Five teenagers find themselves prey to a revenge-fuelled cattle rancher when their backwoods trip goes badly wrong in this slasher-adjacent thriller from New Zealand. Clearly inspired by North American teen horror films, BRIDGE TO NOWHERE drips with mid-80s ambience and, despite a few rough edges, benefits from a genuinely gripping final scene and a subversion of a number of expectations.
 
Grabbing their boombox and beer, city youngsters head into the wilderness to hike to the eponymous bridge (a real location in the middle of nowhere with no connecting roads, left to rot after the area was largely abandoned by the 1940s). Tanya (Margaret Umbers) bitches to her Mom about having to take her younger brother, Carl (Matthew Hunter), who is something of a shy recluse. She is worried it will cramp her style with her date, Leon (Phillip Gordon). Also joining them are her best friend, Julie (Shelly Luxford), and Leon’s friend, Gray (Stephen Judd).
  
Arriving by jeep at the starting point for the hike, they attract the attention of local cattle rancher Mac (Bruno Lawrence) and his young wife or lover, Lise (Alison Routledge), whose good looks draw admiring glances. However, when Leon—who has taken his parents’ rifle without permission—tries to shoot one of Mac’s escaped bulls, he is tackled by the cattle rancher, who attempts to disable his weapon. Already tightly wound, Leon finds this humiliation too much to handle. After finally reaching the bridge, the group starts to party, but Leon begins to spiral and attempts to rape Tanya, who manages to fight him off. Leon storms off into the woods, where he sees the cattle rancher’s home and spies Lise naked, washing herself outside. The young woman is aware that Leon is watching and seems to enjoy the covert attention. Knowing he is still there, Lise proceeds to seduce Mac, but Leon accidentally gives himself away, resulting in a standoff and a gunshot ringing out in the night. It is unclear who has been shot. 
 
By morning, the teenagers debate whether to go searching for Leon or leave him to find his own way home. When they do go looking, they return to find all their belongings missing and assume their missing friend is playing a trick on them. However, as they try to make their way back to the jeep, they discover that the rancher is following them on horseback, using his dogs to corral them like cattle and preventing the group from leaving the area …  

Featuring brief but still surprising full-frontal male nudity, BRIDGE TO NOWHERE is clearly modelled on early ‘80s North American slashers, such as JUST BEFORE DAWN (1981), via DELIVERANCE (1972) (and its variants). The teenagers—at least on the surface—are straight out of ‘80s slasher-movie casting: boozing, whooping and hollering, and quite literally dancing their way through the woods, boombox held aloft (the film is full of teen-friendly pop and rock songs). However, the New Zealand versions tend to be much more acerbic and jagged than their North American cousins. It is also a welcome twist that, despite the seeming teen cyphers, the characters do change through their experiences—with the bullied and largely ostracised Carl becoming pivotal to the group’s survival.
 
Made in 1985, the vistas in BRIDGE TO NOWHERE are impressively striking but are as unhospitable as the cattleman—especially a barren, blackened, and desolate valley scarred by a wildfire. The film largely shares the approach of North American films that blend the slasher template with backwoods survival drama, such as THE ZERO BOYS and HUNTER’S BLOOD(both also released in 1986). Its setup of teens hunted in the woods fits here, but the fact that most of the deaths (outside of one flying knife) are gun-related perhaps makes the film slasher-adjacent at best.
 
Bruno Lawrence is great as the initially reluctant hunter, who displays a quiet, expressionless menace as he corrals the group before his purpose is clear. He had previously appeared with Alison Routledge in the undersung Kiwi post-apocalyptic classic THE QUIET EARTH (1985). Routledge perhaps struggles in a complex role here as his unstable girlfriend, and it is never clear whether she is his captive or there willingly (although, apparently, she won an award for the role). At just sixteen when he made this, Matthew Hunter is especially impressive as the put-upon younger brother who turns into a hero. Margaret Umbers, who plays his initially antagonistic sister, was also in MR WRONG (1984), another New Zealand twist on the slasher movie formula. Prolific actor/director Ian Mune (who was recently in the excellent THE RULE OF JENNY PEN (2024)) had scored a hit with the comedy CAME A HOT FRIDAY the year before, in 1985. Mune co-wrote BRIDGE TO NOWHERE with American writer Bill Baer. The website says that the film was pre-sold to an American investor, but Mune’s LA agent warned against killing a dog in the film. Mune ignored him, and (albeit totally implied) the teenagers trap and kill one of Mac’s dogs (an adorable-looking border collie who couldn’t look less threatening). The agent appears to have been right, as the film bypassed cinemas in North America to go straight to video in 1987. Moral being: never kill the dog.

