Deliver Us From Evil (2014, Scott Derrickson)

Can't say I needed another example of just how stagnant 'mainstream' American horror is these days, but it looks like I got one with "Deliver Us From Evil". This was another one that I had no intention of ever viewing, but it was around - via Redbox rental, as well as some fine Tennessee bourbon - so I figured "what the hell". Yeah, it pretty much epitomizes everything wrong with this kind of bland, Hollywood horror shit of recent years...

A Bronx cop and his partner begin uncovering a demonic entity brought back from Iraq by a couple of G.I.'s. One is a professional painter, the other a wife beater and the third turns up dead. They end up possessing a woman into tossing her young child over the wall of a lion's den and there's something to do with The Doors' music, which was lost on me...

It's basically the same shit you've seen a million times. I've never really been a fan of movies about demonic possession - having always found flicks like "The Exorcist" to be highly overrated. I'm not able to buy into the concept enough to find it 'scary' or 'disturbing'. And like everything else these days, it's "based on a true events"; apparently found in a book written by the now retired New York cop portrayed in the film. I'm sure no 'cinematic liberties' were taken... Ha. Overall, "Deliver Us From Evil" is more supernatural-horror fodder for the 'popcorn crowd', featuring an abundance of cliches, such as the seasoned NYPD cop who doesn't spend enough time with his family, the overly hip priest, and a chick with chapped lips crawling around on all fours and speaking Latin. It also must be said that this movie is 90% close-ups of Sony technology. It actually gets distracting! Boring, WAY too long and WAY too typical. Avoid.

ReGOREgitated Sacrifice (2008, Lucifer Valentine)

I've expounded on my overall opinion of Lucifer Valentine's works before, so I'm going to keep this one relatively short. "ReGOREgitated Sacrifice" is the second installment in the gimmicky 'vomit gore' trilogy and it's the exact same thing as the other two flicks it is sandwiched between...

...And, once again, there is no story. The film is, again, simply a rapidly edited compilation of scenes featuring the one-note film-maker's adoration for seeing crack whores puke and piss on each other.

Like "Slaughtered Vomit Dolls" - which I will admit I found fairly interesting upon my initial viewing before I did my five minutes of research which was all it took for me to conclude that Valentine is a monumental douchebag and self-obsessed liar - "ReGOREgitated Sacrifice" would have hacked it better as a 5-10 minute short. Only, it clocks in at an incredibly SLOW 65-minutes (feels like 2 hours...) that consist mostly of drunk/stoned, haggard prostitutes hanging out in hotel rooms and spewing bile everywhere. You also got a lesbian three-way, featuring a pregnant woman, a fake snuff scene or two and a few prolonged sequences of excessive gore. Speaking of which, the gore is the only redeeming aspect of this piece of shit. Namely, there's a pretty gruesome disembowelment and the complete mutilation and desecration of a severed human head. They should have focused on that and cut out all of the other boring bullshit seeing as how they had a pretty decent FX crew at their disposal.

So, yeah, if you're 13-years old and find vomit and piss SHOCKING, then you'll definitely fit right in with Lucifer Valentine's fanbase and eat this shit right up. Personally, I've seen a LOT of fucked up fetish material so puke drinking doesn't have the strongest effect on me, honestly. Also, I'm not a Nirvana fan...

Cannibal (2013, Manuel Martin Cuenca)

"Cannibal" is a very slow-paced and non-graphic Spanish serial killer-drama film. Due to the little bit of info I had picked up prior to viewing this one, I wasn't entirely caught off-guard, though I must say, it ended up being a pretty unremarkable undertaking...

A highly introverted tailor takes to stalking and kidnapping women, whom he transports to his secluded cabin in the mountains where he butchers them for their meat. Keeping his freezer amply stocked, he dines solely on these human gobbets. He ends up falling into a casual relationship with the hot floozy neighbor chick, who goes missing one day after coming to his apartment for help. Her sister soon shows up looking for her, to which he offers his help - thus, their awkward liaison is sparked.

The performances are solid - namely the Carlos character, played by Antonio de la Torre - whom no background is given for, but you can only assume he has the old classic serial killer/cannibal-syndrome of never wanting a woman to leave him, of which, the intimate act of cannibalism satisfies. Speaking of cannibalism, the film doesn't expound on the topic much - just showing Carlos butchering a chick off-screen (just showing her leg and some blood-flow) at the beginning and failing to capture a skinny dipper later on. The movie plays out as more of a "pastel" conceptualization of a serial killer/cannibal lifestyle, with really no violence or 'horror' elements. That's all fine, but I felt that the movie missed it's mark with the painful tedium it demonstrates. I normally have no problem with 'character studies', but "Cannibal" just moved WAY too slow and amounted to way too little to appeal to me. It's well shot and acted, but the whole cannibal element was underplayed and is virtually meaningless in the long run. This movie could have left all that out and still have been the same, as far as I'm concerned. And it would have forced them to have picked a more fitting title...

The Barn of the Naked Dead (1974, Alan Rudolph)

aka. "Nightmare Circus". There were quite a few interesting ideas at play in "The Barn of the Naked Dead", only their execution seemed a bit too clumsy and misdirected to completely "grab" me. That said, considering it's mean, misogynistic and just plain weird content, I can't chalk it up to a total loss.

Three young showgirls are on their way to Vegas. They make the mistake of turning off onto a dirt road "shortcut" where their car breaks down in the middle of the desert. The next morning, a seemingly helpful guy shows up to take them to his isolated place to use his phone. It doesn't take long before the gals notice that his barn is full of chained women that he ends up using as the "animals" in his deranged circus act, for which he plays the sadistic ringmaster. While this is going on, the girls' agent is trying his damnedest to track them down...

There's some back story involving the guy's mommy issues and there's some kind of Anthropophagus-looking freak tucked away - a result of the military's H-bomb testing years ago. That part - while making for a reasonably gruesome ending - seemed kind of awkwardly wedged into the film, while I thought the whole circus angle was an amusing concept. Andrew Prine (from "The Town That Dreaded Sundown") pulls off his role very well and the movie doesn't shy away from astringent cruelty towards women. That fucker LOVED his bull whip! It's an entertaining enough 'exploit'/B-horror flick, but, like I said, it could have used a little more direction and 'flow' with some of it's elements. Still giving it a rec.

The Gateway Meat (2008, Ron DeCaro)

Pretty decent shot-on-video gore flick - along the lines of "August Underground" and "Schramm" and, if I remember correctly, Fred Vogel's name actually pops up in the opening credits as a producer.

Ron DeCaro directs and stars as a satanist belonging to some bloodthirsty family residing in a small coastal town. After his father's death, he is relied upon by the family and struggles to unlock a portal to Hell - which consists of torturing and mutilating people who may be the "key" in their demonic conjuration. His wife, young daughter and fat, redneck buddy are involved in this killing spree, signaled by the 2006 assassination of George W. Bush!

"The Gateway Meat" is jam-packed with grisly death scenes, such as a drunk guy stabbing his girlfriend's face apart, the dismemberment of a couple Jehovah Witnesses, and the BEST being a good old 'Columbian Neck-tie' method used on a helpless pizza boy... The acting is terrible, as expected, but the gore, fake snuff "feel" and interesting camera angles make up for it by a long shot! "Extreme" horror fans should check this out.

Take an Easy Ride (1976, Kenneth F. Rowles)

"Take an Easy Ride" is an informational film on the dangers of hitch-hiking in the UK. It gets it's 'message' across by featuring an abundance of violence and rape.

Several different hitch-hiking scenarios are presented - one being a pair of girls on their way to a hippie-fest who fall prey to a smut-loving rapist/killer. Another lone hitching female encounters a married couple who are into drunken threesomes. There's another pair of young girls who are actually the ones attacking motorists and, finally, two other girls who manage to get a ride with a kindly old trucker who pulls no shenanigans...

