HALLOWEEN IS A STATE OF MIND

You know, I was going to post a selection of extraordinary, obscure horror movie clips for you in honour of All Hallows last month, but as it transpired I’d already put up one lame, video-based post a few days beforehand to make up for the fact I hadn’t bothered to write anything that week and… well, you know, I didn’t want to do two in a row and give the impression I was copping out on the whole writing thing, so Halloween went unmarked.

But anyway, I just had a look out of the window. The greasy, waning moon still hangs heavy in the chill air, the frost is still upon the ground, the bare limbs of trees still shake creepily in the wind, and it’s still really fucking cold and dark, and as fine an evening as any on which to dabble with the forces of unnameable evil, or else get frightened that somebody else might be.

Winter Solstice isn’t until December 21st, and all this Christmas baloney can'tr really hide the true nature of the season, so let’s get cracking!

First off, director Del Tenney's low budget assault on the conventions of early '60s beach movies, Horror Of Beach Party (1964) has been top of my must-see list ever since I read Michael Waldon's enthusiastic write-up of it in that invaluable reference work, the Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film. And once again, youtube provides! In this clip, we see Connecticut rock n' rollers The Del Aires teaching the kids on the beach how to do the 'Zombie Stomp' whilst a bathing beauty meets with a sticky end which is... pretty intense for this kind of movie. Astonishing stuff.



And here's the trailer for "Horror Of Beach Party", which makes it look even better; Cycle gangs! Fist-fights! Teenage slumber parties! Rock n' Roll! Ghoulish Atomic beasts from beyond the grave! Weird pop culture doesn't come much better than this.



A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to catch a cinema screening of the two and a half hour uncut version of Andrzej Zulawski's Possession (1981), and found it to be one of the most extraordinary, disturbing, intelligent and powerful films I have ever seen, horror or otherwise. It was proved such a headfuck that it saw me randomly wondering the streets for several hours after the screening, trying to collect my thoughts and make sense of what I had witnessed.

Last week I finally found a seller on Amazon who is offering Spanish release DVD copies of the uncut film (the original US/UK theatrical and VHS releases were butchered and recut on the basis of both objectionable content and excessive running time), and a copy is on its way to me as I write.

I can't wait to see it again.

Filmed in pre-unification East Berlin, one of the best things about 'Possession' is its complete rejection of horror movie conventions. For the first hour or so, it's more like watching a really fucked up, uncomfortable - and extremely well made - relationship drama with elements of a paranoid cold war thriller thrown in, with both Sam Neill (Mr. Jurassic Park himself) and the startlingly beautiful Isabelle Adjani giving feverishly OTT performances in the lead roles. Then, finally, when the supernatural elements of the story begin to make themselves known, you're not in "horror movie" headspace. You're anchored in the real world and involved in the grim and troubled lives of the characters, and as such, the effect is.... truly fucking horrifying.... at which point the director sets his camera to "KILL" and drags us down into screaming insanity and existential terror with no hope of return.

Unlike the trailer for the film I once saw on an old VHS for another movie, which boorishly threw in all of the film's most shocking moments out of context and laid bare all of the unnameable revelations of the storyline, the one I've linked to below is assembled pretty artfully, and gives you a fairly good feel of what this film is all about.



Now, the Indonesian witchcraft exploitation movie Mystics In Bali (1981) has long been a near obsessive fetish amongst weird cinema collectors of a certain stripe up until it's official US DVD release this year. Why? Well I guess because shit like THIS happens in it...

WARNING: this one is really, really not recommended for the easily freaked out.



As any student of American trash/exploitation cinema will well know, it was 1963 that saw the birth of the American gore movie, with the release of Hershall Gordon Lewis' "Bloodfeast", which, filmed on a miniscule budget with a single camera and sound overdubbed in post-production, nevertheless made a FORTUNE on the drive-in circuit, as the upstanding citizens of America flocked in to experience the good, clean fun of watching a demented Egyptian caterer tearing out women's tongues, eyes, internal organs etc. in queasy full colour. Miami-based building contractor and carnival huckster Richard S. Flink decided he wanted a piece of this action, and set out with similar budgetary constraints to make a movie that would blow Lewis' gore empire out of the water. And whilst the full version may be lost to the ages (which is perhaps for the best), the footage that remains from the resulting Love Goddesses Of Blood Island (1964) shows that he succeeded, and then some! Utter madness.... (more info on this movie here).

WARNING: Look, really; if utterly reprehensible, vile, sleazy and positively surreal gorefests are not your cup of tea, do the decent thing, and don't click play.



Surprisingly, there's been no real vampire action in this post so far, so time for some Jean Rollin! I won't bother to try and summarise Rollin's particular cinematic niche again here - do your own damn research. If anyone remembers my write-up of his masterpiece 'Les Frission Des Vampires'... well you'll know I'm a fan of the guy. Here for your enjoyment is a trailer for Requiem Pour Un Vampire, which should go some way toward demonstrating these films' appeal. We may be able to get gothic castles, heaving breasts and cascading blood from our British, American or Italian vampire flicks, but what of the clown car chases....? God bless the French, god bless Jean Rollin.



And finally, let's end on an all-time classic. It has come to my attention that certain of you remain unfamiliar with that masterpiece of British weird cinema, Psychomania(Don Sharp, 1971). Clearly this situation is unacceptable. I'm now lucky enough to own a DVD copy of the moive so... y'know, drop me a line.

The clip below presents the funeral and resurrection of Tom, aristocratic leader of the Living Dead biker gang, with musical accompaniment from Mr. Harvey Andrews.



That's all for now. Regular rock-write service to be resumed soon, and, in the words of the aforementioned Tom, just remember: it's not me that scares you baby, IT'S THE WORLD.

(Credit Where It's Due: "Mystics In Bali" and "...Blood Island" clips were brought to my attention by the World Weird Cinema weblog.)

Labels: halloween, horror, videos