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Gothic Fantastico
Film
Skool
While groundbreaking director Mario Bava (Black Sunday, Black Sabbath) remains the most well-known purveyor of Italian Gothic horror, many other filmmakers tried their hand at the form throughout the 1960s as part of a hugely prolific and popular cycle. Gothic Fantastico presents four off-the-beaten path titles from this classic period, all of which demonstrate Italy’s ability to expand genre beyond the classic literary monsters that dominated elsewhere.
Gaslighting abounds in Massimo Pupillo’s Lady Morgan’s Vengeance – a delicate tale of romance and mystery, with a sprinkling of sadism and the supernatural – as newlywed Sir Harold Morgan (Paul Muller, Nightmare Castle) attempts to destroy his new bride (Barbara Nelli, Double Face) with help from his sinister maid (Erika Blanc, Kill, Baby… Kill!). Meanwhile, the perverse influence of Poe is used to great effect in Alberto De Martino’s The Blancheville Monster – a tale of family curses and madmen in the attic, as Emilie de Blancheville (Ombretta Colli, Gladiator of Rome) returns home to her brother Roderic (Gérard Tichy, Hatchet for the Honeymoon) and discovers her own family may be out for her blood. Mino Guerinni’s The Third Eye features not only a very early role for Italian cult film icon Franco Nero, but a plot that borrows several elements from Hitchcock, layered with a whiff of necrophilia. Finally, Damiano Damiani’s The Witch takes a more avant-garde approach, when a young historian (Richard Johnson, Zombie Flesh Eaters) is lured to work for an ageing woman, only to be held captive when he becomes obsessed with her beautiful daughter (Rosanna Schiaffino, The Killer Reserved Nine Seats).
Madness, obsession and messed up families are the order of the day in these four lesser-known monochrome gems from Italy’s peak Gothic period, now fully restored in 2K from their original camera negatives for the first time and presented alongside an array of in-depth extras.
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Count Yorga
Film
Skool
By the end of the 1960s the boom in Old World gothic horror had begun to wane in the face of present day terrors like the Vietnam war. In response, American filmmakers brought horror out of the past and into the present, and the classic movie monsters packed their bags and headed for the New World.
Count Yorga, Vampire was among the first to successfully transpose the classic vampire, cloak and all, to a modern day setting as the Count played unforgettably by Robert Quarry arrives in the United States and settles in a Southern California mansion with his mysterious “brides”. A drive-in favourite from the moment it was released, a sequel soon followed. The Return of Count Yorga ups the ante and sees the sardonic Count on the streets of San Francisco, his sights set on an orphanage as a potential source of sustenance.
Director Bob Kelljan (Scream Blacula Scream) delivers a one-two punch of classic cult cinema mixing chills, thrills, style, and suspense with a knowing wit that revels in the genre trappings. Presented in all new restorations by Arrow Films from new scans of the original camera negative, The Count Yorga Collection is a full blooded feast to die for!
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Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Film
Skool
Gods of the Plague portrays a newly released ex-con as he reacquaints himself with Munich’s criminal underworld to plan the robbery of a supermarket. In Rio Das Mortes, two feckless young friends, Michel and Günther, embark on a hare-brained scheme to look for lost treasure in Peru, against strong opposition from Michel’s fiancée.
Unseen between its first television broadcast in 1970 and its rediscovery in 2002, The Niklashausen Journey chronicles the journey of a young peasant in the 15th century and his quest to overcome social injustice, in Fassbinder’s allegorical critique of the student movement. The American Soldier sees Fassbinder continue to pursue the cinephilic homage to classic Hollywood crime films of his feature debut, Love is Colder than Death, in a tale of a German-American Vietnam vet turned small-time hoodlum who finds himself on the wrong side of the law in Munich, where he grew up.
Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven stars Brigitte Mira (Fear Eats the Soul) as a middle-aged housewife who is roused into revolutionary activity after her blue-collar husband runs amok at his workplace. Based on a story by Asta Scheib, Fear of Fear features Fassbinder favourite Margit Carstensen (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant) as the young mother plagued with feelings of anxiety and depression as she is left to spend her hours alone surrounded by her judgemental in-laws while her husband spends his days at work. Satan’s Brew sees Fassbinder foray into riotous comedy, with Kurt Raab starring as a once famous poet stricken with writer’s block who inadvertently assumes the persona of the prewar symbolist Stefan George.
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Bipolar Sunshine
Beats,
Rhymes
& Life
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Joey Diamond
Beats,
Rhymes
& Life
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Ricky Martin
Beats,
Rhymes
& Life
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Oliver Sim
Beats,
Rhymes
& Life
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Mary, Queen of Scots
Film
Skool
Mary, Queen of Scots, a film by Charles Jarrott.
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The Appointment
Film
Skool
Unable to attend his daughter’s violin recital, suburban father Ian – played by Edward Woodward (The Wicker Man) – is haunted by a series of prophetic nightmares that seem to foresee a looming tragedy. Are dark forces gathering to be unleashed upon him?
An unsettling journey into the world of the supernatural guaranteed to give you sleepless nights, The Appointment is this latest addition to the popular BFI Flipside collection. It is with the director’s blessing (and extensive involvement) that the BFI have decided to make this much requested title available, using the best materials as yet discovered.
BFI Flipside is dedicated to rediscovering the margins of British film, reclaiming a space for forgotten movies and filmmakers who would otherwise be in danger of disappearing from our screens forever. It is a home for UK cinematic oddities, offering everything from exploitation documentaries to B-movies, countercultural curios and obscure classics, if it's weird, British and forgotten, then it's Flipside.
The Appointment, a film by Lindsey C. Vickers.
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