Jennifer (2005, TV movie) or, Carnal Desires

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The horrifically deformed face of the titular character makes up most of this poster for Dario Argento's Jennifer

 

Police officer Frank Spivey one day shoots a man who is about to murder a young woman. The woman is horribly deformed in her face, and she has some bloody urges, but Spivey is nevertheless seduced by her.

 

Jennifer is written by writer/co-star Steven Weber (The Outer Limits (1999, TV-series)), adapted from a 1974 comic book story by Bruce Jones (Alien Encounters (1986)) and Bernie Wrightson (Gargoyle (1985)) from the anthology Creepy, and directed by Italian master filmmaker Dario Argento (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage/L'uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo (1970)). It is the 4th entry in the first season of Mick Garris' Masters of Horror TV anthology series (2005-06.

As an Argento fan might hope for, Jennifer is both transgressive and eerie. Jennifer has carnal desires in more than one way: SPOILER She eats a child, a cat, a teenage boy and that's not even all! The prosthetic special effects are made by the master in the craft, Howard Berger. There is typically disturbing music from Claudio Simonetti (Violent Shit: The Movie (2015)). And Weber is great as Spivey, but apart from him the acting is a bit dry, and the story has its holes. But Jennifer is definitely an above average TV movie and among the best of the mostly lacking Masters of Horror output. 

 

Related posts:

 

Other Masters of Horror TV movies: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Fair Haired Child (2006, TV movie) - Malone turns out another weak Masters of Horror TV movie 

Dance of the Dead (2005) - Hooper's ugly Masters of Horror nonsense
Chocolate (2005) - Flavors, visions and eroticism in Garris' TV movie thriller
Deer Woman (2005) - Landis and son's solid Masters of Horror entry 
Cigarette Burns (2005) - Carpenter burns out in weird, tiresome TV movie    

Haeckel's Tale (2006, TV movie) - Another bland Masters entry 

Pick Me Up (2006, TV movie) - Cohen's so-so Masters of Horror entry

Imprint (2006) - Venture far, far abroad with Miike's hard-to-watch Masters of Horror entry

Incident On and Off a Mountain Road (2005, TV movie) - Coscarelli violently opens the Masters of Horror ball

Dario Argento: The Phantom of the Opera/Il Fantasma dell'Opera (1998) - Argento's Leroux adaptation is a kicker mostly for stout fans 

Demons/Dèmoni (1985) or, Cinema of Death! (co-writer/producer)

Top 10: Best horror movies 

Inferno (1980) - Argento's satanic, New York-set nightmare masterpiece 

Dawn of the Dead (1978) or, Mall of Death! (co-composer)

The Cat O'Nine Tails/Il Gatto a Nove Code (1971) - Solid genetics-themed giallo murder puzzle 

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage/L'uccello Dalle Piume di Cristallo (1970) - The great debut giallo of Dario Argento

Documentary about Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror (2002) - Bio. doc. of Dario Argento 

 

 

Listen to some of Simonetti's score for the movie here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: None - TV movie

= Uncertain

[Jennifer premiered 18 November (Showtime channel, North America) and runs 58 minutes. Shooting took place in British Columbia. Argento returned with Pelts (2006, TV movie), a segment of Masters of Horror's 2nd season. Weber returned in Will & Grace (2005-06). 6.6k+ IMDb users have given Jennifer a 6.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Jennifer?

Top 10: Best horror movies

 

 

1. The Shining (1980) - Stanley Kubrick

 

2. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari/Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920) - Robert Wiene

 

3. Halloween (1978) - John Carpenter

 

4. Altered States (1980) - Ken Russell

 

5. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) - John McNaughton

 

6. Antichrist (2009) - Lars Von Trier  

7. House of Usher/The Fall of the House of Usher/The Mysterious House of Usher (1960) - Roger Corman

 

8. Inferno (1980) - Dario Argento

 

9. The Beyond/ ...E Tu Vivrai nel Terrore! L'Aldilà/7 Doors of Hell (1981) - Lucio Fulci

 

10. Candyman (1992) - Bernard Rose

 

Selected from 168 titles labeled either 'animated horror', 'body horror', 'early horror', 'great horror', 'sex horror', 'war horror', 'horror', 'horror adventure', 'horror anthology', 'J-horror' or 'kids horror'. The following horror label categories are so large that they will get separate Top 10 entries of their own: 'horror comedy', 'psych. horror', 'sci-fi horror', 'teen horror', 'horror action', 'horror drama' and 'religious horror'

