Avenue Kurtodrome

Howdi, stranger. I saw you hiking and decided to pick you up. It gets fairly lonely here on this long road. So buckle up and tour with me for a full week of horror movies.

Our trip begins with Rest Stop, a straight to dvd movie released in 2006. The writer and director is one John Shiban, a name that shouldn’t be unfamiliar to you if you followed the Chris Carter series. He wrote quite a few good X-Files episodes, one Harsh Realm episode and was one of the creative forces behind The Lone Gunmen show. Erm, maybe I should’ve known that last bit before I bought Rest Stop. All I knew was that he was a staff writer for The X-Files and that some of the better episodes were penned (and occasionally directed) by him. I learned something today: if part of someone’s filmography is okay, it isn’t bad to also look at the lesser successful part of the filmography. It shields you from extra disappointment.

The story in short: a young couple stop at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere because the girl needs to go to the restroom. The toilet doors are filled with scary sentences about a killer and everything inside is dirty. When the girl leaves the toilet, her boyfriend and their car have disappeared. Every time she tries to leave the place a truck manages to block her escape. Etc. etc.

Rest Stop isn’t awful, but you couldn’t force me to say it’s good. Not even if you try some of the persuasion methods seen in what’s sadly called “torture porn” movies. Rest Stop starts as a thriller, then opens a can of supernatural elements (not bad if you can show your X-Files pedigree here) before sadly opting for the path of torture porn. Is there really a need to see someone drill holes in parts of the body that don’t need them? If there is no ass-raping sequence in Psycho, it’s not only because Hitchcock wasn’t allowed to include it. It’s because it’s just not necessary to show every gory bit in detail… because sometimes it just hurts the movie.

The moment Rest Stop stops trying to be a supernatural horror movie and starts trying to cash in on the popularity of movies like Saw and Hostel (and their 700 sequels), the carefully built-up premise is thrown out of the window (complete with explosion, of course). Gone is Rest Stop’s sense of atmosphere, now it’s replaced with an attitude of “Look how twisted we dare to be!” Shiban, who was a story editor during season four of The X-Files, should’ve known this. That was the season of “Home” (with freak brothers) and “Unruhe” (where a mad guy tried to lobotomize Scully). Those stories worked because the atmosphere came first and the gore (mainly in “Home”) only came second. What wasn’t shown on screen was filled in by your own imagination. Which is far superior than seeing someone bite off a finger (for no obvious reason).

Speaking of which, it takes a looooong time before you can feel sympathy for Nicole (Jaimie Alexander). Mainly because she decided to flee from her parents with one of the most annoying douchebags you’ve seen in a horror movie. By the time you do feel sympathy for her, the story becomes so incredible it’s impossible to the movie characters any longer as living creatures (because you’re too aware you’re watching a movie). That’s what an overdose of gore does to a viewer.

Yes, like Aja’s abysmal remake of The Hills Have Eyes, Rest Stop gloats in gore so much you see through it. Here is another movie that tries to be scary, is what you come to realize. And none of what follows will still scare you, not even the occasion return to its original form (the atmospheric supernatural thriller). What doesn’t help either is that most of the plot is quite familiar from other movies: a mysterious car blocking your exit, the torture porn, the weird (and deeply religious) family who are in the neighbourhood, the maniac you just can’t kill… stop me if you haven’t heard those before. And no, I’m not saying Rest Stop should’ve been a horror movie with brand new scares, but I can’t accept its soulless attempt to suck some blood (or money) out of Hollywood’s latest horror franchise. And yes, like all the torture porn movies, there is a Rest Stop 2.

Rest Stop 2 seems fairly impossible after watching the first movie, but they did manage to find a way to make the sequel credible. However, Nicole is no longer played by Jaimie Alexander. Now there’s a smart girl.

I have second feelings about ending this review with the usual score out of 10. Because sadly I can’t say the movie was as awful as I may have made it look now, even if that’s only thanks to a good performance by Jaimie Alexander and to John Shiban’s experience at The X-Files. The man can sure polish a turd. Now, how would you like me to rate the movie? As the excellently polished turd it now is? Or as the turd that’s still smelling underneath the surface? Rationally I should give this 4.5 or 5 out of 10. Emotionally, I want to go for a lower score. You decide.

Amongst the ideas you may have never expected to be turned into a movie, Enzo G. Castellari is proud to present you Johnny Hamlet, Shakespeare’s famous play served with an Italian western sauce.
If not anything else, it’s definitely quite different. But is it any good?

The idea was penned by Sergio Corbucci, director of a.o. Django and The Great Silence.
Preoccupied with directing too many movies himself, Corbucci couldn’t find enough time to make this idea into a movie. And that’s where Castellari stepped in.

Before we can discuss the movie further, let’s have a look at the various names of this film: the original title is Quella Sporca Storia Nel West.
The English title mixes the names of the main character and the character’s source and so we end up with Johnny Hamlet.
The German version is called Django - Die Totengräber warten schon. Never mind that this film isn’t related to Django or that there’s only one gravedigger in the film (and that he isn’t exactly waiting). You have to understand that in Germany it was apparently mandatory by law for every Italian western to be released as Django.
Django was of course a popular character and even the Italian producers tried to stick the name in as many westerns as possible: take Pochi Dollari per Django.
Castellari claims he was hired as a second-hand director for Pochi Dollari per Django (Some Dollars for Django), a Django rip-off that was going to be realized by Leon Klimovsky.  Castellari’s description of Klimovsky says it all: “A real gentleman, but I couldn’t see him turn out a great movie.”
Castellari helped the man and - as westerns were so popular at the time there were at least 300 made per year - did good enough a job for him to asked as a director for a western: Vado… l’ammazzo e torno (Any Gun Can Play). Soon afterwards he heard about Corbucci’s idea to turn Hamlet into a western… when Corbucci backed out Castellari stepped in.

