Latest / Citizen Frame / Halloween Month and a 1/2 episode 2: Black Sunday (1960)

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Halloween Month and a 1/2 episode 2: Black Sunday (1960) · Citizen Frame

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And quickly, for now, it is all clear. The witch had transformed your friend
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into the slave of the devil.
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Dead during the day, but alive by night, so he could carry out Satan's nefarious orders.
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Then the prince, too. Yes, but now we will have to make haste,
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or the witch may regain her life completely.
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How could she? By possessing and entering the body of another young woman. Katya! Yes, Katya.
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Hurry back to the castle. It's late. Before the sun goes down,
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you must go to the crypt and pierce the left eye of the witch. Go now.
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I will do the same to the body of Boris, which is still in the sacristy. And then I'll join you.
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All right, everyone. Welcome back to another Sweet Sweet Citizen Frame Halloween and a Half special.
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And we want to thank everyone because our downloads for
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our first one was pretty good see it's tough picking
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films here because sometimes you you we don't
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know what people want to listen to so i was teetering on the italian horror
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to see how you know most people like to you know listen to a podcast they want
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to see the film or they've seen the film before so i wasn't sure what kind of
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reaction we get but uh house by cemetery did pretty good It's because of Bob.
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People love Bob, you know, from the film. Bob has a huge, loyal fan base, and I'm one of them.
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Fuck me. Yeah, I'm definitely not one of them.
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But yeah, so we can still piggyback here on the Italian horror with the king of the Italian horror.
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Now, before we talk about the film, earlier work by the man himself,
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Marietta Bava, would not be considered Giello, just more Italian horror.
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G.L. really didn't kick in until the late 60s, especially when the rating systems
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tweaked a bit and they could get away with a little more gore.
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Color became, you know, was more in use and so forth and so forth.
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It really wasn't until Argento jumped on board, even though Bava was the king
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and paved the way, it was Argento and then Fulci came in and so forth to kind of take the reins.
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Sadly, Mary Bava also, just like Fulci, died quite young at 65.
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I'd like to see what he could have done because it was in 1980, I think, when he passed.
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So it would have been nice to see what he'd taken into the new decade there,
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especially the 80s, especially the 80s Camp of Chiefs. Yeah.
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It would have been interesting for what else he could do. Yeah.
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So, what I really like about him is I didn't see a lot of his work,
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so I'm not going to praise the man too much, to be honest with you,
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but I can certainly respect his background.
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And the one thing I really do like about him is that he's the director and he's also his DP.
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Yes, right. He's also the cinematographer, the director of photography on his films.
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Yeah. So, to do both those, it's pretty impressive.
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And especially shooting in black and white. Now, the story is he could have
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shot in color, but he didn't want to because he wanted a more goth feel, more haunting look.
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He wanted to really use the use of shadows.
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Not only that, apparently he actually got the sets designed or colored in monochrome.
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So even like on set, they were essentially shades of gray.
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See, he was an artist, but basically, you know, in many forms.
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And a lot of his own paintings actually feature in this film.
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Yeah, I mean, you can certainly, you can really see that.
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Kubrick was a lot, I don't like comparing Kubrick because I'm not a big Kubrick
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fan, but Kubrick had a keen eye and so does Lucas, actually,
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where a director and a DP, even though they weren't credited as DPs,
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Lucas and Kubrick, they really were behind that lens a lot.
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And so, well, look at Joel Schumacher. Joel Schumacher was a,
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not a costume designer, but he did storefronts and stuff like that,
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visual merchandising. That's where he kind of started.
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But the great thing about it, Mary Bava insisted on it being black and white, which I can respect.
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And later in the years, the US companies, with the success of it,
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wanted to turn a color version of it.
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And he said, no. And to this day, there will never be a colored version of this.
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He won't sell it out. Dude.
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Even his family, his family won't do it and so forth.
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So there is no, you know, you'll be a little bit led by posters and by DVD covers
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that will show you some color version of some of the shots that used in the film.
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No, this film does not have a colored version. It's all black and white.
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So just a heads up to anybody out
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there looking for that. It wouldn't work anywhere near as well in color.
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No, I wouldn't. We'll get into what we dive more about in the film,
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Bloody Sunday here. Black Sunday, sorry.
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We'll talk more about how we shot and stuff when we get into the conversation here.
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But this film, I don't know a lot of his works. I know Bay of Blood. Planet of the Vampires.
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Don't know that one, but I know Kill Baby Kill. Yeah. Hatchet for the Honeymoon.
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Very almost like Italian exploitation films.
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But anyways, what I saw in this one was almost, it's clearly a retelling of
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two classic 1930s films.
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And that is Dracula and Frankenstein.
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And even the sets look a lot like those. but he also adds a modern take on it.
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Some of the visual effects in here are pretty cool and stuff like that and what
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you could do with cameras what you couldn't do back then but the film itself
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is almost an homage to those two films hands down.
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Yeah I mean obviously there's a different story here but in terms of the style
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and stuff however for me personally I've always been more of a fan of Hammer
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over the old universals because it's basically just because of what I grew up with.
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So to me, this very much, I would class this just in my own head,
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obviously it's not official, as basically, and these types of Italian films,
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as basically Gothic Italian hammer films, if that makes sense.
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Oh, yeah, but they all came out around at the same time. Yeah,
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well, exactly. It backs it up even more.
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And Hammer Films, I mean, I'm not going to say who was first,
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but they both have that, you know, those powerful reds when it comes to violence. The gothic face.
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Yeah, or not even, well, not gothic feel.
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It's more yellow feel where the colors pop and they're exaggerated because they
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know the scenes we're about to see is violent.
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I noticed that with The Curse of
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Dracula, I think it is, The one with Christopher Lee, I think it was 1970.