Previous Top 10 lists:

Best action movies
Best adapted movies
Best adventure movies
Best 'big flop' movies
Best B/W movies
Best true story movies
Best 'big hit' movies
Best biopic movies
Best 'box office success' movies
Best car chases in movies
Best comedies
Best cop movies       
Best crime movies 
Best debut movies   
Best Danish movies
Best Disney movies 
Best documentaries 
Best dramas
Best drama-thrillers
Best dramedies

Best drug-themed movies

Best UK movies

Best epic movies

Best erotic movies

Best family movies

Best fantasy movies

Best films about filmmaking 

Best first-of-franchise movies 

Best 'flop' rank movies

Best Twentieth Century Fox titles 

Best French movies

Best franchise movies 

Best future-set movies 

Best gangster movies

Best gay-themed titles

Best German movies 

Best ghost horror movies 

Best gore movies

Top 10: Best HBO titles

Best heist movies

Best high school titles 

Best historical titles 

Top 10: Best Hollywood-set movies 

What do you think of the list?
Which horror movies would make your personal Top 10?

Inferno (1980) - Argento's satanic, New York-set nightmare masterpiece

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A fashionably colored skull outline with a seductive woman's lips and jaws in a sea of black makes up most of this most elegant poster for Dario Argento's Inferno

A music student pursues tracks from his sister's mysterious disappearance in New York, just after being near to an equally mysterious double homicide in Rome, his place of study.

 

Inferno is written and directed by Italian master filmmaker Dario Argento (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage/L'Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo (1970)), whose 7th feature it is. Dardano Sacchetti (Turbo (2000, TV-series)) and co-writer/co-star Daria Nicolodi (Suspiria (1977)) contributed uncredited contributions, and the story is inspired by Thomas De Quincey's (Lake Reminiscences (1834-40)) Suspiria de Profundis (1845). It is the second film in Argento's Three Mothers trilogy, also consisting of Suspiria (1977) and Mother of Tears/La Terza Madre (2007).

It is a fantastical, dream-like horror. Its opening scenes in a largely deserted New York City are unforgettable, and so are several incredible scenes later on. The Verdi scene in Rome and the cat drowning scene in Central Park must be called out as among the film's highlights.

Beautifully, atmospherically lit, and designed with exemplary effects, Inferno is memorable as a surrealist, sensually dense, deeply cinematic descent into the dark hell of our subconscious. It is among Argento's best, an unavoidable, strange and wild horror classic.

 

Related posts:

Dario Argento: The Phantom of the Opera/Il Fantasma dell'Opera (1998) - Argento's Leroux adaptation is a kicker mostly for stout fans 

Demons/Dèmoni (1985) or, Cinema of Death! (co-writer/producer)

Dawn of the Dead (1978) or, Mall of Death! (co-composer)

The Cat O'Nine Tails/Il Gatto a Nove Code (1971) - Solid genetics-themed giallo murder puzzle 

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage/L'uccello Dalle Piume di Cristallo (1970) - The great debut giallo of Dario Argento

Documentary about Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror (2002) - Bio. doc. of Dario Argento 

 

 

Watch a modern-made trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 3 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 1.6 mil. $ (Italy only)

= Uncertain but likely a huge flop (projected return of 0.66 times its cost)

[Inferno was released 7 February (Italy) and runs 107 minutes. Shooting took place from May - September 1970 in Rome, Italy and in New York. Argento became ill with hepatitis during the shoot. The film was commissioned after Suspiria's success, but new Fox management saw no quality in the endeavor and the film reportedly only had a tiny release in North America. The gross numbers, except for Italy, where the film was popular, are regrettably not reported. Only 1,126 paid admission in Denmark. With a projected final gross of 2 mil. $, the film would rank as a huge flop. Argento returned with Tenebrae (1982). Eleonora Giorgi (SoloMetro (2007)) returned in Mia moglie è una Strega (1980); Leigh McCloskey (Bones (2011, TV-series)) in Hart to Hart (1981, TV-series) and theatrically in Hearts and Armour (1983); and Alida Valli (La Bocca (1991) in L'eredità della Priora (1980, miniseries)), Verso l'ora Zero (1980, TV movie) and theatrically in Aquella Casa en las Afueras (1980). Inferno is fresh at 63 % with a 5.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Inferno?

