I love Lenzi's gialli offerings, or at least the one's I have experiences! I still need to see KNIFE OF ICE and A QUIET PLACE TO KILL. SPASMO and EYEBALL are some of my more favorite gialli viewings. Two very stylish yet, odd in nature but still very effective in the payoff!
It's been a long time since I first seen his SO SWEET... SO PERVERSE (1969), was that not just recently issued on DVD again??
I absolutely loved Freda's brilliant I VAMPRI! Now, what was the deal with Bava being uncredited for with this again? I know he had something to do with the overall direction, but what's the full story on that again?
Any opinions about this more recent giallo? I've heard some bad things but when I found it dirt cheap on eBay, I couldn't resist the temptation of picking it up. Figured I need to give some of the more recent horrer/thriller stuff a chance too. Still waiting for it to arrive and I'm not quite sure what to expect of it but at least it has a pretty good cast that includes famous transsexual Eva Robins from TENEBRAE (1982) and the good-looking Elisabetta Rocchietti, who has been cropping up in a lot of horror stuff like THE THREE FACES OF TERROR (2004), DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? (2005) and THE LAST HOUSE IN THE WOODS (2006). Not to mention supporting roles by Florinda Bolkan and Franco Nero! Anyone here seen it?
Interesting looking film out of Italy with Irish/Spanish co-financiers. Directed by Italian SFX man Stefano Bessoni.
In the 1600s, long before the invention of photography, a scientist named Girolamo Fumagalli was obsessed with the idea of reproducing images. He discovered that by killing a victim and removing the victim's eyeballs, it was possible to reproduce on paper the last image imprinted on that person's retinas. He named this technique 'thanatography'. Today, the same kind of gruesome ritual and abominable crime recurs within the walls of an international school of cinema. -imdb.com
Also stars the daughter of Charlie Chapman, Geraldine Chaplin as well as her daughter Oona.
Well, it seems this is yet another Argento flick that is taking a beating in the review department. Even die hard fans are not too pleased with this outing. Anyhow, the PAL R2 DVD is now out via a Polish company that found it important to force the Polish subs!
Looks like this will be getting a UK release first via Arrow Films! I still haven't seen this, it was on my radar during last year's Midnight Madness during the Toronto Film Fest. The disc will be released March 15th..
I'd love to grab this, but for now I'm holding off on the Blu-Ray player for now, too unstable industry right now. Plus, the multi-region player are way too expensive!
( 2006 / Russia )aka Piranha/Okhota na Piranyu/Director: Andrei Kavun/Starring: Vladimir Mashkov , Svetlana Antonova & Yevgeni Mironov/Source : J.Bics Thailand / Wide Screen Ratio 2:35:1 / Region 3 DVD
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( 2006 / Russia )aka Piranha/Okhota na Piranyu Review By-Paul Cooke Director: Andrei Kavun Starring: Vladimir Mashkov , Svetlana Antonova & Yevgeni Mironov Source : J.Bics Thailand / Wide Screen Ratio 2:35:1 / Region 3 DVD / Dolby Digital 5.1 / English Language Subtitles / Trailer / Stills
‘‘I used to have a female companion. She could press a glass of juice out of a fresh apple with her hands. She was a real woman !’’
Strap on the deep waders and be prepared to be ridden like a rampant rhino in season. Forget WWE wrestler Steve Austin’s recent fight for survival in the derivative drivel that was ‘The Condemned’ (2007), and feast upon this Molotov cocktail of adrenalin driven Action that spit’s a phlegm ball of Russian spunk directly into the dollar driven eye of Hollywood. ‘Piranha Hunt’ goes down on its intended audience with all the ravenous fervour of a seasoned hooker tongue tickling a Tyrannosaurus. The bad guy here could shave Vinnie Jones’ scrotum with a pen knife, not leave a nick, and finish with a tailored tattoo before he could even blink in retaliation. Full on flambéed film fury that reinterprets ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ (1932) and combines elements of ‘Deliverance’ (1972), all dressed up in steel toe capped bovver boots and sporting the kick ass elements of ‘Die Hard’ (1988) in a jungle.
When a top secret Soviet experimental laboratory in the Siberian jungle is locked down following a lethal breach alarm bells ring and all working within must die. The scientists are working on a germ strain that if not contained would wipe out most life on the planet. A container of the germ is accidentally broken and the effect upon human skin is immediate and gruesomely evident. The underwater research facility is shut down and flooded, killing all within with the exception of a young boy who is pulled to freedom as his scientist father dies with his colleagues. Twenty years on the boy is a full grown man and a self made man, but one who carries the memory of the horrific events of that day and has chosen the life path of egotistic tyranny. He is named Prokhor.
