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Interesting. I was clearly being too simplistic. I don't have time to write more, but the structure above is different from the giallo's structure. Part 1 is somewhat the same (sub-point 2 is often unnecessary). For part 2, the hero witnesses a murder and often fixates upon a single visual clue. This aspect may or may not involve a disruption, but often not, since the killer continues on the original path with the occasional deviation (trying to kill hero or his girlfriend). Part 3 is somewhat the same.

The thing, tho', that still seems to distinguish the slasher from the giallo is that most of the characters are A. gathered in one location, and B. mostly aren't aware they are being stalked. In a giallo, the victims are not random wanderers off from a general gathering of potential targets, but are distinctly chosen as part of a pattern whose methods of murder reveal pieces about the killer's motive. The lead is tracking a pattern of murders in a giallo; in a slasher, they are simply trying to prevent them, with the crucial question of 'who' being mostly for the audience to wonder, as Nowell seems to indicate. The process of solving a crime is a more central concern in the giallo.

I think in all of this it is important to highlight Twitch of the Death Nerve which I largely see as the most immediate predecessor and connective tissue for the giallo to slasher in much the same way that House of Wax connects detective and pulp fiction to the giallo. The addition of setting and use of La Ronde seems essential to the transformation to me (so something like the original Friday the 13th which is a whodunit slasher is distinct from Cat O' Nine Tails which is giallo). It morphs the killings from Sherlock to comedy almost (or at least using the language of comedy to create the suspense of the killings). The setting though seems the most important element of the isolation in a literal sense seems essential to the slasher (even something more open like Halloween isolates itself to a block during the horror section of the film). Location is always more open in giallo which seems to create isolation of the individual (there is always a strongly defined protagonist versus the La Ronde ensembles of the slasher) through a distance from other people must easily highlighted in a character being foreign like in The Girl Who Knew Too Much.

Slashers tend to be locked spatially and temporally (hence so many take place on holidays). Since the main cast is in such immediate danger, there is little chance for much real investigation in a whodunit slasher.

Giallos are not locked in the same way. They usually take place over several days and in multiple locations in order for the killer's pattern to expand. This is a somewhat interesting development considering the giallo came out of stories that were spatially and temporally locked: The Cat and the Canary or Murder on the Orient Express mystery. Such a lock allowed all the suspects to be easily gathered and, also, easily slaughtered in such a way that the bodies can be found and everyone quickly assembled. But in a giallo the amateur detective isn't blessed with a situation that lets him keep all the players in view. This also allows the killer to more easily manipulate him as the amateur detective doesn't even have all the pieces in front of him, let alone the ability to assemble them.

One of the common giallo tropes that even the whodunit slasher never uses is the epistemological dilemma, to get a bit technical. It's the sense of delirium that often hangs over a giallo, as if the wild perversity and madness in the story and the fact that certain bits of sensory perception may or may not be crucial symbols often makes it difficult for the hero and the audience to figure out what's real and what's imagined. The insanity behind the killer's patterns destabilizes the film, so that the disruption in Nowell's Part 2 is usually the disruption of the amateur detective's ability to perceive things clearly (a fact that bleeds over into the film's style), and the resolution of which involves returning the detective back to a context of clear perception (usually sight).

The detective/killer relationship is a stronger one than the final girl/killer, I think.

That's what I meant to say, though as usual you've said it far better than I. Though of course there a few interesting exception which in reality aren't exceptions like Night Train Murders which is in that spatial isolation or Scream which is until the finale not (that finale part I think is very key as a slasher must at least end in spatial isolation). I think in Giallo what is more important than spatial isolation which can or cannot happen depending on story is interpersonal isolation where there is one clearly defined protagonist (versus a protagonist born out of an ensemble as is the case with slashers) who cannot find normalcy with the people around her creating a powerful othering not based on moral grounds.

