‘A nightmare of illusion and betrayal’

Spellbinder is a 1988 American romantic horror film directed by Janet Greek from a screenplay by Tracy Tormé. It stars Tim Daly, Kelly Preston, and Rick Rossovich.

Los Angeles attorney Jeff Mills and his friend Derek Clayton rescue a young beautiful woman, Miranda Reed, from an apparently abusive boyfriend.

Miranda has no home so Jeff offers her to stay at his house. But as the two became lovers, Jeff learns that Miranda is on the run from a witches’ coven.

Unfortunately, the coven needs Miranda back as a sacrifice at the winter solstice. She must, however, go to them of her own free will, and the coven tries to force her into doing so, using sorcery to taunt and terrify the two of them. Miranda tells Jeff about her grim situation, but not the entire truth…

Reviews:

“Spellbinder doesn’t wind up as tightly as it could, but select moments are pulled off with care, finding Torme channeling The Wicker Man as Jeff encounters forces he doesn’t understand, focused intently on his mission to defend his love. Daly deserves credit for committing entirely to the picture, which retains its fair share of silly business, including a showdown around Jeff’s home as Satanists gather outside, peering and bending the windows.” Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com

“Spellbinder isn’t all that good but it is oddly watchable. Besides, you have to stay until the end to see Kelly Preston’s devil dance in the sheer white nightie. [..] What this movie really needed was some kind of dynamic lighting to help with the mood. I mean this is a Satan movie with lots of potentially eerie images but everything was so broadly lit across the board that it kind of just sapped away at the creepiness…” Christopher Armstead, Film Critics United

“A pretty hokey mix of occult chills and marginally sexy thrills, Spellbinder is deadly in its predictability and more or less screams in your face about where it’s heading very quickly but it moves at a good pace and offers up enough skin and satanic hijinks that easily amused trash movie fans will dig what this movie delivers.” Ian Jane, Rock! Shock! Pop!

“The movie also has a few good scare scenes, like one in which the faces of all the members of the coven suddenly appear crowded around a window, staring in. A slickly made example of how Hollywood made money off of the Satanic panic of the 1980s, Spellbinder is essentially The Wicker Man set in Los Angeles and is more entertaining than Neil LaBute’s actual remake.” Jedadiah Leland, Through the Shattered Lens

Cast and characters:

• Timothy Daly as Jeff Mills
• Kelly Preston as Miranda Reed
• Rick Rossovich as Derek Clayton
• Audra Lindley as Mrs. White
• Anthony Crivello as Aldys
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Lieutenant Lee
• Diana Bellamy as Grace Woods
• James Watkins as Tim Weatherly
• Kyle T. Heffner as Herbie Green
• M. C. Gainey as Brock
• Stefan Gierasch as Edgar De Witt
• Roderick Cook as Ed Kennerle

Release:

The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in September 1988. It grossed $657,446 domestically at the box office.

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘You can’t worm your way out’

Blood Hook is a 1986 American horror film directed by James Mallon (co-creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000) from a screenplay by Larry Edgerton; it stars Mark Jacobs, Lisa Todd and Patrick Danz.

Seventeen years ago, Peter’s grandfather went missing under mysterious circumstances. Now, Peter and his friends have returned to the placid Wisconsin town to check out his inherited lake house and to partake in the annual ‘Muskie Madness’ fishing competition.

Soon after his arrival, Peter begins to sense that something isn’t quite right, but none of his friends, nor the local sheriff, will believe him. However, as townsfolk and tourists begin to disappear, Peter becomes determined to solve the mystery, as well as that of his grandfather’s disappearance, and soon finds himself facing off against a fish hook-wielding madman…

Blood Hook is released by Vinegar Syndrome on released on April 24, 201. The film has been newly restored from its original negative and presented in its much longer and never before released, director’s cut (which includes, among other things, nearly 30 seconds of additional gore), alongside fresh interviews with the cast and crew and a limited edition embossed slipcover.

Reviews [may contain spoilers]:

“The characters are so amazingly bland, even the wacky ones, that they slip from my mind having viewed the film only ten minutes beforehand. The only way I can even think of them is as stereotypes. They had the tramatized kid, the punk kid, the new age girl, the ditz, the burned out Viet Nam veteran, and the weird old guy.” Joel Mathis, Bad Movie Night

“Aside from the novelty of having a fisherman killer who treats his prey as the catch of the day, what makes this film slightly more entertaining than your average low budget mid-80s slasher is its humor and colorful supporting characters. It’s every bit as dumb as it sounds, but there are at least few laughs to be had here so it has that much going for it.” The Bloody Pit of Horror

“Apparently, Blood Hook is a pseudo-slasher that is actually trying to be funny. Many a pun and punchline flop about, simulating the death throes of an earthbound carp. The whole thing may have worked better had it been played straight. After all, the horrors of the sea (or, in this case, a pond frequented by tourist schmucks) can be an effective overlay no matter the budget, and new wave poseurs (albeit retrospectively) are funny by their very existence.” Thomas Duke, Cinema Gonzo

“Blood Hook is mostly bland but has a few good lines. The film does provide loveably ludicrous motivations for the killer, and the finale makes it quite clear the film is meant to be funny, but overall it’s too slow building to remain engaging in the earlier scenes.” Devon B., Digital Retribution

“While not the worst thing you’ll see in any horror, the characters are non-starters and absolutely no-one stands out except for the villain. There really isn’t much to enjoy here. There isn’t that much gore and the blood looks very fake. A scene that involves chopping up a body takes place mostly out of shot and the body parts are clearly mannequins. It’s also a really lengthy 92 minutes long!” Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life

