All the Haunts Be Ours Volume Two: Severin Blu-ray Collection Review

Disc One:

To Fire You Come at Last (2023) Plot:

A group of men carry a coffin through the night to a graveyard, and are haunted by the ghost of the man they’re carrying.

 

Review:

In 17th century England, a young man is dead, and his father commissions a group of able bodied fellows – some less reputable than the others – to literally carry the deceased in a coffin some miles down a rural path across to the threshold where the man shall be buried. The path carries with it some superstitious lore that keeps most men away, and over the course of a day and a night, the men spook and annoy each other with tales they have to tell, which comes with a surprising revelation: Each of the men met and crossed paths with the dead man when he was alive, and somehow with that knowledge, the men realize that they might be partway responsible for the man’s death. True to form, the path they travel on is rife with spooky encounters with a ghost … the vengeful spirit of the man they think they’re carrying in a coffin.

 

A short film at only 40+ minutes, To Fire You Come at Last is an effective, talky, and vividly filmed supernatural period piece in the style of a Hammer film, with beautiful country landscapes, expert performances, and a sense of the weird that lasts until the final frames. Writer / director Sean Hogan did an admirable job with this, and fans of Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England should enjoy this even more than most.

 

 

Psychomania (1973) Plot:

A gang of young people call themselves the Living Dead. They terrorize the population from their small town. After an agreement with the devil, if they kill themselves firmly believing in it, they will survive and gain eternal life. Following their leader, they commit suicide one after the other, but things don’t necessarily turn out as expected…

 

Review:

Boy, those ’60s really did a number on the people who made Psychomania. It’s like a Hammer movie on acid … and on wheels! A biker gang whose sole purpose is to raise hell in a small English burb gets bored and complacent with their daily raids and roughhousing. Their leader is a suicidal son of a Satanist, and after finding a very rare breed of a toad in a cemetery one night, he brings it home to his mother, who allows him to perform a ritual and a deal with the devil himself that would insure his immortality … but he has to commit suicide first. He does so with eager aplomb, and comes back from the dead none the worse for wear, shocking his gang. He encourages them all to follow his lead, and they each off themselves in creative ways (my favorite was the guy who jumped out of an airplane without a parachute), and they each come back from the dead, leaving only one member (a young woman) left who refuses to kill herself. The gang puts pressure on her, but she resists, leading to an unusual confrontation at a Stonehenge-like site where the Living Dead turns into more decorative stones.

 

Ultra bizarre and destined to eternally be regarded as a midnight movie-type cult classic, Psychomania is a one of a kind. It’s goofy and sincere, but kind of fascinating (even to a fault), particularly for fans of biker movies and weird horror flicks with an emphasis on the occult. I liked the smoky atmosphere and acid trip imagery, but the movie doesn’t have much replay power or impact. It’s for cult film aficionados and on that front it’s a complete success. Director Don Sharp had done several Hammer films such as Kiss of the Vampire and Rasputin the Mad Monk.

 

 

Disc 2:

The Enchanted (1984) Plot:

A man comes to claim his birthright home, and finds love in the form an otherworldly creature.

 

Review:

A man in the prime of his youth named Royce (Larry Miller) comes home from many years away out at sea, and his birthright home is located smack in the middle of a backcountry plot where an old family friend named Booker T (Julius Harris) has been keeping tabs on the land while fishing daily in the rivers and creeks. Booker T welcomes Royce with open arms, knowing full well that the land Royce has inherited is full of secrets and strange goings-on, and he warns him that the folks who live nearby – the Perdry’s – are not just an “odd bunch,” but to be avoided if at all possible. The Perdry’s behave like gypsies, living virtually in the open air, tilling the land for no pay, but they’re content, and when Royce locks eyes with one of the Perdry women – an ethereal sprite named Twyla (Casey Blanton) – it’s love t first sight. Royce invites her to live in his home, and soon finds out that Twyla has some quirks, one being that she literally can’t stand the sight of meat or bones, and she faints at the sight of them. When something strange begins happening in the outskirts of Royce’s property, nearby farmers and hunters form a posse and go hunting … and what they find may shake the foundation of what everyone thinks they know about our world.

 

Very unusual and subtly unsettling, The Enchanted is a lo-fi fantasy in the vein of folklore and storybook tales about fairies and the fey, but it’s never garish or overplays its hand. For that, the film is worth recommending, and filmmaker Carter Lord manages to keep the elements nicely nuanced and balanced, only giving hints and teases, and there’s something magical and tragic about the way it all plays out. The electronic score by Phil Sawyer is also entrancing, and the deeply organic and ingrained sense of the strange is on full display with every beautiful frame of the film. Recommended.

 

 

Who Fears the Devil / The Legend of Hillbilly John (1973) Plot:

A vagabond balladeer goes on a quest through time.

 

Review:

John (Hedges Capers) is a stalwart and handsome balladeer, who walks on foot through the Appalachian wilderness with his pet dog and his trusty six-string guitar, which has much more power in it than anyone knows. John kindles a romance with a pretty blonde, whose hillbilly family ostracizes her for sharing John’s bed without being married to him, and yet John has a sense of honor to him that no one can argue with. He’s faithful and he’s true, and when a well-dressed man named Marduke shows up at a dance hall gathering, John’s destiny begins to sever into its own unique direction, as John undertakes a quest to accompany another man (played by Harris Yulin) who offers John a fortune if he’ll guide him up the mountain to find a hidden treasure of gold. When John does the job, he also slips through time into a past that has a variety of surprises waiting for him, including a massive vulture-like bird (rendered through stop-motion animation) that is a plague upon the land, but John’s guitar is basically his sword, and he vanquishes the creature in front of witnesses. Later, John uses his guitar / weapon to sing songs, which have incredible power when wielded correctly, and he’s able to save some African slaves from a cruel taskmaster.

