In a previous post I explored the connection between fashion and horror films. A while back I also focused a bit on Mario Bava’s Blood & Black Lace, analysing the look of the killer and the director's use of colours, those saturated hues that pervade the screen, creating strange shadows and a phantasmagorically surreal universe. One of my fave Bava film is actually Danger: Diabolik, as I’ve always found it erotically fashionable.
I never expected to find someone who’s more crazy than me about this film, but I recently did, it’s London-based director Ben Robinson. A while back he told me about the origins of his Diabolik obsession: “A double-hit of Dino De Laurentiis movies - Flash Gordon and Diabolik - in 1980, at the tender age of 5, really blew my mind at such a young, impressionable age. Flash Gordon was a kids’ film, but shared the same opulent production design and Euro-perversity that Barbarella (also produced by De Laurentiis) and Diabolik revelled in. European popcorn film-makers were always much more morally, visually and erotically liberated. I watched Diabolik from behind the sofa late at night, when I was supposed to be asleep. To my knowledge, 1980 was the only time it was shown on the BBC, before or since. I remember thinking it was a bit like Spiderman, but more sexy and weird. The next morning, I really thought I had dreamt the whole experience. But it fitted in with the Flash Gordon vibe of 1980 (the stunning Ornella Muti enduring S&M torture and enjoying it!?!), so I just accepted its unusual aesthetics into my impressionable brain. It wasn’t until 1996 that I saw it again on laser-disc, when I befriended a Psychobilly Rock Group called The Diaboliks on the set of a Bava-influenced film, Pervirella. It has remained my absolutely favourite cult film of all time.”
If you want to know more about fashion, eroticism and Diabolik, you can read my interview with Ben on Dazed Digital. In the meantime, enjoy Ben’s Mario Bava-inspired stylish thriller, Slash Hive.
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Great trailers, I will be watching these movies soon, thanks for your post! It's very difficult to find interesting stuff on the net. I bumped into a site the other day, a website with many sexy erotic stories and funny comments:-)). It’s erotic-confessions.net. I want to share it with everyone who likes reading erotic stories. Have a look: erotic confessions. If you guys know any cool sites please let me know, I love to read erotic stories.
Posted by: Jenny Walls | August 07, 2011 at 12:20 AM