Deranged

Obscure, yet a must watch.

 

It's been a long while since I reviewed B-movies. The never-ending list of retro Anime I had to post, kept me in the Japanese field for several years, and it will continue for a while, as I'm still revisiting some I haven't reviewed yet. Anyway, streaming services sometimes provide you with a list of interesting more obscure films from decades past. Such is the case of today's review, a horror masterpiece that went under the radar for decades until it was rediscovered and properly issued on VHS format in the early 1990s by American International Pictures, owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, thus fully available now on Prime Video. 

Allegedly, Deranged is based on the crimes of Ed Gein, an American murderer from Plainfield, Wisconsin. Legend has it, Psycho & The Texas Chainsaw Massacre where both based upon the crimes from this man. I'll spare the details so that you can enjoy the film, and Google details yourself.  In a nutshell, this Canuxploitation psychological horror story, tries to retell the story from the earlier murderer in the fictional character of Ezra Cobb, masterfully portrayed by Roberts Blossom. Cobb is a middle-aged man from the rural midwest near an unnamed town. 

 

Family dinner.

In-your face horror.

Considering this is a 1974 movie, most of the elements that describe the lead and his victims may be seen today as derivative or stereotypical. Yet, the storytelling is compelling. The locations, soundtrack and few characters translate the idea of being a loner in the middle of nowhere for too long. Roberts Blossom, a classically trained theater actor and poet, really brings to life the disgusting psychopathic aspects of Ezra Cobb, yet he also unveils the scars, fears and weaknesses of a character that at times seems to be the actual victim of the story.  You see, Ezra has seen no life outside his farm, and spent most of his life care-taking for his mother Amanda, a religious fanatic who managed to indoctrinate Ezra into abhorring women. Once his mother dies, he has no reason left to live. No one to talk to, no one to cook for, no one to see hours go by while hoping for a recovery that will never come. 

A whole year goes by, and Ezra starts having aural hallucinations from his mother demanding to be brought back home, and here is where the movie actually starts. Ezra brings the corpse of her late mother home, but seeing her skin has dried and deteriorated he decides to find "spare parts" in other bodies of recently deceased people. The obituary proves to be more helpful than LinkedIn when searching for a job, and so does the horror story unravels. 

Build-your-own mask.

 

Psychopaths also love boobs.

Deranged costed only US$20,000 to produce, a modest budget even for the 1970s. Yet, the true horror does not lay in the way victims are murdered but more into the process where Mr. Cobb works with, LinkedIn recruitment precision, to find the perfect match.  Graphic violence, while moderate, doesn't truly carry the horror we're looking for. Performances are key on this film, where even though characters don't do much beyond what they're needed for, they do reinforce our main character's psychological profile, and having Roberts Blossom as the lead, truly brings this criminal to life. 

The original cut of the film featured a scene where the lead killer feeds from a skull. The scene was removed from early releases, and it is sadly removed in the version you can stream on Prime Video, although the scene doesn't add anything new about the deranged Ezra, it graphically depicts his mental state.

Now, as above mentioned in the first paragraph, the story of Ed Gein has been taken to the small and big screen on several occasions, and now that streaming rules-supreme, Netflix did their own revisiting.On September 16, 2024, it was announced that the third season of Monster would focus on convicted murderer and suspected serial killer Ed Gein. On October 4,2024 it was confirmed that the season would be titled The Original Monster, exploring Ed Gein's life as the first "celebrity serial killer" and examining how true crime evolved into a pop culture phenomenon. Principal photography reportedly began the next month. The season was announced to be retitled to Monster: The Ed Gein Story in August 2025. 

 Here's the original TV Spot for Deranged:

 

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

As Tarantino intended.

Yes, I haven't written as many reviews as I used in the past five years. Not because I haven't watched anything since then, but most likely because social networks have completely taken over the world of reviews with their youtubers and tiktokers sharing their biased, sometimes lacking, viewpoints.

On the other hand, written reviews have also been monopolized by paywalls that have dubious experts polishing the latest turds. Moreover, and this is the end of my rant, they say the movie industry is dying because of streaming services that know their viewers all too well: Short stories with the simplest so that they can continue doom-scrolling their socials while the actors on screen have explained their reasons for doing what they're doing for the tenth time on several episodes. 

Quentin Tarantino has got to be one of the last filmmakers that truly love cinema. Not only is he a director, but also a curator with surgeon knife precision, when it comes to bringing a script to life through some of the most memorable characters we have seen on screen since the early 90s. Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair is a gargantuan 4 hour and 36 minute experience not for the faint of the heart. Or at least, not for those in deep need of checking their phone screens every 5 minutes. 

Behind the blood bath.

They call her One Eye.

Seeing this film on the big screen 23 years after its original premiere, feels refreshing, compelling, and satisfactory. It's no secret the movie industry has been going down since the superhero craze. Now, all you see on screen is either a children's flick, an exhausted new superhero film, a lame remake, and that's pretty much it. People no longer remember going to the movies as a cultural act. An act of appreciating art in the room that was designed to bring the experience to life like no other place would.  Now, they're a bunch of couch potatoes on their phones while the TV is on. 

Kill Bill is one of the best films of all time. It is a homage to everything Tarantino loves about the film industry, and he knows his audience very well. Casual movie goers would neither think about the quality of a film, nor their artistic value. Seeing Kill Bill is seeing samurai films from the 1950s, martial arts B-movies from the 60s, obscure revenge films from the 70s, and slashers from the 80s. All with the twist of having a marvelous script with wonderful characters, and actors that excel at bringing such characters to life. No matter when you experienced Kill Bill for the first or the last time. You will forever remember its characters and plot.

Tarantino & Thurman promoting the "after credits scene".

 

Most beautiful celluloid assassin.

Once we got to the intermission, a girl no older than 20 asks me "Excuse me folk, what is an intermission?" and I replied "it means you have a 15 minute break". So she and her friend went out, like the majority of viewers did. This is where I realized: "Quentin Tarantino has achieved the legendary level". New generations are discovering his films for the first time, and regardless of not grasping every reference, or context from years past, they get they're watching a quality film that was made with durability in mind.  The majority of the people that were there, must have been 20 to 30 years old. The older viewers, like myself, a proud 44 year older, must have been the least in the room. I don't blame them, sitting for four hours straight, is not an easy task. Although I was prepared with my large bucket of popcorn and Sprite Zero, the intermission felt like the coming of a lifeboat. I could stand up, and walk for a little. 

Time for a walk.

"Now, We return to Kill Bill".

Does Kill Bill: TWBA feature extra/new scenes? 

Yes, it does. For the part we used to call "Volume 1" there is an expanded animated scene where we see Oren Ishii avenge his parents from every murdering bastard that was in the scene. I gotta admit, it didn't feel like filler at all. It could have been in the original version with no issues. Other minor shots appear when Beatrix Kiddo is fighting the crazy 88 in the restaurant, but you have to be quick, because these new angles go fast. Moreover, the famous fight, which was spent in black & white in the original cut, is now back to its bloody colorful massacre original intention. Gallons of blood are all over the screen, and I couldn't help but laugh, at youngsters being horrified with some of the most gruesome deaths.  

Unlike other old films brought back to theaters for anniversary celebrations, Kill Bill's return has got nothing to do with celebrating nostalgia. It is, let's say the "director's cut" we never got to see in 2003. A movie with such long runtime would mean theaters would technically lose money showing one instead of two films in a four hour time frame. Fast forward to 2026, and we can easily list films that are longer than 3 and even 5 hours! Two quick examples: The Batman & Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Last Duel.

 

Easy peasy.

Does Kill Bill: TWBA feels like a better film compared to the two original volumes?

No, it does not. The original volumes are the same movie only without the expanded animé scene. Moreover, this new take removes completely the opening black & white credits where Beatrix Kiddo is driving retelling what happened on volume 1 and where she's heading. Save for that, Volume 2 plays in its entirety as does volume 1 with a few added minutes. The seamless experience was already there in the original version of both films.  

Overall, a reminder of what great films used to be when the industry cared about art, and it wasn't force-fed into an algorithm that seems nearly impossible to avoid.