The Red Queen Kills Seven Times

I decided to watch a Giallo with a wonderful title:

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972).

Mild Spoilers Ahead

The movie opens with a young girl, Kitty, playing with a doll in a castle garden. Her sister Evelyn steals it and runs away. Their invalid grandfather tries to make peace between them until Evelyn, apparently influenced by a grisly portrait stabs and destroys the doll.

The painting is of a woman dressed in red with black hair stabbing a blond woman in a black dress. This is the legend of the Red Queen who tormented her sister, the Black Queen, until she snapped and killed her sister. The Red Queen then rose from her grave and killed six people culminating with the Black Queen being the seventh victim. Every hundred years two sisters are born that are cursed to reenact the original Red Queen – Black Queen drama.

Cut to ten years later. The uncle, Tobias Wildenbrück is suffering from a bad heart as well as being confined to a wheel chair. His eldest granddaughter Franziska and her husband lives with Tobias in his castle, when one night the Red Queen appears and he dies from fear induced cardiac arrest. Everyone is shocked, but Kitty, now a successful fashion photographer is horrified. A year or so earlier Kitty fought with Evelyn when Evelyn hit her head and fell in the moat. Everyone knew the sisters hated each other, so Kitty and Franziska hid the body in the castle cellar since no one would believe that it was an accident. Then they told everyone that Evelyn had moved to America.

Soon enough, more people get murdered, and each time, someone sees a woman with long black hair and a red cape fleeing into the night laughing maniacally. The Red Queen is back!

This Italian movie is directed by Emilio Miraglia who also directed The Night Evelyn Came out of Her Grave. The movies are not connected despite the similar names. It stars Barbara Bouchet, Ugo Pagliai, Marina Malfatti and Sybil Danning amongst others.

Overall, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is a really nice mystery thriller. The cinematography is excellent, the actors are a cut above the norm but the soundtrack is pretty awful. Several tense scenes are accompanied by an upbeat jazz score that really doesn't fit at all. The kills are good, suitably violent and sometimes pretty gory but not too over the top. There is some nudity, but it is tastefully done and avoids feeling too sleazy.

The overall story is actually really good. It had me guessing from the start and I failed to solve the mystery before the movie ended.

There are a couple of missteps though. The biggest has to be Peter, a sleazy, greasy junkie who blackmails Kitty. He claims to know that Evelyn is not in the US and demands money to keep quiet. Later on he assaults Kitty in her bedroom leaving her traumatized. But then this is never mentioned again. The scene of her sitting half naked, horrified and barely sane is a harrowing image and in the next scene she is fine. Why include this if it has no impact on the character on indeed on the movie?

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes I do. The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is not a masterpiece, but rather a pretty solid middle-of-the-road affair. It does what it sets out to do and does it well enough. Not one of the great classics in the Giallo genre, but nevertheless a solid watch.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

Lovecraftian, or Comsic Horror Humor

Yesterday I tripped over a trio of Lovecraft based comedy sketches, and since I needed something for you guys, here you go! I hope you will join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

First up is the HPL Insurance company: 

 

 

 

Then The Unnamable Unimaginable Thing In My Basement:

 

 

Finally, The Epiphany Continuum Sketch: 

 

World of Warcraft News

There are some exciting things coming up in World of Warcraft, starting this week.

First up, the WoW 18^th anniversary event has been up and running for about a week and will continue for some time, but with the upcoming elemental invasion pre-patch event, it will probably be very hard, if not impossible to get any help against these world bosses.

Now, starting this week, on November 15^th, the elemental invasion will start. In a nutshell, you kill elementals that spawn in certain places and who drop tokens when defeated. These tokens are a currency for some seriously good gear, and well worth getting. When a hundred elementals or so are killed, a boss will spawn, who drops more tokens and can also drop gear directly. At least, this seems to be t he case, as official info is hard to find.

For a more detailed look, check out this link:

https://www.wowhead.com/guide/primal-storms-dragonflight-pre-patch-event

Also starting this week is the Twitch drop event with Blizzard. Simply connect your Twitch account to your Blizzard account and then watch live streamers play WoW and you can get some cool stuff like a mount.

