End of The World SYNERGY MAGAZINE

CONTENTS
Volume 3 No.4
The End is Nigh
Editorial FEATURES
Information
Giveaways The End of the World in Myth &
News Cinema
Disaster Magnet:
FEATURE REVIEWS The Statue of Liberty
Werewolf!
Catastrophe and Disaster Films The Tiger Lillies
A History of Triffids
REVIEWS
Books and Print

Comedy
Cult Cinema
Erotica
World Cinema
Thinking Time
Music
TOYS
Vamplets
Camilla d'Errico
Splurrt
Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 2

INFORMATION
If you require an ALL region DVD and Blu-ray

player, we recommend you look at the Kogan
Blu-ray player (http://www.kogan.com.au)
Publisher/Editor-In-Chief: Robert Black For Adult titles, we include an extra reference

Managing Editor: Bob Estreich (E) for explicit, (M) for mature. Adult content
Webmaster/Designer: Synergy Team within mainstream titles will be mentioned as
Proof Reader: Fiona Johns appropriate.
Contributing Reviewers: Robert Black,
Bob Estreich, Michelle Taylor, Jeremy DD refers to Digital Download with the format of
Kong, Renata Kong & various freelance the download following in brackets.
reviewers.
Publication Details
©
COPYRIGHT Print and Digital Editions
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Six issues a year.
SYNERGY MAGAZINE Online

PO Box 492 Daily Updates
Armidale NSW 2350
Australia Website
http://www.synergy-magazine.com
Web
http://www.synergy-magazine.com The print and digital edition of Synergy is pub-
lished six times a year and includes reviews
Emails from the website from the preceding period ex-
editor@synergy-magazine.com panded content, articles and features research,
news, added images, screen shorts and com-
petitions.
Synergy Magazine reviews DVDs from all re-
gions. The R description with each title advises Features, articles, news and competitions only
the Region. appear in the digital and print editions.
1 = USA Digital Edition Special Conditions
2 = UK
3 = Asia The Digital Edition is available for free down-
4 = Australia load. The digital edition can be distributed free
0 = All region. of charge non-commercially and is regularly
placed on a range of worldwide distribution
DVD-R sites. The pdf of Synergy is not print restricted
and individuals are welcome to print copies for
DVD-R refers to titles which have not been for- their own non-commercial use.
mally released on DVD but release via specialty
DVD firms. The Digital Edition cannot be altered or articles
used without permission, except as copyright
NTSC or PAL is used with the ALL REGION allows.
CODE and refers to the TV format.
This also applies to the Issuu online reader edi-
Blu Ray tion of Synergy.
We review Blu Rays from all regions; we will The copyright for the majority of images used
clearly list the region (or region free) on each (screenshots, artwork, cover images etc.) are
disc. the property of the individual publishers. They
should not be reproduced without permission.
The best reference site for Blu Ray is http:// The movie posters used are believed to be
www.blu-ray.com. It includes lots of details within the public domain, please notify us of any
about Blu Ray releases and is one of the only corrections.
reliable sources for information on which Blu
Ray releases are ALL REGION.

EDITORIAL Volume 3 No.4
The End of the World...well, maybe not ! overload you with pessimistic premonitions of
doom and gloom so there is lots more including
This is one of the stranger issues of Synergy a great feature on Werewolves.
which focuses on The End of the World, Disas-
ter films and related cinema within the catastro- As I reflect on the development of Synergy one
phe genre. thing I recently noted was that our most down-
loaded issue was the one on Sin-ema !
At the same time as dedicated rationalists and
cynical old bastards we are have also included While cult films, horror and world cinema all
an entertaining guide to the insanity of the received a good response, it seems you all
whole End of the World industry from Christian loved our intelligent guide to erotica.
loonies to new age Mayan fanatics, from reli-
gious myths to the latest release films. At pre- So now the truth is out, there are lots of people
sent there seems to have been a rash of these out there who like our approach of treating adult
titles from 2012 to The Road, from The Book of cinema as any other form of entertainment.
Eli to I am Legend, so we thought it would be
fun to give them a critical view. We will certainly consider following up the Sin-
ema issue with another issue in the future but
We have also included a solid Thinking Time for now you will just have to be happy with the
special covering everything from climate Erotica section each issue. We will make sure
change to fundamentalism. we get some choice content in each issue so as
to not to let you down !
Our major article gives a solid introduction to
The End of the World in myth and cinema with We hope you enjoy this issue.
considerations of major works of cinema within Editors
the genre. At the same time we do not want to Synergy

GIVEAWAYS & NEWS
The Road Blur
Icon Films have made Blur is the ultimate pow-

available 15 copies of The ered-up racing experience,
Road for us to giveaway. dropping players into heart-
For a chance to win a copy pumping, electrified action
send an email with The with multiple cars trading
Road in the subject line to paint as they charge to-
promotions@synergy- wards the finish line. Driv-
magazine.com please also ers careen through real-
include your name and full world track locations
address in the body of the packed with fast curves,
email. sneaky alternate routes and hair-raising jumps
in over 50 licensed cars as they collect intense
Power-ups, including the ability to blast other
The Wolfman cars out of the way with huge bursts of energy,
boost their speed, and more. Blur delivers a
Universal have made new style of Powered-up racing experience for
available six copies of The all gamers and is available now on Xbox 360
Wolfman for us to givea- and Playstation 3.
way. For a chance to win a
copy send an email with Transformers: War for Cybertron
The Wolfman in the subject
line to promotions@synergy- Transformers: War for
magazine.com please also Cybertron challenges
include your name and full players to become the
address in the body of the ultimate weapon as a
email. Transformers character
in the final, epic war
Please note these giveaways are only open to that will determine the
Australian readers. survival of their entire
race. Armed with a di-
Severed Ways verse arsenal of lethal,
The Norse Discovery of America high-tech weaponry
and the ability to instantly convert from robot to
This story of vikings, mur- vehicle at any time, players will engage in heart
der, mayhem and black -pounding battles on land and in the air in this
metal is "...one fantastical- gripping, 3rd person action shooter set in the
ly daring piece of work... a Transformers war-ravaged homeland. Com-
visionary work from one of plete with several multiplayer modes, Trans-
the most promising new formers allows gamers to play through story
American narrative missions with their friends in drop in/drop out
filmmakers in recent online co-op, and also create their own charac-
years." (Indiewire) ter for competitive head-to-head multiplayer
modes, choosing among four distinct character
Madman have made classes, personalising its look and selecting
available three copies of from a huge variety of weapons, skills and abili-
Severed Ways for us to ties.
giveaway.
Activision have made available three copies of
For a chance to win a copy send an email with Blur for us and one copy of Transformers: War
Severed Ways in the subject line to for Cybertron to giveaway.
promotions@synergy-magazine.com please also in-
clude your name and full address in the body of For a chance to win a copy send an email with
the email. Blur or Transformers in the subject line to
promotions@synergy-magazine.com please also
include your name and full address in the body
of the email.

NEWS
Salo classified
R 18+ upon review
The R18+ (Scenes of

torture and degrada-
tion, sexual violence
and nudity) rating
awarded to SALO has
been confirmed by the
Review Board.
A five-member panel of
the Classification Re- Moon Nazis Are Coming
view Board (the Re- The First Footage from Iron Sky Released!
view Board) has in a majority decision deter-
mined that the film Salo is classified R 18+ Blind Spot Pictures and Energia Productions
(Restricted) with the consumer advice 'Scenes have released the first footage from their up-
of torture and degradation, sexual violence and coming science fiction movie Iron Sky. In the
nudity'. world of Iron Sky the Nazis left for the Moon in
1945 - and in 2018 they are coming back. The
In the Review Board's majority opinion Salo movie is a science fiction black comedy, a Finn-
warrants this classification because the inclu- ish-German co-production shot mainly in Eng-
sion of additional material on the DVD facilitates lish.
wider consideration of the context of the film
which results in the impact being no more than You can see the fresh footage on Energia's
high. YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/
Energiaproductions) and on the Iron Sky web-
The minority were of the view that the film site (http://www.ironsky.net/).
should be Refused Classification. The Review
Board strongly advises consumers to consider The footage - edited into teaser format - was
whether this is a film they wish to see as it con- filmed in Tampere, Finland in March, but the
tains scenes of torture, degradation, cruelty and main shooting of the film will begin later this
sexual violence that may offend some sections year. The soundtrack was provided by Sloveni-
of the community. Films classified R 18+ are an underground music heavyweight Laibach,
legally restricted to adults. Persons aged under who will also create the soundtrack of the mov-
18 years cannot be admitted to films classified ie. The CGI effects were created by Energia
R 18+. Some material classified R 18+ may be Productions.
offensive to sections of the adult community.
Consumer advice is additional information The budget of Iron Sky is 6.5 million euros,
which is intended to help consumers decide if making it one of the most expensive Finnish film
they want to view this type of material. projects to date, and it will be released in 2011.
Iron Sky is the second film project from the cre-
The Review Board convened today in response ators of Star Wreck, an internet phenomenon
to an application from the Minister for Home Af- that has gathered over eight million viewers all
fairs to review the decision made by the Classi- around the world.
fication Board to classify Salo R 18+ with the
consumer advice 'Scenes of torture and degra-
dation, sexual violence and nudity'.
In reviewing the classification, the Review

Board worked within the framework of the Na-
tional Classification Scheme, applying the provi-
sions of the Classification (Publications, Films
and Computer Games) Act 1995, the National
Classification Code and the Guidelines for the
Classification of Films and Computer Games.
This is the same framework used by the Classi-
fication Board.

NEWS
On a weekly basis over 60,000 people follow

the movie project and collaborate with it, and
the figure keeps rising daily.
Headpress Volume 2 Number 1
Available now to
view free online
and also as a col-
lector edition hard-
back of 250 copies
Headpress is
proud to announce
its leap into the
digital age with the
launch of its infa-
mous flagship
quarterly, the
Headpress journal,
both online as a
free ezine and also
a collector edition full colour hardback, individu-
ally numbered and limited to 250 copies world-
"We shot this footage mainly to make sure our wide.
workflow works as planned", says the director
Timo Vuorensola. Containing the same cutting edge, provocative
brain-bending content of yesteryear, Headpress
"The visual look and feel is one of the biggest is now accessible to the masses. Anyone, any-
challenges we need to overcome. Shooting this time, anywhere...
footage - which we will also use in the final film
when it comes out - provided us with enough To commemorate each quarterly edition, and
material to test out several options and pin not being one to neglect our publishing roots,
down one. I'm hoping to find a visual combina- the ezine will be accompanied by a collector
tion that's unique: something that looks a bit like edition hardcopy available for purchase no-
a comic book and a bit like concept art, but with where else but here through this website.
a definite photorealistic atmosphere."
Each collector edition contains exclusive con-
The movie is directed by Timo Vuorensola and tent not available online plus facsimile pages
produced by Tero Kaukomaa (Blind Spot Pic- from the original out of print Headpress journal,
tures), Samuli Torssonen (Energia Productions) starting with No 1 and running consecutively
and Oliver Damian (27 Films Production). The thereafter.
main cast includes Julia Dietze (1½ Ritter),
Götz Otto (Schindler's List, The Downfall), Tilo Contents include:
Prückner (The Neverending Story, Die
Fälscher) and Udo Kier (Dogville, Dancer in the Fred West Home Improvements
Dark). The screenplay is written by the ac- The Lighter Side Of Serial Killing by David
claimed sci-fi writer Johanna Sinisalo (Nebula Kerekes
Award nominee 2009, Finlandia Prize 2000) Only the Sky Remains Uncorrupted
and Michael Kalesniko (Private Parts). A Visit to the Castle De Sade with Martin Jones
Mixtape: Analogue NOW!
The first teaser of Iron Sky was released in by Joe Scott Wilson
2008 and it has gathered over 3.7 million views. Ghostmonger! The Wholly Serious History Of
Fake Ghosts as Witnessed by a 1930s Comic
The creators of Iron Sky are very active in the Genius by Jennifer Wallis
social media and have gathered a sizable inter- Project Mogwai
national fan following. Four paintings by Rik Rawling

NEWS
Exclusive to the collector edition:
Unrepentant: dead pornstar Jamie Gillis

interviewed by Calum Waddell
Facsimile pages from the very first edition of
Headpress Vol 1 No 1 (Spring 1991)
Online ezine:
http://www.worldheadpress.com/ezine/
Print:
http://www.headpress.com
THANATOMORPHOSE IN ADVANCED
STATE OF PUTREFACTION ON THE WEB
Montréal, CANADA – THANATOFILMS, a sub-

sidiary of Les productions Outofnowhere inc.,
proudly announces the July 8th 2010 official
website launch of director Éric Falardeau’s in-
dependently produced dark tale of sex and gore
Thanatomorphose.
Thanatomorphose is a French word meaning

the visible signs of an organism’s decomposi-
tion caused by death. The synopsis goes as
follow: One day, the young and beautiful Laura
wakes up and finds her flesh rotting…
Director Éric Falardeau describes the film: “My (…) It has me in line for tickets to the movie
approach follows a famous quote from French right now!”
poet Jean Cocteau: Brian Morton of RogueCinema.com
“You've never seen death? Look in the mirror Thanatomorphose’s crew includes first AD Ma-
every day and you will see it like bees working rie-Josée Lamontagne, artistic director Vér-
in a glass hive.” onique Poirier, stop motion animator Simon
Beaupré (La cité de pierre), make-up and spe-
The film main emphasis is not on the why, but cial effects artists Véronique Dumas (The Day
the how: how she will react to what is happen- After Tomorrow, A Night at the Museum, The
ing to her? Fountain), and Josée Courtemanche.
It is a film about the body as an object, a com- The website will also feature an official produc-
modity. How do we treat our body and discon- tion blog hosted by famous horror culture
nect ourselves of it in the process.” French website Sinistre Blogzine.
Last year, a teaser was shot to help find inves-
Sinistre Blogzine editor Alexandre Duguay: “We
tors and to involve the public in the film concep-
are proud to associate ourselves to the project
tion. It has been screened in festivals all around
of talented director Éric Falardeau by hosting
the world and will welcome visitors of the new the film official production blog. It is a great op-
website. The July 8th launch date coincides portunity to contribute to the ever growing pres-
with the start of 2010 Fantasia Film Festival. ence of Quebec independent genre film here
The trailer will be featured on the festival‘s DVD and in the world.”
and the poster will also be lurking in the pages
of the festival’s program. Visit the website today !
Thanatomorphose‘s trailer has been described http://www.thanatomorphosefilm.com
as having “visual that's incredibly powerful and
really had my imagination working overtime.

NEWS
Jane, Dana Hamm & Megan Daniels all in one

site. The best of the non nude and nude babes
Actiongirls News in the world! With over two hundred new faces
for 2010.
Get ready for the NEW Actiongirls....
The style of the photography has taken a step
Actiongirls goes 3D in July! up from the older 2005 site with dramatic movie
lighting and comic book style settings. Many of
Web: http://www.actiongirls.com our new sets shot on green screen
and adding many elements in 3D.
All new sets will be available in 3D as well as
standard 2D for Red and Blue Anylgraph glass- The site has stepped the updates up to forty
es and soon for 3D TV's. If you don't have a updates a month now ten a week from our older
pair you can get them for under $2.00 U.S. at 2008 schedule of eight per month.
Amazon.com from various sellers.
We also have more models than ever before,
Shot in 3D, these are not some cheesy 2D to shooting in the US, UK, Czech Republic, Spain
3D conversion but the real deal. and Canada.
A wide range of samples are on the welcome Our shooting schedule currently is over 250
and tour pages at actiongirls.com. days during 2010 with a staff of eight photogra-
phers including names like Chris Thomson, Jus-
Imagine Wendy 4, Jordan Carver and Zemano- tin Price, Alexius Vitaly, Adam Chilson, Joe
va in 3D Boobovision! Venge, Andy Hartmark, Paul Bucetta and of
course Scotty JX. The equipment has been up-
Boobs, Butts and Guns reaching out onto your graded as well using High Speed Cameras, 3D
lounge and into your face like never before. Rigs and New 1080p Chip HD cameras.
Actiongirls welcomes Double H Internet Super- This year will feature videos in 3D, more fantasy
star Jordan Carver to the family of Actiongirls in styled CG Sets, blockbuster movie-like themed
new exclusive videos and pictorials. videos and pictorials, comic book styled sets
and much more.
Never before has one site displayed so many
internet super stars under one umbrella with Please make a visit to the site as Scotty and the
Jordan Carver, Denise Milani, Wendy 4, team haven't stopped working at keeping it fun
Zemanova, Brooke Becker, Aylen Alvarez, Mya and entertaining while featuring only best look-

FEATURE
The End of the World is a myth found within all Of the monotheistic religions Christianity has
the world religions; it is as central to theology as the most developed theology of the End of the
the creation myth since it gives an explanation World known as eschatology. The early disci-
as to how the world has reached its current ples believed Jesus would return in their life-
state and declares its future. To understand the times and most historians believe that it was
significance of this statement we must appreci- only due to St.Paul and his vision of an astral if
ate that religious thinking, in general, is marked not Apollo-like Christ that Christianity survived
by a form of conceptualiza- the difficult hurdle of their
tion which is focused on lord and saviour missing
“moral decline”. Regardless his return appointment.
of whether the religion in The belief that Jesus
question is eastern or west- would return increases
ern, new age or a new reli- around times of crisis. One
gious movement, each posits of these key periods was
a “golden age” when man at the end of the first Mil-
was in union with the divine lennium. During the Middle
(or nature, the cosmos; any Ages there were untold
range of descriptors could be cults which believed in the
used) and a process where- imminent return of Jesus.
by this union was broken and An excellent overview is
history moved inexorably found in The Pursuit of the
away from the creation event and towards the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and
end of creation. This myth is used to imbue his- Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages, Nor-
tory with an artificial sense of meaning and give man Cohn. Oxford University Books, 1970.
religious communities the moral upper hand and
a false sense of authority. It is fair to say, however, that it is with Protes-
tantism that eschatology really ran rampant.

FEATURE The End of the World in Myth and Cinema
The Rapture
time as the events described or at a later date.

They accordingly not only had no prophetic sig-
nificance but those who used them could be
accused of deliberate deception.
Protestant sects became more and more fo-

cused on eschatology leading to The Great Dis-
appointment of 1844 when thousands of mem-
bers of the Adventist sect waited on hill tops for
Book of Daniel Jesus to return. After a quick novel re-
interpretation of the nature of Jesus’ return, the
sect continued on to become the Seventh Day
Since the Protestants wanted to take the Bible Adventists but learnt their lesson and did not
literally they ignored historical interpretations offer any further firm dates for their lord’s re-
and used the Book of Daniel and the Revelation turn. They did, however, continue to make an
of St.John to create complex End of the World industry from end of the world hype ranging
Scenarios. Even though most objective Biblical from movies to correspondence courses which
historians interpret the events of the Book of continues to this day.
Daniel in the context of Assyria and Babylon
and The Book of Revelation in terms of the Ro- This process of dating Jesus’ return continued
man rule of Nero, Protestants use both books throughout the early years of the Jehovah’s
as forecasters of future events. They backed Witness sect with a wide range of chosen dates
their claims with their own obscure dating of Old and failed returns. Many sects continue this
Testament books. practise today including one major leader, Hal
Lindsay who claimed Jesus would return in
This was done in such a way that it looked to 1988 and ended with egg on his face. Most
the uninformed reader that the prophecies in- modern television preachers use the supposed-
cluded were great visions of the future when ly imminent return of Jesus to whip up hysteria
actually they were either written at the same as well as a swag of financial rewards.
One of the more quirky

aspects of this belief is
The Rapture. This
doctrine is traced back
to Edward Irving in
1825 who lead a small
and obscure Christian
sect named as the
Catholic Apostolic
Church. This belief,
now current through-
out the evangelical
Christian world, is that Edward Irving
Revelation of St.John
all the Christians will be

raptured from the earth
and after seven years of
tribulation, during which
Satan will run riot on earth
torturing and brutalizing
the unsaved, Jesus will
return. It has proved lucra-
tive for both the Christian
fiction and film market.
The series Left Behind
has sold millions of copies
as Christians get all excit-
ed about what Satan will
do to us unbelievers when they have left the
planet. So much for loving your neighbour!
These strange and bizarre beliefs may seem

insignificant however when we consider than
some 50% of US citizens define themselves as
Christians. We begin to realize their power. It is
also rather startling to see how many of these Hindu cycles of time as filtered through the
beliefs underlie themes founds in both modern lens of the works of Madame Blavatsky,
literature and film. founder of Theosophy
In the east both Hinduism and Buddhism have

cyclic views of history. Rather than a creator
deity moulding the world out of clay and kick- moral decline through ages of Gold, Silver,
starting a golden age, they see history as a se- Copper and Iron. At the end of the age of Kali
ries of long cycles. These cycles, however, still or Iron, there is a cataclysm. In some sects,
display the same characteristics as western es- such as the Vaishnava who worship Vishnu,
chatology. In Hinduism the Golden Age may there are ten major avatars or incarnations of
have begun by a lesser being emanating the the divine which take place during these cycles.
universe from itself but it still triggers a cycle of Kalki, the final avatar heralds the end of the
world and destroys the sinful with a blazing
sword and rides across the globe on a giant
white horse. In Buddhism, the golden age be-
gins with the teaching of a Buddha (and there
have supposedly been innumerable Buddhas,
the current Buddha dating from around 600
BCE) and as the teachings decline the world
mirrors that moral decline until it reaches a time
where there are no Buddhist teachings in the
world and disasters unfold.
It is interesting that new age religions have also

followed these themes. The present obsession
with the Mayan date of 2012 and supposed
coming earth transformations all extend from
the influence of mainstream religious belief fil-
tered through the syncretic new age mindset.
The new age worldview developed in the Six-
ties and Seventies was influenced by every-
thing from 19th occult theories such as Theoso-
phy and Spiritualism to astrology and Christian
mysticism. The new age can really be defined
as a mishmash of incompatible ideologies and
tends to create an End of the World scenario
Krishna from a wide range of sources.

We can distil from this discussion a range of key Archaeology by Cremo

themes which mark “end of the world” thinking and Thompson (Torchlight
and then see how they influence modern cine- Books 1998), two mem-
ma and entertainment. bers of ISKCON (the Hare
Krishna Hindu sect).
The key to End of the World thinking is a mind-
set which includes the belief in a Golden Age. Their next book took the
This age marks a period when religious beliefs whole subject to a new
are pure and morality is high. It is extolled in all low level, Human Devolu-
mainstream religious traditions and in new age tion by Michael Cremo
sects is usually adapted to represent a period (Torchlight 2003) which
when man was “attuned with nature and the di- argued that rather than
vine” or in a perfect state. man having evolved from
the same stock as apes,
Of course this Golden Age ends and moral de- apes are degenerate hu-
cline sets in. The responsibility for such a disas- man beings. This seems
ter is usually placed firmly in man’s court. While to be the final world in the
the mythology varies, the “kicked out of the gar- lunacy of devolutionary
den” legend persists. In modern new age thinking.
thought we even get advanced tales of the lost
continents of Mu and Atlantis which sunk be- The need to sacralise his-
neath the waves due to man’s misuse of tech- tory is paramount in the
nology and science. The story may have be- mind of the religious and
come more complex, but the underlying ideolo- has far more influence on
gy is the same. supposedly secular cine-
ma than we may realize.
Moral Decline brings with it such beliefs as the
limited value of science (since only the divine To begin with I will an example some films that
has the answer), the dangers of modernism and reflect many of these themes in a general way
technology (since we are moving away from the and then I will hone in on films which have a
Golden Age not developing either as a culture) specific eschatological interest. I have not cov-
and a negative or neutral view of man and na- ered evangelical films made by niche Christian
ture. Since we have left the Golden Age or Gar- filmmakers as they fall outside what we may
den of Eden, man is in a state of sin and nature define as general cinema. However such films
has either become polluted with evil or some- as the Left Behind series, The Late Great Plan-
how corrupted. Moral Decline theory is usually et Earth, The Moment After and so on are more
creationist since it is marked by a devolutionary obvious examples in this genre.
rather than evolutionary model.
Golden Age films all illustrate the concept of the
These concepts are very significant as they cre- perfect age or perfect civilization destroyed by
ate a distorted view of history based on an over- moral decline. The vast majority of films about
arching master plan with religious meaning. Var- Atlantis such as Beyond Atlantis (1973), The
ious Protestants sects produce amazingly com- Man from Atlantis (1977) right through to
plex maps of history showing how the whole
flow of human history is marked by the seven
days of creation from 4004 B.C. to the present.
This also relates to the importance given to cre-

ationism and Intelligent Design. In Hinduism
huge charts of the cycles of history have been
significant since the time of the Puranas, these
cycles imparting meaning to history and sug-
gesting a plan or intelligence to the flow of time.
It is interesting that both Hindus and Protestants
work together in promoting Intelligent Design in
the United States.
Indeed a major text on the subject is Forbidden The legend of Atlantis

modern animated films such as Milo: Atlantis The imbuing of meaning

Returns (2003) express some aspect of the into history is central to
myth. religious thinking. The
theory that man may
The Atlantis myth in film is interesting as it also have evolved by random
includes some indication of the myth of ancient changes caused by nat-
knowledge (these ancients civilizations knew far ural selection especially
more than us) and moral decline through the galls the religious. The
misuse of science. Atlantis is usually described Happening (2008) is a
as having fallen into the sea because they mis- prime example where a
used ancient sciences passed to them from The respected filmmaker M.
Golden Age. Night Shyamalan allows
his Christian belief to overrule all common
The myth of Atlantis in sense a produce a work of epic nonsense.
literature is a complex
one which can be When you have the main character, a science
traced back to 1882 teacher calling evolution "just another theory”
when Ignatius Loyola you know there is a problem. While it may push
Donnelly published At- the right buttons with horror fans, its central
lantis: The Antediluvian theme about religious faith and Intelligent De-
World detailing his theo- sign is so heavy handed it could nearly be
ries concerning the placed in the category of evangelical cinema.
mythical lost continent
of Atlantis. The book
sold extraordinarily well
and is credited with initi-
ating the obsession with
Atlantis. His work also
contributed to the emer-
gence of interest in the
ancient Maya. Thanks a
lot Donnelly! Madame
Blavatsky, the founder
of that enigmatic 19th
century religious move-
ment Theosophy, took
Donnelly’s theories (and
others) and produced
the quintessential occult
tomes on the Golden Madame Blavatsky
Age Isis Unveiled and
The Secret Doctrine. Hodgepodges of pseudo-
science and religious theories, they were well
received by a world saturated with spiritualism
and mysticism and helped bring Atlantis to an
even greater readership.
It is interesting to note that many films on Egypt

and Rome also embody Christian ideas about
moral decline. Since both were seen as ene-
mies of Christendom, films abound showing
them as examples of civilizations where evil ran
wild with the Pharaoh in Egypt and Emperor in 2012 (2010)
Rome depicted as embodiments of satanic
pride. The films of Cecille DeMille helped create 2012 is another big budget disaster-melodrama
true epics of so many of the Biblical myths and from Roland Emmerich of Independence Day
along the way gave undue credibility to the and The Day After Tomorrow fame. Emmerich
themes the Bible embodied. does tend to follow a formula with his films
which he has honed to a fine art. There is lots

of action, overblown plots, little to no character

development, an overemphasis on the nuclear
family and wallops of sentimentality matched
with over-the-top extremely high budget special
effects.
Using speculation about

the end of world Em-
merich ties together ho-
key religious supersti-
tions, overwrought emo-
tionalism and grand
spectacle with quite
astounding CGI. How-
ever, this is a film which
really cannot be taken
seriously in terms of plot
or character develop-
ment. The storyline
takes its cue from new
age speculation about the end of the world and
mixes in all manner of pseudo-science. It tries to
sound all scientific using references to the new
age favourite pseudo scientist Charles Hapgood
and spends most of the film revelling in the most
ludicrous speculations. The credits mention the
film is inspired by Fingerprints of the Gods by whimper and a man with his pregnant wife are
Graham Hancock. Hancock is celebrated by left alone in a world gone awry. After his wife
quack archaeologists worldwide for his unortho- gives birth she is left in a weakened state and
dox opinions. leaves to die in the night and the father and son
(unnamed) are left alone to wander the road to
If that is not enough 2012 celebrates religious survive. The acting is superb, Viggo Mortensen
lunacy as the people of the world unite in prayer and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the father and son
rather than making any real effort to survive the are excellent. While the film could be seen as a
impending cataclysm. Set pieces such as the humanist ethic, there is little religious content
roof on the cathedral in Rome crashing on be- though the father and son team refer to them-
lievers end up having a truly dark and ironic selves as "the good guys," who are "carrying
sense of humour, one probably not intended by the fire." My major issue is with the ending,
the filmmaker. Of course the United States finds which various critics have also noted. The fa-
out the truth about the coming catastrophe be- ther dies from the long journey and the son
fore anyone else and creates “arks” to save the joins a new family group and moves off towards
cream of the crop to create a future world. What possible survival. The notion of the death of a
a future world it will be, filled with rich bloated
bankers, billionaires and anyone else who can
afford the one billion euro ticket to get on-board.
To supposedly get us to feel the “personal” side
of the tale Emmerich places his focus on Jack-
son Curtis, his ex-wife and her new husband
and their two kids. It is so American apple-pie it
is revolting. You just know that the new interlop-
er husband will get it (which he does) and Jack-
son and his wife will get together again (which
they do) and the nuclear family will be part of
the foundation of the new world. Ahh shucks !
The Road (2009)
At first glance The Road is very different from

other apocalyptic films. The world ends with a The nihilism of father and son in The Road

single parent family and its replacement with a mankind has dominated and abused nature ev-
nuclear family unit as the final sign of hope is er since. This sort of “Dominion” theology has
problematic. been central to each of the Mosaic religions
and can be traced directly to global warming via
The Book of Eli (2010) the excesses of the Protestant Work Ethic and
the puritan values of make as much money as
The Book of Eli is a bit you can for God. The vast majority of terrorism
like The Road by with comes from the Islamic terrorism, Christian far
a fundamentalist right nutters and Zionists. Indeed it has been
Christian message. It argued that the world’s first terrorists were the
is bizarre that such a Jewish zealots who declared war against their
film would be made by Roman occupiers. Any book could have been
mainstream filmmak- used to represent Western culture; a scientific
ers and include such text, a work of poetry, even Shakespeare. To
respected actors as use the Bible is an insult to the viewer’s intelli-
Gary Oldman and gence, to say the least.
Denzel Washington. It
is a tale of a post- Central to many end of the world films is the
apocalyptic world motif of the family. With all religious traditions
where Eli is carrying the family unit is a representation of the
and protecting a book “Golden Age” in microcosm. It is the unit “god
which represents the designed” and since most religious people can’t
wisdom of a dead civilization and you guessed remember the Golden Age or the Garden of
it, it is the Bible. This is truly horrid stuff kids, Eden, they project their utopian ideals onto the
simplistic, narrow and stupid. While many media family unit and conservative values. In the west,
critics have tried to “read” the tale as represent- this also results in the idealization of the 1950’s
ing the survival of any religious faith and the and its supposedly idyllic family values. Rang-
“Bible” as any holy book, that is not how the film ing from wife beating, backyard abortions and
communicates. It is the Bible and the Christian overprescribed valium to the constant use of
God which survives the world’s end. It is ironic electro shock and lobotomy, eugenics and
in a sense since it could be argued that it is the chemical castration for homosexuality.
views which the Bible represents which are like-
ly to cause any global catastrophe. Without en- In 2012, the dysfunctional family is broken by
tering too far into polemic, the two major risks to the death of the interloper father and the origi-
modern man are global warming and terrorism nal nuclear family reinstated to help kick-start
and both come from problems caused by the the future. In The Road the ending where the
three ugly sisters of Judaism, Christianity and one parent family is replaced with a nuclear
Islam. Genesis made it clear that God created family seems to have the same message. A
man first, then woman and then the animals and variant of this model is the salvation of the fami-
Denzel Washington in Book of Eli The Day After Tomorrow

The ridiculous end of the world patriotism of

Armageddon
ly against ridiculous odds; this theme is found

throughout End of the World and catastrophe
films. For example in The day After Tomorrow
(2004) Doctor Jack Hall treks through insanely
Mel Gibson in Mad Max
dangerous conditions to save his son Sam who
is snow bound in New York. It is an exaggerated
film, filled with extreme scenarios and unbeliev- Even Mad Max (1979), the Australian cult dys-
able set-pieces, not surprising considering it is topian post-apocalyptic film had elements of the
made by the same director as 2012. family values message but with a twist. It is a
post-apocalyptic world where fuel is scarce and
Related to the theme of family is an emphasis moral decline has meant that the roads are
on nationalism, this is especially prevalent in ruled by gangs. When his wife and child are
American disaster and End of the World films. killed, Max decides to take the law into his own
The Day After (1983) was a prime example of hands and becomes a “righteous” avenger
Eighties nuclear fears but at least avoided un- against the gangs.
due jingoism. In later films the nationalistic fer-
vour was moved up a pitch, a classic example Armageddon is of further significance as it
being Armageddon. brings home the anti-science message of many
of these films. NASA is constantly shown as
The title alone puts the film in context; it is an incompetent and unable to achieve what a
End of the World drama but with religious over- group of working class men can achieve. A lud-
tones. The film is marked with nationalist and dite approach to technology where computers,
religious imagery, and even the president talks technology and science are seen as a great
of Bible Prophecy. The language of the film is threat to mankind is seen in such titles as Ro-
only equalled by the power of U.S militarism. It bocop (1987) which spawned two sequels and
seems no country in the world has any technol- four television series, which explored the dan-
ogy in place to deal with a rogue comet and ger of technology in the hands of large corpora-
while NASA has failed (once again science is no tions and the Terminator series which focused
good), the wisdom of the average U.S. worker is on computers gone mad.
what is needed. A team of no-good drinkers and
gamblers are redeemed (another very religious I am Legend (2007) and 28 Days After (2002)
concept) by working together to save the world. emphasizes the man-playing-god motif with vi-
Harry Stamper represents the old form of family ruses decimating humanity leaving either an
(since he drinks and parties) and is replaced by individual or a family unit to fight against the
A.J and his daughter when he dies at the con- odds. The Andromeda Strain (1971), The Ome-
clusion of the film. Family, Country and Ameri- ga Man (1971) also fall into this category. The
can values; what more do we need to save the fear of science and the future it will create is
world?! found in many futuristic science fiction films as
Logan’s Run (1976) but these are outside the

FEATURE REVIEWS The End of the World in Myth and Cinema
Spanish Plane Disaster 2008
ing. This sort of speculation which ranges from

the Gaia hypothesis to Goddess worship does
nothing for the science of climate change.
Ultimately a religious approach to the end of the

world is based on misplaced hope. It is a sort of
insurance policy, offering surety against all
odds in the event that disaster hits. However if
we objectively examine the success thus far of
religious insurance policies they has not done
well.
When a plane crashes, the few survivors may

thank God (the Virgin Mary or some other di-
End of the World/Catastrophe genre we are vine character) for their lives, but what about
covering here. the lives of the others on the plane. Is God that
capricious? For that matter why did God allow
A further theme explored in the End of the the disaster in the first place? Why didn’t he
World genre is man’s relationship with nature. In stop the crash before it happened and hence
the vast majority of these films nature is seen as have to avoid saving a few people at the ex-
something which be dominated or controlled. pense of others?
Whether it is a volcano, meteor or tsunami, man
must confront and conquer uncontrolled nature The whole religious insurance policy thing looks
and bring it under his will. This concept can be like a con job to me. When it comes to the end
traced directly back to the Judeo-Christian the- of the world it is much the same. You sign up
ology of Dominion which is explicit within Gene- for the policy, you agree to very restrictive poli-
sis. Man must have dominion over the planet cy conditions, pay your premium every week
and its animals, it is his god-given right. and have no real evidence that it will amount to
much.
In some modern disaster films this has been
modified by pagan and new age thought so that The superstitions of mainstream religious belief
nature has been somehow corrupted or polluted may be waning in the modern world but alterna-
by man and hence takes revenge on mankind. tive health, new age and esoteric thought are
This sort of “religious” approach to climate on the rise and we must be aware of how these
change and nature disasters is worrying in that ideas saturate film, entertainment and literature.
it distorts the evidence-based science behind If we really stand a chance at making changes
the problems facing mankind and makes deal- in the world in regards to climate change and
ing with global natural disasters far more difficult the environment the first step is to view the
in the long run. problem objectively and examine the facts from
a scientific perspective. But that is more easily
Sadly it also is found in many “green” documen- said than done for most people as it would
taries and really represents religious ideas mean leaving a lifetime of superstition behind
which have been filtered through the mishmash them first.
which has become known as “new age” think-

With Tokyo, it was monsters. If there was a New York’s Statue of Liberty has also come to
stray monster anywhere in the world it would be an icon of doom. The Twin Towers had
naturally gravitate to Tokyo to wreak havoc. As nothing on the lady with the funny hat when it
a recognisable symbol of the United States, comes to attracting natural or manmade disas-
ters – on film, at any rate.
Surprisingly the first appearance of the Statue

in a disaster seems to be down to the United
States Government. A war poster for Liberty
Bonds depicted the Statue in front of a blazing
New York, a grim reminder of what could hap-
pen if you didn’t fork
over your money to
Uncle Sam for War
Bonds.
An early attempt at a
natural disaster film
was the 1933 Deluge.
This film was thought
lost until recently
when an Italian-
dubbed print was
found.
The statue was not

destroyed, but was
flooded by a tsunami
caused by earth-
quakes along the

FEATURE REVIEWS Disaster Magnet: The Statue of Liberty Bob Estreich
Escape from New York
This shot spawned a whole range of parodies in

films like Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs (1987), and
the animated TV show The Simpsons.
In 1981 the head of the Statue appeared block-

ing New York streets in Escape From New
York. Once again humanity has collapsed and
the whole of New York has been turned into a
huge prison. The head of the Statue of Liberty,
a symbol of the freedoms of the New World to
arriving immigrants, is a little incongruous here.
east coast. This turned out to be prophetic as In the 2004 disaster film The Day After Tomor-
far as later films were concerned. Tsunamis be- row, a drama about climate change making the
came a popular theme. Like Godzilla and To- U.S. uninhabitable, the Statue appears almost
kyo, the Statue of Liberty and tsunamis seem to covered in ice following a massive cold snap
go hand-in-hand. and a tsunami. Incidentally the Statue is facing
the wrong way.
The most striking image in film was at the end of
Planet of the Apes (1968). The astronaut Taylor
finds the statue half-buried on a lonely beach.
He realises that he is on a future Earth where
humans are now a lower form of animal life. In
reality the statue’s survival in these circum-
stances is quite unlikely. It is constructed from
thin bronze sheets attached to a steel armature
(skeleton). The steel would have rusted away
long ago, but we aren’t going to let reality stand
in the way of a good story, are we?
The Classic Planet of Apes Scene

Independence Day
The film came from the makers of the unbeliev-

able Independence Day.
In that film the Statue was destroyed by aliens,

so you have been warned. The Day After To-
morrow scene was also parodied in the 2008
Disaster Movie, where the Statue is now better
prepared with a face mask and snorkel. Billed
as “Not Another Shallow Hollywood Movie” and
subtitled “Al Gore Was Right”, the film sank al-
most as quickly as the Statue.
The 1998 film Deep Impact should probably

have suffered the same fate. This time it’s a me-
and once again the Statue cops it first. Again
teor hitting Earth that causes all the mayhem
the head is bounced into the streets of down-
town New York by the water, ignoring the fact
that it should have disintegrated the first time it
bounced off a building. The shot is mercifully
brief.
A TV series, Category 7: The End of the World

(2005) manages to throw in a bit of everything.
As the world’s climate disintegrates massive
storms develop worldwide. Various storm cells
spawn huge tornadoes that destroy world icons
like the Eiffel Tower and, you guessed it, the
Deep Impact Statue of Liberty.
The series has now been released on DVD and

the cover shows New York on fire and flooded,
an interesting combination.
The Day After Tomorrow AI: Artificial Intelligence

The Statue is, as usual, up to her waist in water

but at least this time she is facing the right way
so she can see what’s coming at her. The Stat- There is one non-film parody of the films that
ue is yet again submerged in the 2001 SF film should be mentioned.
AI: Artificial Intelligence. As usual this is caused
by global warming. In 1979 students of the University of Wisconsin
constructed a “sunken” Statue on the ice of
In a final tribute in the 2008 film Cloverfield the Lake Mendota. It’s my favourite parody be-
Statue is decapitated by a giant monster. cause it shows that even this far back some
people were becoming aware of just how cli-
Did I say “final”? It seems unlikely that this will chéd the Statue had become.
be the last attempt to destroy her. Americans
seem divided about their icons – fiercely and About the only method of destruction the
patriotically protective of “their” statue, but quite filmmakers have left out so far is an attack by
ready to depict its destruction in the interests of terrorists. That would probably be too tasteless,
making a buck. but far more realistic than the other scenarios
shown in these films.
Another Cinematic Representation University of Wisconsin

The werewolf in myth is a mostly European Characteristics of
creature with many local variations. Also known a Werewolf
as a lycanthrope, it appears to have been asso-
ciated with the full moon. Apart from this, almost Although the earli-
every detail in the legend varies depending on est werewolves of
its region of origin. Among some American Indi- legend were com-
an tribes, for instance, the legend held that pletely wolf like,
shape shifting into any other animal form was variations gradually
possible. occurred. These
really reached their
The word werewolf itself has a number of mean- climax with the
ings. In Old English it comes from the words for rush of werewolf
“man” and “wolf”, although an alternative inter- films in the 20th
pretation is “wearer of wolf skin”. The “man-wolf” century where the
interpretation exists in many other languages as “wolfman” was
well as Old English. more like a hairy
human. This would
Becoming a Werewolf be due more to the
limitations of makeup and human physiology
While vampires were created by being bitten by rather than to any particular legend.
another vampire, it is not so clear-cut for a
werewolf. You could become a werewolf by be- A typical werewolf would have eyebrows that
ing cursed (especially under the influence of a met in the middle, an elongated muzzle, sharp
full moon), bitten or scratched by a werewolf, or teeth, and of course superhuman strength and
eating human flesh (fresh or more usually from cunning. The body may or may not be anthro-
a corpse). poid but would always be hairy. Curved finger-
nails could turn into claws. Werewolves were
The origin of the “full moon” part of the legend is generally held to be tailless.
unknown but it occurs in the mediaeval writings
of Gervase of Tilbury and may have been re- Shape shifting was a common attribute,
ferred to by the Greek , Petronius, around the especially in the non-European legends.
4th century.
In a rare example of female werewolves, Scan-

dinavian werewolves were held to be old wom-
en with poisoned claws (fingernails).
Of course the church had to get in on the act so

excommunicated people could turn into were-
wolves, saints could curse people and turn them
into werewolves, or you could be made into a
werewolf by incurring the wrath of God (or the
Devil). St Patrick is held to have turned Vereti-
cus, a Welsh king, into a wolf.
There are also many individual legends of one-

off conversions for various antisocial acts.

