Reviews

I bought this film sending a message to the authors, on "Dead at the Box Office" Myspace page. It's been an interesting experience to watch a film, knowing then I'd communicate my impressions to... Dr. Eisner in person! Well, despite some flaws on the "thrilling" side, I guess you should appreciate this movie for what it is: a low-budget, willingly camp, horror comedy! As a child of its time, it shows conscious approach to a genre that, if not dead, sure has changed much! Since Mr. Ryan A. Markle's answer to my letter contains hints about the film nobody else could give (not a watcher, at least), I'd like to copy & paste portions (the whole thing would exceed the number of words allowed in this comment) of our exchange of letters (Since Ryan himself divided my e-mail in parts he separately answered to in his letter, I'll just add our names to this sort of unintentional mutual interview we had!)

Dario: First of all, let me say it was really a nice surprise to find English subtitles in the DVD's menu! I'm quite used to watch films in English but... having matching subtitles too! I didn't miss a word and learned some new ones too!

Ryan: We're actually fans of English subtitles ourselves, even though English is our native language. Sometimes it's hard to understand what's being said in any movie, and having the subtitles makes sure that the viewer can catch everything the writer wanted to get across in the story. So we put them on there because, if we were watching it for the first time, WE would want them to be there.

Dario: The plot was good! My favourite characters were Eric, Curtis and Yours! The bite scene (a due homage to good ol' Dawn of the Dead!) let me know I was going to enjoy fantastic splatter & gore SFX! I'm not saying I'd expected some fu**in' computer graphic or other latest Hollywood's crap, but, you know, you may never know what to expect from indie films and low budget cinema in general... You seem to know the old formula, though!

Ryan: That was the goal! We love the movies that made horror great, especially the ones that were made with almost no money but were rich in creativity. And of course none of them use CGI! As filmmakers, we believe that CG should only be used to enhance practical effects -- not to replace them altogether.

Dario: Some of the siege and chasing scenes reminded of some Italian horrors I adore like Lamberto Bava's "Demoni" (Demons) or Andrea Bianchi's "Le Notti del Terrore" (Burial Ground). In its (deliberate, I know) campiness it kinda reminded me of Timothy O' Rawe's "Ghoul School" too...

Ryan: High praise, all the way around! You definitely know your horror history -- exactly the kind of person we made the movie for! :)

Dario: I absolutely loved the laughing reaction of the stereotyped audience, when the nazi logo shows on screen. Lloyd Kaufman's presence was already in the air when he showed up and the Rocky Horror Show-like pseudo-happy ending, finally released the Hollywood's parody that was around the bend (that made me think of early John Waters' films, somehow).

Ryan: We've definitely been influenced by Lloyd Kaufman and Troma (not to mention 'Rocky Horror'), but I never really thought about how much the campy shock twists in 'Pink Flamingos' -- a movie several of us watched over and over when we were teenagers -- have contributed to our style. You probably have something there!

Dario: I'd liked to see more of "Harry's Daughter" though... I found priceless the final scene (unexpected after ALL the end titles!).. will you make a sequel?!

Ryan: We had discussed it, but after finishing 'Dead at the Box Office', we all pretty much went our separate ways. We made the movie near Chicago, but after it was finished, the actor who played Eric (who also co-wrote the script with me) and the director both moved to New York, while I moved to Los Angeles. If the movie is a hit, maybe we can get the financing to get back together for a sequel ... but since we're living 3000 miles apart, it won't be easy!

Dario: OK... sure there's more I could say on the positive side, but it doesn't come to mind now... The only spot I'd recall, thinking of this basically good time I had with Dead at the Box Office, would be maybe the pacing of the action scenes. The "zombies" were a little too... unwilling; and I'd swear I've seen a couple of them laughing too, but... I know, I know! This horror movie is a self-conscious campy comedy as well, right? Maybe It's just that blood was so convincing, I'd loved to get some thrill too!

