WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Conquest 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:15.120 Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:18.079 is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. This week 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.000 on Weird House Cinema, we're going to continue our ongoing 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:25.599 Johnt through fantasy films. We didn't I don't think we 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:27.800 quite intended to do this, but but this is the 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.840 journey we're on. We kicked things off with Thrilling Bloody Sword, 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:35.640 then we returned to Oz, then we visited Krall, and 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:38.960 we're actually in the same cinematic year as Krall for 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.960 this episode. Uh, this time, we're going to be talking 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:48.960 about Italian gore master Luccio Folci's film Conquest. I'd say 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:54.880 this is a decidedly different vibe than Kral. If Karl 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:59.600 is kind of a lofty but dopey but beautiful but 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:08.240 highly disorganized, uh high fantasy attempt, this movie is a hallucinatory, 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:14.160 sort of disturbed child's imagination of a Conan rip off. Yeah, 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:16.440 it is a totally different film from Kral. That is, 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.600 that is for sure. It is it is like it 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:21.920 is like a dream. I feel like the movie needs 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.280 a disclaimer at the beginning that says the film you're 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:28.240 about to experience is a dream. Because once you embrace 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.520 the dream like qualities of a Fulschi film, I think 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:34.800 it kind of frees you up a little bit to 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.120 uh to to to uh just to speak or listen 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.160 to the language of the film. I think it is. 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.280 I mean, we've compared Fulchi to two Dreams a number 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:49.000 of times before, but it's oh, it's almost more like 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.800 it in this case than any of the other ones. Uh. 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:55.360 I had a weird point of comparison here. So, Rob, 0:01:55.480 --> 0:02:01.200 do you remember a children's horror TV show Nickelodeon called 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:04.120 Are You Afraid of the Dark? So there was a 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:05.640 time when I was a kid when I went to 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:09.160 school and I had a memory of an Are You 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:11.520 Afraid of the Dark episode that I was trying to 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.480 describe to some friend of mine on the playground, I think, 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.280 And the memory of that episode was that it was 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:23.160 about a scarecrow who had a chainsaw and he ran 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:26.280 into a school and was like cutting up students at 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:30.119 the school with a chainsaw. Now, I don't think that's 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:33.040 a real episode of the show. I think I dreamed 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.200 it or something and then mistook that memory of the 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.440 dream for a real episode of this TV show, and 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:43.000 that would not be an episode of this children's horror 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:46.040 TV show. The most grizzly thing that ever happened on 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.800 it was probably like a vampire bite somebody. Uh. And 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:53.720 yet I would say Conquest is like that memory of 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.600 an Are You Afraid of the Dark? Episode? Yeah, I 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:00.799 think that's a valid comparison. It is like the deranged 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:04.760 dream memory of another film, or of or of all 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:09.520 Barbarian films um because like the the the influences are there, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:11.640 and certainly when you're when you're dig digging around in 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:16.760 Italian b cinema of the eighties, it's easy to point like, oh, 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.720 well they got they got this little bit from Indiana Jones. 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.400 You know, here's a little bit of Conan sprinkled here, etcetera. 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.600 And and that's fair. But a lot of times it's 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.760 also more overt. I feel like maybe it's a little 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.600 less overt in the in this particular picture, but the 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:36.080 dreamlike quality very strong. The I mean, the picture is hazy, 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.720 as if viewed through a mist, an effect that I 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.880 was reading was generated via smoke machines and soft focused 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:46.400 Len's filter. The narrative is strange and despite the trappings 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:50.320 of genre and and obvious cinematic inspirations, it's it's difficult 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.559 to predict what's going to happen in this film. Uh 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.000 Like even this is like the third or fourth time 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.000 I watched it, well, I watched it twice over the weekend, 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.600 but but still, like, I'm I've seen it enough times 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.080 that I should know everything that's going to happen, and 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.080 yet I really didn't feel like I knew exactly where 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:10.640 we were going at any point. So this is definitely 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:14.040 not your first runaround with Conquests. When you suggested doing 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:19.400 this for the show, you were already a conquest veteran. Yes. 