Favorite European Trash Cinema Images - Bacanais na Ilha das Ninfetas

 
Eurotrash Icon Oswaldo de Oliveira did a pair of Women In Prison films in 1981/82 that got excellent US DVD releases as BARE BEHIND BARS (a real favorite of mine) and AMAZON JAIL. I had no idea there was a third starring Zilda Mayo called Bacanais na Ilha das Ninfetas.  Yep, evil wardress...nude frolics...it is all there. But no matter how great and outrageous the more known films are, they don't have Crotch Coiffure!
Wow!  What a great European Trash Cinema moment even though it is from South America....  And while this is going on the various guards and thugs are getting bossed around! Just surreal and oddly brilliant. 

 

 

Leandro Lucchetti - Bloody Psycho

Leandro Lucchetti tribute week...part 3!  Bloody Psycho is one of my favorite little Eurosplat titles-and I actually reviewed it again this past October. So, I'm cheating a bit-but here is that post again, slotted in to the Lucchetti love zone! 


CINE DUCK STRIKES AGAIN!
Now if that is not one of more absurd sounding headlines I've blurted out while writing this blog over the years I'm not sure what is. Never the less I speak the truth here. Cine Duck is a production company and you can find this esteemed name on several "Lucio Fulci Presents" films from the late 80s. The common theme among most of those films are the producer pairing of Antonio Lucidi and Luigi Nannerini. They may not have always whipped out the Duck name, but they paired up for every Fulci film from Touch of Death up until Voices From Beyond.

The Lucio Fulci Presents series are some of the films that were chopped in to CAT IN THE BRAIN as well as the other Nannerini/Lucidi films such as Ghosts of Sodom and Touch of Death in case you are curious it would seem this series included the following films... Massacre, The Murder Secret (I love this film!), Escape From Death (one I have as Bloody Moon), Hansel and Gretel (which is similar to Sweet House of Horrors in a lot of ways) and our subject for today...BLOODY PSYCHO!

Now, I'll be honest, this can't be a completely thorough review because I have yet to find this film in English or responsibly subtitled anywhere. But that hasn't stopped me from watching it at least 3 times over the years. So I can fill you in on what exactly keeps bringing me back to this cheap little movie at the very least. Way back when Cat In The Brain was first released I was utterly obsessed with finding all the source films because they had to be the most amazing gore films ever made...right? Well, maybe not but it made for some interesting correspondence with Craig Ledbetter in particular and I did find them all. The chase was more exciting than the capture as usual, but Bloody Psycho has always intrigued me. Aside from brief appearances by Paul Muller and Vasili Karis there is a very unfamiliar cast which just enhances the curiosity value I find.

Here is what I know. A doctor of some kind of metaphysical energy moving science is brought in to a spooky castle to service and wave hands over a weird wheelchair bound woman and her even weirder maid. The maid may have a doppelganger, as may our hero. Trust me, by the double twist ending you'll be as confused as I am. So, we know our man is serious because he does some kind of crazy tai chi routine, but out of nowhere he sees a hand wielding a knife swinging his name via a vision. The alternate title (listed as U.S. on IMDB?) is THE SNAKE HOUSE and you can see why in this still.

So, the energy shifting biz isn't all it is cracked up to be I guess. Especially in oddball castles. But if you think the set up is really basic and simple you would be right. Then it gets weird....really weird. The client may be a zombie? I don't know...but I have to say the make-ups are cool as hell friends. Worth the price of admission I hate to think it may be this element alone that has me owning multiple copies of this movie.


I mean look at that. The legs alone appear to be biological hockey pads gone through a meat grinder. Just gross, and I mean that with the utmost respect.


The above is really quick, but we are to believe that wheelchair zombina drowns this person. How this is even possible is a mystery, but who cares? Look at that zombie. Yes, I'm just drooling over the creature, but I've gone to great lengths to enjoy a good monster-I've got Howard The Duck on DVD. Also, the below GWARRRRGH really works.



GAH! At this point in the film I'm totally lost by the way. Our hero falls for the woman above, before she reveals her little skin condition. This seems to drive him away though, or so we think...because here it comes! THE ZOMBIE!!

