TYTD Reviews

Volume 2 of ‘Hey Folks Its Intermission time!’ Once again sees the return of all those lovely drive in and theater intermission cards filled with wacky hijynx and comedy shenanigans aplenty! However, this one does feel a little rushed compared to the previous installment and did have a few pacing issues in my opinion.

For a starters, they’ve seemingly decided to ‘Theme’ this set, as the first half seems to focus almost entirely on seasonal intermission slides (with heavy emphasis on Christmas and new years)

It’s enjoyable enough, but repetition does begin to creep in a bit which isn’t helped either by two moments in the presentation where the tape seems to end, cutting instead to the blocking ‘in’ markers that ‘Something weird Video’ would have used to mass dub their tapes. That jarred and did pull me out of things a bit.

Equally around halfway through this volume they basically abandon the ‘seasonal’ theming and just go back to showing intermission commercials. A lot of which are repeated from volume 1, but with slight colour, V/O or visual tweaks.

If your coming to this volume right off the back of the first, you may be a little dissapointed as it is definitely a change of pace from the first (and not strictly for the better)

That being said, there is still a whole lot to love about this release, and if your just randomly grabbing it off the shelf (particularly around the holiday season) I’m sure you’ll have a really good time with this! I just wish the presentation had been a little neater.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hey-folks-its-intermission-time-vol-2/

The opening volume of Something Weirds ‘Intermission Time’ series, and probably my favourite one. It’s got most of the big hitters, it’s a little repetitive after a while, but it’s some of my favourite background fodder, and the recent AGFA re-release (while sourcing from the original VHS masters made for this release, rather than going back to the original film elements) is probably the cleanest these have looked in years.

I love these compilations, and while the quality of them does wobble a little bit as the series goes on. They’re such a wonderfully upbeat little series to just sit and enjoy.

I’d say if you are just getting into these Volume 1 is probably your best starting point, but volumes 2 and 3 are also pretty solid!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hey-folks-its-intermission-time/

A dizzying and enjoyable experience the ‘Intermission Video Party Mix tape’ is just that. A remixed and twisted take on the old drive in movie intermission adverts that begged patrons to part with their hard earned cash in exchange for hotdogs, burgers, gas fuelled car heaters and asbestos riddles mosquito killers.

I’ve picked up a few of these AGFA mixtapes over the years and this one’s definitely up there as a strong contender (though, for my money their ‘Christmas mixtape’ is still very much the high water mark)

Otherwise, this is a fun, silly and charming way to experience these drive in ads, folks who are used to these ads will enjoy seeing them reworked, folks who are new will probably find this grab bag more accessible and less daunting than the 6 volume compilation that’s also included in this AGFA set.

In fact, my only two criticisms here are really more a ‘me’ problem than anything else. The first being that some of the AGFA cuts to this compilation, I feel don’t quite gel as much as I’d have liked them to (some of the gag cuts landed with a thud for me because they felt a bit jarring…but that’s personal preference…)

And the other issue is the quality of the media. I totally understand why they chose to present the 6 volume compilations in this set from the original SD VHS masters. Largely because for so many of these ads. The something weird VHS transfer is ALL that survives…But I think it would have been nice for the 70 minute mistape, to go back where possible and source the original film elements to make it a full blown HD presentation, rather than an upscale job.

Again, I appreciate that that likely would have run to a significant cost. But it would have really taken this production to the next level, to be able to see these adverts as sharp as possible and preserved properly.

Small gripes, but enough to keep this release from being a total outright win.

This sets been a bit of a ‘grail’ release for me for quite a while. And to now actually have it in my hands, I can say it’s worth every penny, and the mixtape is the cherry on top of the cake.

Absolutely worth checking out.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hey-folks-its-the-intermission-time-mixtape/

The final entry to date in the ‘Coffin Joe’ franchise and likely to BE the final entry permanently after the passing of Author, Dreamweaver, Visionary…Plus Actor José Mojica Marins. ‘Embodiment of Evil’ is a STRANGE place to end things for Coffin Joe…and yet oddly fitting all things considered.

