Exploitation Nation Part 2

Why horror fans gotta be such haters?

2012-01-08T23:37:00.002-05:00

THE DEVIL INSIDE

PEOPLE BE HATIN'...

I'm gonna hold off on reading all this stuff if no other reason than so I can form my own opinion on the movie when I see it. This same thing happened to THE LAST EXORCISM when it came out, and I ended up really liking it (except for the ending which everyone agrees is incongruous and from another less intelligent movie).

What is kind of bothering me though is the consistent bashing of horror films that come out theatrically by horror fans on line as the films are released specifically for what ever success they may have. THE DEVIL INSIDE had a big opening weekend, so horror fans explode at everyone who went claiming they are somehow idiots (I've read that a bunch today), if a sequel or remake is successful then all remakes or sequels must suck. The monster movie CREATURE makes it into theater in a wide release with thousands of prints without the help of a major studio (you know like used to happen to indie movies years ago) and there is a backlash that used to only be for child molesters...

I'm not necessarily defending all these movies. I haven't seen THE DEVIL INSIDE or CREATURE. I want to see both of them. I meant to see CREATURE but didn't even know it was playing my town until the week after it was gone. My fault, not the distributor's. The complaints I hear about THE DEVIL INSIDE sound somewhat legit, a bad use of a tired cinematic trope with the found footage thing and an ending that should of been the beginning of the third act. Fair enough. But that doesn't explain why horror fans want to hate so much. It seems to me that no other fandom inspires so much direct and outright rage, directly at the filmmakers and films themselves. So many fans go into the film's or even the reading up and discovery about the films looking to RAGE about something.

If you were super excited to see the particular movie, and it turned out to be really bad, I can understand being upset. Or if the movie starts out really great, but becomes a total mess and lets you down, I can even understand that. I get the remake thing, though I have calmed down about it considerably over the years, as many of the films have gotten better, and most of the originals have been gorgeously remastered for Blu ray and look BETTER now than they EVER did. But none of that seems to be the real problem. There is just an overriding sense of anger and disenfranchisement that hangs over the fandom that explodes in the cybersphere at the drop of a hat.

You don't see these fans discussing what WORKS in a movie. Almost never. But you always see discussions of the things that were messed up, and should have been done better. About how this particular director has gone way past their useful date.

It is a curious phenomenon, one that sometimes makes being a fan a little unpleasant. I sometimes can do it too,and am aware it it. But more often than not I want to be moved by a movie and look for that to happen. I go in to even the biggest piece of shit rooting for the movie to do its job, which is entertain me. Not make me walk away an angrier person.

GUROZUKA: Ghosts and gore for teens?

2012-01-03T23:51:00.001-05:00

GUROZUKA (2010)
D. Yoichi Nishiyama

Synapse Films
1.85

Another offering in the Asian Cult Cinema linefor Synapse Films; this new film from Japan is atmospheric and hassome startling images sprinkled throughout. But unfortunately it isnot the strongest release they have put out from the Far East.Borrowing heavily from THE RING and other ghost films popular inJapan then welding them to the the teen slasher cycle that had burneditself out in the late 90's, GUROZUKA never really comes to life onits own terms.

The film begins with two twenty-somethingyoung women who find a startling 8mm video tape that shows a Gohperformance that ends with the performers murdering each other. Then these girls and a whole other gang of youngladies go on a road trip together. They are part of a movie club going to a remote house to make a short film together based on therumors of the former club members disappearance. Naturally the killing on the tape andthose missing girls are linked. Soon the ghostly Goh masked killerfrom the tape is spooking his (or her) way around the woods and cabinpicking off the girls as they try to figure out how it all fitstogether.

The movie is as much,if not more, a teenmystery, as a horror movie and is surprisingly tame, even once the bloodsplattered climax approaches. There is no nudity, and though there issome violence, it is not particularly outlandish as one would come toexpect from Asian cinema. The set up of the film reminded me a lotof the movie EVIL DEAD TRAP but never reaches those heights of fearor delirium. In fact I kind of wonder if this wasn't aimed at a youthaudience in Japan, with the cast of pretty young girls, but extremelack of exploitation. If that is the case, the movie works ok, though is a bit on the slow side. If it is intended to be a film aimed at adults, then it is too little to really satisfy.

The film is certainly well made enough,but as far as Asian horror goes this is kind of middle of the road.

The disc comes with a fun behind thescenes and a trailer.

Review © Andrew Copp

BLEEDER, Nicholas Winding Refn's 2nd feature film

2011-12-31T02:29:00.001-05:00

BLEEDER (1999)
D. Nicholas WindingRefn
Import DVD
1.85

After I saw the movie DRIVE thisyear I became a little obsessed with seeing other films from directorNicholas Winding Refn. I had previously seen BRONSON (2010) which Iwas very impressed with, and had caught up with his Viking epic VALHALLA RISING (2011) just before seeing DRIVE. But I had not seen any ofhis older films from when he was primarily still working overseas. SoI took a plunge and placed a large order from Amazon UK (grabbed someother dvd's I had been looking for too) and picked up this one andhis PUSHER trilogy. This was the first of that bundle I watched and Iwas suitably impressed.

BLEEDER is a street level drama abouta group of friends and how their lives change when the core couple ofthe group become pregnant. Leo (Kim Bodnia) and Lea (Live Corfixen)have discovered they are going to have a baby, but Leo really lacksthe maturity to handle the situation. He hangs out with his videostore owning buddies Lenny (Mads Mikkelson who went on to play the villain in CASINO ROYAL) and Kitjo (Zlatko Burik) watching movies allnight long, or trailing behind Lea's fairly dangerous brother, lowlevel gangster Louis (Levino Jensen). Louis is not crazyabout Leo anyway and he can sense that he is unhappy about the newsituation. But as things progress, Leo begins to slip into a sort ofpsychosis, growing more and more reckless and dangerous, making baddecisions as if to purposefully cause problems for himself until ithits the middle of the film and a huge problem that will impact them all.

The secondtier of the story is less tense, and what I suspect is more personalto the director. Lenny, who is obsessed with movies and practicallylives at his job at the video story has fallen for the pretty girlwho works at the greasy spoon diner around the corner. The problem isthat he has no personal communication skills at all. All he can do istalk movies. His friends are used to him, but in the real world hisis awkward, even backward to the point that he might even besuffering from Aspergers or mild Autism. His only connection to thereal world is through what he knows in the thousands and thousands ofmovies he watches. So he struggles to connect to this girl, who isactually not too different than he is, because she loves books inmuch the same way.

The first part of the story growsincreasingly tense as the characters play out the situations until itreaches the last act of the film and why it is called BLEEDER. It isnot what you think, I guarantee it, and it is far more disturbingthat you imagine, But it is thankfully tempered by the second storyof Lenny's quest to connect with this young lady.

The movie is told with a constantroving camera, almost always on a steady cam, but never obtrusive,and like his later films, using modern music as a way to punctuatethe proceedings and introduce characters and give them an immediatevoice. This was Refn's second feature film but his vocabulary wasalready in place.As his acting company, almost all who were in PUSHER and return here playing mostly very different characters than in that film.

One thing that I will say I have founda little frustrating with his films is that they tend to be a little light on the female character's motivations. He simply doesn't writethe most detailed females. His male characters are always fullydeveloped and complex, while his females are always kind of by thewayside, or just plot mechanics to move things forward. With thatsaid, BLEEDER is the one film of the bunch I have watched of his workthat suffers the LEAST in this aspect with the two female charactersbeing pretty close to fully formed here. Much more so than the womenin BRONSON and PUSHER for sure.

Right now BLEEDER is thehardest of his films to see, but it is for certain worth the effort.

Review

Sex, Demons, Euro Breasts, & Death

2011-12-31T01:17:00.002-05:00

SEX DEMONS AND DEATH AKA DIABOLICAMENTE... LETIZIA (1975)
D. Salvatore Bugnatelli
One 7 Movies – DVD
16X9 Anamorphic

This isn't exactly a lost classic or anything, but as far as some fun little bit of Eurosleaze goes, this is certainly fun enough to keep you entertained. It isn't up to par with the kings of the genre, or even the third or fourth tier rip off artists such as Bruno Mattei,.. Think the New York porno one day wonders if they were trying to do something a little classier with some Euro flavor and a supernatural bent and you might come up with this goofy mess.

Our couple cannot have a baby, suffering from guilt of abandoning their fist child to be raised by other more wealthy family members when they were younger. Now that they are much more well off and suffering a lot of mental anguish they set out to meet their child child again, named Letizia in a remote villa. Letizia has grown into a beautiful young sexual woman who seems to be possessed of some hairy, Ed Wood styled demon and begins to set the family and servants against each other in a repressed sexual frenzy.

Where everyone almost fucks everyone else, until the mid point where her very presence causes a hippie caravan of young people to throw her onto a hood of a car and what seems to gang rape her (it is off screen, so we have to assume that is what happens). Once home all bets are off and every one is crawling into bed with everyone else for carnal adventure that lead to some killings and voodoo in the last reel.

Think of this as Pasolini's THEOREMA on a six dollar and fifty cent budget and a screenwriter who doesn't have a clue what it all really means anyway. As long as the actresses are dropping their clothes and crawling around on the floor in desperation it all is working just fine.

The print is in horrible shape, apparently cobbled together from surviving print elements. But a movie this skeezy feels like it should be viewed on the backroom wall of some abandoned VFW anyway, so that is ok. The only extra is a pretty impressive and psychedelic trailer.

Review © Andrew Copp

Best films of 2011

2011-12-22T03:24:00.002-05:00

TOP 12 MOVIE OF 2011
By Andrew Copp

To try and shake things up a bit I have decided to not do a top ten, but a top twelve. Mainly because there were a couple of smaller movies I ended up liking a lot that I couldn't bring myself to not include on the list. At thispoint I still have not seen HUGO, which is the one movie people have told me I NEED to see. But I also really wanted to see TAKE SHELTER (I have no one to blame but myself for missing that one) which I suspect may have landed on the list somewhere too. But otherwise I am confident the list is where it should be...

There is a LOT of indie movies on this list, in fact it is ALL indie movies depending on how you define it. RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES came really damn close to making the list, as I REALLY liked that movie a lot. As far as Hollywood summer sci-fi goes it really was truly an amazing film. I have no issues recommending it to people and may very well buy it at some point. I also really enjoyed IMMORTALS, though so many other people seemed not to, but I would have no issue recommending that to friends or loved ones either. Of course THE MUPPETS found their way onto the big screen with a very respectable movie that pretty much captured the magic that wowed us as kids and keep us returning to those characters so much. So those movies are movies I had a good time with and enjoyed. But they didn't make my top twelve. They came close. In fact if this was a top fifteen then maybe they would be there. Maybe. But as this list rolls out, this is how it looks...

12) AMER -(D.Helene Catett, &Bruno Forzani) - This Spanish art-cum-horror modern day Giallo sexual coming of age thriller is a unique vision if there ever was one. I can fully see where it would frustrate easily distracted horror fans looking for cheap thrills, or art house fans who are unprepared for the reckless explosions of brutal gore in the last reel. But for those of us who love the Italian Giallo genre this is a treasure trove of atmosphere of tightening sexual tension, virtuoso camera work, and breathless style that takes you back to an era that is simply dead. Argento hasn't made a movie this good in twenty years. The movie deals with a woman's sexual awakening and thus, sexual repression, as we experience three distinct periods of her life and the very weird instances that shape them. The tension in the film can (and ultimately IS) cut with a knife and is very disturbing, but is distinctly sexy on ways that will make you feel very unclean. Bravura film-making on nearly eveevery level.

11) RUBBER -( D. Quintin Dupieux)- I have a huge bone to pick with what I have termed "hipster" film. The trailer to this movie sold it as such. A movie made specifically for a crowd of movie fans that have elevated themselves to that ironic detachment of only finding something entertaining if they can look down upon it and the audience that would find it fun in the first place. So thank god that instead what RUBBER actually delivers is a terrifically clever deconstruction of film as a viewer's medium of interaction. From the opening scene where the movie explains that it is indeed interacting with US the viewer and that within the movie is another audience that is participating in the outcome of the action on screen it changes the dynamic of everything. The whole psychic tire thing is purposefully silly and played for laughs, but not the slapstick dumb-ass type, but more the sly, fun type that I have not seen enough of since the heyday of Alex Cox in his prime. Plus it was a hoot to see Wings Hauser in a movie IN THE THEATER again. I look forward to this director's next movie. RUBBER is way smarter than it has any right to be.

10) RED WHITE AND BLUE -(D. Simon Rumley)- The less said about the plot of this the better. But this is probably the most EMOTIONALLY brutal movie of the year. RED WHITE AND BLUE takes horror into social boundaries I had not seen many, if any, other films go, and it really kicked my ass. The first two thirds actually function as a really dark drama, yet deliver more terrifying real terror than most horror films ever do. While too many modern horror films feel the the need to go far over the top with explicit gore these days in a useless game of one up-man-ship, they really need to look at this movie to see how EMOTIONAL IMPACT can be done and how it is FAR more devastating. This movie wrecked me more than anything in the stupid HUMAN CENTIPEDE movies. The final reel dips into far too familiar horror terrain and there far is a bit of a let down, but up until then, it is among the most refreshing, terrifying and original horror films to date. Fucking haunting is really the only way to describe it.

9) THIRTEEN ASSASSINS -(D. Takashi Miike)- Takshi Miike goes all classical on your ass with his attempt to make a Samaria film, and he proves himself more than capable to walk in the footsteps of his Japanese masters. The film is both a sweeping historical epic and an incredible balls to the wall action film with a climax that literally last a full on non-stop 45 minutes of bloody swordplay. But it is still a Miike film and has his twisted worldview and occasional bizarre humor, so that oddball flare that marks his work, while subdued this time, is by no means absent. It also has one of the most despicable villains in recent screen memory which really marks it as the kind of action film you love to cheer along with. Some critics may call this his masterpiece. While I would hardly go that far, it IS his most accessible mainstream film, but still retains his insanity. The perfect entry point to his work for newbies, but an incredible new Japanese classic is born as well.

8) TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL -(D. Eli Craig) - Horror comedies are so hard to do right. Personally I am even harder on them than the average person (for example I am not such a fan of SHAUN OF THE DEAD which seems to be the recent high water mark for the sub-genre). But this very low budget piss take on hillbilly backwoods cannibal massacre horror films is pretty brilliant on multiple levels. It manages to have its cake and eat it too by being a really smart deconstruction on the genre, while still being insanely gory, still has an actual horror story at the core, and most importantly has a HUGE heart and likable characters at the center. Which is what makes the whole thing tick. I am loath to say anything will become a genre classic anymore because in our sound byte culture nothing actually does, but if anything deserves to, this movie is it.

7) TREE OF LIFE -(D. Terence Malick) - Probably the most difficult movie on my list. People seem to either love it or hate (or are completely too fucking stupid to understand it...Signs having to be put up in theaters explaining to people it is an art film and you can't have your money back.. podcasts about it being the dumbest movie people saw all year? Seriously you people disgust me...) Honestly it is a movie that makes some demands on the audience asking them to ponder some pretty heavy questions to follow along with what in some ways ultimately is not a huge question, which is accepting death as part of life. But the movie pushes you to examine things, things about the universe, life and how life is put into action, about how we interact with each other and life in the universe. About growing up, our specific moments that shape us, about memory, and those fleeting wisps that will be there at the end. What all combines to make the tree of life? What will be there for those we love when we pass on? It is profound stuff, frustrating and oblique, and deeply beautiful. Yet it didn't make it higher on my list? It just didn't touch me as much as I thought it would. I found it more of an intellectual exercise for me than an emotional one. That is a personal thing that reflects me more than the actual film (which is also why MELANCHOLIA is not on my list at all and it is on many people's top ten. It is a beautiful film, but didn't touch me the way Lars Von Trier's previous movie ANTICHRIST did).

6) RED RIDING TRILOGY - This trilogy of British crime films technically came out in 2010 but didn't make it to American shores until 2011 so I am counting it. I am also counting all three films as one long interlocking film as they all play together as a long very staggering, brutal, storyline. Though all three films do work independently of each other as well. Each movie which take place a few years apart starting in 1972, dealing with a real life serial killer of children and weaves a very distressing story of police corruption and social discord in 70's and 80's era London. This is seriously hard boiled crime fiction here folks, gritty and street level as it comes with brilliant action at every level. While 2010 and 2011 saw THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO films get praise across the globe, these movies are actually the real deal. The movies that deserved the praise those over-hyped movies got. Seek these out, you will not be disappointed.

5) I SAW THE DEVIL -(D. Jee Woo-Kim)- The pinnacle of the current crop of Asian horror films. Perhaps almost too brutal for most people to bear, this is lean, mean and savage horror that plays by its own rules. Featuring Min-sik Choi the hero of OLDBOY as a rapist serial killer who finds himself being hunted when he picks off the fiance of the wrong man, someone with the tenacious nature and means to put him in the cross-hairs and make his life's work a dedicated matter of pursuing him. But not for a quick capture. Instead it is all about a slow stalk to make him suffer as much as his victims have. What sets I SAW THE DEVIL apart is that although it certainly IS one of the most violent movies in recent years, the director Jee Woo-Kim still knows when it is time to draw back. For example there is no wallowing in the sexual violence in the film, even though it IS about a rapist killer. That element is left more or less to the imagination of the viewer. The movie knows when tact is a good thing to have and when the sheer brutality serves the film. Which is often. Breathless, mesmerizing and agonizing, this is a primal scream of rage of horror that will leave you on the floor.

4) PEARL JAM 20 - Cameron Crowe is a filmmaker I frankly am not crazy about. But apparently he is a much better documentarian, and this dealing with the Seattle music scene cannot be denied. This is a carefully constructed, no minutia left unturned look at the last twenty years of this band and why they just work. The movie doesn't just start at the beginning but well before the formation of the band, as it looks back at the TWO bands before PEARL JAM was formed. But for me this movie hit me emotionally as PEARL JAM was one of my favorite bands throughout the 90's when I was in my 20's a very formative time in my life. So watching this documentary was almost like watching a documentary on my life in a lot of ways. But even more importantly it reacquainted me with the band again because I had stopped listening to them in 2000 when I went through a horrific break up with a women to which PEARL JAM was one of the few things we really shared. So I thank this movie for bringing them back out of the foot locker after ten years for me and reminding me just how much I loved them, and how terrific of a band they are. I've watched it three times already.

3) BELLFLOWER - (D. Evan Glodell) This one just came out of nowhere and knocked me for a loop. I knew nothing about what this was about except it was a love story about two guys who loved MAD MAX and were building a flamethrower. Which is actually really exactly what it is about. But it is SO MUCH MORE. The first half is just that, Woodrow (Director, writer,editor, Producer Evan Glodell) and Aiden (Co-Producer Tyler Dawson) are life long friends who have moved to L.A. and are sort of emotionally lost and skimming through life. They spend their days palling around, watching THE ROAD WARRIOR and building stuff like cars and a home made flame thrower. But when Woodrow meets Milly (Jessie Wiseman) it seems like things are going to get weird between the two friends. Maybe their friendship might suffer. But it doesn't, instead things go a much, much different direction at the film's mid point and it plunges into a much darker place. The film can be described as a love story that becomes the apocalypse, but that only touches one level. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the technical aspects of BELLFLOWER which is visually the most spectacular looking film on the list, with a unique and stunning style unlike anything else this year. A look that was achieved because the filmmaker BUILT HIS OWN FUCKING CAMERA... You hear that other low budget filmmakers?

2) SUPER - (D. James Gunn)- James Gunn's love letter to super hero movies, insanity and love lost is in a lot of ways the most brutally HONEST movie I saw this year. Rain Wilson has moments in this movie that are frighteningly raw in his portrayal that really made me uncomfortable because I recognized myself in them. Moments that some audiences will laugh at and say "what a fucking goof" but lots of other people will nod their heads in understanding and sympathy. While SUPER is a jet-black comedy on the surface, it is also a hugely sympathetic film about outsiders and people with mental illness trying to find a place in society where they are unwanted and can never fit in. A world where you put on a super hero suit and people magically love you, are at least in a diseased mind that thinks God touched you, that is what you believe. The kind of mind where the rules of society still hold meaning, where the bad guys STILL have to pay, and those rules STILL have to apply. Where order HAS to be applied to chaos and where you have to make your own best days, somehow.

