"Don't Go In The House" is a 1980 film directed by Joseph Ellison. This was pretty much his only directing job apart from a film called "Joey", made in 1986. It was largely unseen and never made much of an impact compared to his first film.
"Don't Go In The House" has went on to be a cult classic, and only recently has been released in the UK by the label Arrow Video (under their ArrowDrome guise) after years being stuck in video nasty limbo. Needless to say I snapped it up.
The story is about a man called Donny (Dan Grimaldi), who was physically abused by his mother as a child. She would regularly punish him and try to burn the evil out of him over the kitchen stove. He develops an obsession with fire and grows up to work at the local incinerator. There is an accident at work where a can of aerosol gets into one of the furnaces and explodes, setting someone on fire. Instead of helping the guy out, Donny just watches the guy burn as other people come out to save him. Afterwards, he claims he froze with shock.
After that incident, he goes back to the house he shares with his abusive mother. When he goes to check on her, he finds out she has died in her sleep. At this discovery he becomes totally unhinged. He decides to modify a bedroom into his own furnace, with steel walls and a chain for hanging people on. He then goes on to pick up various women to take home to become victims in his "room of steel", as the trailer likes to call it.
This is where the film gains some notoriety. At that time the horror genre was being attacked by critics and feminine groups for it's depiction of violence pretty much solely against women. Roughly around the same time a film called "Maniac" was released, basically following a serial killer who preys on women and kills them in horrible ways. Critics were saying that the people who made these films were "sick" and "depraved" individuals. These two films were the main examples of that argument. I'm not really here to spark debate as to whether that is true or not (if you have anything to say, feel free to mention in the comments below).
I liked this film. I can see what critics are getting at with the violence at parts, and is slightly disturbing, but there are a lot of other films from that time period that I would deem more disturbing. "Maniac" being one of them (watch that movie if you get the chance!). The film is pretty short. It could have been an extra 20 minutes at least, the film ends quite abruptly. I would rather let you watch the film to see what I mean, but the ending left me a bit underwhelmed. The running time may have been due to budget constraints, but I suppose for what money they did have, they managed to make a fairly decent, disturbing and effective film. It also has one of my favourite horror trailers ever, and for people wanting to see the film but would rather not buy it, the entire film is on youtube for your enjoyment! The trailers for "Don't Go In The House", and "Maniac", are at the end of this post.
Thanks for reading the blog. I took a bit of time out and I'm not the most prolific of bloggers, but I hope you have enjoyed reading. Feel free to comment below, join the page, or get in on the conversation on twitter or facebook (links are on the right of the page). I actually do a lot on my facebook page so you should check it out!
Just in case anyone has noticed there hasn't been a post in a few weeks. I've just been really busy but hopefully I'll have something up soon. Got a few films that be writing posts about so please keep an eye out.
Also if you have the time and you haven't already, please like my facebook page. I have been talking a lot on there, doing competitions and talking about films in general. The more the merrier so check it out! There is a like button on the right hand side of the page. If you are already liking the page, please spread the word!
Also for more reading, take a look at some of the other blogs that I think are great that you can go to by clicking on the links on the right too!
Hi everyone! I'm being a bit out of character for this post as I'm actually talking about a music video. One of the members follows my Facebook page and thought their new zombie themed music video would be suitable for the blog, so why not. It makes for a bit of a change! The band is called "Sinicle" and the song is called "Obliterate".
"Sinicle" are a heavy metal band that hail from Reno, Nevada and the band members are Andrew Zaragoza, who plays guitar and sings lead vocals. Justin Miller plays bass and sings vocals, and James Gepner plays drums.
They have been gaining a bit of a following online and have been interviewed for several magazines and online radio stations. They are hoping to win a battle of bands competition to play on this years Warped tour, I'll have a link to that at the bottom of the post. The have relocated to Hollywood, California, and are regularly playing gigs at venoes such as The Whisky, and The Rainbow Bar.
