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USA UP ALL NIGHT WEEK: Hot Chili

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Every May Crank takes a break from churning out the Deep Red inspired gore reviews and lets in the sleaze, boobs and basic cable shenanigans run wild for one glorious week only. At first I dreaded it, but now with most writing projects gone belly up or all together done with like Monster (R.I.P.) and Weng's Chop, they're still around I just don't care to write for them anymore. I need something to look forward to I mean we all do really. So this week get baked, drunk or pop pills and wax all nostalgic like on the early 90's when horror hosts reigned supreme and the airwaves were invaded by freaks like Commander USA, Rhonda Shear and Gilbert Gottfried plus things were a lot more sane.We need this shit more than ever. Don't forget to support Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. 


So on with the review.








Hot Chili Directed By William Sachs, Starring Alan Kayser (1985).

Maybe You’ve seen Lemon Popsicle, Hot Pursuit or perhaps Losin' It? Well tuck in Louisa Moritz fans you’re in for a Cannon Films fuck fest!
Well as R rated as humping gets that is and it’s an Impact on demand pick to boot, they’ve shown almost all of the UP ALL NIGHT flicks. Thanks to Sharky for hooking me up with a shit ton of TnA horny teen flicks and hixsploitation like The Ormond Family's 40 acre feud for my birthday.

Stanley the dweeby runt is my favorite character in just the first 5 minutes. We also get Joe Rubbo, the Americanized Huey from Lemon Popsicle from The Last American Virgin. He reminds me of Billy Milano only less of a dumb ass. He acted for only 3 roles and then disappeared into obscurity. It’s pretty shitty how unlike the horny teens in Losin' It, they have to work at a Mexican hotel called the Tropicana Cabana. The comedic situations are very strange and awkward but it's a good time.

Surfin MOD, man what a genius concept record that was.


The 12 year old inside your loins will be high fiving you throughout the duration of this flick. There’s all kinds of naked skanks and wacky naked high jinx. I remember staying up late watching Skin-A-Max in hopes of a seeing so much as a pair of boobs. I don’t want to go into a tirade against the internet because we all know how it’s given and taken away so much to society.
Bill Gates with no street cred or game

There’s a pissed off blonde lady who screams at Stanley the dweeb, she acts like a mean dominatrix in a Benny Hill sped up way—nice try movie you can do better! This hotel has an endless supply of horny blondes of course. I think I spotted the piss drinking blonde from Island of Death, I still can’t believe that movie even exists and I’ll never look at Greeks the same way again. 

I drank pee once, it tasted like hot dog water.


When the fat kid walks in to get some, she calls him “Strudel Boy”, I don’t know why either and it’s just weird. Her husband calls him “Salami Boy”. The Golan Globus dudes who wrote this must be into domination because there’s a lot of that kind of kinky shit going on. Who am I to judge? Rob Z’Dar plays a rubbery faced German dude (don't blink or you'll miss this cameo). The comedy consists of foreign people yelling, it’s kind of stupid. But of course it is, what did you expect? The angriest Mexican dude is named Cortez the Turd, he rules with an iron shit. Chi Chi the hot chili pepper (were I gather the title comes from) is pretty helpful and in real life seemingly desperate, so next time you see Louisa Moritz, give her an extra 20 when you pay for her autograph at the Chiller con. Oh yeah and I spotted the head vampire from Polanski's Fearless Vampire Killers in a bar scene. He wasn't drinking a bloody mary like the Warren Zevon song would go into a diatribe about.

carlos the turd

There’s not really much of a story other than a bunch of kids at a wacky sex hotel stumbled onto horny situations and later on their families show up but don’t worry it doesn’t turn into incest-city thankfully!

Ricky’s extremely Jewish family shows up and his Dad tries to get into the blonde’s drawers (Victoria Barrett), the same one who yelled at Stanley. I noticed the dial a psychiatrist from Don’t Answer the Phone is also at one of the tables in the restaurant, she orders ice cream and doesn’t specify a flavor.

She’s not credited on IMDB for this flick. Yet another internet mystery that I found pretty shocking, Stanley (Chuck Hemmingway) died at the young age of 32 but there’s no info about his death, he appeared in Neon Maniacs and My Science Project as well. Maybe he was really Scott Backula and his work on earth was done. There are some elements of a lost Lemon Popsicle flick like Private Popsicle or something (that aforementioned flick is positively horrendous)! This one although a bit tedious is pretty funny for an oddball movie.  


guess my work is done here see ya tomorrow Ziggy.


USA UP ALL NIGHT WEEK: Stitches

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STITCHES directed by Alan Smithee.

Here it is May again, time to re watch The Wicker Man and participate in the sacrificial ritual of USA UP ALL NIGHT WEEK. The gift that keeps on giving, it’s a pleasurable struggle like mowing the lawn or walking the dog. Sadly Jim Hendricks aka Commander U.S.A. passed away recently into the great basic cable graveyard beyond he was inspirational to many and will be missed.

What if Porky’s wasn’t set in a boring fucking high school but a morgue among students akin to Herbert West? You’d watch that shit right? I mean that segment of Fast Times where Vincent Scavelli pulled out a human heart and Spicolli went “GNARLY” was enough to get the script writer here typing away on an entire movie based on that premise! So here we are Stitches what cha got?

GNARLY

During the credits three medical students dressed like cadavers scare the shit outta some people venturing into the institute, they kind of resemble the jaundiced corpse from ROTLD.
Ralph (actor) the googly eyed fellow from The Devil’s Rejects and Human Experiments gives a coffee machine an enema—funny right?



Don’t hide your head in shame yet because this is the only other film I can recall that has the Asian exchange student from Revenge of the Nerds in it. I wonder what Harvey Pekar thought of this movie if he was that pissed off about the Robert Carradine vehicle? That’s one of the most overreactions against that film I can remember. Eddie Albert from Green Acres who played the president in Dream Scape. The Mahoney/Guttenberg prototype is the not Shaun Cassidy Hardy Boys sibling Parker Stevenson.


Ahh a punk rocker! They spit on people.

There's one part with a one way mirror gag that goes awry and a offensively gay dude who's super horny and makes dick jokes for awhile. That gay dude is none other than Murray The Unknown comic! The Asian guy dresses like a hypodermic needle. Eddie Albert from Green Acres hosts a party where everyone dresses punk, Halloween style, which is yet another reason the Destroy All Movies book included it. If you like King Frat or Beach House you'll eat up this one. I immediately told Paul about it but I don't think he dug it.
ORDER NOW

USA UP ALL NIGHT WEEK: Fatal Exposure

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"Fatal Exposure" aka "Mangled Alive" (1989)
Director: Peter B. Good
Writer: Christopher Painter
Stars: Blake Bahner, Ena Henderson, Dan Schmale
Review by: "Machine Gun" Kristin

I’ve probably seen “Fatal Exposure” in a video store at some point. I mean, just look at the video cover. Trashy, kinda scary with the big skull in the background. Maybe like a cross between an 80s slasher and a Shannon Tweed flick? In 1994 (S6:EP92) it was broadcast on USA’s Up All Night (paired with “The Sex Puppets”). I’m kind of astounded with the amount of sex and pretty shocking gore scenes that this was watchable in an edited for TV format. Editing techniques weren’t nearly as fancy back then as they are nowadays. (For example, check out the digitally painted on bras in the edited for TV version of “ShowGirls”). Sure, the sex is mostly just nips and super high on the thigh underwear (damn you 1989 fashion!) still on, but you get the point.

We follow the mullet-haired Jack T. Rippington (hahaha), grandson of serial killer Jack The Ripper (played by kickboxer/soap opera actor, Blake Bahner). He believes that the blood of his photoshoot model victims is basically Viagra which he stores in a lunchbox Thermos. He laughably explains what he's doing to the camera as sort of an on-screen narrator. This is done somewhat tongue-in-cheek though because when he first meets his Sherilyn Fenn-type "dreamgirl" Erica (Ena Henderson) she says, "do you always talk to yourself?".

This movie is weird because it should be seen as terrible, unlikable, badly made, etc, but it's really not. I don't know, I liked the characters and felt that they weren't trying too hard. Make no mistake, this movie is pretty terrible, but that doesn't mean it isn't super fun. It would awesome to watch super drunk with some friends and lots of snacks. Like I mentioned before, I was pretty surprised at how viciously gory the death scenes are in this, and there's a lot of them. Heads chopped off, hydrochloric acid ingested resulting in melting flesh.

Whew! We can thank Scott Coulter (who also did "Class Of Nuke Em High" among a ton of credits and still works in effects today) for the kool gore effects.

The tone of "Fatal..." reminded me soo much of "Soultaker" (1990) which was savagely (by that I mean hilariously) made fun of by Mystery Science Theater 3000. I was also reminded of the fantastic, "Panic Beats" with it's extreme gore, house-in-the-middle-of-nowhere and soap opera-y feel. Lots of fun!