 

Well, here’s an odd duck of a movie! Who Fears the Devil feels like just the beginning of what could have been a franchise or a series of adventures for John the Balladeer. It’s very episodic and is indeed compiled of several stories written by Manly Wade Wellman, and for a 90 minute movie, the film packs in as many songs and adventures as it can to tell what ends up feeling like an incomplete saga. It has weird supernatural elements, a dark fairy tale soul, and a gung-ho, can-do attitude for such an independent film. From director John Newland.

 

 

Disc 3:

The White Reindeer (1952) Plot:

A witch becomes a white reindeer and kills men … and becomes hunted herself.

 

Review:

A Lapland tundra teems with stark white beauty, and an unmarried beauty herself named Pirita (this film’s co-writer Mirjama Kuosmanen) finds herself pursued by a handsome, eligible herder, who marries her with the blessing of the whole village. In time, Pirita becomes dissatisfied with her husband’s constant absence, and she seeks a little “push” from a local wizard who can give her the allure he desires so that she can seduce other men in the village. The wizard performs the ritual but is stunned when he realizes (too late) that Pirita is a witch with dormant powers, and his spell backfires: She becomes endowed with the ability to transform into a stark white reindeer! What to do with such a power? She uses her power to lure men away on hunting expeditions, and she kills them, creating a lore in the village that a beautiful white reindeer is lurking out in the wilderness, with witch-like powers, and when she gets careless, Pirita creates a fervor of enraged hunters and women who fear the reindeer’s powers over their menfolk. When her husband eventually catches on that there would be great honor in hunting and killing the elusive reindeer, he forges a spear for the occasion, and goes hunting …

 

A Scandinavian folk horror film shot on location in Lapland, The White Reindeer is a special little oddity with a very vivid sense of storytelling, despite the fact that there is very little dialogue in it. It uses image, mood, and crisp locations to tell its tale, and there’s also some folk songs that help tell its story. Quite gorgeous in its tragic simplicity, this is a gem. It was directed by the star’s husband Erik Blomberg.

 

 

Edge of the Knife (2018) Plot:

A secluded tribe experiences a disaster when one of their young boys dies mysteriously, and the one responsible becomes possessed by a supernatural entity.

 

Review:

A secluded tribe living in a seaside Canadian idyll (the Pacific Northwest) isn’t exactly thriving: The tribe is small and has seemingly diminished, with most of the tribe reaching old age, and there are very few youngsters to carry the traditions onward. One of the strong leaders is Kwa who has a preteen son, whom the tribe adores, and Kwa’s friend Adiits’ii is a hunter and a rascal who takes Kwa’s son under his wing. When Adiits’ii takes the boy out hunting one day, the unthinkable happens: Kwa’s son dies under mysterious circumstances, and Adiits’ii is nowhere to be found. The tribe mourns for days, completely devastated by the unimaginable loss, and then Kwa and the other able bodied men eventually trek through the forest to find their comrade. While fearing for his own life and fate, Adiits’ii goes too far into the forest and encounters a supernatural force that possesses him, transforms him, and makes him a threat to the rest of his tribe. When they catch up to him, they must capture him and perform an exorcism on him, which will prove to be very costly to the tribe and the fate of their people.

 

Apparently the first feature to be filmed entirely in an endangered language (the Haida language, which is fluently spoken by fewer than two dozen people), Edge of the Knife is a competently produced and performed supernatural thriller with an eerie vibe and a complete sense of its setting and plot. It’s based on an old Haida legend, and the camera captures in crisp colors the way of the Haida life, and is essentially timeless. From filmmakers Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown.

 

 

Disc 4:

Born of Fire (1987) Plot:

A musician goes on a quest to seek “the master musician” to ask some questions.

 

Review:

A renowned flutist named Paul (Peter Firth) encounters a woman (played by Suzan Crowley) while he’s on tour, and she appeals to his carnal side as well as his spiritual side. She purports to know something about his father – also a world-class flutist – who died many years ago under mysterious circumstances. He follows her advice to travel to Turkey, where his father died while seeking out “The Master Musician,” an elusive character who can only be found deep in the mountains somewhere. When Paul gets to Turkey, he soon encounters another woman, but hidden beneath a burka whom he is told is a Jinn (a demon or some kind of genie). As Paul ventures deeper into the Turkish wilderness, he gets directions from a guide who explains to him that Paul’s father fell in love with a local woman many years ago while questing for The Master Musician, and they had a child together, a deformed, mute man whom scuttles around in one of the caves nearby. When the birth of this deformed child triggered other deformed births in nearby villages, Paul’s father’s wife was stoned and killed, which also triggered an event which Paul now seems to be experiencing in real time. When the woman he met while on tour shows up in Turkey, Paul and she (and his deformed half-brother) congregate, but a sickness overcomes Paul, which brings out the demonic Master Musician, who gifts Paul with a special flute that plays “a tune that never ends” and Paul is reborn in a metaphorical fire.

 

Strikingly symbolic and artfully done with allegory and stylish imagery, Born of Fire resembles the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky, but filtered through Arabic mythology. Filmmaker Jamil Dehlavi managed to deliver something quite compelling and dreamlike, but without pretentious nonsense. I took it at face value as a quest film in the same way I take something such as Circle of Iron or Conan the Barbarian. Sure, it has deeper meaning and subtext, but I very much enjoy it as it’s presented. It can be rewatched for more rewards as you delve into the allegory, but it’s also enjoyable purely as a pulpy quest film, which I love. It’s strange, haunting, and should appeal to horror fans just as much to anyone looking for a weird supernatural drama.

 

 

Disc 5:

 

IO Island (1977) Plot:

A man goes missing somewhere near a remote Korean fishing island, and the mystery is unraveled, leading to shocking answers.

