This feature, shot in Brazil is about a Professor who is laughed at when he announces that he has created an "elixir of life". He also makes a trek to Egypt and discovers a Mummy which he brings back with him.
He uses the elixir of life and the mummy comes to life. While all this is going on seven of his friends who all owned a small piece of the map locating the mummy's tomb have been killed by a mysterious madman.
You can tell the director of the movie loves the horror genre as there are numerous nodding to several Universal horror films and others as well.
The film is shot in color and black and white and I noticed that most of the scenes in the past are in color and the present are not, which is unique in and of itself.
There is some gore, the comedy is strained sometimes, but the result is something very interesting indeed. It was very interesting, but only fitting to have Jose Mojica Marins in a small role at the beginning of the film since he is the Godfather of Brazilian Horror.
The print from Sinister is beautiful and if you're interested, you might want to check out this bizarre and sometimes very funny film. I have never seen anything quite like it.
I found R.F. Lucchetti via my Edgar Allan Poe comics blog project, when I started to really get into Brazillian horror comics (which I can't rad without a translator). Lucchetti is on my FB friends list now, and thru him I first heard about this movie. I managed to see it free online when someone posted it, but when I lokoed again it was gone. For the next 2 years I searched for it, until I found a Region 1 copy on sale from Sinister Cinema, who specialize in rare & foreign film.
ReplyDeleteThis movie is BATS*** CRAZY!!! It keeps going back and forth from B&W to color with no consistency, several times you have newsreel footage inserted, the writing & acting is VERY stylized, exagerated and over-the-top, most of the violence is very subtle or off-camera (partly to keep the budget down as low as possible), there's loads of NUDITY, and some really INSANE characters. I love horror-comedy, but MAN, this is unlike anything I've ever seen! An instant favorite.
I also love how the music includes some old standards, an excerpt of a Beatles song (sung in Portuguese), bits of Mussorgsky's "Night On Bald Mountain" and Bernard Hermann's main theme from "Jason And The Argonauts". WILD!
"MUST-SEE".