The film essentially ignores all of Josés Coffin Joe films barring ‘Midnight’ and ‘Corpse’ and is in fact a direct sequel to ‘Corpse’ set 40 years into the future. Shortly after falling into a mire and appearing to drown at the end of ‘Corpse’ it turned out…he didnt. and almost immediately rises from the swamp killing a priest and blinding a police officer. Leading to him being locked in an asylum for 40 years. But! when a new paroles officer takes charge, she decides Joes had enough time behind bars and immediately releases him.

And…from there its pretty much back to busienss as usual, With Joe, his hunchback servent and an army of goons taking up residence in the basement of a slum house with one aim in mind, to get Joe to bang as many women as possible to continue his bloodline. Oh! and as an aside he’s also now being stalked by the ghosts of all the people he killed in the first film who now appear as gory black and white spirits seeking vengence and aiming to stop him in his mission.

and…thats the movie. and probably the biggest issue I had with the film is arguably an unintentional problem thats really more of a ‘me’ issue than anything to do with the film personally.

Y’see…José was 71/72 years old when this film was made. Coffin Joe throughout his various appearences had always been a semi-youthful looking wirey spindle of a man who had the look of Baphomet about him…José in this film is 71/72 years old and looks like a Jack Black (circa 2023). He’s trying to play the role with the nimble agile nature that he did back in the 60s…and he just…isnt physically fit enough to do it. he waddles instead of running, he fumbles while trying to jump about…he’s basically trying to play a type of character that isnt possible for a man of that age (in my opinion at least).

This was really an opportunity to give Coffin Joe as a character a bit of a different angle, maintain the molevalence while acknowledging he’s an aging figure who is now running out of time to complete his mission…and they just…dont do that.

In fact, its quite the opposite. Whereas in the first two films, women were seemingly repulsed by his satanic vibe and tone, here, women LITERALLY cant keep there hands off this VERY old man. I frankly didnt want to see a 72 year old José José Marins simulate sex with women in the late 20’s/early 30’s for 10-15 minutes collectively…But if you do. then this is almost certainly the film for you!

At first I was (and still kind of am) convinced that this is supposed to be some kind of low key parody of the Coffin Joe films. Bearing in mind Joe was supposedly locked away in 1968, when dressing like a 19th century undertaker was quirky, but not impossible to imagine. there were bearly any cars in the first 2 coffin Joe films, but this one mainly takes place in a bustling city filled with drugs, fast cars and gothy looking women…And he doesnt bat an eye. Nothings questioned, it’s almost like an edgelord/hardcore version of ‘Hocus Pocus’. He just rocks up and gets right onto whatever it is he was doing 40 years prior.

Im aware the Coffin Joe films have always had a very low level comedic undertone to them, and José prided himself on having that little bit of light mixed in with the dark. But here? its just too much. I cant honestly decide if his choices here are intended to be funny, or if he genuinely just wasnt aware of his own limitations as a director and performer.

Anyway; beyond that issue. the films kinda sorta okay. The scripts a bit threadbare truthfully, as mentioned above, this was an opportunity to modernize the Coffin Joe universe. To acknowledge the passage of time, the increasing urgency on Joes mission and to maybe even use this film as an opportunity to establish a wider reconnection with newer audiences. But it just doesnt.

What this film essentially does is split the plot 3 ways. with the first plot being Joe banging as many women as possible in a 90 minute window…willingly or otherwise. The second plot follows two brothers in the police who vow to bring Joe back in and put him behind bars, or put him in the ground trying…and the third plot follows Joes victims returning to try and torment him years after there demises.

and they’re three decent enough plots…But any one of those plots would have suited this film enough. doing all three of them means that there isnt enough time to really flesh out any of them. And so, this film ends up as a bit of a carosel, where we’ll spend 5-10 minutes with Joe in his basement layer trying to have sex with the daughter of two local witches who dispise him, then it’ll cut to 5-10 minutes of the police reiterating how cruel Joe is, and then it’ll cut to 5-10 minutes of Joe screaming at a ghost, before being jolted awake or rescued by his henchmen.

