a central sequence is particularly gruesome when a young women is nailed to a stake and burned alive. Also adding immensely to the film are the vast desert locales and abandoned mercury mines, which are stark and inhospitable; the scenes at night are especially unnerving and, in one of the film’s best realized sequences, Jase ventures out into the desert at night, culminating in a highly unexpected twist. 

Released as a ‘Limited Collector’s Edition’ Blu-ray / DVD combo, this minor, almost-forgotten film looks very impressive here thanks to the efforts of Massacre Video. Detail gets a massive improvement over SWV’s scratchy DVD-R, which features a nicely nuanced transfer, highlighting not only the foreboding, arid landscapes, but the film’s numerous nocturnal rituals as well; colours are also stable and naturalistic, and many of the film’s nighttime sojourns into the desert reveal much more detail than previous versions on offer. Presented in its assumed theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, Massacre Video’s 16x9 enhanced Blu-ray does mask some image information from both the top and bottom of the frame when compared to SWV’s open-matte transfer, but at the same time, it also offers a fair amount of the picture on each side of the frame as well, and is far better compositionally by eliminating so much extraneous headroom. The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio also sounds fine considering the film’s low-budget nature while adding further prominence to Sam Douglas’ first-rate score. SDH subtitles are also provided.

Extras begin with Disciple of Death (11m29s), an on-camera interview with actor David Cass, who discusses some of his early film roles and his association with “The Duke” himself, John Wayne; plus the Texas film scene at the time and his lifelong friendship with filmmaker Frank Q. Dobbs, whom he describes as a (quote) “consummate movie man”. Of course, he also goes on to discuss his time working on ENTER THE DEVIL and the contributions of producer and DoP, Michael F. Cusack. In Video Nasty Scholar (5m40s), which is an excerpt taken from Marc Morris’ and Jake West’s exhaustive, follow-up documentary VIDEO NASTIES THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE: PART 2 (2014), author and film historian Kim Newman discusses the film and its silly inclusion in the U.K.’s so-called “Video Nasties” furor. In an added surprise, in trying to pack as many extras as possible onto their disc, Massacre Video have also included Dobb’s follow-up film, THE CALIFORNIA CONNECTION (a.k.a. THE EROTIC ADVENTURES OF PETER GALORE, 1973), a rather ho-hum early adult feature starring Rick Cassidy as Peter Galore, who attempts to rescue a kidnapped girl (Shari Kay) from the clutches of a cartoonish villain and his gaggle of women holed-up in a desert getaway. Taken from a (quote) “uncut PAL VHS rip”, picture quality is, for the most part, quite poor, but it makes for a welcome and curious extra just the same, and don’t forget to ‘stay tuned’ after the credits for a rather unexpected trailer.  A stills gallery (1m39s) and a couple of trailers for some of Massacre Video’s upcoming releases finish off the extras. As with their earlier ‘Limited Collector’s Edition’ Blu-ray of Jag Mundhra’s HACK-O-LANTERN (1988), the first pressing of ENTER THE DEVIL also includes a variation of the film’s rather striking artwork as a limited O-Card. Order your copy from DiabolikDVD, and for you Canadian readers, visit Suspect Video.

WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? - BLU-RAY REVIEW

Although more commonly associated with the so-called “Schoolgirls in Peril” giallo trilogy, which also included Massimo Dallamano’s WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE (1971) and Alberto Negrin’s THE RED RINGS OF FEAR (a.k.a. TRAUMA, 1976), which Dallamano co-wrote, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? was also the third film in Roberto Infascelli’s loosely-related “Polizia” trilogy for Primex Italiana, which was preceded by both Steno (a.k.a. Stefano Vanzina)’s FROM THE POLICE… WITH THANKS (a.k.a. EXECUTION SQUAD, 1971) and Infascelli’s RANSOM! THE POLICE ARE WATCHING (1973), a pair of trailblazing polizieschi, which helped redefine and popularize Italocrime films during the ’70s.  Thanks to Arrow Video's Blu-ray,  this polizia/giallo hybrid finally receives its long-awaited home video release in North America.

A 15-year-old girl named Silvia Polvesi (Sherry Buchanan) is found hanging in the attic of a dodgy sublet, the victim of an apparent suicide, as is deduced by Inspector Valentini (Mario Adorf). However, Assistant District Attorney Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli) thinks otherwise, and her suspicions are further substantiated by the autopsy results. This precipitates the arrival of seasoned homicide detective Silvestri (Claudio Cassinelli), who, quite conveniently, just happens to catch a man snapping photos from across the street during his initial investigation of the crime scene.  However, it turns out that this (quote) “damn peeping tom”, one Bruno Paglia (Franco Fabrizi), also happened to snap some revealing photos of the recently late Silvia in the company of a young man, whom the police quickly track down, only the lead goes nowhere, as their sneaky suspect proves to have a rock-solid alibi.  The slimy Paglia is eventually released thanks to his resourceful lawyer, but the police receive another tip-off, which leads them to a secret (if deserted) high-end brothel which proves to have possibly been the scene of still another murder when they discover its bathroom awash in blood.  A few days later, an abandoned car is found containing the mutilated corpse of Tallenti (“Now we know who was cut-up in the bathroom”), a private investigator who had earlier been hired by Silvia’s parents (Farley Granger and Marina Berti) to provide them with surveillance of her clandestine activities. Then Tallenti’s girlfriend Rosa is stalked by a killer clad in black motorcycle leathers and a matching dark-visored helmet (the German title translates as “Death Wears Black Leather”), who is searching for missing audio tapes which expose an underage prostitution ring that could quite possibly implicate some very powerful people…

