Argento Movie Posters

Here's a variety of high quality scans of movie posters relating to Dario Argento.

Virgil Finlay

I started researching Weird Tales a couple of years ago. The concept of pulp magazines appealed to my whimsical interests in fantasy, sci fi, and horror, and still do. That particular magazine encompassed all those emerging genres and really captured a zeitgeist amongst bedroom writers of the time period trying to eek out a living from their stories. The same was the case for the illustrators. One such artist was Virgil Finlay, who much like my idol Frank Frazetta, was a superb athlete who resigned himself to his striking artistic abilities as he got older. With the scratchboard as his chosen medium, Finlay was definitive with his outlandish style, stretching into avenues of fantasy that were only hinted at previous to his work. Monsters, aliens, and demons were all present in his work, and Virgil was extremely prolific. Like many artists with this type of word-of-mouth cult status, it was not until after his death that his work received a potent revival and collectability. I'd like to share with you now a few of my favorites, and a link to a large number of his works. The collection in the download only represents a fraction of what this man created.

"Virgil Finlay (July 23, 1914 – January 18, 1971) was an American pulp fantasy, science fiction and horror illustrator. While he worked in a range of media, from gouache to oils, Finlay specialized in, and became famous for, detailed pen-and-ink drawings accomplished with abundant stippling, cross-hatching, and scratchboard techniques. Despite the very labor-intensive and time-consuming nature of his specialty, Finlay created more than 2600 works of graphic art in his 35-year career.

Virgil Warden Finlay was born and raised in Rochester, New York; his father, woodworker Warden Hugh Finlay, died at age 40 in the midst of the Great Depression, leaving his family (widow Ruth and two children, Jean and Virgil) in straitened circumstances. By his high school years, Virgil Finlay exercised his passions for art and poetry, and discovered his lifelong subject matter through the pulp magazines of the era--science fiction, via Amazing Stories (1927), and fantasy and horror, via Weird Tales (1928), beginning to exhibit at the age of 16. By age 21 he was confident enough in his art to send six pieces, unsolicited, to editor Farnsworth Wright at Weird Tales. Once Wright determined that such detailed work would transfer successfully to relatively rough paper the magazine used (they were called "pulps" for a reason), he began buying Finlay's work. Finlay's illustrations debuted in the December 1935 issue of WT, and appeared in a total of 62 issues of the magazine, down to the last issue of the classic pulp in Sept. 1954. He also executed 19 color covers for WT, for issues from Feb. 1937 to March 1953.

A late-career Finlay illo published in the Amazing Stories issue of July, 1964.

Finlay quickly branched out to other publications after his 1935 debut; he was an immediate hit. In 1938 he went to work for A. Merritt at The American Weekly, moving from Rochester to New York City. Later the same year, he married Beverly Stiles, whom he had known in childhood in Rochester (Nov. 16, 1938). His adjustment to the city and to his new job was not smooth, however; he was fired and re-hired more than once. Yet during his period on the magazine's staff (1938-43), and later as a freelancer (1946-51), Finlay estimated that he did 845 different images, large and small, for Merritt's magazine.

Finlay served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and saw extensive combat in the South Pacific theatre, notably on Okinawa and did posters and illustrations for the Morale Services during his three years of military service. He resumed his artistic career after demobilization, doing a considerable amount of work for science fiction magazines and books. As the pulp magazine market narrowed through the 1950s, Finlay turned to astrology magazines as a new venue for his art.

Finlay also wrote poetry throughout his adult life. Virtually none was published in his lifetime, though significant samples have been printed posthumously.

Finlay had to undergo major surgery for cancer in early 1969. He recovered enough to go back to work for a time; but the cancer returned, and Virgil Finlay died of the disease early in 1971, aged 56. Ironically, Finlay just missed a resurgence in interest in his artwork from the early 1970s onward." - Wiki

Download.

Being Human

I've heard a lot of buzz about Being Human from a couple of blogs and decided to check it out myself. I'm two episodes in and really enjoying it. I knew I was hooked when the werewolf dude's transition scene happened and it came off almost as painful as the scene from An American Werewolf in London without the use of CG(!). I don't like the dude that plays the vampire in the pilot episode, and I'm glad they ditched him. I think maybe its was his character coming off as a goofy Bullet for My Valentine fan rather than an old vampire trapped in a young man's body. Apparently, like all things reasonably entertaining, they're Americanizing this soon. Here are MU links to the entire first season, including the pilot.

Pilot

Episode One

Episode Two

Episode Three

Episode Four

Episode Five

Episode Six

Nunsploitation

"A nun walks towards the crucifix, when Jesus – a bearded messianic dream-boat – steps down off the cross, throws her to the ground, tears open her habit and does the sex in her. Ten minutes later, a novice nun is stripped naked by her sisters who whip her tits before falling into a big bad Catholic orgy, wimples and all. Weirdly though, nunsploitation is based on real life.