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:21.279 And I feel like it gets better every time I 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.839 see it, um and and that may that may be infinite, 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.239 Like every time I see this movie, it will get better. 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.880 It will get more coherent and uh and and and 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:36.719 more contemplated somehow. Uh it is. It's like it's like 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.760 a dream that keeps like a recurring dream, and the 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.320 gore is also dream like, you know, like as with 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:46.719 most folksy movies, it's surreal at times. It presents kind 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:50.400 of you get a weird sense of fixation on the 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.680 fragility of the flesh in it. It's full of magic 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:58.680 and monsters, their alien voices, their dreams within dreams. Um yeah, 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:00.800 and well, you know, I'll be the first that this 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.040 is not a film for everyone. Lucio Fulci is not 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.040 for everyone, but I feel like it does draw all 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:10.480 the viewer in with a certain hypnotic power. No viewer 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.919 be warned. This one is gross, like like all Fulchi movies. 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.479 But yeah, it is nasty. Yeah it's but it's like 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:22.920 it's like exposing yourself to a religious text from another dimension. Yes, yeah, 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:25.919 it's it's it's a weird one, and maybe that's just 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:27.640 part of it, is just me reading more and more 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:31.120 into it each time I see Yet No, it's like that, Um, 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:33.200 you know that trope in the movie where character has 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.640 a recurring dream and every time they have the dream, 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:37.680 they get a little bit farther into it. They're like 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:39.880 a little farther down the hall and they're going to 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.240 open the door and see what's on the other side. 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.800 I imagine that's you with watching Conquests. So eventually, one 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:47.840 of these days you're gonna put it on and you're 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:49.800 going to see the other side of the door. And 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.480 what's there. It's it's bats. It's bats flying around in 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.400 the cave and you've got to go to to knock 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:01.480 them down now to be sure. Yeah, this is this 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.960 is definitely an Italian B movie as well. It's well 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.960 technically it's a Mexican, Spanish Italian production, and so many 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.040 of the expected budgetary constraints are very much in place, 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.279 so it has all of those charms. Uh, you're it's 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:17.560 certainly a film that you can watch and and and 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:19.680 laugh at and enjoy yourself, though I don't want to 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.040 build it up like what like this is just a 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:25.719 pure you know, fantasy surrealist art film like no, no, no, 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.479 There's there's plenty of genre stuff and and B movie 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.720 fun to be had in the picture as well. Now, 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.560 this movie is also what's known as a peplum film, 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:37.960 which descended from Hercules. Author Robert A. Rushing points out, 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.560 is a term that generally generally it's going beyond dismissive 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:45.719 categorization such as sword and sandal or gladiator films or 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:49.320 what what's your favorite term for for this sort of picture, Joe, Oh, 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:52.000 what the leather diaper Barbarian movie? Yes, a leather diaper 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:56.640 barbarian movie, but generally, especially when talking about Italian cinema, 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.560 apparently peplum is often used to quote signal a more 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:03.520 serious stance, though Rushing also points out that these films 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:07.160 are are very often not taken seriously and many very 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:09.960 much invite mockery. But that doesn't mean there's not a 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.160 lot to read into them, given their their their palates 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:17.200 of history is real and imagined, the fetishization of masculine 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.360 and feminine bodies, violence, Smith, and more, and he does 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:24.240 discuss conquest in the book, noting ful chys quote loving 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.320 treatment for the body's disintegration, and he spends a fair 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.320 amount of time in the book talking about what this means. Um. 