Released by NMD Films in 1980 as The CO-ED MURDERS stateside where, by that time it was clearly trying to grab a share of the slasher-movie craze, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? has always tried to capitalize on the more lurid or ‘horrific’ elements within its basic framework including a couple of vicious murders and a prototypical stalking sequence recalling any number of gialli, but, upon closer scrutiny, it displays many more characteristics to that of a poliziesco.  As the increasingly frustrated commissario (“It’s your methods I disagree with!”), Claudio Cassinelli is determined to solve the case, but is saddled with issues which are emblematic of virtually all other Italocrime efforts as he receives “pressure from the ministry” or even from the press, the latter of which he at one point uses to his advantage. Considering the bleak subject matter, the cynical conclusion is also indicative of the genre, which involves “names that can’t be touched”, an aspect which draws still more attention to, not only the corrupt bureaucrats of the time (or pretty much any other time, too), but of an entire country poised on the brink of implosion.  Featuring all the usual genre tropes – including an extended car-and-motorcycle chase – the film is at its most-effective (and chillingly disturbing, even to this day) whilst Silvestri and Stori listen to graphic reel-to-reel audio tapes of the girls consorting with their so-called “johns”.  Depicted utilizing deep-focus in a single long static shot showing the tape reels spinning in the foreground while Cassinelli and Ralli are seen standing in the background, Dallamano lets this scene play-out quietly as their characters react with gradually mounting disgust, exchanging not a single word; all amounting to an extremely powerful and utterly devastating sequence. As is described in “Eternal Melody”, one of the disc’s many extras, Stelvio Cipriani composed the main theme of the film as a sort of “lullaby” – intended to accentuate the “vulnerability” of the female victims – a piece which, after viewing this powerful scene, adds further resonance to Cipriani’s incredible and unforgettable score.  

Elsewhere, the film makes direct references to the gialli with its cleaver-wielding, bike-riding killer, who is presented as an almost unstoppable force, and succeeds on numerous occasions in completely eluding the police.  It’s an interesting character: a faceless fusion of the classic giallo-inspired black-clad killer with a purse-snatching delinquent zipping around on a motorcycle. Yet he too is revealed to not be of any great significance within the plot; merely small-fry among a much larger and far more powerful group of ‘untouchable’ bigger fish.  Although THE RED RINGS OF FEAR is a loosely-connected follow-up of sorts (indeed, almost a partial remake, in some respects), the popularity of WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? also spawned an unofficial rip-off a year later; Mario Caiano’s WITHOUT TRACE (a.k.a. CALLING ALL SQUAD CARS, 1975), which not only nicks the underage prostitution ring idea, but also casts Luciana Paluzzi opposite tough-guy commissario Antonio Sabàto. 

In 2016, those ever-reliable perfectionists at Camera Obscura were the first to debut the film on Blu-ray. Labeled number 20 in  their long-running, and indispensable, Italian Genre Collection, this is yet again another high quality release that puts all former versions to shame.  Previous VHS and DVD versions were either incomplete or not presented in their proper aspect ratios, and always appeared rather drab and lifeless, so CO’s Region B disc is a real sight for sore eyes.  Taken from the original Italian camera negative, the film’s presentation is absolutely first-rate without resorting to any unnecessary digital manipulation whatsoever, resulting in a perfectly natural picture.  The DTS-HD Mono 2.0 soundtrack is also available in either Italian, German or English, and all sound very good, but the English one is, in this editor’s humble opinion, the best, and it also preserves much of the English voice-talent like Susan Spafford, Michael Forest, Pat Starke and Tony La Penna, to name a few.  

This 2-disc set – which is spread over one Blu-ray for the main feature and one DVD for additional extras – also includes a number of revealing supplements, which begins with an audio commentary (subtitled in English) from Dr. Marcus Stiglegger, and is this time joined by German filmmaker Dominik Graf, who go on to discuss most of the principal actors in the film, it’s strong connection to the poliziesco genre, plus many other interesting facts.  One of the more bizarre – and certainly eye-opening! – extras on the first disc includes some heretofore-unseen and unused sex footage, including some non-simulated activity; which, in all honesty, wouldn’t really add anything to the film at all, but it’s an interesting extra nonetheless. However, the most significant extra (on disc two), is the aforementioned “Eternal Melody”, a 47-minute interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani, who discusses the bulk of his career, including his humble beginnings as an accomplished pianist (he actually sits in front of his piano and occasionally plays some of his more memorable work herein); his initial meeting with Tomas Milian, which led to his very first score, for the fine spaghetti western The BOUNTY KILLER (a.k.a. The UGLY ONES, 1966); and how he’s inspired and interprets the classical works of Mozart, Debussy or Bach into many of his scores.  Produced by Freak-O-Rama, it’s an amazing overview of the maestro’s career, and makes for a stellar featurette.  Next up, editor Antonio Siciliano discusses his work in “Dallamano’s Touch”, another Freak-O-Rama production, which focuses on his long working relationship with Dallamano following the success of WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO SOLANGE? and his surprise over the additional sex footage, which he is shown during the interview.  As usual, an informative booklet of liner notes with writing from Kai Naumann is also included, while German, English and Italian trailers, as well as a thorough poster/still gallery finish off the extras.  

