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Blu-ray Review: Giallo Essentials: Yellow (1973 – 1975)

Remember like 5 fuckin’ days ago (give or take) when I reviewed the first edition of Arrow Video’s new Giallo Essentials collections (that one dubbed “red”)? If not head here… All caught up? Peachy. Let’s dive in to the sinister selections present in round two… the “yellow” set (fitting as how “giallo” literally means “yellow”… but I’ll let you discover the German origins of that one on your own… ), if you will… First up comes 1974’s After a naked pregnant woman is found hung from the rafters in an attic (and not unlike an overcrowded submarine, she is packed to the gills with semen), Inspector Silvestri (Claudio Cassinelli) and Assistant District Attorney Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli) spring into action. As the duo dig deeper they discover the victim was part of an under-age teenage prostitution ring whose “clients” (read: abusers) are some of your garden variety high society perverts. As the search widens, the bodies begin piling up…thanks to

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Dec 19, 2021
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Fourth Victim (1971)

Ol’ rich-bitch Arthur (Michael Craig) discovers his wife tits up (or more accurately “down”) in the swimming pool, and the police get suspicious… especially since this is his third marriage featuring a murdered wife and a large life insurance policy. Without anything to directly tie the Art-ful Dodger to the case, he walks away free as a beastly bird… seems reasonable… His troubles are far from over however, as soon he’s hitched to a woman named Julie Spencer (Carroll Baker) who just showed up a-swimming in the same pool wife number trois met her untimely demise…. but as one would expect, Jules has more to her than meets the eye, and soon the couple are balls deep in suspicion as the tension between them grows, and the shadow of death grows longer! Will Julie become the fourth mother fuckin’ victim? Lord, I wish that was the title… The first thing one should realize about The Fourth Victim, is that this

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 11, 2021
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: No One Heard The Scream (1973)

Jet-setting, gold diggin’ beauty Elisa (Carmen Sevilla delivering the sexy in spades) peeps her neighbor Miguel (Vincente Parra), chucking his dead wife, Nuria (María Asquerino) down an elevator shaft… but it’s a double-peep back-fire as Miguel sees her seeing him and forces her to help him thus making her an accomplice and more likely to keep her flappin’ yapper closed, ya see? As you may not expect, Elisa digs on this action and goes balls deep in helping Miguel keep that lil’ indiscretion on the down low… until she doesn’t and tries to kill him… and then things go completely sideways. Spanish giallo (sort of) ensues! Coming hot on the heels of the previous year’s Cannibal Man (which I set my eerie eyeballs right here), but predating perhaps his most well-known work; the juvenile delinquent pictures he dove head first into in the early ‘80s (and which I covered right here), Eloy de la Iglesia’s No One Heard the Scream

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 28, 2021
Horror Fuel

4K-UHD Review: Cat O’ Nine Tails (1971)

Blind crossword puzzle author (is that what people who create those things are even called???) Franco (Karl Malden, proving he walked the streets of Rome before those of San Francisco) is taking a stroll one night with his young niece Lori (Cinzia De Carolis) when he overhears a plan to blackmail a scientist who works at a top secret genetic institute…well, not too top secret if they are blabbing about it right out in the damn street and all…oh, and there’s a robbery in there somewhere as well. Anyway Franco eventually teams up with a journalist by the name of Carlo (everyone’s favorite ‘not-quite-Charlton Heston’ James Franciscus) to solve the case, but there ends up being a metric shit-ton of the ol’ murder biz about, so these two dudes are most likely in way over their heads… Admittedly, I’ve never been the biggest fan of the giallo genre; they’ve always played out more like a typical murder mystery with a

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 15, 2021
Horror Fuel

4K UHD Review: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

Slammin’ Sammy (Tony Musante) is one of those American “writer” types… he’s also completely devoid of the creative spark, so he’s parked his ass down ol’ Italia way in the hopes that a change of scenery will give his juices a jolt! Speaking of “jolting” things, our man Sam gets a real eyeful when he spies the ol’ murder biz goin’ down in a fancy-ass art gallery (really, there are seldom any other kind), but the victim, one Monica Ranieri (Eva Renzi), turns the tables on her faceless assailant who flees into the night (but not before being a real prize-winning dickus to ol’ Sam and Mony-Mony via some electronic doors and slow torture). Enter: Inspector Morosini (Enrico Maria Salerno) who gives our man Sam-I-Am some static, as he holds the writer in Rome in the hopes he will help crack the case with the absolute unending terror he witnessed and all… but the killer at large is more than

