Cut Throats Nine

Cut Throats Nine

Eurovista do it once again by tracking down and delivering another obscure genre title for welcoming fans of the vintage Euro-cinema scene. Following their forays in to giallo (The Dead are Alive) and exploitation (Battle of the Amazons), it's the turn of the western to get the Eurovista treatment with Joaquin Luis Romero Marchent's 'Cut Throats Nine'!

Promoted as 'the most violent western ever made', 'Cut Throats Nine' is in fact a very insular look at greed, desire and survival as a following a road accident (which wrecks his cart) an army warder (accompanied by his daughter) is left to travel on foot with a team of chained criminals through snow covered hills for days. Lack of food and growing resentment and tension building within the band of cut throats leads to the inevitable violence and depravity that we predictably expect to be delivered in this type of film.

And while the film is indeed quite predictable it is brilliantly executed and is in fact one of the most enjoyable films of this genre that I've seen in quite some time. Marchent's direction is very fluid and stylish throughout with some great traditional 'spaghetti' moments that fans of this type of movie will thoroughly enjoy (with most of the flash back scenes in particular being traditionally stylish). The violence is indeed some of the most graphic I have seen for this genre of film. Don't be misled though as the film is by no means a blood bath as the gore scenes are actually few and far between, but when they do appear they are very graphic, but more akin to the effects seen in a Fulci film than a western - which ain't a bad thing!

Also, keeping with this traditional style of 'spaghetti' western, the film has not only a good standard of direction but some nice music too and an ensemble cast of cut throats that you'll feel you've seen in dozen like minded films before, all putting on a solid cackling bad guy show. All round, a very enjoyable experience that will be essential viewing for fans of this genre.

The print on show is definitely the best that Eurovista has delivered to date, with a lovely strong colourful widescreen image throughout. The audio is their best yet also, with a nice clear 2 channel mono track that is good also. The extras here are limited but what you do get is pretty cool though, with some nice galleries, bio pages and a couple of trailers - a nice looking US one and a somewhat (and perhaps then pointless) fuzzy VHS dupe german one.

The film though is a cracker and this is definitely Eurovista's best presentation yet. Definitely an essential addition to fans of this genre and perhaps to some that are not also! Cool - check it out!

Review by Alan Simpson

The Eurovista line can be ordered direct from Luminous Film & Video Wurks by clicking here.


 
Directed by Joaquin Luis Romero Marchent
Released by Eurovista
Region '0' NTSC - Not Rated
Ratio - 1.85:1 Widescreen
Audio - 2.0 Mono
Running time : approx 92 mins
Extras :
Gallery, Bios, Trailers
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