” …has some memorable imagery – such as the corpses’ cartoony but well-done appearance in their watery grave at the end and the sound design is exceptional for a film this low budget. Music is pretty good all-around, not a soundtrack I’d buy or acquire, but all listenable and the sound effect for the killer is effective […] The atmosphere is very well crafted…” Andrew F. Moncrieff, The Horror Addiction

“Blood Hook obviously isn’t great on any level unless you compare it to movies that Mallon would one day lampoon on MST3K. Thankfully, this doesn’t quite sink to that level, as its few moments of peppered absurdity keep it afloat, but just barely. You can have a lot of fun with it, particularly trying to figure out if it’s meant to be funny.” Brett Gallman, Oh, the Horror!

” …there are enough red herrings to keep you guessing until the killer is revealed quite early in the runtime. Even though a set up involving a maniac catching unsuspecting victims with a treble hook sounds like it should be quite rightly awful, the director resists the temptation to fall into the realms of stupidity and if you ignore the physical impossibilities, it’s even quite creepy at times.” Luisito Joaquín González, a SLASH above…

” …an odd experience in terms of slasher films, entrenched in local custom, much of it is played for comedy […] and amusingly eccentric characters, not to mention some of the worst of 80s fashion.Despite low production values, little in the way of grue, and its eccentricities, caught in the right mood, Blood Hook is a fun little time waster.” Vegan Voorhees

“Mallon exhibits zero style behind the camera and all of the death scenes are thoroughly lame and interchangeable to boot. All of the “actors” are grating and annoying and will get on your damn nerves in record time. The inept gore effects are just as amateurish and are few and far between.” Mitch Lovell, The Video Vacuum

“This is the first (and only) fishing based slasher movie and it’s played completely unseriously (and has a mild sense of humour which works once and a while); but really there’s no other way they could have played it – and what’s left is neither good, nor bad; it’s just sort of “there”. And it reaches it’s pinnacle of sloppiness in the finale where they throw out lame twists about music and “metal plates” (you’ll see).” The Video Graveyard

Choice dialogue:

“If you feel comfortable killing me, that’s fine, I’m an adult, I understand!”

Cast and characters:

• Mark Jacobs … Peter van Cleese
• Lisa Todd … Ann Colbert
• Patrick Danz … Rodney
• Sara Hauser … Kiersten
• Christopher Whiting … Tom ‘Finner’ Finnegan
• Don Winters … Leroy Leudke
• Paul Drake … Wayne Duerst
• Bill Lowrie … Evelyn Duerst
• Sandy Meuwissen … Beverly ‘Bev D.’ Duerst
• Dale Dunham … Denny Dobyns
• Paul Heckman … The Sheriff
• Don Cosgrove … Roger Swain
• Bonnie Lee … Shiela Swain
• Greg Nienas … Irving ‘Irv’ Swain
• Julie Vortanz … Ruth-Ann Swain
• Donald Franke … Grandfather van Cleese
• Ryan Franke … Young Peter van Cleese
• Dana Remker … Dickie Duerst
• John Galligan … Emcee
• Ron Kaiser … Emcee

Filming locations:

Hayward, Wisconsin, USA; the town’s landmark giant fibreglass muskie is prominently featured in the film.

Release:

The film premiered at the MIFED Film Market in October 1986 and was released in the USA by Troma Entertainment in April 1987.

Blood Hook has been released on VHS by several companies including Paramount Home Entertainment and Troma Entertainment. It was released on DVD in 2004 as part of the Troma Triple B-Header alongside Blades and Zombie Island Massacre.

Buy DVD: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Vinegar Syndrome is issuing a 1,000 only limited edition Blu-ray + DVD on April 24, 2018.

Trivia:

The movie was filmed as Muskie Madness

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: The Bloody Pit of Horror | Vinegar Syndrome

Alien from the Deep is a 1989 Italian science fiction horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti [as Anthony M. Dawson] (Cannibal Apocalypse; Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eye; Castle of Blood; et al) from a screenplay by Tito Carpi (Tentacles; Last Cannibal World; Seven Murders for Scotland Yard) and produced by Franco Gaudenzi. It stars Daniel Bosch, Marina Giulia Cavalli, Luciano Pigozzi, Robert Marius, and Charles Napier.

Two members of Greenpeace discover that a local factory sheds radioactive waste into an active volcano, which has created a terrifying creature that wreaks havoc in the area…

Reviews:

“Outside of Charles Napier’s (Silence of the Lambs) performance in the role of a megalomaniac colonel, who has been hired to protect E-Chem Corporation secrets, the rest of the cast are stale and forgettable in their respective roles. Ultimately, Alien from the Deep is bottom of the barrel Euro-Cult schlock…” Michael Den Boer, 10K Bullets

“It sucks that the creature doesn’t make an appearance for nearly an hour into the film but there’s enough gunplay, explosions and jungle chases to keep the momentum moving forward […] a mighty entertaining film.” Ken Kastenhuber, McBastard’s Mausoleum

” The alien (or whatever it is) really steals the show, though, especially when it’s finally shown in all its oversized, awkward glory for the big climax complete with more flashing lights, smoke, and explosions than a Duran Duran video.” Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital

“What is perhaps surprising is just how dated it is. The script uses old hat explanations, some of which have not been in use for a good thirty years. The alien is a standard 1980s ripoff of H.R. Giger but this sits alongside atomic energy threat themes from the 1950s and 1970s ecological concerns.” Richard Scheib, Moria

“The movie isn’t particularly gory but it does have some awesome scenes where snakes somehow take down a small army of guys with M-16s and frequent use of the word ‘balls’ scattered throughout…” Ian Jane, Rock! Pop! Shock!