You can check out "Fatal Exposure" over HERE


USA UP ALL NIGHT: Beach Balls

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-Reviewed by Skunkape-



Directed by Joe Ritter 1988

                                                                                   Rhonda's Introduction
                                                                                                                               
Another Comedy with boobs!!! But wait, this movie is not funny and boobs are almost nowhere to be found. Even though this another perfect movie for the USA-U.A.N. lineup a cut version of this film makes it even worse! Luckily there's Rhonda and all the 976 numbers during the breaks to keep you stimulated.

So why bother, Well, being a hardcore Land of the Lost fanatic and knowing that actor Philip Paley, Chaka himself is the lead role really sold me. I thought it would be cool to see Paley shed his fur for a little fun in the sun and play a horny teen looking for some love.
"Chaka want to get lost in your land!","Chaka horny and corny"

"Chaka, you shaved!, Talk about manscaping."
Charlie Harrison (Paley's character) also wants to be a rock n' roll GOD so we do get treated to some heavy metal tunes. Don't get excited though, there's no awesomeness like some other 80's metal films such as Trick or Treat and Shock em' Dead. The band featured is the D.R. Starr band and they only rock slightly.
"D.R. does not stand for Dumb Roadie!"

Behold THE SOUNDTRACK to Beach Balls
They're about to rock, but I don't salute them.
Charlie's best bud is Scully, he's played by Steven Tash, Tash is the guy that Bill Murray shocks right in the beginning of Ghostbusters. The Budget of Beach Balls is so cheap that Tash was probably paid the same 5 bucks that he walked out on after Murray had given him too many electrical shocks. Paley and Tash could have been awesome pair but nope!

Let's join that Surf Nazi Gang!

What's shocking is how bad Beach Balls is!

Roger Corman's New Horizons production company really really went cheap on this. Everyone's house is gross looking and even the beach looks cruddy. Director Joe Ritter, a competent Steadicam operator should have stay behind the camera because this movie is trying so hard to be crude and sweet but failing miserably! His body of work is impressive though.

They Might NOT Be Giants

There is one other actor that may make this worth a viewing. Gary Schneider who plays a thug named Mollusk. (The Mollusk-my favorite Ween Album).
Schneider was the incomparable character of Bozo in the mother of all cult films, The Toxic Avenger. Bozo was the role he was born to play because he's not given much to say making his character in Beach Balls a waste. Just don't talk about his mom though, he doesn't like that.

Mollusk's breath smells like microwaved seafood!

Bozo is stressed, I mean Mollusk.

Charlie meets Wendy, the girl of his dreams but the problem is that she only dates musicians. She wants Keith, the front man from the band Severed Heads in a Bag! ( D.R. Starr Band ) If that band had seven members and it was a duffel bag maybe Joe Pesci would be in the movie! - cricket chirp-
Wendy gets her chance with Keith, then feels like he only wants her for sex, which he does and Charlie swoops in. We also meet Charlie's parents who are religious fanatics, they oppress his love for the guitar by associating it with Satan. His sister who is dating a jockish lifeguard is quite the bully. Why? Well he's also the brother of the girl Charlie has the hots for and later we find out that he's in the closet, so expect lots of gay jokes, 80's style.
Miller from Repo Man was right about John Wayne!
All of these factors culminate in the finally at Charlie's house during a wild party. A party his parents told him not to have while they're out of town. Even some people from the record business are there! So can Charlie get the girl and a record contract in the same night? Find out in Beach Balls!!!

They might have a chance to get signed by Alternative Tentacle Records.

4/10 Bananas

This episode aired August 30th 1991
The movie that followed was Combat Academy
Maybe it's worth a watch for a few chuckles and that 80's nostalgia that the kids these days just love.
Should've have more T & A, so expect your beach balls to be blue after watching this.


More Clips and Highlights from Rhonda during Beach Balls








USA UP ALL NIGHT WEEK: Day Of The Dead

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Day Of The Dead Directed by George Romero, Starring Howard Sherman (1985).

This is a review that might alienate all of my friends, readers and family members, accept Skunkape who I know shares the same opinion on this film. It’s highly controversial and feels like I’m stepping into a trap of my own design but here we go anyway. Right off the bat, I consider Day of the Dead a classic 2 stars film, it could've been better but it's not the worst of all time. There I got that off my chest!


"High Five, High Five, High Five, High Five, High Five"

I even taped this episode during it's run on UP ALL NIGHT where Gilbert Gottfried shit all over the characters and tense situations, defusing whatever ardency Romero aimed for. At first I felt like I was witnessing a crime and going against all that I knew was intriguing about a zombie film. Let’s face it though none of these characters are like able on the military side or the hero side. Sarah (Lori Cardille) is very butch and wooden. Her boyfriend Miguel (Anthony Dileo Jr. ) is a whiny bitch, who looks like a gay Cat Stevens. As a "straight" couple there is zero chemistry, that in lies the first series of hiccups that I've always had with this movie, it's very difficult to identify or emphasize for the characters. The stereotypes are rampant throughout, like the flask slugging Irish Star Trek Bones—ish McDermott (Jarlath Conroy) to the exaggerated Jamaican guy (Terry Alexander).

"I should have been a sailor!"
Miguel Salazar's Day Off

"I told you not to touch my pole!"

Savini however makes it all tolerable and wonderful, the effects are brilliant, creative and mind blowing. But everything from the watered down script to the incessant bickering is shocking especially from the politically savy Romero.

Where do I start with Rhodes, one of the worst authoritarian dickwads who rules a team of drooling morons, exuding testosterones. Dr. Frankenstein I’ll deal with because he’s attached to Bub (Howard Sherman) one of the best zombies of all time. Bub was even on an episode of Seinfeld, you may remember him as the guy who got Junior Mints stuck in his organs from Kramer spilling it everywhere.

I always remember Bub's instructions on how to pull out the posters in the Fangoria Poster mag, telling us not to let the staples tear out our finger nails for risk that they might temp you to chew your own digits off for their taste value. The usually captivating John Amplas is all neutered and shriveled up by the macho military dumb asses talking over everyone.

"Sorry, I have nothing to donate to Big Brothers, Big Sisters this year."


I love this song by the Cranberries!

Another highlight is when Lori hacks off Miguel’s arm and cauterizes it so he won't be infected by the zombie plague was very creative. There are truly clever and innovative moments within the film, but it all adds up to a very unsatisfying  affair. I hate to say it, but for the sake of Gottfried ripping on it and my own anxieties about being a closet hater of Day I gotta come clean and express these views.

"I need a new chiropractor!"

"You said it Erok, now I gots something to say!!!"
If you made it this far then let me tell ya that you should think of this review as a "Roast". We're celebrating something we love but pointing out every short coming and making fun of every flaw.
This post would certainly be incomplete without mentioning the awkward performance of Ralph Marrero who played Rickles. It's the kind of performance that almost makes you feel embarrassed for the little guy. The foul mouthed character of Steel (Gary Howard Klar) is played nearly to perfection as a menacing goon and Rhodes's right hand man. However, when Steel and Rickles share screen time it's like watching a head strong Uruk-hai next to a drooling incompetent Orc.

Steel and Rickles
"Night of the Living Bread is so Funny!"

Rhodes unfriended me on Facebook. :( 

As much as I hated all the military bozos I 'm actually starting to side with them! Was Dr. Frankenstein really going to pass around the walkman and teach every zombie how to salute? His research was stupid he should have been working on a giant weed wacker or some kind of zombie melting gas!
"Did you call an Uber?"

Track 1-The Dead Walk
Great for doing aerobics!!!

Another thing I have to mention is the musical aspect. John Harrison's score certainly gets the job done but is that what you want? Just to get the job done! After collaborating with Goblin and having them compose that iconic heart pumping score for Dawn, it just seems like Day really could have had more music and better music at that. I do have some of the tracks in a few of my horror playlists but just go listen to "The World Inside your Eyes" right now by Sputzy Sparacino and then just try to argue with me ;) That song is super schmaltzy and there's zero irony to be found, it's almost as bad as the Dr. Felix portion of the Deep Red Simonetti Horror Project remix.

This kid said that he loved the Day of the Dead remake, so we killed him.

Speaking poorly of Romero or Day of the Dead should not be allowed EVER, but maybe now we'll get you to leave a comment! Go for it! Tell us what you think!

"Please don't post this review!"



USA UP ALL NIGHT WEEK: Eat And Run

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"Eat And Run"(1986)
Director: Christopher Hart 
Writer: Stan Hart, Christopher Hart
Stars: Ron Silver, Sharon Sharth, Pat Ryan
Review by: "Machine Gun" Kristin

"Eat And Run" seems like a somewhat larger budgeted movie from the looks of it, with that glossy New World Pictures logo coming on the screen. At least it seems fancier to me. This movie's pretty gross but it's actually adorably funny in a likable cornball way. It's one of the many New York set films of the 1980s that emphasizes it's Italian community, although it's probably the only one that focuses on the appetizing nature of its people as food versus the food that they create. haha. They generically reference Carvel ice cream cakes which is painfully 80s NY, but surprisingly not Friendly's (even though, they hail from Massachusetts) which seems to be a suburban NY staple. Hell, they even referenced Friendly's in "The Sopranos" haha.

