Recent Viewings, Part 2

[FatFreddysCat]

"Burial Ground" (aka "The Nights of Terror," 1981)
Three couples arrive at a villa in the Italian countryside, planning to have a weekend of fun and fornication. Unfortunately, they're soon under siege from a horde of zombies, awakened from an archeological dig on the property. Yes, that's the whole plot.
This virtually plotless Italian splatter fest has some cool looking zombies and gross-out effects, but the main reason it's remembered today is the bizarro casting of Peter Bark, a 25 year old midget, as a creepy 12 year old kid who has a rather, shall we say, unhealthy fixation on his boob-a-licious Mom. This eventually leads to the film's most notorious scene, which I will not spoil, but I will warn that it'll make you say "HOLY s**t I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY WENT THERE!"
You can safely avoid this one unless you have a fondness for barely coherent Spaghetti schlock.

[M.10rda]

THE PORTRAIT (1915):
At last, kind of an actual horror movie from the silent era! This is a rare live action effort from animator Wladislaw Starewich that originally ran 45 minutes. For a while, it was thought that only 8 minutes had survived, so I watched those on Youtube...

Wow! No spoilers in case you have 8 minutes to spare - this starts as a typical stagey silent flick and then near the end hits you with a legit jump scare that is super-creepy and well-executed. Starevich actually pulls off a "special" effect, similar though even more effective to the one in the beginning of 1919's EERIE TALES starring COnrad Veidt. If we could pretend that THE PORTRAIT was only 8 minutes long, it would be a 4.5/5 easy.

But, impressed as I was, I did research and found another 14 surviving minutes of the full 45-minute PORTRAIT. These scenes depict some of what happens to the main character after the jump scare, which is kind of boring. They also include a flashback which explains the backstory behind the jump scare... which is mildly interesting and includes another pseudo-"special effect", but which I could've lived without. I suppose THE PORTRAIT is missing its climax, which might be as exciting as the first 8 minutes, but who knows.

Another one of those "the more I knew the less I liked it" scenarios, though it's still worth watching those first 8 minutes!    3.5/5