This genre of soft-core erotica had its heyday in 70s Catholic Europe with stories of nuns getting possessed by the devil, who was endlessly attracted to lesbian sex and violent punishment games. The good thing about nunsploitation movies is that, unlike most exploitation porn, they’re mostly set in the Renaissance and pretend to be based on real life. For example, The True Story of the Nuns of Monza and the Sisters of Satan is basically a documentary. 17th Century nuns were actually getting just as rampant as these movies suggest. Between 1550 and 1790, there were around 50 recorded cases of mass demonic possession in convents throughout western Europe. Nuns were getting possessed all over the place, which standardly involves a lesbian orgy, a dance around naked, and totally messing up your chastity vow with a crucifix. Possessed nuns would have fits, speak in tongues, expose themselves and scream obscenities. During exorcisms, they would tear off their habits and writhe around screwing invisible demons and taking the name of Christ’s holy cock in vain. Here is a small selection from the ecclesiastical records:

1. During her exorcism, Sister Marie de Henin from the Cistercian convent (1613) admitted having sex with demons eight times, and that she “polluted herself with a certain lay woman of the abbey”.

2. Abbess Benedetta Carlini (1626) became scissor sisters with cellmate Bartolomea Crivelli after being possessed by a male angel named Spenditello. They believed they shared mystic visions while having sex. Both died after 35 years in prison.

3. In the mass possession at Louviers, 18-year-old Madeleine Bavent (1625) said she was bewitched by the vicar and nunnery director, who abducted her, married her to the devil and then raped her on the alter. In her interrogation, she revealed years of sex with other nuns, father confessors, and the frequent use of the Eucharist for sexual acts. Other nuns admitted they too had been had by the devil at the hands of the local vicar. When possessed, they would raise their habits and beg passers-by for sex.

4. The Peruvian nun Luisa Benites, possessed by 6,666 demons, felt a penis inside her for days.

5. Sister Juana Asensi was executed in Valencia in 1649 after describing a vision in which she had a mystic one-night stand with Jesus.

6. There was a mass demonic possession of the Ursuline nuns of Loudun in 1633, with the main symptom being vulgar dreams about the local priest Father Grandier, who was clearly to blame and promptly executed. It was made into the more disturbing than erotic Ken Russell movie The Devils (1971).

Even doctors of the time saw these outbreaks of possession as sexual frustration. The physician who treated the nuns of Loudun wrote, “These diabolic and miserable nuns find themselves locked within four walls. They fall in love, sink into melancholic hallucinations, and are driven by the desires of the flesh. And truth must be said: what they need is a carnal remedy.” Who doesn’t?

With interesting parallels to these outbreaks, the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary let a group of psychologists into their convent for a 60s-era pop psychology three-year study in group self-exploration. The therapy sessions were a disaster, and by the end, half of the 600 nuns in the school had petitioned the Vatican to be released from their vows. Mostly because they all discovered they were lesbians. So, to summarise, all your stupidest Catholic fantasies are absolutely true."

Cameron King - Vice

Killer Nun (1978)

The Devils (1971)

School of the Holy Beast (1974)

French Thriller Trailers

Modern French horror and suspense is among the most edgy of any nation's cinematic efforts. The films thrive on unsettling the audience, whether on a psychological level, or a visceral, violent level. I'm really impressed by each of these films for varying reasons. The French have a small but integral heritage in horror and suspense (Polanski's The Tenant comes to mind). To an extent, influence from Cronenberg, Lynch, and Polanski can be seen in these selections.

À l'intérieur : Inside (2007)

Torrent.

Haute Tension : High Tension (2003)

Torrent.

Sheitan : Satan (2006)

Torrent.

Martyrs (2008)

Torrent.

Frontière(s) : Frontiers (2007)



Torrent.

Caché : Hidden (2005)



Torrent.

Cult Horror Trailers

Galaxy of Terror (1981)

The Burning (1981)

Anthropophagus (1980)

Shrunken Heads (1994)

Mixed Film Trailers

Wizards (1977)

The Human Centipede (2010)

Fire & Ice (1983)

The next three are trailers for shorts directed by Rodrigo Gudino, the creator of Rue Morgue Magazine. He's currently working on a remake of Cutthroats 9 and expanding on the animated short featured here. All three of these shorts are available on the dvd Curious Stories, Crooked Symbols.

Asian Film Trailers part 1!

Thirst

Battle Royale

Three... Extremes

Tokyo Zombie

Obscure Nostalgic Horror

Rawhead Rex

Sleepaway Camp

Watchers

The Prophecy