Hysteria Lives! (680+ reviews): https://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk

NIGHT SCHOOL is an Italian-flavoured slasher movie where female students at a Boston college are targeted by a motorcycle-helmeted killer intent on collecting their heads. Directed by a mischievous Brit, whose last tussle was with Mae West and who was best known for a 1960s children’s film starring Dick Van Dyke. Add to the mix an inexperienced star-to-be, mumbo-jumbo about headhunting, a wildly uneven tone, humour (intentional and otherwise) and a place on the so-called ‘video nasties’ list, and you have a heady - and sometimes intoxicating - brew.

Read my extended retrospective: https://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk/nightschool.html

Hysteria Lives!: https://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk

... with a new doc on the era's greatest horror films with CREATORVC's acclaimed long-form documentary format, exploring a curated selection of films and television from 1970-1979. Order your DELUXE COLLECTOR'S EDITION:

https://insearchofdarkness.com/?sca_ref=11452766.jxEdjksogONhLW

The sinister encounter with horror ...

*** 

aka LA CASA DEL BUON RITORNO

Directed by: Beppe Cino

Starring: Stefano Gabrini, Amanda Sandrelli, Fiammetta Carena,Lola Ledda, Francesco Costa, Stanis Leda, Fabrizio Capuani, Eloisa Cino, Eleonora Salvadori, Elvira Ca

Choice dialogue:  “I’ll slit my throat for you!”

THE HOUSE OF THE BLUE SHADOWS is a world away from the garish excesses and day-glo charms of other mid-‘80s Gialli. A man returns with his fiancée to his childhood home for the first time since the death of his sister, which he may, or may not, have caused. He becomes ever more obsessed and haunted by the lingering presence of his dead sibling. Meanwhile, someone in a Japanese Oniniba mask appears from the shadows and starts to kill the neighbours. Slow-moving, but with a haunting ambience. Some will find it mesmerising, whilst others might think it frustratingly abstract.
 
Carefree couple Luca (Stefano Gabrini) and his wife-to-be Margit (Amanda Sandrelli) return to his family home for the first time in 15 years. When he was ten years old, his older sister, who was wearing the Onibaba mask, fell to her death from the roof whilst they were playing hide-and-seek with the local children. Despite the house having been empty for all that time, they are surprised to find a woman in black coming down the stairs when they arrive. Ayesha (Fiammetta Carena) tells Luca that they were friends when he was a young boy, although at first, he doesn’t recall her. However, eventually, snippets of memory come back to him. Ayesha lives in the house opposite and is a neighbour with another childhood friend, Bruno (Francesco Costa), who watches the couple with interest.
 
Margit is spooked by a creepy, black-faced mannequin with blonde pigtails that stands near one of the windows. Luca sees another woman in black whilst out shopping; he pursues her, but she seemingly vanishes. On his return, he becomes angry that Margit is wearing his dead sister's hat and begins to dress the mannequin in his sibling’s clothes. Whilst seemingly alone in the house, Margit is attacked by someone wearing the Japanese demon mask and only survives the attack by barricading herself in the bedroom. She flees in the morning. Luca remains but risks losing touch with reality as he tries to unravel the mysteries still lurking in his childhood home …  