This is as "informational" to the public on the dangers of hitch-hiking as "Last House on the Left" was about the dangers of buying weed off the street or "I Spit on Your Grave" was on the risks of letting delivery boys in your house. "Take an Easy Ride" is straight-up 'exploit'-sleaze with some brutal mud puddle rape and a pretty steamy lesbian sex scene. Gotta love that retro MUFF! It's definitely an entertaining bit of '70s obscurity...

Tenement (1985, Roberta Findlay)

This is some exceptionally enjoyable '80s 'exploit' trash! A completely unpretentious, filthy and dirt-fucking-cheap little urban survival/slasher flick that delivers on 'the goods'.

The tenants of a rundown Bronx apartment building are under attack by a gang of junkie punkos whom they had hauled out of the basement where they were hanging out with their stock-piled guns and drugs. As certain occupants fall prey to the vicious thugs, the others - all trapped on the fourth floor - attempt to fight them off...

"Tenement" is very straight-forward and loaded with mean-spirited violence and mayhem. Ya got gruesome stabbings, rat poison injections and the grisly vaginal broom handle violation of a beaten and raped mother, just to name a few. The majority is done in a purely self-indulgent and unapologetic manner, which I could definitely see offending some of the more 'casual' viewers. Personally, I dug this flick a LOT and would recommend it to anyone with an appetite for crude and sadistic '80s-style 'exploitation' sleaziness.

I Am Divine (2013, Jeffrey Schwarz)

John Water's reprobate "superstar", Harris Glenn Milstead - better known by his 'stage name', Divine - is spotlighted in this biographical rundown of his life and rise in underground success. The Baltimore-based drag queen sensation ascended from the depths of transgressive-cinema degeneracy to obtain a truly iconic status, not only in the eccentrically gay 1970s-80s underground, but in an irregularly 'mainstream' sense that is continually recognized to this day.

For "I Am Divine", the majority of Waters' existing Dreamlanders (his Baltimorean 'pose' that served as the cast and crew for his 'glory years' of cinematic debauchery) explain Milstead's confused childhood as an extremely effeminate fat kid being bullied in school, to his awkward teen years when he would style his mom's friend's hair. It was all just killing time until Glenn discovered the exciting gay nightlife and a freakshow legend was born. How can you look at an obese cross-dresser and NOT smile? It is said that his choice in garments was what gave Divine his/her 'edge' in the '70s drag-show circuit as well as his/her attitude toward performing the already ludicrous gay pageant routine. This allowed for a undeniably unique character for the then young suburbanite misfit, John Waters, to further mold into an on-screen menace for his nonconformist brand of irregular sex films. With each subsequent film, Milstead's notoriety in queer culture grew significantly, relocating him to homo-hub, San Francisco, and leading him to live theater gigs in New York. As time went on, Milstead grew weary of his typecasting and greatly wanted to be accepted as a man in the mainstream acting community. As his head grew, so did his waistline and Milstead died in his sleep just prior to an appearance on the FOX sitcom, Married... With Children...

This film does a good job of covering the details of the performer's life through interviews with close friends, family and old drag queen colleagues. Though, I can't help but feel that their representation of Divine was a bit overblown, concerning the extent of his apparent widespread success. The 1985 western-comedy "Lust in the Dust" was mentioned as  a project that Milstead was featured in aside from Waters' 'porno-chic' outings, although it's nothing credible as any kind of deviation from Divine's usual transvestite roles, nor do I think any of Divine's performances are commendable in terms of his acting. And his singing career was a joke, contrary to how this film represents it. He had a carnival freakshow appeal that withstood the tedium that progressed with each ever-so familiar flamboyant appearance. The only person that truly gave Milstead the respect he didn't deserve was John Waters', who attempted to turn the Divine character from a loud-mouthed shit-eater into a dramatic leading "lady" in films like "Polyester" and the PG-rated hit, "Hairspray". I don't think it's any coincidence that Water's film-making career went on the decline and eventually ended after Divine's death. The 'gross out', anti-hippie movie 'magic' the two turned out prior to 1980 will live on in the annals of underground cinema for many years to come as the completely corrupt products of a sleazy bygone era. "I Am Divine" offers the deceased drag queen monstrosity the reverence he may or may not entirely deserve, but there's no denying that he was an entertainingly vile and crude, as well as important, icon in the realm of transgressive movie madness.

Murder Collection V.1 (2009, Fred Vogel)

My personal take on Toe Tag Pictures' repertoire has been made pretty clear in my past reviews of their movies on various sites so I don't see much need to reiterate on that, but after seeing "Maskhead" it was all down to "Murder Collection V.1" in order to call myself a Fred Vogel film completist (the satisfaction is... overwhelming...). So I checked out MC, with a moderate amount of intrigue which is what TT never fails at even if you don't think very highly of their work...

Pretty similar set-up as the "August Underground" series, only involving faux home-made death footage rather than the pseudo-snuff route. The "hook" is that all the simulated depictions of various murders shown through many different styles of cameras is based around a mysterious 'voice' belonging to the "collector" of all the videos. In between some of the clips his distorted voice offers some philosophical insight into the appeal of watching scenes of real-life carnage for the sake of entertainment. I did not really find this "motive" for the film's content to be all that profound or detract from the "exploitative" factors... The death scenes themselves, ranging from robbery and kidnapping caught on security-cam, to an execution style beheading, and gang related hostage tape are interesting at times (namely, the ones I just mentioned), but most of the bits went on FAR too long. One scene shows a disgruntled boyfriend sitting in front of a TV monitor showing his wife having sex with another man. He spends nearly ten minutes talking about how they met until he gets up and we see him murder her on the hidden camera with, what looked like, an axe... Where the hell was he supposed to be? A closet? Plus, it barely took him any time at all to cut out her heart. This was one part, in particular, I could not for the life of me find "realistic"... Not to mention the autopsy segment which was excruciatingly drawn out and dull. The best scene, to me, was the chilling home-movie of a man forcing two bound boys in their underwear to dance with him. The ending of this clip was quite unexpected...

In all, "Murder Collection" follows Toe Tag's "unique" method of morbid fantasy voyeurism, though it's their least graphic film by far. People are calling it a modern "Mondo Film" which seems about right. Those were pretty boring too... MC will have Toe Tag fanatics creaming their shorts but I didn't find anything all that special about it...

Pervert Ward: S&M Clinic (1989, Hisayasu Satô)

I wasn't able to really follow this one's premise too closely due to the lack of subtitles on my copy, but from the looks of it the plot was a bit 'minor' compared to the arrant visuals. Based on those merits I was able to still enjoy this one for the most part.

Some sleazy doctor has a 'thing' for sexually torturing his female assistant/nurse/lover (whatever she was suppose to be...). I guess she has enough of this and splits, so her identical twin shows up to take her place...

"Pervert Ward: S&M Clinic" is a pretty rough pinker from Hisayasu Satô who actually pulls off a very stylistic aptness that adds a relatively 'disturbing' harshness to all the bondage play. Again, didn't look like much going on, plot wise, between the chick getting strung up, grazed with blades and abused in a variety of ways. At one point he sucks on her eyeball, puts a prism of mirrors on her head (I don't know why either of those things happened...), and violates her with her shoe before he angrily 'dogs' her in a bathtub. In all, it's a dark and twisted S&M flick and, for that, it ain't bad.

Down and Dirty Duck (1974, Charles Swenson)

Nothing can compare to the 'X-rated' animated features of the illustrious '70s. It was a time when they were painstakingly hand-drawn and painted by dope-polluted experientialists who undoubtedly took full advantage of the unrestrainable medium. The great Ralph Bakshi pretty much had the market cornered during this time, thanks to his wildly successful sociopolitical '60s portraiture, "Fritz the Cat", which inspired numerous other animated "movements" of the post-yippie dynamism. "Down and Dirty Duck" - aka. "Dirt Duck" - was a total cash-in that cheapened it's production values and acts as one of the most hilarious acid trips imaginable...

An incredibly timid insurance adjuster runs into a duck (it's design just skirting Disney copyright issues...) at a tattoo shop and the two embark on a surreal, sex-laden journey involving racial archetypes, lesbian fights, gender-bending and other kinds of complete craziness.

"Down and Dirty Duck" was directed and animated, primarily, by Charles Swenson who had previously done the animation for the clusterfucked Frank Zappa musical-comedy, "200 Motels", and was produced by an uncredited Roger Corman. The fact that Corman didn't end up having his name attached to this speaks volumes of the kind of balls-out absurdity this films consists of and also for the fact that Corman gave them NO money and obviously didn't want to be held accountable in any way for the final product. The film features the voice-over "talents" of Zappa's back-up musicians and frontmen of the The Turtles, Flo and Eddie. The style of this movie is almost entirely erratic and nonsensical - administering a sleazy display of psychedelic surrealism that is meant to bring the sad, beaten down main character a new-found sense of sexual adequacy in the end.

If experimental animation is your 'thing', then I'd definitely recommend "Down and Dirty Duck". The rather 'rough' style of line animation used for it would probably be best described as "Schoolhouse Rock!"-ish, but sloppier and with hard dicks, duck tits and penetration. Not for everyone, especially those easily offended, but "Dirty Duck" is a true gem in my eyes.

Abnormal: Ugly Abuse (1988, Hisayasu Satô)

Aka. "Re-Wind". This one wasn't terrible, but it could have been better from what I saw. It's a pinku/mystery-thriller from Hisayasu Satô, known for such gems as "Splatter: Naked Blood" and "Lolita: Vibrator Torture".

I guy who empties the soiled splooge rags out of the porno booths at a sex shop discovers a disturbing snuff video and takes it home. He ends up meeting a chick who sets out to investigate the video's maker and shit ends up getting a bit nutty...

There's a good amount of erotic, fetishy sex scenes - including rape and incest themes and a few moments of graphic gore. However, the plot was a bit uneven and stifled by the previously mentioned material and the relatively short run-time. Now, I'm not complaining about copious sleaze content. Far from it. But, overall the story - while actually a promising idea, clearly inspired by Michael Powell's classic, "Peeping Tom" - didn't seem to play out as strongly as I felt it should've. In all, "Abnormal: Ugly Abuse" isn't bad, just nothing great, unfortunately.

Curse of Chucky (2013, Don Mancini)

It's kinda strange that this one went straight-to-video, though I guess after running the comedic satire into the ground with the last few entries in the Chucky franchise, people may not have flocked to the theater in droves for another one. As it turns out, however, they were smart in giving the series a bit of a refurbishment with "Curse of Chucky" - scaling back on the wacky humor and going for a more straight-up 'horror' tone. In that regard, I thought this latest entry was certainly entertaining for what it was...

Soon after being delivered a Good Guy doll from a mysterious source, a wheelchair-bound young woman's mother dies in an unexpected 'accident'. A day or so later, her sister and sister's family, nanny and priest arrive to discuss funeral arrangements and such, but don't realize they are in the midst of a murderous doll that intends to dust them all off.

High points here would, of course, include the more 'serious' tenor - at least, as much as you can get from a movie about a foul-mouthed ginger doll swinging hatchets and butcher knives. It all works well enough. There's also some decent (albeit, cartoonish at times...) kills thrown in and plenty of references to the past movies for the die-hard fans, including a cameo from Jennifer Tilly (in human form) wedged in just for the hell of it, obviously, and some back-story on Brad Dourif's character. Low points - the CGI doll effects are terrible at times and I'm really sick of post-credit sequences. I wish they'd stop doing that. "Curse of Chucky", overall, is worth checking out if you're curious about a Chucky revamping and it actually came out better than I expected, considering I'm not at all a huge fan of this series.

The Purge: Anarchy (2014, James DeMonaco)

Having just recently seen the first of "The Purge" films, I was noticing that people were favoring this sequel over it quite a bit. After checking this one out, I must say, I personally think the first one was a better film.

I'm not really going to waste too much time on the run-down, since everyone pretty much knows the drill: The Purge is where one night out of the year the U.S. government grants it's citizens a legal 12-hour crime free-for-all. Well, this time around, the focus is not on the upscale 'burbs, but the urban environment and how THEY "celebrate" the annual Purging...

First off, there was definitely some interesting stuff going on in this one that sheds some new light on the different 'customs' surrounding the whole class-warfare element of the purging tradition. Such as sickly elders being purchased by rich Purge participants to slaughter in the security of their homes and other such despicable 'business' tactics carried out by the imperious wealthy. Where my major gripe lies with this follow-up is in that there's just too much going on too fast that a lot of  the ideas - while mostly promising - just felt wasted in the long-run. Having a couple's car break down around 'ground zero' of prime Purging mayhem was a good idea. Having a guy in an armor-plated car with an endless gun supply looking for vengeance from a past Purge was another good idea. There's some interesting street-Purgers - one of whom with some high-powered weaponry in the back of an 18-wheeler and an anti-Purge organization... All of it just felt largely underplayed to me. I guess too many people were upset that the Ethan Hawke one apparently blew it by keeping the framework more along the lines of a horror movie, that they decided to go the more fitting "Escape from New York" route this time around. Unfortunately, they spoiled most of their potentially cool ideas by cramming them all into one movie that never really focuses on anything long enough for it to really work or be all that effective. Also, it didn't really help that the violence never manages to exceed the light' R-rated studio standards which was pretty disappointing. Because the first one was obviously on a much smaller scale, the amount of bloodshed and violence was acceptable enough, but when you take The Purge to the streets I would expect a much higher capacity of brutality. I'm just sayin'...

In all, while it had potential, I thought "The Purge: Anarchy" left a bit much to be desired. It might've been made a little too fast for what they were trying to do. Obviously, I gotta say I dug the first one over this for it's much more solid suspense and tone. Sorry.

Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002, Herschell Gordon Lewis)

Herschell Gordon Lewis' first directorial film since the early 70s was no disappointment! The legendary "Godfather of Gore" came out of a 30-year retirement (from film) with a follow-up to his ballsy 1963 landmark classic, proto-slasher that established for generations of film-makers to come the limitlessness of excessive on-screen female butchery. And clearly in honor of the fans, "Blood Feast 2" doesn't try to be any less 'trashy' than it's glorious predecessor.

Fuad Ramses' grandson is re-opening the infamous catering shop, much to the scorn of the small Florida town that is not quick to forget the atrocities committed there decades ago. Almost immediately, Fuad (the third) finds the malevolent Ishtar statue in the back room, which possesses him in a very similar manner as his grandpa, causing him to kidnap and slaughter women as ingredients for his first catering gig. A couple of bumbling detectives pick him as their prime suspect and attempt to gather the evidence they need as girls start disappearing...

This flick is as gory as you could hope with long, lingering close-ups of bodily mutilation - the best, I'd say, being a chick getting her face and scalp peeled off with an electric carving knife. There's also numerous scenes of gratuitous nudity and lingerie modeling just to fill up a few of the 'in between' scenes. Also, you got some corny and occasionally crude tongue-in-cheek humor tossed in that works pretty well. Gotta love the John Waters as a pedo priest cameo! What rules about "Blood Feast 2" is that, as a whole, it DOES really capture a lot of the 'vibe' of the original film's 60s time period while, at the same time, not coming across as completely shoddily made. Some of the music from the first film is used, as well as similar camera angles and some over-the-top characters/performances. If you're an H.G. Lewis fan then you'll dig this splattery, long-awaiting sequel.

Antisocial (2013, Cody Calahan)

Boring 'tech-horror' bullshit that I'm going to waste very little time on...