It feels under developed, and overlong. this film could’ve easly lost 15 minutes and been a much stronger work for it. The tone is inconsistent, As the credits rolled I wasnt entirely sure what message I was supposed to take away from this (the only glaring one I could see was ‘If you’re going to make a big gamble, make sure you spread your bets out’)

It didnt really seem to try to say much of anything other than ‘Coffin Joe bad’…Which is fine…but it lacked the conviction needed to affirm that. Joes evil-ness in this film isnt as bad as anything he did in the first two films and actually is quite a bit more mysoginistic than the previous entries. Joe as a character wasnt great with that in the first 2 films…But theres much more empahsis on it here…

The characters in this are also a little one note. For the most part we hang around with Joe, his servents and henchmen and the women he’s trying to impregnate. Joes the most developed here and its nice to see José back in a commanding role after 30 year on screen absence fromt he role. But he’s such a striking and strong presence, it really makes the supporting characters feel positively bland in comparison.

The direction and cine is visually interesting, but not quite as strong as his earlier works. I enjoyed the way they mixed and mingled footage from the Black and white films into this film. they even do reshoots of some of the scenes with body doubles, which I think works quite effectively. But the lighting is kind of generic, the colour usage is kind of flat and didnt really grab me. compositionally this is much more in line with traditional cine…which I welcome after 10 films of absurdist arthouse work…But its conventional almost to its detriment, as by 2008…Whats shown here is pretty tame compared to the ‘Saws’ and ‘Hostels’ of its era.

The soundtrack too is just kind of middle of the road…Honestly? This wasnt a bad film. In terms of the Coffin Joe films its absolutely in the top 5 of the best made…But its just a very odd way to round off a character with a 40+ year history…I’d have honestly preferred this film to have taken a more introverted look at the character and the world built up around him, rather than just trying to cram José back into the shoes of a character wholesale that he hadnt played in 30 years.

As it stands, for me? ‘Emodiment of Evil’ isnt as enjoyable as ‘Midnight’ or ‘Corpse’ and feels actually quite out of place as the final part of a trilogy to those films…But in terms of it being a Coffin Joe picture? its a very interesting look, one final time, into the mind of José Mojica Marins. a very creative, oft misunderstood film maker. The likes of whome we’ll probably never see again.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/embodiment-of-evil/

Frankly, I am STUNNED that Arrow Videos recent Coffin Joe bluray boxset, somehow misses off what is probably one of the best Coffin Joe films in the entire series!

‘The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe’ (Also known as ‘A Very Coffin Joe Christmas’…Okay, it isnt…but I wish it was…) was almost completely missed off my recent work through of the ‘Coffin Joe’ films, until I took a deeper look into José Mojica Marins filmography and realised I hadnt seen this one.

The plot, for the time is really actually quite inspired. Its set in the real world in the present day of 1974 and follows Author, dreamweaver, visionary…plus actor ‘José Mojica Marins’ as he decides to step away from the rat race that is the brazillian film market, and retreat to the woods to spend christmas with friends while also trying to get his groove back in order to write the next installment of the ‘Coffin Joe’ franchise.

However, things begin to take a dark and strange turn, when supernatural happenings begin to…happen. Including floating objects, disturbing voices and full blown possessions. Its revealed that one of the family has made a deal with a local devil worshipper in order to have a daughter. Only the deal that was made had the stipulation that, upon ‘maturity’ of the daughter, she would be married off to a man of the devil worshippers choosing…

Yes! as you can imagine Coffin Joe is back! but…how can he back if he’s a fictional character? well. it’ll fall down to José and the family to find the line between reality, fantasy and the dark arts. Rescue the devillish daughter and make it back home in time for a rousing rendition of ‘Jingle bells!’

Honestly, im still kind of in shock that this film was missed off the Arrow set. given some of the absolute tutt thats ON that arrow set, the fact this isnt deeply confuses me…Theres a couple of possible reasons. The film has 2-3 instances of on screen animal cruelty (a chicken gets its head ripped off and we have some time with…what appears to be a dog cadavar) but these are minimal…The other could be that this is one of the few Coffin Joe films not written by José (He only directs here)

In either case, Whats presented here is, for the most part a bloody enjoyable little film. I recently caught ‘Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind’ one of Josés last productions, and the comparisons to ‘Wes Cravens New Nightmare’ felt present…but underplayed. Here though? they ACTUALLY utilize the concept. and it pretty much works for most of the runtime!

