THE BLACK CAT (1989) (AKA: Demons 6: De Profundis) While filming a trashy adaptation of Poe’s The Black Cat, actress Anna (Florence Guérin) is cast by her director husband (Urbano Barberini) to play the witch in an upcoming remake of Argento’s Suspiria. Soon after, Anna begins having visions of a hideous hag who enters reality through a mirror. The real witch, Levana, doesn’t want her reel story told and terrorizes Anna with thoughts of sacrificing her baby. An occult expert’s guts spontaneously explode out in a geyser of blood before she can warn the screenwriter not to proceed in detailing Levana’s life—the writer is subsequently attacked by a black cat. I think. The longer this Black Cat goes on, the more ridiculous and confusing it gets. Bond starlet Caroline Munro (The Spy Who Loved Me) plays a competing actress so desperate for the role of Levana that she becomes possessed by Levana. I think. It turns out there is no Levana. It was all just a magic trick performed by another actress (Luisa Maneri) who’s actually a mutant with alien powers—which is all the product of Anna’s dream! I think. And you thought David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive was confusing! An absurd piece of Italian splatter that must be seen to be believed.
EQUINOX (1970) People on a scientific excursion are met with danger in the form of demonic creatures after being given a spell book by a demented wood hermit. The monsters come in several forms, including a tentacled beastie that destroys a building, a winged serpent, and a simian-like mutant that resembles King Kong. Ultimately, the sole survivor of the slaughter is locked away in a mental hospital where his story is recorded by a doctor and used in the form of a convenient flashback narration by the filmmakers. This shoestring production has charm to spare but gets by only to a point—the impressive low-budget effects help to keep your attention away from the paper-thin plot, but by the 45-minute mark it’s clear Equinox would have worked better as a short subject, which, ironically, is what it started out as. The movie was made over the course of several years, beginning in 1967, which would explain the constant changes in hairstyles and one actress’s weight fluctuation.
THE RIPPER (1986) A film professor (Tom Schreier) teaching a course on crime cinema finds a ring once belonging to Jack the Ripper and slowly becomes possessed by the spirit of the Whitechapel Murderer. After slipping the ring on, Schreier begins having violent dreams in which he slices up women with a surgical knife, the nightmares coinciding with a string of real killings in the area. Multiple victims have their throats graphically slashed open and their intestines spilled, the special effects for which are surprisingly good for such a low-budget production. There’s a modicum of character development, and some suspense to go along with the bloodshed, but not nearly enough to withstand The Ripper‘s 102-minutes. Even Tom Savini’s brief appearance as the physical manifestation of Jack does little in adding any excitement to an overlong exercise in camcorder cinéma vérité. Director Christopher Lewis is the son of Loretta Young.
