80's Italian Horror Part Ten - (Bruno Mattei Edition)

HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD

(1980)

Overall: MEH

Though it has often been delegated to being a mere Dawn of the Dead knock-off, Bruno Mattei's Hell of the Living Dead, (Virus - l'inferno dei morti viventi, Virus, Night of the Zombies, Zombie Creeping Flesh), is wacky and terrible in various other ways.  Developed by producers with the intent to further cash-in on the profitable, gore-ridden zombie boom, director Mattei was allegedly given two different scripts with his lesser choice from Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi being the one that was ultimately green-lit.  Once production began, of course the budget was insufficient which meant that the cast and crew had to improvise their way through the shooting in Spain, forcing Mattei to hilariously shoe-horn in various stock footage from the New Guinea, Island of Cannibals documentary.  Speaking of stock, the score by Goblin was merely cobbled together from the band's earlier work as the production could not afford a fresh soundtrack, yet because the Italian prog band was always reliable in this department, the music is still on point.  As far as the gore is concerned, it delivers with a series of disgusting gags ranging from the cannibalistic tribe sequences to rats pouring out of open wounds and Margit Evelyn Newton getting her eyeballs popped out through fists in her mouth.  The dialog is horrendous, the performances are comically over-the-top, the plot is moronic, the makeup is lousy, but all of this makes it a Euro-trash enthusiast's dream.

 

THE OTHER HELL

(1981)

Dir - Bruno Mattei/Claudio Fragasso

Overall: MEH

Made in conjunction with The True Story of the Nun of Monza, The Other Hell, (L'altro inferno), is the more explicitly horror-pandering of the Bruno Mattei's two largely unremarkable nunsploitation movies.  Mattei split directorial duties with Claudio Fragasso, each shooting scenes upstairs for one film while the other half did so downstairs on the other, in effect delivering two products for the price of one and both within a five week period.  When he was focusing on just a sole property at a time, both Mattei and Fragasso's work was still forgettable at worst and laugh out loud absurd at best.  Sadly, the latter cannot be said for what lousy and boring stuff is presented here.  The convoluted script involves Franca Stoppi chewing so much scenery that it is logical to assume that she got a substantial tummy-ache in the process.  There is also some nonsense about Satan impregnating her and the joys of sin or whatever, characters stand around and talk a lot, the Goblin soundtrack is somewhat memorable of course, people die, actors open their eyes really wide, one of them delivers the patented, Fragasso slow moan, (see Troll 2's "Oh my god!"), a baby gets thrown into a pot of boiling water in a kitchen, the credits roll, nobody cares.

 

RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR

(1986)

Overall: MEH

 

The largely plot-less and comatose-inducing Rats: Night of Terror, (Rats - Notte di terrore), is yet another unremarkable collaboration between director Bruno Mattei and screenwriter Claudio Fragasso to emerge in the 1980s.  Akin to a Night of the Living Dead accept with rodents, it has a group of either unlikable or uninteresting characters who spend most of the time arguing with each other or screaming at the twenty or so-odd rats that keep interrupting their slumber.  The post-apocalyptic angle gives it an edge over being a mere contemporary-set bit of nature horror, but despite providing everyone on screen with an excuse to hold-up in an abandoned town overnight, the fact that the story takes place two centuries after a nuclear fallout is rendered inconsequential.  Geretta Geretta shows up with an absurd amount of hair and is one of the few to make it until the end, but she is given little to do besides act scared and point a firearm once or twice.  She is also the only not-white actor on screen and is christened the not at all racist name of Chocolate because 1986 was a different time.  Despite the pathetic production values and laughable threat that the minimal amount of rats on screen convey, the recycled Once Upon a Time in America sets are well-used, the chest-bursting gore is a hoot, and the twist ending is effectively ridiculous.

 

ROBOWAR

(1988)

Overall: WOOF

Another moronic knock-off collaboration between director Bruno Mattei, screenwriters Claudio Fragasso and Rosella Drudi, and actor Reb "Big McLargehuge" Brown, Robowar, (Robot da guerra), answers the question that only Italians would have the answer to, namely "What would Predator be like if it was made for fifty bucks and also sucked?".  The story borrows as liberally from John McTiernan's masterpiece as possible without resulting in a lawsuit, recycling exact set pieces and the same premise of mercenaries venturing into the jungle who are not told the complete details of their mission, only to come face to face with a killing machine that watches them through a filtered camera effect.  Said killing machine is a wacky-talking robot instead of a dreadlocked alien, but any other variations to Predator begins and ends there.  The dialog is almost exclusively made up of profanity-ridden macho cliches, the tough guy commando squad opens fire with reckless abandon at the slightest gust of wind, plus Brown busts out his patented, pathetic yelp which just makes him being the Arnold Schwarzenegger leader of the group that much more embarrassingly unconvincing.  Still, the music is legitimately awesome and Brown yelling will never not be really, really hilarious.

 

SHOCKING DARK

(1989)

Overall: MEH

 

The Euro-trash dream team of director Bruno Mattei and screenwriter Claudio Fragasso knock-out another rip-off with Shocking Dark, (Terminator II, Terminator 2, Aliens 2, Alienators, Contaminator); a movie that is hysterical in its blatant plagiarism, D-rent production values, eyeball-rolling dialog, aggressive over-acting, and equally aggressive wooden acting.  As was the case in Mattei and Fragasso's "best" terrible work, any enjoyment to be found is of an accidental nature, but to be fare, the movie does have a craptacular charm to it.  Some of the slight story variations from James Cameron's Aliens plus a little bit of Terminator in the final act is ultimately unique if still absurd, plus Mattei actually manages to utilize his factory setting well enough under the circumstances, with copious amounts of steam, primitive effects work, and even some atmospheric lighting to break up the otherwise stagnant presentation.  Still, this is a clear-cut, minimal effort cash grab as only Italy could produce,  In this respect, it cannot help but to be compared to its A-list, major budgeted Hollywood predecessors that were made by people who actually gave a fuck and ergo did not turn out to be embarrassing trainwrecks that only deserve the scorn and laughter of any audience member.