Woodyanders Sweet Julia Sullivan (a fine and appealing performance by the lovely Trish Everly) works as a teacher for deaf children at an elementary school. Julia's angry and hideously disfigured twin sister Mary (intensely played with seething rage by Allison Biggers) escapes from an asylum a few days prior to Julia's twenty-fifth birthday. Soon thereafter Julia's friends are getting bumped off left and right.Director/co-writer Ovidio G. Assonitis relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, take time to develop Julia as a character the viewer truly cares about, does a nice job of crafting a creepy atmosphere, grounds the premise in a believable everyday reality (for example, we get to see Julia at her job teaching deaf kids), and pulls out all the macabre stops for the super twisted climax. The sound acting by the capable cast keeps this movie humming: Dennis Robertson as the jovial Father James, Morgan Hart as Julia's spunky gal pal Helen, Michael MacRae as Julia's affable doctor boyfriend Sam Edwards, Edith Ivey as loopy landlady Amantha, and Jerry Fujikawa as bumbling handyman Mr. Kimura. The scenes with a vicious Rottweiler attacking folks and ripping out their throats are quite brutal and gory. Riz Ortolani's shuddery score hits the spine-tingling spot. Roberto D'Ettore Piazolli's glossy cinematography provides a slick'n'stylish look. A worthy slice'n'dice item.

tomgillespie2002 Julia (Trish Everly), a disturbed young woman haunted by memories of her abusive and mentally ill twin sister Mary (Allison Biggers), works with blind children near her Savannah home. She learns from her uncle, Father James (Dennis Robertson), that her sister is suffering from a rare skin disease that is killing her, and is persuaded to go and see her for the first time in years. While there, Julia is attacked and abused by Mary who threatens that she is going the kill her. Mary does escape, and Julia finds her friends and co-workers being murdered and mauled by a killer dog that is very similar to the one Mary had when they both children.Added to the Video Nasty list due to some rather gruesome scenes, Madhouse does stand out amongst the others due to its apparent higher- than-you-would-expect budget. I assume this due to the pretty nice cinematography, which makes full use of its sets and features some effective colour patterns. The scenes where Julia is followed through her seemingly gigantic house, almost evokes the likes of Polanski (due to the claustrophobic indoor locations) and Argento (characters running through endless corridors and doors building suspense). Sadly, Madhouse generates little of the actual atmosphere conjured up by these two geniuses and these scenes eventually becomes slightly tedious.Although it looks like a John Carpenter, it is at its heart a by-the- numbers slasher that follows traditions and clichés seen a thousand times. The main appeal is the play on the killer - here being a colossal Rottweiler rather than a man in a mask. This provides the opportunity for some nasty throat removals that feature plenty of blood, but a rather unconvincing fake dog being shaken above the screaming body. The rather macabre climax almost rescues the film, but then descends into a frustratingly slow stalk-and-slash. The fact that its a bit of a slow- burner makes a nice change from usual set-piece-heavy horrors, but horror fans would do good sticking to Argento, Bava and Fulci for their operatic slashers.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Tender-Flesh Red herrings abound in this Video Nasty which was released around the same time as Happy Birthday To Me. They have similar endings and apparently it can't be agreed upon as to which film was released first and who stole from whom. Most people will probably prefer the better known Happy Birthday and will forget this film, but I found it to be one of the better Nasties.Aside from a bogus score, this slasher film is a semi-giallo(OK, not really except for maybe a few scant scenes and you have to pay attention) that has some good moments and, as you might expect, some decent gore. Trish Everly plays Julia, a woman approaching her 25th birthday and her nut case twin sister lives in the mental ward at the hospital. Their parents are dead and the only relative they have left is their uncle, a priest. And, as you'd expect, the director takes the high road and the priest is, of course, involved to some extent in the subsequent murders. Everly, who went on to do nothing after his film, lives in a large house that's been renovated into apartments, and various workers and inhabitants at the home get bumped off. She thinks her sister is planning something for their 25th birthday, and lo and behold, her sister escapes from the mental ward. Her sister, Mary, also has a trained Rottweiler who will kill on command. A surprisingly touching scene shows Julia explaining to the deaf students in her class how a fellow deaf student was killed by the dog. These are real deaf children with varying degrees of speech impediments and other problems, and it brings a tear to my eye. Sniff. But, I digress. Back to the murders. There are actually three killers in this film: two humans and the dog. As others have noted, the dog is the star of the show as he bites throats and rips off hands. Sadly, an obvious puppet is used too often during these scenes as the director obviously didn't know how to handle animal shots.Julia herself is even a suspect, though not outright to the other characters, but to the viewers; her comments in certain scenes make her an unreliable narrator of her past. Be warned if you are an animal or puppet lover: the Rottweiler gets his due towards the end of the film. This is one of the reasons the film made "the list" though there are a few other scenes, such as repeated blows to the back from an axe later on with plenty of chunky goodness to go around.As previously stated, this Video Nasty is some of the better fare on the notorious list and I'll recommend it as a Nasty fan. The film's greatest flaw is the abominable soundtrack. I am rather surprised that Everly never made any other films.

The_Void There Was a Little Girl often falls into the Giallo category, and while there are definitely Giallo elements in the film; I personally would say it's more of a twisted psychological thriller. The influence from Argento is clear, as the film features all of the absurd lighting of one of Argento's masterpieces, and the stylish way that many of the murders are presented reflects this also. This is the first film I've seen from director Ovidio G. Assonitis, and based on the strength of his directorial work here, I'm definitely interested in seeing his Jaws rip-off 'Tentacles', and his Exorcist rip-off 'Beyond the Door'. The plot follows Julia Sullivan; a young woman who is a teacher at a special school. Her childhood memories are haunted by her maniacal sister, who now resides in a mental institution. When visiting her sister for the first time in years, Julia discovers that she has been hideously deformed by a skin disease. Her visit to the hospital happens around the same time as a couple of murders, apparently committed by an insane dog; the same dog that Julia's sister apparently had control of as a child… My main problem with There Was a Little Girl is that it just doesn't feel much like an Italian film; and this isn't helped by the fact that the majority of the cast is made up of American actors. The production values are very good, however, and the cinematography is crisp and clear; and a delight to watch overall. The film does feature a fair amount of blood, although the murders aren't as shocking or as nasty as the ones featured in a number of other popular Italian films, and this makes it rather odd that There Was a Little Girl was a part of the DPP's infamous Video Nasty list back in the eighties. As you might expect given the plot line, a lot of the action centres on the sickness of it's main characters; but the best thing about this is the fact that even though the film presents it's murderer right from the beginning; there are still some surprises contained within the plot, and the film also manages to stay away from becoming too convoluted, and while the final twist requires the viewer to stretch their imagination a little; it just about makes sense. The locations used flatter the plot line in that they're morbid and macabre, and while this film is certainly no masterpiece; it's still worth seeing.