The Girl Who Knew Too Much (Mario Bava, 1963) Blu-Ray/DVD Review

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“Don't you see it over there? Blood. Blood everywhere!” Originally intended to be a frothy romcom about tourists on an adventure in Rome, when horror maestro Mario Bava (Black Sunday) entered the project, it changed into something altogether darker. Not only did Bava transform the film, but he altered the face of murder mystery cinema. Tracing its roots through Agatha Christie, Edgar Wallace, the German 'Krimi' films, and Hitchcock, the giallo film – named after the yellow colour of pulp novels detailing lurid murders and twisted crimes – was birthed by Bava.

The genre, which he would finesse the following year with the technicolour terror of Blood and Black Lace, was turned – by Dario Argento (The Bird With The Crystal Plumage), Sergio Martino (All The Colours of the Dark), et al – into a hugely popular cinematic movement. So successful were the gialli, in-part through their sexuality and blood-splashing violence, that the American slasher film came to pass (Bava's own A Bay of Blood gave particular inspiration to Friday the 13^th Part 2). The importance of giallo films in the history of genre cinema cannot be overstated. The transition, from paperback to celluloid, happened here: The Girl Who Knew Too Much...

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"Sleb" cover art...

"Sleb" is nearing completion. There are final draft tweaks to make, but I've been busy working on some of the additional tasks relating to the project recently - getting the synopsis just right, for example, but also - the cover art.

I've also alluded to doing a special little something to help try and spread the word of the book once it has been released...

Click "READ MORE" below to finish that thought...

Quadruple Bill Mini (and Cine) Musings: June 2011...

X-Men: First Class:
The first two movies were good-and-great respectively, but the third (Last Stand) was cobbled together style over substance, and then Wolverine was decent fodder but it curiously lacked the depth of X1 and X2 ... and, odder still, it lacked the x-factor (if you'll excuse the pun). Now with this sort-of-reboot for the franchise, we're transported back to the era of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the birth of the X-Men themselves.

The script bounds along quite nicely, although at times it does feel a tad overloaded with characters - which results in the weaker side characters (Salvadore, Banshee, Darwin, Havok) falling into "don't care" territory as our primary focus (and that of the filmmakers) is the main cast of characters, at the heart of which are the young Professor X (Charles) and the young Magneto (Erik). The latter is played thoughtfully by Michael Fassbender, who is fast carving out a career as a quality mix between character actor and leading man. Indeed, it is the central duo (the other half charmingly played by James McAvoy) that provides the main thrust for the script with a growing schism between the two men and how the mutant/human relationship should be carried out.

The movie is most impressive when it is busy delving into the motivating experiences of the leads, and once again the best work in the movie in this respect comes from Fassbender, who really sinks his teeth into the seething want for vengeance possessed by his concentration camp survivor who, as we all know, goes on to become the revenge-fuelled Magneto. It's this superhero-version of the civil rights movement (or indeed any discrimination felt by many in our society) that makes the X-Men franchise stand out, and such deep concerns are key to this prequel.

I initially groaned at the idea of First Class, but down the line here (with smart direction from Matthew "Kick Ass" Vaughn), it makes a lot of sense. While X1 and X2 were probably just a bit better, First Class entirely blows Last Stand out of the stratosphere with ease, and easily beats the not-as-good-as-it-should-have-been Wolverine. In fact, you could go so far as to say it's up there with X1 - although X2 remains the pinnacle of the lot.


Foo Fighters: Back and Forth:
This revealing delve through the backstory and history of one of the most successful bands out there right now is a must-see for any Foo fan. The establishment, and early trials, of the band are of particular interest, in this involving and nicely put-together documentary.


Death At A Funeral:
Surprisingly, and yet curiously unsurprisingly, this apparent black comedy farce from Neil LaBute isn't remotely funny. A drugged-out James Marsden steals the movie, but that evidently wasn't much of a challenge in the first place. I found it dull and didn't connect with it one iota.


The Creature From The Black Lagoon:
One of the classic monster movies from the 1950s - a period filled with so-called B-Movies that were obsessed with science and abominations of nature. This must have been quite a treat when it originally came out in cinemas, and the Creature itself pleasingly remains a creepy vision to behold - not least because of that dead-eyed look as it breathes deep, creeping ever closer to its next victim. I really quite enjoyed it.

Double Bill Mini Musings: Cenobites and Centipedes...

Hellraiser III Hell On Earth:
I've long since lost count of how many Hellraiser flicks there have been (apparently there are now nine with a remake also planned), but until now I'd only seen the first two, and the fourth. The third, on the other hand, I have had sat on a videotape (from when it was shown years ago on TV) and have never gotten around to it. Then I spotted it on the Horror Channel and figured I'd give it a go.