 

Review:

A wealthy investor has plans to create a resort on or near the fabled “IO” (Ieoh) Island off the coast of South Korea, and his plans are shaken a bit when one of his employees ventures onto the island to get the lay of the land, so to speak, but never returns home. There have been whispers and local legends and folk tales about the island for years: It seems that no men live on the island at all anymore, and it’s only inhabited by women, a feisty bunch, complete with a crazed lady shaman, but of course no one on the outside knows just how serious this reality is. The women there live as if they’re on a commune, sharing everything, but when it gets right down to it, the women are absolutely desperate to have children and will do almost anything to become pregnant … even if it means forfeiting everything they own to the shaman to get some male spunk by any means necessary. We eventually learn what happened to the missing man and all of the weird hoodoo practices the women on the island perform to keep their secrets safe, and let me tell you folks: It ain’t pretty, and I guarantee you that the entire island is not meant for some kind of tourist resort, no sir.

 

A pretty melancholy and strange drama with unexpectedly hard-hitting themes of suicide, environmental wrongs, loss, supernatural elements, and even (spoiler!) necrophilia, IO Island is a starkly original and unusual piece of work, one which I’m still processing. Filmmaker Kim Ki-young delivered a film that feels decades ahead of its time, and with its trauma-heavy approach to horror, it goes hard for the battle-weary horror fan.

 

 

Scales (2019) Plot:

A seaside village offers their daughters to the sea as a sacrifice, but one daughter escapes her fate and is destined for other things.

 

Review:

Existing in a pseudo-mythical place and time, a seaside village somewhere has an ancient tradition: every full moon, all the first-born baby daughters are literally offered to the sea in a sacrifice. The children supposedly drift to the bottom of the sea where they are welcomed and transformed by sea creatures, namely mermaids. On one such occasion, a baby girl is offered, but the sea seems to reject her, and her father resentfully takes her home and raises her, but always with resentment in mind. Is this girl going to be a curse upon his household? Upon the village? Only time will tell, but the girl grows up into a strong-willed child named Hayat (Basima Hajjar) who has an abnormality on her feet: Scales, where her feet were dipped in the ocean that fateful night the sea rejected her. Her disposition is rough and tough, and she is not a blessing to her father’s house, and so he passes her off to a fisherman / hunter who has only boys working under him on a ship. Hayat quickly learns to be even tougher, but she also has a strange affinity to the sea, but is also very much afraid of it. When her master realizes that she’s an asset to him (and extremely tough), he takes her on dangerous sea hunts, where they hunt mermaids. Hayat also seems to have a greater destiny awaiting her, but until that day, she looks to the sea and waits for the water to come to her …

 

A haunting little film from Saudi Arabia, Scales is an original for sure, and well worth watching. It’s shot in black and white and meets somewhere between a dream and a nightmare, and filmmaker Shahad Ameen gives the film an artful sense of desolation and danger throughout. At less than 80 minutes, the movie is a quick watch, but the impression it makes lasts much longer.

 

Disc 6:

 

Bakeneko: A Vengeful Spirit (1968) Plot:

A cursed swamp is home to the spirit of a woman and her cat, who are revived when an evil lord continues to wrong good people.

 

Review:

In feudal Japan, an evil lord sets his lusty eyes on one of his subjects’ wives, and covets her. When the husband objects, the lord has the man killed, and rather than submit to the evil lord, the woman takes her beloved cat and drowns them both in a nearby swamp, never to be seen again. Years later, the evil lord hasn’t abated with his evil ways: He repeats the process with other subjects. He demands that a man’s fiancé become his concubine, and the man tries resisting, but chooses to give his woman over to the lord, whose reign of terror is becoming known throughout the land. When the woman is killed for resisting, something extraordinary happens: The vengeful spirits of the dead woman and her cat in the swamp are revived and take on the form of the just-deceased woman and they go after the evil lord and his men. There will be hell to pay!

 

A supernatural horror film with surprisingly gory and sexy scenes, Bakeneko is a strangely depressing vengeance film, with beheadings, slashings, dismemberment, and degradation, vividly portrayed throughout the film. It’s not messing around, and even in stark black and white the film has a chilling menace and dread that is impossible to shake. It also has some pretty good samurai-style sword fights in it too, so there’s something for several types of fans here. From director Yoshihiro Ishikawa.

 

 

Nang Nak (1999) Plot:

After being wounded in war, a soldier returns to his wife and newborn son, not realizing that things have drastically changed at home.

 

Review:

Mak (Winai Kraibutr) and his wife Nak (Inthira Charoenpura) are expecting a child when Mak gets called up to fight in a war (this is in the late 1800s in Thailand), and with great grief, Mak leaves his pregnant wife for many months. While at war, he’s severely wounded in battle and is taken off the field and taken to Bangkok while he recuperates. Meanwhile, Nak gives birth to their son, going through terrible labor to the point that her spirit – and the spirit of her son – are ripped from their bodies. More months pass and Mak eventually returns home to be gleefully greeted by his wife and son, but something has changed that Mak doesn’t realize: Nearby villagers avoid them at all costs, even his best and dearest friend, who won’t even talk to him. Mak eventually comes to understand (very slowly) that his wife and son are dead and died during childbirth, and yet their spirits and bodies feel very real to him. Everyone in the village knows this, and when Mak refuses to accept it, the village rallies around and attempts to perform a sort of exorcism, which requires that Mak be restrained because if it is successful, then he’ll never see his family again.

 

Hauntingly and eerily portrayed with actors who completely embody their roles, Nang Nak at times resembles a document out of time and place, with weird visuals (the two main characters have bloody looking mouths from eating beech nuts, which gives their characters a ghastly appearance) and an uncomfortably emotional core. The characters constantly plead for each other, whining incessantly as if they’re going to be ripped from each others’ arms at any given moment, and the movie has a setting that is very unique and unsafe (at least in my mind), somewhere on a river that feels remote and distant from civilization. For a supernatural horror movie, this one got under my skin in a way that I was never at ease with, so I suppose it’s a success for that reason. From director Nonzee Nimbutr.

 

 

Disc 7:

 

Sundelbolong (1981) Plot:

An honest woman is gang raped by a bunch of hoodlums, and when the courts side with her violators, she gets revenge … from beyond the grave.