The Phantom of the Opera/Il Fantasma dell'Opera (1998) - Argento's Leroux adaptation is a kicker mostly for stout fans

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Horror, frights and sexy Asia Argento are promised on this poster for Dario Argento's The Phantom of the Opera

An abandoned baby is raised by rats in the Paris sewers and goes on to become a much feared serial killer in its opera house.

 

The Phantom of the Opera is written by Gérard Brach (Bitter Moon (1992)) and Italian master filmmaker, co-writer/director Dario Argento (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage/ L'Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo (1970)), adapting the same-titled 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux (Le Sept de Trèfle (1921)). It is Argento's 13th feature.

It is not a terribly successful film, and markedly one in which Argento finds himself noticably out of his Italian home-field. The use of modern CG special effects in the film look very misplaced today, and the phantom is revealed right up front, so that there is no continuous suspense to speak of.

Regardless of these issues the film is highly entertaining: Argento gives the often dusty, respectful screen adaptations a kick in the balls with his version here! Asia Argento (The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)) is adorable, and The Phantom of the Opera also has some highly memorable scenes; a rat chase, a sex harem in a Turkish bathhouse - and a guy getting spiked on a cliff.

 

Related posts:

Dario Argento: Demons/Dèmoni (1985) or, Cinema of Death! (co-writer/producer)

Dawn of the Dead (1978) or, Mall of Death! (co-composer)

The Cat O'Nine Tails/Il Gatto a Nove Code (1971) - Solid genetics-themed giallo murder puzzle 

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage/L'uccello Dalle Piume di Cristallo (1970) - The great debut giallo of Dario Argento

Documentary about Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror (2002) - Bio. doc. of Dario Argento 

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: Estimated 10 mil. $

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[The Phantom of the Opera was released 20 November (Italy) and runs 99 minutes. Shooting took place in January - April 1998 in Budapest, Hungary and in Italy, including in Rome. The film had a limited North-American release in June 1999 and was released in 6 other markets, but details concerning its gross performances are regrettably unknown. Argento's initial cut was reportedly an hour longer than the film eventually released, severely re-cut by the film's producers. Argento returned with AIMI: Vicolo Cieco (1999, short) and theatrically with Sleepless/Non ho Sonno (2001). His daughter Asia Argento returned in La tua Lingua sul mio Cuore (1999, short) and theatrically in Scarlet Diva (2000); Julian Sands (Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (2014)) in The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999). Approximately 5,300 IMDb users have given The Phantom of the Opera a 4.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Phantom of the Opera?

Demons/Dèmoni (1985) or, Cinema of Death!

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This Spanish poster for Lamberto Bava's Demons features a strange cut-out of a demon hovering over other demons ascending a staircase

QUICK REVIEW:

Two Italian girls, who attempt to speak American-English in Germany (...), get free tickets to a cinema, in which the demons on the screen suddenly overtake the audience.

The blood bath will never end in Demons. 
Co-writer/director Lamberto Bava (Macabre/Macabro (1980)) walks in Italian horror maestro Dario Argento's (Phenomena (1985)) and his own father, the 'Baron of Blood' Mario Bava's (The Mask of Satan/La Machera del Demonio (1960)) shoes with success here. In Demons, he has created a nightmarish atmosphere that is far from the 'realism' striven for in so many of today's horror films.
The acting and the hopeless dubbing of the film are terrible, but in a certain way this only contributes to the priceless gritty, smutty feel that surrounds this 80s teen gore galore, replete with cocaine junkies, songs by Pretty Maids, Billy Idol and original music by Claudio Simonetti (Deep Red/Profondo Rosso (1975)).
Demons is co-written by Argento (who also produced the film), director Bava, Franco Ferrini (Opera (1987)) and Dardano Sacchetti (Killer Crocodile 2 (1990), based on his story.

Watch the very dark trailer for the film here

Cost: 1.8 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[The film was released in '86 in the US, but I can find no figures detailing its commercial performance, only the fact that 200k paid admission to see it in Spain. But it must have been a success, because Bava and the writing team followed it up with Demons 2/Dèmoni 2 ... l'Incubo Ritorna (1986).]

What do you think of Demons?
What are the best Bava films across the prolific film family's generations?

Dawn of the Dead (1978) or, Mall of Death!

