Masacre en la casa del sol naciente

An excellent re-work of Seventies film clichés - or really a Seventies film, how the prologue will suggest? It's pure fun to point out during watching this very charming genre bastard, which contains several elements of 70ies road movies, hippie movies, horror movies, drug movies and a little bit Russ Meyer touch. And also a bit of David Lynch-like atmosphere. Okay: Lynch is not very typical for the 70ies, but anyway. The acting is great (especially the director himself as crippled hippie leader), also the dialogues and the cinematography. And there is also a lot of strange humour and irony in this generally strange, funny and likable independent movie.

I normally hate horror films, but this eerie and very funny film was really fun to watch. Really good acting, great lines and psychedelic imagery made this a real throwback to 70's films that I grew up with. Vin Crease is a very talented director and has a great screen presence. I really loved the pathetic Sabbath Jones and Westy Westerman -- a great love/hate character.

This is not a horrible movie. It has a few moments. But there are many obvious giveaways that make it clear that it was not made in 1972. Things like hairstyles, clothing, the use of a steadicam and other modern digital editing techniques totally spoil the potential illusion. I don't know how anyone can say that it is convincing in this respect. Unless they have not watched a lot of films from 1972. The music is probably the most convincing part. I also think they make the mistake of playing for laughs at times (and not getting them) when they should have just played it straight. It could have been funnier that way. Just watch SCTV for examples of how that can work. But, in fact, I would have preferred it if they were not going for laughs at all. If they had instead chosen to just make a good solid horror film in the style of movies from 1972. And just an odd side note: Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out in 1974. I'm not sure how to interpret homage to/parody of a movie which is embedded in a movie that's supposed to be made two years earlier.

In the 70's, while acting in a porn movie, Jennifer (Cheryl Dent) has a vision of her dead sister Jessica and attacks her dwarfish partner Nasty Nat (Pancho Moler). She is sent to a mental institute and six months later, her doctor discharges her under the condition that Jennifer should stay with her parents using medicine for a period. While driving through the desert, Jennifer is thrown in a ditch by the truck of two guys that want to rape her. However she is helped by the dysfunctional hippies Damon Grey (Vin Crease), Violence Onelove (Michele Morrow) and Guilty Karma. They invite Jennifer to spend the night in their camp and they offer peyote to her. Under the effect of the drug, the delusional Jennifer and her new friends are haunted by a mysterious fiend.

"Slaughterhouse of the Rising Sun" is a weird movie, with bizarre characters and situations that are not well-developed. The dysfunctional group of hippies, for example, are totally insane and silly, and their violent attitudes are unusual and against the philosophy of "love and piece" from the 70's. Jennifer's insanity is never explained, and the viewer has no explanation why she has this killer instinct and why she killed her younger sister. The genre shifts between a comedy that is neither dark nor funny and horror that is silly and never scary. Therefore the film fails. The best offered by this flick is the version of The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" in the end. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Delírio Assassino" ("Assassin Daydream")

I love watching films from the 70s because of the weak film quality and basic soundtracks. This film filled those requirements. There have been a handful of "not good" movies I've watched to the end strictly because of the cinematography. This is one of those. It's not because the cinematography was great, but it captured the 70s style of filming enough that I went back to see what year it was made which is why I gave it a "5" instead of a lower rating.

The story was very Charles Manson-esque in its deliver. The acting was weak, but it didn't really matter because the story was the same. I did like the filming locations a lot in this film though. The locations along with the filming style gave it a "feel".

I'm not disappointed that I watched it, but I wouldn't watch it again or even recommend it to a friend.