first of all tonight I'm seeing a screening of Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue in Japanese and I couldn't be more excited. at this point I've seen almost all of my favorite movies screened in proper theaters at one point or another, and it's hard to beat the experience.
let's see if i can give a quick recap of movies watched in the past month...
Hellraiser: Inferno (2000) - the 5th Hellraiser and a step in a weird new direction. it attempts a neo-noir style with a corrupt cop anti-hero and a lot less pinhead and a bigger focus on weird hellish surrealism. what's a dream, what's hell, is the main character dead or not. etc etc. it reminded me a lot of the video game Max Payne (the first one). I actually really enjoyed it in all of its shitty glory, my buddy thought it was dumb.
So Sweet, So Dead aka The Slasher! aka Penetration (1972) - after all the recommendations on this board I picked this one up from Code Red. Definitely a stripped down approach to the Giallo film, dispensing of any unnecessary artistic touches or weird bits. While I definitely enjoyed it, and it's to the point nature, I couldn't help but wish the gore/effects budget was a little better. the vibe is right but it lacks punch for my taste. also I guessed the killer immediately. but there's a lot of tits and ass and some good sequences so I'll revisit it again.
Milano Calibro 9 (1972) - this was fucking great! i know Giallo much better than Poliziotteschi, but I knew this one was supposed to be pretty legendary and I can see why. It's my understanding Tarantino praises this one, well I can definitely see some influence on his earlier work. Gastone Moschin as Ugo absolutely kills it, Barbara Bouchet is fucking great as always and pretty much all of the supporting characters are memorable. And the ending is A+! two movies it brought to mind for different reasons were the utter-classic Le Samouraï and the underrated The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) – one of the first Giallo I ever saw and still one of the best, even if it's not a traditional Giallo.
Alien (1979) & Die Hard (1988) – made my girlfriend sit down and watch these two, which she somehow got through life without seeing. These movies were essential to my childhood, having watched both multiple times before I was ten. Obviously very different movies but both so goddamn great.
Trip With Teacher (1975) – I was hoping for more from this exploitation flick. Not enough exploitation, just a shitload of waiting for things to happen. Not the worst way to spend an hour and a half but not riveting either.
Splatter: Naked Blood (1996) – I've had this one on my shelf for years. I knew about some of the gore to expect, but this was ten shades weirder than I could've imagined. An extremely Japanese film on every level. And the gore, while pretty limited, was a little stomach churning for me. It honestly rustled my jimmies. Definitely a movie I'll have to watch again and recommended for those who enjoy body horror and weird shit in the style of Tetsuo The Iron Man, Videodrome and Audition.
