Janie (1970)

Directed by:
Jack Bravman

A truly strange combo of erotica and horror, this uses both narration and a confessional between the titular character and her much older lover to tell the story of a young girl's warped adventures through suburbia on a bright, sunny autumn day. Blonde high schooler Janie (Mary Jane Carpenter) isn't quite right in the head. For starters, she's been skipping school a lot. And she doesn't get along with anyone at her school. No one really understands her. She loves the fall season because everything is dying and thinks to herself "People trust you because you're young, pretty and innocent... and because they want to get their hands on you." Janie plans to play hooky with her naive and impressionable sort-of girlfriend Carol, who she doesn't like at all but thinks she can easily manipulate. The two decide to go swimming and hitch a ride from a young man whom Janie tells can make love to her friend and then have her when he's done. The guy pulls over, Janie convinces Carol to just do it and then proceedings to run over both of them with the guy's car while they make love in the grass. And this apparently turns her on a lot since she can't help but start touching herself immediately afterward. She steals their money and takes the car for a joyride.

Deciding she still wants to go swimming, Janie goes to some stranger's home and uses their pool without asking. The owner ("Richard Jennings" / Michael Findlay) follows her out onto a pier to confront her about it, but she strips off her top, then stabs him in the back and pushes him into the water. Janie decides she not done quite yet: "After all, three murders isn't very much for an enterprising girl like you." Thankfully she's able to hitch a ride from a wealthy, black-clad lesbian, who brings her back to her apartment. There, Janie takes a bath and then joins the woman in bed, where she slices her up with a razor and then pleasures herself in bed next to the corpse. When she makes a quick pit stop at home she spies on her drunken stepfather slapping around his mistress and accusing her of stealing money, which turns her on again. All the while, Janie keeps fantacizing about being reuinted with her lover Jack, whom she's supposed to meet up with later that day. She catches a flight and goes to his home where she gets into it with his bitchy girlfriend Roberta (Roberta "Molke" / Findlay), who keeps calling her a "teenage tramp." After strangling her with a belt and hiding the body in the bathtub, we find out the true identity of Janie's lover. And that certainly explains a few things!

Light on plot and heavy on nudity, this sexploitation sickie provides more structural and visual interest than anything else. Photography director "Anna Riva" (Roberta Findlay) does her darndest to try to liven things up; contributing some strange yet often imaginative camerawork. There are 360 degree spins through the treetops, vaseline smeared lens shots which focus all of the action in the middle and blur the outside edges and the camera bobbing in front of faces and tilting. Sadly, the only avaiable print (distributed on VHS by by Alpha Blue Archives) is in wretched shape, is far too bright, full of scratches and has terrible audio, which makes the good elements (including the photography and numerous nude scenes provided by the very attractive leading lady) harder to appreciate. The editing is sometimes pretty interesting, particularly in Janie's rapid fire recollections of her crimes, and some of the narration is well-written, bordering on poetic at times.

Director / producer Jack Bravman went on to make ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE (1986) and NIGHT OF THE DRIBBLER (1990), both of which are absolutely terrible.

 

★★

Slumber Party Massacre, The (1982)

... aka: Don't Open the Door
... aka: Overnight Murders, The
... aka: Sleepless Nights
... aka: Slumber Party
... aka: Slumber Party Murders, The

Directed by:
Amy Holden Jones

Delivering blood, nudity and laughs aplenty, this slasher staple (which was critically ridiculed upon release but became a hit, anyway) is really one of the most enjoyable of its type. It began as a parody of what Roger Ebert refers to as 'dead teenager' films, and was based on a screenplay by well-known feminist author Rita Mae Brown. Apparently much was changed from the original script (leading Brown to disown the entire project), but if her original intent was to make light of the 80s slasher film, I might actually prefer the approach the filmmakers eventually took instead. Labored parody movies like STUDENT BODIES (1981), SATURDAY THE 14TH (1981) and the more-recent SCARY MOVIE series just don't appeal much to me. I typically prefer my horror-comedies to be, first and foremost, horror films. Comedy is fine, but I typically don't like it when the laughs take center stage, the horror is short-changed and the whole film becomes one big joke. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. HARD TO DIE (1990), which specifically references the Slumber Party and Sorority House slasher titles, takes things to such a hilariously absurd level that it works wonderfully as an exploitation movie spoof. Some directors are able to balance the two genres. It doesn't happen too often. With Slumber, we get a pretty straight forward, well-made slasher film. The laughs scattered throughout are just an added bonus.