 

Review:

Alisa (played by one-name wonder Suzzanna) is a former prostitute gone good, having married a ship captain (played by Barry Prima) who loves her dearly. When he’s called to duty, Alisa is left alone, and when she gets a call from a boutique store that wants to be in business with her (she does fancy embroidery), it turns out to be a trap. The business owner is a lustful creep who wants to take advantage of Alisa, and he’s in league with her former pimp, an evil madam who schemes to get Alisa – the best hooker she ever managed – back in business. When Alisa tries running away, she’s assaulted and brutally raped by five guys in a dingy warehouse and left to fend for herself, totally defeated and humiliated, not to mention violated. She takes her case to court and the courts side with her violators when her sketchy past is brought forth, and not wanting to face her husband when he returns home, she kills herself after trying to get an abortion. The ghosts of all of her previous aborted children haunt her, and now that she’s a vengeful spirit, she goes hunting for her violators, one at a time. When her husband returns home, she takes on the physical form of her long dead twin sister and carries on a relationship with her husband (which is really weird), and while she’s technically “there” for her husband’s grief, he struggles to understand what is actually happening. As the ghost who hunts her rapists, Alisa takes on some really grisly forms (some are maggoty, gaping wound monstrosities, some are weird ghostly apparitions), and she spares no one her wrath.

 

An oddball what-am-I-watching wackadoodle horror movie from Indonesia, Sundelbolong is apparently based on folklore, but it resembles a totally bonkers nightmare with wacky and gory visuals that sometimes defy description. It’s basically a rape revenge movie with over-the-top kills and ghost house monstrous reveals. It’s not really to my taste, but there’s definitely an audience for this craziness. From director Sisworo Gautama Putra.

 

 

The second feature on this disc is a feature-length documentary about actress Suzzanna called Suzzanna: Queen of Black Magic. Fans of Suzzanna and genre films from Indonesia will certainly appreciate it.

 

 

Disc 8:

 

Beauty and the Beast (1978) Plot:

A merchant’s daughter becomes a prisoner in a monster’s castle.

 

Review:

A merchant’s dowry cargo of gold, priceless chinaware, and fineries is totally destroyed and lost during a botched transfer through the countryside. His life and reputation all but ruined, the merchant travels through the woods alone with his horse and more disaster strikes: His horse perishes and he wanders into a derelict estate and a castle in the middle of nowhere. Living in the old castle is a beast that is cordial enough to the merchant, offering to buy the only thing the merchant has left – a portrait of his dead wife who looks remarkably like his beautiful daughter Julie. Scared out of his wits, the merchant doesn’t think beyond the quick transaction between him and the beast, and makes a fatal error: He takes a rose to give to his daughter, which enrages the beast, who then demands that his life be forfeit for his theft. Another deal is struck instead: The merchant must bring his daughter to the beast as payment for the rose, and the merchant honors his deal. Julie eventually arrives, thinking that she’s chopped liver, but the beast has a romantic soul and a heart that yearns for connection, and the creature (he looks like a giant bird man) manages to reach Julie’s heart, and though he keeps her prisoner, he gradually allows her the freedom to leave him … which could be his undoing, but true love will be the breaking of his curse.

 

From Czechoslovakia, Juraj Herz’s retelling of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast has a vivid sense of dread and shadowy horror that really defines it a definitive gothic version of the classic story. With a strange style that feels very much alive and brimming with the allure of fragrant decay, the film might very well be one of the all-time best (and mostly unknown) films that goes over the same territory as Jean Cocteau’s 1946 version. It truly is very special and unique with awesome set design, makeup appliances, and a beauty worthy of the title.

 

 

The Ninth Heart (1979) Plot:

A young student ventures into another dimension to rescue a princess under a spell.

 

Review:

A traveling band of street performers attracts the attention of a young, poor student named Martin, who quickly falls in love with the bandleader’s beautiful daughter Toncka, who also has eyes for him. She gives him a talisman of her love and devotion as a keepsake, not yet realizing that it has power. Meanwhile, the royal family and aristocracy is in turmoil because the princess has fallen ill, and the royals have offered a reward to anyone who can reverse the illness: Whoever saves her gets to marry her. The court necromancer, we realize, has enchanted the princess with a love spell, and she pines away, her soul trapped in another dimension, where the necromancer has also trapped the hearts and souls of eight young men who’ve tried to save the princess. Martin, thinking he can snap her out of it, ventures into peril by slipping into the necromancer’s realm (Martin has a magic cloak of invisibility to help him, not to mention the magic talisman, which is sort of a homing beacon), and while there he loses a year of his life in the real world, despite only being in the other dimension for a few hours. When he saves the princess, he destroys the hold the necromancer has over her, and when they return to the real world, he’s granted her hand in marriage, but the princess turns out to be a shallow, selfish person who doesn’t love Martin, and so he turns his back on the chance to be a royal and goes in search of his true love, the peasant performer Toncka.

 

From filmmaker Juraj Herz, whose take on Beauty and the Beast was well and truly surprisingly awesome, The Ninth Heart is equally as entrancing and enchanting with its practical fantasy strangeness and allure with weird but very impressive style. It really does feel like the sort of dream you’d never forget, and true hardened fans of wild fantasy films absolutely must check it out. Anyone who loves films such as Labyrinth, Mirrormask, and Legend will undoubtedly consider this film a treat to be savored and treasured.

 

 

Disc 9:

 

Demon (2015) Plot:

A wedding turns disastrous when the groom becomes possessed by a “dybbuk.”