Ryan: I understand completely. Looking back, we realize that we might have tried too hard to make the movie equal parts comedy and horror, when we should have concentrated more on one or the other. We really wanted horror fans to love it, so if we had the chance to do it all again, we would have concentrated a little more on the tension and action.

Dario: By the way... It still has very interesting cues, not only for gorehounds and... I totally agree with the revolutionary spirit of Romero's films!

Mmm.. I admit the concept in itself is good and the Gargoyles' costumes are terrific: I love that kind of "artisanal" make-up, just as much as I hate those crappy videogames-like SFX I'm used to see in recent fantasy and horror blockbusters! The face of the devilish gargoyles' chief was so expressive and I just can't stop thinking of how scary, but fascinating, the whole film would be, if I'd seen it with the eyes of a child! Some scenes seemed slightly slow-motioned and looked creepy and intense.

On the other hand, the TV-movie grade of this picture shows and the arrogance of men (who, at least, do not thoroughly defeat the creatures), reminded me of such silly, conservative 50s b-movies.

All in all it was taller Gremlins meet Creature from the Black Lagoon and Japanese "Megaroman"!

Worth watching!

OK... consider this: many b-grade movies are that bad, because they try (in vain) to look like good ones! They're usually worth watching for a few strong scenes, but the rest of it, seems to be there just to reach the minimum running time for a full-length film! Many horror freaks would kill me for what I'm going to say, but I've enjoyed not more than 20, maybe 25 minutes of Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2, because the zombies were great (the one on the boat in the first scene, the other one fighting with the shark and the ones in the end) but the other stuff in the film bored me to death.

So... I have a particular fondness for b (or z-grade) pictures, that just don't try to be taken seriously, having a good pacing, instead! Forget any logic, or believable plot! I'm thinking of films like "Spookies" (aka Twisted Souls) or "Il Bosco" (aka Evil Clutch)… Well, "Le Notti del Terrore" is a very-well paced turkey, despite the absolute lacking of plot, good acting, interesting characters etc. The make-up is fun; poor at times, but convincing! (Some of the zombies are scary, some made me laugh). There's some cheesy and gratuitous sex. The characters are all undeveloped, annoying types (ALL, BUT ONE: THE CHILD!.. But I'll talk of him later!), so the film's not filled with some useless, boring revealing details or anything about them; and the faces these guys make when zombies attack are priceless! …Why the hell that guy throws the already decapitated maid's body to the zombies that just ate her head, anyway?! Some of the ancient Etruscan walking dead bodies had still flesh left on them (and some blood stains too). Some zombies got killed having their heads hit with heavy rocks. The scene in which they try to knock down the door is so fake and everything they do looks slapdash and stereotyped… OK, let's talk about THE CHILD! I had read of the infamous breast suckling/eating dwarf scene; but I thought that this OBVIOUSLY ADULT actor (Peter Bark) would have only replaced (in that specific scene) a real child, perhaps playing the same role in the rest of the movie... Man, I was wrong! Peter Bark (28 at the time) plays the child ALL THE TIME! It's so weird! How could anybody believe such bulls**t?! Probably, not even the filmmakers, 'cause nobody wanted to take a film like that seriously, enabling Andrea Bianchi to give us another fantastic piece of exploitation/horror Italian sleazy flick! Go find this masterpiece!

It's difficult to judge this film. If you're into Italian horror/exploitation stuff in general, you're gonna like La Lupa Mannara and probably find it better then many other films of the genre.

OK, let's go with the spoilers: The "rational explanation" of Daniela's lycanthropy disappointed me a bit (the first scene ruled! I loved that Werewolf Woman's make-up!) even if it contributed to the general "higher level" I'd put this film on (always comparing it with similar flicks). Annik Borel really had le physique du role: very sexy, very scary too! The gore was raw, but graphic enough. A lot of sex but, believe it or not, at times it just helped slowing down the pace! When Daniela's tied to the bed into the hospital, her reaction somehow reminded me of The Exorcist. There's a main sequence that reminded me of "I spit on your grave" (but La Lupa Mannara has been released previously).

