The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974)
Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Starring Peter Cushing & Julia Ege
85 mins; M; Colour
Previewed Release: R4 Warner Bros
Tagline: It’s fist vs fang in Dracula’s kung fu showdown!
Country of Origin: UK/Hong Kong
The Film:
In the 1960s and seventies, two independent, foreign film house
s had a stranglehold on the exploitation genre – to the East, it was the Shaw Bros, who primarily filmed kung-fu pictures, but deviated into the drama, period, horror and adult genres. Then there was Hammer, a UK distributing house that produced horror with a gothic twist. The two are chalk-and-cheese, so you can be forgiven for having reservations about this film. But push them aside, because this is one of the coolest movies you’re likely to see for a long time.
The film begins in the 1800s when a Chinese peasant travels to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula (sadly, no Christopher Lee) and try to convince him to come to his Chinese province in order to resurrect the seven golden vampires. Count Drac takes the peasant’s form with a whoosh of his black cape and a devilishly sinister mua-ha-ha. Fast-forward a century, and, by amazing coincidence, Professor Van Helsing (Cushing) is lecturing about vampirism in a university in the same Chinese province. When one of his students approaches him and tells him of the dubious Drac’s plan, Helsing is at first apprehensive. However, the vampire killer is soon convinced when the student emerges to be a kung-fu champion, and member of a willing-and-able fighting team.
With generally good special effects, ample female nudity and kung-fu chaos, Legend has pretty much everything you could ever want in a film. When it lags, it’s brain-numbingly dull but thankfully these moments are few and far between. Issued in the US in the seventies as The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula with over ten minutes cut, it is surprising that this film got off with an M rating, and its violence is harder than what would generally appear in a Hammer or Shaw Bros film. Vampire throat bitings, sword impalements and female slaughter with sexual overtones, Legend borders on exploitation in parts, which is a testament to the era it was made.
The Release:
Presented in 2:40:1 aspect ratio, Legend has been treated to an excellent video transfer, with a few artifacts. Certainly above average for a film that’s over thirty years old. Audio comes in English, French and German 1.0 and is good in most part. The extras situation is fairly pathetic, with not even a theatrical trailer.
The Bottom Line:
What a kick-ass movie – the stuff that, if put to celluloid today, would mean financial suicide for everyone involved. There’s no way a kung-fu/vampire/exploitation flick would be green-lit today, and that is what makes up some of Legend’s appeal. While it may lack solid scares or scenes of gore, this is undoubtedly an outrageous and devilishly entertaining picture. Bolstered by good audio/visuals, this comes highly recommended.
Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Starring Peter Cushing & Julia Ege
85 mins; M; Colour
Previewed Release: R4 Warner Bros
Tagline: It’s fist vs fang in Dracula’s kung fu showdown!
Country of Origin: UK/Hong Kong
The Film:
In the 1960s and seventies, two independent, foreign film house
s had a stranglehold on the exploitation genre – to the East, it was the Shaw Bros, who primarily filmed kung-fu pictures, but deviated into the drama, period, horror and adult genres. Then there was Hammer, a UK distributing house that produced horror with a gothic twist. The two are chalk-and-cheese, so you can be forgiven for having reservations about this film. But push them aside, because this is one of the coolest movies you’re likely to see for a long time.The film begins in the 1800s when a Chinese peasant travels to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula (sadly, no Christopher Lee) and try to convince him to come to his Chinese province in order to resurrect the seven golden vampires. Count Drac takes the peasant’s form with a whoosh of his black cape and a devilishly sinister mua-ha-ha. Fast-forward a century, and, by amazing coincidence, Professor Van Helsing (Cushing) is lecturing about vampirism in a university in the same Chinese province. When one of his students approaches him and tells him of the dubious Drac’s plan, Helsing is at first apprehensive. However, the vampire killer is soon convinced when the student emerges to be a kung-fu champion, and member of a willing-and-able fighting team.
