Beasts in Human Skin

January 25, 2011 - November 9, 2012

Requiescat in pace

Or maybe not...

A Horror Film in 5 Frames #2

Any idea what movie this is?  The answer's after the jump.


 

It's Lorna the Exorcist (1974) starring the lovely Lina Romay.

Watching Trevor Juenger's 'Coyote' Is Going To Be Like Getting Ass Raped

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream." -Shirley Jackson

I mean "ass raped" in a good way.

The trailer for the art-house horror Coyote has been released and I have been pleasantly surprised to see it get covered on so many of the blogs and websites that have stuff like readers and good writing.  Most of these sites are primarily dedicated to horror and have described the trailer as "intriguing" and "creepy" and I have to agree, but since this is a blog which is primarily dedicated to exploitation films I feel compelled to add my two cents and explain why I can't wait to see the film.

But first some details from the Press Release:

The first trailer for COYOTE, an art-house horror film from director Trevor Juenger has been released. In the film Bill Oberst Jr. plays an insomniac writer whose sleep-deprived hallucinations distort reality until his paranoia leads him to extreme violence. COYOTE also stars Bill Finkbiner, Victoria Mullen and Tasha Zebrowski. 

St. Louis-based director Trevor Juenger wrote the script for the micro-budget feature with Oberst in mind and flew the actor to the midwest for a month of filming during the worst heatwave in decades. Oberst says "That script was brutal, raw, explicit and offensive. The shoot was even more so. This film won't be for everyone. But Juenger reminds me so much of a young Lynch with a dash of Cronenberg that I had to work him. I couldn't resist. We did this with no money, only passion for the experiment."

Of his lead actor Juenger says, "I was listening to an interview with Bill Oberst Jr. today where he said his best asset is keeping quiet. Well, I have to disagree. I like a belligerent, aggressive, maniacal Bill Oberst Jr., screaming and threatening people. That's the strength. I don't think real mental illness is a quiet one. Bill embodies the abusive dad, boyfriend, or whatever misogynistic ugliness you experienced growing up. You can't stand up to him when he's on the screen. Instead, he leaves you like a battered housewife, exhausted and helpless, yet attracted to the abuse.

COYOTE is an attempt to blend the arthouse genre, in which Juenger has primarily worked, with horror. The director admits it is a risky experiment: "If this is a horror movie (everyone assures me it is), it's unlike any horror film I've seen. I think we used the horror fundamentals that fit, and then threw away the book. Good, bad, revolting, or brilliant, I can't quite say. I can say its something fresh though. Someone called it David Lynch directs FALLING DOWN. As much as I hate the Lynch comparisons, I thought that was fitting. It's what I wanted to see. I hope you feel the same."

When I first heard about this project and read a portion of the script I was immediately reminded of early David Cronenberg and his body-horror films like Rabid, Shivers ("Even dying is an act of eroticism"), The Fly and Videodrome.  I was also reminded of some of the works of Stephen King where rage/malevolence/evil lies simmering in an unsuspecting host and manifests under the right conditions; Carrie,  Secret Window,  The Dark Half.  Now that the trailer for Coyote has been released I can also see the surreal, dreamlike or perhaps nightmarish quality of David Lynch.  And I have to admit that the dark, claustrophobic and striking visuals in the trailer look vastly superior to what my imagination could conjure up while reading the excerpts from the screenplay.

Coyote is described as an experimental hybrid of art-house (you should check out Juenger's previous work on Vimeo) and horror, but it seems like it could even be classified as an exploitation film.  So can it?

Just to clarify, even though I may watch a shitload of them, I am by no means an expert on exploitation films.  However,  it is my understanding that exploitation films are generally meant to do two things:  push the envelope and make money.  Independent directors took themes and subjects that Hollywood producers would never even think of touching because of their "depravity" and "low moral value" and with very little money, they made them into feature films.  The thing is, people want to see gruesome, sexually explicit, depraved things and will pay money to do so.  And so these directors/business men (Herschell Gordon Lewis comes to mind) gave the people what they wanted: sex, violence, drugs, gore.  Essentially, sensational subjects were exploited to make money.

