Gyémántpiramis - what the hell is that? Well, it probably means Diamond Pyramid, which also is the English title, but like all cool kids at the cult movie forums who pretend to know something I’m using the original title I can’t even pronounce or spell without copying it from the IMDB. But what it is? Yeah, here’s the cool port: a Hungarian sci-fi TV-movie from the eighties! I learned about it because Jocke at Rubbermonsterfetiscism saw it and I can’t let him be totally unique in this world of cult movie geekery. I happen to love obscure TV-movies and this seemed like the most obscure of them all!
A spaceship lose contact with whoever they have contact with and a rescue mission is sent out. They arrive at a distant planet and find most of the crew burned to ashes - only a few scientists is left alive, and they refuse to tell what their mission was at this mysterious planet. After a while this new team is also attacked, by machines who shoot fire! What does this planet hide and who’s really the danger here, the unknown force or the scientists themselves?
I’m not gonna divulge myself too deep in this little TV-production, expect to say this is one cool flick. Shot with a micro budget which probably was quite okay for Hungarian television in 1985 by a gentleman named András Rajnai. This guy seemed to have revolutionized television in Hungary by using a lot - and I mean A LOT - of blue screen, and in all honesty: he rules at it. He mixes cheap Giger-esque sets with a touch of steampunk without being teampunk with simple but cool miniatures, lots of special effects - for example bloody squibs and lots and lots and lots of fire stunts (I mean, the last battle is between people with flame throwers!) and a decent little story which trigger the imagination the same way Alien, Prometheus and Event Horizon did it.
The other highlight is the awesome score by László Benkö, some kind of electro - very close to good old synthpop of the eighties, but more experimental and very brooding and atmospheric. It’s so good I wish it was released on some format other than television and probably also VHS or betamax, whatever the rip I saw came from.
It’s not so much to talk about really, Gyémántpiramis is an action-packed TV-movie in the same shape as the classics classics from the UK in the seventies, just a bit more violent. Someone out there should take their hard-earned money, contact Hungarian television and release a box of András Rajnai on DVD. The man himself died in 2004 and I really don’t want him to be forgotten.
Now comes the next goal in life, to find the rest of his productions!
"I learned about it because Jocke at Rubbermonsterfetiscism saw it and I can’t let him be totally unique in this world of cult movie geekery."
Yeah, I saw that review......it looked cool.
"Someone out there should take their hard-earned money, contact Hungarian television and release a box of András Rajnai on DVD. The man himself died in 2004 and I really don’t want him to be forgotten.
Now comes the next goal in life, to find the rest of his productions!"
Who knows it might happen....good review and thanks, I will be looking to more reviews of András Rajnais films.
Posted by: Megatron | March 25, 2014 at 00:18