Though the travelling circus company begin the movie with “To be or not to be”, Johnny Hamlet isn’t a faithful adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. Hamlet is called Johnny, for instance and Ophelia is not Hamlet’s girlfriend (Ophelia is part of the circus, Hamlet’s girlfriend is called Emily). However, certain names have made the transition: Hamlet’s uncle Claudius became Claude, there’s Horaz (Horatio) and Hamlet’s mother is Gertie, an acceptable abbreviation of Gertrude.

That not everything is strictly followed is a good thing: the basic idea (Claudius killing his brother, Hamlet avenging his father) is kept, but other plotlines have been changed. The effect is that you can’t always guess what’ll happen next and who will kill who.

Castellari can be a good director and you can see Johnny Hamlet was early in his career: you see the director’s enthusiasm in a lot of scenes. The camera swings nicely, sets are colourfully decorated… Castellari wanted to show the world he wanted to become a good director.
Of course, adapting Shakespeare is also a bit problematic: most people know the original and will have to agree that, if they kept a bit more of the original play, the movie could’ve been even better. Now it ends up at 7 out of 10 and it’s an entertaining spaghetti western, with a few nods to Hamlet.

But it is an beautifully made and entertaining film, so you won’t be disappointed when you choose to spend your evening watching Quella Sporca Storia Nel West.

DVD Review

How do I look?
Koch Media have done a nice job with this film: visually the movie looks quite stunning, especially if you compare the images to those of the trailers. A lot of work has gone into this and we’re more than happy to forgive the release the occasional visual line or crack in the audio. You’d have a tough time finding more than a handful, anyway.

The DVD release itself looks nice: its yellow draws immediate attention and I was almost able to find this DVD in the dark. If you take the DVD out of the cardboard box you’ll find the DVD presented as a book, with the film’s title on the cover and a Shakespeare quote on the back. “Sein oder Nichtsein, das ist hier die Frage: Ob’s edler in Gemüt, die Pfeil und Schleudern des wütenden Geschicks zu dulden oder, …” and then another 20 lines of Hamlet in German.

Language options, the more the merrier
You can choose between watching this movie in German or the original Italian track.
The German track is incomplete as the movie used to be cut. The scenes that were cut before are presented in Italian with German subtitles.
If you select the Italian track you can opt between German and English subtitles. A recent visit to Xploited Cinema told me that there were no English subs despite what it says on the box. Weirdly enough, the DVD I own does have English subs but doesn’t mention it on the cover. I don’t know if there’s a new version (not likely though) or if Xploited made an error here. Anyway, I’ve just seen the film and with English subtitles.

Any extras on the side?
Which brings us to the extras: the most interesting extra is a 34 minute long documentary, Strange Stories from the West. It’s mainly an interview with director Castellari and it sheds some light on the man’s career. Castellari’s interview is interrupted for an interview with Francesco de Masi (who’s responsible for the soundtrack). Afterwards, Mr Django himself, Franco Nero, comes to tell us why he wasn’t in this movie.

A nice release can’t do without the original trailer and we find two here: a German and the original Italian. Not understanding a benign word of Italian, I can’t tell you what the Italian blurb was, but I can tell you someone let his child loose on the trailer. Almost every scene presented in this 3 minute long trailer has been coloured in by a hyperactive toddler without taste. Never did drugs, but would like to know what a bad trip feels like? The Italian trailer will help you out!
The German trailer shows the same scenes, but without the insane colour schemes. Though it does draw a bit too much attention to the German title Django - Die Totengräber Warten Schon. Best line: “Though there are many Django movies there’s only a few by Corbucci and only one Django - Die Totengräber Warten Schon.” Hey, it wasn’t our idea you’d rename every Italian film Django, my German friends, so don’t blame us!

Wolfgang Luley wrote a 4-page booklet for the release. Actually, that’s one page for the cover, one page for a giant picture and only two pages of text in German, but it’s a bit informative, so we won’t make too much of a fuss about it.

And finally, a selection of 149 pictures (stills, covers and artwork) close the extras section.

Koch Media have done a nice job on this release. There’s enough extras to make you happy and most of them were relevant and don’t feel like they’re dragged out of some vault as filler material. And, unless you’re allergic to the colour yellow, the release looks nice too.

Overall review:
FILM - 7/10
EXTRAS - 9/10

Quella Sporca Storia Nel West (Johnny Hamlet / Django - Die Totengräber Warten Schon)
Italy, 1968
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Based on an idea by Sergio Corbucci
Cast: Andrea Giordana (Johnny), Gilbert Roland (Dazio aka Horaz), Horst Frank (Claudio aka Claude), Manuel Serrano (Santana), Françoise Prévost (Gertie), Ennio Girolami (Ross), Ignazo Spalla (Guild), Gabriella Grimaldi (Emily / Ophelia)

The DVD has been released by Koch Media (Germany) and is a Region 2 release.

Welcome to my latest DVD review, offered at least a week too late. And if you’re wondering why: be glad you’re reading this and you don’t have to listen to my voice, as I’m still sick.

Equally sick, be it in a different meaning, is the movie that’s on review today: Django Kill: If you live shoot!, which was called Se sei vivo spara when it was released. I’ve already written about the success of Corbucci’s Django and the stream of ’sequels’ that popped up shortly afterwards.
This is one of them: the producers changed the title (much to the dismay of the director), but for once something good came out of something bad. Even though Django Kill can still not be called famous, the Django suffix gave the movie the extra boost it deserved. Do remember that in the late 60s several euro westerns were released every week and it became hard to distinguish the handful of great movies between the hundreds of releases.

