Morituris: Legions of the Dead (2011)

 (out of 5)

Morituris:  Legions of the Dead (2011)
d:  Raffaelle Picchio
s:  Valentina D'Andrea, Andrea DeBruyn, Desiree Giogetti, Francesco Malcolm, Giuseppe Nitti, Simone Ripanti
format:  NTSC Region 1 - personal collection

     Sometimes you watch a movie just totally in awe.  This was one of those films for me.  Throwback style of the old Italian exploitation films.  Dark and gritty with no obvious cgi, always a plus.  Gory and nasty to the hilt with fx worthy of the name Sergio Stivaletti one of my all time favorite fx artists.  Now this movie has a lot of rape in it.  I described it to a friend as a, "sort of Blind Dead Rape Revenge."  This seems to set people off on misogynist tangents but ultimately the fact is the act is horrific and hence is a part of exploitation and horror films.  This in no way means the filmmaker gets off on portraying rape in his film.  I have seen the original I Spit On Your Grave get called out for this same thing and Meir Zarchi was attacked for it.  However like Meir Zarchi Raffaelle Picchio is not anti-woman, and not pro-rape.  In fact like Meir the events in the film are reflective of the society we live in and showing full scenes of rape pushes the issue right in your face where it should be.  Morituris is about three young men who essentially bring two young women out into the woods to rape and torture them.  This whole set up was taken from the real life Circeo Massacre which happened in 1975 in Rome, Italy.  It was the director's intent to bring attention to such heinous crimes not prophet from them.  A certain "disgusting" horror web site even went as far as to actually say, "fuck off" to the director in his review.  Which to me sums up the ability this reviewer has to educate himself on a movie and the director before making assumptions. 
     Back to the movie itself.  Not a lot of movies hit the old school 70's and 80's cord with me but this was definitely one of them.  The shots were amazingly well done.  Just enough light for the viewer to see what the hell is going on.  Great angles too I really enjoyed the cinematography very much.  The acting was not poor or over the top in any way.  Right on point as far as I'm concerned.  The ladies certainly conveyed the terror and revolt of what they were going through.  So many movies just flub the whole pain and suffering thing.  Not this one. 
     The story goes from the nasty acts of gang rape to a full fledged horror film when the group stumbles into an old graveyard.  The old graveyard is home to legion of undead warriors with various weapons including a war hammer.  These creatures care not for whom they kill and soon both victims and their attackers are lambs for the slaughter.  The script and dialogue were perfect.  At first the girls are expecting a rave in the middle of the woods but soon they discover unfortunately for them, there is no rave.  Then not only are they running from the rapists but also the zombie warriors. 

This whole film was just a giant breath of fresh air.  Highly recommended for anyone in the mood for old style exploitation scares.  I for one will be rewatching around Halloween time.  I should add that this film is in Italian with English subtitles so all the "I can't read subtitles and pay attention to what's going on" people won't enjoy it and will miss yet another great film because of a silly typical American bias. 

Plan 9

Director - John Johnson (Shadowhunters)
Starring - Brian Krause (Charmed), Mister Lobo (The Taint), and James Rolfe (Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie)
Release Date - 2015
Genre - Horror/Comedy/Sci-Fi
Tagline - "It's their planet now"
Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     There is very few films that have left a mark on independent film like the 1959 Ed Wood film, Plan 9 from Outer Space.  The film is known the world over for being bad.  I first heard of this film when I was younger when Tim Burton released the film Ed Wood starring Johnny Depp.  I grew up in the 90s so this was my first exposure to Wood.  I soon found the film on VHS and bought it where I never watched it.  To this day I still have the VHS sitting at home but I have never seen the film.  A few weeks back Johnny Sullivan reached out to me to review the 2015 remake Plan 9.  He sought me out after I reviewed the 2010 zombie film They Walk in which he was involved.  I knew of this film for some time and wanted to check it out anyway so I jumped at the chance.  Thanks Johnny for reaching out to me!

    The film takes place in the small town of Nilbog.  A pilot is flying a personal craft when he passes a meteorite crashing to earth.  He lands and informs the police who pass it off.  In the town is a brilliant scientist secretly running experiments in her lab.  Her experiments has attracted aliens who fear her experiments have went too far and resurrect the dead to kill all the living inhabitants in town before they descend to town themselves to kill those that are fighting for their lives.  It is now up to a small band of survivors to put the dead back in the ground and send the aliens back into space.