THE HOUSE OF THE BLUE SHADOWS is certainly not a typical Giallo. There is no black-gloved killer, but the Onibaba-masked presence is certainly creepy enough. However, it is not really the main focus of the film (the first murder doesn’t occur until about 20 minutes from the end of the movie). It has more in common with films that broach arthouse territory, such as Pupi Avati’s exemplary THE HOUSE WITH THE LAUGHING WINDOWS (1976) or Francesco Barilli’s THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK (1974)—although it isn’t as successful as either of those two examples. Beppe Cino’s film lives up to its name with its chilly hues (in various shades of blue). The director conjures up some striking imagery and interesting camerawork to evoke the house’s high strangeness. However, it is arguably more of a mood piece than a thriller, although it does achieve some suspenseful passages near its close. It flits around various horror and thriller themes like a ghoulish butterfly without settling on any particular one. At times, it feels like a study of a character’s descent into madness akin to Roman Polanski’s REPULSION (1965)—as Luca reverts back to his boyhood by physically transforming himself by shaving off first his beard and then his moustache. We are never sure if Lola’s death was an accident or if she was pushed from the roof, and if so, by whom? The script references fairy tales such as "Red Riding Hood" and alludes to the legend of Bluebeard (who killed successive wives). At times, it could be a ghost story. Has Lola returned from the grave to get her revenge? It teases that Ayesha is a witch who may be looking to take revenge for Lola’s death (she keeps a shrine of photos of the young girl and seemingly never ages). At other times, it tips its hat to the North American slasher movie, with its masked killer descending or ascending the house's stairs in search of victims. The film even suggests darker themes, such as possible incest, but like the other threads, is abandoned as soon as it is introduced. This eclecticism is perhaps intriguing, but it prevents the viewer from being fully invested in the mystery of what exactly is happening. Likewise, anyone hoping for a clear resolution to any of the film’s myriad mysteries will be disappointed as it doesn’t tie everything up in anything even approaching a neat bow—and arguably leaves more questions than answers. Ultimately, it raises the possibility that the film is actually just a hot mess rather than a purposeful, finely crafted enigma. I guess it is up to the viewer to decide which it is.
 
Despite its seeming lack of mainstream appeal, THE HOUSE OF THE BLUE SHADOWS did receive an Italian cinema release in early 1987 (after appearing at the Venice Film Festival in the summer of 1986). It was shot quickly over 12 days in and around Rome on 16mm. Reviews were not particularly kind, with Gabrini’s acting attracting particular scorn (although he really isn’t that bad).
 
Those looking for a traditional thriller narrative might be better served elsewhere, but this atypical Giallo is perhaps a film to be experienced rather than scrutinised.  

Hysteria Lives! Giallo Fever: https://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk/Giallo-Fever.html

*** 1/2

aka  SCUM OF THE EARTH 

Directed by: SF Brownrigg

Starring: Gene Ross, Ann Stafford, Norma Moore, Camilla Carr, Charlie Dell, Hugh Feagin, Joel Colodner

Choice dialogue:  “I ain’t killed no one … lately.” 

If Tennessee Williams had ever penned the script for a Southern proto-slasher, it might be something like this humid potboiler from SF Brownrigg. After her husband is brutally murdered, a woman seeks help from a backwoods family who may prove even more dangerous than the axe-murderer pursuing her. Fascinating in its own right, it is also an important reminder of how much influence (albeit usually unsung) these low-budget early ‘70s psycho-thrillers had on the subgenre later in the decade and through the first half of the 1980s and beyond.
 
Of all Brownrigg’s films (which all fit into the subgenre to a greater or lesser degree), POOR WHITE TRASH II is probably the most prescient of the upcoming slasher phenomenon. It opens with a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in an early ‘80s backwoods slasher, with Paul (Joel Colodner) and his young wife, Helen (Norma Moore), arriving at her family’s cabin by a lakeside for the weekend. However, no sooner have they settled than Paul is whacked in the chest with an axe by an unseen assailant. Understandably fearing for her life and unable to start her car, Helen flees into the woods, where she runs into a local man, Odis Pickett (Brownrigg regular Gene Ross). Begging for him to come to her aid, Odis lavaciously licks his lips and suggests helping her in a different way, but he eventually takes her back to his cabin, promising to call for help.
 
However, when they reach the cabin in the woods, Helen discovers to her dismay that there is no phone. There, she is introduced to Odis’ wider family: his pregnant wife, Emmy (Ann Stafford), his slow-witted son, Bo (Charlie Dell), and his daughter, Sarah (Camilla Carr, another Brownrigg regular). Only Emmy shows her kindness, whilst Sarah shows open disdain and hostility. Odis bullies Bo into fetching him ever-increasing amounts of moonshine and tells Helen she can take her chances in the dark, but she will only find other drunken hillbillies nearby. She has to decide whether to try her luck with the axe-murderer outside or the increasingly unpredictable and horny patriarch in the cabin …

As with most proto-slashers, POOR WHITE TRASH II doesn’t quite conform to the template set by HALLOWEEN (1978) and FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980), but it is easy to see how it might have influenced later slashers—especially the latter, with its POV camerawork peering from behind trees and one-by-one gory murders by a mystery assailant (the film even features an escaped lunatic of sorts). The film also pre-empts the country-vs-city trope, often seen in later slasher movies, and was likely inspired by John Boorman’s DELIVERANCE (1972). It is also the first time Brownrigg explores sexual perversion (Odis’ incestuous desires), a ripe vein he would plough more fully in later titles.
 
