Count Rackula Reviews Two Horror Classics
Greetings, my friends, and welcome back to Castle Rackula. This week I am very excited to be talking about two of the most important horror movies of the early 1980s, now available for the first time in deluxe edition DVD from the good people at Grindhouse Releasing.
The first is Lucio Fulci’s legendary 1981 Gothic gore-fest The Beyond, or as my friend Bob Guccione would say, L'aldila ; the second in Juan Piquer Simon’s 1982 skin-filled cult classic Pieces, or Mil gritos tiene la noche if you’re Francisco Franco.
The Beyond (1981)
First off, I am sad to report that, unlike Fulci’s other films (including but not limited to) Conquest, The Eroticist, Perversion Story, The New York Ripper, and A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, The Beyond does not contain any nudity.
And this despite the fact that stars Catriona MacColl and Cinzia Monreale both have a history of getting nude on camera! But on with the review.
The Beyond begins in the Southern Gothic setting of 1927 Louisiana, where an artist who lives in a hotel is beset by an angry torch-bearing mob (I’ve seen my share of those) that dissolves his body with quicklime.
Years later, Liza Merril (Catriona MacColl) inherits the old hotel and moves in despite the warnings of a crazy blind woman. As everyone she hires to restore the old place soon dies a horrific violent death, Liza and local doctor John McCabe (David Warbeck) begin to realize the evil that lurks there.
The film ends with a nightmarish sequence that ranks among Fulci’s greatest cinematic achievements.
For a film without nudity, The Beyond is beyond reproach!
Pieces (1982)
What a difference a year makes. From an Italian movie filmed in Rome and New Orleans we come to a Spanish movie filmed in Madrid and Boston that’s chock full of nudity.
In fact, there are boobs on the screen from the opening puzzle sequence to the final shock ending!
There’s also a penis, but don’t let that worry you.
Starring (in his second-to-last movie role) 1974 Playgirl Centerfold Christopher George and his hot blonde wife Lynda Day George, who also appeared together in the 1977 environmental catastrophe flick Day of the Animals, Pieces delivers on the promise of its title.
Christopher appears as hard-boiled detective Steve Buckner and Lynda plays tennis-pro-turned-cop Terry Marsh. When Buckner is unable to catch the mysterious killer dismembering women with a chainsaw on a college campus, he sends Marsh in undercover as a tennis instructor to crack the case.
The list of suspects includes an uptight dean (Edmund Purdon), a murderous looking gardener (played by Paul L. Smith, Bluto in Robert Altman’s Popeye), a gay professor (Jack Taylor), and a student named Kendall (Ian Sera) who was the last one to see one of the victims alive.
Soon the cops enlist Kendall’s aid, giving him cart blanche and even a gun. After a series of naked and gruesome murders, one of which has a topless Leticia Marfil pissing in her sweatpants before she gets sawed in half, they find the killer just in time for one of the greatest shock endings of all time.
A thousand cries has the night, and a dozen boobs has Pieces!
Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed my loquacious reviews of these two gorehound must-sees. Come back next week for a new column!
Until then, fangs for the mammaries.