Alien uses that same locked in a house with a killer format, doesn't it? It sounds as though a lot of the elements predate the genre, such that you could have movies that pretty much fit 'slasher' before any formally defined entries in the field (as I certainly would think of Alien more as 'haunted house in space' than 'slasher in space'.)

That's true, but that's true of nearly every genre ever. Action elements certainly existed before Seven Samurai even if the action movie as we know began roughly with it.

Interesting discussion.

matrixschmatrix wrote:Alien uses that same locked in a house with a killer format, doesn't it? It sounds as though a lot of the elements predate the genre, such that you could have movies that pretty much fit 'slasher' before any formally defined entries in the field (as I certainly would think of Alien more as 'haunted house in space' than 'slasher in space'.)

That distinction may be more of a question of emphasis than of structure or content, since the set pieces in Scott's film are primarily suspense set-pieces, rather than splatter set-pieces (with one celebrated exception!) If you imagine the suspense element dialled down and the kill-scenes extended and played-up, you probably would have a 'slasher in space' movie. But I doubt we'd remember it anywhere near as fondly.

One of the fascinating things about Nowell's book (which is the first I've seen on the subject that resists childish attempts to either praise or vilify the genre and treats it as strictly business) is that he highlights how the films we think of as "slashers" were not in fact considered as such at the time, and from a means of production stance most of the "slashers" released in 1980 were cash-ins of other, non-horror films (Alien, Deliverance, National Lampoon's Animal House, &c) which only now look like a coherent genre. Kind of like how the studios and filmmakers who were making noirs didn't know they were making noirs for a while.

We should remember though that the "there's an alien on a ship attacking the crew" theme dates back at least as far as It! The Terror From Beyond Space.

On domino's latest write up I wanted to wholeheartedly agree on both the negative reaction to the Black Christmas remake (the remake of The Toolbox Murders similarly misses the point of the effectively grubby original) and on the surprisingly positive response to the Sorority Row remake. I did like the way that on one on the girls stumbling across a body and running off to get their friend, usually a cue for the body to have disappeared in the meantime and the girl to be patronised or thought of as a liar by the friend, that the body is still there and they both immediately decide to vacate the premises as fast as possible! I also particularly liked that the cliched unsympathetic 'bitch' character gets not only all the best lines but that we (or at least I) feel sorry for her when she has to be killed off late in the day to finish narrowing the cast down to the final girl for the final showdown (at least until a couple of survivors show up!)

Plus while I've got both films on my mind, I would like to think of Carrie Fisher's alcoholic and permissive but feisty sorority house mother as a call back to the house mother in the original Black Christmas! There are least seems to be a theme of the house mothers being jaded and faded, though worldly wise, women trapped with a yearly rotating crop of fresher, younger women!

matrixschmatrix wrote:Alien uses that same locked in a house with a killer format, doesn't it? It sounds as though a lot of the elements predate the genre, such that you could have movies that pretty much fit 'slasher' before any formally defined entries in the field (as I certainly would think of Alien more as 'haunted house in space' than 'slasher in space'.)

Well the clear precursor to Alien is the haunted house story, no?

RE: House on Sorority Row. I liked it back when I first rented it, but did anyone else feel like it was missing an ending? Feels like it cuts out too early.

Mr Sausage wrote:RE: House on Sorority Row. I liked it back when I first rented it, but did anyone else feel like it was missing an ending? Feels like it cuts out too early.

Spoiler

There's a special feature on the DVD wherein the director talks about the original filmed ending (now lost) played over a still of the locale: The cops arrive and see the clown costumed figure floating in the pool. They flip it over and reveal... the Final Girl, killed and placed in the costume.