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jul 30, 2021
Horror Fuel

James Wan’s ‘Malignant’ Scores A Hard “R” Rating

Horror heavy hitter James Wan‘s new horror film Malignant was supposed to hit theaters back in August but found itself another victim of the pandemic like many other films, but it’s on its way and has just scored an “R” rating for “Strong horror violence, gruesome images, and for language.” The plot details for Malignant are still being kept quiet. Wan does have a comic that is titled Malignant Man, but there has been no word if the two are connected. We do however know that the movie is part of the Giallo sub-genre, which usually features scenes of excessive violence and blurs the lines between art and exploitation cinema. Maddie Hasson, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Abel, Ingrid Bisu, George Young, Michole Briana White, and Jacqueline McKenzie star. Wan is directing and producing under his Atomic Monster banner. Akela Cooper and JT Petty penned the script based on a story by Wan and Ingrid Bisu. In Wan’s Malignant Man comic, “granted

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jan 7, 2021
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection (1969 – 1972)

As you may infer from the name of this collection, Italian horror maestro Umberto Lenzi and Pennsylvania-born actress Caroll Baker worked on a film or four together… and my fabulous freaky fiends at Severin have boxed ’em up with plenty of extras and sent them out the diabolical door! Let’s kick off our look at The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection with 1969’s Orgasmo! High-maintenance and horny widow, Kathryn West(Baker), heads down Italy-way to shack up in her rich late old geezer’s posh-ass Villa. And there she stays, painting, lounging, being annoyed by her perpetually bitchy maid Theresa (a fantastic Lilla Brignone) and generally being bored off her tits. All that changes when equally horny, sports car enthusiast Peter Donovan (Lou Castel) breaks down right in front of our heroine’s front gate; an event that leads to some soggy sexcapades in a steamin’ hot shower (the water of which, must be noted, is drank by Donovan before he starts a-drillin’… “just

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jul 27, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Abrakadabra (2018)

A magician (German Baudino) finds himself at the mercy of a sadistic killer in Luciano Onetti and Nicolás Onetti’s (aided and abetted by co-writer/cinematographer Carlos Goitia) love letter to ’70s giallo flicks; Abrakadabra… one of the debut offerings from Cauldron Films, and what a debut it is cats n’ creeps! Now if the names of those two dudes up yonder sound familiar, they are the ones responsible for two other giallo-style flicks; 2013’s Sonno Profondo and 2015’s Francesca… and as they did with those flicks, they attempt to not merely homage the genre, the seek to replicate it 110% in Abrakadabra! To that end the screen is filled to bursting with what a giallo fan would expect, namely: bizarre fashions, outre set dressing (dolls, puppets, and more seek to unnerve the viewer), strange camera placement, a dash of kinky sex and gore, a painterly use of color and shadow… hell, they even make the film look as though the film

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jul 22, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Who Saw Her Die? (1972)

When Roberta (Nicoletta Elmi),the daughter of sculptor Franco (one-time Bond George Lazenby), ends up face down dead in a river down Venice way, our hero teams up with his estranged wife Elizabeth (Anita Strindberg) to solve the case. Of course whoever is responsible doesn’t want to be caught and the body count rises as the trail leads to some of the most respected figures in Venetian society. Starting off with a real showstopper in the revolting murder of young Roberta, Who Saw Her Die? trucks along in typical giallo freaky fashion with all of the accoutrements firmly in place. You get your black gloved killer, a barrel of red herring served up nice n’ hot, nonsensical explanations, and the ol’ money shots; plenty of acts of murderous mayhem! Adding to the experience are the cold, almost emotionless performances of the leads, with Lazenby and Strindberg carrying on as if in shock (which honestly they would be) which gives the entire

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 19, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (1971)

In that most conventional of settings for an Italian giallo flick; Dublin, Ireland an acid-hucking psycho with an affinity for razors kills the shit out of a lassie and sticks the newly minted corpse in a limousine owned by Swiss Ambassador Sobiesky (Anton Diffring). Being a foreign diplomat, that mother fucker claims immunity toot-F’n-sweet as the body count continues to rise. The police decide to play hardball and bring in a real ball busting son of a bitch; namely ex-cop John Norton (Luigi Pistilli) to hunt down that murderous maniac before he can kill again! Full of lurid violence, an overwrought mystery, mod fashions, nudity, and of course, a black gloved killer; The Iguana With the Tongue of Fire is a fine example of the giallo fare that followed in the wake of Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage; although to be fair, this one pushes the tasteless meter more towards the likes of Fulci’s New York Ripper, especially