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I could be the wrong one. Oh, there's that one. Well, there's been quite a few
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Christopher Lee Dracula's, you know, Taste of Blood of Dracula, Scars of Dracula. Yeah.
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But the reds pop, and they're obviously not corn syrup.
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They're there to let people know, you know, wink of the audience that this is cartoon violence.
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I think that could have been to do with the censors as well,
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you know, to sort of almost sort of, you know, get past the censors essentially.
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Where the blood is quite saturated and it doesn't really look like blood.
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I don't know. I could be wrong, but it could be to do with the censors as well.
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Yeah, maybe, but I don't see Hammer and Giallo filmmakers doing that.
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I do think it's an artistic choice, to be honest with you. But censors back certainly.
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Because even when you see some of the works going past when censors were lighting
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up, lighting up, lighting up, they would, they still kind of keep true to their...
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Yeah, I know, but censors, certainly in the UK, back then were a lot more zealous than they are now.
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I mean, obviously things went a bit over the top in the 80s with the video nasty,
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scurrying all that sort of thing.
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But I mean, like I said, I don't know that for certain.
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And maybe a listener could even enlighten us on that more.
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I would have to look it up, but I've always sort of thought there was a possibility
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that it could have been to sort of appease the censors. But like I say,
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that may or may not be true.
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The one thing we're reading up on our boy here, Mary Baba, is his influence.
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I'm a big fan of a director. We talked about that with Walter Hill,
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kind of taking over for Sam Peckinpah, De Palma taking over for Hitchcock, stuff like that.
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And they kind of mirror their icons.
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John Carpenter in Hawks, in Howard Hawks stuff. Yeah.
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And Mary Ababa, when you look up her stuff, a lot of great filmmakers take from
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this particular film itself. Tim Burton.
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And in reflection, if I think back of the certain scenes we're talking about,
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I can see it. You've got Richard Donner's The Omen.
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The graveyard sequence is a complete homage to this.
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You've got Coppola's Dracula, who borrows extensively from this.
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And then you've got, and then we find out, and now I can completely see it,
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especially in this film, Tim Burton's favorite director.
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Horror director is mario obama this is one of his favorite films yeah if you
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if you watch this film for the first time when you're a big tim burton fan the
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score plays a lot like elfman's work,
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and or vice versa of course and if you watch his old his classics period pieces
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like sleepy hollow or even edward scissorhands you would see a lot of this the
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way that she's shot and presented,
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in Tim Burton's later work.
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So, pretty impressive stuff. We did talk about his son, Liberto Bava,
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with Demons, that batshit crazy film. But enjoyable?
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Yeah. Yeah, it was enjoyable. Batshit. That's the actually I was just mentioning.
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That is what we probably would have got from 80s Mario Bava.
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Possibly. His son kind of passed the baton.
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I think Demons is wonderful, but it's just so batshit crazy.
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Oh, yeah. Let's just throw a helicopter in there for the hell.
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And dodgy, junky, badasses and all sorts of, you know, plenty of Evil Dead-style
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sort of zombie creatures and all.
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Yeah, I really like it. Hairband Rock. Oh, yeah.
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If you guys want to listen to that, it's a good one. We did that for Halloween
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month about two years ago. Last year, I think it was. So if you got...
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Was it maybe last year? Maybe it was. I can't remember. But check it out. We did Diebens.
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All right. We're here to jump into Black Sunday, 1960.
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Or also known as the Mask of Satan. Thank God they stick with Black Sunday.
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The Mask of Satan. Now, that sounds like a hammer horror title.
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But I like that. I know. Of course you do, because Satan's about evolving.
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It's in your face as what?
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You sick bastard. No, I just think it's a very provocative title.
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I like provocative titles. they attract Satan Satan and like fucking hollowed
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out trees with naked old people and burning people at the stake this movie's a hard on for you,
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you know well just because you know he's still their own you know what I mean
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I like a bit of Satan possessed trees and my life so,
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or cursed books alright so like most of my films I like minimal cast it's one
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you definitely get I'm gonna butcher those names so fuck off if you get mad
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at me or offended We got Barbara Steele.
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She plays Princess Aza. But also...
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Katia. Yes. She plays two. She plays the dual roles. You got John Henderson who plays Dr. Andreas.
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And then you got Andre Chesty who plays Dr.
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Choma. And then you got the Prince Vaja, Igor, Constantine Vaja.
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And that's kind of it. You got like a priest-y guy in here. And you got the
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poor coach driver who gets his ass kicked.
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The drunk on the vodka. Yeah, the drunk.
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All right. So, the ending gets a little choppy.
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And the one thing in this film, I couldn't stop laughing.
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Not insulting the film. The quick cuts. And I said, ah, here we are.
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We're definitely watching Italian cinema when we have a lot of cutaways when
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you're in one scene and then a half second later, cut to like almost an ending of another scene.
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We talked about that just with the House by the Cemetery, which is poorly done.
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But this one, it works. and we'll discuss it as we go on.
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But yeah, this woman obviously being going to be burned at the stake,
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but I do love the use of this mask.
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This mask is called the Gold's Bridal.
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It's a mask that was used to put on faces. Now, you guys don't have to see it in the film.
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It's that mask that has the fucking points in the face. Spikes inside it. Yeah.
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Yeah. So it's supposed to keep away Satan or something like that.
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But, yeah, so he puts this on this woman's face.
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Now, as always, this movie got an X, unrated, and censored.
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I'm like, come on. Yeah, but for the time, especially the scene where the guy
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with the sledgehammer bangs a mask into your face.
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Yes, love that shot. Yeah. Well, you're calling me a sick bastard.
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I mean, this is the guy that loves women getting a spiked mask put on their
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face, and then the mask rounds me a hammer. First of all, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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She's a witchy woman. she's also a vampire not to take from the eagles so,
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is she a vampire or a witch?
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She's a bit of both, she's essentially a vampiric witch because there is a bit
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of blood sucking on here apparently Bava there were scenes possibly scripted
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where you see blood being sucked but Bava didn't like the effect so he removed them,
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but yes, it's basically a witch and a vampire like a vampiric witch Yeah, well,
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yeah, this movie is definitely, I'm sure he said it himself,
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this is Frankenstein, and this is Dracula.
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You can mirror him in the story here. Well, you've got the angry villagers.
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Yeah, you've got the torches coming. The classic, yeah, classic stuff.
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All right, so when they kill her, and they kill Igor. Yeah, her servant, yeah.
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Well, is that a servant? I thought they were lovers. Well, that sort of,
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yeah, that sort of suggested. I mean, she's a witchy vampire woman.
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She's probably shagging all around her. But she's hot. She's kind of a hot witchy woman.
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And why would she be with him? This guy's like fucking Shrek. I don't know.
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I don't know. Maybe she just, you know, you have to ask her that, you know.
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And she's very, and he's very tall. Yeah. Who knows? Who knows what was going
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on there? But yes, it is sort of suggested they're lovers.
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Apparently there's a cut of this that apparently from what
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I've read up on were in a certain dub version
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I can't remember which country it's also suggested that they're brother and
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sister so like there's an incestuous thing and all but I don't think that's
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the intention with Bava's original that we watched so but yes essentially I
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don't see that I don't think Bava did either you probably would have loved it.
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Because you love your incest films This is fucking Witchfinder General Woods.
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You know what I mean? No, you like, you love the incest crap.
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So you probably went, damn, I want that version. That's your favorite?
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No, you can't say that. Well, you're the Witchfinder General guy.
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You're the one wanting to be. You're the fucking one who loves incestful films.
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You said that on the podcast.
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You're the one who loves to basically beat witches up the face with spike masks
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on with a sledgehammer because you're the Witchfinder General. At first.
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Yeah. Well, hear me out. Hear me out. Before that even happens,
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okay? So you got witchy woman and the guys, the guy is a Modiva,
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a Modiva, Modiva, where are they from?
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And he goes, we're going to put you to death, witchy woman.
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Do you have anything to say, witchy woman, before we take you?
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Well, I'm waiting for her to go like, oh, you know, listen, guys,
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you're wrong. I'm just joking. You're being idiots.
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Blah, blah, blah. But instead she goes, you killing me won't end me.
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I will get my revenge with Satan and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like,
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well, wow, this is really going to sell it.
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Well, I think, well, we'll see back then with those witch trials,
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she was getting killed anyway.
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And also for dramatic effect, we needed her to do that because it's a pretty cool scene.
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And I would say about Barbara Steele, a lot of people have commented about her
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acting, including in this film.
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But you know what? She has an absolutely amazing presence. And those eyes,
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you know, you can totally buy.
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It's her eyes that give her that presence for sure. And she's good in this.
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I put her down when I did Prana.
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I think she was going through the motions with Piranha. She's terrible.
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I don't think she's heard, to be honest.
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Yeah, and neither did her. Or crew.
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She did star in a lot of Italian horror films back then.
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That's where she really found her niche. But apparently she herself,
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again from what I've read, wasn't too fond of horror and was almost embarrassed
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by this. But over the years eventually warmed to it.
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But yeah, Essentially, she has an amazing presence on those eyes, you know.
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So she gets killed, you know, the face mask thing. Yeah. And they put her in
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a tomb because she's a princess.
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And, but the mask seals her from coming out, protects her from coming back. Yeah.
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And so she's sealed, but she still gets her burial that you would,
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if you're a princess, just more. Pretty much.
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Guarded from becoming Satan woman. Yeah, because she's got. Then the other guy,
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Igor, Igor, he gets burned and shucked into the graveyard with other thieves.
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Yes, pretty much. A pauper's grave type thing. Yeah.
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Yeah. Yeah. So after that happens, we're two centuries later.
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Two centuries now. Yeah.
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You know, it's funny. The movie, usually this would fucking annoy me.
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Go ahead. I'm not talking about you, Trent.
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The sound effects. this movie does not
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have a scene at all even when
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the music's playing in the background the wind is
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always going and no matter
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what and you think it would be
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annoying but it's kind of hypnotic and I'll tell you what it works for the film
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because the wind becomes a character well you get used to it so much so that
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you don't even hear it you know you sort of put it to the back of your mind
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but yeah it's all adding to the obvious intentional gothic feel.
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I mean, when you see the two doctors and they're being escorted with the coachman
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and you have this, you know, obviously stage set.
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Yes. Of this forest and stuff. The wind is going and you hear the wolves howling and stuff like that.
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You can see where Tim Burton from Sleepy Hollow. Oh, totally. For instance.
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Or even where Keanu is taking the coach ride.
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Even your boy Edgar did it in Nosferatu with Holt in the coachman.
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You can see a lot in Nod the only difference is Bava can direct Eggers can go
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screw himself because he's a terrible filmmaker that's entirely up to you but this film has been Mr.
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PC Mr. PC I like Eggers stuff it's got nothing to do with political correctness
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I quite like I mean I love The Lighthouse and The Witch I'm sort of on the fence
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with Nosferatu I can't wait for The Wolfman his take on The Wolfman should be
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good that piece of shit that's going to be terrible I bet you it's but a man who doesn't shave.
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And they'll have Finchie from The Office as, I don't know, a depressed damn
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sailor or something in the 1300s, you know? He's the most unoriginal director.
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Same cast in every film. Same set for every film.
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Blah, blah, blah. But he has an original sort of aesthetic use. No. An artistic vision.
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No. No, he does to me. But anyway, we're not here to talk about him.
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But what I'm saying is that— I'm not talking about anybody I want. What? What?
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No, then go ahead. What I'm saying is that this Black Sunday has been hugely
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influential over the resulting years.
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You know what's funny in watching it? I should be laughing at this.
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You know what I mean? Because it is camp. Let's get that out of the way,
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guys. It is camp. It's a classic midnight movie.
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Yeah. There's some... I usually am not a big fan of it.
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But this movie, I was drawn to it. And I do think... You guys,
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elevated horror fans, like to use the word atmospheric, all these new directors.
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Most of them are not. I don't think a lot of people know what atmospheric even means.
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This film is atmospheric. I agree.
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All right. So watch Black Sunday and then watch the ones you think are atmospheric.
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They don't hold a candle to this one. I mentioned the wind a second ago.
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If I watched this and you took away that wind, I'd hate the film.
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Every little sound, every little detail he puts in this film works well as a team.
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And if you take away any of it, like I'll nitpick a couple things coming up.
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I will. That's just the way I do it. But it doesn't hurt the film.
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If it wasn't, if there was another
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director doing it, I'd rip it apart because they did the same thing.
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But it's not coming from Bava because Bava's already one way over with its true atmosphere.
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It's proper artistic sort of aesthetic.
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And yeah, it's genuine. mind.
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So it's Black Sunday in the small town of Modiva. Well, the country is Moldova.
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It's not Moldova. It's Modiva. Yes, but it's in Moldova.
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It's basically, just to cut a long story short, it's Eastern Europe.
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You know, what would nowadays be former Soviet Union, essentially.
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Okay. I do like some fun moments where the doctors are getting to the castle. Yeah.
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And you hear the winds blowing and they're getting a little louder and louder.
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And the doctor finds the old organ with the old pipes, big, huge pipes that
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the old churches used to have.
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And he says, well, the wind is coming from these pipes.
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I do think that was kind of, you know, a nice little wink. Yeah.
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But this is where he finds the body.
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And I do think it's not the body, but the coffin of our girl.
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And he cuts himself. Aja.
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And he cuts himself yeah by the bat by the bat
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now when the bat attacked him and he his blood
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drips under her face and while she's wearing the mask was that bat deliberately
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attacking him or was that just by coincidence it's it's not explained and that's
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okay it could be either you know it's sort of left up to yourself essentially
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but but but it works as a plot device the form of the plot you know absolutely yeah,
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Now, the doctor clearly knows the story of this witchy woman.
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Why would you remove the mask? To forward the plot.
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So he deserves everything he gets. Yeah, well, he becomes like an undead sort
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of servant to her. Yeah, manservant guy. Yeah.
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But I will say this, and this goes back to what I talked about when you had
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Dracula and Frankenstein, but implementing a modern touch to it.
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The visual effects are pretty neat. and I do like when the blood goes into the
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mask and he takes the mask off and you got these bugs and shit it's pretty cool
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and but once the blood starts,
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going into the face more you can see the empty eye sockets and the bubbling
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of the blood and it's pooling and getting bigger and more aggressive and then
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her eyes show up in this white it's actually quite impressive but by today's
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standards would be passable oh yeah there are some very good visual effects here,
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I mean, excellent, you know, for the time, you know, most definitely.
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So we meet Katya, who's the descendant of witchy woman. Yes.
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Her father, the prince, and her brother, Constantine, and their manservant, Ivan.
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That's pretty much a catrish or a cast there.
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You know what I like about the film? The film is an hour and like 25 minutes.
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It doesn't overstay its welcome, which I do appreciate. But most importantly,
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once he bleeds on the face of witchy woman,
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the whole film becomes a pop boiler from there. Yes.
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So everything that happens to them is because of what this doctor has done. Yep.
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Everything that goes on, the resurrection of Igor and so forth.
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And so there's nice looks like the fog starts picking up.
25:04
He likes his use of the fogs. And there's a nice shot where the doctor is looking
25:11
for a ride or something like that.
25:13
And this big fog bank is coming behind him really deliberately thick and then poof, there's Igor.
25:21
Hey, you want a ride? Yeah, that's right. Because we know where he,
25:23
you kind of know where he came from.
25:27
It's just nice because, and technically Asia, the bad witchy,
25:34
doesn't show up until three quarters of the film.
25:36
That's right. Because she's still to be properly resurrected.
25:40
It. It's Igor that's doing basically most of her bidding.
25:44
You know, whenever he basically kills her father and stuff. It's basically Igor's
25:49
the main bad guy for the bulk of this.
25:52
Yeah, he's the hitman. Yeah, exactly. I mean, he's doing her bidding.
25:55
She's the big bad, obviously.
25:57
But yes, she doesn't really appear in full until later on.
26:03
Moldavia. That's the place. Yeah. Yeah.
26:07
But I think it's modern day. It's Moldova. So Eastern Europe there's been a
26:12
lot of changes over the last while I know but we're going to stick with what
26:14
they say in the film okay Mr.
26:18
Geography Teacher yeah that's right I do love how the assistant doc,
26:27
the young handsome hero he falls in love with her right away Katia well Katia
26:33
I mean she's hot don't get me wrong and,
26:37
I mean she is she's a beautiful woman of Miss Steel.
26:42
And she's still alive, isn't she? She is indeed. She must be about 87 or so
26:46
now, or something like that.
26:48
But 88 or so, yeah, I would imagine. Yes. But she's still alive, yes.
26:53
And so he falls for it right away. See, I laugh at that, because,
26:57
you know, that's, again, that's actually how I work is playing, you see, isn't it? Well.
27:02
So, which is fine, which is fine. But then as the film goes...
27:06
I was thinking maybe that's because the reason you mentioned it earlier, her eyes.
27:12
So it's obviously the same actress playing Acadia as well as eyes of the witchy woman.
27:17
So I'm thinking now because she has those eyes that the witchy woman has,
27:23
that's why he's so easily falling in love with her. Nah.
27:26
But her power isn't for bad. Her power is, and she doesn't know she has it, but he's just enhanced.
27:32
He's in trance. Now, I get this a lot of times.
27:36
I can't keep them away I mean as a fact I have the
27:39
word shades all I would say is women would be all over me if Barbara Steele
27:45
in Black Sunday was to walk into your house now she would hypnotize you and
27:52
she would hypnotize me I wouldn't even say in a supernatural way but no basically you know,
28:00
let's call them 65 years old so there are certain,
28:04
melodramatic elements that you would have got in films around this
28:07
era still do to this day but most definitely back
28:10
back then so there is a little bit of melodrama there
28:14
what you sort of expect from a film of this era and
28:17
you know at times it feels quite stage playy you
28:21
know but that's not a complaint it's just more it's
28:25
very of the time in terms of you know old films like
28:28
this although it was 1960 you know so it
28:31
wasn't you know that early but yeah that's not you know that's not a criticism
28:36
it's more just a commentary but basically yeah as i was saying if barbara back
28:42
then had walked up to me she would definitely hypnotize me and she would be
28:47
she would be most welcome to,
28:50
I have nothing but respect for the actress. I would never, you treat her like
28:54
a piece of me. Yeah, you're a perv. Bullshit.
28:56
I apologize to Ms. Steele. This is Witch Founder General who wants to whack
28:59
a spiked mask in her face.
29:03
I'm going by the character and how she sold me on her witchiness.
29:06
That's what I was talking about.
29:08
Yeah, you were not. You were talking about yum yum time. Not at all. Not at all.
29:11
I was being like the sort of handsome young doctor and being a gentleman.
29:16
Yeah. You know? Yeah. You know? Yeah, you tell that to the judge.
29:24
Um so what i
29:26
do like i mentioned it before like i said she doesn't
29:30
really full full come full surface for a while and little things are happening
29:36
i like the little little twist where the paintings are changing yeah i do i
29:40
do think it's funny these people are vile human beings they're executed for
29:44
for being witchy people and yet they still have beautiful prints of them all over the castle.
29:50
No, it's really because they were still basically their ancestors.
29:55
But yes, I suppose if it was basically if Hitler was your ancestor,
29:59
you wouldn't have a picture of him up on your wall.
30:01
But again, you gotta forward the plot. You know what I mean?
30:04
And these are little plot devices.
30:06
So I'm assuming Mario Bava himself, there's some of his own paintings because
30:11
I know the film does feature them.
30:13
But yes, again, sort of gothic tropes, which work for me. I'm happy enough with them.
30:21
When the doc goes back and he sees Aza and she's kind of,
30:26
Getting back into character. And she's, you know, she's heaving in the chest. Yes.
30:33
And he's looking at her eyes. Yeah, he's not looking at her eyes.
30:36
You know what I'm saying?
30:38
I wasn't. Right? And you're calling me a car? Fucking disgraceful.
30:42
I'm respecting the scene.
30:45
There's a difference. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah.
30:47
It's like watching porn for artistic merit. Yeah.
30:52
I see her as an artiste. Yes. Yes. Right.
30:55
Yeah. nothing to do with her witchy chest heaving up and down,
30:58
yeah, exactly so the doctor, Choma he gets hypnotized, he's now.
31:07
He's now Renfield he's a servant, an undead servant he's Renfield pretty much,
31:15
Jesus, I mean he is there's a nice little touch there's a nice little touch,
31:21
the dad's the prince is sick he's dying, and because This house is kind of taking
31:27
over and possessing him.
31:29
And he's lost the plot, but he technically hasn't.
31:32
And so Constantine and Katia asked the doc to come up to help. I think bumps him off.
31:40
Well, no, I do like the little touches where Katia so far hasn't felt anything.
31:48
And it's because she wears this crucifix around her neck. That's what protects
31:51
her. And the father, during his delusion spells, talks about how crucifix will
31:58
do the job, always keep yourself prepared.
32:00
And there's a nice little subtle shot where the doc walks up to the man in the
32:07
bed, the prince, and Constantine and Katya there.
32:10
And Katya turns around with her crucifix, and he slowly just looks away. I know.
32:14
And he just goes, yeah, that's not going to help. You must as well go ahead and put that away.
32:18
It wasn't like, dang. Exactly. I'm overdone.
32:21
Yeah. It was just a subtle way of him going, listen, put the fucking thing away.
32:25
It's not over the top. It's burning my soul.
32:28
Yeah. And I kind of like that. And that's how this whole film does play.
32:33
Little baby steps of getting to the finale. But it's little nice little moments
32:38
like that that I do appreciate that he's put in.
32:40
It's a greatly paced film, I would say as well.
32:43
It is. And like I said, it doesn't overstay its welcome. Yeah.
32:47
So he kills the father. Yep.
32:51
He pretty much breaks his neck. So he's dead. I do like when,
32:58
And he, when the father comes back. Yeah.
33:04
You know when the father comes back to life? Yes, later on, yeah.
33:06
And, yeah, he's undead now.
33:09
And he's going to go after Katia. And Igor says, you're not touching Katia because
33:14
Katia needs to be alive for his woman. He fucks him in the fire. Which is a menage.
33:19
So he just picks him up and shucks him in the fire. And I'll tell you what, though.
33:23
It's an effective little effect. It is, yeah. It doesn't look.
33:26
The bubbling skin and stuff. It doesn't look.
