House of Terrors (1965)

Prepare yourself for the terror. The prison of madness, where few enter and none return.

Welcome to Unsung Horrors. With Lance.

And Erica.

Leave all your sanity behind. It can't help you now.

Welcome to another episode of Unsung Horrors, the podcast where we discuss underseen horror films, specifically those with fewer than 1,000 views on Letterboxd. I'm Erica.

I'm Lance.

And happy October, Lance.

Yeah, best month of the year.

I think so.

Yeah.

I mean, you were born.

This is true.

Um, happy belated birthday, by the way.

Thank you.

You were in London, so I didn't get a chance to celebrate with you in person.

But yeah, I was, I apologize if my voice sounds a little muffled. I, I think the Texas allergies and the like, what is it? Ragweed is just like destroying me. So apologize if I sound like this, the whole episode.

Um, but October also means horror gives back and, um, We have had a really exciting Horror Gives Back so far for a couple reasons. Number one, Best Friends Animal Society, which is the charity that we set up the fundraiser for, we have been doing that for the last five years, reached out and asked us if they could profile our fundraiser.

And they did. They posted it on their channel, on their Instagram, maybe on the other things. We're not on the other things. But yeah, they shared it there. They shared pictures of a lot of our listeners pets and really talked about, you know, why we do this every year. So that was really awesome. Plus, we also had a chance to promote the the fundraiser on the recent deaf crocodile podcast with Craig and Dennis, who were both very interested in it. And Craig already made a donation to it. So, cause he got his, his girl Violet from Best Friends Animal Society. And so he made a really nice, generous donation to it. So we are doing really well on it.

I know a lot of the donations come at the end of the month after everyone's done with all of their watches. So I'm really excited to see where we end up this year.

Yeah. I mean, for Best Friends Animal Society to feature us and kind of highlight our small little podcast is a hard post. I thought it'd be maybe a store, one of those reels or whatever.

Yeah.

A hard post. Like I commend and applaud their social media for doing this and like sharing our little podcast to their hundreds of thousands of followers or whatever they have, but no, really appreciated, uh, really generous donation from Craig. So that was, that was awesome to see.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

And just like, The last thing that they profiled outside of the animals and their general posts, they featured something from Trisha Yearwood. And I'm like, okay, granted, I can't name a Trisha Yearwood song, but I know who she is. But they profiled her. And then they profiled Unsung Horrors.

Like, what world is this?

This is crazy.

I know, yeah. I started following them and I was like, they have their orange carpet for all these celebrities popping up. I'm like... we could walk that carpet now. We're kind of in the click, but no, very cool of them.

Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of deaf crocodile, Lance wasn't able to join for that podcast because he was in London, but I was on there to promote our most recent work together.

Yes. The man who thought life, which was one of my favorite picks the last couple of years. And for them to release it is amazing. deaf crocodile style. They're, they're releasing some of the coolest stuff right now.

Yeah, they really are. And so Lance and I got to provide the audio commentary for that. And then they also actually wanted to include our podcast episode. Um, so I had to do a little editing on that one because it was a South by Southwest combo episode. So I had to edit it down a little bit, but that's also going to be another feature, uh, on that release.

And then I would also strongly encourage folks, you know, if possible, we always say this, like, you know, buy what you can afford, buy what you want to own. But the same month, they're also coming out with a box set of German anti-fascist films that they sound like hard watches, you know, not fun films to watch, but very necessary and really important films. And so if you want to learn more about those films, listen to that podcast episode. You can also hear me on there talking a little bit about Man Who Thought Life. But I'm really excited that this is getting the release that it is and very much from the right company to be releasing it.

For sure. I feel like when we had Dennis and Craig on our one of our episodes, we kind of mentioned this to him like this seems like a perfect fit for you. And Cause they did the man who the man from, uh, Shandigore.

Unknown man from Shandigore.

Yeah.

Like I think we did mention this one. They, they said that one of their listeners had probably suggested this one, uh, as well. So they might've already had it on their radar. I know you also suggested the Lynette.

Yes.

As well.

So fingers crossed they get around to that one too. Cause that would be amazing.

Yes. Yeah. I mean, deaf crocodile, they have, I don't know. There's a vibe and a mood and a mood and a lot of their releases, uh, you know, with these black and white kind of sci-fi horrors and their animated stuff. It's just, I don't know, you know what you're getting and it's always good. Yeah.

Yeah.

They, I just picked up Roy del Espacio, which has our friends Armando and Joey from Trashmax on there, as well as Celeste de la Cabra on there. So I'm really excited to open that one up and once October is over with and dig into that one.

Same. I got my copy too. So I need to, I need to watch that. Speaking of that, I mean, I am way behind on horror kids. I need to take a personal day off this coming week because and watch like five to seven movies because I'm not even halfway there yet. I'm in a rough spot.

Well, you know what? We can always, you know.

