Had Bruno Mattei (HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD) lived long enough to see the Blu-ray revolution reach the lower echelons of euro-perv exploitation titles, even he might be surprised to see his grubby 1983 sex and violence wallow EMANUELLE IN PRISON (aka BLADE VIOLENT) buffed to a high-def gloss.
But buffed it has been and now, on December 8th, Scream Factory will release the Laura Gemser trash classic on Blu-ray under its alternate title WOMEN’S PRISON MASSACRE. Deviants rejoice!
SHOCK recently reviewed Mattei’s final women-in-prison flick, the charmingly detestable THE JAIL and WOMEN’S PRISON MASSACRE is almost as vulgar. But it is the superior Mattei lesbos-in-the-slammer experience as it was shot on film. And because of the presence of the luscious Italian sex film superstar Gemser, of course…
Directed by Mattei and co-written by his frequent collaborator Claudio Fragasso (TROLL II), this one sees Gemser reprising the role of “Black Emanuelle”, in this incarnation essayed as a reporter who gets framed and sent to the world’s worst prison. Sex, violence and humiliation reign supreme and things get worse when a quartet of male cons get sent to the slammer with the nasty gals.
Just have a look at the title and you can guess how this one ends…
You can pre-order WOMEN’S PRISON MASSACRE by going to the Shout Factory website.
Here’s the trailer! And NO it is NOT safe for work. Unless you work at home. Alone. In which case…have fun!
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British filmmaker Simon Pearce’s innovative microbudget horror film JUDAS GHOST is, after well over a year on the festival circuit, finally making its way to DVD and VOD on December 1st courtesy of Uncork’d Entertainment.
Based on the writings of author Simon R. Green, JUDAS GHOST finds a team of professional ghost finders trapped in an old village hall. The haunting they set out to investigate turns out to be far worse than they anticipated…
Adapted for the screen by Green, Martin Delaney (ZERO DARK THIRTY), Lucy Cudden (WOUNDED) and Simon Merrells (THE WOLD) star in this taut, literate and ingeniously produced film.
Feast on the new trailer below…
The post Exclusive Look at New Trailer for Acclaimed Thriller JUDAS GHOST appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.
SHOCK reviews the ultra-sleazy 1971 horror film BLOOD AND LACE on Blu-ray.
In the annals of PG rated horror films, director Philip Gilbert’s sordid AIP-released 1971 psychodrama BLOOD AND LACE kind of stands alone. No, there’s no explicit sex or nudity, nor is the violence particularly graphic and certainly, nary a curse word is uttered. But I can’t imagine a child seeing this picture. I can’t imagine a child seeing it in 1971. I can’t imagine a child seeing it in 2015.
But I can imagine a child in 1985 seeing it. Because that’s when I saw it!
In fact, most ardent fans of this never-before-released-on-home-video-until-now sort of classic saw it the same way I did, on late night TV, free of any sort of adult supervision. It was difficult for a then 10 year old boy to understand the depths of cruelty and sleaze the picture trades in, but it was fascinating and upsetting, nonetheless. It still is. There are moments of such greasy unpleasantness in BLOOD AND LACE that I still get a kinky shock from them. It’s the same sort of dirty thrill one gets from watching one of Jörg Buttgereit’s NEKROMANTIK films, or, more recently a HUMAN CENTIPEDE picture. But those works are near pornographic in their visuals. BLOOD AND LACE, remember, is PG (or GP, which at the time, was in essence the same thing). And yet it feels far filthier than any of those movies combined…
BLOOD AND LACE begins with a murder, one that many critics have rightfully cited as having an eerie resemblance to the POV opening attack in John Carpenter’s much later slasher landmark HALLOWEEN (though they both likely owe their blood-spattered shirts to PSYCHO). In this film, it’s not a knife that stalks prey just above the gaze of the lens, it’s a claw hammer, one that lays waste to a man and woman, lying post-coitus in their bed. Some dollops of tempra-red blast on to screen during the edit-heavy sequence to provide a few frissons, but it’s the stuff that follows that really makes you feel icky. Seems the murdered woman was the skanky mother of sullen teen named Elle (Melody Patterson, who sadly passed earlier this year) and, as her mom bedded basically every man and woman in town – including the social worker (Milton Selzer) assigned to protect Elle – the cops are having a hard time pinning the rap on anyone. Elle is shipped to dismal group home run by the unhinged Mrs. Deere (Hollywood legend Gloria Grahame, miles away from OKLAHOMA!), a malevolent matriarch who uses fear, manipulation and violence to keep her young charges in the house, thus supplementing her income with government dough.