The eating (although, not much running actually) is done by shirt button spitting character actor, Pat Ryan (or sometimes R.L. Ryan). You might recognize him as the sleazy junkyard owner from "Street Trash" which he did around the same time as "Eat..".  Here, he's a humanoid space alien named Murray the Creature that crash landed in New York. A nice Italian man picks him up thinking he's a hitchhiker and inadvertently talks Murray into eating him. This sets a series of murders that goofball detective, Mickey McSorely (Ron Silver) goes on a self-narrating journey to solve.
"I Ordered Fudgey The Fish But They Send Me Fuckin' Cookie Face!" 

I went into this "USA Up All Night" choice of movie thinking it was a horror film, but it's more of a comedy than anything. All the "gore" is done off screen. There are a ton of gags in this, which can sometimes read as trying too hard. Sometimes they kinda bash you over the head with the schtick but it was still charming in a vaudeville kinda way. It was the last movie written by Stan Hart who was head writer of "The Carol Burnett Show" and also had written for Mad Magazine.

I could've done without the icky comedic fully-clothed sex scenes with poofy haired Judge Cheryl (Sharon Schlarth) and McSorely, haha. Some of the dialogue exchanges though were pretty funny like,
Cheryl:"Oh by way, I forgot to ask if you had Herpes?" 
McSorely:"Oh god no, that's one thing I don't have" 
Cheryl: "It's not so bad, it stings from time to time, but it doesn't interfere with my social life" 

Murray eats tunnel-digging Agamemnon from "OZ" 

I think my favorite gag was when the Zeppoles vendor fried his ring, his watch and his ID bracelet.  The least would have to be the weird sex scene with McSorely (he kinda resembles an off-brand Andy Garcia) and Judge Cheryl but she's sound asleep. Yuck. 

This movie is not quite at "Eating Raoul" caliber as far as comedies involving eating people goes,  but it's worth a look. These movies were surprisingly never paired up on "USA Up All Night". 

"Eat And Run" apparently aired 4 times (!!) on "USA Up All Night":

April 8th 1989 Satan's Cheerleaders/Eat and Run 
September 1 1989 Eat and Run/The Kentucky Fried Movie 
November 24 1989 Swim Team/Eat and Run 
November 25 1989 Eat and Run/The Van 

I give this one 2 and half pizzas 🍕🍕
You can watch "Eat And Run"HERE
Find the it for sale HERE



USA UP ALL NIGHT WEEK: Night Patrol

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Night Patrol (the Unknown Comic movie) Directed By Jackie Kong, Starring Linda Blair. (1984).

You know Murray Langston, the famous unknown comic with the paper bag over his head, this is his big movie. Throw in Linda Blair (who gets topless) and retches when she hears curse words, wacky dubbing, the director of Blood Diner, man this flick has got it all. It's especially funny if you hit up your local dispensary or your favorite beverage / valium combo. Murray plays Melvin White, a mustachioed cop out on the beat, it's all very Naked Gun, Police Academy-ish only a lot more silly and retarded. I guess you could say they were aiming at hitching their rinky dink wagon to the Copsploitation trend but that never really took off. Plus no one really gave a fuck about the Unknown comic besides really geeky people I might be scared of.

Burt Reynolds style centerfold


Billy Barty is the police chief, if only he ended up in an Amir Shervan vehicle as yet another angry grizzled boss yelling at the Samurai Cop or Hollywood Cop. Barty was great in Being Different a mondo freakshow that just showed up on Amazon Prime, check it out before it's gone.

"Ready for that mustache ride!"
Andrew Dice Clay shows up too as a Travolta clone, this was years before he became the misogynistic comedian that we all know.

John Revolta 
Pat Morita gets raped and talks like a girl, I can't make this shit up folks! It's somewhere treading on a sea of stupidity and mediocrity and some bad poetry. I loved it maybe more than King Fart! Many of the actors here went onto do voices for The Rugrats for some odd reason like Pat Paulsen, who plays the officer tagging along with Murray, he also was on The Smothers Brothers as The Jolly Green Giant. Skunkape as a little primate saw this on cable and his parents made him close his eyes during the steamy parts.
Guy with bag on head gets kicked in the nuts.
The scene that inspired a young ape.

Another Unknown Comic now takes the 5th grade talent show by storm!
One of the screenwriters Bill Osco is responsible for one of the most traumatizing flicks I remember Skunkape torturing me with in TV Production school Gross Out. That fuggin monkey even had a home made T-shirt based off the VHS artwork, which I remember seeing at Video Waves, a porn and cult movie store I used to frequent. Osco's biggest claim to fame is handling the production on Flesh Gordon (1974), which is incredible that basically a soft porn parody of a kitschy, camp masterpiece was even noticed by anyone but that was the 70's, everyone was wacked out on something!

"Is that a Twinkie in your lunch bag or you just happy to see me?"

"I like cops, comics, and polish vampires."

live action Dr. Katz

"This is my audition for the role of Bilbo "Bag"gins. HA!

USA UP ALL NIGHT WEEK: A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell!

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"A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell"(1990)
Director: Brett Piper 
Writer: Brett Piper
Stars: Paul Guzzi, Linda Corwin, Alex Pirnie
Review by: "Machine Gun" Kristin

So far, "A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell!" plays like a fully-clothed porno, meaning, what the hell's the point? I think they may have been way too inspired by the music video, "Walk The Dinosaur" by Was(Not Was). Or Was it? 
and maybe decided to make a full length movie based on the video game for "Primal Rage".
It's Troma, so there's zero respect for sanity of their audience. Their movies are 9 times out of 10 an hour and a half too long. haha. I can't hate Troma too much because yes, they're mostly terrible movies, but they're still important. I guess it's reputable under the guise that anyone (and they mean anyone) can be a filmmaker and that's something to behold for sure. No idea too dumb, no plot too thin, no special effects too not-so-special. The Ray Harryhausen style animated monsters (by Brett Piper and Alex Pirnie) sprinkled throughout here in "Nymphoid" were so adorable! haha. 

Gawd this movie is terrible. I'm going to make a rule for myself never to choose the movie based on extremely long, deceptively interesting title. Reminds of the other movie related rule of thumb of the past; never to rent "big box" horror movies at your local video store. I'm not sure if that was always 100% true, but it's still entertaining to think about. For example, my first thought when it comes to big video boxes is a copy of "2000 Maniacs" which I guess in comparison is actually a "good movie" haha. 

The whole movie's explained in the first 2 minutes but I actually forgot about it by the time I got to the ending. I'm not the only one, the film abandoned the storyline too. Basically, a barbarian girl (Linda Corwin) is one of the last women on earth after a major nuclear war that ended civilization and the remaining animals morphed in those awesome animated monsters I mentioned before. If there was an edit of this movie with nothing but those monsters, that would've been way better! The title is pretty deceiving in that there is yes, a couple of icky attempted rapes (not initiated by our female lead, but the gnarly cavemen wandering about), but nothing that would define a nymphomaniac of any kind. 

The music score kept reminding me of "O Holy Night" so I had this bizarre caveman adventure Christmas theme going on in my head for a bit. hahaha.  Hey, at least this movie's mostly set at the beach (somewhere in New Hampshire apparently), so we can enjoy the scenery. A great way to sum this movie up is the first comment on YouTube where Troma has graciously uploaded this video for all to see. Commenter Douglas Berry says: "I sometimes ask myself, why am I watching this? Is my life so empty I'll watch any moving picture? I guess so......"

I rate this movie 3 creatures 🐲🐲🐲  for the FX
1 pile of poo 💩 for the rest of it

USA UP ALL NIGHT airings of "A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell!"
Season 3 | Episode 5 (18 January 1991) A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell/Young Nurses in Love
Season 3 | Episode 69 (31 August 1991) Joysticks/A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell 


WATCH HERE (Thanks TROMA!) 
BUY HERE!
There's actually commentary on the DVD by Director/Writer/Creature FX Brett Piper. Would love to hear that! 

USA UP ALL NIGHT LEFT OVE: FOREVER EVIL

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Forever Evil. Directed by Roger Evans (1987).

Review By Mike Hauss

What a not wildly fresh premise this film had. A group of friends go to a cabin in the woods for a weekend to celebrate their last weekend at the cabin, which is slated to be sold. Supernatural forces attack and brutally kill all but Marc Denning, who escapes to a busy road. But as he stands battered and bruised celebrating his narrow escape, he is hit by a car. Marc awakes a week or so later in the hospital, with broken this and fractured that.
The re-animated corpse of Ebenezer Scrooge just in time for Christmas.


This film is not very good, but it does build a bit of suspense here and there, but for a film that technically looks like shit to clock in at a mind-ripping one-hundred and fifty-minutes is a grave mistake. If a capable edit of the film had been made, to shore twenty to thirty minutes off it, the film would have been a tighter affair and the fast-forward button wouldn’t have been so prevalent in my viewing experience. A grizzled old detective named Leo, Marc Denning and a young lady named Reggie, who also survived an attack by these dark forces, all band together to try and defeat the assailants, which includes zombies and creatures that shoot laser beams.

Lovecraft Schmuvcraft!

What the story revolves around is a cult who are making sacrificial murders in the goal of bringing the ancient god Yog Kothag back to earth, from which he was banished eons ago because of his evil. Obviously, the writers involved in this film borrowed a bit from H.P. Lovecraft and his creation Yog-Sothoth, along with Evil Dead in its cabin in the woods, supernatural attack forces. The acting is so bad that its almost hypnotic in its deconstruction of a craft. The first twenty minutes or so are so cheesy stupid, that it makes the viewer take notice and keeps one eyeing the power button to turn this film off at any moment. Like noted above the film does build some suspense here and there, but it does not know how to sustain it or to reach a proper payoff. For a film with this large of a scope to tread forward with bad actors, bad production values and an over inflated runtime really destructs any hope that the film had of being a cult classic, it was obviously aiming for. And what sets this apart from that other noted low-budget cabin in the woods film, Evil Dead... is talent!

WATCH ON YOUTUBE OR DON'T SEE IF I CARE!


Savage Weekend

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Savage Weekend Directed By David Paulsen, Starring William Sanderson (1979).

Forget 30° of Kevin Bacon, this trivia question waiting to happen is something on the nerd level of what scuzzy 70’s flick has David Gale from Re-Animator and William Sanderson from Newhart and Fight for Your Life. That's right, this piece of trash.  Right over the credits we hear banjo music and a chainsaw heating up for some action. William “JF Sebastian” Sanderson is the thrift store Leatherface of this feature. This is the kind of movie where you're not sure if you had a nightmare about it or it actually happened but it's been sitting on the burner for at least five years and was gnawing at my subconscious so I just had to review it right now. It's got Caitlin O’ Heaney who I remember as the sexy teacher from Three O' Clock High in Oshkosh baa gosh if that doesn't get your motor running then just turn it off right now! Everything has that smothered in Vaseline light quality and it all just screams underground movie never to be seen for public consumption.

check out this cool maxi-pad from Hot Topic!



There’s this Tab Hunter type guy played by Christopher Allport. This actor was in one of my favorite fucked up movies Brain Wash and also Dead and Buried. His character is very flamboyant and comes on to Bud Light swilling rednecks, I mean he's just asking for trouble. This is supposed to be filmed in the backwoods but everything about it says Canada.
I could totally see Vinegar Syndrome putting this out on Blu-ray, it has that typical cruddy film stock that they love to remaster. There is a Kentucky fried movie level of boom mic prowess, I mean I expect at any minute to lower down and drink a glass of water.

or shave your face!
Sanderson was typecast in a lot of country hillbilly bullshit before he landed the gig in the famous Ridley Scott film. Really though, how do you top a movie as fucked up as Fight For Your Life, you’d think it’d be all downhill after that. Sanderson delved in mainstream fair like Coal Miners Daughter in the mid 70s as well.

Uh Oh I pooped again!

David Gale has one of those Marty Robbins handlebar mustaches and is pretty unlikeable.
I'm surprised I didn't review this sooner, it has a Mansion of the Doomed or Messiah of Evil quality that I dig. It's definitely way more captivating then say Pigs (which is available on Blu-ray).

I'm gonna peel you like a large orange.
The boom mic is shown so much here that it's almost another character. The boom operator must have a limp wrist like Lamar, forcing him to dip below the frame so much that he probably could've used a Revenge of the Nerds style floppy javelin instead of a straight pole to handle the microphone.

artists representation of Boom operator.

Chas Balun mentioned how this was the first movie with the masked Jason type killer. Big deal!
There's a lot of scenes where William Sanderson is just talking to himself right next to an Ed Wood style cardboard gravestone.

This version I watched on Betamax TV seems slightly edited maybe they're trying to cater to the whole summer blockbuster audience that doesn't exist anymore. Even with all the excized bits, I can't imagine enjoying this anymore, especially sober.
William Sanderson puts on the dime store mask and kind of lurks in the corners. The writing is non-existent and I have no idea what’s going on or what the point the film has.
Nobody is going to say that this was the precursor to Friday the 13th or some bullshit like that but I guess it's slightly relevant.
It's definitely kinky in the sex department which is kind of abrupt and I can't say it's a good film. I definitely can't recommend it, but it's an oddity nonetheless. The director also made the way better Schizoid with Klaus Kinski for Cannon, they also later distributed Savage and Paulsen worked primarily in TV on Dallas of all things.
I just discovered while writing this that Kino Lorber actually did put this out restored on Blu-ray with new interviews, excited? Not me! It's also available to stream on the Night Flight app.

TOTAL WASTE OF TIME.

Tiger Cage

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Tiger Cage Directed By Yuen Wo-Ping, Starring Donny Yen (1988).

I’ve been sitting on this review for awhile, like Horton that dedicated pachyderm you may have read about in a Dr. Seuss book. At first I saw this action packed HK classic in the infancy of Netflix streaming and its sequel was there to boot. From the neon production logo to the starting gate, it doesn’t let up or take a breath. The film has constant blasting of hardware and pummeling. Chunks of heads are blown out by Asian dudes with comical mustaches. One of the main actors Jacky Cheung Hok-Yau starred in Demoness of 1000 years and John Woo's Bullet in the Head (which I need to get a copy of). Donnie Yen has gotten just too over exposed I mean he was in one of the lamest Star Wars, Rogue One, but that's definitely a step up in paycheck. Good for him I say!

Lucas was totally ripping off Hidden Fortress anyway.


 The stunts in this film look pretty painful, I'm sure a lot of stunt men were stuck in the hospital with broken bones. One dude jumps off a bridge and dives onto a moving car. What do you expect from Dickson Poon presentation, other than quality! One of my most favorite titles of the DP cannon is Porky's Meatballs (aka Devil Horse School Yard) Thank you HKDB for all the great info! 

actual image from Porky's Meatballs!


 Simon Yam aka Dr. Lamb hisself is one of the CID officers trying to bust up a heroin ring.
There’s an egg blowing prank that wouldn't look that weird on a Japanese game show.
After awhile it slows down to the pace of a ROM Com but not for too long. Then it settles into gun battle territory and another prank that causes fatalities this time.

yeah just like the incredible Mr. Limply

One cop gets covered in tear gas then shredded with a shotgun. His wife starts training for revenge. This dude with a fro and a mustache played by Johnny Wang Lung-Wei is super bad ass. Johnny Wang was in a lot of amazing Chinese flicks like Boxer's Omen, Dirty Ho and even Crippled Avengers. 
I remember watching the sequel to TG first with chop socky dubbing and enjoying it more. 

UGHHH I hate when my crepe explodes!

There’s this one gangster played by Micheal Woods who looks like Lionel Richie with gigantism, he wears a white blazer. It’s all very Miami Vice-ish. The fight scene between him and Donnie yen is highly entertaining and the fight choreography is excellent. Woods was only in a few HK films but he has an unhinged presence and even appeared in one other film featured in the Deep Red catalog, In the line of duty 4.

I just shit my pannntttsss!

Ng Man-Tat gets pelted with a bag of cocaine that erupts and clings to his face. He's one of the main cops and his character is pretty like able, I'm surprised he hasn't appeared in more films that I've seen.
I don’t want to spoil anything but Simon Yam brutally kills a major character and it’s pretty fucked up!

Dr. Lamb just got recruited as the Trump surgeon general.

During the second half, Yam gets more insidious and acts like a thug. Good cops get framed and it’s basically turns into a more gore soaked CSI.
One girl gets hurled out a window and dives onto a car like in the first half! There’s even a montage that gets you amped for the final showdown. I'd say watch part 2 first then revisit in the first one because most of the cast return even though a lot of them are killed. Go figure.

I'm not making copies of the Mad Ron's Prevues tape don't melt my eyeballs!


Hunchback of the Morgue

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HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE Directed By Javier Aguirre, Starring Paul Naschy (1973).

Reviewed By Troy Guinn.
         
       Don’t be fooled by the impossibly catchy “oompah” German polka theme that plays behind the opening credits of HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE; it might be the last cheerful moments of the film but it damn sure won’t be the only thing that lingers in your mind after you experience this, the peak of Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy’s career as an actor and storyteller, and one of the very best Eurohorror films of the 1970’s.

