Evil Spawn (1986)

...aka: Alien Within, The

...aka: Alive by Night

...aka: Deadly Sting

...aka: Metamorphosis

Directed by:

Kenneth J. Hall

Ted Newsom (new footage)

Fred Olen Ray (uncredited)

A mindlessly entertaining, often hilarious play on THE WASP WOMAN (1960). Bitchy, aging actress Lynn Roman's (Bobbie Bresee) career isn't what it used to be. All the choice roles are going to ladies in their 20s and the only offers rolling in to Lynn's agent Harry ("Jerry Fox" aka Fox Harris) are in B-grade schlock... just like this film! But everything's about to change when scientist's assistant - and closet obsessed fan - Evelyn Avery ("Donna Shock" aka Dawn Wildsmith) comes to her patio with a special serum devised by Dr. Emil Zeitman (John Carradine) that promises to restore her youth and beauty. Reluctant, Lynn shrugs off the offer, but Evelyn leaves a sample at her home anyway just in case. Lynn breaks down, starts injecting the stuff and finds herself looking and feeling years younger. Well, if you discount the part where her eyes glow red and she blacks out, pukes up white foam, grows a set of oversized plastic fangs and morphs into a killer insectoid monster that goes after those she feels have betrayed her, including her sexpot personal secretary (Pamela Gilbert) and her unfaithful gigolo boyfriend (John Terrence). Drew Godderis (BLOOD DINER) co-stars as Ross, Lynn's friend and biographer, who narrates the film a la SUNSET BOULEVARD and Forrest J. Ackerman can be seen cleaning out a pool.

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While far from good in the traditional sense, I still quite enjoyed EVIL SPAWN. It's highly entertaining and well-paced, many of the main actors (especially Bresee, Harris and Wildsmith) perform with gusto, there's some amusing dialogue, plenty of nudity, a hilarious dance sequence, a mock awards nightmare sequence where Lynn receives an Oscar (!) before turning into the bug monster and lots of supremely cheesy Z-grade special effects to sink your teeth into. It's precisely what one of these things should be; good, brainless late night fun.

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The footage of Carradine (looking distressingly ill) and Wildsmith interacting was intentionally generic footage shot a year earlier by producer Fred Olen Ray for use in future productions. The rest was done by Kenneth J. Hall; much of which was filmed at Bresee's actual home. There's also a very rare alternate version of the film titled THE ALIEN WITHIN which was released to video in 1991 by a company called MNTEX Entertainment. It contains 35 minutes of brand new footage shot on video by Ted Newsom and starring Jay Richardson, Suzanne Ager, Richard Harrison, Melissa Moore and Gordon Mitchell. I own that tape and will be doing a separate review for it eventually.

★★ SBIG

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

...aka: Invasion of the Flying Saucers

Directed by:

Fred Sears

Review coming soon.

★★★

Eternal Evil (1985)

...aka: Blue Man, The

Directed by:

George Mihalka

Winston Rekert stars as Paul Sharpe, a selfish and miserable former documentary filmmaker, now making TV commercials and having marital problems, who has been toying around with astral projection. Meanwhile, a detective (John Novak) is investigating a series of bizarre murders where people who claim to see ghosts (and get on Paul's bad side) are being crushed from the inside out. Is Paul somehow acting out his subconscious wishes while out of his body? Karen Black scores in a busy supporting role as Janus aka Amelia, an eccentric lesbian New Age guru who seems to fit into the puzzle somewhere. Mihalka (who is best known for the 1981 slasher MY BLOODY VALENTINE) has created an ambitious, intelligent, underrated horror film on a low budget here that deserves to be re-evaluated. Instead of overdoing the special effects, he uses Christian Duguay's arresting camerawork (slow-motion, high angles and fast motion) to eerie effect and incorporates jagged editing techniques to illustrate the dreamlike power of an out-of-body experience. The story (written by Robert Geoffrion) takes many unexpected and interesting twists and turns, but the director tries his best to bring together the hodgepodge of borrowed horror and fantasy ideas thrown at him and does a good job for the most part. Not without its share of flaws, but it's still definitely worth a look.

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It was filmed as THE BLUE MAN in Montreal and was nominated for two Canadian Genie Awards, including on for actor Rekert and one for Marvin Dolgay's eerie score. Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny from the James Bond series) has a neat one-scene cameo and the cast includes Patty Talbot and Andrew Bednarski as Paul's wife and young son, busy character actor Vlasta Vrana (who appeared in many of Cronenberg's early films) as Paul's friend and co-worker, Ron Lea, Anthony Sherwood (TERROR TRAIN) and Walter Massey (EVIL JUDGEMENT).

★★★

Eaten Alive (1977)

... aka: Death Trap

... aka: Horror Hotel

... aka: Horror Hotel Massacre

... aka: Legend of the Bayou

... aka: Murder on the Bayou

... aka: Starlight Slaughter

Directed by:

Tobe Hooper

Hooper's follow-up to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) isn't nearly as good but, let's face it, hardly anything is. Here we get scuzzy-looking veteran character actor Neville Brand (who must be seen to be believed) acting completely and utterly out of control. He seems to be on some kind of high-powered drug from outer space and you won't believe your eyes watching his twitching, maniacal psycho performance. Thankfully, his acting style is perfectly suited here, where almost every bizarre character seems to be up to something sinister or devious. Brand's character Judd operates a run-down, secluded Louisiana hotel on the Bayou where various people show up looking for an out-of-the-way place to stay. He kills many of them off (with a scythe, pitchfork, etc.) and feeds their dead bodies to his pet crocodile, who lounges around right outside the porch waiting for his grub. Drive-in queen Roberta Collins dies in a very abrupt first murder scene. Marilyn Burns, William Finley and their young daughter (Kyle Richards, from Halloween) eventually show up in disguise and are tormented by Brand. Marilyn ends up being tied to a bed and gets to scream and freak-out nearly as much as she did in TCM. Family members and cops show up looking for Collins' character (a runaway last seen working at a whorehouse) and become victims, too. Brand hacks 'em all up while hopping around uncontrollably and laughing with glee. Pretty creepy. So is Wayne Bell's music score, which is similar to the one he did for Chainsaw.

Though the high amount of shrieking gets on one's nerves (especially the little girl's), there's a sufficient amount of blood and nudity for one of these things, some genuine surprises, good art direction and sets, foggy swampland atmosphere and it's all rather colorfully photographed; almost comic book-like at times. And the cast is excellent. Aside from those already mentioned, we get Carolyn ("Morticia Addams") Jones as a the brothel madam, Stuart Whitman as the sheriff, Mel Ferrer and Crystin Sinclaire (Ruby) as the missing girl's father and sister, Janet Blythe (The Hills Have Eyes) as a local tramp and a young Robert Englund as obnoxious troublemaker Buck, who wants to... Well, you can probably guess. Not the greatest movie you'll ever see, but worth a watch.

★★1/2

Emanuelle e Françoise le sorelline (1975)

...aka: Blood Vengeance

...aka: Emanuelle's Revenge

...aka: Emmanuelle et Françoise

Directed by:

Joe D'Amato

Laura Gemser isn't in it, but Rosemarie Lindt is here and ready, willing and able to disrobe at any given opportunity. She's Emanuelle, a successful fashion model with one problem... her sister Françoise (Patrizia Gori) has committed suicide because of the brutish treatment she received from her vile behemoth boyfriend (big guy George Eastman, from those Anthropophous movie). To get revenge, she seduces, drugs and then chains her attacker up in a secret room behind a one-way mirror where he must watch in sexual frustration as she taunts and teases him with a parade of men and women she brings home to play with. Not surprisingly for a D'Amato venture, this is not your standard sex film and despite generous amounts of unexposed flesh on display, it's far from erotic. There's violence, gore, full frontal nudity (of both genders), warped dream sequences, rape, dinner table masturbation scenes (bordering on hardcore, at least in the uncut version) and much more that you may not expect. Like many other films from the director, it's extremely sleazy yet also lethargic, dull and poorly acted by the majority of the cast. The only two memorable bits are a sick-o nightmare sequence with Lindt being pinned down by four women and raped with a wine bottle and the finale, where someone in the cast ends up a gory mess after being chopped up with a meat cleaver.

