At the beginning of December I wasn't quite sure how this month would go. I knew I would have some time off, but I also had some traveling planned. We've been able to get back to the theater a bit, but now Omicron is surging through the city. In the end I wound up watching a lot of movies - mostly at home - and kept on watching really terrific stuff right up to the end of the month.
Navajeros (1980) - An absolute scorcher of a juvenile delinquency film restored beautifully as part of
Severin's Quinqui Collection. Navajeros stands on its own as a thrilling, nihilistic journey into the lives of street kids in post-Franco Spain but both it and the collection serve as an amazing introduction to a genre of films I was mostly unfamiliar with.
Mill of the Stone Women (1960) - This one was put on my radar by the fine folks over at the Unsung Horrors podcast and I knew that Arrow was going to release a fancy version of it sometime this year. So I was stoked to see it pop up on Arrow's streaming service and gave it a shot - it knocked me flat! An absolutely stunning blend of Hammer-esque mad science, gothic horror, and Italian delirium. This is a film focused around a carousel consisting of wax figures of infamous murderesses - how can you not love that? Even cooler was that Arrow included Kat Ellinger's visual essay on Stone Women which adds another layer of richness to the experience. I might have to grab that disc.
Paranoia/Orgasmo (1968) - I watched all four of the Umberto Lenzi/Carol Baker gialli in December but the first one remains my favorite. I think even Lenzi would characterize some of these more in the thriller or noir tradition than what we usually understand as giallo but I'll leave that debate to others. What I will say about Paranoia is that its story of a wealthy widow being seduced and terrorized by a couple of young bohemians comes off with the same intensity as some of my favorite 80s-90s erotic thrillers. Lenzi's signature visual style is very evident and his use of a recurring pop song is chillingly effective. I was also a fan of So Sweet...So Perverse which despite its title is actually less sleazy than the other three. They all feature fairly high production values, quality actors, and made me desperately want to travel again - maybe next year.
High Crime (1973) - This has been on my Poliziotteschi wish list for ages but I've been avoiding less than stellar copies of it streaming online. I was very happy to come across a clean, letterboxed copy on YT and it absolutely delivered. Franco Nero lights up the screen no matter what he's doing and he plays the maverick cop as well as anyone. Enzo G. Castellari has to be one of my favorite action directors in history and this has some terrific chases and shootouts - all set to music by the prolific de Angelis brothers. Interestingly this was edited by Vincenzo Tomassi who also edited many of Fulci's better films - he's got an interesting style and it really works here.
Walking the Edge (1985) - I picked up a copy of Fun City Edition's disc of this underseen Robert Forster revenge thriller. It's tough not to refer to this as the L.A. Vigilante but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. Forster is terrific in this and it's a wonderfully scuzzy portrait of the City of Angels. For Twin Cities area folks who might be reading this, the Trylon Cinema will be screening Walking the Edge in January - do not miss it!
Limbo (1999) - Another absolutely killer treatment of a shot-on-video nightmare from AGFA. Tina Krause is more well known for her exploits in front of the camera but Limbo is ample evidence that she had the chops and the determination to bring a unique vision to life. A surrealist vampire tale that evokes Lynch-ian weirdness as well as functioning as late 90s time capsule. Limbo was highly recommended in the latest Bleeding Skull book which has led me down some wonderfully weird rabbit holes this year.
Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972) - I don't think of myself as going too nuts for holiday horror movies - okay I did go to screenings of Black Christmas and Blood Beat this year - but I have been meaning to catch up to this one for a bit. I've heard it described as a slow or uneven but I found it to be exactly the kind of regional horror gem that speaks to me. Stylistically there's a little bit of everything - narration, sepia-toned flashbacks, POV shots, freeze frames, rapid fire editing - and then there's the cast! I'd naturally watch Mary Woronov drink tea for 90 minutes but name me another low budget horror film featuring the likes of John Carradine AND Candy Darling. Wild.
A Warning to the Curious (1972) - I had seen the BBC M.R. James adaptations crop up on folk horror lists for years and figured we might as well give the Ghost Story for Christmas series a shot - both old and new. We didn't watch everything but this is my favorite of what we did see. Cold, windswept seaside, isolated protagonists, ancient legends, dark secrets. The mood of the piece really worked for me and the necessarily reserved approach made the fleeting glimpses of horror larger in my mind's eye. It's very different but I have to say I also really enjoyed this year's installment - The Mezzotint.
Evil Under the Sun (1982) - Ridiculously overstuffed Christie adaptation that I had a blast with. Diana Rigg and Maggie Smith sing a duet - do I really need to say more?
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021) - Speaking of overstuffed - I received my copy of the awe inspiring folk horror box set from Severin Films. The first disc contains Kier-La Janisse's exhaustively comprehensive documentary detailing all different aspects of the genre - even at 3+ hours I couldn't get enough. I was familiar with a lot of what was covered - but like most of us mere mortals I was furiously adding films to my watch list as it went. This documentary completely unmoors the idea that folk horror is restricted to a handful of British films and makes a very convincing case that there is an international history of making films according to this mode of storytelling. Much, much better than the school of "remember this?" horror documentary films that have dominated the space over the last few years.
Eyes of Fire (1983) - Diving right into the set is this restoration of Avery Crounse's debut(!) feature. Eyes is a spectacularly WEIRD daymare boiling over with striking imagery, practical effects, optical effects, dark fantasy, Christian cults, colonialist paranoia, and frontier survival. I very nearly watched a fuzzy vhs rip that has been around for years and I'm so glad I held off for this version. I'm excited to check out the alternate cut as well.
The Demon (1963) - I hopped forward in the set as Il Demonio was one of the films I was most excited to see. I'm still gushing over it days later. It somehow manages to blend formally stark black & white compositions, a nearly documentary approach to the folk and Catholic traditions of rural Southern Italy, and moments of stylized, expressive horror that could be compared to Bava's work. It's all firmly rooted in a stunning, physical performance from Dahlia Lavi - who plays a tragic villager condemned for possession and witchcraft. This prefigures Don't Torture a Duckling and The Exorcist in interesting ways and could end up being my pick of the set. The featurettes on the film and Lavi are solid as well.
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