Movie Review: Vampyros Lesbos (1971)

I’ve actually heard quite a bit about this film, mostly from my male friends. So when it arrived I was rather excited to be able to view it myself! Imagine my disappointment, though, when it turned out to be a bootleg copy that had been edited to all hell so none of the tasty bits were left in. The only way I know that for sure is when I went to find stills to include in this review, there were a SHIT TON of pics of scenes with the same actresses (Soledad Miranda and Ewa Stromberg *rowr*) all naked and awesome but were NOT in the movie I just watched.

*all the pouting*

Vampyros Lesbos begins with a banal voice over about Princess Nadia being locked up by her husband, Prince Oskudar, centuries earlier. When her attendants all begin to die off, and she gets stronger after each one, we realize something is amiss with our beautiful royalty. Then one day she disappears.

Next thing we know, we are in modern times and hear Alice explaining to her therapist about the strange dream she keeps having every night. A woman’s voice calls to her over and over while a strange amalgamation of images flash by: a scorpion, a trapped butterfly, a soaring kite. Though the dream terrifies her, she feels compelled by the voice and longs to find the source.

Movie Review: In a Glass Cage (1987, Blu-ray)

There was a time back in my more formative years (around the mid-90's) where I was on this kick to find the most disturbing or gross films ever made. Titles like Ruggero Deotato's Cannibal Holocaust, Pasolini's Salo: 120 Days of Sodom and Men Behind the Sun were some of my absolute favorites when it came to these amazing taboo-breaking films. Agusti Villaraonga's In a Glass Cage also stood high among these classic shockers.

Buy In A Glass Cage on Blu-ray or DVD

At the time there was no DVD, nor a good quality version of In a Glass Cage (I actually watched it in Spanish and I suck at Spanish!). The 2000's came and genre DVD/Blu-ray producer, Cult Epics put out a very nice DVD version with English subtitles. Cult Epics has done some fine work with recent Blu-ray upgrades so it was only natural to make Villaronga's notorious 1987 film a reality.

Movie Review: Juan of the Dead (aka Juan de los Muertos, 2012)

Zombies are big right now. I don't know if we're using it as a metaphor for surviving our own troubles, or if we're just in love with head trauma (the way to kill a zombie, of course). Either way, they're everywhere. Apparently, they've even taken over Havana, Cuba.

This is the first time I've seen a movie out of Cuba. The setting is perfect. An older neighborhood that can use some patching up and a coat of paint, an island that can contain the havoc and news media that keeps saying that everything is going to be just fine. This is where Juan and Lazaro live as petty thieves.We start with the two of them fishing off of a makeshift raft. You discover that they are close friends, and that they're not living life the way they want to. That's when Juan fishes a zombie in a Guantanamo Bay jumpsuit out of the water, and Lazaro quickly takes care of him. The two think little of it, and they decide to head home.