Back around 1989, 2nd generation horror maestro Lamberto Bava (Demons, Demons 2) was hired to create a series of films for Italian television under the banner of High Tension.
Of course the producers got what they paid for, and to the surprise of no one, these films were shelved and only seen briefly throughout the decades… until our beastly buddies o’er at Severin dusted them off and slapped them together in a lil’ ol’ box-set they call High Tension: Four Films By Lamberto Bava!
Things kick off with 1989’s (f.y.i. the year every single one of these frightful features was produced) The Prince of Terror…
Things begin with that hoary ol’ trope of the scary shit we just saw is all just a movie… your mileage on that may vary, but personally my tank is bone dry… but the atmosphere and bloated zombie are admittedly fantastic
The man responsible for the cinematic chaos is director Vincent Omen (Tomas Arana, The Church), a man with “666” stamped right on his balls… his golf balls to be more precise, but who knows what he has going on down there?
His wife, Betty (Carole André, Yor: The Hunter From the Future) probably.
Speaking of Betty; she, Vincent, and their daughter Susan (Joyce Pitti) are about to get caught up in one hell of a frightful time as a presence soon makes itself known via disturbing events to plague the family in their home… and those events include everything from jammed garage doors to toilets over-flowing with blood… a skinned family pet… hell, there’s even a deranged lunatic sex-pest (Ulisse Minervini, The Card Player) making the scene!
Will Vin and the fam be able to survive this night of horror and bring those responsible to justice?
This set kicks off with a beastly bang with the over-the-top sinister shenanigans present within The Prince of Terror…
As our eerie eyeballs are tantalizingly tickled by the tacky décor and “oh so ’80s” fashions we are treated to a number of truly outrageous violence and gore-packed set-pieces… which of course are the real reason this freaky flick was made in the first place!
Headed by special effects legend, Sergio Stivaletti (Demons and it’s sequel, The Church, Cemetery Man), the wicked wizards assembled here deliver on the red sauce with blood spilling toilets, a skinned animal, and an absolutely unbelivable turn of events involving a robotic, radio-controlled dude going to pieces… but I dare say nothing will prepare you for the (golf) balls to the wall conclusion of the piece…
Performances featured here are fun and mirror the heightened sense of reality of the narrative, with Arana making for a suitably pompous-ass hot-shot director type and StageFright‘s David Brandon absolutely devouring the scenery in an over-the-top performance as Omen’s long-time screenwriter, Paul Hilary… although Ulisse Minervini’s manic Eddie… a heady combination of giggling, grinning energy, denim, and a truly metal wig… is right up there too!
Additionally the location utilized for Omen’s posh, circular, window filled mansion is both memorable and a ton of fun to behold… as is the horror biz memorabilia it’s filled with!
Enhancing The Prince of Terror is a conversational and highly informative audio commentary featuring Mondo Digital‘s Nathaniel Thompson and author/film historian Troy Howarth, and a duo of interviews with Bava.
Next up is The Man Who Wouldn’t Die…
A dude wakes up in the hospital in a state of wild-eyed shock!
Who is this dude? Well he’s unsure… but further thought/flashbacks reveal him to be a major asshole named Gianetto (Gino Concari) who honestly gets what he deserves… but I’m getting ahead of myself…
So dig this… a socialite named Madame Janaud (Martine Brochard, The Violent Professionals) hires swanky criminal Fabrizio (Keith Van Hoven, Black Demons) to steal a valuable Renoir nude so she can sell the tit-centric painting to Monsieur Miraz (Jacques Sernas, Helen of Troy) a connoisseur of such things who doesn’t care how he obtains titty paintings… he simply must have them.
Fabrizio assembles a small gang of part-time hoodlums… one of them being Gianetto… to help him steal the Renoir from the rich couple that owns it, under the guise of being movers.
Gianetto being the douche that he is, sexually assaults the lady of the house… but gets his ass (or more accurately his head) beaten solidly by her husband… even though he’s bound and gagged… mid act.
After Fabrizio eliminates the hapless homeowners, he orders that the blood leaking liability that is Gianetto be rolled in a rug and chucked in the woods, naked, to die.
He doesn’t… as we well know from the opening…
Side note: Unbeknownst to Fabrizio, Gianetto had stolen the Renoir and hidden it away before he got his rocks off and his block knocked off.
Anyway, Gianetto’s continued existence is quickly discovered by the thieves and they attempt to eliminate him again… but they… or more precisely, Fabrizio… fuck that up too, making it unlikely they’ll receive that pay day from Madame J, who has by now discovered that the painting is missing from the thieves’ haul.
Soon a mysterious assailant begins eliminating Fabrizio’s gang one by one, apparently murdered by their own loose end!
