Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Horrible
Collapse
X
Collapse
-
Horrible
Released by: Mya Communications
Released on: July 28, 2009.
Director: Joe D'Amato
Cast: George Eastman, Annie Belle, Charles Borromel, Katya Berger, Edmund Purdom
Year: 1981
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Known under a myriad of titles - Absurd, Monster Hunter, Antropophagus 2, and The Grim Reaper 2 - the uber mysterious Mya Communications have opted to release Joe D'Amato and George Eastman's 1981 follow up to Anthropophagous as Horrible. Why? No one really seems to know, but here it is, for better or worse.
In the film, Eastman plays a man named Nikos Karamanlis who, when we first meet him, has escaped from a laboratory where a priest (Edmund Purdom) was in charge of looking after him. Nikos gets impaled on a fence, something that would kill a normal man, but we learn he's got a blood condition that gives him a sort of 'mutant healing factor' meaning that his body will stand up to a whole lot more abuse than the normal man can withstand. So with Nikos on the loose, the priest in charge shows up to try and take him back, but of course it can't be that easy, Nikos needs to kill and it's going to prove to be very difficult to stop him…
Like Antropophagus, this film is pretty gory and full of a thick, almost palpable atmosphere. But also like Antropophagus, it's fairly slow in pace and it takes quite a while to get going, meaning that if the meandering tone and structure of the earlier picture put you off, you're probably going to run into the same issue with the follow up picture (it's not a direct sequel despite some of the alternate titles implying so). That said, D'Amato and Eastman are at least reliable in that they deliver the same caliber of nasty gore this time around that made the first film as popular as it is. Eastman is excellent in the lead, lumbering about the small town where the story is set with plenty of Karloff-esque monsterisms and milking the part for all its worth. His large stature and rather psychotic looking facial features give his almost entirely silent performance plenty of weight and his very screen presence goes a long way towards saving this picture.
The rest of the cast are fine, even if they don't really stand out. The bit part players who make up the family that wind up being terrorized by Nikos are pretty forgettable and some of the child actors here are at times a bit groan inducing in that they're not in the least bit convincing, but Edmund Purdom in the role of the priest is fun and it's always nice to see the lovely Annie Belle pop up, here looking quite appealing in her nurses uniform.
At its core, Horrible might not be much more than a standard stalk and slash film. There's not much here that sets it apart from other pictures of its ilk save for the atmosphere, and the Eastman factor. Whether or not that's enough for you will depend on your appreciation of such things. It's pretty safe to say that if you dug Antropophagus (and for the record I really did) then you'll find similarly enjoyable material here but don't go into this one expecting some sort of unsung Italian horror classic.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Mya has pieced together this film from two different sources, one of which is a print which was obviously in great shape, the other an analog tape source of some sort. Thankfully, the print makes up 97% of the running time, with only a few sporadic inserts sourced from the tape. Sadly, the whole affair is presented in 1.66.1 non-anamorphic widescreen, but at least the film appears to be wholly intact and the tape sourced material is really only brief scene extensions - the good stuff all comes from the superior source. Image quality, lack of anamorphic enhancement not withstanding, is otherwise alright. Colors are good, detail isn't bad, and while there are some specks here and there, print damage is held firmly in check. Mya really should have put more effort in here, however, it seems like a pretty lazy job…
You've got your choice of watching the film in its Italian language track, without any subtitles of any kind, or in an English dubbed track. So yeah, unless you speak Italian, you're watching this puppy in English, like it or not - a continually frustrating move on the part of Mya. As far as the English track goes, it's fine. You won't have any problems understanding the dialogue and the levels are well balanced. It won't blow you away but it gets the job done with little room for complaint. There's some background hiss here and there but it's never overpowering. Could it have been better? Yes, definitely, but it is at least sufficient, faint praise as that may be. Omitting subtitles for the Italian track on a release intended for an English speaking market renders that track more or less redundant, however…
Aside from a very simple menu, this release is completely barebones, it doesn't even contain a trailer or a still gallery.
The Final Word:
This one won't win over the D'Amato doubtful but the converts who already appreciate the languid pacing, thick atmosphere and irreverent gore of his earlier Antropophagus will definitely appreciate this follow up film, firmly rooted in similar territory even if it isn't a direct sequel per se. Mya's DVD, on the other hand, is a fairly slipshod affair, devoid of any extras and containing quirky audio and video quality. It's the best offering the film has, domestically at least, so die-hard's will want it regardless, but here's hoping someone with more respect for the source material can give it a stronger presentation down the road.Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (271)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4140)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (385)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (295)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (496)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Lee Frost
Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
Year: 1969
Purchase From Amazon
Hot Spur – Movie Review:
Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:53 AM -
-
Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Max Pecas
Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
Death Squad – Movie Review:
Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:46 AM -
-
Released by: Quality X
Released on: February 28th, 2024.
Director: Chuck Vincent
Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
Roommates – Movie Review:
Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:10 PM -
-
Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
Year: 1970
Purchase From Amazon
Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:
Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:07 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Saul Bass
Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Phase IV – Movie Review:
Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:02 PM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
Year: 1969-1972
Purchase From Amazon
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:
Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this...-
Channel: Movies
03-13-2024, 11:30 AM -