Flavours of the Month: September 2016...

Gore, gaming, horror rock, and the boys from the little rouge one - what's been setting the tone of my September 2016?

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The Bloodstained Butterfly (Duccio Tessari, 1971) Blu-Ray/DVD Review

Find more giallo reviews here.

 

“I'm a smart killer, Inspector – a little smarter than all of you.” Consider the giallo genre – what springs to mind? Black-clad killers with razor knives, blood-splattering violence, and scintillating sexuality? Chances are that forensic examination of a crime scene and perspective-altering scenes of court room drama didn't crop up – but that's exactly what sets Duccio Tessari's The Bloodstained Butterfly apart from the crowd. Side-stepping many of gialli's visual clichés, nestling into a pace akin to the more thoughtful examples of the genre such as Aldo Lado's Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971), Tessari's film nonetheless paints a bleak and savage picture of inter-generational betrayal, lust, abuse, and shattered illusions...

 

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Rob Zombie's "Gore Whore" music video...

I'm a big fan of Rob Zombie's music, so naturally I was rather excited to see his new music video for "The Hideous Exhibitions of a Dedicated Gore Whore"...



Not only does it mark the return of the 'Living Dead Girl' (Sheri Moon Zombie) and boast a gaggle of gnarly-looking undead ghouls, but it features Doyle (of Misfits fame) as a bubblegum-chewing tattooist Frankenstein's Monster. Great song, great video (especially so after the, I'll be honest, rather disappointing quick-fire video for "Medication for the Melancholy") ... so anyway, check it out.

The Trouble with Blockbuster Scores...

From the excellent YouTube channel Every Frame A Painting, here is a video that flags up a very real issue with many modern blockbusters - with particular attention paid to the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Can you recall any pieces of music from the scores for the MCU flicks?

This is well worth a watch.



However, in the video Mad Max: Fury Road is referenced, and I would disagree on that point. I thought the soundtrack to that film really stood out and that particular track referenced in the video stood out most of all. I still recall it a year or so after seeing the movie for the first time. The rest of the examples? You cannot argue with them...

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Captain America: Civil War - Marvel Goes DC?

What's it about?
Following on from the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, our gang of superheroes find themselves set against each other as 117 countries propose The Sokovia Accords to bring The Avengers under United Nations control as a result of civilian deaths and collateral damage in recent battles. Iron Man, riven with guilt, wants to sign up ... Captain America, suspicious of organised oversight in the wake of Hydra's infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D., wants to remain free to protect and serve. Which side will the rest of them choose?
Who would I recognise in it?
Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Daniel Bruhl, Paul Rudd, Emily Vancamp, Tom Holland, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been hugely successful with critics and audiences alike, coining in the cash with gleeful abandon. They're bright, sparky, immensely fun, and the ever-widening world in which they take place is ripe with stories to tell. However, for all their successes, the Marvel movies have sometimes hewn close to pantomime villains and playing it safe with key characters. The third Captain America film, though, takes the moral greys and millennial murkiness of The Winter Soldier to new depths...

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