Following their impressive 2015 Blu-ray of  WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE?, Arrow Video brings Dallamano’s sequel-of-sorts to Blu-ray in what is the film’s first-ever legitimate home video release in the U.S.A. and Canada. Utilizing the same 2K restoration courtesy of Camera Obscura, the transfer looks identical in terms of PQ, and as revealed above, it's a revelation for anyone that has had to suffer through innumerable bootlegs and so-so releases over the years. In terms of audio, Arrow provides both English and Italian tracks in LPCM mono, and both sound excellent, without any issues whatsoever. Respectively, English SDH subtitles and properly-translated English subtitles are also provided. 

Locandina courtesy of Peter Jilmstad and Steve Fenton.

Thankfully, for anyone without Region B capabilities, Arrow’s Region A Blu-ray carries-over the essential Freak-O-Rama productions “Eternal Melody” and “Dallamano’s Touch,” and it also includes the “Unused Hardcore Footage”, but all-new to this edition is an audio commentary from film historian and author Troy Howarth, who goes on to discuss many of the film’s merits and how it straddles the line between the giallo film and the then-burgeoning poliziotteschi, which at the time were beginning to gain in popularity at the Italian box office. He goes on to discuss many of the film’s excellent performances, which are given (quote) “more depth” than usual and how Cassinelli (quotes) “anchors” the film, and just what a (quote) “remarkably well-made movie” it is, which makes some of the film’s more exploitable moments that much more (quote) “unsettling”. Of course, he also goes on to discuss the film’s (quote) “dynamic sounding music”, which remains one of Cipriani’s best scores, even though much of it is nicked from earlier films, such as RANSOM! THE POLICE ARE WATCHING; it’s a great, easy listen full of interesting details, and well worth your time. Also new to this edition is Master & Slave – Power, Corruption and Decadence in the Cinema of Massimo Dallamano (19m44s), an audio essay from author and editor-in-chief of Diabolique magazine, Kat Ellinger. In it, she discusses Dallamano’s career at length and how he was (quote) “a director who was driven as an auteur and a pusher of boundaries”, which includes numerous clips, trailers and stills from just about his entire career with an emphasis on both SOLANGE and DAUGHTERS and the (quote) “tumultuous cultural climate” they were made in. It’s another wonderful supplement that will make you want to explore Dallamano’s career with a far keener eye; he was far from merely a work-for-hire director. Rounding-out the extras is the film’s English-language credit sequence, a poster/still gallery and the film’s Italian-language trailer (with English subtitles). In the first pressing, a 23-page booklet includes a well-researched – and nicely-illustrated – essay from Michael Mackenzie, and, of course, Arrow Video also provide a reversible sleeve, including original eye-popping art from Adam Rabalais. Both the Camera Obscura and Arrow Video editions are available to order from DiabolikDVD, while Canadian readers can order the Arrow Video Blu-ray domestically from Suspect Video. Whichever edition you choose, both are absolutely stellar, and a must-own!

OASIS OF THE LOST GIRLS - DVD REVIEW

Although most widely-known for producing a number of films for Jess Franco, including classics such as THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF (1962), ‘on the side’ (so to speak) the spirited if notoriously cut-price French production company Eurociné (owned and operated by Marius Lesœur [1911-2003]) also dabbled in whatever exploitable genre happened to be profitable at any given time; a business model which resulted in a number of unforgettably tawdry productions, such as Patrice Rhomm’s ELSA FRAULEIN SS (a.k.a. FRAULEIN DEVIL [1977]) and Jean Rollin’s & Julián Esteban’snow-(in)famous nudie horror ZOMBIE LAKE (1980). At other times, out of pure necessity to try and get as many films out into the marketplace as possible on a constant basis, while cutting as many corners as they could in the process, Eurociné at times also, in true Frankensteinian fashion, stitched-together whole chunks of pre-existing films with newly-shot and/or redubbed footage: the kind of cinematic schizophrenia of which “John O’Hara” / a.k.a. José Jara’s OASIS OF THE LOST GIRLS (1981) is such a prime – if that’s the proper word to use! – example. 