A group of college kids are having a New Year's Eve party when a big zombie outbreak consumes the entire world. It's all due to a Facebook-esque social networking site that gives off some kind of mind-control 'waves' that causes it to become highly addictive and eventually worms grow inside peoples heads and they become zombies.

Just a complete snooze-fest across the board. The plot set-up is entirely rushed which makes for a very ineffective outcome, the characters are bland and irritating and there's very little gore until the end. There are better movies along these lines, such as "The Signal" or even "Kairo" (aka. "Pulse"). Avoid "Antisocial" unless you crave dull, teeny-bopper horror garbage.

Sasqua (1975, Channon Scot)

During the 70s drive-in heyday of low-budget sasquatch-horror, a movie called "Sasqua" pretty much came and went and was considered lost for about 35 years. A few years ago, a rough-cut of the film was unearthed by a faithful underground-cinema fanatic from Poland. After some improvements were made to what was known to be the only existing copy of the film, a few copies were doled out to a few selected reviewers. I recently re-experienced this previously forgotten gem in all of it's bygone 'grindhouse' era glory.

It's about a group of hippies who arrive out in the woods to start up their commune. They just end up struggling through their racial tensions as well as the murderous "sasqua" (I'm going to assume that's plural for "sasquatch"...) lurking nearby...

Apparently, something happened during the production of this film that resulted in a total lack of sasquatch 'action' and more hippie arguing than I believe was intended based on some of the info I've read on the film's history. The movie mostly chronicles the day-to-day drama of life within the LEAST peaceful hippie commune in the world, but you get a few off-screen sasquatch attacks and a few recycled shots of the furry beasts prowling around. So, in all, they managed to cobble together enough bigfoot content to get the film by, but it must be said that the characters in this movie - while highly underdeveloped - are fairly entertaining, especially the "brothas" who actually go bigfoot hunting with switchblades like true gangsta's. Also got James Whitworth - better known as Jupiter from the original "Hill Have Eyes" - in one of the leads.

So, yeah. "Sasqua" is cheezy and a bit 'confused' in what it's trying to accomplish, but it's an interesting artifact that fell into total obscurity for so long, so one really can't help but appreciate the story behind it. It just needed more bigfeet...

Big thanks to Humanoid of Flesh!

Father's Day (2011, Astron-6)

Anyone who says they don't like Troma is either a total jerkoff or has not seen "Father's Day". This is a flagrantly offensive, unremittingly gory and thoroughly entertaining 'exploitation' throwback - something I've been getting a tad tired of lately - these modern, tongue-n-cheek homages - but with something like this, I can't complain. This flick made me happy.

A fat killer has apparently been running around for decades, raping and killing dads. An eyepatched vigilante had dedicated his life to tracking down and exacting revenge on the ruthless murderer for the murder of his own father, but ended up gunning down the wrong guy and being sent to prison for ten years. After his release, he disappeared. Now, the dad slayings are once again ramping up so a young priest searches for the reclusive father-avenger in order to talk him into going after the killer once again. Once he's agreed, the eyepatch hero ends up teaming up with the priest and a young backalley male prostitute, named Twink, whose father was the last victim of the brutal psychopath, known as Fuchman...

This one delivers on the goods - man-on-man ass rape, necrophilia, incest, blasphemy, dismemberment, cock mutilation, strippers with chainsaws, you name it. It's all backed by Troma Team's signature absurd humor, which I didn't mind at all in this capacity cuz it fucking works. Granted, some of the gags here and there I felt didn't quite 'land', such as the whole toxic berry trip and some of the dialog scenes that tend to go on for a little too long. That said, the good certainly outweighs the bad, as far as "Father's Day" goes. I liked how the movie totally switches gears around the last half hour, introducing a demonic angle and making for a pretty off-the-wall and downbeat ending. I think they could've left out the whole 'late night TV movie marathon' throwback gimmick with the fake trailer thrown in around the half-way mark and the whole grainy look throughout the whole movie. It's just unnecessary and redundant at this point. Still, I gotta give this one a major recommendation for gorehounds and Troma fans. It shouldn't disappoint.

The Comedy (2012, Rick Alverson)

I'm not really sure what to make of a film like "The Comedy". I was mainly just curious as to how absurdist humorists, Tim and Eric, would fare in a drama, which I'll admit was interesting and oddly engrossing in a real pointless kinda way.

The film centers around a tubby loser whose dismal existence essentially consists of roaming the streets of New York and just being a dick. He hangs out with his crew of equally pitiful buddies who sit around, drink and exchange fruitlessly snide modicums of empty cynicism. Their miscreant lifestyles include harassing/annoying cab drivers, engaging in horseplay in a church, discussing the cleanliness of hobo cocks, porno-laced slideshows and prolapsed anuses... The kind of shit I can't help but think Tim and Eric might do in their day-to-day lives.

I'm not really sure what this film was trying to get across - perhaps some kind of anti-counterculture harangue seeing as how the characters it features are all aging, urban hipster douchebags, struggling to outdo each other with their dry, mean-spirited sarcasm. Whatever this movie was suppose to be 'saying', I found it somewhat entertaining as a strange, slice-of-life character study. Tim Heidecker - co-star of the reasonably popular Adult Swim 'public access-on-acid' satire show, "Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job" - actually pulled off his dramatic role as a irritating buffoon here surprisingly well. I'd call it a commendable performance, for sure. Overall, I don't think many people would like "The Comedy", especially those who can't stand Tim & Eric - which, I'd say makes up the majority, but I found it to be a pretty enjoyable, reasonably dark little flick.

The Purge (2013, James DeMonaco)

Finally checked out "The Purge". I had put off seeing this one mainly because I kept hearing people shit on it for a variety of reasons, for which, I now can't really see why. I actually dug this flick much more than I expected. Could it have been better? Yes. But I found it to be a fairly entertaining take on the 'home invasion' horror sub-genre.

According to the film's premise, in the not-so distant future of 2022, the American government will encourage an annual 12-hour crime spree, free of any and all judicial or moral accountability. Apparently, this is how the U.S. has figured out how to sustain a lower crime rate and economical prosperity - by simply allowing a free-for-all of legal murder and havoc in order for the public to "purge" their ugly souls and get it out of their systems. Those who choose not to "purge" have to have a top of the line security system and/or be armed to the teeth, such as the rich family of the guy who actually sells purge-preventing home-defence security barricades, which is still infiltrated by a gang of bloodthirsty"purgers"...

I definitely enjoyed this flick for the most part. My only real problem was that the outlandish premise - which I thought made for a really cool set-up - is restricted heavily to a much too customary 'home invasion' formula. There seemed to be a lot more they could've done with the whole 'crime is legal for a night' concept, but I'll have to check out the sequel, I guess... Either way, I dug "The Purge" more than other recent 'home invasion' horror flicks, like "The Strangers" and "You're Next".

Leprechaun: Origins (2014, Zach Lipovsky)

In case you're not already aware, this movie has absolutely nothing to do with the Warwick Davis franchise. I wouldn't even consider it a 'reboot' since it just has so little in common with that comedic concept, though it may have been intended to be. I guess so, but for what this was, it's relatively decent, I guess...

Typical horror set-up: four young friends are backpacking through evil Europe - which just so happens to be Ireland this time, but it doesn't matter cuz if there's one thing we've learned from American horror films over the years, it's that ALL of Europe is filled with tourist-killing psychopaths. They meet a friendly Irishman at a rural pub who shows them to a nice little cabin where they can spend the night. Problem is he's not so friendly once his ulterior motive is revealed which is to lock the hikers in the house and bait the angry leprechaun to come eat them. Turns out the towns people stole the little guy's gold a while back and they need to feed him tourists and give him stolen gold to keep him at bay.