Django Kill: If You Live Shoot is a good euro western and the British release by Ardent (which was released in 2004, but completely slipped by me at the time) is the best version to buy. Here’s why.

Giulio Questi is the director of Se Sei Vivo Spara and he’s mainly known for two movies, the other being the equally weird giallo Death Laid An Egg.

Tomas Milian plays the lead and it definitely helped the producers that his character in the movie was either nameless or just called ‘The Stranger’. This made it so much easier to redub the character Django.
Fair enough, though this movie has nothing to do with Corbucci’s classic movie, of all the fake Django sequels this is the movie that resembles Django the most. It’s an incredibly cruel and violent movie: you’ll see a lot of people being killed, tortured and more of that unpleasantness.
One scene that had many censors worried at the time was the one where people realize someone has been shot with golden bullets and they tear the (still living) man apart to get their hands on the gold.

Ardent DVD offered the British audience the movie in its uncut glory, a very first for the British audience who probably heard about the movie when Alex Cox introduced the movie in BBC2’s Forbidden season in 1997. (Though the scene with the bullets couldn’t be shown in the film, you could see (most of) it in Cox’s introduction.)

The good news is that Alex Cox was willing to do another introduction for this movie, especially for the DVD release. This introduction can only be found on this edtion, which is why the British DVD manages to beat Django Kill’s American release by Blue Underground.

Also present on the Ardent release are an exclusive interview with the director and co-star Ray Lovelock and a set of trailers for other Argent western releases, as well as Se Sei Vivo Spara’s trailer.

The cut scenes have been reinserted and you have to know where they were to find them. The movie was restored from the original negative materials and a splendid job was done.
This, of course, means that people who aren’t familiar to Italian cult movies, will be able to complain that the blood is far too red to be believable. We, however, like our blood as red as can be.

Django Kill is a very good movie: if people disagree, shoot!

P.S. As a bonus, here’s Alex Cox introducing the film for a spaghetti western series on ITV4 (with thanks to Cultextras):

Captain Swing is the latest offering from Onar Films. The movie is a Turkish adaptation of an Italian comic based on the adventures of an American rebel. Well, I say American, I mean “French-American” living with Indian tribes. Did I just manage to include every country in the world in two sentences? Anyway, are you prepared for 90 minutes of Turkish actors pretending to be French, American, British and (heaven forbid) Indian? Let’s review Kaptan Swing (or Captain Swing)…

In case you hadn’t figured it out by now, Kaptan Swing is daft. Well, there’s a Turkish fellow trying to pass as an Indian (which basically means he walks around semi-clothed, has a couple of lines on his face and mentions the great gods in the sky in nearly every sentence)… of course it’s daft. Then again, American movies made in the fifties with similar themes are no less silly (even if directed by heavyweights like Jacques Tourneur). One has to assume it comes with the theme.

Anyway, Kaptan Swing is a rebel sought after by the English (read: Turkish actors in silly red outfits). His love is the ample bosomed Betty, his friends are the slightly overweight Mister Bluff and Sad Owl, the Indian who’s always hungry (and who’s in charge of the film’s comedy elements - which are quite annoying).
The thing is: Sad Owl’s comedy may be a bit annoying, but bear in mind this film doesn’t take itself serious. The addition of comedy characters in Turkish thrillers and horror movies is disturbing, but here you allow yourself to let it pass. Because the film is silly. Let’s face it, the genre is silly: comparable American movies from the 50s were no less cardboard than this feature.

After watching the trailer for this movie, I had a lot of reservations for this film, but to be honest, Kaptan Swing isn’t all that bad. You won’t believe for one second the film is set in North America, but if you look at it as a rogue movie, it’s okay. The film is quite faithful to the Italian comic it was based on, Il Comandante Mark.

As for the picture quality, it must definitely be mentioned this movie looks incredibly good. Often these Turkish movies look in such a bad shape the word “abysmal” would be considered as a compliment, but Captain Swing is one of Onar’s best looking movies so far. Apparently not all was lost.

Onar Films included the second part of its history of Turkish fantastic cinema (focusing on adventure movies) on this DVD, so on top of Kaptan Swing you’ll learn more about this movie and its likes. And what a shame that documentary isn’t longer.

Other extras include a poster insert, a couple of filmographies and biographies, a photogallery and a reel of upcoming trailers. Make sure you watch those trailers, there’s one of a Turkish Bond adaptation, the Turkish version of Death Wish (which will be released later this year) and a couple of other mouth-watering sleaze goodies. Treats ahead, ladies and gentlemen, treats ahead.

P.S. Do you know your one Captain Swing from another? Read the Wikipedia entry for more info, but bear in mind the Turkish movie isn’t included there.

Eastern Promises, like A History of Violence, meant a step back from the usual body horror for David Cronenberg. Eastern Promises is a bold step forwards though: it is still vintage Cronenberg even if it’s a thriller rather than a horror movie and doesn’t involve gamepods attached to your spinal or phallic creatures coming out of your armpit. That a director like Cronenberg was so interested in a movie about the Russian maffia shouldn’t surprise you: they have the habit of tattooing their history on their body, which makes a naked body like an open book for those who know the language.
That naked bodies are capable of a good dose of body horror is proved in the sauna sequence, where Viggo Mortensen’s character is attacked by men with knives. Not only because knives are easier to hide when you enter a sauna, but because guns are less personal. To stab a person, you need to be close to him/her. Which is what makes this fight, combined with the nakedness, so horrific to see.

