The House on the Edge of the Park (1980)

One of the things I love the most about films from the other side of the world, particularly Italy, is that most of them come with reputations that have followed them throughout the years. If you’re a die-hard horror fan, you’re totally aware of a little list coming from the United Kingdom called the “British Board of Classification Department of Public Prosecution’s List of Video Nasties” (or “The DPP list” for short), a list of 74 films that were banned overseas for their graphic content and subject matter. If you’re a horror fan, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Some of them are upheld with gusto and others fall flat on their face, depending on your own individual tastes. If you know the list well, you’ll wonder why some of them were even banned since they’re pretty tame, making it obvious that the persons prosecuting said films never took the time to watch them in the first place. 

This particular list has been somewhat of a challenge for horror fans that spend their time – and sometimes, their hard earned money –  to collect every single film on the original list. Some of them are hard to find since they haven’t received proper DVD treatments and collectors sometimes have no choice but to hunt down hard-to-find out-of-print VHS releases. I, myself, have 37 of the 74 films on the list, but only because some of them on the list are either of no interest to me or are so hard to come by that they aren’t worth hunting down.

Growing up in rural Texas in the 80’s, I don’t recall ever seeing this title sitting on the shelf of any grocery store or mom and pop video house. I didn’t even hear about this film until the early turn of the decade just as I’d been starting my collection of Euro-shock films – I didn’t get into collecting them hardcore until about 2004 but I had to start somewhere, did I? I read an article online about it and was immediately fascinated by the film’s concept and knew that I needed to hunt it down. I looked at a few sites over the internet but couldn’t find it – since, at the time it hadn’t been released properly on the DVD in the States – and I found one NTSC VHS version on eBay but it was going for ridiculous money so I passed. About a year and a half later, I was living in Missouri and whilst shopping at a best buy in Independence I picked up a DVD compilation with the title, “Great Horror Classics vol. 8” released by a little company known as Echo Bridge Entertainment. It was being sold at a very low price and the reason I’d picked it up was because it had Don’t Look In The Basement!. As I was at the cash register, I took a look at the list of films on the DVD and I practically shit my pants to read that House on the Edge of the Park was included. So that night, whilst on the graveyard shift at the local Courtyard by Marriott, I finished my work as soon as I could, popped this into my laptop and sat back. And did I mention that the DVD case labeled the film as being uncut and unrated?

The first thing I was treated to after the prologue was a fantastic montage of New York City, Twin Towers and all, with one of – if not the – smoothest and most memorable disco tracks ever to be dubbed onto a horror film. As I said in my reviews of Cannibal Ferox and New York Ripper there is something just fantastic about Italian exploitation films and their soundtracks that just run a shiver of awesomeness down my spine. This one which I lovingly refer to as “Do It To Me Once More” – since I don’t know it’s original title – is so great that once you hear it for the first time, you’ll want to listen to it again and again. But before this review goes into controversial length, let’s get to the film itself.

Die-hard exploitation fans already know this one well. The film opens up with the great David Hess playing a thug named Alex who follows a girl home from a disco and rapes her in the back of her car and leaves her dead. From the start you’ll wonder if you’re actually watching The Last House on the Left – part 2 as the character of Alex is pretty much a doppelganger of Hess’ character Krug from the original LHOTL (Just as his character in Hitch-Hike is, in actuality, both of those characters). Once he leaves the girl for dead, he and his cohort Ricky (Giovanni Lombardo Radice (John Morghen) in his first role) are out to find a place “to boogie” and while in an auto repair shop come across and meet Tom (Christian Borromeo of Tenebre and The Pleasure Shop on 7^th Avenue) and Lisa (Annie Bell), a young couple who are having car trouble and come hoping that their shop is open and offer them money to give it a fix. When Alex and Ricky can’t get to the disco because of the inconvenience, they’re immediately invited back to the couple’s posh home to join a party that’s already underway. When they get there they meet Gloria (Lorraine Di Salle – Cannibal Ferox), her boyfriend Howard (Gabriele Di Guilio), and Glenda (Marie Claude Joseph).  After an icebreaker of some disco-dancing consisting of a horrible semi-strip tease for the ladies by Ricky and a poker game gone horribly awry, Alex pulls out a straight razor on the group and the fun begins.  Now, before I go on, I have to touch on the subject of Ricky’s dance. Seriously, this is one of the funniest and most preposterous full-body dry-heaves in horror history. It’s that hilarious that you’ll want to rewind it and watch it a few times. Though the top honor still belongs to Crispin Glover’s character in Friday the 13^th – The Final Chapter, but this one comes in very close second. If his intention was to induce any sort of arousal, it’s an epic fail of mammoth proportions, even on this end of the viewing spectrum. And that’s pretty bad, because Ricky is pretty darn cute.

But, as Alex watches from the sidelines, he looks like he doesn’t like one bit of Ricky getting all the attention. Hello, is that jealousy calling? So what does he do? He takes Lisa over to the kitchen to work his magic on her. When she rejects him, Alex grows tired of the situation not going in the way he wants it to so he turns the tables and makes the group pay. Acting as Ricky’s coach – since it’s apparent that he’s a few floats short of a parade and pretty naïve in the sex department – he coaxes his partner to cohort in sexually violent atrocities and acts of humiliation that terrorize the group.  

The rest of the film becomes scene after scene of humiliation and sexual titillation.  It does push envelopes but only manages to push them to just the end of the table. Why this was so outlawed and banned is still a question I’d love answered. Though the BBC had issues with glorified sexual violence, this one, in some respects, was more bark than bite. There were boobs-a-plenty and even male nudity to an extent, but it really doesn’t deliver in the exact manner that you think it’s going to. When you really sit down and analyze the film, it’s never explained why Alex goes on his rampage. It would have been great to see what his motivation would have been. And though you have to take it at face value – in other words, Alex did it because he could – there has to me something more in his backstory that would explain what would drive him to do the things he did to the group.