I'm going to reveal the big twist, but after our hero "wakes up" or steps sideways in reality or something that may involve all that tai chi he makes his happy escape with the blond whose case of putrid pulchritude seems to have cleared up. But remember that vision? From the tai chi session? Well, all is made clear for NO reason at the end. When this happens is something I have no clue, but maybe this is a remake of Blade Runner and the main characters have been replicants? No idea...


Now, I've been joking around a lot, but Bloody Psycho brings me back whenever I feel like watching something really obscure. Maybe it is the score, yet another synthetic concoction that always makes my toes tap-this time by Lanfranco Perini. Certainly not a household name, Perini is a familiar composer to those that trawl the lower end of the European Action Cinema of the 80s covered in Tough To Kill. Those CyWarrior beats will live in infamy!
Director Leandro Lucchetti is an interesting figure as well. Not only did he direct this, but also the very good and mucho sleazo Women In Prison film Caged Women, the lame Apocalypse Mercenaries (reviewed in Tough To Kill), Getting Even (with Richard Roundtree) and is also listed as one of the authors on the Klaus Kinski film Nosferatu in Venice. Not exactly prolific, but certainly left his mark on bottom feeders of the Euro scene....like me.

Leandro Lucchetti - Apocalypse Mercenaries

Another day...another Leandro Lucchetti film!  Today we have another review from TOUGH TO KILL-THE ITALIAN ACTION EXPLOSION, this time written by the master of Hutsploitation, Paul Cooke!  Paul is also the webmaster of the amazing BALLISTIC BLOOD BULLETS blog, so check it out. 
For me, this is by far the least of the Lucchetti films, missing out on the trademarked sleaze and loaded up with stock footage. But everyone starts somewhere and if nothing else we have the LANDGREN LUNGE to enjoy!

Apocalypse Mercenaries

1986 Filman International

Director John J. Dawson (Leandro Lucchetti)

With Vassili Karis , Karl Landgren , Maurice Poli

‘‘You’re Nothing More Than An Animal And You’re Going To Die Like One’’ 

Exploding into Action before the opening credits get to cry out his name comes star Karl Landgren, armed with an inflammable back pack and sporting a flame thrower spewing out the hot stuff like an over indulgent drinker the morning after the new years eve party. His dead pan expression shows he means business as he flushes out an enemy soldier base camp during World War II. The mercenary apocalypse has begun!

 The star roster scrolls out a list of recognisable Action favourites, teamed together as mercenaries to fight for the republican troops. Their mission is to locate and eliminate a Nazi command HQ that is central to the organised assaults against the Yugoslavian Liberation Army. Vassili Karis is the experienced team leader of a crack unit of specialist men and is known simply as Mister. His elite combo of men consists of Landgren as the do or die soldier armed to the hilt with heavy artillery, a pilot, a field surgeon and an explosives and demolition expert called Priest. This is no ordinary holy man as he has a self established interpretation of the bible, making up poignant psalms as effortlessly as piecing together devices of destruction.

 The often used old film stock gives the movie a grainy authenticity that is appropriate to the films setting adding a texture that has the feel of wartime. The Bosnian hills give credence to the time period setting as Mister’s men hike the terrain as foot soldiers, sneaking past Nazi patrols in stealthy pursuit of their objective. They break from their objective to administer retribution upon a German officer who takes sadistic pleasure in raping and torturing a local young woman. Just before the pretty young woman dies from her vicious attack she tells of a train delivering arms to the German soldiers, camouflaged as a Red Cross Hospital transport.
The Action heats up as the crack commandos act upon the information relayed to them and raid an airstrip where Nazi troop planes await orders to lay siege. A shoot out soon follows with Karl Landgren coming into his own as he proves to be just as adept with a Big knife as he takes out a German soldier before igniting the flamethrower, stoically delivering the classic line ‘Excuse me Kraut I need a light’. Cue exploding aeroplanes as ‘The Eagle Has Landgren’d!’

 Karis and Landgren lead the mercenaries into the enemy cave complex codenamed The Eagles Nest. As they fight to secure the HQ outside the air assault is put into disarray by the daring assault, aiding the Yugoslavian troops as they engage the enemy in ground force combat. With Priest blessing his handiwork of explosively set charges time ticks down for the surviving team of heroes to escape from the cavernous command centre, just as the encroaching German soldiers realise they have been compromised.

