TRAGIC CEREMONY

(Riccardo Freda, 1972)

Riccardo Freda is a director one either loves or absolutely deplores; there is no grey area. I, the former, adore his wacked-out camerawork, dark compositions, and campy special effects. Tragic Ceremony, though, seems to suffer for its overly long running time and convoluted story.

Four hippies, including Camille Keaton, run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. They invite themselves into a mansion where, unbeknownst to them, a black mass is being performed by a bunch of seniors in the cellar. The black mass is interrupted when one of the hippies kills the woman leading it, which results in a complete bloodbath as the remaining disciples kill each other in an insane fit.

The hippie group escapes and tries to hide out at one's parents' house, but are turned away. They eventually find a place and, while watching television, discover that the police are looking for the murderers. While hiding out, they start to die off in various ways. If you want to sit through this, I won't give the ending away.

The story is a mishmash of horror elements, and includes a cursed necklace, a ghostly gas jockey, a black mass, Manson-style murders, Giallo scenes, and possession. This seems to have been a trend with Freda's horror output, and one that some might not like. Others may enjoy the feeling of disconnection it evokes.

As I said before, my real problem with Tragic Ceremony was its length. They could have trimmed quite a bit of footage. Despite that, it does have its charms. It features one of the BEST head-splitting scenes in the Euro-Horror pantheon (and one of the crummiest beheadings!) and a lot of red paint. The camera angles in some scenes have that 60s Batman tilt to them, and the groovy soundtrack makes this a semi-bearable Gothic experience. Camille Keaton looks her usual traumatized self, and genre regular Luigi Pistilli plays one of the satanists. See it later, unless you liked The Iguana With the Tongue of Fire or Murder Obsession.

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CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD

(Lucio Fulci, 1980)



Fulci's second zombie feature, though mostly nonsensical, is quite entertaining. There's more than enough blood, guts, and maggots for the gorehounds out there, but the visual approach Fulci took is what makes this stand out.




The story is simple: a reporter (Christopher George) and a medium (Catriona MacColl) are on a race against time to close the gates of Hell, which were opened by the suicide of a priest. Their journey takes them to Dunwich, a foggy Lovecraftian town in New England. There they meet up with a psychiatrist, one of his patients, and a recently orphaned boy, all terrified by the reanimated corpses of the recently dead (and a few other Hellish occurrences).



Fulci's knowledge of how to stretch a meager budget was employed expertly in the creation of COTLD. He managed, despite the bad dubbing, numerous plotholes, and tacked-together story, to create something otherworldly and truly creepy. The town of Dunwich is perpetually draped in fog or dust, its streetlights casting small pools of hazy light in the otherwise black street. Some of the homes are completely vacant, and we never meet more than a handful of the residents. Fright scenes are punctuated by a strange combination of noises, from babies crying to maggots squirming and birds screaming. The string and synth score by Fabio Frizzi adds tension to some already unbearable scenes.



The film's weakness (lack of coherent story or use of logic) is also its greatest strength. Only a few Italian horror movies can be seen as literal translations of nightmares, and this is one. Actions or statements that may seem ludicrous or nonsensical in your standard Hollywood film make perfect sense in Fulci's nightmare. Unexplained events (a rain of maggots, the murder of the village idiot, shards of glass piercing a wall and causing it to bleed, etc) are left unexplained as the film progresses, and are given little consideration.



Finally, I must mention the gore; it IS what Fulci did best (besides the Giallo). There are some exceptionally gruesome deaths in COTLD. We are treated to several skulls being crushed until the brains squirt out, a drill through the head (from temple to temple- pretty impressive, even for Lucio), and a girl puking ALL of her guts up. No, really- the intestines and liver and EVERYTHING come streaming out! Not a perfect movie by any means, but there's rarely a dull moment. Recommended for fans of heavy gore and Gothic horror.



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MACABRE aka Frozen Terror

(Lamberto Bava, 1980)

Lamberto's directorial debut Macabre is arguably his best film. It is well-written (in collaboration with Pupi Avati), with proper character development and a gripping story. It is also beautifully filmed, and has a haunting soundtrack. The acting is actually pretty good, though the horrendously-dubbed voices might detract from the experience for some viewers. The story is fairly simple, and I will include spoilers, as anyone who has considered watching this already knows the "big secret/twist" from hundreds of other reviews.

Jane Baker (Bernice Stegers) has been having an affair with Fred and leaving her daughter Lucy and son Michael home alone while she does so. While with Fred one afternoon, Jane receives a call from Lucy informing her that Michael has drowned in the bathtub (unknown to her is that Lucy drowned him). In a panicked rush to get home, they crash into a guardrail, which smashes through the windshield and decapitates Fred.

After a year of psychiatric treatment, Jane returns to the boarding house where she and Fred used to frolic. The owner, Mrs Duvall, has since passed away, and left the property to her blind son Robert. Robert has always carried a torch for Jane, and immediately welcomes her. He becomes suspicious of her behavior, though, when she starts getting nightly visits from Fred. His curiosity is further piqued when he discovers, whilst snooping through her room, that she keeps a lock on her freezer.

Lucy, eager as ever to torment her now (assumed) stable mother, starts playing mind games with Jane. She tricks Robert into allowing her into Jane's room, for the sole purpose of leaving Jane a photo of Michael and messing-up Fred's side of the bed. I won't tell what Lucy does to Jane at the dinner table, but it's NOT very appetizing. Needless to say, when Jane finally loses it, she LOSES it!

This is easily the most restrained film Lamberto Bava ever made, most likely because it was co-written by Pupi Avati, director of The House With Laughing Windows & Zeder. Though short on blood, the violence IS shocking in nature. What it really has going for it is style. A LOT of effort went into the composition and detail of each scene. One might notice in some scenes that Jane and Robert's wardrobes match the gloomy interior of the house too well, as though they themselves are a part of it. Lucy and Michael, in blue and red, match the family home. The beginning of Macabre is awash with sunlight. Sprinklers are sprinkling and lawnmowers humming. After Jane's release from the ward, the sunlight is scattered, broken up by trees and the iron grill-work of the city. It then becomes an overcast grey as Jane wanders through the streets on her way to the graveyard. In the last segment of the film the only light is from candles, and Jane blends seamlessly into the shadows in her black nightgown. Bava and Avati managed to create a near-perfect modern Gothic with Macabre.

The story itself is fairly profound, no small feat for a film of this type. One could say it's a story of unrequited love. Jane is cut off from her family, and pining for her dead lover. She actually thinks he is still alive, somehow. Lucy is jealous of Jane's love for Michael and Fred, and her father's love for Jane. Finally, poor virginal Robert sits alone in a dark room at night, cleaning musical instruments while listening to Jane romp about with Fred. If you grasp the metaphor there, you will surely gasp in awkward surprise when Robert asks Lucy if she's ever seen a saxophone before. His situation isn't improved by Jane's constant flirting.

The soundtrack by Ubaldo Continiello is spot-on. Though a little dated, it lends a rather wistful air to the proceedings, and switches to a deep, throbbing beat during Jane's night time scenes. As I mentioned previously, some of the the dubbing is atrocious; Lucy's voice has the charming quality of a parakeet being forced through a meat grinder. I'm hoping there's an Italian print somewhere with subtitles, as the voices (and the cheesy surprise ending) are my only complaint. Highly recommended for those who have an attention span and a pair of forgiving ears.

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