FEATURE Werewolf!
The change to a wolf was painless, but the psychosis which results from sexual suppres-
change back to human form was painful and sion and a crisis which causes its eruption in
debilitating. They may also have suffered from violent and chaotic forms.
depression as a result of remembering their
crimes committed while in wolf form. These eruptions are so extreme that they are
seen as bestial and in the past such individuals
Killing a Werewolf would be seen as possessed by the devil and
hunted down and killed by members of their
The earliest legends regarded forgiveness by a own communities. Families would shun a per-
Deity as the only way to become human again. son showing signs of werewolfism as it was as-
sociated with being possessed by the devil and
During the 20th century the legend was expand- reflected on the whole family.
ed, with werewolves being hurt by contact with
silver and being able to be killed by silver bul- In a case covered in The American Journal of
lets, although there appears to be no earlier Psychiatry Vol. 134, No. 10. October 1977 by
mention of this addition to the legend. It is at- Harvey Rostenstock, M.D. and Kenneth R. Vin-
tributed to scriptwriter Curt Siodmak, who also cent, Ed.D. a woman reported werewolf like
emphasised the connection with the full moon. symptoms. These included delusions of were-
wolf transformation under stress, a preoccupa-
Wolfsbane, a herb, was held to be protection tion with religious phenomenology, including
against them. feeling victimized by the evil eye, an obsessive
need to frequent graveyards and woods, primi-
The church, not one to resist hijacking a folk su- tive expression of aggressive and sexual urges
perstition for its own ends, appears to have al- in the form of bestiality and extreme forms of
most missed out on werewolves. Unlike vam- anxiety. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia
pires werewolves were immune to holy relics and treated successfully.
and artefacts like crucifixes and holy water. Ex-
orcism was, however, held to work in some Many of the motifs of the werewolf are related
countries. to madness such as the supposed transfor-
mation occurring on the full moon, the transmis-
The werewolf could be “cured “ in some cultures sion of the disease by familial lines (as with
by surgery. This could involve striking the were- some forms of mental illness) and the obses-
wolf on the head with a knife (you have to won- sion with bestial sex. Some have argued that
der about the survival rate) or driving nails the most primitive use of wolf or animal posses-
through the werewolf’s hands. sion within native tribes represented a healthy
expression of pent up aggression and sexual
There were other less drastic methods. You desire.
could address the werewolf by its real name
three times and it would be cured. A Danish be- However with the advent of Christianity and the
lief held that you could scold a werewolf and it demonization of all forms of paganism and the
would change back to human (“Bad dog!” ?). It suppression of sexuality, the werewolf became
could also be cured if it converted to Christianity an image of great fear. In many ways it is more
(naturally). feared than the vampire since a vampire can be
controlled with a crucifix or holy water and
The Psychology of the Werewolf those infected by it can be returned to normal
life with the death of the master vampire. A
While term werewolf werewolf or "man-wolf" is werewolf infection can only be cured by death,
derived from the Old English wer or man, plus in most cases by a blessed silver bullet.
wolf, the term lycanthropy is used to differenti-
ate the psychiatric condition from the imagery of Werewolves in film
myth and legend and comes from the Greek
works for human and wolf. Werewolves are first known to have appeared
in entertainment in the early 1600s play The
The earliest accounts were found in Pliny the Tragedy of the Duchess of Malfi. A young lady
Elder and Vergil. There are many theories re- is preparing to marry beneath her station and
garding the origin of the myth with it usually be- her two evil brothers, one of whom is a
ing connected to sexual suppression. In psychi- werewolf, plan to stop her or kill her. The play
atric teams werewolfism is seen as a form of becomes a real horror story as the lady, her

FEATURE Werewolf!
Dracula and others of that style.
Overseas production companies still produced

some werewolf films for their local audiences
but generally with more style and drama than
their Hollywood counterparts. After a while it
seemed the genre was only kept alive by firms
like Britain’s Hammer Films who specialised in
low budget horror films. They made so many of
these that the low budget ceased to be a handi-
cap as they learned to make the most of each
set and each costume. Their 1981 film Curse of
the Werewolf is regarded as a classic.
Werewolf stories languished but there was a

gradual revival through the 1980s and 1990s.
1981 was a good year for werewolf films. An
children and lover are all destroyed. American Werewolf in London, billed as a hor-
ror / comedy, was good enough to stand on its
Werewolves did not appear in film as quickly as
the better-publicised vampires. Possibly this
was simply because a hairy man wasn’t as
glamorous as a vampire. Vampires got the hot
women, werewolves got fleas. Vampires had
style, werewolves had bad hair days. The first
film was the 1935 Werewolf of London. It was a
rather confused tale as there was little literature
to draw on and that was itself often contradicto-
ry. There are few of the themes so common in
later films.
In 1941 Lon Chaney played the part again in

The Wolf Man. With more elaborate makeup
and a more sympathetic approach taken by
Chaney, werewolves were suddenly a popular
film topic.
This unfortunately led to an explosion of simply

silly werewolf films in the post-World War II peri-
od. Many films of the style of XXX (insert popu-
lar comedians here ) meet XXXX (insert choice
of monster here) were produced for a film-
hungry audience and did a lot to kill off the
werewolf genre. Even monster vs. monster was
tried by shameless producers – Wolfman meets

FEATURE Werewolf!
Howling III Werewolf Nuns ! Werewolf from Twilight: New Moon
own as a horror film. It won the 1981 Saturn the true wolf shape.
Award for best horror film. It deals with two
young American students who are attacked on By the end of the 1990s we saw an occasional
the wild moors by a lycanthrope and one is werewolf film being released that had a decent
turned into a werewolf. As the next full moon budget and high production values. One such
approaches the need for action increases. Sui- (and in my mind one of the better werewolf ti-
cide becomes an option after a night of murder tles) is the 2002 film Dog Soldiers. This brilliant
and mayhem in his new wolf form. piece of British horror is set in the wilds of Scot-
land where someone (something?) is killing sol-
The Howling was a little more thoughtful and diers out on exercise. The best of the British
did much to return the genre to the horror main- army cannot stop the werewolves.
stream. A reporter who has been interviewing a
serial killer finds her way to The Colony, the kill- War Wolves, recently reviewed in Synergy, took
er’s starting point. She doesn’t realise that The an unusual twist. A group of American soldiers
Colony is a werewolf haunt and the serial killer fighting in Afghanistan is attacked by were-
was an outcast. The werewolves don’t want any wolves and themselves become lycanthropes.
more publicity, so she finds herself in danger at Unusually for the genre they have the choice of
every turn. One of the more ridiculous sequels whether to become full traditional werewolves
in The Howling series was Howling III:The Mar-
supials which was set in Australia with werekan-
garoos and some rather cool werewolf nuns.
The werewolf in these films was more of a hu-

man in physiology, but slowly and with the ex-
tended use of CGI it was possible to return to

FEATURE Werewolf!
Lycans from the Underworld Films
pires grip and makes them mortal enemies.
It was inevitable that the Wolfman film would be

remade, but not without troubles. The new ver-
or, by not feeding on flesh, becoming only partly sion starring Benicio del Toro was put back a
converted. They still have the superhuman number of times, had changes of directors, and
strength and other attributes but lack the generally suffered every possible problem. It
antisocial feelings of most werewolves. Of finally screened in Australia in February 2010. I
course, there will be a showdown between the haven’t seen it yet but it is set in 19th century
true werewolves and the unconverted. London which should give it a period look better
fitting the storyline. The extensive CGI allows a
Another film well worth a look is Twilight: New true four-legged lycanthrope and the film should
Moon, also reviewed recently. In this story we be the better and more believable for this.
have a group of vampires and werewolves ef-
fectively calling a truce with each other. The Finally, if you don’t like your werewolves too
werewolves are from a local Indian tribe. They serious, there is always the British Wallace and
protect the human members of the community. Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit
So far the truce has been honoured but now a (2005). A giant rabbit is terrorising the neigh-
human girl has fallen in love with a vampire boy, bourhood (in a genteel British way, of course)
but her best friend is a werewolf. The conflict and it is up to heroic inventor Wallace and his
between the three cultures is highlighted in the faithful dog Gromit to save the Vegetable Show
love story. It is far better than the usual rip-your- from destruction.
throat-out film and the CGI wolves are spectac-
ular. The Wolfman (2010)
The Underworld series offers one of the more The Wolfman is the latest werewolf film, this
complex adaptations of the werewolf mythology. time from Universal. It is a remake of the 1941
Over a sequence of three films it tracks the con- classic horror film of the same name directed
flict between werewolves and vampires. The by Joe Johnston. It is an unusual film in that it is
final film Rise of the Lycans explored the origins a period piece and only attempts to update the
of the werewolf. It suggested that some long tale via character development and CGI. The
time in the past they had been bred as guards Victorian era is superbly captured and the goth-
and slaves for the vampire caste. ic mood of the period beautifully rendered. The
director had the sense to appreciate that too
However, when a master Lycan falls in love with many werewolf movies put the emphasis on the
the daughter of a vampire Lord and she is put to transformation, so he underplays it, some may
death for reciprocating a revolution unfolds argue to an alarming degree.
which liberates the werewolves from the vam-

FEATURE Werewolf!
Del Toro and Hopkins in Wolfman
was placed in an asylum after the death of his

mother. He is haunted by memories of his fa-
ther, as a werewolf, killing his mother. After a
performance he is contacted by Gwen Conliffe,
his brother’s fiancée, who tells him his brother
has gone missing and asks for his help. While
he is reluctant to return to Blackmoor, the nar-
row village in which he grew up, he feel he
owes it to his brother and begins the long jour-
ney. When he arrives he is shocked to find that
his brother has been brutally slain and his body
left by the roadside.
At the same time the final climatic werewolf vs.
werewolf conflict seems to make up for lost As he begins his own investigation of his broth-
time. The horror is certainly there but is primarily er’s death he must deal with the insular atti-
transmitted through the characters and mood. A tudes of the townsfolk and the fanaticism of the
secondary storyline, which certainly enhances local preacher. However when he uncovers sto-
the horror of the film, is on mental illness. Ex- ries of various local deaths by a devil-like beast
ploring the psychiatric model of werewolfism as he visits the local gypsies to investigate. This
lycanthrope, the film has some truly horrifying leads him not to come face to face with the
set-pieces in a mental asylum. In many ways beast but to be bitten himself and receive the
the violence of Lawrence Talbot’s werewolf na- curse. As he slowly realizes what is happening
ture is seen as something he cannot help in jux- to him he must deal with the dark secret of the
taposition to the human cruelty of the psychia- Talbot family and Aberline, a Scotland Yard in-
trist and staff at the Asylum. spector, who is on his trail.
Lawrence Talbot works as a travelling actor. He It is surprising to see a gothic film with such
has not returned to his family home since he well-developed themes and characters. The
various actors are superb in their roles; Antho-
ny Hopkins is marvellous as the Talbot patri-
arch and Hugo Weaving brings a sparkle to the
role of Inspector Aberline. Themes abound
throughout this film including conflicts between
generations, the nature of mental illness, the
fanaticism of the clergy, the narrowness of vil-
lage life and the effects of childhood abuse
which resonate throughout life.
This is intelligent horror cinema, filled with

mood and suspense, character development
and plot. It explores a myriad of themes yet of-
fers lots of action, superb CGI and some even
some humour. This is one of the better were-
wolf films I have seen in a very long time.
Hopkins as Werewolf
FEATURE Werewolf!
Werewolves: The Dark Survivors

Animal Planet (TV Release)
Werewolves: The Dark Survivors takes a very

different approach to werewolves, it is a faux
documentary, beautifully presented and im-
mensely satisfying. The film mixes together a
mockumentary with a detective/crime drama
and a horror tale to create a very different take
on the werewolf legend. It was originally broad-
cast on Animal Planet on Halloween and has
been shown on ABC2 in Australia.
The plot is ingenious; it opens with a detective

investigating a brutal killing in the Great Lake
region of the United States which looks like it
has been done by a wild animal. However as
the investigation deepens he finds that the vic-
tim has a rare and unusual form of rabies and
that the footage of the killing seems to show a
human of extreme strength and unknown agility
undertaking the killing. When the detective be- Controlled werewolf transformations
gins working with an animal investigator he finds
that a body with a similar strain of rabies has ditions of the pack and have no aversion to at-
been found but it is over a thousand years ago. tacking humans. They are also jealous of the
Soon a hidden history of the werewolf is re- security the pack brings and will attempt to de-
vealed from earlier Viking times right through to stroy the unity of the pack and take on the Al-
the present. pha male werewolf.
As they trace the alleged killers, they find the This bringing together of wolf lore with legends
situation far more complex. It seems that there of lycanthropy and a detective/crime story
is a werewolf clan in the vicinity but they are the makes this a very unusual and successful
victims. Modern werewolves live like wolves in werewolf tale. Using cinematography and
the wild, surviving in packs and protecting each presentation similar to traditional animal docu-
other. They have controlled their instincts and mentaries give it a truly credible feel. Indeed
when they transform are controlled by other some reviews claim that during the first airing in
members of the pack and hence only attack the U.S. people believed the show was real and
deer and wild animals. However, occasionally, during the rabies outbreak section rang their
an outsider may be bitten and become a were- local police stations !
wolf by bite rather than blood. These outsiders
are a grave risk as they are not ruled by the tra- The Dark Survivors (below)

The Tiger Lillies are not like any other band you
are going to hear, now or later. They bill them-
selves as “The world's foremost Death Oompah
band” and offer a musical excursion into the
darkside of human nature. Their subject matter
ranges from freaks to dark children’s tale, crimi-
nals to circus life. What is most fascinating is
the power of their presentation; it would be too
easy for such contraband subjects to become a
form of artistic indulgence yet in the hands of
The Tiger Lillies it becomes a means to discuss
the human condition with quite terrifying hones-
ty. In their earliest years their work was little
known and shocked the punters, while it contin-
ues to shock and entertain in equal amounts, it
now reaches a much larger audience who ap-
preciate their unique take on the world. When
Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, di-
rected a music festival in Britain earlier this
month, he declared the Tiger Lillies to be his
favourite band and they have received excellent
reviews for their shows worldwide. surreal, theatrical
jazz/punk/calypso
Their latest work was revealed at the Biennale comedy ensemble
in Sydney (2010). It was a "post-punk neo- Uncle Lumpy and the
Brechtian opera" called Cockatoo Prison, it was Fish Doctors. The
staged on Cockatoo Island an ex penal colony group floundered
in Sydney Harbour. shortly after arriving
in London in 1989
The Tiger Lillies are comprised of: which coincided with
the formation of The
Martyn Jacques Tiger Lillies and the
Vocals, Accordion. start of his bashing
ever smaller, re-
The founder of The cycled drums, toys
Tiger Lillies who and kitchen-ware in
spent most of his The Tiger Lillies.
early years living
above a brothel in Adrian Stout
London's Soho. His Contra Bass, Musical Saw, Theremin,
songs describe, in Vocals.
lurid and perverse
detail, pimps, prosti- Adrian Stout has
tutes, drug addicts, played Blues, Jazz,
losers and other Country, and other
unsavoury charac- musical forms in
ters. various known and
lesser known bands
Adrian Huge throughout the UK,
Drums, Percussion, Toys. Europe and as far
afield as India. He
"James Joyce on drums" exclaimed David Byr- recorded two al-
ne on seeing Adrian Huge at work with the Tiger bums for Blues diva
Lillies. In 1982 Adrian co-founded Dover's only Dana Gillespie

FEATURE The Tiger Lillies
before being co-opted by The Tiger Lillies for Welcome to the Carnival of Circus Freaks
1995's Edinburgh Festival. This once serious The Bleeding Lady the blood from her leaks
musician has since then found himself dancing Here is a place where you can buy crack
in leider hosen, making love to inflatable sheep Lobotomised whores who you can slap."
and dressing as a cheap prostitute.
In 1999 The Tiger
Cockatoo Prison Lillies produced a
CD called Circus
Cockatoo Prison is Songs which ex-
their most recent plored the world of
work and has just the outcasts who
been released in CD. live in the circus.
It was created when The Freakshow ex-
The Tiger Lillies pands these themes
were commissioned and explores the
to create a song cy- lives of The Snake
cle of crime for the Woman, Three Legged Jake, Rosa with three
17th Biennale of Hearts, the Fat Lady, Deathless Man, Normo,
Sydney in May 2010. Cockatoo Island is the site Bleeding Lady, Matchstick Man, Flipper Boy,
of a former prison, shipyard and girls reformato- The Bleeding Lady, Ugly Joe, Hairy Man and
ry school and has a terrible past. The cycle of the Sleeper. It is a fascinating excursion into
songs they have created is probably the most the sideshow and is a bit like the classic 1932
confronting of all their work and is a powerful film The Freaks by Tod Browning but in audio
experience. format. The question it asks who is really the
freak, them or you?
Documenting the crimes and lives of the most
reviled members of society from the murderer In 1998 The Tiger
and rapist to the paedophile and shit terrorist (!), Lillies released
it will not be everybody’s idea of a good time. Shockheaded Peter,
However, this is not just misanthropy, while that a bizarre and won-
is not a bad thing, it is an honest appraisal of derful exploration of
those who are “beyond the pale” and a discus- the twisted chil-
sion of how they arrived in their present condi- dren’s stories of
tion. It would be ever so easy to simply write this Heinrich Hoffmann's
off as a sick celebration of the criminal. Yet if Strewwelpeter.
you listen to each song carefully and consider Der Struwwelpeter
the horrifying spectacle presented to you, it is (1845) was a Ger-
soon apparent that the CD is about what drives man children's book
the human species to do such terrible things to by Heinrich Hoffmann. It presented ten illustrat-
each other and offers quite some insight into the ed and rhymed stories, mostly about bad chil-
dark shadow which mankind reflects across the dren. Each has an obvious moral message but
globe. presents the consequences of bad behaviour in
an outrageously exaggerated manner. There is
Another album I some debate about the intent of the book, most
especially enjoyed see it as a satire on the works of moral instruc-
is Seven Deadly tion which were circulating at the time. Literally
Sins which dates translated, Struwwelpeter means Shaggy-Peter
from 2008. It pre- and The Tiger Lillies took this amazing book
sents a selection of and created a truly stupendous series of songs
punkish style caba- from it.
ret songs which
chart man’s fall The Tiger Lillies have produced a wealth of mu-
from grace into the sic as well as some fascinating books, it is well
evils of vice with a worth visiting their website and spending some
new song for every form of sin. All presented time visiting with them:
with the usual dark flair which we may expect
from The Tiger Lillies. The Tiger Lillies
http://www.tigerlillies.com

A History of Triffids the “Triffids” make it a distinctly original work in
its own right. It has been heralded as one of the
The Day of the Triffids is a most significant works of science fiction.
widely popular post-
apocalyptic novel written by There has been some debate on the scientific
the English science fiction origin of the concept of the triffids. Since the
author John Wyndham in book states that the triffids originated in the So-
1951 by Doubleday and viet Union many have focused in on the work of
Company, it was also serial- Soviet Biologist Lysenko. Lysensko developed
ized in Colliers Magazine. a unique theory, which came to be known Ly-
senskoism, which departed from traditional the-
Wyndham wrote many other ories of genetics and argued for the heritability
titles before and after Day of of acquired characteristics. This was a theory
the Triffids, but it is his best which held much sway in the U.S.S.R and other
known and most successful title. While Wynd- communist countries of the period. His theories
ham acknowledged the influence of H. G. Wells' had a strong influence over the practise of agri-
The War of the Worlds on The Day of the Trif- culture in the Soviet Union and later in China.
fids, however it’s plot and the unique focus on While his theories were largely refuted, some

FEATURE A History of Triffids
similar lines of thought have arisen at the edges and a deep bond is
of the field of epigenetics, which has even been formed. They see a
called Neo-Lysenskoism by its critics. light in the distance
and find a group of
While later adaptations of the tale focus on is- sighted survivors at
sues relating to genetics and science, the novel London University.
itself has a strongly anti-communist feel. It also
explores the way in which human nature, flawed This group is led by
as it is, contaminates any political system; with Beadley, a social radi-
the totalitarian the most at risk. It also explores cal. He wants to estab-
the human reaction to a disaster focusing on the lish a community in the
themes of self-interest versus cooperativeness. countryside where
sighted men take sev-
A Synopsis of the Book eral wives to rebuild
the population of the
The triffids are really the central figure of the world. Needless to say
book; they were bioengineered in the Soviet Un- this does not impress the religious among the
ion but when a plane is shot down carrying their group especially the devout Miss Durrant who
spores, they spread worldwide. This is both a is another leader of the group. As the clash of
blessing and a curse, their oil is superior to ex- personalities deepens a more serious problem
isting vegetable oils, but they are unpredictable intervenes.
and dangerous. They are marked by an ability
to move about on three leg-like appendages, Wilfred Coker makes a very rash decision; he
have a form of communication and intelligence stages a small fire at the university and kidnaps
and protect themselves with a poisonous sting a number of sighted individuals including Bill
that enables them to kill their victims as food. and Josella. He chains them each to a group of
blind people forcing them to lead their ragtag
Bill Masen has made his living working with bands around London looking for food and sup-
them but is now in hospital as he was splashed plies. This doesn’t work especially well consid-
with triffid venom during a lab experiment. His ering the triffids which are on the loose and
eyes are bandaged and he misses an unusual competing gangs, one of which is led by Tor-
meteor show which lights up the entire sky. (In rence.
the book it is later suggested that this may have
also been a military weapon that was accidently Bill tries to make the most of his situation but
triggered by an “unknown” power i.e. the Soviet soon disease begins to ravage those in his
Union). community so he leaves and begins to search
for Josella. He is accompanied by Coker but
The next morning when he wakes up the hospi- doesn’t really trust him. Their first stop is a
tal is very different from the one he signed into, Christian survivalist community called Tynsham
it is dead silent. He finds the world around him ran by the devout Miss Durrant but they contin-
in utter panic and learns that the meteor show- ue to search to search Josella. Bill remembers
er/weapon of the previous night has rendered Josella mentioning a country home in Sussex,
everyone who saw it blind. He removes the so sets off in search of her, Coker returns to
bandages from his Tynsham.
sensitive eyes and
steps forward into a Bill is joined on his search by a young girl
London he doesn’t rec- named Susan, together they locate Josella at
ognize; filled with pan- Sussex House. Bill and Josella consider them-
ic, destruction, vio- selves a couple and Susan their child. Together
lence and madness. they try and create a self-contained community.
He meets a sighted However even with years of work they find the
novelist, Josella Play- triffids are becoming more numerous and dan-
ton and they band to- gerous and their community is floundering.
gether to help each
other. Soon biology One day they see a helicopter land outside their
takes over and they property and they are invited to join a colony on
take an emotional in- the Isle of Wight. They do not wish to leave the
terest in each other land they have worked on for so long but find

The Day of the Triffids (1962) Film
The Day of the Triffids (1962) was directed by

Steve Sekely and produced by George Pitcher.
It has not dated especially well but does offer a
themselves between a rock and a hard place fascinating combination of a post-apocalyptic
when they are visited by soldiers from a new disaster film and a late fifties/early sixties type
fascist government which is setting up feudal monster film. Okay, we should be clear that the
type communities around the country. Bill recog- triffids look like men in suits and the special ef-
nizes the leader, Torrence, he was a gang lead- fects are pretty cheesy but that just adds to the
er who attacked them when he was in London. quaintness of the film and if you are willing to
Torrence announces his intention to place blind overlook its limitations it is an enjoyable adapta-
survivors under the Bill’s care and to move Su- tion.
san to another enclave to care for other blind
survivors. They disable the soldiers’ vehicle and There are lots of impressive set-pieces such as
flee under the protection of night. They join the the hysteria in the about-to-crash airplane be-
Isle of Wight colony and work to create a new cause the pilot suddenly lost his eyesight or
future. when Masen stand on the edge of the quarry
watching the triffid spores becoming airborne.
Adaptations There are some strange additions. There is a
story about a marine biologist and his wife
The novel was read on the radio by the BBC as working to understand the triffids while isolated
early as 1953 with a series following in 1957 in an isolated in a lighthouse which seem a little
and 1968. Further BBC radio productions fol- incongruous with the rest of the film. This is be-
lowed in 1971, 1973 and 1980. In 2001 writer cause these were intercut into the film by direc-
Lance Dann adapted the series in two hour long tor Freddie Francis as the studio complained
episodes for the BBC World Service.
1960’s style schlock sci fi

issues during 1975 with a special issue in 1976.

The triffids story was presented in two parts
produced by two different artists, the first sec-
tion had art by Andru and Ernie Chan and the
second part was illustrated by Rico Rival. It was
produced in black and white comic style and
well received.
The Day of the Triffids BBC TV 1981
A television ver-
sion was produced
by the BBC serial
in 1981 starring
John Duttine as Bill
Masen. It is still
considered by
many to be the de-
finitive version of
the tale on film and
has been regularly
that the original film was too short for cinema repeated on TV
release! and released on
DVD. One of the
Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction Comic reasons the TV
The Day of the Triffids series is so well
Comic Book Style regarded as it is able to explore the plot of the
book in far more detail that the various films. In
In 1975 Marvel Comics adapted the story in the the U.K. it had six episodes of 30 minutes each,
magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, in Australia, three one hour episodes.
which was Marvel’s attempt to create an adult
oriented science fiction magazine. This serialization really got inside the story ex-
ploring not only the Triffids but the breakdown
It was sadly short lived, only running for six of society and, more importantly, individual re-
actions to societies collapse. While finances
clearly limited the special effects used in the
series, the superb acting, character develop-
ment and the sheer depth of the plot more than
makes up for its limitations.
Triffid 1981 BBC Style

Two solid major lead characters: Bill Masen

and Jo Playton
apocalyptic psychology.
Fans of older versions will bitterly complain

about changes to the plot and the emphasis in
this new series but I think we need to accept
that ever new adaptation while taking inspira-
tion from the original does not need to slavishly
follow it. I am quite sick of fanatical fans decry-
ing changes to original plots as some sort of
sacrilege; the reality is that any story is going to
be changed, sometimes radically, for the big
The Day of the Triffids BBC TV 2009 screen and that each adaptation while taking
some inspiration from the original, will be pri-
In December 2009 the BBC broadcast a new marily the director’s and screenwriters take on
version of the tale written by ER and Law and the tale. This version of The Day of the Triffids
Order writer Patrick Harbinson. It stars Dougray must be allowed to stand or fall on its own mer-
Scott as Bill Masen, Joely Richardson as Jo its.
Playton, Brian Cox as Dennis Masen, Vanessa
Redgrave as Durrant, Eddie Izzard as Torrence The climate change angle of the story is well
and Jason Priestley as Coker. developed. Taking a carnivorous plant and ge-
netically engineering it to supply oil to resolve
This adaptation removed the cold war/Soviet
focus as well as the explorations of sex, gender
and repopulation of the earth instead focusing in
on the social dynamics of surviving a catastro-
phe.
The triffids are genetically engineered by a large

corporation to solve the problem of fuel in re-
sponse to global warming and the earth’s popu-
lation is blinded by a solar flare. The DVD and
Blu Ray is released in Australia by Anchor Bay.
John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids has

been dramatised several times before and while
a bit dated now, the ideas contained within it are
fertile enough to trigger new growth.
The mini-series from BBC goes for three hours

and offers an interesting new vision of the origi-
nal tale with a strong emphasis on post- Triffid 2009 Style

Excellent special effects judiciously used to

emphasize, not detract from, character and
plot
to the country and start civilization again with

no thought of the millions of blind wandering
aimlessly throughout the countryside or the trif-
Eddie Izzard as a superb post apocalyptic fids.
psychopath
They pale in significant to the tale of Coker and
Torrence. Major Coker believes that by hand-
the world’s dependence on fossil fuel is an ex- cuffing sighted people with the blind he can
cellent foundation to the story. The look of the force them to look after them, a move with lots
plant harvesting factories, the genetically engi- of heart, but somewhat misguided, especially
neering process and the secrecy of multination- with the Triffids about. Torrence, however, is
al companies all ring true. another sort of character altogether. He is es-
sentially a sociopath who takes over Coker’s
The well-meaning but insane behaviour of the operation and grabbing control of No.10 creates
“triffid” liberationist is found all too often in the his own military dictatorship based in London.
modern world where animal liberationists let
wild animals free in urban environments thinking There are lots of interesting characters which
they are saving them. reflect on how people would respond to a global
disaster. Vanessa Redgrave plays Durrant, a
Combining the two with a global event (in this nun who seems to really care about her flock
case a mass blinding caused by solar flares) until we realize she regularly feeds the triffids
works well and sets the stage for some superb with ailing members of her community to keep
storytelling and solid character development. them at bay.
The CGI used throughout the film while signifi- The central tale of course is the story of Bill
cant does not overpower the tale, the catastro- Masen, the triffid biologist and Jo Playton, the
phes in the first episode (Day One) really set the media broadcaster and their quest not only for
stage for the more significant tale of how people survival but to somehow neutralise the triffids.
behave when a worldwide disaster occurs, es- They also offer the love interest in the story but
pecially the opening plane crash. surprisingly this is, for once, not overplayed!
The triffids are stunning and you really do not The Day of the Triffids offers a solid sci-fi expe-
see them in all their glory until the end of the rience, balancing well used special effects with
first episode and this helps develop the sus- character development, thought provoking
pense, the colour depth on the Blu Ray edition themes and a new and interesting adaptation of
is quite superb. a well-worn science fiction classic.
The major focus of the tale is on various charac- It is a fascinating journey to see how a book
ters who represent different responses to the written in 1951 has travelled through numerous
disaster. We have a small team of government editions, comics, films and TV finally to become
officials who work in isolation aiming to relocate a major release in 2009.

