Blu-ray Review: TOYS ARE NOT FOR CHILDREN

Posted by Chris Alexander in Delirium News & Updates on October 8th, 2019
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Exploitation drama favors character and theme over explicit shocks

It’s arguable that the greatest sorts of exploration films dial back their visually explicit shocks in favor of the power of suggestion. The most obvious example might be PSYCHO, with its skillfully edited shower scene making us think we see more than we do. But that’s not particularly fair, as PSYCHO was made by a major filmmaker and studio and released during a period where nudity, sex and extreme bloodshed were simply not on the mainstream menu. But later, the same Gein-centric source material was mined for THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, a 1973 release that was produced at a time when all manner of gushy thing was allowed and accepted on screen. And yet, CHAIN SAW, one of the most brutal and notorious pictures of its kind in the world, refused to show too much either, using sound and suggestion and style to to turn stomachs and smack its audience senseless. Other films, like 1971’s BLOOD AND LACE, 1973’s THE BABY et al also proved ample sleazy and upsetting while teetering between PG and R and using theme and tone to their advantage.

Which brings us to 1972’s harrowing and hideous and unforgettable trash sorta-classic TOYS ARE NOT FOR CHILDREN, now widely available via a splendid, feature-packed Blu-ray release from Arrow Video, a restored 2K visual upgrade from the long out-of-print Something Weird Video DVD release, where it was paired with the icky and awesome THE TOY BOX. The film is as perverse and seedy as they come, telling the tale of the emotionally disturbed young woman Jamie (a fascinating one-shot turn from Marcia Forbes), who we first meet masturbating in bed to one of her many stuffed animals as she breathlessly chants “daddy, daddy”, a sweaty session interrupted by her braying mother, who chastises her and accuses her of being “just like her father”. Seems Jamie’s dad was a cad who tom-catted around and eventually bailed on the family, leaving the vulgar mother to smother her only child. Though MIA, Jamie’s pop has continued to send her toys, which she keeps littered around her room and whose presence have contributed to her bizarre, sexually stunted, childlike state of mind, where she yearns for daddy’s love while yearning for other more carnal pleasures.

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DELIRIUM #21 Cover Reveal: Guest Edited by Ama Lea!

Posted by Chris Alexander in Delirium News & Updates on October 3rd, 2019

LA based artist and filmmaker serves as the EIC of this special ’90s tribute issue

Since its first issue, DELIRIUM co-founder Chris Alexander has been the editor of DELIRIUM magazine, curating the content and covers. But for our 21st issue, Alexander brought on frequent collaborator Ama Lea, the photographer, designer, artist and filmmaker who has long been creating conceptual covers for the magazine, most recently with our Dario Argento and David Cronenberg issues and before that, with our celebrated Barbara Crampton cover. And even before that, the pair collaborated on many award-nominated covers for FANGORIA magazine, during Alexander’s tenure as EIC.

For this special issue dedicated to ’90s horror films and culture, Lea knocks it out of the park, jamming every page with affectionate, intelligent features and beautiful art. You’re going to lose your brains over this one, readers…

Have a look at the vibrant and camp-centric cover below and stay tuned, as the mag goes on sale NEXT WEEK!

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DELIRIUM – Our 20th terrifying issue!

Posted by Jason Bene in Delirium News & Updates on July 9th, 2019

SUBSPECIES, Joe Dante, Phil Fondacaro and more!

Our titanic 20th issue is a full-blown loveletter to Full Moon’s classic vampire franchise SUBSPECIES, the beloved series of shockers whose long-awaited fifth entry – SUBSPECIES V: BLOODRISE- will go to camera this year in Albania as part of our much-hyped DEADLY TEN feature film project.

Here in this issue, DELIRIUM sits down with veteran director Ted Nicolaou and Radu himself, actor Anders Hove for a massive 8 page interview covering all four official SUBSPECIES films in detail, as well as teasing news about the upcoming BLOODRISE.

And as a sidebar, we talk to Radu’s leading lady Denice Duff, who returns to the fold with Ted and Anders for the new film as well. And further on the classic Full Moon tip, managing editor Michael Gingold chats up the legendary actor Phil Fondacaro about his stories career in everything from TROLL to THE CREEPS to LAND OF THE DEAD.

Elsewhere, you’ll find in-depth articles on the Clint Howard culinary creeper ICE CREAM MAN, the nightmarish Spanish shocker WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? and so much more!

