It is? I always thought she was kind of too bony and really not that pretty. I know she was an horror icon in the sixties and I’ve seen a number of films starring her including the death hair but I just don’t see the fascination. She’s a fine actor but not a ‘looker’ in my book.
[quote=“Søren, post:121, topic:405”]It is? I always thought she was kind of too bony and really not that pretty. I know she was an horror icon in the sixties and I’ve seen a number of films starring her including the death hair but I just don’t see the fascination. She’s a fine actor but not a ‘looker’ in my book.[/quote]i agree but there is something about her, the eyes probably and she certainly isn’t ugly.
A small list of some of my favorite horror that I’ve enjoyed over the years.
Halloween
Halloween II
Halloween H2O
The Shining
Carrie
Suspiria
Night of the Seagulls
Sleepy Hollow
The Exorcist
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Thing
House of Usher
Whip and the Body
Phenomena
Inferno
Tombs of the Blind Dead
House of Laughing Windows
Nosferatu Phantom der Nacht
Prince of Darkness
In the Mouth of Madness
The Fog
Kill baby Kill
Black Sunday
The general concensus is that the more recent Argento films are not up to snuff but I tend to disagree. I thought Mother of Tears and Opera sucked shit but I really liked Sleepless, Phenomena and Stendhal Syndrome so not all of his newer movies are bad.
Sleepless is killer you are not alone in that opinion Colonel. It’s up there with Tenebre for me (my personal Argento favorite).
Wonder what the Rob Zombie version of Halloween 2 will be like…
If it was anything like the first one - Terrible
http://img34.imageshack.us/i/images4mt.jpg/ THE BURROWERS (2008, J.T. Petty)
Burrow – n., & v.i. & v.t. (Make or live in) hole excavated in earth, as of foxes, rabbits, etc.
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary
An unusual blend of horror and western. A family of settlers has vanished under mysterious circumstances; people think they have been abducted by Indians, so a rescue party is organized, led by a racist army colonel. I won’t say it’s a masterpiece, but it’s well-made and atmospheric and I most certainly enjoyed it. I agree with ‘man with a name’ that the western elements work better than the horror. There’s a short, sudden and violent action scene somewhere halfway the movie that is among the best I’ve seen for quite some time in ‘Indian westerns’: there’s definitely a good western in this director. I’sd say the horror elements work well as long as they’re presented in a suggestive way. The finale is far too explicit, even a bit laughable. Overall I’m a bit more positive than ‘man with a name’.
A pleasant surprise, worth a look
La Maschera del Demonio (The Mask of the Devil/Black Sunday - Mario Bava, 1960)
Thanks to a forumite (who’s in Mario Bava land right now), I could watch this movie
Apparently a breakthrough movie for both Bava and Steele, and it’s easy to see why
Beautifully shot (by Bava himself) in a sober but warm black & white, very atmospheric and still quite eery, with some remarkably graphic scenes (especially the ‘mask’ scene).
I guess Bava’s cinematography was inspired by German expressionist movies; he, in turn, must have influenced the Hammer movies.
Steele is very convincing, both as the witch/vampire and as the virgin, but I don’t find her very atttractive (there was some discussion about this here): her eyes are too big and too far apart. A bit of an alien face, so to speak (they always are portrayed with gigantic eyes, far far apart)
Well, Hammer had already begun making its Gothic horror films before this, in the Fifties. They hit the ground running in terms of photography with their first Frankenstein and Dracula films (still probably the best of their entries in those series).
However, The Mask of Satan is a visual triumph, building on Bava’s work in I Vampiri and Caltiki.
As for Barbara Steele, she’s certainly not… conventionally attractive, but her unusual, cadaverous bone structure and protruding eyes make her ideal for Gothic horror. She can look possessed or terrified at the flick of an eyebrow.
[quote=“scherpschutter, post:128, topic:405”]La Maschera del Demonio (The Mask of the Devil/Black Sunday - Mario Bava, 1960)
Thanks to a forumite (who’s in Mario Bava land right now), I could watch this movie
Apparently a breakthrough movie for both Bava and Steele, and it’s easy to see why
Beautifully shot (by Bava himself) in a sober but warm black & white, very atmospheric and still quite eery, with some remarkably graphic scenes (especially the ‘mask’ scene).
I guess Bava’s cinematography was inspired by German expressionist movies; he, in turn, must have influenced the Hammer movies.
Steele is very convincing, both as the witch/vampire and as the virgin, but I don’t find her very atttractive (there was some discussion about this here): her eyes are too big and too far apart. A bit of an alien face, so to speak (they always are portrayed with gigantic eyes, far far apart)[/quote]It certainly is ,beautifully shot and film is still effective today. my second favourite Bava film after Black Sabbath, and Black Sunday is proberly Bava’s most well known film. I have it on Mario Bava boxset vol 1 and it is a sumptious print. a horror classic.
I am a big Mario Bava fan and Black Sunday is one of my favorites. It was the first Bava movie I saw and was hooked ever since. It is similar in style to the Gothic movies of Hammer films without being a copycat.
You’re right about this, of course
But it’s still not impossible that some of the later Hammer movies were influenced by this Bava classic
I read it was banned in the UK until '68
Now I know film makers do everything to see a banned movie, especially when they’re in the same business (horror in this case). And it looks so damn good it’s hard to image a film maker who has seen it, would not be influenced by it. Some scenes strongly reminded me of scenes in films like Dracula has risen from the grave, Scars of Dracula or, for that matter, Frankenstein must be destroyed (the crazy professor, the young assistent, the towns people going mad etc.). Maybe those things were in the air.
[url]http://img121.imageshack.us/i/obsession11.jpg/[/url] [size=2]OBSESSION[/size] (Brian de Palma, 1976)
![http://img121.imageshack.us/i/obsession11.jpg/[/url]](http://img121.imageshack.us/i/obsession11.jpg/%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
I’m not sure if this is a horror movie, but it sure feels like one
I always had a soft spot for this De Palma movie, and not only for the fantastic use of the Florence locations. It’s such a nice combination of thriller, horror, romance and God knows what else. Inspired by Vertigo, but I’d say it holds its own quite well. In fact it never feels like a rip-off. I guess of the two Vertigo is the better movie, but I love this one more. I always thought Vertigo was a bit of a cold achievement, Obsession is a warm movie.
Along with Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t look Now, this is probably the nicest ‘vision’ of a foreign director on one of the great Italian città d’arte.
KILL, BABY, KILL (Operazione Paura/Mario Bava, 1966)
Beautifully looking, atmospheric, often sexy. Even though the story is more captivating in this movie, I found it less fascinating then Bava’s La Maschera del Demonio I watched a few weeks ago. What I didn’t like, was Bavo’s preference for odd camera angles (low, high): if you do this all the time, those shots become distracting.
Rossi-Stuart was somewhat flaccid in the lead, but Erica Blank (and her legs in particular) made up for that. Great scenes with the hands and the face of the little girl against the window. The film must have been quite influential. I read (on one of the written extras) that Bava made another movie that served as a model for Friday the 13th, but the outlines of the story (the mother, the dead child etc.) can already be traced here. The film also brought some moments of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies (the singing girl in the swing, for example), but maybe they found their inspiration somewhere else.
I didn’t understand one particular scene: Rossi-Stuart chasing a ghost/shadow/man who turns out to have his (Rossi-Stuart’s) face. Is this scene related to the spiral stairs scene? The spiral stairs recall a sea-shell, and in this sense they could serve as a metaphor: what people hear and see in this movie, is a projection of their own fears, so not only the old woman is calling the spirit of her dead child back to life, all characters are.
Will try to find some Spanish Horror films.
[quote=“scherpschutter, post:134, topic:405”]KILL, BABY, KILL (Operazione Paura/Mario Bava, 1966)
Beautifully looking, atmospheric, often sexy. Even though the story is more captivating in this movie, I found it less fascinating then Bava’s La Maschera del Demonio I watched a few weeks ago. What I didn’t like, was Bavo’s preference for odd camera angles (low, high): if you do this all the time, those shots become distracting.
Rossi-Stuart was somewhat flaccid in the lead, but Erica Blank (and her legs in particular) made up for that. Great scenes with the hands and the face of the little girl against the window. The film must have been quite influential. I read (on one of the written extras) that Bava made another movie that served as a model for Friday the 13th, but the outlines of the story (the mother, the dead child etc.) can already be traced here. The film also brought some moments of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies (the singing girl in the swing, for example), but maybe they found their inspiration somewhere else.
I didn’t understand one particular scene: Rossi-Stuart chasing a ghost/shadow/man who turns out to have his (Rossi-Stuart’s) face. Is this scene related to the spiral stairs scene? The spiral stairs recall a sea-shell, and in this sense they could serve as a metaphor: what people hear and see in this movie, is a projection of their own fears, so not only the old woman is calling the spirit of her dead child back to life, all characters are.[/quote]
I must say I don’t fully understand the meaning of the ‘chasing himself’ scene but it doesn’t really matter. I like it anyway. And the little girl’s face, hands, laughter at the window is for me it’s best device. A great example of how something simple and non explicit can evoke such a great atmosphere and tension. That’s what I want in a horror movie and Bava shows exactly how it should be done here.
It’s probably not meant to be ‘logical’ or ‘rational’ in every sense, but I had the idea the ‘chasing himself scene’ defenitely was supposed to mean something, and I couldn’t help asking myself what exactly.
Yes, the hands, face, laughter, that’s exactly how things should be done. The girl made me shiver a few times.
Maybe those odd angles are used to make the town look bigger. I just rewatched a few scenes on my PC and noticed that the effect of some of the low and high camera positions, is that the buildings (and more in general the sets) look bigger.
Kill Baby Kill is my favorite Bava movie, and definitely one of my favorite horror movies of all time. The ghostly girl with the ball part has influenced alot of J-horror and hollywood pictures I think. The grotesque looking bald headed doll also adds a creepy touch. There is also a lovecraftian touch with the strange town and its unwelcoming inhabitants with a dark secret.
Btw, did anybody else laugh at the seemingly odd couple of the burgomeister and the town witch? LOL
was wondering if anyone could help me out with a comparison between the Shriek Show and AWE releases of Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals ?
From what I’ve seen they’re both uncut and anamorphic 1.85:1, was mainly wondering if there’s anything better about one of the two releases, primarily picture quality
xploited has the AWE on sale for 14.95 and hkflix has the Shriek Show for 14.95
I have just recently got hold of Hammer’s “The Devil-Ship Pirates” and I was wondering if it was any good or not? What are your opinions of it?