INTERVIEW WITH JACQUES SPOHR (L'INSATIABLE ZINE), FROM SHOCK#56

Who is the mysterious Frenchman Jacques Spohr, whose zine we presented in the news section of  Shock#55 and in fact he helped very much with the Greek Cinema Special of Shock#56, with advice and rare photos? Here is my interview with him, which was conducted at a tavern in the area of Exarchia, Athens in 2021, while he was in Greece for about a week. He is a man with tremendous knowledge about Greek cinema and our country in general and a guy with a golden heart. We talked about many things of common interest, thus forging the everlasting friendship of L'Insatiable and Shock. 'Ελλάς-Γαλλία, Συμμαχία' ('Greece, France, Alliance' in Greek), that is, just like the political slogan in the late 70s (under D'Estaing and Karamanlis) and the mid 80s (under Mitterand and Papandreou). I should also note that L'Insatiable is in French but it is a fanzine professionally designed and printed, which excels in light years over the Neanderthal graphics and the whole logic of Shock. In the following lines, Jacques talks about his zine but also offers an insightful overview of the phenomenon of Greek erotic -and not only- cinema, in a much better and informed way than I would. 

How did you start L'Insatiable?

The first issue came out in January 2020 but I wrote a couple of articles earlier for another French fanzine, called Medusa, which is one of the oldest fanzines existing in France. It has been published for thirty years and it focuses on horror, fantasy and exploitation cinema. While I was still living in Greece, I started to investigate Greek cinema and I also started doing a political satire video called Sex, Sea, Sun & Syriza. It was made of sex scenes combined with speeches of Alexis Tsipras, because of his treason with the referendum. I used some clips from Greek exploitation films I had found online and I made the editing. I found that process funny and interesting and I contacted Pete Tombs, who had just released two films by Kostas Karayanis with his label Mondo Macabro, Eglima Sto Kavouri and Tango of Perversion. Pete sent me two DVDs right away and we started discussing Greek cinema. One day I saw someone putting an ad on Facebook of a French book quoting Omiros Efstratiadis and tagging a guy called Didier. Didier Lefèvre was the one running Medusa fanzine and we started to talk. I sent him an email with my thoughts about exploitation cinema in Greece, talking about its golden age and decadence. He thought he could publish that, so I started writing a full article, which I hadn’t done since my degree in cinema more than twenty years ago. It was difficult but fun.

Later I talked with Pete Tombs again about Kafti Ekdikisi tou Sex (aka The Wild Pussycat) by Dimis Dadiras and one day he sent me an alternate version of that film; an uncut version that was totally different. Pete asked me to write the notes for the booklet of that release and I couldn’t refuse. I didn’t consider myself a specialist in Greek cinema, but I got organized and I did it. Then I was back in Paris and met a guy, Achille Parmentier, who was into typography work. He told me we could publish the Mondo Macabro DVD booklet in French. I asked Bruno Terrier of Metaluna store in Paris if he would be interested in offering it to people who would like to buy the DVD, in order to increase the DVD’s sales. We made about thirty-five copies and it was OK for a B&W movie that didn’t have any French subtitles. I was happy with that booklet and I started writing the second article for Medusa fanzine, about Omiros Efstratiadis. It was about 50 pages, including photos, but actually I wasn’t very fond of the design and artwork of Medusa; it’s not my kind of aesthetics. So, I thought I could try to make it by myself, control everything and include most of the photos I had collected. I was encouraged by the good reviews about the Mondo Macabro booklet, so I went for it.

How did you choose the name for the zine?

The name came from the French title of the 1966/1971 film Anilikes Amartoles by Omiros Efstratiadis and Apostolos Tegopoulos. This was actually the first erotic film of Efstratiadis and I liked the idea. L’insatiable means someone who can’t have enough in French (‘akorestos’ in Greek). However, there is no gender, so it can have different meanings. I knew I wanted to write mostly about Greek erotic cinema, but I was also open to other ideas.

Anilikes Amartoles

You actually publish two issues per year. How do you distribute the zine?

The main principle is what several other fanzines or labels that release DVD or Blu-Ray do: I work with pre-sales. Right from the first issue, once I had the text and the design ready, I created a group on Facebook and made a special price for pre-sales, along with some other small gifts - but no so-called goodies; I hate this idea of goodies. I had 66 pre-sales and some support from Mondo Macabro for the first issue, so I got the money to print two hundred in total. They were sold out in a month, so I was happy but also a little bit pissed off, because everything was gone. I made the second issue during the pandemic lockdown. Actually, that issue was supposed to be the one with the Nikos Nikolaidis special, but I thought it wouldn’t be the right time to publish it, because people were already depressed. So, issue 2 had the special on Love on a Horse (To koritsi kai to alogo) by Vangelis Serdaris and horses in erotic fantasies, which had a lighter tone and it was funnier and original. I also reprinted the first issue in one hundred copies, because I thought people who got the second issue would like to get the first one as well. I had 140 pre-sales, so I printed 500 copies of issue 2. I didn’t sell them all, but I can either give them away or sell them later. When the issues arrive from the printing shop, I give them to people hand-to-hand, by post or through some shops in Paris, like Metaluna store. Metaluna is a movie store that also has books, DVDs, fanzines and old magazines about cinema. There are some people from other countries who order the zine, for example Canada, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and even Greece. It wouldn’t be so easy without the internet and especially Facebook.

Even big magazines have faced problems getting printed and their sales have dropped or they even had to close. Didn’t that scare you?

Big magazines have a lot of people, but I am just myself in L’Insatiable, so the risk is limited. To print the copies of each issue costs around 1.500 euros and if I have pre-sales, they are enough for me not to lose money.

Who does such professional artwork, layout and design for your fanzine?

I can’t afford to pay anybody, so I do most of the artwork by myself, but I also have a friend, Achille Parmentier, who helps me to fix everything properly. For example, he finds the fonts and helps me correct some things, like adjusting the position of the text and the photos. However, I do the general canvas of each page on InDesign, I choose the photos etc. This is actually time-consuming, especially if I need to scan photos and then process them in Photoshop. I had to learn how to do all that, especially how to work with specific photo formats, like jpeg or tiff, which have different properties.

Where do you actually find all those rare photos, lobby cards and alternate posters?

The majority is photos that I bought, but there are other sources. I have a friend, Lucas Balbo, who is a collector and he helped me in the first issue, about a special on the French producer of Jess Franco, Robert De Nesle. He has more than one million photos in his collection and he is an old-timer from the 80s fanzine era. I also know someone in Greece who has connections with everybody and gets me stills. For example, if I want some photos of films by Errikos Andreou, he can make some scans and send them to me. I also do a lot of research online, of course. For me, the photos supporting the text and vice-versa is something very important. If you talk about a kind of cinema that many people don’t know much about, you have to give them a lot of pictures, so they can get a clearer idea. The logic of creating the ‘kavlorama’ segments in my zine is also based on that principle (editor’s note: 'kavlorama' is a kind of photo romance included in every issue of the zine, with all the photos Jacques could find from a specific movie. So far three films have been 'kavloramized' : Ena Elefthero Koritsi, To Koritsi kai to Alogo and Pio Thermi kai apo ton Ilio).