There is a genuine unknowing for most of the runtime as to whether Coffin Joe has somehow broken out into the real world, or whether these are just strange happenstances. José seems genuinely baffled for most of the runtime as a character and the film really quite enjoys working through the idea of defining the line between fantasy and reality. Basically, this film manages to solve all the issues that I had with ‘Deranged’ while also making it a fun little movie with some genuinely interesting moments.

Tonally its got a slight campy edge, but is definitely in line with the previous ‘Coffin Joe’ films, The final act is a barnstormer with some really solid work going into it, the ending is satisfying and the setup and core presmise is sturdy.

In fact, my only grevience with with the script, is the pacing. Which is SO slow. Seriously, this films 94 minutes long and could EASILY have been an hour and felt slow. the first and third acts are fine enough, but the second act is pretty bloated and gets quite repetitious in places. While its not the end of the world, because, at least we have some half decent characters and conversations to be stuck with for that middle act. the bloat on this thing is fairly undenyable and I was clock watching from around the half hour mark, right up till the action flared up in the finale truthfully.

Also having a bit of a sacrifice, the cine and direction have taken a bit of a hit here compred to Josés other pieces. This one is less coherent stylistically, there isnt nearly as much creative light work or colour usage. Which is a bit of a shame, as I think it would have been nice to see a bit more of a transition between Josés world with his friends enjoying Christmas, and the hellish underworld that Coffin Joe and his followers reside in.

The cines a bit overly basic too, theres a clear compitency here, but not a great deal of experimentaiton, and a lot of the gorier elements seem to have been relegated to the final act. We have simplistic sequences that I feel really would have benefitted from another couple of passes just to make sure the optimum runtime was achieved. Non of its bad! it just feels closer to a workprint than an end product.

Direction of the casts fine enough, theres maybe a bit of a struggle with the child actors here. less in there performances, but more in the sense that they dont really feel all that fleshed out, they basically just turn up to act almost like some kind of moral football that has to be protected by the family from the clutches of evil…its fine…but had they been in this anymore than they already were, I think it really would have started to work against the production.

As for the broader performances? José Mojica Marins delights as himself (Im sure it was a stretch) This is probably my favourite on screen version of Coffin Joe, just playing full on aggressive evil here, rather than drenching himself in psudo philisophical querying. Here? he’s jsut a big scary man in a top hat…and thats kind of all I wanted…

The supporting cast are all pretty solid too hitting their marks and delivering their lines with a twinge of campiness by modern standards, that just kind of endeared me to them even more.

And, the soundtracks fine. Thats all I have to say about it, they dont use that god awful warbling choir music that José seemed to be obsessed with. its well utilized and helped to punctuate key moments in the film effectively…I really cant ask for much more than that.

One of my biggest issues with the Coffin Joe films over the years has been that, while I laud José Mojica Marins as a director. his written works, for me at least, were insufferable. And quite often totally derailed what could have been several promising stories.

With a group of writers in the hotseat on this outing? I feel like a wonderfully crystalized vision of ‘Joe’ has been realised here. While it does seem to have toned down Josés direction leading to an experience that isnt *quite* as engaging as ‘Midnight’ or ‘Corpse’. The end result is a quite ahead of its time picture that uses visual surrealism minimally but effectively and ultimately delivers a thoroghly enjoyable watch.

Again; I cant stress how dissapointed I am that this film didnt make it onto the Arrow boxset…as, had this been the ‘end chapter’ in the original Coffin Joe trilogy. I’d have said it was a pretty solid run of films…But no, instead we got ‘Hellish Flesh’….ah well…Hopefully this film willl get the bluray/4k treatment it deserves at some point…Definitely recommended, go watch it. It’s on youtube.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-bloody-exorcism-of-coffin-joe/

And so, my Journey into the works of Artist, dreamweaver, visionary…plus actor…José Mojica Marins Begins its wind down with
‘Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind’. The final film in the original run of ‘Coffin Joe’ movies (Though, Coffin Joe would see one more revival in 2008 with ‘Embodiment of Evil’).