DEADLY TEN features HALLOWEED NIGHT and NECROPOLIS: LEGION now in production

Posted by Chris Alexander in Delirium News & Updates on June 13th, 2019

Full Moon’s DEADLY TEN project is now LIVE!

Full Moon Features has started principal photography on two of their feature films in their DEADLY TEN anthology as of June 11, 2019.  The DEADLY TEN is Full Moon’s highly anticipated initiative that sees the studio producing ten original feature films, and live-streaming these productions free for fans at DeadlyTen.com. The site will also feature pre-production videos, FX tutorials and casting sessions for each movie that fans can access 24 hours a day. The DEADLY TENanthology will premiere exclusively on Full Moon Features streaming channels.

HALLOWEED NIGHT: MEET THE WEEDJIES is the inaugural feature film in the DEADLY TEN series with director Danny Draven (REEL EVIL) taking the helm of the ganja-filled take of Charles Band cult classic GHOULIES. The wacky, weed-choked comedy creeper features a motely crew including Full Moon/Empire Pictures legendary actress Barbara Crampton (RE-ANIMATOR), The Howard Stern Show’s Richard Christy and Medicated Pete, comedian Ester Goldberg, EVIL BONG franchise veteran Mindy Robinson, Playboy superstar Bridget Marquardt, and internet film critic Shawn “Cool Duder” Phillips. HALLOWEED NIGHT was written by Shane Bitterling and produced by Charles Band. Lensing will take place in the city of sin itself, Las Vegas, starting on June 11, 2019.

Immediately following production of HALLOWEED NIGHT, Full Moon will start lensing filmmaker and former FANGORIA magazine editor Chris Alexander’s NECROPOLIS: LEGION.  Gothic, brooding and bloody, the film is a surreal, Eurotrash-tinted companion film to the classic 1986 Band-produced Empire Pictures exploitation film. The film features a demonic vampire witch named Eva (Ali Chappell) who drinks blood through her breasts, while possessing a young writer (Augie Duke) doing research on her story. Production will take place in Canada starting on June 22, 2019.

All inquiring minds and curious eyes are welcome as DeadlyTen.com live-streams the entire production process of both these films, uncensored.

Sign up for FREE today at DEADLY TEN!

 

Blu-ray Review: EMANUELLE AND FRANCOISE

Posted by Chris Alexander in Delirium News & Updates on May 10th, 2019
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Joe D’Amato’s Eurotrash melodrama is as nasty as it gets

Even among the skeezy depths of Joe D’Amato’s cinematic oeuvre, his 1975 sex thriller EMANUELLE AND FRANCOISE is a jaw dropper. The director made his share of unofficial sequels to the popular Silvia Kristel-starring erotic EMMANUELLE movies, most starring the lovely Laura Gemser, but this trashterpiece (also known as EMANUELLE’S REVENGE) is among the best and is almost as cheerfully vulgar than his crown-jewel of vileness, the disturbing 1977 entry EMANUELLE IN AMERICA. Echoing the plot of the decade-and-change later Lucio Fulci softcore drama THE DEVIL’S HONEY, EMANUELLE AND FRANCOISE wallows in perversion to tell its operatically extreme tale of vengeance and sexual humiliation and though D’Amato’s lens captures ample upset, the entire thing is just so damned entertaining and groovy (Joe Dynamo’s funk soul score is a marvel) that you can’t help but kinda love it.

D’Amato regular George Eastman (the monster-man in ANTHROPOPHAGUS and ABSURD and the lead stud in EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD) stars as Carlo a preening svengali-esque hustler brute who toils on the back-end of the entertainment business, grafting gigs and delighting in the exploitation and degradation of his lover, the sweet-natured and fragile Francoise (Patrizia Gori). As the film opens, Carlo subjects the girl to one blow too many and she jumps in front of a train.  Enter Francoise’s sister Emanuelle ( in this incarnation played by SALON KITTY’s Rosemarie Lindt), who traces the sad tale of her sister’s decline via letters, with each despicable incident leeringly illustrated by D’Amato for the audience’s outrage and titillation. Soon, Emanuelle hatches a plot to seduce, trap and torture the bastard, locking him in a room armed with a two-way mirror, drugging him and subjecting him to endless images of her getting off with a succession of lovers, both male and female.

