Review: THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW (1978)

In Antonio Bido's murder mystery, THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW, a standard giallo mystery is told, with little effect of differentiating itself from the rest of the genre. Years ago, a young schoolgirl was found strangled to death in a meadow on the outskirts of a small Italian villa. In the present, a young university student named Stefano (Lino Capolicchio, from THE HOUSE OF THE LAUGHING WINDOWS) returns to the villa, his hometown, to visit his older brother, Don Paolo (Craig Hill, from ALL ABOUT EVE) who is now the town's priest.

Shortly after Stefano's arrival, Don Paolo witnesses a murder outside his window. When he goes with police and Stefano to investigate, not body is immediately found... until later. The victim, it turns out, was a local outcast woman who performed seances with some of the town's most hated and feared residents - including a local homosexual pedophile (Massimo Serato, of DON'T LOOK NOW), a gambling addicted doctor (Sergio Mioni, of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC) and a woman known for performing abortions (Juliette Mayniel, of EYES WITHOUT A FACE). Don Paolo and Stefano investigate the murder and the suspects, with the help of another young student named Sandra (Stefania Casini, from SUSPIRIA).

The Bloodstained Shadow is by no means a great entry in the giallo genre, but it is also by no means a horrible edition, either. It is classier than a lot of the later films to come out of the giallo film movement (most films after DEEP RED tended to toss in more sleaze and gore than plot), but it also lacks a lot of originality and suspense.

The main draw to the film, like many Italian movies made during this time, is the scenery. Breathtaking. Absolutely breathtaking. In The Bloodstained Shadow you get to look at the city of Venice and all the canals that go along with it, as well as the vast country and rolling hills set against the bright, blue skies. Venice is not quite as gothic and foreboding as it was in Don't Look Now, but it still is presented in an eerie light that adds to the appeal of the film's atmosphere. The little town itself is quite awesome to look at - the perfect type of place to either retire or, in this case, being a gloved murderer.

The atmosphere is the main draw to The Bloodstained Shadow, and while its impressive cinematography is certainly a draw, it also comes with a couple of dull moments. There are sequences that seem to branch off from the core of the story just to add some kind of social commentary, but rather than making a point about Italy's justice system the film seems to have a few tacked on sequences that don't seem to work. For instance, one of the film's main red-herring's is wrongfully accused and then beaten to death by townsfolk - yet survives - only to crawl up a hill and die in an overly dramatic, overly long set-piece.

While the aforementioned scene is probably the most violent in the film (flesh tearing and beatings that would make Lucio Fulci and Mario Bava proud), there are some creative kills - including a sword through the chest, burning someone's face in a fire, a heart in a sacristy, and of course a chase involving the killer, a victim, and two boats in Venice.

Much of the film is blatantly borrowed from previous films in the genre, including those of Fulci, Bava, and of course Dario Argento - from its Deep Red-inspired soundtrack to the structure of the film to the mystery behind it, much of The Bloodstained Butterfly is a rehash of older works. But that should sort of be expected, considering the film was released in 1978 - several years after the 1970-1974 golden age of the giallo genre.

Hardcore fans of the genre will definitely get a kick out of this movie, but casual viewers might find it to be a little dated. It's a shame that The Bloodstained Shadow falls under the shadow of better-known giallo's like Deep Red, THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA, and DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING. Because, at the end of the day, The Bloodstained Shadow is a worthy effort. But it's just not a great effort.

Recommendations:
Don't Look Now (1973)
Don't Torture a Duckling (1971)
Deep Red (1975)

The Top 30 - Part 3/3: No. 10-1

A list counting down the top 30 movies belonging to the slasher, splatter, or giallo genres. Most of these films are essential viewings for anyone who calls themselves a fan of the genres, and each of these movies brings something unique to the table - whether it is through its plot, style, execution, or nostalgic interest. Sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, re-imaginings, and spin-offs are not on the list - only the original vehicle material... except for Friday the 13th Part 2, which I consider to be an original of the series (and the first film, to me, is simply a prequel to the Jason-saga started in Part 2).

10. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981)
Director: Steve Miner
An unknown assailant disguised by a white hood stalks and kills camp counselors staying at a camp nearby Camp Crystal Lake, a.k.a. "Camp Blood", where murders occurred five-years before.

09. THE BURNING (1981)
Director: Tony Maylam
After being horribly burned by a prank gone wrong, a former camp counselor seeks revenge on the teens who disfigured him, who are now the lead counselors at a summer camp.

08. DEEP RED (1975)
Director: Dario Argento
A musician sees the murder of a famous psychic and must team up with a feisty reporter to solve the mystery while evading the killer's strikes on their own lives.

07. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)
Director: Wes Craven
In the dreams of his victims, a child murderer - brandishing horrible burns, razor sharp knives for fingers, and a green and red sweater - stalks the children of the lynch mob that killed him.

06. SCREAM (1996)
Director: Wes Craven
A killer is murdering teenagers, and an offbeat group of friends use their knowledge of horror movie cliches to try and survive the danger while also attempting to solve the mystery.

05. EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960)
Director: Georges Franju
Accompanied by his assistant, an insane but brilliant doctor murders young women throughout the country, hoping to use their faces to preserve the beauty of his now deformed daughter.

04. THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974)
Director: Tobe Hooper
After hearing reports of grave robbing in rural Texas, five friends set out to make sure their relative's grave is in tact and encounter a chainsaw wielding maniac and his cannibalistic family.

03. BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974)
Director: Bob Clark
During Christmas break, sorority sisters receive increasingly threatening phone calls from a madman who is already inside their house.

02. PSYCHO (1960)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
A woman embezzles $40,000 from her employer and flees town, eventually staying at a quiet motel run by a shy young man and his dominating mother.

01. HALLOWEEN (1978)
Director: John Carpenter

15-years after killing his sister, a psychotic murder escapes from his mental hospital and returns to his hometown to relieve his original murder over and over and over.

The Top 30 - Part 2/3: No. 20-11

A list counting down the top 30 movies belonging to the slasher, splatter, or giallo genres. Most of these films are essential viewings for anyone who calls themselves a fan of the genres, and each of these movies brings something unique to the table - whether it is through its plot, style, execution, or nostalgic interest. Sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, re-imaginings, and spin-offs are not on the list - only the original vehicle material... except for The Devil's Rejects, which I consider to be so vastly different from the original film - HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES - that it works as a canon film in its own right).

20. THE PROWLER (1981)

Director: Joseph Zito
Hell-bent on re-living a 35-year old murder, a killer dressed in World War II Army fatigues stalks and kills a group of college students trying to bring back the long lost tradition of the town Spring Dance.

19. SLEEPAWAY CAMP (1983)
Director: Robert Hiltzik
Painfully shy orphan Angela Baker and her cousin Ricky are sent away to a summer camp by their bizarre Aunt, and soon after their arrival some of the camp's nastier tenants start having grueling "accidents."

18. I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (1997)
Director: Jim Gillespie
One year after covering up a hit-and-run, four teenagers find themselves being terrorized by a mysterious figure who knows the crime they committed... and wants justice served with the tip of a hook.

17. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLONGE? (1972)
Director: Massimo Dallamano
A teacher having an affair with one of his students witnesses a murder, and as more bodies pile up the teacher begins his own investigation, leading him to believe that he may be the reason behind the killings.

16. MANIAC (1980)
Director: William Lustig
Troubled by childhood abuse from his sadistic mother, a psychotic goes on a killing spree across New York, all while starting up a relationship with a beautiful young photographer.

15. THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (2005)
Director: Rob Zombie
The villainous Firefly clan, responsible for dozens of murders at their Texas farmhouse, outrun the law - in particular the crazed Sheriff Wydell, who is hell-bent on revenge for his brother's death.

14. THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1971)
Director: Dario Argento
After witnessing a murder attempt, an American writer staying in Rome is stalked by a serial killer and must solve the mystery behind the crimes before he becomes the next victim.

13. PEEPING TOM (1960)
Director: Michael Powell
Set in London, a young man murders women throughout the city, capturing their dying moments on film with his camera.