And…this ones a bit of a mixed bag. The plot largely revolves around the story of one ‘Dr. Hamilton’ who is checked into an insane asylum who’s plagued with hellish nightmares combined with a recurring incident in which Coffin Joe kidnaps his wife Tania for his ‘Continuing bloodline’…thing.

Dr. Hamilton is convinced Coffin Joe is real and is ACTUALLY REALLY TRYING to take Tania away and impregnate her. and so, his fellow doctors summon non other than Artist, dreamweaver, visionary…plus actor…José Mojica Marins! To come and speak to Dr. Hamilton under hypnosis, to get a better understanding of what exactly is going on with the whole ‘Coffin Joe’ business, and to try and convince Dr. Hamilton that Coffin Joe is just a fictional character written about in José’s movies.

And…if that sounds vaguely familiar to you, thats because it is…Because its (broadly speaking) the plot of ‘Wes Cravens New Nightmare’ and…Im going to say this up front as it’s the nicest thing I will say about this movie. This entire films core plot about Coffin Joe infecting peoples dreams with hellish visions to get them committed to an asylum so that they can do real world damage, and the messing around with what is a dream and what is reality, is VERY ahead of its time as a trope and predates the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ franchise by a good 5-6 years.

THAT however, is where my praise kind of begins and ends for this film. It has a very novel and original idea at the core of it. But it mispends that good idea in arguably the worst way possible.

Because, in my previous review of ‘Hellish Flesh’ I lamented the fact that this felt like José was pretty much burnt out of film making by this point in his career after REALLY phoning it in for most of ‘Flesh’ and largely using pre-existing derivative plotting and recycling his own visual style to just, get a film out the door.

Well…’Hallucinations’ Gazump’s ‘Flesh’ by taking things to the next level. Because ‘Hallucinations’ is a ‘clip show’ movie.

Essentially José booked a day or so in a studio, got a load of actors nude and had them writhe around on a cardboard looking dungeon set totally about 20 minutes of footage, he then shot about 15 minutes of footage on location, and then intercut those new scenes with tinted clips and excised censor footage from all his old horror films. And thats the movie.

You’ll get a 2 minute new scene with Dr. Hamilton and José playing himself discussing coffin joe as a character, and then it’ll cut to 15 minutes of clips from 4-5 of the films we’ve already watched. In fact. the clips make up 48 minutes of this hour and 23 minute long picture. and if that doesnt scream ‘I cant be arsed to pay to make a movie, especially when I have offcuts rotting in my attic’ I dont know what would.

as such, I dont really feel confident in being able to talk about this film in the way I usually would with film generally. The direction and cinematography all looks quite nice and theres a decent level of experimentation. But it all looks nice and creative because its offcuts from movies where he actually HAD a budget and fire in his heart to MAKE an interesting a good movie.

The newly shot footage is all VERY generic, poorly lit and barely manages to hold basic technical ability. Its a really poor offering honestly.

The edits a hot mess. You can only be so forgiving with art house cinema. And here, it really does just feel like they rummaged through offcuts and censor footage and jammed together as much of it as they could get away with.

The soundtracks droning and uninteresting, the performances in the new footage are dire (If I hear someone scream ‘TANIA!’ one more time, im going to reincarnate.) Its honestly a real shame, because to me? This film really smacks of ‘so close, and yet so far’ had they actually BOTHERED to develop the idea of Coffin Joe being a malevolent presence trying to escape from his hellish prison we found him in at the end of ‘This Night I’ll Possess your Corpse’ we literally COULD have seen his popularity experience a renessance as they pretty much would have invented ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ half a decade earlier than intended…But, as a knock on Freddy Kruger may have not existed…soooo…yeh.

Even though this film came out after ‘The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe’ I think it would probably make a good prequel to it. with José’s ‘in film’ character retreating after the events of this film. But thats head canon and me trying to be kind. Realistically, the only reason you’d need to catch this film is if wanted to essentially ‘speed read’ all the coffin Joe movies, and didnt want to have to sit through 7+ hours of psudo philosophy for the privilage.

