Cinevox Records presents Mario Bava's SCHOCK!

Libra - Mario Bava's SCHOCK TRANSFERT * SUSPENCE * HYPNOS (CD, Jewel Case, Soundtrack) [2002, Re-Issue] Italy.

1. The Shock (04:07)
2. L'Altalena Rossa (01:28)
3. Transfert I / Hypnos / Transfert II (04:08)
4. La Baia (02:18)
5. La Cantina / The Shock (Ripresa) (03:02)
6. Tema Di Marco I / Tema Di Marco II (03:36)
7. L'Incubo (03:33)
8. Transfert III (01:34)
9. Il Fantasma Suona Il Piano (01:56)
10. Transfert IV / Tema Di Marco II (Ripresa) (04:00)
11. Il Fantasma Suona Il Piano (Alternate piano solo long version)* (02:47)
12. The Shock (Alternate movie version)* (01:40)
13. Tema Di Marco (Alternate movie version)* (01:38)
14. Transfert IV (Alternate movie version)* (02:54)

* previously unreleased on the original Cinevox Album MDF 33/113. Music composed and performed by I LIBRA: Carlo Pennisi - Guitars, Alessandro Centofanti - Keyboards,  Dino Cappa - Bass, Walter Martino - Drums, Maurizio Guarini - Additional Keyboards.

"Nightmare Music Guaranteed to SHOCK!" You got that right. This is some hardcore bad dream inducing music here, and I know it because I've listened to this about thirty or so times while sleeping. If you're looking for some warped, twisted and fucked up dreams then try it out. For this madness inducing piece of work, I Libra (lead by former Goblin drummer Walter Martino) took jazz infused progressive rock to a new level of avant-garde, psychedelic and disarranged experimentation. With distorted sounds, off beat rhythms and a totally chaotic atmosphere, the songs of Schock constantly trial off much like waves in an acid trip, yet always seem to blend seamlessly back together into  another new frenzy of uneasy listening.

Schock is a supersexy-swingin' film (see the above photo) about a woman going absolutely batshit crazy and losing her goddamned mind! The accompanying music of Libra is so utterly triumphant at creating the perfect representation of her crashing and crumbling mindset with its pinball-inside-the-skull type pounding grooves, that it may in fact be too powerful of a soundtrack. You read that right, listening to this soundtrack has a brain stimulating effect that triggers anxious, relentless and diabolical tendencies among even those considered mildly insane. It's heavy stuff, doc. I can only imagine what a full blown psychopath would do if he were hooked up to a device that played nothing but this music. Perhaps he'd say that he already owns that album... inside his head, that is!!1

I was watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest the other day and during the scenes with Scatman Crothers and Jack Nicholson together I couldn't help but think of this movie. Just look at him and Jack getting on like old friends... if he only knew that five years later in The Shining he'd be shockingly killed with a fucking Axe! Then there's Daria Nicolodi and John Steiner... not only is he killed with a pickaxe to the heart in Schock (see that last photo above), but he's also done in with a fucking Axe five years later in Tenebrae (also starring Daria) as well. Coincidence!?

Perhaps. Wait a minute? Wasn't Scatty murdered with a pickaxe in One Flew Over as well? This shit is just getting too damn weird. Hey, you wanna have a fucked up, weird-out, movie marathon night? Then I suggest you watch One Flew, followed by The Shining and Tenebrae, then end it with Schock. Every time someone has a psychotic episode you've gotta chug a beer, and every time someone is killed by an axe (of any variety, including pickaxes and Nurse "Hatchets" har har har) you've gotta take a puff off the ol' peace pipe. Tell me I'm not brilliant.

Check out the soundtrack for free HERE on youtube. Track 2 really reminds me of the flower power stuff that David Hess did for the Last House on the Left soundtrack. It's so mellow and late 70's maaaannnn... if you haven't seen this film then don't even hesitate to buy it and not thank me later. I seriously am in love with this movie and the soundtrack as well. Consider it highly recommended. D'eth out.

