What?! October's almost here?!
Time to clear out some old Cesspool items and get ready!
Lust For A Vampire (1971 - Jimmy Sangster) - Lurid. Heaving bosoms. Lurid heaving bosoms. Heaving lurid bosoms. Bosoms that heave luridly. I think I've made my case.
Flavia The Heretic (1974 - Gianfranco Mingozzi) - Incredibly dull tale of a woman in the 1400s sent to a convent by her father. She eventually seeks revenge on the whole lot of them, but it's too little and too late to save the movie. I'll give the filmmakers credit - it takes a lot of effort to make something with this much nudity and blood (usually appearing together) to be this incredibly disengaging and boring. Bravo. Personally, I could also have done without the graphic horse castration (though it does somewhat fit into the film given Flavia's growing hatred of male domination) and the naked nun who giggles while she crawls out of a gutted horse carcass. Maybe that's just me though.
They Came From Beyond Space (1967 - Freddie Francis) - When numerous meteorites crash to earth in an organized formation, a team of scientists set up shop to investigate. However, once they try to crack into one of the samples, it releases the consciousness of the aliens and allows them to take over individual human bodies. In order to save their own species they commandeer humans (through a plague that appears to kill them), bring them to the moon and enslave them. It's up to one remaining scientist to figure out how to stop these higher order beings by figuring out why they were not able to take over his mind and body. As hokey as it sounds, but reasonably entertaining when they get to some of the nifty sets. They should have done more with the idea though...
Never Take Candy From A Stranger (1960 - Cyril Frankel) - Otherwise known in Britain as "Never Take Sweets From A Stranger". Though dealing with the touchy subject of pedophilia, the film is more about the extent to which people will turn a blind eye when their own livelihood is at stake. The most powerful man in a Canadian town (the film cleverly moves the entire story out of England as a British woman and her Canadian husband relocate when he is offered a new job) manages to keep the entire population quiet about his father's predilection. Until, that is, the recent arrivals find out that their 9 year-old daughter and her friend were cajoled into dancing about without clothes by the old man. They are suitably horrified, but also concerned about where that initial act might lead. The rest of the town - including the other girl's parents - are staying mum on the subject. It's told without sensationalizing the issue and with well-controlled suspense. And it's not afraid to get dark.
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