The video is of the band playing on stage at a live gig. Unknown to them, there is a horde of zombies making their way to the venue, possibly attracted by the noise. The video culminates in the zombies taking to the stage and devouring the band as they try to keep playing! It's a fairly DIY video and has practically no budget, but it does give you a fair impression of what it's like to be at one of their shows (minus the zombies obviously!).
"Sinicle" are currently working on a new EP, with producer Bob Kulick. Kulick is a Grammy Award winning producer and is the brother of "KISS" guitarist Bruce Kilick. He has also played on several "KISS" albums and has worked with artists like "Motorhead", "Lou Reed", "Meat Loaf" and "W.A.S.P.
Check out the links below and remember to check out the video. I'll be back to normal for my next post but who knows, I could do something similar again at some point! Please leave some comments at the bottom of the page if you have a minute to spare, and feel free to join my facebook page or twitter by clicking on the links on the right hand side of the page.
Hey there! It's been a couple of weeks, I've been a bit lazy and have just been watching a lot of films and not writing about them. I have been posting a lot of stuff on my facebook page, basically film trailers of the films I've been watching and short films that are from youtube. If you would like to join this page there is a like button to the right of this page. Now onto the film!
"Perth" is a 2004 film from Singapore, directed by Djinn ( real name Ong Lay Jinn). The main character is a man called Harry Lee. He is a self proclaimed "simple man" whose dream is to move to the Australian city called Perth. He works part time as a security guard at the shipyard and drives a taxi at night, saving up his money to move to Perth. Unfortunately his plans go a bit awry when he loses his security guard job and his wife gambles away his savings.
A man he knows from the shipyards called Angry Boy Lee, who is not exactly by the book, says that if he needs a job he will try and help him out. Harry recruits his best friend from his days in the army, Selvam, and goes to meet Angry Boy Lee. He manages to get them a job transporting prostitutes about town, and Harry starts to make a good bit of money that will make his dreams of moving to Perth start a little bit quicker. Until he meets a prostitute who he falls for.
He transports this prostitute a few times to a hotel, and whenever she leaves she seems to have taken a beating. It reminds him of an incident he had in the army with a girl, and he feels he can make up for it by buying the prostitutes freedom. This is easier said than done! Things start to go downhill quite rapidly once this happens, and in a pretty violent fashion.
The cover of the dvd says that this film is Singapore's answer to "Taxi Driver". It has some similarities such as him driving a taxi, trying to help save a prostitute with violent results, and there's even a mirror scene! But it has enough stuff in it to help carve out its own identity. This film is has a lot of scenes of just Harry and Selvam sitting in bars and restaurants, just drinking and talking about any and all topics. They really seem like they have known each other for years and are very close friends.
Harry has a lot of problems in his life. He is a man in his fifties watching the world go by and feeling left out. He thinks he can rid himself of his faults and start afresh in Perth, which he portrays as a Utopia where there are no troubles.
The director Djinn said he was inspired to make the film because of the many taxi rides he has had where the drivers have had a desire to move to Perth. Also when he was in the army reserves, he noticed a lot of the soldiers talked about moving to Perth. Even his uncle who was in the merchant navy talked of his dream to move to Perth.
Thanks again for taking the time to read the page. If you have anything to say please leave a comment below, I like to have some feedback from the people who have read the page. Also please like the page on facebook or twitter, though facebook is my preferred page as I do a lot of posting trailers and stuff on it. I'll see you all again soon. Thanks!
I haven't put much on the page the past few months as you may have noticed. I'm trying to rectify that by putting up more posts on the page (possibly every couple of days), a few may be a bit shorter between bigger posts as well. Plus I've started a facebook page which you can like on the right in addition to my twitter. I've been talking and posting trailers and short films on my facebook a lot over the past couple of days so join in if you're interested (please haha!).
I kept picking up "Ex Drummer" in my local dvd store for a while without buying it but I finally gave in when the price became too good to refuse. "Ex Drummer" is a 2007 Belgian release directed by Koen Mortier. It is an adaptation of a book written by Herman Brusselmans of the same name.