Taking cues from Eurociné’s earlier, equally cobbled-together Pierre Chevalier film HOUSE OF CRUEL DOLLS (a.k.a. THE HOUSE OF THE LOST DOLLS, 1974), OASIS likewise employs the same tried-and-trusted ‘white slavery’ template to provide the, um, thrust of its narrative. This time round, young women from around the world are routinely drugged, abducted and shipped-out to a remote brothel (quote) “somewhere down in Africa” known as The House of the Lost Oasis. At the outset, Annie (Françoise Blanchard from Jean Rollin’s THE LIVING DEAD GIRL [1982]) and her friend are picked up by a couple of guys at a local nightclub to be sold off to white slavers, whose henchman (Eurociné stock-player Yul Sanders / a.k.a. Claude Boisson) is assured they are (quote) “Real top-quality goods…They’re real bangerinos!” Following a long, drawn-out voyage during which the girls are repeatedly taken advantage of (a sequence utilizing footage from THOTLD and that film’s makeshift cargo hold), they eventually arrive at their destination, where they are greeted by the house’s stern warden-type disciplinarian (Shirley Night), who looks like she just stepped out of a Jess Franco prison film. 

Upon slowing-down considerably thereafter, the slack action goes on to reveal many of the kidnapped girls (semi-clad in no more than skimpy undies or see-thru nighties!) recollecting how it was they somehow got mixed-up in all of this, a plot device which conveniently allows the filmmakers to further pad things out with reams of recycled footage culled from the Eurociné archives. When Nadine (Nadine Pascale) – one of The Oasis’ numerous nubile captives – reminiscences about her nightclub act back in Las Palmas, those cheeky folks at Eurociné brazenly insert she and Lina Romay’s entire kinky striptease from Jess Franco’s TWO FEMALE SPIES IN FLOWERED PANTIES (1980). And not only that, but in order to add further fetishistic fervor to the proceedings, Nadine’s prolonged torture at the hands of Irina (Joëlle Le Quément) and Mr. Forbes (Yul Sanders yet again!) from said film is also ‘smoothly’ worked into the script.  

Rather jarringly introduced late into the episodic, disjointed narrative is an extended subplot involving Interpol agents Arturo and Roland (the latter of whom is played by Jack Taylor using still more recycled-and-redubbed material, this time from Gianpaolo Callegari’s sub-Bondian Eurospyer AGENT SIGMA 3: MISSION GOLDWATHER [1967]). The pair of operatives are trying to infiltrate the white slavers’ prolific kidnapping ring, much as in Chevalier’s aforementioned THE HOUSE OF THE LOST DOLLS, which also supplanted it’s running time with elements of Callegari’s antiquated spy yarn. In OASIS, a number of unconvincing ‘doubles’ are seen and disembodied voices coming from off-screen are heard, intended to sub for the by-then-long-since-absent Taylor in many of the film’s newly-shot scenes; even AGENT SIGMA 3’s sultry femme fatale Catherine (Silvia Solar) is also reworked herein, with her now becoming the boss of the white slavery operation!

Unbelievably slipshod and cut-rate across the board, OASIS OF THE LOST GIRLS does endeavour to inject at least some semblance of coherence into its flimsy plot with all of its hastily slapped-together, redubbed and mismatched footage. Lacking any sort of polish whatsoever, this patchwork creation’s main reason-for-being is of course its scenes showing bare flesh, which is ladled-on plentifully in Jara’s ‘all-new’ material (flatly-shot in quickie setups by Eurociné’s in-house ‘go-to’ DP, Raymond Heil). All of this is further offset by THOTLD’s other sleazy sequences. When not being shipped inside large straw baskets like produce to market, the girls are periodically stripped, groped and raped (“No! Stop pawing me!”) in a number of sordid – if awfully amateurish – sequences wherein nothing much else transpires (real lowest-common-denominator fare, this! But Eurociné fans know what to expect in advance). Typical of such slapdash movies, there is also a lot of back-and-forth between these more commercially-viable aspects and the much older and less-exploitable ‘retrofitted’ material from AS3: MG, which boasted higher production values and far spunkier pacing but lacks the sleazy punch of the newer material. Attentive viewers should also listen out for the pilfered score, which features both Daniel J. White’s languid opening track from ZOMBIE LAKE and Jean-Jacques Lemêtre’s cheerful (albeit wholly inappropriate) ditty from Alain Deruelle’s CANNIBAL TERROR (1980).

Released stateside onto Hispanic home video in the ’90s as EL OASIS DE LAS CHICAS PERDIDAS courtesy of Spanish-language home video specialists Million Dollar Home Video (MDHV) as part of their Caliente sub-label, this Eurocinépatchwork effort made its digital era debut in 2002 via Germany’s X-Rated Kult outfit. Released under the similar-sounding OASE DER GEFANGENEN FRAUEN (trans: “The Oasis of Imprisoned Women”), picture quality was decent for the time, although it was presented in a flat 1.66:1 aspect ratio and only featured German audio. Given that Charles Band’s now-iconic VHS imprint Wizard Video introduced many a Eurociné film to unsuspecting U.S. viewers back in the ’80s, it’s actually quite fitting, and most welcome indeed, that Band’s Full Moon has decided to dig deep into the Eurocinévault yet again with this release. Sporting the on-screen title of FILLES PERDUES (trans: Lost Girls), OASIS OF THE LOST GIRLS comes to DVD in an excellent 16x9 transfer retaining the film’s original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but given its erratic nature and the various film stocks used (some of which differ by 14 years!), the picture quality naturally fluctuates wildly amid all this casually-mismatched footage. While it sounds fine for the most part, the English audio track option also points to the film’s rather-too-hasty post-production, and is at times, somewhat inaudible. Alas, no extras are included other than trailers for some of Full Moon’s other product. 