Some might find the film’s midsection a bit talky by today’s standards, with a kind of hillbilly kitchen-sink aesthetic. However, the acting is generally good enough to flesh out these mostly unsavoury characters and keep the audience engaged in Helen’s plight. Ross is especially noteworthy as the odious Odis, with his sweaty fumblings and unruly combover (which seems to take on a life of its own). Whilst at times he acts with the broad strokes of a silent-movie villain, elsewhere he shows remorse and even grief, in a performance that is decidedly not one-note. Norma Moore, as Helen, is also effective as the damsel in distress (though it seems unlikely that she is the actress of the same name, as most listings of this film suggest, who acted with Anthony Perkins in FEAR STRIKES OUT (1957)).
 
Envisaged under the title DEATH IS A FAMILY AFFAIR (reflecting the lyrics of the theme song sung by Peyton Park), the film was made over three weeks in 1973 in an old cabin in Mexia, East Texas (standing in for the Louisiana Bayou) and was in production around the same time as Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974). The film was executive-produced by Walter L. Krusz, who also produced Brownrigg’s previous film DON’T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT(1973). Somewhat confusingly, it was initially released to screens as SCUM OF THE EARTH in the summer of 1974 (which was also the title of a 1963 exploitation number by Herschell Gordon Lewis). However, echoing the retitling of Brownrigg’s previous film, it was then re-released under its better-known name POOR WHITE TRASH II in the summer of 1976. This falsely suggested it was a sequel to the film POOR WHITE TRASH (itself a retitling of the 1957 film BAYOU, which ran on drive-in circuits in re-release in the early 1960s with extra sex and shock footage spliced in). Even more shameless was the publicity that declared it was “In the tradition of GODFATHER PART II and WALKING TALL PART II”! To add another touch of confusion, the film was released as POOR WHITE TRASH (sans part II) on video in the UK in July 1983. Miraculously, given its gory cover, it was not prosecuted as a ‘video nasty’, unlike the fate that befell Brownrigg’s first film.

During the film’s 1976 release in North America, the distributors ran a unique promotion, posing fake policemen at entrances to allegedly stop children from seeing the film, warning: “Due to the abnormal subject matter of this motion picture, absolutely no children will be allowed with or without their parents... special uniformed police will supervise admissions.” Some drive-ins actually had a poor, bored-looking schmuck dressed as a cop (one critic noted one fast asleep during a showing), but distributors admitted it was just a gimmick and that they wouldn’t turn away paying customers with children in tow. Eric Gerber, in The Houston Post, went looking for these pretend law enforcers, but spoke to one ‘candy girl’ at a theatre who said they showed up only for one day and that the film wasn’t even that “nasty”. Gerber surmised: “I decided what was most abnormal about ‘Poor White Trash, Part II' was how the woman was raped with her blue jeans still zipped up.”
 
Brownrigg’s films were never known for critical acclaim, and POOR WHITE TRASH II was no exception. Linda Gross, writing in The Los Angeles Times, called it a “foul exercise in imbecility” and a “mindless plethora of gore, punctured bodies and sexual assault.” However, she praised some of the performances, saying, “Camilla Carr possesses an interesting neurotic-lethargic quality, and Ann Stafford is impressively passive and sensitive.” Desmond Ryan, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, noted that rather than fake cops, fake hillbillies held placards outside theatres warning that children were not allowed to see the film. However, his review was even more savage, saying, “With the debris and refuse mounting in the city streets, we scarcely deserve such garbage as ‘Poor White Trash, Part II’, a squalid little movie that lives up to at least two-thirds of its title. Poor? Certainly. Trash? Positively.”

In hindsight, this critical mauling all looks pretty hysterical and unwarranted, and is a good reminder that low-budget horror movies rarely received good notices. However, it shouldn’t detract from the fact that, whilst not perfect, Brownrigg’s film remains a scuzzy, effectively low-fi, backwoods classic of its kind and required viewing for anyone who would like to see how the slasher movie as we know it today coalesced in the grindhouses and drive-ins of the first half of the 1970s. 

