Tag Archives: The Wicker Man

A Slippery Slope to Terror

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The Estonian film poster for the 2015 survival thriller GHOST MOUNTAINEER.

There are no actual ghosts in Must Alpinist (English title: Ghost Mountaineer, 2015) but all of the main protagonists – a six member team of college students – face imminent danger and possible death in the treacherous landscapes and freezing weather of the Buryatian mountains in Siberia. Based on a real incident experienced by the film’s director, Urmas E. Liiv, in 1989, this is one of the rare feature films made in Estonia by a native filmmaker and it turns out to be an unusual hybrid of various genres.

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Masks Are Powerful

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The demonic mask featured in ONIBABA (1964), Kaneto Shindo’s classic tale of murder and retribution set in 14th century Japan.

There is one cinema gimmick that always works for me and can sometimes lift a movie out of the ordinary and take it somewhere unexpected. This usually occurs when someone either puts on a mask or appears in one. The simple act of doing this immediately brings something theatrical and visually arresting to the scene that taps into our subconscious on an almost primeval level.    

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Satanic Sisterhood

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(from left to right) Haydee Politoff, Ida Galli and Silvia Monti in Queens of Evil (aka La Regine, 1970)

(from left to right) Haydee Politoff, Ida Galli and Silvia Monti in Queens of Evil (aka La Regine, 1970)

Tales of the Devil seducing and destroying man have been a popular theme in cinema since the silent era but Queens of Evil (aka La Regine,1970) puts a new spin on the concept which departs from the more familiar treatments we’ve seen in Faust (1926), The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) or Rosemary’s Baby (1968). It’s weird, dreamlike, sexy, ominous, often unpredictable and unintentionally funny at times (in the English dubbed version). Though often lumped in the Italian horror category, Queens of Evil, directed by Tonino Cervi, is closer to a gothic fairy tale for adults or a cautionary allegory for its era about young idealists who reject the status quo but are susceptible to corruption when their innermost desires are unleashed.    Continue reading →