FATAL FRAMES

The movie opens with an old man watching a very fake looking snuff film, where the girl being snuffed doesn't seem to mind. A little boy comes in to the room, and old gramps forces him to watch. At his point, i thought to myself "Man, if that happened to me, i'd grow up to murder women in Rome with a machete, recording my crimes with a camcorder and leaving the tapes at the scene of the crimes." And what do you know, Al Festa thinks the same way!

An American, Rick Gianasi (an actor who proudly puts Sgt. Kabukiman on his resume) is hired to direct the million dollar video for international pop sensation Stefania Stella.

These videos provide massive amounts of padding, and are downright PAINFULL. Stella, who produced and financed this "film" looks like irritating screecher Bjork, if Bjork's mustache was thicker and she weighed another 200 pounds. Stella splashes around in Roman fountains, singing lyrics like "in this town there is a circle, in your house there are some mirrors" or something like that.

Eventually, people involved with the videos start turning up dead, victims of the dreaded "video killer." There's the usual red herrings and false leads, and it all ends with an anti-climax that will make you want to throw something at the tv, i threw a slipper.

Hailed as the return to the thriller, and winner of the Lucio Fulci award and fantafest (i bet the judging criteria is real strict on that one) Fatal Frames really shows how bad off the Italian film industry is.

There are some good points to the film though, the production value seems very high, giving the film a slick look, and the effects, done by the team behind Predator are top notch, although they're pretty few and far between.

Also of note is the large amount of b-movie legends rounding out the cast: Warbeck, Scrimm, Quigley, Pleasance, Rossano Brazzi and Franco Ciccio. In fact, it was the last film Pleasance, Warbeck and Brazzi would work on before their deaths, hell, maybe they died of shame?

If it wasn't for the obscenely long running time, this flick might be a good party tape, because it's pretty damn hilarious.

The Synapse dvd is loaded with extras, many of which are better than the movie itself: behind the scenes, trailers and if you're in the mood for a good laugh, check out the Al Festa directed music videos, man o man truly funny shit.



and a big thanks to David Z of TOMB OF DVD for supplying me with the disc