“No, Alien from the Deep didn’t win any Oscars, but to hell with those – it’s a helluva entertaining monster movie, packed with action, stunts, some gore, explosions and of course an alien-monster-thingie directly from the volcano of our imagination.” Fred Anderson, Schmollywood Babylon

It’s not a problem that it’s a bad film. That, I feel, was a given […] Admittedly, the final 20 minutes when the laughably crappy monster rears its claw and a few minor explosions blow the shit out of toy cars etc, is great.” Sex Gore Mutants

Choice dialogue:

“Don’t touch me, you snake squeezer! You’re all alike! Men like you think you’re real men just because you got a pair of balls!”

“I think it’s some kind of claw, Colonel!”

“Fear is contagious! You gotta nip it in the butt!”

“This isn’t f*ckin’ Vietnam, ok! But I said I’d stop the Greenpeace bastards and I will!”

Main cast and characters:

Daniel Bosch … Bob
Marina Giulia Cavalli … Jane [as Julia Mc. Kay]
Luciano Pigozzi … Doctor Geoffrey [as Alan Collins]
Robert Marius … Lee
Charles Napier … Colonel Kovacks

Filming locations:

• Latina, Lazio, Italy
• Pagsanjan, Laguna, Philippines

IMDb

‘Dining out can be a permanent experience!!!’

Goremet: Zombie Chef from Hell is a 1986 American comedy horror film directed by Don Swan from a screenplay co-written with Jeff Baughn and William Highsmith. It was shot on Super 8 film and promoted as Gore-Met: Zombie Chef from Hell. Theo Depuay, Kelley Kunicki, and C.W. Casey star.

1386: Priests from “The Ancient Order” place a indefinite curse on a man named Goza that requires him to feed off human flesh.

1986: Goza is now running a seafood restaurant and deli…

Reviews:

“… nearly all of the potential fun is stripped away quicker than a deli slicer can cut through a plastic foot. This doesn’t take itself too seriously and seems fully aware of how dumb it is, but that still doesn’t help matters. The one-liners and gags are lame, there are tons of scenes that seem to go on for an eternity, the continuity is awful and nearly all of the murders take place off-screen.” The Bloody Pit of Horror

“For a movie with such a deliberately exaggerated title there’s very little gore and no real “zombie”. Customers complain about hair and jewelry being in their food so I wouldn’t really call him a “chef”, and “hell” isn’t even really a factor at all. All of that considered, somehow (despite what other reviewers may say) Gore-Met delivers.” Atomic Caravan

” … reeks of weed, Doritos, and old Reebok high-tops in the best of ways. It was made by adults on Super 8, but most likely influenced by ninth-graders playing Dungeons & Dragons while watching Evil Dead. Plus it’s only 67 minutes. Bonus!” Joseph A. Ziemba, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

“The whole film is an exercise in padding. Out of its already brisk 70 minutes, about 20 minutes of that is actually plot. The rest is filled up with impromptu dance sequences featuring a few nude girls, a jazzy musical number of “Down to the Boardwalk”, shots of people drinking beer, and an extended sequence of someone trying to make a phone call.” The Zed Word

” …a crude, humorless, graphic, and somehow depressingly gratuitous slash-and gore piece – all of which could be good if it were funny or at least a little scary, but this one just doesn’t seem to work. Best appreciated for its title and that’s about it.” Videohound’s Complete Guide to Cult Flicks and Trash Pics

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca

“Some call it a parody, but everyone agrees on one thing – it’s really, really unwatchable … features a distracting synthesizer score, and it’s inept in every other possible way.”

Buy Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Main cast:

• Theo Depuay
• Kelley Kunicki
• C.W. Casey
• Charles Barger III
• Jeff Baughn
• Cindy Castanio
• Chuck Clubb
• Loy Dellinger
• Bob Highsmith
• Johnny Howie
• Alan Marx
• Joy Merchant
• Woody Mitchell
• Michael O’Neill
• Rocky Oliviero

Filming locations:

Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

IMDb | Related: The Synth of Fear: Horror Films with Synthesizer Scores – article by Steve Thrower

‘Many people visit, few ever leave the…’

Madhouse – aka There Was a Little Girl – is a 1981 Italian horror film produced and directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis (The Visitor; Tentacles; Beyond the Door). It stars Trish Everly, Dennis Robertson, Allison Biggers, and Michael Macrae.

The movie features a musical score by Riz Ortolani and cinematography by Assonitis regular Roberto D’Ettorre Piazzoli.

The original title refers to the poem ‘There Was a Little Girl’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

‘There Was A Little Girl,
Who Had A Little Curl,
Right In the Middle of Her Forehead.
When She Was Good,
She Was Very, Very Good.
And When She Was Bad,
She Was Horrid.’

Madhouse was one of the notorious titles on the British 1980s ‘video nasty‘ list VHS releases of banned for violence and obscenity.

Review:

Julia (Trish Everly) is a schoolteacher for deaf children who, rather, unfortunately, has a mentally unbalanced and physically mutilated twin sister Mary residing in an institution. She also has a kindly Uncle James (Dennis Robertson) who is a Catholic priest, and if you’ve seen any horror films – or, for that matter, read any news stories – then you know that supposedly kindly Catholic priests are not necessarily to be trusted.