With generally good special effects, ample female nudity and kung-fu chaos, Legend has pretty much everything you could ever want in a film. When it lags, it’s brain-numbingly dull but thankfully these moments are few and far between. Issued in the US in the seventies as The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula with over ten minutes cut, it is surprising that this film got off with an M rating, and its violence is harder than what would generally appear in a Hammer or Shaw Bros film. Vampire throat bitings, sword impalements and female slaughter with sexual overtones, Legend borders on exploitation in parts, which is a testament to the era it was made.
The Release:
Presented in 2:40:1 aspect ratio, Legend has been treated to an excellent video transfer, with a few artifacts. Certainly above average for a film that’s over thirty years old. Audio comes in English, French and German 1.0 and is good in most part. The extras situation is fairly pathetic, with not even a theatrical trailer.
The Bottom Line:
What a kick-ass movie – the stuff that, if put to celluloid today, would mean financial suicide for everyone involved. There’s no way a kung-fu/vampire/exploitation flick would be green-lit today, and that is what makes up some of Legend’s appeal. While it may lack solid scares or scenes of gore, this is undoubtedly an outrageous and devilishly entertaining picture. Bolstered by good audio/visuals, this comes highly recommended.
House by the Cemetery (1981)
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring Katherine MacColl, Paulo Malco
87 mins; Not Rated; Colour
Previewed Release: R0 Anchor Bay
Tagline: Beware the demon forces of the…blood beasts!
Country of Origin: Italy
The Film:
As a filmmaker, Lucio Fulci could best be described as a ‘censor-baite
r’. Having stirred the pot with Zombie (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters) and City of the Living Dead, the notorious and occasionally brilliant Italo-exploitation director submitted House by the Cemetery, which proved to be something of a heartache. Banned initially in Australia, it debuted on VHS in cut form and, to this day, has no DVD release. The Brits didn’t take a liking to it either and it was deprived of 33 seconds of ‘detailed violence against women’ upon reclassification in 2001. Unfortunately, House by the Cemetery fails to live up to the hype, and is shadowed by Fulci’s bigger, nastier entries into the horror genre.
Cemetery begins nastily enough when a young couple staying at a mysterious house are brutally murdered by someone (or something) in a pre-credits sequence. We fast-forward to the new occupants of the house, the Boyles – dad Norman (Malco), mum Lucy (MacColl) and little Bob. Norman, a Professor, is out to discover what happened to his friend, who killed his mistress and then himself under mysterious circumstances. Despite protests from Bob (who encounters a mysterious girl telling him not to go into the house) and his wife’s increasingly bizzare hallucinations, Norman continues with his work unwittingly. As the plot unravels, the sinister past of the titular location is revealed, and its late owner Dr Freudstein may not be so dead after all…
Perhaps it was all this talk of ‘banning’ and ‘truncated footage’ that produced high expectations, but while Cemetery can be good fun, it isn’t consistent enough to make for a fulfilling evening’s viewing. While ripping off/homaging was staple to the Italo-exploitation subgenre, the references to The Shining (Bob channeling Danny) and even Fulci’s own films are clear and blatant, and you end up wishing for the original product. The acting is typically poor, though at least some of this can be attributed to comically bad dubbing. Cemetery had potential, but its dull first act blew it for when things turned nasty.
The Release:
Reasonably good audio/visual quality, and certainly the best Cemetery has ever looked. The extras situation isn’t excellent – the best on offer are two theatrical trailers (both the American and European versions), a TV spot, still galleries and Fulci biography that seems to be the same on all Anchor Bay releases. There’s an Easter Egg to be found – when in ‘Extras’, hit the left button on your remote control to highlight a blood splatter. Press ‘enter’ to view a one-minute, silent deleted scene.
The Bottom Line:
As much as I am a Fulci fan and would love to give this a glowing review, House by the Cemetery just didn’t do it for me. The violence was sparse, the dubbing atrocious, and the film required such a ridiculous suspension of belief it’s not funny. It’s a far cry from Fulci’s sublime work on New York Ripper and Zombie, and it may have marked the director’s attempt to go ‘serious’. While the scenes of gore are graphic and crowd-pleasing, it is clear that Fulci is working at his most restrained. It’s all very matter-of-fact and lacks Ripper’s sleaze or the surreal quality of Zombie. However, it certainly isn’t all bad, and one of Cemetery’s most redeeming features is the black humour that permeates the film, though whether it was intentional is a different matter. Recommended for exploitation fans but for newbies to Fulci, you can do considerably better.