12. CHILD'S PLAY (1988)
Director: Tom Holland
A vicious murder is blamed on a young boy claiming his doll committed the crime, and his mother and a determined cop team up and realize the boy may be telling the truth.

11. DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1974)
Director: Lucio Fulci
A reporter and a troubled heiress attempt to solve a series of grisly child killings that have spread panic across a small Italian village.

The Top 30 - Part 1/3: No. 30-21

A list counting down the top 30 movies belonging to the slasher, splatter, or giallo genres. Most of these films are essential viewings for anyone who calls themselves a fan of the genres, and each of these movies brings something unique to the table - whether it is through its plot, style, execution, or nostalgic interest. Sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, re-imaginings, and spin-offs are not on the list - only the original vehicle material.

30. BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA (1971)
Director: Paolo Cavara
An indefatigable detective investigates a series of gruesome murders where the victims were paralyzed with wasp venom and kept alive to witness their own agonizing deaths.

29. THE NEW YORK RIPPER (1982)
Director: Lucio Fulci
A burned-out womanizing New York detective teams up with a college professor to find a vicious, brutal, misogynistic maniac butchering beautiful women throughout the city.

28. SAW (2004)
Director: James Wan
Two men wake up chained to the walls in an abandoned room with no recollection of how they arrived, but soon realize they are the latest victims of the Jigsaw Killers, a madman who tests his victim's will to live through gruesome death traps.

27. PROM NIGHT (1980)
Director: Paul Lynch
Six years following the accidental death of a young girl, the four teens responsible are stalked by a masked killer out for revenge on the night of their high school prom.

26. SWEET SIXTEEN (1983)
Director: Jim Sotos
With her sixteenth birthday approaching, the beautiful new girl in town finds that every boy she tries to go on a date with ends up dead, sparking suspicion from the sheriff and his two teenage sleuth kids.

25. MADMAN (1982)
Director: Joe Giannone
After a cocky pre-teen at a summer camp jokingly summons him, a mass murderer named "Madman" Marz returns from the grave to continue his bloody legacy, now hunting down the camp's counselors.

24. GIRLS NITE OUT (1982)
Director: Robert Deubel
When their campus hosts an all-night scavenger hunt in honor of the anniversary of a murder that made the school famous, various co-eds unknowingly cross paths with a killer dressed in a dancing bear suit.

23. THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)
Director: Wes Craven
An all-American nuclear family must face off against a savage family of inbred mutants living in the desert hills when their car breaks down and they become stranded in the savage's territory.

22. THE STRANGERS (2008)
Director: Bryan Bertino
While staying at his parent's isolated vacation home, James Hoyt and his girlfriend Kristen McCay are terrorized by three unknown masked assailants for seemingly no reason but because they were home.

21. JUST BEFORE DAWN (1981)
Director: Jeff Lieberman
After inheriting some land in the mountains, a college student takes his four friends to explore the area and have an R&R weekend, only they quickly encounter a machete-wielding maniac.

Review: SCREAM 2 (1997)

SCREAM 2 is one of those movies that has gained a lot of slack over the years, and I don't really understand why... It is an incredibly entertaining, clever, and superbly suspenseful sequel that ranks with some of the best slasher sequels available - HALLOWEEN II (1981 version, of course), FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2, and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: THE DREAM WARRIORS, just to name some of the more obvious ones. In fact, I know that I'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but I would argue that Scream 2 is a serious contender for the best slasher film sequel of all time.

Much of the hate for Scream 2 undoubtedly comes from its comparisons to the films that followed in its wake - the overly goofy SCREAM 3 and the completely off-balance SCREAM 4. While the original SCREAM set the bar for late 90's horror flicks and single-handedly re-invented the slasher genre, Scream 2 follows in its footsteps with proud respect and enough brains to make it a damn good movie in its own right.

From the film's opening, you know that screenwriter Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven have put some serious thought into how to make their sequel a film in its own right without being a carbon copy of the first Scream. The mystery behind the killings ties together nicely in the end, and subtle hints are dropped throughout the movie that make you say, "Oh! I should have known it was them!" And while the movie lacks the twist that made the first film such a craze, it still is a nice curvy mystery thriller in its own right.