And it all reaches the boiling point once the character of Cindy is introduced. By no fault of her own, she is thrown into the vortex of Alex’s disturbed mind and sadly, she gets the brunt of it. This scene on its own is probably the most difficult to watch, as Alex disrobes her, humiliates her, and slices her naked body with the straight razor over and over again as the others watch in horror. For being the 70’s I could only imagine audience’s reactions to this. But, here is where the film takes its pivotal turn. Ricky sees what is happening and attempts to be the voice of reason to Alex’s disturbed mind. He tells Alex that one day he is going to go too far, that he is going to someday be unable to stop and tries to convince his friend that there is still time to turn around. But Ricky himself goes too far, by reminding Alex about “the girl from last year” – obviously referring to the start of the film and the altercation between Alex and the girl he followed from the discotech. This becomes the final straw for Alex and it is at this moment when everything goes awry. In a fit of rage, every ounce of Alex’s anger culminates into one strong swing of the razorblade and without even thinking (possibly) he slashes Ricky right across the chest, knocking him to the floor.   Ricky, in total shock and disbelief, lies there with blood on his hands and on his body and Alex slowly begins to break, and here is where everything unravels. Alex, instead of taking responsibility for his own actions, tries to pawn them off on Ricky as being the cause of what just happened. Why did you make me do this, Ricky?  And speaking of this scene, it’s here where Alex begins to show an emotional side not previously seen – In the scene where Ricky attempts to rape Gloria and Ricky barks back at Alex, Ricky apologizes for having yelled at him, and Alex accepts his apology and kisses him on the cheek, not once, not twice, but three times. He goes on by telling Ricky – as Ricky is lying on the floor covered in blood – that It’s always been just you and me, kid and You can’t leave me now, Ricky. It makes you wonder just what kind of a relationship they really had. Especially since it was hinted at in the beginning of the film, when Alex becomes jealous when Ricky dances for the group and gets all the attention.

But here is where the film finally reveals its twist. As Ricky lies there in his own blood, Tom secretly goes over to a drawer and pulls out a gun and pulls it on Alex, telling him that the entire night had been a setup and that the girl that Alex raped in the beginning of film was, in fact, Tom’s sister. Do you smell pre-meditated revenge? I think so! If you paid attention at the beginning, Alex takes a pendant that the girl was wearing and places it on himself. So it’s here that Tom takes up all of his nerve and shoots Alex in the leg, then the shoulder. But the best part of all, the coup de grace, is when he takes the final shot and shoots Alex in the groin! What transpires here is one of the most frightening, most disturbing screams in the history of horror cinema and you have to experience it for yourself to believe it. It will stay inside your head for hours after you’ve heard it and it’s one of the effective scenes in the entire film.  Alex, gasping his final breaths, manages to climb out of the pool and it is here where Tom rips his sister's pendant from the killer and reclaims it, tossing him back into the water. Once Alex is face down in the pool, Tom hands the gun to Lisa, who takes a shot at him. She, in turn, hands the gun to  Howard, who takes his chance in taking his own revenge for Alex having tied him up for most of the film. Once Alex is finally dead, Howard, offers the gun to Gloria, who refuses.

Once the denouement begins, we still see Ricky bleeding inside and Howard goes to finish him off, Ricky pleads for him to shoot him, to which Gloria convinces him not to do it. The film ends here but you are left to wonder about the deeper aspects of the film: Did everyone that attended the party know what was going to happen and know that Tom and Lisa had the entire night planned? Were the other members that were present family members/friends that had hoped to get revenge on the death of Tom’s sister at one point or another? If so, were they really willing to risk their own safety and lives for the sake of retribution? As interesting as those musing are, for me, the biggest question of all is: How did {Tom and Lisa] know who Alex was in the first place? Did they see the murder occur? Were they all at the same disco that night and just happened to remember his face? How was it that they knew exactly where to find them and how is it that they were so confident that the duo would actually accept their invitation? I know that your suspension of disbelief has to be in its highest mode if you’re going to pose these questions, but all in all the film works, even if it does on the smallest level. For the reputation the film has carried throughout the decades, it isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. But don’t let that stop you from watching it at least once. It’s a great piece of cinema made in a style that isn’t made this way anymore. The Shriek Show disc was beautifully re-mastered – in Anamorphic Widescreen - in both picture and sound and it looks fantastic. The major difference between the version on the EB disc and this disc is that the EB disc has the original Italian title cards in place and the latter replaces them with ones in English. There is an interview with Hess himself that’s a little on the bizarre side – watch it and you’ll see what I mean – that is worth watching. And for those of you who are wondering, both prints are uncut.

This is one that is essential viewing if you’re a fan at all of Italian exploitation cinema. I’m not sure how available the SS disc is, as I haven’t seen it on store shelves for a least a year. I do know it’s on Netflix so if you get  a moment, seek this one out. It’s worth looking at and will remind you of the days when exploitation cinema was at its absolute best. Oh, and if you don’t know already, there will be a House on the Edge of the Park – Part 2 coming out either later this year or next year. 

Yes, you read that correctly. David Hess was originally attached to the project but sadly passed away a few years ago. From what I’ve read, HOTEOTP part 2 will take place thirty years after the original, with Ricky – Yes, Radice will be reprising his role -  having served his time in prison for the events that happened in the original and the film taking place just as he is being released. Ricky will once again get mixed up with the wrong people and repeat the cycle all over again. Surprisingly, Rugerro Deodato will sit in the director's chair for this sequel, which honestly, I'm excited about. If you’ve seen the original and love it as much as I do, you just have to be curious on how this is going to be pulled off. We’re not holding out breaths, though, since films like these always end up being duds. But for this one, I think I’ll keep my fingers crossed. 

The Burning (1981)

One of my very first horror-related memories is completely owned by The Burning.

In some of my earlier reviews, I talk very briefly about a small mom-and-pop video store that was located in Reedley, California in the early eighties. This place was very small, but housed a lot of the horror I would come to know and love in the future. It was one of the very few video rental places in the little city we lived in and my parents frequented it quite regularly so it was the very first exposure I had to the home video revolution that was just beginning. Writing that last sentence just made me homesick for the 1980’s, when large, bulky VCR’s (like my parent’s Quasar model) were the only things available and little independent shops lined with mahogany shelves filled with videocassettes in random order and smelling of popcorn started popping up slowly in every town.  The days of membership and rewind fees…they’re all gone. It makes me sad that all of that is just a distant memory now, what with the advent of DVD, and the death of the video rental stores altogether (Thank you, Redbox and Netflix). Let’s stop there, because I’ll get all soft. And I know if you read those last few sentences, you may be feeling the same way now.

 Since the last time I was active on this blog, I met a woman that lived in the apartment below me after just having moved into a new building in 2010. A good gal, she became interested in my horror film collection and one night while helping her cook dinner, we got into a deep conversation about how my fascination with said horror began and I started telling her about the little video shop that I still hold onto for dear life and as I went on and on, she stopped in her tracks. She turned around and said, “Are you talking about the video store that used to be downtown next to the old ice cream parlor?”  I froze. How did she know that? I’d mentioned it to so many people who had no clue to what I was talking about to the point to where I’d already convinced myself that I’d possibly dreamed (or at least semi-fabricated) its existence. About ten years ago, I even went as far as to contact the local chamber of commerce to see if any record of the video store was available for viewing so I could at least rest knowing that it wasn’t a figment of my imagination, with no answer from them, of course.