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Apr 1, 2019

More from giallo

Blu-ray Review: Giallo Essentials: Yellow (1973 – 1975)

Remember like 5 fuckin’ days ago (give or take) when I reviewed the first edition of Arrow Video’s new Giallo Essentials collections (that one dubbed “red”)? If not head here… All caught up? Peachy. Let’s dive in to the sinister selections present in round two… the “yellow” set (fitting as how “giallo” literally means “yellow”… but I’ll let you discover the German origins of that one on your own… ), if you will… First up comes 1974’s After a naked pregnant woman is found hung from the rafters in an attic (and not unlike an overcrowded submarine, she is packed to the gills with semen), Inspector Silvestri (Claudio Cassinelli) and Assistant District Attorney Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli) spring into action. As the duo dig deeper they discover the victim was part of an under-age teenage prostitution ring whose “clients” (read: abusers) are some of your garden variety high society perverts. As the search widens, the bodies begin piling up…thanks to

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Dec 19, 2021
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Fourth Victim (1971)

Ol’ rich-bitch Arthur (Michael Craig) discovers his wife tits up (or more accurately “down”) in the swimming pool, and the police get suspicious… especially since this is his third marriage featuring a murdered wife and a large life insurance policy. Without anything to directly tie the Art-ful Dodger to the case, he walks away free as a beastly bird… seems reasonable… His troubles are far from over however, as soon he’s hitched to a woman named Julie Spencer (Carroll Baker) who just showed up a-swimming in the same pool wife number trois met her untimely demise…. but as one would expect, Jules has more to her than meets the eye, and soon the couple are balls deep in suspicion as the tension between them grows, and the shadow of death grows longer! Will Julie become the fourth mother fuckin’ victim? Lord, I wish that was the title… The first thing one should realize about The Fourth Victim, is that this

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 11, 2021
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: No One Heard The Scream (1973)

Jet-setting, gold diggin’ beauty Elisa (Carmen Sevilla delivering the sexy in spades) peeps her neighbor Miguel (Vincente Parra), chucking his dead wife, Nuria (María Asquerino) down an elevator shaft… but it’s a double-peep back-fire as Miguel sees her seeing him and forces her to help him thus making her an accomplice and more likely to keep her flappin’ yapper closed, ya see? As you may not expect, Elisa digs on this action and goes balls deep in helping Miguel keep that lil’ indiscretion on the down low… until she doesn’t and tries to kill him… and then things go completely sideways. Spanish giallo (sort of) ensues! Coming hot on the heels of the previous year’s Cannibal Man (which I set my eerie eyeballs right here), but predating perhaps his most well-known work; the juvenile delinquent pictures he dove head first into in the early ‘80s (and which I covered right here), Eloy de la Iglesia’s No One Heard the Scream

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 28, 2021
Horror Fuel

4K-UHD Review: Cat O’ Nine Tails (1971)

Blind crossword puzzle author (is that what people who create those things are even called???) Franco (Karl Malden, proving he walked the streets of Rome before those of San Francisco) is taking a stroll one night with his young niece Lori (Cinzia De Carolis) when he overhears a plan to blackmail a scientist who works at a top secret genetic institute…well, not too top secret if they are blabbing about it right out in the damn street and all…oh, and there’s a robbery in there somewhere as well. Anyway Franco eventually teams up with a journalist by the name of Carlo (everyone’s favorite ‘not-quite-Charlton Heston’ James Franciscus) to solve the case, but there ends up being a metric shit-ton of the ol’ murder biz about, so these two dudes are most likely in way over their heads… Admittedly, I’ve never been the biggest fan of the giallo genre; they’ve always played out more like a typical murder mystery with a

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 15, 2021
Horror Fuel

4K UHD Review: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

Slammin’ Sammy (Tony Musante) is one of those American “writer” types… he’s also completely devoid of the creative spark, so he’s parked his ass down ol’ Italia way in the hopes that a change of scenery will give his juices a jolt! Speaking of “jolting” things, our man Sam gets a real eyeful when he spies the ol’ murder biz goin’ down in a fancy-ass art gallery (really, there are seldom any other kind), but the victim, one Monica Ranieri (Eva Renzi), turns the tables on her faceless assailant who flees into the night (but not before being a real prize-winning dickus to ol’ Sam and Mony-Mony via some electronic doors and slow torture). Enter: Inspector Morosini (Enrico Maria Salerno) who gives our man Sam-I-Am some static, as he holds the writer in Rome in the hopes he will help crack the case with the absolute unending terror he witnessed and all… but the killer at large is more than