33:27
Yeah. it doesn't look too you know 60s
33:30
it actually looks pretty well pretty good no like i say that
33:33
there are a lot of really good sort of special sort
33:37
of practical effects here you know in terms of you know
33:39
with the blood and the gore and some of the deaths and stuff all very well done
33:43
you finally get a moment of daytime and this is where the milkmaid and the kids
33:50
are playing and they find the dead body of the original coachman that's not
33:54
the coachman during the day that's one of the other servants?
33:58
No, that's the coach driver. No, it's not. Boris. Are you sure?
34:02
Yeah. I thought it was one of the guys. Because the locals are investigating
34:06
him and he goes, who's that? That's Boris, the coach driver.
34:08
That's right, because Igor took over the coach.
34:10
Yeah, okay, yeah, okay. Yes, fair enough.
34:13
Embarrassing. Between that and your sexual harassment against Miss Steele,
34:19
you need to really wind your neck in, as you say, over here.
34:24
Says, yeah, well, says the man who basically was watching her breasts go up
34:29
and down for artistic reasons. Again...
34:34
I was in the moment. Yeah, you were in the fucking moment, all right.
34:37
Oh, you were in the moment.
34:39
You're a fucking child. You are an unprofessional child.
34:44
The dead scene was kind of, the dead scene, the day scene works well because
34:48
when they're finding the body,
34:50
and then they call the doctors over and they're investigating the dead body,
34:54
we're cutting to more relatable scenes that are happening within the castle at the same time.
35:00
You see, Katia is starting to kind of get the same symptoms as Witchy Woman. Yeah.
35:09
She's breathing heavily, like we just saw with Witchy Woman.
35:14
She's had it. And everything. Witchy Woman is having an influence on her,
35:18
which has grown, essentially, as her powers increase, basically.
35:24
You know what I noticed about this? This castle? Yes. They need carpets.
35:29
It's a castle? Is that the 21st century? They had carpets back then,
35:35
or at least a couple of floor rugs.
35:37
Because unless they're in a bedroom or something, which is carpeted,
35:41
because according to you, there's no carpets back then, but there was.
35:43
I know there was. Aladdin had them.
35:45
All right, Mr. and Theater Designer of Gotham's castles.
35:51
Carpets have been around a lot longer probably than pants. I knew that. Jesus was a carpenter.
35:56
What? I didn't say. I said carpets, not carpenter.
36:02
Jesus was a carpenter, so there obviously was carpets back 2,000 years ago.
36:06
Do you know what a carpenter is? I know. It's basically a joiner,
36:10
a woodworker. Yeah, it works with wood. Yes.
36:13
And makes stuff. Yeah, I know. What does carpets have to do with carpentry?
36:17
Well, it's a similar sort of thing. You thought Jesus made rugs. He did.
36:23
He made them for castles. He made them for castles. my point is that,
36:29
fucking Jesus. I can see Jesus. I'm looking for something in the landscape. I was joking.
36:36
You moron.
36:39
Carpentry. Oh, you make me laugh. But no, because they're so loud.
36:43
Clippity clap. Clippity clap. Clippity clap. And it's like. It's not good if
36:46
you're sneaking around.
36:47
Yeah. Oh, they're terrible. Yeah. Especially with Igor. That fucking huge bastard.
36:53
But no, the reason I bring up the day shot and find the body,
36:56
it's now the town folks are starting to put pieces together.
36:59
At the same time, we see the good, you know, the doctor's assistant.
37:02
He's starting to put the piece together.
37:04
And this is, and then the town folk come together at the end.
37:08
So it kind of, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's given us a side story or a side.
37:14
Subplot type thing. A subplot. No, not even a subplot. It's just another sequence
37:18
of events that are happening in relation to what's happening in the castle.
37:22
So, you know, these two are going to nicely meet and, you know, and fight for good.
37:26
But it's it's it's well implemented now he
37:29
has those quick cuts like those quirky quick cuts we get a lot like what
37:32
the fuck are we now that does come to play but they're simpler here it's not
37:36
and he's so you're not as confused when you when you jump back into something
37:39
yeah there is a lot going on here as we sort of get towards the finale and there's
37:43
quite a lot of characters you're sort of jumping back and forward with but but
37:47
but it's well done it's tightly done and it all does come together and makes sense,
37:52
And then, like, the little thing, the milk girl, you see the girl,
37:55
and she's got to go get milk, and it's nighttime, and she's the one who witnesses
37:59
Igor. Yes, that's right.
38:02
Yeah, so she knows that Igor's the one who killed the Boris, the coachman.
38:08
So that comes back into play, stuff like that. And then, of course,
38:11
there's other Gothic troops where they find, like, the secret,
38:15
basically, compartment behind the painting and stuff.
38:19
So they're into these tunnels, you know, within the castle and stuff.
38:22
Yeah, I do like that. There is the best shot of the film. And I'm watching this.
38:29
And even by today's standards, again, it still holds up in seeing it for the first time.
38:36
And I talk about how Bob, this film alone is heavily influenced by other horror filmmakers.
38:44
And this one is a big one guys i'm sure everyone has caught it and it reminds me of michael myers,
38:52
hiding behind the door behind lori strode and
38:55
it's a scene where constantine is looking at a painting and it's
38:59
a painting of our boy igor and on
39:03
the side of it there's a black it's a black clause
39:06
a black black space we know something's coming
39:09
from it yeah that's cliche that's gonna happen but then
39:12
they quickly they quickly turn on a little
39:15
bit of a light and then igor's face shows up there
39:18
is a lot of freeman here even especially with barbara steven stuff you know
39:22
but yes yeah but but let me finish so but that shot is so relevant and still
39:29
used today and like i said the famous shot people's favorite shot in halloween
39:34
is michael myers sitting in the back of the shadows,
39:38
Lori's looking down the stairs, and then all they did was tweak the light,
39:43
and the whiteness of the mask comes out.
