Midnight Killer (1984) aka Morirai A Mezzanotte

3 / 5 Jan '11
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Lamberto Bava
Written by: Lamberto Bava, Dardano Sacchetti
Actors include: Valeria D'Obici, Leonardo Treviglio, Paolo Malco
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Giallo, Thriller
Length: 85 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Well it's definitely a later entry into the giallo field and it's one of Lamberto Bava's worst but it's certainly not terrible, it is at least stylish in a way. The fashions are awful, and it's missing the gratuity one would expect in this style of film. The deaths are decent and a bit of creativity is used, and the nudity quotient wasn't fulfilled much to my Husband's dismay. The beginning in this film is quite strong at least, it starts with a violent fight between a fellow named Nicola and his Wife. Nicola leaves the seen and flees to an ex-girlfriend's house who just happens to receive a phone call while he's there stating the death of Nicola's wife. It's of course a mystery and a few other girls are killed along the way. I think I might have rated it higher were the ending more satisfying, but it sort of cheapened the film I thought. You could do worse, especially during this time frame with this style of film but you could definitely do better too.

Availability:  I don't believe it's currently on DVD

Body Puzzle (1992)

2.5 / 5 Jun '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Lamberto Bava
Written by: Lamberto Bava
Actors include: Joanna Pacula, Tomas Arana, François Montagut
Genre: Horror, Giallo, Mystery, Thriller
Length: 95 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Well, I am typically a fan of Lamberto Bava but this wasn't nearly as good as I'd have expected. It did manage to have some nice scenes of gore and dismembered body parts if that be your thing. The story is rather dull (even though it's going to sound exciting). It's about a serial killer who removes parts from his victims (who is known to us right off the bat) sends them to a Woman. The Police scramble to solve the mystery, although it's no mystery to us making it feel pretty boring. It's very dry and wooden feeling, nothing special whatsoever. Although perhaps this would qualify as a giallo it probably wouldn't satisfy genre fans. I've definitely seen worse and cheaper, but I actually saw this when it first came out but totally forgot I ever watched it. That's not a good sign, and odds are within a year I'll forget again. Oh well, Lamberto's weakest still has a few decent qualities I guess.

Availability:  On DVD

Demons 2 (1986) aka Dèmoni 2

3.5 / 5
Tagline: The nightmare returns
Directed by: Lamberto Bava
Written by: Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava
Actors include: Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Nancy Brilli, David Edwin
Genre: Horror
Length: 91 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Well I'm not so sure this was a necessary sequel it still offered some good moments. Somehow one of the corpses of the demons from the first one is brought back to life and a young girl gets possessed watching a documentary on the matter. Then she goes o to terrorize the entire apartment building she lives in. It's an odd way to bring the film back really but at least it's nearly the same film as the last one be that good or not. The gore is here but not as impressive as before and it's not quite as amusing but I suppose if you are into this kind of thing you'll want to see this one too.

Availability:  On DVD

Demons (1985) aka Dèmoni

4 / 5
Tagline: They will make cemeteries their cathedrals and the cities will be your tombs.
Directed by: Lamberto Bava
Written by: Lamberto Bava, Dario Argento
Actors include: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny
Genre: Horror
Length: 88 minutes
Banned: Iceland, West Germany

Review:
This one is actually a great deal of fun, a bunch of movie goers are trapped in a movie theatre with....demons!!! What's so great is that everything is exaggerated and hilariously ridiculous from the music right down to the acting. Still we get some gross out stuff to keep the Italian horror fan gorehounds happy and it's very easy to enjoy. This isn't frightening in any way but most horror films should enjoy the heck out of this little treat. I will definitely check out more from Lamberto Bava in the future.

Availability:  On DVD