And no, none of this is as entertaining as it sounds. Low production values don't help and neither does the dubbing, crummy plot or all of the time padding, which combine to make it a depressing chore to sit through. Fans of these things will still be interested because it predates Joe's more well-known 'Black Emanuelle' series starring Gemser, and was obviously re-titled Emmanuelle's Revenge in America in an attempt to cash in on that series. One of the supporting actresses even goes by the fake name "Mary Kristal" here, probably to try to trick people into thinking it was actually Sylvia Kristel of Emmanuelle (1974) playing the part. Oh Euro exploitation; thou doth confuseth me. In America, it was originally released to video in both both R and unrated versions. Now it's on DVD uncut so we all can, uh, enjoy (?) it that way.

Annie Carol Edel (Crazy Desires of a Murderer) and Massimo Vanni (who sometimes goes by "Alex McBride" and was in Rats: Night of Terror, Zombie 3 and others) co-star.

★

Fright Night, Part II (1988)

...aka: Fright Night, Part 2

Directed by:

Tommy Lee Wallace

Charley (William Ragsdale), now in college and trying to adapt to a normal life with girlfriend Alex (cute Traci Lin), comes to believe that vampires are stalking and killing students on campus... and he's right... yet again. This time, it's exotic Regine (Julie Carmen), the sister of dead vampire Jerry Dandrige from the original, who's brought along a bloodsucking entourage that includes a black drag queen (choreographer Russell Clark) and a muscle-bound ogre (Brian Thompson). She's also out for revenge against Charley and "Fright Night" TV horror host Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), who's brought out of vampire-hunting retirement one last time. This sequel (from the director of HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH) looks good, it's mostly well acted and made, and has some decent Gene Warren special effects, but being a completely unnecessary cash-in sequel also means it's silly, contrived. and lacks the freshness of part 1. It's also not nearly as scary, funny, entertaining or inventive as the first film. The cast includes Jon Gries (TERROR VISION), Merritt Butrick (DEATH SPA), John Lafayette (THE TERROR WITHIN) and Neith Hunter (SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4).

★★

Faces of Horror (1989)

Directed by:

?

Here’s one of the most clear-cut examples of scam artists exploiting the video market. During the 1980s, the FACES OF DEATH series, which (as most of us know) basically promised audiences real-life corpses, crashes, autopsies and various animal and human mutilations, were some of the hottest rentals out there. Yes, we are indeed a society are sick individuals who get our kicks out of violent voyeurism and the makers of those tapes made millions and millions of dollars off of not underestimating good old-fashioned American bloodlust. And every video store seemed to stock the Faces of Death tapes as well as all the similar tapes (TRACES OF DEATH, DEATH FACES...) they spawned. This video copies not only the title, but also the FOD ad art (a simple box with a large skull on the front) so closely that it would trick hapless renters into thinking they are in for a 'real' death-fest. But inspect the back of the box carefully and you'll notice a few familiar names. The print is small and on the bottom, so look closely... Hmm, Basil Rathbone... Well, he's dead, I guess. And... Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper.... Hey, they aren't! Wait just a moment.... Oh shit, I just got duped! This long-out-of-print pathetic pastiche from Fantasy Home Video (who usually released pornos) is simply footage from three then-obscure films senselessly slapped together with zero attention to narrative cohesion by some folks who wanted to make a quick buck and most certainly succeeded. And that's all it is, so if you see on the shelf somewhere, turn around, scream and run in the other direction.

The films used here are PLANET OF BLOOD (1966; aka QUEEN OF BLOOD), YOG, MONSTER FROM SPACE (1970) and THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT (1971); which you'd probably be better off catching in their full form (or in the case of the latter, just avoiding all together). I'm almost certain that all three films are (or were) public domain titles that nobody had to pay to get the footage from. In any case, this title is here solely for the sake of completion. And I really need to find a cover scan for it.

NO STARS!