Pluskylang Great Film overall

HeadlinesExotic Boring

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Bezenby This is a 'quirky' (crap) seventies horror film that's eccentrically filmed (the director was on drugs) which idiosyncratic tendencies (penchant for goofy hippy shenanigans)but visually pleasing, in the aesthetic sense (please be drunk before you watch this one), the acting is almost academic in its execution (the actors are so wooden you can buy them from B&Q), the script titillating (like someone tugging your scrotum with a fish hook), and the pacing of the plot erratic (so bad I had to review this one 'live') see below: ...okay now someone's naked...and dancing...no wait she's not naked it's just so dark...why has that woman got a football strapped to her head?...is that a fish?...WHAT IS THIS RITUAL ABOUT?...no wait it's a knife...can't see a thing now...it's a law in the seventies to use xylophone soundtracks when someone has been drugged...?????????...right someone talking Poe again...sounds like that Arthur Pym one...it would help if I could see what's going on...now he's walking up a corridor he just dreamt...and I'm none the wiser as to what I'm meant to see here...'you have three shadows even though you refuse to believe me'...darkness again...that chick's covered in grapes....there's almost a story now...more 'zany' xlyophones...nothing of interest has happened for 20 mins...there's a lot of bare bums in this film...and a naked chick on a horse...wait a minute Peter Greenaway nicked this scene for Prospero's books!...now there's a band where a guy's playing a crab...and people dressed as crows...won't the torture end?

Red-Barracuda This is a Mexican adaption of the Edgar Allan Poe story 'The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether'. It tells the tale of a journalist who travels to a sanatorium to report on eccentric medical techniques practised there. This is frankly a really bizarre feature. Right from the get go this is odd. It is sort of a horror film yet its atmosphere is almost quirky a lot of the time. The music reflects this by being spectacularly inappropriate throughout. I suppose with a central idea of the lunatics taking over the asylum, the general off-kilter strangeness is imbued in the music and general mood. There is a multitude of oddball characters that feature throughout the picture, culminating in a finale involving menacing chicken people. No, seriously.I guess this movie can best be described as a surrealist film. Seeing as its Mexican and made around the same time as Alejandro Jodorowsky was making movies this makes more sense. There must've been something funny in the Mexican tap water back in the early 70's. So I suppose it will probably appeal more to those who appreciate weird art films rather than anyone after a Gothic horror yarn, which to be honest this film really isn't. While it's certainly a memorably nutty film, it would be remiss to not mention that it's a little rough around the edges as well. It's really a mixture of quite bad film-making with some pretty impressive moments. The overall strangeness is probably ultimately its chief selling point though. So if you have an interest in the bizarre then this certainly will tick a few boxes for you on that score.

ferbs54 It was the grisly demon-possession flick "Alucarda" (1978) that first made me aware of the talents of the late, underrated Mexican director Juan L. Moctezuma. Anxious to see more, I popped in the DVD for Moctezuma's first film, 1973's "The Mansion of Madness" (also, fortunately, on the Mondo Macabro label), and was pleased to discover that it is another winner, although much less disturbing and intense a horror outing than "Alucarda." The film nicely captures and expands Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 short story "The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether" (one of many that Roger Corman never got around to adapting!), and shows what can happen when the inmates of a madhouse literally take over the asylum. In the film, we make the acquaintance of a young man named Gaston Leblanc who has recently graduated from journalism school in 19th century America, and played by hunky dude Arthur Hansel (who looks a good 20 years too old for the part). Leblanc returns to his French homeland to do a story on a mental institution run by one Dr. Maillard (Claudio Brook, the doctor turned demon slayer in "Alucarda"), whose innovative "soothing system" of letting his inmates run free has been causing quite a stir in medical circles. But shocking surprises await Leblanc as he enters the titular "mansion of madness"....This film, I should say, starts out very strangely, and Maillard's initial tour of his institution may cause some viewers to shake their heads in bewilderment. My advice would be to stick with it, though, as several plot twists serve to both clarify matters and ratchet up the suspense. Novice film director Moctezuma gives the viewer something interesting to look at in virtually every shot, especially toward the picture's conclusion. That banquet sequence is a literal phantasmagoria of oddball characters doing unusual things, the frame filled with hyperkinetic wonder. Kudos also to cinematographer Rafael Corkidi, especially for his stunning work outdoors. A welcome addition to the Poe story here: a romantic subplot of sorts featuring an inmate named Eugenie, played by beautiful Ellen Sherman. And speaking of "beautiful," Susana Kamini, who played the gorgeous Justine in "Alucarda," can be seen in this film as well. Look sharp: There she is, playing the topless inmate on the receiving end of that fishing pole! Opening with a pensive voice-over amongst lovely country scenery and concluding with a seeming homage to--of all people--"Little Caesar"'s Rico Bandello, the picture is a fascinating experience from beginning to end. Thanks again, you Mondo Macabro maniacs!

BaronBl00d Absolutely dreadful Mexican film supposedly based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe about a newsman wanting to go into the confines of an asylum hidden in the woods to write a story about how it works, etc... When our hero, Gaston, is given the grand show by Dr. Maillard, head of the asylum, we see all kinds of things which are suppose to be horrific, such as men hanging around long in a dungeon, and comedic, such as our hero being joked upon by soldiers as he climbs down a ladder hanging over the side of a building. Then there is one sight which might have been meant to be both: a human man dressed as a chicken, yes, that's right a chicken, that pecks around the ground for chicken feed. The scene was to be a comedic highlight of the film, but, at least for me, it was the film's low point and really most revolting when you considered that grown men and women thought this might even be remotely entertaining. Ah! That is indeed the real horror that is Dr. Tarr and his Legion of Name Changes. And that brings me to this salient fact about the film which is most films that undergo multiple title changes usually have some kind of serious problem. Yes, this is obvious, but some have distribution problems and others, of which this is one, have numerous title changes so that someone might unsuspectingly buy the same garbage more than once. This is definitely garbage. It has very little going for it. The only performer worth having a look at is Claudio Brook as the head of the asylum. He is one huge slab of ham as he laughs maniacally, bellows orders, sashays with sword in hand, and praises the chicken. I got so tired of hearing him talk about the "soothing system" as his means to cure the mentally sick. What a bunch of ludicrosity(Hey, a film like this with a script like this deserves this kind of word). It won't take you long to figure out what is going on in the asylum nor will it be any more interesting. Cinematic chicken scratch!