That wasn’t the first time Cronenberg had you cringing in your seat. I watched Eastern Promises the day it arrived in the cinemas. A magical moment as I’d visited the dentist and the narcotics were beginning to wear out during the film. A surreal sensation, I must say. Anyway, it was 3pm and there were several dozens of people in the audience and I think every single female had screamed or yelped within the first ten minutes of the film. This body horror and Cronenberg’s refusal to glam up the violence is what makes this movie so good. Well, that and the qualities of cast and director. This isn’t your typical shoot-out blow-up extravaganza: it’s a thriller with human beings where violence really hurts.

The director had parts of the script reworked to turn this into a genuine Cronenberg feature (unlike A History of Violence - which was a movie with Cronenberg touches). The tattoo art went from a briefly mentioned aside to a more important part of the movie. This is only one of the things you learn on the DVD of Eastern Promises. The special edition contains two discs, even if it might’ve fitted on one. The specials include some interviews with the cast, the director and the writer as well as a feature on the tattoos and, rather than an audio commentary, a brief documentary on the film, what it was about and what it hoped to achieve.
There is also a B-roll with some footage of the recording. Well, if you have nothing better to do than Cronenberg shout action, Naomi Watts walking in front of the camera several times or Mortensen freezing his butt off, knock yourself out. I’m a die-hard Cronenberg fan and even I found this a waste of time.

If you open the box and take the discs out of their case you’ll find a list of the most important tattoos and their meaning. Here’s one: stars are an indication of how long someone’s been to prison. Each dot signifies one year spent in prison. If the stars are tattooed on the knees, it means this person refuses to kneel for any form of authority.
While it’s quite enlightening, someone didn’t think hard enough: the dvd case may be transparent, but the text at the part where the dvd clicks itself to the case is hardly legible. Excellent idea, poorly executed.

All in all Eastern Promises had everything in it to become a regular British thriller, but Cronenberg took the ideas and turned it into one of the best films of 2007. If you missed it in the cinema, catch it on DVD. If you caught it in the theatres, you’ll have probably run to the DVD store by now.

Film: 9/10
DVD: 6.5/10 (would’ve been 7.5 if they’d thought about the packaging)

Junko Miyazono returns as QUICK-DRAW OKATSU the daughter of a swordplay instructor who takes on a power-hungry magistrate in the second entry in the LEGENDS OF THE POISONOUS SEDUCTRESS series. Joined this time by Rui a wild young swordswoman the two sexy avengers embark on a blood-soaked quest for revenge after Okatsu is raped and her father slaughtered by one of his assistants. Okatsu and Rui slash their way through dozens of evil men in order to settle the score with those who wronged them in this swordplay classic which features some of the best fight scenes of the series. (description dvd cover)

Quick-Draw Okatsu is the second part of a trilogy with a rather odd title: Legends of the Poisonous Seductress. To be honest, after having seen the film I’m still not sure how this title refers to Okatsu. Apparently - I say ‘apparently’ because this is the only film of the trilogy I own - Quick Draw Okatsu has little to do with part one, Female Demon Ohyaku. It took only the concept of the first film and reworked it completely. And this one is in colour. The third film was called Okatsu The Fugitive, a sequel to this movie. The main thing all three movies have in common: lead actress Junko Miyazono.

Quick-Draw Okatsu introduces us to Rui, a feisty young girl in a fighting outfit/miniskirt. Rui is played by Reiko Oshida, who only made ten movies in her life. The titles of her films speak for themselves: School for Thieves, Blossoming Night Dreams (a.k.a. Tokyo Bad Girls), Crimson Bat Oishi: Wanted Dead or Alive and Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess (in which she played the lead). I don’t see Quick Draw Okatsu as a pinky violence movie (despite what it says on the DVD), but rather a female swordfighter movie. Okatsu is that swordfighter and it is she who Rui bumps into when chased by some men who work for the (corrupt) city commissioner. Okatsu is the (adopted) daughter of a famous fight instructor. Her word is good enough for the men to leave Rui alone. The instructor, Makabe, also has a son. This son, Rintaro, hates fighting and dreams of becoming a farmer with his beloved girl, Saki (who is pregnant, but has only informed Rintaro). Makabe is furious his son doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps, which has often lead to arguments. After another fight Rintaro leaves the house for good and tries to get more money by going to a gambling house. We, the viewers, see immediately the game is fraudulent, but Rintaro doesn’t and soon he’s in great debts. He tries to prove the game is rigged, but is unsuccessful. At which point Rui steps in and proves Rintaro was right. Rintaro grabs some money on his way out, which is the real start of the Makabes’ trouble. Since Rintaro has disappeared, the stolen money is demanded from Okatsu and her father. Okatsu offers to make good what her brother did wrong, which city commissioner Shiozaki and his henchmen reinterpret as Okatsu offering her body. Okatsu doesn’t want that, so they keep her locked in a cellar. Her father intervenes and demands they can punish him as much as they want to, if only they’ll let his daughter free. The henchmen pretend to oblige, but use the opportunity to torture Makabe while his daughter has to watch her father’s body being brutalized while being raped by Shiozaki. This (long and) relentless sequence made me check if Ken Loach hadn’t directed this movie. No, the director was one Nobuo Nakagawa (also the director of the cult classic Jigoku a.k.a. Hell).

