I watched THE DEMON SEED today, inspired by whispy memories of seeing it when I was a kid (although I also saw it dead drunk a couple years ago, a complete black out). I thought it was wonderful. A macrocosm within a microcosm, the film dares to take on big themes like the nature of consciousness and the depths of human belonging whilst planting them firmly within the sci-fi / exploitation context of what is essentially a computer-rape scenario. Now, digital sex assault in a tawdry 70s sub-future may not be all that great but this film certainly is, and it's a testament to Don Cammell and his direction that his haunting work constantly evokes questions that loom larger than the events portrayed. An insistent eerieness runs through the proceedings (I often find this happens with a certain kind of film from the seventies) and I feel it would've played well alongside Cronenberg of this period, although some of its narrative moves are slightly more obvious. With its philosophy and nastiness, would surely be ripe for some kind of harsh contemporary J-horror update - be 'nice' to see Sato ('Naked Blood' etc) take it on.
Earlier in the week I sat down with THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM. I didn't dig it all that much. I haven't seen 'Lisa and the Devil' so don't feel able to denounce this as a butchered and flayed figment, although I'm aware of its history. Maybe it was my mood, maybe I'd primed myself for something more dream-like... but it didn't hook me, and I ended things thinking I'd prefer almost any other Bava, although, again, in this version it wasn't really his film. I should probably give it another go, but I actually think that if you're going to remix from borderline art-house to grindhouse, you might as well go overboard with the exploitative elements, which were only tepid here (and all ripped off, unsurprisingly, from 'The Exorcist'). What else have I seen recently? JULIE DARLING courtesy of Code Red. Basically a trashier take on 'Bad Seed' thematics, it drapes saggy raiments of evil-teen melodrama over an awkward frame of incest-fantasy. It's maybe worth watching as a slice of odd-film history and, despite its murkier undercurrents rarely surfacing all that explicitly, it retains an authentic 'exploitation' feeling atmospherically, although 'Bloody Birthday' remains a much more compelling take on kids killing a bunch of adults and generally being horrible a mon avis.
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