Given the film’s zero budget, Eurocinédoes (however miraculously!) manage to put together something approximating a real movie here, and no matter how boneheaded it may be, it should appeal to the more adventurously open-minded - or just plain masochistic- cineaste. Order it from Full Moon Direct or Amazon.

THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS - BLU-RAY REVIEW

Reviewed by Steve Fenton.

Translation of an Italian newspaper ad (from La Stampa, 9/73): “The boldest and Most Violent Film of the Last 10 Years… The Vigorous and Continuous Battle of the Police Against a Corrupt Society and the Merciless Violence of the Underworld.” U.S. tagline: “One Man Against the Syndicate – Within the Law or Without!”

Insp. Viviani (Silvano Tranquilli): “There is one and only one way to break down violence: use it all the more!”

Unidentified crook: “It’s painful to die and painless to be dead.”

Corruption is once again rotting the onion layers of law enforcement in yet another caustic ’70s Italian ‘hate the State’ scenario inspired by “Steno” / Stefano Vanzina’s prototypical polizia procedural drama EXECUTION SQUAD (1972) and a then-recent real-life case concerning the assassination of the Milanese chief of police. Director Sergio Martino (whose big brother Luciano functioned as producer hereon, as he did on all of Sergio’s crime actioners) is generally more widely regarded for his high-end giallo thrillers rather than for more straight-ahead  polizieschi such as this. As the present film so ably illustrates, however, he was certainly no slouch at that latter type of fare either; here aided and abetted in commission of the crime by some of the principal behind-camera talent often associated with Umberto Lenzi, which is by no means a bad thing. (Luciano Martino’s Dania Film imprint not only produced THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS, but also a number of Lenzi crimeslimers, including a pair of Tomas Milian vehicles, ALMOST HUMAN [1974] and THE CYNIC, THE RAT AND THE FIST [1977]. Seasoned scripter Ernesto Gastaldi not only penned the screenplays to all three of those titles just cited, but those for many more prime Italo exploitation movies besides, of all the standard commercial genres. Also employed on all three was editor Eugenio Alabiso, whose skillful cutting helped add extra oomph to many a spaghetti action flick, perhaps some of his finest work falling within the urban crime genre, wherein the dynamics of fast-moving vehicles and human bodies were crucial components. Here, as in many of the genre’s other best offerings, the various stunt cars’ frenetic autobatics frequently steal top acting honors from the human stars.)

Convicted criminals are in the process of being transported to Luca federal prison via train. One of (quote) “three harmless punks” – including the seldom-harmless Luciano Rossi and Antonio “Nino” Casale (hereon billed under the alias “Anthony Vernon”), typecast genre scumbags both! – slaughter their guards. This pair of felons, Gerardi and Gastaldi (the latter’s name quite possibly a playful in-joke in regards to aforementioned screenwriter Ernesto), then escape from custody while their partner is killed. To gain possession of his car, the two surviving fugitives murder a slow-witted motorist (Francesco Narducci) and his seven-year-old daughter (Susanna Melandri), then go to ground in surrounding woodland. Quick to the scene of the manhunt is hotshot Homicide detective Lieutenant Giorgio Caneparo (Luc Merenda, dubbed into English by Mike Forest), who takes the law into his own hands and ‘executes’ the scum even as they are attempting to surrender. For this serious breach in conduct, as authorized by Questore Nicastro (Carlo Alighiero), loose cannon Lt. Caneparo (“You shot those men out of vengeance, not out of a sense of duty!”) is handed a temporary suspension from the force by Inspector Viviani (Silvano Tranquilli, who became a veritable fixture of the genre in such ‘disapproving superior officer’ parts, including in “Franco Martinelli”/Marino Girolami’s textbook example VIOLENT ROME [1975], co-starring Italocrime top gun Maurizio Merli).

When his beloved friend, mentor and all-too-frequent apologist Captain Gianni del Buono (Chris Avram) is gunned-down cold by a ‘random’ passerby in the street, the entire force is mobilized to apprehend his hit-and-run killer. Now working under-the-table and off-the-record, Caneparo insinuates his way into the confidence of pool shark / mob boss Padullo, alias “Mr. Billiards” (the ever-cool-and-suave Richard Conte, an Italo-American actor who appeared in about as many [usually upscale] Italian crime flicks as he did Hollywood film noir classics). After his latest failed bank-job ends in an auto wreck, Padullo hires Caneparo to be his new wheelman (“I hear you’re pretty good with a car?”). The courageous ex-cop proceeds to delve ever deeper into the criminal underworld, ultimately unearthing a fanatical anarchist group – connected to a certain publishing magnate, name of Mr. Salluzzolia – which hopes to precipitate social disorder so it can then usurp control in the chaos and “rebuild” society in its own image atop the rubble of the old status quo (hmmm, now where have we heard that one before?!).