After killing Makabe, it looks as if Okatsu’s days are numbered too. Luckily for Okatsu, Rui has managed to find out where Okatsu was held and jumps inside the house to save Okatsu. Shiozaki hears of Okatsu’s escape and has her announced as a dangerous killer.
Okatsu is alive with only one plan: to find the men who were responsible for her rape and the death of her father. She’s happy she still has a brother… Erm… Actually, her brother has been murdered rather cowardly and his lover was sold to a brothel. Okatsu finds out about this the hard way. Because in this film things can apparently only go the hard way.
Despite all the rapes, deaths and swordfights Quick-Draw Okatsu is not an exploitation movie. It’s violent and depressing because it’s so bleak (try and count the good characters in this film on one hand). At one point we see Saki being forced to undergo an abortion (and the question whether Okatsu will make it on time to stop the abortion). The bag with medical equipment is shown in lurid detail, Saki is shown being tied down to the table, but the bag is placed smack in the middle between the camera and Saki’s spread legs.

Quick-Draw Okatsu is in no way a ground-breaking film, all the things that happen have been seen in other films, but it’s executed rather well. It packs a lot of punch. Sadly, just not enough to become a classic or a cult classic, but it’s a good film.

Synapse Films released the trilogy on DVD. I wonder if they’ve been successful: on the IMDb the movies didn’t get too many votes. (At the time of writing Female Demon Ohyaku scored highest with only 41 votes.) Then again, not everyone who has seen the movie will go to the IMDb and vote. But still it is an indication that these films are quite obscure. The DVD comes with trailers for all three movies. Judging by the trailers, I would recommend this movie most. Female Demon Ohyaku comes a close second: it looks even bleaker (or is that the black and white factor?) and the sadistic scene where Ohyaku has revenge on a couple looks original. (The man will be guillotined if his wife moves: her hair is tied to a rope, which is connected to the guillotine’s blade.)

There’s also an audio commentary with details on the movie and its genre on this DVD, which is packed in a double-printed sleeve (so you can choose between the Synapse cover and the film’s original poster). For my money, this movie should get a 7.5/10. I’ll end this review with the link to the YouTube trailer, but first another shot of Rui, spying it out.

You can buy the DVD at Xploited Cinema (link) and DVD Pacific (link).

Everytime Onar Films announces a new DVD I’m wondering “How the hell will I remember that title?”. But after having seen the film, I can type the title as if I speak Turkish fluently. Demir Pence Korsan Adam roughly translates as “Iron Claw: The Pirate” and features as Hero of the Day one Iron Claw. Iron Claw and his female companion Mine battle it out against… erm… Fantômas. Yes, the French evil mastermind tries to get his criminal business going in Istanbul. If that doesn’t sound wacky enough, how’s this for a comparison? The opening reminds me of the style that Jess Franco used for his movies like Vampyros Lesbos. A scantily clad woman rolling on the floor to the movie’s theme. Yes, up for review tonight the Turkish version of what would happen if Jess Franco would direct a Fantomas movie. (And don’t think the man wouldn’t: he made movies of a.o. Frankenstein, Mabuse and Fu Manchu…)

Speaking of directors up for any adaptation, the director of this is Cetin Icanç who made several weird Turkish remakes himself, most notably the Turkish Star Wars movie (Dünyayi kurtaran adam a.k.a. The Man Who Saves The World). Demir Pence Korsan Adam is a bit more normal compared to that movie, but still it’ll make you raise an eyebrow at least once. Occasionally the plot is quite ludicrous (e.g. the scene where Demir and Mine spy on criminals by standing on an open tower, five metres up in the sky - and noone seems to spot them), so it’s best to throw any sense of logic out of the window before you’re going to watch this movie.
Speaking of windows, the director seemed a bit strapped for cash when he asked the creative team to come up with some sort of television set that would allow Fantômas (when still in France) to speak to his criminal crew in Turkey. The result is that odd thing you see on your right. Good thing we already chucked out our logic.

To be honest, I was sorta rooting for Fantômas here, mainly because I didn’t like Demir Pence. He comes across quite macho and quite wooden (so Man of Wood rather than Man of Steel - apologies for the awful joke). Luckily his companion Mine is a lot more likable. I know there were other Demir Pence movies made, why didn’t anyone think of a Mine spin-off? The girl deserved it! Mine’s uncle (nicknamed The Uncle) provides - I assume it was obligatory in those days - the comic relief of the film and (for a pleasant change) I didn’t find him that annoying. Another plus for Demir Pence Korsan Adam.

Slightly disappointing (for me - but not for you, as I’m warning you now) is that from the beginning Demir Pence Korsan Adam feels a lot sleazier than it genuinely is: the ladies may get scantily clad, but there’s no nudity in this film. You’ll see ladies in bras and panties, but that’s as naughty as it gets. Which doesn’t mean the movie doesn’t try and arouse you: Fantômas often has women dancing for him and more often than once the bellydancer doesn’t face really Fantômas, but the camera (and thus the viewer). This sort of direct contact with the camera is dangerous, but Icanç pulls it off here (well, his actresses do anyway).

I don’t think it’ll be a spoiler to tell you that Demir Pence and his crew catch Fantômas in the end (because that’s how those movies worked). Hurrah for the Turks for succeeding where the French failed. Actually, that’s not me saying this, this is mentioned almost verbatim in the movie. After which, I kid you not, the Turkish anthem starts to play. (To my annoyance, but then again Sam Raimi’sSpiderman is no better example here: remember how he looped around the American flag at the end of the first movie. So if anything happened in let’s say Angola, Spiderman wouldn’t stop reading his paper, or what? Quite an annoying habit these superheroes seem to have. At least Casus Kiran just had Casus Kiran and his female companion mentioned as ‘patriots’ and that was that. Anyway, this is just one of my pet hates.)