Fun fact: the House on Sorority Row was filmed about fifteen minutes from where I live and the mansion has since been converted to townhouses, one of which was up for rent when I last checked. Imagine living in slasher history! (Which reminds me of the special feature on the Slumber Party Massacre set where some young fanboys track down the owner of the house used in the original film and a kind, if slightly bewildered old man leads them through the familiar-looking locale)

Glad to find a fellow defender re: Sorority Row, Colin! I agree with you on Leah Pipes being the MVP of the whole thing, too

All this slasher talk made me curious again:

Happy Birthday to Me (J. Lee Thompson, 1981): I really thought this movie overplayed its hand and dispelled its mystery, as the killer's identity became obvious way too soon (and could be reasoned out by induction as early as the second scene). Then the lunatic climax came along and everything went cheerfully and enjoyably off the rails. I don't know that I've ever seen a killer revealed twice in the same scene, with each incarnation making less sense. That the rest of the movie is made with more craft than you tend to find in slashers helps enormously. Not list worthy, but one of the better examples of what this genre can do.

Anguish (Bigas Luna, 1987): Very enjoyable metafictional exercise. Just to show that all of the film's formal elements are equally well considered and calibrated, the slasher portion, despite how little runtime it's allowed in comparison to actual slasher films, includes a lot of little details to add complexity to what is (purposefully) a rote narrative. Just stuff like the way the mother is unaware that the son is an orderly rather than a surgeon, so that her own delusions of (his) grandeur are founded on lies the son has obviously concocted in order not to disappoint her, but which nevertheless feed back into her delusion that any little disappointment or slight ought to be punished by death. I also enjoyed the way the frame narrative reuses slasher tropes in order to juxtapose them with incongruous moments of sudden violence. Such as

Spoiler

the murder of the two booth attendants. It begins with a POV shot and that cliche of the "oh, it's you! What are you doing here...aaaack!" variety. Except that the moment gets cut off before its typical resolution by a shocking blast of gunfire. You've been trained (even by Anguish itself) to expect such a moment to be drawn out as the killer closes in and the victim's terror reaches its apex; so when the typically ratcheting tension is shattered by unexpected gunfire, it feels like you've been snapped out of a movie and into something more real. Very clever. It also allowed the movie to pair off moments of genuine suspense with the more artificial and less effective moments of 'suspense' onscreen.

I think the movie is more of a formal exercise than a genuine attempt to make a sophisticated analysis of how violent horror movies are received, even if there are a number of fine bits of observation peppered throughout. Also, recent events have made its climax a lot more palpably unsettling than it would be if I'd seen it a few months ago.

Is there no OAR release of the Branagh Frankenstein? I'm sure it is terrible, but I also feel half obliged to see it.

Thanks even if the price seems unfortunate.

I'm pretty sure all blu-ray releases are OAR, as well as the UK dvd.

Giallo
This is pretty much Argento's The Third Man and easily his best film since about The Stendhal Syndrome. The name is pretty much a meta-textual joke referring to the murderer's jaundiced skin rather than the genre. The film instead follows the police procedural mode with all of the psychological baggage being placed on Brody's wonderfully demented cop instead of the killer. Even the typical giallo-esque heroine gets sidelined for Brody's tale of loss. I'd like to talk about it more with someone who has seen the movie, but there's at least a sense of thematic richness here that is not typical of Argento's films which tends to usually tie theme to the cinematography and other graphic elements. Speaking of while it is not as stylish as his classic stuff it still has a visual exercise going on that is much more involving than a lot of his recent efforts which helps greatly to allow this typically off kilter world (there is a lot of silliness) hold ground for the dramatic scenes.

I'll make this a two-fold post, since I've been meaning to give a recommendation to everyone. I guess I'll make this my spotlight title.

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001)

The film is one of many films made by Larry Blamire and his Bantam Street Productions (he uses the same group of actors for his films). You might have run across Larry Blamire in some of the MST3K extras - he speaks about Robot Monster and provides a few short films for the sets.

Anyway, this is just a hilarious and fitting tribute to all of the 1950s B/Z films.