1) DRIVE -(D. Nicholas Winding Refn)- Before 2011 I had only seen one NICHOLAS WINDING REFN movie, which was BRONSON. A movie I liked a great deal. But Now I have caught up with almost his entire filmography thanks to falling in love with DRIVE (and VALHALLA RISING, and revisiting BRONSON). I've discovered he is a filmmaker that in many ways is very close to my own heart. He understands that it is okay to have flights of of poeticism and surrealism, massive explosions of extreme violence populate his films as punctuation. He uses popular music as a way to say the things the characters often are not saying (or unable to say) for themselves (few directors are good at this, Michael Mann is the king of it, P.T. Anderson does it very well too). He likes to have his characters say less and the action on screen say more. All of this is in FULL EFFECT in DRIVE a movie that subverts action movie expectations from the opening frames with a car chase that takes place almost entirely inside the protagonist's car, then proceeds to have almost a half hour or more where the lead character probably utters ten words. But thanks to the impeccably chosen music we totally know who he is, what he is about and how he is feeling. We also love the movie thanks to the insanely well chosen cast of characters, beautifully played by people like Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks,Albert Brooks, Ron Pearlman and Oscar Isaac.The galvanizing lead performance by Ryan Gosling is simply hypnotic It is the one movie I saw this year when it was over, I honestly did NOT want it to be over.

THE WORST

Can't have a good year with out crapping on the floor. I honestly make an effort to stay away from stuff I know I will hate. I have friends who watch everything. I know I will hate say, the TRANSFORMERS movies, so I will not waste my energy on them. I've never seen one of them, and never will. But however I do have a weakness for low budget horror and exploitation and try to find even the smallest glimmer of hope when it comes to the part of the genre. So I more often than not get burned there. my worst films tend to come form that end of the pool...

DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK -(D. Soska Sisters)- People keep touting the Soska Sisters as some kind of no budget saviors of the DIY school of indie horror filmmaking. This movie comes complete with plastered comments from Eli Roth, and was picked up for midnight theatrical distribution by IFC. I saw it before all that shit happened and it has the ultra, ultra rare distinction of being one of the ONLY movies I have ever turned off before it was over because it was insulting my intelligence. I can put up with a movie being terrible, I can put up with being completely stupid if it is entertaining or fun. But this was neither, it was grinding in its in your face style of abrasive stupidity, flaunting things like logic, forward momentum, and simple story coherence all in the hardcore need to look and act hip and cool for the camera. Sincerely, if this exact movie had been made by two males it would be the laughing stock; no one would let it off the hook for being as bad as it is. For example, when one of the girls gets her arm knocked off by a semi truck they sewn back on with Fishing line. Mind you, this is not supposed to be a fantasy movie, not a supernatural film, or a parody, but an edgy, street level hard DIY crime movie... That is when I checked out.(and for real this trailer is edited way better than the actual movie is.)

HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 FULL SEQUENCE -(D. Tom Six)- Honestly this isn't much better. BTW I am gonna spoil the ending of this raging pile of poop so if you want to see it, skip this small write up. Seriously, Tom Six, this is my message to you... STOP being a showman, and go take a workshop and being a screenwriter. Or better yet, get you a co-writer. You have the horror community watching your every move now. You've done what you set out to do. So why can't you write a script that is above the level film 101? Yeah, this is disgusting, maybe some of the most disgusting stuff you are going to see. But really, who cares if the script is so lame? And REALLY, who cares when the final reveals the whole god damn movie turns out to be a fantasy in the lead character's head? Seriously, that is the biggest cop out of a lazy screenwriter. And in this case of a director who has begun to believe his own hype and is only using this movie to pat himself on the back. All I felt at the end of this was like I wasted my 90 minutes.

FRIGHT NIGHT -(D. Craig Gillespie)- I unfriended someone on Facebook who posted that they thought this was better than the original classic. Seriously? This is well made enough, but it commits the cardinal sin of any horror film, being boring. It has a weird lethargy that I have a hard time putting my finger on, almost like everyone involved couldn't get behind it and knew it was just going through the motions. Colin Ferell is especially wasted here in a role that he seems to be in a hurry to be done with. Watch him in a movie like IN BRUGES where he is fucking fantastic, then watch him here were he looks like he is on the verge of literally falling asleep at any given moment. At least they didn't jettison the gay undertones of the original, but they don't better them either. It just doesn't have anything new to offer and just lays there like a fish gasping for water.

And finally, the one I expect the hate mail over

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN -(D. Jason Eisner) I actually already reviewed it HERE. But needless to say I found this to be a hollow, soulless exercise. I keep seeing a lot of people claiming this does what the Tarantino/Rodriguez Grindhouse film failed to do, but it really doesn't at all. It is just a hyped up Troma film on meth. This is what you get from a generation of horror fans who grew up watching this stuff on DVD who think movies like this were like from the old days. It is gory, it has bad attitude to spare, but it is so abrasive and unpleasant, so filled with ugly characters, and screaming into the camera that after a while you can't even care. It is all completely calculated to give you what you want and left me wanting to turn it off and watch THE EXTERMINATOR or VICE SQUAD or even a Jess Franco film so I could experience the real thing.

So that is that. 2011 in a nutshell. See you in 2012 if the Mayan's let us live that long!!!

All Material © Andrew Copp

Introducing the EXPLOITATION NATION WEB SERIES!!!

2011-12-10T12:01:00.001-05:00

That's right, I have gone and done it! I have started an actual on camera series! For those of you who do not know I did this for almost 8 years on public access in a very similar format with a show called NEON MADNESS, so this is not new to me. I have been wanting to revive it for a long time, and finally got off my butt. This is the test pilot, so to speak, and a lot may change, or may not. Who knows. But take a look...

I review SYNAPSE'S FRAT HOUSE MASSACRE and SOUTH OF HEAVEN, check out what is happening on the NETFLIX STREAMING with the 80's British anthology SCREAMTIME, take a nostalgic look back at MY BOOTLEG LIFE with a take called VIDEO SCREAMS, and finally sit in the VHS corner with that lovely piece of shit ZOMBIE GANG-BANGERS. So set aside 45 minutes and take a look!

© Andrew Copp

It is brutal TO BE TWENTY

2011-11-24T02:42:00.001-05:00

TO BE TWENTY (1978)
D. FERNANDO DILEO
RARO VIDEO
1.78 ANAMORPHIC

Italian director FernandoDi Leo has managed a small resurgence as of late thanks to the finework of Raro Home Video's DVD's special editions. His large body ofItalian crime thrillers have finally started to find their way intothe hands of cult films fans who are discovering the craftsmanship ofthis little known (on this side of the pond) director. TO BE TWENTYis largely considered to be his most controversial andconfrontational piece of work. A huge failure in Italy when it wasreleased to the point that it was pulled from release and re-edited,it is a film that challenged audiences and critics alike.

The film follows two twenty year oldgirls Tina (Lilli Carati) the brunette angry one, and Lia (GloriaGuida) the more angelic looking, quieter and calmer of the pair, asthey go on various adventures over a week or so on holiday in the bigcity. Seems like a simple enough story, ripe for comedy or coming ofage, until one realizes that Di Leo is much more interested intelling a story about how society of the late seventies, a time ripewith the burgeoning feminist movement, civil rights activism andother liberal activities, is simply not as free as it often purportsto be. The two lead girls are the symbols of freedom as they rageagainst the old world society, the establishment and even their peerswho seem to be using the various movements they supposedly believe itjust to make a buck or lay around and get high. They dance throughvarious adventures trying to find a place to fit in, and listen tothe philosophy of a mime who explains about trying to findtranscendence, the commune leader who is using the young people, andthe sexually aggressive pseudo hippie who is actually an informantfor the brutal cops. In one telling scene they go door to doorselling encyclopedias to make money and are almost molested by alesbian and a professor, but end up together finding a lonely old manthey end up seducing on their own to ease his own loneliness as theirgood deed for the day. Another telling moment has a documentaryfilmmaker crash the commune and they spill their guts to his cameraexplaining their sad childhoods. With Tina raging about herbourgeoisie upbringing and how her parents make her sick, and Liatelling a sad story of growing up in an orphanage and later with afoster care at which she was molested by her caregiver. (In theextras director Di Leo explains these asides where actually theactresses ad libbing their own life experiences to what they thoughtwas a separate documentary film crew, not fully aware it was endingup in the final film).

Eventually the cops raid the communeand send the girls packing when they realize they have nothing to dowith the actual day to day activities there, but they couldpotentially “become terrorists” due to being some whatintelligent. On their way home to their home town they stop at a smalldiner full of blue collar workers and businessmen whose libidos theirvery presence happen to inflame leading to a shocking, devastatingending.

When the film was released the twofemale stars (who are stunning and gorgeous) were very popular in Italy so audiences were not prepared to see them in such a shockingand upsetting film. Once the word was out, people stayed away and theproducers pulled it, cut some troubling moments in the center of themovie and vastly changed the last five or so minutes changing theentire meaning of the film. But that version flopped too.

It is easy to see why. Not that it is abad film. Far from it. But TO BE TWENTY is a vastly unpleasant one.It comes from that time in 70's cinema when movies were asking hardquestions, and were very unafraid to just up and fucking brain theaudience to get the point across. If that meant doing really terriblethings to the young, beautiful, much loved leads, then so be it. Butwith this film it is much more, because TO BE TWENTY takes young,beautiful, vibrant and sassy freedom itself out into the woods andsavages it beyond recognition. This is nihilism laid out to die alonewith businessmen in three piece suits and their cronies walking outto fuck everyone else for another day. TO BE TWENTY is where freedom goesto die.

The DVD has both versions of the film in this 2 discset. I only watched the directors cut. The second disc that is theDirector's cut has some weird anomalies as it slips out of sync twotimes really bad. The sound stays that way for close to 30 seconds ormore both times. There is also some pretty severe print damage alongthe way. But otherwise it is ok looking, certainly a huge step upfrom the smeary VHS dubs I have been used to looking at over theyears.

Highly recommended for those who want to be challengedby their cinema. All other may want to be careful.

Review ©Andrew Copp

Trapped IN A GLASS CAGE (Blu Ray Finally!)

2011-11-17T00:31:00.001-05:00

TRAS EL CRISTAL (IN A GLASS CAGE) 1986
D. Agusti Villaronga

CULT EPICS

1:85 Anamorphic

Blu Ray and DVD

There are a lot of movies anymore thatclaim to be the most disturbing movies of all time. Last year ASERBIAN FILM sexually assaulted audiences, brutalizing them to thepoint that criminal charges were filed at a film festival in Spain.While that film is everything you have heard and more, it lacks acertain poetry; a lyricism to it's violence. So while A SERBIAN FILMmanages to violate you, and scar your psyche, it fails to engage yoursoul. But there is another film that hit the scene twenty five yearsabout that was the sensation of the time, that did all these thingsand more. A film that was so shocking when it came out that almostall film festivals refused to play it, leaving only Gay and Lesbianfestivals to embrace it, and even there it left audiences shocked anddestroyed. But it was horror audiences who found the film through theunderground critical writings of Chas Balun who praised the film inhis DEEP RED magazine calling it the only film to scar him on aspiritual level.

IN A GLASS CAGE is a film that is sodistressing that it is a film that almost has to be confronted asmuch as watched. But unlike a film like A SERBIAN FILM, this is notsimple shock machine, no aggressive attempt to piss in the audience'sfaces and make them feel sickened and disgusted. IN A GLASS CAGE isan honest attempt to look evil in the face, to explore the circularnature of evil. And even more distressing, it is a really upsettinglove story.

The film opens with a scene sure to upset the hellout of those more sensitive types. An old man named Klaus (GunterMeisner from THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL) has a naked teenage boy strung upin an old stone building. From the old man's behavior it is clear thescene has been that of a sexual nature. Someone is outside of thebuilding watching through the window. The old man takes a two by fourand beats the boy to death. He then heads to the roof and throwshimself off. But not before who ever was watching could gather thebooks and diaries scattered about that the man left behind.

Themovie proper starts, with credits playing over scenes of young boysin Nazi prison camps, letting us know the scene we had just watchedwas happening in during World War two. Then the movie picks up eightyears later and Klaus is not living in a villa under the care of hiswife, maid and young daughter Rena. He is confined to an iron lung due tobeing paralyzed from his suicide attempt. His wife, who is at the endof her rope from caring for him is in need for a live in nurse. AHandsome young man named Angelo (David Sust) mysteriously appears,and though his wife immediately hates him, he takes the job. Klausand Angelo seem to share a secret that connect them in the past, andsoon Angelo is tearing his way through the family. He begins tosexually abuse Klaus, turn on and off the iron lung, and repeat hismore terrifying experiments form the prison camps with children fromthe surrounding neighborhoods.

The film is a terrifying lookat how evil spreads from one incident, i.e. a war, or a moment ofunmitigated sexual abuse, and spreads through time like ripples onwater. Klaus and Angelo are destined to play out their dance of eviltogether to the point it almost feels like a love story. But alsoplaying into that is the character or Rena, Klaus young daughter whodoes indeed fall in love with Angelo, to the point that she clearlysees the awful things he is preptrating in her home, to her Father.That she learns the evil that her Father once was, and that she toowill perhaps inherit the cycle.

But make no mistake, IN AGLASS CAGE is no fly by nigh shock machine, it is a measured,thoughtful and at times hauntingly beautiful film that happens todeal with some of the most hopeless and sad material humanity couldpossibly offer. Agusti Villarongo has fashioned a truly disturbingfilm, that is also deeply poetic, visually stunning and achinglyheartfelt. It is disturbing because it is so damn HUMAN. Human inthat it shows the worst the human animal can offer.

CultEpics new Blu Ray and DVD is a significant upgrade over theirprevious DVD edition. While that edition was naturally a HUGE step upfrom the washed out murky VHS available for years, there was somesync issues, and subtitle issues on that previous edition and adistinct lack of extras. This new HD transfer is much cleaner withnice accurate colors (though the black levels seem a little lackingin detail at times to me). The Steel blues and grays are all verywell accentuated. The extras include three of Villaronga's oldershort films and two fascinating and lengthy interviews that shed somelight on his goals in making this now infamous film.

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge Oct 13: RED STATE

2011-10-17T01:47:00.002-04:00

REDSTATE (2011)
D. KEVIN SMITH
LIONSGATE
1.85

KevinSmith's controversial thriller is by no means a horror film, nomatter how much he or his fans try to tell you it is. But much to mysurprise is actually IS a fine little film. Mostly sure handed,offering no easy answers, exciting when it should be, brutal and uglywhen it needs to be, and forces a lot of thoughtful ideas into thelaps o an audience that probably would never give any of those ideasa chance had Smith's name not been attached. The movie only fallsdown in the last reel when it seems that Smith himself seemingly justcouldn't handle not throwing in his typical smarmy smartass humor,anda final walk off image that simply doesn't work. But 90% of the moviethat leads up to it is challenging stuff.

The movie beginswith a small scene in a high school class room where a very liberalteacher goes over the first and second amendment briefly and how itapplies to the FIVE POINTS CHURCH and their leader ABIN COOPER (in agalvanizing performance by Michael Parks). This church are basicallya version of the Fred Phelps clan protesting any and everything to dowith Homosexuals. That they are agents of Satan. In the High Schoolclass are three teen boys Jared(KyleGallner),Travis(MichaelAngarano)

andBilly Ray (NicholasBraun)have been talking to a middle aged woman online about meeting her forgroup sex. On the way to meet this woman they run into a parked car,inside of which a gay couple are having sex. Which turns out to bethe town Sheriff and his secret gay lover, This is a key point ofinterest later in the story. The kids meet the woman (Melissa Leo) ata trailer park and she drugs them and takes them hostage for the FIVEPOINTS CHURCH and Abin Cooper who intends to slaughter them duringone of his sermons as a sacrifice to the lord to show he is cleansingthe Earth of the filth and sodomites. The Sheriff has sent his Deputyout to find who hit his car, more to see who might have found out hissecret than anything. The Deputy finds something amiss at the Churchand gets shot for his trouble, Leading the Sheriff to call in theBATF lead by John Goodman who have been trying to find solid evidencethat the church have been hiding guns on the premises. But when theBATF get on the site and their commands go south once the shootingstarts, the government's involvement is as questionable as thechurch's.

Themovie is a clear acid in the face of the WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH andtheir evil protesting of Gay rights issues, soldier's funerals andeverything else they do. RED STATE could be easily summed up as THEWESTBORO CHURCH discovers the second Amendment and becomes THE BRANCHDAVIDIANS. But what makes it so unique is that for the most partSmith is careful to not lay too much of the blame at one oneparticular door step. The fanatical church is clearly shown asmisguided people, blinded by their religion. But when the governmentis called in the decisions made by them are really no less fanaticalor humane. Once again no easy answers are given, and no chance attrue living or presented. Just as much faceless slaughter isthere.

Kevin Smith loses his focus in two sections of themovie. In the last ten minutes of the movie he slips back int hisnormal smart ass, snarky writing with several new major charactersmaking useless sexual/ comedic banter that is very out of place. Alsothe plotting ends up turning on a very loose bit of very lucky plotdevices that feel like he had painted himself into a corner andneeded something o get out quick. Also the handling of the gaySheriff character is fumbled pretty badly, making him a drunk,insecure character, which would be fine, but with him being the onlyopenly gay character in the film to make him a laughing stock and aloser it sends a bad vibe to the audience. Also killing him ofviolently sends a nasty message to the audience. But my theory is theSheriff is the stand in for Kevin Smith himself, the very in thecloset gay guy who can't come out at all under in circumstances, thatit would ruin his life if he did. So it is ok to make that charactera bit of a laughing stock. At least in Smith's own eyes.

But those are the few smallcomplaints. For the most par I still say this is Smith's most maturefilm, even with the small slip ups, and if he intends to keep makingmovies in the this vein I will be glad to see what he is up to in thefuture.

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge Oct 12: Adam Wingard Short Films

2011-10-17T01:34:00.002-04:00

1000 YEAR DEATH (2005) and THEGIRLFRIEND (2007)
D. Adam Wingard
Synapse Films

35mm
Both are extras on the HOMESICK DVD

Both of these are extra feature short films on theDVD of Wingard's feature film HOME SICK. Both are in fact better thanthe feature film they are supporting.

1000 YEAR DEATH is asmall short art film that quickly becomes a one joke movie thatthankfully is a very funny joke. For the most part it is artfullyshort, erotically charged shots of four young teenage girls, twolesbians, and two other girls as they go about their day to daylives. A narrator begins to explain how these four girls are victimsof a violent serial killer, That their lives have been cut short byhis wrath that they will never go on to do the various things thatyoung girls go on to do. We hear the lives of each of these girlsWOULD have had, had they not met this violent man. We see them meethim, get strangled and drag their bodies to hide them. He narratesthis while it is happening, especially that one of the girl's bodieswill never be found. That is when a surprise ending comes to theforefront that changes everything we have just seen. Making itsuddenly more of a comedy of errors than the brutal art piece we havebeen watching. But it actually IS very funny.

THE GIRLFRIENDis vastly different. A much more straight forward horror piece abouta newer couple where the girl seems to be more committed than theman. She has convinced him to take her to meet his parents for theweekend, though it is clear he is not so into the idea. Pre-creditsthey stop at a late night convenience store so she can use therestroom and she runs into a some sort of evil entity that killed theclerk. Clearly what ever she ran into at the story has eitherpossessed her or took over her body. Once they meet his parents theNEW version of the girlfriend charms his parents and is a much moreerotically charged but clearly dangerous person. His sister, whoseems to be more than a little bit sexually interested in him aswell, seems to be clued into what is going on, but not before hisfamily starts dying.

The first film is an exercise ifformalism that gives way to suddenly comedy. THE GIRLFRIEND is a verycreepy exercise in horror fully of atmosphere and tension. Theperformers and good, but it is the queasy feeling of ongoing dreadand uneasy sexual tension that keeps this one alive.

Wingardshows a terrific visual mastery of the genre with these shorts. It iseasy to see how they landed him enough dough to make a feature, It istoo bad that feature was such a troubled production that it becameHOME SICK. But I hear nothing but great things about his new film AHORRIBLE WAY TO DIE.

Review © Andrew Copp

2011-10-12T18:49:00.001-04:00

ANDREW COPP'S THE MUTILATION MAN RETURNS
SPECIAL VHS COLLECTOR'S EDITION LIMITED TO 100 pieces!

Coppfilms is proud to release a very limited edition of Andrew Copp’s The Mutilation Man in a collector's VHS package. Only 100 pieces are being manufactured, each one hand numbered and signed by the director.

This new edition features a previously unseen longer edit of the film that includes 10 minutes of footage with slightly better visual quality than the older out of print DVD editions. The Collector's Edition VHS tape comes in a red clamshell case on an actual blood red VHS tape. The cover art comes in two different designs created by renowned underground filmmaker Andrew Shearer, each sold separately, with only 50 pieces available of each design for a total of 100 pieces. Extras on the tape include a previously unseen short film, trailers for other Andrew Copp films and a fun negative YouTube review for the film.

Andrew Copp’s The Mutilation Man came out in 1998 during the tail end of what can be considered the last wave of the 90's underground film movement. The film stars Terek Puckett (from My Sweet Satan) as a wandering performance artist in a burned out wasteland who does shows of self-mutilation to relive his miserable past of horrible child abuse. In flashbacks we see this abuse meted out by his drunken and psychotic father in a terrifying performance by underground filmmaker Jim VanBebber. The film approaches the subject matter in an obsessive, surreal manner that is comparable to the films of panic movement favorites like Alejandro Jodorowsky and Fernando Arrabal melded to the Italian gut slingers of the 80's.

"Andrew Copp's The Mutilation Man drags you, naked, over broken glass...The Mutilation Man is as hard to watch as it is impossible to look away." - HOLLYWOOD IS BURNING Yet, that same year on IMDB the film made the bottom ten worst films of the year with many casual viewers finding the film difficult, disturbing and just too much for them to stomach.

Due to the film being edited analogue and shot on a variety of film formats that were transferred to video for offline editing, the movie will probably never see a re-mastered HD presentation. This collector's edition may represent the last time the movie will be available to the public. So get them while they are still available; these tapes are already selling fast!

Price: $23 post paid in the United States. Overseas please add $5 more to cover extra shipping.

ORDER HERE

Halloween Horror Challenge OCt 11: VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL

2011-10-12T02:19:00.001-04:00

VAMPIRE GIRL VS FRANKENSTEIN GIRL(2010)
D. YoshihiroNishimura, NaoyukiTomomatsu
Sony
HD Video

From the directors and F/Xteams behind the 2008 hit TOKYO GORE POLICE comes this outrageousgore, monster, comedy that, frankly, I don't even know how to beginto review. Is it a good movie? No, not really, but it IS aconstantly inventive one. Watching VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRLyou are sure to see things you have NEVER seen before, and a fewthings you probably never will want to see again. Every frame of thismovie is jammed packed with color, movement, texture and lots andlots of spraying gore. If ever there was a movie that was practicallybegging you to pay attention it is this one. It is NEVER boring,every second pops something new for you to lock your eyeballs onto.But Jesus, at some point it almost becomes sensory overload.

Themovie opens with a crazy, crazy scene of our lead Vampire Girl (YukieKawamura) facing off with a trio of doll faced school girlmonsters. She dispatches them them gorily, stripping their skin offin long spirals and popping their skulls out, stacking them on thebeach before her boyfriend Jyugon Mizushima (TakumiSaitô) begins to narrate the tale ahead of how they met. Jyugonis the only real available boy in school and he is cornered by Keiko(Eri Otoguro) thepushy hot girl in class and soon he is her boyfriend. But the newtransfer student Monami sets her eyes on him and gives him achocolate candy with her own blood in it. Before he knows it he is craving bloodand wanting to be with Monami the Vampire Girl. What none of themknow is that the hot school nurse and school assistant principal aredoing experiments in the basement. The two girls are out to fighteach other over their new boy toy until he becomes a vampire too andMizushima ends up with her head blasted open on the pavement. Soonshe has become the experiment of the school staff and the nurse ismurdering the best students of the school to collect the parts torecreate her as the best fighting monster possible.

Thiswrite up doesn't even begin to do justice to the complete insanity ofthis thing. From the opening scene of over the top of comedicslaughter to the scene in the classroom where we meet the studentswhich is the most racist thing I have seen in a moviesince THE ETERNAL JEW. There is a subplot about a group of girls whohave remade themselves a faux Black girls by wearing make up and fakeafros and big cup lips and giant spears and every otherhorrible stereotype and racist thing you can think of. I guess I canreason it out as to be a commentary about people trying to go toextremes to be people who they are not. But my god it isterribly extreme and offensive. I guess that is the point.

Thereis also another subplot about ritual cutters, a group of teenagegirls who cut themselves to be part of a group. They end up in acompetition of who can cut themselves the most and best, complete witha trophy. The girls are all anemic and eat cabbage to keep up theirstrength.

But the meat of the movie is the battle betweenthe girls. It becomes a big F/X battle with body parts switchingplaces, blood becoming solid becoming actual weapons. It really isthe epic battle the directors set out to achieve, even if it is kindof stupid. With severed arms becoming spinning rotors to make peoplefly and things like that. Frankly this movie would probably work alot better if you were really really high. I rarely say that since Iam not a stoner, but in this case, well it fits.

I was a bigfan of TOKYO GORE POLICE because with all the insane imagery, wayover the top gore, and bizarre psycho sexual set pieces, there was astrong political and social subtext tying it all together. WithVAMPIRE GIRL VS FRANKENSTEIN GIRL it is almost like they set out tomake some really weird teen movie and are only lightly touching onany kind of social context at all. The stuff that makes that othermovie hang together is mostly missing here,and that is a shame.

I'mnot a fan of the new Japanese insane cinema like MACHINE GIRL orROBOGEISHA with cute girls with machine guns pupping out of theirassholes and thousands of gallons of blood. That shit is amusing forabout a minute but then the twelve year old in me starts asking for acontext for it and gets severely disappointed. TOKYO GORE POLICE hadthe whole package. This movie almost has it, then goes back to thecandy colored insanity. It is never boring for sure, but it is prettyempty unfortunately.

Review © Andrew Copp

MORE BRAINS: A Return to The Living Dead Documentary

2011-10-11T02:22:00.001-04:00

MORE BRAINS: A RETURN TO THE LIVINGDEAD (2011)
D. BillPhilputt.
CAV RELEASING

From thecreative team behind the award winning four hour documentary NEVERSLEEP AGAIN on the NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST. series comes this in depthexploration of THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. But unlike that filmthis is only a look at the first film in the series. At least as faras the first movie itself is concerned. Once you get into the extrasthey delve into the first two sequels at length (and for my money geta little more interesting, but more on that in a moment).

Soall the expected criminal minds are present from producer Tom Foxfrom the original screenwriter John Russo, the entire cast and lotsof crew people to even Suzi Q to talk about her musical contribution.In fact the only missing contributor is obviously Dan O'Bannonbecause he had recently passed away (but there is a lengthy interviewwith him as a DVD extra) and oddly enough Tobe Hooper who hadoriginally signed on as director by left the project before shootingbegan and then Dan O'Bannon signed on and totally recreated it fromthe ground up. Apparently there is some animosity there.

Forme there wasn't a ton of new information, but then again, I havefollowed the film for years, through the various video and dvdincarnations AND read and re-read the CINEMAFANTASTIC article thatwent into major depth about the troubled production back when themovie was released. But for fans who haven't spent years readingabout the film there is a lot of news here. Stuff I found of interestwas finally getting to hear the controversy about the effects workfrom the mouths of those involved and seeing actual pictures of F/Xman Bill Munns' aborted work. I couldn't believe how truly awful itwas, for years I read about his dismissal from the film, but couldn'tbelieve it could be as bad as the people involved claimed. He isinterviewed here and admits it is not his best work, but the picturestell the story and it is, well, embarrassing. I give the man props forbeing willing to take part in this documentary and own up to whatwent down.

The actors have a lot of fun stories, but oddlyenough not very many people have a lot of nice things to say aboutJewell Shepard, and she herself comes off pretty jaded about theproduction. There is also some pretty insane stories about GluGulager not getting along with Dan O'Bannon including him going afterhim with a ball bat and a big metal can.

Not shockingly JohnRusso down plays the successful nature of the film in his interviewswhere it is clear he just doesn't get it, the humor or what they weretrying to do with the movie. The mind boggles at what kind of immensepiece of crap this would have ended up as if he and his buddy's wouldhave stayed at the helm. He talks at length about how hewould have opened the movie, which ended up in his raping andpillaging of the 30 Anniversary of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

The extras include fairly in depthexplorations of Part 2 and Part 3. Part 2 sounds like an abortionfrom the get go, from the fact that director Ken Weiderhorn who washired because he had done a few other horror films, said on set hedidn't like making horror. Though that entry had probably the bestactual effects of the three it is the most uneven tone wise. It isbasically a kids film, the comedy is all over the place and it seemsthe the set was miserable at best. The actors all talk about how theydid not have a good experience being there. They also all talk abouthow terrible the script was.

Part 3 has a lot nicer things tobe said as everyone seems to have had a much more pleasant time onthat set and agree it is more unique film. Though the film wasbasically green lit from a farming out of ideas until they found onethat stuck. Everyone involved agreed that an undead love story was afantastic approach that took the series into a new direction.

Theinterview with Dan O'Bannon is bittersweet at best now that he isn'twith us. But his enthusiasm is infectious and his final walk off lineabout loving all his fans is quite beautiful. It is a sentiment thateveryone should remember about being famous.

If you are a fanof this series there is no reason you shouldn't pick this up.

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge Oct 10: The Akwekning (2010)

2011-10-11T01:24:00.001-04:00

THE AWAKENING (2010)
D. VinceTotenda
Blind Eye Films
DV

Boy if there ever was a baitand switch this is it. Just check the reviews on IMDB and they tellthe story. We got suckered too. On Netflix streaming this has FOURAND A HALF listed and the write up sounds like it COULD potentiallybe alright. So we added to the cue and watched what turned out to be the biggest piece of shit we have watchedso far in the October Halloween Horror challenge this year. The fourand a half star rating is clearly bogus, friends of the filmmakersjamming the star rating on Netflix (the film is also on Play Stationand other streaming services so watch out for such jamming on thoseservices too). Hey I don't blame them, I have myself have done itwith movies I have out there on various places and every indiefilmmaker has doesn't the same. Though I doubt any of us have gone toquite that extreme. But it doesn't change the fact that THE AWAKENINGis a turkey of epic proportions.

It isn't that the story is superhorrible, well it isn't good, but it isn't the worst. A group ofannoying hipsters get an invite to a rave out in the middle ofnowhere from some bimbo they meet in a bar. They set out to go tothis expecting to find the greatest weekend long rave in history butfind that a Mexican demon has possessed people and killed offeveryone there, and in turn started killing off their annoying shitgroup of friends. Along the way they pick up an extremely cutearcheology student who is studying the legends of the area so we cansome insight on what is going on.

What we end up with is an endlessconfused mess of a movie that can't figure out if it wants to be aslapstick comedy for the first half, a ridiculous idie rock ravemovie, or a road horror film. What it ends up being is a mess wherenothing meshes, and most of it just comes off as laughable at best.This is the kind of movie where you sit watching it wondering if thepeople involved have actually seen other horror films or if this isjust some sort of weird vanity project. There is a few almostworkable moments in the final reel, but everything is completelytelegraphed. I will say the movie is rather well edited, it does havethat going for it.

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge Oct 9th: The Baby's Room (2007)

2011-10-11T00:44:00.000-04:00

SIX FILMS TO KEEP YOU AWAKE
THEBABY'S ROOM (2007)
D. Alex De La Iglesia
Made for SpanishTV

This entry in the made for Spanish TV series that was thesouth of the border equivalent to our own lackluster MASTERS OFHORROR show is directed by Mexican insane man Alex De La Iglesia whobrought us such amazing works as DAY OF THE BEAST and PERDITA DURANGAand this year's acclaimed THE LAST CIRCUS. Fan's coming to THE BABY'SROOM expecting those kinds of cinematic fireworks might be a bitsurprised to find that this is actually a fairly subdued, chilly affair that has more to do with a movie like THE SHINNING than theover the top work he is more identified with.

The story dealswith a young couple (Played by JAVIER GUTIERREZ andLENOR WATLING)who have bought their first new homeand have just had a baby. They are given a baby monitor and thatnight and they hear voices over it that kind of freak them out. Thisleads them to pick up a video monitor for the baby's room to makesure there isn't something really wrong going on. Naturally theFather at least, ends up seeing some very creepy things on thatmonitor such as a man in a suit sitting by his baby son's bed, andlater a bloody body being dragged around the house. Unfortunately forhim, his wife does not see these thing, but only him entering theroom to pick up the baby while holding the knife he grabbed toconfront the intruder. Which makes him look crazy. Or IS he crazy.

The story quickly becomes much morecomplicated, involving ghosts, looking into the future and of allthings quantum theory. It is a heady stew that would be verydifficult to swallow, but Iglesia keeps it all moving fast and whenit gets absurd, be throws a terrific scare scene in to jolt you. Bythe end of the movie the jolts have become outright terror with aclimax that actually works.

It is nice to see a horror moviethat builds on story and actual scares, and not on trying to topitself with gory set pieces or out do other films in nihilism andbrutality which is too much of the genre has become lately. This is avery fine piece of work and highly recommended.

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge Oct 08: Psycho Sleepover

2011-10-09T02:47:00.002-04:00

PSYCHOSLEEPOVER (2008)
D. Adam Deyoe, Eric Gosselin
TROMA
S.O.V.

Thismovie starts off strong with some genuinely funny banter between aguy and his girlfriend Ginny (EmiliaRicheson) about how far their relationship has reached. She isall about the Eskimo kisses and he wants a blow job. There is somewitty and knowing dialogue about how they are 15 and 17 years oldeven though the actors both clearly look to be in their late twenty’s(a nice gesture since these kinds of movies always cast people tooold to be teenagers). Felicia Rose appears on TV as a newscastermentioning a maniac killer loose in the neighborhood. Soon theirargument reaches heated proportions and she leaves the room only tohear the doorbell. When she returns her dumbass boyfriend is nowhere to be scene but a maniac clown is at the door. A struggleensues with some funny gags along the way that ends with her leadinghim to a long stair case outside. Cue a funny pratfall down thosestairs and her dispatching him.

This opening is shockingly funny, withsome witty dialogue, fun performances and a very knowing wink to theaudience that they know what they are getting. Granted the movie ischeap looking, but it is forgivable because it seems like we are infor something fun.

Then the movie starts proper and there are signs thatthings may be rotten are afoot. The first sign is that the gaggle ofteen girls that are her friends has one of them played by aoverweight guy in drag. You can either look at this as a homage toJohn Waters or just an act of desperation. I'm voting fordesperation. Ginny's friends invite her over for a sleepover in hopesof getting her hooked up with a nice guy since she killed her lastboyfriend. Turns out her dad was killed by a serial killer too. OnceHome from school the doctor from the loony bin comes by to check onher, instead trying to get into her pants. The neighborhood nerdsare all excited to peep in the sleepover because they “might to getsee boobs and finally get to have a boner.”

At the loony binthe Doctor brags that he is going to go get busy with Ginny at thesleepover and blabs the address. Then leaves the door unlocked to theplace and all the serial killers and crazies wonder out into thestreets to start killing people. They be-line to where the sleep overis. Of course the doctor was given a false address so some innocentpeople are killed along the way.

The movie is tolerable, but just sillyuntil the boyfriends show up, then it just plows into stupidsvilleheadfirst. Pretty much from this point on out the movie is just dumbjokes that wouldn't hit if you threw them against the wall. Silly sexjokes where they are clearly not having any kind of sex, juvenilegross out antics that are annoying instead of funny. The opening thatseemed aware of genre conventions seems to get tossed out the windowin favor of a kitchen sink approach of any possible joke just to seeif it could work. The tedium of unfunny to funny wears out itswelcome. By the time you get to a moment that does work you reallyhave stopped caring.

There is a major plot twist by the laterthird when it turns out the girls running the sleepover are actuallypsychopaths themselves who lure guys over to kill them for fun. Sooutside are dozens of loons trying to get in, the girls inside arecrazy too. The only normal people are Ginny and the virgin PeepingTom Nerds. It all climaxes to a huge free for all blood bath that ismore tedious than fun. Though to be fair the movie finally has somenudity from no name extras who come out of nowhere to play toplesspsychopath extras. So finally a movie about a sleepover gives asmidgen of naked flesh.

Ultimately PSYCHO SLEEPOVER is aresounding failure, which is a shame, because it started off sostrong.

The DVD includes a commentary,outtakes, deleted scenes and several behind the scenes featurettes.So have fun with that stuff!!!

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge Oct 07: RICKY 6

2011-10-09T02:21:00.001-04:00

RICKY 6 (2000)

D. Peter Filardi

No Distributer

This fairly serious attempt to make a dramatic film out of the true crime book “Say You Love Satan” is actually pretty good. It is the fourth attempt to tell the story of suburban Satanist killer Ricky Kasso falling behind Tommy Turner's 1987 WHERE EVIL DWELLS (which was never properly finished due to the drug addictions of many people involved), 1994's MY SWEET SATAN by Underground auteur Jim VanBebber which is heavily fictionalized but still the best of the bunch (and I worked on extensively as a crew person and can be seen in if you look quickly) and the 1998 film BLACK CIRCLE BOYS which is not too bad either but nose dives in the third act with a completely bogus resolution.

But for what it is worth this film seems to the the closest to the facts by all accounts. I personally have not read the book, nor am I up on the real case outside of seeing the pretty lame documentary SATAN IN THE SUBURBS so I can't comment too much on how much it keeps to reality. I can say that the feel of the film is a naturalistic one, with acting that is not over the top, and an eye toward realistic location work. The film is set in 1983 small town where there is nothing to do but get high and listen to rock music. This is where we meet our lead characters (names changed from the real ones) Ricky Cowen (Vincent Kartheiser) a high school kid with heavy emotional problems. He is being dropped off to the local teen group for drug users and troubled kids. Here he meets Tommy Portelance (Chad Christ). They don't make friends right away, but bond later at school over the fact they both like to smoke pot and both find the girl in group attractive. Soon they both are friends and sneaking off to get high. One day Ricky sneaks off to check out the girl of his dreams in the library while fucked up on angel dust and ends up spending the entire day reading witchcraft books instead and it bends his mind to Satanism. He meets the local loony Pat Pagan (an over acting Kevin Gage) in the local occult shop and soon he is dabbling in black magic, trying to raise demons and getting his friends involved in the occult. He is also pounding harder and harder drugs along the way. Soon Ricky and Tommy have decided they are full fledged satanists, with Ricky in particular buying into the life. During a bad acid trip he sees demons and then Jesus and attempts to kill himself. He claims Jesus found out he saw the light in Satan and tried to kill him. Tommy and Ricky decide to flee to California to meet Tommy's real father since he is adopted. To raise the money to start selling mescaline at inflated prices. A friend of theirs rips them off in a deal which sets the scene for the murder they end up being famous for.

For the most part the film is anything but a horror film, it is more a dark slice of teenage life with the trappings of occultism surrounding it. Anyone who grew up in the 80's will recognize the music, hair styles and jean jackets. That general malaise of being an outcast teenager in the 80's where you didn't fit in and the music of Judas Priest could easily be telling you to pick up a gun and waste some motherfuckers. But of course smoking all that angel dust could have a LOT to do with that too. RICKY 6 goes a long way to getting those details right. An early scene where Ricky is playing catch with his step father is one such scene. His Step Dad purposefully hits him with the ball and Ricky tries to run off, but the man grabs him and wrestles him to the ground yelling at him about how he wont throw a temper tantrum about every little thing. It is a power play in front of the whole family and you can easily imagine the dick doing this often. It is a scene that went down in suburbia all the time. The kind of thing that drove teens into drugs, fights and violence all their own. Still does every day. On the contrary the movie has several fantasy sequences that work in varying amounts. The first two that deal with Ricky's early paranoia and introduction to Satanism don't really work and come off forced. The meeting Jesus scene and later an effects heavy hallucination of his parents dead and demons in his home is completely off putting. But much later right after the murder he hallucinates he is walking through hell and comes up to Satan sitting up on a huge stump. This bit of fantasy is truly stunning and one of the most effective moments in the entire film. For one, the devil they have created is one of the most simple yet frightening creations I have seen in a movie. The whole scene works psychologically and as just simple scary imagery. Later there is one more hallucination where he imagines a party scene where the demons are asking him to kill himself that works well too.

But the movie is not without some major faults. The first big one is the casing of lead actor Vincent Kartheiser. His performance is actually pretty good. It is certainly shaded well, and he goes along way to make Ricky sympathetic. But the problem is that I never bought him as the kind of kid that the other kids would follow, which is what happens. He is too goofy, too wholesome. He is just the wrong guy in the part. He would have been good in the Tweasel role, the kid they ultimately kill. In fact when the movie starts I thought that was who he was supposed to be. Chad Christ as Tommy is very good and I believed him, the lead role needed someone more edgy like him in the lead. There is also some love interest that takes up the mid section of the film that is just dead weight, it goes nowhere and fills very little purpose. Finally the biggest problem is the final murder scene. It simply isn't vicious enough. Granted I am not the right person to give an unbiased review of this as I worked on another film of this story and the murder scene we worked on is widely considered among the most violent ever shot. I don't know what the real life details were but even if they are somewhere in the middle of the two films, this movie pulls back by taking the point of view of the side lined characters who are on drugs, thus being able to play it out in a surreal manner. It soft peddles the scene, confuses it at times and robs it of the final narrative punch.

For the most part RICKY 6 is a fine film with a lot to offer. It really is too bad it isn't available to the general public. Though I can't imagine how audiences in 2000 would have reacted in the post Columbine panic. I have heard that is part of why the distributor pulled its release though I cannot find any actual proof of that. I have also read on several internet boards that the producer is in Jail for some sort of money scheme and that is why the movie is unreleased. Once again I have no hard proof of that as well, so who knows if that is fact. Third unfounded reason is that I have heard there were music rights issues as this is filled to the brim with 80's hair metal such as DIO and IRON MAIDEN and lots of others and there has been talk that not all of that music got properly cleared at some point. But that seems silly as it could have simply been replaced. None of it is integral to the film.The movie is all over torrents and grey market sites and even You tube in a really crappy version (but you kids love watching movies on the you tube anyway!) so check it out. It is worth the effort to track down.

Review © Andrew Copp

Here is Tommy Turner's Unfinished version of the same story
WHERE EVIL DWELLS

New Synapse Blu Rays: Maniac Cop and Frankenhooker

2011-10-08T02:06:00.000-04:00

MANIAC COP (1988)
D. BILL LUSTIG
SYNAPSE FILMS.
Blu Ray

I haven't watched the original MANIAC COP since it originally came out back in the 80's. It was a movie that frankly I remembered liking, but not loving, and I remember liking the sequel more (though to be fair I haven't seen it since it came out as well). So checking the movie out on this new Blu Ray release was almost like getting to see it again for the first time.

The first thing that struck my right off the bat was just how deliciously detailed the new transfer from Synapse is. This is easily one of the best looking HD transfers I have seen. Admittedly I'm not a journeyman when it comes to Blu Ray having only been buying them for a little over a year. But from frame one, the MANIAC COP transfer floored me with how clean and clear it was. The opening credit sequence that shows the cop putting his gear on in ultra close up behind the credits, is rife with crazy detail. You can see thing likes the peach fuzz on the Maniac Cops gloves for crying out loud!

The movie jumps quickly into the meat of the film with a barely seen police officer murdering people on the street for what seems like minor infractions or even nothing at all. Hard nosed Police detective Tom Atkins is on the case but no one on the force wants to believe him including the Chief (played by SHAFT himself Richard Roundtree). Tom Atkins figures it out pretty quickly that the perpetrator is a cop. Meanwhile Bruce Campbell is a cop who is having an affair with another female officer, When his wife discovers his indiscretion, she runs out on him only to be killed by the Maniac Cop, clearly being set up to take the fall. From this point Bruce will have to find out who is the actual Maniac to clear his name. Meanwhile lots of people are still ending up dead, especially at the exact wrong time to have his name cleared.

Lots of things set MANIAC COP apart form the late 80's tide of crap. First off is the smart script from Larry Cohen. As per usual for him, the script takes the more insane sounding ideas and makes them sound ridiculously plausible. That is his god given gift as a screenwriter. The other big deal of MANIAC COP is the slick, serpentine direction Bill Lustig gives the whole production. While it is obviously not a huge budgeted movie, clearly there is a little bit more money here than usual, and it shows on screen with some really solid stunt work, good locations (Seems a lot was shot in L.A. doubling for New York, but I was totally fooled) and a gliding, prowling camera the best Giallo film would be proud of. Then there is the roster of B-movie actors making a payday and bring their A-game from the great Tom Adkins, to William Smith and Richard Roundtree. The only performances in the film I am not crazy about is Bruce Campbell and Laureen Landon. Campbell I have just never felt was hard edged enough to fit the material , and Landon is just not that great of an actress, she is fine as eye candy, but when called to emote, she is not cutting the mustard, especially across the table from guys like Atkins or William Smith. There isn't much bad you can say about Robert Z'Dar in the roll, he is menacing, and scary, and in the main shower scene beat down, he takes it like a man.

If you are a fan of the film, this is worth the upgrade simply for the gorgeous Hi-Def transfer which really is one of the nicest I have seen. I guess there are some extras gone missing from the old releases to this one, but hey you can't have it all. There are some good interviews with Atkins and Z'Dar, and a whole host of trailers and a bunch of cut scenes dealing with the Mayor, that while interesting are obvious why they were cut as they slow the movie way down.So all that stuff is still here and pretty worthwhile. But it is the new transfer that is the star of this disc.

Also out from SYNAPSE FILMS.

FRANKENHOOKER (1990)
D. FRANK HENENLOTTER
SYNAPSE FILMS
Blu Ray

The first film made but second released, in the two picture deal with Shapiro /Glickenhaus pictures in the late 80's (the other film of course being BASKET CASE 2, and then eventually BASKET CASE 3) this is easily Henenlotter's funniest film to date and his most accessible. While on paper the plot sounds outrageous and slightly misogynistic, the final film is anything but. It is a super silly, almost lighthearted parody of teen romance films and the FRANKENSTEIN mythology. It is FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN meets 16 CANDLES.

Jeffrey (played by the super talented and funny James Lorinz) accidentally kills his girlfriend (played by Penthouse pet Patty Mullen) in a horrible Lawnmower accident. But instead of sitting on his laurels crying he sets out to bring her back using his limited knowledge of science and biology. But first he has to gather enough parts to put her back together after the accident. He doesn't mind if she is a little "improved" along the way. But being a pretty nice fellow he can't bring himself to just go and cold blooded kill women so he invents "Super Crack" That will blow up anyone who smokes it. Thus letting the hookers he will meet choose their own demise. Then he can take the parts home and build his own bride.

Completely silly and over the top, with funny lead performances, FRANKEHOOKER has stood the test of time more than a lot of other films from that era that tried to be funny and failed, such as something like GIRLFRIEND FROM HELL or DEATH SPA. That plays out from Henenlotter's expert sense of the absurd. Each crazy set piece mounting to top the last, from the exploding cracked out hookers to the mutant body parts becoming their own little monsters at the end. The movie continues to surprise at each turn. Henenlotter also peppers his movies with lots of funny and cool side characters like Zeus the pimp, or the googly eyes john who gets humped to death.

Then there is Frankenhooker herself an awesome make up creation but brought to life by a lighthearted performance by Patty Mullen who keeps the character child like no matter how crazy of shit she is called on to do. She is terrific and very memorable in the part. Probably the biggest reason the movie is still hanging around to this day. That and that great old "Wanna Date" VHS packaging.

The new Blu Ray from Synapse is as good as it will ever get for FRANKENHOOKER. The old extras from the special edition DVD are carried over here, but the new HD transfer is just gorgeous with solid beautiful colors. This movie is saturated with purples and blues, all which looked washed out and faded on the old VHS and first edition DVD's. The Special Edition DVD from Unearthed looked very nice and was a great improvement, but this new HD transfer is well worth the double dip for fans. The movie never looked this good.

So both these flicks are essentials for your Blue Ray collections!

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge Oct 6th Pt 2: ZOMBIE GANG BANGERS (1997)

2011-10-07T02:56:00.003-04:00

ZOMBIEGANG BANGERS (1997)

D.Walter Webster
Salt City Ent aka Sub Rosa

S.O.V.

Ithink I am going to try something a little different this time andactually blog this movie AS I watch it.

Music by The DevoutSound System!!! For a solid ten minutes into the movie we get nodialogue and dancing, dancing, dancing! Looks like they snuck into areally lame club and were going to make damn sure they got the mostuse out of the footage as possible. On the positive side there is afairly hot stripper pole dancing during the entire scene too. Towardsthe end a zombie attack happens... I think. It is so damn dark it isreally hard to tell.

Latera teen kid comes home to tell his drunk ass abusive dad he wasattacked by “mean ass zombies” only to get beat for his trouble.A drunk brings home a hooker to meet his infantile adult babybrother, and another couple breaks up because he catches his women onthe phone with some dude, All lite with horrible harsh red light thatmakes the video bleed and bleed and bleed to the point that itthreatens to blow your video screen right open.

BabyHuey and his old man just killed that hooker and now grumpy old manis humping her. So far there is no plot. Just disconnected randomscenes. Stephanie Beaton has sat at the bar for at least the firsttwenty five minutes of the movie. Is this going to be her entirerole? Why are there Zombies running around? They just attacked her.They have ate everyone else but they are trying to rape her? Guessthis is why it is called ZOMBIE GANG BANGERS huh?

Thesongs sound like DIE KRUPPS.

Oh Nice. She is talking to thecops talking about how she tried to fight off her attackers and justwhipped out her tits to prove how much they hurt her. To show off herbruises! This movie is CLASSY!!! Now they just made a crack about howthe economy is shot to shit because the president is a Democrat! Andthe cop just threatened to rape her himself and he just slapped herto put her in her place! Wow! Annnnnnd Now the cop is raping hertoo... All because she is a “whore” as it has been explained...

Thiswould be offensive if it wasn't such a bottom of the barrel belowpublic access level piece of shit.
I think a fifteen year old withsever problems with women wrote it though.

“Youdon't know what it's like to be raped by zombies!!!”

“You'rea whore Alice, and now you are letting these slobs beat you and rapeyou. You need a good therapist!”

Professional dialogue.David Mammett would be proud.

Wait Kitten Natividad is nowstripping. She's not young, but she's still got it. (obviously beforeher unfortunate bout with cancer. Still glad she beat that and isstill with us though).

Holy shit, is that THOR hitting onStephanie Beaton? Nope it isn't but it kind of looks like him.
Ohno. The Rapist Zombies are back and raping her again. And the fatBaby Heuy guy is one of them. And a Japanese Tourist is takingpictures too.

Seriously who makes a movie like this?

Heythe one Zombie has an afro...

It looks like the chunky adultbaby one is fucking the hood of the car and not her actually.

Herfriend Betty is a twat. Why does everyone keep telling her what awhore she is? Oh look a couple of dogs trying to hump in thestreet...

Hollywood is a fucked up place.

So now theyhave gone to the Hollywood mondo store to meet Dr. Mondo to have himmake an “ass-kicking tough Zombie Ninja” to help them fight. Shehas gone through the litany of showing off her tits, ass and legs toconvince him. Claiming that if her tits get any more bruised theywill never be the same!

The Chroma levels on the tape are sobad right now do to shitty lighting that almost nothing can be seenthrough the pink and red blurring.

Ohshit. The ass kicking zombie is a rip off of Jim Carrey from The Maskby wearing a Jester outfit. Kill me now. Kill everyone now...

Thishas now turned into a complete and utter rip off of THE MASK butwithout the then ground breaking digital effects. For the last tenminutes we have has a cut rate Jim Carrey impersonator doing an ultrashitty impression of that character. This was more painful thananything else in the movie so far.

Now, more zombie rape.

Oh,no. It is ALL IN HER HEAD. She is in a mental hospital and she hasbeen getting shock therapy the whole time!!! But the Doctor is apsycho too! Cue shock ending!!!

But wait the end credits listDIFFERENT a different director! Someone named Jeffrey Scott... Whatthe fuck?

I bet SUBWAY is thrilled to be listed as cateringon this movie!

Stephanie Beaton was kind of a hot property atthe time this was made with those WITCHCRAFT movies and what not, whyoh why make a humiliating piece of shit like this? The world may neverknow...

Review © Andy Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge Oct 6th: THE SLIT-MOUTH WOMAN

2011-10-07T00:39:00.000-04:00

THE SLIT MOUTH WOMAN (2005)
D.TakaakiHashiguchi

SACRAMENTUSA
Full Frame (Streaming on Netflix)

Subtitled

Thispopular Japanese urban legend has been made into several films, butthis one takes an unusual track in that it is primarily asexploitation film with at least five full on soft-core sex scenes ondisplay with bouncing breasts and tentacle like tongues probingaround. The filmmakers seem to be far less concerned with delivering ascary movie then displaying hard nipples and those god awful snakelike tongues of the cast. Yet for all the humping on display themovie is at heart a MESSAGE movie about, body image and how the mediamanipulates people's perceptions to a negative degree!

Thestory deals with a haunted cosmetic surgery hospital where a ghost ofa woman with a split mouth haunts. For reasons that are notparticularly clear the place seems to be a bit of a hang out for people togo to get busy. In the opening scene we get a huge breasted nurseand doctor taking a break from their job to play doctor only to getinterrupted by the ghost. Jump forward to the place after beingclosed down and a spunky female reporter has been assigned to findout about this “Split Mouth Women” legend.

At home her husband iseyeballing her younger step sister in rather leering manner so wejust know they will be making the beast with two backs before themovie is over. Meanwhile her little sister's boyfriend is creepingaround the closed hospital with a young cutie that he seduces infront of a mirror, only to incur the wrath of the red dress wearing,huge smile ghost.

Eventually the ghost haunts pretty muchevery cast member in the film (but only actually kills one) and ourreporter figures out who she and her tragic backs story which dealswith a disfigurement and plastic surgery gone wrong.

Themovie is very strange in that it has a very sincere theme of people,women in general, needing to be happy in their own skin and notfeeling they are not beautiful as they naturally are. There is aclear indictment of plastic surgery, fashion magazines and even meanfathers and boyfriends who push women to fit in and change to pleasethem. YET, the movie fills the running time with soft core sex, withis in the end ALL about aesthetic pleasure and watching beautifulwomen, so it is sort of hard to rectify the message with thedelivery...

The movie's biggest problem though is that itpicks the wrong areas to be extreme. The sex is pretty graphic(though not by western standards) with the near constant tongueaction becoming literally like watching a squid trying to climb intopeople's mouths. Yet when it comes to the horror scenes, the moviepulls back, every single time. When it comes time to present the“shock” climax it is the prefect set up for a character to havetheir tongue bitten out since that is ALL we have seen is tonguesexploring everywhere. But alas it doesn't happen. The movie avoidsgraphic horror in exchange for subdued and it doesn't work.

Theghost is pretty scary with all her backwards cranked footage andcreepy hair, but even that is something we have seen before. If youwant Japanese sex and gore horror I just say check out the ENTRAILSOF A VIRGIN/WHORE movies instead.

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge Oct 5th: DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (1973)

2011-10-06T00:09:00.001-04:00

DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (1973)
D.John Newland
Warner Brother's Archives
Made For TV

This1973 made for TV horror movie has a lot of memories for old schoolhorror fans and was recently remade by Guillermo Del Toro'sproduction company. But many fans seem to prefer this low-fi originalwith it's tiny rubber monsters and hysterical leading lady. As Ihave been doing all month I have been dipping into the piles ofhorror flicks I have neglected to take a look at in the past and thismini classic was another of those movies.

Kim Darby (best known as the neuroticmom from 80's classic BETTER OFF DEAD) stars as a a young wife of aupwardly mobile businessman. They have just purchased a home in hopesto make a new life together. John Hutton plays her husband and fromthe get go it is pretty clear he doesn't value her the way he should,that his work comes first. In the basement of the new house if abricked up fireplace they are warned not to mess with, but of courseshe cracks it open. Soon there are these tiny little creaturesscampering around the house tormenting her. Naturally her husbanddoesn’t believe her at all, even when things aren't adding up.Finally it all climaxes on a stormy night after they little ghoulshave managed to drug her.

While the movie is not reallyviolent (only one person dies) it is consistently creepy, preying onthose fears we all have of things we can't see in the dark. Thosesame primal fears that make us afraid of things like rodents, snakesand small animals. If you are afraid to go into a darkened room, orto have your feet hanging off the side of the bed this is the kind ofthe kind of thing this movie exploits effectively. Every-time thelittle creatures in DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK creep around a bookcase or are under a table it is the universal fears we all have.

The treatment of the lead femalecharacter in the movie is abominable though as every character in themovie treats her as she is stupid, hysterical or just being a child.Even well past the point when her Husband should be excepting thereis something going he he clings to the idea that she is somehow atfault, until it is too late. There is even some dialogue taking thepiss out of Woman’s Lib. Making this very much a sign of the timesit was made.

But at the end of the day the movie isstill very effective, and most if that is because of the creepylittle monsters and creative photography involving them. It is nosurprise people still remember this one.

Available remastered from the WarnerBrother's Burn on Demand Archive.

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge Oct 4th: DOG SOLDIERS

2011-10-05T15:05:00.000-04:00

DOG SOLDIERS (2002)
D. NEIL MARSHALL
ARTISAN
1.85

This debut feature film from Neil Marshall put him on the map and made him a major player in the genre. This along with GINGER SNAPS went a long way to make werewolves interesting again. Then TWILIGHT came along and made them goofy as hell but that is a whole other ball game...

The movie explores how a group of soldiers in training run into a family of werewolves in the hills of Scotland. After losing a few of their own they hole up in a small house with a local female who saves them during a fight and it becomes STRAW DOG SOLDIERS for a little while, until some fairly obvious plot twists happen in the last third of the movie.

The things the film have going for it are great designs on the werewolves themselves, a fantastic sense of action and terririfc frentic pace. Where it falls down is in the logic and script department. Neil Marshall is a terrific visualist and can wring suspence like few others, but as a writer he fails misreably at times, and this is a prime example (see DOOMSDAY for another example of his films which look great, is fun to watch but has a terrible script). Characters are faced with a supernatural situation, they appear to understand, but continue to treat it the same dumb way, never looking at it from a perspective that might save them. Characters in their midst is clearly a werewolf they even are given clues, but they never figure it out until it is too late. TWICE. Logic continually is thrown out in the face of forward moving action, and it ultimately hamstrings what starts out as a good, fun monster film. The first half is very recommended, but by the final third I found myself tunning out because the writing was just not working anymore.

Marshall has gotten much better as I feel THE DESCENT is one of the best horror films of the last ten years, and CENTURIAN, though not perfect (it has some writing issues as well) is pretty great too. But this has a lot of the birth pains of a debut film.

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Movie Challenge Oct 3rd: PLAGUE TOWN

2011-10-04T01:25:00.001-04:00

PLAGUE TOWN (2008)
D. DavidGregory
Dark Sky Films/ Severin Films
1.85 - 35mm

Thisdebut feature film From David Gregory who is most known for hisextraordinary work in the DVD world on extras for BLUE UNDERGROUND,and who went on to form his own company with SEVERIN. He also formany years fought the good fight against censorship in the UK withhis older label EXPLOITED back in the 90's and he produced severalamazing documentaries the British horror scene. So this film issomething of major interest for those of us who have followed hiscareer on the side-lines of the industry.

PLAGUE TOWN is anodd beast, a gothic fairy tale cum splatter film with a definiteBritish horror vibe throughout. A film that begins with the familylost in the tough wilderness of such classics like THE HILLSHAVE EYES but becomes something much different as it progresses. Amuch weirder, more mercurial beast altogether that is hard to compareto much else out there.

The story begins with a wicked sceneof a baby being born in a distant cabin and the local Priestpronouncing the unseen child an unholy abomination of the Devil. TheParents of he child wisely decide this is not what they are wantingto hear. Apparently the local church has been doing this aroundtown for some time and the parents decide to take matters into their own hands ina scene of vicious brutality that sets a tone for the film thatseems like it will be hard to match. The movie matches it.

Fourteenyears later an American family and one European interloper arerunning around this same bit of countryside taking a vacation. Theydecide to hike through the ruins in an attempt to find some familytime but end up running afoul of the incestuous brood that has comefrom the family that was allowed to live in the opening scene. Seemsthat they have for years been trying to have more kids by findingmore people to breed with to attempt to cleanse the gene pool with noreal results.

The film becomes a nightmare of every fairytale you can think of in the second half as the mutant inbredchildren take center stage in the hunting and torment of the cast.The film plays on the rarely used primal fear of deformedchildren, but it also taps that fairy tale nastiness. Few moviesattempt to do it, but even fewer do it well.

The design work in the film is thefinal element that makes it all work. The make up on the children,and especially the make up on Rosemary the teenage girl who was bornin the opening scene are all top notch. Add to it the costumes and set designs that aremore subtle than you would expect and it adds up to an amazingly wellthought out and designed final film.

Some viewers may find the very Europeanpace and atmosphere to be off putting, and occasionally the unlikablelead characters make it hard to find someone to cheer for, and add tothat they now typical nihilistic horror ending and the film is farfrom perfect. But there is so much interesting, imaginative andbreathtaking moments in the film that it cannot be forgotten orignored.

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge: The Rules of Play

2011-10-03T02:03:00.000-04:00

This is the third year in a row that I have done my Halloween Horror Movie Challenge. The idea is to cram as many horror movies into the month of October as possible, and to blog on the results here as it goes. But there are a couple of rules I do have for myself to play by.

1) At least ONE horror movie a day, IF possible. Of course we are grown ups and stupid real life can get in the way. BUT that is the CHALLENGE of this whole thing isn't it? So try to squeeze one a day in.

2) They have to be movies I have never seen before. Absolutely new films to my viewing eyeballs. Not movies I have seen as a kid and forgotten, not movies I love to watch over and over again. Fresh stuff. This is also a good way for me to plow through the ridiculous piles of movies I own that need viewing.

3) I must blog about the results as close to immediately as possible. Once again keep it fresh.

4) They have to be HORROR movies. They CAN be hyrbid horror such as horror-comedies or sci-fi/horror or the like. But I can't watch say some gory action film and try to argue it is a horror movie, or some sleazy Drive-in Jess Franco flick and call it a horror movie by association. These have to be horror movies at heart.

5) Comments are encouraged and welcome! This much writing can get tedious after a while, even if the actual watching of the movies is fun. So if there are no comments it can get discouraging, like no one is reading (which I know isn't true!) so please feel free to play along at home and comment. Watch your own films and comment!

I may set up some time later this week to do a LIVE chat via this website and we can watch a movie together. That could be something fun to do. So we cna see how that goes..

Thanks
Andy Copp

HALLOWEEN Horror Challenge Oct 02nd Pt 2: HUMAN EXPERIMENTS

2011-10-03T01:43:00.000-04:00

HUMAN EXPERIMENTS (1980) AKA - BEYOND THE GATE

D. Gregory Goodell
VHS (Supposedly Coming on DVD From Code Red - Some day)

Linda Haynes plays a country western singer who ends up running afoul in a small redneck town and gets blamed for a particularly savage multiple murder. Because of this she ends up doing a life sentence in a women's prison slash sanitarium where the warden is doing bazaar behavior modification experiments using the inmates.

After a truly gripping opening ten minutes where Haynes stumbles on the house filled with fresh dead bodies and a teen boy waiting with a shotgun that she is forced to kill in self defense, the movie slows down and changes gears. There is some really unsettling scenes when we first get into the prison establishing how far degenerated several of the clearly experimented on inmates are as well as a humiliating bit of preparation by the guards and nurses. But after that it is really dull going for a looooong stretch of time. Nothing scary happens, and nothing sleazy really happens either for a good half hour, making this neither work as a horror film or a women in prison flick. Not until a prisoner hangs themselves at the 45 minute mark and then Haynes masturbates with her own tears about ten minutes later does the movie hit any kind of peak. After about the hour mark that great low budget bugaboo the crappy performing band makes an appearance, this time no name band called SATAN AND THE LUCIFERS! I also forgot to mention the creepster opening moment when bar owner Aldo Ray tries to get her to make it with him and she refuses and he calls her a cunt. Super classy guy.

A lot does need to be said for Linda Haynes performance though as she is quite good with the limited material going for the slow burn breakdown. Geoffrey Lewis is creepy as shit as the doctor running the joint too, with lots of scenes of his eyes filling the frame as he looks through the metal slats that peek into the doors on the solitary confinement rooms or or as he talks about his entomology hobbies.

Unfortunately the movie feels endlessly padded with lots of scenes of the women eating in the mess hall, or working in the fields, or sleeping. Yes we get it, they are in prison but the movie needs to get on with the storyline , not lingering around waiting for something to happen.

Finally in the last fifteen to twenty minutes the movie takes off and begins to move along and take shape. As Haynes character attempts to escape the prison, the film turns inside out and literally becomes a vivid horror film. She begins to find bodies of other inmates who have been part of the experiments and hallucinate her worst fears. By the end we realize the full extent o the awful things the doctor is doing to his patients and with the full cooperation of the other inmates.

By no means a successful film, but there is a mean streak throughout HUMAN EXPERIMENTS that makes it fascinating, and there is certainly pieces and parts that are undeniably effective. Too bad this is a movie that is not as strong as a whole as it is in parts. If only that midsection could be tightened up this could be a really good movie. The opening is great and the last twenty minutes are solid. But the midsection is very hard to get through.

Review © Andrew Copp

31 Day Horror Challenge: Oct 2nd: GINGER SNAPS

2011-10-02T23:28:00.000-04:00

GINGER SNAPS (2000)

D. John Fawcett
Lions Gate
1.85

For reasons that I can't fully explain I have somehow missed this one up until now, so it was about time I pulled it off the shelf and checked it out. This Canadian made teen werewolf movie has a lot of respect in the horror industry in the last decade and I am happy to report that I can se why. Smartly scripted with a lot of strong undercurrent of teenage sexual tension, the film has a lot to say about growing up, sisterly bonds, and finding oneself in the shadow of someone who tends to shine brighter.

For the few uninitiated GINGER SNAPS is about two teenage sisters both of who are obsessed with death and have made a pact to be outcasts. Bridgett, (EmilyPerkins) the younger and more introverted of the two seems to have a more level head on her shoulders, while Ginger (Katherine Isabelle) seems to be more impulsive and manipulative. She is the one who has forced her sister into a suicide pact (more out of boredom than anything) and constantly seems to bemoan the lameness of everything around them. Neither girls have gotten their periods for reasons that are never explained. But Ginger finally does and on the way home from pulling a prank one night theay are attacked by a giant wolf. During the chase the wolf is hit by a van driven by the town drug dealer and killed. But Ginger slowly begins to change; both physically, growing a tail, claws and patches of hair, and emotionally; by becoming sexually agressive, bitchy and violent. It is only a matter of time before things turn violent, and the monster inside of Ginger will find the way out.

The movie is sleekly directly and moves at a great pace, asking you to think about the situations as they are put forth. But does so with some nicely placed humor along the way. The only real problem I had with GINGER SNAPS was that I found the character of Ginger to be fairly unlikable. I should have been connected to her more, but for all her problems and attempts at being an outcast she ultimately ends up being a bitch more often than not. A big part of the plot of course is the journey of her younger sister finding her way out from her more dominant sister, but I found it difficult to like Ginger at many times during the film.

But that is a small complaint in the over all final film which is a stylish, violent, and at the final moments, surprisinly touching, flick. I see why it resonated with the festival audiences, and genre fans when it was released. I'll get around to seeing the sequels at some point though I has heard from many they are not nearly as good.

Review © Andrew Copp

OCTOBER 31 Day Horror Movie Challenge 2011. Day #2 Brain Dead

2011-10-02T02:31:00.001-04:00

BRAIN DEAD (2007)
D. Kevin S. Tenney
HD

This roucaus nudity filled, splattery Sci-Fi throwback was a nice evening out after the low budget ridiculousness HORROR OF THE HUMUNGOUS HUNGRY HUNGAN we watched earlier. While this is certainly low budget, BRAIN DEAD is consistantly inventive, fun, and always knows when it is time to deliver the goods, whether that be beautiful naked women, or healthy splashings of gore.

The story isn't terribly knew, a space rock blasts through a redneck fisher-man's head instantly turning him into a zombie (who in turn rips his friend's head open and eat's his brain). Then we spend a solid amount of time meeting a menagerie of characters (mostly female) from a Preacher and his beautiful assistant who he is trying to bed down (who has the best set of boobs I have seen in man a moon)

to some skinny dipping med students and unforunately a couple of bumbling criminal dudes who are the leads. They all end up holed up in a broken house with the monsters coming after them. Turns out a space parasite is moving from host to host ala NIGHT OF THE CREEPS or THE HIDDEN turning people into monster/zombies attacking them. It is still the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD model but here made fresh with a lot of inventive directing, very likable characters, and loads of cool special effects. And some of the hottest women I've seen in this type of movie in a long time too.

Kevin S. Tenney's movies have been hit or miss with me, I like WITCHBOARD a lot, NIGHT OF THE DEMONS is ok, but WITCHTRAP is pretty awful. This is is another hit for me as for as I am concerned. I hope it isn't a number of years before he ends up directing again.

Review © Andrew Copp

OCTOBER 31 Day Horror Movie Challenge 2011. Day #1 HORROR OF THE HUMONGOUS HUNGRY HUNGAN

2011-10-01T23:45:00.001-04:00

HORROR OF THE HUNGRY HUMONGOUS HUNGAN (1991)
D. Richard Gardner
TROMA
16mm (??)
This super weird, no budget Troma negative pick up rotgut starts off this year's October 31 day Halloween Horror movie challenge with a bang. Or a wimper actually. The pre-credits sequence has a long bit of narration featuring Jack Palance explaining the title and some voodoo legend bullshit explaining the word Hungan. This leads to a guy and gal in the woods who are chased by the cheapest monster this side of my friend's backyard werewolf movies. The monster doesn't rip out the guy's guts, he just lightly pats them. The gal knocks off his Halloween monster mask head and the cheapskate graveyard of dimestore props goes up in flames. Then...

She wakes up cause it is all a dream. Yawn.

After a pretty decent Pantera rip off song over the credits the real story jump starts with a medical dorm being haunted by a voodoo "Hungan" with a dumass Security gaurd, a giant black Janitor and some weirdo Lab guys doing top secrety experiments. Turns out the yahoos at this place have ressurected the Hungan from the pretitle sequence Frankenstein style in hopes to do their bidding ("We took a federal grant to cure cancer but you used it to create a BEAST!") . Meanwhile the local kids are having a house party with a band called "Cry Wolf" where the camera sits at the back of the room or cuts the the lone black guy in the crowd but never actually focuses on the craptacular band. The Hungan lays on the medical bed for a while, gets injected and rip off John Carpenter music plays.

Finally the Hungan gets re-animated and goes on his rampage about half way through the movie and starts tearing up the preriferal cast. There is some splashing, but not convincing gore, then we cut BACK to the party with Cry Wolf complete with a Pee Wee Herman impersonator!!!

Then we are back to our teens, the bimbo who keeps dreaming o fhte Hungan and her boyfriend who sounds like he would rather be in bed with any of the male cast members then with her. In her dreams the Hungan murder her again, but we can his voice echo inside his mask.

Before long the gang are in the woods camping, which they have been talking about for the first half of the movie. The hungan has followed them there and is picking them off in long protacted stalking scenes in braod daylight. The Hungan looks like a wrinkled, haggered Rick Astley. Some unseen woman is using voodoo to control the Hungan, but is clearly not making all the guys take off their shirts and hang out together by the tents and talk endlessly about the crappy band. It all climaxes in the Hunky shirtless guy and the Hungan fist fighting in a bought of fisticuffs that rivals the excitement found in the final minutes of THE GUY FROM HARLEM'S kung fu. And in a clear nod to the Oscar worhty films of Hal Needham it all ends with a reel of goofy outtakes and bloopers!

If Rhonda Shear's UP ALL NIGHT was still on the air this would be perfect fodder for the 3:00 am time slot. I am not sure if this means if it is worth watching or not.

Review © Andrew Copp

What's in the BIG BOX in THE BASEMENT?

2011-09-26T01:35:00.001-04:00

THE BASEMENT - Retro -VHS collection

CAMP MOTION PICTURES

THE BASEMENT

CAPTIVES

VIDEO VIOLENCE

VIDEO VIOLENCE 2

CANNIBAL CAMP OUT

This overwhelming package of shot on video (except for THE BASEMENT which was shot on super 8!!!) horror and sleaze is a true horrific throw back to a simpler time when cult horror film was not such a pretentious enterprise. When people who picked up a video camera to make a horror film and released it to the market place really had their hearts in it. Not weened on their parents pocket books, film schools and You Tube to make them believe they are going to be the next big cult film sensation and have their cocks sucked by the mainstream. The films in this set are charming in their backyard exuberance and true love of the art-form itself.

The folks at CAMP MOTION PICTURES clearly remember the days of not only releasing this kind of product but watching it too, because why the hell else would you go to the trouble of releasing a five film DVD package that is co-featured inside a big box VHS of the main feature film? This is a nostalgia release for those who grew up haunting the mom and pop video stores renting trash like this. Not LIKE this, but this ACTUAL trash. I remember looking at the actual big box releases of VIDEO VIOLENCE and CANNIBAL CAMP OUT at my local much loved Video store VIDEO CASTLE back in the day. So if for nothing else this release brings back fond memories.

The main film in this set is the super 8mm epic anthology THE BASEMENT, a film that was apparently never finished back in the 80's due to processing errors that only now, with technology catching up, have allowed the movie to be put out in a watchable form. Directed by Timothy O'Rawe, the sick mind behind cult favorite GHOUL SCHOOL, this extremely low budget offering is like a group of friends sitting around a campfire spinning EC Comic style tales. None of them are terribly scary, but the sheer effort involved makes them all kinds of lovable anyway.

The stories are being told by a some creepy demon/death like figure in a basement to a group of friends as they leave a party. Apparently it is a foretelling them of their doom. The first story SWIMMING POOL is about a bitch middle age woman who discovers her swimming pool has a monster in it and how she can manipulate folks over to it for her own gains.

The next one is the closest to the classic EC style called TRICK OR TREAT about how Classic Monsters deal some revenge on a dude who is not giving them the respect they deserve on Halloween night. ZOMBIE MOVIE deals with a low budget movie being shot and the asshole director who is not noticing that the zombies are a little too real for comfort.

And finally the most invovled story in the movie and the one that apparently was the most damaged when shot. HOME SWEET HOME is about a guy who buys a house with haunted past and forgets to check into the murderous past involved.

For a super 8 film especially, the movie is all around pretty ambitious and each story gets progressively more involved and even more intense. The second story with the classic monsters is probably the most fun, but the last story is the most successful as for as being a true horror film goes. Over all it is pretty much right in line with the late 80's direct to tape horror boom and would have been right at home with that product had it made it out as intended the stores. Kudos to Baltimore film maker Chris LaMartina for his fine brand new score for the movie. A lot of time and effort, as well as money, has been spent putting THE BASEMENT back together and it shows.

Next up is CAPTIVES the "lost" film for Gary P. Cohen the director of VIDEO VIOLENCE and his most serious picture. This never got a proper release because it was not really a horror film, and certainly not funny or a parody. Not polished enough to be considered a "real" film, but not scrappy enough to be campy. What you have a finely made, well mounted, underground film that takes itself very seriously. A tightly wound thriller, that is unfortunately shot on video and because of that destined to never be taken seriously in the climate at which it was made.

The film is basically DESPERATE HOURS meets THE CANDYSNATCHERS in whcih a trio of criminals descend on the house of the female of the groups former husband in an attempt to not only rob him, but get revenge on him and his new family. Seems he has started over since she has been in prison all these years. Turns out HE burned their house down killing their son, but SHE took the wrap for him for the years in the pen and now she is out and wants some answers and respect. So she is here with her new psychotic boyfriend and mentally handicapped brother to make it all come together.

Surprisingly violent, even more surprisingly well written, with some really good performances, CAPTIVES is a movie that would have been much better served if Cohen had been able to get more money together and actually shot it on film. Or even went another route and made it as a stage play. As it stands the technical limitations hinder what is at its core a REALLY good movie.

Rounding out the package are the three Camp Motion Pictures that have been released on their own before VIDEO VIOLENCE 1 & 2 and CANNIBAL CAMPIOUT which I have reviewed previously when they were originally released. So here is the text of those previous reviews:

CANNIBAL CAMPOUT

D. Jon McBride

This flagship release for the Camp Motion Pictures DVD label seeks to cash in on the nostalgia of the shot on video shoe-string backyard epics of the late 80’s…

(Sounds of crickets chirping as the readers look around in confusion and awe)

Yeah, it surprised me too. But actually a few of those S.O. V. flicks aren’t half bad. You could accuse them of not being half good as well, but what they lack in technical finesse they make up for in heart. And CANNIBAL CAMPOUT is definitely on such movie. Compared to other S.O.V. turds like HELLROLLER or EYEWITNESS MURDER, CANNIBAL CAMPOUT is a downright masterpiece!

CANNIBAL CAMPOUT tells the simple tale of a group of not terribly bright college friends who decide to go camping even though there are rumors of people disappearing in the woods. Naturally they are besieged by a trio of ax wielding maniacs distinguished by one being a talkative sex fiend, one wears a flight mask and motorcycle helmet and is called a retard by his brothers, and the other one, apparently the leader, wears the bib overalls of the family. Surprisingly the kids (led by director Mcbride) are not all that annoying, and badly delivered dialogue aside, are a likable enough bunch that you feel kinda bad when they get offed.

While the movie offers nothing new either in story or style, it does what it sets out to do with an earnest nature and plenty of the red stuff. While the gore is not exactly Savini level, it is plentiful and pretty savage at times including one spot where it is downright offensive (A compliment if there ever was one for this type of film!) The villains are a rough bunch with some vicious dialogue that I swear I’ve heard ripped off in some recent big budget movies including the line “Shut up or I’ll staple yur titties to the roof of the car!”

For being shot with a consumer camcorder in 1988 the flick is surprisingly well shot, with nice coverage of scenes and really nice composition. The editing is also really well done (remember this was before every kid had a computer with editing software). Though the dialogue scenes could be tightened up a bit in places.

Overall, CANNIBAL CAMPOUT wins you over with its youthful charm and grossout factor. The script is lacking, but everyone’s heart is clearly into what they are doing and that goes a really long way. In fact it is refreshing to see a shot on video movie where everyone cared about it enough to spend a YEAR’S worth of weekends shooting it instead of the 48 hours most youthful “filmmakers” of today throw at their productions.

Not exactly groundbreaking but if it is a rainy Saturday afternoon and you need a cheesy gore fix, this should do the trick just fine. DVD includes deleted scenes (trims really) a 40 minute making of / where are they now style documentary, photos and trailers for upcoming CAMP releases including the much loved (by me anyway) VIDEO VIOLENCE series!

VIDEO VIOLENCE 1 &2

D.Gary P. Cohen

This duo of shot on video epics from the 80’s definitely stand well above the norm in their field. In fact it is safe to say that the first one is a minor classic in the arena of S.O.V. productions. Savily written, well-directed and even decently acted, VIDEO VIOLENCE was truly a surprise when it was released.

I must be going soft in the head! This is a shot on video regional quickie that I found myself enjoying quit a lot.

The plot concerns a video store owner who gets dropped a snuff film instead of one of his rental tapes. As he investigates he finds a general reluctance from the town to help and people start dropping like flies, and always in front of a video camera. A definite conspiracy begins to unfold.