Hysteria Lives!: https://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk

A quirky but often plodding mid-1990s Giallo largely missold as an erotic thriller. Filmed in Bulgaria, it features some of the biggest stars from the genre’s heyday as well as local talent. A famous author is shot dead by a mysterious assailant after a tryst with her secret lover, so suspicion falls on her estranged husband and several others in his orbit. Featuring only brief passages of eroticism despite the advertising tease, it isn’t an especially compelling mystery either. However, it does feature a few elements that make it worth a look for fans of the genre.
 
Sonia (Vesela Dimitrova) meets her English lover (Cesare Barro) for a night of passion at a remote hotel. When he leaves her asleep post-coitus, a black-gloved killer sneaks into the room and shoots her multiple times, leaving her dead on the floor. Investigating the murder is Assistant Inspector Ivan (Paul Martignetti), who is fresh out of the academy and whose ponytail and grunge look make him seem more suited to a Pearl Jam cover band than to crime-solving. Chief Inspector Costa (Valcho Kamarashev)—who, in just one of the film’s clichés, is retiring in a few weeks' time—tasks Ivan with solving the case. He is helped by a razor-sharp coroner who deduces that Sonia was killed by a gunshot to the head due to the hole in her forehead (!). 

Ivan quickly rules out the lover after he establishes an alibi, and attention turns to Sonia’s family—especially her estranged husband, theatre actor Peter (Fabio Testi), who tells them that he and his wife lived separate lives, so he had no reason to be jealous. The police also take a look at Peter’s fellow thespians, including his current squeeze Milena (Anna Maria Petrova) and his ex-lover Guillia (Florinda Bolkan), who all rather improbably attend Sonia’s funeral. He also speaks to Sonia and Peter’s crippled young daughter, Ania (Anya Pencheva), to see if she has any idea who might have wanted to kill her mother. Coming to live with them after the murder is Sonia’s bosomy sister, Tania (Serena Grandi), who also seems perplexed as to why she was killed.
 
However, as Ivan continues to chase red herrings, the killer continues to target the suspects … 

CRIME OF PASSION benefits from its atypical setting in a chilly Sofia and its use of mournful Bulgarian folk music on its soundtrack. However, this doesn’t cover up the fact that the movie is not especially thrilling and features a mystery whose solution makes little sense and certainly doesn’t justify its title. Perhaps part of the problem is that the film only features two murders, and both of those are done with a gun—which, for some reason, never quite seems to work in a Giallo. The film also merely plays lip service to the erotica so prevalent in the genre during this time period. It features a sweaty coupling at its start, and it is no surprise that Serena Grandi disrobes at one point to show off her famous breasts. However, director Flavio Mogherini perhaps seems to be trolling those expecting more titillation as the majority of the nudity in the film is of old men’s asses in a couple of sauna scenes and, in one WTF moment, a full frontal shot of a pre-pubescent boy. Quite what the raincoat brigade would have made of it all is anyone’s guess.
 
Ania’s age is never mentioned (although press articles suggest she is meant to be 15 years old); she has a priest teacher who calls her “child”, which makes it even more strange when Ivan begins a tentative romance with her—which I’m sure breaks all sorts of police conduct code. Whilst it is good to see the likes of Testi and Bolkan here, who both paid their dues in a number of classic era early 70s Gialli, neither are especially well utilised. Testi, who was known for his lithe bravura as the action-man heartthrob of Italian genre cinema in the 70s, essays a far more maudlin character here. Bolkan, as the bitchy and cynical older actress, shines in a small role but simply isn’t given enough to do.
 
Although it is very clichéd, the teasing but friendly work relationship between the older and younger policemen is at least fun. The film continues the well-worn trope of giving its main investigator quirks—here, he drinks copious amounts of milk and plays the saxophone whilst looking at a photo of the schoolgirl Ania. Another fun touch is a nosy, neck brace-wearing maid. Depending on your perspective, the film is either enhanced or undermined by a campy English dub that even features a Cockney Bulgarian police officer! It also has a wonderfully ridiculous moment showing a flashback to Ania’s accident that left her crippled, where we’re shown the car she’s in slowly rolling about five feet down a shallow embankment into a lake before rather improbably overturning. Additionally, the killer’s thoroughly unconvincing performance sinks any possibility of taking the film seriously, but at least raises a few chuckles at its close.
 
