Dark August

darkaugust

Dark August (1976)

After accidentally running over a young girl, artist Sal Devito (J.J. Barry) is haunted by three things: visions of the tragic incident, a strange figure lurking in the woods, and by Old Man McDermitt , the girl’s grandfather. As Sal’s mind is slowly coming unglued, his girlfriend Jackie (Carolyne Barry) tries her best to stand by her man. Jackie’s friend recommends that Sal seek spiritual guidance from Adrianna (Kim Hunter), a witch who specializes in white magic. Adrianna discovers that someone has placed a curse on Sal which summoned a demon to torment him.

Director Martin Goldman takes a pretty big chance with his take on what a horror film should be. Without an effects budget or a high body count (this definitely ain’t no slasher film), he instead focuses on psychology, the performances of his actors, and the supernatural. But you’ll have to use your imagination here as almost nothing otherworldly is ever shown in Dark August to indicate that what’s happening is anywhere but in the minds of the characters. The score by William S. Fisher is a jazzy synth mishmash with some wacko drums and piano (so of course, I dig it). The workmanlike cinematography by Richard E. Brooks has a few surprises stashed in the film in the form of some gorgeously composed shots.

Unfortunately, the entire film hinges on Sal, a friggin’ unlikeable bastard. J.J. Barry (who co-wrote the film with Goldman and Carolyne Barry) turns in a great performance but his character is a selfish and smug douchebag. The only thing I liked about Sal’s character is that it doesn’t take him long to buy into the supernatural world around him. If this movie had taken an extra ten minutes he moronically vacillated between faith and science, I would have given up. Other members of the cast do a fine job but the script has them caught in a mire of banal melodrama. Dr. Zira herself, Kim Hunter, is great and she gets to spout some pretty crazy incantations during a seance which goes horribly awry.

Despite its “Me Generation” whining, ponderous pacing, and actors’ workshop vibe, I have to admit that there is something special about Dark August. On the surface it feels like Savage Weekend but without the trashiness or the chainsaw. It does have a very well staged and surprising moment of violence that I did not see coming. Another cool scenes is when we first see the dark figure that is always watching Sal, it is chilling. Sal tries to catch this presence by following it deeper and deeper into the woods and his demon stays just out of reach and is always seen in a blurry haze.

Also in the film’s favor: I watched Dark August after I burned my beat up Lightning Video tape to DVD-R. In my experience, this always lends a claustrophobic, anything-can-happen vibe to old rare films like this one. I highly doubt that this fairly obscure film will get the special treatment if it ever does make it to DVD. It’s a shame because even though Goldman’s film has some major strikes against it, I was left with a creepy feeling when it was over and a few things to think about. I can’t recommend Dark August too much because I don’t think horror film fans should go out of their way to find it. However, if this flick turns up on some 50 movie pack someday, patient folks should give it a spin.

The Swamp of the Ravens

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The Swamp of the Ravens (1974)

Dr. Frosta (Ramiro Oliveros) has been conducting illegal and immoral experiments on the recently deceased in an effort to conquer death and perfect the mental control of his subjects. All that Simone (Marcia Bichette), his estranged girlfriend, knows is that the doctor works too hard and doesn’t give her enough attention. The police inspector (played by Fernando Sancho) assigned to the case is getting closer and closer to catching and stopping Dr. Frosta. The obsessive doctor is pushed over the edge when Simone starts seeing another man and he decides to use her as his next test subject.

I was lead to The Swamp of the Ravens by this poster. Much like the video-store days of my youth, clever and beautifully morbid artwork have steered me wrong in the best way possible. While very, very far from obscure Spanish horror perfection, the film does deliver on the fog-enshrouded swamp and the ravens. Well, there are some ravens. Mostly, the swamp is populated by buzzards. Anyway, let’s get down to business.

The eerie mood and the sickening tone of this film communicate one thing: death is everywhere. I still can’t believe that director Manuel Caño is the same guy who brought us the inept and idiotic Voodoo Black Exorcist. He really outdoes himself here by taking a film with a lame, somewhat confusing, and tired plot and filling it with an atmosphere so heavy, it’s suffocating. A classic horror tale unfurling in a somnambulitic 70s haze? Oh, I’m already there, duder. Oh yeah, and that badass cinematography comes from Manuel Merino of Horror Rises from the Tomb and Vampyros Lesbos.

