Splattercore

Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1963 horror debut marks a low budget milestone as the first splatter/gore film.

The first thing you notice, after the pleasingly cheesy '80s dark-synth soundtrack, is that Killing Spree was shot on film (16mm to be precise), rather than video. That's a big plus, considering most movies from this era that went straight-to-video were actually shot on video ( Cannibal Campout and Video Violence, for example). Asbestos Felt (who had his head blown off by a grenade in Tim Ritter's previous film, Truth or Dare?-A Critical Madness) plays the lead character Tom Russo, who suspects his stay-at-home wife Leeza is cheating on him with various people like his best friend, the electrician, the TV repairman, the UPS guy, pretty much everybody she comes into contact with. This drives our anti-hero mad with jealousy and he embarks on said killing spree - much goriness and hilarity ensues (with some fairly inventive splatter gags). That's the premise for the movie, pretty much. There is somewhat of a twist in the film's final act, but I won't give away what that is here. Asbestos Felt's over-the-top performance is great fun to watch and there's plenty of dark humor running through the whole film. For example, Felt buries one of his victims (the lawn maintenance guy, no less) up to his neck in the ground, after knocking him out with a shovel. The guy comes to and starts screaming for help, and Felt proceeds to take off his shoe, then he peels off his filthy sock and shoves it into the guy's mouth. This may not sound very funny, but in the context of the film it's absolutely hilarious (and it's helped out by some inventive POV camera shots). Asbestos Felt's wife in the movie, Leeza, is played by Courtney Lercara, who had previously been in another '80s low budget splatter flick called Slaughterhouse. She was brought to the production by fellow independent filmmaker Donald Farmer (Demon Queen, Cannibal Hookers, etc). The special make-up FX were handled by Joel Harlow, and this was his first film. He would later go on to do FX for Toxic Avenger 2 and 3, Basket Case 2, Francis Ford Copola's Dracula, and The Stand mini-series to name a few. He's still working today and his most recent credits include The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, all three Pirates of the Caribbean films, and the upcoming Indiana Jones sequel as well as the upcoming Star Trek sequel. From what I remember, director Tim Ritter's previous film Truth or Dare?-A Critical Madness was a pretty decent shocker, but the last time I saw it was back in the late '80s and memory fades (someone needs to release this on DVD).
By the length of this review and my generous star rating, I don't want you to have an inflated view of the film. Make no bones about it. It's nothing more than an ultra-low budget '80s splatter film, with all the faults that come with it - bad acting, shoddy production value, ridiculous plot. However, the splatter FX, dark humor, and some inventive camera work make it a bit more ambitious than most of the straight-to-video dreck that came out during the '80s video boom. And if you grew up with these types of films like I did, and your favorite magazines were Fangoria (which gets quite a few plugs in the film), Gorezone, Deep Red, or Samhain, then you'll probably enjoy it. Also, if you're into low budget German splatter by directors like Andreas Schnass, Olaf Ittenbach, Andreas Bethmann, or Timo Rose, then you need to see this - you'll love it (and you want even have to read subtitles).

*WARNING* - I probably give this movie way more credit (and star rating) than it deserves; but I can't help it, it's extremely nostalgic for me being that I saw it back in '86 (the year I became absolutely obsessed with horror after seeing Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD and Fulci's ZOMBIE for the first time). Made in Italy in 1980 by sleaze-master Andrea Bianchi, BURIAL GROUND is nothing more than an imitation of Lucio Fulci's ZOMBI 2 (aka ZOMBIE), which was released a year earlier. In fact BURIAL GROUND was originally released in some areas of Europe as ZOMBIE 3 to cash in on the international box office success of Fulci's ZOMBI 2; which itself was cashing in on the success of George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD (released in Europe as ZOMBI). The scenario I just stated above is pretty much how the Italian exploitation film industry worked in the '80s. With the exception of the cannibal subgenre and the giallo film (which were distinctly Italian), most exploitation films made in Italy in the '80s were imitations of successful films from other countries. However, in my opinion the Italian "knock-offs" were often more entertaining and usually sleazier than the films they were imitating. Now on to the review. "When the moon turns red - the dead shall rise!". In the prologue an anthropologist, excavating a cave, is attacked and eaten by a zombie. Then the credits roll (over a suitably cheesy vocal soundtrack), and then the story follows a group of vacationers, staying at the anthropologist professor's mansion. Once these preliminaries are out of the way and all of the characters are introduced (don't expect much character development from this movie), the story settles into it's real function - to show as many disembowellings, gut-munchings, and assorted gore and gruesomeness as possible in 85 minutes. Most of the zombies in this movie are the usual Italian style oatmeal-faced, mummified corpses rather than the recently deceased. Thankfully the don't run. However, they're pretty handy with toolsl. As a potential victim is leaning out of a second story window, a zombie on the ground below throws a railroad spike which impales her hand to the side of the house; while another zombie raises a long scythe up to the window to decapitate her. Now that's efficiency. They also use axes and other assorted tools to chop down the doors of the mansion, where the remaining survivors are holed up. The "splinter-in-the-eye" scene from Fulci's ZOMBIE is imitated in this film as well; but instead of a huge splinter it's a jagged piece of broken glass! One of the zombified vacationers chows down on an incestuous kid who has run off because his mother slapped him after he tried to feel her up (here's the sleaze-factor I mentioned earlier). The mother finds the zombie eating her son, and bashes the zombies brains out on the side of a bathtub. The said kid comes back as a zombie later in the film, and the mother is so happy to see him that she changes her mind about the incest thing and bares her breast for him. Of course he takes a big chunk out of it (in one of the greatest splatter moments ever). By the way, the actor playing the kid was not really a kid at all but an adult actor named Peter Bark who was pretty small in stature and extrordinarily creepy looking .


The zombified anthropologist professor shows up again and appears in one of the greatest zombie gut-munch scenes ever filmed. This movie has a genuine air of sleaziness to it as evidenced by the aforementioned scenes as well as a high level of splatter/gore. So in closing, if you're a fan of zombie cinema, splatter, and/or Italian horror and you haven't seen this film yet - what the hell are you waiting for! Go get it!

Before I had heard anything about this French horror/thriller, I actually saw it sitting on the shelf of my local DVD outlet. I picked it up read the back and it seemed interesting; but it was released on the Dimension Extreme label here in the US, and their titles are pretty much hit or miss. I decided to wait. After having it recommended to me many times by various Flixter friends, I finally picked it up. I shouldn't have waited. Believe the hype! This movie delivers big time. If you're into splatter and gore (especially the realistic variety), then do not hesitate to get this movie. But it offers more than that. The story was very involving, the cinematography as well as the soundtrack was excellent, there was tension and suspense in some scenes, the actors performances ranged from adequate to excellent, and the ending didn't suck. The twist ending is nothing new to the horror/thriller genre, but ever since SAW was released outlandish twist endings have become de rigueur. And speaking of twist endings another French gore movie comes to mind - HIGH TENSION. I loved HIGH TENSION and I thought the ending was interesting, but it came so far out of leftfield that it became implausible and left lots of plot holes in the story. I'm thankful to say that INSIDE manages to avoid the outlandish twist ending cliché for the most part. A very astute viewer might be able to figure out where the ending is going, but I didn't see it coming; and when it did come it was believable enough. In closing, INSIDE is a very rewarding experience for jaded gorehounds (like myself) and for adventurous arthouse lovers (with strong stomachs).