So, obviously they went the much more 'serious' route with this flick, as opposed to having a magical, wise-cracking little green leprechaun running around. Here, they try to include more of a grim, mythological background to it, making the leprechaun a slimy, flesh eating, chicken-legged creature. This would've been fine if they had just put a little more effort into coming up with a unique design for it. It looks like one of the cave-dwellers from "The Descent", which seems to have become a common model for horror creatures these days. It's played by WWE's wrestling midget, Dylan "Hornswoggle" Postl, though he's 100% unrecognizable under all the make-up so I didn't really see the point in casting him, specifically.

As a whole, "Leprechaun: Origins" is a decent enough way to blow 90 minutes. It's standard horror bullshit, but watchable aside from this constant focus-unfocus thing they kept doing when the leprechaun was on screen. So fucking irritating. Overall, though... Meh. It's about average.

Forbidden World (1982, Allen Holzman)

"Forbidden World" - aka. "Mutant" - is an exceptionally entertaining, low-budget "Alien" knock-off from producer, Roger Corman (who else?...). Personally, I'm not a big sci-fi film fan, but this one definitely had enough of what keeps me interested.

Some kind of space marshal gets the call that his assistance is required at a research lab planet in distress. Upon his arrival, he discovers that they've been fucking around with gene splicing bacterial organisms and have inadvertently created a creature they call a 'metamorph'. It starts off looking like a chunk of raw liver that latches on to a guy's face (that doesn't sound familiar at all...) but it soon grows into something out of a Ridley Scott film, while turning every human around into a giant mass of delicious protein...

Cheezy alien gore and tons of full-frontal nudity. I fucking dug it! Much more of a film for the 'exploitation' crowd than the traditional "Star Wars" science-fiction enthusiast. Figuring out a climax that involves having to feed the creature a cancerous tumor to kill it was a stroke of genius with hilarious results. Plus, keeping the females on board hot and horny makes for some promising intergalactic 'action'. "Forbidden Planet" is a good one. The FX are actually pretty decent considering it's shoe-string budget, overall, and it dishes out some nice, gratuitous trashiness. Check it out.

The Pigkeeper's Daughter (1972, Bethel Buckalew)

"The Pigkeeper's Daughter" is a little 'softer' than I typically prefer from my 70s-era 'sexploitation' flicks. Also, this one in particular runs a bit long, which makes for an occasionally tedious viewing experience.

The ultra-thin plot centers mostly around two redheaded hillbilly girls with two very different sexual identities - one being a very 'prudish' virgin and the other being more of a happy-go-lucky farm slut. The prude sees the slut banging one of the local yokels and starts getting the itch to explore her own desires while a smarmy perfume salesman rolls into their rural area, boning every woman (and man) he comes across...

No shortage of 'softcore' backwoods bumping and grinding in this one, though, clocking in at around 90-ish minutes, it starts dragging on quite a bit. These types of movies generally 'hack it' better with a shorter, 60-70 minute runtime, I've found. Especially when dealing in little-to-no plot. That being said, "The Pigkeeper's Daughter" keeps the huge-titted country broads peeling off their attire at a good pace so it's hard to peg this one as a total loss. Still, I personally tend to gravitate toward the sleazier and more violent brand of 70s smut, but those who don't may get a kick out of this for just being a campy vintage skin-flick. If you're looking for a 'trashier' country porn foray, however, check out Zebedy Colt's, "The Farmer's Daughters"...

Meatball Machine (2005, Yūdai Yamaguchi)

Blood-soaked 'cyber-punk' splatter battles! What's not to love? "Meatball Machine" delivers on all the visual insanity that comes from fusing people with robotic weaponry...

After getting his ass kicked by a tranny outside of a porno theater, a lonely factory worker finds some kind of hard-shelled stingray type of creature that houses an otherwordly parasite searching for a host. After saving the girl he secretly admires from an aggressive douchebag yuppie (and getting his ass kicked again...), she takes him home where she is attacked by the creature, who implants some kind of slug sack in her that transforms her into a human/machine-hybrid. Some convenient exposition lends some insight into the purpose of these parasites, which seems to be: to control the host through their nervous system and cannibalize other such beings after battling them to the death.

It's obvious that "Meatball Machine" is a take off on Shinya Tsukamoto's landmark 'cyber-punk' masterpiece, "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" only with much more gore - courtesy of 'new wave' Japanese makeup/special effects artist, Yoshihiro Nishimura. There's plenty of nasty, gratuitous violence and gore (some of which involving children...) and crazy industrial biomechanical amalgamations - appropriately called Necroborgs - engaging in brutal junkyard brawls. Like the "Tetsuo" series, it's bizarre in a totally self-aware kinda way, but doesn't cease to bring the entertainment, full-force. Needless to say, this one gets a hearty recommendation.

See No Evil 2 (2014, Sylvia & Jen Soska)

It's a bit surprising that they dragged their feet so much in coming up with a sequel to the 2006, WWE produced slasher flick, "See No Evil". I checked this one out cuz it was around and it felt like quite a while since I had seen a more current body-count flick.

Having not seen the first film since it's release, I wasn't totally up to speed on where it left off, but we find Jacob Goodnight (again, played by the naturally evil looking professional wrestler mongoloid, Kane...) being carted into a morgue after having been impaled on no less than a dozen impliments, according to the quick flashbacks. The lovely Danielle Harris plays one of the workers who is surprised by her friends, offering up a drunken birthday celebration during the lax graveyard shift hours. Suffice to say, Kane springs to life and starts wasting these idiotic 'killables' with a variety of deadly morgue tools...

There's nothing of any substance or real entertainment value to speak of, here. Way too much time is spent on the incredibly irritating characters' bickering and running around panicking. Also, the fact that the group of potential victims contains TWO actual morgue employees, yet they spend the majority of the movie trying to figure a way out of the hospital's seemingly endless maze of hallways was a bit confusing and ridiculous. Even with the power being cut, why is this so hard? The only redeeming aspect of this flick is Kane, who again plays a pretty good killer. Then again, he's 8-feet tall, 300lbs. and ass-ugly so I think demonic wrestler and psychotic, hulking killer are his inevitable strong suits. Unfortunately, the gore in this is scaled way down for some reason, making the kill scenes disappointingly weak and boring. In all, there's really nothing here that's worth a damn. Don't bother with "See No Evil 2".

The Kill (1968, Gary Graver)

"The Kill" - or as it was aptly renamed, "Reservoir Cats" - is a strange, comedic 'roughie'. I'm not even sure if what currently exists of this is it's complete form.

A nympho-hippie chick is kidnapped by a gang of dope smugglers and violently gang-raped. She ends up going to a private eye for help tracking down her attackers...

At some point in time, this movie was clearly re-cut and dubbed over with silly dialog and sound effects. It's such an awkwardly paced movie with a lot of out-of-place humor thrown in after a relatively harsh rape scene, which makes for a very inconsistent 'tone'. I'm not sure if this movie is just comprised from some scrapped material from a film that was never completed, due to a very bare-bones storyline and especially the ending that is one of the most abrupt and anticlimactic things I've ever seen. Based on it's faults, alone, is enough of a reason to seek this one out. Oh, and there's an incredibly tedious (so much so that it actually gets hilarious) scene of a blind hunchback cleaning up an office in real time. I have no idea why...

Oculus (2013, Mike Flanagan)

"Oculus" wasn't as bad as I expected, though it's far from anything I would consider great. At least it took a slightly different approach than most other 'supernatural'-themed American horror films of late.

An auction house worker comes across a mirror that she suspects caused her father to torture and kill her mother when she was a child. After her brother gets out of the nut-house where he had been since that incident, she takes him to their childhood home where she has rigged a series of surveillance cameras and other such props in order to prove her suspicions and destroy the evil mirror once and for all. The movie switches back and forth between present time and their childhood and what led up to all the craziness that unfolded amongst their family's devastating outcome...

