Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance (2011)

John Borowski's serial killer bio-trilogy hadn't really been turning me on to any real new info on it's psychopathic subjects until this latest one - detailing the life and crime-spree of Carl Panzram. I know my share of Panzram's historical timeline of gruesome, notoriously misanthropic antics from back in the early part of the 20th century but, surprisingly, Borowski dug up some interesting shit for this well-detailed rundown on the killer's life and times that I wasn't previously aware of - although I was no expert to begin with...

Carl Panzram was born in Northwest Minnesota to some typically abusive parents and was in and out of even more abusive correctional institutions most of his young (and older...) life. As a drifter and career criminal, he would go on to kill at LEAST 22 people around the world and rape roughly 1000 men and boys just out of pure anger. He was eventually hanged in Leavenworth, Kansas in 1930.

Like Borowski's previous biographical serial killer flicks, Panzram is done with interviews and dramatizations of certain shit. Unlike Borowski's last one, "Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Salvation" - which I thought only really covered the overall 'basics' of Fish's shenanigans and didn't give me all that much that I didn't already know on the man - "Panzram" proved significantly more detailed, I thought. They threw in an old video-recorded conversation with the prison guard who befriended Panzram and some mention of his ties with the Birdman of Alcatraz, of which I was unaware of. The movie stays consistently interesting, I'd say, and the guy they got to play Panzram during the prison reenactments is a great likeness. Actually looks just like him from some of the later mugshots.

In all, "Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance" offered up quite a bit of info I wasn't yet privy to concerning one truly broken human being who was clearly shaped into the obsessively sadistic, unstoppable murderer he became by the archaic and torturous American prison system of the earlier part of the 1900's. Worth checking out if you're interested in info on this guy, although I'm not sure if Panzram die-hards will get any 'new' info out of it.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Don't Deliver Us From Evil (1971)

Bad girls causing mischief, all in the name of Satan, is the name of the game in "Don't Deliver Us From Evil" - a very engrossing and oddly 'disturbing' little Euro-gem. It's based, in part, on the relationship of teenage New Zealand killers, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme.

A pair of rich, sexually charged Catholic schoolgirls bow out of their strict, god-fearing lifestyles and turn to the wicked embrace of Satan in order to satisfy their hormonal lust for being just plain naughty. Such activities include teasing a mentally retarded farm hand with the cruel art of seduction, fucking with the gardener (also retarded...) by killing his precious birds and snitching to the priest after catching a couple nuns dyking out. They end up getting a bit carried away in their antics when one of their lured seduction victims becomes a murder victim...

The cinematography, acting and score are all very solid. It's got a high 'sleaze factor' without being abundantly 'trashy', I thought, which mostly comes from the fact that these actresses look particularly young and they spent  a good portion of the film in highly 'suggestive' situations. However, appararntly these girls WERE of age so my conscience is hereby clear. The story is well executed and ends on a pretty 'dark' note. It's not all that factual to the Parker/Hulme case, however - having more to do with the girls' close-knit relationship and presumed lesbianism than the murder of one of their mothers, which was what actually transpired in New Zealand back in the '50s - as seen in Peter Jackson's film, "Heavenly Creatures". "Don't Deliver Us From Evil" is it's own animal, overall, portraying this bond between two inseparable girls as pretty twisted and ultimately tragic. Also conveying a possible, underlying contempt for Catholicism that I couldn't help but pick up on. I strongly recommend this one for fans of Euro-sleaze cinema.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Flesh Eating Mothers (1988)

As cheesy and idiotic as it is, "Flesh Eating Mothers" is a relatively watchable horror flick. It's kind of like if those Desperate Housewives bitches were infected by the "Rage" virus from "28 Days Later" or something...

An average suburban neighborhood erupts into cannibalistic chaos when everyone's mothers become infected with a new type of STD that makes them devour the flesh of their loved ones. The teenage children of these ravenous moms band together to find a cure without having to kill their crazed ol' ladies (who inexplicably develop Jack Nicholson 'Joker' mouths...)

Nothing all that astounding, here, although FEM is entertaining enough, overall. They could've gone a little 'harder' with the gore, I thought, but there's a few ok scenes of bodies being torn and chewed up, plus a cat getting pulled apart. Not bad. Not GREAT, though. As a whole, it doesn't take itself seriously at all and, for the most part, keeps moving at a decent enough pace, as to circumvent too much boredom. I'm giving "Flesh Eating Mothers" a moderate recommendation if you dig Troma-esque shit, but there's no reason to go out of your way for this one...

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

The Brain (1988)

I had no real expectations going into "The Brain" since I knew nothing about it, and I was left pretty blank when all was said and done. There's really nothing good about this flick (aside from the one chick who was willing to take her top off, twice...), but I can't just flat out call it shitty... It just feels pointless, which is odd cuz I know they were going for a strong metaphor on the effects of brainwashing in the media, but it just doesn't come across as all that clever or worthwhile in the end. I guess I just didn't care... All I took away from it was: it's a dull monster movie.

A trouble-making high school student is sent off to a mental heath facility to be treated by a TV doctor whom everyone in the community seems to worship. While there, he's unknowingly hooked up to a big brain creature that makes him hallucinate before he freaks out and runs off. The rest of the movie is pretty much him on the run from the doctor and his henchman who are apparently trying to collect all the 'free thought' from TV viewers and strengthen their ever-growing killer brain monster...

"The Brain" is an ambitious enough flick in certain respects, but just didn't do much for me. The rubbery brain with the face was stupid looking and watching it's even MORE rubbery teeth bend over peoples bodies as it's devouring them killed it for me. That, and it's just DULL. Maybe I was in the wrong mood, but I suggest passing on "The Brain". And that's all I got...

Monday, June 13, 2016

Maria-Conception-Action (1969)

I'm not sure what to make of this one. It's obviously some kind of 'performance art' piece with a whacked-out, 'snuffy' aesthetic.

Some guys are gutting an animal (a goat, I think...) and piling the innards on a bound woman and stuffing them down her underwear. One guy seems to really be getting 'into' it and starts burying his face in the intestines while they continue to pour them on the woman and attempt to stuff them inside her. They then crucify the woman and feed her blood and pour said blood on her vagina before one of the guys starts fucking her while the rest of the guys casually stand around. The whole thing ends with everyone rolling in the blood and guts and swinging from the animal carcasses...

"Maria-Conception-Action" is pretty much a 'blood orgy arthouse film' with some underlying religious subtext, I presume. Not really sure what it all 'meant', but it's actually pretty perverse and a little unsettling with the ambient sounds and grainy look. Interesting and strange little film, overall.


Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

I was in the mood for some 'light' entertainment the other night so I ended up rooting around my shelves and ultimately blowing the dust off this one. It had been quite a long while since I had seen this third installment in the TCM franchise and I went into it feeling like my whole memory of it had been wiped clean. And it all made sense as it began and it all started coming back to me what a forgettable movie "Leatherface" is...

Two road-trippers are passing through Texas and get mixed up with Leatherface and his clan of cannibal creeps after taking a back road...

I think it's safe to say that what really sunk "Part 3" was that it was abound by production problems left and right. For starters, they wound up shooting it on the Universal backlot, as opposed to rural Texas like the others (doesn't look right...), director Jeff Burr was 'kicked around' a lot - having shit changed last second; getting fired - and, of course, the MPAA shitting all over the 'violent' content. The 'unrated' cut contains about 5 minutes of axed material, which is funny because this extended version is still remarkably 'tame'. It's evident that more was permanently cut, but however, the MPAA were, no doubt, at their worst around this time. Bunch of tight-assed bastards...  Visually and story-wise, "Leatherface" definitely suffers due to all of these production 'road blocks' it faced. The new Sawyer family is extremely boring and non-threatening. They all just look like actors who - based on their unadorned performances - hadn't been brought up to speed on the previous films. Leatherface goes from horny toddler to rebellious teenager with this flick, which allows for some awkward attempts at 'humor' from time to time and Ken Foree earns a paycheck... In all, it really doesn't feel much happens in this flick, as far as violence or gore goes.

