Dial Help (Ruggero Deodato, 1988) Review

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“I'm expecting an important call – a call that never comes.” Directed by Ruggero Deodato, the rogue journeyman filmmaker behind the notorious video nasty Cannibal Holocaust, this is, put simply, a movie about killer telephones jealously menacing a fashion model – why would you need a longer introduction than that?...

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Live Like A Cop Die Like A Man (Ruggero Deodato 1976) DVD Review

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“What are we coming to when they let common criminals join the police?” Ruggero Deodato will perhaps forever be inextricably linked to his notorious grand guignol video nasty Cannibal Holocaust, but the famous Italian director tried his hands at numerous genres. He dabbled in gialli with the likes of The Washing Machine, for instance, albeit in the 1990s long after the movement's heyday in the 1970s. Indeed, three genres ruled supreme at the Italian box office – the aforementioned gialli (bloody murder mysteries), sex comedies, and crime films (generally referred to as poliziotteschi), and it is in this latter category that Deodato produced one of his finest films. Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man (what a fantastic title!) is an ultra-charged poliziottescho that knows no bounds of shame, as tough-as-nails coppers take on the dangerous world of crime...

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The Green Inferno: a quick review...

What's it about?
Hashtag protesters, e-petition fans, virtue signallers, self-righteous imperialists of opinion, and slacktivists alike - prepare to be offended, and then eaten! A group of student activists rush off to Peru in order to stop the bulldozing of a section of the Amazon rain forest, but when their plane crash lands they find themselves held captive by the native tribe they were attempting to help...
Who would I recognise in it?
Lorenzo Izzo, Daryl Sabara, Richard Burgi, Ignacia Allamand.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Delayed after the original distributor suffered financial woes, Eli Roth's return to feature films - a love letter to Ruggero Deodato's "Cannibal Holocaust" (Roth's favourite flick) - had a lot of expectation chasing it. Journeying deeper into the rain forest than any other filmmakers thus far, TGI has a sense of adventure that is impressive, no doubt inspired by Roth's admiration for all those Italian directors who braved the wilds of the jungle to conjure up increasingly twisted cannibal movies in the 1970s and 80s.

Taking aim at the social media driven culture of 'hashtag protesting' and general 'slacktivism' (publicly showing how much you care about any trending socio-political issue, while investing the least amount of time, energy, or even consideration into the cause), Roth's film certainly doesn't lack bite...

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The Washing Machine (Ruggero Deodato, 1993) DVD Review

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“A man, cut up into pieces, and stuffed in there like soiled linen.” Ruggero Deodato – a name synonymous with one film in particular: the utterly notorious Cannibal Holocaust – but what of some of the other highlights from his varied career? His name has also been attached to the likes of House on the Edge of the Park (a spin on The Last House on the Left) and Phantom of Death (Basil Exposition ages disgracefully) … but, like most Italian directors, he also lent his talents to the world of the giallo film. However, in the case of the curiously-titled The Washing Machine (aka Vortice Mortale), the sultry sex appeal of the 1970s had long gone and, in this case, been replaced by a post-Cold War hangover and pastel track suits...

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Phantom of Death (Ruggero Deodato, 1988) DVD Review

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Otherwise known as Off Balance, Ruggero (Cannibal Holocaust, The House on the Edge of the Park) Deodato's vengeance-fuelled thriller, co-written by Vincenzo (New York Ripper) Mannino and Gianfranco Clerici, tells the story of Robert Dominici (Michael York) – a piano virtuoso – whose previously dormant Progeria condition (a disease that ages the victim at an accelerated rate) sends him spiralling into an insane thirst for blood.

At first he seeks to hide his condition from those around him, but soon – as the disease warps his mind – he descends into a cat-and-mouse game of chase with Police Inspector Datti (a typically skewed and bewildered performance from Donald Pleasance, well known for his role as Doctor Loomis in the Halloween franchise), whose obsession at one point drives him onto the streets to scream out “Where are you, bastard?! I kill you!” over and over in front of a passing crowd of perturbed Italians.

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