The real surprise here is that the twists don’t seem telegraphed, and the lead characters aren’t as stupid as the average horror flick. The snuff angle was very fresh at the time, with only Roberta Findley’s cheesy grindhouse epic SNUFF and Roger Watkins classic LAST HOUSE ON DEAD ST being the only other films to exploit that angle.

The whole production is reasonably well put together, with good editing and sound, which is always a problem with S.O.V. productions. The gore score is reasonably high too. The attack in the deli should delight gorehounds all over with the well-done splatter.

Part 2 is unfortunately a step down in quality in more ways than one. This time the movie centers on the villains from the first movie who now have their own Snuff oriented underground TV show. On the show they torture and kill women in various splatterful ways. As unpleasant as that sounds, the movie plays out in a very tongue and cheek manner, much more so than the serious first movie. Very little here is taken seriously at all, which makes the almost misogynistic tone easier to take.

This episode was also shot on lower end S-VHS equipment so the picture and sound quality are a big step down as well, making this one less appealing to watch on that lever too (which makes it a perfect addition as an extra feature on this DVD!).

Overall this package of THE BASEMENT and the co-features is probably one of the best

bangs for your buck going right now. Five movies, all pretty good as long as you understand what you

are getting,and lets be real if you are buying this package you TOTALLY understand what you are getting. Plus that extra VHS collector's tape of THE BASEMENT and the beautiful big box packaging too. Plus there are a fistful of short films as extras on the first disc that are all really pretty good too including one called DON'T DO DRUGS that throws around the red stuff in a very liberal way. Your really can't go wrong. The whole thing is a VHS festishists wet dream come to life and a must have item for the nostaligic gorehound.

Clear the sewers RATLINE is here

2011-09-22T01:44:00.000-04:00

RATLINE (2011)

D. Eric Stanze

Wicked Pixel Cinema

Underground Auteur Eric Stanze and the Wicked Pixel crew are back after the success of their last film, the very spooky and ambitious DEADWOOD PARK. This time Stanze is back into the grittier blood soaked territory a lot of his fans may feel he is comfortable in. But don't let appearances fool you, RATLINE is in a lot of ways his slickest, and most challenging work. Stanze is still bending genre conventions at will, here he does it in a roller-coaster fashion, never letting the audience get a good foothold long enough to know what hit them. There is enough story, gore and character in RATLINE for several movies and Stanze keeps all the balls in the air surprisingly well.

The film begins with two sisters played by Wicked Pixel regular Emily Haack and Alex Del Monacco in a jam. They are ripping off some thug at a car repair garage for a large sum of money and have killed him. After cleaning up they are on the run. They head to a small town in Illinois to hide out where an innocent young woman named Penny Webb (Sarah Swafford) has offered them a boarding room. She is working for her Grandfather in the city offices helping him relocate the city graveyard since urban sprawl is setting in and many of the ancient graves belong to be people long since moved away.

Elsewhere in the city there are what appears to be a series of occult oriented crimes being committed, people turning up missing, pets disappearing, and sexual assaults all related to what appears to be Satanism. We find this out from a series of newspaper clipping on the walls of the Self styled satanists themselves, a rag tag group of teenagers including another Wicked Pixel Regular performer Jessie Seitz as the girl who video tapes their crimes.

***do not read the next two paragraphs if you do not want spoilers to the plot of RATLINE***

The Satanists are killing neighborhood dogs and bathing in the blood in moonlight sex rituals to try to bring about their lord and master, but the action is just not good enough. So they set a plan in motion to grab a person for slaughter. They set a trap to grab a passing motorist and almost get the two sisters from the beginning but their streets smarts prevent it. They do however convince a good Samaritan played by Wicked Pixel regular and producer Jason Christ to stop and help. They quickly kidnap him and take him to an abandoned warehouse for slaughter. But things don't go as planned. When he in fact VICIOUSLY turns the tables and kills every single last one of them in a stand out scene that will have gorehounds on their feet.

Seems that the Satanists were just a plot red herring, and that Jason Christ as Frank Logan is the real villain of the film. As the plot unfolds we discover he is in fact a supernatural killing machine from World War 2, created from Nazi Occult experiments, and he has returned to find the other scientists involved. Seems they have the ritualistic Nazi "Blood Flag" used to create him and with it he can secure his continuing immortality. Penny's Grandfather was involved in those experiments and has the flag. So Frank will stop at nothing to get it. But there may be other connections to the sisters as well.

What Eric Stanze has done with RATLINE is take a complex story and weld it to a Saturday afternoon exploitation style framwork and make both styles work with ease. The film spends the first third being basically a grindhouse horror movie filled with splatter and naked people, basically speaking loud and proud to the horror kids making sure they get their fix. Then the REAL villain of the piece arrives and knocks everyone's dick in the dirt. That's when the plot is allowed to get moving and to everyone's credit the movie does not slow down, it only get's more interesting thanks to a dynamic story and good acting all around.

Stanze's films always have a lot of complexity to them, and he usually delivers a lot of information in one fell swoop. Case in point how ICE FROM THE SUN stops for the main character to hear all about how the rules of the game to work, or the lengthy flash back in DEADWOOD PARK (that is a incredible and dynamic sequence). In RATLINE he finds an almost brilliant way to get a lot of information into the open in one fell swoop by having a character watch a declassified government film on the Nazi Experiments. The film is one the filmmakers obviously produced themselves but the replication of the era is astonishing and it is a fascinating artifact. Once that scene is over we know exactly what is transpiring.

Though RATLINE is not all blood and fire. One of the best elements of the movie is that there is a lot about relationships. There is an eroding relationship between the sisters because of the crime they have committed. Emily Haack's character has an emotional issue's dealing with her estranged Father. Penny has a nice relationship with her protective but conservative Grandfather and best of all there is a rather touching and very well handled love story that develops between Emily Haack's character and Sarah Swafford's. Seems that Swafford's Penny is a Lesbian but hiding because of the conservative community she lives in and Haack is a bit older and been through a lot more hard times and they fall for each other. In the middle of this rough and tumble horror film there is this amazingly toughing, very soft-hearted love story subplot that really works. So much that I kind of wish it had gotten more screen time as both actresses are really good together.

In some ways this is one of Eric Stanze's best films. It is lean, and free of fat. While I love all of his work, a lot of horror fans have trouble connecting to his more esoteric work. This one is much more trimmed down, and accessible to mainstream fans. While still keeping the things that make his work great. There are no compromises here, but the story telling is great, the film-making technique is top of the line and the actors are all on board.

RATLINE is available on Amazon.com as a streaming or direct download rental or purchase and as a DVD directly from Wicked Pixel themselves. The newly released DVD has two commentary tracks one with just Eric Stanze, the other with the lead actors and Eric, an hour long behind the scenes documentary and of course the WPC trailer reel. So if you are a fan of Eric Stanze's other work or just really solid Indie horror films, you should do yourself a favor and just check this out. It is yet another winner from the WPC cannon.

Review © Andrew Copp

Ratline - Trailer by dreadcentral

The streets get cleaned up in HD. THE EXTERMINATOR hits BLU-RAY...

2011-09-11T23:36:00.000-04:00

THE EXTERMINATOR (1980)
D. James Glickenhaus
1.78 Anamorphic Widescreen
Blu Ray /DVD Combo Pack
Synapse Films

This seminal exploitation action classic is finally available again on the digital format after being out of print for a number of years. It was available in the very early days of the DVD format in an acceptable but not particularly impressive ltbx dvd release that was in turn just a port over of the Anchor Bay Ltbx VHS release from the late 90's. This new release see's the film for the first time totally remastered in full HD and totally uncut for the first time ever with some scant extended violence. No full scenes mind you, but when you see that fist infamous decapitation you will totally notice how it is much more juicy and unpleasant that you have ever seen it before.

For the uninitiated THE EXTERMINATOR is another in the very popular late 70's canon of revenge fantasies featuring the everyman who is pushed to the limit by some ferocious street crime and sets out to clean it up on his own. Here a lot of the structure is handled differently making the film interesting. Robert Ginty plays Vietnam Vet John Eastland whose best friend (played by B-Movie Kung fu actor Steve James) is beaten and mugged by low level street thugs. This vicious beating lands the poor guy in the hospital paralyzed. So John sets out on the streets to find the thugs to do them in. But even after quickly finding them he realizes this is not quite enough. Mounting hospital bills and just a general feeling of drowning in the filth of the street sends him on a mission to continue to take out the trash. Working his way through the various scum and street life of New York.

Many things set THE EXTERMINATOR apart from other grindhouse examples of the genre right from the get go; namely solid performances from Robert Ginty and Steve James (who is unfortunately not on screen very much). James is set up early in the film to be the actual hero of the piece as he saves his best friend not once, but twice. Once in the incredible, violent and harrowing Vietnam opening sequence, then later in the scene that introduces the thugs that will do him in. The film pulls a fast one by having him crippled and Ginty become the the avenging spirit of the film. It is a smart bit of scriptwriting to play it out this way and both actors do a good job of creating a real sense of believability in their friendship. Early on when Ginty finds a pair of thugs responsible for his friend's condition one of the thugs tries to reason out his behavior by claiming "it doesn't matter, he was only a nigger!" sending Ginty in a searing rage. He exclaims back to the thug "That...Nigger is my best friend you motherfucker". But he doesn't yell the line. He delivers it in a deliberate clinched teeth bit of rage that is entirely 100% believable. A moment of devastating emotion that grounds everything he does for the rest of the film.

What people remember THE EXTERMINATOR for is the outrageous violence and bone crunch stunts. For a low budget movie this was pretty over the top stuff that pushed a lot of limits. From the opening scene in Vietnam the included possible the most realistic decapitation ever put on film as well as the most insane helicopter stunts performed INCLUDING those in such films as APOCALYPSE NOW. Turns out the stunt drivers responsible are the same guys who did the helicopter stunts on TWILIGHT ZONE THE MOVIE. Another moment everyone remembers is the infamous meat-grinder death or the torture with soldering iron. All of which are here in full blown remastered delight. But one thing I always found unique about the movie is how there is a moment about half way through where the movie stops and we get to watch as the main character creates specialized poison bullets using mercury. The scene serves no other purpose except as a "how to" on exactly how such a thing can be done!

I'm also a big fan of the music in the film, especially the final song in the film by Chip Taylor called Theme for an American Hero. A song that captures the perfect loneliness of the main character and of a generation of broken men coming home from the Vietnam war.

The film has a sub plot featuring Christopher George as a cop who is on the trail of The Exterminator and while his performance is good and he fills it with quirks, I have always found this part of the film to be dead weight. Granted this is where we get a lot of the major Vietnam subtext as he discusses it with his bubbleheaded girlfriend played by Samantha Egger. But for me the main film is with Ginty and his revenge. When the film drifts from him I find myself drifting too.

Dictatorially it is a strange movie too. Glickenhaus makes some really odd choices that can either be really disconcerting or considered brave depending on how you want to look at them. He cuts a lot of what other director's would feel is necessary. Things basic screenwriting would dictate important like finding, stalking and catching the bad guys. Early on in the film Ginty catches the first of the thugs. Only we NEVER see any of that. The film fades out and fades back and he has the guy tied up and he is now questioning him with a flamethrower. We never see how he found the guy, caught the guy or even how he got the flamethrower. He tells the guy "if you're lying I'll be back" a line that even becomes the tag line of the trailers. Yet he never comes back to finish the guy off and ends up finding the gut much later in the movie when he is robbing an old lady. Once again no explanation of how the guy got loose or why he never went back for him. Some of that is simply lazy screenwriting , but some of it is clearly Glickenhaus dispensing with "fat" and cutting to the chase.

At the end of the day people remember the movie because it is a successful exercise in cinematic brutality and revenge wish fulfillment. Lots of us wish we could be THE EXTERMINATOR. Director Glickenhaus understood that, and was smart enough to craft real characters and put good actors in there to play them. That is the reason the movie has stood the test of time. This new DVD/Blu Ray combo delivers it the respect it deserves. A pristine presentation, a fantastic commentary (with fun nuggets like the explosion in the film was the biggest ever shot in New York) the first time ever on home video the Dolby Stereo tracks are available, and of course the trailers and TV spots.Synapse Films should be commended for going the extra mile (like the ALWAYS do) for making sure this was done right. Jump on this set if you are any kind of self respecting exploitation film fan.

Review © Andrew Copp

2011-09-11T23:13:00.007-04:00

Lloyd Kauffman's PRODUCE YOUR OWN DAMN MOVIE!
TROMA
2 DVD set

This two disc set from Troma continues in the series of "instructional" dvd's from founder Lloyd Kauffman intended to help young young filmmakers find their way in the movie business. Intended to work with his book MAKE YORU OWN DAMN MOVIE and the DVD set of the same name and the soon to be released SELL YOUR OWN DAMN MOVIE (which is the one I personally am looking the most forward too). Kauffman calls on his many years of film distribution experience and contacts to put together a fairly entertaining concoction of advice that is surprisingly useful.

The first disc is basically a throwaway and only of much use to fans of TROMA and Kauffman as it is basically Lloyd on several sets where he was doing comeo's. The footage is interesting, as we get a look at behind the scenes on films like the remake of MOTHER'S DAY, the new film MOMA'S BOYS or my own current favorite film of 2011 James Gunn's SUPER. The footage is fun, and a good time to see the bigger productions interact with with Kauffman, who basically seems clueless most of the time with how such machines actually work.

If the release was only this it would be nothing more than the kind of thing that would be you tube material but thankfully it is not. The second disc is a wealth of interviews conducted by Kauffman with a host of industry insiders on the topic of funding and producing movies in the film climate today. Ranging from bum rushing David Cronenberg at a convention to getting big time producer Avi Lerner to actually sit down at his office for a rather in depth discussion. Monte Hellman makes a HUGE major course breakfast while discussing his entire career. Roger Corman talks about the differences of making the very low budget Sci-Fi channel style films he makes now vs the old school classic he used to make. Newcomers The Duplass Brothers discuss their process of deconstruction and getting their ultra low budget films into Sundance. Ernest Dickerson goes into a surprising amount of depth about getting funds together and working within the mainstream. Uber producer Steven Paul talks about finding funding as does Caroline Baron. I skipped listening to Mick Garris.

The topic everyone discusses at length is how in the old days you could raise financing her in the USA with a good idea, or using things like Tax shelter, or penny stocks. Now you HAVE to have a star, or something ready to pre-sell the whole package and go to foreign sales markets. It seems ALL projects from a small indie drama to the biggest projects like RAMBO are funded the exact same way now through presales on the foreign market or through places like the American Film Market with things like big stars of marketable talent behind the camera as collateral. This is why remakes and sequels are such bankable ways to go, because it is a gaurentee on inestiment.

The second disc on the set is actually a very helpful, very interesting big of movie making insider information. Maybe not revelatory information, but certainty useful to those looking to break in and make films in the this climate. Disc one is just of use to TROMA fans who like to watch Lloyd Kauffman clown around.

Review ©Andrew Copp

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE remembered

2011-08-11T01:41:00.004-04:00

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE

Was it really the day of the woman? This little exploitation movie dreamed up by expatriate Mier Zarchi has remained among the most controversial of all horror films over the years. Sharply dividing fans over it’s vile content. You want to start a fight in a room full o gore loving horror fans? Get them talking about I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. Inevitably it will turn to gender politics and soon feminist tracts. Without fail people will be accuse someone of sympathizing with rapists and it is all done for.

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is a volatile time bomb of a movie that, even today even after a crappy remake, and several decades of nasty rape scenes in other films it still holds an edge.

What I intend to do here today on Exploitation Nation is what I did on our first day out the gate. Explore the movie with some depth, and then I have invited a host of writers, artists and filmmakers that I know and respect to chime in with their views. Mostly I wanted them to recall their first encounters with the film. But I am sure a movie this excitable will draw out far more than just the recollection of whether or not they saw it on VHS or beta.

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE began life as a film called DAY OF THE WOMAN written and directed by an Israeli filmmaker named Mier Zarchi who was living in New York city. He claims he was moved to create such a violent and savage film because he encountered a badly beaten rape victim in Central Park. On the commentary of the film he recounts a story of meeting a young woman in New York City that was nude, bloody, beaten and had a broken jaw. He took her to the police to which she was treated not like a victim, but like someone who had committed a crime herself. A crime of being a woman, and that being raped was something that just came with being female. This horrific outrage was what fueled him to write and create the story.

The film was shot in upstate Kent Connecticut which is a very picturesque small town. Zarchi chose very wisely to shoot the film is long takes and with almost no music. Something that is almost inperceivable on the first viewing because the imagery is so strong. But the long stretches of silence really make the film very haunting. This technique forces things like body gestures, and looks from actors to stand out much more, accentuating the menace.

Camile Keaton, fresh off her turn as Solange in the Italian thriller WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO SOLANGE? stars as Jennifer Hills a struggling writer who has gone to her family cabin for the summer to write her novel. She quickly inflames the libido of the rednecks in the small town who are simply not accustomed to seeing liberated women of any sort. So her more city like ways of wearing skirts, bikinis and talking back to the menfolk are taken as flirting at best and as a sexual affront at worst, to these boneheaded, boner wielding savages. To try and temper their monstrous behavior they have the town mental defective as their mascot, a kid named Matthew (Richard Pace) who they use as their whipping boy. When Matthew takes a shine to Jennifer, it is their way to justify the oncoming sexual assaults. They can claim it is all to get Matthew laid, when it is all to act out their worst bestial qualities. To destroy what they do not understand. To fuck away that which sexually threatens them.

The worst part is that Jennifer is actually very nice to Matthew and tries to not be unkind. But before you know it the most infamous scenes of the movie are afoot. I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is infamous for the rape scenes. They are not only graphic, but last a long time. Far too many sources will quote erroneous times, Anywhere from 35 to 50 minutes, The actual time is actually around 25 or so, as there is a goodly amount of cat and mouse lead up that often seems to get lumped in to the actual assault. She is assaulted several times over by each one of the greasy thugs and Matthew (who's scene is frankly a bit ridiculous who him yelling "I can’t cum" over and over into the camera). Many critics have contested that these scenes are gratuitous, and meant to be titillating to the most base viewers in the audience. That the reason the film exists is to elicit a sexual reaction from viewers who like to watch women being debased.

I contend that is simply not the case, if it were the scenes would be handled very differently. In fact the entire movie would be. There were plenty of movies at that time in the exploitation world that used rape as titillating and they always end with the women being raped loving the experience or falling for her attacker. The old she had to get over the experience to realize she liked sex thing. That is clearly NOT what is going on here. At no point during these scenes is it portrayed in anyway that Jennifer is compliant, or complicit with what is happening. She is clearly being shown as a victim of these men. She is also pretty carefully photographed, though there is nudity, it is not lingering. No close ups of her nipples or crotch, and the nudity doesn't just hang there ogling her. Only when she gets up after being raped to walk away does the camera stay on her for any significant amount of time. Then it is a shot he emphasizes how dirty, beaten and hollow her face looks.This is a woman taken to the point of destruction. More often than not the point of view of the rape is hers. The camera is shown to be getting attacked by the men and we the audience as the ones sharing in the horror through her eyes. NOT the other way around. Which is what the detractors fail to notice again and again. There is no distancing device, ala a flashback like say THE ACCUSED. Instead we are right there next to her down in it.

Matthew is told to kill her but instead leaves her for dead and she survives. The second half of the movie is Jennifer finding ways to get the men alone and killing them off. The movie isn't always as strong as it could be in the second half especially considering the year it was made, and leaps and bounds in technology film has come since then. But there is an undeniable frission in many of the scenes where she seduces the men into a moment of vulnerability only to do them in. The movie’s most famous being when she calmly castrates Johnny (Eron Tambor) head of the gang and then goes downstairs to listen to music while he dies. This is easily one of the finest moments in all of the era's exploitation movies. The scene is indeed sleazy as she seduces the slimebag into the bathtub. Yet once she has him bleeding out and he is screaming in pain the scene reverts to something altogether more. The movie follows HER as she sits downstairs just listening to him die. It is an effective moment of POWER for the Jennifer character and one of the strongest moments of revenge in all of the cannon of these types of films. Not because she castrates him, though that is satisfying, but because the film stays with her and we watch HER satisfaction at listening to the man who violated her die a horrific and painful death.