Here are the dates and some more detailed info including instructions on how to connect your accounts:

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/23873861/updated-nov-1-dragonflight-twitch-drops-earn-rewards-watching-and-supporting-creators

My wife and I will be streaming during these dates on Twitch.tv/Chelidda so why not come on by and watch to grab some cool stuff. If you don't want to chat, it is enough to merely have the stream on for the required amount of time. There are of course lots of streamers to choose from, so find someone you like, sit back and enjoy.

Finally, this week is when those who own Dragonflight already can make and start playing the new Drachtyr race. They start at level 58 but can only be one class, the Evoker. Evokers are either healers or dps casters, and based on my experiences on the Beta, they are a lot of fun to play. They can even fly without a mount, although they use the same mechanic as the new Drakes in Dragonflight. This flying technique takes some getting used to, so it may pay off to get some practice in early.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

Mother of Tears

I have previously written about Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977) as well as its sequel Inferno (1980), but this time we are talking about the third movie in the trilogy:

Mother of Tears (2007).

Like the two other movies, Mother of Tears is directed by Dario Argento who also co-wrote them with his one time partner Daria Nicolodi. The movie stars Dario's and Daria's daughter Asia Argento, a whole bunch of actors I don't know and horror veteran Udo Kier. Like in Suspiria, Kier plays a small but important role, but they are not the same character in case anyone is wondering.

The core of the Mothers Trilogy is three ancient, evil and powerful witches, Mater Suspiriorum (Sighs), Mater Tenebrarum (Darkness) and Mater Lachrymarum (Tears). These three witches eventually settled down in Germany, New York and Rome. We see the story of Mater Suspiriorum in Suspiria, Mater Tenebrarum in Inferno and now Mater Lachrymarum in this movie.

Some spoilers ahead.

The movie opens with some workmen accidentally finding an old coffin with a box chained to it. A cardinal orders the coffin reburied, but keeps the box which is constantly referred to as an urn for some reason. He opens it, gets really scared and sends it to a friend who is the curator of a museum.

When the “urn” arrives, the curator is not in, so the assistant curator decides to open it and invites an American art student to join her. In order to translate some old text, the student Sara Mandy (Asia Argento) is sent to fetch a dictionary. While she is gone, three entities appear and murder the assistant curator in a seriously gory scene. Sara escapes only because a voice helps her. So far so good, but from here on the story gets a little convoluted.

The contents of the box seems to empower the Mother of Tears enormously and a make the citizens of Rome go crazy. People are murdered, they fight savagely in the streets, vandalism becomes commonplace, in short, things get pretty nuts. The other thing that happens is that witches from all over the world flock to Rome as Sara struggles to survive and find out what happens while dodging both witches and the police. She goes from person to person sometimes getting help, sometimes not. She does discover that the voice is her mother who was a powerful white witch that was murdered after fighting and grievously wounding the Mater Suspiriorum prior to the events in Suspiria. Fun fact, it is Daria Nicolodi who plays Sara's mother, in other words they are not just playing mother and daughter, they are mother and daughter.

Sara ultimately decides to confront the Mother of Tears in her lair and roll credits. There is obviously more, but as usual, you can watch the movie yourself.

Mother of Tears is a good idea executed in a sloppy manner. I like the overall feel of the movie, and the idea of a power that makes the population go nuts is cool, but even though the movie is 102 minutes long, it feels extremely rushed. Scenes begin only to quickly be shuffled along into the next one, characters are introduced and killed in the same breath and concepts are brought up only to never be explored again. It seriously grated on my nerves after a while.

The witches' arrival is also handled in a weird manner. They look like they just stepped out of an 80's pop music video. Big hair teased into huge plumes, excessive make-up, dramatic and colorful clothes etc. They also mostly just wander around in groups laughing loudly, while snarling and hissing at people. It made no sense to me. Finally I don't understand what Sara hoped to achieve in the end. Sure she knows that she has inherited a lot of her mothers powers, but she doesn't know how to use them. In Suspiria and Inferno, the endings made some kind of sense, but the ending in Mother of Tears is kind of dumb. Not quite deus-ex-machina, but not far from it.