            In a small German village (actually a Spanish town in Catalonia serving as a stand-in), the inhabitants pass their time by chugging beer and abusing the deformed hunchback, Gotho (Paul Naschy). Even the children and the students of the local medical college get in on the cruel fun of tormenting Gotho, whose only solace is his friendship with the sickly Ilse (Maria Elena Arpon), whom he visits in the hospital, where he also serves as a morgue attendant. When Ilse dies, the hunchback, already driven half-mad by a lifetime as an outcast, is truly sent over the edge, stealing Ilse’s body while dealing murderous justice to those who disrespected her in life or who would dispose of her corpse. Yes, Gotho might be a lover but he ain’t no dancer, and while Ilse’s remains turn a queasy shade of green and the flies start a-buzzin’, Gotho cleaves heads from bodies, battles a horde of hungry rats, and introduces various thugs to the acid bath in his underground lair if they get too close to his departed, decomposing pal.

All I gotta do is slice off some nice bacon for the Arby's meat delivery.


            Enter Dr. Orla (Alberto Dalbes), a prominent professor at the medical college who is having trouble getting funding, let alone consent, to continue his controversial scientific endeavors at the university. In Gotho, the manipulative doctor sees a gullible tool he can use to his own ends. Dr. Orla promises to bring Ilse back to life if Gotho will build a secret lab in the catacombs for Orla’s experiments. Even when Ilse’s physical form is destroyed and Gotho thinks all hope is lost, Orla tells him not to worry, for the professor’s discoveries in growing new cell tissue will enable him to create an entirely new Ilse from scratch. There’s just one catch, though: the newly growing tissue must be fed living human flesh! Luckily, there’s an entire women’s prison in this quaint little village, which provides the prowling hunchback with many potential victims to kidnap and serve as dinner to Orla’s rapidly-growing “Ilse”.

when will supper be ready, I can't fucking wait anymore!

            Along the way, Gotho draws the attention of Elke (Rosanna Yanni), a compassionate doctor who not only takes the hunchback into her heart, but also into her boudoir (this IS a Paul Naschy film, after all). Still undeterred in his determination to see Ilse reborn, Gotho continues to procure live, kicking and screaming victims for Orla’s pet; however, it becomes apparent that what Orla is actually cultivating is not a fresh, sweet, flower-loving Ilse but an ancient “Old One” from the primordial beginnings of time. This kick-in-the-teeth, combined with Orla’s plan to feed not only Elke but two other kind doctors (played by Vic Winner and Maria Perschy) to the “Primordial” finally convinces Gotho he’s been had and it’s time to shut down Orla for good. It’s at this moment the Primordial, who’s grown into a humanoid, slimy shambling thing, decides it’s tired of dining in and breaks loose from his cell. Gotho must do battle with the Primordial and save his new friends from Dr. Orla’s evil machinations.
            If the above synopsis is any indication, anyone popping HUNCHBACK into the DVD player and expecting another take on Victor Hugo’s classic HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, a familiar tale about a lonely and pathetic figure who suffers cruelty from his fellow man except for the kindness of one girl, whom he then sacrifices all to protect, might not be prepared for the sick, wonderfully unsavory and nutty catacombs full of surprises lying in wait for them in Naschy and director Javier Aguirre’s twisted cinematic concoction. However, those well-versed in the quirky realms of Eurohorror and also Naschy’s fertile mind know full well he not only loved reviving the classic monsters, he also specialized in subverting expectations and creating rich stews that mixed ingredients from his well-read library, his love of cinema and art, and his own personal experiences. From moment to moment, scene to scene, HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE is science-fiction, gothic horror, Lovecraft-inspired celestial mythos, pulpy 70’s horror comic magazine, grand guignol gore, and Universal films monster mash.

Shhh! Be quiet, I'm trying to masturbate!
            So, yes, a lot to absorb, but at the film’s heart is our hunchback, Gotho, and Paul Naschy’s effective portrayal, one for which he would receive prestigious international accolades and awards. Naschy gives a physically skillful and psychologically compelling performance, adding complexity and layers to what could have simply been the “village idiot” as most of Gotho’s community see him. Gotho is a sympathetic yet volatile character, childlike but certainly not an innocent nor a total idiot; an obviously deranged individual capable of unconditional, bordering-on-religious devotion to those who show him kindness, but also able to return the brutality he receives twofold, with decisive violence and, yes, a hint of gleeful sadism. While it’s somewhat amusing, in light of the fact that Naschy’s scripts usually provided plenty of intimate scenes with lovely actresses for his protagonists, to note that Gotho might be horror cinema’s only hunchback to enjoy consensual sex with a film’s loveliest starlet (in this case, the stunning Rosanna Yanni), it does lend a unique degree of tragedy to Gotho’s story: unlike his bell-ringing Parisian counterpart, Gotho actually CAN “get the girl” and find earthly happiness, but he’s simply too far gone in his own self-hatred and disdain for the world of the living, and his desire for the company of Ilse’s remains, animated or no, to take this rope to redemption that has been thrown to him.

Huh? The Hunchback's got game? I'm flabbergasted! 

            Even those who haven’t seen HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE might be aware of its most justifiably infamous sequence, in which Gotho returns to his lair to find that rats are feasting on Ilse’ corpse. The rats fling themselves on the hunchback (Naschy was covered in horse grease and yes, the rats are really biting him), who drives them away by putting them to the torch. The rats used in the production had been rounded up by the city and were scheduled to be destroyed, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch the roasting rodent fireballs run screeching to and fro…unless you get off on that kind of thing. As unpleasant as this scene is to watch and certainly to film (as it was for Naschy and must have been for Maria Elena Arpon, who as Ilse earns a real Eurohorror merit badge for maintaining corpse-like stillness while being swarmed by the rats), the sleeze-and-quease factor might have been ramped up even further if a certain other opportunity for real-life gore had been carried through: The HUNCHBACK production received permission to use a real cadaver in the morgue anyway they wished. The plan was for Gotho to actually behead the corpse, but even though Naschy fortified himself with liquor before filming the decapitation, he was unable to bring himself to do it. Thus, it’s merely a fake head that Dr. Orla feeds to the growing “Primordial”, and I think I speak for most viewers when I say that’s probably for the best…unless you get off on that kind of thing.

Alchohol, solves all problems, lowers inhibitions, Ahh skip it and bring in the fake severed head.


            Visually, HUNCHBACK is a marvel for lovers of gothic horror, making use of vast catacombs under Madrid to evoke a dank, clammily noxious atmosphere. The cinematography of Raul Perez Cubero lends the film the brown earthy tones of Brueghel, a painter Naschy admired greatly, and the history of cruelty and suffering that occurred in these underground tunnels (in the film, still littered with discarded skeletons and torture devices) underscores the casual inhumanity directed towards Gotho by the “normal” denizens of the village above. One can almost smell the cold decay of Gotho’s world because of the visual power and the imaginativeness of the set design.
            HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE belongs in the upper echelon of touchstone works in Eurohorror history. Even some of those that praise the film have deemed the story to be “muddled” or a “mess” but that unjustly penalizes the film for having a wealth of ideas and mixing several genres, while ignoring that these ingredients nearly all unfold without derailing the pace or failing to pay off in the story. What’s perhaps most impressive is that HUNCHBACK was made when Naschy and director Aguirre were forced to shut down production on COUNT DRACULA’S GREAT LOVE due to an accident suffered by some of the cast. While COUNT DRACULA, as atmospheric and endlessly watchable as it is, is truly a work that can be called muddled, HUNCHBACK stands as the superior achievement of the two films.

BUY THE BLU-RAY OF NASCHY COLLECTION II, (which has exclusive commentary from Troy and Rod Barnett of the Naschycast).

Beyond The Door

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Beyond The Door (Who Are You?, Chi Sei?, Devil With Her), Directed By Ovidio G. Assonitus (1974).

I’ve attempted to watch this Ovid Assonitus schlock fest repeatedly ever since I’ve seen the trailer on Mad Ron’s Prevues. But I always scratch my head, take a migraine pill and lie down. I never got what people saw in this movie that is until now.

According to Roger Ebert, who like always was confused and a little disturbed that the T.V. ads drew in the audiences who probably had their patented Howard K. Scott upchuck cups handy for the ensuing barf-a-rama.
I was pretty stoked to even see where they filmed certain scenes in San Francisco, having lived there previously for 10 years.  There’s gratuitous Golden Gate footage of course, Alcatraz (where I worked for a time) and also Safeway.

It begins in the same candle lit dimension as the Police video for “Wrapped around your finger”. A dark void with an altar that has a naked female who morphs into a Manson looking dude who still has a pretty sweet rack.
I got moobs


Satan’s voice tries to clear up some plot development but I was totally confused. The details involve Richard Johnson as Dimitri, who you may remember as “The Boat can leave now” guy from Zombi 2. Johnson returns from hell after dying in a car wreck to deliver what he promised to Satan. Or something, I mean the guy that wrote the fucking Visitor is responsible for this shit, I’m sure he gulped an entire bag of shrooms while chasing it down with an iced cappuccino!