It is also Johnny who has the most interesting and most repeated bit of dialogue in the film as well. When Jennifer catches him and has him at gunpoint he launches into a rather sleazy justification of why he and his buddy’s did what they did, explaining to her that her being a woman, and showing the sexiness she did was too much. That “a man is just a man, and you can’t give a man ideas like that”. Johnny as the ringleader and the voice of all rapists GETS WHAT HE AND THEY DESERVE.

In fact the movie doesn’t really top this moment as the other death scenes with a hatchet and outboard motor don’t deliver the same gut charge this scene does. But what the movie does deliver is a final moment of triumph for Jennifer as we see her ride off in a motor boat, victorious. There is no moralizing, no casting her in a light as some sort of criminal for taking the law into her own hands. No cops show up to arrest her. She is ever so slightly smiling when she rides away, knowing she did what she had to do, and we are invited to feel she did the right thing.

Contrast that with the much better reviewed, much better loved LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT which was without a doubt the first to land on the scene with the rape/revenge deal. But LAST HOUSE takes a very moral approach to the savagery, with the bad guys punished, the parents in the story are forever tainted by the violence. At the end the bumbling police show up and the Parents are arrested for the killings.

While I respect LAST HOUSE it is this very distinction that has always made me prefer I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. I find the lack of moralizing to be preferable and less false. After watching what is essentially the first half of the film where the main character is abused, I prefer to see the bad guys punished and not be told I should feel bad about it. And honestly I feel that I SPIT is simply a better made film than LAST HOUSE. A distinction I am sure few fellow critics and fans share.

The movie was originally released in 1978 to no business under the title DAY OF THE WOMAN. Camille Keaton won an award for Best Actress at the Cataloninian International Film festival while it still bore this title. In 1980 the movie was bought by the Jerry Gross Organization who created the brilliant and aggressive ad campaign we know and love today. He changed the title to I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (even though there was already an obscure race hate movie by the same name in existence) and launched the movie with the ad line “This woman has just cut, chopped, broken and burned five men beyond recognition, and no jury in America would convict her!” Never mind that only FOUR men attack her in the film and not one of them is burned at any point! The poster of a scantily clad, bloody and bruised woman clutching a knife BY the blade is now etched into the mind of horror fans the world over. Anyone who grew up as part of the Fangoria generation remembers seeing this in the ads in the mag, or the poster at drive ins and grindhouses across the country. Under this new ad campaign the film became a blazing success.

But with that success came major controversy. The controversy that still chases the film in some ways. In the United States the hounding began with Siskel And Ebert who devoted an episode of their syndicated PBS show SISKEL AND EBERT AND THE MOVIES to the growing trend of violent slasher films. More specifically to the slasher films they seemed to feel “hated women” such as DON’T ANSWER THE PHONE, THE TOOLBOX MURDERS and most viciously I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. On the show they particularly ripped into the movie and those who seemed to go to see the film as people who enjoyed watching women being abused and raped. They recounted an experience of seeing the film with a crowd of vicious folks who were shouting at the screen cheering on the rape on screen. While that certainly sounds unpleasant and offensive, it doesn’t in my mind reflect on the film as much as a few dumb-asses in the audience. Sounds to me like they had never seen a horror/exploitation film with a grindhouse/urban audience before. And they really should be smart enough to see that for what it is. I have always been curious about the fact that Ebert places LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT highly on his list of revered films with a three and a half star rating yet finds the I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is a zero star movie. I can’t help but to wonder if his first viewing experience had been different if his opinion would be as well. Or is the film just simply too amoral for his tastes? The two of them campaigned hard to get people to, if not ban the film, to at least show some moral fiber and good taste in simply not going to the movies that they detest on that show, It didn’t work of course and only alerted a whole lot of other people to a few movies they otherwise wouldn’t have known about.

Here is SISKEL AND EBERT'S AT THE MOVIES episode about WOMEN IN DANGER

in it's entirety.

Over in the UK things were much worse. The Video Nasties scare had begun by the early to mid 80’s where it was actually illegal to own movies on the list of banned videos. I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE was chief among those. So if you were caught owning a copy of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE after 1984 you could actually go to jail. There was no cut version, no seeing it at a revival house, simply jail time for owning it. Finally in the early 2000’s that was lifted and a cut version was released on DVD.

But the strong content of the movie coupled with the media backlash put this movie on a radar that even among horror fans made it persona non grata for some people. Even though it was a huge hit on home video and a staple at mom and pop video stores across the country, it was the movie that people loved to hate. You would be hard pressed to find a positive review of the movie, or even a horror fan willing to admit they liked. At least previous to the ELITE Laserdisc release in the late 90’s.

In my opinion it was finally the remastering of the movie that convinced people that this movie was not some simple piece of awful trash. This laser release, followed by the special edition DVD in 2003 went a long way to show people the movie was far most artistic and well Intentioned than people originally thought. The beautiful and well mounted photography could finally be appreciated, instead of the murky VHS mastering. The clean sound awakened people to one of Mier Zarchi’s most brilliant cinematic choices, which was to forgo using music in the film. There is no score In I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, just ambient noise and some very faint on set music. Otherwise the movie is all natural sound, which adds to the sense of isolation.

The DVD has a great commentary from the director and a second even more appreciated commentary from Joe Bob Briggs,who at first many feared would deliver a “funny” commentary. Instead he delves in deep delivering a fact filled exploration of the making of the film and the controversy around it. It is easily one of the best commentaries recorded for an exploitation release.

Last year there was a largely useless remake of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE released, The biggest problem being that the original film was such a vicious ground breaking release, that how could you even hope to top it. Or even have the same cinematic footprint, You can’t, so instead they just go for more involved gore and violence. But in the process loose the important elements of the story, which is the focus on the character of Jennifer. The remake literally lets her go off screen for almost a third of the film's run time after she is raped as we watch the rapists twist and worry over the fact they might get caught. There is an addition of class distinction added, and the filmmakers drop how she becomes a sexual predator herself, which is maybe a good thing. But once the movie loses the focus on her, it loses the focus completely. The film becomes just another torture driven gore fest, not terribly different than a dozen other genre offering that stain the table these days. There was an unofficial "sequel" by zine editor Donald Farmer in 1993 called SAVAGE VENGEANCE that did star Camille Keaton but reportedly it was majorly unfinished and many on set problems left the final project with a lot to be desired. Especially for a low low budget, basically backyard production.

Cirio Santiago mounted his own "remake" in 1985 called NAKED VENGEANCE which is a largely berzerk action, sleaze exploitation fest that uses a lot of the same structure,but goes far into left field typical of Philipino exploitation fare.

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is one of those rare films that is still as shocking today as it was when it was made over thirty years ago. Very few movies mange to hold the power to shock, enrage and make people argue three decades after they are released. But I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is one of the few that can claim that honor. While many people will want to claim it is an inferior film for many reasons, the very fact it is STILL DOING ITS JOB stands to reason otherwise.

And Now what the friend's of EXPLOITATION NATION had to say

Allen Richards
Webmaster of B-Independent.com

Those gams. Boy, oh boy, those gams. That rump too...

Summer, 1985, and I'd just turned 12 but didn't own a VCR yet. That didn't stop me from swinging by the video store after my weekly excursion to the dollar movie at New Carrolton Mall - really a strip mall with one enclosed end that housed an AMC multiplex, Sears, a comic shop where I spent the rest of my allowance, and that video store. That video store was always the last stop before the 2 mile walk back home. I can't remember the name, and the mall was razzed years ago to make way for urban sprawl, but there was nowhere else where me and my pre-pubescent friends could get a look at some tit. Sure, the DAWN OF THE DEAD box had some boobage, and the slack-ass working the register didn't seem to give two spits if we ducked into the Adult Isle for a minute or two, catching our first glimpses of Betamax Beaver, but there was just something about that I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE box art that I couldn't help but to keep coming back to. Oh, yeah, it was those gams. That rump too.

42nd St. Pete
Legend, Smut-Master, DVD host and New York Grindhouse Historian

Saw it on a double bill with the original Boogeyman in a grindhouse in Hackensack NJ called the Oritani. I had higher expectations than the film delivered, but the poster sucked me in. All the rape scenes were brutal and the audience dug it as the patrons consisted of dustheads , homeless guys, and drunks(me). I felt that all you needed to make this a hardcore roughie would have been a couple of insert shots.

The revenge payoff wasn't that great either as it was four guys killed instead of the five advertised on the poster. Every guy in the place grabbed their junk during the castration scene. Now fast forward a couple of years as it was released on video by Wizard. I had a store then and it cost me $50 to get it. It rented out almost every night as word of mouth was great advertising.

Footnote: The Oritani crowed was more into Boogeyman than I Spit on Your Grave. If my decayed brain remembers correctly, we also had Blood Beach and Zombie that summer too, all courtesy of Jerry Gross.

Rachael Deacon
Artist, Filmmaker (A FEVER AND A RIVER), and Musician (THE BEASTING)

I don't remember where I was or who I was with the first time I saw I

SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. It feels like it's always been in my memory bank.

Having an incredibly soft spot for rape/revenge films, I ravenously

sought them out after seeing LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT as a teenager. But

honestly, I am not particularly moved by the film. I never was. I feel

as though the bulk of its themes have been explored to a much better

effect in films that came before it. I respect it and recognize it as

a solid work. I have watched it and enjoyed it a handful of times. I

have had wonderful conversations with friends about it. It's just not

one of my favorites.

My personal relationship with I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE - and the source of

my respect for it - lies within its sexual politics. Or, arguably, its

lack thereof. This is an extremely unpopular viewpoint. For as long as

it has existed, film theorists, journalists and enthusiasts have

demonized it for its main character's exploitation of her own

sexuality in exacting her revenge against the men who brutally and

repeatedly raped her. She doesn't seek them out and simply execute

them. She seduces them before slowly and painfully ending them. This

aspect of the plot is rare even within the rape/revenge sub-genre and

has inspired countless articles, essays and rants against it. And it's

exactly what I like about it. It's exactly why I think it isn't

completely overshadowed by far stronger entries of its kind.

Countless others would say that the victim's seduction of her rapists

reduces her to nothing but the sexualized object they mistake her for.

I say that it's a reclaiming and repurposing of something powerful

that was stolen.

It's naive to say that rape is all about sex or all about power. It's

a murky bastardization of the two that only someone capable of such a

horrific act can understand entirely. But we can understand that one

of the most basic aspects of human nature is sexuality. It's messy and

complicated and mysterious, but it's always there. Even after rape.

Sometimes even more so. Is it not conceivable that a traumatic sexual

experience would cause the victim's sexuality to take a dark and

violent turn? And is it not a fitting and human response for the

victim to then channel her violent sexuality in the hopes of relieving

her resulting anguish? WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM? I have a sneaking

suspicion that it's because you think too fucking much.

Recently I stumbled across a quote by David Cronenberg that made me

want to vomit all over myself it rang so true. He said: "An artist

does not have the social responsibility of a citizen. He has, in fact,

no social responsibility whatsoever." The people who are stumbling

over the politics of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE are putting too much

emphasis on the politics of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. This movie was not

conceived as a political statement, and should not be read as such.

It's a story about a woman under extreme emotional and physical duress

who snaps. Then she cuts off one guy's penis in a bath tub and hangs a

retard from a tree. It's a sometimes-effective, sometimes-boring,

mostly-plausible piece of art. I may not love it, but I will always

defend its integrity.

Shade Rupe
Legendary Interviewer, writer and promotional guru, Author of DARK STARS RISING and FUNERAL PARTY 1&2

I am not sure I ever saw the original I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE in a theater. I do remember that large Wizard video box though. Those early years of VHS and those oversized boxes carried such menace. For those wishing to see evil on our television sets, those Wizard titles would undoubtedly provide the chills and screwdrivers in the eyesockets we were hoping for. What I didn’t realize is the artistry I would find nestled in that black plastic tray enfolded by that colorful box depicting a women’s trashed backside, with a knife held tightly in her hand.

My first exposure to the film came the way it did for a lot of people, through Siskel & Ebert’s At the Movies. This was a time well before the internet spouted out any manner of ‘important’ upcoming films every three seconds. Movies meant something and it was much easier for a down-and-dirty feature to get released in those days. William Lustig’s Maniac is a success story of this era, and I remember sneaking into a screening of Chained Heat with Linda Blair. Although these films were rarely discussed with any form of interest beyond a nasal snubbing by film critics, they were available to multiplex and drive-in crowds who had a hunger for a more extreme form of cinematic entertainment.

I had been watching At the Movies for some time as did most movie-heads of the era. They really did provide the information we needed for upcoming releases, and their back-and-forth repartee added to the fun of choosing what to see. None of us were quite prepared for the pair’s reaction to Meir Zarchi’s film. Ebert was horrified to his core. He was shaken. His exclamation to the world that the film was ‘a vile piece of garbage’ and that the ‘film is without a shred of artistic distinction’ gave more props to the release than it would have had otherwise. Ebert went on to say that he hoped his protestations would act as a deterrent to viewers rather than an excitor—his plans most definitely went awry.

I Spit on Your Grave became an instant classic before it had been seen. This was well before the days of instant internet access. This was something discussed at school, on the phone, and in the pages of Fangoria magazine. The local Fotomat video hut didn’t carry it. Once Wizard Video released it, it was ours. I was still somewhat of a lone geek at that point. Geek once meant ‘loser’ rather than today’s ‘rockstar’ meaning, and it wasn’t so easy to find folks to share these films with. I believe my first viewing was watching it alone, seeing those scenes that Gene and Roger showed us, warning us against the film. And I’ve never ever forgotten what I saw.

I hate to spoil, so please skip if you haven’t seen. You must see these images without my direction. The scene of Ms. Keaton lying nude on the floor while the crew disparages her existence. Wow. Total debasement. It wasn’t anything I could know from reading De Sade, which was more humorous, or any other film, though Bergman’s The Virgin Spring would come close. Last House on the Left had its soul-crinkling shivers, but not as strong as this. Last House had its moral judgments and the attendant punishments. I Spit was just mean. Yet I always felt it was a feminist film. Camille butches up pretty fast after her survival, and she takes no prisoners. None at all. All are guilty.

On a later VHS viewing, shared with two women friends, it was a wholly different experience. Women often have a different reaction to rape than men. The girls had some shock in them, yet they were my friends so they had some kind of preparedness. One scene that has always struck me with poetics rather that disgust was the rape over the rock. As Camille slowly makes her nude way back to her cabin, we see her in a long shot, sun streaming through trees, birds singing their songs. The scene is reminiscent of Sir John Everett Millais’ The Death of Ophelia, with its deflowered beauty amidst nature, even if the image itself conjures Mari Collingwood’s water-drenched demise in Last House. I exclaimed out loud to my female companions: “This is so beautiful! This is pure sublimity!” Although Coe was a bit horrified by my praise, Kelly ‘got it’ a little more. Both girls did stay until the oxide particles had danced their dance. Coe made her way out into the citified sunshine immediately. I think it took her awhile to forgive me for that day.

I still find beauty in the piece though I would assume the director did not have the word ‘art’ in mind when composing his film.

Dave Kosanke
Creator, editor and writer of the constantly awesome zine LIQUED CHEESE, frequent contributor to HORRORHOUND magazine
The first time I ever heard of I Spit on Your Grave was back in 1984 when I was 13 years old. I had just sent off for a subscription to Fangoria magazine, and my first issue had arrived in the mail (#39). Lo and behold it contained an interview with director Meir Zarchi on the making of his controversial film. Right off the bat the editor's note stated that the film was so notorious that Fango didn't even know how to handle it, and also called it the "most criticized movie of recent years." I didn't think about the film too much then, mainly because it seemed out of my league for a budding horror fan and the idea of brutal rape scenes were NOT my idea of a good time. Once I started reading more magazines I found that just about everyone hated it. Issue #4 of Demonique has a review which includes this passage: "Anyone who defends I Spit on Your Grave must be hopelessly perverted and/or very limited in their exposure to film in general." However when Chas Balun unleashed his book Horror Holocaust, it contained a chapter on both Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave. He at least gave it some good ink, even stating "It has a strange, mesmerizing drone to it; and by the time the woman turns the tables on her rapists, a queer sort of repulsive satisfaction with the product is achieved."

Throughout all of this I was still unsure if I really wanted to see the film, so the years went by with no I Spit on Your Grave in my collection. Finally when DVD hit, the announcement that I Spit on Your Grave would get released in 1998 sealed the deal for me. I felt I was now old enough (and had read enough material on the film) to comprehend it. After all the negative press the movie got, after watching it that first time I didn't see what the fuss was all about. Sure the rape scenes were hard to watch, but I felt that was the point, to make sure the viewer understood how awful this act really was. I also felt the lack of background music really helped to give the film this weird and unsettling edge that kept the viewer off guard since there were no musical "stings" to alert you that something bad was about to happen. Also since she did get her revenge, the film worked extremely well to punish the bad guys which is really all I wanted to see. I became a fan right then and there and never looked back. Sure I would like to tell people I saw the film many moons ago, but hey I can't lie, and truth be told if I had seen it with younger eyes I doubt I would have been able to appreciate it.

I had the chance to meet Camille Keaton twice, and found her to be one of the best guests I've ever had the pleasure to chat with. Not only that, but I bought one of the ultra rare Day of the Woman one-sheets from her which now hangs, signed and framed, in my office to show my support for this unjustly maligned film. Like the late, great Chas Balun said "Like it or loathe it, I Spit on Your Grave must always be reckoned with when discussing contemporary horror."

Eric Stanze

Director of SCRAPBOOK, DEADWOOD PARK, RATLINE.

My memory is a bit foggy, but let me try to piece it together. I was either on the brink of entering my freshman year of high school, or I had just entered high school. My family was living in Pittsburgh at the time. I was devouring every horror movie I could rent at the local video store. I purchased the book "Horror Holocaust" by Chas. Balun, and while I was aware of the title, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE before this, I believe it was Mr. Balun's book about ultra violent horror flicks that brought into focus for me what Meir Zarchi's film was all about.

I cannot remember how soon I saw the movie after being educated about it by Balun's book. I have no memory of renting the VHS, but I do remember my reaction to the film upon first viewing. One word sums it up. The film was stark.

The movie seemed to not give a shit about anything - including, it appeared, the physical or emotional comfort of the actors. Where a mainstream film would pan away, Zarchi's camera stayed fixed. Where a mainstream film would dress it up, Zarchi's film left it filthy and gross. Where a mainstream film would soften things for a potentially sensitive audience, Zarchi's film said, "Nope, this is simply fucked up and you're gonna swallow it."

There is no music score in the film, and the violence takes place in the harsh light of day - almost certainly decisions based on the tiny budget - but these aspects do much to achieve the starkness I found so memorable.

Many revenge flicks - of that era, as well as more recent films - provided a brief jolt to my system, only to be forgotten about a few days later. I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, however, managed a tone that made it stand out, and hold up well to this day.

Andrew Shearer impresario of GONZORIFFIC FILMS
Director of FAKE BLOOD, DOLLFACE and THE EROTIC COUCH

I've watched "I Spit on Your Grave" several times, but I've only seen the rape scenes once. I rented it from Video Library in Athens in the mid-1990s during my initial spree of finally getting to see films like "Trap them and Kill Them" and "Short Eyes" that I'd read about for years. There's a lot I love about "I Spit". The camera work is wonderful (the opening title sequence in the car is usually what immediately springs to mid when I think of the film) and its non-use of music sets it apart from pretty much all its peers from that era. Some of the performances are goofy, but everyone looks appropriately sleazy and authentic. Camille Keaton reminds me of a more sexually confident Sissy Spacek from "Carrie". Wikipedia calls me a feminist, so I suppose I should have some sort of strong opinion about "I Spit". Truth is, I don't. In my opinion, the worst thing a movie can do is misrepresent itself, making promises it can't keep. And when we're talking exploitation cinema, that happens more often than not. "I Spit" lives up to its legendary title, pulls out all the stops and, like "Last House on the Left", gives you little room to breathe once the brutality sets in. Still, there is calmness and even corny-ness in between to make it all go down a little easier.. Camille Keaton's performance is high-caliber stuff, unforgettable and affecting. I don't think for one second that she's being raped for the sake of giving the viewer a thrill. In fact, my biggest criticism of the film is that the revenge murders don't have near the same level of intensity and impact as the rape. The bar is set too high and there's not a satisfying enough follow-through (though Keaton's character is able to find her power after it has all been taken from her, I always felt like it wasn't quite enough).. But realistically, how could there be? These guys get off easy because they get to die. Know what I mean? The true testament to the value of "I Spit on Your Grave" is that it is still being seriously discussed all these decades later, and people still have very strong opinions about it.