The performances are fun and the actors realize that they are making a movie that is not about terrifying people to death - they are making a movie for the masses. Scream and its sequels are slasher films for everyone to enjoy. They are suspenseful thrillers that won't give hardcore nightmares and won't disturb people, but will allow them to reach a certain catharsis that catapults Scream, Scream 2, and the others in the series to being the ultimate Hollywood horror byproduct.

Neve Campbell, Jamie Kennedy, Liev Schrieber, David Arquette, and Courtney Cox all return to their roles with glory - and it is in Scream 2 that their characters truly find themselves. They each deal with the events of the first film in different ways - a sign of good storytelling for a sequel. Campbell's Sidney Prescott is just trying to live a normal college life, amidst her celebrity status as the heroine from the first film. Kennedy's Randy Meeks is less scrawny and more buff, but still just as geeky and fun (and slightly less annoying this time around). Arquette's Deputy Dewey walks with physical scars from the traumatic first episode, and Cox's Gale Weathers has actually made a huge profit off her traumatic ordeal. And Schrieber's Cotton Weary, who was wrongly accused of killing Sidney's mother in the first film, is out to clear his name by getting his 15-minutes of fame.

What I have come to appreciate the most about Scream 2 is that it takes the events of Scream and turns those events into a movie-within a-movie. You see, Gale Weathers wrote this book called The Woodsboro Murders, and that book was turned into a slasher film called Stab, which stars some of Hollywood's most noticeable starlets (including Heather Graham, Luke Wilson, and the ever-dreadful Tori Spelling). The release of Stab in the theaters is what ignites a new series of murders, and it is the perfect bridge from the first film into the second film.

One thing that occurred to me about Scream 2 is that it is built on set-pieces; literally from the opening scene on, every single murder is the climax to some kind of set-piece. Whether that scene takes place in a movie theater, a sorority house, a crashed car, or out in broad daylight, both Williamson and Craven know how to work their story and they know what the audience is going to expect... and what the audience is not going to expect.

Take for instance the opening scene, where the characters are obviously going to get it. Unlike the now iconic scene from the first film, where Drew Barrymore's character is terrorized by Ghostface at her isolated house, the opening to Scream 2 takes place in a sold-out movie theater, packed with movie-maniacs who want to see a slasher film. While watching the scene unfold, you know that Jada Pinkett and Omar Epps, the two moviegoers we focus on, are going to bite the dust. But the question isn't so much if they will die, but rather how and when.

Much like how Scream was not only a spoof on modern horror movies but also a critique on media violence (asking the question, "Do movies create psychos or do psychos create movies?"), Scream 2 continues that theme. There is literally a classroom debate among the characters over the killings, and if they are inspired by on-screen violence. This is not only cleverly stapled into the story's structure, but also interestingly supports both sides of the argument (as you will be able to tell by the killer's motive).

Speaking of the violence, those who say that the success of Scream and Scream 2 "softened" the horror genre are incredibly wrong and, quite frankly, stupid. Just because Ghostface isn't some perverse rapist who gets a stiff one looking at dead bodies, it does not make the Scream series any less wonderful. People are stabbed numerous times all over their bodies and heads, their heads are crushed, they are thrown from buildings, shot, maimed, butchered... Scream 2 continues the gore, only it actually has the decency to toss on some suspense too (unlike, say, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES which sacrifices suspense for complete ludicrous gore).

Would I say that Scream 2 is a better movie than Scream? No, it is not. But I would say that it is about as good a follow-up as anyone could have hoped for. Sure, it has some plot problems, but overall its a very tight structure. And let's face it, folks. Every sequel has its problems.

So if you're feeling nostalgic and want to take a step back to the 1990s - and you want some suspense, laughs, and clever dialogue - than you should definitely start with the first two Scream movies. Even if you skip the other sequels, know that Scream 2, like its predecessor, is a classic.

Recommendations:
Halloween H20 (1998)
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)
Urban Legend (1998)