Soon, people are dying, sometimes via Rottweiler attack. Eventually – and this takes a fair time – Julia’s birthday arrives (a big deal is made of this, even though she has presumably had several during Mary’s time institutionalised) and things come to a head, as the whole family get together in a finale that is suitably frenetic, even if it all ultimately makes little sense.

Quite how the film’s psycho killer manages to use a Rottweiler as a murder weapon is somewhat fudged as an issue as the film slips into a mix of The Shining and Deranged for the rushed final act, but seen in retrospect, it’s at least satisfying to see the film trying to be something a little different from the standard stalk and slash films that undoubtedly inspired it. Yet, Madhouse is also a slightly frustrating affair, a film that is too damn polite for its own good – it would probably benefit from more of the outrageousness of its ‘video nasty’ compatriots.

As it is, the film is too restrained for what it wants to be and falls between two stools – not quite good enough to stand out as an impressive psychological drama, not demented enough to work as excessive splatter movie madness. It is certainly isn’t terrible although it might prove to be a disappointing experience if you come to it aware of its past ‘nasty’ reputation and with expectations accordingly.

In the curious 1980s world of the ‘video nasty’, we can split the films – at least the thirty-nine that finally made up the official, government designated list of titles ultimately deemed so obscene that they could never be seen again – into two categories.

There are those movies that you can perhaps understand shocked and outraged some journalists, police officers, magistrates, MPs, juries and petty civil servants in 1983 – the likes of Cannibal Holocaust, SS Experiment Camp, I Spit on Your Grave, Island of Death and the front cover of The Driller Killer were of an excessive bent never before seen in the UK, and regardless of their merits as films, they were bound to seem like the most depraved things imaginable by people whose idea of a gory horror movie was a Hammer film and who were less than cine-literate.

Then, there were the curious films that ended up on the banned list apparently seemingly by osmosis – without any record of an actual obscenity conviction, with no actual content that seemed especially difficult and not even sporting outrageously outre cover art, a handful of films slipped quietly onto the banned list and stayed there forever.

Why anyone would even seize a film called The Werewolf and the Yeti is hard to fathom, and evidence that the film was ever branded as obscene by a jury is non-existent. A cynic might think that the powers that be were simply making all this up as they went along, especially as much more explicitly gory films were dropped from the banned list.

Another great example of ‘how did this film end up banned?’ is Madhouse. Admittedly, the original release of the film was the uncut version, containing a couple of brief gory moments that the BBFC chose to trim – notably the power-drilling of a dog’s head that was probably a trigger image for British viewers (the dog was represented by an unconvincing puppet, in case you were worried) – but the cover and the title were so unremarkable that you have to wonder just how it came to the attention of any eager police officer even at a time when some of the plod were so dim they seized The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and war drama The Big Red One, mistaking them for adult movies!

Plus, Madhouse is a slickly produced, almost TV movie-like psycho thriller; one reason many of the ‘nasties’ so shocked people who had not seen many low budget films is that the production values and visual style of these films – be they scuzzy low budget schlock like Mardi Gras Massacre, gritty indie films like The Driller Killer, or outsider works like trash auteur Andy Milligan’s The Ghastly Ones – were so far removed from what people knew as cinema that they automatically seemed dubious, not the work of ‘real’ filmmakers and therefore not ‘real’ films. You can’t say that of Madhouse. It looks like a mainstream North American horror movie, sitting comfortably alongside contemporaries like He Knows You’re Alone or Prom Night rather than more ham-fisted and slightly ‘off’ titles like Nightmares in a Damaged Brain.

In any case, last year’s Arrow Video release of Madhouse is the uncut version, allowing the patient viewer to enjoy not only the aforementioned dog puppet drilling but also a hilariously excessive axe attack, which makes up for with enthusiasm what it lacks in gory realism.

Interestingly, although it looks it, Madhouse is not an American film at all. It’s an Italian production, directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis, who was remarkably good at making his movies look like genuine stateside productions, avoiding the usual pitfalls like international casts, post-production dubbing and so on. This might have helped his films sell to the U.S. market, but it also risks stripping them of any individuality. His 1978 film The Visitor is a remarkably bonkers affair, but Madhouse looks and feels like everything else from that era. It’s well-made and it’s efficient, yet it’s entirely forgettable, even as you watch it.

David Flint, HORRORPEDIA

In June 2017, Arrow Video released the film uncut in the UK and US on Blu-ray + DVD with the following special features:

• Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition presentations
• Original Stereo Audio (Uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Brand new audio commentary with The Hysteria Continues
• Brand new interviews with cast and crew
• Alternate Opening Titles
• Theatrical Trailer, newly transferred in HD
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Marc Schoenbach
• A booklet featuring new writing on the film

Buy Blu-ray: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Other reviews:

“Ovidio pays homage to Suspiria (or maybe the same year’s The Beyond) by having the big black doggie ripping out some throats in full-blooded detail […] While ’80s slasher fans should get a kick out of this one, it also carries a strong Pete Walker vibe (albeit shot in America) with its strange character relationships and fractured psyches aplenty.” Mondo Digital

“The influence of Dario Argento’s films is easy to spot in this candy-colored slasher film – from the primary lighting gels used to add atmosphere to the dog attack scenes that really remind one of Suspiria even if the plot goes in a completely different direction. On the flip side of that coin, like some of Argento’s films, Madhouse also has its share of plot holes and head-scratching moments of confusion.” Ian Jane, DVD Talk

“The film boasts one of the most violent “hatchet-to-the-back” splashes of bloodshed, and although Assonitis maintains a decent, stylized level of dark despair and fear of the unseen, the acting is either too bland or over-the-top (much in the case of Dennis Robertson’s Father James).” George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In

“The final slaughter feels too underwhelming to be offensive to anybody and is framed off-centre so it hardly shows up as a major set piece, and while the setting of the final act tries to strike a morbid atmosphere it just feels like it is playing up the dark humour a tad too much and in all the wrong places.” Amie Cranswick, Flickering Myth

“Corny, melodramatic and outmoded at birth, it’s easy to understand why this one has eluded much fan-boy recognition. On the other hand, it’s smartly shot, atmospheric and unaffectedly eccentric.” Kindertrauma

“Although the story sounds simple, there are some surprises. Stylishly filmed and well acted, with a bigger budget this might have been a classic. As it is, it’s worth a look.” Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, DVD and Video Guide 2005, Ballantine Press, 2004

Main cast and characters:

• Trish Everly as Julia Sullivan
• Michael Macrae as Sam Edwards
• Dennis Robertson as Father James – Dark Night of the Scarecrow
• Morgan Hart as Helen
• Allison Biggers as Mary Sullivan
• Edith Ivey as Amantha Beauregard
• Richard Baker as Sacha Robertson Jr.
• Don Devendorf as Principal
• Jerry Fujikawa as Mr. Kimura

Filming locations:

Savannah, Georgia, USA

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credit: VHS Collector

Related: Happy Birthday to Me (1981)

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Bloodsuckers from Outer Space is a 1984 American comedy science fiction horror film written and directed by Glen Coburn (Tabloid!). It stars Thom Meyers, Dennis Letts, Laura Ellis, and Robert Bradeen.

On May 29, 2018, Vinegar Syndrome is releasing the movie on Blu-ray with the following features:

• Newly scanned and restored in 2k from 16mm negative elements
• Commentary Track with writer/director Glen Coburn, actor Thom Meyers, and cinematographer Chad D. Smith
• 34 Years Later: A 50 minute ‘making-of’ documentary
• Back To Bloodsucker Town: 15-minute featurette
• Bloody Arm Rip 101: A how-to guide on recreating the special effect from the film!
• Stills Gallery: Featuring over 100 images from Glen’s personal collection on the making of the film
• Reversible cover artwork
• English SDH subtitles

Texas farmers turn into zombies when they become infected by an energy field from outer space. The residents must escape before an overeager general can convince the President to drop a nuclear bomb on the rural town…

Reviews:

“Bloodsuckers from Outer Space could be one of the kings of low budget B-Movies […] has loads of odd but extremely funny lines of dialogue. It’s the kind of stuff that you can’t believe someone actually wrote down and then expected an actor to memorize.” Kryten Syxx, Dread Central

” …after a few minutes Bloodsuckers radically changes course, transforming into an anything goes comedy. Characters repeatedly break the fourth wall, commenting on the quality of their own fight scenes or how scary the incidental music is. These schizophrenic moments are what make the film so endearing.” Bill Burke, HorrorNews.net

” …a lot like the following year’s Return of the Living Dead, except that it isn’t funny or exciting.” Peter Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, 2001

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca

” …the acting and make-up effects are so dreadful, and the writing so amateurish, that there are several scenes and characters that will draw out a smile. At least everyone present was trying and it shows. The production as a whole gets an A+ for effort but a C- for presentation.” Jason McElreath, DVD Drive-In

“Bloodsuckers from Outer Space isn’t going to win any awards, but it’s fun and contains sporadic moments of (mostly) intentional greatness. There are far worse ways to kill a six-pack and an hour and 19 minutes. At the very least the new wave theme song is pretty choice and there are remarkably few fart jokes…” Travis Box, Dallas Observer

Cast and characters:

• Thom Meyes as Jeff Rhodes
• Dennis Letts as General Sanders
• Laura Ellis as Julie
• Robert Bradeen as Uncle Joe
• Glen Coburn as Ralph Rhodes
• Kris Nicolau as Jeri Jett
• Pat Paulsen as the President

Filming locations:

Dallas, Texas, USA

Release:

Bloodsuckers from Outer Space premiered at Joe Bob Briggs’ Drive-In Movie Festival in October 1984. Actor Pat Paulsen attended the premiere and later said that he was embarrassed by the quality of the movie.

Buy DVD: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Karl-Lorimar Home Video released the film on home video in 1986 and Media Blasters released it on DVD on December 30, 2008. A 30th Anniversary DVD was released by Whacked Movies on November 11, 2016.

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: Dread Central

‘The Reaper is coming. Pray he kills you first.’

Day of the Reaper is a 1984 American horror slasher film written and directed by Tim Ritter (Creep; Killing Spree; Truth or Dare? A Critical Madness and sequels); It stars Cathy O’Hanlon, Patrick Foster, and Todd Nolf.

The film was shot on Super 8mm film and distributed locally on VHS.

On April 17, 2018, the film is released on Blu-ray by SRS Cinema in a limited edition of just 200 copies.

