Stage Fright: Aquarius (1987)

The killer wears an owl’s head mask. A bulky, feathery mask with dark eyes and a beak. What a fantastic look! And now imagine an actor wearing that owl’s head with a suit and flying through the air on stage during rehearsal for a musical rock number. This happens in the first five minutes of […]

Don’t Torture A Duckling (1972)

The copy of director Lucio Fulci’s Don’t Torture A Duckling (1972) on Tubi that I watched felt like it was an older DVD transfer uploaded as the image quality was desaturated and a little fuzzy, which added to how the Italian village of Accendura comes across in the movie. The rocky hills seem almost yellow […]

The Fifth Cord (1971)

The Fifth Cord (1971) is a visually striking giallo thriller from Italy. While there’s plenty of fashionable outfits and stylish interior decorating, there’s an emphasis on figures placed against colossal pieces of architecture, or the use of shadows against lit windows and lamplight reflected by glass. During one sequence where petals drift through the frame […]

Blastfighter (1984)

One golden rule about Italian genre flicks if you can’t get Franco Nero as the lead, then get a guy who looks him. Maurizio Merli was busy, so for the motion picture titled Blastfighter (1984) Michael Sopkiw steps in with an effective moustache, playing the role of “Tiger” Sharp, an ex-cop released from prison for […]

Five Dolls For An August Moon (1970)

Five Dolls For An August Moon (1970; 5 bambole per la luna d’agosto) feels like you’ve been invited to a swanky party at a cool pad resting on a hill by the coast of an island. The guests are all glamorous, the music on the stereo system is groovy (score by Piero Umiliani). And then […]