I also feel I should talk about the gore and the nudity, because there is a ton of it. The really heavy gore scenes aren't that many but they are almost excessive. Very well executed scenes to be sure, but most of them felt like they were there just to be there. And the nudity is the same way. It's one thing for a hysterically cackling mad woman to not notice that her shirt has fallen open, but it looks like Dario took every opportunity to shoehorn in either brutal gore or nudity in most scenes, possibly both. I'm not a prude by any means, but blood and boobs for the sake of blood and boobs feels both cheap and a bit desperate, and I know Argento can do better.

There are good sides as well, from the cinematography, to the sound to the overall mood of the movie, but the shortcomings sadly overshadow the good. I could go on, but I'm worried you might think I hate the movie when I don't.

So, do I recommend this movie? Not really, but maybe? Overall I enjoyed Mother of Tears, and to be fair it's not a totally bad movie as such, it's just disappointing that it took 27 years to complete the trilogy and instead of an interesting occult mystery all we really get is a somewhat slapped together paint by the numbers horror movie, doused in gore. Horror fans might enjoy it, particularly fans if Suspiria and Inferno, but watch it with the proper expectations.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

The Long Hair of Death

I really felt inspired by last week's entry, Mario Bava's Black Sunday, so when I found:

The Long Hair of Death (1965),

I watched it. Directed not by Bava, but by Antonio Margheriti who is known as the number two of Gothic Italian horror behind Bava, this movie also stars Barbara Steele. Also starring are George Ardisson, Halina Zalewska, Umberto Raho amongst others.

The film is set in the 1400's in what I assume is some Germanic country. A woman is being dragged to the stake, accused of witchcraft. Her older daughter Mary (Steele) rushes to the local lord, Count Humboldt, pleading for her mothers life. The count agrees if she sleeps with him, which she does, but her mother is burned anyway. Dying on the flames, the woman curses the house of Humboldt, as they tend to do. The count kills Mary as well, in the first of a series of moves the characters do that make no sense to me. The youngest daughter, Lisabeth, is taken in by the Humboldt's for some reason.

Cut to when Lisabeth is an adult. The count's son, Kurt is determined to possess Lisabeth, despite pretty much laughing as her mother burned to death. She makes it clear that she hates him so of course Kurt arranges for them to be married. After the wedding night, he is dismayed to learn that she still hates him... What a shock!

At this time, the dead mothers curse comes to pass and a gruesome plague sweeps the area. To make matters worse, Mary returns from the dead in a pretty damn cool scene. No one seems to recognize her except the old count as she introduces herself as Helen Rochefort, and Kurt is immediately smitten by her.

This is as much of the plot as I'm willing to “spoil”.

The Long Hair of Death is a mixed bag for me. On one hand it is a Gothic masterpiece, a delightfully dark dream of wonderful imagery. On the other hand it is a fairly predictable story dotted with some completely dumbfounded decisions and details that aren't explained at all. There is a priest in the castle, Von Klage, who for some reason seem to have more power than the count and no one ever explains why that is. There is a murder plot that is ridiculously convoluted. Things like that does detract from the over all enjoyment.

The actors do a creditable job, I can't complain, and the music is... passable but if it wasn't for the incredible scenery, this movie would be a complete joke. I mentioned last week that despite filming in black and white, Bava painted the set of Black Sunday in those colors to heighten the effect. The Long Hair of Death doesn't do that and it amazed me to see that I could tell the difference.

So, do I recommend this movie? To fans of the genre, yes, I liked it, but to casual movie watchers, no. I'd say that The Long Hair of Death is a bit of an acquired taste and if Gothic dramas aren't your thing, you'll probably be a bit bored. You can't compare a movie like this to modern horror, that would be unfair, but if that is what you want, this isn't for you.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

Black Sunday

This week we are following last week's Mario Bava entry with his arguably most famous movie:

Black Sunday (1960).

To be fair, I have seen this movie before but that was back in the early 90's or so, and I only remembered four things; it's in black and white, it stars Barbara Steele, there is a big metal mask with spikes on the inside and the fact that I liked it. So it was with a pretty neutral state of mind that I sat down and gave it a go.

