The Dead Mother / La Madre Muerta (1993)
Cold-blooded rotten-to-the-core thief Ismael kills a woman during a burglary while her young daughter is watching. Years later he finds her as a beautiful but semi-catatonic teenager at the funny farm. He kidnaps her and intent to off but gets fascinated and obsessed with her much to Ismael's equally rotten and greedy jealous girlfriend's annoyance. Director Juanma Bajo Ulloa (who was in his mid-20s when he made this, his 2nd feature) has created one of the most disturbing psychosexual Euro-thrillers in recent years. "Madre Muerta" is a dark visually stunning journey into sheer madness guided with wicked comic touches. More emotional involving than "Funny Games", more adult than Iglesia - a truly compelling cerebral and ghoulishly unpredictable art noir masterpiece.

¡Mátalo! (1970. Cesare Canevari)
Fans of bizarre semi-psychedelic Westerns like "Keoma" should check this one out. The cinematography and editing are wonderfully out of control, lotsa slo-mo sadistic violence and the movie is drenched in loud fuzzy acid rock. The simple plot deals with four ruthless thugs (incl. one ultra sexy but deadly femme fatale Claudia Gravy), gold, lust, murder and betrayal. These old eccentric hardass Italian Westerns look way better than most contemporary movies.

Fighting Elegy (1965. Seijun Suzuki)
This is a bit of a detour from Suzuki's surreal yakuza epics ("Branded To Kill" etc.), this tale takes place in Japan in the 30s at a military school and deals with topics as sex, macho-ism, violence, fascism, education and war in a very satiric way. Visually this black & while masterpiece is as playful as his more surreal movies, and has quite a bit of humor along with the violent images. Like his other films "Fighting Elegy" has stunningly beautiful camera work and neat visual tricks. Seijun Suzuki has definitely become my fave Japanese director, and this movie add to my worship of this maverick.

Fight For Your Life (1977. Robert A. Endelson)
The most politically incorrect US exploitation film EVER has a new life in this awesome uncut print from Bill Lustig (bless his twisted soul!), the racist and hateful dialogue floored me again, been like 10 years since I saw a crappy VHS bootleg. The acting is good, especially from William Sanderson ("Blade Runner", "Deadwood" etc.), as the top racist goon who terrorizes a black family. Will offend even more people now than it did 25 years ago. This print includes the graphic smashin of 9 year old kid's head with a rock (I never seen this scene before in other prints) which made me jump in my chair. This feature even goes beyond the controversial "Goodbye Uncle Tom" (also from BU) in some ways.

Purana Mandir (1984. Shyam Ramsay, Tulsi Ramsay)
"Evil Dead" meets "The Sound Of Music"? If you're gonna see one Bollywood shocker, the wellmade "Purana Mandir" is a good place to start. Over two hours of over-the-top gory action with wild camera angles, stunning action scenes, creepy shocks and, eh, all the cheerful singing and dancing! Sadly I haven't seen this exotic treat yet with english subtitles, but I believe Mondo Macabro recently released it on a double bill on dvd. Argento-fans who're tired of new US horrorflicks should try this tasty hindi dish - you'll be coming back for more!!! Read more about third world horror cinema in Pete Tombs' oustanding "Mondo Macabro" book (St. Martin's, 1997 - sadly outta print I think)


Electra Glide In Blue (1973. James William Guercio)
Robert Blake ("In Cold Blood", "Lost Highway") is a decent road cop in Arizona, surrounded by shady fellow officers. He aims to be a city cop who
uses his brains instead of riding his bike, and pulling hippies and truckers over. A suicide-murder case might be his ticket out, promotion time!, but then things get complicated along the way. This almost two hours long lowkey Zen-like drama has stunning almost dreamlike cinematograhy, by the the man who shot "The Searches", I believe. The few action scenes are incredibly wellmade. Blake is extremely good in the lead as Big John (a joke, he's barely 5 feet 2), and the co-stars are excellent as well. Nick Nolte has a non-speaking part as a hippie in a commune, one of his first credits. Made for 1 million dollars, "Electra Glide In Blue" looks like a much more expensive film. At it's premiere the movie was hated by the liberal hippie crowd and called a fascist movie, sorta like the anti-Easy Rider (the ending is very inspired by that film but...well I won't spoil anything), which is rubbish I think, this is more existential and 'deep' than the likes of "Dirty Harry". A very unique viewing experience that's hard to compare to other films. It's notorious cultmovie reputation is highly deserved.