The Wind Blu-ray

After making some not inconsiderable impact with his gruesome 70s Grindhouse, goat-worrying sleaze-fest ‘Island of Death’, the subsequent genre work of grisly-minded, Greek movie maverick Nico Mastorakis quickly became no less viable than the lauded shock cinema of fellow horror iconoclasts Fred ‘Night of the Creeps’ Dekker, Jeff ‘Squirm’ Lieberman and New York’s finest B-Movie Basket Case Frank Henenlotter, with the gifted film-maker Mastorakis frequently displaying the same bravura versatility as fellow European terror auteurs Sergio Martino & Antonio Margheriti, that many avid horror VHS renters of the time eagerly awaited the latest macabre Mastorakis masterwork with considerable interest! With the Giallo cycle all but played out at the tail end of the 1980s, it is certainly intriguing to note the sharp, Giallo-esque notes in ‘Edge of Terror’ aka ‘The Wind’ (1986) that pitches hard-boiled, quick-witted mystery writer Sian Anderson (Meg Foster) against the pyrotechnically psychotic caretaker Phil (Wings Hauser) to do uncommonly terse, increasingly violent, amyl nitrate-fuelled battle upon the beautiful, largely deserted, wind-lashed Historic Greek island of Monemvasia. With its sublimely strident electronic score, visually appealing location, gleeful Giallo tropes and sporadic bursts of sanguinary violence, Mastoraki’s bold and breezy ‘Edge of Terror’ is a triumphantly 80s pseudo-slasher that plays out no less effectively today than when it was initially released on video way back in the 80s. It was also wonderful to see future ‘Jack Tillman:The Survivalist’ Steve Railsback in what was essentially an extended cameo performance, and in its own humble, unique way Mastoraki’s oft-neglected ‘Edge of Terror’ has not only kept its slashing edge keen, but his exciting, well-made horror film has clearly proved greatly inspirational to many similarly conceived modern horror films such as ‘You’re Next’ and ‘Hush’ etc. (Jokingly, I had initially thought that the film’s curious title change from ‘The Wind’ to ‘Edge of Terror’ might have had something to do with the somewhat amusing connotations to flatulence and according to IMDB trivia, this in fact turns out to be the case!)