Favorite Death Scenes Part 5

Peepholes have always somewhat creeped me out. Perhaps it could be that I find the fisheye lens to be particularly disturbing to my already warped brain chemistry, I'm not really sure. That, and I've never been all too fond of pressing my eyeball against something to get a closer look. Is that what you call science? How about some better technology already. What, are you waiting for evolution to give our eyes X-Ray vision!? Ever since I was a child, people have been shoving my face into View-Masters and Kaleidoscopes, Microscopes and Telescopes, Virtual Reality Headsets and Binoculars. Fuck binoculars! I crawl through girl's windows like a real creeper and have no use for such tools of restraint. Sorry I went off on a tangent there. Peepholes and more notably the acts of voyeurism concerning them have been focal points of numerous films and television programs. It's almost as if the motion picture industry was obsessed with this invention. And horror film directors, the really good ones anyways, seem to be intent on bringing as much eye violence into your field of vision as possible. 

Which brings me to Dario Argento's 1987 film Opera, aka Terror at the Opera. That's where the connection between peepholes, eye violence and voyeurism comes in, with the viewer playing the role of voyeur as this shockingly gruesome event plays out. Betty was an alternate who became the lead in Macbeth after the original singer's "accident" left her notes a bit... flat! ;) Soon she's caught up not only in the pressure of rising to fame and thriving for excellence, but also the anxiety and sheer terror of being stalked by an obsessive maniac who's killing everyone close to her. Enter Myra (Daria Nicolodi), Betty's agent and friend, who comes to her aid during a desperate and confusing time. Locked in an apartment together, with perhaps a killer posing as a detective inside and outside, the lights go dim and there's a knock at the door.

Myra clings to a knife while pressing her face to the door and demands that the strange man show his face. He insists that he's an officer of the law and shines a flashlight off an ID that gleams so brightly you can't see a thing. She accuses him of lying and says that "anyone can get one of those" and that "it's a fake!" With all the muffled tenacity of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, the man responds with "Look, my gun!" and shows his weapon.

Myra starts flipping out and gets a bit more demanding, "No! Not the gun. I want to see your FACE again!". By this point the man has had enough. He presses the barrel up against the peephole and squeezes the trigger, blasting a shot right through Myra's fuckin' eyeball. The bullet exits out the back of her skull and rips apart the telephone in the background, ending any chance of Betty calling the police. How unlucky.

The awesomeness of this scene alone is amplified to an even more interesting and disturbing realm by the special effects involved, and a story shared by actress Daria Nicolodi. In the extras (Conducting Dario Argento's Opera, as well as in other documentaries about his films) we're shown the large scale model of what they used as the inside of the peephole. A huge, long open cylinder was built with a thin pane of glass in front and a firing mechanism that shot an over-sized bullet through it at hyper speed. A special camera that filmed at a very high FPS rate was required to capture this incredibly short but ambitious SFX shot. This is one of the cool little things that Dario Argento is known for going out of his way just to do for the sake of doing what he dreams and having fun.

At the time of this film's production, Daria Nicolodi was convinced that Dario Argento had concocted some kind of diabolical plan to assassinate her on set and make it look like an accident. The falling out and end of their personal relationship had been a harsh and humiliating time for Daria. Problems with Argento's behavior towards her supposedly started during Tenebrae (which furthered her agitation from being continuously not cast in roles she desired, stemming as far back as Suspiria), but her breaking point was during the filming of Phenomena where she was made to look "sixty years old" and had to perform in "stupid and dangerous stunts" involving a chimp. She was convinced that Argento was trying to ruin her. Now they want to strap real dynamite to the back of her head and shoot a blowgun with a condom full of blood in her face.

She accepted this role because she loved the death scene, and was also able to re-write her own dialogue. It's obvious from reading interviews with her and listening to her speak on these documentaries that she was terrified by a few of the scenes she had to perform in. If Argento was out to get her (or if it was just some unfortunate politics), or if he was really out to KILL her... well, I don't think we'll ever know the absolute truth regarding this. Who knows? Maybe it's a mix of all three of those things. Bottom line is that I love this beautiful woman as an actress and she's one strong lady for staying true to the cinema even though she got screwed over on a few roles she was meant for. We'll always have Deep Red and Shock. Watch the scene HERE!