A lot of blood has been shed on these pages about the travails and musical output of Oslo, Norway-based extreme metal titans Dimmu Borgir. Most of that criticism richly deserved, some of it much less so. This scribe has been intentionally adversarial and openly hostile whether their perceived slights were
Plot: art student is possessed by a malefic spirit from an olive tree sculpture. In the early-to-mid seventies a couple of interesting cycles emerged within the Italian exploitation industry. The peplum - and gothic horror revival were in full swing, there was an explosion of both hyper-stylized giallo murder mysteries
Plot: lovelorn man kidnaps adolescent girl for the sake of company. Now with the Hantavirus ascendant and the possibility of the next pandemic outbreak looming ominously on the horizon and the inevitability of another global lockdown etching ever closer it’s perhaps the ideal time to talk about Menina Casilda.
Plot: adventurers search for diamonds in Africa and find white girl instead. The release of West German jungle adventure Liane, Jungle Goddess (1956) and its sequel Liane, White Slave (1957) was somewhat controversial. The film’s underage star Marion Michael appeared topless and both movies coincided with the series conclusion
Plot: socially stunted programmer falls in love with sentient air doll. The cycle of otaku wish fulfillment fantasy grinds ever onward with Inflatable Lover (for once a direct translation from its native 充气情人) - another dreadful but surprisingly faithful imitation of Air Doll (2009). Next to ticking all the required
While it was poet James Shirley who posited that death is the grand leveler it was Greek statesman and general Pericles who observed that time is the wisest counselor of all. For well-seasoned and battle-hardened Québecois brutalists Cryptopsy this rings more true than others. To say that the quarter century
Plot: eccentric aristocrat revives ancient mummy and bloody murder ensues. Within the annals of Eurocult at large, and more specifically within the scope of continental European gothic horror revivals of the 1970s, El secreto de la momia egipcia (or The Secret of the Egyptian Mummy) (released as Le sang des
Plot: young boy’s longing for adventure gets him in trouble. Hilarity ensues! Werner Jacobs is one of the great forces in German comedy along with Ernst Hofbauer, Hubert Frank, Franz Josef Gottlieb and to a lesser degree Alois Brumer and Walter Boos. On the production end Erwin C. Dietrich,
Plot: idyllic weekend getaway turns into nightmare for thirty-somethings. El último fin de semana (or The Last Weekend, for some reason released internationally on streaming services as Our Last Weekend) is an early fantaterror exercise from Spanish one-man bilge basher Norberto Ramos del Val that mixes up a whole lot
Consistency and reliability should be regarded as the highest of virtues, especially in an environment and culture as notably conservative, preservationist, and enthralled by its own mythology as the death metal scene writ large. The prominence and relevance of regional scenes is only as strong as its most vital representatives,
Plot: dance the night away at Disco Transylvania in Transylvania. At the peak of disco in the late seventies Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Sister Sledge, the Bee Gees, and ABBA all had chart-topping albums. Saturday Night Fever (1977) brought disco culture to the masses, and Van Nuys Blvd. (1979), and
Plot: who or what is prowling and killing in the Amsterdam canals? How do you follow up your most successful movie? How do you even approach such a venture after nigh on 40 years? Do you do a sequel or a remake now that people only vaguely remember the name?
Plot: hell hath no fury like a woman trapped, cornered, and scorned. Have you also secretly pined for that Die Hard (1988) spin-off wherein a nubile Lucy McClane fights bad guys in her apartment? Everly answered the call and can charitably be summarized as, “Salma Hayek fights bad guys in
Within the larger scope of the nascent Tampa, Florida death metal explosion of the early 1990s Fort Lauderdale’s Monstrosity has sturdily remained hidden despite pooling talent and sharing membership with its more popular brethren. Whereas Cannibal Corpse, Cynic, Death, Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Morbid Angel, and Obituary all went on
Plot: the souls of sinners are tortured in Hell for eternity. After the international success of Suzzanna: Buried Alive (2018) Anggy Umbara hasn’t exactly been resting on his laurels. In between the horrors that he’s famous for he has dabbled in comedy, drama, and romance. Siksa Neraka (or
Plot: dying aristocrat infects sleepy Méxican village with a terrible malediction. Ibulong mo sa hangin (or Whisper it in the wind, released across of the English-speaking world as either Blood Of the Vampires or Curse Of The Vampires) stands forever enshrined as the greatest Pinoy gothic horror ever produced. The
What an absolute mindfuck it must be to be a member of Morbid Angel these days. The band has a legendary trio of early albums and the stint with its second, more respectable frontman has been fragmented and beset by problems (both external and internal) from just about every angle,
Plot: sleepy rice-farming village is haunted by a carnivorous ghost. บ้านผีปอบ (or Ghost House, Haunted House, or The House Of Pop in some international translations, all of which roughly convey the same) is the first part in Thailand’s longest running horror franchise and truly humble in its
Plot: forty-something umbrella salesman has a midlife crisis. Hilarity ensues! It speaks to the infinite wisdom and incredible foresight of Joël Séria as a filmmaker that he never so much as attempted to top his subversive Don’t Deliver Us From Evil (1971). Such a thing was simply not possible.
Plot: novice nun has a brush with supernatural horrors… and lives! Hermana Muerte (or Sister Death) is the long-awaited (but something we honestly quietly forgotten about) prequel to Spanish surprise horror hit Verónica (2017) and apparently an attempt to turn it into a universe of sorts. To its credit Sister
Plot: what horrible fate befell the late Dr. Jeronimus Hauff? 5 tombe per un medium (or Five Graves For A Medium, released in North American grindhouses and drive-ins as the pulptastic Terror-Creatures From the Grave) is not so much a minor entry as a more routinely uninspired one in Barbara
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This is Least Worst Option, a brand new/old review blog by Wouter Roemers that has been around since 2013. Things formerly dead will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails
1990s
Plot: demi-gods quarrel over dominion, until a semi-devil appears… Dragon Chronicles – The Maidens Of Heavenly Mountains (or 新天龍八部之天山童姥 back at home, for brevity’s sake Dragon Chronicles – The Maidens hereafter) is a fantasy wuxia from that fertile decade-long period from the early eighties to, give or take, the mid nineties
1970s
Plot: you are what you eat… or what he puts into his sausages. Lo strangolatore di Vienna (or The Strangler Of Vienna, released internationally as the more sensational sounding The Mad Butcher Of Vienna - or simply The Mad Butcher - and in North America as Meat Is Meat) is