FEATURE REVIEWS Catastrophe and Disaster Films
Meteor Apocalypse
2009
The Asylum Pictures
Peacock Films
R4 DVD
Yes, folks, once again

it’s the end of the
world. A rogue comet
that was headed for
Earth has been
smashed by nuclear
warheads but some of
the fragments have Meteor Shower
kept going.
know she is marked for death as this conflicts
In California the fragments have contaminated a
with the family value motifs so important to
major dam with a chemical poison that has also
Americans in this sort of film.
got into the water table. With no drinking water
the state has turned to anarchy almost instantly.
In Los Angeles they find the camp has been
evacuated. They are sheltered for the night by
The Department of Homeland Security has re-
a female pastor in her church. The next morn-
sponded by rounding up people from the con-
ing moments after they have left the church it
taminated areas and putting them in concentra-
and the pastor are destroyed by the next mete-
tion camps. The Centers for Disease Control
or shower. Maybe God has a warped sense of
have tried to arrange for their transport to a saf-
humour?
er area since they know Los Angeles is due for
the next meteor shower, but they have been
They travel to the outskirts of the city where the
taken over by a zealous and ambitious official
girlfriend dies, the wife is found and their
from Homeland Security who doesn’t care about
daughter is saved, all in accordance with the
the people illegally rounded up.
usual practice in these stories.
There is an antidote to the poison. It is being
Meteor Apocalypse is a low budget film but
carried by David who wants to use it to save his
doesn’t look like one. In spite of this it is vague-
poisoned daughter. He has obtained a small
ly dissatisfying. It’s not that it is a bad film – it
stock of the experimental drug from a friend in
isn’t – but the déjà vu feeling persists right
Las Vegas just before that city was destroyed.
through the film.
Now he must get the drug back to Los Angeles
to the quarantine camp.
There is nothing original in the plot, the tire-
some family values theme is there in full force,
This will be difficult as every vehicle he gets into
even the meteor impact shots look familiar.
seems to become a meteor target. Along the
Even so, it’s a decent thriller and is worth a
way he picks up an attractive young lady as a
look.
travelling companion. The moment they kiss you
Lots of explosions A human drama

10,000 A.D.
Legend of the
Black Pearl
Indican Pictures
R1 DVD
Black Pearl 10,000

A.D opens with a
voice over describ-
ing the state of the
present day with
images of current Men in loincloths do battle
world problems
leading to an atom- many of the ideas within the film were certainly
ic catastrophe. As thought provoking, even if presented in a way
the world attempts that lacked a certain subtlety.
to recover from the
attack, it is plunged back into primitivism and Black Pearl 10,000 A.D. is a visual feast, the
what is left of humanity has split into two tribes crew filmed in some twelve national parks and
– The Huron and the Plaebian. the canyons, waterfalls and natural landscape
is quite awe inspiring, it is certainly a back-
The Huron age slower than the Plaebians and ground for a film.
hence are more mature and more “spiritually
developed”. They are a warrior tribe who use The artificial language created for the film also
meditation and martial training as their way of created a unique feel which helped back up the
life. The Plaebians work the valleys attempting suggestion that this was a post apocalyptic
to tame the wilderness but are over populated world.
and stretching their resources to the limits and
hence suffering from the effect of disease. This is a strange film which seems to be a cross
Soon, however, a new terror arises, the Sinasu between a modern hippy fable and a new age
which is killing them both. environmental film. It has superb cinematog-
raphy but is marred by a plot and acting which
However, there is a prophecy about a warrior seems to border on the comic. The way in
which will arise and defeat the evil. Kurupi, the which the characters explore their “spiritual”
one who many think will be the warrior, is su- side becomes so truly outlandish that you
perbly played and his doubts and inner turmoil scratch your head in total disbelief.
are well presented. The climactic scene which
reconciles the trials and reveals the real For me this is how not to make an environmen-
“saviour /warrior” is well thought out and a tal film, it is saturated with mumbo jumbo and
meaningful plot twist. I also liked the fact that ends up being a comedy rather than a serious
the “evil one” was one a Huron who thought he work of cinema.
was on the side of good; there is nothing as
dangerous as a crusader! Web: http://www.indicanpictures.com/
Black Pearl 10,000 A.D. is a very unusual film, it

features beautiful cinematography, a lilting new
age music score and enough buff men to fill a
muscle calendar. The story is told more by im-
ages, music and poetry (with some voice over
dialogue) than in a narrative manner and is
communicated in a mythic form. I found the
martial arts and meditative aspects interesting,
but the overemphasis on mysticism and “new
age” imagery took the film into truly ridiculous
territory very quickly.
That being said the environmental message

within the film was strong and resonant and Martial Arts and new age mumbo jumbo

Sleep Dealer
Reel DVD
R4 DVD
Spanish with English sub-

titles
With strife currently rising

along the U.S. – Mexico
border once more, this
film is a timely reminder
that there is another side
of the story.
Dealers are a way for the U.S. to get the cheap
Just slightly in the future the large corporations
labour it needs without having to allow immi-
are taking over the world’s resources. In the
grant workers. They have now completely
village of Santa Ana del Rio the river has been
blocked off the Mexican border and manual la-
dammed by a multinational. The water is sent
bour or dangerous jobs are contracted out to
“far away”. The local farmers must now buy wa-
the sleep dealer factories. The pay is reasona-
ter to keep their parched crops alive. Memo, the
ble, although heavily taxed by the multinational
son of one of the farmers, would like to get out
banks. Memo is able to send money home. The
of the village but can’t abandon his family. He
hours are long and exhausting and there is al-
contents himself with tinkering with radio receiv-
ways a danger of going to sleep on the job but
ers. One night he picks up a transmission from
they are fed oxygen to keep them sharp.
a gunship pilot who belongs to the paramilitary
security forces of the company that owns the
Memo has met Luz, an unsuccessful writer.
dam. They are destroying “aquaterrorists” who
She is also fitted with nodes, like so much of
would steal “their” water. The company also
the population, so she can download vision di-
picks up Memo’s interception and next day
rectly from her memories and do a voiceover on
while he is away his home is destroyed by an
it. She has written up her meeting with Memo
air attack. It is a new pilot’s first kill and he is
and is surprised to find an interested buyer. The
deeply affected by the sight of Memo’s father
buyer wants to know more and more about
staggering from his burning house. The pilot is
Memo. Finally he wants to meet Memo, but
then ordered to machinegun the father.
why?
Memo knows there can be no future for him in
The story expresses the hopelessness of the
the village so he heads for Tijuana where he
Mexican farmer and the lack of opportunity in
hopes to find work in a “Sleep Dealer”. These
their own country for those with any skills.
are so named because if you work there long
Locked inside their own country, no longer the
enough you will go to sleep on a shift. This can
owner of their own resources, they are simply
cause tremendous destruction. The workers are
factory fodder for their richer neighbour to the
fitted with computer jacks called Nodes and can
north. We need to see more of this type of film
plug into the factory computer which in turn
to provide a social window into how science is
hires out their services over a network to oper-
affecting poorer countries. Is this the future for
ate networked robots elsewhere. Memo’s robot
these countries?
is constructing a skyscraper, possibly in Chica-
go. He will never see the results of his work
since entry to the U.S. is banned. The Sleep

REVIEWS Books and Print
The Bitter Sea such as that by An-

The Struggle For Mastery In The thony Eden to try to
Mediterranean 1935 – 1949 bring the locals into
Simon Ball line. These were no-
Published by Harper Collins 2009 tably unsuccessful
because the British
Simon Ball has given us a comprehensive and failed to realise just
detailed book on the war in the Mediterranean how despised they
and especially he has covered the people who were by the local
made the decisions and the people who fought populations. The
the battles. He takes history as a result of ac- same fault occurred
tions and turns it into history as a result of peo- with the French and
ples weaknesses, beliefs and prejudices. Italians. Many of the
local leaders were
The Mediterranean was a world thoroughfare just out to get what
carrying traffic through the Suez Canal to and they could and settle
from Europe. The big drawback of this is the accounts at the end of the war.
choke point south of Italy. Mussolini saw the
Sea as an “Italian Sea”, much in the traditional The Allies had to deal with Royalists and Re-
manner of the old Romans, and his fleets were publicans in Greece, the Arab Grand Mufti of
often in transit between Italy and the Italian col- Jerusalem versus the Jews, a number of fac-
onies of northern Africa. Since most of the tions in Egypt, Communists and Royalists in
crossing along this sea route was covered by Czechoslovakia, and all the splinter groups who
Italian air power or threatened by their Navy it were just out for commercial gain or political
forced a division of the British presence in the power. The British distrusted the Vichy French
Mediterranean into East and West commands. and De Gaulle’s Free French, the Vichy French
They could not afford to relinquish either end of distrusted the Italians (with whom they were still
the Sea as their naval presence was all that on cordial terms), and nobody really trusted the
kept the Italian forces and the Vichy French Na- British.
vy bottled up. As the Italians made their moves
in North Africa and the western Mediterranean The war looked settled in for a long period of
the British and their allies found it increasingly attrition. On land Rommel (and Simon Ball anal-
difficult to maintain a presence. Supplies for the yses his moves carefully and shows that he
North African campaign were landed in Alexan- was not such a great commander as history
dria and they had to cross the Italian sector to has tended to picture him) had wins and losses.
get there or face the long trip south around Afri- On the sea the navies traded blow for blow and
ca. The same applied to food going to Britain both sides seemed to be holding their own. The
from Australia and New Zealand. Little by little need to protect convoys put the Royal Navy in
the British Navy was whittled down as it was a difficult position, within range of Italian torpe-
ordered into one desperate campaign after an- do bombers. One by one their big ships were
other. sunk. In the air the Luftwaffe had superiority
except perhaps over the deserts of Africa
Simon Ball examines the leaders who set these where the balance of power depended on get-
campaigns in motion. Few leaders come off well ting fuel through the blockades.
in his analysis, but some military commanders
were at least competent. Kesselring had the The Americans were urged to join the battle in
German forces, especially the Luftwaffe, well North Africa, but unlike the colonial powers they
organised and supplied. Despite setbacks the carried no ill-feeling with the local people. In-
Italian navy was well lead by good men usually. deed, they made an attempt to find out what the
Unfortunately the British, especially in the East- local people wanted to do after the war. Alt-
ern Mediterranean, were largely under the com- hough the polls were carried out to find out who
mand of very poor quality men except for Cun- the locals believed would win the war a high
ningham and all were subject to Churchill’s percentage wanted nothing at all to do with the
whims and fancies back in Britain. The British Allies but wanted to determine their own future.
were divided rather than coordinated and each The Americans had no colonial ambitions so
segment such as the Intelligence agencies just wanted to use North Africa as a stepping
seemed reluctant to allow any intrusion on stone to Europe. Britain on the other hand still
“their” turf. There were many one-man missions believed it was important to put the former Ital-

ian and Spanish colonies under British rule to having seen the invasion of Europe given to
protect their trade routes through the Suez Ca- Eisenhower, was more concerned with his own
nal. No wonder then that Ball points out that the prestige and with having a British commander
British “accepted that they were more unpopular in charge of the Mediterranean – under his con-
in North Africa than the Nazis”. While Churchill trol. He wasted no time in organising an inva-
was sacking his generals, Eisenhower went sion at Anzio which, had it succeeded, would
about doing what Rommel and the British could have cut off many German troops doing a
not – take North Africa. This would also divert fighting retreat up Italy. His record of military
public attention from the British losses and blunders preceded him and the American of-
hopefully give a much-needed victory. ficer in charge of the invasion said “the whole
affair has the strong odour of Gallipoli and ap-
The bickering over who would control what con- parently the same amateur is still on the
tinued and Ball paints a picture of the French coach’s bench”. Although the Anzio landing
assuming they would command the invasions of was unopposed Churchill’s dream of encircling
their former colonies, Britain not telling the the enemy troops to the south failed when the
Americans of the proposed Alamein offensive forgotten Germans to the north encircled the
as they didn’t trust the Americans, and so on. Allies instead. Churchill’s glorious moment once
While Montgomery was winning the battle of El again turned into World War I trench warfare,
Alamein Eisenhower had to deal with the petty
ambitions of the French commander Giraud who What was left of the Mediterranean war turned
loftily declared that as a Frenchman and out- political and, Ball points out, became a training
ranking Eisenhower he would be the one to lead ground for later independence groups like the
the invasion of the French colonies. Haganah. The British didn’t notice this because
they were too concerned with working around
American tactics after the battle were divided. behind the Americans to put their own preferred
There were those urging a complete takeover of Governments into countries like Greece. The
the Mediterranean along the lines of the British outcomes of these blunders sealed Britain’s
preference. These people thought an invasion fate in the Mediterranean in following years.
of north western Europe would be folly. Others They got away with it because the Americans
saw the future as taking over the eastern Medi- were now looking to an invasion of France.
terranean and extending their influence there – Their experience in Italy suggested that the war
rather prophetic in view of the current oil- would be continually bogged down in battles of
powered politics. The final proposal, to invade attrition if they insisted on fighting their way up
Europe from the south through Italy, had its sup- Italy. The Mediterranean was simply unim-
porters as well. In the end the Italian option portant to them. That left the way clear for the
turned into a debacle. Churchill, meanwhile, had British, the French, the Arabs and even the Vat-
his own ideas on where the forces should be ican to squabble over areas of power. It led to
concentrated next. Vichy France still remained a decades of unrest in places like Algeria, Greece
thorn in everyone’s side. and Palestine and ultimately to the displace-
ment of the previous colonial powers.
The breaking point for the Axis came when Sici-
ly was invaded. With sufficient troops and mate- Although Simon Ball has covered the major bat-
riel the Americans were able to make a strong tles in some detail as well as the tactics and
advance. The German forces began to leave logistics, it is his attention to the personalities
the island and the Italians were quick to follow. that makes this book more than just a history.
Even the Italian attempts to surrender Italy were By understanding the motives and background
marred by intrigue and counterplot as the partic- of the leaders involved it gives a wider scope to
ipants tried to get as much power for their own the history of this troubled area. It also helps to
factions as possible. For a while the Allies were explain why the colonial powers did not see the
unsure just who had the power to surrender on arising of the independence movements. There
behalf of Italy. were, it was true, those movements whose mo-
tives were mostly based on a lust for power, but
The disgusting jockeying for power continued at there were also those whose upbringing and
the highest levels and Ball gives us an insight background led them to believe in their own
into the motives of the various world leaders. superiority over the local people. It took World
Roosevelt, for instance, proposed a conference War II to give the local people a chance at self-
of world leaders that would effectively divide the determination.
world into spheres of influence. Churchill,

Clint Eastwood
– Icon
David Frangioni
Insight Editions 2009
This book is not intend-

ed to be a history of
Clint Eastwood’s film
career. The subtitle
The Essential Film Art
Collection sets its place
– it is highlighting the
worldwide popularity of
this prolific actor and
producer through the author’s comprehensive
collection of film posters and other memorabilia.
In the process we also get a beautifully illustrat-
ed filmography.
-character films like Every Which Way But
There is something about collectors. They have Loose and Escape From Alcatraz in the 1970s.
a passion for their subject that carries into their In the poster art for these, guns were for a
writings and conversations and turns an other- change noticeably absent. They returned in the
wise unknown subject into something fascinat- rather comic war film Kelly’s Heroes, which I
ing. So it is with this book. Frangioni has been regarded as one of his best after The Good,
collecting for a long time and he discusses the The Bad and The Ugly. Somehow, though,
differences between poster artists, the styles Eastwood just couldn’t get away from the West-
preferred in different countries, and the different erns.
promotional materials used. The high quality
illustrations demonstrate what he means. Two Mules For Sister Sara was a really enjoya-
ble film that seems to have been completely
Since the artwork is arranged in chronological forgotten – until this book. The same goes for
order we get a brief history of Eastwood’s films the 1971 film The Beguiled. The posters for
built into the book. Although I have enjoyed his both these show what had become a rather ste-
films for many years, especially the “spaghetti reotyped Eastwood image – a close-up of his
westerns” that made his name in the western roughly-shaven face and the inevitable revolver
genre, the book has reminded me of many of held in front of him. The gun was replaced with
his lesser-known films as well. The “Dirty Harry” a knife for the posters for the thriller Play Misty
series was popular, but I had completely forgot- For Me. It returned for the range of westerns
ten his attempt at a musical in Paint Your Wag- and thrillers that followed in the late 70s.
on. OK, it wasn’t all that bad, but some films are
best forgotten. His performance in the war film This continued through the 80s with unusual
Where Eagles Dare was somewhat better films like Bronco Billy, Firefox and Bird. Even in
the 90s, though, he could still manage a high
Eastwood continued his career with more out-of quality western like Unforgiven. Eastwood
turned 70 in 2000 but has still continued to pro-
duce good films (apart perhaps from Space
Cowboys). His production company Malpaso
seems to be able to come up with a winner film
on a modest budget at a time when the block-
busters were breaking the big Hollywood studi-
os.
Even a quick glance through the book will bring

back memories of some of those forgotten films
as well as Eastwood’s most successful ones. In
a career of over fifty years he must have surely
made at least one film that every viewer would
enjoy This book is a tribute to the man and his
films.

Counter Insurgency
David Kilcullen
Scribe Publications 2010
David Kilcullen has presented here a series of

essays and writings about the theory and prac-
tice of countering insurgency – non-elected
groups trying to take over or destabilise an ex-
isting government by force. He quotes many
examples from history and from his own experi-
ence and builds up a picture of what is an insur-
gent and suggests ways of countering them by
non-traditional methods.
He raises an interesting point that “a Govern-

ment that is losing to an insurgency isn’t being
outfought, it’s being outgoverned”. People just
want a quiet life and if this means tolerating in-
surgency they will do so in the absence of a bet-
ter government. If the legitimate government
bodies are corrupt, do not provide basic ser-
vices or fail to provide basic justice then the in-
surgents may win “hearts and minds” by doing
so themselves. It is interesting to compare this
approach with another book recently reviewed,
The War For Ireland 1913 – 1923 edited by Pe-
ter Cottrell. During the Irish “Easter Uprising” a
Nationalist group declared themselves the Pro-
visional Government of Ireland. They were thor-
oughly ignored by the populace, who despite
any Nationalist leanings they may have had collateral damage apart from a bunch of tired
could see no advantage in a civil war. The upris- farmers each morning.
ing failed. Kilcullen contrasts the situation in Af-
ghanistan where the government has practically Kilcullen has learned a lot from his extensive
no presence in many provinces. Such admin- Army experience. Unlike an armchair expert he
istration as exists is corrupt, especially the po- has been on the ground and seen insurgency in
lice. The Taliban has moved in to exploit this practice so his opinions are important. They are
and established Sharia courts that at least give an interesting change from the traditional
the local people some redress and a dispute- “bomb them back to the Stone Age” approach
solving mechanism. that still seems to be in favour in some areas.
As he recounts some of his experiences it is
Although military action is one of the counter- easy to see how quickly a minor situation can
insurgency tools, Kilcullen points out that it may blow up, as in the shootout between Indonesian
often bring collateral damage that can destroy troops and militia and Australian troops at Mo-
any goodwill very quickly. It is surprising to see taiin Bridge in East Timor. This introduced a
a military man suggesting that the military political dimension that led to the official version
should look at non-military options, but his rea- of the incident being far removed from what ac-
soning makes sense. An example he gives is tually happened. Kilcullen highlights the need
Indonesia which during its independence faced for training to handle this sort of event. In the
insurgency over which model of government it end it was his training and skill in the local lan-
should adopt. An Islamic group, Darul Islam, guage that helped calm down the issue.
wanted the new country to be a fully Islamic
state. They began insurgency operations. The Experience like this should not be ignored. Alt-
Indonesian military countered this by a “wall of hough Kilcullen admits he has modified his
legs” technique – each night the villagers would opinions in some off his writings, his experience
surround their own village. Ostensibly to keep is beyond question and his suggestions should
insurgents out, it also effectively locked any lo- be closely studied.
cal insurgents in and stopped them creating
mischief. It was a low-cost approach and had no

style. Each tale comes alive in this medium and

will bring the tales of Poe to a new audience.
While older readers of his stories will find this a
refreshing new approach, new readers will be
seduced by the modern style and will discover
a writer that may just excite their imaginations
and encourage them to look up his works.
The book also includes details of each artist, so

if you like their work you can order other Graph-
ic Classics volumes which feature their art.
The next release from Graphic Classics is a full

colour Christmas release which includes a
range of dark, satirical and downright strange
Christmas tales. It will be available from Octo-
ber 2010 onwards.
It is well worth visiting the Graphic Classics site

to see the wide range of titles they have availa-
ble: http://www.graphicclassics.com/
Guildhunter Series
Angel’s Blood and Archangel’s Kiss
Nalini Singh
Published by Hachette Australia
Reviewer: Jeremy Kong

Graphic Another series in the non-traditional urban fan-
Classics tasy style that is becoming so popular. In this
Edgar Allan Poe style we see the characters being depicted as
Graphic more human with human problems, and it gives
Classics (2010) a new look to old characters.
Once again Graphic Classics have outdone In the cities people can petition the
themselves bringing classic tales of horror and “archangels” who run them to become vampires
the imagination up to date through the use of with all the benefits that entails – immortality,
the graphic novel. Graphic Classics Edgar Allan power, beauty. In return you are expected to
Poe includes such tales as The Black Cat, The offer yourself for a hundred years service.
Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, The There are those who break the contract. The
Raven, The Premature Burial and many others. Guild Hunters are
This is the fourth edition of this well respected mortals who track
edition from Graphic Classics and includes these contract
some forty new pages. breakers down and
return them for pun-
Each tale has its own illustrator and hence pre- ishment. The pun-
sents a different take on the stories told, this ishments are no light
offers a marvellous varied visual experience as thing – if you are
well as the power of the original tales adapted to immortal, you can
suit the medium. have every bone in
your body broken
The quality of the production cannot be faulted, over a very long
it has a powerfully visual colour front and back time.
cover and the quality of the images in each tale
is amazing. I really enjoy the variation between Archangels are not
each tale, some are told in comic book style the godly creatures
with story bubbles, while others use graphics to of legend – they are
enhance a more a more text based storytelling a powerful, immortal

and utterly amoral group. After all, these are the Lonely Werewolf Girl
ones who create vampires as servants. Martin Millar
Piatkus 2009
Angel’s Blood
Reviewer:
Elena Deveraux is a Guild hunter. She has Jeremy Kong
acutely developed senses including a sense of
smell that allows her to track vampires and it Cross-dressing were-
also makes for some interesting descriptions of wolves, drug-using
the vampires and angels she comes into contact werewolves, fashionista
with. demonesses, Goths,
werewolves with eating
“ he smelt like sex and pain” disorders – all these
and more. Infidelity,
She is hired by an archangel Raphael to track rock n roll, drugs – it’s not easy being a modern
down a rogue archangel who has gone on a werewolf.
savage killing rampage. She will need all her
skills as a hunter and a woman to fulfil the con- Kalix is the lonely werewolf girl of the title. She
tract. There is as much danger from the posses- has been banished from her clan the Ma-
sive Raphael, who oozes sex appeal, as from cRinnalch for attacking the Thane, the lord of
the rogue. Elena herself is pretty strong with the the werewolf clan, who also happens to be her
sex appeal. father. She has been on the run since then liv-
ing on the streets, trying to starve herself to
Archangel’s Kiss death (she is bulimic in her human form) while
the clan hunts her down. She will, however
Raphael, the gorge herself while in werewolf form then throw
Archangel of it all up when she returns to human. As the sto-
modern-day ry progresses we meet more of her family.
New York, is
now Elena’s There is Thris, a fashion designer sorceress
lover. He has werewolf, and her sister Malveria “the fire
fed her ambro- queen, whose extreme beauty existed some-
sia and turned where between a Babylonian Death Goddess
her into an an- and an Asian supermodel” and is a fashion
gel, but she tragic.
needs time to
adapt to her Kalix has two brothers – one is the traditional
new powers. werewolf warrior who really wants to kill Kalix
The other Arch- for the reward, and the other is Marcus who has
angels may not a penchant for women’s clothing. Then there
allow her that are the two cousins Delicious and Beauty, who
much time. have been kicked out of the clan for their rock n
There is a plot roll lifestyle of booze and drugs.
to kill her be-
cause of what she is. With the death of the Thane Kalix becomes
aware of her powers – she was born on the full
There is constant intrigue between the archan- moon while her mother was in werewolf form
gels, always looking for a weakness in each and has tremendous powers. All she wants,
other. Elena may be Raphael’s weakness. To though, is to be left alone but circumstances
Elena it may be Raphael’s arrogant assumption seem to keep dragging her back into the politics
that love means total possession. She has of the werewolf clan.
enough to deal with just there, but there is a se-
ries of crimes that shake the Angles to the core. It’s an understatement to say that the plot is
complex. It is a massive book and you want to
These books are a great read when you get follow each character, as there is so much go-
past all the lavish erotic descriptions of the male ing on. The characters are well drawn with a lot
characters. These books would be great to give of depth and they carry the plot so it grabs hold
to your girlfriend or wife (or both) if you want to of you. Even the evil characters grow on you
get a bit of action. because of their quirks and oddities.

With Kalix the author has pinned down the typi- Even worse, the couple has to embark on a
cal teenage girl perfectly. family vacation without alerting their children
and grandchildren to the fact that they now
It’s a three course meal of a book and will leave need human blood to survive.
you satisfied.
Nanny & Hank features the talents of writer
Nanny and Hank Mark L. Miller, writer of the company’s Vincent
#1 Price anthology series, and artist Steve Babb.
Bluewater
Comics Blue Water Productions
Web: http://www.bluewaterprod.com/
Nanny and Hank #1 is
an impressive charac- Sun Ra:
ter driven comic. It Interviews and
has a nicely presented Essays
design which is filled Editor
with colour, texture John Sinclair
and style. Headpress 2010
The characters are all Sun Ra is consid-

drawn in their own ered one of the most
unique ways, the vampyres seem hard and an- eccentric and crea-
gular while the old couple and their daughter are tive members of the
more organic and soft. The backgrounds all cre- free jazz movement.
ate an excellent mood and the text is easy to He was a composer
read and follow. and musician yet al-
so a philosopher and
I like the way it brings together two seemingly occultist. His work has never been collected in
distinct storylines to create an extremely engag- one place and this fascinating volumes brings
ing tale. O’Neil is in a bar getting wasted and is together a selection of interviews, photos, com-
upset he is not appreciated in his work. He rails ics and essays.
against those who do not respect the hard work
he does and who put style over substance. At It is impeccably researched and offers insight
first you have no idea what he does but hear a into his strange mystical and occult influenced
lot about the Council he works for and his lack worldview and includes rare photographs and
of satisfaction. images.
It is only after a while you realize he is a From the mid 1950s until his death in 1993,
vampyre recruiter and that the Council are not Sun Ra led "The Arkestra", an ensemble with
happy with the quality of recruits he is offering.
He gets so drunk he causes a scene at the bar

and is thrown into the street. At the same time
an old couple is planning a holiday. They are
your average pensioner duo planning to visit
their daughter and her children. They like to
driven at night and Hank has just picked up the
van and is racing home for dinner. He is a bit
distracted and hits what he thinks is an animal,
but it is actually O’Neil and boy is he pissed !
The two tales now merge together and O’Neil

decides to take revenge on the old couple but
also get back at the Council. While normally he
would have simply killed them, he turns them
and now Hanny and Hank have a very different
future in front of them.

an ever-changing line-up and name which found her sleeping in the open one night. Au-
sometimes numbered as many as thirty musi- thun takes one boy as his own and leaves the
cians living and playing together under the guid- other with a family far up in the mountains. One
ance, some would say despotic tutelage of Sun day the boy is taken further into the mountains
Ra himself. Their music touched upon the entire by his temporary parents and abandoned to his
history of jazz, from ragtime to swing, bebop to fate. This would usually involve a quick death in
free jazz, while the band also pioneered the use the teeth of wolves.
of new forms, including electronic music, space
music and free improvisation. His wolfman father has left him a legacy – a
small talisman, just a pebble really, with a rune
While Sun Ra’s music have created a legendary scratched into it that identifies the boy as the
reputation, it was his strange worldview which kin of a wolfman. Rather than kill him the
gave him cult status. He claimed to have origi- wolves bring him up as one of their own. Even-
nated from Saturn, and evolved a mystical sci-fi tually following the death of the alpha male he
philosophy which he weaved into both the music becomes the leader of the wolf clan. The old
and Dadaist performances of The Arkestra, male warned him about the dangers of eating
whose performances which inspired artists as human flesh and so far he has avoided it, but
diverse as George Clinton and MC5. the other members of the pack will eat humans
if there is no other food available
Wolfsangel
By M D Lachlan Years pass and Authun’s son is something of a
Orion Books disappointment. He is not by nature a fighter
2010 and doesn’t take part in the raids that are so
popular among the other Vikings. Finally it
Lachlan has written reaches the point where he must prove himself
a strange, dark tale a man or step aside. He swears that he will
of werewolves, travel to the north of the kingdom and bring
Norse gods and back the wolfman who is terrorising the area
magic. and killing the occasional merchants who pass
through.
Odin may be re-
turning to earth. The two meet and the wolfman is captured and
God of war and brought back.
destruction, if he
returns it will be a In the background the politics of the area are in
dark time for man- flux. The two unknowing brothers are thrown
kind. His favourite closer together in a series of adventures and
form on earth is that of a wolf. treachery and gradually the wolfman learns hu-
man values including love, while his brother
The mountain witches believe they may be able learns some of the wild ways of the wolf. They
to stop him with a rune called the Wolfsangel. are both in love with the same woman and
The Rune is more than a letter, it is the embodi- there will be a showdown over this, but first
ment of a powerful spell. Its drawback is that it they must regain the kingdom. There is also the
can only be used by a werewolf or wolfman, lurking problem of Odin’s return. One brother
someone more wolf than human. with both human and wolf powers may be able
to use the power of the Wolfsangel rune, but
King Authun is without an heir. If he dies his lit- what if that power is divided between two of
tle kingdom will be thrown into civil war as the them?
other lords fight for power. To buy time his wife
is pretending to be pregnant but his time is run- Lachlan has a tight writing style that keeps the
ning out. He has consulted the witches who action moving but somewhere he manages to
have told him where there is a woman with a fit in some excellent characterisation and a
newborn son. He will raid the settlement and good view of the cultures. These make his story
take the son for his own. so credible and tie together the different strands
of the book.
The witches did not look deeply enough. The
woman has had twin boys. They are the sons of
a wolfman who was passing the settlement and

REVIEWS Cinema and DVD
A Single Man
Icon Home Entertainment
R4 DVD
A Single Man is based on

the novel by Christopher
Isherwood of the same
name and the screenplay
is by Tom Ford, Tom Ford
is also the director. Ford
is a leading fashion de-
signer celebrated for his Colin Firth as Tom Ford
designs of luxury clothing, accessories, fra-
grance and cosmetics and so it is quite a sur- he goes through the day, he begins to look at
prise to find a film that is so emotionally power- life in a new way since he knows his death is
ful and revealing. It is beautiful with an incredi- near.
ble sense of style and mood, even more amaz-
ing when you consider this is Ford’s directorial As he meets various people he communicates
debut. It is also marked by a stellar score and more honestly, hints about his sexual orienta-
amazing performances. tion in a class at the college and tries to savour
every last moment. When Kenny Potter, one of
When you consider Ford’s rather outré persona his students seems to be interested in meeting
it is a surprise to find such a carefully crafted him for a drink he takes the opportunity. As they
even reserved film; there is no sex, incidental connect George tries to communicate his expe-
nudity and no violence. In many ways while it is riences of life to Kenny and after they go for a
a film featuring a major gay theme, it is not a swim George achieves a deeper understanding
“gay” film; it is a film about loss, life and living in of himself.
the moment.
This is an unusual film, filled with beautiful im-
Set in 1962 the film centres on George Falconer ages, a superior use of colour, tone and texture
a professor of English literature at a Los Ange- and uses subtle changes in imagery to create
les college. George is finding it difficult to make mood. The acting is absolutely superb, Colin
it through each day. His lover of sixteen years Firth is utterly convincing but then so are all in-
died in a car accident some eight months be- volved. There are so many themes explored in
fore. Due to the nature of the times George only Single Man from gay life in the Sixties to finding
came to know about the accident from a “friend meaning in a secular world. At the same time it
in the family” since Jim’s family had not time for is a new form of “gay” film in that it avoids the
their relationship. He could not attend the funer- clichés about gay bar life, partying and sex; in-
al, grieve or share his loss with anyone he knew stead it focuses on the experience of male-
except Charley, an old female friend. George male affection in a way that I do not think any
has reached the stage that he has made a deci- film has handled before.
sion to commit suicide that evening. He has pre-
pared his home for the occasion, booked a din- One of the more interesting themes is the isola-
ner with Charley and organized his affairs. As tion of gay people in a world which does not
understand them. Of course the world has
moved on a lot since the Sixties and gay people
are more visible and tolerance is the name of
the game. But tolerance is not acceptance and
in many ways the film reminds how far we have
to go before gay lives are celebrated and truly
treated as equal to their heterosexual equiva-
lents. While it may be fine to be “out” at work,
how many gay people can actually discuss their
partners and their lives in the same way as their
straight work mates ? While gay people may be
more public and visible, there is always a re-
serve (a mask) that must be worn to survive in
the “straight world”. Single Man is a thought
provoking and moving film which is a significant
Ford and Charley work of modern cinema.
Clash of the Titans

Combo Pack
Warner Brothers
R4 DVD
Clash of the Titans

is available in an
impressive Combo
Pack which in-
cludes the Blu Ray
with loads of extras
and an alternate
ending, the DVD
and a digital copy
for those who watch
the film on the move. It is an impressively done The Blu Ray edition is especially impressive
new version of the original classic which I think with incredibly crisp detail and textures jumping
surpasses the original film in almost every way. off the screen.
While the original film used the latest special
effects stop motion animation available in 1981 Clash of the Titans is set in the Greek city of
it is a film which really demands a high level of Argos, where man has decided to disobey the
film technique which means that it really hasn’t gods and destroy a statue of Zeus. We are in-
shown its full potential until this latest version. troduce to three Olympians who battled the Ti-
The first thing you immediately notice about tans long ago: the brothers Zeus (Liam Nee-
2010 film is its amazing special effects and its son), Poseidon (Danny Huston), and Hades
mega budget. It really looks incredible and eve- (Ralph Fiennes). While Zeus is undecided
rything from the hurricane which surrounds about what to do about the humans, Hades be-
Hades to the Kraken grab your attention. At the lieves that only punishment and fear will solve
same time the character profile has changed, the problem. Zeus decides to allow Hades to
Perseus has changed from the slightly effete have his way.
Harry Hamlin to the super macho Sam
Worthington. While this is quite a successful de- A fishmeal, Spyros (Pete Postlethwaite) finds a
velopment Worthington’s Aussie accent is a bit coffin adrift in the sea inside is a dead mother
disconcerting when compared to the other ac- and a baby, Perseus. Perseus is brought up as
tors. their own child, but when this family is killed
when Argos declares war on the gods, Perseus
There are also lots of intriguing background is left to fend for himself. Soon he realizes he is
characters such as the fanatic who demands a demi-god, a son of Zeus and he must some-
the mob sacrifices Andromeda to the impressive how find a way to defend Argos against the fury
depiction of the clash between Zeus and Hades. of the Gods. The tale becomes even more com-
plicated as soon we learn that Hades himself is
While today’s taste in cinema doesn’t usually planning to overthrow Zeus to become the lord
include films with a mythological orientation, this of Olympus.
is truly a ripper. A fantasy for adults filled with
romance, horror, action, lots of battles and spe-
cial effects which are seamlessly integrated.

Creation
The True Story of
Charles Darwin
Lionsgate
R1 DVD
Creation is a moving bio-

pic on the life and work of
Charles Darwin. It com-
bines a deep and insight-
ful exploration of his inner
turmoil over the ramifica-
tions of his discovery of
the theory of evolution and its mechanism in his baby son Charley. Darwin’s study of evolu-
natural selection and his publication of his theo- tionary theory brings him to the conclusion,
ries in The Origin of Species. The film is di- rightly or wrongly, that having married his first
rected by Jon Amiel who made The Singing De- cousin endowed his children with certain weak-
tective and Entrapment with writer John Collee nesses and this led to their death. His guilt is
of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the palpable and shown with raw intensity. Looking
World fame. It was produced by Jeremy Thom- back from 2010 we can clearly see that the
as (The Last Emperor, Sexy Beast) at Recorded primitiveness of the medical care of the period,
Picture Company with BBC Films and Ocean both mainstream and alternative (such as hy-
Pictures. It is based on Annie’s Box a biography drotherapy) was the main cause of their deaths,
penned by Darwin’s great-great-grandson Ran- but Darwin cannot escape the feeling of guilt
dal Keynes using personal letters and diaries of and self-condemnation.
the Darwin family. The film is unusual in that it
combines science, a love story and a powerful The conflicts between Darwin, his wife and the
psychological melodrama. It is well researched local pastor are beautifully rendered on screen,
and based solidly on facts, historical and scien- you can feel with Darwin as he is tormented by
tific. the facts he knows as true in contradiction to
the superstitions of those around him.
Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind, Master and
Commander: The Far Side of the World) plays In many ways this guilt is a reflection of his fear
Charles Darwin, Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful of the shockwave his work will have on the larg-
Mind, Requiem for a Dream) plays his religious er society. The period was one of conflict be-
wife, all offer superb performances as do the tween religion and science and Darwin’s metic-
supporting cast including their children. ulously researched work would, in the words of
Huxley, finally kill off god! It is certainly a con-
The film is insightful as it explores the great suf- troversial film, one which had problems getting
fering Darwin went through to produce his work. distribution in the United States. It honestly, if
While committed to his wife and local communi- not brazenly, discusses the way in which the
ty, he realizes that the facts of science directly theory of evolution removes the need for a cre-
contradict their simple religious beliefs and ator god. It also offers some superb scenes of
slowly loses his faith. His suffering is exacerbat- nature in all its beauty and cruelty.
ed by the death of his daughter Annie and later
One of the most moving scenes juxtapositions
the death of Jenny the chimp with that of his
daughter Annie, it is a moving and immensely
sad but reminds us of our connection to the
great ape family and indeed to all animals.
While controversial for those of a religious per-
suasion, I found the scene beautiful and emo-
tionally intense.
This is an amazing film, filled with intelligence,

emotion and beauty. It is thought provoking and
stimulating. The acting is superb and the cine-
matography excellent. It really is an amazing
experience.

Fighter
Hopscotch
Entertainment
R4 DVD
English subtitles
It has taken me a while to

get around to viewing this
film. It turned out to be
quite a gem with good
acting, brilliant fight se-
quences and an intelligent plot involving cross- a non-Muslim boy in her group who helps her to
cultural conflicts. train. This would really anger her father if he
knew. It is completely against his Muslim tradi-
Aicha (Semra Turan) is the daughter of a Mus- tions and he would regard her as a slut. Emil
lim family in Denmark. Her father, used to being himself is confused about dating a Muslim girl
the dominant one in the family, is not doing so so the relationship develops slowly. Another
well in a non-Muslim country with different cul- boy in a class at the training school, Omar, is a
tural values. He is stuck in a deadend job and Muslim and when ordered to he will not train
resents it. He may have a way out, though. against Aicha – it is beneath his dignity as a
Aicha’s brother is to marry a girl from another Muslim to fight a girl.
good Muslim family and the girl’s father has
promised him a job driving taxis after the wed- Matters come to a head at the engagement par-
ding. This will be a step up for him so the whole ty for her brother and her prospective sister-in-
family wants to see it go ahead. law. Aicha and Omar are involved in a fight and
she gets the blame. For bringing shame on her
Aicha is, according to her father’s wishes, sup- father’s family (it is always the girl who is at
posed to be preparing to go to medical school fault) the engagement is broken off and her fa-
so she can follow her brother and become a ther’s new job will not go ahead. She runs away
doctor. She is not overly impressed with school- from home and stays with one of the other girl
work and her school grades are lacklustre. Her Kung Fu trainees. There is only one thing left in
only passion is Kung Fu. The school has a small her life – the upcoming Kung Fu championship.
training club, but even there Aicha is in trouble.
Her uncontrolled temper leads to her being Her brother, however, has got his girlfriend
booted out of the school team but her instructor, pregnant and he is getting a savage beating
sensing Aicha’s ability, refers her to another from her male relatives when Aicha goes to visit
training club where the sport is taught at a high- him. Her Kung Fu skills stop the beating abrupt-
er level. ly and she counsels her brother to see his girl-
friend’s father, apologise, and try to get the en-
The new club is mixed – men and girls – and gagement going again.
her father will not stand for this so she is
banned from Kung Fu. She continues to attend, On the day of the Championships her first prior-
though, and starts to form an affection for Emil, ity is to do well. She must fight her way to the
top, and along the way she must fight Emil and
then Omar. Then she must decide on her fu-
ture, try to reunite with her family, and try to re-
build her life to fit into both cultures. And what
of her future with Emil?
It is sad that many people cannot reconcile their

culture with the culture of their new country. It
will usually be the young that suffer the worst,
but I also felt some sympathy for Aicha’s father
trapped at the bottom of a new culture that he
could not adapt to.