The Russian military order one of their top special operatives to escort a female bio-chemist back into the Siberian area to destroy all remaining evidence of the underwater facility. Reluctantly Colonel Mazur, of the revered Piranha special forces unit, makes the journey with the opinionated Olga and together they dive down under the serene surface of the Siberian lake to the research resource and set explosives. The window of opportunity is a tight one and upon detonation the pair are still close enough to be caught up in the shock wave that throws them into concussion. When the two awake they find themselves the bound captives of the locals. Like stepping back a century both Mazur and Olga are thrown into a detention camp out of an age gone by, with a group of similarly captured people. Their captors are jungle bandits and a side line to their trade is trapping people, who are then set free in a most dangerous game that has them hunted down like animals as sport. The leader of the hunt is the despotic Prokhor !. A chillingly calm killer and partaker of the unpleasant pleasures of life that sustain his need for retribution by any means possible. In Colonel Kirill Mazur he recognises the ultimate opponent and relishes the opportunity to pit himself against such a highly trained nemesis. The scene is set then for Prokhor and his less than smart, but nonetheless savage entourage, to track down and kill their fleeing prey, with Kirill as the ultimate trophy !.
Prokhor and his men, including one ferociously feisty femme fatale, begin the pursuit a short time behind the fleeing hunted, armed to the hilt with all manner of weaponry. Big knives and even bigger guns are the preferred implements of death deliverance up against survival instinct bred into the very bone of Kirill Mazur. The early strikes fall to Kirill as he sets his enforced companions off ahead of him in order to lay a false trail for the pursuing pack with their tracker dogs. The special forces Colonel soon takes out a couple of the front runners of the chasing aggressors with swift and immediate deftness. With not a moments thought for compassion Kirill strikes hard and fast, taking out and killing two of Prokhor’s men violently. His reward is a rifle and a good pair of boots !.
The guts and gusto is evident to see throughout this Action packed movie. Forget political correctness and fear not to have to entertain any Hollywood bravado that protects the innocence of a damsel in distress. Director Andrei Kavun knows his subject material, and even though he is clearly influenced by the American movies of the Action fed Eighties genre, he deftly introduces the mass marketed European Italian styled flavour to proceedings with ferocious flair and over the top goodness. The Action and stunt work is magnificent, as is the originality of the kills, and there are plenty of kill moments to behold before those end credits roll !.
Kirill’s ingenuity displays itself with a multitude of traps that impale and skewer the bad guys by the dozen, all in bloody fashion with spurts of blood to rally an audience baying for more. With certain European women having a reputation for unflattering growths of body hair in places that garments keep from straying eyes, and those easily startled, it is perhaps thankful that when Kirill decides to create a bow, using human hair for the string, that his comrade Olga has a full head of naturally long locks. The picture book memory moment of going South to furnish the fur to shoot his arrows adds new terminology with firing the quill !. Lady gardens aside Kirill’s ability with bow and arrow neatly tidies up, as he dead heads several unwelcome invaders to his new patch.
The manner in which Kirill takes out the opposition is varied and more often than not satisfyingly rewarding. The stylised violence is bandied about with generous aplomb and manages to throw up more than its fair share of unique moments. The sight of an owl being beheaded is perhaps a first for mainstream cinema and one that animal rights protestors will be as startled by, just as general movie goers will be surprised by too. Gory embellishments in abundance then but there is also Action aplenty, and a wry delivery of both observational and vocational humour further enhances events as they move along at a cracking pace.
The climatic conclusion is forgivably over the top, particularly as the testosterone explodes with the expected Prokhor and Kirill head to head. Think John Woo unrestrained and the explosive final encounter plays out just as you could wish for. It is not often that a films title is as apt as this one is, and ‘Piranha Hunt’ is just as cool in its delivery as it is in its naming. Russian bare knuckled, hard hitting violent Action is here, and on this showing here to stay !.
PIRANHA HUNT
Strap on the deep waders and be prepared to be ridden like a rampant rhino in season. Forget WWE wrestler Steve Austin’s recent fight for survival in the derivative drivel that was ‘The Condemned’ (2007), and feast upon this Molotov cocktail of adrenalin driven Action that spit’s a phlegm ball of Russian spunk directly into the dollar driven eye of Hollywood. ‘Piranha Hunt’ goes down on its intended audience with all the ravenous fervour of a seasoned hooker tongue tickling a Tyrannosaurus. The bad guy here could shave Vinnie Jones’ scrotum with a pen knife, not leave a nick, and finish with a tailored tattoo before he could even blink in retaliation. Full on flambéed film fury that reinterprets ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ (1932) and combines elements of ‘Deliverance’ (1972), all dressed up in steel toe capped bovver boots and sporting the kick ass elements of ‘Die Hard’ (1988) in a jungle. 
