A slasher art-film? Tamae Garateguy's bizarre SHE WOLF attempts this offbeat melding

What to make of SHE WOLF? This 2013 movie from Argentina is finally being released (on DVD and digital) this week via Omnibus Entertainment, the genre arm of Film Movement, so fans of would-be horror/slasher movies and/or very oddball art films will have the chance to view it and weigh in.

As directed by Tamae Garateguy (shown below), with a screenplay by Diego Fleischer

(from a story by Ms Garateguy) and shot in appealing black-and-white by cinematographer Pigu Gómez, She Wolf is a very uneasy mixture of the arty and the sleazy, with plenty of voracious sex, enough slashing to make blood-and-guts fans relatively happy, and just enough of a germ of a genuinely interesting idea to keep art-film aficionados on their toes.

Ms Garateguy's most interesting touch is to have three very different appearing actresses essay the leading role of the "she wolf," a woman who, from the first scene onwards, seems to enjoy killing men, particularly the kind who like to abuse women.

Fair enough (well, sort of) for these me2 times, I suppose, and the three actresses who play the leading lady are talented and attractive. Initially, it will seem as though there are three different characters here, but no, eventually you'll realize that they are differing aspects of the same woman. The first we see is played by Mónica Lairana, above, who appears to be the victim in a bondage sexual encounter. But not for long.

Then we get the blond version (above and below), played by Luján Ariza, and finally what is called in the end credits, the "young" version, the pretty and innocent-looking Guadalupe Docampo. The male roles are mostly throw-away, during which we see just enough to know that these guys like to hit on women and parade their macho credentials -- with two exceptions.

The first of these is a guy (Egardo Castro, below) who has "come on" to our mujer lobo on one of her subway rides (her favored pick-up spot) and annoyingly interrupted her flirting with another man. "He'll get his," we think, but back in his apartment he pulls a gun on our gal and she barely gets away. Turns out, he's a cop, to boot (making a point, I suppose, about Argentina's law enforcement and the kind of police/military control that goes back decades and decades in the history of this South American country).

The second, more-nuanced male character is the young man who helps our "heroine" escape from her gun-toting captor. As nicely played with charm and sex appeal by Nicolás Gold (aka Goldschmidt), this fellow gets a whole lot more than he bargained for -- especially when he enjoys a sexual rondelay with all three of these women at once. (Most often we see them only individually, but here, as below, they seem to appear in the flesh together.)

What does all this mean? Aside from the usual pro-feminist slant, along with perhaps a look at the appeal and danger of sex and men, it is difficult to say. At 92 minutes, the movie still outlasts its welcome by a few, at least. So sit back, enjoy the black-and-white cinematography, the decent performances, the usual genre tropes, and then try putting it all together into some meaningful whole. I wish you better luck than I had.

From Film Movement/Omnibus Entertainment, She Wolf hits DVD and digital tomorrow, Tuesday, March 19 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Blu-ray debut for a cult "classic" from the 1970s: Ted Post/Abe Polsky's THE BABY

Is THE BABY -- the 1973 shocker/horror/ slasher/chiller genre-movie written by Abe Polsky and directed by Ted Post just released on Blu-ray via Arrow Video -- some kind of camp classic? Or is it one of those movies so bad that it's good? Or simply so bad that it's awful? Or maybe just groundbreaking enough to sneak into the "classic" category? Turns out that The Baby proves pretty much all of the above. Just when you decide it is one thing, damned if it doesn't turn into another. And then another.

Overall, TrustMovies would have to say that The Baby is worth the time of viewers who love genre movies, particularly those that rather strain (if not full-out break) the "naughty" barrier. According to what we learn from the interviews in the Special Features section of this full-packed disc, the movie is more the work of writer Polsky than of director Post (shown at left) -- who, according to the Special Features section of this packed disc, had been brought in to class up the proceedings a bit and to add a little humor to the movie's dark mix. (During this same year of 1973, the director would also have two major films released: The Harrad Experiment and one of the "Dirty Harry" oeuvre, Magnum Force.)

The Baby's cast, too, is a cut above the usual for the horror genre: Anjanette Comer (above) and Ruth Roman (below) play, respectively the protagonist and antagonist, and both do a good job in roles the characterization of which rely as much on acting talent and charisma as any depth of writing.

