...aka: Beast from Space, The
...aka: Giant Ymir, The
Directed by:
Nathan Juran
Review coming soon.
Score: 7 out of 10
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Mutilator, The (1982)
...aka: Fall BreakDirected by:
Buddy Cooper
Just what the world needed; another wholly clichéd slasher movie with terrible acting, obnoxious "teen" characters and a plotline that alternates between senseless and predictable. This one has some great gore effects, though, thanks to Mark Shostrom (EVIL DEAD 2) and Anthony Showe. Six annoying college students go on "fall break" (also the alternate title and the title of the fuzzy, nostalgic opening theme song) to a secluded beach house on a seemingly abandoned island where one's unhinged father used to live. Turns out that "Big Ed" has a grudge against Ed, Jr. (Matt Mitler) for accidentally killing his mom as a kid while cleaning one of dad's rifles, and shows up to get revenge on his son. While there the "teens" find a framed picture of a corpse ("Oh, dad accidentally ran over him with a speed boat"... uhhh, oooook) and missing weapons, but still stay and decide to play play blind man's bluff. They're done in with a battleaxe, machete, hook, topless drowning, dismemberment, decapitation and more, and the victims are pinned to a wall by spikes through their heads. The bloody FX (including a memorably tasteless bit involving a fishing gaff) are very good and are basically the only reason to tune in.
.
Filmed in 1982 but not actually released until 1985, this was available in R and unrated versions on video but has yet to get an American DVD release (Code Red announced they were going to release it a few years back but it hasn't happened yet). Originally titled FALL BREAK, complete with a cheesy title tune. With Frances Raines and Ben Moore as a cop.
★1/2
Mom (1988)
Directed by:Patrick Rand
MOM (filmed in 1988; released in 1990) is effective in many ways. For the most part it works as a black comic horror film. However, it also gets a little heavy handed toward the end and piles on the melodrama. For a movie with a lighter, campier touch much of the time, suddenly trying to be serious and dramatic doesn't always come off as it should. Emily Dwyer (Jeanne Bates, a regular presence in the films of David Lynch and great fun here) is an unhappy widow who lives at home alone and takes comfort in simple "motherly" things like cooking dinner and rare family holiday get-togethers. Desperate for companionship (because her two grown children are always "too busy" to spend time with her), she decides to start renting out an upstairs bedroom to the strange, blind, always-in-shades, deep-voiced Nestor (a very funny Brion James). Unfortunately for her, Nestor also happens to be some kind of cannibalistic monster who bites her and transforms her into one of the same. Now her newscaster son Clay (Mark Thomas Miller) has no choice but to jeopardize his marriage and job to help her out; even resorting to covering up her killing spree and putting steel bars over her bedroom windows to keep her from sneaking out at night!
FLESH EATING MOTHERS and RABID GRANNIES may be better remembered all these years later because of their snappier titles, but this one is better than either of those two and also more ambitious in content. A strong recurring theme here is how the lines between being loyal to your family and trying to have your own life always seem to be hopelessly blurred. Not all of the humor is on target, but most of it works and it's entertaining and sometimes outrageous; so a mild thumbs up from me. Mary Beth McDonough (from the TV series "The Waltons") co-stars as Clay's confused, pregnant girlfriend and cameo appearances are put in by Claudia Christian (who is killed in the opening sequence) and Stella Stevens (in a lively role as a tactless, over-the-hill barfly).
FLESH EATING MOTHERS and RABID GRANNIES may be better remembered all these years later because of their snappier titles, but this one is better than either of those two and also more ambitious in content. A strong recurring theme here is how the lines between being loyal to your family and trying to have your own life always seem to be hopelessly blurred. Not all of the humor is on target, but most of it works and it's entertaining and sometimes outrageous; so a mild thumbs up from me. Mary Beth McDonough (from the TV series "The Waltons") co-stars as Clay's confused, pregnant girlfriend and cameo appearances are put in by Claudia Christian (who is killed in the opening sequence) and Stella Stevens (in a lively role as a tactless, over-the-hill barfly).