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Blu-ray Review: MASTER OF DARK SHADOWS

Posted by Chris Alexander in Delirium News & Updates on April 16th, 2019
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Reverent Dan Curtis documentary celebrates an undervalued auteur

Though his successes were many – both in and outside of the genre – producer/director Dan Curtis rarely receives to sort of dues his legacy warrants as a serious master of horror. Here is the man who brought Gothic dread screaming to the small screen and made an art out of it. His iconic daytime soap opera DARK SHADOWS became a phenomenon after he introduced the ancient vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) into the storyline and suddenly the show, its star and its creator were propelled into the limelight, creating a demand for dandy bloodsuckers who were both fearsome and fearlessly sensitive. Barnabas was the romantic and reluctant vampire, a motif that would stay with the genre, informing the identity of the monster in so many movies and written works to come.

But Curtis’s talents and vision extended beyond the shadow of DARK SHADOWS and David Gregory’s heartfelt new documentary MASTER OF DARK SHADOWS aims to proved just that.  Painting a reverent portrait of the savvy producer in his salad days right up to the creation and – after the show lurched through its first season – evolution of his game changing horror soap opera, Gregory’s film pushes further, deep into Curtis’ reach on screens large (his creepy 1976 haunted house masterpiece BURNT OFFERINGS, the brilliant DARK SHADOWS feature films) and small (everything else) well into the  early 1990s. In fact, if MASTER OF DARK SHADOWS has a flaw at all, its that we don’t get enough of it, with one wishing more love was ladled on such masterful Curtis telefilms like THE NORLISS TAPES, THE NIGHT STALKER and DEAD OF NIGHT; the film could easily – and pleasurably – have run another hour.

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Vinyl Review: DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE

Posted by Chris Alexander in Delirium News & Updates on April 11th, 2019
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Rustblade Records releases the soundtrack for the classic Italian horror film

Director Michele Soavi’s startling blackly comic horror masterpiece DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE (released in English territories under the goofy name CEMETERY MAN) is one of the final great films coming out Italy, released long after the gory glory days of the European horror boom and a movie that was at odd with the smugness of its decade. Based on the novel by DYLAN DOG creator Tiziano Sclavi, the film stars British actor Rupert Everett as Dellamorte, a hapless graveyard caretaker in a small Italian village who – along with his simple-minded assistant Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro) – discovers that the dead buried in his cemetery refuse to stay deceased, rising again to feast on their families. When the lonely young man falls in love with the comely widow (the stunning Anna Falchi) of a dead millionaire, he is crestfallen to have his romance aborted by his beloved’s own zombification, leading to the final unspooling of his senses and a sequence of events that are alternately absurd, erotic, hilarious and horrifying.

There’s no other movie quite like DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE, patchwork of bizarre eccentricity that it is,  and indeed,  Manuel De Sica’s all-over-the-map score is the perfect aural backdrop for Soavi’s shenanigans. Now, Italy’s Rustblade Records have released De Sica’s wild collection of cues in a beautiful deluxe vinyl packaged, with a pretty purple record housed in an attractive sleeve and with a sexy gate-fold poster tucked inside. It’s a great framework for one of the weirdest and coolest horror movie soundtracks of all time.

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Blu-ray Review: THE COMING OF SIN

Posted by Chris Alexander in Delirium News & Updates on April 5th, 2019
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Jose Larraz’s elegant and depraved masterwork comes to Blu-ray as part of Arrow’s Blood Hunger box set

In the annals of exploitation cinema, Spanish filmmaker Jose Larraz had one of the more unique voices; a multi-hyphenate artist who dabbled in many mediums, including comic books, and whose filmed fixations on beautiful women and hot sex were matched for his interests in darker, more psychological explorations. And while his resume certainly boasts a more than a few middling efforts, Arrow Video has collected a trio of his undisputed masterworks in their new “Blood Hunger” Blu-ray box set, where fans and fans-to-be can find gorgeous transfers of essential Larraz pictures like WHIRLPOOL, VAMPYRES and THE COMING OF SIN. It’s that last-listed title that brings us here. Because I’d never seen THE COMING OF SIN until now. And it’s just as astonishing a work of erotic horror as I’d heard it was, the depraved equal to WHIRLPOOL and sensual kin to VAMPYRES, a balletic three-hander that forsakes plot in favor of fevered couplings and ratcheting tension.