What kind of Greek films are you actually focused on in your zine?

I mostly deal with Greek films from the 60’s and 70’s that came abroad, for example Greek films that arrived in France. These don’t include everything, of course. For example, you can’t find films with Kostas Gousgounis in France. I find more material (stills and posters) about Greek films that have been exported to Italy and Germany, which are more or less the same ones.

Weren’t you afraid that your zine’s very specialized content would cause you trouble finding an audience? For example, I was surprised when I found out about your zine and that there are people from France who are interested in Greek exploitation cinema.

The B-movie sector is quite dynamic in France. There are several labels that restore old and obscure films on Blu-Ray. People like to rediscover old Italian movies as well, like giallo or old erotic and horror films from America and Japan. I was intrigued to do something like that but I wanted to focus on Greece and find out what the stories behind those films are. Since people didn’t know anything about it in France and I had stories to tell and photos to show, I hoped it would interest people, which eventually happened. The first issue sold three hundred copies, which are not amazing figures, of course, but it was a nice surprise. I was also proud of making a special on Nikos Nikolaidis, who doesn’t belong to that kind of cinema exactly and he is practically uncategorizable. I felt he deserved to be known abroad and not only for Singapore Sling. I like all his films, even his last one, The Zero Years. They are difficult films, but they all have something unique. His fetishism and his provocation are not like those of Gaspar Noe for instance; they are shown with a more emotional and deep romantic touch. His films actually became sadder through the years.

Were the French versions of Greek erotic films different from the Greek ones?

Yes, they were different. They were dubbed in French and some were available in different edits. Back in 1972, VHS didn’t exist, so people had to watch those films in the cinemas. So, a Greek company like GD films would export their films in Europe, like Germany, Italy, Spain, France or even in Turkey, Lebanon, USA and Japan. They actually had soft and hard versions of their films, with hard-core inserts, which was amazing back then. The first hard-core French film, Black Love by Jose Benazeraft, actually came out in 1974. But, Pio Thermi Ki ap’ton Ilio and To Koritsi kai to Alogo came to France earlier in 1974, while they were filmed in 1972. When they played in France, it was before the election of the French president, Giscard d’Estaing, who promised to abolish censorship, so they were shown in French cinema with hard-core inserts. That’s why you can find French VHS rips that may have hard-core scenes. I even saw a 35mm French print of Ena Elefthero Koritsi which had hard-core inserts, definitely made by the Greek team. They had the same actors, the same settings etc. Actually this copy was harder than the French VHS of this film that came out later. On the VHS they had removed all the close-ups.

Can you give us a general idea about the whole phenomenon of Greek erotic cinema?

I am not the main guy to tell you that, but to my knowledge, the erotic aspects in Greek cinema started in the early 60s, for example Amok with Zeta Apostolou, because you can see her naked breasts in 1961. That was quite soon for commercial movies in Europe. Of course it existed in other countries. Most of the Greek films that started to get exported in foreign markets did that mostly thanks to their erotic and sensual content. It was either life in the sun, bikinis, love on the beach, etc. However, there were good productions and even played at festivals, for example 1963’s Ta Kokkina Fanaria by Vasilis Georgiadis, which was about the lives of girls working in a bordello or 1966’s Dama Spathi by Giorgos Skalenakis, which actually started the career of Elena Nathanail as a Greek sex-symbol. Those were serious films but for adult audiences. 1966’s O Fovos by Kostas Manousakis, a masterpiece, even came to Germany and was a success at the Berlin Film Festival, but it didn’t do that great in France. There were also smaller films, like 1966’s Oi Angeloi tis Amartias by Andreas Katsimitsoulias or 1968’s To Syrtaki tis Amartias by Giorgos Papakostas. Some of them came to France later, like Amok in 1969.

Dama Spathi aka Queen of Clubs (1966)

The erotic peak reached every country in the 70s and hard-core pornography also took its first steps, from countries like Scandinavia or in the USA with 1972’s Deep Throat. America had some earlier tough films that were called ‘roughies’. To my opinion, Efstratiadis was the beggining for real erotic Greek cinema. Actually, I found out recently that Greek filmmakers were linked with a Greek woman from the USA called Chelly Wilson, who ran a chain of porno theaters, for example some in Times Square and also some gay cinemas. She would import Greek films and even invest in films of directors like Joseph Sarno. She was quite known for investing in films in the 60s, including 1960’s The River and 1963’s Mikres Afrodites, both directed by Nikos Koundouros. There isn’t much information about her, apart that she was a little strange, stingy and maybe a lesbian. However, she made a contract with Efstratiadis, who flew to New York to for seven months make a film, but he never did it. That’s probably where Efstratiadis experienced first-hand the boom of pornography and discovered that he could maybe make films with hard-core scenes. Proof of that is that his 1972 film Pio Thermi ki’apo ton Ilio has a German VHS release that I don’t know if it’s the same shown in the porn cinemas back then (it played in Germany in 1973), but it has hard-core porn scenes. These are not extra inserts of close-up scenes. You can actually recognize Christos Nomikos having sex in them. His 1972 film Diamantia sto Gymno sou Soma may have had hard-core scenes as well, the same as 1975’s Ta Eidola. In some of his other films, like 1973’s Ta Paidia ton Louloudion or Erotiki Teleti, Gymno Fotomontelo or To Milo tou Satana -those three from 1978-79- it’s obvious they had hard-core scenes and collectors found them.

Another interesting aspect of erotic movies from Greece is that most of them have noir or crime elements, involving a police matter or a murder. They were not light-hearted films, like sex comedies. It’s also interesting that the boom of Greek exploitation movies occurred in the years of the military junta.

There are rumors that the Greek junta had connections with some filmmakers or producers. Have you heard anything about that?

Somebody told me recently that maybe those films were a way to control people, like getting all the bad guys in the cinemas to watch these kinds of films. Another explanation could be that if people had their mind in sex, they wouldn’t care about politics. I think Efstratiadis said that they weren’t allowed to make movies about politics, but they could make films about sex, which was subversive, in a way. I don’t know for sure. Maybe people who lived that era would know for sure, but again it might depend on their political views.

So, Greek exploitation cinema took its first steps in the 60s and it peaked in the 70s. What the hell went wrong when the 80s arrived?

There was indeed a peak of the Greek film industry in general from the late 60s. There were more than 130 movies made in Greece 1969 alone, which was a very big production. Greece was a very cinephile country and actually the amount of cinemas, compared to the population, was one of the biggest in the world. That was because many people came from the countryside and couldn’t read subtitles in foreign films. It was a cheap kind of entertainment and Greece also had open-air cinemas (‘therina’), where people could interact. Big Greek studios like Finos and mostly Karayannis-Karantzopoulos, produced films for almost everybody. They had comedies, melodramas, war films, musicals etc. There was also sexy stuff and the same filmmakers and actors would be rotated among all those films. So, Greece was a country of craftsmen, with each one of them making five films per year. Most of them were not making masterpieces, of course, because they were not radical artists, like Damianos for instance. I think I read somewhere that the junta encouraged the coming of television at some point. Maybe they didn’t like the fact that so many people would come together in the cinemas, so it was better to keep them separated in their homes. People told me that Greek TV in the 70s was not so bad. Even directors like Erricos Andreou made TV shows, series or films. When democracy came, there was no help with investment and no support from the film center. The only way for filmmakers to survive was to make cheap films, with simple stories and actresses who were willing to get naked.

Kynigimenoi Erastes aka Image of Love (1973)

Some of them, for example Pavlos Paraschakis, exported their films. In 1975, Ilias Mylonakos had three of his films in the Greek top ten. I think seven out of the ten films in that list were erotic. The director after Mylonakos in that top ten was...Theodoros Aggelopoulos, with his film O Thiasos. I guess he wasn’t very happy to be on the same list with Mylonakos. O Thiasos was one of the films that represented a different kind of Greek cinema, that came from an ‘intelligentsia’ and was more artistic or intellectual. That movement made people like Aggelopoulos and Voulgaris successful. Then Finos Films closed their studio and the production of Greek films went down. I think the last big erotic production was To Agkistri by Erricos Andreou, a 1976 co-production, which had help from the Greek Film Center and a good budget. The budget is obvious if you watch the film, although I guess its female star, Barbara Bouchet, took a lot of that budget… That was the last decent super-production of Greek erotic cinema. After that, it all went down and in 1981 Melina Merkouri, who was the minister of culture for the government abolished censorship. Foreign porn films could be imported. That started a micro-wave of cheap Greek porno films, with most of them produced by Berto. Porn films would play at cinemas like Ideal, Averof or the ‘tsontadika’. Berto made films on 35mm, with new ‘stars’ that were ready to do everything, like Telly Stallone. Berto owned a cabaret in Piraeus and Kostas Gousgounis was actually performing live sex shows there. As trivia, the scenographer of those shows seems to have been…Omiros Efstratiadis.

Therefore, was the production of erotic movies in a way destined to die in the 80s, so the filmmakers decided they could survive only if they just entered the arena of VHS?

Practically, yes. Apparently, decent filmmakers from the 60s and 70s were obliged to move to straight-to-video productions. For example, Andreas Katsimitsoulias, who made Oi Angeloi tis Amartias in 1966 and Kaftes Diakopes in 1976, did more than thirty films within two years, 1986 and 1987; it was almost two films per month! However, these were cheap shot-on-video movies. Efstratiadis also had to make movies like these. It was the new era of Sotiris Moustakas, Stathis Psaltis etc. Stathis Psaltis actually started his career in the 1976 film Diamantia sto Gymno sou Soma by Efstratiadis. It was just a small part and he didn’t play in any sex scene of course, but that was his first role ever.

Who were the golden starlets of Greek erotic cinema?

From the 60s, there was Elena Nathanail for sure, who played in a lot of successful movies in the 70’s as well, like 1972’s Anazitisis, which went to the top five of Greek charts. Also Anna Fonsou, Eleni Anousaki and on top of them, while never naked a lot, Zoi Laskari. For most of them, their careers in cinema came to a stop at the end of the junta or after it. Fonsou and Anousaki both played in films by Efstratiadis, who were actually super-productions for Greek standards back then. He always had good teams of technicians, including cinematographer Aris Stavrou, who later became the director of photography for Nikolaidis. For example, 1971’s Provocation by Efstratiadis had Fonsou, Nathanail, Anousaki and foreign actor Udo Kier, before he became known with Andy Warhol’s Dracula and Frankenstein duet. He made two films in a row with Efstratiadis in the same year, Provocation and Adieksodo (aka Oi Erotomaneis). I also like Gisela Dali. Tina Spathi came later, in 1974 and she didn’t make a lot of films. She is considered the most important of that era, but I have been informed that many films that were supposed to have her as a star, actually didn’t. For example, a Berto production could have a star named Katerina Spathi, but it wasn’t the same actress.

What made these films successful in foreign markets?

I think the key for success was that they were making films about the ‘three S’, meaning summer, sex, souvlaki. In other words, exoticism and free love on the beach. German funding also entered the game, with foreign producers often backing films made by Greeks, with Greek technicians and actors, but with actresses from abroad. Paraschakis made such a film, 1978’s Studentinnen Report, which had soft-core and hard-core versions. Andreas Katsimitsoulias also made Lust-Injektion-Eine Spritze der Lust in 1978.

I remember you have an interesting story about porn cinemas in Greece in one of the issues of L’Insatiable. Can you share some details about it?

They had lots of tricks since the late 60s, in order to avoid censorship. Inspectors would often visit the cinemas, so the cashier had a special pedal with which he could notify the projectionist that he should be careful, because someone was coming to check. The projectionist had another projector with a normal film, so he could switch to that one before the inspectors entered the cinema. Some cinemas would need either two or three projectors, depending if they had to change reels, with one having a normal film and the others having the porno film. In the cinemas of Omonoia, the films of Efstratiadis were probably in soft versions during normal hours and in hard versions during special screenings. People would learn about them through word of mouth. It wasn’t official, of course. Maybe it was easier to show hard versions in smaller Greek cities. It was the same in France.

Was screening hard-core movies illegal both in Greece and France back in the 60s and 70s?

Yes, it was. For example, in Italy it was legalized in the late 70s. There was cinema censorship in Greece even before the junta. It became more relaxed in the late 70s and it was accepted officially in 1981. In France, it was totally forbidden, but in 1974 there was a presidential election and one of the candidates promised to abolish censorship, so many cinemas in smaller cities started showing porn films, without advertising them openly, of course. They say that the first porn film shown in France was a film by Ruggero Deodato (editor’s note : famous for Cannibal Holocaust), with hard-core inserts, 1969’s Zenabel. Other films shown were Fernando Di Leo’s Asylum Erotica (aka Slaughter Hotel) from 1971, with Klaus Kinski (screened with the French title Les Insatisfaites Poupées érotiques du Docteur Hitchcock), with hard-core inserts, and To Koritsi kai to Alogo by Vangelis Serdaris, in a hard version. Then the porn phenomenon spread all around Paris and one film, Les Jouisseuses by Lucien Hustaix made a lot of money in one cinema in Lilles, like two hundred thousand tickets in one cinema. So, cinema owners in Paris started showing porn films from Sweden or Denmark, which they used to cut, but decided not to cut them anymore. One important French film was 1975’s Exhibition by Jean-François Davy. It was like a documentary about porn star Claudine Beccarie and it showed hard-core scenes. It made more than five hundred thousand tickets. 1974, the year of Emmanuelle, which wasn’t hard-core at all, actually gave the whole phenomenon a big push. When cinemas in Paris started to show hard-core films, the police never came, so everybody started to show films in hard-core versions, even if they weren’t originally hard-core films. When it became too much, the government started making laws. For example, hard-core porn was accepted but it should be like side-business and not in normal cinemas or have posters shown in public. It was marginalized.

Exhibition (1975)

We never had proper ‘genre cinema’ in Greece, like western, horror, giallo, sci-fi or women in prison films. Why do you think Greek filmmakers made erotic films but not other 'genre' films?

Because there was no money to be made. Maybe they would sell tickets, but they wouldn’t be enough to cover the production costs. Greece had some ‘Poliziotteschi’ or crime action films, for example Diamantia sto Gymno sou Soma or some made by Karayannis, Parashakis and Filippou. But, they needed a bigger budget, stunts etc. Filmmakers and producers were looking for small investments and fast money, so erotic films in fashion were the only way for that. Those films were cheap, with the exception of the films of Efstratiadis, that had better production values. I don’t know how he managed to do it; maybe he was more charismatic and he could convince people to invest. I think he had ambitions and if you actually watch his films and remove the erotic scenes, you still have a film. He shot in different locations and he was trying different things. For example, 1972’s Kynigimenoi Erastes is actually a road movie. Adieksodo with Udo Kier involves a junky and the mafia and Ta Paidia ton Louloudion is also different. He tried to make his own thing and he liked variety. His films were also quite pessimistic and showed a lot about the fear of progress and the fear of the future, along with the refusal of tradition. Greece was somewhere between progress and tradition then. Tradition is still evident in music, the church and stuff like that and there is an attachment to it, but it’s scary at the same time, meaning if you leave that tradition and enter an era of liberation. Even the early films of the 60s with Zoi Laskari and Gisela Dali show that inability to live in an era when you have to get rid of traditions and reach progress; a new life, in a way. The 1972 Esftratiadis film Pio Thermi kai ap’ton Ilio talks about city life. You see scenes of the city all the time, with modern buildings and the husband works in the construction business. There is also the contrast with scenes in Piraeus, with old buildings in ruins and workmen among them. That was a moment in history when people were not into fiestas anymore. As a director, he didn’t show sexual liberation as something happy, even in movies like Ta Paidia ton Louloudion or Ena Elefthero Koritsi. Some people even say his movies were moralistic, but I am not that sure. I should note that the German edit of Pio Thermi kai ap’ton Ilio skips the last 30 minutes of the film, where the heroine gets mad and stops with a far more moralistic happy ending: instead of getting mad, the husband promises to take care of her, have a lot children together etc. The film talks about the institution of marriage, because the woman can not find any place wherever she is, so she goes mad. There is often a feeling of despair in his films. 1975’s Ta Eidola is an amazing film as well. It will blow your mind. It’s the best film by Efstratiadis, I think. It was made right after the junta fell and it talks about violence and politics. It actually shows that both sides, the government and the resistance, are full of hate and that was very provocative for a film.

Diamonds on Her Naked Flesh (1972)

If you had to choose between Efstratiadis and Mylonakos, would you choose Efstratiadis?

Oh yes. Ilias Mylonakos was really bad. His 1980 film Mavri Emanuela was unbearable and so boring. From his films, I was only delighted watching his 1975 film Gynaikes pou Zitousan ton Erota, because it was a bit funny or 1975’s Confessions of a Lesbos Honey, because it starred Tina Spathi and Magda Makri, who was also quite hot.

As a final question, how about Nico Mastorakis?

I have only seen his Greek films Island of Death and To Koritsi Vomva and I think he is an interesting fellow. He has a good sense of framing and he shoots his films quite well. Island of Death from 1976 definitely was a hugely cynical provocation. It wasn’t as good as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was his inspiration, but I like the way he shot the film, giving the maximum shock effect. It’s funny that Greece was the country that made this film, which is one of the most censored films ever on a world-wide scale. It’s also funny that Greece offered one of the first porn films from Europe, Pio Thermi kai ap’ton Ilio (1972). So, I think there is definitely something about sex in Greece...

This interview was conducted in English and published in Greek on issue 56 of Shock, January 2022. It came along with the first part of Greek Cinema Special and reviews of films like Efialtis (Nightmare-1961), Vortex (1967), Assignment Skybolt (1968), Robbery in Athens (1969), Provocation (1971), Diamonds on Her Naked Flesh (1972), The Devil's Men (1976) Dangerous Cargo (1977), Emanuelle, Queen of Sados (1980), as well as more contemporary horror/fantasy/action feature films and short films from Greece. 

Shock&Heavy Music Artwork present: Rites of the Abyss-The Genesis and History of Greek Black Metal

The book that chronicles the genesis and expansion of the Greek black metal scene through three infernal decades got published by Heavy Music Artwork (UK) in October 2021. Written by Aris Shock in English and available from Heavy Music Artwork on softback and hardback versions, with 220 colored velvet pages, it contains exclusive comments from members of Rotting Christ, Varathron, Necromantia, Thou Art Lord, Disharmony, Nergal, Twilight, Kawir, Macabre Omen, Medieval Demon, Embrace of Thorns, Αχέροντας, Terra Tenebrae/Souslkinner, Slaughtered Priest, Aenaon, Lucifer’s Child, Akrotheism, Celtefog, Dødsferd, Drama Noir, Funeral Storm, Katavasia, Empire of The Moon, Chaosbaphomet, Ravencult, Serpent Noir, Synteleia, Yoth Iria, Zaratus and more. We talk about the bands, their gear, the studios, labels, zines, radio shows, live venues and festivals that supported the scene, the era of anti-satanic hysteria in Greece, plus there is a special chapter about the black metal scene of Cyprus, with comments from  members of Godblood and Temple Of Evil. The book also includes comments from other people in the scene, like cover artist Panos Sounas, photographer Elena Vasilaki, Iron Bonehead's Patrick Kremer, Spiros 'Captain Death' (Vomit, Sound Pollution, ex-Varathron), Billy of Death Courier, Gunther of Ancient Rites, George Kollias of Nile and more. The DIY video for the under license&limited print run of the softback version in Greece is here: https://youtu.be/VKXI789OhQM

For any other details, contact the author at shock-tactics@hotmail.com

SHOCK BOOK IN DEVELOPMENT

 THE STORY OF THE GREEK BLACK METAL SCENE BOOK IN DEVELOPMENT UNDER THE SHOCK BANNER

Following previous entries of SHOCK into black metal music, we are now in the process of an English-language printed book documenting the story of the Greek black metal scene from its early days up to the present. The old and new bands, the studios and labels, the fanzines, metal clubs and live venues and many more. The book will include comments and memories from several members of the movement and will be an in-depth analysis and also a memoir of the scene, accompanied by photos and a lot of trivia. Stay tuned for the progress of the book and long live the abyss! 

Disharmony-Hail The Witch video clip[uncut]

DISHARMONY - HAIL THE WITCH video clip [uncut version]

We are proud to present this video clip for Disharmony's Hail The Witch, a collaboration between Ordo Ossium-Ordo Ritualis-Ordo Cranium and Shock, featuring Witch Vasilisa. Disharmony are a Greek black metal band that was found in 1990 and re-emerged in 2014, while they enhanced their name to Tagma Magia Disharmony. The +18 video clip echoes satanic horror/sleaze movies from the 70s, like ESCALOFRIO (SATAN'S BLOOD) and BLACK CANDLES, with visual touches of Jess Franco, Jean Rollin, Sergio Martino and Jose Ramon Larraz, so we hope you'll enjoy! For official Disharmony merchandise you can click here : https://tagmamagiadisharmony.bandcamp.com/ You can find their interview for Shock in a previous entry of our blog and here is the Youtube link for the video, where you can also see it in HD : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGfhO_gj5wg&fbclid=IwAR0UIp90K6CMwYIOeOhfor1Q90G_Fo-58141b7ewu9HziW5BRstwUNqxCb0

 

THE BOXER'S OMEN review - halluciogenic black magic horror from Hong Kong!

THE BOXER'S OMEN aka MO (Kuei Chih Hung - Hong Kong / 1983) 

The Shaw Brothers studios got famous thanks to their lavish swordsplay and kung-fu productions, but they also released several horror films in the 70s and 80s. THE BOXER'S OMEN is one of them and although it never gained the popularity of some others (for example HEX, BLACK MAGIC 1&2 or HUMAN LANTERNS), it is by far the craziest one. It is co-written and directed by Kuei Chih Hung (aka Gui Zhi Hong in Mandarin Chinese), who was a full-time director for Shaw Studios and under their banner he helmed the sleazy women-in-prison film BAMBOO HOUSE OF DOLLS and the horror films THE KILLER SNAKES, SPIRITS OF THE RAPED, HEX, CORPSE MANIA and BEWITCHED. After the death of his brother on the ring, a boxer travels to Thailand to seek revenge and finds the body of a monk who is spiritually entangled to him. From there on, he gets caught in a battle between good and evil, which means Buddhist spiritualism on one hand and evil Thai magic on the other! 

This film stands as a first-rate halluciogenic drug of eastern mysticism, because realism and common western logic have absolutely no place in this far-out movie. The action takes place mostly in religious set-pieces and exotic locations (Buddhist monasteries and temples, catacombs, ruins with giant buddha statues) and the amazing soundtrack is full of Taoist psalms and mantras. There are some really outrageous scenes (we see the hero covered in runes and put inside a giant bell, the re-animation of a female corpse and flying crocodile skulls) and the confrontation between Buddhist exorcism and Thai black magic spells is a real treat, which has to be seen to be believed. THE BOXER'S OMEN manages to surpass even the daring and gory visuals seen in classic horror films from Hong Kong of that era (for example SEEDING OF A GHOST or THE RAPE AFTER) and deserves the crown for the wildest Chinese black magic movie ever filmed. Kuei Chih Hung directs this storming psychedelic onslaught with great craftmanship, while scenes of nudity and gory violence are plenty and the special effects are simple but effective and highly entertaining. They just don't make films like this anymore, even in Hong Kong, but we got lucky this movie got released through Celestial's restoration schedule of the entire Shaw Brothers archive and we can enjoy it on DVD format today. Available on US DVD edition from Image Entertainment, but it has reached a really expensive price nowadays. 

Note : this review was originally printed on Shock#7 in 2004 in Greek and here it is translated in English, with some changes and additions made, including new screenshots.

DOMIZIANO CRISTOPHARO SPECIAL AND INTERVIEW (as published in Shock#51-May 2020)

INTRODUCTION :
Domiziano Cristopharo was born in Rome in 1974 and entered the independent movie arena with the film HOUSE OF FLESH MANNEQUINS in 2008, following with a series of feature films and short films for horror anthologies, keeping himself active until today. Among the new generation of horror directors to come out of Italy, he surely is the most prolific one. Since we have a Eurohorror special in our current issue of SHOCK with a special focus on Italy, I decided to approach the director and have an interview with him, in order to give us more details about his work and other related subjects. The interview was conducted in English and via online communication, since we were both in a situation of social isolation because of Covid-19 and stranded in our homes. What follows is the director's filmography (corrected by him), reviews of three of his earlier movies and of course the interview. Please note that we can't post photos with nudity or sex on this blog, but all that content was published without restrictions, fear or shame in issue 51 of Shock (available on demand and for free on PDF format, but only in Greek language).

Feature Films Filmography :
HOUSE OF FLESH MANNEQUINS (2008)
THE MUSEUM OF WONDERS (2009)
BLOODY SIN (2011)
HYDES SECRET NIGHTMARE (2012)
RED KROKODIL (2012)
H.P.LOVECRAFT:TWO LEFT ARMS (2013)
DOLL SYNDROME (2014)
THE TRANSPARENT WOMAN (2015)
DARK WAVES (2015)
MAD MACBETH (2017)
eROTik (2018)
THE OBSESSED (2019)
XPIATION (2019)

Anthology contributions : P.O.E.POETRY OF EERIE (2011) P.O.E.PROJECT OF EVIL (2012) SHOCK:MY ABSTRACTION OF DEATH (2013) HOUSE OF RAVENS aka P.O.E.PIECES OF ELDRITCH (2014) GRINDSPLOITATION 3:VIDEO NASTY (2017) P.O.E.4:THE BLACK CAT (2017) DEEP WEB XXX (2018) A TASTE OF PHOBIA (2018) ILL:FINAL CONTAGIUM (2019)

Short films : HOUSE OF SHELLS (2015)

HOUSE OF FLESH MANNEQUINS aka LA CASA DEI MANICHINI DI CARNE (2009)

This was Cristopharo's debut as a director and the credits mention that the story is based on the true story of Sarah Roeg and her accomplice, Sebastian Rhys, on a series of murders. With this movie, that he wrote and directed, Cristopharo shows his preference for daring and uncompromising themes, since the story concerns a photographer with a traumatic childhood, who meets a charming lady in his apartment building and their mutual attraction begins. However, the hero is involved in a circuit of children pornography and morbid sex and therefore their romance grows in unexpected ways and the climax comes in a bloody finale of 'folie pour deux' (the psychological term for the condition of 'madness shared by two').

Cristopharo showcases some positive elements in his debut, which has an original screenplay and his directing skills are above the limitations of the budget and the shot-on-video format. The movie essentially fits in the so-called genre of 'arthouse horror', which is represented by films such as NEKROMANTIK from Germany, SUBSCONSCIOUS CRUELTY from Canada or VISIONS OF SUFFERING from Russia, combining extreme content with cinephile visuals and an experimental style. It includes a lot of violence, blood, nudity and sex (and that comes with hard-core scenes as well), something that he would also utilize in several of his following movies. I should also mention that the movie is in English language and later the director edited and released an extended uncut version from Tetrovideo label, that has a running time of 110 minutes and is more complete than the cut German DVD release. There is also good chemistry between the two leads, since Domiziano Arcangeli (who also produced the film) and Irena Violette (who is a gorgeous lady of Romanian descent and she also played in the vampire horror film METAMORPHOSIS in 2007) perform well together, while the Italian horror heritage is represented by veteran actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice (known for his roles in CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD-he is the guy who gets the drill in the head-, CANNIBAL FEROX, THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK and others), who has a small role. The practical effects are credited to Michael Del Rossa and the soundtrack has several opera arias. The movie mixes erotic cinema and horror in an interesting way, it was also screened in international horror festivals and is definitely worth viewing by fans of independent and experimental horror, although they should get their hands on the uncut edition of the movie.