No, no, we're not going to delay anything. This is on me. Don't offer like any workarounds. All right. I'm doing this.

Okay, then take a day off this week and get caught up.

I am. I mean, I sound sick. I think that's a good reason just to call in from work.

I think you can. Two other quick notes on special features. These were announced last month or earlier at the beginning of the month from Vinegar Syndrome. They have Made in Hong Kong and Taiwan Volume 3 because they threw in Magic of Spell on this set. So it kind of feels like an afterthought and maybe they didn't realize magic of spell was Taiwanese until after the fact. But anyways, I've got a booklet essay in there all about scared stiff, which is a very fun kitchen sink, Hong Kong, buddy, sex, comedy, sci-fi, Jalo, Carrie meets Christine mashup. There's a lot going on in this movie. It's a lot of fun. It's got Chow Yun fat. Love that movie. And then I also did a video essay on Iconoscope's release of The Stranger Within,

which stars Barbara Eden, made for TV movie. Amanda Reyes reached out, asked about me contributing a video essay. So really great release. There's a lot of really cool special features on it related to Richard Matheson. And they work directly with The Estate on this one. So really cool release from them. I just got my contributor copy. It's beautiful.

Yeah, that cover looks amazing.

It's gorgeous.

The slipcover.

It's very pretty. That's it for self-promotion. But also sort of speaking of physical media, I have here in my hands a copy of the movie that we're going to be talking about today.

Let me do some self-deprecation first. Oh, okay. I do need to apologize for a stupid mistake that I did in our last episode of Aroused, where we talked about Anton Holden's Aroused, where I had mentioned that he had passed away. And I guess I had mistaken him for Dick Laurent for all our Lost Highway fans out there.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah. But he is alive and well. I guess he's about 87 years old now. So apologize to Anton because I'm sure he listened to the episode and to all our listeners for me not double checking this and total amateur move on my part. So apologies for saying he had passed when he had not. I blame LinkedIn.

His LinkedIn profile said something that maybe, I don't know.

Well, we can blame LinkedIn for literally everything wrong with the world.

I just feel like a fool.

You shouldn't feel like a fool. We all make mistakes. And the important thing is that, you know, we recognize them. Or if we make mistakes, we are grateful to people who point them out to us.

This is true.

You know, like not in a like, you know, well, actually, or snarky sort of way, but like, since syndicate reached out and we're like, Hey, just FYI. And we're like, Oh, cool.

Sorry.

You've got that totally wrong. We'll make, make sure we do a correction.

Yeah, exactly.

I've gotten plenty of like, well, actually is from dudes because I'm a woman and it's like, get, get fucked. Like, you know, well, you haven't, you have a typo in your book. Yeah, I know.

Uh, your name spelled wrong on the special features. Why do you spell your name wrong? Sorry to bring that open that one. My name has been misspelled too. It's our combination.

Yeah, it really is.

S-C-H-N-S-H. It's the best thing ever.

I know.

People just can't get it right. But yeah, thank you. for bringing that up. I totally forgot we needed to add a little disclaimer about that.

That's all I thought about while I was in London. Shut the fuck up. It's like looking at the Tower Bridge. I'm like, God damn it. I wish Anton Holden was right here with me because he's alive.

Okay, so on to this week's episode. I'm really excited to talk about this one. I think it's very fitting for October. It is 1965's House of Terrors, a.k.a. The Ghost of the Hunchback, a.k.a. Satan's Pit, a.k.a. The Well of Satan. This has a Mondo Macabro Blu-ray. And the Blu-ray, I definitely recommend picking up if you can. I don't know if they have, they probably don't have the red ones anymore, but you should still, you'll still be able to get all the special features that are on it, including a commentary from Tom Mez and two interviews with Patrick Macias, who is the author of Tokyoscope, the Japanese cult film companion. As of this recording, this has 960 views on Letterboxd. Just made it.

You made it.

All right. Quick summary. I am going to cheat and I'm going to read directly from the back of the Blu-ray here. A recently widowed woman discovers that her former husband who died in an, who died in an insane asylum owned a remote country mansion. She and a group of friends go to the villa and find a weird demonic statue in the hallway. They are joined by a hunchback caretaker who tells them of the numerous murders that have occurred there. Soon the guests begin to hear strange noises, including disembodied laughter, and feel they are being stalked by a disturbing presence that haunts the mansion. A rare Japanese film that was heavily influenced by US and European gothic cinema of the 1960s, such as Mario Bava's Mask of

Satan and Robert Wise's The Haunting. Filmed in luminous black and white widescreen, the film is a classic of gothic horror with many genuinely scary scenes. Packed with bizarre characters and strange occurrences, the film builds to a surprising and horrifying climax.

There are definitely some odd, there's a lot of characters to pick through.

There are, for sure. Okay, so before getting into some of the film specifics, I know that the term Hunchback is not PC. We should be using the medical term of someone being kyphotic or having kyphosis, but that is the character's name and how I will be referring to him.