Two scientists are after Atmosphereum - one wants to further his scientific research (he overuses 'science'), the other wants to resurrect the Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (the insult hurling skeleton who plans for world domination, of sorts). They are joined by a pair of aliens who also want the atmosphereum to power their toiler paper tube rocket ship. The aliens also have an awful monster that gets loose and shows up every now and then to cause havoc. There's also animala - the woman who is half human and half four different forest animals. The rest of the film is just trade-offs between the different groups attempting to steal the Atomospherium and stopping the Lost Skeleton.

Yeah, it's a bit sophomoric at points, but it is perhaps one of the best horror films of the past decade, or at least the most fun. The cliches don't come across as either too forced or annoying - and the filmmaker certainly has a great love for the 1950s horror/Sci-fi era. I wouldn't exactly call the film a parody, since everything is presented genuinely - rather than mocking the period (Blamire had no knowledge for special effects - only discovering mattes in the sequel, thus the effects are just as inspired as the 1950s films - the state of the alien's monster will attest to that). The Skeleton makes for an excellent classic horror monster - as he is the most hilarious and personable of cast - despite shouting one-liner insults at his henchman. For the fans of Robot Monster and perhaps Ed Wood - this film shouldn't be missed. Try watching James Rolfe's review of the film - it might do a better job of describing the film's better points (since I've depleted most of my energy going through the TCM list for October - see below).

There's also a sequel named The Lost Skeleton Returns Again - while not as great at the first film, is also a lot of fun (this time, the film is after the 1940s/50s jungle/adventure movies). A third film in the Lost Skeleton series is in the works at the moment, so that should be promising. There's also Blamire's Dark and Stormy Night - which is reminiscent of The Old Dark House. Perhaps this should also be seen in preparation for the horror list. Blamire manages the film's very large cast very well. Again, the film hits all of the familiar points for an Old Dark House film - will reading, disappearing characters, obnoxious snoods (their term not mine) and even a gorilla!

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This is a cross-post with the "upcoming movies on television" topic:

For those with access to TCM US:

For those doing the Horror list, then check out the following days:
October 3rd: Mystery Of The Wax Museum, House of Dracula, Doctor X, I walked with a Zombie
October 5th: Reptile, Curse of the Cat People, I Married A Witch, Curse/Night of the Demon, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
October 14th: The Unknown (1927)
October 10th: Haunting, Uninvited, House on Haunted Hill, Dead of Night, Innocents (also Bresson's Proces de Jeanne d'Arc)
October 17th: Hammer's original Dracula, Mummy, Frankenstein, + Gorgon, Devil Rides Out, and Plague of the Zombies
October 21st: La main du diable
October 24th: Raven ('63), Murders in the Rue Morgue, Black Cat, Spirits of the Dead
October 27th: Devil Doll, Bedlam, Cat People, Dracula, Prince of Darkness, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, Village Of The Damned, House Of Wax (1953), Diabolique (1955), What's The Matter With Helen? (1971), I Bury The Living (1958)
October 28th: 20 Million Miles To Earth, Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, Phantom of the Opera, M
October 31st: London After Midnight (reconstructed version), Repulsion, Dementia 13, Last Man On Earth, White Zombie, Body Snatcher (1945), Frankenstein, Son Of Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Mummy ('32), Mummy's Hand, Island of Lost Souls, Invisible Man

Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape (Jake West, 2010) After bringing up the subject a few pages ago, this turned up on The Horror Channel in the UK. Colinr started a thread about the full DVD set here, but the documentary is worth a watch on its own. It's less interested in the films themselves and more in the astonishing sequence of events leading to the Video Recordings Act. Most interestingly(at least to me), it highlights the work of Martin Barker who was on the teaching staff at Sussex University when I was doing my thesis - along with Julian Petley, he is one of the most interesting writers on film censorship and related matters. The book he edited at the time, entitled Video Nasties, is worth hunting out but long out of print. Anyway, back to the film which is an entertaining and pretty informative way to spend 90 mins.