The movie opens in Moldavia in 1630 with an eastern orthodox inquisitor (those were real I just learned) who is condemning his sister to death for trafficking with Satan. Princess Asa Vajda (Steele) and her lover and accomplice Igor Javutich are executed by having the above mentioned masks hammered on their faces but before the corpses can be burned, a storm breaks out making it impossible to do so. Other methods of burial are instead employed.

We jump two hundred years forward and meet Professor Kruvajan and his young handsome assistant Dr. Gorobec. They are on their way to a conference but are delayed due to a carriage malfunction. Bored and curious, they find Asa's tomb and accidentally release her. Later, they meet the beautiful Katia Vajda (also Steele) and become embroiled in the supernatural horrors that ensue as Asa resurrects her servant Javutich in order to get revenge on her family.

Black Sunday is still a really good horror movie. Sure, it is hammy at times and some of the dialogue is silly, but it was made in 1960 and movies were made very differently back then. Seeing as it is an Italian movie with an international cast, some things are slightly lost in translation as well. That said, it is incredibly atmospheric and actually really gruesome at times. Movie goers back then must have been pretty shocked at some of the imagery, some of which still holds up to this day.

Bava not only shot Black Sunday in black and white, he actually painted the sets black and white as well, to really lean into the stark imagery, and at times, it almost feels like a shadow play. The actors do a really good job and the plot is pretty smart. Nothing just happens, instead a small thing early on can have a big impact later and the movie builds up slowly and with good effect. The story drags a bit in the middle, but not so much as to become boring, and the end product stands tall.

The supernatural elements are interesting and deserves a mention. Asa seems to be more of a witch but her servants behave more like vampires, even though there are no fangs or typical vampire tropes. They are more generically undead than specifically vampires, and I wouldn't have made the vampire connection except for the fact that they use the word in the movie.

So, do I recommend this movie? Absolutely! Every horror fan should watch it but be aware of it's age. Yes it can be a bit silly, but put that out of your mind and enjoy a seriously good horror classic!

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

Blood and Black Lace

I took the opportunity to watch the second ever Giallo movie:

Blood and Black Lace (1964).

Directed by Mario Bava and starring Cameron Mitchell, Eva Nartok and others, Blood and Black Lace is a peculiar movie.

A young woman, Isabella, is murdered just before arriving at a fashion show where she is set to model. We see the murderer, a man in a black rain coat, black hat and a pale cloth mask that covers his face. Later on, her diary is found, and everyone starts acting suspicious, making it obvious that the diary is extremely important. More women are murdered by the above mentioned killer, and fair warning, one is beaten up quite badly in a pretty gruesome scene. Obviously I'm not going to spoil the ending, but it was pretty good.

Blood and Black Lace plays it straight, as in it doesn't cheat with the mystery, something that I always appreciate. I did solve a crucial part of the mystery, even though I failed to discern the killer's actual identity.

What makes the film peculiar is the fact that it is a joy to watch but the story is surprisingly pedestrian. The colors and the cinematography are first rate. Yes, it is a typical 60's movie, but Bava really managed to make the visual elements incredibly enjoyable. The story on the other hand is fairly lackluster. To be fair, most murder mysteries have fairly normal motives when you get down to the details, but in Blood and Black Lace I found myself wanting something more from the plot than what we get. Still, it's not really a complaint, but more of an observation.

The actors are fine, but it is an Italian film, so it is naturally dubbed, which sometimes makes it hard to really judge the actors. No complaints, but no stand out performances either. The music is 60's jazz so it is up to you whether you like it or not.

As mentioned, the movie has some fairly rough violence but little blood as such, and no real nudity either, possibly because it was made in 1964. Not that those things are needed to make a good movie, I just thought I'd bring it up.

So do I recommend the movie? Yes and no. Fans of murder mysteries could enjoy it, and fans of Giallo should watch it for it's place as the second Giallo ever, but casual watchers are likely going to be bored. I liked it, and I had a good time, but it is hard to really recommend it despite the lovely visuals.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!