Yeah, I just posted in my Letterboxd review, the hunchbackiest of hunchbacks. This is a hunchback. And I know that's not PC and I apologize.

It's not. I know that our listeners know that we are aware of like, what.

In classic horror? I mean, it's yes. Yeah. It's the medical term is rarely used.

Yeah. I had to look it up. That's how like, I know, like, it's not even like, Oh, yeah, there's someone with like, I didn't know what it was. I'm like, I don't know what you call someone. It's like hunchback versus person who is humped. Like that doesn't sound right either.

Bad postured guardian.

It's not bad posture. My mom, my mom tried to convince me of that when I was a kid. She's like, you better sit up straight or you're gonna get a hunchback.

Yeah, that's true.

I think a lot of our parents of that generation did that.

I try and always sit up straight. I know.

Now I'm sitting up straight. Okay.

Okay.

Getting to the crew. First and foremost, the director, Hajime Sato. His reputation was mainly as a journeyman director for Toei. His first film was Counter-Attacked. Now all of his films on IMDB before 1964 are in Japanese. So, you know, a lot of that info is from the special features. So the early sixties films were mostly action, but when he start getting into like the mid sixties, full run of bangers. So you've got the glamorous ghost from 1964 terror beneath the sea from 1966 with Sonny Chiba and, Goki body snatcher from hell from 1968. And the one that I want to talk about, because I know you watched it too. The golden bat from 1966.

Yeah. Coolest movie poster of all time.

I think it's up there for sure.

That one is, you know, what's on letterbox.

I would love to own that and have that hanging in my house.

Yes. It gives me like this Boston brand dead man from DC comics. Look, you know, the skull red outfit. Yeah. Such a fun, I mean, I enjoy the laughing, the excessive laughing. I mean, Sato, obviously, after watching The Golden Bat and House of Terrors, he was a big fan of laughter.

Yes.

Rumbling, cackling.

My favorite thing in that, I mean, there's a lot to love about that movie, but the opening.

Theme song is so....

Amazing.

It's so amazing that it's going to be the outro song for this episode, even though it doesn't fit with this movie at all. I don't fucking care because I love that song and everyone needs to hear it and it will make your day.

Yeah. It's the great opening credit and it's just like the golden bat laughing and dancing and kind of posing his way towards the movie. And I just love, cause every time he laughs, it's just he'll laugh mockingly at like allies in the movie. He'll laugh at the villains. He'll, cackle heavily as he flies off and just posing his way to victory. I love it. Yeah.

But yeah, definite run of bangers there in the mid 60s. I'd recommend all of them. If you only can watch a couple, I'd definitely say Golden Bat. Goki, Body Snatcher from Hell is another really great one too. Then we have The Score by Shinsuke Kikuchi. He worked with Sato on many subsequent films, but is probably best known for pop soundtracks like he did for Common Writer. And then we have the screenwriter is Hajime Takaiwa. So the pen name, though, for this film was Itogawa Rampo, which was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. So you can kind of see that in there, like the Rampo and Irigawa sounds a little bit like Edgar, if it's said really fast. And then the Italian script for this, and I'm going to get

into more of the production in just a sec. The Italian script you'll actually see credited on IMDb to Franco d'Alsere. I mentioned the director, Sato, was a journeyman for Toei. This was produced by Toei, who... Since the early 1950s, they produced very few horror movies. When they did, they were generally released as the B picture in the summer.

And the idea here was that, you know, when it was hot, the chills would, you know, cool you down from, you know, the horror. So it's kind of different. Like we're used to horror movies in October, like that sort of seasonality. In Japan, when it's hot, when it's raining, things like that, the idea of horror is to give you chills, which is a really interesting concept. That concept actually still carried into later years with J-horror in the 1990s and 2000s, which is something that I learned this from the J-horror documentary that's included in that Origins of J-horror box set that Imprint's putting out next month. there was one of the directors that was in there that talked about this concept as well. So it's still a

very prevalent idea of like horror movies coming out in the summertime for those chills.

I like that little spine chilling time of year.

Yeah.

That's good.

So I mentioned, so we didn't do a lot of horror movies. They really didn't actually have a horror franchise until Ju-on. So the, the, the grudge, you know, cat boy movies, which, I've watched quite a few of those because of dead kids, but like there's a lot of those fucking movies.

I haven't really dove into those.

There's some that the, which one was it? There's black ghost, white ghost. And the black ghost one, I think was a really interesting one. The original one is fine. I don't actually mind the Sarah Michelle Gellar one that much either, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that it's still set in Japan and So it has that sort of fish out of water element to it, which kind of adds to it. The newest grudge, like the remake of the remake that came out a few years ago, dumb as fucking hell as, as I expected it would be. Okay. So this film was released in Japan as strange tale of the hunchback. It was released in Italy as Il Pozzo si Satana or Satan's pit or the well of Satan. This was an entirely

rewritten script and character names. This is a really unique one, and I know I mentioned it in reading the back of the Blu-ray. It has a heavy influence from Italy. So it's almost kind of fitting that Italy would be like, oh, this is like our movies. Yeah, we'll release it over here too. But of course, it was rewritten a little bit, new character names dubbed over. um, that version, the Italian version is not included on the Blu-ray. It's just the Japanese with, uh, English subtitles on here.