A rather dissapointing end for me. Its marginally better than the last offering. But that missed opportunity to reinvent Joe for the 80s really left a bad taste in my mouth…especially considering it would be 30 years till we’d meet Coffin Joe again…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hallucinations-of-a-deranged-mind/

An INCREDIBLY unispiring offering from José Mojica Marins. ‘Hellish Flesh’ is distinct to me in the sense that its the moment that I feel José finally got left behind in terms of creative influence and progression.

Throughout the 70s Josés work went from strength to strength visually. While I was always hesitant to praise his written ability (I always found his work a little overly simplistic and a bit ‘first year philosophy student’ for my taste personally) It cant be denied than from the early 60s through to the mid 70s, as a director and visual creative, he explored strange new spaces, pushed the boundaries of the censors and decency and while his later offerings would lean on sex and nudity as a crutch to help a weaker plot just about hobble over the line. There was almost ALWAYS SOMETHING in the way he chose to present his works that always endeared me to him.

The same cannot be said unfortunately for ‘Hellish Flesh’.

A film which feels like a yawn and a splutter manifest. ‘Flesh’ is essentially the key beats of the original ‘House of Wax’, ‘The Mad Magician’ and ‘The Abominable Dr. Phibes’ ran through Marins exploitation-esq filtering to produce a film that, by 1977, felt thoroughly uninspiring and like a director on the ropes.

The plot? A scientist (played by José) who’s developing an acid that (and I quote) ‘Can dissolve a big arm in seconds’, has been neglecting his wife, who has decided to commence an affair. After a while the man she’s cheating with can no longer carry on with the affair due to the guilt he’s feeling. So she hatches a plan to get rid of the husband by using his own ultra strong acid on him, before getting her lover to burn his laboratory to the ground with him still inside it.

Fortunately, our scientist survives (though heavily deformed due to an acid wash to the face and being burnt alive) and he swears distant vengence on the pair by slowly shadowing and haunting their waking moments.

And…thats the film. The scripts BEYOND derivitive for most of the runtime with only a few brief twinkles of originality dotted sparsly across the runtime. 90% of the movie is either Raquel (our scientists wife) guilt gushing about murdering her husband, or shadowy seedy softcore and nudity. Thats all this thing is. VERY rarely we cut to José, leering in the shadows, OR! we cut to graphic surgery footage and tortured screams…Thats the movie.

The pacing is SO slowburn as to be exhausting, it takes a third of the films runtime to even get going, and at least 6 minutes of this 82 minute film is just static opening title cards.

Its a repetitious watch and fairly mind numbing to say the least. scenes will cut between two locations for extended periods of time, and NOTHING will be happening in either of them! Which is insane. Im not kidding when I say a good chunk of the opening of this film is just José in a generic ultra low budget lab set just looking at beakers for 5 minutes more or less silently.

The act structuring is airey to say the least. This film feels more like a grab bag of assorted scenes than a coherent 3 act work. and tonally, it cant quite seem to commit to whether it wants to try and be a throwback to the universal monster movies and early 50s horror. Or an sleazy 70s exploitation flick. As such, it falls between two chairs, achieving neither and disspointing on both counts.

Non of the characters are particularly well written, most of them are either one note (see Raquel…the guilty, but stubborn wife) OR! they’re monosyllabic and basically just grunt their way through whatever lines are put in front of them with next to no feeling or passion.

The direction and cine feels phoned in as well, I’ve praised Josés work across all the films i’ve seen of his for pushing the envelope for better or worse and his determination to find his voice and style as a film maker…But this things DEATHLY dull for most of the runtime. Everything feels like it’s been a chore to put together for the people involved…Where once was moody and intricate lighting, here? is just low lit sets with little thought put into them. Where once was technicolour absurdist takes on hell and the underworld? here is filled with stock footage and people lounging in hotel rooms.

The most exciting scene in this entire film is simply a combination of the half a dozen or so half decent shots from this entire films runtime, quickly cut together into flash edits during the opening of the third act. and even that feels like a lazy way to make the film look sharper than it is because its essentially recycling.

