I wanted to share with you the movies we watched over the weekend here at the Nocera Horror-Hive. I was unfortunately struck earlier in the week with the "convention crud" post-HorrorHound Weekend and was quite sick, but we made the best of it by having a "sit our asses on the couch horrorthon" - which we do so well but this time I skipped out on the whiskey sours. Saturday we watched Dead Kids (aka Strange Behavior), Video Violence, Flesh for Frankenstein, House on Straw Hill, Ban the Sadist Videos (a documentary on "video nasties") and we started Machete Maidens Unleashed (a documentary on Filipino genre films), but nyquil was taking hold fast during the last feature so we had to stop it in the middle. Needless to say we didn't get to finish it today, so tomorrow I'm hoping that we can pop it back in the player and finish it.
Some of these movies are of course classic favorites of mine, but I had never seen the documentaries or House on Straw Hill before. Also known as Trauma and Exposè, this 1976 video nasty stars Udo Kier as a troubled writer who wears rubber gloves during sex with his girlfriend Fiona Richmond (a softcore porn actress from the UK); has strange visions involving a dead guy, bloody limbs, blood dripping on the pages of a book, a typewriter from the view of the carriage return; and apparently he is a bad typist as he recruits the lovely Linda Hayden of Blood on Satan's Claw fame to come and type for him in order to help him finish his book. Take all of these ingredients and add in a secluded house in the countryside, tons of sex and masturbation scenes, gory murders, and of course a nice plot twist at the end that you are quasi-expecting to happen, and with all of that you have a film deserving of the infamous label "video nasty".
I loved the movie overall and the acting is incredible; that goes without saying though considering the roster of actors and actresses. Speaking of the actors, I think another aspect of the movie I liked was the small, exclusive cast. You were able to focus on the characters and infinitesimal facts being dropped in the story here and there to understand how the ending comes about. Uncomfortable at times, but always delivering, House on Straw Hill is a must for those of you who love sex in your horror, and horror in your sex. And everything in between. Plus, who could resist Linda Hayden and Udo Kier in a movie together, right?
Don't just take my word for it! Buy it now!
http://www.severin-films.com/2013/06/25/the-house-on-straw-hill/
