CUT AND RUN (original title: Inferno in Diretta) 

Director: Ruggero Deodato

Year: 1985

Star rating: ★★★★ 4/5

Synopsis

A reporter (Lisa Blount) and her cameraman connect a surviving Jonestown leader and a TV exec's missing son (Willie Aames) to a drug war led by a renegade colonel (Richard Lynch) where jungle installations are being massacred by an army of natives and a skilled white assassin (Michael Berryman). Their 'big story' has become a nightmare of sudden violence where the ultimate assignment is survival...and the most brutal animal in the jungle is man. 

Firstly, before I review this movie let me add that this film must be viewed in its full uncut and uncensored glory of how it was originally intended to be shot and the best DVD release for this is the Anchor Bay version. Avoid all other versions of this film. The presentation is complete and uncut, featuring scenes omitted from all previous English language releases, because these scenes were never dubbed into English, they are presented in Italian with English subtitles. 

Being familiar with Ruggero's work and admiring his classic Cannibal Holocaust (1980), I decided to look into more of his films and came across Cut and Run. When first watching the film, I had seen it on an old VHS version that had been butchered by the sensors. The film was presented as an action flick rather than a horror. It was not until later on in which I had researched into the film and came across the uncut version, which let me tell you, was almost a completely different film. From what I had read, it was trying to follow the same formula as Cannibal Holocaust but delivered more on the action side rather than the realism that caused so much controversy with Holocaust. 

Being a lover of all things gore and a big fan of the talented Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes, Deadly Blessing), the film drew me in from the first moment Berryman leaped out of the river and pulled his victim back in with him. The film tries hard to bring in many different genre elements and looses focus of the main stories plot, but the scenes of action and gore are what keeps the film moving, and the surprise elements of Berryman's scenes. 

Women seem to be the main victims and are objectified on all fronts. Their bodies are raped, humiliated and mutilated for the visual pleasures of our entertainment. The film sets up nice jump scares and surprise elements by using the scenery thats available. Set in the jungles of South America, the reporter and her cameraman are faced with all sorts of obstacles. From crocodile infested rivers, traps, the night of the jungle, natives and a tall white man that appears out of the river in moments of suspense. The soundtrack which was composed by the master that is Claudio Simonetti, who is known for working on a few of Dario Argento's films, lends his talent to the film nicely and helped enhance the films visuals.

The film holds its own and is packed with plenty of gore and action to keep you glued to the screen. The only negative which let the film down just slightly is the ending in which Berryman's character gets one last shot at capturing his victims but gets sprayed in the face with a fire extinguisher before being shot by a rifle. This comedic element, almost slapstick ruined the mood and atmosphere (although this could have been intentional, to present this almost invincible wild killer and then expose of him in seconds with a spray to the face). Regardless of this, even though his scenes were short and he could of had more screen time. Berryman's performance, in my opinion is what held the film together. 

Happy New Year everyone, just a quick review of a favourite of mine. I will try and get more up on the blog and start looking into more obscure horrors that are out there. These are by no means professional reviews and may sound amateur but hopefully I can introduce you to a wide range of bizarre, gore infested, edge of the seat, can't go to sleep films that will keep you interested and talking for years to come. 

Michael Berryman and Director Ruggero Deodato on the set of Cut and Run.

Suspiria 

Director: Dario Argento

Year: 1977
Star rating: ★★★★★ 5/5

“Suzy... Sarah... I once read that names, which begin with the letter ‘S’, are the names of SNAKES! Sssss! Ssssss!”

Horror, The Supernatural and Fantasy, are all elements that play a big role in Dario Argento’s masterpiece ‘Suspiria’. Luciano Tovoli and Argento helped create a film that visually stood out amongst the Italian horror genre of the 1970’s, and all horror films from that period up until present day. 

In 1977 Argento went on to create The Three Mothers trilogy and the first to start off the trilogy was ‘Suspiria’ which today is regarded as a cult classic and one of my all time favourite horrors. The film opens with Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) walking towards the exit of an airport. The soundtrack at the beginning already builds tension as it switches between synthesized melodies to silence. The airport doors become a gateway into a nightmare; as they slice open the music is harsh and when they close there’s silence. The chanting of gibberish, (which feature the vocals of Argento himself alongside frequent collaborators – ‘Goblin’), suggests a sense of teasing, this is played up until she arrives at the ballet academy. Goblin’s soundtrack went on to enhance the films visuals and tension in a way that had never been done before. Suspiria’s soundtrack is best known as it doesn’t build only in the important scenes but it’s a constant assault on the viewer throughout, this is evident in the track “Witch” were the score teases us with its repetitive chanting of “la la la la la la la, la la la la la la la…WITCH”.

It was a common practice during the 70’s for the Italian production to film without a soundtrack, and to later dub the dialogue. Most of the cast could not speak English, so the voice actors who later dubbed the film had this almost strange intensity in the way they acted out. Adding this surreal break between the audience and the film.  

