Pulpmovies Reviews

Originally released in 1990, Two Evil Eyes is – loosely speaking – a collaboration between George Romero and Dario Argento. Each director made an adaptation of an Edgar Allen Poe story and these two shorter films were brought together in this anthology.

Romero’s entry, The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar focusses on Jessica Valdemar (Adrienne Barbeau), a trophy wife who is determined to wring every last penny out of her almost dead husband (Bingo O’Malley). In this, she is aided by Robert Hoffman (Ramy Zada), a doctor who she is stringing along with promises of sex and wealth, and who is hypnotising Mr. Valdemar to ensure that he liquidates his investments and signs all of his money over to his wife before he dies.

Things start to go awry when the very ill Mr. Valdemar shuffles off his mortal coil a couple of weeks before everything is signed, sealed and delivered. So they put the body on ice – literally. And then things go really wrong.

Mr. Valdemar was under hypnosis when he died which has left him stranded between the realities of the living and the dead. And there are other entities out there that would like to use him as a portal to pass through to the world of the living…

The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar is very much a psychological thriller and one that takes full advantage of the rising tension between Jessica Valdemar and Dr. Hoffman. The rising tension in this film is palpable and a testament to the fact that George Romero is very good indeed when it comes to developing complex and interesting characters, and finding actors who are capable of bringing them to life.

Both Adrienne Barbeau and Ramy Zada deliver incredibly strong performances and generate a real empathy for their characters. And this, more than anything else, is what keeps you on the edge of your seat right up to the point where the film should have ended.

The Black Cat – Argento’s segment – is a very different beast indeed. The film opens with some very striking imagery and – if you weren’t sure where the inspiration came from – our protagonist (Harvey Keitel) is named Roderick Usher. Usher is a photographer with a macabre obsession that has led to his specialising in crime photography.

All seems fine until Usher’s girlfriend, Annabel (Madeleine Potter) introduces a black cat into the household. Usher and the cat don’t get on – to say the least – and, when he tries to move beyond his crime photography roots, the cat becomes a victim.

Consequence is piled upon reaction as the film progresses and User steadily goes to pieces. And here. Argento manages to engender a real sense of claustrophobia as well as striking us with some genuinely shocking imagery.

He’s on less firm ground when it comes to maintaining some consistency for either the characters or the plot – people often appear to do things for no reason other than the requirements of the script – but Keitel is a strong enough actor to hold this together as the film builds to it’s final shock reveal and inevitable climax.

Both Romero and Argento are icons of the horror genre and, if nothing else, putting their films back to back in this manner is a fascinating exercise in comparing the strengths of each. It helps immensely that both films in the anthology are solid entries in the respective directors’ oeuvres.

Liyla (Molly Feigh) is a slob. Overweight, messy and lazy she seeks solace for her out of control life in comfort food, drink and cigarettes. Amelia (Pamela Sutch) is – in her own way – just as bad. Wealthy, privileged and arrogant, she has managed to reach her early 30s without actually doing anything with her life.

Inevitably, the two women encounter each other and clash quite energetically. And, in mid-clash, they are struck by a special effect which results in Liyla finding herself in Amelia’s body and vice-versa.

One of the strengths if science fiction as a genre is that it allows writers to explore hypothetical questions. In the case of Genetics, Pamela Sutch asks what would happen if someone who blames their failings on the hand life has dealt them is suddenly dealt an entirely different hand. Or, in this case, an entirely different body.

Both Lilya and Amelia find themselves confronted with a completely new set of challenges and opportunities and the film essentially stands back and allows us to watch how they respond. This character-based approach informs much of the film’s comedy as well.

Although there are several deliberately funny scenes, much of the humour is allowed to emerge naturally as the characters develop. This approach is, of course, helped immeasurably by the strength of both of the lead performances.

Both Molly Feigh and Pamela Sutch really bring their – and each others’ – characters to life and manage to make them sympathetic enough that we do start to care about what happens to them. By the end of the film these characters have become quite likeable, which is an especially impressive feat given that, as the film starts, they are a pretty unpleasant pair.

Genetics is a gently entertaining comedy with a serious point to make about the way in which we often take the comfortable route of seeking excuses – either by blaming others or insisting our faults are part of our nature - for our misfortune rather than facing up to the extent to which we are responsible.

Over the years Shinya Tsukamoto has ranged across a variety of genres – from the mind bending SF of Tetsuo to the grimy eroticism of A Snake of June. Although both the genre and the plot can change from one film to the next, Tsukamoto’s consistent reworking of similar themes and his kinetic visual style gives his films a distinct auteurial stamp that is difficult to miss. While Nightmare Detective, his foray into the horror genre, may well be the director’s most accessible film to date, it is still very much a Shinya Tsukamoto film.

The film centres on Keiko (Hitomi), an up and coming detective investigating her first hands-on case – an apparent suicide. Although the senior detective is keen to treat it as an open and shut case, Keiko is less sure and wants to dig a little deeper. She is especially interested in “O” (Shinya Tsukamoto), the last person the suicide victim called.

Keiko’s investigations eventually lead her to seek the help of a tormrnted individual (Ryuhei Matsuda) with the unfortunate ability to enter other people’s dreams. As her pursuit of “O” becomes increasingly out of control, she finds herself forced to face own deepest fears and weaknesses.

Although marketed as a horror film, Nightmare Detective plays out more as a cross between a police procedural and a supernatural thriller. That said, the film does maintain an effectively eerie atmosphere throughout, often by acknowledging – and then subtly inverting – many of the tropes that have become familiar with the recent rise of Japanese horror.

And when the film takes a turn for the horrific, it becomes very horrific indeed. Tsukamoto’s frenetic editing of these scenes manages to keep you off balance but is accomplished enough to ensure that you understand as much as the director wants you to understand of what is going on.

The film’s use of colour and lighting to accentuate the mood and themes covered fit this very firmly into the director’s filmography, as does the attention to character. The characters here are all adults and very well drawn and really do engage you fully with the film.

This is helped by the fact that acting is both solid and believable throughout, with Hitomi especially putting in a sterling performance in this, her first lead role.

With Nightmare Detective, Tsukamoto has merged popular concerns with internet suicide pacts with his own themes of alienation, despair and a loss of humanity. The result is a darkly ambitious film that manages to be genuinely chilling.