Scott Aaron Stine - The Gorehounds Guide to Splatter Films of the 1960s and 1970s

The Gorehound's Guide
to Splatter Films
of the 1960s and 1970s

by SCOTT AARON STINE

Frontispiece: The Monster of Piedras Blancas.

The Gorehound's Guide to
Splatter Films of the 1960s and 1970s

Acknowledgments

The following sources were consulted while I was writing this book:

The Amazing Herschel/ Gordon Lewis, Asian Trash Cinema, Asian Cult Cinema, Bizarre Sinemal, Brutarian, Carnage, Castle of Frankenstein, Cinefantastique, Cinema: A Critical Dictionary, Cult Movies, Deep Reed, The Deep Red Horror Handbook, Delirium, Demonique, DraculaThe Vampire Legend on Film, Draculina, Ecco, L'Ecran Fantastique, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies, European Trash Cinema, Eyeball, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Fangoria, Fantastic Cinema Subject Guide, Fatal Visions, Fear, Film Directors: A Complete Guide, Film Threat, Film Threat Video Guide, The Film Yearbook, Filmfax, Flesh & Blood, For One Week Only, Foreign Affairs, G.A.S.P., GICK!, Giallo Pages, Gore Creatures, The Gore Gazette, The Gore Score, Gorezone, Grindhouse, Headpress Magazine, Highball, Horror Fan, Horror Holocaust, House of Horror, Imagi-Movies, Immoral Tales, Is It... Uncut?, Killing for Culture, Knights

of Terror, Little Shoppe of Horrors, Magick Theatre, Midnight Marquee, Midnight Movies, Monster International, Movie Fantastic, Naked! Screaming! Terror!, Necronomicon, Obsession, The Official Splatter Movie Guide, Oriental Cinema, Outre, The Overlook Film Encyclopedia of Horror, Painful Excursions, Photon, Psychotronic, The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, Reflections of a Teenage Gorehound, Samhain, Scarlet Street, Scary Monsters, Schlock-ORama-The Films of Al Adamson, Scream Queens Illustrated, The Seal of Dracula, Sex-Murder-Art, The Shape of Rage, Shivers, Shock Value, Shock X-Press, Sickoid, Slaughter House, The Sleaze Merchants, Sleazoid Express, Spahetti Splatter Holocaust!, Splatter Movies, The Splatter Times, Starburst, Terror on Tape, Toxic Horror, Trash Compactor, Trashola, Trauma, The Underground Film Bulletin, Uncut, Ungawa, Variety Movie Guide, Video Junkie Magazine, Video Movie Guide, Video Watchdog, Videooze, Videosonic Arts, and World of Fandom.

Special thanks go to Lorren Bell, Devon Bertsch, Charles Dawson, Laurie Dawson, Duane Eilf, Robin Harris, Ben Radford, Gerald Stine, Judy Stine, Tim Towns, Michael von Sacher-Masoch, and T. Andrew Wahl for their invaluable assistance and contributions.

Additional thanks go to Jim Becker, Gary Hill, Hugh Newton, Peter Gilmore and Larry Schemel.

Any suggestions for additions or revisions will be greatly appreciated. These and any questions or comments can be sent to the author in care of the publisher.

Contents

Preface

Welcome, fellow splatterpunks and trash film aficionados, to The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1960s and 1970s. This handy reference book should make it a little less of a chore for completists and genre enthusiasts to track down information pertaining to their favorite films and most beloved filmmakers' output.

Being one of the aforementioned film geeks, I know what it is like to be at a loss as to just who "A. Frank Drew White" actually is, or to wonder what the original Spanish title for Don't Open the Window is, or if II Tuo Vizio a una Stanza Chiusa a Solo Lo Ne Ho la Chiave actually means something in Italian. Of at least equal importance are: is this film available on video, what label released it, and what are the running times of the available prints?

Of course, this information is geared more towards the lost souls who, like myself, live and breathe this dreck; for those who are simply curious about a particular film (and are-for some odd reason-hung up on finding out if the film in question

is actually good before they spend their hard earned bucks on what could be a turkey), I also took the time to review each and every one of these cinematic killing sprees. (Considering some of the crap I've had to wade through, you should be extremely thankful that I've actually taken the time to, you know, actually watch-or fast forward througheach and every film just so I can warn you about which ones to steer clear of.)

So whether you're a dedicated enthusiast praying for an invaluable tool in sorting through the bloody mess that comprises the splatter genre, or you're a burgeoning fan browsing for a primer into the world of celluloid carnage, this book should have what you're looking for. (By the way, if you answered Jesus Franco Manera, No Profanar el Sueno de los Muertos, and "Your Vice Is a Closed Room and Only I Have the Key" to the above three queries, you're obviously one of the former. God help you.)

Originally, this compendium was to be a complete overview of splatter films as a genre from 1963 to the end of the century. When problems of sheer scale arose, I was forced to make several revisions, not the least of which was breaking it up into three separate volumes. The first of these volumes you now hold, and encompasses those films made from 1963 through 1979. (The second planned volume will span 1980 through 1989, and the third-I'm sure you can see it coming-1990 through 1999.)

Now, on to the essentials.

To avoid any confusion as to exactly what constitutes a splatter film, I will now attempt to define it as clearly and succinctly as humanly possible (a not easy task, I assure you):

Admittedly, this definition is still vague-especially to those individuals unfamiliar with the genrebut most film buffs tend to accept this as the criterion "splatter" films must meet. Since my standards might vary slightly in certain areas (especially concerning "fringe" productions), I will attempt to clarify why certain films which otherwise

might qualify under the above definition didn't make it into my guide, or why others seemingly not up to snuff did.

The biggest stipulation I would like to add to the above definition is that "blood alone doth not a splatter film make." Unless the red stuff is in copious amounts, it is the open wound itself that usually garners a film the "splatter" labeling. Before I start getting too clinical, I would like to add that, yes, I might on occasion stray from the rules I myself have set, but only if I feel that the film in question is otherwise important contribution to the genre.

One distantly related genre that I took great pains to avoid, though, was the mondo film. The term "mondo" is casually applied to those documentaries which employ a wide range of shock tactics, and is derived from the infamous Mondo Cane [A Dog's World] (1962), a film which is directly responsible for such unpleasantries as the Faces of Death series and its inbred kin. Although many of these films fall within the definition of the splatter film, for the most part they employ real-life footage of death, dismemberment, and mutilation (usually newsreel footage or staged animal butchery), unlike the special effects upon which splatter films are so reliant.