 

Review:

A groom-to-be named Piotr (Itay Tiran) comes to Poland to get married to Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska), whose family has never met Piotr, who’s from London. Even though the family doesn’t really know or trust Piotr, he seems to really and deeply love Zaneta, and with the union, he’s set to inherit a piece of land, with an old house that comes with old secrets as well. On the eve of the wedding, Piotr is using a tractor to begin clearing some trees on the property when he accidentally unearths what appears to be a grave with a human skeleton in it. He quickly evaluates the situation: Should he tell the family or just cover the grave up again? He chooses to conceal it, but no matter his choice, he wakes up the next morning for his wedding in a deep funk. The wedding ceremony proceeds, and he’s completely off his usually confident game. During his toast, he calls his wife by another name, which throws everyone off, but then he begins vomiting and having uncontrollable seizures. What’s going on? Piotr is possessed by what a couple of people at the wedding call a “dybbuk,” or a demon. The demon, it seems, is the spirit of woman who was long ago buried in the yard, and someone old enough at the wedding to remember who that woman was has a story to tell …

 

Demon is one of those movies that builds and builds to a colossal embarrassment for its characters who are constantly just trying to save face in the midst of a horrible nightmare, and it does its job really well until the movie ends on a strangely unsatisfying note that leaves too many questions and no answers. I really got into it with its believably intense plot and how it all plays out for awhile. Co-writer and director Marcin Wrona had a firm grasp on all this, and it’s eerie and disturbing that he committed suicide before the film was even properly released because the movie has an oddly personal perspective to it that makes it even more strange. If it weren’t for the non-ending, this would be a near-classic.

 

 

November (2017) Plot:

A village in Estonia is full of thieves, connivers, and backstabbers who make bad deals with the devil.

 

Review:

The peasants in an Estonian village in the cold month of November are all facing starvation in the coming winter, which is already manifesting with the chilly weather and snow. Everyone is poor, everyone except a single aristocratic family that flaunts their wealth by hiring the occasional peasant to be servants in the sprawling home that must feel like an endless castle to the peons in the village. The young woman who is of marrying age in the rich family is the envy of all the women in the village, but for a young man named Hans in the village, he sees her as his true love, and he pines for her from afar, believing with all his heart that he can win her heart if only she’ll turn her head his way. But there’s a young peasant woman named Liina – reasonably pretty if it weren’t for all the grime and dirt on her – that pines and loves Hans so much that she is willing to give her soul to have him. Speaking of souls, this entire village seems to lack one. The devil – a cackling jester always on the prowl around town – walks around with a book of signatures he’s always willing to open up to anyone willing to make a deal with him. People sign their souls away for a little bit of wealth or food or to give their “kratts” (strange creatures made of metal and bones) souls so that the kratts can work for them in the fields or steal for them when they’re sleeping. The kratts are truly fascinating creatures, as they can talk and carry on like people, but they’re as far from human as a wheelbarrow or a tractor. When the devil is swindled one too many times by the crafty peasants looking to pull one over on the devil, the devil must get crafty and cruel in return to claim what belongs to him.

 

A strikingly original dark fable, November had me glued to the screen with its inventive and sardonic sense of humor that carried with it a melancholic dread. The movie is in gorgeous black and white, showing us faces and locations and sights we’ve never seen before, and it feels straight out of a dream or a nightmare, but it’s just done so beautifully. It was based on a bestselling book and directed by Rainer Sarnet.

 

 

 

Disc 10:

 

Litan (1982) Plot:

A woman’s dream comes true the next day, which is when the whole village is celebrating with a surreal carnival.

 

Review:

Nora (Marie-Jose Nat) has a dream / nightmare that is completely disjointed, surreal, and ghastly with all sorts of random acts of violence, masked weirdoes, horrific accidents, and bloody horrors. She wakes up in a fright, and knows only one thing: She must warn her boyfriend Jock (Jean-Pierre Mocky) of what she dreamt because if she doesn’t, she’s afraid that he’ll meet his end on this day, just as he did in her dream. She rushes out into the morning world, and because this is the village of Litan, the whole village and populace is out in force because there’s a huge carnival going on all day long, with people dressed oddly, wearing full-face masks, and even (it seems) lots of people wandering around in a trance, completely locked in with pre-designed and inexplicable destinations that no one can stop. For instance: As she’s rushing to find Jock, Nora crosses paths with a bus driver who is totally hypnotized or under a trance, and he kills someone while driving the bus because he can only see where he’s supposed to go rather than where he is at that moment. The guy kills a pedestrian, gets off the bus and keeps walking to who knows where until he eventually finds where he must go, and then he’s shot in the head by a homeowner because he’s basically a home invading zombie who can’t communicate! Nora is frantic to find Jock because everywhere she goes, she’s met with crazed violence, horrible accidents just as they played out in her dream. When she finds Jock, he’s got his own problems: Her saves a boy from drowning (except he did drown and is dead and no longer has a heartbeat, but he’s very much alive and communicates from beyond the realm of the living), and there are giant glowing worms swimming in Litan’s water supply, instantly liquefying anyone who unfortunately gets dunked in water. A hapless police force scrambles to understand what is happening in the village, but even the cops are operating at half-strength because they’re also under a trance! What the heck is happening in Litan?!

 

A true waking nightmare type of movie, Litan reminded me of a David Lynch / Werner Herzog / Alejandro Jodorowsky movie with its bizarre, unexplained events and strange sense of smoky weirdness. It was shot in a rustic region in France, and some of the locations are in beautiful caves and nooks and crannies of a region that felt straight out of a folk stale or fairy story. It’s a super bizarre film, but very watchable and never boring. From filmmaker Jean-Pierre Mocky, who also starred in the film.

 

 

Blood Tea and Red String (2006) Plot:

A stop motion film about a rag doll fought over by a band of mice men and other creatures.

 

Review:

A rag doll lady is created by a handful of regal mice, and the mice cherish the doll. When they go off to have a day out, they leave the doll, which is then stolen by “the creatures who dwell under the oak,” which resemble birds without wings because they’ve got beaks. The creatures take the doll and abuse it, but it is then taken by a spider lady who keeps it prisoner. The mice, meanwhile, have had a weird trial where they ate poisoned fruit and got high, and when they get sober again they must try to retrieve their doll lady from the spider. When they have gotten the doll back, they perform rituals on it and with it (using weird witchcraft involving string, playing cards with satanic look symbols, and stuff I can’t even describe), and then they go to war (sort of) with the creatures. The poor doll doesn’t quite survive the ordeal intact.