The film begins with three disabled musicians who are looking for a drummer (who must also have a disability) so they can play a gig for one show only at a local music competition. They ask a famous, rich writer called Dries to play drums for them. His disability is that he can't play the drums (which he can play quite well), and this suits their bands punk sensibilities to a tee.
Koen is the lead singer. His disability is that he has a speech impediment. He also hates women, whom he is partial to raping and beating. The walls in his flat are usually smeared in someones blood and he's usually filmed upside down when he's in his home for some reason.
Ivan plays guitar. His disability is that he is slightly deaf. He is constantly under the influence of drugs and lives with his addict wife and badly neglected child in squalor.
Jan is the bass player. His disability is that he is unable to bend his right arm. He is gay, has some serious mother issues, and his dad is insane and is locked in a room in a straitjacket to stop him causing any harm.
Dries is pretty much bored with his life, and decides to join their band as a diversion and as inspiration for a new book. He is of the idea that he can get his amusement by hanging out with these degenerates and get away with doing things he would never imagine doing in civilised society, safe in the knowledge that he can go back to his plush apartment and his beautiful wife at the end of the day. Dries names the band "The Feminists", and watches and manipulates these dysfunctional characters purely for his own entertainment. He pretty much pushes everyone to breaking point knowing there is nothing they can do to get out of their mess while he simply goes home and forgets all about them.
This is a bleak, though at times, darkly comic film. With such themes as drug use, murder, rape, child abuse, racism, and many more, and the poverty these characters live in, can sometimes make for a tough watch. But, like such films as "Trainspotting", it has a degree of humour running through it too.
This is director Koen Mortier's first film, though he has previously worked on music videos and advertisements. There is an interesting 30 minute making of featurette on the dvd which shows how troubled the production of this film was. Rejection letter after rejection letter to get financing for the film, and the actors and crew really didn't like working with Mortier, who tries to liken himself to famous directors like Scorcese which is a bit hard to stomach.
This is a film that has split opinion down the middle with people either loving it or hating it. I thought it was a strange, slightly baffling film, but I have seen worse made films. Also I have to give kudos to the ending, which I did think was great and totally unexpected!
I once again thank everyone for reading, please feel free to leave a comment below if you have time. Also please like my facebook page, as I talk a lot on there!
It's been a while since I last wrote a post on the page and for that I apologise. Anyway, I'll try to get back on track and get more films on the page. I've recently been trying to get a bit more interaction with whoever is reading the blog, this film post being one of them. I have also joined the Horror Blogger Alliance, which has helped me find readers and find some great new pages myself. Check it out if you're interested in reading more pages like this one!
I had a competition a few days ago to name a film that that people would like to see on the page. I had a lot of great suggestions but I picked a film called "House" (thanks Trina) as I felt it sounded appropriately insane enough to tie in with the blog.
I had never seen the film before. I just had my copy delivered this morning in the post and have literally just watched it. Now I'm a bit lost on what to say!
"House" (Hausu) is a 1977 Japanese film (I can't really pidgeonhole it into a particular genre) directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. This was his debut feature film although he was already well known for his avant-garde experimental short films and his TV commercials made for Japan, starring Hollywood stars such as Kirk Douglas and Charles Bronson.
Before I talk about the film, I should talk a bit about how the film came to be made.
In the beginning, Obayashi and a small group of individuals were interested in making short experimental movies using 8mm and 16mm film. After a while the profile of this group increased, and they started to show their films at makeshift venues. At one of these venues was a producer of one of Japan's leading advertisers, who proposed that they use their experimental techniques to make advertisements.
Obayashi took up this proposal. Instead of commercials, he likes to call them avant-garde and experimental amateur films, except the themes are for products. He was also attracted to the professional equipment that he had at his disposal in a studio environment.He became well known as an innovator in advertising, using all his technical and experimental expertise.
