Blood Delirium

Delirio di sangue (1988) aka Blood Delirium

Not to be missed for fans of John Philip Law. Hilarious as the tortured “Maestro”, who lives in a castle with his thuggish, rape-crazed servant “Herman” (Gordon Mitchell) and paints with blood from the victims of Herman’s attacks. Apparently his descent begins after the death of his wife, a renowned pianist. He plays the organ while her body is lying in the church and Herman takes advantage while his back is turned for a quickie with the corpse. Later he hallucinates her face laughing at him, mixed with bright flashing lights and smoke. Then of course he meets a woman who looks JUST LIKE her and the fun begins. Herman rapes and kills a village girl while the “second” Christina is staying at the castle (“La Roca”) and she sees him butchering the body in a stable. So they drug her and dress her up like the dead wife, whose skeleton they exhumed and dressed up with a dime store mask. Christina Mark II’s friend comes to help but they sic the dog on her and use her for “more color.” Lots of long takes of Herman patiently holding nude female corpses head down and the Maestro raging in his studio. (“Can you give me the color of suffering? Gnyaaaah!!!!!”) Movie Madness has a DVD-R copy.

The Maestro drains Karin for “color”
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Credit: Prod. Cine Decima, dist. Alpha Filmes (Brazil) (video)

The Grudge

Celeste and I saw The Grudge on Saturday 11/20. I agree with a review I read by accident a few days before. It said that you didn’t have the time to sympathize with any of the characters who are attacked by the ghost. The scares are real and frequent, but they’re in the form of a litany, with no logic other than the assertion provided by the titles and featured in the trailer, i.e., “When someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage…” &c. There is a story, but it seems like a prop for the scary scenes. The characters are passers-by but one and his important connection is glossed over. Peter Kirk goes to Kayako’s house and solves the mystery after the fact. Why is there no dialogue between them? The idea of a dangerous introvert obsessed with a blissfully ignorant someone is a great dramatic device, even if it’s not new. But they never exploit it. Even a few minutes of interaction could have made the difference. True, the scenes in and of themselves almost make up for the lack of story: the M.R. James-ian* crawling ghost is particularly effective and almost unbearably frightening. The croaking sound effect is a little heavy-handed and several in the audience began to imitate it in fun after a few repetitions. Overall, though, the individual frights succeed. It’s just that once the ghost is trotted out, it’s the same scare over and over.

*Read his short story The Mezzotint

Doryman’s Dark

The Pelican brew pub in Pacific City, or on Cape Kiwanda, whichever you prefer, is a pleasant place to have an ale and a bowl of chowder. Drink a Doryman’s Dark and reflect on those that have gone down to the sea in ships, recall the resigned faces you’ve seen in the fresh seafood stores in Garibaldi, reaching a gloved hand to chalk up that day’s biggest catch or carrying crab pots from the boiler. Ignore the parking lot full of glittering SUVs and stare at the horizon, the black outlines of the sea stacks. Soak up the geist of the place.
Back in town, of course, the interference of first the traffic belt, then the signage belt, then the belt of electronic humanity scrambles all such pure signals. Meanwhile the boilers steam on, blue smoke rises from troller engines, a wisp of pale tobacco smoke from the skipper, all so much more than ever like pahos, prayers for a fat catch, an open bank account, but at least, at the very least, a safe crossing of that bar.
You can buy most of the Pelican varieties at Suzie O’Connell’s market at 3039 SE Stark. Besides those, the store has pretty much any other kind of beer that you could want. But certainly try the Doryman’s Dark.

Coen Brothers, What Happened?

LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS DVD

Superb DVD transfer, excellent additional footage, lots and lots of extra Treebeard. Hour-long documentary on the making of Gollum is excellent, if for nothing more than a few moments alone with the hyper-talented Andy Serkis.

Imposter.. OK

Imposter was OK. Gary Sinise is actually pretty good. Decent PKD adaptation.