Devil Doll (Lindsay Shonteff, 1964) What do you get if you cross the Ventriloquist's Dummy episode from Dead of Night with Svengali? A rather odd entry in the British horror cycle which owes more to the B movies of the 50s than Hammer is the answer - and one that has received the MST3K treatment. Actually it's not a bad little film at all - Bryant Halliday rarely acted but is fine as the hypnotist / ventriloquist villain pursuing Yvonne Romain, the heiress girlfriend of token American, William Sylvester. The Dummy, Hugo (in a blatant Dead of Night nod) is oddly unnerving and the ending is effective but a bit out of nowhere. Best of all is its use of sound to create an atmosphere that Shonteff can't quite conjure visually. Worth catching if not necessarily hunting out.

Inseminoid (Norman J. Warren, 1981) A low budget rip off of Alien complete with terrible acting, inane dialogue, nonsensicle plotting and a sequence where Judy Geeson is raped by an alien with an enormous, transparent penis. Warren is a genuinely nice guy, and Terror is a hugely entertaining British Suspiria, but this is a mess. However, by foregrounding the sexual subtext of Alien the result is undeniably fascinating - after being impregnated by the alien, Geeson's character turns into a psychopathic mother (cheaper than an sfx alien) killing the rest of the cast in order, presumably, to protect her offspring. Women's groups protested at the film's release, but as Geeson gives easily the best performance of the film and the other characters behave even more stupidly than their counterparts in a terrible slasher film your sympathies are more likely to be with her than the supposed protagonists. It really isn't a good film, but it's undeniably fascinating.

I guess one of the non-Alien influences on Inseminoid must have been the trippy scene where Julie Christie is impregnated by her robotic house in Demon Seed!

I kind of love/hate the moment in Inseminoid where a character has a leg trapped by an easily movable rockfall (while the rest of the crew are somehow trapped by an airlock malfunction so can only watch) and panicily decides in a moment of sublime stupidity to use one of her mining tools to cut it off, not taking into account the lack of air/freezing temperature outside of her spacesuit!

It is like a more believable version of 127 Hours, just on a more compressed timescale! (I don't think that the character waits 127 seconds before making her fateful decision!)

Dr Amicus if you want to see another Alien rip-off I highly recommend Galaxy of Terror which is most notable for featuring some goregous set designs by James Cameron pre-Aliens (and apparently Bill Paxton worked on it behind the scenes too building the sets!) It is not a great film either but quite entertaining!

My favourite moment of Galaxy of Terror apart from some of the more obvious ones(!) is at the very start when Grace Zabriske as perhaps the most impulsive captain of a spaceship there has ever been decides, perhaps acting on behalf of the filmmakers bored with all of the stately Kubrick space ballet sequences and long graceful build up that characterised Alien, to start the launch sequence before the rest of the crew are ready, throwing everyone into a blind panic!

Then she does it again on approaching the planet, causing the ship to crash land! Her response to the crew naturally critising her piloting skills? A tut and roll of the eyes at their wussiness!

I haven't been as involved in this project as I'd have liked, but it's October which means it's time to watch lots of horror films, so hopefully I can get back on track for the final stretch. Hopefully I can catch up on most of the essential horror films I haven't seen yet, as well as the member spotlights. I was planning on writing a guide to Hong Kong horror, though at this point if it ever gets done, I think it will be too late to be of use to anyone.

Anyways I jumped back into horror viewing this weekend by attending Chicago's annual 24 hour horror movie marathon at the Music Box theater. Due to a falling out between the theater and the usual event organizers, there's going to be another 24 hour horror marathon at another theater next weekend. Here's what we watched.

The Golem (Carl Boese & Paul Wegener, 1920) - It's always a treat to watch a silent film with live organ music. The Golem isn't one of my favorite silent horror films, but it has it's moments.

Mark of the Vampire (Tod Browning, 1935) - The atmosphere and the characters in this are all really fantastic and had me completely pulled in. I didn't mind the ending, but the shift in tone felt a bit clunky to me, so it's hard for me to consider this a masterpiece. I might find spot for it on my list if there's room.

