Friday, August 18, 2023

70's Foreign Horror Part Fifteen

LE BÊTE
(1975)
Dir - Walerian Borowczyk
Overall: MEH
 
Erect, bestial, orgasming penises run amok in Walerian Borowczyk's bizarre, erotic, quasi-horror movie Le Bête, (The Beast), one of several daring works from the Polish filmmaker.  For the first hour and certainly once the twist ending is revealed, things play out comedically as a Marquis tries to marry off his dim-witted son to a alarmingly horny daughter of a deceased, wealthy businessman, which is inner cut with a woman and a butler being thwarted in their attempts to have sex and several early shots of actual horses fornicating with each other.  Certainly qualifying in the realm of arthouse pornography, things eventually take on a more extreme route as the last act is largely dedicated to a bestiality dream sequence between a woman and a humanoid bear creature, which plays out in an increasingly graphic fashion while harpsichord music helps to color the soundtrack.  Said sequence was also utilized in an edited form in Borowczyk's earlier Immoral Tales, but the full treatment here is more dementedly strange than most viewers would be comfortable with.  Same goes for the entire film really, but its lustful humor, ickiness, and still boundary pushing nature is certainly memorable at least.
 
SHADOW OF THE HAWK
(1976)
Dir - George McCowan/Daryl Duke
Overall: MEH

A lackluster Native American quasi-horror film that was shot in Canada, Shadow of the Hawk has one or two sufficient qualities though they are not nearly enough to save it from its hum-drum nature.  Director George McCowan replaced an uncredited Daryl Duke once production had already begun and he sadly brings very little if anything to the table.  The movie is full of uninteresting shots where the camera lingers uninterrupted on characters walking to, getting in, starting up, and driving off in cars, as well as walking up to a telephone, dialing a number, talking on the phone, hanging it up, and then walking away.  So in other words, very exciting stuff.  Often times the actors cannot be bothered with mustering much enthusiasm themselves, which is hilariously noticeable during a scene where their car spirals out of control and almost heads off of a cliff; something that does not even register an excitable yelp from anyone on board.  Chief Dan George, (who made a decent career for himself in Hollywood by playing similar wise, old Indian men), spouts stereotypically vapid dialog that sounds like a parody of what white people think Native Americans talk like.  Thankfully though, cinematographers John Holbrook and Reginald H. Morris do some effective work here or there, the sound design makes proper used out of unearthly, wailing wind, one of the mystical spirit sorcerers or whatever makes a few startling appearances wearing a creepy mask, and, (presumably), stunt doubles risk their lives fighting a real bear and violently swaying on a rickety bridge to add some much needed oomph to the proceedings.

LADY DRACULA
(1977)
Dir - Franz Josef Gottlieb
Overall: MEH

A remarkably unfunny and sluggish, West German horror comedy, Lady Dracula, (Lady Drácula: La mujer vampiro), very unsuccessfully melds the Krimi sub-genre with a hodgepodge of blood-sucker tropes.  Austrian director Franze Josef Gottlieb was no stranger to German thrillers yet he had been dedicating himself to goofy comedies for about a decade straight by the time that he tackled this project.  Sadly, none of his presumed expertise in such films comes through on camera as the movie boringly stumbles through a couple of pratfalls, bumbling, excitable performances, and a forth wall break to close things out.  Swiss actor Evelyne Kraft makes a strikingly beautiful undead, but her character has no character as she simply behaves charming enough until the opportunity to guzzle blood arises, at which point she widens her eyes, spouts her fangs, and in one particularly dopey instance, turns into one of the least convincing prop bats in cinema history.  American Brad Harris is likewise dull in the dashing lead and even though he plays the level-headed straight hero, his failure to link any of the bizarre killings to Kraft's character after boatloads of red flags glaringly point towards her is quite silly.  Silly in the unintentional sense as the script is too soulless to emphasize anything at all really, least of all that every character on screen is too dumb to know a vampire when they see one.

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