Agreed -- I remember seeing the film trailer on both TV and at the (oh, is this going to date me, here in America, and Europeans won't even know what I mean!) drive-in, and it is, still to this day, one of the scariest ever. The sight of Juliet Mills laying in bed, with her mouth rictal and eyes glowing neon green, I never have or will forget!
Too bad the movie itself turned out to be an awfully-executed bit of Italian opportunism -- a lot of you will not recall how Satanism was chic for a while in the mid-'70's, and several 'good' movies that dealt with Old Scratch ('The Exorcist,' 'The Omen,' 'Burnt Offerings,' etc.) were inspirations for some of the worst knock-offs (too many to list here), usually by someone like Joe D'Amato, Lucio Fulci, Bruno Mattei... or, in the case of this movie, Ovidio Assonitis (whom James Cameron had multiple disagreements with, leading to his dismissal from 'Piranha 2'[1981] -- just a bit of trivia there!). Based on what I've read of Assonitis, he definitely lived up to the 'Ass' part of his name... and also the 'itis' as well; come to think of it, one could tell, just on name alone, that the man was a real inflammation of the posterior.
Anyway, all that aside, it's STILL one of the greatest, most memorable trailers of all time!
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preppy-3
14 years ago
Interesting. I also saw the trailer up the theatres and drive-ins at the age of 12 and it never fazed me! I thought it looked kind of silly (especially when u heard Juliet Mills speaking in a mans voice at the doctors). Of course I'm somebody who sat through the R rated "Vampire Lovers" at the age of 8 (again at a drive-in) so I was probably immune to horror after that:)
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InherentlyYours
10 years ago
'Ovidio Assonitis (whom James Cameron had multiple disagreements with, leading to his dismissal from 'Piranha 2'[1981] -- just a bit of trivia there!). Based on what I've read of Assonitis, he definitely lived up to the 'Ass' part of his name... and also the 'itis' as well; come to think of it, one could tell, just on name alone, that the man was a real inflammation of the posterior.'
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How was Ovidio Assonitis mean?
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Captain_Obviuos
8 years ago
http://ew.com/article/2010/08/18/cameron-piranha-3d-dante/
Specifically, this paragraph: Jeff Schechtman, on the other hand, paints Assonitis as the villain of the piece, describing him as “a major pain in the ass” who “fancied himself as a director.” However, Schechtman agrees that the principal reason for Cameron’s firing was budgetary. “Jim was trying to do a good job,” says Schechtman. “He was very dedicated, very committed. And the Italians were concerned about budget. It was a clash of very strong personalities. At the end of the day, Assonitis was writing the checks.”
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