What makes "Oculus" stand out from a lot of the other 'mainstream' ghost/possession movies these days is that it goes for a more 'slow-burn' type of advent, as opposed to the million jump-scares and CGI ghost method that is popular now. I guess my main problem would be that it really feels like two-movies-in-one with the frequent flashbacks, which actually makes a lot of the present day stuff seem a bit pointless in the long-run. The childhood stuff is MUCH more interesting and could maybe have worked on it's own, I'd say, without all the present day drama shit getting in the way. All that could have worked, I thought, but it ends up kinda getting buried beneath the much more engaging flashback B-story. In that way, the movie as a whole felt a bit 'clunky' to me and not as well thought out as it could have been. Overall, "Oculus" is a fine one to put on if you got nothing else to watch some night...

Last Days Here (2011, Demian Fenton/Don Argott)

I had heard a little bit of Pentagram's music as a teenager and never really knew much about them and their popularity status, nor was I an especially huge fan. Not until seeing this terrifically entertaining and candid documentary did I learn that they were, in fact, one of those inexplicably unrecognized forerunners of the much 'darker' variety of metal, preceding the likes of Venom, Bathory, etc, by a long shot. However, they never received the proper accolades for their pioneering influence on the genre. "Last Days Here" centers primarily around Pentagram's down-and-out frontman, Bobby Liebling...

The film chronicles several years worth, I assume, of Liebling's life as he tries to get his shit together and recapture some of his faded glory as a rock n' roll badass. We find him in his early 50s (though looking like he's in his early 70s...), living in his elderly parents' 'sub-basement' in a drab Maryland suburb. Forty-some years of incessant drug abuse has left him haggard, bug-eyed, nearly brain dead and incredibly frail as he continues to casually smoke crack and reminisce about his younger days while violently scratching at the nonexistant parasites under his skin. The other former band members and aging record producers are interviewed, expounding on their numerous missed opportunities for musical stardom at the hands of their unruly, junkie vocalist.

At one point in the film Liebling meets a girl half his age (if not younger...) and moves out of his parent's house and down to Philadelphia. This is when it is revealed that Liebling - though seemingly withered and hopelessly diseased beyond all repair - is apparently fully capable of kicking drugs, cold turkey, and getting his act together when he has to. Although I'm not factoring out documentative liberties meant to steer the overall 'point' of the film into a certain direction by allowing Liebling to lie about continuing to do drugs off camera or even people involved lying FOR him. Either way, his love-induced rejuvenation prompts him to dedicate his newfound sobriety to producing some new Pentagram music and playing a big comeback show. There are a few roadblocks along the way, such as getting his heart broken, a jail stint, relapse, and just his general immaturity...

"Last Days Here" is easily the best rock-doc since "Anvil! The Story of Anvil". Bobby Liebling is a truly pathetic individual who is dispondently susceptible to any and all forms of dopamine facilitating substances and lifestyles. The way this documentary presents him is as a man so devoid of character and self-respect that he actually chooses to be an addict for recreational purposes and as a means of subconscious suicide, though, like I said, kicking a life-long crack-cocaine and heroine habit cold turkey seems a bit unlikely, but there's no way to know for sure, as far as Liebling's case is concerned. Regardless of this, the outcome of this doc is undeniably satisfying and the build-up to it is entertaining, tragic and often hilarious. Highly recommended.

Twisted Issues (1988, Charles Pinion)

I typically don't have a problem with a little experimental diversion to what would otherwise be a rather run-of-the-mill slasher/gore flick, as long as it can hold my interest. Can't say that "Twisted Issues" really did it for me, unfortunately...

The "plot" here is a complete mess, but from what I could make out - a karate student/skateboarder gets into an altercation with a gang of drunken assholes on his way home from a party. They kick his board out into the street, he chases it, resulting in him getting hit by a car and killed. His body is eventually found by two Frankenstein-ish mad doctors who bring him back to life, only to be killed by him before he takes to the streets wearing a fencing mask and wielding a sword, seeking revenge. Apparently, some of the characters are aliens or something - two of which keep trying to kill each other with household appliances and there's another one who is obsessed with raspberry soda...

A lot of this movie is padded out with quickly edited sequences of stock footage of political figures, Nazis and other random shit as well as shitty punk band performances. That, on top of the terrible, shot-on-video production value and absolutely terrible sound mixing (it's almost impossible to hear any of the dialog over the constant thrash-hardcore soundtrack), the movie really feels much longer than it is. Overall, "Twisted Issues" is a pretty lacking 'splatter punk' entry.

Grave Encounters (2011, The Vicious Brothers)

"Grave Encounters" pretty much doubles up on the two biggest contemporary horror customs that I find the most insufferable - 'found footage' and supernatural. It's a completely uninspired rehashing...

Some Johnny Knoxville-looking dipshit TV-host for a 'ghost hunter' show takes his production crew into a supposedly haunted asylum where they're to be locked in overnight. They mug for the cameras and wander around the dark halls with a phony psychic, until their tech-guy disappears and each of them begin experiencing malevolent, ghostly energy on and off camera as they struggle to escape the abandoned building.

As far as supernatural horror flicks go, I'm a bit stuck in the past with shit like "The Legend of Hell House" and, of course, "The Shining" being a few standout examples for me, personally, and I really have to stand by "The Blair Witch Project" as being one of the best FF movies I've seen. It's got it's haters, but I'm still on the other side of the fence as far as that goes. These days, however, they don't seem to know how to play their 'subtlety cards' properly. It's either too subtle or much too over-the-top UNsubtle. "Grave Encounters", like most of them, does the boring slamming doors shit up until a certain point when it just gets so excruciatingly obnoxious and expectedly climactic. Once again, we've got 'spirits' that look like the mutants from "I Am Legend" and roar/shriek like some kind of radiation-conceived beast from a Godzilla movie. That shit has gotten so overplayed that it's almost unendurably irritating. With typically uncreepy, jump-scare heavy bullshit. Bickering characters running around in disorientating night-vision. Overuse of CGI, which inevitably kills the whole 'found footage' realism vibe and, oh my god, "Grave Encounters" goes ALL IN with that shit toward the end. If you're tired of the same old horror retreads, then you shouldn't bother with this one. If you want a FAR superior haunted asylum film, check out "Session 9".

Around the World with Fanny Hill (1974, Mac Ahlberg)

I haven't yet seen the first Mac Ahlberg-directed "Fanny Hill" flick - not to be confused with the Russ Meyer version that preceded that - but I had heard that this sequel was superior so I figured I'd start with it. In all, it's a fairly enjoyable sexploitation-comedy, albeit a bit 'light' for my tastes...

The Swedish wife of a smutty TV-commercial director decides that she wants a divorce so she calls upon her best friend to seduce him for the sake of tabloid blackmail. Once the deed is done, the two women decide to travel the world, starting with L.A. where she gets a role in a trashy skin flick which sparks her successful acting career and launches her into superstardom. From there, she travels to Hong Kong, Venice and Munich, while her very jealous ex-hubby trails her, hoping to get her back.

"Around the World with Fanny Hill" is pretty 'light-hearted' sexploit- material with the occasional inclusion of soft-core sex. For the most part, the humor is pretty tasteful and empowering as far as it's central character is portrayed. She's seductive, willful and manipulative. I can't say "Fanny Hill" is my type of flick, since I tend to prefer the more 'serious' and sleazy forms of erotic Euro-exploitation cinema, though this one is entertaining for what it is. It's full of goofy humor and Shirley Corrigan is a fine piece of Scando- tail who spends the majority of her screen time here newd. Who am I to complain?

A Lonely Place to Die (2011, Julien Gilbey)

"A Lonely Place to Die" is a pretty solid survival-horror flick out of the UK, along the lines of "Deliverance" and "Straw Dogs".

