FILLMORE DISCOS 45 - '70s RARITIES 3

Kill Baby Kill, 1968 (****)
Mario Bava's classic prototype for all little-girl ghost films ever since is both aesthetically beautiful and memorably creepy enough to transcend the severe limitations of the genre, not to mention some rather gaping holes in its plot

Island Of Death, 1975 (*****)
epic perversity from Greece about a murderously sociopathic couple holidaying on the island of Mykonos; shameless genre-lovers will revel in this mindboggingly relentless odyssey of sleaze and shocks; also, check out the creepy mix of analog synths and acoustic sounds on the marvellous soundtrack

Burning Lips, 1976 (***)
it's testament to Leonora Fani's astounding talents that a film like this, which - with European porn theatre audiences in mind - seems to have been edited with a rusty hatchet, is actually more than watchable; her unrivalled on-screen kissing skills need to be seen to be believed

Lipstick, 1976 (*****)
the extraordinary Polnareff soundtrack and moving performances from the Hemingway sisters elevate this shocking drama to the heavens; make sure to get the full uncut version of this 70s classic

Winter Heat, 1976 (****)
all the girls in porno grindhouse Winter Heat get to genuinely enjoy Gillis at his very best mixing up his deadly repertoire of improvised verbal bullying, sleazy negative compliments, and even some surprisingly affectionate lovemaking

Suspiria, 1977 (**)
despite a couple of lush set-pieces and undeniably fabulous locations, this movie fails in several ways that matter: actors that are completely out of their depth, a dreary script, and some really poor pacing - for me, and I know many will disagree, Argento rates poorly alongside other Italian giallo directors

Midnight Heat, 1983 (**)
Jamie Gillis was untouchable in many ways, but unfortunately straight acting wasn't one of them, much as he and others would have liked it to be; Roger Watkins' (Last House On Dead End Street) brave attempt to make an arthouse porno falls flat

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A Numbers Game (*)
it's got Steven Bauer and some lovely tarty 80s clothes on display, so you want to like it - sadly, and evident in the clunky script and over-eager editing, the film is completely overwhelmed by its indie pretensions

Taxidermia (**)
while Taxidermia, an exploration in bucolic Hungarian insanity, lacks absolutely nothing in artistic originality and ugly raw shock value, it just isn't that much fun

Choke (*)
a smug indie sex comedy whose dishonest humour is so self-conscious you almost sense a studio audience just at the edge of the set consisting of the cast's weekend drinking buddies

Survival Of The Dead (*)
within the subgenres of horror, and in good part thanks to more Romero rubbish like this (and Danny Boyle's execrable efforts), I now rate zombies uncooler than even vampires, certainly well below  aliens, ghosts, oversized reptiles, sharks, cannibals, and clockwork toys

Invisible Target (**)
if you enjoy scenes involving state-of-the-art choreographed glass-smashing, explosions, and bodies (often burning) flying around by every conceivable means, then this is your movie: technically, it's light years ahead of the Hollywood equivalents - unfortunately, it's just as full of the same braindead moralistic legitimising

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