Contraband (1980)
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring Fabio Testi
97 mins; R18+; Colour
Previewed Release: R0 Blue Underground
Tagline: From the director of Zombie and The Beyond
Country of Origin: Italy
The Film:
A guy gets machine-gunned to the head. A gambler, in the mid
dle of cheering his horse, gets a gun in the mouth and his brains blown out the back of his head. A woman gets her face melted by a Bunsen burner in Mafia-style retribution. An old man is shot dead while praying in a Church. And, just when you thought it couldn’t possibly get any better, a topless blonde woman sexually assaults a frigid homosexual man. Yes, this is a Lucio Fulci movie and it is an absolute riot.
One of Fulci’s better-known deviations from the horror genre, Contraband is a Mafia picture with Italian favourite Fabio Testi playing Luca Di Angelo. Luca is a Naples Mafia soldier, who works under his brother smuggling American cigarettes. Things are going peachy for Luca and his Mob, until his brother is gunned down by two men dressed as policemen. After further killings of the bosses in Luca’s gang, it turns out that a French group of crims headed by the diabolical Marsigliese are trying to muscle their way into the smuggling game, and Luca isn’t going to have a bar of it. However, things turn for the worst when Luca’s wife and child are kidnapped and held at the mercy of the Marsigliese gang.
As much as I like Contraband, there are a few dodgy points – first and foremost being the appalling dubbing. Words are being said when mouths are firmly shut, and there are few moments where the audio/visual synchronises. That said, there’s a lot to love here – the outrageous gore, the 70s synth pop and the black-as-the-ace-of-spades humour.
The Release:
The first and foremost in exploitation releases, Blue Underground have treated us to an uncut print of Contraband which, aside from one very grainy and washed-out scene, is surprisingly clear. The extras, however, are scant – a Fulci and Testi bio and theatrical trailer is all we are given. It should be noted that this DVD has been released in Australia by Stomp Visual as an import.
The Bottom Line:
For those in search of another Godfather or Goodfellas, then Contraband is certainly not for you, but for those in search for a Mob film with a decidedly lighter tone, this is worth its weight in gold. Fabio Frizzi’s outrageously catchy pop theme tune is hilariously out of place, female nudity is abundant and the claret flows. What more could you want? Highly recommended.
Two Thousand Maniacs (1964)
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Starring Connie Mason, William Kerwin
83 mins; Unrated; Colour
Previewed Release: R0 Something Weird Video
Tagline: Brutal... Evil... Ghastly Beyond Belief!
Country of Origin: USA
The Film:
I’ve seen a lot of campy horror movies from the sixties and seve
nties and many are simply terrible, with deplorable production values, acting and direction and totally inept gore effects. I am pleased to say that Herschell Gordon Lewis’ – the Godfather of Gore – second horror feature Two Thousand Maniacs is certainly not one of them; in fact, you would be hard-pressed finding a more spirited and outrageously fun way of spending an hour in front of the television.
Two Thousand Maniacs opens on a desolate country road in the Deep South of the United States, where two local yokels are strategically placing ‘detour’ signs on a Y-junction in order to lure Northern tourists into Pleasant Valley, population two thousand (hint, hint). Their motives, at this point, seem to be merely cheap trickery and two carloads of Northerners fall for it. The detoured travelers arrive at Pleasant Valley and are met, quite literally, with a parade, celebrating the town’s centennial. The boisterous Mayor then informs the tourists that they are ‘guests of honour’ and, ignoring their protests, book the six into the Valley’s best hotel. Soon, the Northerners realize their Southern counterparts have more sinister intentions – still upset over the outcome of the Civil War, the rednecks of Pleasant Valley vow to make their new ‘guests’ as targets for mayhem and murder!