What should definitely be mentioned is how great this movie looks: we know by now that for all their patriotism in the superhero movies the Turks were rather careless with preserving their movies and that often showed in the prints ‘rescued’ by Onar Films. Well, Demir Pence Korsan Adam is different: sometimes the image is flawless, overall it’s very good and there are just a couple of scenes where the wear is evident (but even then the movie remains very watchable). Nice to see an older Turkish movie (it was made in 1969) in such a good state for once.

As I’d mentioned earlier, Icanç seems to have thrown out his sense of logic out of the window when he made this movie. There is some gung ho feeling to the action scenes: Demir and his crew show up at a place where they might get closer to Fantômas, so we need at least ten opponents. No, make that definitely a dozen. Is there anyone who Fantômas suspects of not helping his evil case? Then he or (preferably) she must be killed. Bigger! Better! Bolder!

Which in the end only proves my point: this is the Turkish equivalent of what Jess Franco would do to a Fantômas movies. Minus the excess of nudity, that is.

Demir Pence Korsan Adam was released by Onar Films. The DVD is region free (Region 0) and can be watched anywhere in the world. You can buy the film straight from Onar Films (mind the summer sale discount!) and Xploited Cinema. The DVD contains Greek and English subtitles and the extras include a great documentary on the films of director Icanç.Demir Pence Korsan Adam is released as a limited edition (only 500 copies!).

Jess Franco’s Killer Barbys is to the band The Killer Barbies what Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys go America was to the Leningrad Cowboys. Both are movies starring an existing band and both are typical products of the directors.
Kaurismäki is known for his deadpan black humor presented in films totally weirding you out and Leningrad Cowboys go to America is a weird and funny tale of the Leningrad Cowboys going to America.
Franco, on the other hand, is known for erotic horror movies and Killer Barbys is a mix of horny rockers and cannibalists.

But there’s more. Kaurismäki made a sequel, Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses, an attempt to make the worst movie ever. To a certain degree he succeeds in doing so.
Franco’s Killer Barbys doesn’t look as if it pretended to make a similar effort,but it’s difficult not to see how many horror cliches you can see in this film: at night you hear the sound of wearwolves, it’s often twelve o’clock, there’s cannibalism, you’ve got some dwarves, most of the rockers constantly want sex, a semi-naked girl is being chased in the woods, there’s lots and lots of blood and someone even ends up being crushed.
How much gore can you get into one movie? We’d ask Lucio Fulci, but unfortunately he’s dead.

But movies like Killer Barbys and the “Leningrad Cowboys” films (apart from two movies, Kaurismäki also directed a concert documentary and several short movies with the band) never meant to be original pieces of cinematographic genius.They serve, in a way, to let you know the band exists.
Sure, the directors are there to produce an end result that’s a nice business card for both band and director, but if these movies weren’t large band promos,the directors could’ve gotten just as well a bunch of actors. If anything, they are much more enjoyable than your average rockumentary.

There’s one advantage the Leningrad Cowboys have: their name. You may have noticed I talk about the movie Killer Barbys and the band Killer Barbies.
The answer to this riddle is simple: Mattel didn’t like the idea of seeing their top product linked to a dirty rock band’s movie with sex and fangs and threatened to sue if the movie would bear the band’s name. One intentional spelling mistake later, everything was okay again.
Sure, it’s a minimal difference but if you look for the name of the band, you’ll need a bit longer to find the film. Thankfully someone invented the internet, home of the spelling mistake, and you won’t have to search that much longer.

But let’s go back to the film.
Even though Franco made lots of no-budget movies where anyone can see through the special effects, I suspect him here of making the effects as bad as possible (if you can’t see that the dead bodies are dummies, you desperately need to get your eyes checked.)
Either that, or the band intended to make a parody of a horror movie and everyone was in on the joke, except for the director.

It is true that Franco could have tried harder and that the movie could have been better, but it’s common knowledge that it’s better not to look Franco’s best movies in the nineties.
Most of Franco’s movies are so badly acted, it’s somehow ironic to conclude that in Killer Barbys two rockers act better than Franco’s cast of regulars (Lina Romay, Linnea Quigley, …).

To me, Killer Barbys stands out as the only decent movie Franco made in the nineties, so if you want to see some of his later work, this is the best choice you can make. As long as you remember it’s a Frankenstein experiment of combining gore and rockumentaries.

As everybody seemed happy with the result, Franco directed a sequel in 2002, Killer Barbys vs. Dracula. It just seems to make the weird parallels to Kaurismäki’s work with the Leningrad Cowboys even stronger, and it may be something for bands to think about: both the Cowboys and the Barbies managed to make more than one movie, whereas you don’t often get to see a sequel of a rockumentary.
If a band is inspired by this review to contact a director for a movie instead of a rockumentary you can always send me some money. I accept cheques.

By the way, “Love Killer” is not a bad song.

P.S. Killer Barbys is out on DVD. Details are below. You can order the VellaVision DVD at dvdgo.com and the ShriekShow is sold by (a.o.) Xploited Cinema.

Region 2
Label: VellaVision (Spain)
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: Spanish / English
Ration aspect: 4:3 (Fullscreen)
Extras: Interactive Menus, Scene Access, Filmographies, Photo Gallery, Trailers

Region 2
Label: VellaVision (Spain)
Same DVD as above, but in pack with the movie’s sequel, Killer Barbys vs. Dracula.

