"SCHOCK" is a dark, depraved, and lonely movie, no matter how you spell it, that's perfectly suited for a foggy and cold Saturday night in The Dungeon, so grab yourself a blanket and a bottle of red Italian wine, and we'll get this Giallomania ball of fire rolling!!
"Schock" starts off innocently enough, just another story about a nice family moving into their new country home, but, oh, yeah, this is a Mario Bava film, all bets are off!! Let's welcome now Daria Nicolodi as Dora Baldini, and David Colin Jr. as her loving son Marco, to the party!!
Daria Nicolodi was born June 19th, 1950 in Florence, Italy, and she began her acting career at age 14!
I don't like movies with creepy kids in them, and apparently neither did David Colin Jr. His first film was at age 3, and was called "Beyond The Door," his second and last film was this one, which besides "SHOCK" was also known as "Beyond The Door II." Naturally you would assume "Beyond The Door II" was a sequel, but not in this case, the stories are pretty much unrelated except for both being evil! After "SCHOCK," David Colin Jr. called it quits, and hung up his acting shoes forever!!
In the early 1970's, Daria Nicolodi met director Dario Argento, and he cast her in her first major role in the classic, "Deep Red." They both loved the works of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft and thus The Dario & Daria Show was born!
Strong espresso, and razor blades in between the piano keys, it's starting to get weird!!
Dario and Daria never married, but they did have children together, actress Fiore Argento, and actress/director Asia Argento!
Ask yourself this one question, would normal people keep an old smelly, rat-infested, bed bug congested mattress laying around?? Now you know what this movie is about, not normal people!
Besides being a very talented actress, Daria Nicolodi was also the co-writer of another Argento classic, "Suspiria." Daria said that "Suspiria" was based on a real experience her grandmother had, when she went to study piano at an acclaimed music academy, and found out that it was a front for the study of black magic!! Wowzers!!
Jeepers Creepers, Creepy Peepers!! It's really not that much of a shocker that David would quit acting after this movie!
John Steiner has the role of stepfather/airline captain Bruno Baldini! John's big break came when he played the calculating property tycoon Beauty Smith in Lucio Fulci's "White Fang" in 1973, and in the sequel, "Challenge to White Fang" in 1974. Steiner worked for Fulci again when he portrayed the hilarious homosexual vampire Count Dragalescu in "Il Cav. Costante Nicosia Demoniaco, Ovvero: Dracula In Brianza" in 1975. After all that, it's probably no surprise that he currently sells real estate in Beverly Hills!
Marco has become possessed with the jealous vindictive and revengeful demonic spirit of his dead father, and he has some major issues with his mother and his stepfather!
Daria Nicolodi was also in Argento's "Inferno," "Tenebre," "Phenomena," "Opera," and Luigi Cozzi's "Piganini Horror" for which she also wrote the screenplay!
The classic Marantz component stereo system, these people were living in style!
The Music for "SCHOCK" was written and performed by a group called I. Libra. The three members of I. Libra were V. Cappa, Alessandro Centofanti, and Walter Martino. Walter was also the drummer with another Argento associate group, Goblin, the guys responsible for the music in "Suspiria" and "Deep Red!"
Dora's shrink doesn't see anything out of the order in the drawings of her 6 year old son!
The Shock, Schock, Schlock cinematography was done by Alberto Spagnoli with hands on guy Mario Bava's assistance!
Daria Nicolodi has lots of looks and most of them look good! As far as I know, she is still doing fine today!
For more on all things Daria, head on over to her very cool official site right
here and get the whole story firsthand in Italian!! Grazie!!
The classic music is by Mr. Ying-Chu Wu, who had a total of 3 composing credits between 1965-87.
Our hero, Sun Wukong, Monkey King!
Sun is tricked into going to heaven. Dragon Ball has some interesting similarities!
Even getting to heaven is fraught with adventures!
This is Tabonga's favorite opponent of the Monkey King's! He's just plain cool!!
A real adventure wouldn't be complete without an encounter with some beautiful, mystical women, now, would it?
The awesome artwork never quits!
There's even time for some alcohol consumption. The Jade Emperor thinks by getting Sun drunk, he can dispose of him easier, but, it doesn't work.
He finally reaches the Jade Emperor's palace.
He has to go up against a giant stringed instrument that vibrates out lethal sound waves!
Then, he defeats the giant snake!
Monkey King makes it through every situation dealt to him by the Jade Emperor!
Yin and yang play an important part as to why the Monkey King always comes out on top!
Now, where was I before the adventure started?!.. Oh, yeah!!