The hour that followed was life-changing. Not only did she know about the store and its name, but it turns out that her grandfather and father owned and ran it! My lifelong search was finally over! Ernie’s Video – as it was known – was opened at the beginning of the 80’s and closed sometime before 1989. I couldn’t even begin to tell her all the fond memories I had of that place and it turns out that I remembered more of the store than she did. Everything from the store’s layout, the color and style of the front door with the little bell that hung around the doorknob to the way the shelves were set up (and the exact direction in which the videocassettes were placed and how they faced). I went on and on about the clear casings that housed some of the more “forbidden titles” that were under the store’s countertops, and the five posters that hung in the store that forever stand out in my memory: Altered States hung in the front window facing the sidewalk. Maniac hung next to the interior door that led into the back area. The half-sized standee of Zombie that sat on the counter on the right side of the store. And the most memorable one of all, the full-sized one sheet of The Burning that was taped to a mirror that overlooked the entire store. That was the one I never forgot.

I was lucky enough to meet her father later on and reminisce with him about the store. What was strange was that I had more recollection of it than he did, which he found very amusing. Don’t get me wrong, he did remember its existence and was tickled pink to hear how much of it I still remembered. I asked him if he had any pictures of the store or anything that was saved from it, just to finally prove to myself that I didn’t concoct the entire thing in my head, because believe me, I was already convincing myself that I’d either made it all up or had dreamt it while I was a kid.  He was nice enough to give me an original Ernie’s Video baseball cap that had managed to survive all these years and a small roll of the silver decals that went on the sides of the VHS cassettes that had the original address, phone number and logo of the store. I was ecstatic. I couldn’t even express how happy I was that I could finally rest knowing that I wasn’t crazy! Right now the cap and decals are in storage so as soon as I can get them out, I will post pictures of them so you all can see. Hallelujah, I’m not sick after all! Oh, wait….

So the first “re-introducing” of this film came in the early 1990’s by means of the book Don’t Look In The Shower! that I picked up one afternoon at the local library – during the period that I was on the cusp of becoming the extreme die-hard that I am now. There was a short essay in which The Burning was named and quickly reviewed and I will never forget that once sentence that pretty much summed it up for me: [Cropsy] jumps out of an abandoned canoe and kills six of them at once. I don’t remember anything that came before or after those words but it stuck. With that permanently etched into my brain, I started my search for this one…with no luck. Most of the mom and pop video stores in the area were already starting to close their doors, losing out to the larger “discount” video houses that were part of and attached to major grocery store chains, so those more obscure horror titles were getting harder and harder to find. This one was one of them, to the point where I had to stop searching for it.

Everything would change the summer of 2001 – the time when my collecting hobby had just gotten its start - when one night I was browsing through what was on cable and I came across a commercial on HBO announcing that they would be showing this on a night I’d be working. Really? HBO was going to actually broadcast this?  I didn’t hesitate and I immediately set both my cable box and my VCR to record this and could not be more excited that I was finally going to get to see this in its entirety (along with The Stendhal Syndrome, which was to come out right after). A few nights later, I finally had the time to grab the popcorn, turn off my telephone and put this in the player. I couldn’t have been more thrilled.

So finally (after all the banter above), I’ll get to the film itself: At first viewing, I have to be honest when I say that I was wasn’t at all impressed with the film and immediately dismissed it as being just another run-of-the-mill Friday the 13^th doppelgänger. Sure, it had Holly Hunter, Fisher Stevens and Jason Alexander…but for me, there was nothing more to it than another backwoods I’ve-seen-it-all-before slasher.  And the scene where Cropsy does six of them at once? That one scene I’d been waiting to finally lay eyes on? All I could hear in my mind was the voice of Edina Monsoon: What, this?  I took the tape out of the VCR, placed it alongside the other cassettes in my collection at the time, and proceeded to forget that I’d even seen it.  Don’t gasp too hard yet, though. Allow me to present my defense: Before I pushed play on the VCR that night, I have to admit, I had no clue that not only was this a Weinstein production and that Mr. Tom Savini had worked on this film (and that he’d passed on Friday the 13^th – part 2 to do so), I was ignorant of the fact that I was watching a censored (cut) version. Yes, one of the rare times that Linus didn’t do his homework! Sacre bleu! So with the internet being somewhat available to me during my overnight work house, I started to do my research on this, albeit slowly.

I finally was able to get my hands on the U.S. Thorn/EMI white clamshell case version of this – the one I remember seeing at Ernie’s Video when I was a kid – about a year and half later on eBay while living in the Kansas City, Missouri area. By this time, I had learned everything I needed to know about this film: that it was loosely based on a New England urban legend of a murderer known as “The Cropsy Killer”, that the version I owned that had been released in the U.S. was incomplete, the whole “video nasty” scandal overseas, how Britain’s Thorn/EMI had accidentally released the uncensored cut of the film resulting in a slap on the hand by the BBFC only to make the same mistake twice (there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?), and thanks to a website known as Hysteria Lives!, I finally was able to behold the beauty of the infamous “raft scene” (the one where Cropsy kills six kids in less than two minutes?) in its complete, uncensored bitchin’ glory.  So at second viewing, I got much more out of it, aside from the “raft scene” having been mutilated and left for dead, of course. I was able to enjoy it in its follow-up run and was able to sit back and be able to actually see it as the above-than-average slasher that it is, contrary to what I’d first thought. The cast was well put together (I loved that Leah Ayres, who was in Bloodsport, was in this), some of the photography is excellent, and both the opening and closing scenes are classic scenes of classic camp slasher.