The plot has it that an overly-caring social worker (played by Ms Comer) sets her sights the case of the "baby" of the title, a grown young man who is still in diapers and baby clothes and never seems to have progressed in intelligence or motor skills beyond the infant stage. His mother (Ms Roman) and sisters seems happy, eager maybe, to make sure he remains this way. They get a nice monthly stipend from the state to take care of the boy.

Baby is played by the young actor who used the name of David Manzy (aka David Mooney), and who is indelible enough in the role that you could imagine no casting director would ever take a chance on him in any other kind of role after this film. (Look what happened to the versatile, hugely talented and award-winning Anthony Perkins, once he had made his mark in Psycho.)

The plot, as well as the pacing, goes up and down, back and forth, as the movie moves oddly along and we are treated to some very weird, maybe even taboo delights, the best of which involves a babysitter (Erin O'Reilly, above) and a little unplanned breast-feeding.

We move on to a kidnapping, slashings and murders, and a surprise ending that's a hoot and a half. (That's Marianna Hill, above, who plays one of Baby's two nasty sisters.) By movie's end, you'll probably be satisfied that you watched this very oddball genre piece. Certainly, nothing quite compares to it.

As usual with Arrow Video, the Blu-ray transfer is excellent -- crisp, bright and colorful -- and the disc comes complete with a number of interesting bonus features: new audio commentary from Travis Crawford, archival audio interviews with Ted Post and David Manzy, a recent interview with Marianna Hill (in which she talks about director Post as though he were Ingmar Bergman or Roberto Rossellini), and a very interesting appreciation of The Baby by film professor Rebekah McKendry.

Distributed in the USA via MVD Visual and running 84 minutes, the movie hit the street this past Tuesday, September 25, on Blu-ray only -- for purchase and (I hope, somewhere, somehow) rental.

Tip-top giallo: Dario Argento's DEEP RED gets deluxe Blu-ray treatment in an uncut version

When DEEP RED, the fifth full-length film from Italian horror-meister Dario Argento, was first release in the USA back in 1976, 23 minutes were hacked out of it to better make it fit the usual horror-film length. Now that the new Arrow Video Blu-ray is here, in a rich and sparkling transfer that makes the film look considerably better than TrustMovies has ever seen it, we can now assess a film that, even in its bowdlerized version, clearly seemed to be Argento's finest work.

Never one to make too much of plot credibility and depth of character, Signore Argento (shown at left during the time of the film's production) still managed to bring to the fore a certain amount of psychological depth, as well as some social concerns of the time period.

This is particularly true of Deep Red, as shown via this uncut, 127-minute version in which the male fear of gender equality and the under-cutting of machismo entitlement are on full display.

Argento's facility with camera angles and widescreen composition -- his cinematographer was Luigi Kuveiller -- is constant and compelling. How gorgeous and often breath-taking is just about everything we see here -- including the adeptly staged murders!

His star in this film (David Hemmings, below) is once again -- as with his antagonists in Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Cat O' Nine Tails and Four Flies on Grey Velvet -- an "outsider" working in Italy, this time as a jazz pianist and teacher named Marc Daley.

Marc hears and then sees a murder being committed in the building above him and begins to do his own sleuthing to discover some answers, thus putting in danger himself, along with a lot of other folk.

These would include his eventual girlfriend (nicely played by Daria Nicolodi, above and below) and oddball best friend (Gabriele Lavia) plus just about anybody/everybody involved in this twisty tale that begins with a family murder and ends with that family completely wiped out.

The film begins with a nod to the paranormal involving a sleek and still quite beautiful Macha Méril (below, center, of Une Femme Mariée), which gives the plot its initial push -- after which paranormal turns merely murderous.

For a change with Argento, the plot twists build nicely and relatively believably, along with the suspense, and there are fewer jaw-dropping, nonsense moments. The finale, too, comes with a shock and a jolt, and for once does not rely on coincidence or any last-minute rescue by the cavalry. The final shot, too, is a keeper: bloody awful -- and precisely enough.

From Arrow Video and released here in the USA via MVD Entertainment Group, Deep Red (Profondo rosso in the original Italian) hit the street last week, September 4, on Blu-ray -- for purchase and/or rental. As usual with Arrow Video, there is a host of terrific Special Features, including Profond Giallo, a very interesting and intelligent half-hour visual essay on the film by Michael Mackenzie; an interview with Argento about this and others of his films; an interview with star Daria Nicolodi; and another with Claudio Simonetti of the group Goblin who did the music for the movie.