Gran Torino
Roadshow Pictures
R4 DVD
Elsewhere in this issue

we look at a book of
poster art for Clint East-
wood’s many films. Even
in his recent years he
can still act in and pro-
duce a good film. I
thought we might have a
look at some of his later films and see how they
compare with his earlier work. Especially in his
early spaghetti western days, characterisation job, and probably no future. He is being pres-
was usually minimal. The “Man With No Name” sured to join a Hmong gang run by his cousin.
was also a man with no personality. Action was As part of Thao’s initiation into the gang he is
the thing. In his later films Eastwood has often given the job of stealing Walt’s Gran Torino. He
played down the action in favour of more devel- makes a complete botch of it. His family makes
oped characterisation and this film is a good ex- him work for Walt until the debt of honour is
ample. Some actors seem to be able to do this paid off.
– as they get older they just get better. I am re-
minded for instance of John Wayne’s skilful de- Thao is set to work not on Walt’s house but on
piction of an aging gunfighter in the film The his neighbours’ homes. The rundown suburb is
Shootist. Gran Torino has a lot in common. slowly improved by Thao’s work and he starts
to learn the home repair trade under Walt’s tui-
Walt Kowalski is a retired Ford production line tion. Grudgingly Walt comes to respect the
worker. He has just buried his wife. His neigh- young man and Thao comes to respect him as
bourhood is being populated by Asian refugees, a father figure. Walt’s ultimate accolade is to let
particularly from the Hmong hill people of Vi- Thao wash his prized car.
etnam. Walt is more than a little xenophobic, but
at least he is impartial about it – he dislikes all Thao’s sister Sue is accosted by a gang one
foreigners equally. He also doesn’t like the kids day and Walt saves her from being raped. He is
of today (including his own), the gangs that are now willingly taken into the Hmong community
now infesting his suburb, religion and priests, as a friend and even comes to respect them
and pretty much anything that has changed and their customs as Sue explains them to him.
since the 1960s. The only remaining things he He finds that he particularly likes their food (he
loves are his old dog and his Ford Gran Torino, seems to live on beef jerky) so they regularly
one of the cars he built while he worked on the deliver meals to him. There is a lovely scene
production line. where he gets into a spitting competition with
the grandmother.
His prejudices are stirred up when a Hmong
family moves into the house next door on the He even tries to find Thao a job with a friend in
day of his wife’s funeral. The extended family
are a happy bunch with one exception. Young
Thao, the son, is immature, has no girlfriend or

the construction industry. He can see that with-

out a job Thao doesn’t stand a chance in the
increasingly violent neighbourhood. As Sue ex-
plains, “Hmong girls go to college, Hmong boys who changed his lock but warned him that the
go to jail”. Then Sue is kidnapped and raped door wasn’t up the job – will he commit murder
and Thao is beaten up by a gang. Walt has mili- to regain his sense of manhood? Even the
tary experience from the Korean War and has a black District Attorney, at the height of his pro-
number of guns. Thao is all for vengeance. Walt fession, has his own prejudices.
urges caution, but makes his plans. The end is
totally unexpected. These people and many others have their lives
intertwined through a series of events. Some
It is hard to describe the skill with which East- come out of it stronger, some will not survive.
wood plays a man whose prejudices are chang- There is a bit of good in each one but it is sub-
ing around him. I think it may be his best part merged in the stereotype prejudice and it will
yet, and will be hard to beat in the future. Bee take a major trauma in each life to give their
Vang as Thao plays almost the same role in re- good side a chance to emerge. Meanwhile the
verse – the young lad looking for guidance in a consequences of their racism is only getting
foreign environment. It is a superb film of preju- them deeper into a prejudice of their own mak-
dices and intercultural conflicts. ing.
Crash The acting is superb, as you would expect from
BluRay edition 2010 the likes of Don Cheadle or Sandra Bullock or
Lionsgate Matt Dillon. The plot doesn’t give them a lot to
Entertainment work with but each still manages to put a bit of
Icon life into their characters. Director Paul Haggis
Australian Release has broken away from the almost-universal
dark and gloomy look of such films to give us
Crash is a powerful film daytime shots and richly-lit interiors. Apparently
about racial prejudice the sun does sometimes shine in L.A.
as seen through the
eyes of a number of The film won a number of Academy Awards
people in Los Angeles. including Best Picture, and I think the awards
Some are victims; some were honestly earned. The film may not be eve-
are in a position of suffi- ryone’s style of entertainment but I enjoyed it.
cient power to exercise their prejudices on oth-
ers. Even those at the bottom of the heap need
someone to feel superior to, so we have the
young Negro carjacker holding forth angrily
about the white people who suppress him, but
he is superior to them when he has a gun.
There is the white police officer who treats black

suspects with the utmost prejudice and enjoys
humiliating them – but his elderly father is at the
bottom of the health system and can’t get treat-
ment for a crippling urinary tract infection. The
Iraqi store owner who buys a gun to give himself
some power is out to shoot the black locksmith

From Paris with Love

Sony Pictures
R4 DVD
Director Luc Besson has

come up with one of the
best action movies I have
seen in a long time. Not
only that, he has extracted
a really good performance
from John Travolta, an
actor who was looking like
a bit of a has-been. Bes- We start with a scene in an orphanage where a
son’s approach to this film seems to have been young Albert is sadistically beaten while being
that it’s an action movie, so let’s just keep up told what an evil child he is. It must have made
the action until the end. The boots’n’all ap- a major impression on his psyche because self-
proach works and the film is more in the older flagellation became a “hobby” later in his life.
style that seems to be out of favour now in the He is also depicted in the film as having a per-
U.S. Besson doesn’t worry about too much vio- sonal ghost, a version of his younger self, who
lence – it simply is a part of the plot. says nothing but reminds him constantly of
those earlier days.
James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is an
advisor to the U.S Ambassador in Paris and he Now he is an elderly man. His wife left him
also does some low level jobs for the CIA like years ago and he brought up his family by him-
planting bugs. He longs to get more involved in self. He has a nasty habit. He keeps trying to
field work and his chance comes when he is de- pick up children but when their parents refuse
tailed to partner heavyweight operative Charlie to let him take them to the movies or whatever
Wax (Travolta). Wax is brash, overbearing and excuse he has dreamed up he turns vicious
very, very good at his job – which seems to be and writes the parents the most filthy and vitriol-
killing people. Together they rack up the kills ic letters. One son and a daughter are aware of
and explosions, working their way initially this. The son knows there is something really
through a major drug cartel and then on to a Pa- strange about his father but the daughter will
kistani terrorist cell. Charlie is rather proud that hear nothing against him.
he is averaging one kill an hour so far.
As the story starts to move Albert has just been
The matter now becomes far more personal for evicted from another rented room after writing
James when he finds that his fiancée may be his landlady one of his letters – she wouldn’t let
involved with the terrorists. Is he tough enough him take her son to the movies. A Boy Scout is
to handle the job, even with Charlie behind him? found slaughtered and with pieces of his flesh
missing. The case is given to Homicide. A new
Although most of the characters are played seri- detective, Will King, has just joined the Missing
ously Travolta’s performance contains many Persons department and takes an interest in
little touches of humour that stop the film from the case. He is trained in the new techniques of
becoming too dark. It is a well-made, well bal- handwriting analysis and fingerprinting so the
anced film all round. head of the Department gives him a chance in
spite of King’s previous record of never really
The Gray Man finishing anything he started. King’s successes
Peacock Films have gradually earn him the respect of the rest
R4 DVD of Missing Persons.
Albert Fish was probably Fish has befriended a family, the Budds, with a
America’s first serial killer of promise of jobs for their boys. He has also be-
the 20th century. He preyed friended their young daughter Grace and one
on children and sometimes day he invites Grace to accompany him to his
ate them. This film gives an niece’s birthday party.
idea of what an evil twisted
person he was and the hunt Grace is never seen again and Missing Per-
to track him down. sons is called in. Unfortunately Mrs Budd revels

somewhat in the publicity and twice identifies

“Mr Howard” incorrectly. The Police must arrest
each suspect he has named but her wrong iden-
tifications is giving them a bad name. The case
languishes for four years. Detective King, who
has become obsessed with the case, suffers a
minor breakdown. While he is in hospital he is
reviewing the files on the case.
Fish cannot break his old habits and he sends a

gloating letter to the Budds describing what he
did to their daughter. Mrs Budd has had a habit
of opening all the mail even though she can’t
read, but in the process destroying any useful
fingerprints. This time her son grabs the letter in
time and takes it to Detective King. It could be
turned out and the action carefully sanitised. It
the breakthrough he is looking for.
is dark, dirty and violent. The hero is also not
heroic in the traditional sense – he is instead a
From here the case becomes one of dogged
man driven by revenge.
detective work. Tracking down Fish is not easy.
He moves around a lot and is so ordinary he
The town of Lago is owned by the Lago Mining
doesn’t stand out in a crowd, but the Police
Company. It has had to hire gunmen to protect
must find him before there is another disappear-
its property and sometimes these men have
ance.
gone over the top with their violent behaviour,
as on the night when they bullwhipped the
Patrick Bauchau plays Fish perfectly. His gentle
town’s young marshall to death. The entire
manners, his tortured flagellation, even his at-
town stood by and watched as he was cut down
tempts at convincing his doting daughter that he
in front of them. No one lifted a finger to help.
is innocent are well portrayed.
But the marshal didn’t die. He was left for dead
somewhere but now he’s back, unrecognised
The period look of the film is well done. It has
and nameless. The town will pay for their apa-
been compared to Hannibal Lecter but they
thy as he humiliates them one by one.
have nothing much in common - Fish was
simply a totally deranged man who lived a quiet
There is a further problem. The three gunmen
life but harboured some really strange and evil
who bullwhipped him are out of prison and have
personality twists.
sworn their own vengeance on the town. The
town must now hire the nameless man to de-
The film doesn’t include much of the blood and
fend them. Will he defend them or does he
gore that could so easily have slipped in. It is
have another motive?
simply a good detective story about a dreadful
man.
The revenge motive is not uncommon in west-
erns, but it is usually on the part of the “baddie”.
High Plains Drifter
In this film it is hard to assign good or bad roles
The Malpaso
to most of the characters and in this the film is
Company
at sharp contrast with the conventional west-
Universal Pictures
erns. Despite its age I think this is one of East-
R4 DVD
wood’s better westerns.
Although this film goes
Six of Eastwood’s later films are available in a
back to 1972 it high-
compilation set from Universal called The Clint
lights Eastwood’s love
Eastwood Collection.
of the Western genre
and shows the influ-
The films are Coogan’s Bluff, Two Mules for
ence of his “spaghetti
Sister Sara, Play Misty For Me, Joe Kidd, High
western” days. “There
Plains Drifter and The Eiger Sanction. The set
have always been
is a good representative sample of the later
westerns and there will always be westerns”.
work from this fine actor.
This is not a traditional U.S. western in the old
Gary Cooper style, with everyone spotlessly

I Love You Phillip Morris

Film Review
Cinema Release
DVD Date unknown
Jim Carrey, celebrated for

his unusual comedy roles
and exuberant personality
has taken on some more
challenging characters of
late. In this quite powerful
celebration of “outsider”
love he portrays Steven Russell, a fraudster and
con man who makes his living through manipu-
lation and flim-flam. He lives a double life as a
policemen then a vegetable salesman with a
devoted Christian wife and kids. After a car acci-
dent coming from an illicit affair with a gay lover,
he experiences some sort of epiphany. He
comes out to his wife and those around him and those who cannot think for themselves. His
finding himself a young lover, adopts two dogs crimes are as much about humiliating those
and starts living it up. who are foolish and stupid as for love. He does
not hurt anyone, there is no violence in his
He soon finds that it is hard to finance a high methods, he targets authorities and large busi-
intensity lifestyle with a nine to five job and soon nesses and takes them for a ride.
gets back to his own tricks but on a much bigger
scale. When he is caught and sent to jail he Based on a real tale this is truly an amazing
meets Phillip Morris, an innocent younger gay tale. The way in which he fakes his own illness
man played by Ewan McGregor. They soon fall and then death to escape from prison and re-
in love and Russell will do anything to keep turns to try and get his lover out of jail is breath-
them together. After all sorts of prison fiascos taking. Sadly, since the state of Texas was em-
they finally make it to the outside world but once barrassed by his constant escapes he was giv-
again Russell can’t simply live the average life. en a 144 year jail sentence. He continues to be
He is absorbed in Morris and must create a in jail to this day. Considering that none of his
world for them which include absolutely every- crimes involved any violence it certainly seems
thing they could possibly dream of, this leads to a harsh and brutal punishment.
the biggest con-game of all involving millions of
dollars. The film is from writer-directors Glenn Ficarra
and John Requa who wrote Bad Santa. It is a
Russell is a true outsider, it is not simply his powerful and moving film exploring the length to
love for Morris that motivates him but his con- which someone will go to feel wanted and loved
tempt for the prejudice and bigotry of the world and who develops such a contempt for the soci-
around him. He truly despises the stupidity of ety at large that he feels the need to exploit it to
the world around him and has utter contempt for achieve the lifestyle he feels he deserves. Rus-
sell is superbly played by Carrey, he is sad and
vulnerable, manipulative and cunning, and he is
filled with contempt, anger and fury yet also
with immense love and compassion. Ewan
McGregor as Morris is beautifully innocent and
while some may find the sex scenes confront-
ing personally I did not find them especially ex-
plicit. This is a film which has a powerful emo-
tional honesty, the ruckus about it in the Ameri-
can media including difficulties getting distribu-
tion on the U.S film circuit says more about
their inability to deal with the open portrayal of
an intense gay love affair on scene than any-
thing else.

Dennis Potter’s Karaoke & Lazarus

4-part TV Series
Acorn Media
R2 DVD
4 Disc Boxed Set
Daniel Freed is a successful author. His special-

ity is writing TV scripts, but now he is troubled –
he keeps hearing other people using the words
of his latest script, “Karaoke”. The film has not
been publicly shown yet but characters and
phrases keep popping up in the conversations
of ordinary people. It is as if he has written a
script that is now taking on a life of its own in the
real world. His script deals mainly with the rela-
tionship between a girl named Sandra, her boy-
friend and an underworld type Arthur Maillion.
These characters from his script now seem to

exist in real life, particularly the dangerous thug
and seedy club owner “Pig” Maillion. The line
between reality and his script seems to be in-
creasingly blurred. The script seems to have a Dennis Potter was a prolific author and writer of
life of its own and the real people are comment- screenplays. It has been noted that much of his
ing that someone seems to be putting words in work alludes to problems in his own life, such
their mouth. as illness and sexual abuse. When he wrote
Karaoke and Cold Lazarus it was a condition
Daniel also has major health problems develop- that the shows be jointly produced by the BBC
ing, from a life of hard drinking and smoking, and their rival Channel 4. They followed his
and he has been told he only has a couple of wishes in this but the reluctant collaboration
months to live. He has become attached to has made the posthumous rights rather trou-
Sandy, a girl he knows mainly from his script but bled. With these sets it looks like the matter has
who also now seems to exist in reality. Sandy finally been sorted out.
works for Maillion and is deathly afraid of him
after what he did to her mother. It must be said that the strength of the actors
carries what could otherwise be a rather con-
Can Daniel change his script to reflect this new fused plot. Albert Finney plays Daniel in both
reality and give it a happy ending? It has al- series, giving wonderful characterisations of
ready been filmed and would seem to be locked Daniel becoming cranky and offensive as his
in, but can the editors recut the film to reflect illness progresses, the cold calculating Daniel
Daniel’s changes (if he can change anything?).

who realises he is dying and there are things to

be done, and in the retro scenes of Cold Laza-
rus when we see other events that shaped Dan-
iel’s life. Another actor worth noting is Roy
Hudd, who plays Daniel’s long-suffering agent.
His gentle sympathy is a refreshing contrast
with the irascible Daniel. By contrast, Hywell
Bennett, whom I haven’t seen in anything for
years, gives a powerful performance as the apt-
ly-named “Pig”.
Dennis Potter’s Cold Lazarus
Cold Lazarus follows on from Dennis Potter’s

Karaoke, but at a distance of nearly four hun- hidden for years – he was raped as a young-
dred years. Daniel Freed has died long ago but ster, may have been involved in a an atrocity
had his head cryogenically preserved. His last while in the army, and murdered “Pig” Maillion
words before he died were “No biography”. near the end of his life. The combination of
drugs is slowly making Daniel self-aware – not
The world is now a much different place. Coun- alive, but able to suffer tremendous mental an-
tries have disappeared and the world is ruled by guish as his suppressed memories are brought
large corporations. Profit is their only motive and back to the surface and inspected by strangers.
anything natural, such as cigarettes, has been The medical team is quite unaware of what they
made extinct or illegal and replaced by virtual are doing to him.
reality equivalents. For the ordinary people life
is dreary in the decaying cities. There is re- The team has its own problems. The multina-
sistance, typified by a group called RON tional’s owner is ready to shut them down as
(Reality or Nothing) who are actively attacking they continually go over budget and their work
the wealthy minority. These wealthy ones must doesn’t seem to be going anywhere profitable.
guard their homes and apartments with armed A media magnate, however, is well aware of
guards. their work and can see huge amounts of money
to be made if he can gain control of it and the
A small laboratory in a multinational ‘s complex head. He is particularly interested in Daniel’s
in what was once England has inherited the last sexual memories as these are what will sell to
remaining frozen heads and is working on un- people with Virtual Reality helmets. To further
locking the memories stored in the brains. Their complicate things one of the team is a member
motives are altruistic, to let people experience of RON and another is an internal spy for the
the reality of life four hundred and seventy years multinational. RON’s interest is that if they can
ago. They are using chemical combinations to make people aware of what life was like they
stimulate various areas of the brain and are fi- may be able to convince people to revolt
nally achieving some success with Daniel’s against the present system and go back to a
brain. At first the memories are innocuous, such better past. And all the while Daniel is becom-
as a football game, but soon they stumble ing more aware of what is being done to him.
across dark areas that Daniel has successfully
The story exudes a feeling of hopelessness.
Like Daniel, no individual seems to be in a posi-
tion to do anything by themselves to improve
affairs. There seems little opportunity of saving
society, just as Daniel has little chance of end-
ing his torture before he is driven into madness,
The effects and settings are a little unsatisfacto-

ry, with that slightly seventies look that detracts
a little from the series. Many of the characters
are stereotypes. In spite of these minor prob-
lems Cold Lazarus is still a powerful story with
an intelligent plot.

La Femme Nikita
Madman
R4 DVD and
Region B Blu Ray
French with English

subtitles
Not far into this film

realised had seen it
before as a U.S. film
called The Assassin.
It starred Bridget
Fonda in a not-very- permarket. He has dreams of becoming a boat
convincing performance. builder. Affection turns to love but he is still puz-
zled by her regular disappearances and lack of
The memory nearly made me turn this film off, family, friends or a past. One night he meets
but I’m glad I didn’t. Quite simply, Luc Besson’s Bob who invents a sort of past for Nikita, but is
original (it predates Assassin by three years) is he really fooled?
so much stronger and well played than the
American copy. Then a job goes drastically wrong. What was
supposed to be a quiet safecracking exercise
Nikita is a teenage junkie. In a botched robbery turns into an orgy of shooting, car crashes and
she shoots a policeman and is sentenced to bodies. The organization will not stand for this
death. The Government has other uses for her, and she is marked for death. Can Bob save
though, and she wakes up in a training complex. her?
She has a choice – train as an assassin or die
again, this time permanently. If the American version had unimpressive act-
ing, the French original has it all – convincing
She is not by nature an obedient trainee and a characters who are developed through the sto-
number of times she is in danger of being termi- ry, a plot that is fast-paced but does not let the
nated, but under the guidance of her tutor, Bob, action overwhelm the story, and first-class act-
she gradually becomes aware of what she could ing by all concerned. Anne Parillaud as Nikita is
become with discipline and training. Bob is more just brilliant.
than a little in love with her and she feels affec-
tion for him. Somehow the French version has a life to it that
is not overcome by high-tech gadgets or undue
She passes her first test exercise and is put on dwelling on the techniques of assassination.
the active list. In between the occasional assign- The film has also been adapted into a Canadi-
ment she manages to become friendly with a an TV series that ran for four and a half sea-
young checkout operator, Marco, in a local su- sons. Sometimes the original is best.

The Martian
Chronicles
1980
Science Fiction
TV series
Icon Film Distribution
R4 DVD
Ray Bradbury’s 1950

collection of short sto-
ries has become one of
the great science fiction
classics. Although it is
now showing its age,
we must remember it was a product of its times
– World War II was barely over, the threat of
another war, this time nuclear, was looming, ous husband, annoyed by his wife’s telepathic
and the end of the world was a definite possibil- dreams of a tall foreigner, destroys the first ex-
ity. People were looking for some sort of hope pedition. Another follows but this time the Mar-
for the future and there was a role for SF to tians are better prepared. With their telepathic
play. Bradbury’s stories were set not too far into powers they lull the expedition into a trance
the future, starting around the 1970s, and per- where the members believe they are reliving
haps offered a little hope that this time humans the pleasant times of their life. They are then
could get it right, if only on a new planet. humanely put down.
The stories as they developed had a lot in com- The third expedition arrives expecting trouble
mon with the exploration of the American West but it comes on them from an unexpected
so they sat comfortably with people. Bradbury source – from one of their own crew. Crewman
didn’t gloss over some of the less antisocial Spender is something of an early greenie and
events of the West, such as the extermination of sees in the Martian artefacts a chance to get to
the native populations by disease or the cancer know what the Martians were like and how their
of exploitative mining on the face of the planet, civilisation functioned. Crewman Briggs gives
but he balanced these with human stories of the nothing for this – he is the uncouth drinking de-
early pioneers of Mars. Some were rough and spoiling redneck that Spender despises. After a
ready, some were interested in the history of the visit to a Martian “city” Spender turns on his fel-
first Martians. As the number of immigrants in- low crew members and tries to kill them. Or is it
creased so did the ones with antisocial habits, Spender’s mind under a Martian influence?
but they were mainly confined to the small
towns. Inevitably the settlers arrive, nervous at the de-
teriorating situation back on Earth. Some adapt
The TV series opens with the first manned flight to Mars, some try to adapt Mars to themselves.
to Mars. They were expecting a dead planet but One such group are two priests who are sent to
Mars had its population, living a low-impact life, provide for the moral needs of the settlers. Fa-
and they were telepathic. They saw the coming ther Peregrine is, however, nursing two prob-
of the men from Earth as a threat and one jeal- lems. He can only be described as a devout
looney and when they meet some of the surviv-
ing Martians who manifest themselves as glow-
ing balls of light he feels he can convert them.
When this fails he seems quite ready to aban-
don all he was taught and worship the Martians
instead. His other problem is a deep desire to
meet Jesus personally. When a young Martian
is accidentally brought into the town the force of
Peregrine’s wishes turn the telepathic Martian
into a tortured, bleeding Jesus and the Father
seems unwilling to let him go in spite of the
Martian’s suffering.
Finally the situation on Earth reaches the point

where the settlement is evacuated back to
n’t, for it is one of the

most convoluted plots I
have seen in a long
time. It is well acted,
well filmed, and I could-
n’t turn it off until I had
watched it right through.
Don McKay is a very

lonely high school jani-
tor. He gets a letter from
his high school girlfriend
that she is terminally ill and wants to see him.
Although he was the cause of a childhood acci-
dent that left some kids dead and he knows he
won’t be welcome in his hometown, he goes
Earth just in time to be blown up by the very war
there anyway. She tells him that she doesn’t
they came to Mars to avoid. A few survivors are
have long to live but that she would like to mar-
left and they must make their way as best they
ry him and spend her last month or so with him.
can. The story now turns to the individuals and
Her housekeeper is a nasty type who clearly
how they handle their isolation.
doesn’t like Don. Neither does her doctor, who
is clearly fond of her as well.
It is obvious that some will not survive, like the
attractive but vacuous young woman who is
Next morning the doctor attacks Don and Don
used to being waited on hand and foot and will
is forced to kill him in self-defence. That’s just
find life impossible as the remaining machines
the start. One by one the bodies mount up and
break down. She missed the rocket back to
Don gets in deeper. It seems everyone in the
Earth because she couldn’t take all her clothes
area has it in for him and they all seem to know
with her.
something that Don doesn’t – even his girl-
friend. For that matter Don has a secret of his
The others will find their own ways of coping,
own, as well. The plot has so many twists and
but the most successful will be Colonel Wilder,
turns, double and triple crosses, that it’s hard to
the commander of the third mission and now
work out who is doing what to who – just that
(briefly) Mars Coordinator, and his family. He
Don’s in the middle of it and his life is in danger.
shows them their reflections in a canal and tells
them that they are now the Martians.
The film is a fine piece of work. Thomas Haden
Church is great as Don and works his way
Although much of the science has been overtak-
through the film in an almost permanent case of
en by later observations and there are some
bewilderment – understandable, really. The oth-
glaring holes in the plot it is still a powerful story
er actors and actresses play their more de-
with a good range of well-presented characters.
mented parts against his steady, even slightly
Perhaps the most unconvincing is Rock Hudson
dim character. If you like a movie with a devi-
as Colonel Wilder, but even he carries his part
ous plot, you will enjoy this one.
adequately. It is good to see that Bradbury’s
story was not badly mangled in the translation to
TV. It has been around now for sixty years and
is a tribute to a great writer.
The DVD seems much sharper and clearer than

I remember it on TV and videotape. If the film
has been enhanced then it is a very good job.
Moment of Truth
Eagle
Entertainment
R4 DVD
I nearly passed up this movie at first – it looked

like just another soggy love story. I’m glad I did-

The Phantom Empire

1935
Mascot Master Serial
Big Sky Video
R4 DVD
Matt Levine of Mascot

was a troubled man in
the 1930s. His lead
actor for serials, John
Wayne, had gone else-
where to star in full-
length films rather than
Mascot’s serials and
his replacement, Ken Maynard, was only prov-
ing a reliable actor when sober (and that was robots doing the work the inhabitants are free to
rare). Levine hit on the idea of using Gene Au- invent the silliest costumes and hats ever seen
try, a young “singing cowboy” who had played outside a parade of archbishops. Their power is
in minor parts in other Mascot serials. Autry’s provided by a huge lode of radium ore.
first serial was The Phantom Empire, in 12 epi-
sodes. Back at the dude ranch a group of evil scientists
has arrived to investigate the presence of the
The idea for the serial is supposed to have radium ore. They realise they must take over
come to writer Wallace McDonald while he was the underground empire but they can’t do this
having a tooth extracted under the anaesthetic with the dude ranch inconveniently perched on
gas nitrous oxide (better known as laughing top. They must remove Autry from the scene so
gas). This story is plausible as I can’t think of the ranch will become derelict and they will be
anyone who could write such a dreadful script free to carry out their dastardly plot.
and storyline while sober. It went into a very low
-budget production and was a success. Autry is defended by a bunch of apparently
parentless kids who call themselves the “Junior
In the serial Autry is part owner of a dude ranch, Thunder Riders” and ride around with ice buck-
Radio Ranch, from which he makes a daily ets on their heads crying “To The Rescue!”. In
broadcast. Thus we get to hear Autry sing at each episode we get an Autry song, a cliff-
least one corny song per episode. Despite Autry hanger ending, and a shot of Autry mounting his
being billed as “the Singing Cowboy” the ranch horse from behind (did I phrase that right? He
is free of those annoying cows that might dirty gets into the saddle by vaulting over the rear of
Gene’s boots or spoil the perfect whiteness of the horse, risking serious injury to his sensitive
his hat. His ranch is sitting on top of Murania, parts). We have the usual comic relief side-
an underground empire of the lost tribe of Mu. kicks, incompetent sheriff, and a few modern
touches like an aeroplane.
This empire is under the control of Queen Tika
and the work is done mainly by robots. With the It very soon becomes apparent that Autry was

not a great actor, but he didn’t have much to women. Character de-
work with in the inane script. What we do get is velopment wasn’t too
a serial so absolutely dreadful that it is hilarious- important. This film has
ly funny. I guess audiences of the time weren’t all those but also man-
so discerning, but in fairness it was aimed at the ages to include a bit of
Saturday matinee crowd and probably met their characterisation and a
expectations quite well. The serial is a piece of look at the theme of
film history and has been lovingly restored, so the white men against
get your popcorn, sit back, and enjoy The Phan- the Indian cultures.
tom Empire. That is not to say it is a
great work of literature,
There is a nice range of extras in the 2-DVD but it does have that
set, ranging from a brief biography of Gene Au- little bit extra over most
try to a couple of his other films. Boots and Sad- films of the genre.
les (yes, that’s how they spelled it on the post-
er) is about turning a smug little English kid into Colonel Connors heads a detachment of caval-
a cowboy. Gene Autry Doe C Does is better ry in Indian country. He is a hard, brutal man
unmentioned. who resents the South losing the war. He takes
out his frustration on the local Indians. He wants
Scalps the daughter of the local chief and is prepared
Cinema De Bizarre to slaughter her tribe to get the girl. She es-
DVD-R capes and finishes up at a local ranch. The
rancher is an ex-cavalry man himself whose
English language with Norwegian subtitles wife was scalped by Indians so there is no love
lost between them but he tends to her injuries
This is a reissue of an old film that is a little unu- out of humanity then helps her into the hills
sual in the genre. Most spaghetti westerns con- where the rest of her tribe is scattered. She re-
centrated on the action, the gunfights and the pays him by saving him from a painful death at
the hands of warriors of her tribe.
Meanwhile Connors and his cavalry are after

them both. The pair must learn to cooperate to
save their lives.
The film is taken from what looks like an old dis-

tribution copy. The colour is faded and the focus
is soft, which loses the typical harsh look of a
western. It’s still an interesting film, though, both
as a piece of film history and as a good exam-
ple of the genre.
Web: http://www.cinema-de-bizarre.com

Shutter Island
Paramount
R4 DVD
Shutter Island is
based on the novel of
the same name by
author Dennis Le-
hane, who is best
known for his myster-
ies Mystic River and
Gone Baby Gone.
Shutter Island is one

of those surprising gems you don’t get to see
that often. I must admit that until now I have
never liked Leonardo DiCaprio. I felt Titanic was Leonardo DiCaprio as Teddy Daniels
overwrought and that Martin Scorsese is an in-
teresting but somewhat uneven director.
The plot is ingenious and has lots of twists and
Shutter Island, however, is very different. This is turns, you will probably need to watch this film a
a film which is never what it seems, moving be- number of times to catch the many layers of
tween genres with what seems like a gleeful meaning throughout. It is also a film made with
disrespect for cinematic categorization. It opens an economy of special effects, it does not show
with what seems to be a film noir detective tale brain surgery, electro shock and other such
then moves into a conspiracy tale with what atrocities one may expect to see in a Fifties
could even be seen as psychic/ghostly intru- mental institution. While there are scenes of
sions. It is only later in the film that it becomes violence and some powerful flashbacks in re-
an exploration of mental illness, depression, gards to the Nazi concentration camps there is
madness and loss. an emphasis on mood and suspense rather
than violence or horror and this “less is more”
It is a beautifully directed film and has some approach is very successful.
very powerful set-pieces. The flashbacks which
occur to Daniels are powerful and moving, es- Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels is a cop on a
pecially those connected to the concentration mission. He has taken the call to go to a remote
camps. While I have never thought much of Di- psychiatric facility called Shutter Island which is
Caprio, in this film he is superb; he plays Feder- located off the New England shore and only ac-
al Marshal Teddy Daniels, the focus of the film cessible by boat. Daniels has some baggage
and carries it off well. when it comes to the mentally ill, it seems a fire
bug burnt down the block of units in which he
lived with her wife and she was burnt to death.
He believes that this dangerous criminal is also
on Shutter Island and he is out for revenge. He
also has a history of heavy drinking and is not
Dr.Cawley is met by Daniels and Chuck on

Shutter Island Daniels has a flashback about his wife

Heading towards the Lighthouse
above cutting corners to get the result he needs Armed guards on Shutter Island
in a case. He is hard edged and does not re-
treat in any situation, something he learnt dur-
ing his time in the army. at home and has created an elaborate fantasy
to justify the incursion into her reality of people
He arrives with his new partner Chuck (Mark on the island. Without medication she turns vio-
Ruffalo) to find a heavily guarded facility ruled lent.
over by a group of strange psychiatrists include
Dr.Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Dr. Naehring The more Daniels investigates the less he
(Max von Sydow), to whom he takes an instant knows. He finds his questions are answered
dislike due to his experiences with Germans with more questions and information is being
during the war. He has been called to the Island withheld. He is not given access to the institu-
to investigate the disappearance of Rachel So- tions medical records and one of the doctors,
lando, who seems to have escaped from her Solando’s primary psychiatrist, left on vacation
cell through a barred window and locked door. the morning he arrived.
Rachel is violent and dangerous; she has been
on the Island for some years after drowning her As Daniels explores the island looking for clues
three children in a lake and arranging them he starts to become unstuck. It begins with
around the dinner table. She still believes she is headaches, which then develop into migraines.
He begins to have flashbacks of his experience
in Germany during the war and has visions of
his dead wife. Over time he comes to believe he
has uncovered a major conspiracy, Shutter Is-
land is the front for medical experiments by mili-
tary intelligence. He also comes to believe that
Dr. Cawley knows he is onto the real signifi-
cance of the institution and has set a trap to si-
lence him and that he will not escape the island
alive. His behaviour becomes erratic and at
times he is violent.
Of course, the truth of the story is far more com-

plicated and since I do not want to destroy your
enjoyment of the film I will not discuss the cli-
max. In my mind it is certainly one of the more
intriguing plots I have seen unfold on the screen
and when you know the ending of the film and
watch it again you will pick up hints throughout.
Shutter Island covers a myriad of themes from

guilt and war crimes, to depression and mad-
ness. It is thought provoking, visually lush, intel-
Chuck, Daniel’s Partner, but is he what he ligent and challenging.
seems ?

Storage
Anchor Bay
Entertainment
(2009)
R4 DVD
This great film

doesn’t seem to have
made the impact that
it should have.
Possibly it’s a bit too

close to the events in
a rural town in South
Australia that inspired
it. The film has a number of twists as the plot Zia, the secretary, reveals that Leonard has a
explores the possibilities as well as some seri- set of lock picks in his desk. They pick the lock
ously horrible and gory scenes. and confirm what Jimmy saw but Leonard is not
impressed. He points out that he could be shut
Teenager Jimmy (Matt Scully) goes to live with down for such a breach, but he is also worried
his uncle, Leonard (Damien Garvey) following that he could be hiding the evidence of a mur-
the death of his father. Leonard runs an under- der. He decides he and Jimmy will pay Francis
ground storage facility where each customer is a visit at his home and “throw a bit of a scare
rented a lockup shed and given the only key to into him”. Some things are just too dodgy for
the lock. They are free to come and go as they Leonard to tolerate.
wish, but the whole area is monitored by CCTV
for security. The sinister side of Uncle Leonard is now re-
vealed. His “throwing a scare” consists of tortur-
Although Leonard stresses that the privacy of ing Francis until he admits to killing his wife,
their customers is critical he has an idea what then smashing his head in with a hammer.
some of them are doing in their storage – there
is the drug maker who stores his chemicals and The body goes back to the storage facility
equipment in his lockup, and the lady whose where another more horrible secret is revealed.
deceased husband’s effects are in storage. She Jimmy must now decide whose side he is on.
sometimes comes in and browses through
them. Matt Scully plays the confused, naïve teenager
well but the film belongs to Damien Garvey as
Jimmy notices one customer, Francis, who Leonard. He could be everyone’s favourite un-
seems to be hiding evidence of a crime in his cle – there to help, tough enough to make that
lockup – women’s clothing and a gun. He re- help count, solid and dependable. Even when
plays the CCTV footage and sees a human he is bashing Francis’ head in he makes it all
hand in the boot of the man’s car. He wants to sound so reasonable, so necessary.
get into the lockup and check but Francis has
the only key – or does he? Storage is a real gem of a film. Give it a try.

Suburban Mayhem
Icon Film
Distribution 2006
R4 DVD
I missed this film when

it first came out but
now I wonder why it
didn’t receive wider
promotion. It may have
something to do with
this being one of the
bleakest, most antiso-
cial films in a long na not being able to control her father as well as
time. It will make you she can control other men. In a belated attempt
uncomfortable because it is so plausible. It to try to instil some sort of values into her, her
takes you on a downhill ride from juvenile delin- Dad threatens to cut off the money he has been
quency to full-on criminal behaviour, but be- giving her “for the baby” – money that has actu-
cause this behaviour was tolerated in the early ally been supporting her drug habit and party
days it is too late to stop it now. going lifestyle. Increasingly Katrina is leaving
her baby with her father, Rusty (her part time
Katrina is a little girl growing up with her young- boyfriend, who seems to genuinely care for her)
er brother and her hardworking Dad. Her moth- or even with a casual friend.
er is a drug addict and only turns up when she
needs money, until Katrina’s Dad tells her never The second blow falls when she finds that Child
to come back. Katrina and her brother grow up Welfare is looking for her and is thinking of tak-
wild and become neighbourhood nuisances, but ing the baby off her. In Katrina’s increasingly
her doting Dad seems unable to control either selfish and drug-affected mind this is because
of his kids. By the time Katrina reaches 19 she she has been betrayed by everyone, not
has a baby, a sort-of boyfriend, and an ability to through any fault of hers. She is forming a plan.
control men by persuasion or sex. She is amor- She needs money to try to get her brother out of
al, totally self-centred and uncontrollable. She is prison and so she, Rusty, her brother and the
well known to the police but they are powerless baby can run away and find a place of their
to do anything about her unless she commits a own. There is only one way to get the money –
major crime, and she is too clever for that. her father must die.
Then the first blow falls. Her beloved little broth- Katrina by now appears to have lost touch with
er is put in prison for life for a murder carried reality, but she still has her ability to control men
out during a botched holdup. Although Katrina and she finds a likely murderer / scapegoat in a
believes she can get her brother off the life sen- local retarded lad who will do her bidding for
tence if her father will admit to sexually molest- sex. He was her brother’s best friend (he also
ing his son, Dad refuses to do this. The relation- took part in the robbery) and she plays on this
ship between Katrina and her Dad sours alt- friendship to persuade him to carry out the mur-
hough this is probably as much to do with Katri- der. The stage is now set for a dreadful finale
where things do not turn out as she intended.
Emily Barclay turns in a brilliant performance as

Katrina. Katrina’s rapid mood swings are well-
depicted and she conveys Katrina’s self-centred
manipulative personality perfectly.
There are quality supporting actors and actress-

es, and the whole film is tightly constructed and
never flags. The characters are all familiar sub-
urban types and this is what makes the film so
chilling - that one person gone wrong could
cause so much mayhem in so many ordinary
lives.
Katrina

Van Diemen’s Land

Madman
R4 DVD
Alexander Pearce is a
character which has
always captured the
Australian imagination.
While his life was hard
and violent and his
crimes shocking, the
story of an Irish man’s
battle for survival in
the Tasmanian bush dark and foreboding look and with an excellent
has proved a fascinat- score creates a powerful mood. Nature is both
ing tale for literature and cinema. beautiful yet terrifying at the same time and the
Tasmanian wilderness never looked so menac-
Various films have been made of his life including.
ing The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce
(2008) and a horror comedy based very loosely A group of transported convicts, suffering brutal
around him called Dying Breed (2008). Dying treatment at the Sarah Island penal settlement
Breed explored the descendants of Pearce who on Van Diemen’s Land, tie up their jailer and
were inbred Tasmanian rednecks who ate escape into the Tasmanian wilderness in hopes
strangers and made meat pies of them ! of reaching the settlements to the east. Original-
ly they was going to go by canoe but when fol-
Van Diemen's Land (2009) is a new and power- lowed by prison guards they hightail it into the
ful biographical film which attempts to faithfully bush with only a small amount of meat and
explore the experience of Pearce as he trav- flour.
elled across Tasmania resorting to cannibal to
feed his hunger. Pearce is played superbly by As their food runs out and there is no sign of a
Oscar Redding and the film also includes the settlement, they find their lack of bush skills a
original words of Pearce in Irish with the English detriment of their survival. They are town crimi-
in subtitles. nals with no knowledge of hunting, fishing or
even what plants they can each. As members of
While the hype surrounding this film was quite the group become weakened, the others kill
extreme with reviewers claiming that viewers them off one by one and eat them until finally
were sick or walked from the cinema. The fact only one remains.
is that the film is far more a melancholic reflec-
tion on crime, punishment and the brutal experi- The story is as much about the psychological of
ence of convicts both in captivity and on their survival and the paranoia of a group which
quest for freedom. The depictions of cannibal- knows that most of its number will die as of
ism are subtle, the violence in context and the crime and murder. It is a dark but truly reward
cinematography excellent. The whole film has a journey into Australia’s past.
Oscar Redding as Alexander Pearce

Vigilante
MTI Home Video
R1 DVD
When you see the

name you are
probably remind-
ed of the old
Charles Bronson
film Death Wish,
for which The Vig-
ilante was an al-
ternate title. This
film has a lot in
common but in
many ways is im-
proved. It is perhaps more realistic and less ers and thugs are bashed and driven off the
gung-ho than the Bronson film. For a start, Aus- streets.
tralia is a country where handguns are not easi- They are trying to discover Luke’s identity just
ly obtained so the use of boxing and martial arts as he is trying to discover theirs. Luke is be-
is a more believable alternative. It also makes friended by the female police officer who han-
the film a lot more personal than Bronson’s dled his case and they soon become close, but
somewhat flat character of Death Wish. they differ in their attitudes to the Vigilante.
Luke feels it should be safe for people to walk
The plot is basically similar. Wealthy business- the streets at night, his new girlfriend thinks that
man Luke is celebrating his engagement with taking the law into your own hands is one step
his fiancee on a quiet beach. They are set upon above anarchy and that people should be more
by a local psychopath, Alex, and his two hench- careful about their own safety.
men. Luke is savagely beaten and his girlfriend
is raped and murdered. Luke swears revenge Luke gets a lead on Alex and confronts him in a
and starts training to get himself in shape to club. The club is full of the crime lord’s hench-
wreak havoc on the bad guys. He knows he has men and Luke is in for a major bashing but is
little hope of finding the perpetrators but his saved just in time by his girlfriend. She is now
abilities soon make him feared among the more convinced that Luke is the vigilante, but what
violent of the underground community. He be- can she do about it? She will not pass her infor-
comes known as the Vigilante, and the police mation on to the police because her own superi-
describe him as a nuisance. or officer is in the pay of the crime lord.
Alex is the son of a local crime lord and is pro- Luke brings the matter to a head by going to
tected by corrupt police. Luke’s activities soon Alex’s own home and taking on his henchmen,
affect their criminal activities as their drug deal- then Alex. The showdown is bloody and violent
as both Alex and Luke are fairly evenly
matched.
The film has its strengths and weaknesses. Alt-

hough it is a low budget production it is quite
well done. Director Aash Aaron has done a su-
perb job, especially in the fight scenes that are
the main feature of the film.
He even manages a little character develop-

ment in between the fights. On the negative
side some of the sound is atrocious. The sound
track behind the fights is a hard driving rock
tune and it is hard to hear all the dialogue over
it. Apart from this, though, it is a good piece of
action drama and well worth a look.