Along with the chanting of what seems to be demons, flashes of red can be seen while Suzy is in the taxi leaving the airport; this is also signifying danger and death. Her journey towards the madness is beginning. Throughout the film bright blocks of colour and lighting are placed scene by scene, creating an almost theatrical set piece with the help of Luciano Tovoli’s cinematography. Suspiria was one of the last films to use the Technicolor process, as it was an expensive and time-consuming process. “To intensify the contrast of the colours, we took out a filter used to soften the borders so that every colour could remain absolutely pure. We didn’t worry about having perfect borders, as it made it every more unrealistic” says Tovoli.

The façade of the baroque style academy is dressed in blood red and the rooms’ interiors also in this baroque style helped create a surreal and gothic atmosphere in Argento’s film. Mario Bava being  known as the master of Italian horror used the technique of block colours layered over each other to create tension in his horror's, this can be seen in his 1963 horror film 'Black Sabbath’ in the segment ‘The Drop of Water’. He burst onto the scene in the 1960s delivering some of the scariest horror films to date (for the time), which later influenced a wide range of directors, Argento being one of them. Argento took these techniques of lighting, colour and sound further in ways that challenged the viewer’s reactions.

The first 15 minutes of the film are a good example of challenging the viewer’s reactions, as it sets the tone and mood for the rest of the film with the two shocking death scenes, which frightened the audience before the film had even got going. The first two death scenes for me are innovative in the fact that they are creative in the way he executes them. The film’s deaths are mainly of young girls in their early-twenties. In the original script Argento wanted the cast to be of eight to ten year old girls but the production companies would not allow the murder of children on the screen so he went for girls in their early twenties instead. The set is exaggerated and enlarged with the placing of doorknobs at head level to give that sense of being lost in a labyrinth, a demented playground. This refers to such stories as Alice in Wonderland or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which visually inspired Argento with their colour contrasts and expressionistic lighting. He took these elements and turned them into his own nightmarish world.

The first death scene is unexpected. Silence follows and then a clash of hard drums begin as an arm smashes through the glass window and grabs a hold of the girl’s hair (an Argento trait in his murder set pieces was to show just the arm or hand when it came to the stabbing/killing of females). The fingers are claw-like suggesting a primal, otherworldly being. It reaches for a knife and starts to violently stab the woman in the heart repeatedly; the music builds faster with each strike. The “Giallo” element is included in the scene, a common tool in Italian cinema where we only see the killer’s hand and weapon. The knife pierces into the girl’s heart as it still beats, and then the killer reaches for a telephone wire, electrocutes her and hangs her as she crashes through the building’s glass ceiling.

There’s a quick cut to the next scene and the camera pans down from the hanging body, eyes widened and body drenched in blood. The camera follows it down to the pool of blood and to the second body, which lies against this geometric floor with the shattered, coloured glass placed around resembling an abstract painting, reminiscent of artists such as Piet Mondrian. A metal structure pierces the girl’s throat and chest; the blood, this vibrant, shocking red paint, adds an artistic level of theatricality in Argento’s films. The deaths are gruesome but there’s a sense of beauty in them. In the 1970’s horror started to become more gory and visceral and creating unique death scenes that challenged the ideas of death in cinema. Commercial cinema seemed to avoid death or rather romanticized them therefore making them not surprising. When we are faced with real life deaths on screen for example in documentary’s, we want to avoid it at all costs. There’s a relatable connection we have as humans. “For when we witness un-staged, real death in the cinema we are frightened, caught in the sweet and deadly trap of the voyeur; mixed feelings of attraction and repulsion take hold of us as we anxiously watch the actual end of another being and search his face for hints of the mystery or proper rules of conduct” (Vogel, Film As A Subversive Art, pg. 263). Argento’s nightmarish deaths challenged these ideas, they become unexpected to the point were we are frightened, the deaths are fictional and hold the line between art and death, we can appreciate the artistic element to them. What happens when the director himself is involved in the scenes? When he holds the blade and slices into a woman’s heart? Argento was mainly involved in the death scenes, it adds a sense of realism to the scene; his artistic vision is being played out through him, he is in total control. The cinematic image, the meticulous reproduction of whatever is before the camera has a way of looking ‘real’ even if fictional; how much more powerful its impact is when portraying a true event?

There is no horror that comes close to the masterpiece that is Suspiria. The film touches on the supernatural, the surreal and the horror. With all his films, nothing is certain until the very last few minutes of the film. It creates uncertainty for the audience; the characters are posed with suspicion, with red-herrings aplenty, creating extra tension in the film. It’s the only horror, in my opinion, that can combine these elements but still remain beautiful to watch.    

                                                                                                                                       Serden Salih.

                                                The first two deaths in Argento's 'Suspiria'.