In fact, the only original thing this film DOES manage to do well, is it’s FINALLY ditched off the old warbly, tinny and unpleasent operatic/classical score that’s been a staple of these films since the mid 60s. Here its still classical sounding orchestral stuff…But its cleaner, sharper sounding and a bit more interesting and kind on the ear. I welomed it…I just wish it was under better circumstances.

‘Hellish Flesh’ to me felt like a director, tired of the treadmill but unable to do much of anything else. A year after this film came out, ‘Halloween’ would release and redefine horror for the next 20 years (at least) and as such, its hard not to look at this film and feel its really quite dated.

I feel like José has been coasting since about 1972, developing a strong indentity, but within an increasingly creaky format. I suppose in modern terms it would be like finding someone who’s REALLY good at making Marvel movies…Its an era thats had its time and is thoroughly done…but our guy continues to plumb away at it, despite increasing redundancy.

‘Hellish Flesh’ is a slow, creaking offering that offers very little in the way of the innovation José was developing some 10 years prior. It feels tired. and I feel with one more ‘contemporary’ film to check out from this period of Josés filmography, things arnt going to get much better…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hellish-flesh/

Few words can really truely describe the electrifying love that I felt the first time I watched ‘Forbidden Zone’, and now im a half dozen watches into this thing…Even to this DAY. I STILL fall head over heels for it all over again with each rewatch.

The plot, revolving around a large and strange family who purchase a house with a portal to the sixth dimension and all manner of bizarre oddities housed within sits pride of place on my film shelf and I hold it largely responsible for rekindling my love of film and cinema as an art in recent years, after a long draught of mediocre ‘direct to video’ flicks and idle cult fodder.

The scripts razor, CONSTANTLY challenging conventions, CONSTANTLY snarking and sniding its way across EVERY line, EVERY scene and EVERY frame. This isnt a film that takes itself seriously, but it’s passion in what it DOES want to say and show shines BRIGHTLY against the overly acidic and comedically bleak overtones.

Not a film to skirt controversy, this film pretty much targets every minority AND majority. its characters are simultaineously dim witted, but wittily charismatic. expect PLENTY of nudity, humping, on screen drug use and racist charicatures THROUGHOUT. It kind of reminds me a little bit of ‘The Evil Dead’ in the sense that that too was a film that skirted controversy, but was largely given a free pass due simply to how utterly absurd it really truely is.

And I cannot stress that poitn enough, this film. is NUTS. absolutely off the wall art house experimental fleisheresq cinema at its absolute finest.

The direction is simple, but highly effective, with purposfully low budget sets intermixed with ‘Gilliam-esq’ animations and hyper manic WAY over the top hammy acting. Richard Elfman helps bring this film to life in a ‘Lightning in a bottle’ moment that is seldom seen and even less likely to be executed well…and yet, somehow he pulls it off.

The cine too is simplistic, but the mixed media approach combined with a HELL of an edit results in a simply delightful mix that oozes charm and works lockstep with the manic script to deliver something really truely unique…in the best way possible.

The performances are campy, over the top and utterly delightful. There isnt a single dissapointing performance here…and I really mean it, everyones firing on all cylinders, and for some here its quite literally the performance of their respective careers.

AND as if this thing couldnt get any better. The entire score is written by most of the folk who would go on to form the AMAZING new wave band ‘Oingo Boingo’ so expect PLENTY of pop punk instrumentals, unique twists on vaudville classics and even a dusting off of some archive recordings for comedy effect.

In short, there is VERY little I dislike about ‘Forbidden Zone’ there are a few unfotunate choices that are quite problematic these days (see: the excessive use of ‘Blackface’ a commonality in Fleischer era cartoons…VERY unnacceptable both then and now.) But the films so silly and clearly non malicious while simply stewing in its own scathing juices…I just cant find any reason not to absolutely love it for just being SO different and fun.