The Media VHS version sucks compared to the Code Red one, just skip it, you’ll thank me later.
They don’t even play the extremely funky and catchy soundtrack by Franco Micalizzi and the big bubbling band! I’d like to say that I have fond memories of finding the Chi Sei? Score on vinyl at somewhere cool like Amoeba or Kim’s Video in its heyday, but no I just downloaded the score in the early aughts on a blog that used megaupload, pretty lame!

Kim Dotcom you suck!


Gabriele Lavia, the actor who plays the husband, looks like Dean Stockwell’s stunt double. He’s appeared in some Dario Argento films. That’s a good coincidence because the mom, played by Juliette Mills looks like Kirsten Dunst. Oh yeah and their son who practically carried the sequel on his tiny shoulders drinks from a Campbell soup can with a straw. None of this is in the Media VHS version by the way.

just packing my MAGA lunchbox.

 Ovidio really knows how to rip off the source material, I mean he’s made an entire career out of it. He produced Piranha 2, Tentacles (2 flicks that plagurize the Jaws franchise) and likes to claim he spawned James Cameron’s career (excuse the Spawning pun)! Then there’s The Visitor, which makes even less sense in unedited form that’s available on Shudder, (I’m glad I didn’t watch that for my review a few years ago).


In Beyond The Door, there’s no Ouiji board fooling around or incantations that bring on demonic possession or explanation as to why the mom gets all pustule and levitates but if you’re looking for coherence in an Ovidio helmed movie you need help!
Also not only is Jessica inhabited by evil spirits and swiveling her head around Linda Blair style but she’s pregnant—bonus!

TWINSEES


There’s some gratuitous pea soup in cans in various places around her two kids who are extremely obnoxious and dubbed. The way Jessica throws her vomit around and talks like Shirley Temple reminds me more of the Richard Pryor/ Laraine Newman Exorcist parody then the Friedkin original.

Blade Runner cosplay.

They must’ve gotten their porcelain dolls from the same road side dump in Tourist Trap because they come to life, start cackling and doing some scary ass telekinetic shit!
There’s one scene in the longer cut where these black dudes surround Juliet’s husband and one plays a flute with his nose!

street corner version of cross eyed mary played with a nostril.

Greg Goodsell mentioned how there’s a Pink Flamingos nod, so watch out for that. I’ve hated this film for years, so It’s kind of inspiring to see that the Code Red version (which is pretty cheap online) just randomly showed up on YT. It convinced me that even though this movie still is pretty bad and a shameless rip off, I still enjoyed it for its ridiculous audacity. I can only recommend it for people in the states where Rutles Indian tea is legal, if you know what I mean.  



SplatterFarm

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Splatter Farm Directed by The Polonia Bros, (1987).

There are some shitty-os (shitty movies shot on video) that have come down the pike that defy rationality and description, but Splatter Farm is a special case. We’ve seen many unquestionable turds float to the top of the bowl like 555, Killing Spree or even Burning Moon, but this one is horrendous and puts them all to shame. When Skunkape is too busy, which he understandably has been lately, I must call on my other best pal Sharky, who is the lunatic that sent me this flick. We also watched it together over the phone and be forewarned, this one requires being smashed, fried and totally baked to endure the tortures of the damned. So, act accordingly when viewing this highly toxic event.

this is totally fine but weed is still illegal in the South.


SF apparently has an audience because it was re-released on DVD with quotes from Joe Bob Briggs and Frank Henenelotter praising its merit. But I'm pretty sure there are horror fans out there that will buy fucking anything because one of my most hated movies Lucker The Necrophagus has a special edition DVD! Skunkape is that movies only fan.

Can I have your autograph Mr. Odenkirk?


Splat begins with a pervy hayseed named Jeremy, who bashes the bejeezus out of a raw meat filled dummy. Next, the Polonia Brothers, who look like typical 80’s AV Club dweebs drive around for a little while. I imagine they took the video tape of this very movie on their way to the high school auditorium to show it as their summer school thesis. You might think The Black Devil Doll is the most atrociously, inept shot on video opus, but I’m almost embarrassed to say, this one was definitely edited using 2 VCRS! The music is slightly better than the casio tone for the hopelessly deranged aka the keytard stylinz of Chester Turner. I guess you could call Splatter Farm, the White Devil Doll!

Woah! Wrong tape again!


There’s tracking issues, a giant PLAY that flashes over the edits and I was kind of disturbed at what these kids were up to. I wonder what film makers possessed these knuckleheads to enact such fictional depravity and involve their Grandma/ Aunt to join in on the sexual deviance. I'm guessing it was Pasolini and Fulci. I kept wondering if it was going to hit, amateur porn levels of sickness and it sort of does. There’s fisting, coprophagia, pee drinking, a dude shits out a knife and wiggles his belly button in extreme close-up. It’s all simulated though, which still isn’t comforting. I don't recommend watching it alone, because you will most likely give up and watch reruns of WKRP in Cincinatti.
Thanks again to Hollywood High's #1 fan for sending me this. 


What we got here is a failure to communicate, the famous line from Splatter Farm.



The Entity

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The Entity Directed by Sidney J. Fury, Starring Barbara Hershey (1982).

This movie from 82 has aged well in the era of the #metoo movement. Think about it, a ghost or demon with the power to sexually assault a female, get away with it and because there’s no traces of anyone, it makes the victim look bat shit crazy! It’s terrifying! I’m obsessed with this allegedly true tale so much that I even bought the novel by Frank De Felita and was captivated by it. It's based on Doris Bither case, which happened in Culver City, Ca, which apparently was never solved. Barbara Hershey delivers one of her most incredible acting performances as protagonist Carla Moran, De Felita's pseudonym for Doris. I even found the book at a thrift store and was thoroughly entranced by the source material.

 Carla (Hershey) is not only repeatedly raped by the spectre, while in the bath or in front of her frightened boyfriend played by Alex Rocco, but in front of her kids as well. This movie is ghastly, eerie and fucked up! The sense of dread and fear never lets up, at least for me. From the perspective of the outside, Hershey’s character seems like a wacko and all of these disturbing events could only exist in her mind at first, but the audience witnesses all these frightening attacks as well and we believe the victim. Later on, the entity reveals itself to others around her, but the most frightening aspect of this film is that no one can stop this nightmare. Right now I see it as an allegory of Republicans destroying every facet of normalcy, it continues on with no signs of stopping and it’s sickening. If this were released in theaters now, I’m convinced that the patriarchy, in the age of Trump would side with the sexual predator ghost as the real victim!

if that's what's going on in 2018, leave me in the 80's.


Carla is on edge and helpless to defend herself from an invisible sexual demonic force. I get this unnerving reaction, the Charles Bernstein score really ramps up the tension. In Poltergeist, you buy the laughable premise that a haunted house is dominating a family’s suburban safe haven and its commitment to their ultimate destruction resonates so much so, that it works. You must buy the premise of both films to work.

the vile Orange vagina reminds me of something presidential.

Carla gets bruises all over her body from the vicious sexual attacks. Stan Winston created the indented breasts that rise and appear as if they’re being squeezed against her will. Ron Silver who plays the doctor doesn’t really believe her and chalks it up to hysteria. He does prescribe her anxiety meds and tells her to take a bath, but how can she feel safe, when that’s exactly where the last encounter occurred.

Gawwwd I just shit my britches!

When the demon visits her, there’s a chugging nightmarish guitar chord or banging on piano keys, it’s unnerving. Carla mentions in one scene that she hooked up with a motorcycle riding juvenile delinquent who was abusive in order to get away from the clutches of her religious father, this ex-boyfriend is possibly the demon that’s haunting her now. The most terrifying scene occurs when her family is right next to her and the ghost zaps her son and breaks his wrist. David Labiosa who played the son, later on had a substantial acting role as the busboy who lost his job in that one Seinfeld episode. One of her daughters is played by Amy Ryan, the girl who has the demonic pig ghost imaginary playmate from the Amityville Horror.

Jambi the Genie from Peewee's Playhouse cameo.

None of the white men, smoking cigars who psycho analyze her believe Carla Moran and they think she’s just an orgasm junkie. Yeah that's right, just like that Buzzcocks song!
Ron Silver’s character equates Carla’s insanity to Medieval creatures driven by the fear of sex instilled through her ridged father’s extreme religious values. It’s all so Freudian and the concept of powerful women seen as conjuring up demons goes seems in league with witch burning films at least to me.

Another aspect that this one shares with the aforementioned Tobe Hooper ghostie is the concept of paranormalists (or ghostbusters) horning in and solving problems or in this case making them far worse. They really exploit her and sadly this movie portrays the main character as the perpetual victim. This group of ghost hunters seem very desperate to find a real case of a haunting. I see this as exploiting the wave of psychic phenomenon that was rampant in the 70s. My fav. scene is where they attempt to lure the ghost into a web of nitroglycerin trap with Carla as the bait, so they can freeze it!

the Intelevision version of the Entity had really cool graphics.