39:45
And that's how they present Michael. Mario Bava has been hugely influential
39:51
to the films that we know and love and grew up with.
39:54
The directors like Carpenter and all the rest.
39:58
Even Planet of the Vampires was a big influence on Alien.
40:02
Ridley Scott's Alien. It certainly appears anyway.
40:06
So Bava, the films that we grew up with and sort of cult classics and stuff
40:11
that we grew up with would have been hugely influenced by Bava before them,
40:16
and obviously other stuff, but yes.
40:19
So you've got going through all these passageways and stuff, and,
40:26
Constantine and the doc go, Ivan, you stay here, we're going to run around looking
40:29
for things. Yeah. No. Doc goes, I'm going to the priest.
40:33
Constantine, you go look around. Ivan, you stay here. Well, Ivan's dead.
40:38
And he does get it from Igor.
40:43
No. Yeah, he does. he gets hummed. Yes, he does. Or somebody gives him the role.
40:49
No, it's Igor. And you do find his body.
40:50
You do find his body hanging, and there's little blood coming from his, again, from the 60s.
40:56
It's still pretty effective and pretty, you know, gory.
40:59
You don't see a lot of actual kills. You see more of the aftermath.
41:03
Yeah, it's well handled. You know what I mean? It's not gratuitous,
41:07
but it's still powerful with a lot of the imagery and that combination of the
41:13
imagery and what you don't see as well works very effectively.
41:18
So the priest and the doctor go to Igor's grave. Yes.
41:23
And they find the body of his mentor. Yeah, the other doctor, yeah. Yeah.
41:30
And I do like the little thing where the priest goes, he was never your doctor.
41:36
He's in a better place, actually.
41:38
And he proves it by putting the crucifix on his dead body, and it burns his
41:42
skin. He releases his soul, basically.
41:44
Yeah, I do like. Yeah, then he stakes him in the eye.
41:48
Just to be sure. You know what I mean? We've got to make sure he's dead now.
41:53
Deal with vampires and all sorts here. Yeah, you've got to be sure.
41:56
You're going to stab this bastard in the eye.
41:59
It was the 1930s, man. Wouldn't it be funny if he stabbed him where a glass eye was?
42:05
Yeah, and it smashed. So then he wouldn't be dead.
42:09
Possibly, unless it went right through the glass eye.
42:13
You know nothing about how glass eyes work. Oh, so right, so you're a doctor now, right?
42:18
Right? And an optician, right? I watched Clumbo.
42:23
No one's going to get that joke, the Clumbo joke. I get it. I don't think you did. No, I don't.
42:29
He was being killed off. Constantine, I do like Constantine's his death when
42:35
he falls through the trap floor.
42:36
Again, I like when they play with the secret rooms and it's all classic William
42:42
Castle kind of feel to it.
42:43
Constantine, he doesn't quite die. he's just sort of well you know we're not
42:47
there yet but yes wow wait spoiler alert he comes back not even there yet he
42:52
just spoiled it the whole review for everyone listening well tough.
42:58
There's a really good effect in this it's really impressive not ruined but it's
43:03
kind of inconsistent but it's still a good shot where they bring Igor brings
43:10
Katya's body next to Asia's, right?
43:13
And Asia grabs her and Katya is unconscious.
43:18
So he starts draining. Yeah, transferring basically her essence into her.
43:23
It's a beautiful shot and it's done really well of her aging. I know.
43:27
As she's sucking her blood out or essence, whatever. Again, another brilliant sort of effect.
43:33
Really well done. Here's the problem.
43:36
She doesn't stay de-aged.
43:38
Because she's sort of jumping back and forward, you know, from basically like
43:43
into her body and being young again.
43:45
Later on, I think she ages, you know, at the very end, whenever they finally get her.
43:49
Yeah, that's what I know. See, that's why I'm a little inconsistent.
43:53
It's not a deal breaker, but it doesn't make any sense. So she's sucking her dry. All right. Yeah.
44:01
Different film, guys. Different film. There's a pun I'm dying to make,
44:04
but we'll not go there. Different film, guys. That's a different film.
44:07
Let's not go there. Different film.
44:10
And that's probably one of Trevor's favorite films. But yeah,
44:15
so she's taking her essence technically and you see her aging.
44:19
Then she's like almost human again, technically.
44:24
And besides her chest, you know, you got that skeletal thing going on. Yep.
44:28
But she's almost fully human again. And, but yet there's Katya on the,
44:37
on her coffin, but she's still beautiful.
44:41
So I didn't understand. And then when she's dying, Aja, when she gets it,
44:46
when she's burning at the stake, when they get her again, she's now de-aging,
44:52
but she was never, you know what I mean?
44:55
No, no, I know what you're saying, but I think it still works because Katia is young anyway.
45:00
She's whatever, like 20, 21 or whatever.
45:02
So she's not going to age, but whenever witchy woman is like sucking out part
45:09
of her life, basically Katia isn't going to die, but sorry, she's not going
45:14
to age, but she's going to die instead.
45:16
Do you know what I mean? So then witchy woman, she's like 200 odd years old.
45:20
So she's going to age and then whenever the goodness is taken back out of her
45:27
again at the very end age catches up on her so it does make sense in my head.
45:33
All right, fair enough. As this is all going down, I do like little things.
45:37
I like the fact Constantine is technically alive because Igor was kicking our
45:42
Doc's ass. There's no way he was going to beat this guy.
45:45
And they're fighting in the trap door. And then it turns out Constantine crawled
45:50
his way back out of the trap and grabs him and pulls him.
45:53
Saves the day. Then he dies in Doc's arms. I do like that arc.