★★1/2
Not of This Earth (1988)
Directed by:Jim Wynorski
A very fun low-budget comic horror/sci-fi effort that is better than most of its type. Simply put, it's just good, fast-paced B-movie entertainment done the right way by director Jim Wynorski for those who enjoy these types of brainless films. A remake of the semi-famous 1957 cult film directed by Roger Corman (also executive producer of the '88 version), this one stands out on its own merits. The opening credits are even great as we get gory clips from many vintage Corman classics like BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) and GALAXY OF TERROR (1981). Controversial former underage porn star Traci Lords is sexy, energetic and funny here in her first non-adult leading role; proving she has no problems carrying the weight of a mainstream film by herself. She's plucky nurse Nadine Story, who's hired by the very strange, always-in-shades Mr. Johnson (the amusingly one-note Arthur Roberts) to give him daily blood transfusions. Mr. J turns out to be an alien on Earth to harvest blood, which he sends back home through a special portal in the cellar. In addition, Lenny Juliano fairs well as Jeremy, an ex-con chauffeur also working in the home. His amusing flirty exchanges with Lords throughout actually add a lot of charm and humor to this film. Rounding out the cast are Rebecca Perle as an alien babe in a bikini, an unrecognizable Monique Gabrielle as a mental patient at a bus stop who talks to her tennis racket, Kelli Maroney as a nurse, Becky LeBeau as a happy birthday strip-o-gram and Roxanne Kernohan as an obnoxious hooker.
The violence is only mild (fitting for a lighthearted movie like this), but it's all pretty colorful, entertaining and upbeat. Lords only has two brief nude scenes (this was the last time she has appeared unclothed in a film), but the ones provided by many of the other actresses are gratuitous enough to satisfy our T&A needs. An entire long murder sequence (inspired by Bava) was pinched from director Joe Dante's HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD and another lengthy clip is borrowed from HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP. So if you're a B-movie lover, you're going to find a lot to love here. The same exact story would be filmed several more times in the 1990s; NOT OF THIS EARTH (1995) and STAR PORTAL (1996; with a female cast as the alien) being just two of them.
★★1/2
Monday, November 3, 2008
Terror in the Aisles (1984)
...aka: That's Shock...aka: Time for Terror
Directed by:
Andrew J. Kuehn
BLOODY PIT OF HORROR regulars Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen sit around in a simulated movie house and introduce clips from 75 horror, sci-fi or suspense movies (mostly from the 1970s and 80s) as a fake audience "ooohs" and "aaahs" at the proceedings. Many of the clips used are either famous or highly regarded, but basically lose their impact when taken out of context of the film. There's really no rhyme or reason here, and no particular insight into horror movies or what goes into making a classic horror movie; just a bunch of clips. Pleasence (who is also seen in clips from the first two HALLOWEEN movies), Allen (who is seen in clips from DRESSED TO KILL) and the audience begin to grate on the nerves after awhile, too, which I chalk up more to the cheesy commentary they're forced to say than the actors' actual hosting abilities. This was actually something of a novelty back in 1984 and played theatrically, which wouldn't happen in this day and age since there are hundreds of similar documentaries and compilation tapes available. If you are simply looking for a sampler of clips from vintage horror flicks, then this might do the trick. Just don't expect much.
For the sake of completeness, here are the films:
.
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948)
ALIEN (1979)
ALLIGATOR (1980)
ALONE IN THE DARK (1982)
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)
THE BIRDS (1963)
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)
THE BROOD (1979)
BUG (1975)
THE CAR (1977)
CARRIE (1976)
CAT PEOPLE (1982)
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)
DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)
THE DEADLY MANTIS (1957)
DRACULA (1979)
DRESSED TO KILL (1980)
THE EXORCIST (1973)
EYES OF LAURA MARS (1978)
FAHRENHEIT 451 (1966)
FIRESTARTER (1984)
THE FLY (1958)
THE FOG (1980)
THE FOOD OF THE GODS (1976)
FRENZY (1972)
FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)
FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981)
FROGS (1972)
THE FUNHOUSE (1981)
THE FURY (1978)
THE GHOST BREAKERS (1940)
GRIZZLY (1976)
HALLOWEEN (1978)
HALLOWEEN II (1981)
HOLD THAT GHOST (1941)
THE HOWLING (1981)
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957)
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS remake (1978)
JAWS (1975)
JAWS II (1978)
KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1962)
KLUTE (1971)
KONGA (1961)
THE LEGACY (1978)
MARATHON MAN (1976)
MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (1978)
MS. 45 (1981)
NIGHTHAWKS (1981)
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
NIGHTWING (1979)
THE OMEN (1976)
PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974)
PLAY MISTY FOR ME (1971)
POLTERGEIST (1982)
PSYCHO (1960)
ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)
SATURDAY THE 14TH (1981)
SCANNERS (1980)
SCARED STIFF (1953)
THE SEDUCTION (1982)
THE SHINING (1980)
THE SILENT PARTNER (1978)
SISTERS (1973)
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)
SUSPIRIA (1977)
TARANTULA (1955)
TAXI DRIVER (1976)
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)
THE THING remake (1982)
THE THING WITH TWO HEADS (1972)
THIS ISLAND EARTH (1954)
TO CATCH A THIEF (1955)
VICE SQUAD (1982)
VIDEODROME (1982)
WAIT UNTIL DARK (1967)
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE (1962)
WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (1979)
THE WOLF MAN (1941)
★★
Street Trash (1987)
Directed by:Jim Muro
Well, the title sure don't lie. Most of STREET TRASH takes place in the street and there's certainly a lot of trash lying around. Trash in this case being of the paper, glass and, uh, human variety. Shot in only the most scenic of gutters, junkyards, street corners and back alleys of New York City, the filmmakers claim to have taken their cue from Akira Kurosawa's DODES'KA-DEN, but basically it's just a heaping helping of assorted depravity. You can take that as a recommendation if you like. It's a pretty tough film to assign any kind of score to. Even though it's sick, stupid, irritating, profane, tasteless and gratuitously gory much of the time, in its own twisted way it's also inventive, well made, clever and features some arresting camerawork. There are also plentiful (and colorful) gore effects and some genuinely amusing bits. You be the judge whether its attributes outweigh it's flaws. I'm kind of torn on the matter, but multiple viewings have proven rewarding. Fans of Troma movies, which in many ways this resembles both in look and tone, will probably get a kick out of it.
The plot centers around a pack of grotesque bums who drink "Viper" booze (sold for a buck) and end up melting into pools of acidic goo. Other than the bums; cops, mobsters, innocent bystanders and workers at a junkyard also become involved in the mix. Almost every single character in the movie is obnoxious, hateful or insane, aside from a compassionate social worker (Jane Arakawa) and a sensitive young street person (Mark Sferraza). Gore FX include a game of keep-away with a severed penis, lots of melting skin, decapitations, a human explosion, a ripped off arm, impalements, and much, more. Jennifer Aspinall (THE TOXIC AVENGER) really outdid herself on this one. A wealthy, drunk woman is gang raped and killed by "street trash" and a guy (played by Troma movie regular Pat Ryan) who has sex with her dead body catches syphilis! Another memorable sequence has a cop beating a mob henchman unconscious and then vomiting all over his face. FRANKENHOOKER star James Lorinz has a hilarious cameo. Needless to say... View this one at your own risk.
Writer/producer Roy Frumkes was also responsible for the outstanding Romero documentary DOCUMENT OF THE DEAD (1988) and has a cameo getting his face melted off by yellow goo. Director Muro now works as a cameraman (on big-budget movies like TERMINATOR 2).