Although top-billed, Serena Grandi’s role is really more of a supporting one. She was appearing in the gossip pages at the time of the film’s release due to her separation from her husband, Beppe Ercole. She told the Italian newspaper La Stampa: "Look, I even dread going to the newsstand to buy newspapers for fear that there will be a stolen photo, an article that will harm me. I can't take it anymore." However, she said she was happy to be working with old friend Fabio Testi on the movie (and their brief love-making scene was featured, if somewhat misleadingly, in the film’s poster and extensively in other promotional material). Grandi had previously appeared in Lamberto Bava’s much more rousing Giallo DELIRIUM (1987). On the subject of CRIME OF PASSION, she said, “One cannot and should not tell a detective story. However, I was intrigued by the personality of this beautiful, ambiguous woman.” Although just like with Testi, Mogherini seemed intent on casting against type, and Grandi said she was a much warmer personality in real life than the cold character she portrays in the film. Her performance here is also somewhat hamstrung by the staccato English dub job, giving her such howlers as, “I … attended … the same … acting school.”
 
It appears the film was made in 1993 on location in Bulgaria, the year before its director's death in April 1994. Mogherini had helmed another foreign-set and atypical Giallo, the Australia-lensed THE PYJAMA CASE GIRL (1978). CRIME OF PASSION is handsomely shot, and the director certainly has an eye for capturing the quirks and beauty of the Bulgarian capital, which isn’t a surprise given that Mogherini was a celebrated art director who worked on such films as Mario Bava’s pop art classic DANGER: DIABOLK (1968). One sour note, though, when attempting to evoke local colour was the inclusion of a ‘dancing bear’ in one sequence, a barbaric practice that was thankfully banned in Bulgaria a few years after this was shot.
 
The promotional blurb for the film said it was based on an infamous case that occurred in Eastern Europe 20 years earlier (although that may just have been ballyhoo). It was released to Italian screens in the summer of 1994, but would have been tame stuff indeed compared to the likes of BASIC INSTINCT (1992) or many of the erotic Gialli that peppered screens in the early-mid 90s. 
 
Although it has enough eccentricities for hardcore Giallo fans to take a look, more casual viewers may find little to get too excited about in this ultimately somewhat lacklustre example of the genre. 

Hysteria Lives!: https://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk/Giallo-Fever.html

The quiet before the previously decapitated Mrs Voorhees pulls Chris under the water in a nightmare sequence at the end of FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III (1982). On-set photo of Dana Kimmell scanned from the Japanese movie program sold at theatres during its original release.

Hysteria Lives!: https://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk

I’m lucky enough to own an original copy of the novel Joyride (originally published in 1983), which is the closest to an early ‘80s slasher movie I’ve ever read.

The synopsis: “On the eve of graduation, high schooler Patricia and her friends sneak into All Saints Cemetery for one last party—unaware that someone is out there in the dark, watching, waiting, and hungry for revenge. By dawn, the party will be over—and not everyone will live to receive their cap and gown in Ronald Francis Patrick’s Joyride!”

I'm not involved in this in any way, but thought slasher fans might be interested that it is getting a reprint (presumably under the author’s real name) by Fathom Press: https://fathompress.com/blog/wave-2

Hysteria Lives!: https://www-hysterialives.co.uk

Scans from my collection of original memorabilia. I thought FRIDAY fans might enjoy seeing them!

Hysteria Lives!: https://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk

This lightweight Giallo feels like a TV movie but actually played in theatres in Italy (distributed by 20th Century Fox, no less). A fashion model breaks down outside a remote but luxuriously retro-styled villa; venturing inside to use the phone, she witnesses a brutal murder. Or did she? The trouble is that the police find no evidence of a crime or a body, and the villa is clearly derelict and has been abandoned for 20 years. To make matters worse, despite no one believing her story, someone is now trying to kill her. It's not quite as bad as some reviews would make you believe, but this creaky effort would have greatly benefited from some extra exploitation touches to lift it out of its relative blandness.

Any fans of this one?

My full review: https://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk/Fashion-Crimes.html

These were originally placed in Japanese cinema lobbies for moviegoers to pick up for free to see what was "coming soon". Love this one!

 

It wasn't only the British getting antsy about slasher movies back in the first half of the 1980s. Complaints forced The San Francisco Examiner (and other newspapers) to carry a censored version of the print ad for FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER, the week after the film opened ...

It wasn't only the British getting antsy about slasher movies back in the first half of the 1980s. Complaints forced The San Francisco Examiner (and other newspapers) to carry a censored version of the print ad for FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER, the week after the film opened ...

Hysteria Lives!: https://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk