Reviews: The Necro Files; Necro Files 3000

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Internet

The Necro Files
Directed by Matt Jaissle
Visual Vengeance; Threat Theatre International Inc.; Wild Eye Releasing; MVD Entertainment
72 minutes, 1997 / 2022
www.facebook.com/thenecrofiles/
www.wildeyereleasing.com
www.MVDEntertainment.com/
This film is a classic in the home movie subgenre. Essentially, what that means it that it was shot on video. Visual Vengeance is one of the few companies that are rereleasing the lowest quality looking films imaginable, which is, well, fantastic. The reason? Because of the imagination behind it. The execution? Well… Note that this film has been cleaned up significantly, and the quality of the visuals are quite good, unlike most of the VV fare which is seen in their trailers.

Named after “The X Files,” you gotta love a film that starts with the obligatory shower scene with full frontal nudity (Theresa Bestul). Serial killer and rapist Logan (Isaac Cooper) is not far behind, chased by a couple of police detectives:  the ultra-violent after a bomp on the noggin Martin Manners (Steve Sheppard) and his partner, the mustachioed Orville Sloane (Gary Browning), that latter of whom has a personal stake in the whole affair as his sister was a previous victim.

Steve Sheppard and Gary Browning

Long story short, dead killer, who is raised from his “slumber” by a group of Satan worshipers by killing the baby of the rapist’s victim (yes, an obvious doll). Be careful what you wish for because what arises is a flesh eating and extremely violent zombie.

Two of the surviving Satanists (who were in the group to hopefully get laid), the not-too-smart Barney (Jason McGee), who wears a Smashing Pumpkins Mission to Mars tee which is apparently quite rare these days and selling in the hundreds of dollars, and Jack (Christian Curmudgeon; like others in the cast, such as Ann R. Key and Drew Burymore, I am going to go out on a limb and say that’s not his real name), who wears plaid flannel (remember, this is filmed in Olympia, WA, in the ‘90s), try to resurrect a demon that will take care of the zombie, but instead raise the baby (again, it’s a doll) that flies around, also killing people while it searches for its zombie daddy. You read that right. I am only expressing this here because that is part of what makes this film so infamous among the subgenre. Well, that and the extreme level of gore.

I will be honest, and posit that I do not like scenes of rape, even if it is with a zombie and a 12” prosthetic dong/dildo). Never did. If you will pardon this soapbox paragraph, I once got into conversation with Frank Farel, the producer of Street Trash (1987) at a private pre-release showing of the film about how I objected to the rape scene in that film, and that it was gratuitous. I enjoyed the rest of the film, but that part just seemed so unnecessary and sexist. Then again, it was the 1980s, and envelopes were purposely pushed. But I stand by my conviction.

Isaac Cooper

The gore level in this film is over the top, and of course, that’s a good thing in this case. Piles of offal more than blood fill the screen often. For a gorehound, it is a pleasure, especially since it looks like they got it from a slaughterhouse; and yet, it is so extreme, it is almost cartoonish at the same time. Good times.

The acting is horrendously wooden, but I will chime the same tune I have been stating since the beginning of this review, and that is, it is what is expected in this subgenre. If you are looking for, say, Halloween (1978, 2007) quality, you are looking in the wrong place and will not be satisfied. If, however, you are like me, and marvel at how something this low budget and independent managed to do as much as they did with the means they have, this film is actually better than most.

Part of the relative success of the release, in my opinion, is the camerawork and editing by the director, Matt Jaissle, who works with the material (cameras, etc.) at his disposal, and has made this to look, well (and I mean this as a compliment), better than it should. Sure, the story itself (by first-time screenwriter Todd Tjersland, who also plays the head of the Satanic cult) is kinda ridiculous; the flying baby is priceless.

Speaking of fake names, it comes to the crew as well, such as “The X Files” related Dana Duchovny and David Fox, but the one that caught my eye was Gilles de Rias (if you are into serial killers, he’s worth looking up on Wikipedia; I have known about him for decades).

The music is often a varying hum, which actually works well for the film. There is some humor woven into the story (especially around the flying baby and the sounds it makes), though I would not necessarily call this a comedy.

Having heard of this film for years, I was not sure exactly what to expect from this, but I was not disappointed. In fact, it was much better than I was expecting, and again, I give that credit to the director who took a really silly story and, on some level, made it all work.

There is a whopping number of extras on the region-free Blu-ray that took me quite the time to get through. They include (but not all) a new, full-length audio commentary with the director, Matt Jaissle, where he has lots of good stories about the filming, and what’s going on in a particular scene you may not have noticed. A second full-length audio commentary is with Matt Desiderio of the VHS distribution label and podcast, “Horror Boobs,” and Billy Burgess of the Druid Underground Film Festival. They are knowledgeable about the film, and yet are not clinical, as I find some of the commentaries for, say, Fulci films. They seem to be there to have a good time and share that. It’s also amusing how they attach things that aren’t related to “show off” a bit (I would do the same), such as calling the opening shower scene a nod to Psycho (1960), and the Cassio soundtrack reminiscent of Blood Feast (1963). They are there to do a job, but because they are having so much fun doing it, that is transferred to the listener.

Next up is a brand-new video, “A Chat with Director Matt Jaissle” (7 min), as he roams around a cemetery with a handheld camera (with no stedi-cam) as he discusses other films he’s made, his influences, and getting The Necro Files started. It’s short and sweet. This is followed by a couple of Matt Jaissle’s Super 8 Short Films from when he was a teenager: “The Paroxysm Plague”, a zombie flick, and “The Adventures of the Walla Monster” (which includes a homage to Leatherface, Michael, and Jason). They are as amateurish as you can get, but that’s part of what makes it so much fun. A third 8mm short, “The Corpse” (1987; 9 min.) is a bit better realized along storyline and execution.

The Chilean Talk Show Segment (4 min.) is okay, except I do not speak Spanish. However, I am impressed they showed some of the graphic details (including dildos) both sexual and violent, while the group of hosts laugh it off. I wish this was captioned. More importantly is the documentary, “Dong of the Dead: The Making of The Necro Files” (20 min.). This is essentially a one-shot of Jaissle (with some brief clips) where he once again talks about the beginning of the film, the shooting, and especially the reaction afterwards (including a Chris Farley story!). It is engaging. Then there are also some Visual Vengeance trailers, including two original ones for the main film.

Included is a bonus Movie, the sequel Necro Files 3000 (2017) and its trailer, the film of which is reviewed below.

Some of the physical extras include a Limited Edition Slipcover for the first pressing, a retro VHS sticker set, the Necro Files Official Condom (yes, you read that correctly), a Reversible Sleeve featuring the original VHS art, a Collectible Mini Poster, and a 2-Sided Insert.

IMDB listing HERE  The trailer is at the bottom of the reviews.

 

Necro Files 3000
Directed by Matt Jaissle
Superpuppetanimation; VidEvil Video Company; Carilliam Pictures; Gravehill Production
62 minutes, 2017 / 2022
www.facebook.com/necrofiles3000/
This is actually the second sequel for the film, the first of which was The Necro Files 2 (2003), which Jaissle only had a limited contribution. It took 20 years for this second and official sequel to be released.

In the beginning… is the prologue. It shows a clip of the Satanists in the first film, raising up Logan, but in black and white. Instead of Isaac Cooper, we get a rapacious and cannibalistic… skeleton marionette. Yes, you read that right. In fact, from this point on, which is in color, all the characters are either puppets or dolls; the women victims are Barbie-esque, reminding me of Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), which also used dolls. The obvious question is, of course, how does a skeleton (never mind a puppet) rape with no foot-long schlong as did the original Logan, never mind a plastic one?

Professor Blackthorne and Phineas Hogweather

We are then introduced to the protagonists of the film, Professor Blackthorne, an expert in the occults whose beard and eyebrows are drawn on with a marker, and Logan is brought to his attention by an investigative journalist, Phineas Hogweather (the latter is played by an elfin-eared “yokel” puppet; is that a commentary on modern journalism? Neil Postman would be proud).

Odd thing is, the gore level is high, and actually looks decent next to the plastic “victims” which are torn asunder. Not only that, but his plan is to resurrect “a death god to roam the planet,” exclaims the professor. They chase skeleton Logan to different parts of the globe, such as the Amazon Forest. Apparently, Logan travels to these destinations via supernatural portals. Then again, I’m watching a film about puppets. There are humans in the film, usually in the background or B-roll, shot in Ann Arbor, MI, such as trick or treaters, or crowd shots. Being shot around Halloween makes some nice costumes.

Victim and skeletal Logan

While the film tries to be funny, it kinda doesn’t achieve it much, but is still fascinating to me to watch how far they’ll go. For example, in a somewhat racist scene in the Amazon, there is an almost direct reference to a particular Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs meets an Aboriginal tribesman from Australia (“WhadIsay?” was Bugs’ response, rather than the professors, “Oh, shit”).

And what happens when the prof and Phineas hack into the Pentagon’s deadly Godzilla-sized Killbot 9000 (referencing Alex Jones conspiracies, of all people). This leads to the irony of the story, that P&P are responsible for killing a multitude of more people than Logan. While all that is happening, can you find Waldo? (I did.)

Stick around for the blooper reel in the credits. Okay, so much of the film is just ridiculous, but I certainly enjoyed particular aspects of it, like the bravery of the crew creating this in the first place, and for $1000. Also, there are a lot of cool references that pop up here and there (like the Waldo thing). Do I recommend it? For the right frame of mind, certainly. If you have a low threshold of insanity, well…

IMDB listing HERE  

Review: Zombie: Limited Edition 3 Blu-ray/CD disc set

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet

Zombie (aka Zombi 2; Zombie Flesh Eaters)

Directed by Lucio Fulchi
Blue Underground / Red Shirt Pictures / MVD Visual
91 minutes, 1979 / 2018
www.blue-underground.com
www.redshirtpictures.com
www.mvdvisual.com

When it comes to Italian horror films of the 1960-‘80s, during the Renaissance of gory gloriousness and the rise of giallo cinema, the names that come to mind are Mario Bava (d. 1980) and especially Dario Argento. However, my fave by far is definitely Lucio Fulchi (d. 1996). Until now, however, nearly everything I have seen of his has been on VHS or DVD knockoffs, so the quality of the images have been fuzzy (The Beyond was the exception that I saw in a theater).

Blue Underground and MVD Visual have solved that problem in this restored 4K Blu-ray, which was taken from the uncensored original camera negative that emphasizes just how amazing a filmmaker Fulchi was in reality. The zombies no longer look like that just have mud stuck to their faces, but rather you can see maestro/maven Giannetto De Rossi’s make-up work clearly, and it is startling.

Borrowing perhaps from the original Bram Stoker Dracula story or perhaps 1922’s Nosferatu, a seemingly deserted boat sails into New York’s harbor, where a zombie is lurking and starts off the Zombie Apocalypse.



Ian McCulloch, Tisa Farrow, Auretta Gay, Al Cliver

Most of the story, though, going back to its roots, which finds four people traveling to Matul Island in the Antilles: there’s journalist Peter West (Ian McCulloch), Anne (Tisa Farrow) who is searching for her scientist father that owns the wayward NYC boat, and the couple who own the cruiser that takes them to the mysterious island, Brian (Al Cliver) and Susan (Auretta Gay). This is where the old meets the new as the traditional Haitian-style zombie meets Romero’s flesh eating undead.


Richard Johnson

Is it tribal mysticism that brings the dead back to life, or is it the experiments of Anne’s father and his partner, Dr. Menard (Richard Johnson, who played the Doctor in my fave horror film of all time, 1963’s The Haunting; but I digress…). Whichever way they return to semi-life, Menard’s wife (Olga Karlatos, who easily has the most memorable scene in the film), is not impressed and wants out of both the island and the marriage.

 

There are lots of bodies, tons of deaths – all of them filled with gore – and a storyline that usually makes sense in a suspension of disbelief way (though there are those who believe a Zombie Apocalypse is a possible reality). If you haven’t seen the film, and you’re into horror, you really must. Just know it is fun from beginning to end, it looks beautiful as I said, and there are more extras than you can shake a bony finger at. This is a review of those extras, more than of the film itself, because man, it’s a classic and you should know it by now. Seriously.

The first thing I want to talk about is the captions. There are multiple languages available (English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Danish, Suomi, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and English for Italian audio), but as I only speak one (not counting Brooklynese), I went for the English. There are very few captions that actually match what is being said. For example, early on at one point someone mentions the boat in relation to Staten Island, and the caption says Coney Island. It’s pretty funny to watch them both going at the same time.



Olga Karlatos

Starting with Disc 1, which also contains the feature film, for the first audio commentary we hear from Troy Howarth, who wrote a book about the director titled Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulchi and His Films (2015). Despite his talking fast, Howarth gives a pretty detailed and easy to understand description of what is going on in any particular scene, anecdotes about the actors and director, and other juicy bits of information that come across as knowledgeable without being show-off-ish. He’s a man who has studied his topic and relates what he has found with a devil may care attitude (“I could be wrong about this particular thing, but I don’t care” [paraphrase]). It’s refreshing and worth the listen.

