recently it has been so that i have watched a fair number of videos. well, not actual videos, but discs what have videos on them. or films, look you see. normally i would take to here, being my blog, to write of all such incidents. time is what it is, though. so no i haven't. but go on then, i shall write of some, or the ones i can remember.
usually, when given the chance to watch a film or two, i shall generally favour complete trash over anything with more overt merit. having (kind of) been there, done that with all of the classics, my inclination when selecting something to watch is the entertainment value. more often than not this would be what is deemed as trash, especially as normally there's a good deal of nudies in such. and i make precisely zero apologies (or excuses) for such preferences. suck it down.
it turns (or turned) out that two of the films what i gone done watched were both "directed" by the same bloke off of Greece. which would be someone called Nico Mastorakis. by chance (certainly not design) they happened to be the first two (ever) films what he gone done made. admittedly i watched them in reverse order of that, but here they are in the correct way.
no, i am absolutely not doing screenshots of either. you can all make do with psychedelic and thermal pictures of the new artwork both came with, and then some quality VHS mode of the reverse sleeves, which are (i believe) the original posters or artwork.
for his first film, then, which (to needlessly clarify) was the second i watched, Death Has Blue Eyes. some of you for some reason care for provenance. if that's you, i think i paid about £9 for this at a branch or chapter of HMV. i had gone along for the new Eminem album, but was told i was rather early for the tape (and/or disc) of it as it's a "streaming only" thing until mid-September (2024). oh.
plot? you kind of have to go with the flow of it. essentially two criminal types - mostly con artists but other stuff less savoury - somehow end up in (or rather on) a Greek island and mixed up in some sort of hunt or chase for a lady who can do all that psychic / telekinetic stuff. which involves being able to kill people with "thought" or what have you. as this is all Cold War Era (look it up, kids) yes, the Soviets and the Americans would like to "obtain" her for fairly obvious reasons. not telling who(m), if anyone, does, as why would i present spoilers on the off chance you wanted to watch.
badly made, poorly written, woeful acting, vague plot. these would not be massive issues as such if only there was considerably more nudies in it, so as to distract one. what you do get in that regard is some scattered topless moments, and full frontal kind of via very see thru underwear. also a good deal more male nudies than i might have perhaps wished for, thanks to the quasi homoerotic, sort of bi moments the two gents i mentioned seem to have now and then. quite rubbish, then, and really not worth the effort of watching. don't let me stop you if you insist.
my main motivation for procuring Island Of Death (provenance fans take note) was that it was on offer for all of £5 on the Arrow Video website. it was a film i vaguely recall seeing the cover (well, the version of it above) before and i knew it was a "video nasty". this film was just banned outright here in the UK for some time. with morals now being "different" it got released "uncut", so i figured why not. actually i am assuming uncut, but if there was anything in this that was removed, well, on the basis of what was left in i have absolutely no wish to see that, thanks.
compared to Death Has Blue Eyes it is so that Island Of Death has a vaguely coherent plot. kind of. it all starts with a couple (male and female) arriving on a Greek island. they appear to be being hunted down by someone, and the likely reason for this is soon clear, as they go on a spate of rather violent and very unpleasant crimes. mostly it seems they are "punishing" those they believe what have gone done wrong, or live what they deem an immoral life, but in a few instances it would seem the couple themselves have instigated this behaviour. when similar acts of violence are taken out on them there's no sense of "revenge" or "justice", it's just all unpleasant.
the big surprise here is that the BBFC gave it a certificate in this version, be it uncut or in some way edited. i get that anyone can more or less get any depraved film they wish off of the internet, but the value of the BBFC is go give guidance and informed choice. let's put it this way - when the blurb or description on the back of the tape (disc) box offers up "opportunistic bestiality" and similar you know you are not dealing with arthouse stuff. it was always my understanding that certain things were a really big no-no for the BBFC, and top of that list was creating any sort of impression that a lady might enjoy an assault. well, that's very present here, unfortunately.
yes, sure. there was a fairly decent amount of full tilt nudies on the go in Island Of Death, but not in a particularly enjoyable or interesting way. perhaps i am being too fussy, but frankly it's really one rather repulsive film with absolutely no artistic merit and limited enjoyment. i am sort of "glad" to have watched it as i can now understand why this was one of the "video nasties" all and sundry went on a crusade about around 1984. fans of cinema here in the UK would not have missed out on too much if it remained banned.
sorry if you hit upon this because you are passionate about Greek trash cinema and were hoping for a celebration of it. i am fairly sure that someone in Greece has made a decent film somewhere along the line of cinematic history, but it's not one of these two.
were it so that you wished to read more of European based filth (or "art") then you may well wish to click here to look at some Tinto Brass (and related) stuff i gone watched.
να είστε άριστοι μεταξύ σας!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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