But among these business men there also existed socially aware artists who used these same "depraved" themes to make movies of genuine artist merit with socially relevant messages that have become cinematic classics.  The line between art and exploitation has become blurred.  Even some movies that were conceived of and filmed as "art films" could not make it past the censors and were shown in grindhouse theaters alongside the exploitation films which were intentionally made to be shown in such shady venues.  We tend to think of exploitation as low-brow titty movies like Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS and Bloodsucking Freaks and forget about films like Carnival of Souls or Night of the Living Dead or Vanishing Point.  So if the money making aspect is removed from the definition, "exploitation" is such a loose term that any film that is made on a relatively low budget, outside of mainstream Hollywood and with questionable moral standards can be considered part of the genre.  So Coyote is an exploitation film? Perhaps.

Movies are made to appeal to an audience.  I mean, it just seems like common sense.  But Trevor Juenger made Coyote to appeal to no one.  Even exploitation films are meant to captivate an audience by showing what is taboo or what should disgust but paradoxically attracts the audience instead: like being unable to look away from the twisted, bloodied bodies of a car accident or watching the girl next door undress before going to bed. You know you shouldn't look but you can't help it.  The subject matter is forbidden or so gruesome that it's simultaneously disgusting and thrilling.  But still these movies appeal to people, directors know this and exploit our depraved, voyeuristic tendencies.  That's how tickets are sold. 

"People are going to hate this movie, man – HATE IT! ...They’re going to be completely immersed in mental illness as they watch it, and frankly, I don’t think that’s going to be a pleasurable experience for many people." - director Trevor Juenger

And this is why I'm looking forward to watching Coyote.  Juenger doesn't care if people like his movie or not.  We get to see an artist's vision without all of the BS of trying to make the movie appeal to a wide audience or be successful commercially.  It's art for art's sake.  In this way Coyote goes beyond the exploitation genre and leaves us back at arthouse horror, but frankly I don't really care to what genre it belongs.  I have respect for a director who intentionally makes his audience suffer along with his protagonist.  It takes balls.  There is no doubt that he is a talented young director who isn't afraid to challenge the audience and I don't know of many filmmakers who strive to make the viewer feel genuinely uncomfortable while watching their movie.  Sure there are exploitation directors who  try to make us squirm when we watch their films, but they do it because they know the audience is going to like it.  Juenger does it because we are going to hate it.   From what I've read about the film, watching it really is going to be like getting ass raped.  The experience isn't going to be pleasant, there may be unexpected moments of pleasure in it, but overall it's going to be a traumatic experience and it's going to stay with you for a very long time.  I can't wait.  Bring on the ass rapin'!

While watching the trailer, Roman Polanski's Repulsion came to mind with its isolated, paranoid and claustrophobic feeling as the protagonist descended into madness.  Of course, with that film we suffered with Catherine Deneuve who pranced around in a translucent nightgown.  In Coyote we get a half naked Bill Oberst Jr. with an animal skin on his head.  Which audience will suffer more do you think?  Maybe Juenger just created a new exploitation genre by exploiting Bill's willingness to do anything to make a movie.  Oberstploitation?

Seriously though, keep an eye on Trevor Juenger.  He may very well be the next Cronenberg or Lynch or Polanski, but hopefully without the statutory rape charges.

Since this is a blog with an emphasis on the boobies found within these kinds of movies, I must also add that Bill Oberst Jr. has assured me that Tasha Zebrowski has a full frontal scene in the movie, that "She is flawless"  and that for the thumb-sucking scene he was "having trouble pretending to be unconscious." 

Ok, I think I'm done rambling.


Coyote Trailer from Trevor Juenger on Vimeo.

Horror Hotties: Margot Kidder

"Nudity in the flesh doesn't bother me. But having my mind uncovered - that scares the hell out of me."

I guess I could have called this post "Lois Lane's Luscious Loins" or something, but since it's all about the horror movies this month, I don't really care that she was the woman who made Superman hard.  But if ever there was a woman whose vagina could handle a "Man of Steel," it would be Margot Kidder.

She was born in the Northwest Territories, her father was an explosives expert and by the sound of her voice, she spent most of her childhood chain smoking Export A's and drinking Yukon Jack, probably while fighting polar bears from the back of a caribou.

As far as horror movies go, she was in the Canadian slasher Black Christmas, and of course The Amityville Horror.  The Reincarnation of Peter Pround? I've never seen it but she was in it and it's a horror film.  She was also bumping uglies with Brian De Palma back in the early '70s and then miraculously got the lead playing the good/evil sister duo in his 1973 Hitchcockian (like every other De Palma movie) thriller Sisters.  I'm sure she was in other horror films but I don't know what the are.  I'm here to post Margot Kidder nudie pictures, not do research!