Region 1
Label: Shriek Show
Uncut Anamorphic Widescreen Version
Language: English and Original Multi-Language Dolby Digital Stereo Tracks
Extras: Interview with Sylvia Superstar and Billy King, 2 Killer Barbies’ music videos, notes, biographies and trailer

I guess that there’s no need for me to introduce you to the Criterion Collection. Albeit not especially cheap, these DVDs are so full of extras it would be best to describe them as the definitive edition of the movie, sometimes even for DVDs you wouldn’t expect to get such a gigantic release. Criterion are having a busy month, already they have released Jacques Tati’s Traffic, Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and the long short (or however you’d describe a movie of 27 minutes) Patriotism by Yukio Mishima. They’ve also released a Canadian movie I’d never heard of, Mon Oncle Antoine by Jutra, but that is dubbed “the best Canadian movie of all times” by certain critics. Looks promising.
But, as I said, the month isn’t over and Criterion is still going to release a couple of movies.

First up is High and Low by Akira Kurosawa. A businessman has to choose what he’s going to do with a sum of money he’s raised. On the one hand he could use it for a vital business deal, or he could spend it as ransom money for his kidnapped son. The movie was based on the detective novel King’s Ransom by Ed McBain (the man also penned the novels for The Blackboard Jungle and The Birds). Apart from a booklet on the movie, you’ll also get several interviews: the interview with the actor who plays the kidnapper was recorded for this release, the interview with the movie’s lead Toshiro Mifune comes from Japanese tv. There’s also a documentary on the making of this movie (37 minutes) and the movie has an alternative  audiotrack for a commentary by a Kurosawa scholar.
This special edition (2 discs) comes out on July 22 and will cost $39.95.

On the same day Criterion will release a movie that sparked off this article: Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr. This movie has been released a couple of times already, but I wouldn’t blame you for not buying it: some releases were downright shoddy. Knowing Criterion’s reputation, you can be sure you’ll spend your money on a grand release. Rather than attempting to describe the movie myself, I’ll let Criterion do the job for me:

With Vampyr, Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer’s brilliance at achieving mesmerizing atmosphere and austere, profoundly unsettling imagery (The Passion of Joan of Arc and Day of Wrath) was for once applied to the horror genre. Yet the result—concerning an occult student assailed by various supernatural haunts and local evildoers in a village outside Paris—is nearly unclassifiable, a host of stunning camera and editing tricks and densely layered sounds creating a mood of dreamlike terror. With its roiling fogs, ominous scythes, and foreboding echoes, Vampyr is one of cinema’s great nightmares.

The original German version that was restored in 1998 will now be shown in a high-def digital version. There’s also a “newly credited alternate version with English text”. Apart from an audio commentary by a film scholar, you’ll also be treated to the 1966 documentary on Dreyer’s work by Jørgen Roos, a visual essay on Dreyer’s influences for this film and a 1958 radio broadcast on filmmaking by Dreyer himself. Even that is not all… there’s even a “booklet featuring new essays by Mark Le Fanu and Kim Newman, Koerber on the restoration, and a 1964 interview with producer and star Nicolas de Gunzburg, as well as a book featuring Dreyer and Christen Jul’s original screenplay and Sheridan Le Fanu 1872 story Carmilla, a source for the film.”
$39.95 may sound like a lot of cash, but I’m pretty sure you’re getting your money’s worth with this release.

P.S. You can buy Criterion movies straight from the source (which means you’ll get a pleasant reduction), but you can also buy them elsewhere and sometimes even cheaper. We of Delirium Vault recommend DVD Pacific.

Casus Kiran is Turkish for “Spy Smasher”, the international title of this 1968 action movie by Yilmaz Atadeniz. Spy Smasher was a comic hero from the 1930s and 1940s. Of course the original Spy Smasher was American (as opposed to Turkish) and fighting the Nazis (as opposed to fighting a local gang of thugs), but Turkish remakes were never known for their accuracy.

In 1942 the Spy Smasher comic was turned into a movie serial. The 12 parts were condensed to 100 minutes and rereleased in 1966, just two years before Casus Kiran saw the light. In an interview (available on the DVD) director Atadeniz confesses he was highly influenced by the serials he saw in the theatres as a kid.
Let it suffice to say that this shows: Casus Kiran plays more like a serial taped together to form a film. That doesn’t say anything about the quality of the film: it’s just that Casus Kiran often ends up trying to stop another attempt of his nemesis The Mask to rule Turkey and (by extension) the world.

The comic cover pictured on the Wikipedia page of Spy Smasher leaves no room for innuendo: “Death to spies in America!” shouts the comic’s hero. Casus Kiran was made nearly 30 years later in a year the world discovered the hippies and thus he’s less harsh, but nevertheless the voiceover announces Casus Kiran and his girlfriend Sevda as “patriots willing to die for their country”. It’s good for Casus Kiran and Sevda their opponents aren’t as fierce as the Nazis.
Atadeniz wants to make it clear that our heroes aren’t just fighting any group of local thugs. The movie’s titles and the opening sequence show you these criminals have no problem blowing things up or murdering people in cold blood. Again, some of those killings may look a bit cartoonish, but that often went together with the serial style.

Spy Smasher’s local nemeses are The Black Glove and The Mask. The former is the gang leader, the latter is the mastermind behind several criminal groups and the one who hopes to dominate the world one day. Yeah, we all have dreams. In fact, in a bit of reality kicking in, one of the good characters remarks that it is a bit curious to find all these criminal organisations in Turkey. No, our hero replies, that is often the case in countries where cultures come together. Turkey is stuck on the dividing lines between western and eastern culture and it’s lying next to a sea: it makes some sense that as locations go, it could be the wet dream of an evil mastermind.
Speaking of masterminds, if you always have problems identifying the evil characters, you won’t have too much trouble here: the Black Glove wears black gloves and The Mask… well, see for yourself on the accompanying picture. Though this evil mastermind with perhaps the tiniest budget for facial camouflage always conceals his identity successfully thanks to his mask, you won’t have trouble guessing who’s behind the mask. But then again, it’s not a giallo, eh?

