Opera (1987)

Starring Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleston

107 mins; Not Rated; DVD

This review refers to the R1 Anchor Bay edition of Opera

The above-mentioned post-Phenomena hiatus for Argento is marred by one very notable exception - a very grisly take on the Macbeth opera curse. Marsillach stars as Betty, a young operatta who scores a role in the dreaded Macbeth play after her predecessor was hit by a car. Of course, there can be no Argento film without a deranged psychopath; this time, it is one of Betty's demented fans who ties her up, tapes needles under her eyes so they can't be closed, and makes her watch as the killer slaughters those around her. Some pretty inexplicable plot twists occur (like Betty not reporting her capture to police!) before finally the killer is apprehended in a show-stopping finale.

Opera is among my favourite Argento films (after the spectacular Deep Red) and showcases some of the director's nastiest violence. Again, this is a case of long-on-style, short-on-brain and, if you want to get the most out of Opera, watch it leaving logic at the door and with zero expectations for the actors. Generally, the acting is pretty awful but this is made up by the outstanding style - unachievable-looking camera angles, slo-mo bullets to the head and a devestating close-up of a knife going through the base of a man's throat. Italian horror cinema has always had an obsession with eye trauma (The Beyond, Zombie et al) but Argento takes it to a new extreme - crows peck them out, they are shot, stabbed, maimed and poked, all in gory detail. The ending divided Argento's fans and is admittedly pretty ridiculous, but, with Argento at the helm, the weirdness is hardly unsurprising. This is no Deep Red, but the visual beauty and operatic gore makes it among Argento's best work. 8/10

Last House on the Left (1974)
Directed by Wes Craven
Starring David Hess, Sandra Cassell, Lucy Grantham
84 mins; R18+; DVD


Goth/punk muso Lydia Lunch refers to it as the best American film ever made while prominent US critics call it one of the most perverse, disgusting and morally abhorrent films ever made. While neither extreme is close to the truth, Last House on the Left is one of the few films that divide audiences so sharply. And you can see why.

Two teenage girls Mari and Phyllis – one a hippy, the other a repressed youth born to a religious, upper-middle-class family – go out on the town and stumble upon a marijuana den. They get high in the company of four deranged convicts led by the completely unhinged Krug (Hess). The girls are kidnapped and taken into scrubland, where they are humiliated, tortured, raped and finally murdered. After their car breaks down, the four come across a small house - Mari’s. Her parents take their daughter’s killers in and, when they find out their heinous crimes, they plot violent retribution.

Last House’s director Wes Craven is something of an auteur in the horror genre. Craven has no fewer than four masterpieces to his name (Last House, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream). This is rare in horror directors; maestros such as Carpenter, Hooper and Romero have created one or two genre-defining films apiece, but their filmographies are marred by embarrassing failures. All four occupants of the upper echelons of Craven’s work have moulded the horror genre into what it is today. Last House created a sub-genre in itself – the rape-and-revenge film. Although it has never been emulated as well as Craven’s 1974 original, the rape-and-revenge film was very prolific in the seventies and eighties, particularly within the Italian exploitation circuit; the country’s prodigious output of R&R shockers includes Night Train Murders and Ruggero Deodato’s House on the Edge of the Park, which shared all of the brutality of Last House but little of its intelligence (and had Hess do Krug redux). Last House is not an especially explicit film, especially when watched alongside its Italian prodigies, however it is its cinema verite feel that makes it so shocking – handheld camera work, sympathetic characters and some cunningly executed scenes of gore make it a harrowing piece of horror cinema. The comic relief scenes are corny, though not as gratuitous as critics would have you believe; and David Hess’ makes the tension bearable. Hess makes a great villain and Krug is truly a mongrel – it’s a shame that the actor’s horror performances have been restricted to this and Italian rip-offs, because he could have really expanded his repertoire in the genre. Australia’s cult and horror best-friends Umbrella have released a great DVD of Last House, with a number of excellent special features but, more relevantly, the uncut version that has been banned in Australia for twenty five years (the UK version is still truncated of over one minute). Highly recommended, and should be considered a genre classic alongside Night of the Living Dead and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. 9/10




Friday the 13th (1980)
Directed by Sean S Cunningham
Starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Kevin Bacon
92 mins; MA15+; DVD/VHS

Whatever process of cinematic evolution elevated Friday the 13th to run-of-the-mill exploitation flick to a definitive, classic horror film is inexplicable however the industry impact of the film cannot be ignored; to date, it has spawned ten sequels and Jason Voorhees, a horror icon that has gained notoriety alongside Freddy Krueger and Leatherface.