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:33.480 I won't attempt to summarize it, but I think it 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.520 kind of speaks volumes for the sort of mystery cult 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:39.320 that kind of rises up around fulshy films. You know, 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:44.760 like people people really get into fulshy films because they're again, 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:46.760 they have all these B movie qualities to them, their 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:50.200 gore movies, but there is this strange dream and like 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.600 intensity to it, and some of the fixations in these 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:57.120 films are also really odd. Yes, I agree that the 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.280 like the juicy nous is not just gross, it is 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.600 it is weird in a kind of fascinating way, like that, 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.920 there's a scene in Conquest where one of the heroes 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.560 is hit with the poison dart and we get to 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:15.600 just watch his wound like like gush juice for I 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:19.520 don't know, several minutes in close up and the full 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:22.560 cheese fascination with just the juice coming out of the 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.280 dart wound as like the poison gets into the guy's blood. 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:31.120 There's something so unappealing about it and the choice to 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.520 focus on that like gross image that makes you think 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.800 that there must be like some kind of transcendent truth 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.439 hidden there. You're like, why why are we still looking 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:43.760 at this? There's some mystery to it. Yeah, that's that's 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:48.800 actually the main thing that had Rushing focuses on talking about, like, well, 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.560 that and also the something else that happens later. We'll 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:53.640 get into that, we get into spoilers. But yeah, they're 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:56.800 they're the boils have like six minutes of screen time 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.920 just panning up and down the body and he actually 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.680 he does draw on this specifically and points out they 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.160 know a lot of these Peplin movies, you spend a 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.440 lot of time with the camera kind of dragging itself 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:12.760 over untarnished flesh, generally the untarnished flesh of your central 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:17.560 muscle man character. Uh, this film is instead going to 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:22.000 focus on pus covered and boil written flesh. That's just 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.960 the sort of film that Fulchi makes. But then again, 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:28.600 there is something kind of different and distinguished about full 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:32.400 cheese use of this nasty imagery. Like, I think it's 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:36.000 not a coincidence. There is some reason why there are 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:40.600 tons of academic books and papers and film criticism about 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:44.000 Fulchi that there is not nearly to the same extent 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.280 for lots of other just makers of gross gory films 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.360 where there's blood flying all over the place. Yeah, now 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:52.000 you might wonder, well where can I where can I 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.520 see this movie? Well, um, I'd rented it twice before 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.760 from Atlanta's own video Drome, and I believe this would 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:03.120 have been subsequent rentals anyway, where the Blue Underground DVD 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:07.680 that came out years back. However, for this viewing, I 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.640 picked up the special edition Blu ray of at A 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:14.120 two thousand nineteen code read special edition Blu ray with 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:17.800 special cover art by heavy metal artist west Bin's Carter, 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:20.040 who I think has done like a lot of like 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.800 really cool Grizzly images for various bands. You can look 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.000 him up online. But uh, yeah, this this is a 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.920 really awesome Blue Ray package. I'm usually don't get that 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.880 into the physical Blu Ray, like like the need to 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:35.520 own it and add it to my permanent collection, but 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:37.480 with this one, I got kind of obsessed and had 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.160 to hunt it down. Um It's a little hard to 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.880 find if you want to like the special edition art, 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:47.480 but the disc itself is widely available, um, and you 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:49.719 can you can rent or buy this most places. It 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.480 is a two thousand nineteen HD master of the film, 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:56.600 and um, I don't know how different the film quality 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:58.920 actually is compared to the DVD. I mean, this is 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.200 not a film where I feel like the difference is 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.400 necessarily night and day, but it's still it's still a 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.480 very nice special edition. Well with Conquest, a lot of 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:10.559 the grime is not something that happened to the film 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.199 over time. I think it is baked in from the beginning. 