Wow, this little film is a doozy. It’s a dialogue-free stop motion fairy-type story that gave me the heebie-jeebies. It reminded me a lot of Midsommar with its intimate knowledge of strange rituals, pagan witchcraft, and overall sense of doom. It’s gorgeous to look at and is stunningly realized with little dolls and string and things, but man, it’s very, very creepy. Apparently, it took 13 years to make, and I believe it. This is one of the most disturbing movies I think I’ve ever seen, and that’s really saying something considering how lovely the movie seems to be on the surface. From filmmaker Christiane Cegavske.

 

 

 

Disc 11:

 

Nazareno Cruz and the Wolf (1975) Plot:

A peasant man is cursed: When he falls in love, the curse triggers, and he comes a werewolf under full moons.

 

Review:

Terrible tragedy befalls a humble peasant woman: Her husband and six sons are all killed in one fell swoop in an accident, leaving her pregnant with another child. The village hag warns that if the woman gives birth to another son (her seventh), then the boy will be cursed as a werewolf. The woman gives birth to a son, whom she names Nazareno, and he turns out to be a really great kid, and not a werewolf after all, but a boy and eventually a young man the entire village grows to cherish and love. When Nazareno reaches the age when he sets his eyes on the most beautiful girl in the village, a blonde haired beauty named Griselda, they fall hard in love and lust with each other, making love with each other all day, every day. That’s when Nazareno is visited by a black-hatted stranger who reveals himself to be the devil himself. The devil presents him with an ominous warning: Nazareno must make a choice – turn his back on Griselda forever and never commit to love again in exhange for untold riches for the rest of his life … or continue to love Griselda and become a werewolf every full moon, which will spell doom for him. Nazareno scoffs at the Devil and decides to continue to love Griselda, but sure enough he becomes a werewolf and has no control over his actions upon the full moon. As a wolf, he kills shepherds and sheep and goats, angering the village, who hunt him down. When a trap is set, Nazareno will discover that doom awaits him.

 

A fable-like odyssey with an interlude to hell (or purgatory), Nazareno Cruz and the Wolf is delightfully heavy-handed with its telling, dipping into laugh-inducing melodrama and wildly overarching romantic imagery, but hey: I enjoyed it, so who’s complaining? Filmed in Argentina. From director Leonardo Favio.

 

 

Akelarre (1984) Plot:

A land baron becomes a patron who spearheads a witchhunt in 17th century Navarre.

 

Review:

In 17th century Navarre, a very wealthy lord who owns almost everything as far as the eye can see has a son who has set his lusty heart on a peasant girl he desires. The girl not only doesn’t love him, but she despises the lord’s son, instead giving her heart to a local peasant. The lord’s son seeks a witch doctor’s spells and potions to win the girl’s heart, but even the wealthy young man can’t always have what his heart desires, and so along with the superstitious friars and other lords, the young man manages to stir his father into starting a witch hunt, and his first accusation is to accuse the woman he desires – the peasant girl – of being a witch. The girl is brought before the sham tribunal who begin torturing her (it gets grisly when they strip her naked and stretch her out), forcing a “confession” out of her, which leads to more innocent women of being accused of being witches. When the peasants revolt against the wealthy baron and his son, the young man is killed, and a war is basically ignited between the accused and the accusers.

 

Akelarre is nothing new under the sun, with a very familiar “based on a true story” type of set up that follows the usual witch hunt tropes for these types of movies. It has an authentic enough regional flare with Basque locations and actors, but it’s just not that compelling and it lacks flare and originality to keep it fresh and enticing. From filmmaker Pedro Olea.

 

 

 

Disc 12:

 

From the Old Earth (1981) Plot:

A druid artifact is unearthed in the present time, leading to disaster.

 

Review:

In ancient times, an elaborate druid sacrifice is performed, and centuries later, a man living in Whales (I believe) is gardening in his backyard, and he unearths a stone mask from the dirt. What is this? He doesn’t know, but when he cleans it up, he puts it on display in his home, leading to his wife having vivid nightmares every night until the man gets wise and gives it to an archeologist at a nearby university. The archeologist considers Celtic history as a specialty, and it becomes clear that the ancient stone mask is indeed a genuine prized find, but the mask is possessed by a demon of unearthly origin, and the creature manifests, destroying the life of the archeologist.

 

Filmed in the Welsh language, this short film (it’s about 50 minutes long) is incredibly effective and might’ve worked even better as a longer feature film with its creepy atmosphere and truly terrifying imagery. When the mask is revealed to “house” a demon (or the devil), the film elevates into the realm of true horror. Someday, perhaps, someone will remake this for modern audiences because it deserves to be rediscovered. Directed by Wil Aaron.

 

 

Disc 13:

 

The City of the Dead (1960) Plot:

A university student goes to a remote town to do research on witchcraft and becomes the chosen sacrifice for a witch and her coven.

 

Review:

A witch and her lover are overrun by a village who accuse them of witchcraft, and they tie the witch – Elizabeth Selwyn (Patricia Jessel) – up to a stake and try to burn her, but Satan hears her plea and saves her from the burning. In return, Selwyn is granted eternal life as long as she and her lover sacrifice a virgin woman twice a year forever after. In modern times, Selwyn runs the Raven’s Inn in a small, remote town where the surrounding villages steer clear of the area because everyone around the Raven’s Inn seem to be … well, evil. When a young university student named Nan (Venetia Stevenson) is doing a paper on witchcraft for her professor (played by Christopher Lee), she decides to travel on her own to the small town where Selwyn was supposedly burned at the stake, not realizing that Selwyn is the proprietor of the inn she’s staying at. When Nan is taken by Selwyn and her coven of witches and warlocks to be sacrificed “at the 13th hour,” Nan’s only hope lies in her brother, who comes looking for her just in the nick of time, but he’ll have to navigate the “city of the dead” before he can save his sister’s life.