The Vinter’s Luck comfortable.

Icon Home
Entertainment Then his youngest daughter dies. He and his
R4 DVD wife are desolated but he asks the angel to
Blu Ray check on her in heaven and make sure she is in
no pain. The angel replies that it will be difficult
Sobran is a peasant work- but he will do his best. At their next meeting he
ing his small patch of land reports that the young one is in no pain, but
in a vineyard in Burgundy with further questioning he admits he has not
in the early 1800s. The seen her. He reveals his true situation – not all
peasants’ grapes are sold angels live in heaven, some have chosen to live
to the local manor, and the in hell. Sobran rejects him and it seems their
manor winemaker produc- friendship is over.
es wine that is at best ordinary. Sobran longs to
do better. One night while drinking out his sor- Things now turn bad for Sobran. His wife is
rows on a hillside among the vines he is visited jealous of the Baroness and gives her a cream
by an angel, Xas, who recognises in Sobran a that causes cancer. The Baroness’ operation is
sort of fellowship of the frustrated vine grower. painful and disfiguring. Sobran can only pro-
Xas says that he has a small garden where he duce ordinary vintages. Has he lost his touch?
comes from, and brings Sobran some cuttings He misreads the weather and a vintage is all
from his vines. He urges Sobran to grow them in but destroyed in a freak storm. Finally disease
a small patch of hard stony ground owned by strikes the vines and the vineyard looks like be-
Sobran and otherwise useless. Sobran takes his ing wiped out. Only his experience and the
advice and plants the cuttings. It is hard work small patch of vines he planted on the hillside,
and the soil must be improved tremendously, together with the Baroness’ contacts, get him
but he keeps at it as well as doing his normal the new rootstock to replant.
work in the other vineyards.
Finally, older and wiser, he returns to the
Things start to improve for Sobran. He marries hillside to meet the angel again. Their friend-
Celeste, the love of his life, hey have a child. In ship is renewed, although not without strong
his yearly meetings with the angel he is able to homosexual overtones. They are witnessed by
report progress until the time comes when his the Baroness and Celeste. The angel reveals
first vintage is produced. It is earthy and will that there is one thing he wants Sobran to do
take a couple of years to improve but it tastes of for him. It is a terrible thing, but Sobran agrees
his passion and his sweat. Gradually it matures – for his friend.
into a fine wine and he is taken more seriously
by the Baron. Sobran and the angel become New Zealand director Niki Caro took some lib-
strong friends and at their annual meetings they erties with Elizabeth Knox’s novel, and this has
share wine and information. Winemaking is at aroused the ire of many critics. I have not read
best a lot of experience and guesswork – the the book so I was able to watch the film with an
weather, the right day to pick, disease – and open mind. I thought it was quite a powerful
Sobran seems to have the luck to guess all the- story and well made. Although many critics
se factors right. When the old Baron dies his compare it with Caro’s previous film or with the
daughter offers Sobran the post of winemaker novel, and do the same with the actors’ perfor-
and it seems Sobran’s future is going to be mances, I think the film stands perfectly well by
itself. It is a beautiful film, shot in France and
Belgium, and the soft tones do not detract from
the film but enhance it. In the strongly religious
times of the story the appearance of an angel
does not seem incongruous, and neither does
Sobran’s obsession with judging a wine in
terms of its maker rather than its chemical com-
position. His passion is allowed to show
through and there is little of the posing of mod-
ern wine judging.
If you haven’t read the book, the film is well

worth watching.

Wild Target
Second Sight Films
R2 DVD
French with English

subtitles
Victor Maynard is a pro-

fessional killer, organ-
ised, cool and 100% reli-
able. That is, until the
day he is hired to kill
Rose. He finds himself
attracted to her and
saves her life. Jean Rochefort is a skilled character actor little-
known outside France but with his somewhat
From then on he must save her from the other David Niven suave looks he is perfect for the
killers who have set out to kill her when Victor part. He has a wide range of emotions to play
has failed. She thinks Victor is a private detec- through during the film, but nearly always man-
tive. Rose is impetuous and spoiled and seems ages to maintain his dignity and poise. The oth-
able to do her best to land them in trouble. She er character I particularly liked, even though her
is the opposite of Victor. appearances were brief, was Patachou playing
Victor’s murderous mother.
Victor has also picked up young Tony, a witness
to one of his killings. Rather than kill Tony he is I believe this film is due for a remake soon, but
training him as an apprentice. Tony’s biggest it will have to be exceptionally good to beat the
problem is that he seems unwilling to actually original. The French touch to this version lifts it
kill anybody – even the wounds he inflicts on above the average.
others are more accidental.
This film is a fine piece of French comedy / dra-
Neither of these events sit well with Victor’s ma, with touches of murder.
mother, a tough old lady who has probably tak-
en part in her share of assassinations – her hus- World on a Wire
band was a killer as well and taught the busi- Germany
ness to Victor. A certain amount of family pride Second Sight Films
is involved. R2
The trio are forced to leave Paris as the other German with English
hired killers close in. At Victor’s home in the subtitles
country they can sort out their personal relation-
ships. Rose finds that Victor is a killer. She runs
away back to Paris straight into the waiting kill- Rainer Werner Fassbin-
ers. A showdown at Victor’s home must sort the der’s dark story of a com-
matter out. puter-generated world
introduces a theme that is still being exploited
today in films like The Matrix. The concept of a
computer-simulaton world is now a reality and
is widely used in video games, but a quarter of
a century ago when computers were new and
the future was uncertain Fassbinder’s film
seemed prophetic – and frightening.
Fred Stiller is a leading programmer with a

company that has built Simulacron, what we
would now call a virtual-reality program. It is
populated by about 10,000 “identity units” who
go about their lives inside the program. As a
microcosm of German society they can be used
to explore and predict future trends like public

transport needs and housing. Siskins, the owner

of the company, has a more sinister but profita-
ble agenda. If he can program in industrial They can briefly visit the simulated world and
trends like steel production the steel company talk to Einstein to resolve problems. Einstein
will have a tremendous advantage over its com- himself is having problems – he is becoming
petitors – it will know what sort of market it will aware that he is a computer simulation and
be facing in twenty years time. wants to move “up” to the real world. If, as Fred
is coming to suspect, the real world is itself a
Senior programmers in the company discover simulation then there should be an Einstein
what Siskins is doing. It is against the Govern- equivalent somewhere close. Fred determines
ment controls, but before they can alert anyone to find. If it exists this will prove to him that he is
they mysteriously disappear, sometimes while in not really really mad. He is aware that if he
plain view. They just seem to blink out of exist- finds himself part of a simulation, though, it
ence. All memories of them then seem to be may tip him over the edge into madness any-
lost. It’s like they were never a part of the real way. What would you do if you find you have
world. Fred knows of two such disappearances been programmed to believe that you are self-
but is unable to prove anything since there is aware?
simply no evidence they ever existed. There is
more, though. They seem to have become Fassbinder’s film was played on German TV in
aware of something going on inside the pro- two parts in 1973 then seemed to drop into ob-
gram. This knowledge can lead to their disap- scurity – known about but rarely seen. This
pearance. His suspicion grows that the “real” DVD version has been cleaned up and well re-
world itself is behaving like a huge computer stored from the original masters with the coop-
simulation and they are all just players in it. Or eration of the Fassbinder Foundation. Despite
is he going mad? Who can help him? Who can its age and slightly dated look it is as powerful
he trust? now as when it was made.
In the simulation there is an identity unit they
have named Einstein. He is the interface be-
tween the simulated world and the real world.

X-Men Origins: to live a normal life and becomes more and

Wolverine more violent and unstable.
Fox
R4 DVD The story meanders between action film, spe-
cial effects spectacular and angst ridden set-
Wolverine is a major pieces. At times it seems to have a trouble bal-
character within the X- ancing the science fiction come superhero tale
Men franchise and this with the emotional driven themes. X-Men, the
film explores his origins first film in the franchise, directed by Bryan
and early life. A second Singer was father more adroit at balancing
film based on his char- emotion and spectacle than this one.
acter is also under de-
velopment. One of the There are lots of sub plots along the way which
unique things about the X-Men franchise is its are used to describe the various elements of
focus on alienation and the role of the Wolverine’s character as understood in the oth-
“outsider”. er films in the franchise. These do seem a little
“forced” but since this is a prequel things do
There are not superheros in the usual sense of need to fit together, even if not perfectly. The
the word but individuals with unique gifts which most successful explanations are those about
make them both feared and held in awe. It also Logan’s transformation into Wolverine through
means that they are alienated from the world a government secret project using Adamantine,
around (including in many cases their families) an element not found on earth but only in fallen
and used and abused for their abilities, espe- meteor pieces. Logan undertakes this process
cially by the military. as he wants revenge for the death of his wife by
Victor. However as the complex tale unfolds we
Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, is a signif- find his wife was an “agent” of the secret gov-
icant figure in the franchise. He is difficult, ernment agency and the a trap was set to ex-
brusque and stands separate even from other X tract Wolverine’s DNA and use it to help create
-Men. He trusts no one and wants to work alone the ultimate X-Men powered weapon, Weapon
at every opportunity, he only co-operates when XI. The battle between Wolverine and later both
he is forced to by circumstance and need. Wolverine and Victor against Weapon XI is im-
pressive being set on Three Mile Island with
In this film we come face-to-face with the brutali- lots of explosions and special effects.
ty of living as someone who is different. In re-
venge for what he sees as his father’s death, he The ongoing war between brothers Logan/
realizes he is adopted and has killed his real Wolverine and Victor is impressive and forms
father so goes on the run with Victor Creed. Vic- the backbone of the film. Most of the other X-
tor (in the comics known as Sabretooth) is a Men figures are stereotypical and their charac-
way too devoted brother and as they go through ters are not especially well developed. Their
many lives together (they seem to be close to only role seems to be to create a stage on
immortal) while Wolverine aka Logan becomes which the “battle of brothers” can be played out
more compassionate, Victor develops a con- with some good old government conspiracies
tempt for those who won’t accept them. thrown in for good measure.
Victor truly adores Logan but resents his desire The ending of the film where Wolverine is shot
with Adamantine bullets which erase his
memory is a little too neat and while it sets the
stage for the original films is a bit of a letdown.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is an entertaining film

with lots of action but it had so much more po-
tential. Wolverine is one of the more interesting
of the X-Men characters filled with angst, suffer-
ing and regret and so much more could have
been made of him in this film. When it ended it
left me with a feeling of opportunities lost.

REVIEWS Comedy
Doghouse
Eagle Entertainment
R4 DVD and Blu Ray
Doghouse is a new type

of zombie film bringing
together a battle of the
sexes type horror come-
dy like Lesbian Vampire
Killers with a down-n-
dirty laddish sense of hu-
mour and lots and lots of
guts and gore.
Nice wedding dress !
The film opens with a bio of each of the main
characters with an emphasis on clashes with the battle of the sexes into full blown horror ter-
partners and friends. They are all gathering to ritory. The comedy is somewhat uneven but
help one of their mates, Vince get over a rather there is some great wit and superb one-liners. I
nasty divorce and meet at a local pub and then especially like when Dyer wonders if they ought
plan to set off to a remote village for a weekend to be killing these dangerous but once beautiful
of drinking and male bonding. The actors in- women and he’s told, “This is not the time to
clude Danny Dyer, Stephen Graham, Noel stop objectifying women.”
Clarke, Terry Stone, Christina Cole who all pull
off their roles rather successfully; most are well The creatures embody every possible female
known within U.K. films and TV. monster stereotype including a hairdresser with
dangerous shears, a truly huge warrior witch
When they arrive things are not as they ex- with a sword, a dentist with a drill, a very bloody
pected, the town seems deserted, there is a bride, barmaids and schoolgirls.
strange pagan store on the main street and mu-
tilated military bodies are scattered throughout Doghouse is another genre horror from director
the village. As they retire to the pub they find Jake West who made the rather overlooked
there is no one to serve them but this is a minor science fiction horror Evil Aliens which I rather
inconvenience compared to what comes next. thought a lot of. This is certainly a step forward
for West and certainly offers enough scares
It seems the women of the town have been in- and gore to make it a very impressive horror
fected by some sort of virus and become zom- film as well as an eccentric comedy.
birds, wild rampaging cannibals with a hunger
for male flesh. They cannot easily escape as the Special features include The Making of Dog-
infection has also transformed Ruth (whom they house, deleted Scenes, bloopers, alternate
call Candy), their bus driver. trailer, two TV Spots and an image gallery.
This is a quirky and outrageous film which takes
Haircut anyone ? These women are dangerous !

REVIEWS Comedy
Fashion Victims
Ariztical Entertainment
R1 DVD
German with English

subtitles
Who says the Germans

can’t do comedy? Just
about everyone, but this
film should prove them
wrong. It’s a little drawn
out but it gets there in the His son Karsten is secretly gay, and one day he
end in a hilarious climax. meets Steven in a chance encounter and the
two hit it off. Karsten is fighting with his father
Wolfgang is a salesman for a clothing firm that over a holiday he was to take before going to
sells fashions for the more mature woman – college. Wolfgang has hijacked Karsten to drive
say, thirty five or over. He has a good steady him around, as Wolfgang has lost his license
clientele, a comfortable lifestyle and a new Mer- for speeding fines. He has omitted telling his
cedes of which he is very proud. His company wife about this also. He is also running short of
also has a new young owner who feels that they money to make his house payments and pay-
should be selling clothes with a “younger“ im- ments on his new Mercedes, and he loots
age. They will be sold under a separate label Karsten’s college fund to make up the differ-
and will be cheaply made. They come from ence. Despite his arrogance he is sinking deep-
North Korea and Wolfgang predicts trouble for er into trouble.
the company if the rubbish is put on the market.
He has been in the business for so long that he It can’t go on forever, of course. His wife finds
is right, but he has become arrogant and is out their financial state when she pays Brigitta
overruled. He is also given the bad news that for damage to her car in an accident with Wolf-
when the new label is established “his” older gang’s Mercedes, and when she makes a large
conservative label will be phased out. donation to the woman’s “Help Russia” charity.
There is no money left in the bank account to
There is a pushy young salesman in the firm, pay their taxes and the Tax people confiscate a
Steven, who offers to sell the new clothing clock that belonged to her mother.
range. This he does by selling to Wolfgang’s
customers. Wolfgang hates him because he is a She leaves Wolfgang and takes refuge in Brigit-
serious rival and even more because he is also ta’s guesthouse. Coincidentally this is where
gay. Steven is staying and on the same night as his
mother moves in Karsten pays Steven a visit.
Wolfgang’s home life is deteriorating too. His Wolfgang tracks down his wife and is aston-
spendthrift wife is being targeted by a lesbian ished to find Steven’s car there with all the
friend, Brigitta, for something more than friend- samples of the new clothing range. He loses it
ship. She is also money hungry and sees Wolf- completely, steals the samples, accidentally
gang and his wife as good targets for donations drives his car into a lake, finds out his son is
to her “charity work”. Wolfgang is on the verge gay and having it off with his hated rival, gets
of bankruptcy but hasn’t told his wife. shot at by Brigitta, tries to run her over, (I was
cheering him on at this point) and looks like be-
ing charged with driving while unlicensed.
The humour is a little sad in that it reflects on

the difficulty of older people having to change
values in a changing world.
Even though Wolfgang is not really a likeable

character at the start he soon earns our sympa-
thy as he has to deal with the changes and the
predatory amoral people around him. I really
enjoyed the film.

REVIEWS Comedy
Infestation
Icon Film
Distribution 2009
R4 DVD
Once again it’s the End

of the World. This time
Earth has been taken
over by huge mutated
bugs that have cocooned
everyone so their juices
can be sucked out later. Lots of great bugs !
The film is reminiscent of
the old B grade Sci Fi films but with an element learns that Cooper knows more about the bugs
of humour that makes it well worth watching. than he does. He seems to have trouble deal-
ing with an enemy that he can’t shoot (the noise
The hero is Cooper Flynn, immature son an ex- of gunfire will only attract more of them).
military Dad who treats him with contempt.
Cooper has just been fired from his current job Cooper is arrested by a small group of local
when the bug attack arrives. The bugs use son- vigilantes who lock him up until they can be
ic waves to stun their prey then cocoon them. In sure he won’t turn into a hybrid. The next peo-
Cooper’s case he is able to break free from his ple they capture are Dad and his friend. Dad
cocoon and then free others in his workplace. points out that the bug must sting you in the
The few survivors have a steep and fatal learn- small of your back to lay its egg – it’s a sure-fire
ing curve before they come to grips with their way to tell if someone’s going to turn into a bug
new world. Their only advantage is that the hybrid. He then shows them his back - and
bugs are blind – stand still, make no noise and there is a sting mark. In the resulting shock they
they will ignore you. There are, of course, those escape from the vigilantes. Dad takes some
who don’t learn the lesson in time. We find also explosives from the police station and announc-
that the bugs can lay an egg into a human or es that they will blow up the hive. It’s not going
animal body that can turn them into a bug mu- to be that easy.
tant.
Although Cooper’s character is rather grating at
Cooper leads the small group to his father’s first because of his immaturity he seems to
house where there is a fully stocked bomb shel- adapt quickly and becomes more likeable. Dad
ter. On the way a girl who seems to be forming (Ray Wise) has perhaps the best part and he
a liking for Cooper is taken by the bugs. plays it to the hilt. One of the more memorable
scenes is when his pet dog is stung and hybrid-
There is a huge hive just out of town and ises into a fluffy many-legged bug. It’s all a lot
Cooper decides he must rescue her – for the of good fun and if you want your horror to be
first time in his life he is showing some responsi- not-too-horrible, you will enjoy this one.
bility. Dad, of course, tries to take over and dis-
suade Cooper from doing this but he quickly
Cooper awakens from an insect induced Some things are worse than death
sleep

REVIEWS Cult Cinema
Bitch Slap
Sony
R4 DVD
What a movie ! Bitch Slap is a homage to ex-

ploitation films from women-in-prison classics to
crime spree and lesbian love-ins. It is Directed
by Roger Corman protégé, Roger Jacobson, so
what would one expect ? At the same time one
could argue it is a post-feminist exploitation film
as it celebrates women in charge and wild wom-
en’s sexuality at that. It is packed with sex, vio-
lence, action and boobs. The women are all
over each other and seem to want to make out
in the most inappropriate locations. en’s breasts, legs and shoes, cut scenes and
carefully edited violence. The film also is loaded
The film opens with three overdressed women with fast wit, double entendre and some of the
(Hel, Camino and Trixie) slowly climbing out of filthiest dialogue you will ever hear.
a car in the desert. The focus is on their foot-
wear and their tightly clinging outfits. They pull a As the story moves on we hear about Pinkie, a
badly beaten man (Gage) out of the boot and notorious gangster who runs all manner of
beat and torture him to gain the location of a crime syndicates and has a taste for extreme
treasure of some form, diamonds it seems. Af- violence.
ter his hand (and balls) are crushed, he tells
them where it is, but as he is about to reveal We also come to understand that Hel is actually
some significant information about one of the agent Foxy69 working for some spy agency
girls he is shot in the head. sent to retrieve a germ agent which Gage is
trying to sell. But who is actually running the
As the girls look for the treasure, the story is agency and is Trixie really as powerless as she
told in flashbacks which move back in time final- first seems ?
ly focusing on a shootout at the Glory Hole Ca-
sino. The flashbacks are nicely presented, de- The clichés abound in this celebration of sex
liberately filmed with a certainly lack of reality and violence with stereotypes turned on their
with obvious blue screens to aid the fantasy heads and some of the most amazing twists
look of the film. Each episode reveals another and turns every found in a movie plot. The
secret about the ladies and, of course, presents characters are marvellous with the girls sup-
them in new outfits from lesbian nun to a bikini ported by a nutty redneck, a Japanese women
in the snow. in a schoolgirl uniform with a razor edge yo-yo,
a dwarf with a machine gun, lesbian nuns and
Along the way they beat the hell out of or make- too many more eccentrics to mention.
out with anyone who stands in their way. The
cinematography is excellent revelling in an The violence is deliberately extreme with an
“exploitation” look with slow pans over the wom- absolutely mind bobbling 30 minute fight se-
quence at the end. If you think you have seen
women fight, think again ! There is boob grab-
bing, hair tearing, snatch biting and more than
enough to keep you absolutely glued to the
screen.
Bitch Slap takes the exploitation film to the level

of an art-form, refining and expanding old
themes, adding a 21st century approach to sex
and violence and walking a fine line between
men’s fantasy and women’s empowerment,
watch it and make up your mind. I loved it !

REVIEWS Cult Cinema
Destination:
Outer Space
Saint Euphoria
Pictures
R1 DVD
Christopher Mihm is
back with his newest
spoof of the 1950s
budget SF films. This
film marks the return
of Josh Craig as Cap-
tain Mike Jackson
whom we last saw in
Cave Women on Mars. In that film he was work the transport beam. At the end Jackson
forced to leave one of his crewmen behind and faces a choice that may mean he will never see
he has been paying for it ever since. Earth again.
He has turned into an alcoholic, suspended Like all good shows, to be continued.
from the Rocket Command and estranged from
his father and most of his friends. Then out of All very dramatic, but it’s hard to stop laughing
the blue his father offers him a mission in what as Captain Jackson deals with a space suit hel-
may be reconciliation. He is given the chance to met that looks like a lampshade held together
test pilot a new faster-than-light spaceship. The with very obvious duct tape, a spaceship that
mission will be dangerous and Captain Jackson looks like a radio from a 1950s car, dodgy scen-
will need to keep his wits about him. ery, a rubber spider on a string and one-eyed
aliens wearing spherical lightshades on their
Naturally the ship goes off course and he must head.
crash it into a wild but inhabited planet. He is
taken prisoner by a female equivalent of Han The background soundtrack is perfect – that
what’s-his-name in that other movie and is to be brassy distorted sound that was so popular in
sold into slavery. Throughout the film there are the 1950s radio serials suits this sort of film so
passing swipes at both Star Wars and Star well. It’s Christopher Mihm’s best work so far.
Trek. Jackson escapes from the ship in the
emergency pod and is rescued by a robot. Well, We also get the usual blooper reel, commen-
it’s a man with a cardboard box on his head, but taries and a photo gallery.
that’s near enough. He learns that the robot
may have the knowhow to send him back to “Glorious era-appropriate black and white
Earth but the transport beam the robot must use science fiction”
is under the control of an alien race who feel it
is their mission to dominate the galaxy, as they
all do. Saint Europhia Films
Christopher Mihm
It is up to Captain Jackson to penetrate their Web: http://www.sainteuphoria.com/
base, fight off the aliens and let the robot in to

REVIEWS Cult Cinema
The Dinner Party

SilverSun Pictures
Kaleidoscope Home En-
tertainment
Region free
This deep and dark film

explores people’s reac-
tions to an impending dis-
aster – they know or sus-
pect there is trouble brew-
ing, but how do they han-
dle it? Their reactions are mixed, but how
would any ordinary person handle such a cri-
sis? In this respect it is a very uncomfortable el’s coffee with Rohypnol and he collapses.
film. Freddy is sure Angela has spiked Joel’s coffee
but he and Matt leave when Angela tells every-
Angela and Joel have been together for a cou- one that Freddy has taken some of her valium
ple of years now, but Joel wants to break up and accuses him of spiking the coffee instead.
because Angela is becoming stranger by the Maddy is the only one left, and in spite of her
day. She is increasingly possessive and de- worries about Joel’s health and Angela’s mental
manding, irrational, and addicted to prescription state she is persuaded that he will be all right
drugs. She has drawers full of these in her bath- and leaves. She visits Matt, who is about to call
room. They have invited some of their friends to the police, and points out to him that they will all
a dinner party and Angela has told some people be arrested for manslaughter if the police real-
that she and Joel will commit suicide later so ise they were there and did nothing to stop the
they can be together forever. Most of their suicides. Everyone just waits to see what hap-
friends don’t take her too seriously – as Freddy pens.
says, she is “ a drama queen, a weirdo”. They
turn up anyway for the free feed. Angela injects Joel with one syringe then injects
herself with the other, believing they both have
Before the party Angela has taken her friend a heroin overdose. Because one syringe con-
Maddy to buy heroin with which she and Joel tains sugar solution, one of them will die and
will overdose after the party. Maddy is seriously the other will live. The survivor and the guests
worried. Angela can only afford enough heroin will have to face the consequences.
for one strong dose so Maddy goes back to buy
another dose for Angela. She arranges with the The story is rather slow-moving, but I can’t see
drug dealer, though, to fill the syringe with sugar any other way that director Scott Murden could
solution. have built up the tension so well. We are aware
from the start that Angela is mentally disturbed
Joel invites an old girlfriend, Skye, to the party but Murden uses little snippets here and there
to make up the numbers as he doesn’t have to reinforce the idea and give examples of her
many friends of his own left. He fully intends to obsessive behaviour. One such is when she
leave Angela that night after the party and obvi- insists that Joel change his clothes before the
ously knows nothing of Angela’s demented party and goes into a sulk when he refuses. Her
plan. Angela feels threatened by Skye and or- barbed comments to the guests and her almost
ders her out of the house. She then spikes Jo- vicious rudeness to Skye when she finds Skye
is Joel’s old girlfriend reinforce her illness. Inci-
dents like these also explain why the guests are
happy to depart one by one and leave Joel to
his fate.
The cast has been well selected from un-

knowns. Lara Cox as Angela is quite chilling as
the smiling but insane “white witch”. In common
with a lot of the best independent films, quality
acting and direction has overcome the low
budget.

REVIEWS Cult Cinema
House of 1000 Dolls

Umbrella
Entertainment
R4 DVD
House of 1000 Dolls

has never before been
released on DVD and
stars Vincent Price
and Maria Rohm. Orig-
inally released in 1967
it is a white slavery
story with a twist.
Nightclub magician
Felix Manderville (Vincent Price) and his men-
talist partner travel the world entertaining audi-
ences and along the way hypnotize young
women, kidnap them and send them back to
Tangiers in coffins where they are used and
abused in the brothel known as the House of
1000 Dolls.
The story opens as a young man travels for Ma-

drid in search of his girlfriend who has gone
missing. He believes she has been seen in
Tangiers and he arrives to search for her. It is
not an easy task as Tangiers is filled with broth-
els and the locals do not trust foreigners much
at all.
Out on the town for the night he somehow im-

probably finds his girl amount a myriad of sex
clubs at the House of 1000 dolls but is brutally
murdered on his way home. His friend Doctor
Armstrong (George Nader) a dislikeable and
arrogant American doctor of criminology de-
cides to investigate on his own but not before
the danger reaches into his own home when
this wife goes missing.
The film is filled with stereotypical images; the

lax Tangiers cop, the arrogant American, the corrupt hypnotist, the vicious henchmen and, of
course, the innocent exploited girls who loose
their clothes at the drop of a hat!
It was made as an international production with

both English speaking and non-English speak-
ing actors; much of the dialogue is dubbed and
hence somewhat wooden but it is a typical cult
film of its period.
A classic exploitation film filled with scantily clad

women, a domineering madam and punishment
for escaping young women it is somewhat dat-
ed but loads of fun.
A XXX edition was also made with different ac-

tors and add-in footage.

REVIEWS Cult Cinema
Iron Claw The Pirate

Turkey
Onar Films
particularly secret since we see him often with-
Web: http://www.onarfilms.com
out his trademark mask and cloak. Nor does he
have anything resembling an iron claw. He
Turkish with English subtitles
seems to possess some sort of psychic ability
to find Fantomas and his evil henchmen wher-
ever they are hiding. He and his attractive fe-
This is another wonderful fantasy from the early
male sidekick will then go in, guns blazing, to
days of the Turkish film industry. After World
the rescue. They are helped in deciding who to
War II people wanted entertainment but there
shoot by the large letter F conveniently placed
was very little homegrown Turkish product. Pro-
on the baddies’ chests.
ducer Cuneyt Arkin was one who set out to fill
this gap with budget knockoffs of film genres
In between we get rather plump young ladies
that were popular around the rest of the world.
(scantily clad, of course) doing a sort of dance
Accuracy was not important, attractive women
that consists of standing there wobbling. There
and lots of action was.
is, of course, the comic Uncle who will stuff
things up at any chance. There are car and mo-
The films were definitely B grade but had an
torbike chases galore although it must be said
appeal all their own and Onar Films has been
that Iron Claw seems to have a lot of trouble
recovering the originals and re-releasing them.
riding his motorbike in a straight line.
The plot is straightforward. The evil criminal
In its day this film must have been the height of
mastermind Fantomas wants a microfilm that
action drama. Tastes are now a little more so-
the Professor has. He will stop at nothing to get
phisticated, but the film is still a lot of fun.
it. Against him is Turkish Security and their se-
Onar’s reissue has been cleaned up for this
cret weapon, Iron Claw. Iron Claw is not a pirate
DVD. The picture is still a little soft and the
regardless of the name of the film. Nor is he
sound is not great but overall it’s a great exam-
ple of a brief period in Turkish film history.

REVIEWS Cult Cinema
Mega Piranha
The Asylum
Peacock Films
R4 DVD
Mega Piranha was the

highest rated movie on
the SYFY Cable TV
channel in the US for
2010. Obviously it was
not celebrated for its
serious sci-fi content,
suspense or even act-
ing, no I think it was celebrated as the most au-
dacious piece of B grade monster movie trash
made in quite a while. This is extremely low
budget schlock which centres on a truly insane
plot. Scientists have engineered a mutant form
of piranha which is getting exponentially larger
by the hour and is chomping its way from South
America to Florida! I kid you not, this is the plot ing in size but is a hermaphrodite and hence
which is even further enlivened by a stereotypi- reproduces all by itself.
cal view of gung-ho Americans and South Amer-
ican military dictatorships. Sent to Venezuela by Bob Grady (played by
Barry Williams/Greg Brady) he tries to negotiate
Paul Logan is Jason Fitch, Navy Seal and all with the local military. Only when a super large
American hero. When an American diplomat piranha is slammed on the desk do they believe
and the foreign affairs minister for Venezuela go what is happening. They try and use every pos-
missing he is sent into investigate. The local mil- sible weapon on hand to kill them but even
itary Junta are convinced that the killing was bombing them doesn’t work. Of course by now
committed by terrorists or worse, elements of they are as big as cows and are eating through
the CIA but there is another possibility. Fitch is boats and flying out of the water like Kamikaze.
met at the airport by Sarah Monroe (played by But these fish just keep growing, as the insanity
faded 80s pop sensation Tiffany of one hit won- of the movie increases, they become the size of
der fame “Do you think we’re alone now”) who small houses and thrown themselves into build-
advises him that she is a scientist in a project by ings ! The sight of badly rendering CGI mega
UNESCO and that an experiment to increase fish the size of a house throwing themselves
the meat content of fish has gone terribly wrong. from the ocean into Florida townhouses is hilari-
Rather than increasing the protein content of ous as is much of the film.
edible fish, the project has created a monster
piranha which is not only exponentially increas- Since the threat becomes more and more seri-
ous, I mean these damn fish have eaten a bat-
tle ship, a helicopter and a nuclear submarine,
they bring out the ultimate weapon, the good
old American soldier, oozing masculinity from
every pore and with a grunt and a growl ready
to save the day. At last these pesky fish are
made to bleed and they turn on each other in a
feeding frenzy and the danger to civilization has
passed.
This is a movie which needs to be celebrated

for what it is, a B grade schlock monster film
which does not try to be anything else. It is una-
pologetically silly with exaggerated characters,
bad CGI and comic book heroes and villains all
of which work together to make it a sensational-
ly good laugh.

REVIEWS Cult Cinema
White Lightnin’
Vice Films
Madman
R4 DVD
This film is not, as you may

suppose, about moonshine
running. It is a very bleak
film about the effects of
drugs on a young mind and
the influences of simplistic
religion on that mind. The combination can only his own simple style he rates her as “the best
lead to trouble. pussy I ever had. The cleanest too”. His life
could be improving but not for long.
Young Jesse is an uneducated backwoods kid
who finds very early that he can get a high by One of his friends has just been let out of pris-
sniffing petrol or lighter fluid. This is called on, and is killed by the same rednecks who
“huffing”. As his brain becomes affected he killed his father. He snaps and decides to take
gradually deteriorates until he can’t tell the dif- revenge, the preacher’s teachings forgotten.
ference between right and wrong and doesn’t Priscilla, sensing the impending blow-up,
really care. His Daddy tries his best but he is leaves him. The revenge on the rednecks is
also a simple backwoodsman and he just can’t cruel and bloody and in his twisted mind they
handle the job. One person who does have have also killed Priscilla. He accidentally kills a
some influence on Jesse is a local fire-and- sheriff’s deputy who is investigating then realis-
brimstone hokus preacher who has a very sim- es he must go on the run. There is an old cabin
plistic if scrambled view of the Bible and the way back in the woods where the preacher
Lord’s Will, but when Jesse is high on fumes lives, if he is still alive.
even the fear of the Lord holds no terrors for
him. Jesse makes his way to the cabin and is berat-
ed by the preacher for taking the Lord’s work
Inevitably Jesse finishes up in juvenile prison unto himself. Or is it all in Jesse’s by now com-
then in an adult prison. Each time he is let out pletely irrational mind? There is only one way to
he can “feel the Devil moving in my blood” and make amends to Jesus. Possibly inspired by “if
will commit another crime of violence. The line thy hand offends thee, cut it off” he goes into a
between rationality and violence is very, very frenzy of self-mutilation and quasi-religious fer-
thin. In a last desperate attempt to teach Jesse vour.
something useful his Daddy has taught him the
only talent he has – to dance a form of tap / The story is filmed in black and white with only
shuffle popular mong the rednecks for its deft occasional flashes of muted colour that serve to
footwork. Even that can’t keep Jesse out of trou- highlight the few good moments in Jesse’s tor-
ble, though, and he finishes up back in prison. tured life. The problems of petrol sniffing are
While he is inside his Daddy is murdered by a current and prevalent in many outback villages
vicious pair of local rednecks. While the idea of in Australia as well as other countries. Funda-
vengeance is appealing, Jesse is clean when he mentalist religions that draw on and emphasise
leaves prison and he remembers the preacher’s selected parts of the scriptures and influence
teachings about leaving retribution to Jesus. He young minds are an evil that seems to be in-
teams up with his Daddy’s old guitar player and creasing, and not only among the deep-South
starts dancing for money in the bars of the area. Christians. Is there any way out of this? Don’t
They are reasonably popular but the old demon look to this film for help.
is still lurking in his mind. One night he is heck-
led by a customer and beats the man savagely The character acting is brilliant, especially Ivan
with a heavy ashtray. His guitar player drives off Nedarevic as the young truculent Jesse. Since
and leaves him to his fate. the film is narrated by Jesse it needs a strong
credible script to carry it off. It works. Only brief-
Jesse’s idea is to hijack a car to get him home. ly does offer any hope for a better life, but there
He gets a lift in a car driven by a lady he nick- is always the devil in Jesse waiting to break
names Priscilla. Although she is married she through.
leaves her husband and kids to live with him. In
Image © UK Film Council / Mountain Productions Limited 2008

REVIEWS Erotica
Anime Japanese Love Doll

Topco Sales
Web: http://www.topcosales.us/
I am not quite sure why the Editor gave this to

me. I can honestly say I have never played with
dolls before, not even Action Man figures.
Since I am now of quite advanced years (my

kids prefer the phrase “geriatric old fart”) I am
unlikely to take it up in the future. Still, the Editor
is a strange man at times – who knows what he
was thinking? be a number of moulding flaws in the doll, in the
mouth and …um.. other areas.
First, the doll is not really a doll in the style that I These flaws have been repaired with glued in
remember my sisters playing with. She is made vinyl tubes but they do not fit very well and
of vinyl with her features painted on. Most col- seem to go a long way inside the doll. Perhaps
lectible dolls are made from bisque (unglazed the top one is so you can feed dolly from a bot-
porcelain) or full fired and painted porcelain. We tle, but the lower two are puzzling.
can assume, then, that she is not intended to be
a collectible doll. Modern dolls meant for little The advertising on the box is a little puzzling,
girls to play with are usually made from fairly too. Instead of the usual “burp your dolly to
durable soft plastic. sleep” or “change your dolly’s nappy” you get
“Fulfil Your Asian Fantasies”.
This one is made from soft vinyl, sure, but it
doesn’t look too durable to me. Rough treatment What sort of fantasies would little girls have
could lead to damage, so I guess she is not a about Asians? As I read further I found
“playing-with” doll. “Discover the Oriental Secrets” – so that’s it ! It
must be a teaching aid for little girls to learn
She is over a metre tall when inflated and this things like Asian Cookery.
could make her difficult for small girls to manage
– who wants a dolly that towers over you? She Now all I have to do is find a little girl to give the
is also a bit tall to be displayed on a shelf. Doll to. Won’t her mother be surprised at what
her little girl can learn from it !
Being Japanese I thought she would come
dressed in one of those gorgeous costumes that Topco Sales
the Japanese and Chinese do so well. Unfortu-
nately, no. Although she is well painted (she Topco Sales is a global distributor of adult prod-
even has a tattoo) her complete lack of clothing ucts and has a wide range of interesting and
is a bit of a letdown. This would disappoint surprising goods including a solid selection of
those little girls who like to dress up their dollies unusual dolls, whips, bondage goods and sex
in different outfits. toys.
The lack of clothing also highlights what must

