| Ulli Lommel |
|
|
|
| Written by Michael Davidson | |
| Monday, 12 December 2005 | |
|
Ulli Lommel plays "Simon Vale," author of the biography "Hunt for the Zodiac." Director, Actor, Producer, Writer… Ulli Lommel has done it all, sometimes all at once, during his vast and fascinating career. Still one of Germany’s most famous horror film directors, largely on account of a string of hits that began with 1980’s The Boogeyman. A commercial smash upon its release, The Boogeyman attracted acclaim from such unlikely avenues as Leonard Maltin, and is rightly regarded as one of the best films to merge from the slasher genre in the eighties (although the movie’s focus is far more supernatural based, following a nod of the head to Halloween in the opening prologue).Previous to The Boogeyman, Lommel had directed 1973’s The Tenderness of the Wolves – which starred the filmmaker’s old mentor Fassbinder. An extremely disturbing feature, The Tenderness of the Wolves explored the mind of a gay serial killer and caused an enormous amount of controversy in its native Germany, and throughout Europe. Given a US DVD release in 2000, The Tenderness of the Wolves has since been regarded as a haunting study of insanity and remains one of the director’s most notorious movies. The filmmaker’s first real experience of crafting cult hits came with Blank Generation, which starred punk rocker Richard Hell, and Cocaine Cowboys (both 1979), which featured Jack Palance and Andy Warhol. However, it was after the success of The Boogeyman that Lommel really made his name Stateside. Following up a successful horror picture with a sequel is something of a norm, and 1982 brought The Boogeyman 2, a picture that Phil Hardy dubs “a fascinating addition to the Hollywood-on-Hollywood subgenre” in his highly respected Encyclopaedia of Horror. Reliant on footage from the first movie, the film was not such a hit (something Lommel now regrets) although the director followed the release with two of his most famous titles. 1983’s The Devonsville Terror starred Donald Pleasance and focused on three modern women who are actually the reincarnation of once-burned witches. 1983 also brought Brainwaves, a science fiction-horror crossover that top-lined Vera Miles and Tony Curtis. In all of these films – and also his Vertigo-inspired release Olivia in 1982 – Lommel’s leading lady is his ex-wife Suzanna Love, one of the eighties finest “scream queens”. Although Lommel regrets taking his career outside of the genre in the years since his most prolific releases, the filmmaker is nonetheless rightly feted for his many classics from The Tenderness of the Wolves through to Brainwaves. Now well aware of his cult following – which has grown since the release of many of these films on DVD – Lommel has finally returned to horror with The Zodiac Killer and Zombie Nation, both starring Last House on the Left baddie David Hess and receiving their world premiere at Fearless Tales Genre Fest 2005. As a further interesting aside, in 2004 Lommel licenced the rights to the title Boogeyman to Sam Raimi for his 2005 mega-hit of the same name. Buy Tickets Now for The Zodiac Killer! Buy Tickets Now for Zombie Nation! IMDB Link |
|
| Last Updated ( Monday, 12 December 2005 ) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|