     As I stated before, I had never seen the original Plan 9 From Outer Space but I had seen several clips and heard others talk about the film.  The film is notorious for it's flaws and loved among horror fans for being cheesy and horrible.  I was curious how a film like that could be remade.  Would they make it purposely bad to keep the charm of the original film or would they keep the story intact and deliver a more polished take on it?  It looks like they went the second route.  The acting in this one is not the best I have seen in an indie flick but far from the worst.  The cast is on point but they have a hard time judging if the scene is calling for humor or a serious tone.  Some characters are goofy and funny while others are way too serious which makes some of the scenes feel unbalanced.  I won't fully blame the cast for this because they could be acting the way their character was written.  It was also cool to see some big names in the horror and indie horror scene.  The film's lead, Brian Krause,  is known for his role as Leo on Charmed.  The film also has small roles from James Rolfe who most of you may know as The Nerd from Angry Video Game Nerd and his indie films and shows on Cinemassacre.  Horror legend Mike Christopher has a small role in the film as well.  Christopher is known for playing a zombie in Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead, as well as, his amazing performance in the indie vampire flick Joe Vampire.  Also a small, almost unnoticeable role, from author, make-up artist, and actress Angela Pritchett can be seen.  The story for this one is so fucking fun.  I can not tell you how close to the original it runs but this story was great.  I loved the story and how it combines the cliches of horror and sci-fi films that was popular in the 50s.  Most films now are too streamlined and do not have the depth that this one does.  We get the modern mad scientist angle, the zombies, and the aliens.  This only works because this is a remake of the 1959 film.  If it was an original film with a similar story, fans would not respond to this as well as they do with the remake.  They want blood, guts, and gore and not a bat-shit story that offers laughs and entertainment.  Finally, the film has several on screen kills.  Nothing that really stands out but the practical effects are fun which pushes some of these over the top.  Some of the zombies look great as well with a lot of time put into the way they look.  My favorite is the autopsy zombie.  Sadly, some of the zombies look silly with just some grey and black paint on their face.  It is known that not all zombies were created equal.  I get that sometimes the zombies are in different stages of decomposition but some are just covered in grey paint.  Overall, Plan 9 was a fantastic film.  It had one hell of a story and a solid mixture of blood and laughs.  I recommend checking this one out as soon as possible.  Every minute of the film's running time is worth it!

Pizza Girl Massacre

Director - Jason Witter (Hamlet the Vampire Slayer)
Starring - George Bach (Romeo & Juliet vs. The Living Dead), Amy Bourque (Love Bug), and Scott Bryan (A Guy, A Girl, and Their Monster)
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Horror/Comedy
Tagline - "She delivers"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     The last few weeks I have been on a crusade to find indie horror films that have not received mass distribution deals.  These were the kind of films I was reviewing when I was first brought on to Horror Society and I wanted to get back to that.  I had more fun writing my reviews then.  These films always had heart and passion even if I did not like them I could still see this.  One film I found while looking was the found footage horror comedy Pizza Girl Massacre from director Jason Witter.  The film looked fun as hell so I reached out to the film's Facebook page and they were kind enough to send a copy my way to check out.  I wanted to review it for my Halloween series but time was not on my side so I had to put the review off until after the holiday.

     The film follows a theater group and a documentary crew as they travel to a cabin in the woods to work on their upcoming play A Midsummer Night's Dream.  The first night there they decide to drink it up and have a good time.  The documentary director orders some pizza for delivery and then stiffs the pizza girl.  The following morning they wake to find one of their cast mates badly beaten and bloody.  They bring him inside and assume that the director was the man responsible due to an altercation the night before.  Soon they all learn that the pizza girl is the daughter of the lady that is renting them the cabin and her family want to play a sick game with the theater group and their blood.
     Pizza Girl Massacre is one of those films that I was very excited to review.  The film looked like the kind of indie horror flicks that got me into writing reviews.  The camp, the puns, play on words, and blood.  These films were the type of indie films that I absolutely love and Pizza Girl Massacre looked like it fit right in.  For the most part it did.  The acting in this one is hard to muster at times.  The cast look like they are having a great time on set and it shows in every scene but some scenes look like like they forgot they were acting in a film and not fraternizing.  Some of these scenes slow the story down and really tries the viewers patience.  Also, there is way to many characters in the film and to make matter worse, the characters are not likable at all.  The story for this one is one we have seen several times before but the film is able to spice it up with a little cheese and pizza sauce.  We have seen several slashers and other horror films from the past that used this sort of angle.  Films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Motel Hell, and so on has used this killer family angle but very few are able to make it as funny as Pizza Girl Massacre.  The humor is dry at times and some of the jokes fail to follow it up with humor but it is still a funny film for the most part.  What makes it so funny is the absurdity.  A killer pizza delivery girl is pretty fucking funny and I can't think of another film that has a killer like it.  Finally, the film has several kills that are fitting to the film.  Some are funny and follow the pizza motif while others are just standard slasher kills.  The practical effects are nothing extraordinaire but they did work well enough to make the gags work.  Overall, Pizza Girl Massacre is a fun horror comedy that reminds everyone why they love slashers in the first place.  The film is cliched, campy, and funny as hell.  I recommend this one.