Search This Blog

2000 Dir. Brian Yuzna When John Jaspers’ girlfriend is brutally murdered by a gang of thugs he loses the will to live and plans to kill himself by jumping off a bridge. Just before he jumps he is approached by the sinister "M" who offers a dubious proposition: he will enable Jaspers to wreck brutal revenge in return for the man’s soul. Jaspers accepts and is transformed into Faust, a demon-like superhero who embarks on a bloody trail of vigilante vengeance… However when “M” returns to claim Jaspers’ soul, all hell breaks loose when Faust refuses to stick to the bargain. “I am the pornography that makes you hot!” Based on the cult graphic novel by David Quinn and Tim Vigil, Faust was the first film produced by Brian Yuzna’s Spanish production company, Fantastic Factory. Something of an oddity, the film is, if anything, an interesting attempt to approach the super-hero movie from a slightly different angle. The notion of an avenging demon is a tantalising one akin ...

Deadline

2009 Dir. Sean McConville When a screenwriter travels to a house in the middle of nowhere to finish her latest project, sinister occurrences ensue. Given that said screenwriter is recovering from a recent nervous breakdown, staying alone in a big old house in the middle of nowhere, probably wasn’t the greatest idea ever. However it means that director McConville can play that old ‘is she really seeing ghosts or just imagining things’ card... I enjoy catching random horror films on late night TV. Sometimes you’re rewarded for idly flicking through the channels until something catches your eye – favourite films I’ve discovered this way include Cat People , Halloween , The Pit and the Pendulum and Night of the Living Dead . When you see that a horror film starring Brittany Murphy as a writer staying alone in a creepy house has just started – you just have to watch it. Deadline seemed to me to have a lot of potential; a nice (if not wholly original) idea, a pace and tone that ...

Audiodrome#9: The Devil In Miss Jones

Gerard Damiano’s moody 'porno-chic' title The Devil in Miss Jones (1973) straddles an odd divide between art house and hardcore pornography. Upon release it was described as "More morality play than masturbation aid." It follows the tragic story of Justine Jones (Georgina Spelvin), who dies by suicide only to end up facing an eternity in Hell because she took her own life. She insists that if she’s given another chance she can ensure she lives a life that truly warrants such eternal damnation. So begins an X-rated and oddly emotional odyssey of lust. The lush piano driven score courtesy of Alan Shuman highlights the melancholy at the heart of the story and negates typical conventions of kinky Seventies porn soundtracks. Head over to Paracinema.net to read my review of Shuman’s wistful score. While you’re there, why not pre-order a copy of issue 16 of Paracinema Magazine? It’s packed with in-depth critiques and articles on the likes of The Devils, Assault of...

Links

Popular posts from this blog

Faust: Love of the Damned

Deadline

Audiodrome#9: The Devil In Miss Jones