Betrayal, trust, scares & death enliven Colin Minihan's thriller, WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE

What if the person closest to us -- our spouse, say -- turns out to be a raging-and-very-good-at-it psychopath bent on killing us? Not a pleasant thought, and in the new horror/slasher/ psychological minder-bender, WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE, writer/director Colin Minihan brings this concept to searing and most unpleasant life. Except, of course, that it will prove creepily diverting for those of us who enjoy an unusually good scare.

Much of the movie's power comes from the fact that one of its protagonists really does care for the other and, even as she tries to stay alive, keeps attempting to piece together why her spouse, suddenly deranged as hell, keeps insisting on her demise.

Mr. Minihan (shown at right), whose addition to the zombie genre, It Stains the Sands Red, I have not seen (being awfully tired of zombies), allows enough psychological material, along with some depth to enter the picture that, for a time, we keep hoping there will be more.

There is, but it turns out to come only via the character of the betrayed wife (and the full-bodied performance from Brittany Allen, below), who is not simply physically abused to the max but also seems to have had her entire persona beaten out of her. She's barely a shell who can no longer, perhaps does not even want to, fight back.
But of course she tries.

Her spouse -- played by Hannah Emily Anderson (below), an actress beautiful of both face and figure -- whether by the performer's choice or maybe having been directed to do this, plays her role much more by rote. Initially the couple seems happy and in love/lust, but as soon as the trouble begins, the need to kill comes barreling down the track like a runaway train, complete with our antagonist taking moments to rehearse her upcoming "grief" scene or turning on a dime from nasty to nice to coax our protagonist out of hiding.

The movie is wisely and economically a two-hander -- save for the pair of husband/wife neighbors, whom you hope will survive the onslaught. As such it relies on its two leading ladies, who come through, one in OK form, the other pretty terrifically. You may be angry at our good girl for not fighting harder, but her performance is such that you will easily buy into her grief and then her diminution.

Minihan has tricks up his sleeve; some are the usual, others genuinely surprising. Pay attention to the small details; as ever with these genre movies, there is some reason for most of them.

The Canadian location is a humdinger: lake, forest, cabin in the woods, and of course a very high cliff -- with everything as real as you could ask for.

The pacing is fine, the dialog decent enough, and the payoff is oddly satisfying. Not perhaps quite what you might have wanted, but acceptable and even more important, given what we know, believable, too.

From IFC Midnight and running maybe just a tad too long at 98 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, August 24, in New York City at the IFC Center (midnight screening only!) and in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinelounge. Simultaneously, it becomes available nationwide via VOD.

Giallo time again with the Blu-ray release of Sergio Martino's 1971 (and just so-so) THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL from 1971

I've finally figured out why I keep watching so many of these only so-so examples of Italian giallo movies: It's the time period (the 1970s) more than any other single feature that keeps pulling me in. These films -- many of them having made their Blu-ray debut from Arrow Home Video -- have been so well-remastered and then transferred to video that viewing them is akin to having the 70s, Italian style, unfurling in front of you all over again. It's nostalgic fun, while the colors, costumes, sets and often the camerawork, too, are eye-popping.

All of the above is true again with the latest example of giallo to hit home video: THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL, directed by journeyman filmmaker Sergio Martino (at right) and written by Eduardo Manzanos, Ernesto Gastaldi & Sauro Scavolini.

The plotting, dialog and direction are mostly rudimentary, although Signore Martino does do some fun things to quicken the pace (a key goes into a lock but when it comes out and the door opens, we've entered a different location).

So rudimentary, in fact, seems the story-line that we imagine there must be some real surprise ahead. Indeed there is, so please hold on. That "hold," however, will take you through some awfully ridiculous behavior from characters who, though their lives are clearly threatened, act as though they had nine of them.

Several of those lives are lost -- this being giallo, they belong to women who are sliced rather nastily, though one young fellow meets his maker, as well -- before the movie reaches the finish line.

The plot has to do with an unfaithful wife (the beauteous Ida Galli, above, here working under the name of Evelyn Stewart), her hubby who dies in a plane crash (featuring a rather obvious model plane, below), and a million-dollar insurance policy.

In the leading man role, Martinez uses, to my taste, one of the most boring and bland actors ever to appear in Italian films, George Hilton (shown below, and four photos up), and his mediocre performance keeps dragging the movie downward.

Fortunately, in the heroine role (the film takes its time revealing just who this will be), we have the beautiful and talented-enough-to-carry-the-film-along Anita Strindberg, who plays a feisty journalist investigating the series of murders and who just might be the latest victim.