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The iconic poster for George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead

Dawn of the Dead is perhaps the best zombie movie ever made; coming from the grandmaster of the zombie horror sub-genre, New York-born George A. Romero (Creepshow (1982)), Dawn is the crazy sequel to his perennial classic of all zombie movies, Night of the Living Dead (1968). But whereas Night is a truly scary, strange, creepy and claustrophobic horror film in B/W, Dawn is a dramatically different vision; a satirical action gore zombie feast in blazing colors with special effects bouncing off the walls!
The plot centers on two weather journalists and two soldiers that escape a violent mayhem in an apocalyptic, zombie-infested world in a helicopter and decide to isolate themselves in a shopping mall.
Dawn doesn't try to hide its barbaric colors and was released unrated in the U.S., because it was set to get a (commercially lethal) X-rating: Within 10 minutes, you've got an explicit (and spectacular) head-exploding scene; within 30 minutes, zombie kids are being terminated. The film's incredible success despite these risk factors is truly remarkable.
Dawn is too wild and action-packed to ever become truly scary, though, but it seems that that was also Romero's intentions: Arguing about the color of the blood in the film with its special effects designer Tom Savini (Martin (1976)), (who also plays a big part in the film as a biker gang leader and must be applauded at length for Dawn's mind-boggling and extremely voluminous special effects), Romero stuck with the unnaturally bright red color seen in the film, as he liked the comic book-like effect it produced.
Dawn's greatness comes also from the strength of the symbolic meanings that can be interpreted from Romero's juicy script and the irresistible visuals: The film is full of double meanings and what seems like hidden commentary or critique of modern America:
Facing crisis, our quartet chose to isolate themselves with wealth and a hankering for uncontrolled consumerism; "We've got everything we need here!", the weak weatherman points out to persuade his doubting, pregnant girlfriend that the mall is the place to be. But the consumerist life is empty and devoid of values and substance, which she later realizes, saying "What have we done?!?" Then, when outsiders threaten to break into their isolated 'paradise' to get their part of the wealth of resources in there as well, the males of our group respond with a plan to gate themselves in, "They won't know that we're here", one of them rationalizes. That plan of course misfires, and complete anarchy and depravity breaks out, as the outsiders lacking means break the borders and ravage and steal all that they can in the now plundered and wrecked mall micro-world. - The zombies might be taken as symbols of the mindless consumer people of modern society, or as simply the death that faces the faithless, amoral live people we get to know; future-set to forever stumble around in an empty, consumerist Purgatory.
That is merely my reading of the inspiring Dawn of the Dead. Watch it to develop your own ideas about its meanings.

The eye-popping head-exploding scene from the beginning of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead

The details:

I base this review on the 139 minutes long director's cut, initial edition that Romero premiered at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, (several shorter versions are also available.) This length for a zombie movie is unheard of and crazy in itself. But Romero's material can bear it, as he's got so much great footage and four very well-acting leads as well as tons of great zombies. 
Some say that it's a slow movie; I think it takes its time and gives the audience time to enjoy it and get into its world. I have watched it numerous times and now always feel a strong nostalgia, whenever I put it on; my old zombie best friend ...
It's a great home-watch: Its length demands several food- and snack-gathering kitchen breaks, (for those with gore-trained tummys), and it's also paramount to be able to talk and howl if need be while watching it. The film is most enjoyable as a very interactive experience like that.
The main hero is played greatly by Ken Foree (From Beyond (1986)), and like its franchise predecessor, which also had a black male hero, who in the end SPOILER died as a martyr of an implied racist society, Dawn also makes us root for a black male hero, which isn't a stereotype. Here, we get SPOILER a semi-romantic (interracial!) ending, which also cements the film's forward-thinking, wild nature.
To top it all off, Dawn of the Dead is robed in a phenomenal Italian score by Goblin (Deep Red (1975)) and horror master Dario Argento (Phenomena (1985)), who also helped to finance, distribute and conceive this masterpiece.
Romero's zombie movie series continues in the amazing Day of the Dead (1985), which is a third completely different zombie-apocalyptic vision, the series' darkest, corniest and most disgusting. From then on, Romero has added three recent titles, Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009), all of which do not hold up to the old classics.

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 0.65 mil. $
Box office: 55 mil. $
= Mega-hit

What do you think of Dawn of the Dead?
And George A. Romero's other zombie films?
Any other zombie films that are as solid as these?

The Cat O'Nine Tails/Il Gatto a Nove Code (1971) - Argento's solid genetics-themed giallo murder puzzle

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The content-heavy, splashy American poster for Dario Argento's The Cat O'Nine Tails pitched the film against Alfred Hitchcock's hit Psycho (1960), a very different film

A string of murders revolve around a genetics research company in Rome, where scientists believe they have found the gene for a violent disposition. A well-informed reporter pairs up with a blind man, who likes to solve puzzles, to try to get to the bottom of the affair.