BLOODY SIN aka ABOMINATIONS OF THE THIRD REICH (2011)

The movie starts with a sequence that unfolds in Italy's Olevano in 1474 AD and shows an interrogation by Holy Inquisition members in a castle's dungeon. The movie then jumps forward to 1974 and a group of men and women are sent by their boss for an erotic photo shoot in the same castle, which is now inhabited by a mysterious man, his bizarre mother and two servants. The photo shoot team gradually discovers the secrets of the place, since it is burdened not only by past incidents of black magic and inquisition but with subsequent inhumane medical experiments by the Nazis and soon a series of grotesque murders begins, with the answers unveiled in the film's finale.

This was Cristopharo's third feature film (following HOUSE OF FLESH MANNEQUINS and THE MUSEUM OF WONDERS) and although it is shot in English (with just some short dialogue parts in Italian), it feels like a comeback to the glorious old days of Italian genre cinema, by combining gothic horror with giallo and erotica. The story unfolds with the help of comic-style frames that remind of the CREEPSHOW films and we also see black and white sequences and some scenes with clay animation. The movie's exploitation elements are abundant and they include blood, gore and full nudity, culminating in a scene where a man has his penis cut off and a necrophiliac gangbang (man-woman-female corpse). There are also tortures done by SS officers and a scene that combines incest with gerontophilia, so we realize that the director doesn't shy away from extreme content and honors the tradition of directors like Joe D'Amato, who pioneered the genre of 'porn horror' in Italy. Part of the shooting was done on the location of a real castle in Italy and this helps the movie to have a more authentic style and surpass its budget, while the music has a variety of choices, including Carmina Burana choral passages by Carl Orff. The ladies of the cast are beautiful and Roberta Gemma steals the show here. She played later in other films by Cristopharo and she is a porn star, but she has a lot of talent and not just good looks. The movie is available on DVD.

HYDE'S SECRET NIGHTMARE (2011)

A scientist who suffers from incompetence uses the help of his assistant and a necrophile who is called...Abdul Alhazred (the name refers to the alleged by Lovecraft author of Necronomicon) to find a cure for his condition and for this purpose he conducts experiments with fresh corpses. He find a successful formula and injects it to himself and that causes his transformation into a woman with outbursts of passionate and murderous mania, while the finale explains the movie's title and also comes with a slightly supernatural twist. A police inspector tries to solve the case with the missing corpses, but he finds a tragic end, since in the story perversion has the upper hand and there is no room for redemption.

Cristopharo's fourth feature film looks technically and aesthetically better, while the running time of 122 minutes gives him enough time to unfold the story and several of his dark ideas. The screenplay is inspired by the classic novel Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde by Robert Luis Stevenson, but the film unfolds in the modern era and touches other topics as well, using monologues on camera, during which the actors talk about pharmaceutical companies, animal experiments, Nazi experiments and other issues, giving the film several arthouse touches. Regarding the extreme content, the director not only does not hesitate, but he's bolder than in his previous films and we have several scenes with blood, gore, nudity and hard-core sex, including a sex club with private rooms, the nailing of a priest's penis while he is tied to a bed, teeth cutting off another man's penis (following a blow job in a car) and necrophilia in two scenes. Actor Claudio Zanelli is very good in the role of the male Hyde and Roberta Gemma is perfect as his female incarnation and proves that a porn star can possess a lot of talent, matched with a gorgeous face, amazing boobs and sexy body. I should add that the movie was shot in Italian and I found this a really good choice, while the music by Kristian Sensini is very nice and includes a variety of sounds, ranging from jazz to progressive rock. The movie is released on DVD and includes a lot of extras, while the end credits mention that it is dedicated to the late Joe D'Amato.

INTERVIEW :

When did your interest in movie-making start and what films made a big impression on you during that time? Was it Italian films or foreign films?
I must say that theater and cinema always fascinated me. I was a very lonely child and not sharing many interests with kids of my age. For example, when they wanted to play, I wanted to read... I spent lots of weekends at home (my parents had a huge mansion in the woods, where we spent our weekends) and since I was isolated there, I had time to watch many movies on TV. And most of them where classics of horror. My father also owned a super 8mm camera and for my birthday I asked for film, in order to use it. My father had the chance to find some stock of unused old film (that had expired but was still good), so he took something like fifty boxes of super 8 film. I kept them in the regrigerator for years. When I was ten, I directed my first short films with the kids of my neighbors. Of course it was childish stuff. But when I was fourteen, I made my first serious short film, with FX etc... My interest was to do special FX in horror films, not directing, so I created these short movies, full of experimental make up and something I must say is that it was surprisingly good. At the same age I became very good friends with Umberto Lenzi, on the phone. We used to talk for one hour every Friday evening. One year later he invited me on the set of one of his last movies. There we go... The magic of stage filming possessed me and from that day I did everything to turn the fate of my life in this field. I actually started working as an actor and art director, then moved to special FX make up (I worked for people like Romano Scavolini and Krisztoff Zanussi), until I moved to directing by myself.

Did you attend any film-making school and are there many film-making schools in Italy today, for people who want to learn the craft?
Oh, when I was a teen, there were only a few good schools and it was pretty impossible to be accepted in them. So, I went to a private school 30 years ago... And now I’m a teacher in it as well! It was a TV school for learning TV direction, editing and cameraman work, but it helped me alot, especially in studying analog methods. Today you have the opposite, because you can have school workshops and everything in any place. The bad thing is that often there aren't perfectly competent people to teach and the results are lot of arrogant and unprofessional students, who believe they hold the cinema world in their hands.
You made your debut with 2008's THE FLESH OF HOUSE MANNEQUINS, which mixed horror and eroticism. What memories do you have from your first movie and the whole process of writing and directing it?
Actually, that film was written five years before that year. I tried to sell it in Italy... I didn't want to be a director and my interest was to do only FX and write some screenplays for films... All my friends told me that it was a shitty script and that stuff like that would never sell nor appeal to the audience. I was pretty sad. Then, in 2007 I met actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice by coincidence and we became good friends. He (at the time) didn't even know he was a horror icon loved by people like Tarantino. He discovered this “world” with surprise and then changed his website as an actor in two halves; the “normal side” and the “dark side”. Giovanni is not only a horror star, but a very intellectual soul... He was the co-founder of an important theater and also an official translator of Shakespeare. When he read my script he told me that it was AMAZING and that he wanted be part of it. I was surprised. Therefore, I sent the script to the USA and...after five years of rejections in Italy, they approved it and produced it in in just two months. Envy and toxic competition, sadly, is a huge part of the Italian indie market.
I know that the film was later released in an extended uncut director's version. Can you tell us why this happened and what is different in that version?
Well...,it is a long story. To make it short, once the movie was completed in the editing studio and after some tests, we found out that what was legal in some countries wasn't legal in the USA and other countries. So, many of our contents where illegal here and there. Also, during that time (remember that movies like A SERBIAN FILM were released in 2012), mixing sex and horror in an extreme way was totally unusual and “new”. Audiences weren't ready. So, in order to to avoid problems with it, we ended up with the producers cutting 30% of the film and me having to substitute it with new footage filmed in 2009 (that's why this year is given on IMDB). Therefore, the released version is not only cut, but shows 30% of a totally different footage and more dialogue. Then, the label that released it closed and the only version available for a long time was the German one, which was also released on Blu-ray. But they cut almost 25 minutes from it (and I wasn't aware). So, that version circulated for years and it is a totally cut version, that furthermore is difficult to follow, because in my films violence and sex are part of the characters and the story and if you cut them, you totally cut out the meaning and the characters of the film. After ten years and thanks to TETROVIDEO, I finally restored the film, starting from the original tapes and I inserted again the original unseen footage.