The good guys in this movie are Spy Smasher, Sevda and her father (a policeman) plus Spy Smasher’s friend Badik, who’s mainly there for comic relief (if you like that sort of thing - I myself find little relief therein, only aggravation) and who’s accompanied by a tune which sounds eerily similar to a Henry Mancini tune called “Baby Elephant Walk“. What a coincidence, eh?
Sevda is a more interesting character than her boyfriend. Casus Kiran just has to be the Spy Smasher and even when he takes off his mask, his character doesn’t gain any more depth. (He’s just “guy who sometimes is Spy Smasher”.) Sevda is not only the ally of Spy Smasher, she’s also the daughter of a police detective. This man, Cahit, has no clue why Spy Smasher and his girlfriend always had over their evidence to him. (And why would he? It’s not as if Sevda only put on big sunglasses when she becomes Casus Kiran’s sidekick. Wait… that’s all she does (apart from changing into a leather costume)? Never mind then.

Sevda is more than just a sidekick. It is she who’ll save Casus Kiran and his other sidekick (not that Bedik deserves to go by that name: a gigantic log of wood would be more useful as a sidekick - and definitely less annoying) and, as far as ass-kicking sidekicks go, she doesn’t mind using her knuckles and legs. She’s more akin to Catherine Gale and Emma Peel of The Avengers than to Robin of Batman. (To be honest, Bedik is as annoying as Robin. Holy junkyard, I wouldn’t think that was possible.)

Enough about the film, what’s the DVD like? Well, as you know, Onar Films specializes in digging up Turkish movies that are almost impossible to find. Casus Kiran was not in a good state and occasionally a couple of seconds (sometimes up to a minute) were missing. One time it is absolutely not important and one wonders why Onar Films didn’t decide to chuck out that filler dialogue (now we watch a conversation start and in the middle of a sentence the print skips to the next scene). The answer is of course that Onar Films does its best to release as much of the film as possible. A second cut is a bigger shame: at one point Sevda is abducted and Casus Kiran follows them on his motorbike. There is a cut when the thugs’ car leaves the road and suddenly we see our Spy Smasher battle it out with some of the thugs while one tries to run off with Sevda. (Incidently, during the road chase Sevda does all she can so one of the thugs can’t shoot Casus Kiran who’s following closely and she can only be subdued by getting a couple of heavy punches. It’s nice to see this sort of active sidekick for a change.)

The subtitles sadly don’t have the level of perfection a later Onar Films release (Cizil Tug Cengiz Han - reviewed here two weeks ago), but the couple of mistakes aren’t that distracting.
Occasionally, the print is in an awful state (What’s that behind those scratches? Oh, a movie!) but overall the quality is acceptable enough for you to dish out some money (incidently, did you know there was a summer sale right now at the Onar Films site?).

Yilmaz Atadeniz was interviewed for the DVD extras and he tells us he had to rival Turkey’s other production companies with bigger stars and budgets by shooting low(er) budget movies with a crew that contained both actors and wrestlers (because they wouldn’t mind all the running and (fake) punching). Occasionally it shows the man was a good director: during the sea chase (yes, another chase - told you this movie was related to the serial) you don’t see the director make a mistake, even though as a scene it was probably more difficult to shoot than a scene with just two people talking (and funnily enough, that’s the sort of scene where Atadeniz does make mistakes: by mismatching the actors’ reaction shots for instance). Again, it only shows how much the director liked the action in his movies.

The long interview of Atadeniz was conducted by Metin Demirhan, who was good friends with Bill from Onar Films. Demirhan passed away shortly after the interview and that is why this DVD was especially dedicated to Demirhan. (Later releases also mention Demirhan explicitely, but here you get a final chance to listen to the man interviewing a Turkish director. In case you didn’t know, Demirhan wrote a book on Turkish Fantastic Cinema.)

The other extras are a couple of filmographies, some trailers and a mini poster.

To whom would I recommend Casus Kiran? To someone who loves superheroes when they’re accompanied by an apt sidekick. To someone who doesn’t like movies which are longer than 70 minutes (Casus Kiran clocks off after 67 minutes). And, more importantly, someone who likes the style of the American movie serials of the 1930s and 40s.It’s not a good place to start if you’ve never seen a Turkish adaptation, but it’s meatier than some of those Turkish ‘remakes’. It also has no problem with being violent from time to time, which does make a lot more credible than some superhero movies - which are far too cartoonish, but some people might be offended by the violence (e.g. like the scene where the thugs try and get some information from a couple of women - as you can tell from the picture hovering near this text).

I’d give Casus Kiran 6.5/10 and the guarantee you’ll like it if you’re in for a movie night with lots of action and violence.

CASUS KIRAN (SPY SMASHER)
Turkey, 1968 (B/W, 67 min)
Director: Yilmaz Atadeniz
Actors: Irfan Atasoy, Sevda Ferdag, Yildirim Gencer, Hüseyin Zan, Suzan Avci

DVD FEATURES:
* Limited Edition: 1200 numbered copies
* Turkish audio with English and Greek subtitles (Dolby Digital 2.0)
* Extra: Poster Insert
* Extra: Interview with the director (approx. 30 minutes)
* Extra: Filmographies of Atadeniz and Atasoy
* Extra: Photo Gallery
* Extra: Trailers for upcoming releases

And finally there’s just time for the trailer: