{"id":18066,"date":"2018-06-13T13:11:55","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T17:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18066"},"modified":"2018-06-13T13:11:55","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T17:11:55","slug":"bruno-matteis-rip-off-trilogy-part-i-shocking-dark-1989","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18066","title":{"rendered":"Bruno Mattei&#8217;s Rip-Off Trilogy, Part I: Shocking Dark (1989)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-18075\" src=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/ShockingDark_T2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"358\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/ShockingDark_T2.jpg 240w, https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/ShockingDark_T2-201x300.jpg 201w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Severin Film&#8217;s ongoing series of Bruno Mattei releases is giving the director a rare spotlight for North American audiences who&#8217;ve never heard of this maestro&#8217;s of knock-offs, and connoisseurs will no doubt be delighted his work is appearing in uncut versions, mastered from superior source materials, but what constitutes a classic is really in the eyes of the beholder.<\/p>\n<p>Mattei made a trio of rip-offs between 1987-1989, and <a href=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18063\"><strong>Shocking Dark<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(aka <strong>Terminator 2<\/strong>)\u00a0shows the results when the budget is too tiny for even a director known for explosive scenes and plenty of flying bullet casings.<\/p>\n<p>Screenwriters Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi pilfered material from James Cameron&#8217;s <strong>Aliens<\/strong> (1986) and <strong>The Terminator<\/strong> (1984), and their stark &#8216;homages&#8217; are often jaw-dropping, plus heightened by a cast that by and large lacks needed gravitas.<\/p>\n<p>Part 2 will cover Mattei&#8217;s other late-1980s rip-offs\u00a0<strong>Strike Commando <\/strong>(1987) and\u00a0<strong>Robowar<\/strong> (1988), but coming shortly is a lengthy podcast interview with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=17704\"><strong>Viva Amiga<\/strong><\/a> director Zach Weddington, plus a review of\u00a0<strong>Blue Denim<\/strong> (1959) from Twilight Time.<\/p>\n<p>Cheers,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor<br \/>\n<strong>KQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Part 1 of Bruno Mattei&#8217;s Rip-Off Trilogy begins with Shocking Dark \/ Terminator 2 (1989), new on Blu from Severin Films.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[5723,2562,2563,5721,5722],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/ShockingDark_featured.jpeg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-4Ho","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18066"}],"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=18066"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18076,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18066\/revisions\/18076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}