"Part 3" is an easy watch - I'll give it that - but there's absolutely nothing note-worthy to speak of. The ratings board Nazi's went to town on this one and didn't stop until it was a reduced to a quivering pile of mediocrity, hence, the '90s begins. What a shame.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

The Burning (1981)

If I were to rank "The Burning" among other such 'summer camp slasher' movies of the illustriously horror-heavy '80s, it definitely wouldn't top the list, but, for what it offers, it's a decent enough "Friday the 13th" cash-in.

Some campers decide to pull a prank on their abhorred camp caretaker, Cropsy, but shit takes an unexpected turn when he catches fire and is hospitalized for the next five years. After being discharged from the burn ward, he hauls is horribly disfigured ass back to the camp grounds to exact revenge on everyone currently there...

Where "The Burning" really goes wrong is basically going an hour without anything of any real 'substance' taking place. After the Cropsy-roast opener and a quick hooker stabbing, we're really just left with tedious camper drama;  bullying the Jew kid, kid going back to the cabin for his vitamins, canoeing, Jason Alexander making wisecracks, etc... It's not until about the infamous raft scene that the movie gets a little 'meatier'. That really IS a cool scene, although, there's just too many kids in this flick who end up living! Like the girl with the red, mushroomhead hair and young George Costanza. They should've peppered in more kills to break up the monotony a little. That said, all the kills featured are gory enough and the aforementioned raft massacre is definitely the highlight. Savini's FX look good, as usual, considering obvious budgetary constraints. One girl was willing to show her itty-titties a few times, so you can check off 'nudity', albeit not that remarkable. "The Burning" doesn't match up to the gore and entertainment value of shit like "F13" and "Sleepaway Camp", but slasher buffs should still check it out.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

The Hearse (1980)

I can't go so far as to call "The Hearse" a BAD movie, cuz it's really not - it was just a tad "light" for my taste. That said - and again - it's wasn't bad for an '80s supernatural-horror joint. Hell, it's MUCH better than all the "Conjuring" shit that's been coming out lately...

A single woman decides to drive out to her dead aunt's country home for the summer, where most of the locals are stink-eyeing her - obviously due to the house's not-so-warm-and-fuzzy history. While there, she starts dating a rather stoic, but seemingly harmless local guy and is being lusted after by the teenage handyman, all while having occasional, dangerous run-ins with a mysterious hearse around the nearby rural roads. Turns out auntie had a relatively unsavory reputation around town, along with a questionable post-mortem outcome, to which the Hell hearse is directly tied into.

There's one or two fairly creepy scenes, I guess, but in all, I wasn't all that impressed with this one. It's completely bloodless and drawn out with a pretty predictable and - I hate to say - conventional ending, as far as I'm concerned.. In all, there's nothing too memorable or stand-out about "The Hearse". At the end of the day, it's just a below-average horror flick...

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Blood Massacre (1991)

"Blood Massacre" takes a little time to get 'rolling', but once it does it becomes halfway watchable. That's not to say it isn't a cheap and horribly put together piece of shit, but it just happened to get less plodding around the halfway mark.

A gang of goofy Nam vets on the run after a video store hold-up - which resulted in the death of an employee - hole up in the farm house of a family who turn out to be psychotic cannibals. Hence, the tables take an ironic turn...

The way this one is acted, shot, lit - and probably even catered - sucks. One actor in particular sounded like he graduated from the Jimmy Stewart School of Acting and I refuse to believe this ridiculous performance wasn't on purpose. The rest are just deadpan. And the 'twist' can't even be considered such, seeing as how it's SO apparent SO early on. No one in this is likeable and you're given no one to root for which COULD have worked had the film chose to explore any of these characters beyond their stereotypes in even the slightest possible way, but they go from victims to cannibals (to even more...) and from sadists to booby trap-rigging Rambos... It's incredibly ass-backwards. As unnecessary as this movie is to watch, once the bullshit lead-up is done and the killings start to happen, "Blood Massacre" becomes tolerable enough and the double-twist ending is laughably over-the-top and idiotic.