Pics and screenshots are grabbed from the following websitewww.moviescreenshots.blogspot.com (mainly because I'm too lazy to rip pics myself)

You thought local cops were hardcore: LIVE LIKE A COP DIE LIKE A MAN

2011-07-22T01:52:00.003-04:00

LIVE LIKE A COP DIE LIKE A MAN (1976)
D. RUGGERO DEODATO
RARO VIDEOLTBX ANAMORPHIC DVD

Ruggero's Deodato's sophomore film after the softcore sex film WAVE OF LUST was this hard as nails, almost fascist, Italian Police action film that holds the place card for being one of, if not THE most violent of that sub-genre. The Italian "Polizia" film was a popular sub-genre of the thriller that ran through the 70's with certain directors excelling at them. Writer Fernando Di Leo often wrote many of the era's crime pictures, and his name is on the screenplay for this one as well. Themes of corruption, street violence, and the Police having to be as bad as the criminals run through these films. LIVE LIKE A COP DIE LIKE A MAN takes these themes to such a hyper violent, almost absurd level that it almost has to be parody. But anyone familiar with the violent excesses of Ruggero Deodato's other films will quickly realize it probably isn't. He is just a director that likes to go over the top. He may very well have his political themes and concerns, but at the end of the day, he feels everything has to be turned up to eleven.

Ray Lovelock and Marc Porel star as Ray and Tony two off the cuff Italian cops who make up the "special forces" for the Rome police. Seems being the "special forces" in Rome equates to having a license to kill, beat up and maim whomever you may need to for any case at any time. The movie opens with a seriously impressive motorcycle chase when two scum bags snatch a lady's purse and drag her a half block, smashing her into a fire hydrant in the process. Our heroes see it happen and go after the thugs. It is important to mention the two of them seem to just cruise around together on a motorcycle with no where really to go irregardless if they are on duty or off. They may not be portrayed as gay, but bunked up on the motorcycle together holding each other tight, they certainly look that way more than once. The chase ends shockingly with the thugs wrecking into an open truck, one of them impaled on the handlebars and the other once bleeding internally. To which Ray viciously snaps his neck. When our dudes are walking away from the scene one asks the other "Did yours die on his own? I had to help mine along!"

From here they set out to find a local gangster and to do so they decide to flush him out by setting fire to all the fancy cars in the lot of one of his clubs. So they burn all the Rolls Royce and other big shot cars, as well as the night watchmen working there! Later in the movie Ray is shocked to find out the cars were not insured and feels a pang of remorse for burning the automobiles!!! They slap around the Mafia guys big tit sister and take turns fucking her since she is a nymphomaniac (In real life this actress was the sister of Ruggero's wife, so there is a little bit of weirdness there. Ruggero's wife plays the sexy Secretary the guys keep trying to seduce with no success because she is too smart and liberated to fall for their horseshit!).

The duo also break up a hostage situation,and stop a robbery, both by sneaking in and literally cold blooded shooting everyone involved, one by loading up silencers and sneaking onto the scene and wiping everyone out. Their boss constantly treats them like they are overzealous kids, not the murderous psychopaths they clearly are.

The movie walks a fine line between being a straight out action film, a piece of right wing propaganda, and some sort of weird violent parody/ fantasy. It works best when looked at in the last category as a berserk parody of Italian action and cop films where things are never what they should be. Instead they are way more violent and insane. The only movie in this realm that compares is LUCIO FULCI's equally over the top CONTRABAND (1981).But that film plays it straight as a gangster picture. This thing is like a hyper violent cartoon satirizing the cop genre.

Interestingly enough this is one of the best looking productions I have seen from Deodato. Slickly directed with great actions scenes and just great, knock about moments. While his horror films are well regarded sometimes his stuff can feel cheap (THE BARBARIANS, DIAL HELP, THE WASHING MACHINE) but this consistently feels like a top notch production and is well worth checking out.

The new RARO DVD has trailers and a 42 minute documentary about the making of the film with interviews with most of the surviving key players in which they all reminisce about the making of the film, the apparently made up on set controversy between the lead actors, and yes, how it was supposed to be a serious action film.

Review © Andrew Copp

The Elegance of being a "Kept" woman: CAMILLE 2000

2011-07-18T14:52:00.001-04:00

CAMILLE 2000 (1969)
D. RADLEY METZER
CULT EPICS - Blu Ray and DVD

Radley Metzger came to international prominence with his Danish lensed sexy potboiler I A WOMAN (1966), a movie that set the international stage for what for what was to be expected from a foreign soft core art film. But after this success he began to direct his own movies and a distinct sense of style emerged. American label CULT EPICS has begun to release some of his best and most renowned work on Blu Ray and DVD totally remastered and restored. The began with his hardcore bi-sexual epic SCORE and have followed with THE LICKERISH QUARTET (a review coming soon) and CAMILE 2000.

CAMILLE 2000 is an ode to the sad side of the playboy lifestyle popular in the swinging "Mod" England in the close of the Sixties. The young Armand (Nino Castelnuovo) comes to England to represent his businessman Father but is here really to get out his wild oats. He teams up with is pal Gastion (Roberto Bisacco) who soon introduces him to Marguerite Gautier (Danièle Gaubert) aka Camille called so because of the flower she carries with her everywhere. Armand is instantly smitten, even though it is explained to him she is a "kept" woman by the local Duke. Meaning she is more a or less his whore, whom he keeps in a high price lifestyle, with jewels, money, a house and a rather nasty drug habit. But Armand his a bull headed your sod, and puts himself into her crazy Mod lifestyle anyway. Soon he is partying at her house, hanging with her crazy dress designing friends, and before you know it, sleeping with her.

And wouldn't you know it, she falls for his boyish good looks, and charming uncomplicated ways. But being a kept woman, she can't continue to be his. Even though she continues to promise to. Many talks of trying to go away together happen and one attempt that almost works until Armand's vengeful Father steps into the fray. All this leads to a third act of the film that includes an S+M party, voyeurism, almost group sex, a card game straight out of CASINO ROYALE, and a truly tragic last reel that make this one of the most cynical love story/sex movies I have seen. All in all a good deal more thoughtful than these kinds of movies ever attempt to be. But then again would you expect less from Radley Metzger?

It really is the last third of the movie that makes this work, but discussing it too much is difficult without giving it away. Up until that point it is really just a beautifully photographed, but very lightweight sex romp. Though I cannot stress enough how gorgeous the movie is, from costumes, to set design to the cinematography nothing is being left to chance as to what is appearing on screen, making this more about images, tones, shapes and movement than even really about sex at all. It IS very sexy, but it really is not the kind of thing that will get you off. It sort of goes into other more deeply resonant sexual places in your id. But once there the movie goes into that last act and that deeply rooted cynicism about love and sex. Especially during that time period of the late sixties when all of that is supposed to be free. It never is, it always comes with a price.

The Blu Ray is 12 minutes longer than any known previous cut, and has copious extras:
•On the Set of Camille 2000
•Restoration of Camille 2000
•Sylviane's Bare Striptease
•Cube Love Scene
•Audio Commentary Track by Michael Bowen and Radley Metzger
•Trailers

There is also a separate disc of the THEATRICAL version if you simply MUST have the version that replicates what you saw theatrically. That discs has outtakes that include the 12 minutes that are included in the film in the longer print.

Review © Andrew Copp

This is a FAN MADE TRAILER on You tube. This is NOT on the DVD or BLU RAY. But is actually better than the actual theatrical trailer that is included...

The Sweet LIfe, is indeed pretty sweet

2011-07-05T01:17:00.003-04:00

THE SWEET LIFE (2003)
D. Rocco Simonelli
Synapse Ent.
1.78 DVCAM

This may be an unusual choice to see reviewed here on Exploitation Nation. A Romantic Comedy that has no evisceration, no nudity, no revenge or rape, or people being run off the road and eaten by tentacled monsters. Why you may ask is THE SWEET LIFE being covered on this blog, known for mayhem and naked flesh? Well, the movie is produced by one Roy Frumkes the man behind such revered, at least behind these walls, movies as STREET TRASH, THE JOHNSONS and to a much lesser extent, THE SUBSTITUTE. It also stars James Lorinz the brilliant comedic actor who starred in FRANKENHOOKER, and nearly stole the show in a supporting role in STREET TRASH. Any movie that is smart enough to put Lorinz in a prime starring role again deserves full props in our book. Finally the movie is being released by our homeboys at Synapse Entertainment and those fellas need no introductions on these pages.

But still at the end of the day, this is no exploitation film, it is indeed what it sounds like, a sweet natured, somewhat wise, very well done indie romantic comedy drama. The kind of thing that used to get little art house releases back in the 90's.

The movie opens with James Lorinz as Michael, narrating a flashback to when he was just a little boy. He explains that his first interaction with a love life was a failed moment we are witnessing. As a young lad he tries to put a box a candy on the door step of another girl he clearly has a crush on. He envisions it as a moment of wonder when she opens the card and sees he loves her and all is right in the world. Instead she shows up with his older brother Frankie (Robert Mobley) on her arm, and opens the card and he and the girl have a good laugh, through the card to the side and eat the candy. His first interaction with women was not only a shattering one but also set him up to see his brother take her out from under him. A pattern that will continue into adulthood. Michael explains this one incident has made him set his sights with women spectacularly low for the rest o his life, because he never has felt he can get past his self esteem enough to get with someone better. This leads to a funny montage of him meeting and dating a series of clearly insane women, including one convinced she is infected with fecal parasites.

Flash forward to the present with Frankie and Michael out for drinks at a bar. Frankie is explaining to a waitress that it is his brother's birthday, that she should come to his party but he is too shy to ask her. The whole thing is clearly a sleazy come on to get with the girl, a come on that clearly works. Michael chimes in with a joke, but neither the girl or his brother hear nor care. He is never really "there". His character is established quickly as the nice guy, who is finishing in last in his brother's aggressive shadow. On a cab ride to another bar they discuss women where Frankie enlightens his brother with a very telling speech about how women will always do what he wants because they think he will walk away at any given moment. He never lets them have any power, and treats them like dirt. Not to the point of abusing them, but just never lets them have a upper hand or think they have any control. He explains women respond to that, to power to confidence. That Michael has none of that. That his nice guy stance will never get him anywhere. He is very correct, if still kind of an asshole.

At the next bar we meet Lila (Barabara Sicuranza) a pretty bartender with a flare for life. Frankie is in a relationship with her, even though he is clearly not faithful to her. She clearly take s little bit of a shine to Micheal even though he comes across like a pussy. Her and Frankie go home and have sex, and he does his little emotional power play dance and it is clear she is not getting what she needs. They also agree to set up Michael with her Roommate played by Joan Jett (who also provides a lot of the music). A boozing, psycho alcoholic. After a night on the town with her that increasingly resembles Scorsese's AFTER HOURS. Michael ends up at her apartment consoling Lila because his shit heel brother has broken up with her. This night, a twist of fate ends up bringing the two together as fast friends, where Michael realizes Lila has a lot more to offer as a person than his brother ever wanted to even know. Lila finds that Michael encourages her to be more than she ever was willing to do on her own. It seems destined to work, to be good as two kind people find each other.

But real life never works out that way, and this is were THE SWEET LIFE becomes more than some simple Rom-Com. Because in the second half the movie throws some serious curve balls. Curve balls that feel like real life, not scripted fiction that are set in motion to get the girls in the audience crying and then safely make everything work out okay. Real life doesn't work out that way, and thankfully neither does THE SWEET LIFE. There are no good guys and bad guys, things are varying shades of gray colored in ,by everyone's own needs. A lot of times those are more selfish than people realize, and this movie does a wonderful job of exploring that without ever being preachy while retaining a sly sense of humor.

The likable leads go a long way to making it that way. As I stated before any movie smart enough to put Lorinz in the lead has done a good thing right from the start. He has always been funny leading man material and thankfully here is a movie that lets him get to explore it in good context. He is likable, funny and self-depreciating in the best way. He is like Woody Allen without the glasses and the desire to have sex with your own step kids. Barabara Sicaranza is equally charming, her character is actually fairly whiny and sometimes a bit obtuse, but her strong performance keeps her constantly likable, even after she makes some really shitty choices in the film that make you want to NOT like her anymore.

Likewise the smart script and direction by Rocco Simonelli. Likable, unobtrusive and lets the actors take the material to heart. In the extras Rocco and the actors talk a lot about how autobiographic the film is. We even meet Rocco's actual brother and sister in law in the behind the scenes and they try in vain to explain what in the film is real and not real. The movie feels almost like a confessional after watching the extras.

If I can land a complaint on the movie it is the fact they shot it on DVCAM, and apparently PAL at that. It looks like a freaking soap opera which for me is continually distracting. The movie itself is shot well, with nice camera moves, great editing, the sound is done well, and considering shooting on the streets of New York that was probably a nightmare (the refeyrence that in the extras, so it clearly was),but the actual LOOK of the movie is just like a Soap Opera because of the professional grade video they chose to shoot on. Which is weird because the clips of the movie in the extras do NOT look like the finished movie for some reason. They look rougher around the edges as if processed or a generation away or something,and look BETTER for it. But with that said that is a technical complaint, and one coming from a filmmaker, so normal folks probably wont notice that or give a shit. This is a movie about acting and characters, both of which really shine. It is also a movie about a good script from Simonelli and Roy Frumkes both of whom do a good job.

This is a nice change of pace for both me as viewer and everyone involved who normally seem to do genre work. So give THE SWEET LIFE a shot. I'm sure lots of you folks reading this blog have girlfriends or boyfriends who are not big genre fans. This is a nice stop gap when you can't always be watching sleaze and exploitation. It is a nice New York love story with a true life pulse.

* Also for you super obscure cult film fans there is a quick in joke to Simonelli and Lorinz's never completed film SWIRLEE about a mafia hitman made of Ice Cream. An ad for it appears on the back of a bus while Michael is riding a motorcycle. Blink and you will miss it. A test reel for SWIRLEE has bounced around the underground for years and is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. It is out there if you know where to look.

What if your Neighbors were Zombies? Well, more than they already are...

2011-06-28T23:21:00.001-04:00

THE NEIGHBOR ZOMBIE
D. Various
No Distributor as of Yet
1.85

This low budget anthology approach to the zombie film manages to do the impossible, find a fresh and original approach to the undead. Let’s face it, zombies are played out. Even George Romero has hit a brick wall when it comes to films about the zombie plague, but here comes a relatively low-budgeted flick from South Korea to finally find the fresh blood in those bloated and rotting corpses.

After a near brilliant animated opening that explains how the virus was unleashed from experiments in trying to cure AIDS we are plunged headlong into the short stories that make up the film, The first one is called CRACK about a young dork man who lives alone all day building action figures who is somehow bitten by some sort of zombie living in a crack under his bed. Comedic, really disturbing and disgusting hijinks ensue. If cannibalism or feet upset you this segment will not sit well with you. The next segment is called RUNAWAY and is much more serious with a young couple dealing with how their relationship has been affected over the yearlong affliction. The time they have spent with the man slowly rotting away since he has become a zombie.Their relationship has now hit a dangerous snag now he has hit a point were the virus is making the hunger unpredictable.

MOTHER I LOVE YOU deals with the lengths one character will go to keep her loved one with her even though she is indeed a zombie. This segment is easily the most savage and dark of the bunch with a young woman keeping her zombie mother in her apartment. The lengths she has to go to are very difficult for her and the viewer to endure. AGE OF VACCINE deals with the doctors running with an unregistered vaccine that is actually nothing of the sort. In reality it is a suped up accident that turns people into more of a "super zombie" and the rescue mission that stumbles upon them. AFTER THAT...I'M SORRY hits on the unique concept of what life would be like after a person might be cured of being the living dead. This is the most politically outward of the movie, dealing with racism, societies view of the "other" class-ism and ultimately how we process "revenge. PAINKILLER is sort of a final wrap up of the whole piece that puts it all in perspective.

What makes THE NEIGHBOR ZOMBIE so great is that it has a very different point of view than the average zombie horror movie there days. Those films fall into two very distinct camps now. The Romero inspired political message horror/zombie film or the RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD/SHAUN OF THE DEAD inspired comedy hipster postmodernism take on the whole shebang. Very few other films fall outside of these lines. Only something as offbeat as say PONTYPOOL has the guts to do something different. This however really honestly does have a n unqiue vision and point of view. Yes the film is funny, and yes the movie is a political satire. But it is more often than not a film about people, a film about how relationships either work or fail, about how society reacts when relationships are put under stress and how our personal interactions are really the core of what life is all about.

It is a rare film that can work as a political polemic, a funny satire, a truly scary horror film and a heart breaking look at family and relationships. THE NEIGHBOR ZOMBIE manages to nail all of these and more. Innovated in design, exciting in execution, and digs into your brain to leave you satiated. Now if the movie can just get real distribution we will have something.

Babe Overboard!!! KILLER YACHT PARTY sinks like the titanic!!!

2011-06-28T22:55:00.000-04:00

KILLER YACHT PARTY (2010)
D. Piotr Uzarowicz
TROMA
1.78 non-anamorphic

From the name of the director of this flick you would assume you are getting some foreign slasher action. But the first ten minutes are some L.A. hipster insider look at the club scene. Sort of a how to get into a sleaze club and how it works from the inside. That should be the first sign you have been had. Two fresh on the streets of L.A chicks hit the scene trying to party, one "hot" blonde named Lacee and her "plain" friend named appropriately enough Jane. We see how to pay off the door man, how to let the owner of the club grope you for drinks, how the hot guys deal drugs and how it just doesn't fuckin pay to be plain cause in L.A. that means you are a "dog" and you wont get in free anywhere. Somehow the babe still get invited the Yacht party the next day where some dude who looks like a reject from the TWILIGHT Movies is hanging around the sideline obviously waiting to do something nefarious. Not to mention the really pissed off Gen-X drug dealers that were thrown out of the club who are gonna have to get some action of their own. Could be a KILLER YACHT PARTY. OH SHIT!!!

So the whole interchangeable cast end up out on the water on the yacht we later find out is supposedly haunted by the ghost of its owner that was killed in some insurance scam. We get an interminable amount of walking down hallways, partying down, and conversations to convince us that Jane is oh so plain and not compatible because she does things like read books and doesn't want to be int he spotlight. A weird thing is that the movie is chocked full of L.A. styled bimbos but none of them take their clothes off or do their duty to fill the movie with skin and sin. The movie takes itself way too seriously, never committing to being the exploitation movie that it really is. The one very brief nude scene has the gal sitting on the toilet for crying out loud. Well maybe some Troma fans are into that type of thing...

"Oh bitch you is so damn Plain! Your name is probably Jane! see this movie is clever like that!"

It is 47 minutes before the first death scene happens and nothing is shown. At least the first dude to die isn't the only black guy in the cast, that is one of the ONLY clichés the movie doesn't hit. Supposedly this is a slasher movie, or a supernatural thriller, but it spends far more time with characters walking around, or moping about because they are having a shitty night, than it does attempting to thrill in anyway. The movie falls into a very rote pattern of terrible kill scene, then back to the disco party, then more characters walking around looking for a place to fuck, then kill scene, disco, walking around. Repeat. The editing on the kill scenes is so terrible, the dancing so bad and the walking so boring that NONE of it matters at all.
A movie like this needs something special to set it apart. An interesting premise, a memorable killer, or at least a sense of viciousness that makes horror fans want to seek it out. KILLER YACHT PARTY has none of these things. It does however offer a reasonably well mounted production where the cinematography is nicely done, with beautiful lighting all the way around for the entire film. I can at least say that much about it. It is professionally mounted and would look good on, say, cable television. But in the areas where this kind of thing needs to count, the movie falls down more than a toddler learning to walk for the first time. In fact it is a struggle to get through.

One last thought. The final reveal on who the killer is would actually be kind of offensive if the movie around it was better made, but here it is not a surprise at all and just lame.