In the town of Sunnyville, Florida, five women on vacation are stalked by a hooded cannibal killer …

Reviews:

” …the photography and editing couldn’t possibly be any worse and all of the sound was ineptly dubbed in later on. Supposedly the original video transfer was made by videotaping the projected image out of a shoe box! That all said, this is pretty much only of interest for completists and fans of this director to see how much he’s improved over the years.” Justin McKinney, The Bloody Pit of Horror

“Day of the Reaper is thoroughly bonkers and full of typical, perhaps unintentional bad movie absurdities […] The gore is also fairly rad, of course; most of it is supremely crude and focuses on the aftermath of The Reaper’s carnage…” Brett Gallman, Oh, the Horror!

“Ritter and company really cut to the chase of what makes the movies Reaper borrows from and just goes for it. Lack of talent and experience doesn’t stop anyone here and the end result is nothing short of amazing.” Ian Jane, Rock! Shock! Pop!

“This was a hard movie to watch, because the quality truly is atrocious. Ritter used duck tape to piece together the negatives and it was shot in silence and dubbed sometime later, which left a lack of synchronisation. There’s hardly any lighting in the night scenes, which means that when the screen is not tinged in a murky blue then it’s coated in pitch black…” Luisito Joaquin Gonzalez, A Slash Above…

IMDb

‘Santa Maria, mother of God …help me’

Retribution is a 1986 [released 1987] American supernatural horror film produced, co-edited and directed by Guy Magar from a screenplay co-written with Lee Wasserman; it stars Dennis Lipscomb, Leslie Wing, Hoyt Axton, and Suzanne Snyder.

The film’s synth-heavy soundtrack score was by Alan Howarth, a frequent collaborator with John Carpenter.

On Halloween, George Miller attempts to commit suicide by jumping off his hotel residence roof. However, he survives.

Psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Curtis manages to convince George he must carry on despite him suffering from terrible nightmares. Unfortunately, he discovers that when he is asleep, he forces other people to kill themselves in cruel ways…

Reviews [may contain spoilers]:

“There are long, tedious stretches where nothing much happens and numerous scenes thrown in that have little bearing on the actual plot and should have wound up on the cutting room floor […] Thankfully, this does manage to come to life during some nicely-directed, shot and staged supernatural sequences.” The Bloody Pit of Horror

“What does set the film apart from most of its ilk – low budget or studio release – is an obvious affection on the director’s part for his characters (perhaps too much since few of the nice characters are put in danger or even potentially threatened) and confidence in his chosen cast and crew.” Eric Cotenas, DVD Drive-In

“A fun trash movie, overlong but with enough horrible death to compensate for a hysterical central performance and some ridiculous plot turns.” William Thomas, Empire

“Inexplicably, director Guy Magar, a TV cop-show veteran, and co-writer Lee Wasserman have humorlessly emphasized their hero’s psychological torment as if this was serious stuff, not the hokum that it is.” Chris Willman, Los Angeles Times

The murder sequences are all strange and inventive enough to catch the attention of any horror fan, especially a surreal vignette involving a huge pig’s carcass at a meat processing plant, and Lipscomb does well in a rare leading role different from his usual TV work. The script itself doesn’t quite hold together as some characters get far more developed than others…” Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital

Cast and characters:

• Dennis Lipscomb … George Miller
• Leslie Wing … Jennifer Curtis
• Suzanne Snyder … Angel
• Jeff Pomerantz … Doctor Alan Falconer
• George Murdock … Doctor John Talbot
• Pamela Dunlap … Sally Benson
• Susan Peretz … Mrs. Stoller
• Clare Peck … Carla Minelli
• Chris Caputo … Dylan
• Hoyt Axton … Lt. Ashley – King Cobra; Buried Alive; Gremlins
• Ralph Manza… Amos
• Mario Roccuzzo … Johnny Blake
• Harry Caesar … Charlie
• Jeffrey Josephson… Joe Martinez
• Danny D. Daniels … Rasta Doctor

Production:

Guy Magar has said it took three years before he found an investor for the film. A wealthy businessman finally put up the entire $1.2 million budget. Filming began in January 1986 and lasted five weeks.

Filming locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Release:

Retribution screened at the AFI Film Festival of Los Angeles in March 1987. The film was originally planned for theatrical release in October 1986, but its release was delayed. It had a limited release in June 1987 and was finally scheduled for an October 1988 wide release.

Censorship:

In the UK, the BBFC inexplicably censored the Medusa VHS release by a whopping 1m 24s.

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘A howling good time!’

Full Moon High is a 1981 American comedy horror film written, produced and directed by Larry Cohen (The Stuff; Q: The Winged Serpent; It’s Alive franchise; et al). It stars Adam Arkin, Roz Kelly, Ed McMahon, and Alan Arkin.

Teenager Tony Walker (Adam Arkin) goes on a trip to Transylvania with his father Colonel William P. Walker (Ed McMahon) and gets bitten by a werewolf.

Made ageless, Tony attempts to put his life back together a couple of decades later by enrolling in high school. He tries to keep his secret from the school and his girlfriend. He also tries to ignore his girlfriend’s sexual advances because it is his “time of the month.”

