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clevershark
Reviews
Faces of Death IV (1990)
90% faked... and poorly at that.
Basically this film's a mix-bag of old news footage and poor fakes. It's a very low-budget film and it shows -- clearly the producers of this film had very little money for actors, so you actually recognize the faces of the "participants" in a lot of the scenes which are said to occur in very different places and times. You'll see someone die tragically one moment, then miraculously come to life again for the next tragedy... this is a very silly film, but then that's pretty obvious from the over-the-top introduction by "Dr. Louis Flellis".
Even if you don't have a good eye for faces, the faked nature of many of the "shocking footage recently recovered" is so obvious it's a wonder anyone can not spot it. The "bungee" scene, supposedly taken with one camera on the roof, has a cinematic cut to another scene at ground level. In the tiger scene, the wounded man mysteriously changes clothes between the time of the attack and the arrival of the paramedics (he starts off in camouflage, but ends up wearing blue coveralls, and his hair changes color too). I understand the whole "voluntary suspension of disbelief" idea, but this film is quite poor even by exploitation flick standards.
La comtesse noire (1973)
Surprisingly inept and disappointing
I came to hear of Jess Franco, like most of those in my generation, from Vampyros Lesbos, and was quite keen to see "Female Vampyre" (as it appears on DVD). These are two completely different movies, to say the least.
First, the directing of Les Avaleuses is surprisingly inept. Shots are often out-of-focus in inappropriate situations, otherwise beautiful panoramas are ruined by unsteady hand-holding of the camera, and the zoom lens is frankly abused.
The plot is even thinner than that of Vampyros, which is saying quite a bit. The acting on the part of practically everyone is bloody awful. "Lina Romay" may look a bit like Soledad Miranda but she has none of the screen presence which was Soledad's.
Also, let's face, this is a very silly film. It is neither explicit enough to be a porno, nor interesting enough to be a decent movie.
Also the music sucks. I was most disappointed in that. I was expecting something much more funky.