This film really strikes a chord with me, it’s freaky, scary and mind blowing. More people should see it and it should be re-released with extras. Sadly, there's only a barebones DVD and it's not available to stream anywhere.


Losin' It

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Losin' It! Directed By Curtis Hanson, starring a bunch of 80's dudes (1983).

 After a long assed hiatus, It’s back to the salt mine or grindstone. Basically, it’s back to bitching about shit online in the guise of a film critic like Gene Shalit, or Joel Siegel who most of the public is aware that they are indeed the same human scumbag. Or was that something I saw on The Dana Carvey Show?

I usually go out of my way to tackle a fun filled week that celebrates a basic cable bleached bimbo and a whiny, squinty eyed guy named Gilbert, but I dropped the ball and didn’t plan ahead. I’m going to attempt to re-animate this blog but it’s been a struggle to want to return to the blank word document. The reason being is that I don’t enjoy it as much as drawing anymore. I needed to clear out some of these cobwebs and get back into the repetition. If you’re jonesing for some teen sex comedy wacky hijinx then look no further than Mike McBeardo’s latest book Teen Movie Hell. https://www.teenmoviehell.com/


I moved out of The South, which is already a big improvement. I used to take a highway in Tenn that had a fucking Nathan Bedford Forrest statue! Someone, I’m happy to say covered it in pink bubblegum colored paint that hasn’t washed off. They even talked about it on a John Oliver episode. I’m back to the Bay Area, where I’m readjusting to old habits and settling in. I'll eventually do some field reporting at the Mission Drafthouse in Frisco (people hate it when you call it that)!

To be honest, after the new Deep Red came out I was pretty hurt that I wasn’t included but I’m not going to rip open old wounds, I’ll just move forward. If you haven’t noticed there’s been a serious lack of the old roster of Deep Red writers reviewing on this site. Most of their work has evolved beyond and hardly anyone is keen on giving away their opinions for free online anymore. But why should they? Blogging is completely irrelevant. I’ve always been a technophobe and spouting gibberish online isn’t gratifying to me anymore.

However, I got to exorcise some of these demonic brain clouds and go forth at least for today.

So, on with the review already!

the Pre-South Park Comedy Central.


My sister and I grew up with Comedy Central (or The Comedy Channel in the beginning) and all during our youth, this movie was repeatedly shown in cut form. In fact, we both remember feeling scuzzy after finally viewing it unedited. That’s only because we’d seen the “PG during the day” edit. This one gets better with age and YES, in today’s uber PC millennial universe it’s fucking racist. But fuck that shit, don’t go in with that mentality because it’s set in the 50s and was filmed in the 80s like all great combos those 2 decades through ally compliment each other, just like a Stray Cats tune. I was flabbergasted when I discovered that Curtin Hanson director of The Arousers (which remains one of our most viewed reviews) with Tab Hunter, also helmed this raunchy sex comedy. In fact I discovered that Curtis Hanson was involved in many of my favorite flicks. He started off clumsy with The Dunwich Horror (I'm sorry but that movie is sloppy at best). It worked to his advantage though in getting acquainted with Roger Corman. He wrote White Dog, Silent Partner (which has the only death scene caused by a fish tank) and Never Cry Wolf, a Disney movie against corporate greed! More people should be aware of this talented fellow.


I'm trying to illustrate an invisible mustache!


Dave (Jackie Earl Haley’s finest role) is a horny creep and his little brother Wimp (or Wendell), is a preteen conman selling homework to students out of his locker. The only reason the kid tags along is to buy illegal fireworks. John P. Navin, who has this Billy Jacoby/ Alfred E. Neuman quality left Hollywood for good in the early 90’s sadly. And Jackie Earl Haley went onto to recent roles like Rorschach in The Watchmen and The Terror on The Tick.


last known photo.


The oldies songs on the soundtrack are pretty good and most likely the first time I was exposed to them. The two worst actors in the movie are the most famous -Tom Cruise (who didn’t become a scientologist till the late 90s) and Shelly Long. Along for the ride is John Stockwell from Christine and My Science Project, he mentions that he wants to go just to check out the donkey show!  Later on he gets into a horrifying prison situation.

Dave is on the prowl for Spanish Fly, which is of course doesn’t exist, but it’s awesome watching him almost get his head blown off with a shotgun after he pisses off the pharmacist!
Henry Darrow who plays the corrupt sheriff is menacing and effective. He mainly worked in TV, but would’ve made a good character actor.

James Victor who is barely noticeable as the divorce lawyer was in many action flicks like Rolling Thunder, one of my all time favs.

The way they depict Tijuana is pretty exaggerated and later on reminded me of Hardcore with George C. Scott. That flick had a similar skeeviness in the way they have the attractive girls in the bar to hook you in off the street and once you get behind the curtain the gnarly, decrepit whores are what you end up with. I like how one hooker asks “Did you remember to bring your dick”?

just having an average weekend.

The burlesque sunglasses wearing piano player sings sleazy songs and that bar, besides the strong arming customers into sleeping with ugly women upstairs, the nightclub looks pretty fun. 


Honk if you're horny.


Santos Morales plays the Tonga Lei doorman. I love how he keeps screaming “You have my word as a gentleman!” and when Shelly Long asks where to get a quiet drink, he calms down his demeanor but basically says the same spiel only softer. Morales was in Hamburger The Movie and Scarface!
I’ve never been to Mexico but don’t let this movie form your opinion about what it’s like there. It gets pretty hostile toward the last 20 mins for the boys but they manage to make it out pretty well. This film is much better than I remembered it, Highly Recommended.

Scientology is not a con, you have my word as a gentlemen!





Deep Red Deluxe

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Deep Red Deluxe compiled by Chas Balun (1991).

Just like the famed Skunkape trailer for Contamination that I’m about to paraphrase goes “You’ve seen Son of Deep Red Deluxe and you’ve seen Bride of Deep Red, but have you seen the one that started it all”? This time to procure a rare copy of this tape, I excavated the Atari E.T. landfill, ran over some hipsters with a bulldozer and low and behold this video dupe fell into my lap. Oh, and I also wrassled with one of those scissor wielding Hands Across America soulless doppelgangers. And lastly I bargained with the Asian man from Hellraiser that sells the Lament Configuration and he scored me this mind bender.

As you can tell, I was maimed in the accident, my limbs were torn off! I had some robot arm technology (used in Empire Strikes Back) performed by an android surgeon and he hooked me up with these handy dandy new didjits. So that’s why it took 3 years to write this.

Once you pop in the tape into the metaphorical VCR It emerges from a door of TV static with a blindingly white trailer for John Carpenter’s The Thing. That aforementioned flick has a noggin scratching tagline, I overlooked before that says “Man is the warmest place to hide”. So, we’re just here to be split open pig on a spit roast style and “Turduckened Taun Taun style?”

I'm so offended!

The Dr. Butcher trailer is another highlight, it features a trailer voice champion, like Don Lafontaine and Percy Rodriguez (the voice of the Loc-Nar) and that’s the criminally under mentioned Adolph Caezar. Adolph is most famous as the Dawn and Day of the Dead trailer voice. He’s also an acclaimed actor in his own right who appeared in The Color Purple and A Soldier’s Story. During the Dr. Butcher trailer, they even play that 8-bit style casio music by Walter Sear from the Snuff Maximus cut.

Remember this Intellivision Dr. Butcher Micro-Surgeon edition?

I’m getting all kinds of flashbacks of the 9th grade when I first ordered Deep Red Alert #1 from Fantaco, because this tape is the visual equivalent of that issue! There's even a Jim Van Bebber promo reel ad in that zine (most of that cassette is included on this one, so it's a bargain)!

Prior to Jim Van Bebber’s film Manson Family eventually being released on Blu-ray by Severin, this was thee only way you could see a trailer for Charlies Family. It was also released in illustrated script form by Creation books in the UK. I enjoyed it as a solid parody of the Laurence Merrick Manson documentary (which it lifts whole re-enactments from). Check out the review for the Manson film here.

No room for me in that new Tarantino Manson flick?

Marcello Games who plays Charlie and was in one quick moment in Deadbeat at Dawn and vanished before the film was completed. The same thing apparently happened to the actor in Roadkill : The Last Days of John Martin. Van Bebber went through miles of hell to get the film off the ground and it’s commendable. There's something going on with him lately and noone but the man himself can figure it out and I'm not going to try to either.

This VHS compilation might’ve knocked Mad Ron’s Prevues down a peg, had Chas not dubbed trailers from that aforementioned tape he sold separately into this new mix. How can I tell? The shroud of Happy Goldsplatt is hand spliced in periodically.

My Fuggin Weeny fell off again!

The Martin trailer is a great one and shows the flashback footage from the final cut in color.
Patton Oswalt is constantly complaining about how Criterion should re-release that Romero classic with extra features and I couldn’t agree more.