Directed by Sean S Cunningham (the producer of Craven’s Last Hosue on the Left), the film opens on a summer camp on the idyllic Crystal Lake, where we see two counsellors becoming somewhat amorous. They are about to get to it when we approach them from the point-of-view of the killer (whom they both know), who dispatches them in bloody style. Fast-forward a decade or two, and a new set of young, virile counsellors are set for a weekend at Camp Crystal Lake to prepare for the children who are set to arrive. And then the killing begins.

Friday the 13th is one of the definitive slasher films and, along with Halloween (1978), helped give birth to the phenomenally successful genre. It’s clear that the latter is a better film, but which had a more profound impact on the horror industry is arguable – certainly Halloween laid the groundwork, but Friday the 13th went full-tilt boogie and its theme of sex-charged teens being brutally murdered had the punters coming back for more. Jason Voorhees is also a more known cinematic bad guy than Halloween’s Michael Myers – few couldn’t identify the machete-wielding, hockey mask wearing freak as the bad guy of the Friday films and one of the icons of the horror genre. Generally poorly acted (as most horror films of this era are), the true proof of Friday the 13th’s quality is in the eating – for a franchise to continue over a time-span of twenty four years (with an eleventh sequel in the works), at least some credence must be given to the original. Personally, Friday the 13th is a very guilty pleasure and among my favourite horror movies. With its frequent show of female nudity (a very, very gratuitous strip poker scene), voyeuristic and gruesome killing scenes (teens becoming machete-fodder) and some genuine scares, Friday the 13th has all the ingredients that make the horror genre great. 9/10

Beyond the Darkness (1979)
Directed by Joe D’Amato
Starring Kieran Kanter, Cinzia Monreale, Franca Stoppi
91 mins; 16+ [Dutch rating]; DVD

Note: The review refers to the R2 Dutch version of Beyond the Darkness, which is one of the few uncut releases of the film

Joe D’Amato. Italian exploitation merchant. Pornographer. Creator of such classics as Porno Holocaust. You’d call me a liar if I told you the legendary D’Amato (who supposedly made movies only to make money) was a talented horror director with his films Anthropophagus and Beyond the Darkness, two additions to the Italian exploitation cycle that are among the sub-genre’s better entries. Sure, the primary contributor to the Emmanuelle series is not the most likely horror auteur, but his masterpiece Beyond the Darkness will put the sceptics in their place.

When Frank (who also happens to be a deranged taxidermist) lives in a massive house nestled in bushland with his equally unhinged housekeeper Iris (Stoppi) and sick fiancé. When his girlfriend dies, Mark promptly digs her up, disembowels and stuffs her and leaves her in his bed, with the help of Iris. The duo (who share a D’Amato-esque dysfunctional relationship) lure women to the mansion for an acid bath and the primary ingredient in Iris’s stews. No one is suspicious except Frank's late fiancé’s father.

This sleazy Italo-exploitation entry is classic D’Amato – there are themes of cannibalism, necrophilia and all-round deviance (although the sex themes are surprisingly mild). The violence can get pretty nasty, though Beyond the Darkness is not quite as retch-inducing as some would make you think – there are some very realistic scenes, though, and the aforementioned disembowelment was long considered to be performed on a real cadaver (you’d have hard time thinking otherwise). D’Amato’s stuff is almost entirely unreleased in Australia (which may have something to do with X18+ being unable to have any violence whatsoever), despite the US, UK and Netherlands actually having a series of DVD known as The Joe D’Amato Collection. Beyond the Darkness has also been targeted, though today it would easily make an MA15+ rating. The best bet for a DVD of Beyond the Darkness is the English-sound tracked Dutch version, distributed by Japan Shock. The release is scant on special features (there is a slide show, filmography and liner notes), however the video and sound transfer is top-notch. By most accounts, the US Shriek Show version should be avoided. Reports of a cut Australian VHS copy exist. How much you want to seek this one out depends entirely on how much you can appreciate Italian exploitation – from the gore to the sleaze, to the inept acting and subpar direction. I was surprised by its quality as a film in the fields of acting (especially Stoppi, who plays an utter psychopath), music (by Argento’s house band Goblin) and direction, so it comes with a wholehearted recommendation from me. 7/10