Most of the cast doesn’t do much for me but the intense Ramiro Oliveros (Cannibal Apocalypse, The Pyjama Girl Case) works as Dr. Frosta. And Fernando Sancho makes for a great police inspector who perfectly delivers some dark humor. Marcia Bichette is pretty good as Dr. Frosta’s imperiled girlfriend but only shines when it’s time for her to scream.

The film’s fiery finale would be more satisfying if the damn thing had ended there. I won’t give anything away but let me just say that the final wrap-up is completely awful. Instead of a horde of Dr. Frosta’s zombies going on a rampage we get something much, much cheaper. Oh well, can’t win ’em all! Another unfortunate misstep is that The Swamp of the Ravens has a pretty slow pace but I barely even noticed because this flick is so grim and so odd. What’s that? Necrophilia and a (supposedly) real autopsy? Now, you’ve got my attention!

“I don’t like buzzards. They are birds of death.”

Night of the Devils

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Night of the Devils (1972)

A man suffering from amnesia (Gianni Garko) staggers out of the woods, injured, and catatonic. He is brought to a hospital where a doctor (Umberto Raho) runs tests which determine the man has suffered a terrible shock that has reduced him to this agitated and paranoid state. The only person who can identify this man is Sdenka (Agostina Belli), a lovely young woman who claims she met the patient a just few days ago. She identifies him as Nicola, a business man from Italy, but then disappears after the very sight of her drives Nicola into a frenzy.

The film then flashes back to a few days before to the events that drove Nicola mad. While purchasing lumber for his company, Nicola’s car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and he seeks help from a family returning from a funeral and living in a nearly abandoned village in the woods. Jovan (played by Roberto Maldera) agrees to help Nicola but it must be in the morning because there is said to be a blood-drinking witch who prowls around at night. This turns out to be true when the patriarch Gorca (Bill Vanders) returns from attempting to kill the witch but is now a vampire himself. As each member of the family falls prey to vampiric forces, Nicola tries to rescue the lovely Sdenka, the lovely daughter of Gorca with whom he has fallen in love with.

Night of the Devils kicks in with one of the most attention-grabbing opening scenes in Italian horror. Gianni Garko (or Sartana to you spaghetti western types) comes stumbling out of the woods into a clearing. He passes out near a stream and wakes up in a hospital where he is being examined by doctors. During his tests, we see into his mind where he is tormented by horrific visions of rotting corpses, a woman’s face getting shot off, ghoulish figures ripping the flesh from a naked woman’s body. This sequence is spell-binding. Its cheesy for sure but it is impossible not to wonder just what happened to this guy. Curiosity = piqued? You know it.

Director Giorgio Feroni (Mill of the Stone Women) remakes the ‘Wurdulak’ segment of Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath but makes it his own by amping up the sex, the gore, and the cackling madness of the vampires. The soundtrack by Giorgio Gaslini (So Sweet, So Dead) is great with its haunting vocal pieces and tense and minimal freakouts. Spanish cinematographer, Manuel Berenguer, keeps things nice and claustrophobic. While the countryside is nice, it is never pretty. Instead, the entire film is very somber and cast in shadows (without being overly dark). When there is a brightly lit scene, it screams danger and madness. If I have to find faults with this flick then it would be that the pacing is a little slow and the gore effects are looking a bit gamy.

Oh, this cast is great. Gianni Garko is always good. The lovely Agostina Belli of Holocaust 2000 and Scream of the Demon Lover is excellent as the sweet (or possibly evil) Sdenka. You might remember Roberto Maldera from The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave where he played the very unlucky groundskeeper. The luscious and hypnotic Teresa Gimpera of Crypt of the Living Dead gets ripped to shreds in this one (and it’s not by the critics). The always dependable Umberto Raho who usually plays police inspectors gets to flash his skillz by playing a doctor! And then there’s Maria Monti as ‘The Witch’. This is a truly eerie performance from an underused actress who had a small role in What Have You Done to Solange? I also have to mention young Cinzia De Carolis who grew up and played the freaky jailbait who tries to seduce John Saxon in Cannibal Apocalypse.