Filmed in Greece, and elsewhere around Europe (one of the Bonus Features on the disc is entitled Jet Set Giallo), the location photography is first-rate/vacation-level. Still connoisseurs come to giallo not for the locations, but for the sex, semi-nudity and splatter -- all of which can be found here.

The disc's Bonus Features also includes good recent interviews with lead actor Hilton, director Martino, an analysis of Martino's films by author Mikel J. Koven, a new video essay on giallo by Troy Howarth, plus lots more -- not to mention the excellent Blu-ray transfer in a brand new 4K restoration.

From Arrow Home Video and distributed here in the USA by MVD Entertainment, in both an English dubbed version and the original Italian with English subtitles and running 95 minutes (the Bonus Features last at least another hour or two), The Case of the Scorpion's Tail hit the street last month -- for purchase and maybe (I would hope but I don't know just where) rental.

DE PALMA lovers, rejoice! Get your fill of the guy in Baumbach and Paltrow's new doc

TrustMovies loves the work of Brian De Palma. And he's never found the man's films to be misogynist, either. They're too clever and artful for that. I have found Hitchcock to be misogynist, however, and De Palma thinks of himself as Hitch's true disciple. So go figure. Anyone who enjoys this particular movie-maker's oeuvre is a sitting duck for DE PALMA, the new documentary about the filmmaker (from Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow) that combines a kind of history of the man and his movies with enough footage from the various films to make you want (if you're a fan, of course) to go back and view them all over again. (If you're too young to know this director's work, the documentary ought to least whet your appetite for a further look.)

Baumbach (at right) and Paltrow (left) flank the famous filmmaker (shown above and on poster, top), and their movie evidently came out of one very long lunch (or maybe several), during which the director spills the beans about one after another of his films, starting from his very first short (a still from his early Greetings is shown below) and continuing right through his latest, visually stunning (but only middling otherwise) French movie remake, Passion. Along the way we get bits and pieces of De Palma's life, loves and desires -- which may not definitively explain the psychology behind his movies but which do provide some zesty food-for-thought -- and enough well-chosen moments from his many movies (40 of 'em, all told) to absolutely delight us fans.

There's plenty of gossip, too -- tales that can now, evidently, be told. Did you know, for instance, that actor Cliff Robertson was pretty much forced upon the director for his movie Obsession, and what De Palma tells about the work habits of Mister Cliff quite nicely explains the movie's half-assedness and why it so thoroughly belonged to its lovely newcomer co-star, Geneviève Bujold.

Scarface (above), though one of the filmmaker's more successful box-office draws, has never been among the movies I love. (It seem less like "a De Palma film" than do most of his others.) Hearing the director talk about the film makes me better understand why I feel this way. Ditto, his most successful box-office outing, the initial Mission Impossible movie, below.  (How he feels about movie "car chases" is one of the things you'll learn from the doc.)

De Palma, more than anyone, I think, was responsible for the resurgence of the career of movie composer Bernard Herrmann, and we learn some fascinating tidbits about this fellow, along with that of another composer used often by the master: Pino Donaggio.

Keepers like Dressed to Kill (above), Blow Out and Body Double (god, this guy loves watching!) are all on the agenda, too, as are some movies you may have forgotten. Was Snake Eyes the last good film that Nicolas Cage starred in?  And it is certainly time for a re-think of Femme Fatale. (below). What fun that one was, and its cunning use of the Cannes Film Fest was about as savvy as movies get.

How much better Fatal Attraction might have been had De Palma directed it, as was initially expected. But then we might not have gotten his best (along with Carlito'sWay) mainstream movie, The Untouchables (below). This doc will have you believing in karma, maybe.

The director has something vital and interesting to say about every last one of his films (his comments on Mission to Mars are smart and poignant). My biggest problem with De Palma -- the doc, not the director -- is that, even at almost two hours, it ought to have been a lot longer. Surely what we see here is but a fraction of the footage Jake and Noah shot. Maybe, even now, the film's distributor A24 (or some special movie "angel") is bankrolling the eight-hour version, which we will someday be able to view in segments on IFC or Turner Classic Movies. We live in hope.

Meanwhile, De Palma, after opening in New York and Los Angeles, hits cities around the country. Here in South Florida, you can see it at the Miami Beach Cinematheque. To view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and  theaters, click here.  (The still above is from Redacted, in which the director did for our Iraq War what his Casualties of War had done for Vietnam.)