When it was first made known that it was finally going to be released on DVD, I can recall reading on countless forums about it – whether or not we were going to see an uncut print, curiosity if the original poster art was going to be used? When it was released in 2007, die-hard fans were given the long-awaited treat of the film being released complete and uncensored – regardless of the fact that MGM released it with an “R” rating on the sleeve (I want to say that they did so because they don’t release movies unrated? I could be wrong – I may be thinking of Paramount. I think they did it intentionally to give us what they knew we wanted, which if that is true, was a great move on their part). I’m not sure if a complete print had been ever available in the U.S. (aside from an Amazon-only exclusive VHS) so I wonder to myself if there was a fan of film (or an executive, maybe?) “on the inside” that pushed in some way to have an uncut version released to us (or at least knew where to obtain one). Believe me when I say that for that, we are very thankful – or at least I am, regardless if the DVD sleeve was missing the original poster art. MGM were also nice enough to not only give us the original trailer, but a must-see on-camera interview with Tom Savini. Just this one bonus feature is well worth the price of the disc as he goes into a very loving retrospect of his time working on the film and even goes into the behind-the-scenes of how he did the “raft-scene”, which has to be, hands down, one of the most amazing scenes in slasher history. Nothing can beat the shot of Cropsy shearing off Fisher Stevens’ fingers and how he holds them up as blood squirts out of them! If any of you all were here with me, I’d do the chest bump of triumph with you.

Though this film isn’t honestly relevant to slasher history here in the U.S. (Halloween and Friday the 13^th hold those top spots here), because of the reputation The Burning has gained over the years due to what it went through overseas and its problems with the BBFC – and just for the complete “raft scene”! – it is imperative that this find its way into your collection, especially now that it is readily available – and very inexpensive – to own.   Essential viewing? Yes. But you’re reading this, so I know you already have. 

The New York Ripper (1982)

I wish that I had the kind of memories of my first encounter with this film as I do the others that are on this blog. Usually I break into an immediate fondness and start recalling the many who-and-whatzits of where I was in life when I first held the video box to most of these titles because I like to share the manners in which I got to know some of these bad boys and girls. Now that I think back on all those mom-and-pop shops (and the not-so-mom-and-pops) I walked through during my teenage years, I don’t ever remember seeing this on any shelf – believe me, I’d remember that fantastic poster art! (I loved it so much it’s the banner of this blog!) Hmmm, why didn’t I ever see this one if I can recall boxes for Superstition and The Seven Doors of Death? I didn’t get into Italian sleaze cinema until the mid-to-late nineties, after I’d both discovered and then ridden the Suspiria train a few hundred-or-so times. By the time I did enough reading on this to go actually out and look for it, it was readily available on DVD so I apologize for not getting that warm-and-toasty feeling when I talk about The New York Ripper – though I honestly wish I could.

I started taking time to research titles and directors and slowly started to become more and more interested in films coming from that other end of the world. I wasn’t even aware at that time that horror films came out of any other country but the U.S. – as ridiculous as that sounds - and little did I know that a great deal of these films I was discovering would top most of the stuff I’d seen that was being home-brewed here. I came across this entry about two years after I’d already seen Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond and after reading about this particular one - and other films of his - on countless message boards over the internet and learning about its infamous reputation overseas, I couldn’t resist in tracking/picking up a copy of Blue Underground’s release at the local Rapsutin’s for under ten bucks just to see what the big deal was about. I won’t go into how it was one of the original (and more infamous) “Video Nasties” in Britain, how copies of it were famously escorted out of the country, and how it was banned outfight for many years, because if you’re a die-hard as I am, you already know everything there is to know about Lo Squartatore de New York.  I already knew who was in it before even sitting down to watch it: Andrea Occhipinti (A Blade In the Dark), Zora Kerova (who was in Cannibal Ferox) so with the experience I’ve had with horror films, I pretty much thought I had figured out how this was going to play out. If you’ve seen this (which you have – why else would you be reading this?), you know that I was completely wrong.

I won’t give away the details of the plot because somehow I have this pre-conceived notion that you’ve either already seen it or know enough about it to be interested in this post. And this is one of those films that I wouldn’t even think of giving away scene-by-scene because I want you, the reader, to be able to watch a film as this and form your own opinion (If you’ve read my review for “The Hazing” – you’ll note that I gave away the entire film, which actually caused someone who hadn’t seen it yet to send me a very nasty email). I do have to admit that I get such a laugh out of the film’s opening sequence and how it flawlessly breaks into a “CHiPS” kind of theme, musically. Many Italian-produced horror films (and their respective trailers) begin with (or shamelessly contain) this kind of cheesy disco-tinged track (Can you say, “Cannibal Ferox”, “The House on the Edge of the Park”?)

After a bizarre scene of a dog finding a random severed hand in a bush, we get introduced to the film’s premise: Someone in a [lousy] Donald Duck voice is killing people across New York City and the police force – complete with a closeted homosexual college psychoanalyst and a chief with a penchant for prostitutes - tries their best to solve the mystery. What ensues is nothing but trash and sleaze and still, after multiple viewings – as I’m doing now for purposes of this essay – manages to make me both cringe and howl in laughter, sometimes simultaneously. One of the film’s overall highlights, for me, is the photographing of the wonderfulness that is/was the old 42^nd Street, lovingly portrayed in gorgeous colors before the camera takes us to a live sex show and the extremely brutal murder of its actress by a broken bottle right-bloody-smack in the vajay-jay. I don’t think I’ve seen a murder executed anywhere else in horror history in that same manner. There is a cold darkness and feeling of hopelessness to the film that has to be experienced to be believed. This is no happy movie and that’s something I must stress. There is nothing redeemable about sitting through this piece of horror history. I sometimes try to figure out if the intention from the beginning was to prove a point by purposely making the film in an over-the-top fashion or if it just ended up that way once things were edited and put together. There are images so darky constructed that it does give a feeling of impending doom and for brief moments, we are watching a genuine horror film whose sole motive is to offend – and that it does. Then, just as one begins to get comfortable (or not so, depending on your taste), scenes such as the infamous “toe job” scene in the tavern interrupt and become perfect halfway-points between titillating and outright revolting but yet still manage to make me burst out loud in hysterics crying out, “What the f@#* was that?!”.

Conversely, there are moments such as the scene in the theater (the dream sequence) that are absolutely gorgeous. The poor girl alone having being chased by someone who just brutally attacked her and there is a deep helplessness in her eyes, as she looks around to see if he, the assaulter, can see her. Then, in a blinding light, she sees a familiar face and it suddenly slashes her with a razor point-blank. She screams over and over again until she wakes up only to find the familiar face [her boyfriend, Andrea Occhipinti] in the room with her. She slowly tells him her nightmare in detail, and then reveals to him that he was the one that assaulted her. That one scene is fantastic and probably my favorite scene in the entire film. Did I mention that I have a slight crush on Mr. Occhipinti?  His chiseled good looks, his brooding eyes, those amazing lips. Ever since my first viewing of A Blade in the Dark…and for the sake of this blog, I’ll stop there. 