45:57
And I do like the fact that you give him something else to do because I thought
45:59
his death could have been kind of wasted. Yeah. But he does come back,
46:02
and it's a solid comeback.
46:04
And I definitely like the shot where Doc goes in there, and he sees Katya,
46:09
and then he sees our girl, witchy woman,
46:12
and he doesn't know who to believe here, who's who, but then he's going to go
46:17
stab Katya, who's in the black dress, in the coffin.
46:20
So, you know, that's his go-to, and that's the bad woman.
46:24
But what he notices, and it's a nice little tell, is that she's wearing the
46:30
crucifix. That's right. That's what saves the day.
46:32
And if she's wearing the crucifix, how could she be a witch? Yep.
46:38
And that's where he flips the tables. I like that. I do like that.
46:41
And that's whenever... But I thought the crucifix would always protect her.
46:45
I thought she would never get hurt. But she had it covered up.
46:49
If she had it used her head, although she was sort of bewitched sort of as well,
46:54
but if she had it uncovered the crucifix and sort of waved it at witchy woman,
46:58
then it would have protected her.
47:00
But she was too bewitched and it was covered up
47:02
i would say as well again back to another great effect i do like the skeletal
47:06
bit where you know barbara evil barbara steel basically isn't complete and she
47:11
pulls down that's that's quite gruesome you know when she pulls down like her
47:15
dress and her back's all like sort of skeleton type you know and goo and all sorts,
47:22
It's still hot. I wouldn't complain. No, I know you wouldn't.
47:30
Yeah. And then the villagers came, the burner and stuff like that.
47:34
And again, that's a very Frankenstein scene.
47:36
But, you know, it is what it is, you know.
47:41
It is definitely a 30s horror film. And that's the 30 style sets,
47:47
the 30 kind of same dialogue, but implemented in the 60s with the 60s mindset.
47:54
That includes with the effects, some of the gores, you know, is amplified.
48:03
Even the, I guess you can say sexual content, it's not really there, but it's implied.
48:10
Yeah. There's other tones there. Yeah. We joked about it, but the heaving of
48:14
the brass was one of them. Oh yeah, totally.
48:16
And I know there was an argument between her and Bobby about that actually, but it all plays well.
48:23
It's an hour and 20 minutes and I just really enjoyed myself.
48:26
I didn't think I would. It's a gothic classic.
48:29
It is a decent one. It is a decent one and it's definitely up there with,
48:33
what's his name? Whale stuff.
48:36
James Whale? Pride of Frankenstein. James Whale. Yeah. It's definitely got a
48:40
James Whale nod. I guess is the perfect way of saying it.
48:42
Yeah, I mean, there's influences there on Bava, which are quite clear,
48:47
but also Bava and this film would, and his other films, would go on to influence so many others.
48:55
So there's a good sort of, yeah, you know, it's all very circular,
48:58
and I like that. So there you go.
49:02
A nice little change of direction for my opinion when it comes to these kind of films.
49:06
I do like the modern monster vision of Fulci with the house by the cemetery,
49:11
but I certainly like it's the, the original Italian horror work.
49:18
Actually, the first, he's done a lot of work before this, but I think,
49:21
I think Black Sunday is the one that put him on the map. He did,
49:26
he did other films, he directed other films on credited and stuff and,
49:30
you know, scenes in other films, you know? Yeah.
49:32
Yeah. He did a lot of, yeah, gun for hire kind of stuff. Yeah.
49:38
Then he found his footing with this one pretty much but it's a good one guys, check it out,
49:42
I would hate them to remake this is one film, one of many you could never remake
49:48
and do it proper justice, it's
49:49
just a one off and it's almost like a lightning in a bottle type thing.
49:54
Please never remake it,
49:56
You know, but next, the remake of Black Sunday. Nobody knows what's been made,
50:02
but I have a copy. Star and Kieran.
50:05
Star and Kieran. Yeah, I could be Igor. And Rebecca Ferguson.
50:09
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Fucking what?
50:15
I'm just kidding, Rebecca. I love you. All right, listen, we're going to wrap
50:20
this one up before we get in trouble.
50:22
That's all we have. Listen, we're going to go back to Mod or Cinema for an hour, a month and a half.
50:27
We're going to be diving into Barbarians, Weapons, Black Phone Part 2,
50:34
and The Prince of Darkness and Suspiria.
50:39
That should pretty much take us into Halloween, month and a half.
50:43
And then we'll be getting geared up with the Christmas announcements.
50:47
And I know you're all looking forward to that whole Christmas movie that Trevor always picks.
50:52
Oh dear so,
50:56
uh but guys download it's been
50:59
wonderful and again always reach out to us at citizen
51:02
frame underscore podcast on instagram and of course facebook or
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you can reach out to us at uh citizen frame at outlook.com if you want to give
51:10
us a shout or send out an email if you're concerned about trevor's behavior
51:14
you know stuff like that always reach out to me i'm always willing to to notify
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the authorities if trevor has always reach out to me yeah especially if you're Rebecca Ferguson,
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yeah sicko yeah I don't mind.
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Easily she'll be like ah ah Ciaran yeah do you want to come on the movie set
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and hang out and I'll be like yeah sure she calls it stalking Ciaran calls it selective walking,
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I just I stole that off Rich Hall that's a Rich Hall joke what's that what's
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that Def Leppard song two steps behind.
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Yeah or the other one by the police every breath I'll be watching Yeah, exactly.
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The best love songs are stalker songs. Let's get it. Well, that place,
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One Every Breath You Take, is a full-on stalker song.
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But yet, it's one of the most played songs for the first dance at weddings and
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stuff, which is not a good start to your wedding.
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To married life.
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On that note. On that note, we're done. Thanks, guys. And we'll be chatting soon.