However, while the first two came during the 1980s when horror movies were doing really quite well, this third entry came in the early 1990s (1992 to be specific) when the genre was, mostly, dying on its arse. There were some good (even great) entries such as Candyman (also 1992) - which was brutal and horrifyingly good - but this was very much an exception, because more often than not we were getting dross such as Halloween 6. Hellraiser 3 is more along the lines of dross ... it feels dated, and not in a charming way, it's not in the least bit chilling (let alone scary), and the plot is a big "so what?"

Pinhead is trapped in a piece of art work, bought by a scumbag club owner, and after a couple of splashings of blood (and a massacre of the club's patrons) hell is unleashed upon the earth ... which means a couple of streets and a building site. In amongst it all is a female reporter, plagued by nightmares about her father who was KIA in Vietnam, looking for her big story. The plot jumps around, and at times the characters exhibit little in the way of motivation, joined-up-thinking or common sense, and as for Pinhead ... well, he's certainly not the intimidatingly cruel force that he was in the original movie. In short, I didn't care for it.


The Human Centipede (First Sequence):
Trading entirely on the inventively grim title (indeed it constitutes the entire plot), Tom Six's stylish but surprisingly empty shocker isn't quite the ... *sigh* ... "torture porn" flick that you might be expecting. The idea of three people being connected mouth-to-butt by a mad doctor (who used to be the world's number one corrective surgeon for conjoined twins) is gruesome enough on its own, and as such it's mostly left up to your imagination. The really gruesome elements are inferred, rather than shown, or indeed they're hidden behind bandages.

Speaking of the demented surgeon, Dieter Laser's performance (as Dr. Heiter) is clearly the high point of the movie - it's a wonderfully disturbing projection - so it's a shame that the rest of the film doesn't match in quality or intrigue. Particularly in the third act, there were some really dumb scripting moments, and you can't help but feel that the high concept was the real attraction. The look of the film is impressively artistic, and the pace is generally quite good, but the mad doctor is lacking enough motivation, and the two girls (two thirds of the sequence) are nothing but vapid and annoying party girls.

So it's nowhere near as gross as the pitch suggests, visually at least, and while Laser's crazy surgeon makes for a genuinely arresting screen presence, the rest of the movie is sadly a bit lacking. See it for the intrigue, see it for Laser's performance, but don't expect any lasting investment.

My war isn't over, Adrian...

Well, after finishing "A Bridge Too Far", I decided to re-visit the "Rambo" trilogy (soon to join the legion of "4th in the series of" sequels of recent times (the trailer looking awesome), and I have to say, the first movie is awesome. The 2nd and 3rd are good, but not awesome, nor shite...but not superb, although I get their reason for being - 2nd movie is Rambo returning to Vietnam, 3rd movie is Rambo's modern day Vietnam, after ending his personal war with Vietnam he needed a new war to fight, so it ended up being in Afghanistan ... although being thoroughly perplexed by Middle Eastern politics, I don't know where "Rambo 3" fits in with all the shite going on over there now.

All this talk of "Rambo" though, does remind me of the hilarious, yet fully justified, rant from the Angry Nintendo Nerd regarding film franchises and the titles - such as these films:

1) First Blood
2) Rambo: First Blood 2
3) Rambo 3
4) John Rambo

There's not the consistency of Stallone's other franchise, that is the utterly superb "Rocky" series - solid Roman Numberals all the way till the last one, which as we all should know is "Rocky Balboa" - although that is fully justified, it was such a long gap since "Rocky V", and it exists in a different time, whereas the previous films were all quite quick-fired out, or within the same range of time ... it's why I guess "Live Free or Die Hard/Die Hard 4.0" makes sense ... technically ... I say technically, because both those titles suck - just call THAT film "DIE HARD 4" and leave it be, but as Stallone is actually a Jack of several trades, he does inject his own soul into his heroes - particularly Rocky - so I think it makes complete sense of cap-off his two biggest characters by titling their final films after the protagonist.

I recently re-watched the second half of "Rocky II", recent as in yesterday morning when I was waiting to use the internet, and it just reminded me of how awesome those films are (well, the fifth is a bit tosh, but with all the Tommy Gun crap taken about, it's actually still pretty good, because it advances the story of Rocky Balboa onwards). Plus - the soundtrack is just awesome, I listened to the 'best of' compilation whilst doing some title sequence tests for "I Am Zombie Man 3", and considering the story of "IAZM3", whilst listening to the "Rocky" soundtrack, it just fit really well ... the vibes being somewhat similar.