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:15.600 Like the joke when I was very first introduced to 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.480 this movie was that that they had shot at by 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:21.800 smearing vasoline on the ends of the camera. Yeah. Yeah, 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:23.480 and you definitely get that kind of vibe. I mean, 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.240 right from the get go, you're on this this shore 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:28.520 and it's just like in this world of dream and 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.360 stuff's fading in and out of existence and everything's hazy 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.520 and uh yeah, it's uh it has a distinct look 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:37.920 to it. So, yeah, this film is widely available. If 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:39.880 you want to see it, you can digitally rent or 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.120 buy it from Apple or Prime. You can stream it 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:46.040 on such services as shout TV to be plex free 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.559 v I'm not sure what that is, but it exists 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:50.920 as a place where you can get it. And yeah, 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:53.440 it's come out over the years on DVD and vhs, uh, 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.960 sometimes with some pretty awesome cover art. I included some 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:00.440 of these for you here, Joe, including that that that 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:04.200 recent image by m by Wes Ben Scotter here, But 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:06.520 even the like the some of the original art was 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:10.120 pretty incredible. Like there, I think people were familiar with 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:12.240 this film. You may have seen the poster that has 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.520 our barbarian character some sort of big gold um like 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.160 robot man in the background with laser shooting out of 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.800 his eyes, and then are evil sorceress queen here with 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:26.160 the golden head. That one's really cool. I also like 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.440 the one where the where the font that the title 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:33.560 is printed in definitely the lowercase e and the s 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:35.840 do not look different enough, so it looks like the 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:40.720 movie is called Concrete. Oh and that's something to point 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:43.960 out the title of the film. Um. I think it's 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:45.679 like a lot of these films, they just had different 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:47.800 titles depending on where it was released. A different title 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.880 in Mexico, different title in Spain. Uh, different title in Italy. 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.480 I think it was sometimes known as uh, his Mace 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:58.680 the Loner or something to that effect. Uh. And there 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:00.720 was there's an extra on the on the blue ray 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.040 edition that I watched where they talked to Jorge Rivero, 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:08.520 the star the Mexican film star in this picture, and 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:10.320 he points out it's like, yeah, I don't really I 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:12.480 don't really know what these films were released as, like 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:14.640 they were released as so many different things. He doesn't 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:17.440 necessarily know what to refer to them as you could 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:21.080 almost make up a name at random. Because Conquest, I 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:24.120 don't really like, there's not really a Conquest in the film, 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:28.000 per se. No, no, not at all. I I can't 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.480 think of one. I mean, I would say the closest 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:34.040 is that the evil, uh, the evil naked sorceress like 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:36.720 conquers the land and she's in charge of it, and 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.040 then they tried to depose her. I guess, but they're 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:44.160 not really the heroes are not really conquering the land. Yeah, 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:48.840 so it doesn't particularly make sense, but but fair enough. So. 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.600 The the elevator pitch for this one, uh, I was 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:53.480 the best I could come up with is a blood 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:57.120 drenched mushroom trip in Hyperborea. There go, Yeah, that's it. 0:13:57.640 --> 0:13:59.439 So they have a pretty good one on the posters. 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:01.160 In the trailer, he says, we may hear this in 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:03.920 the trailer were about to listen to In a Place 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:08.560 Beyond Time Comes a Terrifying Challenge beyond imagination. What was 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:11.040 it again that was on the poster for Krawl. It 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:14.480 was like the lamest tagline ever. It was something like 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.200 in a place ruled by an evil beast, a hero 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.560 must save a princess or something. He has something to 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.400 that effect, like, yeah, we can tell that from the poster. 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.720 Are some word play in there? Well. The one thing 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:30.800 I like about in In a Place Beyond Time Comes 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.640 a Terrifying Challenge Beyond Imagination is that it doesn't really 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:36.080 say anything and you can change you can switch all 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.600 the nouns around and it still makes as much sense. 