In the seventies, the Japanese film studios were having a difficult period and found it hard to compete with commercial Hollywood films. At that time in Japan, to be a film director you had to be an employee at one of the studios and work your way up to assistant director before becoming a director yourself if you were lucky. Obayashi wasn't an employee of a studio so thought his chances of making a feature film were non existant.
Studios weren't making a lot of money so they hired out their studios to advertisement companies. Obayashi hired the biggest studio at Toho to make his commercials. One day a Toho producer visited his studio and asked if he had seen the film "Jaws"? The producer said that he'd like to see such an exciting film made in Japan but can't work out how to make such a film. He then said that Spielberg was an amateur 8mm filmmaker who got a part-time job in Hollywood in TV work and then created "Jaws". He then said that sounded a lot like Obayashi and did he think that he could make a film like that at Toho? Obayashi said yes, and the producer asked if he could come up with a film proposal.
Obayashi thought of what story he could come up with that was similar to "Jaws". They all came down to man eating animals of all forms which he thought was tired as everyone was trying to make these films. He went home and asked his young daughter, Chigumi, what she thought was scary. She was brushing her hair at the mirror and said, "If my reflection could jump out and eat me, that would be scary." That's how "House" was concieved. After the film was green lit, it was put on hold for two years as no director wanted to make the film. This opened the door for Obayashi to direct.
Onto the film. "House" is about a group of schoolgirls only known by nicknames. Gorgeous (the pretty one), Fantasy (day dreamer), Mac (the chubby one), Prof (smart), Kung Fu (good fighter), Melody (accomplished musician), and Sweet (the nice one). All the girls apart from Gorgeous plan on going on a camping trip with their teacher for the summer holidays, which then gets cancelled. Gorgeous plans on going on holiday with her father who is a successful film scorer. Her father comes back from Italy and introduces Gorgeous to her soon-to-be stepmother who will be joining them on holiday.This upsets Gorgeous who then goes to her room and writes a letter to her aunt asking if she and her friends can come and stay? Soon after, a cat comes to the house, along with a reply saying they can all go to visit.
They make their way to where the aunt lives in the countryside, and have a bit of difficulty finding the house, but they finally arrive and are greeted by Gorgeous' aunt. After a brief tour of the house, the girls are left to their own devices. They soon start disappearing one by one, the other girls start looking for them only to be taken out in some imaginative ways!
As per usual, I only like to give a brief synopsis of the film so I don't spoil it for anyone. All I can say is, this is a really strange film. Part horror, dark fairytale, very sugary teen melodrama, surreal comedy and bad acid trip. Some of it was maybe a bit hard even for me to stomach, I thought there were some really bad but still highly surreal attempts at slapstick comedy which were groan worthy. But the film was entertaining enough, I don't think I'll see anything like it again!
If you like surrealism and almost incomprehensible images this film is one you should look out for. If you want to see someone being eaten by a grand piano or a man turn into bananas for no reason check it out! I liked it to an extent but found a lot of the first half of the film too sugary and sweet for my liking. I like it a little darker!
The whole backstory of how the film came to be made is very interesting and I once again thank Trina for choosing the film. Although I liked about 60% of it, it 100% belongs on this page!
I thank everyone for giving the page a look, feel free to let your thoughts be known in the comments section below!
As you can see, I've been on a bit of a hiatus for a while now. It's been quite hard to write anything because I've really been struggling to get anyone to actually read anything on here. I'm probably not the best writer and I don't claim to be, and I always said I'm just doing this for myself, but it has been dragging me downg a bit even though I try not to let it.
Anyway, enough whining. I've been trying to get things back on track now and a couple of days ago I put a competition on twitter and facebook for people to pick a film they'd like to see up on the page and the winner would win a film from my personal collection, not just any old shit that I don't want but one that goes in line with what I write.
Unfortunately, no one read that competition either (only one reply so far) so I'm posting up on the page to see if I get a better response! If successful, there will be more stuff like this up on the page. If not, I guess I'll just call it a day I suppose haha!
If anyone thinks they have something good, let me know in the comments and if all goes well, I'll pick a winner!
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