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Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

One of my all time favorites.

Best movie ever!

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Gina (Charlie Spradling) is restoring an old painting from the church in Italy. Her school friend Catherine (Sherilyn Fenn) returns to take over her family castle after being away for 10 years. A wizard supposedly create the castle and Martha has been the caretaker even since Catherine can remember. The two friends are taken by a traveling circus and invite them in for diner. Durint the diner, the girls are drugged. Catherine is taken to the bedroom by the leader Lawrence (Malcolm Jamieson) and given to his masked twin Oliver.This is made by B-movie horror director Charles Band although this has more in common with pulpy romance novels. This is either softcore porn with better than average plot or a B-movie horror with plenty of nudity. It's substantively not good compared to normal movies but this is simply a guilty pleasure. Sherilyn Fenn from Twin Peaks has always been gorgeous and this movie introduced the beautiful Charlie to me.

It's the moment you've been waiting for! Sherilyn Fenn in the buff, and as an added bonus, some other actress too.Sherilyn's just returned to Italy to her family castle as a successful sculptress, and is welcomed home by her old nanny. Her friend, also American, restores paintings and heads over for the weekend for a bit of a laugh. At the same time, however, a strange travelling freak show turn up and Sherilyn's a bit taken by the leader of the show: some guy who, judging by his dress sense, wouldn't have looked amiss singing for Spandau Ballet.The freak show are invited to the castle for dinner, and before you know it, Sherilyn and her friend have been drugged and ended up getting raped by the ringleader and a mysterious masked man, who not only is the twin of the ringleader of the freaks, but also turns into some sort of beast mid-coitus. This actor, in real life, probably chalks up this scene, where he gets to lie naked with both actresses, as the 'best thing he's ever done ever'. I'll bet he's still grinning and pinching himself to this day. Turns out these New Romantic twins are ancient brothers, and one of them is evil and the other one just wants to be free of the curse. This is all linked to Sherilyn's family, and a painting her friend is restoring, and one of the characters may even be a ghost, and by that I don't mean the actual ghost that's kicking about. Much spooky happenings, romance, and naked Fenn scenes ensue.I quite liked Phantoms, for what it was. I've never been big on rape in films, mind you, but this all seems to be tied in with the plot somehow. There's effective scenes of the brothers emerging from the walls of the castle. It's very close in spirit to the actual home grown Italian horror movies of this era (Specters, Demons 3 The Ogre) although it's slightly lacking in the cheese department. Recommended for those who are unnerved at trying anything that has the name 'Charles Brand' attached to it.

Meridian is set in Italy where art student & painting restorer Gina (Charlie Spradling) gets a rush job from her boss, a local Priest (Vernon Dobtcheff) has brought a painting in to be restored & Gina agrees to do it. However Gina's best friend Catherine (Sherilyn Fenn) is set to return to Italy after ten years away in the US, they haven't seen each other in years & Gina heads over to Catherine's inherited Castle to catch up. While having a walk around they see a travelling show called Fauvrey's World of Wonders is entertaining a crowd of locals, Gina & Catherine wander over & are impressed by the show so they invite the performers to diner. Later that night Catherine & the show's owner Lawrence (Malcolm Jamieson) spend the night together, but it's not what Catherine thinks & she must figure out what centuries old curses & a long line of murdered women has to do with herself, Lawrence & the Castle where she lives...Also known as Phantoms here in the UK this was produced & directed by Charles Band for his own Full Moon Entertainment production company & really isn't very good at all, in fact I'd go as far as to say Meridian is crap. While watching Meridian last night I got the impression Band was trying to make an erotic horror film with a strong fantasy fairytale feel although none of these elements gel together at all. The more I think about it the more I am convinced that Band was going for a modern fairytale, the big Castle, the evil villain, the beautiful Princess, the ugly Beast (Beauty and the Beast anyone?), the moral about love conquers all & the live happily ever after ending as good defeats evil. The erotic content is tame, there's a semi naked woman & some very soft-core sex between the beauty & the beast which raises a few laughs rather than raises anything in your trousers. The twist's are pretty poor & I thought the film plodded along fairly slowly going nowhere fast, I just wasn't drawn into the fantasy world of curses & forbidden love. To try & inject a little horror into things there's some nonsense about ghost's but it feels like an afterthought & no-one seems particularly bothered by the fact that they have been talking to ghost's. Even at just over 80 minutes Meridian felt like it went on for two days, some may like it's old school fairytale style story, setting & morals but I didn't, at all.Made at the time when Band was making most of his Full Moon output at the Castle he owned in Italy this looks quite nice sine the real locations add a great deal of visual lushness that cheap sets could never have. Meridian also films in some Italian Church which again looks very nice since it's real. There's no real blood or gore here, someone is shot with an arrow & that's about it. The Werewolf looking creature is awful, it's a really poor tatty make-up effects job from Greg Cannom who usually does better work. More of a twisted story of love than a straight horror film Meridian is not scary or even tries to be to be honest, the problem is it's not anything else either.Filmed in Italy this looks alright but the locations can only do so much, apart from some pretty scenery there's not a lot here to remember. The acting is average, I can't say I recognised anyone apart from the old lady Hilary Mason who was the creepy old lady from Dolls (1987) which is a much better film than Meridian.Meridian is an attempt at a dream like fairytale withe horror & erotic overtones but just didn't work as far as I am concerned, some may like it I suppose but I think most will be bored by it. Not really a horror film, not really a fairytale, not really erotic either just what is Meridian meant to be & who was it made for?

May Contain Spoilers. This movie is old enough I think you can deal.Make no mistake, this is not a great movie. It is, in its limited way a fairly entertaining movie, but not great. Catherine owns a castle. Her and her friend invite a traveling show over for dinner. Debauchery ensues. PG debauchery. The main draw of this movie is, ultimately, is Sherilyn Fenn. She is adorable, and naked with her breast exposed a couple of times. Sherilyn and her breast have appeared in several movies some with more story. They are always a welcome treat. The movie, on the whole leaves a person unsatisfied. Unfortunately, movies that rely on nudity to draw an audience fail from the same fate as those that rely on special effects, they forget they still need a compelling story. the movie is short and feels long. There is little to no explanation of the characters who seem to have major behind the scene parts, like Martha and the priest. There is an evil dwarf but he actually causes a continuity error with what looks like an inter-cut rape scene that must not have been. Except for "the Howling" why aren't there more stories with werewolf sex in them? I don't know. Animated corpses feeding off the blood of the living no matter how enticingly dressed really don't appeal to me. Maybe someone could make a good nordic rape/pillage movie with skin-dancers but most likely it would be cheesy. oh well. We must just keep our eyes open for the gems as we ply thru the dregs.