EYEBALL (1975) Blu-ray Review

Eyeball (1975) d. Umberto Lenzi (Italy/Spain) (100 min)

A group of American tourists seeing the sight of Barcelona are targeted by a red-gloved killer with a penchant for slashing and dashing and tarrying only long enough to puncture the victim’s left eye as a calling card. With a literal busload of suspects and a cranky veteran cop (retiring in a week) on the case, this is an admirably energetic and playful entry in the giallo sweepstakes, one of the last entries of the Italian heyday and Lenzi’s final effort in the subgenre.

KNIFE OF ICE (1972) Blu-ray Review

SCARE-A-THON Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 13
Total First Time Views: 7
Amount raised for BOXVILLE: $927.16

Knife of Ice (1972) d. Umberto Lenzi (Italy/Spain) (91 min) (1st viewing)

After her parents are killed in a horrific train accident, young Martha Caldwell is rendered mute from the shock. Decades later, Martha (Carroll Baker) resides with her protective uncle Ralph (George Rigaud) at his Spanish villa, still unable to speak but enjoying a relatively normal if sheltered life. When her cousin Jenny (Evelyn Stewart) shows up for a visit, the family is targeted by a black-gloved sex maniac who may also be a member of a Satanic cult. With the body count rising along with the number of suspects, Martha and the police attempt to uncover the killer’s identity before it’s too late.

ALL THE COLORS OF GIALLO (2018) Blu-ray review

All the Colors of Giallo (2018) d. Federico Caddeo (USA) (89 min)

Direct from Severin Films comes this loving examination of the evolution of Giallo, Italian for ‘yellow,’ the color of the lurid pulp novels that inspired one of the most intense, extreme and influential genres in cinema. Brimming with exclusive interviews with directors Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino, Antonio Margheriti, and Umberto Lenzi, screenwriters Ernesto Gastaldi, Dardano Sarchetti, and Luciano Ercoli, and actors George Hilton, Daria Nicolodi, Barbara Bouchet, Edwige Fenech, and Nieves Navarro (aka Susan Scott), alongside all-new featurettes that take us even deeper into the genre’s origins, including that of the German “krimi,” the suspense films that predated and inspired their Italian successors.

GHOSTHOUSE (1988) and WITCHERY (1988) Blu-ray Review

GhostHouse (1988) d. Umberto Lenzi (as Humphrey Humbert) (Italy)
Witchery (1988) d. Fabrizio Laurenti (as Martin Newlin) (Italy)

When Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead and Evil Dead II were released in Italy, they came out under the foreign titles of La Casa and La Casa II. Considering this is the same country that had the enterprising notion of coming up with a movie called Zombi 2 as an unofficial sequel to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (released locally as Zombi), you can probably guess what happened next. Yep, notorious exploitation artist Joe D’Amato decided to produce a couple quick (and completely unrelated) haunted house flicks and put them out as La Casa 3 and La Casa 4 in an attempt to separate suckers from their hard-earned lira. Imagine their surprise when instead of Bruce Campbell, moviegoers found themselves face-to-face with a bunch of no-name Italian actors for the first and the comedy team of Linda Blair and David Hasselhoff (in between Knight Rider and Baywatch TV gigs at the time) for the second!