OK... it's half past 4 a.m. here, I'd better go and sleep! By the way... WATCH THIS FILM!

I finally saw this legendary movie!

I found the first 40 minutes of it, awesome and very well directed: The conservative phobia of the satanic, drug-addicted hippies is perfectly stigmatized, in both "good" and "evil" characters. A not-so-unintentional satire!

The second part is filled with over-the-top-cheesiness!.. But that didn't disappointed me too. Silly things like fighting rabid hippies hosing them with water (Hydrophobia... ha ha ha ha!) are well counterbalanced by splattering blood, gore galore, mutilation, sadism, rats (oh: eating them it's OK, but don't ever taste meat pie injected with mad dog's blood!) and other delights!

The music score's so strange, at times I wouldn't call it even music at all! Dang! There's a scene, with one absurd tune, played with some crazy 70s' synthesizer, that made my dog wake up and stare at the TV for a long while, as Satan himself were really going to jump off the screen!

By the way, THIS IS HORROR! Go check this 70s' gem out, instead of waiting for the next Hollywood's computer-graphic mainstream bullcrap!

This film is horrible. Unfortunately, I know I'll never get enough of bad movies, so I'll keep looking for stuff like this, inflicting such pain to myself! I should have stopped watching this film, as soon as it showed its main characteristics; in fact, it looks like a sluggish mix of:

1) Contemporary standard pornography (photography, actors, dialogues, completely-out-of-sync dubbing, settings, lighting) without any hardcore sex, though (yeah, there were some nudities, but I wouldn't call it even soft-core).

2) A boring Italian TV "fiction" (as we call some of our soap opera-like made-for-the-TV series)

3) an amateurish, Home-made horror movie.

"Il male nella carne" has a ridiculous plot too: two thelepaths (only thelepathy could save such "actors" from the constant out-of-sync dubbing) try to stop THE EVIL from spreading around the world (well, to be honest, among 10 people at least, in some province of the North of Italy); while doing this (they never really do anything and their faces can barely show an expression while their minds "communicate"!), they partecipate in séances with other absolutely forgettable, non-acting people! Meanwhile, a myterious black figure, like a shadow (The Grim Reaper?!) walks around the set, apparently forcing people to murder! The gore is too amateurish and maybe I'd have liked it, if only the film would have showed some irony... but there were just these "serious", dull, badly overdubbed voices, vaguely speaking of evil forces and stuff like that, with very ordinary, uninteresting and rambling words! There was a dream sequence, that probably made me give two stars out of ten to this s**t, combined with the fact that I like independent horror.

Avoid this crap! Don't waste your time or, at least, waste it with some "so bad, it's good" flick, like Andreas Marfori's "Il Bosco 1" AKA "Evil Clutch"! Believe me, that's really a masterpiece, compared to the awful "Il male nella carne".

"Based on a joke once told by Jim Wynorski"... that's what I've read at the end of the closing credits. Well, Mr. Wynorski gotta have an awful sense of humour then! This film is terrible, really. I loved the first two chapters of The Slumber Party Massacre series; the third film was quite useless, but completely watchable, compared to this piece of crap! There's not even a Driller Killer and the plot, the acting, the characters, the locations, the events... everything is boring, absurd and laughable. The only good reason to watch this turkey are the girls: if this film were a porn, I think it would have worked really much better! The film lacks gore too: the first scene (the one in the tent) could be bloodier and the scene with the headless guy knocking at the door lasted one second! Some moments of slight thrilling can't save a nonexistent plot. Buzzy (Lunk Johnson) seems to be the only real actor here: I found him the only bearable character in this movie! Oh... there's a nonsense part with Brinke Stevens, who performed "Linda" in the first Slumber Party Massacre: the police bother her to know more details about the killer; but what we get is only some footage from the first film! Not a dialogue, neither a monologue, or anything from this still-traumatized grown-up girl, who's forced to revive the worst 30 minutes of her life (as she says), giving us no clues at all about the murderer!

Watch at your own risk.