Friday, June 3, 2016

Girl Hell (1999)

"Girl Hell" is a boundlessly incoherent bit of poorly made Japanese sleaze that admirers of this particular type of shit should dig. The copy I saw was set up with subtitles (I've heard of a lot of copies without subs) though it didn't take me long to lose my faith in the inane gibberish text that transcribed the film's dialog. It made no sense. "I pissed rats like you"? What?! Regardless, "Girl Hell" is one perceptibly off-the-wall flick...

It starts with two guys engaged in some small-talk relating to sex (according the the subs). Then, we see some perky school girl on a bike bring some food to a bag-lady out in a field who obsessively lactates onto her baby doll. We then have a fat chick getting fucked from behind by a sweaty man having a screaming orgasm and then asking to keep her splooge rag. The school girl heads home and is greeted by the sound of sex coming from the other room. Out comes a bare-assed old guy - her father - who spouts off some verbally abusive shit about the girl's mother. The school girl then goes into the other room to find a heavily bandaged chick with her wrists bound to her ankles. The school girl peels the gauze off the chick, who happens to be her sister, revealing a large gash on her chest. She then goes back to the bag-lady where she hungrily suckles on her milky nipple for a while... Later, she holds her perverted father at knife point - confronted by one of the dudes from the beginning - he and his buddy beat and rape the bag-lady before heading to the school girl's house, where they kill her dad and gang-banging her severely crippled sister until blood runs. There's also some weird rich guy following the school girl around and he eventually ties her up and drinks her urine through a catheter tube...

Good shit, for the most part. Didn't hold together too well, in terms of "plot", but "Girl Hell" should really only be viewed for it's perversity and sleaze. It's a very downbeat "sickie" that come highly recommended for fans of this type of stuff...

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Ferozz: The Wild Red Riding Hood (2010)

"Ferozz: The Wild Red Riding Hood" has to take the cake as the absolute most bizarre take on the "Little Red Riding Hood" story ever put on film. I don't even really know where to start with this one...

It starts with a deeply dysfunctional family having dinner in their gloomy little cottage - listening to their deranged grandmother rant and rave about sex and accusing her female relatives of being 'sluts'. The meal takes a turn for the... odd when a family-involved rape breaks out, much to Granny's delight. During the second rape, the rapist suddenly dies (for some unexplained reason...) and the victim - who I think was his wife - runs off with her daughter, to which, we cut to two years later where they're now living in a different cottage, I guess. There's another uncle who seems to be the most level-headed of most of these whackos (for a while...) and the brother of the youngest girl (pseudo-Red Riding Hood) who likes to jack off to his sister skinny dipping. She, on the other hand, is trying to seduce her uncle who turns out to be a Satanist...

The whole 'Red Riding Hood' theme doesn't really kick in until the tail end and, even then, the tone doesn't shift away from the sleaze. Everyone in this thing is just horny, incestuous, psycho and/or retarded. There's a scene basically out of nowhere of 'Red' masturbating with the help of a puppy before being sexually "punished" by Granny. So yeah, "Ferozz" is a tough one to sum up and I can't say I "liked it", but it's definitely strange and entertainingly sleazy enough to consider checking out.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

The Necro Files (1997)

Big-dicked zombie rapist? Uhh, hell yes. "The Necro Files" is a dirt cheap splatter flick that, I'll admit, I found amusing, despite how cheesy and just flat out shitty it is. May have had something to do with the big-dicked zombie rapist...

A necrophile serial killer is caught with the disemboweled corpse of his latest victim by a pair of cops and is shot dead on the scene. A few months later, a Satanic cult resurrects the killer - via an infant sacrifice - and, armed with a massive donger, he continues on with his rape and murder spree - targeting random individuals. At one point, however, a few of the cult members have second thoughts when they realize they can't control the undead perv and the cops from before catch word of the similar string of sexual mutilations and decide to investigate. There's also a whole thing with the murdered baby rising from the grave and floating around, chomping on people's necks.

The acting and effects are expectedly bad, considering the milk money budget they were clearly working with. The flying baby was simply a plastic doll on a fishing rod, usually extending from the window of a moving car from the looks of it. However, regardless of it's budgetary shortcomings, "The Necro Files" is entertaining enough. It rolls along nicely and has some alright moments. Nothing great, but just decent enough, overall.