While infiltrating the shadowy world of malavita, Merenda (I’ll cut ya up so bad you’ll wish that mirrors weren’t invented!”) poses as a hustler, a protection racketeer, a pimp and a car thief (who hot-wires a vintage Rolls Royce), and his smirkily self-assured role here seems rather like an early, less-broadly-comic run-through for his ‘master of disguises’ conman in Fernando Di Leo’s NICK THE STING (1976), a comedic crime caper which, as per its title, attempted to cash-in on you-know-what. In THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS, Merenda’s such a superstud he convinves a hooker to pay him. Further romantic interest is provided by dollishly pretty French actress Martine Brochard as a free-spirited (i.e., junked-up) hippy “ex-student, ex-model”, enigmatically named Maria X (“If you would like to screw me, this is where I’m screwed!”). Mandatory balls-to-the-wall pool-hall brawl (“You know where we shove a cue up guys like you?!”) erupts at Conte’s dive. After Merenda tactically misuses his stick over a bad guy’s skull, Conte advises, “That’s no way ta treat a billiard cue!” Conte’s part here is a substantial one. Not only does he get plentiful lines, which he dubs himself (e.g., “I’m just a small cog in a very big wheel”), but Conte – or rather, his highly-dissimilar slimmer and younger stunt double – engages in no less than two spirited fistfights with Merenda (“Don’t crap-out, ya rat!”). Merenda and Conte interact onscreen with great chemistry here, and they subsequently co-starred in another exemplary poliziottesco, Di Leo’s balls-out SHOOT FIRST, DIE LATER (1974). In TVP, after Merenda as Caneparo’s unofficial deep-cover trolling-’n’-moling results in some substantial busts being made, the formerly disgraced cop is duly reinstated onto the force by Tranquilli as Insp. Viviani; the event is cheerfully celebrated by the pair over glasses of scotch whiskey…J&B brand, natch!

Fotobusta courtesy of The Fentonian Institute.

Typecast genre lowlife Bruno Corazzari (“…I’ll take this Sten and turn ya head into a hole!”) plays Carl, a big-talking, trigger-happy terrorist whose indiscriminate machinegun targets include an expectant mother (“She was pregnant, YA BASTARD!!!”). Some of the excellently-staged auto stunt footage – including an incidental car crashing through a handily-placed heap of burning cardboard boxes – subsequently turned-up in other films (e.g., certain Lenzi / Milian entries). Elsewhere, beginning with a pair of parked Polizia Giulias getting blowed-up real good by robbers’ lobbed hand grenades, a bankjob-gone-awry leads into the high-speed chase of the baddies’ Citroën sedan by a couple more cop cars. This ends with the, um, ‘getaway’ car – complete with an innocent female passerby who was snatched as a hostage – flipping every which way multiple times before sliding on its side (in stylish slo-mo) to a sudden halt against a tree-trunk. Thanks to the at-times-exaggerated dubbing track, the modestly-hung Merenda’s 9mm Walther P-38 semi-automatic sounds like a scud missile going off when it discharges! Brimming with the casually-dropped names of contemporaneous political and pop-cultural figures, the dubbing track at times sounds like some sort of surreal word-association game being played by a bunch of semi-conscious people on Quaaludes, and this is one of the film’s greatest liabilities, even if it does at times provide us with unintentional (?) laughs; watching an original Italian print with subs would be a preferable option. When our hunky hero (albeit in a different language and in another man’s voice) mouthed the immortal line “Think I’ll cut out. Seems I’m in the wrong dream,” it strangely reminded me of a rock lyric from the psychedelic era, like he was quoting from an actual song; indeed, a goodly part of the Anglicized dialogue seems better-suited to the 1960s than the 1970s. Though, being as this film was a product of the early ’70s (a mere half-decade-or-so on from the so-called “Summer of Love”), some sociocultural ‘spillover’ is to be expected, I suppose.

The U.K.’s Monthly Film Bulletin (Verina Glaessner, 2/75) wrote: “THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS seems to confirm the existence of a recent burst of overly rightist filmmaking in Italy. An obvious derivation of Don Siegel’s DIRTY HARRY, it lacks both the stylistic coherence and the obsessiveness of its model… What saves all this from absolute grimness is the casting of Luc Merenda in the Eastwood role – an actor of such comic-strip woodenness that the script cannot refrain from dubbing him Prince Valiant and Captain Marvel…” Leonard Maltin’s Movie andVideo Guide off-handedly described the film as a “Mezza-mezza Italian action flick… Violent indeed.”

Repeat offender Giancarlo Ferrando’s cinematography is fittingly melancholy and saturated with police-blues and prison-greys, a classical palette which further dates and authenticates this prime Italocrime potboiler as one of the genre’s finest offerings. Adding further interest, the supporting cast includes a whole horde of players that were familiar from the then-still-ongoing-if-starting-to-flounder Spaghetti Western cycle and the only-just-beginning mid-to-late ’70s Italocrime craze (these include carrot-topped curly-surly-burly Claudio Ruffini [who plays one of Conte’s gormless goons], Luciano Bartoli, Lia Tanzi, Steffen Zacharias, Bruno Boschetti, Sergio Serafini, Luciano Rossi, Carla Mancini, Ezio Sancrotti, Tom Felleghy and Riccardo Petrazzi). Merenda returned to star as different characters – if essentially much the same character under different names – in Sergio and Luciano Martino’s next two top-tier crime flicks: GAMBLING CITY (1974), co-starring Enrico Maria Salerno and the super-sultry Dayle Haddon (retitled THE CHEATERS, said film was released on domestic North American Beta/VHS tape back in 1986 by Prism Entertainment); as well as SILENT ACTION (1975), co-starring Tomas Milian, with Mel Ferrer this time appearing in the ‘name brand’ American guest star slot. The productive Martino Bros.’ fourth and final collaborative genre outing – the ‘hybrid’ giallo-poliziesco THE SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR (a.k.a. TOO YOUNG TO DIE, 1975) – also featured Ferrer, this time with the ill-fated / short-lived Claudio Cassinelli as the justice-driven cop protagonist rather than Merenda.