 Star Vassili Karis is as commanding in his role as he is in his performance, alongside the bravado of Karl Landgren as the fearless freedom fighter with flawless follicles. Brushing shoulders with the bad guys these two stand out in an undemanding yet watch able entry , in a rarer than most war ‘B’ movie release that is well worth seeking out. The story and acting may be wooden but it’s the type of wood that whittles away ninety minutes of mindlessly fun entertainment, leaving no mental scar nor splinter to remind you of a bad experience.
3 Exploding Huts

Leandro Lucchetti - Getting Even

The first review of Leandro Lucchetti films this week comes from TOUGH TO KILL - THE ITALIAN ACTION EXPLOSION, though I've given the write up a little tweaking and found that watching it close to the other LL films had me focused much more on the trashy knife wielding than the action sequences I was looking for back when this was first written.  A solid action flick that features the prolific eurotrash star George Ardisson in a small role for the scuzz film librarian in all of us. 

 GETTING EVEN / LA VENDETTA

1988- A.M. Trading Intl. Film

Directed by Leandro Lucchetti

With: Harrison Muller, Michael Aronin, Richard Roundtree

“Through the refugee camp, there is no one guarding it… so we can take our pick of weapons!”

Sleaze master Lucchetti contributed some vintage Eurotrash with his women in prison film.... but that did not mean he couldn't do more.  Getting Even is an aptly titled film as we meet Evans, a grubby and heroic Harrison Muller Jr. in full homeless Vet mode, beating down some rapist thugs. Instead of cheers however, he ends up with a gut full of bullets instead of thanks and maybe even a little kiss on the cheek.  Where is his parade? While he lies twitching in his hospital bed, he flashes back to his tour of duty in Vietnam, hastily catching up with someone he is about to go after again.  A premonition? Nope, but it sure helps us figure out what is going on after this…  

As part of a three man platoon, he finds himself blowing up everything they see in the name of action, but the sex n’ violence habits of sociopathic Slisco, played with knife wielding and bug eyed aplomb by Micheal Aronin, are really not to his liking.  Seems Slisco likes to carve up hookers with his trusty kris blade-a Lucchetti specialty.  Slisco gets an opportunity for Evan’s busting him while on a mission Evans is trying to bring his wounded friend home. Slisco double crosses him and leaves him in Vietnam, where he stays in a P.O.W. camp for five years… begging to die. But of course, Evans pulls through and makes it home to sleep under bridges.  Flashbacks finished, Richard Roundtree appears as the pairs old C.O., now working to find a serial killer which he believes to be Evans’ old pal Slisco.  More women are dying under the knife and even though it’s been a long time, he believes it must be the same rogue commando.  

And now Slisco is an arms dealer to boot!  A lot of combat ensues with gunfights and fisticuffs in a gym, with a funky twist ending to enliven things in the final reel. 

While Getting Even is a solid action film, it manages to distinguish itself by slipping a few bonus genres into play.  It’s Vietnam action, no…it’s a cop film with a Ripper twist, but wait, gritty urban violence abounds as well!  Getting Even all adds up to an extra trashy treat for 93 minutes. Lucchetti’s sleaze adept hand adds a bit of rough around the edges nudity and sadism to what is sold as a "stuff blows up while Shaft shoots bad guys" film-and this is jarring and unusual enough to be memorable as well. 

 Harrison Muller Jr. is his usual self, though he always appears a bit too thin and weedy to be the ass kicker he portrays on screen. But you can count on him to deliver his performance well, especially in the flashback scenes where he rants up a storm.  Aronin plays Slisco to the hilt (of his knife) here, terrorizing the ladies and looking greasy.  Look for Ottaviano Dell’Acqua in a George Hilton type role, and it’s great to see this welcome face get a last laugh or two.  Richard Roundtree, a main selling point, dials in a standard sub-standard performance.  His best sequences are mostly pick up shots as he is spliced into one action scene which contains footage from the same producer’s film The Violent Breed.  If you like Harrison Muller shooting gas cans in one film, then you’ll love it in two. The Man Who Was Shaft certainly should stay away from rocket launchers as he looks terrified waiting to fire it into said stock footage.  Leandro Lucchetti scores big with this urban gun and fist tale, with a half scoop of Vietnam action to make the package complete.