Is the Italian one out there?

Yeah, it's out there. Like, so before this release, that was like the version that you can watch. This I thought was interesting. And again, this is another thing I got from the special features. The location of the house is in Kyo Furukawa Gardens in Nishigahara, Tokyo. It was designed and built in 1917 for Baron Torunosuke Furukawa. I'm doing okay here with the names, I think. So eventually the city took possession of it. It fell into disrepair, became overgrown with ivy, which that alone started sort of fueling rumors of hauntings just because of like how it looked, which is kind of awesome. Eventually it was restored though.

But if I ever make it to Tokyo, I'm definitely going to make a little side trip to try to find this and visit it.

Yeah. It's, it's a gorgeous looking house. Yeah.

Getting onto the cast. We have Akira Nishimura. He plays Baron Tomonaga and the hunchback. So dual roles, little, little, I mentioned a doppelganger element. So for horror gives back folks, this fits into a few categories, uh, unsung horrors, black and white doppelgangers. Uh, he's been in quite a few films, uh, Yojimbo sort of doom. Uh, he plays snake in the Hanzo films. Uh, have you seen any of the Hanzo?

Oh my God. They're so good.

Hanzo the razor. He power fucks confessions out of women. He beats his own, like he'll like pour rice over his dick and then beat it. So it's like, he's like gaining, gaining strength. It's cock. It's fucking amazing.

That sounds amazing.

It is.

I think they're on HBO. They might be on Maddox. I think I have them queued up. Some of them are.

Hell yeah, HBO.

All right.

Nishimura was also in Lady Snowblood, Redbeard, High and Low. but he's best known in Japan for playing the title character in a TV show called Mitikomon. Tom Mez said in his commentary that from a certain angle, he looks like Christopher Lee.

Yeah, I got that.

Okay. I couldn't unsee that as soon as he said that.

Yeah. I mean, I didn't have time to listen to his commentary, but when I first, I have a note right here that I don't know if it's, it's not the makeup, but just His features reminded me. The long face. And then that haircut.

Contributes, too.

Oh, yeah, the bowl cut. Yeah, for sure.

I kept seeing Christopher Lee. And maybe it's because of that whole Euro-Gothic vibe that's happening that really... accentuates, you know, kind of thinking of hammer or something. Yeah.

Cause I've seen him in all these other films before seeing him in this. And I have never put him with Christopher Lee until this one. So I think you're right. I think it's definitely the black and white Gothic haircut.

Yeah. Specific to this role.

Yeah, for sure.

That's interesting though. I saw that too. Yeah.

Um, okay. The wife Yoshi is played by Yuko Kusanoki and, She's in Eros Plus Massacre. Shout out to Sam Deegan's podcast. That's her namesake film. And she's also in Goki Body Snatcher from Hell. The father-in-law, the gross character proposing to and molesting Yoshi. That's played by Takashi Kato. He's in a bunch of Kurosawa films. Ron, Throne of Blood, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo High and Low. He's also in Fukasaku's Battles Without Honor and Humanity. The Lawyer is played by Kazuo Kato.

He's also in Gouki, Body Snatcher from Hell, High and Low, as well as Mermaid Legend, which I have had on my shelf for so long, and I am going to watch it soon. Very soon. Maybe next year. Then we have The Mistress, who is played by Masumi Harukawa. She is the star of Inamura's Intentions of Murder from 1964.

I just got this from the library and watched it. Nishimura, the hunchback guy, and Kusunoki, the wife, they're also in this film. But Harukawa, The Mistress, she plays Sadako in Intentions of Murder. She's the wife of a librarian, it's not a feel good movie. She is just berated by everyone, her husband, her mother-in-law, her lover. Like she meets this guy and then she starts having this weird relationship with them.

And he's trying to convince her to go away with him to move to Tokyo. But like everyone just treats her like shit. It's a really, it's, it's an excellent movie, but it's definitely a feel bad one. So if you are a sad member participant, this one might be a good one for you. It's, not unsurprisingly has a criterion release, but it's just, it wasn't a movie that, you know, really fit with my October vibe. And so it kind of drug me down a little bit. And I was like, I need, I'm going to go watch golden bat again.

I need to feel good.

It's two and a half hours long.

It's a long one.

Yeah.

It was a big commitment, uh, for, for this month. So, um, definitely recommend it, but not if you're Lance and trying to catch up on Morgan.

Yeah.