Locandina courtesy of Peter Jilmstad and Steve Fenton.

As for the present film under review, THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS was released theatrically in the U.S. via Scotia-American in 1975, going on to become one of the numerous Italocrime films that were inconspicuously put out on home video across the globe in the early-to-mid-1980s, although it was one of the only relatively few to secure a domestic North American tape release. The Las Vegas-based label Paragon Video actually released this particular title twice onto VHS in both ’85 and ’86 in, respectively, a regular slipcase and a ‘big box’ edition. The latter version featured some real cheap – and highly misleading! – cover art, which made it look like some sort of innocuous thriller or cheap horror film. Of course, Ferrando’s spaciously-framed scope compositions were completely ruined on these full-frame / pan-and-scan VHS dupes, resulting in an inordinate amount of not-always intentional ‘close-ups’ caused by severe cropping of the image. During the digital versatile disc era, the first release to hit the streets was Wild East Productions’ 2002 DVD, that reinstated the film’s original 2.35:1 widescreen image, which unfortunately wasn’t 16x9-enhanced, but for the time was a substantial upgrade in every respect. A couple of years later, Italy’s Alan Young Pictures released a quite handsome 2-disc set that also included Umberto Lenzi’s notorious Tomas Milian star vehicle ALMOST HUMAN (1974), in a far better version which featured a solid 16x9 transfer of the film and included both Italian and English language options. Alas, THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS was subsequently rereleased stateside a number of times in cheap multipacks (often in widescreen editions, at least), which were no doubt crappy bootlegs of the initial Wild East release. 

Peeling-out and laying rubber hot on the tracks of their outstanding recent Blu of ALMOST HUMAN, Code Red (CR) have now also given Martino’s film some well-deserved respect via their new Blu-ray. Officially licensed from Italy’s Variety Communications, their new HD scan features a far more stable and well-defined picture than anything else released before it, and although it does comprise a far more colourful palette, the gritty Milanese surroundings still look appropriately authentic, with lots of urban browns and greys. The DTS-HD MA mono audio track is also nicely balanced, which not only highlights all the screeching tires and gunshots, but Guido and Maurizio De Angelis’ absolutely incredible score as well. CR have also chosen to include both the English and Italian language tracks, and even though English subtitles are included, these were merely transcribed verbatim directly from the English-dubbed audio track. Still, most viewers will undoubtedly choose the first audio option, which features much of the customary Italo exploitation cinema voice talent of the time.

The sparse extras includes a U.S. trailer for the film (“For those that would defy the law, there is no escape! The only way out is DEATH!”), as well as trailers for both ALMOST HUMAN  (under its alternate U.S. title, THE DEATH DEALER) and Anthony M. Dawson’s Philippines-posing-as-Vietnam combat actioner THE LAST HUNTER (1980), which is also currently distributed on disc by Code Red. Order THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS Blu-ray via Amazon, DiabolikDVD or Suspect Video.

SHOCKING DARK - BLU-RAY REVIEW

Watching Bruno Mattei’s SHOCKING DARK (1989) now, it becomes quite obvious it’s one of those endearingly inept ‘bad films’ that hasn’t garnered nearly the same fanfare as say, something along the lines of Claudio Fragasso’s TROLL 2 ([1990] Fragasso also penned the script for SD), which is most likely attributable to the film’s general unavailability for years outside the grey market. Well now, thanks to Severin Films, SHOCKING DARK is making its worldwide Blu-ray and DVD debut in a brand-new, eye-popping transfer and, in spite of its many hackneyed attributes, it remains a must-see for trash-film fans, especially of the Euro variety. 

After an opening showing typical travelogue footage of Venice, Italy, we learn that the city’s water has – as is told through some laidback and nonsensical narration – become (quote) “putrid” and created a “giant toxic cloud”(?!?), which has engulfed this once-prosperous, history-steeped tourist destination. In the ‘future’ year of 2000, Venice is declared a (quote) “dead city”, and many of its last inhabitants are evacuated, but beneath the city’s labyrinthine network of tunnels, a research facility has been set up by the Tubular Corporation in order to try and purify the waters. However, something has slaughtered most of the researchers, so a crack team of marines – who are hilariously referred to as the Megaforce ([!] shades of the kitschy Hal Needham sci-fi actioner of the same name from 1982) – along with scientist Sara Drumball (Haven Tyler) and Samuel Fuller (?!? [Cristopher Ahrens]), an ex-marine now representing the Tubular Corporation, are sent in to try and rescue them.

