The Monster / Visitor Q

As its name implies, the nuclear family has always been at risk of meltdown. The social pressure and internal struggle to keep up appearances are bound to turn ugly from time to time. And the two latest releases from Radiance Films offer painful dissections of two wildly different households. Both are dysfunctional, vicious and perverse - but whileThe Monster (1977) finds no escape from hereditary cruelty, Visitor Q (2001) suggests the only way “out” is “through.”

At the beginning of director Luigi Zampa’s film - with a script from Sergio Donati that had been floating around since the early days of the giallo craze - the audience is introduced to what we assume is the titular “monster.” A serial killer has been cracking skulls all over town, leaving tabloid journalist Barigozzi (Johnny Dorelli) as both a valuable eyewitness and a prime suspect. As his literary star ascends, Barigozzi sweetens the pot with payoffs, side gigs and cheesy sponsorships all built around the murders he’s supposed to help solve.

First and foremost, The Monster is a clever and cold-hearted satire of the rise of tabloid culture. Donati’s script certainly drops some major clues as to the killer’s identity right off the bat, even poking fun at the Argento-inspired films supposedly providing a cinematic catharsis for their tasteless audiences. Zampa’s film barely introduces any likely suspects and shows no onscreen violence at all. Instead, the film focuses on Barigozzi’s calculated capitalism as he foists an endless barrage of jaded life lessons on his teenage son in a desperate attempt to ease his own conscience. The murders may provide the structure - and a darkly comic career inspiration - but The Monster’s broken family is where the moral rot has really set in.

Takashi Miike has made his career as the preeminent shock jock of the V-Cinema era and Visitor Q is no exception, juggling scenes of incest, abuse, murder, necrophilia and erotic lactation in its brief 84 minutes. Featuring sequences that would make even David Lynch flush with embarrassment, Miike’s film begins with fragments of a story – a father recording sex with his own wayward daughter, a mother beaten and crippled by her teenage son – as a mysterious drifter pulls all their threads together.

The fact that things only get worse from there might lead one to believe that the family in question dissolves entirely. But the twisted genius of Visitor Q is that once all the lust and debauchery are out in the open, each member of the household settles into their previously defined roles. Anticipating the rise of social media and all the generational chaos to come, Visitor Q might not deliver a traditional happy ending. But Miike’s film seems to suggest that it might be our only shot at something like one.

Radiance gives both films the familiar limited edition treatment: reversible sleeves, booklets, and removable OBI strips. The Monster gets a 2K restoration, a commentary by giallo experts Rachael Nisbet and Peter Jilmstad, a 44-minute making-of, and a 34-minute interview with Richard Dyer. Visitor Q comes from the original master beta tape, with a commentary by Miike biographer Tom Mes, new interviews with Miike and two cast members, and a visual essay by Kat Ellinger. The booklets add some very scholarly writing on each film to help pick up on the themes and ideas you might have missed while hiding from breast milk under an umbrella. I kid! I kid!