I found this WAY too late, and not a day goes by where I dont regret checking this thing out 10 years earlier than I did. Dont make the same mistake I did, Watch ‘Forbidden Zone’ today!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/forbidden-zone/2/

A harrowing picture, ‘Dead Mans Letters’ (better known as ‘Letters from a dead man’) is a striking russian anti nuclear film that is essentially the soviet unions answer to ‘Threads’.

The film follows a scientist desperately trying to find his wife and son who were seperated from him duing a nuclear attack. What follows is his travels through the wastelands encountering frankly devestating horrors that come from nuclear disaster.

I was BEYOND impressed with this one, and VERY surprised that it really isnt more well known. the script is powerful, emotive and interesting, the direction and visuals are intense, unforgettable and distressing in places. the atmosphere, near perfect.

Frankly the only thing that stopped this for me from being a 4 and a half star ‘Must See’ is the decision to present the film using ‘tinted’ film stock over colour or black and white. I found it a little distracting, and given that this film isnt readily available in the west (I watched a 360p subtitled copy on youtube tonight with my discord posse) It really diminishes the overall power of this work.

DEFINITELY worth your time. and the PERFECT double feature with ‘Threads’, ‘Letters from a dead man’ presents the anti nuclear stance from beyond the iron curtain…and I think at this time more than any other, its must see cinema.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dead-mans-letters/

The concluding feature in the ‘Kino Lobor’/’Something Weird’ Nudist/Forbidden Fruit series sees us faced with a dilemma. What do you do when you have 40 minutes of relatively freshly shot footage of nudists larking about in Florida, and a seemingly desperate Sammy Petrillo in your phone book on speed dial. Well…You get ‘Shangri-La’ a 1961 attempt at comedy.

Mercifully, you dont SEE Sammy’s Petrillo in this film, but thats about as merciful as it gets here. The film follows Sammy as…Sammy…a bellboy in jail with a gorilla named Pinky (LITERALLY the gorillas only here because Petrillos last film was ‘Bela Lugosi meets a Brooklyn Gorilla’ and im assuming the film makers thought it might help people remember who Sammy Petrillo was given that it’d been nearly 10 years since Petrillo had last been on the big screen…)

ANYWAY! Sammy the bellboys in the clink, and a friend has come to bail him out, but not before Sammy tells him of this AMAZING adventure he’d recently been on…in which he stalks two women…intensely…and finds out their nudists…and then stalks them around the nudist Coloney…Even when they go to a kids playground and start playing with naked children…something he seemed…OVERLY interested in…

Not content with the stalking charges and accusations of ‘Diddling’ our bellboy decides to go one step further, flying down to Florida to follow the girls to a HUGE nudist camp, infiltrating it as a potential member and wrangling your way into a soft position of power within the camp as host and celebrity judge of a beauty contest!

*Ugh*…

This was PAINFULLY poverty row film making. We’re talking 40 minutes of stock footage, about 2-3 days filming with Petrillo on a single set thats redressed 2-3 times…and thats it. Petrillo gets to do his stand up here for a chunk of the runtime, his hit rate isnt great…his Jerry Lewis impersonations starting to wobble a bit too…

I just…I didnt feel too good about this one at all…Like…technically, the stuff that isnt archival or stock footage was fine enough, the tone is okay…but there are just moments in this that felt icky, WAY sleazier than a lot of the nudist films of this time period.

Petrillo, I feel, isnt strong enough to lead a picture, and the supporting cast really didnt help by being SUPER dry, to the point they were actually quite painful to watch.

The whole film just reeks of ‘We have these elements to play with, lets throw something together to make a buck’ and VERY little else.

I…I dont really have much more to say about it honestly…there are worse poverty row features out there…But not by much. This BARELY scrapes by and the whole scenario of Petrillos Bell boy stalking naked women and children for an extended chunk of the runtime REALLY didnt sit well with me. ESPECIALLY when its married up to a screwball comedy tone…it felt odd. and not in a fun way.

I’d only recommend this as a curiosity piece for someone who’d just watched ‘Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla’ and wanted an answer to the question of ‘If Duke went off to make Mobster movies, what did Sammy do?’ the answer is a LOT of nightclub work, and every 5-10 years or so, he’d turn up in porn.

Not recommended, avoid.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/shangri-la-1961/