The Invisible Man (James Whale, 1933) - I'm sure quite a lot has already been written about this film. I loved it for probably all the usual reasons, though I'm a bit torn about putting it on my list. I would classify it as horror and I loved it, but I'm not sure if it's the best example of a horror film.

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (Freddy Francis, 1965) - This was an original release technicolor print and looked absolutely beautiful. I don't really like horror anthology films, but this one was entertaining enough. I liked that I was actually engaged with the framing story. Won't be on my list, but I'm glad to have seen it.

Squirm (Jeff Lieberman, 1976) - I thought this was a really well crafted horror film. The characters are pretty interesting, and it manages to be funny without sacrificing scares. I thought the killer worm premise was handled quite well too constantly toying with audience squemishness, without fully descending into gross-out horror. Jeff Lieberman was there to talk about the film and he was a pretty likable and amusing guy to listen to. Apparently Charlie Sheen, Kim Basinger, and Sylvester Stallone were all potential casting choices for this film. Might get a lower spot on my list.

Satan's Little Helper (Jeff Lieberman, 2004) - This was quite an effective little slasher film, that got quite a lot out of it's premise. A Satan-obsessed young boy ends up following around and helping a costumed serial killer under the impression that it's all pretend. The film manages to walk the fine line between genuine serious tension and dark comedy, I was a bit worried it might fall apart at any moment, but it juggles the various tones quite nicely. There are a few weaker moments where it tries too hard to be shocking, or where it relies too heavily on characters jumping to dumb conclusions to get the plot from A to B. But overall I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this film, and Jeff Lieberman was again delightful to listen to. I'll try to find a spot on my list.

Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (Philippe Mora, 1985) - Still not sure what to make out of this bizarre film. There's some very heavy handed editing in this, to seemingly try and make this film more entertaining. At times the editing is mocks the footage with it's juxtapositions, or seeks to amuse with it's randomness. The more delightful moments are when it goes into the most random montages of present events, flashbacks, and B-roll with some really oddball and sometimes lyrical juxtapositions.

What makes it more odd, is that it doesn't appear that they were attempting to make a serious film, then made fun of it when it turned out bad. The original footage is equally campy, but the editing doesn't try to amplify this quality, but just re-mix the footage to try and crank out some extra laughs. So it ends up being this weirdly layered monstrosity of badness where the production design and performances are mocking the script, and then the editor just took free license to re-purpose the footage any way they wanted to get a little extra cheese out of the whole thing. This was an amusing oddity, and I'm glad I saw it, but it probably won't be making my list. Sybil Danning was there to share some entertaining stories from the set and share her initial reaction when she first saw the infamous credit sequence.

The Beyond (Lucio Fulci, 1981) - Most of Fulci's films don't really work for me, and mostly tend to feel like a muddle series of plot points punctuated by moments of gratuitous violence. I'm not really sure The Beyond is any different, but for some reason I absolutely love it. Perhaps just the product of better pacing coupled with some campy dubbing, great music, and beautiful cinematography. I can't really say I find the characters that interesting or the plot that comprehensible, but this film just whisked me away and loved every minute of it. My favorite Fulci, and I'll most definitely find a spot for it on my list.

Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal (Boris Rodriguez, 2012) - I didn't really give this film a fare shot, since I was actively trying to fall asleep during it (and failing). I hated most of what I did see. It's basically A Bucket of Blood with an inflated ego. Instead of an untalented artist who slowly falls into murder for quick fame, we're expected to follow a "brilliant painter" in the midst of a 10 year artistic block, who becomes inspired again by extreme violence, and exploits his mentally handicapped cannibal roommate to ride is way to fame. I know it wasn't endorsing his actions or anything, but they try to portray him as likable and expect the audience to giggle along as his shameless quest for fame. The filmmakers seemed to know what they were doing, I just found the character and content utterly detestable. But who knows, my eyes were closed most of the time.