 

The Cat O'Nine Tails is written by Bryan Edgar Wallace (Inspector Hornleigh (1939)) and Italian master filmmaker, co-writer/director Dario Argento (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage/L'uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo (1970)), whose second film it was. Luigi Cozzi (Devil Fish (1984)) and Dardano Sacchetti (Turbo (2000, TV-series)) contributed story elements. It is the 2nd in Argento's Animal trilogy that starts with The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970) and ends with Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971).
It is not as thrillingly fresh and perfectly paced or achieved as Bird with the Crystal Plumage, but it is still a solid giallo crime thriller puzzle.

James Franciscus (Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)) and Karl Malden (A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) are the two American stars: Franciscus is charismatic and intriguing as the reporter, and Malden gives his character a good amount of suspiciousness, and also plays blind to an ace.

The title's 'nine tails' refer not to a whip or a real cat, but to the puzzle, which has no less than 9 suspects. As in any good giallo, several characters seem suspicious and have motives for being the killer, and it is fun to try to guess who the killer really is while basically not having a clue. The film is also peppered with some pretty horrific murder scenes, (a trademark of Argento's), and revels much more in its violence and death than Psycho (1960), which it was compared to in its US marketing campaign, (see poster above). The subjectively shot murder scenes incorporate extreme close-ups of the killer's retina, which is an uncanny motif that also deftly lends extra suspicion to at least two characters in the film.
Ennio Morricone (In the Line of Fire (1993)) has composed a nerve-wrecking score. (One of the compositions, Paranoia Prima, was re-used by Quentin Tarantino in his excellent Grindhouse homage Death Proof (2007), and you can see and hear why, when you watch Cat O'Nine Tails.)
Somewhat too late into the film, humor is introduced, - and it is appreciated, because the atmosphere, characters, and Morricone's score are all anxiety-provoking almost to a point of feeling oppressive. SPOILER One of the best scenes in the films is morbidly humorous and takes place in a barber's salon. (Hitchcock would almost certainly have loved this scene, if he saw the film, which he may have done.) There are other good scenes in a gay club, a grave yard at night (of course) and by a train station.

The eeriness of this thriller comes partly from its visuals, and partly from its plot; just about everyone is potentially a bestial killer; and not only that, but it's in that person's blood, in his - or her's - DNA, a seemingly inevitable end destination for the wretched sinner.
The identity of the killer shall, of course, not be revealed here, SPOILER only I will add that the film ends with Argento's keenness for the abrupt and cinematically impressive in a series of awesome elevator shaft shots.
While this is a solid thriller, it is not carried out with as much care or enthusiasm as Argento's debut, one detects.

 

Related posts:

Dario Argento: The Phantom of the Opera/Il Fantasma dell'Opera (1998) - Argento's Leroux adaptation is a kicker mostly for stout fans 

Demons/Dèmoni (1985) or, Cinema of Death! (co-writer/producer)

Inferno (1980) - Argento's satanic New York-set nightmare masterpiece 

Dawn of the Dead (1978) or, Mall of Death! (co-composer)

The Cat O'Nine Tails/Il Gatto a Nove Code (1971) - Solid genetics-themed giallo murder puzzle

Documentary about Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror (2002) - Bio. doc. of Dario Argento 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: Estimated 1 mil. $
Box office: In excess of 2.4 bil. Italian Lira
= Uncertain but likely at least a box office success

[The Cat O'Nine Tails premiered 12 February (Milan, Italy) and runs 112 minutes. Shooting took place from September - October 1970 in Italy, including in Rome, and in Berlin, Germany. The film was reportedly a hit in Italy, where it grossed 2.4 bil. Lira, the equivalence of which in $ is regrettably hard to ascertain. It was reportedly unsuccessful elsewhere in Europe but acclaimed in North America, where it started screening in May and June to unknown gross numbers. Argento returned with Four Flies on Grey Velvet/4 Mosche di Velluto Grigio (1971). Franciscus returned in 11 TV and animated credits prior to his theatrical return in The Amazing Dobermans (1976); Malden in Wild Rovers (1971); and Catherine Spaak (Alice (2010)) in The Boxer/Un Uomo dalla Pelle Dura (1972). The Cat O'Nine Tails is fresh at 81 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Cat O'Nine Tails?