One scene that drives me into fits of uncontrollable laughter is the scene when one of the detectives (the homosexual college psychoanalyst) is seen at a corner newsstand looking through porn magazines - gay porn magazines. I giggle because maybe I, myself, remember that part of the 80’s? It cracks me up how the cashier plays it off, stuffing an issue of Blueboy into a copy of the New York Times for him ever so discreetly. Suddenly, for a few brief moments, I’m a curious teenage boy again remembering…well, (pause) just remembering. The first time I watched this scene I admittedly had to rewind it and see it a few times on repeat. As I’m writing I wonder to myself if Mr. Fulci made this movie in the manner that he did to make a political statement or maybe, a disguised social commentary? Was he trying to make a point by being grossly misogynistic? The constant shots of New York’s seedy underground sex shops and neon lights (along with a theater marquee displaying a banner for Final Exam!) pave the way for scenes such as the slashing of the girl bound to the bed. The killer, as he caresses her body slowly with a razorblade, dancing along her skin as he laughs running it down her torso, opening her up and tearing her flesh apart. The slashing of her nipple and eyeball painted vividly and in such a grotesque and realistic fashion that you can’t help but scream as you’re watching.  On the imdb boards, someone even claims that this particular scene is cut and that it goes even further by having the girl get her crotch gruesomely slashed – which would make sense seeing that once the scene is over, the long shot once the cops are there shows her nether region mutilated.  

The climax of the film is fantastic, which I won’t give away and though it leaves the film overwhelmingly ambiguous, it’s still great. It’s one of those downbeat endings that leave you thinking, although you really don’t want to. It will leave you confused – as it is pretty far-fetched - and wanting more but yet in its own right it does the job. The final scene will leave you guessing but I’ll leave it at that.

In actuality, this film isn’t as graphic as it’s made out to be, but you do have to take into consideration the time in which it was released. For the 1980’s it was pretty brutal (the first murder in the car, that broken bottle to the vag, the sliced nipple and slice across the eyeball). Even by today’s standards some of the murders are pretty intense. The film does deliver a dank and putrid atmosphere but somehow doesn’t do it enough to drag you into its gaping jaws the way you’re expecting it to. Some of the sexuality in the film is more explicit than most were used to then (a toe job anyone? LOL!) and its tinged with enough sleaze and coarseness to fill a stew pot and feed a homeless shelter. That last sentence should tell you everything.

I really can’t say that this would be “essential” viewing, per se, but only because it’s one of the more notorious works by Mr. Fulci do I even recommend it. Just with its history and track record in Europe (and I believe, Australia) it’s one to look at, at least once. Fulci has plenty of hits and misses in his filmography but if you’re even the slightest bit curious, seek this one out. It’s available to rent via Netflix in both DVD form and instant streaming. Your jaw will drop and you’ll gasp out loud a few times without even knowing it. The rest of the time you’ll be laughing at the utterly ridiculous dialogue and at the ultra-random WTF moments scattered throughout – three fingered red herrings and all. I would , though, probably also recommend getting a warm bath (with a good antibacterial soap) ready just before pressing play on this evil little nasty, because with the filth and stench you’re going to have to endure, you will want to wash and scrub yourself down as hard as you can over and over again after you finish this!  

The Last House on Dead End Street (1977)

Hello everyone.

After a brief hiatus, I've decided to return to this little piece of horror hobbying after several months of silence. I've spent some time acquiring some more pieces to add to my collection and this first entry upon my return proves it.

In the horror realm of the seventies and eighties there are those few films who have such a reputation that now, so many years later, horror fans spend countless hours (and unbelievable amounts of money) to get their hands on them. I'd never heard of The Last House on Dead End Street until about a year or two ago when another collector let me in on this almost-forgotten film. I did some research and read about how some horror collectors remember this movie from their childhood and teen-age years, stowing away into the back room of mom and pop video stores and wishing to carry this piece home with them. I was surprised at the fondness of these reminiscences and how dear some people hold this film to their hearts - especially upon reading how rare this film is.

Upon my further research on this one, I found that this film touches one of the most taboo and, at the same time, fascinating horror subject matters: the snuff film. Before getting my hands on this one, I'd sat through the atrocity that is the Findlay mess known as Snuff. I won't get into that one, as I'll save it for it's complete review at a later time. But ever since I first heard of Snuff back in high school, I'd always have this morbid curiosity about the urban myth of the snuff film. Do they really exist? Are there people who make movies that come close and sell them passing them off as the real McCoy? How would you even begin to fathom creating something as horrific as a film where someones actual death would be portrayed on-screen? Is that legal? How would someone even get away with it? All these questions pushed me further and further until I sat in front of a little film called 8MM back in my mid-twenties. Again, not elaborating on that film itself, but that curiosity always stuck with me and sometimes, I'd stay up late at night just thinking about every facet of the subject. It wasn't the actual content that piqued my wanting to know more, it was the actual staging of it, the conception, the writing, the casting. How would it all be carried across? It would cause my heart to race in a way I'd never felt before as a horror fan. Sure, we all like to see how filmmakers are going to kill off the next victim and by which means the execution would take place. But something as mind-baffling as something real happening before your eyes...

I read about this one again some months ago and I began to search for it on-line. As amazing as this is going to sound, I was part of a bidding war on Ebay for a copy of this on VHS (one of the ultra-rare U.S. releases by Sun Video) in which - when I finally withdrew - the asking price for this, again, on VHS, had reached the hundred-dollar mark. And the bidding war was between myself and nine other people. What was so great about this film that had that many people wanting to get their hands on it?

Finally, about three weeks ago, I got an email from a friend, and fellow horror buff, who'd told me he'd gotten a hold of a special edition U.S. DVD release by Barrel Video. He oohed and aahed in delight about how he'd been in the bargain used bin over at the local specialty shop and had seen this just "lying there". He talked about it a little more and the more he spoke, the more intrigued I was. So, the other night, he was kind enough to bring it over and put it in. The following is a very concise review (as best as I can) based on what I've read/heard and what I actually saw:

First of all, according to iMDB, this film is completely pseudonymous - from the director to writer and the complete cast. Nobody who worked on this film used his or her real name in the credits. Just from that mere tidbit of trivia alone was enough to take my curiosity to its peak.

The film opens with a young man, Terry, fresh out of prison, coming back to an old college building in search of an old friend of his who happens to be a filmmaker. Those opening moments set the tone for the entire film. Eerie close-ups of concrete gargoyles, sinister low-fi music with the main character's thoughts echoing throughout, and best of all, terrible, terrible film stock that makes you know the film is going to be sleazy, And boy, does it reek. What transpires in the next hour or so is some of the most bizarre and memorable scenes I've ever witnessed on celluloid.

