The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1974)

Dir: Francesco Barilli

The delightfully named Mimsy Farmer stars as some kind of industrial scientist who starts to believe she's losing her mind after a creepy friend talks to her about witchcraft and she experiences some bizarre hallucinations. The story unfolds in the same surreal, occasionally dreamlike manner as other "women on the edge"-style gialli like "Footprints" or "All The Colors Of The Dark" and, at times, this becomes frustratingly oblique. The beautiful photography (Barilli seems to frame every shot like a painting) carries it through the most puzzling sections but almost nothing about what's going on is revealed until the very end, at which point (conveniently) the sudden, unexpected gore and nudity kicks in too. However, the ending is one Hell of a kicker and pulls it back from the brink majestically. If you manage to guess what happens, I'll be amazed. I also probably wouldn't want to run into you in a dark alley. The climax shares a sombre, nightmarish tone with some of David Lynch's work and, if you've the patience to stick with the rest of the film, you'll be richly rewarded. ***

Buio Omega (1980)

Dir: Joe D'amato

(aka Beyond The Darkness, The Final Darkness, Buried Alive)

Millionaire playboy Frank (an unforgettable turn by Kieran Kanter) is consumed by grief and decides to keep his beautiful girlfriend (Cinzia Monreale) around after she dies. He steals her corpse, embalms it and keeps it in bed with him at his isolated villa, convinced that nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan... and how could it, right? "Buio Omega" is a wild original. A film so unutterably barmy that it plays almost like an extreme Horace Walpole novel, blending high camp soap plotting and gothic melodrama with genuinely disgusting, graphic gore and sex. It's hard to take the latter elements seriously when the story hits its most absurd highs and yet still somehow the combination of gorgeous location photography, a fantastic Goblin score (one of their best ever) and the sheer grimness of the ideas leaves an unsettling feeling behind. It's illogical, uneven and ludicrous but you'll never see another film like it and for that it's kind of brilliant. ***1/2

Solstice (2007)

Dir: David Myrick

Dullness abounds in this horror that blends two of my least favourite fads of the past decade; post-"Scream" teen soap opera horror and post-"Ring" soggy dead girl ghosts. Ugh. In this one, a group of attractive teens (and two of their notably less attractive friends) drive out to a house in the woods to party on the summer solstice (what with pretty much every other significant date on the calendar having been used up in 80s slashers and all). Then strange, scary things start happening! Oh no, wait. That's a lie. TREMENDOUSLY MUNDANE THINGS start happening. A car won't start and the lights flicker. The water is muddy. A girl falls into a small hole and hurts her ankle. A girl breaks a nail. An old man gives them all a watermelon. A local shopkeeper freaks them all out by talking about voodoo. This yawnfest concludes with a denouement that should be tragic but instead feels hilarious because it's so overplayed and absurd. Don't let the presence of Amanda Seyfried or Shawn Ashmore fool you into thinking this is worth watching. *

Black Kiss (2004)

Dir: Macoto Tezka

Having become so jaded with Asian horror of late (thanks to a flood of soggy dead girls) it's a good feeling to see a new(ish) movie that reminds me why I got into it in the first place. "Black Kiss" is a beautifully shot nerve-shredder about Asuka (Reika Hashimoto) and Kasumi (Kaori Kawamura), two models who wind up sharing a seedy Tokyo apartment. In true "Rear Window" stylee, Asuka witnesses a brutal murder in the hotel across the street and this plunges both girls into a nightmare of slaughter, taxidermy, voodoo and more besides. Yeah, "Black Kiss" has it all. It's lengthy and character-driven but surprisingly well-paced, with murders as disturbing, inventive and stomach-churning as anything I've seen. The final third is tense and exciting and there's one scene (where the murderer is finally revealed) that sent me flying out of my seat, shrieking. Don't even get me started on all the incredible camerawork. An intelligent, original, well-made shocker that lives up admirably to the Asia Extreme tag. ****