RECENT VIEWINGS (Bad Movie Thread!)

[M.10rda]

Okay, but now you have to do ...N THE HOOD.

[zombie no.one]

Okay, but now you have to do ...N THE HOOD.

pretty sure that's the only one I have seen... a somewhat demeaning endeavour for all involved, especially me.

[M.10rda]

TRILOGIA DE TERROR (1968):
...Not to be remotely confused w/ Dan Curtis' TRILOGY OF TERROR, the one w/ the killer doll et al. This is a Brazilian anthology by three different directors, only one of whom (Coffin Joe) I am familiar with. This is "horror", but, uhh - well, it's Brazilian horror from the 60s, and that seems important to acknowledge in some way. In undergrad the intro theory professor made us watch the 1967 Cuban film THE ADVENTURES OF JUAN QUIN QUIN. Some of my hipper or more progressive fellow students went along w/ our hippie professor and insisted that JUAN QUIN QUIN was just the coolest movie ever, but I didn't get it then and I probably wouldn't get it now, either. The only difference is that now I realize it's a product of the specific culture and framework within which it was made, one which I don't have a ton of awareness about. Likewise, probably, TRILOGIA DE TERROR: I didn't find it scary or well-made or compelling, but, maybe that's just me bein' White.

The first (and longest) installment initially seems like a period "western", though gradually it reveals that it may be taking place in the contemporary 1960s, though maybe not. Some poor rural folks are embroiled in dark shenanigans involving forced prostitution and a murder plot and some gunslinger/outlaw-types. Then after about 25 minutes it's revealed that there's also a Manson Family-type sex cult living in a cave in the woods, up to more dark shenanigans. That said, this was made in '68 and no one knew about the Manson Family until after the Tate-LaBianca murders in '69, so again, my interpretation is purely spurious. To confuse this viewer further, a Jesus-type peasant occasionally wanders through the village, and then at the very end of the installment it's revealed that he is actually Jesus.......  ...Even w/ subtitles, this made little sense to me and did little for me. There's some nudity and a little blood but nothing worth writing home about.

The second installment made more sense to me: a moderate/mainstream Dad in a small town has nightmares that his adolescent son will be indoctrinated into and brainwashed by a violent leftist militia.  Okay, I personally would welcome a modern American leftist militia w/ open arms, but in the language of this short, the bad guys are pro-gun extremists who want to kidnap kids and kill their parents, so - I can relate to that being a scary idea. I still didn't find this one scary in execution, but at least it tracks in theory.

The third installment is the Coffin Joe one. That'll be worth the wait, right?  So, this one is (again, theoretically) universal in theme: a dude afraid of being buried alive. He has nightmares of enormous snakes (yuck!) - which I guess, indeed, could be underground in your coffin were you buried alive. Then, to spice up the proceedings, the dude's girlfriend gets gang-r***d in front of him. There's no explicit nudity or thrusting - mostly just a bunch of dudes piled on the actress, and then close-ups of her agonized face, and cut-ins of the dudes sniffing her various pieces of clothing.  But it is edited fairly... vigorously? So it feels more violent and graphic than it is.  Then at the end (?SPOILER?) the dude is buried... alive... of course. His friends dig him up quickly. Somehow during the brief duration he's underground, he's had cheap Halloween make-up applied to his face and eyes.  The End. Honestly, besides the vigorous r@pe editing, Coffin Joe isn't a good filmmaker.

2/5    Maybe Brazilians dig it!