REVIEWS Erotica
Deep Contact
Pink Eiga
R0 DVD
Deep Contact reminds

me of the old 1970’s porn
films such as 2069 yet
done with superior pro-
duction values, more
comedy and a far more
peculiar plot. It dates
from 1998 yet has Sev-
enties porn music and
soft-core adult content with lots of tits and bums.
It is both erotic and very funny, filled to the brim
with sex yet presented with a truly eccentric
flair. It is surprisingly well presented with excel-
lent cinematography and looks better than a lot
Deep Contact is presented in a fully uncut and
of Pink Cinema on the market. unrated edition in Japanese with very clear
English subtitles. Extras include a still image
The year is 1999, and a comet is on a collision slideshow, original artwork, trailers, biographies
course with Earth! It is too late for a traditional
and filmographies, an interview with Director
scientific solution so what can be done ? Well Yukio Kitazawa, a video commentary with the
the United Nations runs a secret facility where
cast and crew and trailers of other Pink Eiga
psychics are trained to focus on their energy on titles.
deflecting the comets from its path. The method
they use to generate this great reserve of psy- Web: http://www.pinkeiga.com
chic power is especially bizarre, the sexual or-
gasm. It seems that the best form of psychic Groper Train
energy is psychosexual and is released at the Wedding Capriccio
moment of orgasm.
Japan
PinkEiga
Watura is a no hoper who has lost his job and
owes money to the Yakuza, but he has a unique Japanese with clear
gift, he is over endowed in the dick department.
subtitles
He is kidnapped and taken to the facility where
his role in saving the world is outlined to him. At
This is another in the
first he resists but the idea of wild orgies all in Japanese PinkEiga col-
the name of science is too much to resist.
lection of Japanese
erotica. It has a lot in
With other psychosexual psychics he must en-
common with the Dan-
dure weeks of sex addiction training to make ish “In The Sign Of…” series in that the plots
him more and more horny, even the nurses are are simplistic but funny, the young ladies are
in on the training since none of them is allowed attractive, and the sex scenes are tasteful and
to wear any panties. As Watura trains harder extended.
and harder (!), he must finally mate with Ikuko to
release a wave of psychosexual energy and The plot – a young girl from the country has
save the earth.
come to the city to avoid being married to a
country redneck. She has a job with Kuroda,
the world’s greatest detective, but she hasn’t
been paid in months. Now the redneck is com-
ing to the city to claim her and take back home
to be married. She has to come up with anoth-
er fiancé in a hurry.
Each day she rides the Groper Train, a packed

commuter train where girls are routinely groped
in the packed carriages. She is groped by a

REVIEWS Erotica
young conductor (he composes on a Casio cal- one of the more farcical ones.
culator keyboard) and arranges with him to
move in for a couple of days, pretending to be A learned but naïve Doctor has discovered that
engaged, until the troublesome redneck has Venus is about to enter the house of Jupiter. A
gone back home. couple of hundred years earlier when this last
happened and the conjunction was centred on
This works out well for both of them but the de- the Hawaiian islands a tremendous orgy en-
mented conductor fills in a marriage licence and sued which is still talked about in astrological
gets her fingerprint onto it while she is asleep. circles. This time the conjunction of planets will
She is now married to him. be centred over the little village of Petit Bois in
Denmark. The village has a girls school and
Meanwhile the conductor’s very wealthy father the girls must be saved from themselves as
is dying. He hires the detective to find his miss- their sexual instincts are aroused by the con-
ing daughter who ran off with an ex-convict junction. The Doctor has invented a drug that
some years ago. Back to the Groper Train depresses the libido and he arranges to admin-
where the detective looks for a distinctive dia- ister it to the girls.
mond filling in each girls mouth (while also
working a bit lower down). Meanwhile another mad scientist has invented
another drug that does the exact opposite. He
The ex-criminal decides to have the daughter wants to try it out on a village where there are a
killed so he can inherit her money. The conduc- number of young girls to prove that it works.
tor is killed accidentally by the redneck, who is a
bit careless with his gun. Who gets the blame? The girls themselves are not as innocent as
Who gets the money? Who gets the girl? their headmistress believes. Indeed, some fill in
at the local brothel when their urges overtake
Who cares? It’s a lot of fun and director Jojiro them.
Takita seems to have enjoyed himself making it.
Naturally the two potions get switched, and nat-
Web: http://www.pinkeiga.com urally the girls school gets the horniness potion
in its drinking water. The Doctor goes on to
In The Sign Of The dump the rest of the potion in the village’s
Virgin drinking water thinking he will do the villagers a
Smirk favour as well.
MVD
R1 DVD
Danish with English sub-

titles.
Another in the Classic

Danish Erotica series.
These reissues show
that the Danes liked their
erotica with a bit of humour. They are all well-
filmed with attractive non-silicon-enhanced girls.
Production values throughout the “In The Sign
Of …” series were high although the plots
ranged from funny to farcical. This is definitely

REVIEWS Horror
Berdella
North East Film Group
R1 DVD
Web: http://www.bobberdella.com/
When you look at the world of horror films from

vampires to werewolves, ghosts to aliens, the
reality is that the most horrid and terrifying story
of all is the human story. Only human beings
torture and kill for pleasure and these tales are
the most confronting. Bob Berdella is not a seri-
al killer who is especially well known, however,
between 1984 and 1988 he terrified Kansas city
by kidnapping, torturing and then killing men he
found in the local gay community to satisfy his documentation of each kill was uncovered and
uncontrollable sadistic urges. his was on trial for his life. His was convicted of
killing six men, injecting them with animal tran-
The film Berdella is a low budget B grade film quilizers and then torturing them to death.
which at times seem to dwell on the viciousness Berdella died in prison from a heart attack in
and violence of Berdella without offering much 1992.
insight. There is no real background to the ori-
gins of Berdella’s madness nor on his trial and This is a low budget film so the acting and film-
imprisonment. The film ends when one of his ing is average that being said Seth Correa is
victims escapes and we can obviously conclude convincing as Berdella and the brutality of the
he will be caught. I would have liked to see a lot torture depicted is realistic. It is an interesting
more exploration of the reasons behind Berdel- and confronting exploration of the violent
la’s killing spree. It is unusual to find a gay serial crimes of a lesser known killer.
killer and as some have mentioned, his sexuali-
ty while shown in the film, is not really explored Blood Creek
nor his motives examined. However it should be Lionsgate 2010
said that the film does create a suspenseful R1 DVD
mood and evokes the time and environment in
which Berdella lived and committed his crimes. Blood Creek is a hor-
ror from the well-
Berdella was to most a middle aged eccentric respected director
who operated an occult curio shop "Bob's Ba- Joel Schumacher, but
zaar Bizarre," at the Westport Flea Market. His don’t let that cloud
double life was only exposed after a wounded your judgement. Yes
man wearing nothing but a dog collar escaped he made Batman and
from the second-floor window of Berdella's Hyde Robin and Batman
Park home. Begins but this is
much more of an in-
Soon Berdella’s collection of trophies including die style film and is very surprising.
polaroid pictures and skulls as well as extensive
It is an unusual cult horror film in that it uses

REVIEWS Horror
but of course there is a catch, they must contin-

ue to feed him for it they do not he will escape
and kill with abandon. As he becomes more
and more powerful they use their own
knowledge of the ancient runes to imprison him
but continue to captive locals to feed him.
As time passes and we head into the Nineties,

another local is captured and kept for some
years to feed the now zombie like Wirth. How-
ever, he escapes and enlists his brother to re-
turn and kick some arse. Of course in doing so
Wirth gets released and a battle ensures with
zombie dogs, living dead horses, runic battles
and lots of guts and gore. Of course the ending
Nazi occultism to spin quite an bizarre tale. In is open as the hero finds that seven other fami-
the Thirties Hitler and the inner circle of the lies had Nazi occultists sent to them during the
Third Reich come to believe that the black arts Thirties so off he goes armed and ready to fight
will help bring National Socialism to the world. and destroy the Nazi occult menace!
Accordingly they send runic occultists to rural
locations in the United States to carry out their The special effects are well done, Wirth as the
nefarious research. vampire/runic sorcerer looks amazing especial-
ly with the development of his third eye ! The
One family, a bit low on cash, welcome the Nazi zombie horses are cool and offer one of the
academic believing him to be some sort of more impressive and over the top scenes in the
strange historian. However, Wirth seems to film.
know a lot more about them than they do about
him. He knows they have found a rare runic ar- The acting is solid, Michael Fassbender, Domi-
tefact on their property and he plans to use its nic Purcell and Henry Cavill are credible and
power to turn himself into some sort of demigod the plot has enough twists and turns to keep
via the means of some very dark magic. you on the edge of your seat right the way
through.
Of course with any quest for untrammelled pow-
er there is a hitch and Wirth needs blood, hu- One of the things that perhaps works against
man blood, fresh, from the source and lots of it. this film is the name Joel Schumacher, people
He first starts to use the family’s daughter and will expect a big budget extravaganza and
then their son; in the end they begin to kidnap when they get a medium budget semi indie hor-
vagrants and bums for his food to save their ror film they will be a little confused. However, if
own skin. In return he grants them immortality, you forget who directed it and enjoy it for what it
is you will be surprized at the creativity on show
in Blood Creek.
Gotta feed that monster !

REVIEWS Horror
Darkroom
Madman
2 DVD Set
R4 DVD
This TV series
from the early
1980s is very
strongly reminis-
cent of Rod Ser-
ling’s old show
The Twilight Zone.
For those who
never saw it (and
Twilight Zone goes being torpedoed he tries to tamper with time.
back to the days of Never a wise move.
black and white TV) Serling presented a weekly
show with a one-hour mystery. The subjects Needlepoint. A very short story showing why
varied widely but all had a common theme of you shouldn’t dismiss the power of witchcraft,
the unexplained and how it may affect real life. It or murder a witch.
appears to have been duplicated in this series
presented by James Coburn. Unfortunately the Siege of 31 August.
series was short-lived.
Neal is a Vietnam vet and his 10-year old son
The stories presented are of a similar style to Ben wants to follow in his footsteps and go to a
the Twilight Zone. We get two or three stories military academy – at least, it seems so. He
per episode. They seem to be perfectly ordi- may be just doing it to please his father. Neil
nary, but then the mystery starts to creep in. gives him a set of toy soldiers and they seem to
be becoming real in his son’s mind. He has built
Some examples: a toy military camp behind the barn, but it
seems to be growing. The soldiers are now
A television anchor-man finds his company has talking to him. They have told him about a dark
not only been duplicating him in a computer but incident in Vietnam in which Neil was involved.
intends to use the computerised version instead Neil can now hear the soldiers at night, fighting.
of him to present “his” news. He is initially ap- Is he on the edge of madness? Is his past com-
palled but comes to accept it, looking forward to ing back to haunt him? Or are the plastic sol-
having the time to do all the things he never did diers really coming to life?
when he was younger. But there’s always a
catch …. The stories are well written and well-acted.
Charlie buys his son a crystal radio set that has
the ability to tune into broadcasts from 1942. In
an effort to prevent his father’s troopship from
Darkroom is hosted by James Coburg

REVIEWS Horror
Daybreakers
Sony Pictures
R4 DVD
It is hard to come up
with a horror film these
days that doesn’t leave
the audience with the
feeling that they have
seen it all before. This
Australian film has a tru-
ly interesting twist to a
rather tired genre. It is
superbly acted and man blood completely unnecessary. He falls in
filmed, not a budget production. with a group of humans, one of whom has been
involved in a road accident. In a strange mix of
A vampire virus has infected the world. Most circumstances he has been cured of his vam-
people have now been “turned” by the virus or pire condition and Dalton thinks this may be the
by being bitten but they manage to continue as breakthrough he needs. If he can replicate the
normal in their usual jobs – just at night now. conditions of the accident he can cure vampir-
Humans are an endangered species but the ism.
vampires depend on the humans for fresh
blood. Drinking vampire blood will cause the Meanwhile the world is falling apart as the
vampire to revert to an older, primitive form and blood runs out. Food riots are becoming com-
these are a menace to human and vampire mon. The ruling powers are deliberately captur-
alike. They are destroyed on sight but their ing the lower Level 4 vampires, the dregs, and
numbers are increasing. exposing them to sunlight to reduce the drain
on supplies and cut the number of reverted
The big pharmaceutical companies are farming vampires. It is at the point where there is less
captured humans in their desperate search for than a month’s blood available. Even the Army
blood but even so the world’s blood supplies are can’t contain the situation – the soldiers are
running out. The companies are also in a race starving too. Will both species perish?
to develop a blood substitute. The first to suc-
ceed will make billions of dollars but success It is common these days to put a big-name ac-
seems elusive. tor in a film to give it a bit of credibility. At first I
thought Sam Neill and Willem Dafoe may have
Ed Dalton is a haematologist involved in the filled this role, but after seeing the film it’s hard
race for a substitute. He has reservations about to imagine anyone else for the cold-blooded
drinking human blood, especially after his boss mercenary corporation head Bromley or the
tells him that the substitute will not suit everyone Elvis-loving human. Ethan Hawke was an early
– there will always be those willing to pay more choice for the lead role of Dalton but it was be-
for the genuine article and may even enjoy the cause he fitted the part so well.
benefits of immortality. Essentially he sees the
blood substitute project as giving his livestock a All the actors stand up superbly in their parts
chance to repopulate. What Dalton needs is a and there is no hint that any particular actor is
cure for the vampire condition that will make hu- carrying the film. The effects are good if a little
unrestrained, courtesy of New Zealand’s Weta
studios, and there is enough action to keep
everyone happy. There are even little comic
touches. Vampires exploding when caught in
sunlight are now the biggest cause of forest
fires.
The film comes with an extras disk that is quite

comprehensive, from Lionsgate’s initial funding
of the film based simply on a story treatment to
the final product.

REVIEWS Horror
Dead Fury
BlackArro Productions
Unearthed Films 2008
R1 DVD
Some years ago an ani-

mated zombie film called
City of Rott caught peoples
imagination. Now producer
Frank Sudol has done it
again with Dead Fury. It is
not a sequel to City of Rott,
but a complete new film drawing heavily on old
favourite films like The Evil Dead. So if it’s so
derivative, why bother? The animated format
has allowed Sudol to indulge in an orgy of gore
and slaughter that is so excessive that it be-
comes funny. Cutting a demon down to a knee-
deep pile of body parts with a powersaw is hard
to do in conventional film but easy in animation.
The plot is fairly straightforward so it doesn’t get

in the way of the carnage. Max, a couple of his
friends and his senile, gun happy, hard swear-
ing Pop are hunting deer on a piece of private
land where they shouldn’t be. The land was
owned by a local group of inbred freaks who
retreated from civilisation, sick of being ridiculed Feeding the Masses Horror Collection
for their looks. They have been taken over by Shock-O-Rama Cinema
demons who are determined to rid the Earth of R1 DVD Collection
normal people and make it safe for freaks. Web: http://www.alternativecinema.com
One by one Max’s group is taken over by the This compilation of “4 Fearsome Films” in-
demons. In the end it is just Max and his little cludes a range of fairly recent movies that gen-
electric saw against the freaks and demons. erally fit the Horror genre. That is not to say that
Can he fight his way through the increasing pile they are all good films – some things should be
of blood and guts and escape with his life? left buried in the vaults. Let’s look at each of the
films and see how they fare.
Although the backgrounds are beautifully drawn,
the animation (especially when they are walk- Feeding the Masses (2005)
ing) is a bit crude. This, however, is the only crit-
icism I can make of this hilarious parody. It would be hard to call a zombie movie
“intelligent”, but this one works. It is not so
Features include “The Making of…”, a commen- much a zombie film as a film with lots of zom-
tary by Frank Sudol, a slideshow and deleted bies. A strange virus has got loose, the Lazarus
scenes. virus, and as usual it is turning people into zom-
bies and raising the dead. The Government is
in denial and is broadcasting reassuring plati-
tudes to the population to prevent mass panic.
Some of the spin is simply unbelievable.
“The virus will have a positive effect on unem-

ployment”
News is censored so no hint of the true size of

the outbreak can get out. Out on the streets
though many people are well aware of the ex-
tent of the problem. The Army and Police are
hopelessly outnumbered. Redneck groups and
REVIEWS Horror
local gangs are having a field day killing zom- Creature From The Hillbilly Lagoon (2005)
bies but they are also outnumbered.
This is the sort of film that gives B grade mov-
A news crew at one of the local TV stations is ies a bad name. It is clichéd, poorly acted and
filming the truth of the outbreak but their report- yes, you have seen it all before. Adding hillbil-
ing is being squashed in the interest of National lies and topless girls and gay references simply
Security. Sherri’s dream is to front a major news can’t save this turkey. The evil genetics corpo-
story for the network. Torch, the cameraman, ration is hiring local rednecks to illegally dump
wants to produce that magic piece of film that toxic genetic waste into the river. One of the
everyone will remember, like the film of the Hin- fish evolves into a man-eating fishy monster. It
denburg disaster. They won’t remember him but starts eating the local rednecks so at least the
his film will live forever. film has one socially redeeming feature. Oh, the
monster’s headgear is pretty good, too. That’s
“Not only are we lucky enough to witness the about all, though.
end of humanity but we’ve got the means to rec-
ord it for posterity”. OK, Torch sometimes hits Listening to actors trying to put on down-south
the recreational pharmaceuticals and doesn’t drawls is painful. Watching them try to act is
always make sense. worse. Admittedly the script doesn’t leave them
much to work with. It’s just very, very bad.
The team is out gathering what real news it can
but it is not going to be broadcast unless some- Necroville (2007)
one can take over the control room, interrupt the
endless feed of propaganda and reruns and Now this is more like it. The town is infested
substitute their live reporting. with undead and Jack and Alex work for a firm
that specialises in removing zombies, vampires
Feeding The Masses is quite a good end of the and loud college parties. They are pretty good
world film, with a credible plot, brief moments of at their job but Jack’s demanding girlfriend Pen-
humour and good acting. It doesn’t concentrate ny does not approve.
on splatter to the exclusion of dramatic values,
but there is enough gore as part of the plot to Now her old boyfriend Clark is back in town. He
keep you happy. is an arch-vampire, he hates Jack, and he
wants Penny back. He is also a very bad DJ at

REVIEWS Horror
Ghost Machine
Anchor Bay Entertainment
R4 DVD
The British Army is trying

out a cool new toy, an en-
hanced virtual reality mili-
tary combat simulator. It is
being tested and demon-
strated to a group of SAS
soldiers by Tom and Vic. They decide to borrow
some of the equipment for an unauthorised
weekend of gaming and drugs with a couple of
buddies. The site where they set up is an old
the local disco. There will have to be a show- Military Prison where post 9/11 captives were
down between the two and it won’t be as simple sent for interrogation. Some did not survive the
as blasting zombies. Even with Alex at his back experience.
Jack is outclassed, but Alex has a plan – gross,
but it could just work. There’s plenty of gore, lots The female ghost or spirit or whatever of one of
of funny moments, and heaps of zombies to be the dead detainees, a woman who hacked into
slaughtered. If you have to do a zombie film the- computers to raise funds to support the terror-
se days, this is how to do it. ists, still haunts the prison. It manages to find
its way inside the VR simulator where it starts a
Splatter Disco (2007) murderous rampage on the other temporary
occupants.
This one is not too bad, mostly because of the
odd people who inhabit the disco. The Council A vicious SAS sergeant , Taggart, was an inter-
is trying to close down the Den O’ Iniquity disco rogator (read: torturer) in the prison and was
on moral grounds and someone is murdering responsible for the woman’s death. He is now
the patrons and staff. That should be a good in charge of the SAS squad undergoing the
hint to go somewhere else but as one of the simulator training. When he realises some of
patron’s points out, where else can you go the equipment is missing he tracks it down to
dressed as small furry animals and spank each the prison. He enters the simulator himself and
other? Or roll yourself up in a piece of carpet immediately attracts the wrath of the murdered
and let people walk on you? girl’s ghost. Inside the simulator she has more
powers than the sim’s programmers and can
There isn’t all that much splatter actually, but reprogram the locations at will. Tom can’t shut
there are a few nicely done shots that aren’t too down the simulation while there are people
over the top. There is even some quite decent “inside” so he must wait helplessly as the girl’s
music. It’s worth a look. revenge is played out. He is also more than a
little proud of being able to trap a spirit inside
The set is nicely presented with good clean his programming. The body count mounts up.
transfers and we owe Shock-O-Rama a vote of Although the action keeps the plot moving, it
thanks for keeping the films from vanishing into must be said that some of the characters are
obscurity. little more than cardboard cut-outs with no char-
acter development, and I had expected better
from a British film. Still, it’s a good enough
piece of drama with some interesting ideas.

REVIEWS Horror
The Haunting in
Connecticut
Roadshow
R4 DVD
I have always been a

sucker for ghost stories,
from the most ludicrous
to the supposedly “real”.
The claims to “real story”
status in these films al-
ways annoys me but
that’s another story !
This is the latest ghost story based on a “true Matt is plagued with visions and
story” and while it has at its heart a plot which nightmares
has been repeated time and time again it does
do it rather well. sodes begin to increase the truth about the
house becomes clear. It seems that Jonah, the
Matt is suffering from cancer and the long trip young boy was not only a spirit medium but a
for treatment each day is taking its toll on his vessel by which dark forces could enter the
family. They decide to rent an old Victorian world and now he has found a means to return.
home close to the hospital which is surprisingly
economical compared to those around it. While When Matts mental condition reaches such a
his mother Sara is made aware of its strange level he needs to be hospitalized for psychiatric
past, she doesn’t think much of it until unex- treatment, the onslaught really begins.
plained events begin to occur as soon as they
move in. The Haunting is an interesting tale in that it us-
es the emotional story of the Campbell’s and
Matt is plagued by violent and tormented visions their attempt to save the life of their son as its
of a young boy who seems to have acted as a heart and this takes it somewhat outside the
spirit medium for the original owners of the realm of traditional ghost stories. Combining
house. He finds it difficult to take these night- excellent special effects, a solid ghost story and
mares seriously as he is on a cocktail of meds a compassionate tale of suffering and disease
and cannot be sure if it is just the treatment. He makes it an intriguing tale. The constant
is also loathe to discuss it with his doctor since shocks, ghosts in mirrors and windows, bodies
he is part of a clinical trial and doesn’t want to and so on all help to create a dark and edgy
risk his place. However as time progresses his mood. However, the fact that the haunted
mental state starts to deteriorate more and house story has been done so many times be-
more. fore does not help in the originality stakes but
ultimately it does provide an enjoyable if not a
When the family discovers that the house was little predictable horror experience.
originally a funeral parlour and the ghostly epi-
The dead communicate The dead return

REVIEWS Horror
Nailed Nightmare on Elm

Image Entertainment Street (2010)
R1 DVD New Line Cinema
Film Release
Nailed is a very surpris-
ing low budget horror Nightmare on Elm Street
film, while most indie was an instant success
horror releases tend to in 1984 and gave birth
focus on gore this is a to one of the most suc-
film high in tension and cessful horror fran-
psychological terror. The chises. Robert Englund
violence and gore is pre- with his trademark wit
sent but inferred and played a child killer who is killed by a group of
character development is the prime focus. vigilante parents. He returns in their children’s
dreams and takes bloody revenge. While the
The film opens as a crime drama. Keller and original series are a major success many film
Scott (Charles Porter and Sam Sarpong) are on critics, myself included, were a little surprised
their way to a budding career as bag men. They by the transformation of child killer into campy
run drugs for a local dealer and bring him back and witty anti-hero. As the series progressed he
the cash. But this time they are in for a shock, became a perversely comic horror figure with
their buyer is a cop and they are about to beg even children running around with Freddy
busted. Things however don’t go as plan and a masks and gloves.
cop gets shot, Scott is wounded and they are on
the run. They see an old house and they think it The new Nightmare on Elm Street is a much
is somewhere good to hide; but this is a very darker vision. While taking inspiration from the
bad move. The movement from a crime, even original by Wes Craven, director Samuel Bayer
gang/drugs tale to a supernatural story is working from a script by Wesley Strick and Eric
smooth and very effective. It works well as you Heisserer tries to capture the essence of the
do not expect it and as strange things happen Freddy story. This time Freddy is not a quick
you get quite a start. witted anti-hero but a child molester and abus-
er. He was a gardener at a pre-school and kept
The house is occupied by two rather strange a den under the building where he sexually
people; Adam a carer who seems to have a ma- abused his victims. When the parents realize
licious streak and a man wrapped in bandaged something is up, they decide to take the law in
who seems in constant pain. As Adam treats their own hands and burn him to death. They
Scott’s wounds he plays mind games with them cover up all the details of what has occurred
but there seems to be something else going on and hope their children will not remember.
in the house. Both Keller and Scott begin to When they do not find the hidden den they
have strange visions involving a ghostly woman. wonder whether they killed an innocent man
The ghost is well presented nearly having a and try and sustain a conspiracy of silence
Japanese horror style look and with little funds around Krueger and the events at the pre-
horror elements are brought into the tale. The school.
psychological aspects of the story include the
tension between young and cocky Scott and the Years later the youngsters and now teenagers
brutal Keller add a further dimension as does and have very violent dreams of a man with a
the final revelations about how Adam knows
Keller and what the house is really all about.
The story is intriguing as it cuts back and for-

ward in time, has elements of voodoo and the
supernatural and a surprise ending. Considering
the nature of the conclusion the film could have
easily opted for graphic gore but instead used
mood to tell the tale.
For a low budget horror this is surprisingly origi-

nal and well worth seeing.

REVIEWS Horror
Paranormal Entity
2010
Peacock Films
I am not sure what to

make of this film. On
the one hand it’s a bla-
tant rip-off of Paranor-
mal Activity, but on the
other hand it is in many
ways better done. It
seems to have been
made on a higher
budget and the story is
a little less disjointed. There are now three vic-
tims instead of two so the story (only slightly
burnt face and a stylized gardening fork which changed from Paranormal Activity) is a bit easi-
has become a bladed glove. As they begin to er to follow.
recover memories of their childhood abuse, they
are unsure about what they all mean. At first There is a small sexual element introduced that
their parents deny any knowledge of the events I think makes it more believable. Instead of the
and the teens begin to think that their parents demon always having been there in the girl’s
killed an innocent man based on the hearsay life, we now have a more rational explanation
evidence they collected from the teens when as to how and why it crossed over from the oth-
they were kids. However, as the evidence er side. To counter this the film looks just a little
mounts they return to the pre-school and uncov- too slick sometimes and loses out on the sheer
er the secret room and the truth becoming raw terror of Paranormal Activity, although it
shockingly clear. does come close.
The twist in the story in relation to child abuse, For those who haven’t seen Paranormal Activi-
repressed memories and the parents vigilantism ty, the plot of Paranormal Entity goes some-
gives the film a little more relevance in the mod- thing like this. A family of three is being terror-
ern period. ised by a presence that they think may be the
spirit of their dead father, but this belief soon
The battle is now on between Freddy in his changes. The presence has become infatuated
dream world and Nancy and Kyle who must with the teenage girl. It starts with the usual
bring him back to the real world and kill him bumps in the night and poltergeist activity but
once again. Freddy is played by Jackie Earle grows worse as the demon grows in power.
Haley who offers a far more menacing version The girl feels a presence sometimes at night
of Freddy than the original. that holds her down in bed and is on top of her.
The demon resents being filmed at night and
There is no room for campy innuendoes here, starts to fight back. It also has a dislike for the
he is a sick puppy and this is made very clear. Christian cross hanging above the girl’s bed.
Certainly the background to his character takes
away from the supernaturalness of his role, but If you don’t mind watching a rip-off plot you will
it also gives a stronger sense of reality to the probably enjoy Paranormal Entity.
film.
There are set-pieces which just seem to be in

the film as a homage to the original (such as the
body bag scene) and these seem a big incon-
gruous and could have been omitted to make
the film a tighter work of horror. At the same
time I think this is an interesting new take on an
old series which while not perfect is well worth
seeing.

REVIEWS Horror
Phantasm Tetralogy his domain, spinning silver balls with sharp

Icon Films blades which cut into anything they land on.
R4 DVD These balls provide some of the more gore rid-
den aspects of the series including heads being
Phantasm (originally bored into and hands being ripped apart. The
released as Never violence of many of the early films caused
Dead in Australia) is a headaches for the censors and in some locali-
low-budget sci-fi horror ties the first uncut editions appeared only with
film released in 1979. the DVD release.
The film was directed,
written, photographed, Phantasm II continues on from the first film ex-
co-produced and edited panding and refining the tale with loads more
by Don Coscarelli. It action and some excellent horror sequences.
introduced The Tall Man, quite a startling and By this stage the series had certainly become a
innovative horror character. The Tall Man is a cult classic. The 1994 sequel Phantasm III:
malevolent undertaker who takes the bodies of Lord of the Dead pushes the horror envelope
the deceased and somehow transforms them with lots more gore and emphasizes the sci fi
into dwarf zombies who do his bidding. The film element with the dwarves now called Lurkers
mixes cult, science fiction and horror elements and the spheres Sentinels. There is also a
in quite a unique manner and was highly suc- more comprehensive exploration of how hu-
cessful. It spawned three sequels Phantasm II, mans are transformed into Lurkers with Mike
Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, Phantasm IV: himself being transformed into a Lurker, but
Oblivion. one who is on the side of good and working to
destroy The Tall Man.
Phantasm was released as a DVD by MGM in
the U.S in 1999 and then re-released on DVD The final film brings together all the elements of
by Anchor Bay Entertainment on April 10, 2007. the series even including a rollicking time travel
A special edition was released in the U.K. in- sequence.
cluding all four films in a collectible sphere. A
full set of all four films have been released by Phantasm is an unusual horror sci fi franchise
Hopscotch films in Australia in 2010. in that while it was clearly not as successful as
The Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween, it
After the death of their parents Jody Pearson is developed a very devoted cult following. The
raising his 13 year old brother Mike in a small Tall Man is a truly impressive horror character,
town disturbed by the mysterious deaths of its Angus Scrimm has a powerful presence and
citizens. Reggie, who works as the local ice really carries the films, I do not believe any se-
cream vendor and provides a certain comic ele- quel could have been successful with anyone
ment to the film, is a good friend to the boys and else in his role. While there has been some in-
believes that the local mortician is the cause of ternet gossip about a further sequel it seems
the towns trouble. The mortician is a strange unlikely. The first three films all ended with
character; he is called The Tall Man due to his someone being pulled through a mirror or pane
extreme height and the strange large steps he of glass to represent the continuation of the
takes when he walks. He has a menacing pres- tale, this did not happen at the conclusion of the
ence and creates a dark mood whenever he en- fourth film. The final film really did tie all the
ters a scene. ends together and it seems unlikely it could be
taken further, but one can never tell !
Mike decides to investigate the funeral home
and finds that The Tall Man is digging up the
dead and turning them into zombie dwarves.
When Mike, his brother and Reggie investigate
further they find a strange white room in which
some sort of transporter is in operation. It
seems that The Tall Man is creating slaves from
the bodies of the dead and shipping them back
to his home planet for menial labour. This
strange combination of science fiction and hor-
ror is what makes Phantasm (and its sequels)
so fascinating. Another is the strange weapons
The Tall Man unleashes on those on intrude on

REVIEWS Horror
Sea Beast
Sony Home
Entertainment
R4 DVD
Overall this film

looks like a cross
between Predator
and Creature From
The Black Lagoon,
but its strength is in
its tight scripting,
good acting and
some really good
CGI. Add some
spectacular scenery from the American north-
west and you have a gripping little monster film.
The plot is simple but works well - a mutated

semi-transparent amphibious sea monster is tongue that can drag you right into its mouth?
eating people. The first one to see it, fisherman
Will McKenna, is laughed at by the locals. As Matters take a turn for the worse when they find
more people disappear or are found in partly that the monster is female and has laid a clutch
eaten bits it becomes clear that he may have of eggs somewhere nearby. Its young are in-
been right. festing the islands and are just as dangerous as
Mother. Now they must destroy Mother, her
We have the compulsory kids holidaying on a young and her eggs.
nearby island, the grizzled old fisherman who
isn’t afraid of anything from the sea, and the Although the plot is conventional the film gains
usual host of people who have “fishfood” written strength from the sweeping scenery shots – it
on their foreheads. doesn’t look like it has been made in a studio
with a truckload of rental plants.
We also have the attractive marine biologist to
explain the what and how of the monster. Let The CGI gives one of the best monsters since
the slaughter begin. the Korean film The Host, and the monster has
more than a passing resemblance to that crea-
The monster appears to be almost immune to ture.
gunfire and all the other conventional killing
methods. It may be derivative but I quite enjoyed the film.
There seems to be a revival in monster films
About all that seems to work in the beginning is lately, and there should be more as good as
a well-swung axe, and who wants to get that this one.
close to a monster with a powerful ten-foot

REVIEWS Horror
Seventh Moon
Sony
R4 DVD
A hungry ghost is a
spirit that "eats" the
emotions of living
humans or whose
actions are driven by
emotions leftover
from its previous life.
In Seventh Moon The hungry dead
hungry ghosts are
depicted as able to
more professional, the budget is higher and
cross over into the world of the living during the
hence the special effects are also much better.
Chinese Hungry Ghost festival.
This is an enjoyable horror film which combines
A small village finds itself haunted by an espe-
an eastern sensibility with a Western cinema-
cially virulent group of ghosts which demand the
tography. It is a bit short on plot, but the charac-
sacrifice of one of their number each year. In
ters are believable enough and it does work as
any attempt to “protect their own” they encour-
a ghost tale with a bit extra. The film emphasiz-
age Ping to set up a tour company whereby he
es mood and suspense rather than plot and
can bring outsiders to the village and hence fill
with the addition of an excellent score does cre-
their quota without diminishing their own num-
ate a very dark and foreboding mood. The way
bers.
in which a horror tale is given a different texture
through the imagery of a Chinese folk festival is
Some nine years after his first hit, The Blair
innovative and intriguing.
Witch Project, writer/director Eduardo Sanchez
has tapped into Chinese mythology to offer us
In the first scenes there is even some attempt
Seventh Moon. It centres on two newlyweds
to explore the relationship between the average
Melissa and Yul who travel to the countryside to
Chinese villager and tourists who come to gawk
meet Yul’s Grandmother and the problems they
at their traditions.
encounter when Ping, their guide, decides to
take them to his own village to solve his yearly
The hungry ghosts are impressive especially in
“hungry ghost problem”.
that you don’t see them clearly (at least until
later in the film) so your imagination fills in the
The film uses much of the same techniques as
gaps.
with The Blair Witch Project which will endear it
to some and not to others. The handheld cam-
The Seventh Moon is an interesting take on the
era is not quite used as much and the look is far
Asian horror genre and while not something
you would watch again and again is an enjoya-
ble enough experience to be make it worth the
effort of getting hold of.
Melissa and Yul encounter a victim of the

Chinese Folk Festival
Hungry Ghosts

REVIEWS Horror
The Grudge:
White Ghost and Black
Ghost
Madman
R4 DVD
One of the most successful

J-horror series of all times
was Ju-on or The Grudge.
Just when you thought noth-
ing more could be added to
the series, along comes a double bill which
knocks your socks off. It is surprising really,
considering how many J-Horror sequels have made a tape recording but on the cassette is
become rather moribund and in many ways the not just his own voice but the voice of Mirai, the
genre has been pushed to its very limit when it youngest member of the family. Her soul seeks
comes to originality. revenge from beyond the grave and affects all
who hear the tape.
While the original Ju-on director was not directly
involved, he supervised the production and In Black Ghost Yuko, a nurse, is left in charge if
hence his influence is felt throughout. The direc- a young girl named Fukie who seems to be suf-
tors of White Ghost and Black Ghost are Ryuta fering from a large cyst. Soon, however,
Miyake and Mari Asato. strange things begin to occur as the cyst is ac-
tually an unborn child fuelled for hatred and
White Ghost begins as a series of seemingly contempt for mankind. As the baby grows eve-
unconnected ghostly tales. They are short, di- ryone around her is cursed, Fukie’s father goes
rect and haunting but are somewhat jarring as insane after a bloody murder. The baby’s pow-
they do not make a lot of sense. However as the ers are only just kept in check by the psychic
tales continue you notice connections here and forces of Fukie’s younger sister but even they
there and slowly a deep sense of dread begins are not strong enough to keep the growing en-
to build. I love the way you need to think mity in check. After an exorcism fails all hell
through the links in each of the tales until the breaks loose, literally.
final instalment when all is finally revealed.
These are surprising and refine developments
Each of the characters is related to others in the of the Ju-on storyline with interesting twisted,
tales and it all begins and ends with the cursed excellent suspense and lots of terror. It is sur-
house and a very dysfunctional family. prising how much tension can be created with
such little gore and with a minimum of special
When a new family moves into the house the effects. It is very impressive to see what can be
resonances of the past move into the present done on an obviously limited budget but with
and an adopted son begins to transform into an lots of creativity.
abuser and then a killer. When he fails the bar
exam, he slaughters all the members of the Highly recommended.
household and hangs himself. As he died he

REVIEWS Horror
Metamorphosis
MTI Home Video
R1 DVD
Not another vampire mov-

ie? Well, yes, but a very
good one. With actors like
Christopher Lambert it
carries a higher quality of
acting than usual. The
story also delves into the
legend of Countess Elisa-
beth Bathory, a Hungarian noblewoman who
was reputed to believe that she could keep her
youthful looks by drinking and bathing in the the castle, all are in danger as Thurzo’s
blood of virgin girls. strength and new-found vampire skills will lead
to their deaths unless Elizabeth can help them.
The film starts with the Palatine Thurzo, a local
high official of the church, invading the Bathory The legend is skilfully developed throughout the
castle. The Countess is walled up in a tower of film. The supernatural aspects are integrated in
the building. Her daughter, however, escapes a believable way as recounted by an old priest.
but only after her mother curses Thurzo and his The film also mocks the religious trappings
progeny to all die unnatural deaths. She also overlaid on the vampire legend – Thurzo is not
gives her daughter the vampire ability and im- affected by “two crossed sticks of wood” or holy
mortality, so her daughter can hunt down the water. He is no respecter of priests or nuns. He
Thurzos and their descendants. can punch his way right through a Bible. He
can, however, be killed by the traditional wood-
We now move forward to modern times. A en stake. Even here the movie legend is cor-
group of three young American tourists is trying rected – the local people would drive a stake
to get to the old castle, now a monastery. Keith through the heart of a corpse to stop it rising
is writing a book about the Bathorys. With him is again if they suspected it was a vampire. Get-
J.J., the compulsory annoying, crass and insen- ting close enough to a vampire to kill it with a
sitive type so popular as the sidekick in Ameri- stake would seem unlikely. Removing the silly
can films, and J.J.’s girlfriend Kim. Along the trappings that have grown up around the leg-
way they meet Elizabeth (Countess Bathory’s end seems to give it extra credibility.
immortal daughter, in case you couldn’t see it
coming). She has just attacked the last surviving A lot of this is due to Hungarian writer Tibor
Thurzo (Christopher Lambert) and was ready to Fonyodi’s passion for the history, culture and
rip his throat out just as the tourists arrive. Leav- paranormal phenomena of his country. Instead
ing the job unfinished, she has unwittingly of the usual superficial treatment so often given
turned Thurzo into a vampire. She and Keith fall to vampire stories he shows us some of the
in love. Elizabeth also wants to go to the old Hungarian culture that led to the legend. The
family castle, now a monastery, where she cinematography adds to the effect – castles
knows Thurzo will be hiding. When they reach and monasteries perched high on rocky cliffs,
old buildings that ARE old buildings, not film
sets, and crumbling peasant villages.
The sensitive and sensible treatment given to

the legend makes this film stand out in the gen-
re.