A couple more characters. We have Keiko Yumi plays the girlfriend of the young doctor Yamashita, who is himself played by Shinjiro Ihara. And then the last woman standing, Kazuko, that is played by Yoko Hayama. Starting off from the very beginning, though, I think there's a few movies. There's The Vampire Happening. I remember being a film fan. that I was like, man, these are like the greatest opening credits, title card, whatever it may be. This might be up there because we have the title card and there's a burnt corpse behind the text and the fire at the bottom of the screen.

Yeah.

I love it.

Yeah. The, you immediately get that jump scare. Like there's only a few jobs. There's another jump scare in here with like, uh, the crow when Yoshi first enters the mansion, the villa. But that title card is amazing. And you get your first taste of the roar, like the ghost roar that you'll get throughout the movie. The burning body during the cremation. Set the tone. You might be presented with some gore. There's not a whole lot of gore in this. There's dead bodies and stuff and murder. It's hard to top that opening Yeah.

It's very, it's very Gothic gore because if I think about something like, you know, the influences that were, were mentioned like nightmare.

Like horror castle, Antonio Margheriti. Yeah.

Or like, you know, Baba's, you know, mask of Satan, black Sunday, any of that. Like I think of that and like Barbara Steele sort of laying in the grave with holes in her face where it's like, it's horrific, but it's not gory.

Yeah. Right.

You know, so, but it's still like, I still, oh, it's so good.

Yeah. It's very moody. This movie is, I applaud this pick for October because it's perfect for October. All the atmosphere, all the ravens and crows everywhere. Yeah. Some of them just hanging out in the house. There's a certain shot where it's this hazy moon and they're, they're lined up on the roof. Yeah. Which is like, that should be, I don't know, like a poster for October, like underneath the, an image of when you look up October in the dictionary, there it is. Not very much gore, but it's all about like the tone and the atmosphere that feels haunting and creepy.

And you mentioned like the crows being another jump scare there. So apparently there are a lot of crows in Japanese cities. So the jump scare here is very fitting. Although I would prefer fake bats because I will always prefer fake bats. But given that it is Japan and like crows are like a big thing, that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, for sure.

Um, I think also in the opening, even if let's say you had not gotten this introduction and you had not read like, Oh, this is heavily influenced by Bava or Robert Wise. The minute that like you walk in to this house and you see that statue, you should immediately think of, Oh my God, this is just like the haunting. It's very old dark house. Um, There's also the scene, not just with the statue, but there's a very specific scene lifted directly from the haunting where the, you have the door that's pulsing in. Yeah. Like that.

So there's just, I mean, there's, there's so many just elements that are borrowed, but they are done so well here. And what I love is that there's probably the audience for this in Japan probably didn't see those movies probably didn't see bava's film probably didn't see the haunt maybe didn't see the haunting i i don't i'm not sure.

Yeah that would have been what 63 when was the haunting it was just like.

Yeah 63 yeah but i mean there's there's some other you know obvious gothic elements like candelabras and um a spider web covered basement and attic and opening themselves all the strange sounds and and voices i want to get to the seance in a minute but there's another scene in the opening or early on rather it's the dinner scene and they're they're sitting at the table and yoshi is sitting there and there's a a chicken in the middle of the dinner table. It's in the foreground, but there's a knife sticking into the chicken, but it's at an angle where it looks like the knife is cutting Yoshi's throat. Oh, very clever framing.

I thought, yeah, I, I missed that one, but there, the whole thing is gorgeous. Like you said, the cobwebs, there's a scene, you know, later in the movie when he's kind of in that underground jail, uh, the Baron who will get to, um, There's a cobweb right in front of the camera that's just burned in my mind.

There's so many images in this that are just beautifully composed and framed.

Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the main gothic elements of this, though, and something that you see a lot in these types of films, is a seance. And this is one of my favorite parts of the film. I think it's one of the highlights of the film, other than the introduction to the Baron's body in the pit and how that transpires. I think it's very clever the way that like this, everything kind of plays out because, you know, I mentioned the old dark house element, which typically has like a reading of the will, but that usually happens at the very beginning of the, of a film like this here. It's kind of later on, like almost, almost not quite halfway through, maybe like 30 minutes in.

Yeah, the initial mystery is one that I was intrigued about where, you know, Yoshi's husband passed away kind of mysteriously. We don't really know. We know he stopped talking about seven months before he had an accident or there was some sort of incident. Maybe he murdered a woman. Like there's all these weird little clues that I'm just like, okay, there's a lot of questions here and I'm completely sold.

But it becomes like so much more completely different than what's presented. And then, you know, obviously all these characters are introduced and it's the inheritance. And in that booklet, there's a great opening line that Jonathan Clements writes. He says, where there's a will, there's a relative. Yeah. Which I think is just a genius opening line, Jonathan. But yeah, so many characters and strange choices where you're like, why is this person here again? Are they just here for body count? But it did give me a lot of the the giallo, there's a lot of giallos that have those inheritance, you know, somebody murdered somebody and all these random characters are popping in and out. And I, it becomes so much more than like, who's that, who's going

to win. Who's, you know, why is this person here? Yeah. The will, when it becomes to the will.

And then once it progresses into like this mystery of the Baron's body in the pit. And that's, you know, that's another one of those, like, you know, Gothic gore moments where it's like, it's not gory, but it's definitely like that, that Gothic, like rotted body type thing.

Yeah.

And I love how you have one character, you have the hunchback, and then all of a sudden, he's now another character. And so you have this, you know, you find out that they were twins, and this whole thing happened. And like, it sets you up for just a very standard, like, Oh, it's going to be like a haunted house and like, Ooh, spooky stuff in the walls. And then it turns into like, no, this guy, like, you know, has this pit and like, there's his twins. And it's just this whole like thing that starts unraveling. And then I'm, I'm kind of jumping to the end here, but like, the last 30 minutes, the bodies just start fucking piling up like one after the other. It's just like nonstop. Everyone's going out now.

Yeah. And that's, that's kind of my favorite thing is because his, the mystery turns into, like you said, it's the Baron that has the hunchback brother and his whole goal in life is to murder everybody. Like the living shouldn't go on living. Anybody that enters his house, So this hunch, his brother, his poor guardian of the house has like this lifelong curse to kill everybody. So yeah, all those characters that were popping in, like just randomly, like ex-girlfriends and lawyers. I'm like, what? Okay. They are here for body count.

Yeah.

But when the median shows up, she just like knocks on the door and she's like, you're in danger, girl. Like turn off all the lights. You know, we're going to do this. And then it, Gets kind of Evil Daddy vibey with the contacts.

Yeah.

Great camera work in there, too. A lot of zooming in and out while she's doing the chanting.

Yeah.

But yeah, once that seance kicks off, it's just... And sadly, the curse continues with the medium, which is... I wanted to ask you what your favorite kills are. They're all kind of straightforward. But hers is great because we see her escaping the house and running off. Yeah. And then... You know, you've become kind of acclimated and used to all these strange noises popping off throughout this haunted house.

But you hear what sounds like a tree crashing. And she comes back into the house and she's like, a tree fell on me. Dies. And I'm like, that was my favorite kill. The curse continued.

I mean, that's a favorite. But also, like, anytime there's self-immolation, I have to be like, okay, winner. You know, right there. But it's just. I don't know. Like, I don't, I don't think I could pick between those two, probably self-immolation, you know, I'm like, someone's going to set themselves on fire.

Yeah. You know, I mean, Yoshi murdering her horny father-in-law is.

Yeah.

That's the most satisfying one for sure. Um, I think so, but like, it's just, and I know like the Bava influences clearly more on like the, you know, the Gothic horror, even the, like the Margarita, like you mentioned castle of blood, um, it's also got a Bay of blood kind of element because of the kills one after the other, you know, so.

Many people involved in this villa and inheritance. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's just, and you know, the point of like all these people showing up and then this person kills that person. And then this person like dies this way. It's not like there's one killer going around getting, getting rid of everybody. It's just this, And I think that's even one of the alternate titles for Bay of Blood is Chain Reaction, if I'm not mistaken. I know Twitch of the Death Nerve is one. I could have sworn Chain Reaction. God, there's like a fucking million of them here.

I don't see it there. I could have sworn Chain Reaction was one of the other ones. Anyway, maybe Letterboxd is wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.

This is true.

John would correct me if he was here.

Yeah, we'll see, Chi. Oh, well carnage.

Yeah. I don't know.

Yeah.

I will say I kind of wanted more from, uh, I love the statue you already brought up. It is very Euro, you know, or Gothic and, you know, it represents, you know, it's Satan's pit. It goes to that title really well, but I almost wanted like come to life. Give me some stop motion. Give me some like curse of the demon. Like it had a face kind of like that weird devil dragon and curse.

Of the demon.

Oh, that would have been cool.

Uh, But yeah, I loved how it's just there and people dying around it. People always looking up to it. There are some questions though. Like, I guess it's just like bad. It's just bad coincidence that the son was also had his, you know, violent antics and he killed a killed murdered a woman. He burned her.

Yeah.

And he bought this house. There's no, is there a tie in between any of these characters? Like did, they bring up the grandfather, the father-in-law being in the military. Was he involved in the, the military's decisions to, you know, take over the Baron's villa or, and, you know, rape and murder his wife or, or his girlfriend, his crazy girlfriend.

I'm just wondering if there's like a connection between the characters or if it's just a coincidence that they're in this house and, you know, the hunchback brother is carrying out these.

I think that's a good question. I mean, I think, I mean, maybe it's meant for us to leave kind of lingering with those questions.