Your films usually have a quite extreme content, so I am curious to ask you if you have you encountered more censorship issues with your films in Italy or other countries.
Actually, I never had problems in Italy, because I never had any releases here (besides two movies) and to be honest I didn't even have many censorship issues elsewhere, because my movies are designated for the home video market and - besides Germany - there are not so many restrictions worldwide. Furthermore, the labels that released my movies are also specializing in extreme stuff, like UNEARTHED FILMS, so no problem at all!
Ηοw about the lead actor of HOUSE OF FLESH MANNEQUINS, Domiziano Arcangeli? He seems to have a huge filmography listed on imdb and also has his own production company. Was he also a producer for the movie?
Yes, Arcangeli and I met virtually on Myspace ages ago, because we had the same first name. I knew him already because in the actors' yearbook we were the only two with this name. When I found out that he also wanted to produce stuff, I sent him the script of FLESH MANNEQUINS. He loved it immediately and he produced it. He also pushed me to direct the film, although I wasn't thinking to do it, but he said “you wrote it so perfectly that only you can do it”. And we did!
Your third feature, BLOODY SIN mixed gothic horror with giallo murders, witchcraft, nazi experiments and erotic cinema, echoing the glorious old days of Italian genre cinema. Did you use a real castle as the location of the movie?
The location in the film is actually a private home, which is half castle from the Middle Ages and half museum of modern art. What you see in the film is all real (including the Giacomo Balla and Depero paintings).

Roberta Gemma

You have worked in several of your films with actress Roberta Gemma, who is a big name in the adult video industry. How did you manage to get her to work with you?
I needed an actress for nude and explicit sex scenes, but in Italy no men nor women were available to do it. So, one of the actors suggested this “pornstar” but I rejected the idea. I didn't want a pornstar but an ACTRESS. Also, I never loved the fake silicon look of the adult industry workers. But he insisted I should have a look at her and when I saw her I said OH MY GOD. We met and it was love at first sight. From that day we built a strong friendship and she also worked in many other films, revealing her talent, besides her beauty.
On HYDES SECRET NIGHTMARE you worked with a bigger budget and a running time of 122 minutes. Can you give us some more details about the movie?
Well, actually no... My big budget productions where only FLESH MANNEQUINS, MUSEUM OF WONDERS and BLOODY SIN. After BLOODY SIN, I decided that I wanted to become and independent filmmaker, because I cannot afford to work under the dictatorship of a producer  (especially when the producers aren't even capable of doing their job). So actually HYDE’S, beside the MANY promises of many weirdos, was almost self-produced and with a low budget. I will also say: LOVE BUDGET. We all worked for one year and also on weekends. So, I’ll be for ever grateful to all the actors involved in it, for the time and passion and bravery they reserved for the film. It is my debut as DOP (ed.note:director of photography) and cameraman, so the movie is often not perfect, regarding that aspect. But I can say it is my first official “horror” movie. and a movie materialized in total freedom.

About the length, the director’s official cut was released on Blu-ray for first time by DARKSIDE RELEASING this year. The movie, as "porn horror", was supposed to be sold in two different channels: one with more horror and less porn for the horror market and one with more porn and less horror for the adult industry. But many problems (especially financial ones) occurred and forced the production to melt all the footage together, in an extremely complete but boring film. So, the new release presents it in the way it was supposed to be, without all the repetition of the porn parts, that actually destroyed the rhythm of the film itself.
You have also handled the special effects in most of your movies, as well as for movies of other directors (like AMERICAN GUINEA PIG:SACRIFICE). Are there any special effects schools in Italy where someone can study this art?
Not many schools, but mostly private workshops or some FX craftsmen who teach FX privately. I’m a self-taught one. I started as an assistant to one of the Giannetto de Rossi guys and he gave me a  lot of advice.
Why did you choose the pseudonym Athanasius Pernath for your FX work and is there a special meaning behind it?
Because I do many things on my films, like editing, DOP, camera, costume department and FX, I don't like my name to appear everywhere and every time. That name is from a main character (an alter ego of the protagonist) from the novel GOLEM by Gustav Meyrink, a book that I love and I think that its meaning is perfect!
How about the crucial question when it comes to effects in cinema today? Do you think practical FX and make up will survive or CGI will eventually overwhelm them?
I don't care about the mainstream, because they are totally killing the horror genre. In the 80’s someone was proud to be responsible for an R-rated film, but now all the directors want their films to be mainstream and acceptable by “all”, so they make useless remakes and reboots or childish horror (like IT); I think we can forget any hopes of having important people like Fulci or Romero for a long time to come; Sadly, in the indie arena, even without a budget, many directors want to show how cool and smart they are, by presenting very boring intellectual films or how they can compete with Hollywood, by making poor indie rip offs of Hollywood. CGI is a plague and all fans of horror, the real fans, go for practical FX. Practical is more complex and expensive, but also part of the creative part in a horror movie. Without ideas and creativity, the horror film doesn't exist.
Italian genre cinema had an explosion that started from the 50's and lasted through the early 80's and covered so many film genres (peplum,horror,giallo,nazi exploitation, nunsploitation, cannibal films,zombie, possession films etc), but from the mid 80's things started to go downhill. Why do you think this happened?
This is all the fault of producers and distributors. The decline of Italian cinema wasn't only in horror, but in everything. We had great actors like Magnani, Mastroianni, Vitti... Now what do we have? Models like Bellucci, Garko and other people from talent shows. We had great directors like Fellini, Pasolini, Antonioni... What do we have now? Only comedies that are not even sold out of the Alps.
The fact is that we used to have cinema lovers and people with culture in the production/distribution fields in the past... People like Carlo Ponti or Claudio Argento or de Laurentiis. Nowadays what do we have? Their sons or banks that control the network that those people inherited by them. People with no passion, no love, no culture. They are ignorant, have a lack of taste and they think that the whole audience is like themselves. That's why we don't see people able to dare anymore. You think someone would ever produce a movie like SALO today? No.