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:43.800 In a time beyond challenge comes a terrifying imagination beyond place, 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.240 there you go, makes just pretty good. Yeah, all right, 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:52.720 let's listen to that trailer audio from a place beyond 0:14:52.840 --> 0:15:04.560 Time comes a terrifying challenge beyond imagination. Conquest. Two men 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:11.480 joined forces in a struggle for power in a realm 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:26.120 of fear. Conquest an act of courage to conquer the 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:38.800 Queen of darkness. They faced the armies of evil to 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:50.680 win the weapons of light. Feel the power, accept the 0:15:50.840 --> 0:16:08.160 challenge of conquest. All right, Well, let's talk about some 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.640 of the folks involved here. We'll start at the top. 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.160 We're gonna talk a little bit about Luccio Fulci. But 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.480 again we we did talk about him previously when we 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:21.040 cover the one Haunted House slash monster movie The House 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.120 by the Cemetery that would have been last October, so 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:33.000 notable B movie director from Italy through UM Cinematic gore 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:35.520 master h Then again, there's very much kind of a 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.400 mystery cult surrounding a lot of his his his work 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.000 very much as a as a fan based these days 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:45.880 UM The House by the Cemeteries we discussed that was 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:47.840 a film that had a lot of the elements that 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:53.120 he's most famous for. Undead Things Um, absolutely over the top, 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:57.440 gore as phantasmagorical approach that feels less concerned with cohesion 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.520 of plot and more about chasing certain dreams and nine Mayors. 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.720 He's best remembered today for his horror films of the 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.320 nineteen eighties and yeah, it's without a doubt one of 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:10.160 the titans of Italian B cinema from this era. All 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.399 of this really kicked into high gear with nineteen seventy 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:16.080 nine Zombie Um. That was a very prolific period of 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.680 his career that produced some of his best remembered films. 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.000 But he'd been directing full length films for something like 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.200 twenty years at that point, including such um horror movies 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:27.520 is nineteen seventy ones A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:30.879 seventy two is Don't Torture at Duckling. He did a 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:34.199 nineteen sixty nine Jallow film titled One on Top of 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:36.960 the Other. But he directed a number of different genre 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:41.159 films before the nineteen eighties, including Western spy thrillers, comedies 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:45.359 and more. He did a Jack London adaptation of White Fang, 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.399 which um I was reading a review of and someone 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:51.520 pointed out, well, how can you tell a Luccio Fulti 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.600 white fan from any other White Fang adaptation? Well, and 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:56.840 this one white thing is definitely going to rip somebody's 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.840 throat out and you get to see it all. Conquest 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.359 Or or Mace the Outcast, if you will, is his 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.840 only really fantasy film, and it does stand somewhat apart 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:11.840 from his his other movies. But it has a lot 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:13.720 of the elements you would expect. You know, there's the gore, 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:18.159 there's the gratuity. Um they are these dreamlike qualities and 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:21.919 it has that in spades. But it also, um, I 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.320 don't know it. Some of the some of the other 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.600 Folky films that I've seen do feel like less put together. 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.359 And I felt like like this is a pretty strong 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.560 entry in his filmography. I feel like it doesn't doesn't 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.360 have a lot of downtime. It feels like like everyone, 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.880 despite budgetary restraints, was trying really hard on this one. 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:43.480 Uh So, I think it kind of stands out. It 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.280 might be my favorite Folky film. I would say, actually, 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:51.200 in other Folky movies, the dream logic construction stands out 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.320 more because the other ones that are set in the 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:59.280 modern world and that have modern characters, you're just constantly 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.320 thinking like why who is this, Why are they here? 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:04.600 Why are they doing that? But you don't need this 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.520 just setting up a sequence that he just wants to 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.000 show you something. Uh. So there's this dream logic about 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:12.679 like how did I end up in this room? What 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.840 am I doing here? But that feels weirder when it's 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:19.959 supposedly the the uh, you know, the superficially rational setting 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:23.040 of like characters from modern day New York City living 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.080 in a house or something. Um. When it's in the 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:30.920 world of conquest, it's just you know, barbarians and sorcerers 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.920 and were wolves, and there is not as much superficial 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:39.879 expectation that people's behavior and uh and location should be comprehensible. 