 

A smoky and atmospheric horror film, The City of the Dead manages to make a strong impression on a limited budget. It’s a really good horror thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the last moments, and it’s not just well cast and nicely shot, but perfectly directed by filmmaker John Llewellyn Moxey who is likely best known for directing tons of episodic television over the years. The movie would be great to watch on Halloween or on a cold, dark night. Keep the lights turned off because this one will spook you!

 

 

The Rites of May (1976) Plot:

A photographer comes to visit his hometown and falls in love with a pretty young woman who is somehow afflicted with a strange melancholy that he can’t possibly realize will change their lives forever.

 

Review:

A young Filipino man named Jun returns to his hometown to visit his mother and disabled, mute father, and the young fellow flexes his photography skills because he’s been making his career as a photojournalist in Manila. By no means is he a well off person; Jun’s family lives a very humble life, and while out in town one day, he sets his eyes on a pretty young woman named Teresa, whom he snaps a photo of without her realizing it. A day passes, and the next evening while in town, he happens to cross paths with Teresa again, and as a gift, he hands her the photo he took of her, which charms her, but this is not a happy go lucky girl, no. Teresa seems to be afflicted with a deep and impenetrable melancholy that goes very deep. Her family – also very humble and poor – has a medium in the family, and in the last séance they conducted, it was revealed that Teresa’s sister is dead after being missing for some time. What happened to Teresa’s sister? Well, it’s complicated. As Jun begins to court Teresa over the next few days, he reveals some things about his father and how he came to be invalid, and it taps something primal in Teresa’s psyche. Teresa, as it turns out, is possessed with her sister’s spirit, and the dead woman wants the truth about her death to come out … which means Jun will learn something horrible about his father, who may have known – and God forbid – and may have killed Teresa’s sister.

 

The Rites of May is a compelling and nicely shot Filipino film from filmmaker Mike De Leon. It feels like an important film, with a creeping sense of dread and devastation that slowly works its way into your skin the longer it goes on. It’s very well directed and performed, and it also feels quite unlike any other horror film I’ve seen, so it succeeds in a big way. Highly recommended.

 

 

