Shameless Self Expression

Two bewitching young ladies (Marianne Morris and Anulka Dziubinska) invite unsuspecting men to their abode…and their ultimate bloody demise. Murray Brown is the next intended victim, with Sally Faulkner and Brian Deacon playing a caravanning young couple who witness some very disturbing things from their window. Michael Byrne has a brief cameo as a horny guy lured by the title characters. A good vampire film deserving of more notoriety, this 1974 flick from Spanish director Jose Ramon Larraz ( “Symptoms” , “Stigma” ) only falters in the repetitive structure of the film. After an initial burst, it’s a tad slow where there’s just a little too much walking around waiting for rather similar things to happen. Otherwise, this one’s a bloody winner that I was glad I’d finally caught up with after wanting to track it down for about 20+ years. The film doesn’t fuck around early on, getting to the goods right away, though it’s hot stuff that doesn’t exactly lead to a happy ending...

Baptist preacher Russell Crowe and wife Nicole Kidman wrestle with the knowledge that their son Lucas Hedges is gay. Crowe’s answer, in consultation with fellow religious figures, is to send the boy to a gay conversion therapy retreat headed by Joel Edgerton. Kidman starts to see that Edgerton’s methods are insidious, manipulative, destructive, and completely and utterly useless. Crowe sinks his head into his bible for answers, whilst poor Hedges is in utter torment, wanting to please his parents, whilst also knowing that he’s gay and that’s just how it is. Can mother and son get through to Crowe before Hedges’ is completely destroyed? Troye Sivan plays another gay kid, Cherry Jones is a doctor, and musician Flea plays a military-style associate of Edgerton’s who tries to teach the gays how to be ‘manly men’ like him, whilst Edgerton tries to tie things to learned patterns of unacceptable behaviour or some disingenuous bullshit. Co-star/writer-director Joel Edgerton has a bit...

Laura Gemser comes to Hong Kong to do some sexy snake dancing at a nightclub, and gets involved with two very different brothers. There’s Judas (Jack Palance), who despite his name and being a reptile enthusiast is rather a milquetoast sort, who takes an immediate liking to our heroine. Younger brother Jules (Gabriele Tinti) is seen as the less responsible one. Judas was given all of the family inheritance until Jules proves himself worthy after a five year period. It’s Jules who introduces Gemser to a lady named Gerri (Michele Starck), whom she immediately falls for and gives the brothers someone in common to be jealous of. Like a Jesus Franco film with almost all of the fun bits taken out, this 1976 exploitation piece from writer-director Joe D’Amato ( “Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals” , the notorious “Antropophagus” ) is kinky and weird but not in any especially interesting way. It’s weird to a point and there’s plenty of full-frontal nudity and the occasional Sapphic tou...