The film (released in many markets under the riotous and misleading title THE VIOLATION OF THE BITCH) stars Lidia Stern as Triana, a beautiful but simple Gypsy servant girl whose masters “loan” her out to an older, sexually voracious artist named Lorna (Patrice Grant) at her beautiful country estate. Before you can say “The Rain in Spain”, Lorna is smugly boasting that she will refine Triana’s palette, teaching her how to read, to speak, to socialize. And to fuck. Because it’s clear from the moment the two women meet that there is a strong sexual connection and Larraz revels in sustaining that tension, creating a dripping erotic aura that only relaxes once his film veers into full blown mania.

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Blu-ray Review: THE WITCHES

Posted by Chris Alexander in Delirium News & Updates on March 28th, 2019
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One of Hammer’s strongest ’60s shockers comes to Blu-ray from Scream Factory

Director Cyril Frankel’s 1966 supernatural drama THE WITCHES (based on the novel “The Devil’s Own” by Peter Curtis) might be one of Hammer’s most misunderstood and undervalued productions, with casual admirers of the venerable studio’s output often either ignoring or dismissing it. This is likely due to the film being released squarely in the center of Hammer’s “Golden Age”, when the company had had a near decade-long paydirt mining and perfecting Gothic melodrama and more sensational shockers. It defied audience expectations and needs, in some respects. But Frankel’s eerie mystery is more in-line with the studio’s post-PSYCHO “Mini-Hitchcock” thrillers, material like Frankel’s own queasy NEVER TAKE SWEETS FROM STRANGERS, but one armed with a supernatural twist and buoyed by two mature female leads in the cast. But unlike Hammer’s 1965 scenery-chomper DIE, DIE MY DARLING – in which an aged and deranged Talulah Bankhead out-babied BABY JANE – THE WITCHES is no pandering horror-hagsploitation potboiler. It’s something far more evolved and interesting (and I say that with ardent adoration of the hagsploitation subgenre).

THE WITCHES stars Hollywood legend Joan Fontaine (Hitchcock’s REBECCA) as hard-nosed school teacher Gwen Mayfield who, after enduring a nightmarish experience in Africa (a berserk pre-credits sequence featuring monstrous witch doctors and tiki-men bursting into her classroom while Fontaine collapses, screaming), has endured a right and proper nervous breakdown. Once back on her feet, she accepts a job teaching the children of a tiny rural English Hamlet, an ideal position in a seemingly idyllic and peaceful community. However, almost from the moment she arrives, Gwen suspects something is “off”. The local minister turns out not to be a minister at all, despite wearing the collar for “comfort”; odd pagan talismans appear in tree trunks; some of the population seem to be in a kind of somnambulist state; and the town seems to be trying very hard to sabotage the budding romance between a pair of perfectly sweet and healthy teenagers. When people begin to die and Gwen starts to believe the whispers of witchcraft drifting through the village, she aims to do something about it, an act she might live to regret.

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Blu-ray Review: TERROR IS A MAN

Posted by Luis Ceriz in Delirium News & Updates on March 25th, 2019
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Severin unearths the 1959 Filipino horror classic

“More horrifying than FRANKENSTEIN! More Terrifying Than DRACULA! “

To my everlasting shame as a cult film connoisseur I must admit to having watched little to nothing of Eddie Romero’s output.As a producer and director, Romero was responsible for such classics as BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT, TWILIGHT PEOPLE, BLACK MAMA WHITE MAMA. THE WOMAN HUNT and BEYOND ATLANTIS but its his “Blood Island trilogy” that stands out in the hearts of horror aficionados.

TERROR IS A MAN is the first of this very loose trilogy and one of the Philippines’ first Horror films to be shot in English. Directed in 1959 by Gérard de Leon but only picked up for North American distribution by Hemisphere 10 years later,  TERROR’s basic theme is taken from HG Welles’ Island of Dr Moreau. When William Fitzgerald  (Richard Derr) is washed ashore on an island, the only survivor of a shipwreck, he’s found by Dr. Girard (Francis Lederer) a park Avenue surgeon and (apparently) genetic scientist who has isolated himself to pursue his experiments free from distractions (and ethical constraints) and assisted by his wife Francis (Greta Thyssen) and his assistant Walter (Oscars Keesee).Quickly, we learn that the island has no means of leaving and no means of communicating with the outside world.  Fitzgerald is told that any return to civilization will have to wait until the supply ship returns in several months. Plenty of time for him to explore the island, the native culture of the indigenous people, stumble into the mysterious experiments and get to know the disenfranchised wife a bit better.

Actually…a lot better!

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