Buy Scream Factory Blu-ray: Amazon.com

Reviews:

” …Full Moon High is one of the weaker entries in the Larry Cohen canon […] There’s a smattering of laughs, some vaguely engaging inter-generational commentary, bit parts by Bob Saget and Pat Morita, and I really like the low-rent map used for travel montages…” Junta Juleil’s Culture Shock

“It is generally dark and sexually charged, and fairly biting with satiric elements. At the same time, it is also very traditionally goofy, which makes for a weird combination. It also doesn’t help that it has a few awkward moments of jokes that don’t land…” Gordon Maples, Misan[trope]y

“The special effects are bad in a comically obvious way – a hand comes down and squashes the lead model of a plane as it crosses a map of Europe; and during the transformation sequence, the camera lens is ‘accidentally’ shot, which proves the opportunity for an off-screen voice to describe what great effects the audience are missing.” Richard Scheib, Moria

“It’s all very silly but in good fun, and when Adam Arkin’s father Alan Arkin comes in as Dr. Brand, the sarcastic psychiatrist who “shames people down” from ledges and mocks the depressed in an attempt to enliven them, Full Moon High hits its high notes again.” The Moon is a Dead World

“Critical opinion, even among genre aficionados, remains divided on the merits of Full Moon High but Larry Cohen fans will find much to chew on as he reworks some of his pet themes in a loosely comic, borderline improvisational fashion.” Richard Harland Smith, Turner Classic Movies

Choice dialogue:

“I don’t believe in vampires, werewolves and virgins – I’ve never seen any of those things.”

“Oh, no, I’ve never killed anyone. I just kinda nibble. I’m a nosher. A little bit goes a long way you know. But I’m worried one day my eyes will get bigger than my stomach…”

“No, don’t leave me. Come back you premature ejaculator!”

Cast and characters:

• Adam Arkin as Tony Walker – Halloween H20
• Ed McMahon as Colonel William P. Walker
• Roz Kelly as Jane – New Year’s Evil
• Joanne Nail as Ricky
• Bill Kirchenbauer as Detective Jack Flynn
• Kenneth Mars as Coach / Principal Cleveland – Young Frankenstein
• Elizabeth Hartman as Miss Montgomery
• Alan Arkin as Doctor Brand – Wait Until Dark
• Louis Nye as Reverend
• Demond Wilson as Cabbie / Bus driver
• Cheryl Lockett Alexander as Pregnant Teenager
• Jim J. Bullock as Eddie
• Tom Aldredge as The Jailer
• Tom Clancy as Priest
• Laurene Landon as Blondie
• John Blyth Barrymore as Student
• Bob Saget as Sportscaster
• Pat Morita as Silversmith
• Armando G. Fernandez as School Dance Dancer
• Julius Harris as Hijacker

Filming locations:

Filmed partially at John Burroughs Senior High School, Burbank, California, in the summer of 1979. Also filmed on location in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, on the football field in Bergen County Park.

Background:

Larry Cohen said of the film, “It has some interesting ideas about how life in America has changed sexually and politically since the early sixties. All of Arkin’s friends have changed but he hasn’t. And whereas he changes into a werewolf all of the time, his friends change into middle-aged people while he is gone, with different values and different ideas. They change as much as he does, actually.”

Offline reading:

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Wikipedia | IMDb

Werewolves on HORRORPEDIA

‘If you have the guts – he wants them!!’

Nightbeast – aka Night Beast – is a 1982 American science fiction horror film written and directed by Baltimore-based Don Dohler (Blood Massacre; The Galaxy Invader; Fiend). It is a remake of sorts to Dohler’s first film The Alien Factor. The movie stars Donald Leifert, Tom Griffiths and George Stover.

Most of the cast of The Alien Factor reprise their roles in Nightbeast. It features opening credit effects by Ernest D. Farino (who later created the title effects for The Terminator, The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day) and the creature was created by John Dods who later provided special effects for Ghostbusters II, Alien Resurrection, and The X Files. Additional makeup effects were by Amodio Giordano. Parts of the synth score were written by future Star Trek and Star Wars director J.J. Abrams. The movie had a budget of $42,000, a relatively large amount for a Don Dohler production.

A British VIPCO video release, the film was included on the lamentable Section 3 “liable for forfeiture” list as covered on Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide Part Two, Draconian Days

 Buy with Blood, Boobs and Beast: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“The film suffers from the usual shortcomings of this kind of regional, semi-amateur film-making: cliches, poor special effects, wooden acting, and the kind of script where “Holy shit!” is considered witty, Oscar Wilde-esque dialogue […] Still, Nightbeast does have its entertaining aspects.” Liz Kingsley, And You Call Yourself a Scientist!

” …a hoot from start to finish. The script was ultra-basic, the dialogue and acting uniformly atrocious, the photography amateur, and the direction pedestrian. However, it does feature a cool alien, lots of daft moments and unintentional (and intentional) humour.” Justin Richards, Blueprint: Review

“While the film is no Night of the Creeps (hell, it’s not even The Deadly Spawn), Nightbeast has its charms. As to what those charms are exactly, I have no idea. Actually, the title of the documentary about the career of Don Dohler sums up these charms quite well: Blood, Boobs and Beast. Check out if you get the chance, it’s a pretty good doc.” House of Self-Indulgence

“If you’re looking for a serious sci-fi movie, you’d be looking in the wrong place with Nightbeast. If you’re looking for cheesy, schlocky, consistently low budget special effects and a montage of gunfire, then you can’t go wrong here.” Internal Bleeding

“It entertained me and it didn’t outstay its welcome, to expect anything else of the movie would have been foolish. It’s far from a classic, it isn’t even very coherent, but with a just few thousand dollars Dohler made a movie that was much more entertaining and enjoyable than a lot of $100 million sci-fi movies I’ve seen.” To Obscurity and Beyond

“Naturally, this is the sort of affair that is a laff riot to those viewers in a certain frame of mind, with all its grottiness and cheapness and ideas above its station, even though those ideas were to make a more violent version of a fifties sci-fi invasion effort which were not exactly ambitious, but Dohler insisted on throwing in bits of business he felt proper movies should have, no matter how out of place they were.” Graeme Clark, The Spinning Image