Night of the Devils is one of those forgotten masterpieces and a genuinely gore-soaked relic. This is the kind of cinema that drives me nerdily on. This film proves that if you think you’ve seen every last scrap of Italian junk, chances are there is one more title out there you need to see. Creepy, sleazy, bloody, melodramatic, nasty, and, as an added bonus: mind-fucky! The somber tone never lets up for a second and you just know that this ain’t gonna end well for our deranged hero. This is good stuff, y’all.

“Television? Now that’s something I’ve never seen!”

Oasis of Fear

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Oasis of Fear (1971)

Two British teenagers, Dick and Ingrid (played by Ray Lovelock and Ornella Muti), set out for Italy. The little scam artists sell porn and pictures of themselves posing nude to pay their way until they get busted and have 24 hours to get out of Italy. Instead of leaving immediately, they get robbed by some rather polite bikers and then get mistaken for a pair of German robbers. When they run out of gas, Dick and Ingrid stop at the house of Barbara Slater (Ingrid Papas), a bored (and strangely suspicious) housewife. The naive pair party with Barbara but soon discover her terrible secret.

Umberto Lenzi (Seven Blood Stained Orchids, Eyeball) does it again with Oasis of Fear, a sex obsessed and rebellious thriller. Though it’s a bit dated with all the hippie themes and some obvious symbolism, this is still a tense and fun film deftly directed by a real stalwart of Italian genre cinema. Oasis of Fear is edited by Eugenio Alabiso who cut many, many gialli including The Case of the Bloody Iris and The Fifth Cord. The score by Bruno Lauzi is a mix between awesome jazz and crappy generic hippie rock.

The cast totally rocks with the seductive and gorgeous Ornella Muti and the lovely but scheming Irene Papas (Don’t Torture a Duckling). Ray Lovelock is quite charming and believable as a desperate but overall good-natured conman. The always dependable Umberto Raho (The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave) shows up as a police inspector.

Oasis of Fear is a smart and excellently made giallo. It has its eye-rolling moments of hippie cheese but the grand design of the story is very cynical and intriguing. Lenzi could make some great thrillers and this one is no exception. I got a kick out of the parody of the Italian prudishness and Catholic guilt. The fact that these two kids can make a huge profit off of selling foreign smut to the squares is hilarious. Oasis of Fear is available on a Region 0 PAL DVD from Shameless Films. You should pick it up sometime. Go on, make Mr. Lenzi smile.

“Come on, Dick, kiss her. It’s in the stars.”

Plot of Fear

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Plot of Fear (1976)

A sudden series of brutal homicides baffles police but the obsessive Inspector Gaspare Lomenzo (Michele Placido) is determined to catch the killer. The inspector also has to compete with Pietro Riccio (Eli Wallach), the head of a private detective agency who always seems to be one step ahead of his investigation. The only pattern for the crimes is that all of the victims were members of an exclusive sex club called The Fauna Lovers led by eccentric author Hoffmann (played by John Steiner). Inspector Lomenzo falls for Jeanne (Corinne Clery), a beautiful model who just happens to be involved with this club. She witnessed the accidental death of Rosa, a hooker who may be the key to cracking the case.

Paolo Cavara, you amaze me. After the excellent Black Belly of the Tarantula, director Cavara comes back with a vengeance with Plot of Fear. Whoa, dig that abrasive and frightening music score by Daniele Patucchi (Deep River Savages)! One has to assume that Patucchi is also responsible for those horrid disco numbers as well. Wow. The prolific cinematographer, Franco Di Giacomo, responsible for other Gialli such as Who Saw Her Die? and Four Flies on Grey Velvet, shines once again with his versatility. Whether it’s a gritty and hooker-filled police station or a fog-enshrouded stretch of highway, the man has a beautiful eye.