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring Katherine MacColl, Paulo Malco
87 mins; Not Rated; Colour
Previewed Release: R0 Anchor Bay
Tagline: Beware the demon forces of the…blood beasts!
Country of Origin: Italy
The Film:
As a filmmaker, Lucio Fulci could best be described as a ‘censor-baite
r’. Having stirred the pot with Zombie (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters) and City of the Living Dead, the notorious and occasionally brilliant Italo-exploitation director submitted House by the Cemetery, which proved to be something of a heartache. Banned initially in Australia, it debuted on VHS in cut form and, to this day, has no DVD release. The Brits didn’t take a liking to it either and it was deprived of 33 seconds of ‘detailed violence against women’ upon reclassification in 2001. Unfortunately, House by the Cemetery fails to live up to the hype, and is shadowed by Fulci’s bigger, nastier entries into the horror genre.Cemetery begins nastily enough when a young couple staying at a mysterious house are brutally murdered by someone (or something) in a pre-credits sequence. We fast-forward to the new occupants of the house, the Boyles – dad Norman (Malco), mum Lucy (MacColl) and little Bob. Norman, a Professor, is out to discover what happened to his friend, who killed his mistress and then himself under mysterious circumstances. Despite protests from Bob (who encounters a mysterious girl telling him not to go into the house) and his wife’s increasingly bizzare hallucinations, Norman continues with his work unwittingly. As the plot unravels, the sinister past of the titular location is revealed, and its late owner Dr Freudstein may not be so dead after all…
Perhaps it was all this talk of ‘banning’ and ‘truncated footage’ that produced high expectations, but while Cemetery can be good fun, it isn’t consistent enough to make for a fulfilling evening’s viewing. While ripping off/homaging was staple to the Italo-exploitation subgenre, the references to The Shining (Bob channeling Danny) and even Fulci’s own films are clear and blatant, and you end up wishing for the original product. The acting is typically poor, though at least some of this can be attributed to comically bad dubbing. Cemetery had potential, but its dull first act blew it for when things turned nasty.
The Release:
Reasonably good audio/visual quality, and certainly the best Cemetery has ever looked. The extras situation isn’t excellent – the best on offer are two theatrical trailers (both the American and European versions), a TV spot, still galleries and Fulci biography that seems to be the same on all Anchor Bay releases. There’s an Easter Egg to be found – when in ‘Extras’, hit the left button on your remote control to highlight a blood splatter. Press ‘enter’ to view a one-minute, silent deleted scene.
The Bottom Line:
As much as I am a Fulci fan and would love to give this a glowing review, House by the Cemetery just didn’t do it for me. The violence was sparse, the dubbing atrocious, and the film required such a ridiculous suspension of belief it’s not funny. It’s a far cry from Fulci’s sublime work on New York Ripper and Zombie, and it may have marked the director’s attempt to go ‘serious’. While the scenes of gore are graphic and crowd-pleasing, it is clear that Fulci is working at his most restrained. It’s all very matter-of-fact and lacks Ripper’s sleaze or the surreal quality of Zombie. However, it certainly isn’t all bad, and one of Cemetery’s most redeeming features is the black humour that permeates the film, though whether it was intentional is a different matter. Recommended for exploitation fans but for newbies to Fulci, you can do considerably better.
Contraband (1980)
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring Fabio Testi
97 mins; R18+; Colour
Previewed Release: R0 Blue Underground
Tagline: From the director of Zombie and The Beyond
Country of Origin: Italy
The Film:
A guy gets machine-gunned to the head. A gambler, in the mid
dle of cheering his horse, gets a gun in the mouth and his brains blown out the back of his head. A woman gets her face melted by a Bunsen burner in Mafia-style retribution. An old man is shot dead while praying in a Church. And, just when you thought it couldn’t possibly get any better, a topless blonde woman sexually assaults a frigid homosexual man. Yes, this is a Lucio Fulci movie and it is an absolute riot.One of Fulci’s better-known deviations from the horror genre, Contraband is a Mafia picture with Italian favourite Fabio Testi playing Luca Di Angelo. Luca is a Naples Mafia soldier, who works under his brother smuggling American cigarettes. Things are going peachy for Luca and his Mob, until his brother is gunned down by two men dressed as policemen. After further killings of the bosses in Luca’s gang, it turns out that a French group of crims headed by the diabolical Marsigliese are trying to muscle their way into the smuggling game, and Luca isn’t going to have a bar of it. However, things turn for the worst when Luca’s wife and child are kidnapped and held at the mercy of the Marsigliese gang.