Phantasm (Don Cocarelli, 1979) - I admit this film is not without it's problems, but I really love it. It doesn't make much sense, but it's so bizarre, creative and legitimately terrifying. Really glad to have the chance to re-visit this on the big screen, and I'll probably find room for it on my list.

The Deadly Spawn (Douglas McKeown, 1983) - I was fighting sleep on this one, so I had trouble getting too immersed in the story. From what I saw I liked the characters, and there's tons of wonderful practical creature effects. Really amazing things achieved on a low budget. Need to re-watch it sometime when I'm more awake.

Blood Diner (Jackie Kong, 1987) - I slept through a good chunk of this, so I can't really comment, but I liked the parts I saw.

The Burning (Tony Maylam, 1981) - I really liked the time this film took to establish the killer's backstory and fleshout the world of the camp. A solid and finely crafted slasher film, I don't think it will make my list, but I'll find space for it if I can.

Evil Dead 2 (Sam Raimi, 1987) - The Evil Dead trilogy played a big part in my early cinephilia, and I used to say Evil Dead 2 was my favorite one. Seeing it in a theater full of horror fans should've been a wonderful experience, but perhaps it was just too on the nose and the film suffered quite a bit on this viewing. Though I'll always respect its creativity and the unique feel of the film, it does really feel like an endless stream of gags rather than an actual film. I might be just too familiar with it that I'm not quite feeling it's originality as strongly as when I first watched it. Even with the audience though it seemed like people were more clapping for their favorite parts than genuinely reacting and engaging with what was happening on screen. I'll always respect this film, but for now Evil Dead 1 is probably the only film of the trilogy that will make my list.

Glad you liked Squirm! Lieberman's Blue Sunshine is also an essential watch for this project. Did it factor in the Q&A at all?

tarpilot wrote:Glad you liked Squirm! Lieberman's Blue Sunshine is also an essential watch for this project. Did it factor in the Q&A at all?

It got mentioned, but there wasn't any discussion of it.

We're Going to Eat You! (Tsui Hark, 1980): This is the first time I've seen one movie's tagline show up as the title for another, but so goes HK cinema. Hark's stab at the Italian cannibal sub-genre avoids that sub-genre's characteristically appalling and sleazy elements, coming up instead with another HK-style blend of horror, comedy, and (surprise!) martial arts. The humour is pretty hard to take, with the broadest moments (like a giant transvestite trying to molest all of the lead characters) being repeated with punishing frequency. So even the bits that earn a chuckle are quickly worn out. The movie also runs out of ideas half-way in and keeps recycling the same events over and over, making its 90 minutes feel twice as long as it should. That said, for all its flaws, its manic, headlong energy is infectious. This is the kind of movie that doesn't so much move as careen between set-pieces, and it displays a certain amount of creative imagination. My particular favourite was the goon who loses his machete in a tree trunk, only to get knocked underneath it later and stand up right into the blade, splitting his head open. The comic moments make the horror ones all the more startling and effective. The horror bits can be surprisingly grim, and the ending in particular is unexpectedly bleak. I liked it, actually. Better made than pretty much any other cannibal film.

I hope this isn't a spoiler, but the "unexpectedly bleak endings" are pretty much a Tsui Hark trademark at that point in his career. It says something that this has probably the most hopeful outlook of all his early films.

The film is suppose to be an allegory for Mainland China, but frankly, I feel that it's too muddled to work that way. I agree that it gets too repetitive: I always thought the films was closer to two-hours until I double-checked it on IMDb. But there's at least a good solid hour in there and I'll take it. It's the least of his "Trilogy of Chaos", but it still shows his plenty of his trademark energy and inventiveness.

My favorite gag: the moment where the hero has his hand chopped off... only to realize that it's not his arm, but a previously severed one left on the butcher's table.