TheRed Felinecast eagerly awaits for the moment they will return to the set to continue with the production ofCruXtreme V – The Playmates, where Mila joins the characters inCruXtreme I – The Playroomto submit herself to an extensive and sweaty session of torture… will it be bloody? Well…CruXtreme Icertainly is.
Most of our films are really bloody. A very few, extremely few, are not. One of those movies where no blood was used isFANTOM.
I recently mentioned that maybe the lack of bloody tortures is one reason why that wonderful film is not as popular as the others. Don’t get me wrong, it does have sales, but not as often as most of the films where blood abounds.
I wonder if it’s only the lack of blood – while the film gives lots of opportunity for Jane to writhe beautifully, there’s not much of a story, no chance for her to reveal a personality, I think it’s the ‘humanity’ of the girls that makes Jac’s finest films stand out, they’re not just pretty bodies being deliciously tortured, though of course there’s plenty of that, but they are real, believable characters too.
Eulalia @ CruxForums
Many of the films, including the now classicRed Feline On The Crossdid not have much of a story in theAristoteliansense of the word. The story in films like our first big release in the genre ofBDSMand torture, is mostly the methodical torturing of the beautiful body in ever increasing pain as brought to live by the physical actions of the performers, from beginning to end.
In the case ofFANTOMthe story is basic and has a beginning very much in the line of a regular horror film, a young woman falls sleep while reading a book. Suddenly, a masked man appears in her room, strangles her until she looses consciousness.
The young woman wakes up tied up in a room. What happens next is a nightmare of prolonged painful and varied torture. Very basic indeed.
Other films have similar structures with very little introduction and dedicated to a series of sequences where the beautiful female victims are subjected to a large variety of torments and ending in fantasy of fantasies, the agony of martyrdom. Films likeRomana Crucifixa Est,Red Room, all theVia Crucis of Camillevideos have in common is the drawing of blood. Bloody whippings, bloody crucifixions, bloody tortures.
The high production value movies, likeDead But Dreaming,Maleficarum,Olalla, etc, have intricate and elaborate stories, with full fledge characters that interact in dramatic situations. All the actors have a chance to play complex characters. These films are not torture based. They have a great stories set in different times and cultures.
What was surprising to Jac way back is thatMartyr Or The Death Of St Eulalia, the very first film that was more complex, with a very dramatic and interesting story, beautifully shot and had performances that rival any dramatic film, did not have the reception he expected when it came out. It became very popular outside of our until then regular market. It went to festivals, in one of those festivals Jac’s master piece caught the attention of none other than the now legendaryAmy Heskethand the rest is history.
What I’m trying to say is that the films where beautiful bodies are under horribly bloody torture, the bloodier the better, sell more than beautiful bodies deliciously tortured without blood.
There’s an akin situation with the high production value movies. Films likeMaleficarumandJUSTINE, where the sad*stic doings are the central themes of those movies, sell better than let’s sayOlallaorBarbazulwhere the stories have torture in them but those tortures are not the central theme.Dead But Dreamingis somewhere in the middle.
Another film that doesn’t appeal as much as the others isThe Via Crucis of Mila, it was shot around the time whenMaleficarumandLe Marquiswere produced.
Jac was very fond of the location where he and Amy shot, in one day,Romana Crucifixa Estand, later on, the burning at the stake scene forMaleficarum. One of those days, while Amy was away somewhere, Jac got inspired and took Mila to that location to make a quickie,The Via Crucis of Mila. Also shot in one afternoon. She’s wonderful in it but there was no blood at all, unlikeRomana Crucifixa Estwhere Amy is crucified with nails and flogged bloody.
Mila’s film is not a big seller. No Blood.
One film that has plenty of bloody scenes is,Agent Xstarring our amazing Amy, credited asJane Von Detlefsonand made before all the big production value movies. I just uploaded the trailer toVimeo, but it is not public in that site. It can only be seen in the sites where I decide to place it. I will be setting up all the trailers we have, plus those that we will be making soon, in our sites and wherever I can post them.
Great idea and i’m sure a decision you won’t regret ! Just one more little thing: I’d make sure to include those previews on all your sales pages/sites too, be it the Vermeer site, your download page or the DVD page. I think that’s where it counts most, as those pages are the ones where a sale might happen, gotta make it easy for your customers (the K.I.S.S. principle).
Frank
