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....