 

The second audio commentary is with the film’s Scottish lead that has done extensive BBC work, Ian McCulloch, and Jason J. Slater, Editor of Diabolik Magazine. This is almost the exact opposite of the Howarth one, as this commentary is slow and steady, with McCulloch giving stories about the shoot intermittently through his burr. While informative, these bits were less so, for which I blame two aspects. The first is that Slater doesn’t ask enough questions to keep McCulloch going, and he seems to struggle at times for what to say. The other is that the film’s soundtrack is kept a bit high, so it interferes with the soft-spoken McCulloch. I watched it all the way through and got stuff out of it, but it was definitely the lesser of the two.

The featurette for this disc is the 33:05 “When the Earth Spits Out the Dead: Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulchi” (2018). Thrower discusses Fulchi’s career in mostly comedies before becoming more horror related, and how even though this film is often compared as the “sequel” to Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, it does indeed take quite a different approach to the philosophy of the zombie proper (e.g., no memory to its earlier life) and body politic (looks different). It’s an interesting talk with clips of Fulchi’s earlier films taken mostly from trailers, and more of an in-depth perspective of this one.

After that is a host of theatrical trailers (International and US), two television spots, four radio ads, and a posters and stills gallery showing posters from around the world, lobby cards, behind the scenes photos, color and black & white stills, the US and German Press Books, and Video covers. There’s lots.



Ottaviano Dell-Acqua

Then we can start with Blu-ray disc No. 2. First up is the 22 minute “Zombie Wasteland,” that has interviews with Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson and Al Cliver, including actor/stuntman Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, who played the worm-eye zombie on most of the posters. Now, I’ve seen a few “convention” pieces before, and most of them are shot from the back of the room with very bad audio. This was a very pleasant surprise. It’s more of a documentary at the Cinema Wasteland Con in Cleveland in 2010, and its mainly interviews with the above cast, with only a few clips from the convention floor and presentation. It’s actually quite informative and fun. With tongue-in-cheek, it concludes with a nod to the ending of the actual film. Recommended.

 

“Flesh Eaters on Film,” a 9:38 minute interview with co-producer Fabrizio De Angelis, follows. In Italiano with English subtitles, as with most of the crew in various featurettes, he talks pretty generally about how the movie came into being, especially considering he is scared of horror films.

Next is “Deadtime Stories” presents interviews with co-writers Elisa Briganti and Dardano Sacchetti (who was uncredited), at 14:00. If the viewer wants to know more of the origin of the story, this is the place. “World of the Dead,” at 16 minutes, follows, presenting interviews with cinematographer Sergio Salvati and production and costume designer Walter Patriarca. These two played in order build the story from the beginning through the process of filming. Both are in Italian with easy to read yellow English subtitles.

One I was really interested in seeing was “Zombi Italiano,” which is a 17-minute Interview with special make-up effects artists Gianetto De Rossi and Maurizio Trani, and special effects artist Gino De Rossi. Back then, of course, everything was done “in camera,” with prosthetics and real fire, rather than digitally. In this film, there are a lot of effects going on, and it all looks beautiful, as I stated earlier, now that the image is cleared and restored in 4K. Of course the key elements discussed are the underwater shark scene and the infamous eyeball one. Not hyper-technical, their anecdotes are fascinating and was one of my fave pieces.

Zombie is also noted for its soundtrack, and while not as infamous as Argento’s use of the group Goblin, an interview with composer Fabio Frizzi is given reverence in “Notes on a Headstone” at a brief 7:25; again, not much in composing details, but more how the effects were enhanced by either adding in his compositions or sometimes more effective by not having music at all and letting the sound of the moment be present.

One theme that runs through the interviews is that Fulchi could be an asshole to his crew, and was a bit of a misogynist. Taking his side for 6:06, we are given “All in the Family,” an interview with Antonella Fulchi who obviously adored her dad and both addresses his reputation and shows us a side of him that is absent from most anecdotes.

When you start the film, you are given the option of a brief introduction by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. If that’s not enough, there is also a featurette called “Zombie Lover,” where del Toro talks more extensively for 9:35 about Zombie, one of his favorite films. He looks at it as a youth and with a director’s eye. And it’s in English!

The third disc is the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD by Fabio Frizzi (with exclusive Bonus Track). Like with Goblin, Argento’s infamous go-to musical group, the music is harsh and electronic-based with sharp and repetitive rhythms, and swirling atmospheric sounds.

The last few special added features are more indirect having to do with the packaging, including a nicely thick, 12-page glossy booklet with an extensive essay by Stephen Thrower. Also there’s the 3D slip cover for the case.

Zombie, by whatever name you want to call it, deserves the love it gets from its fan, and should be as well-known as the Romero franchise, but for some reason is not. Make it so, because it’s worthy. If you haven’t seen it yet, shame, go rectify that. If you’re a genre fan, it’s a must.