The Witch in Love

The Witch in Love (La strega in amore/Strange Obsessions). Damiano Damiani, 1966.

😿 😿

Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray set Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror, released 2022. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

Summary: Murdering of cats.

1) A dead cat is found among the plants, 25:26-26:33, strangled and with a rope around its neck.

2) A live cat with a rope around its neck is dragged through a courtyard, 1:25:52-1:26:07. The cat is sprawling, hissing and resisting in every way possible.

These scenes are easily skipped, leaving an interesting adaptation of Carlos Fuentes’ novel Aura.

Sunny/More Than Sisters

Sunny/More Than Sisters. Shaun Costello, 1979.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #184 Peekarama: Sunny/More That Sisters, released 2017. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 164 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals in either feature.

• Sunny. Shaun Costello as Warren Evans, 1979, approximately 72 minutes. 3.5/5❤

• More Than Sisters. Shaun Costello as Russ Carlson, 1979, approximately 92 minutes. 2/5❤

Horrors of Malformed Men

Horrors of Malformed Men (Kyôfu kikei ningen: Edogawa Rampo zenshû). Teruo Ishii, 1969.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2018. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

Summary: Real killing of a snake.

Details: Two legitimately dangerous-looking poisonous snakes ogle a woman in a shower. Teruo Yoshida beats probably nothing on the floor for a while (off-screen), but then 41:12-41:15 we see one of snakes being clubbed to death with a wooden mallet.

Red Shift

Red Shift. John Mackenzie, 1978.

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Edition screened: BFI DVD, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

This superb adaptation of Alan Garner’s novel by the same title was made for BBC’s “Play for Today” series.  The BFI release also includes an inspiring video portrait of the author One Pair of Eyes: Alan Garner, and the entertaining short film Spirit of Cheshire. 

Céline and Julie Go Boating

Céline and Julie Go Boating (Céline et Julie vont en bateau). Jacques Rivette, 1974.

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Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray, released 2017. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 194 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The BFI Blu-ray of this fabulous film also includes Alain Resnais’s 1956 short film Toute la mémoire du monde (1956), and Walter R. Booth’s even shorter The Haunted Curiosity Shop (1901).

The Haunted Curiosity Shop

The Haunted Curiosity Shop. Walter R. Booth, 1901.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Céline and Julie Go Boating, released 2017. No audio track. Runtime approximately 2 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

An entertaining excuse to demonstrate early special effects prowess.

The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse. Robert Eggers, 2019.

😿😿

Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.

Summary: Murder of a seagull.

Details: A seagull attacks Robert Pattinson, who grabs the bird by the legs or head and beats it to death against a cement cistern, 40:22-40:46. The scene is brutal and seems to go on for a long time, four weeks perhaps or maybe just one day.

 

Lisa and the Devil (The House of Exorcism)

Lisa and the Devil (Lisa e il diavolo). Mario Bava, 1973.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2014. Original English language, with original Italian dub as an option. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Arrow BD also includes The House of Exorcism, a version of Lisa and the Devil recut to capitalize on the success of The Exorcist.

 

Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookies. Theodore Gershuny, 1973.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #043, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.

The first ten minutes of Sugar Cookies are stilted and odd. Turns out, there’s a reason for that and yes it does look like a wig. I recommend smiling and nodding through this short sequence and allowing an entertaining film which is not a Vertigo remake to unwind.

Mary Woronov’s performance and stage presence shoved me over the hump of not understanding why she is loved even in the not-sarcastic world.

Some interior sets in Sugar Cookies are a treat, specifically those filmed in a gorgeous beaux arts house sparsely furnished with biomorphic Eero Aarnio and Raymond Loewy furniture. Oh, how we envy the homes of sophisticated people in movies. Typically, the more suave the occupants, the less furniture on the floors and stuff on the walls, but how well-chosen each of those things is. Oh. My. God. That is how I am going to redecorate. But when you do move into an empty house, Job Number One is to haul out all the inherited crap you and your parents have been dragging around for 50 or 100 years, and spread it around the house like mulch or blown foam insulation.

Olivia

Olivia (A Taste of Sin/Prozzie/Double Jeopardy). Ulli Lommel, 1981.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #312, released 2929. English language. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Raising Cain

Raising Cain. Brian De Palma, 1992.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray Director’s Cut, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Trilogy of Terror

Trilogy of Terror. Dan Curtis, 1975.

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Edition screened: Kino/Lorber Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Karen Black stars in all three segments of this famous made-for-TV anthology of short films, “Julie”, “Millicent and Therese”, and “Ameilia”. 

This release includes a 17-minute interview with Karen Black from 2006 called “Three Colors Black” that was a real eye-opener. Throughout most of the interview Black relates her believable rise from Broadway chorus girl to TV actress to Hollywood star. But she closes with a smack to the head in which she explains the difference between horror and science fiction, a description so memorable in its unbelievability that I can recall it quite accurately.

Very close to quoted, Black explains: Horror is about cutting up bodies. It’s about blood, and bodies not staying together. Science Fiction is about concepts like going to the moon. I have only ever done Science Fiction films, never horror. I’ve only made concept films based in science.

She concludes by crediting Trilogy director Michael Curtis for teaching this to her. Mind you, we have just watched three short films that are psychological horror in any literate person’s assessment, the first two being adaptations of common Poe-style Gothic tales and the last a fairly bloody Chucky-style story about an unstoppable killer doll. They are unified by a solid absence of anything like Science Fiction. Black also unknowingly discloses that she does not understand that this made-for-TV horror trilogy is a substantial downgrade from the important, quality films that launched her career such as Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces. 

I suspect that during the Slasher Film era of the 80s and 90s, Karen Black became embarrassed and confused by her status as a Horror Queen and wished to differentiate that she never made those kind of movies. Agreed, confirmed, whatever. More significantly to cineasts, perhaps a parallel to the career of Klaus Kinsky has been revealed. That exquisite German method actor fell from hyper-A list status to picking up dopey roles in spaghetti westerns and cheap horror films because he was impossible to work with. He deserved his reputation for sinking productions with his childish behavior and for bringing costly struggles to the set that outweighed his talent. Similarly, perhaps it became unacceptably exasperating for directors like Coppola and Schlesinger to continue working with an actresses who unfortunately seems to be as stupid as she looks despite the intermittent sexual attractiveness of that stupid appearance.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter

The Blackcoat’s Daughter. Osgood Perkins, 2016.

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Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.

Certified Copy

Certified Copy (Copie Conforme). Abbas Kiarostami, 2010.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #612, released 2012. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Criterion Blu-ray also includes Kiarostami’s The Report (1977).

Usher

Usher. Curtis Harrington, 2002.

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Edition screened: Included on Flicker Alley Blu-ray The Curtis Harrington Short Film Collection, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 38 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Zigeunerweisen

Zigeunerweisen. Seijun Suzuki, 1980.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray set The Taishō Roman Trilogy, released 2017. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 144 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Belly of an Architect

The Belly of an Architect. Peter Greenaway, 1987.

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Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The BFI release also includes Greenaway’s 1981 exposé on British domestic designer Terence Conran, made for the BBC series Insight (14 minutes).

Blind Chance

Blind Chance (Przypadek). Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1987.

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Edition screened: Included in the Kino DVD box set The Krzysztof Kieślowski Collection, released 2005. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 114 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Kino DVD also includes the short film Workshop Exercises (1986).

The Dark Mirror

The Dark Mirror. Robert Siodmak, 1946.

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Edition screened: Olive Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Dark Water (Nakata)

Dark Water (Honogurai mizu no soko kara). Hideo Nakata, 2002.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2016. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.