70's Sergio Martino Part Three done

ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK

(1972)

Overall: GOOD

 

A giallo film with a black magic cult?  All the Colors of the Dark, (Tutti i colori del buiois, Day of the Maniac, They're Coming to Get You!) from Sergio Martino is a wickedly inventive bit of supernatural horror that squarely fits into the aforementioned Italian sub-genre.  Martino seems fond of his dream sequences, giving the film a Rosemary's Baby type, psychologically creepy feel.  There are only about three women present and every one of them oozes sensuality, particularly Edwige Fenech who is her usual spellbinding self.  Being an exploitation offering of the occult variety, nudity, blood and Satan is everywhere.  Being a giallo offering, there is an intriguing enough mystery going on and the added ingredients of cartoonishly freaky sex fiends in robes and make-up who prance around like horny zombies in a castle gives it all a surreal, unwholesome edge.  That is to say an edge over the usual "psychopath with black gloves chasing pretty girls" shtick.  This by no means represents the very best of all worlds, (the nightmare scenes do get a out of control near the finale and the twist does not deliver), but it is easily a solid genre-hybrid all the same.

 

THE GREAT ALLIGATOR RIVER

(1979)

Overall: MEH

 

Fusing jungle native exploitation with Steven Spielberg's Jaws, The Great Alligator River, (Il fiume del grande caimano, Alligators, Caiman, Big Alligator River, The Big Caimano River), is as Italian as such knock-off films get.  As Sergio Martino's immediate follow-up to the infamous The Mountain of the Cannibal God, he sticks with Claudio Cassinelli again while bringing in Mel Ferrer, Barbara Bach, and Richard Johnson for a wacky cameo, plus one or two other Italian horror faces that aficionados will recognize.  The intimidating, reptilian beast, (one that picks off both Caucasian tourists and the local natives who work for the white men turning their sacred habitat into a tacky vacation hot spot), looks good and is wisely show mostly in close-ups, with the camera cutting away from it quick enough as to not come off as ridiculous.  George Eastman, Cesare Frugoni, and Ernesto Gastaldi's script is largely predictable and derivative though, so it ergo does not offer up that much for the audience to become invested in.  Still, it cruises along at a decent pace and the mayhem-fueled finale is a hoot.

ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN

(1979)

Overall: GOOD

Sticking within the jungle adventure genre for the third time in a row and reuniting with much of the same cast as the same year's The Great Alligator River, Sergio Martino's Island of the Fishmen, (L'isola degli uomini pesce, Something Waits in the Dark, Screamers), is preposterous fun with some familiar faces chewing the scenery, an adequate amount of gore, and slimy monster costumes.  Two different versions of the film exist; Martino's original, longer Italian cut and an American dubbed one where US distributors re-edited the score, shot a new prologue with Cameron Mitchell and Mel Ferrer, and added make-up effects by none other than Chris Walas.  Star power was already present in its initial form, with Barbara Bach, Joseph Cotten, and a wonderfully odious Richard Johnson as the self-proclaimed ruler of a remote island where he finds a convoluted way for mer-creatures to dig up the lost city of Atlantis' treasure.  Martino keeps the bloody set pieces coming regularly as to not let things get too talky or monotonous and various characters get sliced to death or decapitated by the Fishmen of the title.  The plot points are absurd and the voodoo elements prove utterly pointless, but it has a straight-faced camp quality that is shamelessly goofy, (and shamelessly Italian), while cruising along to its next gory death and/or Johnson being a megalomaniac hellbent on James Bond-villaining his way to glory.