Michele Placido’s performance as Inspector Gaspare Lomenzo has instantly become one of my favorites in all of the Giallo genre. Lomenzo is hotheaded, high strung, egocentric, and yet is a totally brilliant detective. The beautiful Corinne Clery (Hitchhike, The Devil’s Honey) is excellent as Jeanne, the girl of questionable morals that Lomenzo falls for despite her involvement with the case. Eli Wallach (though hideously dubbed) is very good as the scheming and suspicious Pietro Riccio. An inexplicable American actor cameo in this film comes from Tom Skerritt (also dubbed) who does little more than wave his arms around in frustration. Last but not least, one of Italian genre flicks’ elite, John Steiner of Tenebre and Mario Bava’s Shock, delivers another fine performance.

Giallo fans will be quite pleased with this film as it has plenty of plot twists, a few brutal death scenes (immolation!), odious 70s fashion, garish set designs, beautiful ladies, sleazy sex, J&B sightings, and a slew of politically incorrect moments. Plot of Fear also sports a pretty dismal view of the world with its bleak snapshots of urban life and its rather sickening portrayal of the decadent wealthy. Sounds like fun, eh? Don’t worry, the addition of some dry comedy and a fast-paced, entertaining mystery keep this one from getting too serious.

“Criminals want to get caught. It’s a macabre invitation to a treasure hunt.”

Theatre of Blood

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Theatre of Blood (1973)

Vincent Price plays Edward Lionheart, a Shakespearean actor whose failed career drove him to suicide. When he manages to survive, Lionheart uses the fact that the world thinks he is dead to return and seek revenge on the members of the circle of critics that gave him scathing reviews. As the members of the critic circle begin to drop dead in the manner of the great death scenes of Shakespeare, it is clear that Edward Lionheart is alive and well and must be stopped.

Douglas Hickox does a wonderful directing job on this fun horror film. The action flows like clockwork and keeps the viewers attention throughout. Wolfgang Suschitzky’s cinematography is excellent and he is able to sneak in some odd angles wherever he can in this mad movie. Even the set designs in the old theater that Lionheart hides out in are eye-catching. My only complaint of the film is an unnecessary fencing sequence featuring an obvious stunt double for Price.

The real star of this absolute blast of dark humor and Shakespearean horror is Vincent Price. He commands attention and delivers during all of his screen time. Price changes costume multiple times and manages to step in and out of different characters at the drop of a hat. His most impressive (and bizarre) scene comes when Lionheart washes up on a muddy riverbank after attempting to commit suicide and wakes up in a scene that plays out like the rebirth of his character.

The rest of the cast is perfect in their roles. The gorgeous and versatile Diana Rigg plays Edwina Lionheart, a woman loyal only to her father. Ian Hendry (Repulsion) plays Peregrine Devlin, the leader of the circle of critics. He keeps his part subtle, allowing the rest of the cast to go bonkers. Lionheart’s troupe of hobos is one of the most bizarre aspects of the cast. They follow his every command but manage to both mock and worship him whenever they can.

Theatre of Blood is an excellent horror film that can be enjoyed whether or not you’re a fan of Vincent Price. It is full of ironic death scenes, creative gore set pieces, dark comedy, and more Shakespearean references than you can shake a stick at. Price was quoted as saying this is his favorite of his film roles and it definitely shows. Also, if you ever wanted to see Price in an afro wig, then this is your movie.

Killer Nun

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Killer Nun (1979)

After her recent brain surgery, Sister Gertrude (Anita Ekberg) is having some trouble readjusting to her life as a nun serving in a geriatric hospital. It seems that the surgery has left her with terrible headaches, a wicked addiction to morphine, and a propensity for casual sexual encounters in the city. When patients start turning up dead and Sister Gertrude’s behavior becomes even more erratic, the staff and surviving patients begin to suspect the worst. With only the unrequited love of Sister Mathieu (Paola Morra) to protect her from herself, Sister Gertrude’s life begins to spin completely out of control. But is she really capable of murder?

Hey there, Sister Gertrude! Why do all the boys pass you by? Is it because you’re a track mark-laden nymphomaniacal Killer Nun!?! What the damn hell did I just watch? As entertaining (for me) as it is mystifying (for everyone else), it’s not surprising that this film has had a hell of a time finding an audience that can appreciate its… um… specialness. Truly a love-hate experience, Killer Nun comes from co-writer/director Giulio Berruti (editor of Corrado Farina’s Baba Yaga) who never directed another feature film. Go figure.