However, I do know that she was in an episode of 'Banacek' and also voiced Solitaire in Gobots: War of the Rock Lords.  And in 1975 she posed for Playboy which is where these photographs are from.

And here she is in The Amityville Horror (1979)

A Horror Film in 5 Frames

Any idea what movie it is?

Answer after the jump.

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974)

Win a 'Nympho Diver: G-String Festival' DVD!

That's right!  It's the Super Fantastic Nympho Diver DVD Giveaway Extravaganza Contest or something!  All you have to do is "LIKE" BEASTS IN HUMAN SKIN ON FACEBOOK TO WIN a brand spankin' new DVD copy of the Nikkatsu sexploitation comedy Nympho Diver: G-String Festival!

It's our way of saying "thanks" to the 2 or 3 others who like boobies from morally depraved films from the 1970s and '80s.  Thanks guys for your support!

The contest closes at midnight on November 8th and everyone who "likes" Beasts in Human Skin at that time will be entered.  The winner of the Nympho Diver DVD will be picked at random by the rolling of my old D&D dice on November 9th. 

At that point, Brigitte Lahaie will ride naked across the sands of time on the back of a black Great Dane to your door.  She will then kick the door down, cup your groin and whisper, "Mon sexe est formidable" in your ear.  Then she'll pull the Nympho Diver DVD out of her vagina and slap you across the face with it before gently placing it in your open mouth and turning to exit, her naked buttocks glowing with the red rays of the setting sun as she walks away.  She'll mount her canine steed and they will magically fly on dreamy, warm wind currents back to present day France where she will return to the tedious existence of her radio talk show and lament for the days of '70s porn and the golden days of exploitation cinema.

Either that or I will eGift it to you through Amazon.com.  I haven't decided yet.

*Disclaimer:  Brigitte Lahaie will not deliver your DVD.  I could ask, but I don't think it's going to happen.

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN!  

 

Vampire Hookers (1978) Review

Warm Blood Isn't All They Suck!

Around this time of year, a lot of "top 5" and "top 10" lists of the best/scariest Halloween movies of all time pop up on this series of tubes that Al Gore invented called "the internet."  Most of them are retarded.  However some horror bloggers and writers who actually know what the hell they are talking about list the best underrated horror movies of all time, and these lists I do like.

I'm glad to see movies like Frailty, In the Mouth of Madness, Session 9, and Dog Soldiers show up on these underrated horror lists but there are a few movies that I feel are still neglected, and so I thought of doing my own "top 5 underrated Halloween horror movies list" and include films like Dagon, Cemetery Man a.k.a. Dellamorte Dellamore and Nightmares in a Damaged Brain.  But that sounds like a lot of work so fuck it, here's a review of Vampire Hookers.

It seems to me that this movie is essentially a way to show a 10 minute orgy with a sailor and three lonely vampiresses, and there's really nothing wrong with that, especially since all three of these ladies of the night are damn fine... even though they have tan lines for some reason.  But if you're looking for things like thrills and humor and plot, you may wish to look elsewhere.  It's a horror/comedy that isn't particularly scary or funny.  And the sex scene is pretty tame.

Three American sailors get shore leave in the Philippines and shenanigans ensue.   Two of these... Gaijin?  Gweilo?  What the hell do they call white guys in the Philippines?  Two of these guys are new to the islands and eat strange Filipino food, fight some locals and get involved with some trannies while they're looking for some hookers for the night.  Hilarious!

So eventually they find a woman who is willing to exchange sexual intercourse for money and she takes the Chief Petty Officer to a graveyard where it turns out she's a vampire hooker in the service of a vampire pimp who's played by John Carradine and who constantly recites poetry and isn't scary or funny.  Three of these vampire hookers lure unsuspecting men to their lair in the cemetery where these "johns" become nourishment for these undead creatures and their buffoon of a companion who wants desperately to be a vampire and is played by veteran exploitation actor Vic Diaz.  He isn't funny either but he gets an E for effort.  That's pretty much it.  The two other sailors find out where the CPO went and what happened to him and they try to avoid becoming the next victims of John Carradine and his vampire hookers.

If you like watching people ride in taxis, men in sailor uniforms, shitty slapstick or flatulence humor then you might like Vampire Hookers.  The boobies are good but there isn't a whole lot of them. 

Violence Rating: 2 out of 5
Booby Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Other than the boobies, the best part of the movie is the catchy little tune played during the end credits.  And here it is.