Black Past (1989)

Although unfortunately some of the fanfare tends to come from the cult of irony, the more light shone on shot-on-video movies the better as such works represent an important part in evolution of filmmaking. It's been documented countless times, but the fact remains that not only did the video revolution make it easier for everyone to watch films in their own homes, but the accessibility of video cameras made it easier to make their own films. Of course, given that the majority of SOV movies were amateur productions the quality of the majority of SOV movies can be rather shoddy, yet despite the quality, the one trait all SOV films had was sincerity. That combined with the amateur effect made the movies feel all the more personal and gave the SOV aesthetic an odd mystique. While a good chunk of the biggest SOV titles like Boardinghouse (1982), Sledgehammer (1983), Black Devil Doll from Hell (1984) and Woodchipper Massacre (1988) were American productions, Europe had its own movement, the leader of which was Germany's Olaf Ittenbach. Ittenbach quickly gained notoriety among underground horror fans due to the extreme gore quotient of his films, chief among them the infamous The Burning Moon (1992) and later Premutos: The Fallen Angel (1997) but it was Ittenbach's first feature Black Past that put his name on the map, a crucial title for both splatter horror and SOV films.

After moving into a new house with his father and two nagging sisters, Thommy (Ittenbach), an aimless and angsty teenager discovers a mirror chained up in a box in the attic that belonged to the previous owner of the house who went on a murderous rampage. Thommy hangs the mirror in his room only to discover the sinister forces it houses when his girlfriend Petra walks into oncoming traffic after being put into a daze by the mirror. After reading the diary he found with the mirror, Thommy finds himself under the mirror's spell, transforming him into deadly demonic entity.

A labor of love in every sense of the term with Ittenbach writing, directing, acting, co-producing and doing the effects, Black Past stands head and shoulders above most shot-on-video features in every department. What's more, Ittenbach's previous film work consisted of shorts which he freely admits were excuses for showcases his effects work and like most SOV flicks, Black Past was shot mostly on weekends. Although the cursed house set-up is a familiar one, Ittenbach keeps things fresh and even takes the film into territories that most SOV features would never attempt to go. There is a sincere attempt at drama throughout the entire film revolving around Thommy and his constant feuding with his father and sisters. Despite Thommy's deadbeat nature, Ittenbach himself has a certain charm about him and his family's constant harping on him about everything does make his anger seem a bit more justified. Even the moments that are an obvious attempt at padding out the run time, one of the most common occurrences during SOV movies, like scenes of Thommy wandering aimlessly in stores have an endearing factor to them because of Ittenbach's emphasis on giving the film a semblance of emotion. Obviously due to the format the film does run into some of the technical issues inherent in all video movies, but again Ittenbach manages to minimize them and thanks to his ingenuity even gives moments of the film as genuine sense of style and atmosphere, particularly during the third act when the film becomes a massive bloodbath.

Being an Ittenbach film, the biggest selling point is of course going to be the gore with all the effects created by Ittenbach himself. What may surprise many given Ittenbach's reputation is how he takes his time with it. There are splashes of violence in the opening of the film and sprinkled throughout in the form of hallucination and dream scenes but Ittenbach saves the big showcase for the films previously mentioned third act which consists of one big gore set piece after another. Not only is the gore plentiful (and rather mean spirited with one particularly savage bit involving one of Thommy's sisters) but more importantly, it's innovative with Ittenbach coming up with some pretty astonishing and original ways of filling the screen with as much blood as possible. It's also crucial to point out that the effects were 100% practical which, given the resources Ittenbach was working with, make them all the more admirable. Perhaps the most impressive would be Thommy's transformation into his fully demonic form, though there is a showstopping hallucination/dream that Ittenbach would improve upon with the infamous Hell segment in his follow-up film The Burning Moon, his most well known work. Ittenbach's effects skills would eventually find him work on other films, but it all began with Black Past, a remarkably assured film for a homegrown debut and really an important entry in the German horror canon.

Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story (1995)

The 90's were very much a transitional period for film, American film in particular. By and large, the 90's were the last decade of diversity in terms of budget. While the decade had its share of massive blockbusters, those types of films didn't have the stranglehold they have over the modern film industry, leaving room for middle budget films to breath along with the plethora of films to come out of the 90's indie boom. The adult film industry was also going through something similar throughout the 90's. Although plotless gonzo movies had gobbled up the majority of the market since the video revolution in the 80's, there were still a select few left in the adult world at the dawn of the 90's still intent on producing something out of the ordinary, one of which was John Leslie. The actor turned director had been on a hot streak since 1988, churning out some of the best adult films in early 90's, culminating in his jump from VCA to Evil Angel with his masterpiece Dog Walker (1994). Leslie followed up Dog Walker with a transitional film of his own, Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story, his most bizarre and difficult work and a film that marked the end of an era of consistently fascinating and original narrative based features for Leslie while also signifying the path he would take until his passing in 2010.

Unlike Dog Walker which began on a somewhat traditional note before going into more stranger territory, with Fresh Meat Leslie tosses anything resembling traditional narrative out the window the moment the opening credits end. Leslie does the film somewhat of a narrative set-up around Danny (Joey Silvera) and his wife Julia (Krysti Lynn) along with their “pet” human moving into their new house, where the realtor informs them of a former resident of the house known as “The Butcher” who killed his wife before hanging himself in a meat locker. Anything that happens after is left up to interpretation as the film plays out like a hardcore predecessor to David Lynch's Inland Empire (2006) with Leslie directing Silvera, brilliantly perplexed from beginning to end, into one random scenario and sexual encounter after another, shifting perspectives and making any attempt at possible explanation the more futile as the film goes along. The film also finds itself at the end of the loose trilogy of Leslie films centered around the supernatural with the real estate angle returning from both Mad Love (1989) and Laying the Ghost (1991) while the sitcom style laugh track, lunatic sense of humor and various other eccentricities present in Laying the Ghost return in Fresh Meat, by far the most surreal and inaccessible of the three. Leslie takes the film into even more outlandish territory by breaking the fourth wall and showing the actual shooting of a scene featuring Jamie Gillis as a detective arresting actors who can't remember their lines.

The film also marked a stylistic transition for Leslie too. Leslie had shot the majority of his features on video, though managed to shoot three on 35mm, Chameleons (1992), Anything That Moves (1992) and Dog Walker. Despite the limitations of the medium, Leslie always managed to side-step the shortcomings and delivered some of the most stylish adult features of the time. Fresh Meat greatly differs in that it was lensed on a much more low quality of video giving the film an incredibly raw and personal feel very much like the gonzo movies Leslie would soon devote the rest of his career to and due to the opaque nature of the films plot, the sex scenes do tend to take up even more of an already extended amount of time, though much like Dog Walker, the drawn out nature and hallucinatory feel of the the scenarios begin to emit a hypnotic aura ensuring that anyone watching the film is put in the same dazed and confused headspace as Silvera. There are also several instances of black and white 8mm film spiced into the movie adding to the already rough tone. Leslie does inject many scenes with his unique sense of style though and the films costume design features a big focus on striking leather and PVC wear giving the film one foot in the fetish realm. Leslie does also push the boundaries in the bodily fluids department during an unforgettably odd sequence involving Silvera and his “pet”, a plot point played completely strait.

Either a creative choice or due to the economy of the adult industry of the time (and to this day by and large), following Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story Leslie's output consists of nearly all gonzo work. Ironically, Fresh Meat would go on to become a long running series, lasting a whopping 29 entries, although none are related to A Ghost Story. Leslie would also go on to create the first person Voyeur series which produced 36 entries. Other Leslie gonzo series include the cheekily titled Don't Make Me Beg, Ass Trap, Big Tit Crackers, Gobble the Goop and Crack Her Jack. Worlds removed from the likes of Leslie's earlier titles like The Catwoman (1988), Second Skin (1989), Chameleons and Anything That Movies. Interestingly, Leslie's career trajectory somewhat mirrors that of fellow adult legend José Bénazéraf who took a similar approach later in his career in the 80's. Leslie did direct the visually intriguing Drop Sex (1997) after A Ghost Story and managed to make one last narrative feature Brianna Love: Her Fine Sexy Self  (2007) (where he made a return in front of the camera as well) but Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story marked the end of era for Leslie and to a certain extent the adult industry as a whole with the film being one of the most original and surreal works to come out of the realm of adult film.