The plot centers around a pack of grotesque bums who drink "Viper" booze (sold for a buck) and end up melting into pools of acidic goo. Other than the bums; cops, mobsters, innocent bystanders and workers at a junkyard also become involved in the mix. Almost every single character in the movie is obnoxious, hateful or insane, aside from a compassionate social worker (Jane Arakawa) and a sensitive young street person (Mark Sferraza). Gore FX include a game of keep-away with a severed penis, lots of melting skin, decapitations, a human explosion, a ripped off arm, impalements, and much, more. Jennifer Aspinall (THE TOXIC AVENGER) really outdid herself on this one. A wealthy, drunk woman is gang raped and killed by "street trash" and a guy (played by Troma movie regular Pat Ryan) who has sex with her dead body catches syphilis! Another memorable sequence has a cop beating a mob henchman unconscious and then vomiting all over his face. FRANKENHOOKER star James Lorinz has a hilarious cameo. Needless to say... View this one at your own risk.
Writer/producer Roy Frumkes was also responsible for the outstanding Romero documentary DOCUMENT OF THE DEAD (1988) and has a cameo getting his face melted off by yellow goo. Director Muro now works as a cameraman (on big-budget movies like TERMINATOR 2).
★★
Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh (1971)
... aka: La perversa señora Ward (The Perverse Mrs. Wardh)
... aka: Next!
... aka: Next!
... aka: Next Victim, The
... aka: Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, The
Directed by:
Sergio Martino
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh is a twisting horror-thriller that works pretty well at subverting viewer expectations. It opens with a hooker getting slashed up in a car, followed by a Poe quote about "... generations of assassins for whom the love of murder was in the blood, as it perhaps is ours too." French beauty Edwige Fenech stars as Julie Wardh, a young married woman living in Vienna with her older, continually busy stockbroker husband Neil (Alberto de Mendoza) and hiding secrets from her past. The main issue haunting her is her former lover Jean (Ivan Rassimov), a sadist seen in super-stylish flashbacks beating Julie up outside in the middle of a rainstorm and cutting her up with a broken bottle before making love to her with broken glass in between them. Well, Jean has resurfaced in town and is starting to make his presence known. Julie's best friend Carroll Baxter (Cristina Airoldi) hosts a party, and there Julie meets Carroll's handsome, cocky cousin George Corot (George Hilton) and learns that both he and Carroll are sole heirs to a fortune left behind by their deceased uncle. Finding herself drawn to the dangerous Jean once again, Julie (bored and feeling neglected in her marriage) instead opts for an affair with George. Meanwhile, there's the razor-wielding, black-gloved sex killer running around the city. While the psycho's choice in victim has no bearing on class distinction, the victims do share one thing in common: they're usually female and usually not wearing clothes when attacked.
Julie begins to think the culprit is someone she knows after receiving threatening phone calls from someone disguising their voice and bouquets of roses with strange notes attached ("...your vice is a room locked from the inside and only I have the key.") Someone is also blackmailing her; 20 thousand schillings or they're going to tell her husband about the affair. Unwisely, Carroll decides to step in and help. She agrees to meet the blackmailer (all alone!) in a huge, almost vacant park / aviary and is slashed to death. Then Julie is attacked and almost killed in a parking garage (a good suspense scene), so she takes up George's offer to flee Vienna for a small coastal town in Spain before she becomes the next victim... but the killer follows the two there. Making things even more complicated, the two find Jean's dead body in a bathtub full of blood and learn that the serial killer stalking Vienna was simply an anonymous, unknown sick-o... So needless to say, there are several plot surprises coming during the last ten minutes or so. Manuel Gil, Carlo Alighiero as the obligatory police commissioner and Bruno Corazzari round out the cast.