Terry wants to make snuff films and takes his pals - some of them former business associated - along for the ride to make some money and gain some notoriety. That's pretty much the jist of the film. But what his friends don't know is that they are going to be the cast of these films and that Terry has something set up for each one of them. There is an eeriness to the film that you can't ignore a sort of ominous feeling to the whole thing that tells you right off the bat that you're in for a unique ride. I don't want to give much away because if you're a true die-hard, I believe you should seek this out and see if you can get your hands on it somehow (If you're interested, email me). Terry and his gang of thugs (for lack of a better term) offs the friends one by one in the most brutal of ways, and you sit there and watch them die as the cameraman takes it all in. There are a few scenes that have to be seen to be believed, the kind of scenes that are so horrific that you want to turn away but can't because of how intense and how realistic it all looks. The death scenes are imaginative and you have to wonder what was going through the mind of Mr. Roger Watkins (who came forward just before his own demise in 2007 that he'd helmed the entire thing) at the time of this film's production.

Bottom line: yes, the movie is intense, especially during two memorable sequences. Yes, the movie is graphic. Yes, the movie is quite disturbing but not how I imagined it would be. First, the film takes about a half hour to forty-five minutes to get started, only because the film takes it time in introducing all the main players and the film sets them up pretty well, for being as low-budget as it is. And that's one of the aspects of the film that actually works in its favor. It reeks low budget, it screams trash and sleaze, but you know what? It actually does the film justice. Even the sorrid sex scenes scream vile filth in a classy manner, which is something that most films of that era can't get away with. There are plenty of inadequacies that this film carries, as does every film, but that's actually what helps it carry itself. It does not apologize for what it is. It does not try to be something it obviously isn't. There are no grey areas. You either end up loving it or panning it completely. It all depends on your point of view.

The only thing I particularly disliked about the film was its short running time of about 76 minutes, that's just over an hour. But, the wallop the last half hour has makes up for it completely, even going as far as to have the whole thing abruptly end and credits roll just after catching your breath after the final murder. I can honestly say that I've never seen anything like this before. This cements my theory of why the underground horror film never flourished during the late 70's and early 80's: People refused to accept this as cinema. People did not want to see this type of film and interpret it into an art form the way some of us horror buffs do. People want their Jasons and their Freddy Kreugers and their SAW films because most modern horror is all cookie-cutter, and people like those "safe" horror films, where they know they won't be subjected to anything more than a crazy masked killer stalking a bunch or horny teens. They are afraid of having their minds taken into a much deeper realm of terror, especially with the subject of the snuff film altogether.

I used to credit the Findlay piece of crap known as Snuff for igniting the urban legend of the snuff film. Boy, was I wrong. I now believe that Roger Watkins himself is the reason that these films, in theory, exist. I believe that because of his innovation and dark sense of humor that the snuff film was ever introduced into the mainstream. This picture didn't need hired picketers to stand outside New York grindhouses protesting the film's release to get attention. Without this film we wouldn't have had the semi-decent Spanish film Thesis. Without this film, we wouldn't have known what the big deal was when Charlie Sheen called the FBI after watching a Japanese film called Guinea Pig. Without LHODES, these bratty teenagers who think they know it all about horror cinema just because they've seen an Eli Roth film would have their Hostel or SAW. Without this films, true horror fans wouldn't have had the chance to descend into true horror madness. It's amazing to me how Snuff gained the fame and notoriety that it did for a few lousy minutes at the end of the film when Watkins was able to give us something even more graphic and his piece of work goes virtually unnoticed.

The true brilliance of this film is that it takes an Urban legend and uses it to its own advantage. It uses the mere idea of what could possibly exist in a true snuff film and capitalizes on it in a way that makes you wonder if somewhere in the most hidden parts of the world, something like this could really happen. Could I actually one day go into an underground video store and accidentally stumble on the "real thing" without knowing it? If you think about it long enough, it actually will make your stomach turn.

Go out and find this one. I know it will be hard to, but go out and hunt it down. It will change your viewpoint on the idea of the snuff film altogether and give you a new respect for underground horror cinema.

Here is the (particularly disturbing) trailer:

The Last House on the Left (1972)

There was an H-E-B grocery store on old Highway 83 that we used to frequent in Weslaco,Texas back in the late 80's. As all these little places did at the time, they had a small video rental section at the front of the store and it seemed like all of them silently competed to see who had the latest in horror films. Some titles were at specific stores and not others and every store you walked into had it's own little variety of what to offer. I remember picking up the box - which had the alternate art than what you see on the left, the picture of the dead girl lying in the palm of a giant hand with a house lit up behind it - and didn't know what to think of it. I don't remember feeling frightened or uneasy and I found that strange, even back then. I guess it didn't appear to me to be all that interesting. Boy, was I in for a rude awakening.

Flash forward to the winter of 1997, the Spice Girls were still trying to hold on to the U.S. chart, Good Will Hunting had been a smash in theatres, and my kid brother had taken up the notion to date a girl significantly older than he was. Though I scowled at that idea, I got to know her and we became good friends. Around the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we all decided to go out and rent some movies and hang out and as we looked through the store shelves, my brother pointed this one out to me. I wasn't keen on the idea of taking that one home and reluctantly, I motioned him to go ahead and take it. I mean, I may as well give it a looksie, since at this time, I was still naive of many the horror classics. We got home popped it in the player. One hour and thirty minutes later, my life as a horror fan was changed forever. I was sickened, repulsed, and outright shocked.

I bought this DVD when it was released uncut by MGM in 2002 (or was it 2003?) when I was living in Missouri and showed it to a friend of mine. She, too, was completely appalled. It went back on the shelf and was never heard from again. Last night, this precious piece of horror cinema was playing on Fear Net and my cousin, her husband, and I decided to give it a play. Why not? It was a cold Monday night and we didn't have to be at work the next day. They had never seen it before so I didn't say a word about anything that was about to appear on the screen. When the last bit of the credits disappeared from the screen, I sat there with my eyes closed. I had completely forgotten how powerful this film really is and how in this modern day and age, it still packs a wallop that many of the Hollywood remake trash being churned out recently wish they had. I will expand on that later.