You have participated in several anthologies (I really liked your segment MAGEIROPHOBIA for A TASTE OF PHOBIA) and some of them were Italian productions. Do you think there are new and talented filmmakers in Italy today, who can build on the legacy of Italian genre cinema, if they had more chances?
In Italy, like in every country, there are good indie filmmakers, but also lot of shit ones. Sadly, new technologies helped us as indie low-budget filmmakers to develop our productions, but also set free many “guys with a camera”, who really invaded the field, creating confusion in the audience and the critics. Too often in Italy amateur goes side by side with independent now, and this is not good. Again it is the fault of distributors, who edited these shitty films on DVD and Blu-ray, because those guys gave them for free (they will do anything, just to say “Hey, I’m a real director and this is my DVD”!). So, they prefer to get a movie for free, edit a good trailer from it and make some nice artwork and sell it, betraying the audience's trust with taglines like “the rebirth of Italian horror” or...“the most sold in Asia”. If I have to mention names, for me in Italy there are talents nowadays, like Alessandro Redaelli, Emanuele Marchetto or Lorenzo Bianchini, who really deserve a lot more respect and recognition.
You are very prolific and you have been making a lot of movies, so I am tempted to ask that regarding the budget for your films, do you prefer to work with independent producers, approach foreign investors or do you find any other ways to secure finances? 
I am used to producing myself or co-produce with a few trustworthy companions in my adventures and they are always the same people, because I don't like to have unpleasant surprises anymore. We developed a sort of workshop (The Enchanted Architect) so we know how to manage little budgets in a very good way and make them look great!
One of your recent films is eROTik, which is inspired by notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. How did you come up with the idea for such a controversial story to be told and was it really shot in Turkey?
It was shot partially in Turkey and partially in Italy, because I mixed the Dahmer murders with Egyptian rituals. The film is the first of an exclusive series produced by TETROVIDEO: the TETROMANIAC series. Those films will all be inspired by real serial killers, but re-told in a creative and personal way. Next one will be 61: THE SCORECARD KILLER, dedicated to Randy Kraft and directed by me and Poison Rouge.
Another project on the table is THE SLAYING OF ROBERT BECKOWITZ, that will be made by the Albanian team Bad Trip Bros (the ones behind the movie THE OBSESSED) and it is inspired by the homonymous murder, and HOUSE SEX, inspired by the story of Australian female psychopath Katherine Knight, that will be directed again by me. There is also another co-production for the series, in Mexico: JUSTINE, inspired by the book of De Sade, and filmed by the talented Alex Hernandez. Covid-19 froze those productions for now and their process is in the middle, but we will restart as soon we can.

Your films that I have seen so far mix horror cinema and erotic cinema and also include scenes of piercing and pain fetish. Does this subject fascinate you?
No, I’m not charmed by the fetish scene, but I know what the audience often likes! Also, as people can see, I’m pretty tattooed and pierced anyway.
How about the music that you choose for your films? I notice a varierty of sounds, ranging from classical music, opera and carmina burana choir to jazz and progressive rock, with Alex Cimini credited as your main composer for some of your films.
Music is one of the most important parts in my movies. Some of them are very rich in music choices (DARK WAVES, MUSEUM OF WONDERS, RED KROKODIL), while others are really minimal (SACRIFICE, XPIATION, OBSESSED). It depends on the film's mood. I choose the composers better related to the film's mood... For example, the vintage beautiful score by Salvatore Sangiovanni and Susan Di Bona for TRANSPARENT WOMAN and MAD MACBETH, or Cimini when I want to be more “symphonic”... I must also say that his score for DARK WAVES has collected something like fifty awards worldwide until now! Another musician that I work often with is Anthony Coia (ed.note:he also runs the horror website http://www.darkveins.com/), because he perfectly fits the recent 80’s style that I adopted for my last productions.

In your upcoming film NIGHTMARE SYMPONY with Daniele Trani, the main theme was composed by legendary Fabio Frizzi. How did you make that collaboration?
Daniele Trani is an Italian award-winning (with 2 Golden Globe awards) director of photography, but also a director. We worked many times together. We used to work for a TV series in Kosovo with the great Balcanian stars Halil Budakova and Edi Lushi. So, we decided to set up there part of a project I started the previous year with Antonio Tentori (he had worked as a screenwriter for Lucio Fulci and Joe D'Amato) and to direct it together: NIGHTMARE SYMPHONY. This film is an "hommage" to Fulci's NIGHTMARE CONCERT (aka A CAT IN THE BRAIN) and Fabio Frizzi happily joined the team, giving us his theme of the Fulci's film.
You recently participated in the virus/body horror anthology ILL:FINAL CONTAGIUM (alongside Lucio A.Rojas and Ximena Del Solar from Chile, both of whom we interviewed in Shock#46, Lorenzo Zanoni and Kai E.Bogaktzi) and, given the recent Covid-19 epidemic, do you think the movie was prophetic in a way?
Well, our virus is a sci-fi virus created by a mad scientist and it really has some devastating side effects on the human body. A similarity with the Covid-19 virus could be the fact that is spread by objects and money. In some way, we had a release of this film in the year of the virus pandemic, but besides that, there are not many similarities. New viruses show up often, just this one is very aggressive and contagious... That made it difficult to face and control.

How did you experience the Covid-19 situation in Rome (I know you had to stay home, just as we did in the rest of Europe) and why do you think Italy was hit so hard and had such a high death toll?
I’m still in quarantine now that I’m answering these questions. It's been more than one month. I’m lucky that I have a nice terrace and that the weather is warm, so I can enjoy some fresh air and sun. Many people in Italy spend time in their balconies and windows and many people talk with their neighbors now. In some ways this virus also brought some good things here: more developments in smart home-working for example, more trust in online shopping, and people have become more compassionate. In Italy, like in most countries, the virus problem was at first underestimated, so many people had the time to travel by train from North to South, before the quarantine was announced. This caused the overcrowding of stations, trains etc., helping the contagion spreading between people and arriving from the North to the South. Hospitals here are full and when I’m outside, all I hear is the ambulance sirens every five minutes.
On a more positive note, any feature film projects you are planning at the moment and you can start working on when our lives get back to normal somehow?
I have three projects to restart once the world starts to move on in a more regular way. This break was necessary, so I had the time to plan them better. Also, as a director, writer, DOP and FX artist, I decided to use this time to make a movie along with my flat-mate. It started more like a game for us, in order to let the time pass, but the results were surprisingly good, so it will be a next release from me, for sure! The story has nothing to do with the virus. It is a very 80’s style ghost story with lots of nightmares and blood! In the indie field we are used to rushing our productions, because we cannot afford more than ten days or two weeks of filming... So I’ll not easily have the opportunity again to film a movie with two scenes per day for a whole month, with no rush and with plenty of time to implement more sophisticated lighting and make up!

You can see trailers of Cristopharo's movies here : https://cristopharo.wixsite.com/domizianocristopharo. He also has his official youtube channel with trailers and showreels and you can buy his DVD from Tetrovideo's online store (https://www.tetrovideo.com/). This special and the interview were originally published in issue 51 of Shock. The reviews posted here are translated from Greek and the interview is posted in English, as it was conducted.