The plot is a coin toss of scenes thrown together with an ultra-thin mystery going on in the background. That’s not to say that Killer Nun isn’t smarter than it looks. Not when there is some seriously twisted religious imagery mixed into all that sweet exploitation to be found here. Killer Nun has a thoroughly strange film score comes from Alessandro Alessandroni, composer for films such as The Devil’s Nightmare and Any Gun Can Play.

Anita Ekberg (Death Knocks Twice, French Sex Murders) friggin’ rocks as Sister Gertrude, a woman torn between her religious conviction, her morphine habit, and her insatiable sexual desires. A highlight in Killer Nun is the dizzyingly hot Paola Morra as Sister Mathieu. I may never, ever stop drooling. The excellent Massimo Serato (Autopsy, The Bloodstained Shadow) doesn’t get nearly enough to do here as Dr. Poirret, a man whose career is going completely to pot as the hospital seems to be self-destructing around him. And yes, that’s Joe Dallesandro of Blood For Dracula in one of his greatest appearances due to fact that he’s been dubbed by another actor! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for Alida Galli (Suspiria, Lisa and the Devil) as Mother Superior, who is more annoyed than concerned with Sister Gertrude’s problems.

Killer Nun is a cursed beast trapped somewhere between giallo and nunsploitation and will likely annoy fans of both. The film’s positives barely outweigh its negatives; yet, in some strange way, Killer Nun thoroughly entertained me. Although bloodshed is relatively low, the brutality of the murders is impressive and the seediness of the sex scenes will ultimately impress the rogues’ gallery. Not to mention the bizarre moments of cruelty such as kicking a crippled man to death and stomping an old woman’s dentures to pieces in front of her. Good times! Folks who dig blasphemous Italian garbage should check this one out but please, whatever you do, don’t expect a Eurotrash classic.

“I need more… Morphine!”

Emanuelle’s Revenge

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Emanuelle’s Revenge (1975)

Carlo (George Eastman) is a scumbag actor who is using his girlfriend Françoise (Patrizia Gori) like a prostitute. He uses her body to pay off gambling debts and to get parts in films until he gets bored and dumps her. Françoise is heartbroken and throws herself in front of a train. When her sister, Emanuelle (Rosemarie Lindt), finds out, she seduces Carlo and then kidnaps him. Instead of killing him, Emanuelle forces him to watch her bizarre sex games. Carlo thinks this is his fate, to watch forever until thirst (or horniness) gets the best of him. That is until Emanuelle reveals the final and most demented part of her plan of vengeance.

We enter the twisted world of director/cinematographer Joe D’Amato (Anthropophagus) once again to find that he has double-dipped us into sleazy sauce with Emanuelle’s Revenge. Psychosexual torture, anyone? As usual, D’Amato’s camerawork is sumptuous and the almost blindingly bright lighting is near perfect. While the plot is pretty clunky and painfully simple, this film still manages to entertain. And thankfully, it takes a detour into horror with a sweet hallucinatory sequence full of blood, violence, and cannibalism. Thank you, Joe.

The not-so-gentle giant, George Eastman (Rabid Dogs, Baba Yaga), plays another piece of shit frighteningly well. I really love Rosemarie Lindt’s performance as Emanuelle. Lindt manages to portray a woman whose mission of vengeance is wearing her down and is making her careless. Did someone say depressing? Wow, Patrizia Gori is fantastic as the doomed Françoise. While it is impossible to feel too much pity for someone who is throwing their life away (literally) for a destructive relationship, I couldn’t help but feel twinges of pain for her. That’s right, this softcore trash made me a little misty. What of it?

I must say that when a movie makes you feel this dirty, it has to be good. While nowhere near my favorite of Joe D’Amato’s efforts (try Death Smiled at Murder instead), Emanuelle’s Revenge definitely has its plusses. Like any Euro-sleaze worth its salt, this film has the required amount of J&B, cool cars, a brazenly funky film score, scuzzy sex scenes, and even a cameo by Italian genre cinema regular (and my hero), Luciano Rossi. As far as erotic thrillers go, you could certainly do worse.