Horror buffs know the premise: Two young girls, Mari and Phyllis are on their way to see their current favorite band, Bloodlust, in concert. While on their way, Phyllis gives the idea of scoring a bit of weed to make the whole night all that much better. They approach a young mentally challenged young man who takes them upstairs into an unknown building that is harboring a group of recently-escaped vigilantes led by horror villain, and fan favorite, Krug (David Hess). The two girls are taken out into the woods and humiliated and tortured on camera in ways never before seen on film. When I first saw this film, I was shocked. I'd never seen anything so brutal before, so unredeeming of itself. The scenes are so realistic in many ways and you have to actually tell yourself that you're watching that was created by someone else. The scene where Phyllis is disemboweled remains one of the most horrific I've ever seen in a film from that period of time. Most people who watch the film now argue about it's potency but always compare it to the films that were produced years after this was first shown. Nothing had ever been shown on the big screen like this back in the early 1970's. It was so controversial and yet groundbreaking at the time and you have to really imagine what it would have been like to sit in a theater in those days and watch the atrocities that were given to you here in a very visceral, full-force way. You actually feel sympathy for the girls - although it was their hunt for grass that got them into the predicament in the first place - and you could actually feel every cut, every drop of blood, every scream, every cry for help.

The filmmakers give the film a sense of doom that you don't find in motion pictures these days. Take for instance the scene where Phyllis appears to have outwitted Krug and his gang and comes up to the road at the end of the woods. Within yourself you feel a sense of relief and you really think the poor girl is going to make it. But when it all comes around and the gang of ghouls mount their violence on her with all they have, there is a sickening sense of dread that you feel within the pit of your stomach. And not many films have ever gotten me to feel that way. The scene where Mari is shot in the lake gives you that same sense of dread, like something or someone could have come to rescue them from an awful demise. But, keeping that in mind, let's move on to Act II.

The gang make their way to a house up the road from where Mari's body was left behind. They meet a husband and wife who, after playing on their sympathies, allow them to stay in their house. Little do they know they are the parents of poor Mari, and soon enough, Mom and Dad put two and two together and figure out just who these people are. The second half of the film is perhaps darker than the first act in many ways, seeing that now Mari's parents have vowed to take revenge. Everything leads up to the parents offing each of their daughter's assailants one by one in really surprising - and horrific - ways. It all comes down to the moral being that you never know what you're capable of in this life unless you're really put to the test. So many people have their opinions about this film and I've spoken with horror fans each with their own perspective on this one. There is a sheer brilliance behind everything seen on the screen if you really think about it. Craven himself knew that he was pushing buttons that people back in that day and age and hitting subject people probably weren't going to swallow very easily. You have to commend the man, though, for showing us real life and risking his own name - and the names of future horror-icons like Sean S. Cunningham and Steve Miner - and staying true to the message in the film.

What did it for me, though, was the brilliance and panache that David Hess brought to the picture. This man didn't play the part of Krug, he was Krug! There has never been a horror villain so brutal, so macabre, so fucking evil as this character and there hasn't been one ever since. This man is amazing in this movie and it makes you wonder how he prepared for the role of horror's most beloved and enduring villain. I've seen him in The House on the Edge of the Park, where he echoes Krug in a thousand and one ways, but this one will remain his magnum opus, the pinnacle of shallow, senseless, over the top brutality and hostility. If you get the MGM DVD, watch his on-camera interview and listen to him how he talks about not being able to go out into the streets for people pointing at him and actually thinking he was the real-life Krug. There was a realism and a frankness to his character and when he evil reaches the point to where he has his own son kill himself on camera, you can't help but love the bastard and loathe him at the same time. Others have tried to mimic the nuances of this character, but nobody has ever come close.

Did I enjoy this film? Absolutely not. Was this a good film? Positively, without a doubt, this is one of the most powerful films ever released. It is one of those films that drains the life out of you and causes you to have a sigh of relief once the end credits roll. It's overwhelming in some areas and it isn't for the faint of heart. Many films in this genre try to pass themselves off as 'the real deal', where in this case, this film can. There is a realism and a truth to it that you can't shy from. It's almost like watching a snuff film. You watch the screen and just can't believe what's going on. This is a true piece of horror history. I honestly feel that if this film hadn't been made and released, horror films as we know them just wouldn't exist. Someone had to push that envelope. Someone had to get the message across that life can be terrifying and horrific and I'm glad that Wes Craven and his pals had the gumption and the audacity to release this. I remember being deeply disturbed by this film when I first saw it. It stayed in my head for weeks and weeks and it was really hard to get it out of my brain. Now, tell me the last horror piece you saw that had that kind of effect on you?

I didn't think so.

Every horror connoisseur should already have this in their collection. The only version I own is the MGM DVD, but I'd really like to find the VHS version with the woman's body in that great big hand. If you haven't seen this, please see it before you go and watch the upcoming remake. Yes, there is going to be a remake. With that said, take a gander at this. You won't be sorry.

"Blow your brains out!"

Pieces (1982)

It is a warm summer day in Reedley, California. It is 1983 and my parents and I are at the local drive-in theater. Don't hold your breath, though. We're at a drive-in, but it's Saturday afternoon so we're at the drive-in-turned-flea-market on the corner of Alta and Manning Avenues. The day is hot and my mother, sister and I are in line in the concession building, taking in the cool air of the swamp coolers overhead and listening to 80's music over the loudspeakers, something along the lines of Air Supply or Hall and Oates or something in that style. My father is out in the heat trying to find something to buy, or browse, I can't remember which. I'm holding a Pepsi in my hand - ah, some things never change, do they? - and I'm chewing the wax rim off the paper cup and looking around at the movie posters behind the glass casings. Suddenly, this bright red poster catches my eye and has me frozen. The picture of a dead woman strewn on the floor with a large chainsaw hovering over her glares back at me with a force so strong that I can't stop staring at it. I can read the tag line at the top of the poster and the notice that "No one under 17 admitted to this performance" is screaming at me. I remember my mother calling my name to tell me we were going back outside but I couldn't move, my eyes were fixed on that image of the woman. She came to grab me and when her hand touched my shoulder, I remember jumping out of sheer fright. It was something I never forgot.