And that's what I always love about films like, you know, this where it's, you can't tell what's supernatural and what's just real. You know, it flip-flops between the hunchback becoming the Baron, you know, and he's, you know, people might believe that he's possessed by his brother after the seance or a lot of questions. And I like how it's open to interpretation, but I was just wondering if there is like some sort of, easy clue that i missed where the father-in-law because they they mentioned his experimentation and his war crimes and stuff if that tied into any of the war crimes that was you know presented to the baron.

Yeah i think i mean there could potentially be i didn't tom mesden say anything about it in the commentary specific to that so but i think like i think that's a perfectly like reasonable hypothesis that that's, you know, why they're all there. But I think other other than that, we would just have to say, No, it's just he's dead.

And like, you know, the lawyers got to go there, the dad and the wife have to go because they're both in, you know, the will, then this other doctor's coming because who knows why? And then his girlfriend's coming. He's like, where are you? And then like the next person's coming.

The mistress with the two million.

Yeah, it's just like, I'm just here to get in line for the body count. And it's like, we're okay with that.

Yeah, and I love all that too. Like if that's it, that's it. But I do like how I'm like, thinking and asking these questions. I feel like this is a film that I would appreciate more personally on multiple viewings because there's so many characters and like little plots that probably don't have anything to do with, you know, the outcome, the finale, but it's fun. First off, it's gorgeous. Like right away, it's a banger to watch visually, but all these characters, it makes you think like, I need to watch this again because this is an interesting story.

Yeah, I definitely like this more the second time I watched it. And I think I even mentioned this when I was introducing it last episode. I was like, I recommend owning this one because this is one that's great for maybe not like an annual watch, but like it's definitely a great October watch on multiple viewings. And to me, that's like a reason to own something is I want to watch this more than once. I keep going back to it, but like I just I love the how it builds up really slowly and then it's just absolute chaos like mistress dead mediums dead then the lawyer then the young doctor then the young doctor's girlfriend then the father-in-law then yoshi and then we think okay what's her name uh kazuko who's been the hunchback's ally this whole

time she's the one that's been like in his corner standing up for him walks out of the house in the forest in the trance and then ends a film by you know lighting herself on fire no notes like this this You know, not just like Bava influence, not just wise, but hammer. End it with a fire.

Oh, yes, exactly. When that was happening, I was like, yes. And then you finish on, you know, the Christopher Lee looking hunchback just going into the foggy mansion. But yeah, I love that scene because it was how the ghost is calling out Judy. Judy. It's just. That was funny too. And they come across the graves of what is it? George, Judy and Irene.

Yeah.

A couple of dogs, family dogs that were buried there. So who was Judy? Is that the crazy girlfriend of Baron?

She, yeah, she was like the love lover or love interest of the Baron.

Yeah. Okay. Cause yeah, then there was George and Irene that were never mentioned.

Yeah.

This is what I just love it. So many questions. Yeah.

But I think, maybe on a third watch, I'll have all the answers. Cause I feel like I understood it much better. The second watch third watch, maybe I'll, I'll have all the answers.

Yeah. I think you're right. This is one worth owning because it's like, I don't know. These, these questions will be lingering in my mind. That's when I'm going to want to pop it on at some point.

And just to have like, even, I mean, I don't necessarily say this in, you know, for foreign films because of, you know, subtitles, but, just because of the way it looks, it's also a good film to just have on in the background as well. Like I would normally say that about something like, you know, House on Haunted Hill, which, you know, I can recite line for line at this point in my life. And other films like that just are great to have on in the background during October.

And I would say the same for something like this, even if, you know, you're just looking over every now and then to like catch the vibes, even though if you're not like understanding the dialogue.

For sure. You know, like when people project something, movies during Halloween night for trick-or-treaters just for a visual like this is the Halloween vibe like trick-or-treaters will walk up and see this foggy atmosphere and these crows and you know candelabras.

It's perfect for sure anything else before we get to double features no all right what is your double feature pick.

Then okay if you want a double feature of loud excessive laughing you can't go wrong you might as well have fun with the golden bat which isn't a horror at all but Obviously, you know, the Italian European gothics that we've talked about, Nightmare Castle, Horror Castle. Nightmare Castle also has the Barbara Steele in dual roles, kind of like the Hunchback and the Baron. But I think since this is such a moody black and white piece, I think sticking it with like a colorized 1973, I'm going to stick with the haunted house theme and go with the Legend of Hell House from 1973. Okay. I would show it after House of Terrors because it, as I was watching it, I kept thinking, I love The Legend.

Of Hell House.

I love Pamela Franklin. I think she's so captivating. But this, it reminded me, like, I kept thinking back on that and how it's about like these group of researchers that are hired to investigate this home of seemingly haunted home of like a millionaire who was, you know, into violence and murders and stuff.

Yeah.

And it reminded me like, oh, like I could see these researchers going back to, you know, the Baron's house here and House of Terrors and decades later, and we can, you kind of witness what they'd experience. And the man in the Legend of Hell House, he's the owner that passed away. He's referred to as the Roaring Giant. So there's always, and there's a lot of those loud noises.