As much as I like Contraband, there are a few dodgy points – first and foremost being the appalling dubbing. Words are being said when mouths are firmly shut, and there are few moments where the audio/visual synchronises. That said, there’s a lot to love here – the outrageous gore, the 70s synth pop and the black-as-the-ace-of-spades humour.
The Release:
The first and foremost in exploitation releases, Blue Underground have treated us to an uncut print of Contraband which, aside from one very grainy and washed-out scene, is surprisingly clear. The extras, however, are scant – a Fulci and Testi bio and theatrical trailer is all we are given. It should be noted that this DVD has been released in Australia by Stomp Visual as an import.
The Bottom Line:
For those in search of another Godfather or Goodfellas, then Contraband is certainly not for you, but for those in search for a Mob film with a decidedly lighter tone, this is worth its weight in gold. Fabio Frizzi’s outrageously catchy pop theme tune is hilariously out of place, female nudity is abundant and the claret flows. What more could you want? Highly recommended.
Two Thousand Maniacs (1964)
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Starring Connie Mason, William Kerwin
83 mins; Unrated; Colour
Previewed Release: R0 Something Weird Video
Tagline: Brutal... Evil... Ghastly Beyond Belief!
Country of Origin: USA
The Film:
I’ve seen a lot of campy horror movies from the sixties and seve
nties and many are simply terrible, with deplorable production values, acting and direction and totally inept gore effects. I am pleased to say that Herschell Gordon Lewis’ – the Godfather of Gore – second horror feature Two Thousand Maniacs is certainly not one of them; in fact, you would be hard-pressed finding a more spirited and outrageously fun way of spending an hour in front of the television.Two Thousand Maniacs opens on a desolate country road in the Deep South of the United States, where two local yokels are strategically placing ‘detour’ signs on a Y-junction in order to lure Northern tourists into Pleasant Valley, population two thousand (hint, hint). Their motives, at this point, seem to be merely cheap trickery and two carloads of Northerners fall for it. The detoured travelers arrive at Pleasant Valley and are met, quite literally, with a parade, celebrating the town’s centennial. The boisterous Mayor then informs the tourists that they are ‘guests of honour’ and, ignoring their protests, book the six into the Valley’s best hotel. Soon, the Northerners realize their Southern counterparts have more sinister intentions – still upset over the outcome of the Civil War, the rednecks of Pleasant Valley vow to make their new ‘guests’ as targets for mayhem and murder!
It is also worth noting that a sequel (predictably titled 2001 Maniacs) was released in 2005, with Friedman producing. It was met with varied acclaim by fans of the original, and Lewis decided to pass on production duties.
The Release:
Something Weird Video is dedicated to releasing quality releases of questionable films, and they have done very well by Two Thousand Maniacs. We are treated to fifteen minutes of rare outtakes, a theatrical trailer, exploitation poster art gallery and a feature length commentery with Lewis and producer David F Friedman. But best of all is the film itself – it looks great. Throw out your old VHS; this is the definitive release of Two Thousand Maniacs.
The Bottom Line:
One of Lewis’ many collaborations with exploitation producer extraordinaire David F Friedman, Two Thousand Maniacs is arguably the director’s greatest film and is Lewis’ personal favourite. While the gore is fairly cheap by today’s grisly standards, you may be surprised how it holds up; particularly considering the movie is almost forty-five years old. Watching rednecks fumble about their business on film is always fun, watching rednecks slaughter their way across celluloid makes for pure, unadulterated delight. Highly recommended.
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