Bravely released in some territories as TERMINATOR 2, this utterly shameless rip-off of James Cameron’s THE TERMINATOR (1984) and ALIENS (1986), is so upfront with its plagiarism that, even for an opportunistic director such as Bruno Mattei, it is utterly mind-boggling, even more-so than his earlier – and equally shameless – PREDATOR (1987) rip-off, ROBOWAR (1988). The general set-up, entire sequences and even characters from ALIENS are copied almost verbatim with some of the most wooden, stilted actors ever seen in any Italian exploitation film. While most Italian films were usually dubbed into English by a talented – and familiar – group of voice artists, SHOCKING DARK is actually shot with sync sound, flubbed lines and all, which lends the film an even cheaper quality than usual. ’80s Italian trash-film regular Geretta Geretta (who also starred in Mattei’s RATS: NIGHTS OF TERROR [1984] as ‘Chocolate’) has the most fun here as a fast-talking, bigoted marine named Koster. Her character is a distaff blend of ALIENS’ Hudson and Apone (as played by Bill Paxton and Al Matthews, respectively), and she gets to mouth some of the film’s best lines (“Alright, ya bunch of pussies! I’m back and I’m kickin’ ass!” or “What you greaseballs eat to make yer shit smell like that?!”), while Fausto Lombardi (Geretta’s co-star in RATS) is Franzini, the sole Italian grunt, who is also the recipient of many off-colour remarks (e.g., “Wopface!”) courtesy of Koster. 

Shot in and around Italy’s oldest and – still-functioning - power plant, Mattei gets the most out of this terrific location, which tries to emulate the harsh, industrial look of ALIENS on a 100^thof that film’s total budget, and actually does so quite admirably. Although, Francesco and Gaetano Paolucci’s creature effects leave a lot to be desired and are a far cry from H.R. Giger’s original designs, but at least Mattei had the foresight to keep their screen time relatively limited or obscured with smoke and plentiful shotgun blasts. Anyone even remotely familiar with James Cameron’s highly influential film has already seen most of SHOCKING DARK, but in a bizarre, unexpected twist, scriptwriters Fragasso and Rossella Drudi (Fragasso’s wife, who goes uncredited for her efforts here) decided to incorporate that other Cameron film in a completely ‘out-there’ last act that just about redeems many of the film’s faults. As awful as it is, it really is an unforgettable experience!

Never released on U.S. or Canadian Beta/VHS videocassette, SHOCKING DARK first flabbergasted many viewers via Caution’s Japanese VHS tape, which was retitled ALIENNATORS and housed a nice, letterboxed print in English with customary Japanese subtitles. Scanned in 2K from (quote) “the director’s cut negative”, Severin’s new Blu-ray looks terrific in spite of the film’s low-budget nature, which also retains the more spacious and better-balanced 1.85:1 framing as opposed to the Japanese VHS, which had a 1.66:1 aspect ratio; and while Severin’s new transfer is not perfect, marred by some occasional dirt and debris, it looks pretty spectacular just the same, especially during many of the film’s more darkly-lit scenes, which were a tad problematic on the old Japanese tape, especially with all those rather troublesome diffusion effects. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 English track also sounds fine, but be aware at 29m20s, as the sound here is poorly-recorded and gets pretty faint for a few seconds. Unbelievably, Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks in Italian, German, Spanish and Chinese are also included, as are closed captions for the hard of hearing.

Once again Severin have included a number of unique extras, beginning with Terminator in Venice (13m14s), another on-camera interview with Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi where they discuss the foreign markets and their hunger for product, plus how they were (quote) “commissioned” to write SD. They also go on to discuss the film’s original concept about (quote) “alien spaceships landing in the Venice lagoon”; the hilarious CHiPs-styled wardrobe of the marines; and the (quote) “shameless” producers. In Once Upon a Time in Italy (12m44s), Geretta Geretta talks about her time working with and landing a part in Susan Sidelman’s SMITHEREENS (1982) and her eventual migration to Italy in the early ’80s for modelling assignments, which led to an extended acting career working with such admired directors as Lamberto Bava, Bruno Mattei, and even Lucio Fulci, whom she was initially warned to be cautious with (“Don’t talk back, mind your manners and do what you’re told!”), but goes on to say what a pleasure he was to work with. Other extras include the alternate Italian TERMINATOR 2 opening credits and the Japanese video trailer, titled ALIENNATORS (“A ferocious, indestructible, ruthless Terminator!”).

Undeterred by his lack of budget or anything resembling an iota of originality, Bruno Mattei has, in spite of everything, still managed to produce one of his most audacious and irresistible copycat films yet, which you’ll want to revisit, perhaps even more than twice! And if you’re feeling particularly courageous, why not set-up a double bill with Mattei’s ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING (2007 – also available from Severin’s subsidiary, Intervision), which pilfers the ALIENS storyline yet again! Severin Films are currently offering “The Zombie Dark Super Deluxe Bundle”, “The Zombie Dark Deluxe Bundle”, “The Zombie Dark Blu-ray Bundle”, the Blu-ray (including one with a very limited and controversial slipcover) and DVD for pre-order. It’s also available for pre-order from DiabolikDVD, or for you Canadian readers, Suspect Video.