REVIEWS Horror
The Wizard of Gore

Reel DVD
R4 DVD
This is a remake of a
1970s film by Her-
schell Gordon Lewis.
Lewis is remembered
as the very first
filmmaker to exploit
the world of gore in
film. He originally
made exploitation
films but when these started to become ho-hum
he went on to create the very first cult gore film Bigelow is suspicious. Is Montag working some
Flesh Feast, following these with 2000 Maniacs sort of mass hypnosis or drugging the audience
and The Wizard of Gore. Lewis combined a somehow? Could it be just coincidence? As
sense of flair with an eye for exploitation and more girls die Bigelow starts to question his
lots of violence and gore. own sanity. Could he really be murdering them?
He has strange memories, but gaps are ap-
This is a remake made with a strong sense of pearing in his real memory.
homage to the original.
His girlfriend, far more practical, takes a com-
Edward Bigelow is a reporter running and pro- puter and miniature camera to the show and
ducing his own small newspaper covering the records what Montag is really saying to the au-
underground world in Los Angeles. He finds out dience. The results are terrifying but as Bigelow
about a magic act that is supposed to be a cut closes in on Montag, so Montag is closing in on
above the average, so with his girlfriend in tow Bigelow.
he watches a performance. He is impressed.
Montag the Magnificent (played by a demented The film is thankfully not as much of a gorefest
Crispen Glover) has an act that involves picking as it could have been. I think too much gore
a random girl from the audience, stripping her, would have detracted from the plot, which is
then killing her in a gruesome manner. All the strong enough to stand by itself as a master-
while Montag is running a continuous patter piece of terror. There are some odd bits in the
about the nature of reality and your own percep- film, such as why Bigelow seems to be stuck in
tion of it. Just as the audience is about to leave, a 1930s timewarp in his clothing and dislike of
scared and repulsed, he reveals the girl to the modern electronics, but apart from being slight-
audience perfectly unharmed. ly confusing they don’t detract from the film. It is
a superb piece of suspense and horror as it is.
Bigelow visits the show again and the same
thing happens to a different girl who is killed in a
different way, then is revealed unharmed on
stage once more. The only jarring note is that
the girls are turning up dead the next day, suf-
fering the same sort of injuries that Montag in-
flicted on them during his stage show.

REVIEWS World Cinema
Fish Story
Third Window Films
R2 DVD
Japanese subtitled in
English
An unusual film, this

one gives us segments
of a story that don’t at
first seem interrelated.
It doesn’t all come to-
gether until the last few
minutes.
A Fish Story is one that grows bigger with each

telling. In the film it is also the title of a song by from the face of the Earth. Anything the tidal
a Japanese would-be band of rockers who are wave doesn’t destroy will probably be de-
a bit ahead of their time. Although the band fails stroyed by the volcanoes that will open up
the song Fish Story lives on in underground cult when the surface is cracked open. Any survi-
music, never quite forgotten. vors from that will have to face a “nuclear win-
ter” as the dust in the atmosphere cuts sunlight
Through the decades it touches many lives. Its to the surface and it becomes impossible to
odd lyrics can be interpreted any way you like grow crops.
and there is a phrase in the song for anyone
who cares to try to relate their lives to it. Each Attempts to plant atomic bombs on the asteroid
person’s story is left unfinished, implying that have failed and it seems the Earth is doomed.
there is more to the story and more yet to come. The Fish Story song is the only thing that can
And so there is, for each of them. save the planet.
We move forward to the present time when a The film starts out seeming quite strange as all
huge asteroid is about to hit the Earth. Most the disjointed stories develop. Stay with it – it’s
people have gone to higher ground. The cult worth it in the end.
loonies are fighting each other to establish who
predicted Armageddon first. Third Windows Films
Web: http://thirdwindowfilms.com
Others are relying on some Champion of Jus-
tice or giant robot to save the world – too many
superhero shows on TV. Others are fatalistically
enjoying their last few days alive.
In Japan the tidal wave will probably be higher

than Mt Fuji – it looks like Japan will be gone

Love Exposure
Madman
R4 DVD
English subtitles
This is one of the strang-

est, most perverse love
stories I have seen in a
long time. It is about Je-
sus freaks – devout
Catholics but the sort who use Christianity to
justify all sorts of perversions and distortions
like incest and panty fetishes. It is hard to de- ing surreptitious photos up girls’ dresses. He
scribe the film’s underlying motifs so I will just and his friends have weekly meetings to decide
run through the plot – that’s weird enough. who has the best panty photo. He loses a dare
at one of these meetings and must dress up
Chapter 1 introduces Yu, a young boy whose like a schoolgirl, walk through town and kiss the
hyper-religious mother is dying. She makes him girl who looks most like his beloved Virgin
promise that he will marry a woman like the Vir- Mary.
gin Mary. His father Tetsu becomes a Catholic
minister, a gentle and understanding man. One As they go through town they come across a
day a woman named Kaori comes into his con- girl being hassled by a group of youths. He
gregation. She is a shallow self-centred amoral joins in to protect her but finds to his surprise
slut and she soon sets her sights on Yu’s father. that she is a pretty good street brawler herself.
She becomes a Christian to get closer to Tetsu Then in a moment of divine revelation her skirt
but does not change her wild lifestyle – after all, is blown upwards, flashing her panties, and he
she now only has to confess her sins to be for- recognises his Virgin Mary in the girl fighting
given. Tetsu rejects her – he is a priest after all beside him. She in turn sees Yu, dressed as a
and sworn now to celibacy. Following the rejec- woman, as the girlfriend she wants. Yu has his
tion Tetsu’s performance starts to slide down- first erection, which fortunately the girl doesn’t
hill. He becomes obsessive about his son’s notice. He introduces himself to her as “Miss
sins. Yu can’t remember committing any, but Scorpion” before being dragged away by his
his father takes this as a sign that he is forget- friends.
ting his sins and this, too, is a sin. He bullies his
son until Yu has only one choice left – he must Chapter 2 introduces Yoko, the street fighting
commit sin so he can confess to his father so girl. She is the daughter of Kaori. She is dis-
his father can forgive him. On this basis both gusted with her mother’s behaviour and con-
will be happy. stant string of boyfriends. She was molested by
one of them. She has grown up tough, inde-
But what sin should Yu commit? He tries shop- pendent and a manhater. One day she turns to
lifting and street brawling but he finds that he Jesus. He sounds like someone she could re-
excels at Tosatsu. Translated this means “to spect. “Jesus, I approve of you as the only cool
steal with a camera” In practical terms it is tak- man besides Kurt Cobain.” She is worried that
her feelings for “Miss Scorpion” may mean she
is a lesbian, but goes to church to thank Jesus
for giving her the friend she wanted.
Kaori is tired of her current boyfriend and de-

cides to get back together with the priest Tetsu.
He will not have his life and his son’s life de-
stroyed again and he rejects her but after a
nearly suicidal car chase he takes her back. Yu
can feel Hell coming back into his life. Yoko,
however, refuses – she doesn’t want another
“family” since her family experiences so far
have been negative.

Meanwhile Yu searches for his Virgin Mary the

only way he can – by taking many more panty
photos in the hope that one will reveal his Maria the large amounts of donations that the cult is
as he remembered her in the brawl. Then the after.
miracle happens. Yoko’s mother moves closer
to the church. Yoko in turn must move into a Can an innocent young Catholic cross-dressing
new school. She is put in the same class as Yu. pervert with a panty fetish find true happiness in
He recognises her instantly but she still hates an incestuous relationship with a street brawl-
men and longs for her female friend Miss Scor- ing lesbian and at the same time spoil the cult’s
pion. Yu is having serious erection problems at evil plot?.
the thought of her. He must tell her who he real-
ly is, but how do you confess to the girl you love Chapter 3. Aya makes her move on Yoko by
that you are a pervert who likes to photograph pretending she is Miss Scorpion. In a mock at-
girls panties and cross dress as well? And all tack on the school she routs a bunch of
the while sporting a huge erection? “gangsters” and wins Yoko’s admiraton. Tetsu’s
resignation horrifies his Bishop - how can Tetsu
Before he can tell her, the situation gets worse. place mere love ahead of God? Only Yu is sus-
His father announces that he is going to leave picious. But then Aye springs her trap to com-
the priesthood and marry Kaori. Yu and Yoko pletely discredit him. He loses his family, his
will then be brother and sister and any further place at school and the girl he loves. They are
relationship will be out of the question. completely alienated from him and join the cult
as Aye planned.
The whole family is under surveillance by a
group of girls from the new cult “The Church Of Only Yu’s friends stand by him, and one of
Zero”. The girls’ leader, Aye, has the idea that them guesses correctly that the Zero cult may
she can bring in converts more efficiently if they be involved. What can Yu do about it? He stag-
can first convert Tetsu. Convert the man, then es a murderous attack on the cult headquar-
use him to convert his family, then use them to ters. This doesn’t win Yoko to him but it certain-
convert his congregation. This should bring in ly gets the attention of the police and they
break up the cult.
Chapter 4 brings the aftermath of Yu’s attack.

He has lost it completely and is in an asylum,
now convinced he is Miss Scorpion. Yoko is
staying with relatives. Yu’s father and his girl-
friend are in rehabilitation to deprogram them
from the cult. Can Yu be saved from a lifetime
of madness?
The film leaves you in a state of shock. It’s cer-

tainly not your average love story.
The film leaves you in a state of shock. It’s cer-

tainly not your average love story.

Guns & Talks

Third Window Films
R2 DVD
Korean with English

subtitles
This unusual film from

director Jang Jin is a
little different from the
usual run of Korean
gangster films. Our he-
roes, if that’s the right word, are a group of four is starting to develop internal tensions but their
assassins for hire. Their speciality is killing their most important job is yet to come. They must
victim in whatever way the client wants, from a assassinate a leading actor in a stage perfor-
straight hit to a more public execution. They are mance of Hamlet with thousands of people
helped by Uncle Joo, an expert in making the watching.
special gadgets they need and supplying all
sorts of illegal weaponry. Detective Cho is also having trouble with one of
the local crime lords. He wants the man dead,
Things go wrong when they are hired to kill a but policemen just don’t do that sort of thing so
young pregnant woman. The client, the wom- he works out a way of tricking the assassins
an’s husband, forgot to tell them she was preg- into doing it for him.
nant and Sang-Yun, the gunman allocated the
job takes pity on her then falls in love with her. It is an intelligent film although rather brutal.
There are enough flashes of humour to keep it
An intelligent and cunning police officer, Detec- from getting too dark, and enough action to
tive Cho, is also on their tail using clues from a keep it moving.
previous hit on one of his informants. Gradually
the police are closing in. Officer Cho is following Extras are the usual “Making of”, a Bon Jovi
them and visits the young woman to warn her music video and the usual trailers.
she is in danger. She asks him to warn off her
husband. Both Cho and Sang-Yun approach the The Last Battle
husband one day. Sang-Yun apologises for not Madman
completing the job. When the husband calls him R4 DVD
incompetent he beats the husband up and tells
him to leave the woman alone. Shortly after this, Madman has recently been
Cho finds the husband and also warns him off. distributing many of the films
Then beats him up as well. of French director Luc Bes-
son. I have come to like his
Another of the gunmen has fallen in love with a work. Many of his films are a
schoolgirl who wants them to kill her English conventional genre but with
teacher, who has got her pregnant. The group his own personal twist that
lifts them above the average. The Last Battle
was his first feature film, dating back to 1983,
and is so unconventional that it has achieved
cult status. It was filmed in black and white,
there is no dialogue, the music is minimal and
the film raises more questions in the viewer’s
mind than it answers. The sudden ending
seems more like a pause in the plot as it leaves
the end of the film open to further development
or sequels.
It is set in some post-apocalyptic world where

small groups or individuals jealously guard what
little they have left. Water is precious, food is
disappearing. The survivors have regressed to

almost animal savagery. Even the power of

speech has been lost. The Man, otherwise un-
named, is living in a huge ruined building that
appears to have once been an office block. It is vaguely dissatisfied that there was not more,
now surrounded by desert and he has built an even though you know it still wouldn’t answer
ultralight aircraft in which to escape and look for the questions in your mind. You can let your
company. Another group has settled nearby in a imagination run riot, but you will still be no clos-
group of abandoned cars and has their own er to making sense of the film’s plot because
small water supply, so they are not moving on. there is no sense – just the constant battle for
The Man steals a battery from one of their vehi- survival in a world that is no longer rational.
cles to start his plane and escapes just in time.
When he runs out of fuel he is near an almost Mother

abandoned village. The only village inhabitants Eastern Eye (2010)
are a doctor and a man known as The Brute R4 DVD
who is trying kill the doctor for his food and any-
thing else of value. The Brute attacks The Man Korean subtitled in clear
and The Man is saved by the doctor. While con- English
valescing he finds the doctor also has a woman
– his wife? his daughter? – locked up in a small Director Bong Joon-Ho
room where he feeds her every day. Why she is has taken a change of
captive we don’t know. He becomes infatuated direction after his suc-
with her even though he has never seen her. cessful monster movie
Meanwhile, though, they must fight off the con- The Host to give us this
stant attacks by The Brute. story of the seedy side of
life in a Korean village.
It is one of those films where you go away
Do-Joon is a village lad, slightly retarded. His
mother is an unlicensed local herbalist and acu-
puncturist, although some of her remedies ap-
pear to be a bit dodgy. She is obsessively pro-
tective of Do-Joon, to the point that you wonder
if she isn’t a little off-balance herself.
I wondered if part of Do-Joon’s mental prob-

lems came from the herbs that his mother
keeps feeding him, but more of that later.
Do-Joon has an anger problem and one day
when he is hit by a passing car he loses control
and attacks the car and its occupants. This
brings him to the attention of the local police.
When a local girl is found dead with her head

bashed in, some questionable evidence links
Do-Joon with the murder. The less-than-

interested police think this is enough evidence

and arrest him for the murder. Mother won’t put
up with this. Do-Joon was drunk that night and mother.
can’t remember anything of his walk home but
Mother is convinced of his innocence and sets Although her world is starting to fall apart,
out to find the murderer. Mother perseveres with her investigation. She
is actually making some headway when a wit-
The first suspect is Do-Joon’s best friend who ness to the killing appears. At the same time,
was supposed to meet him that night but didn’t Do-Joon’s memory returns. The results are not
turn up. She puts him in to the police but he quite what she wanted. How far will Mother go
has an alibi for that night. He does, however, to protect her son? She is faced with decisions
help Mother by rounding up some people who no mother should have to make.
knew the dead girl well and he beats information
out of them. The film is a first-class murder mystery and los-
es nothing through being in Korean. The pace
It seems the victim was not as innocent as eve- is maintained right through the film and at the
ryone thought. She has been a local prostitute end there are some savage little twists to the
for many years and her customers have includ- plot Kim Hye-Ja is highly skilled actress and it
ed some of the more important people in town. will be hard to forget her stern Mother figure
She had a habit of taking their picture on her striding purposefully through the village on her
mobile phone and the search is on for the latest mission.
phone which probably contains a picture of her
murderer. Won Bin plays Do-Joon with just the right
amount of befuddlement to make him a sympa-
On a steady herb-free diet in prison Do-Joon’s thetic character and to leave open the question
memory is improving. Although the details of of whether he is really retarded or just over-
that night are still unclear he is remembering medicated.
other things, such as his mother’s attempt to
poison him when he was five. He disowns his Even the village setting adds its part to the film
– it is seedy and rundown and the weather al-
ways seems to be raining, Mother is a superb
film and will appeal to all mystery fans.
The extras include the usual making of and be-

hind the scenes. There is also an interesting
interview with director Bong Joon-Ho regarding
the origins of the film. He was struck by Kim
Hye-ja’s acting skills but her parts were all con-
ventional motherly types.
He wanted to show the other side of mother-

hood, the darker and more intense side, and
she accepted the part.
She said that most young directors had just told

her “You know what to do” and she enjoyed a
part that was so different and challenging.

Subway
Gaumont
Madman
R4 DVD
Australian Blu Ray
French with English

subtitles
Subway is another film

by French director Luc
Besson and has the They are even fitted with small headlights so he
characteristic quirkiness can see where he is going in the darker old tun-
of his earlier films. This one dates from 1985, nels. Fred finds shelter with these two. There is
one of his earlier films, and reflects the contrast the Florist who is waiting for a chance to run a
in lifestyles between the rich and the younger major holdup. There are also a number of un-
people. derground musicians who are waiting for some
sort of a break in a band. Fred offers to form a
Fred, a happy go lucky young man with a hid- band and get them a gig.
den ability for opening safes, was invited to a
party by Helena, the trophy wife of a wealthy As well as the gangster’s men, Helena is
gangster. Fred was unable to resist the tempta- searching for Fred hoping to ransom the papers
tion to open their safe and has made off with back from him. The Police are also looking for
some compromising documents. the group as they are concerned at the number
of the Roller’s bag-snatches. Fortunately Hele-
The film opens with a car chase through Paris na finds him first and spends the night in their
with the gangster’s men in hot pursuit. Fred unlikely accommodation. Helena finds the un-
takes refuge in the Paris Underground stations derground life more to her liking and starts to
where he finds a curious range of individuals rebel against her gilded cage lifestyle Although
also living in the old tunnels and offices of the nothing happened between her and Fred her
disused parts of the Metro. husband believes otherwise and orders his men
to find and kill Fred.
There is Big Bill, a massively strong man who
works on the underground as a railway ganger Fred keeps faith with the members of the new
and apparently just likes to live near his work. band and pulls off a holdup, then sets them up
Roller is a bag-snatcher who makes rapid es- on an unused stage in the underground com-
capes on his roller skates. plex for their first gig. They are a success with
the commuters. The gunmen, however, have
also tracked down Fred.
The story finishes abruptly in Besson style with

a lot of questions unanswered and a lot left to

the imagination. There are the usual moments
of humour, Besson’s typically odd characters
and a plot that keeps the action coming with
very few breaks. You may not follow all of it at
first, but it is worth watching.
Vengeance
Madman
Eastern Eye 2009
R4 DVD
If you like your Frenchman loose and become dishonoured, or

gangster films to do they betray their boss and help the French-
be clean and with man get his revenge on the man who ordered
minimal blood- the death of his family?
shed this film will
not be for you. With the killers’ help Costello is now armed and
Director Johnny ready, which is just as well. Mr Fong, the Triad
To has given us a boss, orders the death of the killers. Although
dark, violent film they go out in a blaze of glory Costello is left to
in the old style find and kill Fong by himself.
before the U.S. film industry decided to get all
socially responsible. Despite his constantly failing memory and the
injuries he has sustained already, he finds Fong
Costello’s daughter is badly injured and her and prepares for his bloody vengeance.
family has been killed in an apparent Triad as-
sassination. Costello, a French chef, was once Johnny Hallyday plays the part of Costello with
a gunman in his murky past. He took a bullet in far more style and compassion than you would
the head and his short term memory loss at expect from this sort of film.
times of stress is becoming a major handicap,
but he arrives in Macao seeking vengeance. The Director gives him room in the script to play
out a few human moments and these give us a
Although he must take photos of everything to welcome pause in the almost non-stop action. I
keep his mind refreshed it doesn’t affect his old felt a certain sympathy for Costello, a handi-
killing skills. He witnesses another gang killing capped man in a foreign environment trying to
in his hotel and hires those killers to take on his do a hard job. His three Chinese compatriots
case. also play their parts well and develop their own
personalities.
They are initially puzzled by the Frenchman but
come to respect him, even to regard him as a The fusion between French and Chinese works
sort of friend. This is put to the test when they really well here. As I mentioned before, if you
find that the killers they want are another group can stand the violence, this is a great film.
controlled by their own boss. Do they cut the

REVIEWS Thinking Time
A History of Britain their lives and

and The American achievements em-
Future: A History bodied. In the case
Simon Michael of Orwell these in-
Schama cluded workers’
Roadshow rights, the failure of
R4 DVD the left, the danger
of the right and the
Simon Michael Scha- upcoming menace of
ma, CBE (born 13 new forms of author-
February 1945 in itarianism.
London) is a British
historian and art historian, he is a currently pro- The American Fu-
fessor at Columbia University. His has written ture: A History is a four part documentary series
extensively in the fields of art and history and is written and presented by Schama which aired
best known for his ground-breaking BBC series on BBC Two in the UK during 2008 in the run
A History of Britain (Roadshow 2000). This se- up to the 2008 US presidential election. It was
ries was and is the bestselling series ever for an unusual departure from the History of Britain
the BBC and spawned a trilogy of tie-in books in that it is thematically based and considers
for the show, which continued the story up to issues from the history of the United States and
the year 2000. It was also a major hit in the demonstrates how they continue to resonate in
United States being brought to a large audience the present.
through the History Channel.
It has four episodes American Plenty, a look at
In 2008 Schama produced a more contempo- the myth of the invincible America with special
rary series on the history of the United States reference to the water crisis, issues regarding
through the lens of specific issues. This series petroleum and land. American War examines
has just been released on DVD in Australia the unique approach Americans seem to take
through Roadshow Entertainment. to war and conflict from the earliest reaches of
the civil war to the current conflict in Iraq. It also
Schama’s approach to history is well informed covers in some debate the nature of “hawks”
yet populist; he works to make the ins and outs vs. “doves” in American foreign policy.
of history approachable and communicates ex-
tra-ordinarily well. Ivory tower academics have The controversial American Fervour examining
complained to his “telescoping” approach to that seemingly American intersection between
British history, yet with only fifteen one hours religion and politics and What is an American ?
episodes there is only so much you can cover covering race and immigration.
without the series being an academic treatise
rather than a work of educational entertainment. This has proved to be a very controversial se-
ries. While the British seem open to debate and
While Schama certainly isn’t shy to express his consider their past many American’s interpreted
political opinions, he was openly critical of this series as some sort of personal assault on
George Bush and worked to support Obama, their nation’s pride. Personal attacks abounded
his documentaries are well balanced and try including ludicrous claims that this was
and examine various facets of any given event, “Marxist” propaganda and simply a puff piece to
period or theme. help Obama win the election. It is fair to say
that the approach Schama takes in this series
Schama works to take an innovative approach is very different from his earlier work, he has
to historical teaching so, for example, in his become somewhat more polemical with age
book Dead Certainties (1991) he took the death and because he is exploring controversial
of two individuals General James Wolfe and that themes expresses his own opinions clearly
of George Parkman to speculate and explore with, at times, an unequivocal eloquence. That
life and death. This approach was continued in is to not to say that this is a biased work, Scha-
the final episode of the History of Britain where ma has obviously researched the themes he
rather than taking a linear approach to the world covers well and presents various different views
wars, he compared the lives of Winston Church- of the subject at hand. It is a challenging and
ill and George Orwell. In doing so he was able stimulating series and certainly worth watching.
to offer a remarkable insight not only into each
of these individuals but into the themes that

Bulletproof
Salesman
Pepper and Bones
Films
Siren Visual
R4 DVD
Fidelis Cloer is a Ger-

man who sells ar-
moured cars to wartorn
countries, or to anyone
who feels the need for
a high level of personal
protection. He also The documentary is quite gruesome. There are
sells cars to dictators, civilian contractor firms, many movie clips of vehicles being blown up
and police forces. This does not make him a and of the sad aftermath of the explosions.
war profiteer as such although he readily admits Each of these is for Fidelis a learning experi-
that wars are his best business opening for new ence – was the vehicle armoured? How big a
business. The U.S. invasion of Iraq, for in- bomb was used? Were the victims killed by the
stance, led to sales of over 1000 vehicles fol- bomb itself or by debris flying around inside the
lowing the collapse of that country’s military and car? He tries to learn as much as possible from
police forces. each incident so he can improve his product.
There are cheaper armoured vehicles out there
He is open and honest about his work and his but his intention is to make the best regardless
products. He points out that the old idea of of cost.
“bulletproof cars” is no longer relevant. People
do still take potshots at vehicles and will still He also must convince likely targets of their vul-
hold up a “soft-skinned” vehicle if the opportuni- nerability. American contractors Blackwater in
ty presents itself, but his vehicles can stop any- Iraq sacked a manager who wanted to order
thing up to an AK47 round (or, as we see in one armoured cars to protect the company’s con-
of the demonstrations, quite a lot of them). With tractors and staff. Shortly after he was sacked a
the increase in protective vehicle armour has bomb blast killed a group of their contractors. At
come a change in the weapons used against the time of making the documentary Blackwater
them. Now his cars must be able to withstand was being sued by relatives for their lack of
blasts from Improvised Explosive Devices, the concern for their employees’ safety.
bane of the war in Afghanistan. These devices
are using quite large amounts of explosives so The main part of the documentary deals with
the level of protection must be correspondingly his travels and dealings in Iraq, followed by the
high. We see one of his company’s test vehicles developing situation in Afghanistan. The latest
being lifted off its wheels in one bomb test, but problem is suicide bombers who can get close
the interior of the vehicle was not compromised. to an armoured vehicle with quite large
More advanced vehicles also now offer the amounts of explosive. How can you guard
chance to use internal weapons firing through against these? He has had to devise a series of
gun ports to fight back. security measures that reduce the risk of an
attack in the first place. His vehicles do not look
armoured, unlike some of the American ones,
so they do not attract as much attention. Dress
like the locals for the same reason. He avoids
travelling near military convoys or other groups
that may be targets. In the event of an attack
the safest place to be is in the vehicle.
Such is the nature of war these days. Fidelis is

not so much a war profiteer as a car salesman.
His story is fascinating because it shows in
compelling if gruesome detail one of the little
byways of war and how some people must deal
with it.

Crude
Radical Media
First Run Features
R1 DVD
Mostly Spanish with Eng-

lish subtitles where
needed
This 2009 documentary

looks at the ongoing bat-
tle to obtain compensa-
tion to clean up a part of the Amazon basin con-
taminated by oil production. According to the
local people they have suffered an alarming in-
crease in disease, their streams and food have
become contaminated and their culture is break-
ing down in the face of wholesale population
shifts to get away from the poisons.
The trouble is the argument has been taken out

of their hands and is now under the control of
lawyers. The case has been dragging on for
seventeen years (at the time of making the do-
co) and could drag on for another ten years.
The documentary seems to be an attempt to
raise public support for the local people, but I naturally occurring (crude oil coming to the sur-
could not find it convincing. There are too many face in oil- bearing areas has been noted for
gaps in the information in the film. thousands of years) or a result of poor remedia-
tion of past exploration is open to question.
To summarise, Texaco explored the Ecuador There are a number (up to a hundred) of dams
area of the Amazon basin twenty years ago. Oil where production sludge was dumped and has
was found in commercial quantities and exploi- not been fully remediated. Some effort has
tation commenced with government help. Since been made to stop this sludge leaching into the
then Texaco has been bought out by Chevron environment.
and in turn the infrastructure has been trans-
ferred to the ownership of PetroEcuador, a local The native people suffer skin diseases and can-
company which has a dreadful reputation for oil cers. Chevron maintains that the cancer rate is
spills and pollution. This all confuses the picture, no higher than average. The natives maintain
but some facts do appear to be accurate. that Chevron is at fault. Chevron says they
aren’t. Unfortunately the facts of the case seem
There is a oily-looking sludge beneath the soil in to be lost in the drive for media attention and
many areas. This may be leaching into the local the constant name-calling and bickering.
streams, some of which do show a thin surface
layer of petrochemical pollution. Whether this is We are not told what the pollutants are despite

a number of analyses having been carried out. considered in the documentary and I think this
A Chevron test showed the water the natives weakens it somewhat. That layer of sludge un-
drink and swim in has a very high count of fae- der the surface soil may need closer examina-
cal matter and a low level of petrochemicals so tion to see what it really is. We are not told its
poor hygiene may be partly responsible. extent, either. Is it located in exploration areas
only or is it right across the region? In other
With regard to the skin diseases, about forty words has it been produced by drilling or other
years ago I lived in the Clarence River area of disturbance or is it a result of natural seepage
Australia. Fish in the area were dying in large or another cause?
numbers and the “fish scald” which has a strong
similarity to the Indians’ skin diseases was PetroEcuador itself has a case to answer. They
blamed on farmers and fertilisers. The cause have inherited a worn out infrastructure, sure,
turned out to be altogether different. Under the but they do not appear to have the expertise to
swamps of the area is a layer of “acid sulphate” fix it. Both sides of the debate agree that many
soil built up from decaying organic matter over of the contaminated areas are in places where
millions of years. In the airless environment at Texaco never explored, but where PetroEcua-
the bottom of a swamp they formed chemicals dor did. PetroEcuador doesn’t have much mon-
that were quite reactive. When the swamps ey. Chevron has. Is Chevron simply the most
were drained for agricultural land or otherwise lucrative target? They think so. PetroEcuador is
dried out (and remember, the Amazon basin is treated very lightly in the documentary.
really a huge swamp that is being increasingly
developed) the sulphur compounds reacted with Perhaps the most disturbing point is that the
the air generating huge amounts of sulphuric attempts to gather public support are using up
acid that found its way into the river systems large amounts of money. Even if a decision is
after every storm. The fish in the Clarence River reached in favour of the Indians, how much of
were literally swimming in dilute sulphuric acid the compensation will actually get past the law-
and developed skin diseases, then died in huge yers? The longer Chevron delays the case with
numbers. its own legal tactics the more it will cost the lo-
cal people.
Such possibilities do not seem to have been
And in all this time what have the remaining
local people done to improve their own health?
Nothing. A charity arranged supply of plastic
rainwater tanks so at least 4000 Indians can
now get clean drinking water, but the streams
are still the water supply for stock, the swim-
ming hole for the kids, and the public sewer.
Perhaps a good start would be to persuade the
Indians not to crap in their drinking water?
Sorry, this documentary does not convince me.

Rather than an attempt to raise public aware-
ness it seems to be more an attempt to raise
public sympathy (and, I assume, money).

One of the more

intriguing and dis-
heartening aspects
of the film is that
tour offered to
young Israeli’s of
the Nazi concen-
tration camps.
While certainly the-
se tours are im-
portant, when you
listen to what is
being told to these
young people, it
Defamation seems to be a deliberately orchestrated pro-
First Run Pictures gram of fear and manipulation. A scene which
R1 DVD epitomizes this is when the girls speak to three
old men; the men ask if they have come from
Defamation is a fascinating and somewhat dis- Israel and laugh and say that it sounds like they
turbing journey into the world of the politics of are speaking Chinese and cannot understand
anti-Semitism. It is important to appreciate the them. The girls immediately claim the men
significance of what this film achieves, it offers a called them bitches and made nasty faces at
balanced and insightful examination of how fear them, by mid-afternoon the tale has morphed
of prejudice can be used for political ends. The into the men calling them donkeys and making
filmmaker is clear about the history and reality threatening gestures. This constant indoctrina-
of anti-Semitism and its pernicious nature and tion of a “victim” consciousness and a fear of
discusses some frightening cases, such as the the outside world is both tragic and rather dis-
madman with a knife stabbing people in a Mos- turbing. It may be of political value for Israel to
cow Synagogue. At the same time he handles have a population living with a heightened
the difficult question of how the memories of the memory of the past but I am not sure of the
Holocaust and fear of anti-Semitism is used as psychological value.
a means to protect the political reputation of Is-
rael. The sections of the film which discuss the Pal-
estinians are especially interesting, arguing that
The primary organization working against anti- the Holocaust surely cannot be used to justify
Semitism in the U.S. is the Anti-Defamation the suppression of another people that perhaps
League (ADL). Defamation explores how this the oppressed have become the oppressor.
organization, while respected by many, is ac-
cused by others of being a P.R company for the This is a highly intelligent documentary filled
Israeli government. A major theme in this film is with thought provoking content and will stimu-
whether it is correct to equate criticising Israel late debate for a long time to come. At the
as a state and political system with anti- same time the filmmaker has a wry sense of
Semitism. While the ADL thinks that this equa- humour and is more than willing to ask the hard
tion is correct, it does seem to use the argument questions.
to stop any dissent against the activities of the
state of Israel. It also seems to “inflate” reports
of anti-Semitism with minor and fairly irrelevant
incidents which could have as much to do with
religion or personal clashes than race.
On the other side of the debate are various aca-

demics who not only think the ADL approach
denigrates the reality of the Holocaust and anti-
Semitism but is a tool for right wing Israeli politi-
cians to avoid criticism of their hawkish policies.
Explosive books have been written including
The Holocaust Industry and the Israel Lobby
and their authors are interviews extensively
throughout the film.
Israeli schoolkids at Auschwitz

Earth (1930)
Mr Bongo Films
R2 DVD
Although Alexander
Dovzhenko’s Earth
(more correctly
translated as “Soil”)
is regarded by many
as in the same class
as Eisenstein’s Bat-
tleship Potemkin, it
is truly a bad film. It
is dreadfully overact-
ed, its themes are
glaringly obvious as
propaganda, and Dovzhenko lovingly dwelled
on each major point enough to drive me to dis-
traction.
Although silent films often tended to employ

some overacting to emphasise a point, Dov-
zhenko used it so much that many of his char-
acters became unsympathetic. Even the hero,
Basil (Vasili), is so smug-looking that you would
like to see his annoying toothy grin slip just
once. The montages of the cycle of planting,
growth and harvest are just as drawn–out and Alexander Dovzhenko
annoying.
The strength of the film lies in its value as a ve-

To this end collective farms were supplied with
hicle for the Communist party propaganda of the
tractors, the symbol of progress, which caused
time. The small privately owned farms were be-
some friction with the older members of the
ing gathered into collectives, and some of the
community. Basil’s village has just received its
bigger landowners’ estates were being treated
first tractor and the collective members cele-
the same – by force if necessary. The Party felt
brate. Even Basil’s father, a doubter of the ben-
quite rightly that the inefficiencies of the small
efits, is convinced when he sees how much
scale production system were holding back the
land the tractor can plough. We cut to an ex-
development of Russia. The plains of the
tended montage of ploughing, harvest, thresh-
Ukraine could support many more Russians if
ing the grain, and making the bread that will
they could be mechanised.
feed the developing country. Mechanisation is
featured prominently. This was an important
propaganda theme of the times.
The local kulak, the rich landlord farmer, is not

impressed but cannot stand against the inevita-
ble progress. There is however a lot of bad feel-
ing between Basil and the kulak family espe-
cially when Basil uses the tractor to plough
through the kulak’s dividing fence and open up
their fields to the collective. Their son is particu-
larly bitter since it is his inheritance that is being
taken from him. Then Basil collapses one night
on the way home and is found dead the next
morning. It could well have been a heart attack
that took him, but Basil’s father sees it as a
murder.
The Priest Now we have another Marxist theme. His father
Living off the land

Filling the Radiator
ier to put over. Rarely in the film are the farmers
treated with any disrespect, except for a shot of
denounces religion, saying there is no God and one old farmer visiting the grave of his friend
asking the village to give his son a funeral free and waiting for him to speak from beyond the
of the trappings of church and priests. They grave. Although the film shows the doubts that
must find a new way to bury their dead, and some peasants had about the new system, the-
sing new songs for them. Some of the older vil- se doubters are also treated with respect and
lagers once again are doubtful about this are, of course, eventually converted. Dovzhen-
change away from their long-held beliefs but the ko saved his hatred for the kulaks and the
Party turns his funeral into a major propaganda priests, the parasites of the heroic peasant
piece. The kulak’s son, mad with grief and over- class.
acting, admits he killed Basil that night when he
found him collapsed in the roadway. The film has been out of print for many years.
This edition has been cleaned up and although
The local priest is incensed, too. The scenes of there are some remaining artefacts they only
him raging in front of the elaborate and rich al- enhance the film and show its age. Earth is an
tarpieces in his church are some of the most important memento of a turbulent time.
powerful in the film. He demands that God pun-
ish the village and all its people. This point is The End Of Poverty?
made a number of times in Dovzhenko’s usual 2010
overstated manner, but it emphasises that reli- Documentary
gion is no friend of the people and will turn on Cinema Libre 2010
them if slighted. R1 DVD
It seems he may get his asked-for revenge. In Director Phillippe Diaz
another drawn-out montage the crops are wiped uses a series of “talking
out in a heavy storm. Basil’s live-in girlfriend head” interviews to dis-
goes mad in an orgy of overacting. Finally, cuss how the massive
though, Basil’s spirit and that of his girlfriend are levels of poverty arose
reunited in a final triumphant scene of ….what in the world today. Un-
exactly? I really expected waving Russian flags fortunately this is one of
behind them at this point. the most boring possible formats he could have
used, and much of the information given has
Although the plot is simplistic we must remem- been around for so long that the film falls rather
ber that it was designed to carry the Party’s flat. Its impact is reduced by the simple fact that
message to the farmers in a way that the uned- we have heard most of this before. That said,
ucated superstitious people could understand. though, there are some interesting points
There must have been a certain “WOW” factor raised.
when a travelling picture show came to a village
and showed a film like this. The peasants would The various interviewees trace many of the
have been impressed with the new technology problems back to the colonial days. One argu-
and this would make the message so much eas- ment I haven’t heard discussed before is that

existing system, so change from within seems

unlikely.
The film summarises many of the relevant

points about global poverty but does not offer
solutions. After a while the reiteration of the
problems simply becomes more background
noise. There is also the concept that the West-
ern world should be the one to do something
about it. Little mention is made of efforts that
could be made locally. One example that struck
me early in the film is a huge slum on the out-
skirts of Nairobi. There is no sewage or drain-
Trying to deal with poverty and HIV/AIDS age here, so human faeces are dumped in
plastic bags on every fourth block. The disease
before private ownership of land was intro- risk is incredible. Surely it would be possible at
duced by the British in Africa, land was commu- minimal expense to the local government bod-
nally owned. Thus a villager always had access ies to hire people to clear these disease traps
to land on which he could grow or graze some- and dig sewer trenches? It may not be perfect
thing, either for his own subsistence or for trade but it would have to be an improvement. Self-
for the goods he needed. The British system led help IS an option, but is rarely mentioned in the
to alienation of much of this land and it finished film.
up in the hands of big landowners who could not
farm it as intensively as the small villages could. Similarly, the HIV / AIDS epidemic mentioned in
Many of the villagers were dispossessed of their the DVD can be treated by the people them-
land and are the slum dwellers of today. At- selves. Leaving aside some of the more lunatic
tempts to free up the big landholdings by people suggestions like abstinence, condoms are
such as Robert Mugabe seem doomed to fail- cheap and reasonably efficient and the local
ure, as they merely perpetuate private owner- people could help themselves to reduce the
ship in African hands rather than go back to a size of their self-inflicted problem
communal system that evolved locally and
worked. For me, this went a long way to explain- There are some local people doing what they
ing part of the African situation. can to relieve the problems but funding is al-
ways a problem. So is the corruption that di-
Private ownership of other communal assets verts so much of what aid money there is. This
like water, radio spectrum and transport also is a local political problem that can only be re-
comes in for a serve. The World Bank and Inter- solved by the people themselves..
national Monetary Fund economic policies are
rightly criticised here, as such privatisation is This is the film’s weakness. It sticks to the old
part of their policy for granting loans. The privat- ideas and belabours them, but offers little that
isation of these once publicly-owned assets has is innovative to solve the problems. Unfortu-
little if any advantage for the local people but nately this puts it across as just another self-
serves to export profits back to the wealthy na- indulgent guilt trip.
tions.
The point is well made that in the world today