Several years while living in South Texas, I bumped into this one again while at Valley Mart - a grocery store in the city of Weslaco where I first came into contact with many horror classics - and listening to Kon Kan's "I Beg Your Pardon" as it came over the store's loudspeakers. I recognized the art that I'd seen on the poster and walked over to pick it up. This little wave of fear came over me and I held my breath as I read the back of the box. The premise? A crazed killer is stalking the girls of a local college in an attempt to mutilate them and create his own human puzzle. Sure, it sounded grisly, but it had my attention. With the voice of my mother calling me (again), I put the box down and walked away. Little did I know I wouldn't see this title again until my late twenties living in Independence, Missouri. I was in the local Best Buy and I saw the Diamond DVD release and snagged it without thinking. I ran home, put it in my player only to discover that the disc was a total dud. Man, was I pissed. I was pissed enough to where I didn't take the disc back - I'd only paid about $5 for it - and I didn't look for the film again. About a year or so later, I was shopping with some friends at the local pawn shop and rummaging through the used VHS, as I always do when I visit a pawn shop, I found the Vestron version of this movie and grabbed it. For only 50 cents, you'd better believe that I was walking out of the store with it. But I noticed that there was no label on the tape. No sort of sticker or anything. I wasn't going to fall for it twice so I asked the guy behind the counter to allow me to play it on one of their many VCRs and thankfully, the tape in the box was actually the film itself. I took it and as soon as I got home - and everyone went to bed - I popped this into the player and finally got to watch this one in its entirety.

The opening scene was completely laughable and nothing like what I was expecting. I laughed as I watched the kid put together the pieces of the porno puzzle and listened as his mother called him every name in the book when she catches him with it. What was even funnier was how the kid came back and hacked his mother over the head with axe to get her back. Blood spewing everywhere as the ax literally bounced off her head. A scene like that should have been terrifying and disturbing but it was just the opposite. I knew at that moment that I was in for a treat - especially when the telephone in the house rings and the camera shows us a push button phone. Doesn't the entire opening scene take place in 1942? Wait, there goes the phone again. Low Budget, is that you calling?

What transpires throughout the film is that there is a killer loose on the campus of a local college looking for female bodies to dismember to create his own human puzzle of sorts. We have the late, great Christopher George heading the whole thing and his lovely then-wife Linda Day going undercover as a professor at the college to get to the bottom of the murders. With the aide of the college dean (Edward Purdom) and cute student Kendall (Ian Sera), the four intend to get to them bottom of things. This film is fantastic. It reeks of sleaze and that's it's enduring quality. As a horror film alone, it stinks and not in the good way, but there are characteristics about it that still have it as the classic that it is, still showing in midnight runs throughout the country (I almost got to see it in Dallas, Texas during the fall of 2005 at the Angelika but, just as the time I almost got to see Cannibal Ferox...) and people still sell the show out. There is a sort of humorous touch to the whole thing and some of the scenes are so outrageous that you have to sit back and just laugh to yourself and wonder how the hell this crap fest got greenlit. I guess I can answer my own question on that one: back in the horror heydays of the 70's and 80's, if a particular film became an international smash hit, film distributors would cash in on that particular subject in their own ways to make money. When The Exorcist was released, how many possession films followed? Beyond the Door, Abby....I could go on. This was a film that cashed in on the success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and they were brave enough to admit it on the film's adverts! Only this one gave everyone what they didn't get in that film: Blood and gore!

The Georges are great in this film. They play serious roles but play them in a manner in which they don't have to take themselves seriously. Wait, did that make sense? The best scene in the film is when the killer activates the campus' public address system and the sounds of a marching band blare across the schoolyard. No one can understand why this is happening and everyone tries to find out how it happened and how to shut it off. But when dear Mary Riggs (played by Day) reaches her tolerance limit and begins to scream the word, "Bastard!" at the top of her lungs in hopes of the killer hearing her over the already louder music, without wanting to, you just begin to laugh until you have tears in your eyes. Don't get me wrong, you feel her pain and understand her plight. But If you're a fan of this film, the moment you hear someone say the word, "bastard", you smile to yourself and see Mrs. Day-Greorge clutching her fists and screaming out into the open air. They don't make cheese like this anymore, kiddies.

The gore in this film is fantastic. It holds nothing back and it is what it is. Some of the murders in this film are so gruesome that you have to sit back and smile. They are presented with a loving detail that while you're smiling, you have to admire how these guys pulled them off in the first place. The acting is particularly sub par, but with a film of this nature, can you expect anything more than that? Toward the end of the film, it takes a bizarre twist that you're not expecting, which made the film all the more worth while. With the added treat of Ian Sera's full frontal shot - in front of a poster for Friday the 13th! - the film ended up being more than I would have ever expected, and then some. When the identity of the killer is revealed in the final act and when you realize what the whole thing is really about, you have to put your hand over your mouth and refrain from both laughing and screaming. But, I have to say, though, that the film's final shot remains one of the most disturbing in horror history - especially if you're of the male persuasion. You've got to admire and love a schlock film such as this that can make you laugh and then leave you with an uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach.

If you're a horror fan, get this one. I know that Grindhouse Releasing have just put out a newly mastered version of this film on DVD which I don't have yet. I think it's about time this gem got the proper DVD treatment as this one is really hard to find still in print. I own the Diamond DVD (though it doesn't work), the original Vestron VHS, and the VHS print on a DVD compilation called The Blood Feast Collection released by TGG Direct, grain, noise hiss and all. They'll never make them like this again. Enjoy them while you still can get a hold of them. This one is by far one of my favorites and it belongs in every horror fan's collection. Now that it's widely available, there's no reason why you shouldn't own it already.

I couldn't find a trailer, but here is the opening act of the film. Sleaze heaven if you ask me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqhRvIiQ_zw for the original Spanish version and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLer508DxEk&feature=related for the English version. Notice the difference in the music and dialogue. Wait, did I hear someone say, "Bastard"?


(Update 5/25/12): I have to apologize for the review above. Since I wrote this a few years ago, my writing style(s) have changed and have "grown up" a little. I've been able to get my hands on the new 2-disc Special Edition by Grindhouse Releasing and let me say that it is the definitive version. The picture and sound are great (it can even be watched with the original Spanish-language soundtrack). One of the great special features on the second disc is an on camera interview with director Juan Piquer Simon, giving some insight on the filming of Pieces. But, the best feature of all - which was also done similarly on the Grindhouse Releasing version of Cannibal Ferox - is that you can watch the film with a track from a live audience watching it on the big screen at a Los Angeles theater. I did it only once and though it was oddly entertaining, it was something I will only do once. Then there's an on-camera interview with Eli Roth talking about the film and it's legacy and impact. The film comes with a fold-out replica of the original poster above and a picture of the original Spanish-language title, Mil Gritos Tiene La Noche. But honestly, I still love my Vestron Video VHS version, grain, hiss and all. If anyone knows how the Diamond version is (if it's cut, quality, etc), let me know, since I'll never know how it is; I've never seen it again in any store since I purchased my non-operational version back in 2003. I don't know how limited it is so get it before it goes out-of-print. It's worth having.