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ULTRA VIOLENT MAGAZINE #10
Edited by Scott Gabbey
Published by Ultra Violent Magazine
Publication Date: 2009
Format: B&W
Price: $6.00
I was recently given the pleasure to review some mags by the name of “Ultra Violent”, a name I was familiar with though quite frankly was hard to come by in my neck of the woods. So it’s fair to say that #10 was actually my first issue of there’s to read and review. Right off the bat, I have to give kudus to an enormous accomplishment for a magazine. Over 100 pages easily falls into the category of a small book, though its marketed of course as a magazine. And unlike “other” mags of the genre, its longer, has an impressive amount of writing within and easily outweighs in sheer amount of content over advertising. That of course is just getting started.
Ultra violent at it’s core is marketed to the horror genre, but more importantly marketed to the underground market. By that, I mean they cover much of the films that most won’t or even watch for that matter. We get the best of the hardcore, gory, drag em down, head splitting , adventurous filmmaking, take a chance, unsettling bunch of content this side of Asian cat 3 markets. Why do I appreciate this? Well simply if you keep up with many of the other readS, you know the mainstream market can be repetitive and studio focused. I say this knowing full well that the brunt of the press releases we receive here are from those same markets. If I want something from the crazed and inventive I usually have to search harder or ask directly. Well Ultra violent has done some of the work by bring us subjects that we would like to read about.
In fact just recently reviewing the films “El Topo” and the Wicked Pixels film “Savage Harvest”, it was a great treat to see that they had interview with both Eric Stanze and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky talks about his past films, his background and period of life where he was especially highly regarded as a cutting edge filmmaker. Films such as “El Topo”, “Holy Mountain” and “Santa Sangre” are among the topics discussed.
Eric Stanze provides a great overview of his works with Wicked Pixels films. With such underground hits such as “Scrapbook”,” Ice from the Sun” and the goofier “Savage Harvest”, there is more to the package than meets the eye. With several features now under his belt, each is described in detail and some of the background production work that went into them. While many are highly controversial releases, the no hold bar attitude is what seems to deliver to the audiences in his rather unique way of putting stories together. We get some other aspects such as “Scrapbook” adlibbing and loose script format that really helps fill in the gaps for viewing audiences.
This issue especially digs into some really important releases. In an interview with Robert Hendrickson we gets the goods on what went down with his 1973 documentary “Manson”. The film required actually hanging out with the Manson clan to capture details leading up to their sentencing. The piece as we learn later went on to get a nomination for an Academy Award. A rather insightful and revealing interview about what it’s like to spend days with the infamous bunch.
Other features include a nice article on Turkish Genre films and an interview with Omar Ali Khan. Giovanni Lombardo Radice who starred in cult classics such as “Gates of Hell”, Cannibal Ferox and “Stage fright” is included with a nice lengthy interview about his past works.
Features that are profiled include: “Horror House on Highway 5” and “Blitzkrieg” Escape from Stalag 69″. If that isn’t enough for ya then check out the interview with Glen Coburn of the film “Bloodsuckers from Outer space” and “Abomination”.
Each article provides great insight and questioning that really digs into the person and the profiled works.
Reviews takes the road less traveled by profiling some of the nastier releases that creep under the radar. Films such as “Bad Biology”, “Cat in the Brain” and “Gutterballs” are just a few of the down and dirty hardcore horror films profiled in this section. A great way to keep in tune with the more vicious releases of the genre. Many I confess to not knowing of many of these myself.
Through all of the features and articles you get the best of both worlds, old school cult films, new horror and most of all the violent and deadlies of the horror genre.
Ultra Violent Magazine – Issue 10
