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Known for rarely seen and highly obscure erotic thrillers sourced from variable to dreadful prints and transfers, One 7 Movies almost strikes gold with this near pristine Blu-ray offering of what might have been Lucio Fulci\u2019s final film as writer-director, but with his health failing in 1996, producer Dario Argento handed over directorial chores to special effects maestro Sergio Stivaletti, resulting in a very different third take on the famous\u00a0House of Wax<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0story.<\/p>\n While not a perfect film, it\u2019s nevertheless pretty sumptuous \u2013 a minor miracle on a minor budget \u2013 and Stivaletti proved himself an able director much in the way George Romero handed over direction of the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to his own effects maestro, Tom Savini.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no point in trying to find traces of Fulci in Wax Mask \/\u00a0 M.D.C. \u2013 Maschera di cera<\/a><\/strong> (1997) because the final film reflects the sensibilities of its producer and director, but not unlike Savini (who really, really<\/em> should\u2019ve gone on to director more films), Stivaletti\u2019s handling isn\u2019t packed with ADD editing nor gratuitous special effects, and a frenetic running time to meet the needs of contemporary audiences wanting faster, bloodier, louder.<\/p>\n Perhaps that\u2019s what makes this film above average: creative care actually went into crafting a film that looked and sounded like a 1950s studio production starring the likes of Vincent Price, and it almost works. For its flaws \u2013 many of which I detail in the review \u2013 it\u2019s still a fun romp that deserves to sit close to its revered classic predecessors.<\/p>\n To contextualize Wax Mask<\/strong>, I\u2019ve ported over a review of Mike Baronas\u2019 2008 documentary Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered<\/a><\/strong>, which was for a time available from the director’s\u00a0online site. The DVD is long OOP, but it\u2019s unique for being a 7 year project in which 90 associates, friends, and family members of Fulci reflect on director.<\/p>\n I\u2019m still on the fence with Fulci \u2013 a gradual introduction is necessary, but I\u2019d like to start from the very beginning,\u00a0when Fulci was part of Italy\u2019s newest generation of directors, learning their craft through whatever genre was in vogue before they branched off and fixated on a genre or fetishes that suited their peculiar tastes and unique skills. I gotta give The Beyond<\/strong> (1981) another try, but my personal favourite is still Lizard in a Woman\u2019s Skin<\/strong> (1971), a visually bonkers giallo shot in swinging London that\u2019s zoom-happy, features weird seduction scenes, and a gnashing Ennio Morricone score.<\/p>\n Coming very shortly are several reviews of films playing during the 25th Toronto Jewish Film Festival, with an eye on documentaries. TJFF runs May 4-14, 2017, and offers a great mix of genres and docs from international and Canadian directors, spanning a variety of compelling, amusing, and funny subjects. Also of note is a 35mm screening of Joshua Then and Now<\/a><\/strong> (1985), part of the festival\u2019s salute to author Mordecai Richler.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor Review of Wax Mask \/ M.D.C. \u2013 Maschera di cera (1997), new on Blu from One 7 Movies + from the KQEK.com archives, Mike Baronas’ affectionate portrait of the legendary eye trauma auteur, Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered (2008) on DVD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[480,2562,2563,5115,4907,2298,5114,5104,5103,5113,2746,1991,5105],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/WaxMask_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-49d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15947"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15947"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15969,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15947\/revisions\/15969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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