Challenge the Devil, 1963

A while back I got the Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Volume I boxset that Severin put out.

As you can guess the set contains films Lee did in Europe, I do believe three of the movies in this set were filmed while Lee was in Italy for three months!

In Challenge the Devil, also known as Katarsis and also Sfida al Diavolo, Lee plays the Devil/Lord of the Castle. 

He is also in this film probably in total give or take around ten minutes! I have read that Lee states he was only on the set for about a week and never saw the film afterwards.

The plot is about a group of people who seem to live a rowdy lifestyle of drinking and not caring about others and pretty much causing trouble. They end up in at a castle where they meet Lee's character who has them explore the castle for a woman, in which they are haunted and forced to realise their errors and to try become better people.

The story is told by one of the gang who has now due to his experience became a monk and is now himself trying to help a friend come to her senses and do the right thing....

This film is ok, not exactly amazing and think they definitely tried to cash in with having Lee in it as a big star to draw people in.

Also, the film starts off more like a crime thriller then slowly moves into a weak gothic horror. There is a scene which feels more like it was set just to highlight a singer which to me doesn't add to this film, if it was cut it may have helped the film flow a bit better as I did think at times it dragged.

It is also worth noting that this film was sort of missing for nearly 50 years, not because negatives were lost but because it was that bad that it was more likely hidden away. But I guess it maybe one for the Christopher Lee completists but be prepared that it is not that great!

Another Son of Sam, 1977

 

This film is a bit weird, a proto-slasher that was filmed in 1975 and not released until 1977.

Has bugger all to do with any connection to the actual Son of Sam, David Berkowitz. Think they just cashed in on the title to get people to go see this film when it finally was released. I have read it was originally called Hostages but changed to as I said before to cash in on the Son of Sam murders.

Plot is a killer escapes from a psychiatric hospital on and goes on a killing spree around a college town, causing a headache for the local police who eventually get the SWAT team and the killers mother in to stop him!

Another Son of Sam isn't great, mean it is watchable, but I found there were to many freeze frames that lingered and some scenes that were daft like the scene with singer Johnny Charro that seemed longer then it should have been! The film isn't even that longer at about 71 minutes but still feels a bit too long and little all over the place.

Did find some interesting stuff from IMDB from people that worked on this film, that a lot of the cast were local, and some were local TV newscasters!

Also, someone wrote that they poured money into this film but never seen it or heard from the director again! Thinking maybe the story behind how this film got made may be better than the film itself!

I wouldn't go out my way to rewatch this, but it was an extra on AFGA's release of The Zodiac Killer Blu-ray, that's if anyone is interested in giving it a watch....

Enys Men, 2022

 

I can't really explain the plot of Enys Men as it's very sparse in that it centres around a woman on an island in the spring of 1973, off the Cornish coast (I've read that Enys Men is Cornish for 'Stone Island') where is observing and recording details.

It then descends into a journey of what is real on this island.

After watching it, I think the trippiness of the story is maybe three timelines of the island blending into one which all involve the main character, maybe the present day the isolation of the island is affecting the woman while on it?

I really enjoyed this film, it at times if at all may not make any sense on first watch, but there is a charm about it that will make me watch this a lot! 

The director, Mark Jenkin, has did a great job of making this film, shot on 16mm it helps give the feel as if it was filmed back in the early 70's. The cinematography and soundtrack both work excellent in helping create a bleak lonely environment within the film.

Though while watching it I did think that some of the shots reedited or even extra shots could be used to make a sort of music video of Lux Ferrari's 'Petite Symphonie Intuitive Pour Un Paysage De Printemps', or at least in my head it kind of works!

There was one shot in the film that reminded me of Robert Altman's Images, which is a great film and maybe to a certain extent similar to Enys Men.

Enys Men didn't get out on the big screen as much, fact think where I live only one place played it and think it's release in the states was extremely limited. It's not a film for everyone but think a lot of people would enjoy it. It is available to stream on the BFI player if you subscribe to that and there is a blu ray release out which is the way I saw it!

I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses, 1978

One of the stranger films to be on the video nasties list is this Canadian drama film. I believe it was loosely based on a real-life murder case/trail.

The film is about a man called Charles Kruschen who was a Hungarian immigrant who came to Canada as a refugee in the 1950's and worked his way up to become a wealthy real estate developer. He marries a model called Magdalene and has a family but over the years she likes spend more and more which becomes a strain between the two.

Eventually Magdalene is murdered at home and it is found that Charles had plotted to have her killed, though during the court trail it seems both were trying to bump each other off.....

I'm not sure how exactly this film ended up on the video nasties list as for the most part this film is fairly boring as hell, more like a longer version of say Law and Order. Maybe the scene where Magdalene gets bludgeon to death may be the reason, but who knows!

Compared to other films on the video nasties list this is pretty tame but like a lot of them, it is also pretty rubbish!

It was one film I had wanted to see for ages due to trying to see all the films on the nasties list and I can say it is one I won't be in a rush to see again!

It has finally had a Blu Ray release by Severin Films in the States (region free), but would not be surprised if say 88 Films released it over here in the UK.