{"id":19029,"date":"2024-09-15T15:58:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T15:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattshorroraddiction.com\/?p=19029"},"modified":"2024-09-15T15:58:02","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T15:58:02","slug":"the-forest-lets-scare-jessica-to-death-the-murder-clinic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/?p=19029","title":{"rendered":"The Forest, Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, The Murder Clinic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Forest<\/em><\/strong> – 2016, US, 93m. Director: Jason Zada. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death<\/em><\/strong> – 1971, US, 89m. Director: John D. Hancock. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Loreley’s Grasp<\/em><\/strong> – 1973, Spain, 84m. Director: Amando de Ossorio. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Murder Clinic<\/em><\/strong> – 1966, Italy\/France, 82m. Director: Elio Scardamaglia, Lionello De Felice.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE FOREST<\/em><\/strong> (2016) <\/em>On the northwest side of Japan’s Mount Fuji lies the Aokigahara, a vast forest known by locals to be filled with spirits of the dead, and a popular locale for those who wish to commit suicide. It’s in this ghostly wilderness where American teacher Jess was last seen before she disappeared. Twin sister Sara (Natalie Dormer, Game of Thrones<\/em>) senses her distraught sibling’s vibes and travels to Japan to find her. Sara’s plight interests a journalist (Taylor Kinney) writing about the “Suicide Forest,” and the two hire a guide to take them into the woods. Isolation and disorientation set in until Sara becomes too psychologically unbalanced to tell what’s real and what’s in her head. The film’s roots look like they stem from the world of J-horror, but those expecting a movie filled with nonstop jump scares might be disappointed in The Forest<\/em>‘s subtler approach. There are a few scary moments but the majority of the movie is focused on character and mood. Unfortunately, the third act is disjointed and clumsy, culminating in a silly “shock” ending that feels tacked on. B<\/strong>– (Currently not streaming.) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH<\/em><\/strong> (1971)<\/em> Emotionally fragile Jessica (Zohra Lampert) is taken by her husband (Barton Heyman) to convalesce in the country after she’s released from a mental hospital. Upon arriving at their new home, Jessica begins seeing a woman in white around the property\u2014a woman who might be the ghost of someone who lived in the house decades earlier, before drowning in the nearby lake. Jessica’s mental stability starts to break when she discovers a dead body in the woods and is later attacked by a female specter from below the lake’s surface. This low budget oddity has recently gained attention from film scholars but it’s really nothing more than an uninvolving retelling of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla<\/em> told through the viewpoint of a disillusioned housewife. Atmospheric but empty, and with Lampert giving a one-note performance. C<\/strong> (Currently not streaming.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE LORELEY’S GRASP<\/em><\/strong> (1973)<\/em> (AKA: When the Screaming Stops<\/em>) This movie has a helluva opening! On a dark night in Rhine, Germany, a scaly beast with claws crashes through a window and slashes a woman to death\u2014her bloodied, lifeless body is shown in close-up as the opening credits roll. Too bad the rest of the film stinks. The victim was from an all-girl’s school\u2014the kind that only admit centerfolds\u2014that hires a sharpshooter (Tony Kendall) to protect the rest of the student body should more attacks occur. Kendall’s presence proves fruitless when another student is torn to pieces by the monster. Some believe it’s the work of a wild animal, but audiences know it’s the Lorelei\u2014a legendary supernatural being that can take the form of a woman and transform into a lizard-like creature when the moon is full. After a blind beggar has his heart ripped out by the Lorelei (this movie seems to have an endless supply of torn-open fake torsos), Kendall teams up with a scientist (and Lorelei expert) to try and stop the killings. A group of townspeople round up the usual idiots to form a pitchfork-and-torch-carrying mob, hellbent on destroying the Lorelei\u2014but much like Kendall’s himbo hunter, they fail to kill it. The Lorelei’s grasp is eventually overcome when she’s stabbed with a sacrificial dagger, but not before a quick embrace by a smitten Kendall after she transforms into busty Helga Lin\u00e9. I guess love does<\/em> win in the end. A handsomely made, typically asinine epic from Amando de Ossorio (Tombs of the Blind Dead<\/em>). D<\/strong>+ (Currently streaming on Tubi.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE MURDER CLINIC<\/em><\/strong> (1966)<\/em> A 19th century mental institution becomes the killing ground of a hooded maniac who slices up the patients\u2014and staff\u2014with a straight razor. The first on-screen victim, a mute woman, manages to escape to the nearby countryside, but succumbs to the murderer’s slashing; her book is found by a nurse the next morning with a slash torn across it. That nurse (Barbara Wilson) is new to the clinic and is introduced to the patients, all of whom seem to suffer from fits of rage, and all of whom are potential suspects. The real<\/em> suspect is the hideously scarred sister-in-law of Dr. Robert Vance (William Berger), who hides in the attic\u2014the sight of her deformed face makes a guest faint from shock (or perhaps she was surprised by the lousy make-up job). The Murder Clinic<\/em> has all of the hallmarks of an early Italian slasher, or giallo\u2014the gloved killer, the bevy of beautiful women, the complex backstory involving the protagonist. What the film doesn’t have are interesting characters, surprises, or a lick of suspense throughout its 82 minutes. C<\/strong>– (Currently streaming on Tubi.) <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Forest – 2016, US, 93m. Director: Jason Zada. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death – 1971, US, 89m. Director: John D. Hancock. The Loreley’s Grasp – 1973, Spain, 84m. Director: Amando de Ossorio. The Murder Clinic – 1966, Italy\/France, 82m. Director: Elio Scardamaglia, Lionello De Felice. THE FOREST (2016) On the northwest side of Japan’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capsule-reviews"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matt.doppiavvu.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}