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jul 30, 2021
Horror Fuel

James Wan’s ‘Malignant’ Scores A Hard “R” Rating

Horror heavy hitter James Wan‘s new horror film Malignant was supposed to hit theaters back in August but found itself another victim of the pandemic like many other films, but it’s on its way and has just scored an “R” rating for “Strong horror violence, gruesome images, and for language.” The plot details for Malignant are still being kept quiet. Wan does have a comic that is titled Malignant Man, but there has been no word if the two are connected. We do however know that the movie is part of the Giallo sub-genre, which usually features scenes of excessive violence and blurs the lines between art and exploitation cinema. Maddie Hasson, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Abel, Ingrid Bisu, George Young, Michole Briana White, and Jacqueline McKenzie star. Wan is directing and producing under his Atomic Monster banner. Akela Cooper and JT Petty penned the script based on a story by Wan and Ingrid Bisu. In Wan’s Malignant Man comic, “granted

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jan 7, 2021
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection (1969 – 1972)

As you may infer from the name of this collection, Italian horror maestro Umberto Lenzi and Pennsylvania-born actress Caroll Baker worked on a film or four together… and my fabulous freaky fiends at Severin have boxed ’em up with plenty of extras and sent them out the diabolical door! Let’s kick off our look at The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection with 1969’s Orgasmo! High-maintenance and horny widow, Kathryn West(Baker), heads down Italy-way to shack up in her rich late old geezer’s posh-ass Villa. And there she stays, painting, lounging, being annoyed by her perpetually bitchy maid Theresa (a fantastic Lilla Brignone) and generally being bored off her tits. All that changes when equally horny, sports car enthusiast Peter Donovan (Lou Castel) breaks down right in front of our heroine’s front gate; an event that leads to some soggy sexcapades in a steamin’ hot shower (the water of which, must be noted, is drank by Donovan before he starts a-drillin’… “just

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jul 27, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Abrakadabra (2018)

A magician (German Baudino) finds himself at the mercy of a sadistic killer in Luciano Onetti and Nicolás Onetti’s (aided and abetted by co-writer/cinematographer Carlos Goitia) love letter to ’70s giallo flicks; Abrakadabra… one of the debut offerings from Cauldron Films, and what a debut it is cats n’ creeps! Now if the names of those two dudes up yonder sound familiar, they are the ones responsible for two other giallo-style flicks; 2013’s Sonno Profondo and 2015’s Francesca… and as they did with those flicks, they attempt to not merely homage the genre, the seek to replicate it 110% in Abrakadabra! To that end the screen is filled to bursting with what a giallo fan would expect, namely: bizarre fashions, outre set dressing (dolls, puppets, and more seek to unnerve the viewer), strange camera placement, a dash of kinky sex and gore, a painterly use of color and shadow… hell, they even make the film look as though the film

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Jul 22, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Who Saw Her Die? (1972)

When Roberta (Nicoletta Elmi),the daughter of sculptor Franco (one-time Bond George Lazenby), ends up face down dead in a river down Venice way, our hero teams up with his estranged wife Elizabeth (Anita Strindberg) to solve the case. Of course whoever is responsible doesn’t want to be caught and the body count rises as the trail leads to some of the most respected figures in Venetian society. Starting off with a real showstopper in the revolting murder of young Roberta, Who Saw Her Die? trucks along in typical giallo freaky fashion with all of the accoutrements firmly in place. You get your black gloved killer, a barrel of red herring served up nice n’ hot, nonsensical explanations, and the ol’ money shots; plenty of acts of murderous mayhem! Adding to the experience are the cold, almost emotionless performances of the leads, with Lazenby and Strindberg carrying on as if in shock (which honestly they would be) which gives the entire

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 19, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (1971)

In that most conventional of settings for an Italian giallo flick; Dublin, Ireland an acid-hucking psycho with an affinity for razors kills the shit out of a lassie and sticks the newly minted corpse in a limousine owned by Swiss Ambassador Sobiesky (Anton Diffring). Being a foreign diplomat, that mother fucker claims immunity toot-F’n-sweet as the body count continues to rise. The police decide to play hardball and bring in a real ball busting son of a bitch; namely ex-cop John Norton (Luigi Pistilli) to hunt down that murderous maniac before he can kill again! Full of lurid violence, an overwrought mystery, mod fashions, nudity, and of course, a black gloved killer; The Iguana With the Tongue of Fire is a fine example of the giallo fare that followed in the wake of Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage; although to be fair, this one pushes the tasteless meter more towards the likes of Fulci’s New York Ripper, especially

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Apr 1, 2019
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