Night of Dark Shadows

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Night Of Dark Shadows (1971)

Quentin Collins (David Selby of “Dark Shadows”) inherits the estate of Collinwood and moves in with his wife Tracy (Kate Jackson of “Scarecrow and Mrs. King”, “Dark Shadows”). Not long after arriving Quentin begins to have visions of a long dead witch named Angelique (Lara Parker of “Dark Shadows”) along with his ancestor Charles Collins (also Selby). With the help of the sinister housekeeper Carlotta (Grayson Hall: The Night of the Iguana, “Dark Shadows”) the spirit of Angelique slowly starts manipulating Quentin. Will Tracy with the help of husband and wife novelist team Alex (John Karlen: “Murder She Wrote”, “Dark Shadows”) and Claire (Nancy Barrett of, you guessed it, “Dark Shadows”) be able to free Quentin from Angelique’s clutches before it is too late?

In 1970 “Dark Shadows” creator/producer Dan Curtis (Burnt Offerings, The Night Stalker) decided the time was right to a make a feature length “Dark Shadows” film. The resulting effort was the excellent House Of Dark Shadows, a film that took the high points of the first major storyline of vampire Barnabas Collins and boiled it down into 97 minutes. It was a box office success and plans for a sequel were soon launched but by then the show had gone off the air and Jonathan Frid (Barnabas) would not make the film due to fear of typecasting. (Too late really. He should have done it because he was already typecast.) Dan and screenwriter Sam Hall quickly came up with an idea that loosely corresponded with the television show’s ‘parallel time’ episodes. And I’ll say this now, you do not have to be familiar with the show to watch this film.

Most of the folks in the film were in “Dark Shadows” the television show. Whereas Grayson Hall played (mainly) Dr. Julia Hoffman on the show, here she plays Carlotta the housekeeper, a character that never appeared on the show. Conversely David Selby did play Quentin Collins on the show but apparently not the same Quentin Collins that we see in the film. In fact Selby played two different Quentin Collinses on the show. So it can get a bit confusing. It’s made mention in the film that Collinwood was left to Quentin by his aunt Elizabeth (played on the show by Joan Bennett (Suspiria) in her only television role) and although we never see her it seems to be an attempt to tie the film to the series. In fact the witch Angelique is played by the same actress that played Angelique in the television show. But in the film it seems unlikely that this is the same Angelique that cursed Barnabas to be a vampire, one reason being that the television Angelique’s last name is Bouchard while the film’s Angelique has the surname of Collins. I say all this not to pick on the film, as I am a huge “Dark Shadows” fan, but to bring up my next point:

MGM forced Dan Curtis to cut 34 minutes from the film bringing it down from a run time of 129 minutes to 94. And they only gave him 24 hours to do it. Actually he originally cut it down to 97 minutes and the remainder was cut in order to achieve a GP rating. There is one particularly bloody scene in the film and one wonders how many more graphic scenes were cut. The film was successful but not as much as its predecessor and fans have always pointed to the editing as the main reason why. Watching the film it is obvious it was hacked up (I hesitate to use the word hacked because I do not believe that that was Curtis’ mindset while he was trimming) but not in an overly confusing way. People you’ve never seen before don’t pop up suddenly and the film doesn’t make any wild jumps in logic. It just feels like there are some things missing. According to Wikipedia those things are: another flashback to Angelique and Charles Collins, two more scenes of Gerard the handyman/caretaker, romantic scenes of Quentin and Tracy, more hanging scenes, and a candlelit exorcism scene that was to be the climax. Reportedly in 1999 the footage was discovered sans audio, 16 new scenes total and bits that extended scenes, injecting a darker tone. Hopes were high when the current DVD and blu-ray releases were announced that Warner Home Video would be reinstating the scenes but it didn’t happen. All we got for extras was a trailer.

As far as the editing that I did notice, two things in particular jump to mind. While reading Wikipedia it mentions that Alex and Claire Jenkins move into the cottage along with Quentin and Tracy moving into the mansion. Watching the film it seems to me that Alex and Claire had already been living there for a while as it is mentioned that Alex had met Carlotta the housekeeper a while before when they first moved in, while we see Quentin and Tracy meet Carlotta for the first time at the beginning of the film. (And while I am at it, Quentin says he has never been to Collinwood before which makes him being the television Quentin (either of them) even more unlikely.) The other is Wikipedia’s mention of Charles’ fate in the past. Without spoiling it I will say that unless I missed it, there is a discrepancy there as well. It is impossible for me to say if this is a case of me missing something, those particular parts being edited out, Wikipedia going off a slightly longer script/source, or Wikipedia simply being incorrect.