Bonus Materials

• Audio Commentary For TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST With Director Sean Hogan And Co-Producers Paul Goodwin And Nicholas Harwood
• On The Lych Way – Corpse Road Chronicler Dr. Stuart Dunn Discusses The Pathways Of The Dead
• TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST Trailer
• Short Film: WE ALWAYS FIND OURSELVES IN THE SEA
• Audio Commentary For WE ALWAYS FIND OURSELVES IN THE SEA With Director Sean Hogan And Co-Producers Paul Goodwin And Nicholas Harwood
• EPK For WE ALWAYS FIND OURSELVES IN THE SEA
• Short Film: OUR SELVES UNKNOWN
• Introduction To PSYCHOMANIA By Film Historian Chris Alexander
• Audio Commentary For PSYCHOMANIA With Maria J. Pérez Cuervo, Founding Editor Of Hellebore Magazine
• Stone Warnings – Dr. Diane A. Rodgers On Stone Circles And Standing Stones In Film And Television
• Return Of The Living Dead – Interviews With Actors Nicky Henson, Mary Larkin, Denis Gilmore, Roy Holder And Rocky Taylor
• The Sound Of PSYCHOMANIA – Interview With Soundtrack Composer John Cameron
• Riding Free – Interview With ‘Riding Free’ Singer Harvey Andrews
• PSYCHOMANIA Theatrical Trailer
• Audio Commentary For THE ENCHANTED With Director Carter Lord And Camera Assistant Richard Grange, Moderated By Filmmaker/Author Kier-La Janisse
• Audio Commentary For THE ENCHANTED With Chesya Burke, Author Of Let’s Play White, And Sheree Renée Thomas, Author Of Nine Bar Blues
• A Magical Place – Interview With Composer Phil Sawyer
• Hole In The Wall – Character Notes By Screenwriter Charné Porter
• THE ENCHANTED Trailer
• Short Film: SWIMMER
• THE LEGEND OF HILLBILLY JOHN Alternate Opening To WHO FEARS THE DEVIL Introduced By Actor Severn Darden
• Audio Commentary For WHO FEARS THE DEVIL With Television Historian Amanda Reyes
• Crumble Will The Feet Of Clay – Interview With Producer Barney Rosenzweig
• Silver Strings – Interview With Actor/Musician Hedges Capers
• Manly Of The Mountains – Author David Drake Remembers Manly Wade Wellman
• Occult Appalachia – Occult Historian Mitch Horowitz On The Arcane Texts Of Wellman’s John The Balladeer Stories
• WHO FEARS THE DEVIL Theatrical Trailer
• The Projection Booth Episode On THE WHITE REINDEER Hosted By Mike White And Featuring Kat Ellinger, Author Of Daughters Of Darkness, And Talk Without Rhythm’s El Goro
• Short Film: A WITCH DRUM
• Short Film: THE NIGHTSIDE OF THE SKY
• Short Film: WITH THE REINDEER
• Audio Commentary For EDGE OF THE KNIFE With Directors Gwaai Edenshaw And Helen Haig-Brown
• RETAKE – Making The World’s First Haida-Language Feature Film
• Short Film: HAIDA CARVER
• Short Film: NALUJUK NIGHT
• Igniting The Fire – Interview With BORN OF FIRE Director Jamil Dehlavi
• The Silent One Speaks – Archival Interview With Actor Nabil Shaban
• Between The Sacred And The Profane – Archival Lecture On The Cinematic World Of Jamil Dehlavi By Dr. Ali Nobil Ahmad
• The Djinn Revisited – Director Dalia Al Kury Examines The Role Of The Djinn In Contemporary Arab Culture
• BORN OF FIRE And The Roots Of Pakistani Horror – Interview With Scholar Syeda Momina Masood
• BORN OF FIRE Trailer
• Short Film: TOWERS OF SILENCE
• Short Film: QÂF
• Audio Commentary For IO ISLAND With Archivist And Korean Film Historian Ariel Schudson
• Shaman’s Eyes – Dr. Hyunseon Lee On Shamanism In Korean Visual Culture
• Short Film: THE PRESENT
• Telling Our Stories – A Conversation With SCALES Director Shahad Ameen And Producer Rula Nasser, Moderated By Filmmaker/Author Kier-La Janisse
• SCALES Trailer
• Short Film: KINDIL
• Audio Commentary For BAKENEKO: A VENGEFUL SPIRIT With Jasper Sharp, Author Of Behind The Pink Curtain: The Complete History Of Japanese Sex Cinema
• Scratched – A History Of The Japanese Ghost Cat
• The Vampire Cat – The Classic Folk Tale Read By Tomoko Komura With Original Music By Timothy Fife
• BAKENEKO: A VENGEFUL SPIRIT Trailer
• Short Film: MAN-EATER MOUNTAIN
• Audio Commentary For NANG NAK With Mattie Do, Director Of THE LONG WALK, And Asian Gothic Scholar Katarzyna Ancuta
• Love And Impermanence: NANG NAK And The Rebirth Of Thai Cinema – Interview With Director Nonzee Nimibutr
• NANG NAK Trailer
• Hantu Retribution – Female Ghosts Of The Malay Archipelago Interview With Filmmaker Katrina Irawati Graham And Dr. Rosalind Galt, Author Of Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak And Cinemas Of Decolonization
• Short Film: WHITE SONG
• A Conversation With SUZZANNA: THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC Director/Co-Producer David Gregory And Co-Producer Ekky Imanjaya
• SUZZANNA: THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC Trailer
• Audio Commentary For BEAUTY AND THE BEAST With Film Historian Michael Brooke
• Archival Interviews With Director Juraj Herz And Actors Vlastimil Harapes And Zdena Studenková
• Short Film: FRANTIŠEK HRUBÍN
• Audio Commentary For THE NINTH HEART With Kat Ellinger, Author Of Daughters Of Darkness
• The Uncanny Valley Of The Dolls – The History And Liminality Of Dolls, Puppets And Mannequins
• The Curious Case Of Juraj Herz And The Švankmajers – Video Essay By Czech Film Programmer Cerise Howard
• Introduction To DEMON By Slavic Horror Scholar Dr. Agnieszka Jeżyk
• Audio Commentary For DEMON With Film Historian Daniel Bird And Film Critic/Actress Manuela Lazić
• In The Shadow Of The Dybbuk – Video Essay By Peter Bebergal, Author Of Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story Of The Technological Quest For The Supernatural, And Filmmaker Stephen Broomer
• DEMON Trailer
• Short Film: DIBBUK
• The Supernatural Lore Of NOVEMBER – Archival Video Essay With Film Critic John DeFore
• Kratt Test Footage
• NOVEMBER Theatrical Trailer
• Short Film: BOUNDARY
• Short Film: JOURNEY THROUGH SETOMAA
• Short Film: MIDVINTERBLOT
• Audio Commentary For LITAN With Film Historian Frank Lafond
• Un Tournage LITAN – Archival Making-Of Made For Antenne 2
• Jean-Pierre Mocky, Un Drôle D’Oiseau – 1982 Episode Of Temps X
• Introduction To BLOOD TEA AND RED STRING By Director Christiane Cegavske
• 2021 Indie Scream Online Film Festival Q&A With Christiane Cegavske
• Production Stills And Concept Illustrations
• BLOOD TEA AND RED STRING Trailer
• Trailer For SEED IN THE SAND, Cegavske’s Work-In-Progress
• Audio Commentary For NAZARENO CRUZ AND THE WOLF With Adrian Garcia Bogliano, Director Of HERE COMES THE DEVIL, And Nicanor Loreti, Director Of PUNTO ROJO
• Short Film: LOVE FROM MOTHER ONLY
• Audio Commentary For LOVE FROM MOTHER ONLY With Director Dennison Ramalho
• The Realistic Inquisition – Interview With AKELARRE Director Pedro Olea
• Empowered Woman – Interview With Actress Silvia Munt
• Playing The Villain – Interview With Actor Iñaki Miramón
• Invoking The Akelarre – Dr. Antonio Lázaro-Reboll, Author Of Spanish Horror Film, On The Basque Witch Trials
• Introduction To FROM THE OLD EARTH By Musician Gruff Rhys
• Getting A Head In North Wales – Interview With Director Wil Aaron
• FROM THE OLD EARTH By The Book – Welsh Folklore And O’R DDAEAR HEN
• A Sword In The Battle Of Language – Welsh Film Scholar Dr. Kate Woodward On The Welsh Film Board
• Introduction To BLOOD ON THE STARS By Gruff Rhys
• Short Film: BLOOD ON THE STARS
• Reunion Hotel – BLOOD ON THE STARS Cast Reunion From Gwesty Aduniad
• Short Film: THE WYRM OF BWLCH PEN BARRAS
• Introduction To THE CITY OF THE DEAD By Kay Lynch, Director Of The Salem Horror Fest
• Audio Commentary For THE CITY OF THE DEAD With Film Historians Kim Newman And Barry Forshaw
• Archival Audio Commentary For THE CITY OF THE DEAD With Film Historian Jonathan Rigby
• Archival Audio Commentary For THE CITY OF THE DEAD With Actor Christopher Lee
• Archival Audio Commentary For THE CITY OF THE DEAD With Director John Llewellyn Moxey
• Sir Christopher Lee Remembers THE CITY OF THE DEAD
• Archival Interview With John Llewellyn Moxey
• Archival Interview With Actress Venetia Stevenson
• Burn Witch, Burn! A Tribute To John Llewellyn Moxey – Video Essay By TV Historian Amanda Reyes And Filmmaker Chris O’Neill
• THE CITY OF THE DEAD Trailer
• Audio Commentary For THE RITES OF MAY With Filipino Film Historian Andrew Leavold
• ITIM: AN EXPLORATION IN CINEMA – Archival Documentary
• Portrayal Of Guilt – Filipino Film Scholar Anne Frances N. Sangil On The Darkness Of THE RITES OF MAY
•