(1980)
Overall: MEH
His first of two erotic gore movies shot concurrently in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, (Le notti erotiche dei morti viventi), is a typically sleazy affair from writer/director/producer Joe D'Amato. As is the case with any genre film that throws in hardcore sex, the story line is inconsequential as things regular detour into tortuously boring pornographic encounters, bloating up the running time to unacceptable levels. Sans an early sequence in a morgue, the zombies do not become active until over an hour in and they are of the Knights Templar variety, meaning even slower than the sex scenes. Even one of the characters proclaims at one point that their only advantage is that the ghouls "move at a snails pace", hence them surviving by jogging away from them and shoving a voodoo amulet in their faces. Though the makeup effects are primitive at best and the gore plays second fiddle to the "erotic" elements of the title, the lumbering undead islanders emerge in a creepy enough day for night sequence set to low-key, ominous music from Marcello Giombini. The scenery in general is both barren and lovely which juxtapose the garish violence, bright red blood, and maggot infested closeups.
(1980)
Overall: MEH
Another gross-out foray from Italian exploitation filmmaker Joe D'Amato, Antropophagus, (Antropophagus: The Bepoast and The Grim Reaper), is equal parts dull and gleefully gory. In an attempt to create an air of mystery and perhaps humanize the otherwise cardboard characters, D'Amato ultimately wastes nearly the entire length of the film which comes off as sluggish instead of effectively grabbing or atmospheric. A psychic lady rambles boringly, a pregnant lady says "Oww" a lot, and some of them look and behave similarly enough to forget their names the whole way through. Then for about an hour, they hang around an abandoned Greek island village and maybe two things happen. When the bloody moments do randomly erupt, they raise the excitement level a notch or two above comatose, but then it is right back to us not caring at all about anything going on. When both the plot itself and the structure of it raise little to no interest in the viewer, the film i dead in its tracks no matter how many gooey, cannibalistic lunch buffets we are presented with. So on that note, watching a mere highlight reel of all the nasty bits will suffice just fine.
(1981)
Overall: WOOF
Another entry in Joe D'Amato's Caribbean series, Porno Holocaust, (Delizie erotiche in Porno holocaust, Blue holocaust, Holocausto porno), is notable for being one of the worst paced pornographic films in the history of cinema. Shot in the Dominican Republic's Santo Domingo, (just as more than a half a dozen other no-budget, genre mash-up, D'Amato productions utilizing hardcore sex scenes were), it recycles the same actors, locations, and loose, kind-of plot elements by throwing a group of boring, unemotive characters on an island for reasons, all so they can get slowly picked-off by the walking dead. "Slowly" is the key word here as everything is so lackadaisical that it is as if D'Amato was purposely attempting to lure his audience to sleep instead of grossing them out and/or giving them boners. The frequent sex scenes happen for the flimsiest of reasons, (usually people walking around to silence for several minutes before stopping and saying "let's fuck"), and despite one scene where a nuclear zombie face-rapes a poor woman with a fake dong, absolutely nothing else remotely memorable happens. The fact that the film has a credited screenwriter is a bigger joke than any unintentional chuckles that can be found if someone is desperate enough to make excuses for any, so yes, this should be neglected at all costs.
(1981)
Dir - Joe D'Amato
Overall: MEH
Producer/director/cinimatographer Joe D'Amato and actor/screenwriter George Eastman's unofficial sequel to their exploitation gore-fest Antropophagus was the comparatively less outrageous yet still nasty Absurd, (Rosso Sangue, Red Blood, Anthropophagus 2, Zombie 6: Monster Hunter, Horrible, The Grim Reaper 2). Also designed as an answer to Halloween as every turn-of-the-80s slasher movie was, it has a similar premise of a speechless "boogeyman" killer with relentless healing abilities and a type of non-bias, murderous rage that will target anyone who crosses his path. Eastman plays such an unstoppable force with a wide-eyed fury that is in keeping with his portrayal in the aforementioned Anthropophagus and the kill scenes involve buzzsawing a guy's skull open, shoving a drill-bit into a woman's temple, and cooking another woman's face in an oven. Such brutality is adequately sprinkled through the proceedings, which is a good thing since the structure is as one-note as any in the sub-genre. The film hardly boasts a compelling story and D'Amato still lacks both a budget and a sophisticated cinematic sense as far as keeping it as visually showy as some of his Italian contemporaries were able to. That said, it has a blunt, unapologetically ghastly charm to it that will easily appease Euro-trash fans.
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