There's a lot of like groans and laughs that we get in a House of Terror that same as in the Legend of Hell House. we also get this image of a preserved dead body in the original house. It stars Roddy McDowell and Pamela Franklin, but it's really an ensemble cast just like house of terrors. There's no real true lead. So I kind of felt like that, that kind of worked with it as well. So yeah, colorized haunted house, double feature with, with house of terrors.

I love that movie. Fun fact. So at my new job, I am, I am, good friends with the head of HR. It's a good place to, you know, good place to be in, but he used to work as a talent agent in New York. Roddy McDowell was one of his clients.

Really? Yeah. Wow.

And he said he was the sweetest man.

And I see an older gentleman, the HR guy or.

He's, he's probably in his fifties.

Okay.

So he was really young when he, yeah.

Yeah.

So he had him in his like very end of his career, but where, so basically like, he had all of like these older character actors who nobody else wanted. And he was like, um, yeah, give me fucking Roddy McDowell. Like, absolutely.

That's amazing. I know. Right. Does he have other, he has a list of celebrities on the list.

I haven't asked about all of them, but he's named, he's named a few and I've been like, Oh my God, love them. I love Roddy.

Yeah. Roddy's so good.

Okay, for my double feature pick, a few things. There's another Japanese gothic film called The Ghost of the One-Eyed Man. That's also from 1965 and also starring Akira Nishimura. For the statue, the crow feet, I thought of something with crows, like Dark Half, which also has twins.

Yes.

Hitchcock's The Birds, maybe. That's probably a stretch, though. Yeah. I am going to lean into the, um, un-PC-ness of, you know, the hunchback thing. Um, I mentioned earlier, my grandmother had a hunchback and that my mom used to tell me that I just stood up. I just sat up straight. Um, she did her job. She used to tell me like, if I kept slouching, I would get one too. So my pick is for my grandmother. Um, I'm going with hunchback of the morgue from 1973 starring the great Paul Nashy. This one's for you, Millie. It's yeah.

I just, I feel like I want to just lean into that totally different vibes with, you know, Paul Nashy, you know, Spanish Gothic horror, but also like a tragic character in its own way, but still like very different vibes, but also very suitable for October. I think this would be just a fucking bang and double feature.

Oh yeah.

Double, double your hunched. Double your pleasure. Double your humps.

I don't got it. You got it. That's great.

All right. What are we doing next episode?

Last of the year, right? This is our November pick. Yes.

Yeah.

And we take time off in December. It's also No Rules November. Mm-hmm. I'm still undecided. Okay. Figures.

Yeah.

No surprises there.

Yeah. Since we've moved to the month from the biweekly to the monthly, you know, we've kind of abandoned some of our traditions like Shoggist and no rule, possibly no rules November. I I'll probably go with an under a thousand view pick for this last pick, but yeah, I'm so behind on Horgan's back. I'm just not well prepared and I want to pick, I want to end the year on a high note. Okay.

I mean, we still have our horror gives back episode coming up and that'll be in, you know, probably another week or so coming out. So by then Lance should have his pick. And so we'll announce the next episode at the end.

Of, and of course posted in discord channel through there. Absolutely. But yeah, I'm just, I'm not ready.

That's okay. I forgive you. And I'm sure our listeners do too. So I'm sure all of them are catching up on their own horror gives back watches. So, and we're not going to be doing this until close to the end of November anyway.

So. Yeah. Okay.

If you're not already, you can follow our podcast on Instagram at unsung horrors. Uh, I'm on Instagram and letterboxd at hex massacre.

I'm there as well under L shy B.

Thanks for listening everyone. And we'll see you back for the next episode, which is our horror gives back. recap.

Yes.

Bye, y'all.

Bye.

Oh, the.

Muppet. Where, where, where will it come from?

Onward!

The shining skull is an ally of justice A silver button that cuts through the wind Defeat the monsters of the universe Where.

Where, where will it come from?

Onward!

Only Tomori knows.

Ogon Bato!

Where, where, where will it come from?

Ogon Bato!

The secret cloak.

Is the mark of the government.

The power of Mahatma, who flies through the sky, asked for the peace.

Of the earth.

Where, where, where will it come from?

Ogon Bato!

Thank you for listening.

To hear more shows from the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast network, please select the link in the description. Hello, filthy movie lovers. My name is Gentry Austin. And I'm Casey Scott. And we're the hosts of The Sin Syndicate, film podcast for something weirdos, anti-criterion bros, and Joseph Sarno aficionados. Join us semi-weekly as we peer into the adults-only theaters and sticky-floored cinemas of the golden age of sexploitation. When the morals were loose, the laws were murky, and the intercourse was all simulated. Find us now on the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast network.

Kapitelklicken springt direkt hin

Shownotes

Transkriptvom Podcast bereitgestellt · Zeitmarken springen hin