With her parents away for the entire weekend, nice girl Trish (Michelle Michaels) invites three members of her basketball team; Kimberly (Debra Deliso), Jackie (Andree Honore) and the snobby Diane (Gina Mari), over for pizza, margaritas and "Maui Wowwie" (weed) at an all-night slumber party. Meanwhile, escaped mass murderer Russ Thorn (Michael Villela) is lurking around their high school. He makes short work of a telephone repair lady, as well as Linda (prolific Scream Queen Brinke Stevens in her feature film debut), who has the misfortune of getting locked inside the school with the psycho, then stalks one of the girls to Trish's home and begins using his portable electric drill and other sharp things to kill everyone off. Trish's pretty next door neighbor Valerie (Robin Stille) - the new girl in town who just got snubbed by Diane earlier that day - and her bratty kid sister Courtney (Jennifer Meyers) end up getting in the middle of things, as do Neil (Joseph Alan Johnson) and Jeff (David Millbern), a couple of guys who decide to crash the party. Throw in the girls' basketball coach, a neighbor who lurks around outside at night with a meat cleaver killing snails (!) and a couple of others and you've got a sufficient body count.

Though the cast consists primarily of amateurs, the actors perform with the type of energy needed to ensure their thinly-drawn characters possess at least some basic appeal and they aren't nearly as obnoxious as what you'll usually find in slasher flicks. It's skillfully made as far as these things go and many of the comedy elements are indeed funny. My favorite bit is when the coach arrives home and gets a scare when a drill comes through her front door. Oops, it's only her friend installing her peep hole (!) Another amusing bit is when the killer - having already gouged the eyes out of the delivery boy - shows up at the door with pizzas and, when asked "What's the damage?" says "Six... so far." It is little touches of humor like these that put this a notch above other similar efforts. And they never crowd out the horror content. There's plenty of killing, drilling and stabbing, a decapitation, a hand hacked off and more. The subtext of a psycho running around "drilling" barely-dressed young women (expanded upon in both SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE II and SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE III) doesn't really require further comment.

Seeing how each time this film and its sequels has been issued on DVD they've quickly gone out of print (and would sometimes later go for hundreds of dollars on ebay), the film clearly has a bigger cult following than it's usually given credit for. The original VHS was distributed by Embassy, the first DVD issuing came in 2001 by Concorde / New Horizons and in 2010, the film and its two sequels (each with commentary tracks) were released on the same set by Shout! Factory. The set also included the hour-long retrospective documentary SLEEPLESS NIGHTS: REVISITING THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRES, which was put together by series fan Jason Paul Collum, who also made the very good Scream Queen doc SOMETHING TO SCREAM ABOUT (2003).

Roger Corman was the uncredited executive producer. Scenes from HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD (1976) are seen on a TV set and edited in with one of the murder scenes. The co-producer and assistant director was Aaron Lipstadt (who also plays the pizza man), who'd go on to direct the underrated ANDROID (1982) starring Klaus Kinski. Carol Frank, assistant to the director, would go on to make SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE (1986) and Stephen Herek, apprentice editor, would go on to make CRITTERS (1986).

★★★

Evil Come, Evil Go (1972)

Directed by:
Walt Davis

Director Davis' previous hardcore / gore film SEX PSYCHO (1970) included such delightful moments as a brother and sister having sex on top of a coffin containing the body of the woman's husband (whom they just murdered) and another woman getting hacked with a meat cleaver while giving a blow job, causing her to bite off the dick and choke to death on it! It's hilarious to imagine what the audience's reaction to that may have been back in the day. I'm sure most went in expecting to see a simple porno film and ended up seeing something tasteless, gory and completely unerotic instead. I had about the same reaction watching Evil Come, Evil Go. It is also a sex film (albeit softcore) with bloody scenes, but this one deals with a religious fanatic psycho and has bible hymns sung during many of the sex scenes! Seeing how the last thing most people want to think about watching a sex flick is religion (and what hypocrites many religious folks are, including much of the audience for this film!), I'm sure this may not have went over too well. Still, I have to give Davis major props for making movies that stand out from the crowd. This one in particular is very entertaining and frequently hilarious (granted you have a sick sense of humor).

Sister Sarah Jane Butler (Cleo O'Hara) is a hypocritical religious fanatic who thinks she "was sent by the Good Lord himself to rid the world of pleasurable sex." And by ridding the world of pleasurable sex, I mean she wants to rid the world of all "evil men," which is basically any man with a sex drive. Sister Sarah picks up a sleazy man in a bar and brings him back to a hotel. During sex she hums Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, leaving him wondering "Why are you singing hymns while I'm trying to give you head?!" She kills him while he's climaxing then heads off to Los Angeles to spread the word. 

Broke, Sarah is forced to perform her accordion preaching act on street corners for money. Penny (Sandra Henderson) stops by to give her ten dollars, then later invites her to come stay in her home. Turns out Penny is a lesbian who has been disowned by her parents, though her folks are kind enough to give her a monthly allowance and rental properties so long as she stays away from them! Naïve and lonely, Penny renounces her sexuality ("I'm a lesbian... but I'll stop!") and becomes Sarah Jane's disciple and helper. During her initiation into "The Secret Order of Complete Subjugation" she's tied to a bed, stripped, has a knife run along her nude body and sings along to Glory Glory Hallelujah.

Sarah Jane - who wants her new friend to finance her televangelist TV show (!) so she can reach the masses with her message - and Penny interrupt a couple (Rick Cassidy and Margot Devletian) having sex outside by singing hymns and dancing around them until they get up and leave. Deciding something more extreme is in order, Sarah finally convinces Penny to bait a man and then bring him home from bar. She does and during sex, Sarah Jane pops in with a knife and stabs the trick ("Harold Groves" aka Norman Fields) until he's a bloody mess. Penny's lover Junie (Jane Tsentas) eventually shows up to try to convince Penny to get back with her and is strangled to death with a scarf while having sex on the couch. Bodies are wrapped up in sheets and disposed on in the woods. And just when things can't get any weirder, there's a topless rendition of Onward, Christian Soldiers.

I've gotta say, I quite liked this one. Though the film fails to come up with a satisfactory conclusion, the overlong sex scenes (which are pretty graphic and feature plenty of full male and female nudity) bog things down at times and some of the audio is heavily damaged, most of the humor is on target, it's in very bad taste and O'Hara is hysterically funny as the deranged Southern Belle. The amusing theme song is from Jim Wingert, who also may be the guitarist who pops in from time to time throughout the film. Porn legend John Holmes has a cameo and was also the assistant director! Gerard Broulard (who starred in Ray Dennis Steckler's horror porn SACRILEGE along with Tsentas) and the director have small roles and producer Bob Chinn can be seen in the bar scene.

The DVD is from (who else?) Something Weird, who have paired this up with TERROR AT ORGY CASTLE (1971) and THE HAND OF PLEASURE.

★★1/2

Video Violence (1987)

... aka: Video Violence... When Renting Is Not Enough

Directed by:
Gary P. Cohen

"One of the best SOV horror flicks" proudly proclaims the DVD cover... and that's actually no lie when you compare this directly to other 80s shot-on-video horror flicks, though admittedly you can't set the bar much lower than that! Still, some of these regionally produced cheapies do have their own unique charms and this is no exception. Video Violence is quite likable, boasts a fun premise, is fairly well made within its limits, has a non-professional cast who give it their best shot and, ultimately, rises above most of its competition simply by being watchable. Twenty-five years after its initial home video release, it also now has the benefit of being pleasantly nostalgic, at least to anyone who remembers the now-almost-nonexistence video rental business in its heyday. After a prologue (where a couple of store employees watch a woman in the dressing room on video monitors and then beat her to death with a baseball bat) we cut to the meat of our story. New York City natives Steven Emory (Art Neill) and his wife Rachel (Jackie Neill) have just moved to the small community of Frenchtown looking forward to a simpler, quieter and less stressful small town life. As they'll soon realize, they couldn't have picked a worse place to settle down.

At Steven's rental store, The Video Studio, he and his assistant Rick (Kevin Haver), who is also new to the area ("Just because I'm new in this town, they treat me like I got AIDS or something."), start picking up on strange behavior from nearly all of their customers. Why are the townspeople so secretive and unfriendly? Why do they all own VCRs and rent tapes constantly? And how come they only rent horror and slasher flicks? A mysterious tape shows up in their drop box one morning. Upon watching it, Steven and Rick discover its a homemade snuff video of the local postmaster getting beat with a hammer, having his hand cut off with clippers and then getting decapitated with a machete. Steven immediately goes to the police to report it but finds the chief of police (William Toddie) smarmy and uncooperative. He's able to convince to at least look at the video, but when Steven returns Rick is missing and the snuff tape has been replaced with another home movie. The police chief tells him to "lay off the monster movies" and then goes his way.

Meanwhile, two of the townies - obese, cackling cameraman Howard (Bart Sumner) and sadistic psycho Eli (Uke) - are busy at work making their own snuff tapes for "Basement Videos." They kidnap a woman, tie her up in the basement, pour bear on her chest and cut off her tank top, then Eli carves his name into her chest and stabs her through the heart with an ice pick. The duo were also responsible for killing the postmaster and several others, and eventually send a tape to Steven's video store of them killing Rick (which is promptly erased by the sheriff when Steven takes it to him). But Eli, Howard and the Police Chief aren't the only three in on this... nearly the whole town is! At a deli, the two owners poison a couple's lemonade, decapitate the woman with an electric carving knife and then make soup out of her head and then cut the guy's hand off and run it through the slicer ("Give me a half pound of arm!"). Seems most of the population is into making their "own brand of down home snuff movies."

It was filmed in New Jersey and originally distributed by Camp Motion Pictures on VHS (the director claims they were the only company who offered to create a poster for it); a revived Camp also handled the recent DVD release. It was first paired with the silly follow-up VIDEO VIOLENCE PART II: THE EXPLOITATION (1988) and features a commentary tracks as well as an interview with the director. A new box set from Camp (released in 2011) contained both Video Violence films as well as the director's barely released CAPTIVES (which had a shoddy and brief video release under the title Mama's Home) and THE BASEMENT, an unreleased SOV effort from 1989 making its belated debut.

★★1/2