A group of rock climbers are hiking through the scenic Scotland mountains when they come across a young Serbian girl buried in a box, equipped with a breathing tube. They rescue her from the claustrophobic confines and soon find themselves on the receiving end of some gunfire from a pair of murderous kidnappers awaiting their ransom money...

It's an entertaining and very well shot film that makes extremely good use of the picturesque mountain range highlands. I'm typically not one to give much of a shit about the nature content of a film, but I thought the sweeping, panoramic backdrop was an undeniable high point with this one. The characters aren't the most interesting or developed, which isn't completely a BAD thing, seeing as how they managed to dodge some cliches that are usually expected in certain types of movies. No romantic subplot or unnaturally heroic feats in the end. It stays reasonably plausible, I thought. Also, the whole angle with the undercover cops doing the trade-off worked well and was pretty tense. In all, I gotta say that this is definitely one that's worth checking out. Not a perfect flick or anything, but pretty damn entertaining.

Attack of the Killer Refrigerator (1990, Michael Savino)

I really got the impression from this one that some people were actually just drunk with a video camera and decided to make this movie on the spot. Nothing seems all that thought out and the production values are some of the shoddiest imaginable so that could very well be the case.

A bunch of drunks at a party all gather around to chisel the ice build-up out of the refrigerators' icebox. And they have WAY too much fun doing so. This pisses off the fridge, who gets revenge by killing and eating some of the people...

"Attack of the Killer Refrigerator" is only about 15-minutes long so it's not worth beating it up too bad. It's laughable and beyond cheezy - the best part involving a cat walking off frame, followed by a jump-cut and then someone's hands in clear view placing the cat on it's 'mark' to be eaten by the killer fridge. There's also a guy's head shown, clear-as-day, as one of the 'fridge jostlers' during the big "climax". This makes the director's only other film, "The Hook of Woodland Heights", actually look professional.

School of the Holy Beast (1974, Norifumi Suzuki)

Without a doubt, one of the finest 'pinky-violence' flicks out there. Norifumi Suzuki knew how to totally knock it out of the park when it came to immensely entertaining girl-torture sleaze and "School of the Holy Beast" is nothing short of a nunsploitation-'pinky' classic.

Upon joining an abbey, a young woman finds herself neck-deep in repressed nun madness and scandal amidst their irrationally cloistered, sex-hating environment. Turns out, she's trying to uncover some truths about what happened to her mother there, years ago... And it's not good. Shit gets pretty grim along the way with whips, rose thorn torture, rape, incest and forced urination on religious objects...

The look of this one - as well as the story - is top-notch for this kind of Japanese 'exploitation'. It's never too plot-heavy, nor is it just all debauched sleaze and no substance. There's a terrific balance of many components that makes for a quality film of this wonderful genre. There are several artistically stylized scenes that bring a strange, aesthetic beauty to certain depictions of harsh cruelty, which is helped by some pretty damn great atmosphere, strong performances and cinematography. For those looking for a standout example of Jap-exploitation, check this one out. Also check out Suzuki's other works, such as the yakuza-action flick, "Sex & Fury", and the rape-filled pinker, "Star of David: Hunting for Beautiful Girls".

Dread (2009, Anthony DiBlasi)

"Dread" is a pretty decent Clive Barker adaptation. Not extraordinary by any stretch, but does some things well.

Three college students team up to conduct a study on fear for their school project. They interview people in an old, abandoned-looking house and prod them about traumatic experiences from their past. As their research goes on, the one guy starts becoming obsessed with physically exposing people to their deepest, most severe fears due to ongoing nightmares of his own childhood anguish...

"Dread" is more of a character-driven 'psychodrama' than really a straight-forward 'horror' flick, or at least, that's what I got out of it. The overall tone is nicely bleak - which I would expect nothing less from something based on a piece of Clive Barker literature - and it's quite well shot for the most part. It IS kind of slow in much of the lead-up, but the final 30 minutes are pretty gripping as it all comes together in a rather strange, mean-spirited way. It's also got a stylishly shot axe murder scene that is rewind worthy. Could've used a little "tightening" as far as the script goes, since it DOES tend to drag a bit at times, but "Dread" is still an enjoyably dark film, overall.

Violated Angels (1967, Kōji Wakamatsu)

Though it's not my favorite of his works, pinku pioneer Koji Wakamatsu's "Violated Angels" is another example of the film-maker's groundbreaking proficiency for misogynistic sleaze. That said, this film just so happens to 'flow' with an undeniable artistry, as seen in his other earlier films, such as "The Embryo Hunts in Secret" and "Go Go Second Time Virgin".

The idea here is obviously modeled after the Richard Speck murders - a dorm full of nurses find a guy lurking around outside at night and decide to drag him in to peep on two of the lesbian girls going at it. This is a strange and implausible decision, but who am I to judge the questionable generosity of a bunch of young, naive bitches... Unfortunately for the girls, seeing sensual lesbian passion pushes him over the edge, so he snuffs off the rug-munchers and tortures the rest of the terrified girls for the rest of the night...

If you're cool with an 'arthouse' approach to violent exploitation, then I don't think you'll have any problems with this one. It's pretty damn mean for it's time - featuring some relatively 'disturbing' depictions of rape and some torture and mutilation (though mostly implied, but we're given a shot of the aftermath). The most 'graphic' moment being a scene in which a luger is jammed in a chick's ass and fired. "Violated Angels" is not Wakamatsu's best or most 'offensive' film, as far as I'm concerned, but for those into pinku cinema it definitely helped to lay the foundation for this type of genre. It's a very bleak and harsh film, especially by 60s standards.

Butcher Boys (2012, Duane Graves/Justin Meeks)

Seems like Kim Henkel only surfaces these days to come up with half-baked "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" sequels/throwbacks. As much as I love the classic 1974 original, it just goes to show that Tobe Hooper and his crew were pretty much a pack of one-trick ponies that got lucky during one hot Texas summer, 40 years ago. That film continues to live on, while those involved in it's inception have arguably petered out over time (give or take a few mediocre efforts). "Butcher Boys" - which Henkel served as a writer on - is actually more idiotic than his 1994 quasi-remake shitfest, "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation".

A group of teens are driving through San Antonio when they get into a skirmish with a gang of pretty-boy cannibal thugs...

That's it. The movie is mostly comprised of a long foot chase, peppered with pointless cameo appearances from since-inactive cast members from the first two TCM films. The victims here are given zero personality or character development and are mostly killed off in a matter of minutes while the aggressors are equally as dull and non-menacing. It's packed with tons of references to TCM, of course, but it's all just so meaningless and unamusing. And, aside from one scene of raw flesh eating, there's no notable gore to speak of so it really couldn't even deliver on ANY level. Being such a die-hard for the original Hooper film, I wanted to like "Butcher Boys" at least a little bit, but it's just so incompetently made - pacing, acting, attempts at humor, etc. All just terrible. They couldn't even make the cameos fun. Avoid this piece of shit.

Annabelle (2014, John R. Leonetti)

I'm gonna keep this one relatively short cuz there's really not much to say. "Annabelle" is pretty much what I expected from the usual bland, 'mainstream' American horror movies to come out these days...

Taking place a year or so before the events in "The Conjuring" - a young, clean-cut couple who are expecting a baby, move into a new house where they are barged in on by a pair of murderous hippie cult members. The pregnant wife is stabbed before the one intruder is gunned down by cops while the other slashes her own throat, thus bleeding onto a doll. The doll is then used by some demon to steal the soul of their newborn child.

Absolutely nothing new is done here. This movie relies on every cliche in the book that is used to cobble together these incredibly stagnant, uninspired supernatural-horror retreads. Of course, it's virtually bloodless and plays everything very safe, inoffensive and familiar. I guess the ever-so undemanding public still isn't sick of this kind of supernatural/possession bullshit, so it's safe to say it's not going anywhere anytime soon. "Annabelle" is completely boring, dime-a-dozen garbage...