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:42.719 Right like with the House by the Cemetery. There are 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:44.520 plenty of times where you might say, well, is it 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.240 logical that a child would say this? Would an adult 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:49.920 ever say this to a child? And you don't really 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.800 ask those questions about a movie that's mostly about barbarians, 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:59.520 dream warriors, were wolves and evil queens. You know, yeah, 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:05.800 that shalt not question concrete alright, some of the writing 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:07.680 credits on this one, and a couple of these are 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:11.600 also involved in production. I'm going to mention them here. 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:16.760 There's Giovanni Dick Clemente, who has a story producer credit, 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.280 who he lived eighteen, Italian producer and writer. This is 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.679 one of his own, only like three story credits that 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:25.720 he has, so I think it seems fair to say 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:30.080 that he's largely a producer, and the same producer who 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.600 I believe, according to star Jorge Rivero, at one point, 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:36.879 tried to tell them that they had to go ahead, 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:39.000 just need to go ahead and stop filming, like, go 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.359 ahead and you know we're done. Just make the movie 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:43.720 out of what you've shot so far. And fol she 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:46.480 had to had to like rally the cast and crew 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:49.239 so they could keep going and keep filming, and uh, 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:52.280 and they did. But this is the guy who produced. 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.440 This guy produced a bunch of films, including the Italian 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:59.119 Top Gun rip off with Aliens, Blue Tornado. I gotta 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:03.199 see that. It looks it looks interesting. Has David Warner 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:07.000 in it now? The writer of Blue Tornado is also 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:10.919 also has a screenplay credit on this Uh. Dino capone 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:13.119 and then let's see who else do we have? We 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:17.560 have Jose Antonio dil Loma, who lived two thousand and four, 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:22.760 has a screenplay production manager credit. Spanish writer, director, and producer. 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:25.600 He wrote and directed nineteen eight two Is Target Eagle, 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:30.560 starring Jore Rivero, Max Voncito, George Boppard and Chuck Connors. 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:35.000 He also wrote the Rivero movie Counter Force, in which 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:40.160 also stared star George Kennedy, Andrew Stevens, Isaac Hayes, Louis Jordan, 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:43.720 and Robert Forrester. All Right, and then another screenplay credit 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:48.119 is Carlos Vassalo, Spanish producer, writer and director who produced 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:50.919 and co directed nineteen nine Day of the Assassin starring 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:56.800 Glenn Ford, Chuck Connors, Richard Rowntree, Jorge Rivero and Henry Silva. 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:00.480 He also produced dial Lomo's nine eight four film Goma 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:04.719 To starring Margot Hemingway, Lee Van Cleef, Jorge Rivero and 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:09.600 Frank Bronna. He also produced Pit Fight, starring you Guessed 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:14.080 It Jorge Rivero. So is you can imagine here this 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.640 whole team seems very much in the Jorge Rivero business. 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:21.800 It says a lot of writers for movies that apparently 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:26.080 need a lot of writing. Yeah, and you'd yeah, I 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:27.760 really would have. You expected it to be more of 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:29.760 a mess. Like generally that's kind of a sign, right, 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:32.919 The longer the list of writing credits, the more you know, 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:35.720 the more cooks in the kitchen. Uh So it's it's 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:38.199 kind of a minor miracle that this one makes as 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:41.320 much sense as it does, or doesn't try to make 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:44.120 more sense than it does. It strikes the right balance. 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:47.320 Now you've already said his name about forty seven times, 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:49.960 so I think we should talk about Jorge Rivero, who 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:54.080 fans of mystery science theater will definitely recognize as the 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:59.680 breakout star of the movie We're Wolf. Yes, film where 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:03.520 Wolf starring Richard Lynch and Joe Estevez. I guess that's 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:05.359 probably where I saw him for the first time. So 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:08.040 there's there's certainly a whole generation of film fans who 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:10.680 probably know him best from that. He has a lot 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:14.119 of great moments. But he plays a like an archaeologist 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.200 named Yuri who decides he's going to create a werewolf 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:21.240 by hitting a man with a werewolf skull. Yeah, so yeah, 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:24.800 he's fun in that, but um yeah, Jorio Rivero bord 0:23:25.880 --> 0:23:29.480 a true Mexican film superstar who worked with some of 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:32.639