Honestly, I found The Man Who Wouldn’t Die not as enjoyable as The Prince of Terror…
For one thing, it’s really, really hard to root for anyone in this film… everyone is kinda trash but no one as much as our sexually assaultin’ art thief anti-hero Gianetto… he’s a deplorable human being, and deserves every horrible thing that happens to him as mentioned above… and the folks suffering vengeance are not so great either.
But… the retribution is a lot of fun to watch and where we get our violent set-pieces, and there’s a few twists n’ turns along the way… and the interaction between Fabrizio and his ridiculous and over-bearing, sweets-addicted mother (Raffaella La Vecchia) is both a huge tonal shift, and completely ludicrous in the best possible way!
Special features to accompany The Man Who Wouldn’t Die are light and include interviews with Bava and screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti (with a bit of set-up from Bava).
Moving on we come to School of Fear…
Diana Berti (Alessandra Acciai) begins her first day of teaching (replacing a teacher that died under mysterious circumstances) at an ornate, Gothic academy known for a famous professor that had a penchant for strange anatomical displays.
While the students seem ordinary enough, things begin sliding south immediately beginning with a missing student investigation (and not the first of it’s kind that the school has experienced)… this is only the tip of the icky iceberg as the strange staff and mysterious notes our heroine finds reveal there is a seriously sinister secret hidden within the wicked walls of that arcane academy… a strange “game” known by the students but clouded in clandestine miasma.
Will Diana figure out the meaning of the game and stop it dead in it’s tracks, or will she go the way of her predecessor?!
School of Fear is a slow burn creepy kid caper that presents both a solid mystery element, some nice suspense, and Gothic thriller elements.
The game the children play is shrouded in sideways glances and whispered secrets, and as the narrative unfolds the game grows ever-more sinister, and the desperation Diana feels is palpable as it truly feels she can do little to stop her headlong plunge into the children’s monstrous machinations… not to mention escape her own skeletons in the closet.
To that end, Acciai makes for a believable and engaging heroine, and she is matched perfectly by her opposite number, Viola Simoncioni as Roberta… an member of the putrid posse that can be sweet as honey as she simultaneously plots your demise.
While we are chit-chatting about the cast, fans of Italian fright flicks will be pleased that Daria Nicolodi (Deep Red, Suspiria, Tenebrae, Phenomena) has a substantial role here as the school’s Principal who may know more than she lets on regarding the game… but regardless she does her level-headed best to save the institutions reputation at all times.
Adding to the atmosphere, the location utilized for the posh academy is a sprawling, shadow filled building harboring dark secrets guaranteed to drive our young protagonist absolutely batty (as will her own past trauma… which includes being sexually assaulted by mascot characters)… true Gothic goodness there my cats n’ creeps.
Of note, this feature has no gore sequences, so there’s that…
Special features here include interviews with Bava, screenwriter Roberto Gandus, and composer Simon Boswell (who provided excellent scores for each film in this boxset)…
Speaking of Boswell, this release also contains a separate CD containing multiple pieces written for various Lamberto Bava pictures!
Lastly we get Eye Witness…
Elisa and Karl (Barbara Cupisti, StageFright and Giuseppe Pianviti, The Godfather Part III respectively) are doing a lil’ shopping… well shoplifting to be more accurate… in a mall ready to close for the day.
As the lights go out, Elisa witnesses a sexual assault (seriously, we are 4 for 4 with rape in these films… ) that leads to the murder of mall office employee Mara (Loredana Romito, Transformations).
Thankfully the police, lead by slappy Commissioner Marra (Stefano Davanzati, The Final Executioner), have an eye witness to the crime… but it turns out Elisa is blind, so that whole “eye witness” biz may be a bit moot…
Naturally the one responsible for the deadly deed wants absolutely no one left among the living that could point the finger their way, blind or not, so Elisa’s continued existence hangs on her ability to identify the murderer any way she can!
What we have with Eye Witness is a pretty solid, late-period giallo.
While there is absolutely no mystery surrounding who actually committed the crimes at hand, the tension here relies on how close the perpetrator consistently gets to Elisa… and while the character can be ingratiating at times, she’s still personable enough that we give a damn if she’s in peril… and with the ineptitude of the police force swirling about you can bet your ass she’s in peril more often than not!
Eye Witness also affords us a peek into the mall scene in Italy in the late ’80s, which is a fun time capsule in and of itself… but, and hear me out on this, the place features a robotic geisha and ninja advertising motorcycles… why on earth those weren’t utilized in the narrative seems like a huge missed opportunity to make this one over-the-top memorable.
The concept of a commune that utilizes it’s members disabilities to enhance their other senses is a cool idea as well, but it too is underutilized.
Special features this go around feature another fascinating audio commentary featuring Thompson and Howarth, and interviews with Bava and Cupisti.
While some of the films are stronger than others, all the pictures present in the High Tension collection will be irresistible to Lamberto Bava fans looking for more obscure material from the maestro!