20% of the population uses 80% of the re-
sources and currently consumes 30% more
than the planet can produce. That 20% is also
responsible for 70% of global warming emis-
sions. Although the runaway greed is highlight-
ed, there are no suggestions as to how this can
be halted. So far President Chavez of Venezue-
la seems to the only one to try to restrict the
flow of raw materials (in his case, oil) to the
wasteful northern hemisphere countries. The
economic system itself needs to be changed,
but how? One speaker points out that all the
economists and banks are geared to fit into the The dangers of overconsumption

Martin Clunes:
A Man and His Dogs
Madman
R4 DVD
Martin Clunes is a well-

known actor and television
personality and has been
involved in various docu-
mentaries. A Man and His
Dogs is his most personal
due to his enduring affec-
tion for his own dogs and his obvious enthusi-
asm for the canine species. Clunes literally ooz-
es excitement as he makes more discoveries
about the history of dogs or comes to experi-
ence new breeds first hand.
The journey Clunes makes is an impressive

one. He opens the film by personally introducing
us to his own dogs at his home Martin in Dorset, cue dog who wants nothing more than a game
Tina and Arthur and then exploring the animal of tug-a-war as thanks. At the same time
which shares 99.8 of its genetic material with Clunes is more than willing to handle more con-
the dog, the wolf. He first experiences them in troversial aspects of dog breeding. He looks at
the wild and then comes close-up to a wolf pack our obsession with dogs which leads to such
in a marvellous one-on-one encounter. extremes as overpriced dog accessories and
worse still, strict pedigree standards which
He then follows the evolutionary trek of the wolf leave dogs suffering with all manner of illness-
to the pure bred Australian dingo which survives es. Even showing us a surgical intervention to
on Fraser Island and the mix breeds which live solve a health problem directly caused by pedi-
on the mainland. The mix breed dingoes come gree breeding.
in all forms including one which likes to howl to
the sound of the piano and others which form a The pedigree dog issue has been much in the
unique relationship with the aboriginal people of news of late in both the UK and Australia and
the outback. Clunes makes it clear that the dog’s wellbeing
must come before any standard simply used for
Clunes also explores the early origins of human beauty and prestige. Dogs are not fashion ob-
-canine interaction with the working dog. These jects but our friends and companions and must
include Jack Russells who go ratting, sheep- be respected and treated as such.
dogs rounding up flocks in the Lake District and
the police dogs that catch criminals. He also Clunes also visits Africa to see the only breed
has the privilege of being dragged through sleet of dog which predates the wolf and which has
and snow by a team of overexcited huskies and never learnt to interact with humans. The wild
dug out of the snow by a very impressive res- dogs of Africa only accept an alpha from their
own pack with the dead alpha being replaced
with his son. Since there is no place for a hu-
man role within the pack, it has remained sepa-
rate from man and hence is at great risk with a
few surviving in the wild.
Clunes has an appealing manner, disarming us

with his humour and charm and yet covering a
lot of content in a short time. The documentary
is well presented with flying visits to all sorts of
locations and balances a celebration of dogs
with a good overview of canine history, health
issues and lots of other informative content.
Images © Buffalo Pictures

The Mini
Documentary
Delta Music PLC
R2 DVD
There is no doubt that the Mini was a car of its

times. With the world coming out of World War
II , petrol still rationed and in many countries
weight tax penalties for bigger cars, the “family
car” was simply out of reach for most families.
Those cars that were available, particularly in
Britain, were generally based on older unexcit-
ing prewar models. Imports were little better. A
Renault Dauphine or a desperately underpow-
the car needed to attract attention and sales
ered Fiat were the alternatives. Alex Issigonis, a
started to increase. Suddenly it all came togeth-
young engineer, had been working on a budget
er. The tiny wheels and comparatively wide
car for some years but the disorganised state of
wheelbase gave the little car tremendous stabil-
the British motor industry meant his project had
ity for racing. The minimalist approach to inter-
been shelved.
nal fittings meant owners could customise their
car. At a selling price of under five hundred
When BMC was formed from the Morris and
pounds it was within everyone’s reach. Sudden-
Austin companies the project was dusted off.
ly the Mini was an exciting car and the rest of
The parameters were simple on the surface.
the world thought so too.
The car had to be small and frugal. It had to be
low cost. It had to carry four adults. It would use
We follow the series of ensuing models and
an engine from BMC’s existing range. That Issi-
upgrades, and then the gradual slide into the
gonis succeeded is a tribute to British engineer-
accountant-driven British Leyland. Lord Stokes
ing of the time. He took an existing A series
simply did not realise what an asset the Mini
Morris engine and put it on top of the transmis-
had become. Finally the Mini name fell into
sion and drove the front wheels. Such an ar-
Rover’s domain, but the car ceased production.
rangement was not novel at the time but it
Its quality had been tarnished by increasingly
moved all the transmission parts and the cus-
shoddy workmanship and a failure to keep it up
tomary tailshaft out of the passenger compart-
to date. It deserved a better fate.
ment. That made room for the four adults – not
a lot of room but enough. Construction was
Rover was bought by BMW, a company not
basic but strong, with exposed seams. Almost
known for making such small cars. BMW decid-
everything was an extra, like internal door han-
ed to revive the car and keep as much of the
dles. BMC substituted a smaller engine, feeling
original design philosophy as possible. In to-
that the one Issigonis had selected might make
day’s congested cities and with increasing oil
the car too fast.
prices there could still be a place for the Mini.
Their new Mini showed what the older car could
The car took a few years to really start selling,
have become, but it was now fighting for sales
mostly due to its being so unexciting. It needed
against Asian imports That and the much high-
something to make it more interesting. That
er price tag means that the Mini has now lost its
“something” was John Cooper. A racing driver
momentum in sales.
and engineer, he put the bigger engine back
and proceeded to win race after race. The im-
The DVD has many good shots of beautifully
age of the little flying Mini Cooper was just what
restored Minis covering the entire range. Unfor-
tunately most of the footage seems to have
been taken at a single Mini owners meeting and
the footage becomes a little repetitious. It would
have been nice to see a few more shots of rac-
ing Minis, for instance, instead of the same cars
driving slowly along the same highway. Still,
with the excellent coverage of the Mini’s history
and the restored cars I think this DVD will rekin-
dle the Mini spirit in the minds of many former
owners.

Paul McCartney Re- This DVD now rehashes the theory. According
ally Is Dead to the PR material and the cover slick…
The Last Testament
of George Harrison “In the summer of 2005 a package arrived at
Highway 61 the Hollywood offices of Highway 61 Entertain-
Entertainment ment from London (cue picture of tatty looking
MVD Visual envelope with lots of British stamps on it) with
R1 DVD no return address. Inside were two minicassette
audio tapes dated December 30, 999 and la-
The Last Testament belled The Last Testament of George Harrison.
is directed by Joel A voice identical to Harrison (no, it’s not) tells a
Gilbert and not affili- shocking story” and so on.
ated with estate of
George Harrison, Now we switch to conspiracy theory mode. The
Paul McCartney, Wil- tapes were allegedly subjected to three sepa-
liam Campbell, Apple Corp or The Beatles. rate forensic analyses to see if the voice really
was George’s. The results were inconclusive
At first I thought this DVD was a spoof, but the according to the documentary, but nevertheless
further it goes the more obvious that it is meant from here on it is treated as if genuine.
to be taken seriously.
This is a typical conspiracy theory trick - make
Unfortunately it has so many holes that I can’t some wild assertion, hedge it with a few ifs and
do that and spent a lot of my time laughing at it buts, then carry on as if it’s true. It is now up to
instead. the viewer to prove it wrong. This is lost, how-
ever, in the amount of early Beatles history
Let’s start with the basic conspiracy. In 1966 padding out the doco.
Paul McCartney took off from Abbey Road Stu-
dios in his car following an argument. He Now we go for the completely unsupported Big
crashed the car and was decapitated. MI5 Lie. After rambling on about the early history of
(What would they have to do with it? Their job the Beatles “George” tells us of an MI5 opera-
is protecting Britain’s national security – coun- tive called Maxwell who threatened the surviv-
terespionage and so on) instigated a coverup ing Beatles with death if they didn’t go along
and substituted a false Paul. They were con- with the story.
cerned that if the news got out there would be
mass suicides of silly hysterical little girls A substitute “false Paul”, whom “George”
around the world. (Really? It would only in- comes to call “Faul”, was picked, trained and
crease the world’s average IQ). given plastic surgery. He was then carefully in-
serted into the group who had to carry on as
The “conspiracy” was revealed by a U.S. radio normal.
announcer who said he pieced together clues in
the Beatles’ records and cover art to for his con- Conspiracy theorists love to blame organiza-
clusion. The theory was a nine-day wonder, tions like the big corporations, government se-
then fizzled out. curity bodies and especially the CIA. Nothing
they say can be officially denied (well, they

WOULD deny that, wouldn’t they?) or even ig- to words is wishful thinking rather than fact. In-
nored (The CIA remains silent on the issue). cidentally, I am a Beatles fan, I tried this when
They are damned either way. the rumours were first published, and I heard
nothing in reverse. I think the examples on the
One of the silliest parts of the DVD is the Beat- DVD may have been enhanced a little.
les visit to India. There they hoped that the Ma-
harishi Mahesh Yogi would open up Faul’s inner Lennon went to the U.S. following the group’s
consciousness so he could receive the spirit of breakup and according to the doco feigned in-
Paul, lose his false identity and become truly creasing madness to try to convince MI5 that
the Paul they all knew and loved. This, not sur- he was harmless. Or perhaps it was just his
prisingly, didn’t seem to work. regular use of recreational pharmaceuticals?
Either way when he was shot by a crazed gun-
John Lennon was, according to the story, still man the doco blames it on MI5, rather than just
upset at Paul’s death and decided to include the ultimate criticism of Lennon’s music. It also
clues in their future records so fans would real- suggests that Faul knew something about it
ise Paul was really dead. Now we go into a long since he wasn’t surprised.
series of “clues” in record cover photos, sleeve
pics and song titles. All these “prove” the con- “George Harrison” according to the tapes was
spiracy theory. In Sgt Pepper’s, for instance, now in fear of his life and when he was at-
much is made of the “fact” that the photos in the tacked by a knife-wielding intruder in his home
collage are all of people who are dead, or who in Britain, he was convinced that MI5 was be-
experienced a near-death phenomenon, or hind it. He recorded the tapes so the truth could
sang about death (or in fact were still alive?). come out if he died. Then they were sent to
Sometimes they went to close to revealing the some obscure little movie company in the U.S.
truth and got a visit and a hiding from the dread- instead of to a major overseas newspaper or
ed Maxwell and his men. someone who could publish them with impunity.
Joel Gilbert and his company Highway 61 En-
John then turned to “reverse masking”, embed- tertainment are producers of, shall we say,
ding words in the songs that could only be “controversial” documentaries.
heard if the record was played backwards.
Some clue. We hear examples on the DVD and The doco is the classic conspiracy theory of
if they weren’t subtitled with the words that are half-baked facts, irrelevant connections, wishful
supposedly there I would regard them as gib- thinking and unsupported assertions. I had a
berish. Most words start with an “attack” – a good laugh at it until I realised that there are
sudden quick rise in the sound – then fades out people out there who will believe this. Then I
(“Decays”). Say “bang” and you will see what I had another good laugh at them as well.
mean. If these words are played backwards the
decay will be at the start of the word, which will Bonus features on the DVD include Bob Dylan
seem to fade in quickly then finish sharply. Meets The Beatles, the film soundtrack and
MP3s for IPOD.
The “speech” on the records when played back-
wards does not show this – in fact it shows the Web: http://paulreallyisdead.com
decay first leading up to the attack – just as it
should if it was played backwards. Any similarity

Sharkwater
Alliance Films
Horizon Motion
Pictures
Rob Stewart is a man with

a mission. He wants us to
accept that sharks are not
the savage predators
painted by films like Jaws,
but instead are a vital part
of the ocean ecosystem.
in themselves by some sort of transference of
As the top predator in the ocean food pyramid the shark’s magic properties. Of course, it’s a
they have held their position for millions of bit rough on the rest of the shark which then
years, a testament to their efficiency. Now they dies because it can’t swim.
must contend with a new predator – man.
Food? A shark fin is mostly gelatinous cartilage,
Stewart believes that sharks have had a bad quite tasteless. It is mixed into pork or chicken
press mostly because of their curiosity. He is a stock to give it “texture”. Frankly it looks dis-
skilled underwater photographer and some foot- gusting but in Asia it is regarded as a prestige
age in this documentary shows just how much a dish. The fins therefore command high prices -
swimmer looks like an injured seal, a favourite a pound of fin is worth around $200.
shark food. If a shark is not sure you are edible,
Stewart says, it will try a test bite first. That’s “There is so much money in fins that only traffic
why so many shark “attacks” are really only in drugs rivals the profits.”
bites, not a full flesh-tearing wound. He points
out that there are only five fatal shark attacks Shark “finning” is becoming a major problem
each year compared with twenty people killed wherever there are large numbers of sharks still
by drink machines. Here is the first point that to be found, such as in Australia’s Gulf of Car-
concerns me about the documentary. Where do pentaria. As other areas are fished out the fin-
these figures come from? ners move into other countries’ waters, or even
marine reserves, ruthlessly stripping the shark
A man with no qualms whatever about promot- population until many species are now endan-
ing the dangers of sharks is William Goh, presi- gered.
dent of Rabbit Brand Shark Fins in Taiwan. He
enthusiastically supports the idea of sharks as Stewart joined Paul Watson and the Sea Shep-
master predators and you get the idea that we herd organization to examine and film finning in
should be thanking him for turning these evil the Galapagos and Cocos in Costa Rica. Both
beasts into useful food. He also supports the areas are marine reserves but there is no legis-
idea that shark fin contains some sort of magi- lation to protect them and no government sup-
cal property that can prevent cancer, since no port for such protection. What they found was a
one has ever seen a shark die of cancer. marine disaster. Cocos Island was a free go for
the long line finners. Lines with up to sixty miles
By eating shark fin a person can prevent cancer of baited hooks are run out. Any sharks caught

are usually drowned. Their fins are hacked off

and the carcase thrown overboard. When the
Sea Shepherd was asked to intercept one finner ent. Local fishermen had fished out their waters
ship by the President they had to ram it to stop and now wanted to turn to finning as a source
it. They then towed it to port where they were of income. When the government refused the
arrested for attempted murder of the finners be- fishermen rioted, taking National Parks workers
cause they had rammed the finner ship. The prisoner and burning their offices. The fisher-
finners themselves were not charged with any- men threatened to kill the last Galapagos tor-
thing. The amounts of money involved in finning toises if they did not get their way. The Govern-
are so great that buying political influence in ment caved in for a time and the finning indus-
such a country is cheap. try took over until the Government reinforced
the National Parks people with navy ships and
Investigating further they found an entire inlet of closed it down.
the port lined with private docks and ware-
houses serving the finning industry. Thousands As mentioned, the finners have now moved into
of dollars’ worth of fins were drying in the sun other areas lured by the huge amounts of mon-
on concealed spots on the roofs. They were ey to be made. Australia’s north is now at risk
destined for places like Taiwan. Realising they and the Australian Navy is regularly intercepting
would never see justice in a country controlled finner ships from Indonesia, Taiwan and East
so thoroughly by the Taiwanese “mafia”, the Timor. The documentary does not offer any
Sea Shepherd put to see breaking its arrest. On suggestions on how to stop the problem at its
a later clandestine visit to the country Stewart source by educating people that shark fin is not
was gratified to see public demonstrations magic nor even tasty. While ever superstition
against finning and the corruption in the govern- like this is promoted by people like William Goh
ment. Perhaps there is some hope after all. the problem will remain and more species will
vanish.
In the Galapagos the situation was little differ-

Waiting for turn the Dome of the Rock must be demolished

Armageddon one way or another and the original Jewish
First Run Features temple rebuilt. This will herald the return of Je-
R1 DVD sus who will come riding a white horse (and
brandishing a burning sword) into Jerusalem.
Waiting for Armaged- 144,000 Jews will convert and the rest will be
don is an eye opening slaughtered for their insolence in refusing his
exploration of the offer of salvation and the tribulation will begin
world of Christian Zi- where mankind will be given over to daily tor-
onism. Rather than ture and disaster for thinking for themselves.
offering a polemic or
commentary, the film It is important to consider just how utilitarian the
is largely composed of Christian Zionists support for Israel really is.
Christian Zionists Israel only matters because it will be the trigger
speaking for themselves. for Armageddon and Jesus’ return. As part of
this rather disturbing equation Jews must either
A wide variety of fundamentalists and evangeli- give up being Jewish and convert to Christianity
cal Christians are interviewed as well as various or Jesus will slaughter them. It is startling piece
Jewish authorities and a number of experts in- of theological twaddle which is both worrying
cluding Mel White of Soulforce and a repre- and disturbing. It is decidedly intolerant and anti
sentative from the Southern Poverty Center. -Semitic and yet at the same time underlies so
Allowing the fundamentalists to speak for them- much of U.S and Israeli relations.
selves is perhaps even more frightening than
films such as Religulous by Bill Maher that ridi- Since so many Americans are evangelicals,
cule them. It is astounding to hear what they including many in positions of power (Ronald
have to say and the convoluted logic they use to Reagan and George Bush are prime examples)
back up their position. The sheer arrogance that even foreign policy is conditioned by this
they express their opinions with is both breath- belief. In addition Israel must play along with
taking and disconcerting. the game since a vast amount of funds are do-
nated each year by Christian-Israel lobbies and
So what is Christian Zionism ? Christian Zion- organizations and this is not even considering
ism is a pro-Israel religious position held by a the vast Christian tourist industry.
large segment of the Evangelical and funda-
mentalist Christian. It is based on an end-of-the- The DVD follows the various stages of the sup-
world theology known as “pre-tribulationalism” posed end of the world drama from the Rapture
which states that after certain conditions are through the Tribulation to the Millennium with
met Jesus will return, carry away the saved to frightening and revealing interviews. It is really
the skies (the rapture) and plunge the world into quite terrifying when one considers that 50 mil-
seven years of cleansing and violence. Included lion Americans believe the world is ending soon
within this quirky theology is the belief that since and live their lives accordingly. I especially felt
the Jews rejected Jesus they play a special role for the young people interviewed who live in
in this divine melodrama. Before Jesus can re- fear believing that they would not get a chance
to get a job, graduate or develop a relationship
since Jesus was returning soon. In my books
this is psychological child abuse on a vast
scale, stealing the innocence of teens and not
allowing them to enjoy their lives due to the be-
lief in an antiquated but dangerous fantasy.
This is a sobering and fascinating documentary.

Too often we look upon evangelical Christianity
as just as matter of private belief but when it
begins to effect government policy and the lives
of a whole generation of children we need to
put it in the same category as Islamic terrorism
and the Taliban; they are the same breed, just
Baptism in the Jordan River - Evangelical expressing their hatred in more refined lan-
style guage.

Wunder De Schopfung
1925, released on DVD
1992
Film & Kunst GMBH
for
Filmmuseum Munich
All Regions
German with title cards

and English language
overdub
This early film by Hanns

Walter Kornblum is possibly the earliest attempt
to popularise science by using filmmakers’ tech-
niques to explain it to the masses. It was a works were banned in Germany.
brave attempt at a time when few schools (the
likely biggest market) had any film projection Our Heavenly Bodies is a comprehensive ex-
equipment and the big cinemas had not consid- amination of the solar system, planet by planet,
ered documentaries as a serious prospect. and I was amazed at just how much of the sci-
Kornblum had experience in making commer- ence is the same as today. The early scientists
cials and advertising films so was probably bet- were surprisingly well informed and it makes
ter suited for this work than producers of con- you wonder what astronomers have been do-
ventional dramas. He understood the process of ing for the past 85 years. There is a really good
model making and graphics to demonstrate a history of the development of astronomy from
point. the beginning of the church-supported Earth-
centric concept, through the astronomers who
Although it was a documentary the film was fought for and introduced the Sun-centric de-
dressed up with a certain amount of science fic- sign that we accept today. Many of these as-
tion such as spaceship shots to give it more ap- tronomers published their ideas at some risk to
peal. As the Nazi organization moved more into their own life – if it was against the accepted
filmmaking, it caused problems for Kornblum. church doctrine they could be burned as here-
Major Ernst Krieger, head of the Culture Depart- tics no matter how good their evidence or ob-
ment, appeared not to know what a planet was, servations were.
but he had definite ideas on what the film should
contain…. “we have to get a couple of naked The film is a fascinating look at “antique sci-
girls in here”. ence”, which turns out to have been surprisingly
accurate. Kornblum intended that the film
This film was intended to be part of a longer se- should be shown as an illustrated lecture and
ries explaining science to the German people. the modern voiceover handles this very well.
As well as the main film on Astronomy, “Our Perhaps the only negative is the dreadful whin-
Heavenly Bodies”, the DVD also includes a ing violin and tuneless piano backing music.
short film on Albert Einstein. Kornblum actually
tries to explain the Theory of Relativity with This film deserves its place in the history of sci-
some quite good examples. This was just before ence and the history of film.
Einstein was denounced as a Jew and his

REVIEWS Music
Becoming a Jackal off bringing together jazz, funky, soul, Latin and
Villagers of course, rock.
Domino
EMI (Australia) They have very devoted fans and each album
brings massive anticipation. They are just as
Villagers is actually successful in the studio as live and having test-
Irish singer- ed a few of their new tracks on JJJ radio, Cine-
songwriter Conor ma finally hit the streets.
O’Brien. While there
are a large number The general consensus about Cinema and I
of singer-songwriters on the market, O’Brien would concur is that while it has the same
takes a darker and more reflective turn and the unique Cat Empire sound it has moved-on into
songs linger in your memory far beyond their a more sophisticated sound. It is not as funky
first unveiling. as their earlier albums nor shows as many Latin
influences.
It is an impressive debut album with strange and
wonderful lyrics, a lush atmospheric sound and However once you listen to it a few times it be-
a sweet voice which sounds a bit like the early comes more and more infectious and I have
Peter Gabriel from Genesis. come to like just as much if not a little more
than their last two albums. Many fans have
At the same time the lyrics are not superficial been disappointed and argue it this album has
and offer interesting food for thought including lost the unique funk edge, but I think that it has
the opening I Saw the Dead to the final track a more developed even textured sound which
which reflects on a Pope who is in spiritual cri- will satisfy if given a chance.
sis !
The album opens with Waiting which is short,
It covers the gambit of territory from the lush to sweet and a very typical Cat Empire Sound fol-
the gothic, to the edgy to the uplifting; clocking lowed by Falling which is a bit more poppy.
in at about three quarters of an hour, it is a fas-
cinating journey into the complex dreams and Feelings Gone is an impressive lyrical work fol-
visions of a young man who has a maturity, both lowing by only light.
musically and personally, way beyond his age.
All Hell and Shoulders certainly offers some
amazing instrumentals and are textured and
impressive songs.
While the songs continue being impressive, the

final track Beyond All is a stand out. It closes
the album with a powerful track which is fast,
jazzy and well, amazing.
Cinema
The Cat Empire
EMI
The Cat Empire are

one of Australia‘s best
bands, with a sound
that is very original.
They create an eclec-

tic audio experience which knocks your socks

REVIEWS Toys
Painting with
blood, his fin-
gers so red. He
entertains all of
the other Un-
dead! This little
artist loves to
finger-paint with
Vampires are hot at the moment, from TV series blood. He can
to Twilight, cult films to graphic novels. While be moody and
accessorizing the vampire lifestyle has always dark and tor-
been an option with goth clothes and dark gear, mented, so he
the newest items on the block are a series of hangs out with
plush toys known as Vamplets. bats in dark places. His favourite hobby is to
fashion “screamcatchers” out of spider webs.
Vamplets are very cute but creepy baby plush
vampires which measure between nine and ten Midnight Mori
inches in height. They combine the cuddly quali- has a pretty pink
ties of a baby with a nappy and accoutrements bow with a skull,
with the goth look of a vampire. Artist G-Ra was green bloodshot
inspired by the works of Edward Gorey and it eyes and cute
certainly shows. Dark, sweet and slightly kooky. little black skull
There are six in all, each with their own shad- and cross bones
owy persona. nappy tied with a
pink bow !
Lily Rose Shadowlyn has red blood shot eyes,
two black bat bows on her head and a pretty A demon in dia-
pink striped nappy. pers, bossy and
restless. A fanatical leader you don’t want to
Black tiny roses and bats with pink noses. mess with! Don’t let the sweet hair bow fool
Sweet as a thorn the day she was “unborn.” The you—she can be bossy and she always wants
most normal of the Vamplets, she is pleasingly her way, so don’t ever tell her no. Mori is a
well-behaved, shares and plays nicely with oth- leader of the Vamplets and she’s restless, ag-
ers! gressive and annoyed, since she doesn’t like to
sleep.
But being a vampyre, Lily has a dark side—a
fierce temper that Count Vlad von
flares when she’s Gloom has two
pushed too far. bat bows, green
bloodshot eyes
Burton Creepson and a black skull
Jnr has a single nappy tied with a
bat bow, dark white bow. His
bloodshot eyes mouth looks
and a pretty pur- down in gloom !
ple nappy with a
skull on it. Shucks, So cute but so
he’s a beauty ! cruel, descended
from Drac.

REVIEWS Vamplets
Blood is always his favourite snack! Known as

arrogant (he’s royalty, after all), this baby
vampyre enjoys his bed-of-nails playpen and his
bottle, which is filled with blood, his favourite
drink.
Cadaverson
Nightshade has a
lovely spider on
her head, grey
bloodshot eyes, a
sneaky smile and
a grey nappy with
a purple skull tied ter’s name, an “Official Certificate of Posses-
with a black bow. sion of a Baby Vampyre” and instructions on
how to get more items for your Vamplet.
Inventor, dreamer,
dark tiny schemer. You can also purchase a bottle of Vamplets
Building all night Disappearing “Bottle of Blood” - these vam-
to create a big pires need to be fed. Just turn the bottle upside
fright! This little down and the blood seems to instantly disap-
guy never utters a sound because he’s so busy pear.
inventing and thinking. He builds creepy crea-
tions by taking things apart. He has even trained With our delivery came a certificate of Condo-
his pet spider to weave fantastical web struc- lences signed by Beth DeSangus, explaining
tures. the dangers of letting the Vamplets into our
home and how to care for them. Awesome !
Evilyn Nocturna
has two black There is also an interactive website with a store
bows with pink which sells six plus Vampire babies. The inter-
and white skulls active world is loads of fun. There is a Town
attached, she has Hall where you can register your Vamplet and
the look of a download a certificate. A Hall of Horror with
scared cat with loads of lots of background on the Vamplets
eyes raised and including individual portraits, characteristics and
bloodshot. She warnings about their idiosyncrasies. A funeral
wears a cute parlour where you can create your Vamplet’s
black poke a dot tombstone and coffin and a cute animated
nappy with a pick nursery. There is also a blog and forum.
bow.
Vamplets are cute, dark, funny, horrid and terri-
Slightly strange and totally bad. You don’t need ble. They are packed with character, beautifully
a hunch…she’d prefer you for lunch! This tiny made and a must have dark pleasure.
sorceress is slightly mad. She’d rather bite you
than drink from her Web: http://www.vamplets.com
bottle of blood.
She’s psychic with
lots of visions and
precognitive
dreams. Plus she
sleepwalks, so keep
her locked in her
coffin during daylight
hours.
Each comes with a

tag shaped like a
bottle of blood that
includes the charac-
Kuro Poodle is The
Devil’s Dog. Kuro
literally means black
and do not let his
cuteness fool you.
After all, he is The
Devil in disguise !
Straight out of
Tanpopo, Camilla’s
comic series, Kuro is
a superb plush.
15cm in height with a strange and enigmatic
Camilla d'Errico is a product of her split herit- white face. He is both adorable and quirky. His
age, Italian and Canadian rolled into one: Italian production run is limited to 1500 pieces.
feistiness, Canadian politeness, and an early
addiction to Saturday morning cartoons, comics Out of the pages of
and manga. Growing up she was more often Tanpopo Volume 2,
doodling sexy damsels and dragons on her text- Poodle Kuro makes
books than reading them. a shocking transfor-
mation into Specter -
In 1998 when Camilla first attended her first San as he shoots the
Diego Comic Con she realised that a 9–5 day specter bark and
job would kill her and this was what she wanted kills the albatross!
to do. Thanks to her relentless energy, dedica- Beautifully made in
tion, and just enough sleep deprivation, she has white with a black
followed her dream of working creatively for a face and a startling white mouth, Specter is a
living. stunning plush.
Camilla's unique style continues to be in de- This variant follows the original, 15cm Kuro
mand and her client list includes Dark Horse Poodle black plush. Limited to only 1500 piec-
Comics, Image Comics, Random House, To- es.
kyopop, Hasbro, Disney, Sanrio, Neil Gaiman
and she also works with video game and movie If you would like to
companies on character development. Her own carry Kuro and Spec-
characters and properties, Tanpopo and Hel- ter with you everyday
metgirls, are loved by fans and followers and then why not get the
now inspire Cosplay costumes. She has suc- keyrings ?
cessfully merchandised and licensed her beauti-
ful artwork across a variety of categories: cloth- These are nicely
ing, stationery and gift, accessories, art prints, made PVC keyrings
etc. and continues to expand her licensing pro- 2 inch x 1.25 inch
gram. with an attached key-
chain.
Her emotive and eloquent paintings have pro-
pelled her to the top of the ranks of the New Camilla’s plush and keyrings are based on
Contemporary art movement, and she is repre- characters in her Tanpopo series. There have
sented by Opera Gallery of New York. been two comics so far and they are visually
powerful, emotionally engaging and beautifully
Camilla can't live without Holbein's "DUO" water drawn.
-soluble oils, green tea lattes, Hello Kitty mer-
chandise, and her daily fix of manga and anime. Tanpopo Volume #1 has been reprinted and is
now in an extended version with additional pag-
"Its about expressing what they feel and feeling es and a new ending that continues and gives
what they express" life to a new series of books.

REVIEWS Camilla d'Errico
Lessons of life and emotion are not for the faint

of heart, as Tanpopo will learn. Kuro shoots off
Specter Bark, and strikes down the albatross.
His transformation takes a life and delivers a
message. Will Tanpopo understand?
The book contains 52 full colour pages of beau-

tiful illustrations and moving words that follow
the expanded Tanpopo Volume 1.
Once again Camilla offers us a highly stylized

work of Manga, beautifully drawn and filled with
thought provoking content. Both of these com-
ics are superbly published and create an intri-
guing and wonderful world worth exploring.
Tanpopo could be seen as an adaptation of tra-

ditional Manga, it includes poetry, thought bub-
bles and varying formats of text. It is innovative
and very engaging.
Edge and emotion bring to life the story of a

young girl who makes a pact with a devil. She is
released from the machine that has been her
only existence for the hope of finding happiness.
Camilla is a very productive artist and her site is
It is forty pages in length and in full color it filled with all sorts of goodies. There is The
measures 6.5 x 9.75 inches. Birds and the Bees postcard series which in-
cludes twelve rather naught images from her
2007 show. These are sexy and very nice. She
also produces Gelaskins, handbags, posters
and prints.
Her latest release is

truly outstanding.
This giant version of
Kuro is a limited edi-
tion of 100 pieces only
so you better get in
quick. Rub his belly for
good luck, hug him ‘till
you’re sore.
Buddha Kuro is your

giant “little” devil, For-
ever.
Buddha Kuro stands a

full 2 feet (60 inches)
The saga of Tanpopo continues ... Samuel Tay- tall! He is about 1 foot
lor Coleridge's, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, wide and nearly a foot deep. Yes, he's huge.
along with some of Coleridge's short poems, are And he's awesome.
the inspiration for Volume Two.
Web: http://www.camilladerrico.com/

REVIEWS Camilla d'Errico
Joe Merrill graduated from Columbus College customizing, creating fan art, photographing
of Art & Design (in Columbus Ohio) with a BFA their toys, or even creating their own toys - like
in 2006. My major was in Advertising and Joe does.
Graphic design. He knew nothing about sculp-
ture or toy making and had only sculpted once Joe’s love of Henshin Cyborg and all of the arm
in his life, outside of playing with Fimo and silly weapons and attachments lead to developing
putty as a kid. the idea for The Executioner. Joe was inspired
to sculpt and make him, even though he hadn’t
After he graduated Joe got a job at an ad agen- sculpted in seven years. It was just a personal
cy in Columbus. There was a small toy store in challenge, like he had to make him to prove
the city, Anime Palace, and Joe started buying that he was able to do so.
blind box toys to decorate his office. He wasn’t
a serious collector and wouldn’t really get into Joe read some tutorials, bought some sculpey
collecting toys until he moved to New York City. and tools and started work. Joe and his girl-
friend thought about the brand name for a long
Joe moved to NYC about a year after graduat- time, wanting something quite unique. One
ing from college. He got more and more into night during brainstorming and watching Fu-
toys because there were lots of stores around turama - it was an episode about Slurm soda,
like Toy Tokyo, Giant Robot, and Kid Robot, Joe heard Slurm, and liked the direction. Soon
and he could see the vinyls in person. One day after, Splurrt was born.
Joe was researching Pushead toys online and
discovered the Cocobat Joe and Cocoboy vs. Joe liked the word and envisioned
Skullbonz set. They got him really interested in
Henshin and Walder toys, and lead him to dis-
covering the Secret Base cyborg suits. Once he
discovered Secret Base, he also discovered
Mad Toyz, Skull Toys, TWIM, Tokyo Guns,
BxH, Cure and Blobpus and many others.
All the neo-kaiju stuff blew Joe’s mind. It’s hard

to verbalize why. It was very mysterious, maybe
it was the language barrier, or maybe it was due
to what seemed like a lack of story, or creator
input. To Joe the toys relied 100% on their aes-
thetics.
There was no cartoon or comic exploring or de-

fining the character; you didn’t have previously
developed restriction on the character. Your re-
sponse to the toy is based only on the feelings
the design stirs up. Perhaps it’s because you
have so much freedom to respond to the toy,
that there’s a very creative response.
It seems this is why so many collectors turn to

REVIEWS Splurrt
The Executioner cutting off a head and the

blood spray making the noise splurrt. It was
nonsensical, gross, slimy, bloody, and fun.
Joe worked on The Executioner for almost a

year having no idea what he was doing, yet he
was determined to finish it and make it to the
best of his abilities. He sculpted every piece at
least three times. He snapped the leg off a few
times and snapped him at the waist a few other
times. It was slow going. And once the figure
was finally done, he wouldn’t even end up get-
ting produced for a year.
After The Executioner was finished. Joe made

The Splug. With The Splug Joe just wanted to
sculpt dripping slime. It was one of his favorite
textures at the time and just seemed like a lot of
fun to do. Plus, after The Executioner Joe want- vinyl.” But as Joe says “Looking back at the la-
ed to produce a simpler figure. He contacted bor, and the cost of the molds, and the resin,
Monstre Hero about casting the Splug in resin, and the work required to clean the resin casts,
since they were producing the highest quality sometimes think cost wise - I almost could have
resin figures. They were into it, an unholy alli- made him in vinyl. But I think as a ball-jointed
ance was born, and it became the first Splurrt resin figure, he’s so unique, he has a presence
resin figure. in a collection. He’s not just another vinyl. So
I’m glad I went with resin”.
Joe followed Splug up with the Bad Trip, his first
mini figure. He had been thinking about doing a So while Monstre Hero was working on
mushroom figure for a while, working on prelimi- “resinating” The Executioner, Joe needed
nary sketches. Joe was looking for a way to something new to work on and started The
make the toy different enough from existing Keeper. Joe was watching cartoons one day,
mushroom toys and eventually came up with and saw one of those classic robed ghouls and
the idea of a removable cap that revealed a thought, “That needs to be a toy.” The sculpt
monster underneath. went quickly and smoothly; he was very
pleased to see how his abilities as a sculptor
While working with Monstre Hero on the Splug were coming along. Certainly the feedback he
and Bad Trip, Joe stated talking to them about got on the figure, was validation. People were
making The Executioner as a ball jointed resin telling him that it was on the same level as Se-
figure. Joe loved the idea in theory, but didn’t cret Base. That’s a brand that Joe idolizes, so
really understand how difficult an undertaking it hearing things like that, it seemed like people
would be. It takes $30 U.S. in resin just to make were starting to appreciate his work and see it
one cast. He’s a big boy. People say, “I wish he on level beyond “home made” resin.
was a vinyl, I don’t collect resin, but I’d buy a
After the ghoul, Joe made a new head for the
Executioner body. It’s a deformed burnt mess
hidden by a hockey mask, I’ve dubbed it the
“Axe Murderer” it compliments the body and
axe arm really nicely and it is surprising how
both heads create two completely different
characters. Joe has always kind of sympathized
with The Executioner, seeing him as a poor
beast born in a situation beyond his control;
trying to survive with the only tool he has.
Where the Axe Murderer is more the typical
“slasher” monster; a machine that kills for
pleasure.
You can visit http://www.Splurrt.com to keep up

with the latest headlines.

REVIEWS Toys

Next Issues
A Romp through History
Peace on Earth ?
(War and Conflict)


End of The World SYNERGY MAGAZINE

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

End of The World SYNERGY MAGAZINE

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

End of The World SYNERGY MAGAZINE

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CONTENTS

Books and Print

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 2

If you require an ALL region DVD and Blu-ray

Publisher/Editor-In-Chief: Robert Black For Adult titles, we include an extra reference

SYNERGY MAGAZINE Online

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 3

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 4

The Road Blur

Icon Films have made Blur is the ultimate pow-

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 5

The R18+ (Scenes of

In reviewing the classification, the Review

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 6

On a weekly basis over 60,000 people follow

Headpress Volume 2 Number 1

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 7

Exclusive to the collector edition:

Unrepentant: dead pornstar Jamie Gillis

Montréal, CANADA – THANATOFILMS, a sub-

Thanatomorphose is a French word meaning

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 8

Jane, Dana Hamm & Megan Daniels all in one

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 9

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 10

time as the events described or at a later date.

Protestant sects became more and more fo-

One of the more quirky

all the Christians will be

These strange and bizarre beliefs may seem

In the east both Hinduism and Buddhism have

It is interesting that new age religions have also

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 12

We can distil from this discussion a range of key Archaeology by Cremo

This also relates to the importance given to cre-

Indeed a major text on the subject is Forbidden The legend of Atlantis

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 13

modern animated films such as Milo: Atlantis The imbuing of meaning

It is interesting to note that many films on Egypt

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 14

of action, overblown plots, little to no character

Using speculation about

The Road (2009)

At first glance The Road is very different from

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 15

Denzel Washington in Book of Eli The Day After Tomorrow

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 16

The ridiculous end of the world patriotism of

ly against ridiculous odds; this theme is found

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 17

Spanish Plane Disaster 2008

ing. This sort of speculation which ranges from

Ultimately a religious approach to the end of the

When a plane crashes, the few survivors may

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 18

Surprisingly the first appearance of the Statue

The statue was not

Synergy Magazine Volume 3: No.4 Page 19

Escape from New York