Visiting Hours (1982, Jean-Claude Lord)

For some reason, this one slipped past me during my early teen years of rampant slasher fanaticism. I don't think it's one that's ever gotten much attention in the genre, since it came around a really busy time for films like these, but after finally seeing "Visiting Hours", I gotta call it out on being a very underrated flick!

A women's-rights female journalist is attacked in her home by a psychotic opponent of her strong social viewpoints, landing her in the hospital after she's rescued just in time. Unfortunately for her, the police and nursing staff are no match for the determined lunatic who intends to finish her off - killing whomever gets in his way...

It should come as no surprise that Michael Ironside is fucking awesome in this. His performance as the killer, Colt Hawker, ultimately transcends that of the basic 'masked phantom' slasher antagonist - giving him a darker and more 'fleshed out' quality than just the more traditional faceless killing machine-type of character. It makes it a bit more effective when he's running around, severing old women's breathing tubes and brutalizing bimbos in his dingy apartment. Also, Bill Shatner pops up a handful of times, bringing absolutely nothing to film other than name recognition and an appetite for hospital sundaes. So, there was that... Gotta say, overall, I was pretty surprised by "Visiting Hours". It's not heavy on the gore or nudity, which is a definite 'con', but I'd say the 'pros' outweigh it for the most part, in this case. Ironside rules and there's some good suspense and tension. Little slow here n' there, but I gotta give it a pretty hearty recommendation for those who haven't given it a shot yet.

Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath (2007, Shaun Bugbee)

There's not really much to dislike when it comes to just straight-up satanic porn and that's precisely what we're talkin', here. Light on plot, heavy on blasphemous XXX-smut...

A Catholic schoolgirl is having a plethora of sexually deviant fantasies involving incest, violence and Satan. Because of this, she is kicked out of school, but finds acceptance with a devil worshipping cult lead by Satan, himself.

Although it kinda drags a little bit at the end during the big, bloody gangbang - the sacrilegious 'edge' is what gives "Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath" it's entertainment value. Lots of vaginal crucifix abuse, Satan getting his ass eaten, some piss/blood drinking, jerking off on Jesus statues and some brief footage from a Dark Funeral concert tacked on at the tail end (their music is featured throughout the metal-packed soundtrack). Generally, it has a pretty straight-forward porno 'style' to it in the way that it was obviously suppose to be 'whack worthy', so that's a definite plus. However, it's more enjoyable for the 'outrageous' satanic content. Worth checking out for non-Christian smut hounds.

The Class (2007, Ilmar Raag)

I really wanted to like this one more, but it left me a bit torn. On one hand, "The Class" (a.k.a "Klass") is a very solidly acted and well shot Estonian 'school shooter' flick, while on the other, it just seemed too over-the-top for me to fully buy into it's 'message'...

A large collective of high school dickbags decide to single out one of the quiet, reserved kids whom they deem a "freak" and make each school day a hell on Earth for him. One of the lead bully's pals begins feeling his conscience getting the better of him and goes against the pack in order to protect the helpless victim. This basically causes a war between a classroom of sadistic tormenters and the two oppressed outcasts.

Maybe this kinda thing goes on in Estonian schools in the name of Euro-trash "honor", but the extent of the cruelty depicted here didn't seem very believable. At the beginning it states that the film is based on "true stories", so maybe it's just an assemblage of true bullying tactics strung together and inflicted upon just two characters for the sake of creating one of the most grueling high school experiences ever captured on celluloid. Then again, who HASN'T been held at knife-point and forced to blow their friend in front of a unified body of snickering peers? I dunno, it just seemed a little 'much', but when vengeance is delivered, it's definitely warranted. Perhaps the whole point of "The Class" was to completely justify school shootings. If that be the case, than they succeeded in making the most recrementitious and indulgent movie about adolescent bullying and retaliation. Not to say it's BAD, cuz it's certainly not. Like I said, it's shot nicely and well acted. However, I'd recommend Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" or "Zero Day" if you're looking for better films on the topic of school shootings which is, primarily, an American problem and I don't feel the Estonians captured it all that accurately.

Black Magic with Buddha (1983, Lieh Lo)

"The Black Magic with Buddha" is one of the better I've seen in a line of early HK horror films revolving around sorcery and demonic shit. Frankly, in the past I've found these types of flicks typically dull, poorly paced and drawn out. And while there's not much exception here, this one contains a few bits of cheezily, weird entertainment.

A couple of guys track down, unearth and extract the living brain from a mummy that apparently grants wishes. One of them takes it back home where he uses the slimy, pulsating brain to help him achieve a high level of wealth that will allow him to fit in with his fiancés snobby rich, unsupportive relatives. After a few more wishes - and some brain-related demises on his behalf - he becomes successful and gets married, but ultimately forgets to send the brain back, via some kind of holy water ritual. This pisses the brain off, causing it go berserk on everyone...

It's ridiculous and definitely drags in spots, but this one held my interest a bit more than other movies of this ilk, such as "Eternal Evil of Asia", "Centipede Horror" and "Devil Fetus". The guy getting swarmed by blood-thirsty, breathing brains in the bathtub was funny (Although, I don't think it was suppose to be...) and the ending is very chaotic and somewhat amusing, I'd say. Still, like I said, these type of HK 'black magic' movies aren't really my thing. "The Black Magic with Buddha" is very disjointed and tiringly schlocky, but still manages to be 'okay'. They also blatanly lifted some of the score from Don Coscarelli's "Phantasm". Bastards...

Mr. Bricks: A Heavy Metal Murder Musical (2011, Travis Campbell)

Well, this was an incredibly uncomfortable experience. It's about as awkwardly douchey as you would imagine a 'heavy metal musical' being and more. Even to hardcore metalheads (which I am), this is cringe-inducing...

A hooker is kidnapped and raped by Mr. Bricks - a bulky reprobate with a solid black gladiator helmet tattooed on his face and bald head. She is rescued from his warehouse dwelling and he is shot in the head in the process, but survives and sets out searching for her. Turns out she's also got a 'fling' going on with another married cop who wants Mr. Bricks dead.

Throughout this agonizingly boring movie are painfully generic, poorly recorded musical breaks that try to resemble something along with lines of 'metal'. These 'songs' consist, primarily, of lots of forcibly angry and despairing lyrics along with headache-inducing camera work and music video-style editing accompanyment. It's all the more pathetic that they did not have a budget that was conducive to pulling this "style" off, adequately. At certain points, there's this terrible fucking fire graphic that appears on screen that looks like it just a feature on the camera they were using. And as for the plot, nothing really happens... It's all redundancy and bland, hollow characters that have no developement, whatsoever.

For anyone spotting this title and thinking that a 'heavy metal murder musical' sounds "cool", it's actually the furthest thing from that, imaginable. Just total fucking cheapass garbage.

The Peeping Tom (1997, Kai-Ming Lai)

Balls-to-the-wall CATIII sleaze-ertainment, here. If the glamorization of rape bothers you, than this may not be for you...

A serial killer/rapist with a rabid leg fetish is running amok around HK, sexually violating women and lopping off their 'stems' for his collection. He ends up getting fixated on a female cop and begins stalking her, breaking into her apartment when she's gone and, eventually, going after loved ones in a sociopathic attempt to win her over.

"The Peeping Tom" wouldn't rival truly quality HK shit like "The Untold Story" or "Red to Kill", but it DOES certainly pile on the sadistic AND sexy 'action' that keeps it rolling along nicely. The scenes of rape and murder are pretty strong and the maniacal antagonist is well played. There's also countless scenes of chicks undressing as well as a gratuitous shower masturbation scene thrown in for good measure. In all, I can't say that this flick is ever boring or slow, due to it supplying a terrific blend of drama/action/serial killer/sleaze elements that all work well together. I'm definitely putting it in my CATIII top-5.