โFatherโฆI feel sick without you.โ
After The Perfume of the Lady in Black, director Francesco Barilli went silent. He had projects in mind but they never came to fruition. In an interview on the special features for that disc, Barilli talks about his career. It's obvious that he had trouble working within the parameters of the studio system (โIโm a capricious director, for better or worseโ). He was a bit cocky. Not keen to take direction. Hotel Fear apparently cameโฆ
โWeโve changed too. We used to eat our enemies, now we study engineering.โ
โI can save herโ cinema. 24 roses and 2 lilies. On rewatch you can see it all laid out from the start. Evil rites and sadistic games as โa test of manโs mental strength over his weaknesses.โ Still incredibly cryptic, but the clues are all there. A cut to the hand and allusion to Nosferatu licking the wound. But this isn't Transylvania. Silvia is in Technicolor Wonderland,โฆ
โAn ode to violence, really. Just like Fascinationโฆwhere women kill for the hell of it.โ
Watched with audio commentary by Kat Ellinger.
โWeโre just typical victims of a society gone berserk.โ
1982 slasher soundtracked by some golden oldies. Consider me not turned on. The hook here is the killer is dressed in a furry college mascot suit. Cool. Thereโs not much else to sink your fuzzy bear claws into, unfortunately. โRegional horrorโ is usually code for: shitty, no-budget independent film with actors pulled off the street. In this case, weโre at Upsala College in New Jersey (which, for some reason, has aโฆ
โCome! Itโs time to give the Machine-Man your face.โ
When people talk about โbad bitches,โ they often fail to mention Futura, the Maschinenmensch turned human form gynoid from the film Metropolis.
*I watched this in 15 minute chunks before bed over the course of several weeks as it has a hypnagogic effect on me. Metropolis plus 10mg of Melatonin, try it sometime!
โWe should not forget that dark age.โ
Edosploitation. Erotic grotesque nonsense (โero guro nansensuโ). An early โeroductionโ (โerotic productionโ) from the Toei Company. Toei Porno. Pinky Violence. Whatever you want to call it, weโre off to the red races. Nikkatsu was still three-years away from their Roman Porno turn when Toei released Shogunโs Joy of Torture, what is considered the first pink film produced by a major studio, and what would be the start of an insane run of nineโฆ