Elle slinks into the home and immediately starts making trouble, following in her “friendly” mother’s footsteps by trying to seduce some of the hunkier lads while also brushing up against the sneering Mrs. Deere, who sees the girl as a threat to her operation. As the narrative skeezes along, we learn Mrs. Deere, with the aid of her sadistic handyman (Len Lesser, who later played Uncle Leo in TV’s SEINFELD), is murdering her misbehaving wards and freezing them in a kind of amateur and none-too-successful cryogenic state. Meanwhile, Elle is having dreams of a scarred-faced heavy with a bloody hammer stalking her and a leering cop (Vic Tayback…y’know, Mel from the classic TV show ALICE) bums around the peripheral, alternately keeping an eye out for the girl and lusting for her booty.
BLOOD AND LACE is one grubby flick. And it’s awesome. The scenes with the frozen youths being dragged out and posed to fool city workers assigned to check in on them, are disturbing; even worse, when the thawing bodies start to leak fluids from torn orifices, the slow drips are disgusting and unforgettable. The central premise of child abuse and sexual deviancy is splendidly politically incorrect and the final shot, with its insult-to-injury plot reveal, is enough to make you burn your clothes afterwards. It’s gross.
Another thing of note about the film is the fact that the putty-mugged boogeyman is a ringer for Freddy Krueger, 13 years before there even was a Freddy Krueger. Both killers are burned and bald; both killers appear in dreams to torment their victims and both killers wear red and black stripped sweaters! With Wes now gone, it’s a shame no one will get the chance to ask him if he had seen BLOOD AND LACE during one of its many TV airings…
And watch out for the sequence early on where Patterson in inexplicably dubbed by June Foray, the voice actress who played Rocky the Flying Squirrel and who is kind of the Zelig of horror. Foray’s signature raspy voice also popped up glaringly in “The Bewitchin’ Pool”, the final episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE and covertly, as the voice of Michael in a brief scene in JAWS. Yet more strangeness comes in the form of the film’s lack of an original score, instead we have a melodramatic and often grossly inappropriate scratch library score of schizophrenic orchestral music; the effect is just as disorienting as the Findlay favorite SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED, a terrible flick rendered far weirder by its ludicrous patchwork music.
Scream Factory deserves an award just for releasing BLOOD AND LACE seeing as, as we’ve already mentioned, it’s never been legitimately released on home video. Here, the company gives us a DVD/Blu-ray combo pack, with a nice high-def transfer of what I do believe is a slightly longer cut, with a few extra drops of blood, enough so that the film seems to have been upgraded from its original PG to an R rating!. Certainly, this aint no David Fincher joint, so obsessing over audio/visual minutiae is foolish, but suffice to say the film hasn’t looked this good since its release. Writer Richard Harland Smith provides a decent, informative commentary that fills in many blanks, and there’s also trailer and an alternate opening credits sequence thrown in for fun.
Great film. Great release. Prepare to shower afterward.
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In 1926, the Countess goes to visit Dr. Charles Montgomery at the Murder House from season one. She has something she needs “taken care of.” She reveals a painfully pregnant belly – and that she is only three weeks pregnant. He asks no questions, just takes her down to the basement operating room. He uses the “big knife” to cut it out, then asks the nurse to dispose of “that.” She thinks it is still alive and sure enough, it attacks her. The Countess wakes, and Dr. Montgomery hands the Countess a baby boy. She cries and kisses it.