Overall, a fairly well-made giallo that's worth watching, with a decent script, decent acting and pretty stylish presentation from director Martino, who'd go on to make around a half-dozen other similar films, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it drags at times. There's actually more female nudity than gore in the film (including a - point being? - scene where two girls in "paper dresses" rip each other's clothes off during a cat fight) and the majority of the main characters are nasty, unlikable and / or screwed up, so it's tough to find someone decent to gravitate to. That aspect is at least partially offset by the occasionally astonishing location work (briefly used coastal locations in Spain and, especially, the Schonbrunn Park / Aviary), some good set-pieces and a few jolts or suspenseful moments... Plus some of the ugliest 1970s wallpaper known to man.
Originally released in the U.S. as Blade of the Ripper, it was badly received by both critics and horror fans once this hacked-up, dark and badly transferred version was issued on home video. Another title using the censored, flat-looking print was The Next Victim. So avoid any of those versions and head straight for the 2005 DVD release from No Shame. It looks great and has some very good extras, including the interesting 30-minute documentary Dark Fears Behind the Door, which features interviews with director Martino, producer Luciano Martino, scriptwriter Ernesto Gastaldi and stars Hilton and Fenech, the latter looking amazingly identical to the young actress who starred in this film nearly 35 years earlier. Apparently there's something in the water over in Europe because many of these starlets who were popular in the 1970s don't look like they've aged a day. Other extras include the theatrical trailer, a poster / stills gallery and a 3-minute speech from the director when his movie played here just recently at the Venice Film Festival. You can also chose between a tolerable English dubbed version or an Italian language one with English subtitles.
Julie begins to think the culprit is someone she knows after receiving threatening phone calls from someone disguising their voice and bouquets of roses with strange notes attached ("...your vice is a room locked from the inside and only I have the key.") Someone is also blackmailing her; 20 thousand schillings or they're going to tell her husband about the affair. Unwisely, Carroll decides to step in and help. She agrees to meet the blackmailer (all alone!) in a huge, almost vacant park / aviary and is slashed to death. Then Julie is attacked and almost killed in a parking garage (a good suspense scene), so she takes up George's offer to flee Vienna for a small coastal town in Spain before she becomes the next victim... but the killer follows the two there. Making things even more complicated, the two find Jean's dead body in a bathtub full of blood and learn that the serial killer stalking Vienna was simply an anonymous, unknown sick-o... So needless to say, there are several plot surprises coming during the last ten minutes or so. Manuel Gil, Carlo Alighiero as the obligatory police commissioner and Bruno Corazzari round out the cast.
Overall, a fairly well-made giallo that's worth watching, with a decent script, decent acting and pretty stylish presentation from director Martino, who'd go on to make around a half-dozen other similar films, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it drags at times. There's actually more female nudity than gore in the film (including a - point being? - scene where two girls in "paper dresses" rip each other's clothes off during a cat fight) and the majority of the main characters are nasty, unlikable and / or screwed up, so it's tough to find someone decent to gravitate to. That aspect is at least partially offset by the occasionally astonishing location work (briefly used coastal locations in Spain and, especially, the Schonbrunn Park / Aviary), some good set-pieces and a few jolts or suspenseful moments... Plus some of the ugliest 1970s wallpaper known to man.
Originally released in the U.S. as Blade of the Ripper, it was badly received by both critics and horror fans once this hacked-up, dark and badly transferred version was issued on home video. Another title using the censored, flat-looking print was The Next Victim. So avoid any of those versions and head straight for the 2005 DVD release from No Shame. It looks great and has some very good extras, including the interesting 30-minute documentary Dark Fears Behind the Door, which features interviews with director Martino, producer Luciano Martino, scriptwriter Ernesto Gastaldi and stars Hilton and Fenech, the latter looking amazingly identical to the young actress who starred in this film nearly 35 years earlier. Apparently there's something in the water over in Europe because many of these starlets who were popular in the 1970s don't look like they've aged a day. Other extras include the theatrical trailer, a poster / stills gallery and a 3-minute speech from the director when his movie played here just recently at the Venice Film Festival. You can also chose between a tolerable English dubbed version or an Italian language one with English subtitles.
★★★
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