Criterion will put out Tiny Furniture but not add this one to their roster?

Balun and Van Bebber’s trailer for the unreleased Chunkblower is here once again. If only that one was funded to completion. Claude the gear jammin, meathook swingin CB radio psycho could’ve gone down in history as a cross between Red Sovine and Leatherface, but sadly only the trailer remains. His Krueger-esque quip is “There is no why”!



Three on a Meathook is a trailer and film that sadly never surpasses the great title of that dull splatter flick. We get a segment of pre Miramax copyrighted Jackie Chan and or Chinese action cinematic gun and chop em up battles.
The quality and VHS haze makes me grateful but also sad that most of this is up on YT or Amazon in superior HD format.

Some sadistically demented and just plain nasty water sports and Japanese sex footage set to "Ride of the Valkyries" is here for your viewing pleasure. I like the repeated image of a tied up woman in a cage hurled off a building (it’s out there man)! Make sure you light up for maximum viewing!

I'm confused!

More Mad Ron stolen moments ( Thankfully Chas’ head never erupted in brain matter and skull cavity fragments, like that dude who booted the end of video).
He chose Torso and Deep Red just before some choice clips of Mad Dr of Blood island.
Here we get the unfiltered version of the Skinny Puppy vid for "Warlock" that uses footage from a trillion horror movies. Someone on YT actually remixed the video to update it in HD.
If you don’t know the footage they used like Bad Taste or Henry, turn in your horror nerd card forever. It’s fun to see how many you can name.



There's an exploitive local news 2 part segment about how horror films warp teens minds and Chas is interviewed. Most of the interviews are with real kids just after they went to see Hellraiser 2 in the theater. I'm glad my parents never saw this expose about how kids get desensitized because they're able to rent gore movies without adult consent. I snuck watched most of my favorite horror classics!
They also interview Linnea Quigley and Brian Yuzna. Quigley thinks it's bad for kids to see them at an early age. The most appalling scene is where they get a family health center guy (who probably works for Trump now) to show a clip of Ted Bundy. He basically says that if you watch horror movies you'll turn into a serial killer! A lot of that bullshit propaganda was going on up until the early aughts.

there's that accurate journalism for ya!


R.I.P. videostores 
More gratuitous Argento and Fulci trailers are on here even if they are a welcome sight. I have yet to watch that recent Suspiria remake and I'm dreading it. A trailer for The Nesting is here (they do a great job making the movie look good, but I didn't really like the end result). Shadows Run Black (which is a Troma movie) is on prime in HD and Walking The Edge was super boring. The cast in that aforementioned film has Joe Spinell and Robert Forster but it didn't add up to much sadly. Then there's "What Waits Below" and Night School, which I bought from Warner Archives. that last film I remember seeing in flashes on WDZL. All I recalled about it was there was a waitresses decapitated head in a soup pot and people were eating it. This ghastly, through ally enjoyable trip down memory lane is just one of 3 party tapes I've reviewed in the past. They don't make em like this anymore.



Complaint Department

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Back in the early Aughts, aka the good ole days before the public needed a restored version of Cathy's Curse! I mean, god damn! Why? who wanted that besides Kindertrauma? I waxed nostalgic-like about a shitty Italian cheeseball (or cheese cube) flick by Luigi Cozzi called Paganini Horror. You haven't lived until you've seen Skunkape's trailer for the Bon Jovi Horror!

 Not many had seen PH, besides me and Chas Balun and most likely Dario Argento (who put up the money for wine and baguettes). Now that Severin just put out a new blu-ray and bundle together, which has a Churchill looking enamel pin that you can affix to your Severin Fanny pack! I'm just feeling disgusted by the world! Everything is devolving into the home shopping QVC network on all levels. Ever get the feeling you're being exploited? Or maybe you think exploitation is just a negative connotation and these Eurotrash auteurs were really doing it for heritage ala the Rebel flag?
There's a quote in Tommy Boy with Chris Farley, one of our nation's most historic comedies about selling "A Ketchup Popsicle to a women in white gloves." And yes, I will buy a newly restored version of a movie I saw on YT in 2014, because someone cared to put it out!
 http://www.theaterofguts.com/2014/10/paganini-horror.html

TOG was the one and only place talking about good one CHAS. Who's Chas you may wonder? I dunno the person who created a new economy for sweet ass companies like Severin Films, Blue Underground, Etc. Etc.
Now that every unknown film has been restored to less than stellar results (I finally caved and bought a Blu-ray player because DVD's stopped coming out period! Technological progress in my mind keeps rolling forward begrudgingly demolishing all things in its wake. One benefit to me is how, I can now find perfectly top notch versions of the same re-released flick for cheap at Rasputin records. People must adapt or get squashed. I however am just gonna whine about shit periodically, when it gets to be too much.

RECORD REVIEW: ISLANDROCKS-COVERING HORRORS FROM THE PAST

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Skunkape and I have been a fan of Islandrocks aka Mr. Thomas Nylom for a long time going back to when Youtube was thee place to find undiscovered talent. It was still a trash heap of ungodly, moronic celebs, oozing with narcissism, however this one man stood out from the shit and self-diluted trash. 

I'm drowning in an overflowing toilet of self appreciation


Nylom was the first guy I can think of who took Italian Horror themes, Nintendo core, Actionsploitation and covered them brilliantly before it all became another run of the mill internet trend and he did it with total dedication and gusto. Going to Youtube to find music is annoying and the fans demanded we have these awesome tracks on a portable system to blast in our cars! It’s about time, right? So what do we have in store for this full length first effort by Islandrocks? Well, it begins with a genius re-working of Claudio Simonetti’s Demons theme, which I liked even more than the cEvin Key remix. That tracks takes Hall of the mountain king and discos the fuck outta it!

pass the dust, I'm so Studio 54.

The guitar tones and piano have never sounded better on these Fulci themes, if you are a fan of Italian horror you might start drooling over how glorious they sound. Slurp, ahem—I know I was!

He really hit the nail on the head!

Carpenter/ Howarth eat your hearts out because Island "rocks" your movie themes as well in the most face melting style possible! There's even some originals on there, one inspired by The Dead Next Door. Nylom has a way of making horror themes sound like you’ve never heard them before done in all kinds of original and crazy styles. What are you waiting for? Go out of your way to get a copy! 



Update. 2020- THE APOCALYPSE or Quarantine brought to by Q-anon and the Dale Gribble Beast.

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It's been a long long long long while since I've written a movie review. I've always feared this nightmare we're all trapped in right now. I listened to that Scorps Winds of Change Podcast and now I'm sort of convinced that Putin found a sucker to ignite the flame of fascism, through a an orange circus peanut, fast food clown psychopath who is so spineless and thirsty that he sold out this country and started the systematic dismantling of the USA. 

I wish I wasn't getting all Neal Breen/ 4 Chan/ Mad Max all over your lap. Goat and I have discussed this shit privately through texts (which of course are not so private).

Perhaps our readers out there don't really know this but I was hurt by what went down with the Deep Red re-animation and subsequent nose dive. Ever since I ditched FB, I lost all contact with my Deep Red pals. Internet relationships are mainly short-term or maybe altogether bullshit. Oh yeah and Some dude named Steve turned into a fucking Trump troll.

       This new normal is yet another thing I'm choosing to resist and I have to go be a front line worker on no hazzard pay, thanks blood thirsty Wall Street ghouls! I've always vented at society through my reviews. I'll put it this way, when I moved to Nashville and I fell in love and hate with the city. The love was all at the Willie Nelson Museum, I met some of the nicest, coolest people in my life.They supported my art, encouraged me and appreciated my talent. The hatred was all directed at Franklin Tenn, one of the blandest, uptight and or trashy suburbs. Trump-gana-stan if you will. Major Culture shock!
The friends I made in the land of Hot Chicken and Country Music I will always treasure. I met my best pal Bobby Hazzard, whom I started a Trick of Treat podcast with you may be familiar with there .CHECK IT. 

    So many Blu-ray/ DVD gore movie companies are restoring lost treasures, in the past only found in dingy, crumbled up, tattered, stapled zines of the 80's written by ahead of their time figures like Rick Sullivan, who inspired Chas Balun, Bob Martin of original Fango fame, Michael Weldon and Bill Landis. These are my Monumental hall of famers to speak in sports terms. Fab 5/ Stones/ Blue Cheer/Ramones with more pot soaked counter culture waste-oids we all should admire and aspire to be.
    So I wanted to showcase movies from the last few years that we've reviewed by digging out the archives, clearing out the cobwebs. Some have still not surfaced like THE LADIES CLUB and BRAIN WASH/AKA CIRCLE OF POWER. So if you're reading "Wink Wink". The Dolphin is in the Jacuzzi, Say no more! I also put in BrainWash in the Vinegar Syndrome suggestion box.

More to come later.



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