Now, the Countess keeps her “baby” in room 33. We don’t see it until the very end, and even then, it is only a glimpse. Think Eraserhead meets Belial from Basket Case. We meet the “baby,” Bartholomew, throughout the episode, though only through its POV. Bartholomew seems to be able to crawl very, very fast. Anyway, the Countess treasures Bartholomew, but keeps him locked in room 33. She and Will are headed to Paris for a few days, but promises Bartholomew she will return with plenty of money.
Ramona and Donovan return to the hotel to seek revenge, and this includes killing the Countess’s children. Donovan doesn’t quite have the stomach for it, so Ramona dismisses him to the penthouse to “sniff the Countess’s panties.” She goes down to the sleep chamber, and is surprised to find all the coffins gone. Earlier in the episode, John found them, and saw Alex sleeping in one. She drugged John and put him back to bed, making him think it was all part of his breakdown, and she and Liz destroy the coffins. Finding no one in the sleep chamber, Ramona goes to room 33, intending on killing Bartholomew. That little fucker is fast, and devious. He hides from her, then attacks and runs rampant through the hotel.
While in the penthouse, Donovan finds the two Swedish girls, who are grumpy because they can’t seem to escape the hotel. He explains that they have to find their “purpose.” They will still never leave, but it will get them out of whatever rut you are stuck in, being a permanent resident of the hotel. The girls try fucking and killing a douchey hotel patron, but it doesn’t work for them. Alex, as she looks for Bartholomew, finds the girls crying beside the corpse. She suggests mentally destroying someone, and sends them to John, who has always wanted two girls.
The Swedes find John drunk in the hallway, depressed because he was kicked out of a crime scene, and his daughter won’t take his calls. Within seconds, the girls are in bed with John, fucking him, fucking each other. Then they start clawing each other apart while choking John. He finally realizes what is going on. Covered in blood, he races to the lobby, naked, begging Liz for help. They return to his room, where the maid is already stripping the bed of bloody linens. The girls appear, fully clothed, from the bathroom and are pleased with themselves. Destroying men mentally is their purpose. March appears in the corner of the room, pleased that John is enjoying his stay at the hotel. John rushes March, but finds only a bare wall. Deciding that this is the last straw, he takes out his suitcase and starts packing. He realizes that he is still covered in blood when it gets all over his clothes, so he hops into the shower. While he is in there, Bartholomew sneaks into John’s suitcase.
John picks up Scarlett from her friend’s house and the two go home. Scarlett is mad that her mom dropped her off at her friend’s house then disappeared; she is confused as to why her father is there when he isn’t supposed to live there anymore. John promises he will stay with her until they figure it all out. She runs to her room and John starts to unpack. He hears Scarlett crying and checks on her, carrying one of his bloody shirts with him. She is scared of the blood, and he is scared that he is holding it. Returning to his room, John notices something is amiss. He gets his gun and creeps quietly through the house. In this time, Scarlett has made some popcorn and is watching TV. John tracks Bartholomew into the kitchen and shoots it. Scarlett screams in fear, and Bartholomew gets away, but he is injured. Alex arrives home to find Scarlett and John in the backyard, both scared and angry, separated by Hahn. The detective will take Scarlett to her grandmother’s house, and Alex insists that John just needs some sleep. Once he goes inside, she starts looking around the yard and finds Bartholomew.
When the Countess returns from Paris, she goes straight to room 33, where Alex is caring for Bartholomew. Alex explains he got out, and was injured, but he will be find. The Countess is eternally grateful.
Liz Taylor and Tristan are sleeping together, and they both announce to each other they are in love. Now it is just about breaking the news to the Countess, who doesn’t “share” (but she has no compunction about sleeping with Will, or even asking/demanding that Tristan “fluff” Will when his cock won’t get hard for a woman). When the Countess returns from Paris, Liz finally sits down to tell her she is in love. The Countess thinks that is great – until she finds out it is Tristan. She tells Liz she can have him when she is done with him, but Liz reminds her that time has meaning to her, a mortal. She knows that Tristan is just one of the Countess’s passing fancies and begs her to release him. The Countess sends for Tristan, who confirms that he and Liz are in love. The Countess has a hard time with this, but eventually agrees that Liz may “have” Tristan. She kisses Liz on the cheek – then slits Tristan’s throat. “He’s yours. Bury him.”
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