But what about the film itself? I enjoy it quite a bit while lamenting what is lost. Atmospheric cinematography from Richard Shore compliments Curtis’ surefooted direction. Flashbacks have the woozy blurring of the sides of the frame. The hanging scene is shot from some interesting angles. The film was shot on the grounds of Lyndhurst estate, a huge gothic manor, which is a huge asset to the film’s production value. Robert Cobert’s score ranges from ominous piano to harmonica (not as bad as it sounds) to creepy music lifted straight from the show. Selby does a great job as the haunted Quentin, a pre- Charlie’s Angels Kate Jackson is impossibly cute and perky and Lara Parker’s Angelique is threateningly evil in flashback while being very convincing as the ghostly apparition in the present. There’s one effect that is a bit cheesy but nothing out of line with films from this period. Unlike House Of Dark Shadows this was made without the burden of having to make the show at the same time and it shows (not that House feels particularly rushed.) That fact makes it even harder to accept that the studio demanded cuts. This could be a minor classic 70’s horror film (and I personally think it is anyway) in more people’s minds if there were a longer, slightly more realized cut out there somewhere. And speaking of the two films I’ve always thought that they should have swapped titles. This film seems a better fit with the title House Of Dark Shadows since it is Quentin’s arrival at the house which sets the film’s events into motion.

An interesting bit of trivia is the production’s hiring of famed paranormal researcher Hans Holzer (several books and an Amityville investigation) to give some authenticity to the film but sadly a lot of that seems to have hit the cutting room floor in the form of the exorcism. A prologue was written with a hippie sneaking into the house and being killed by Angelique and Gerard but it was never filmed which is interesting because the film does open a bit abruptly.

I recommend Night of Dark Shadowns to the 70’s horror film fan with the caveat that you are not (and probably won’t ever be) seeing what Dan Curtis intended for you to. He took the risky step of making a “Dark Shadows” film without the character of Barnabas and despite the cuts came out with a visually pleasing gothic chiller. But oh what might have been.

-Brad Hogue

Queens Of Evil

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Queens of Evil (1970)

David (Ray Lovelock The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) stops to help a man with a flat tire one night. As David changes the tire they discuss the differences between the burgeoning hippie culture and the older generation’s set of ideals and the man surreptitiously punctures David’s motorcycle tire. As the man drives off he warns David not to fall to the devil. David fixes his own tire and catches up to the man but he crashes his car into a tree and no one will stop to help them. The man dies and David drives on, stopping to sleep in the shed of a house in the forest.

He is awakened the next morning by a beautiful girl named Liv (Hadee Politoff – Count Dracula’s Great Love) who lives there with her two sisters Bibiana, (Evelyn Stewart – Spirits Of Death) and Samantha (Sylvia Monti – The Fifth Cord). David is invited in for a madcap, psychedelic breakfast but doesn’t seem to realize that there is something a little off about the sisters. After his attempts to leave go nowhere, we realize that David has stepped into another world like Alice through the looking glass or maybe, more appropriately, like Lisa from Lisa and the Devil, the moment she strays from the crowd.

I don’t want to give away too much about this dreamy, hazy film from Tonino Cervi (director of Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die, a Spaghetti Western co-written by Dario Argento). There are castles in the forest, mysterious nighttime visitors, midnight bonfire rituals, and general unexplainable goings on; all with a pop art Italian Horror fairytale sheen throughout the whole film.

In fact, it is a very fairytale-like film that combines a Grimm’s Fairy Tales feel with the aforementioned Lisa And The Devil and a touch of the weirdness toward the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Queens Of Evil is very much an Italian horror gem waiting to be rediscovered, don’t blink toward the end as you’ll miss Geraldine Hooper the actress that played Carlo’s ‘boyfriend’ in Deep Red. How’s that for trivia?