“Well Nightbeast is probably not going to change your life, but if you are in a serious need of some real 80s entertainment of the weird kind, you can’t go wrong with Nightbeast, cause they don’t make em’ like this anymore.” Hog-Wild Howls

“Although the special effects (including some startling uses of gore makeup) are noteworthy, the actors aren’t given much to do other than stand around and talk. The final result is disappointing.” TV Guide

“Although the movie focuses on the gory kill scenes with glee, it’s not gory enough to be a splatter movie, it’s not campy enough to be funny and it’s not strange enough to be entertaining.” The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre

Cast and characters:

• Tom Griffith … Sheriff Jack Cinder
• Jamie Zemarel … Jamie Lambert
• Karin Kardian … Lisa Kent
• George Stover … Steven Price – Night of the Living Dead: Genesis; Camp Blood 666; Frames of Fear; Call-Girl of Cthulhu; Vampire Sisters; The Galaxy Invader; et al
• Don Leifert … Drago
• Anne Frith … Ruth Sherman
• Eleanor Herman … Mary Jane
• Richard Dyszel … Mayor Bert Wicker
• Greg Dohler … Greg
• Kim Pfeiffer … Kim [as Kim Dohler]
• Monica Neff … Suzie
• Glenn Barnes … Glenn
• Rose Wolfe … Glenn’s Girl
• Jerry Schuerholz … Hunter
• Hank Stuhmer … Hunter

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: House of Self-Indulgence

‘The finishing school that finished them off!’

Girls School Screamers is a 1984 American supernatural slasher horror film written and directed by John P. Finnegan [as Finegan] from a storyline written by Katie Keating and Pierce J. Keating; it stars Mollie O’Mara, Sharon Christopher and Mari Butler.

The movie was edited by Thomas R. Rondinella who went on to direct Blades in 1989.

Seven college girls spend the weekend at an elegant estate that starts as fun filled adventure, but ends in wretched terror after they get caught up in the morbid atmosphere of the estate and hold a seance. After a seance the girls begin to disappear one by one and all the old horror stories about the estate begin to come true again…

Reviews:

“It often cuts- or just turns away, so basically all you’ll be seeing is a bunch of fake looking blood dripping down death people’s bodies. Again, the movie could had really distinctive itself, or at least had made itself somewhat more interesting or entertaining if it had some decent killings in it, which just isn’t the case unfortunately.” Frank Veenstra, Boba_Fett1138

” …Girls School Screamers is of the “kids show up at a scary house, and a bunch of random creepy stuff happens” school, along the lines of Norman J. Warren’s Terror and Class Reunion Massacre. The movie seemingly starts off as a low rent slasher, but descends into surreal gothic territory (still low rent) as it moves along.” Thomas Duke, Cinema Gonzo

” …it’s just too run-of-the-mill and ponderous to satisfy. But it’s too cheap and amateurish to be anything else really (although you do get the impression that the makers thought they were making a mystery thriller of note). Its mongrel nature – it’s not really a slasher (although it borrows plenty from the subgenre’s toybox) and it’s not really a ghost story – means it ends up being pretty much nothing at all.” Hysteria Lives

“The methods of mayhem in the film include a hook, meat cleaver and a pitchfork, although we never get to see much of the good stuff. Similarly, the lack of nudity in a movie with such a lurid title is a bit of a letdown, but unlike their characters, the actresses must have been a little prudish. Like many slashers of the mid eighties, Girls School Screamers boasts some fun music.” Oh, the Horror!

“There’s the odd atmospheric moment that comes courtesy of a truly superb score and it’s funny to see college girls played by actresses the wrong side of their thirties, but is it enough? I really wanted to like Girls School Screamers and find a defence for it, but it is, unfortunately, a bit of a mess.” Luisito Joaquin Gonzalez, A Slash Above…

Main cast and characters:

• Mollie O’Mara … Jackie / Jennifer
• Sharon Christopher … Elizabeth
• Mari Butler … Kate
• Beth O’Malley … Karen
• Karen Krevitz … Susan
• Marcia Hinton … Adelle
• Monica Antonucci … Rosemary
• Peter Cosimano … Paul
• Vera Gallagher … Sister Urban
• Charles Braun … Tyler Welles
• Tony Manzo … Dr. Robert Fisher
• John Turner … Bruce
• James W. Finegan Sr. … Paul’s Father

Release:

Originally titled The Portrait, the movie was picked up for distribution by Troma Entertainment who insisted on adding some minor gore before releasing it in 1986.

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: Dimension Fantastica

Evilspeak is a 1981 American supernatural horror film directed by Eric Weston from a screenplay co-written with Joseph Garofalo. The movie stars Clint Howard, R.G. Armstrong, Joseph Cortese and Claude Earl Jones.

Life is not good for Stanley Coopersmith (Clint Howard), a teenage outcast who’s bullied by everybody at the strict military academy he was sent to after his parents died.

However, when Stanley discovers the crypt of a sixteenth century satanist beneath the school’s chapel, he creates a computerised Black Mass that unleashes unholy revenge upon his tormenters. Now, all Hell is breaking loose… and Stanley’s flesh eating demon-pigs are only the beginning!

In the UK, the film was cited as a so-called video nasty following its VHS release on the Videospace label. It remained banned for a number of years as part of the Video Recordings Act 1984, thanks to its gory climax and themes of satanism.

The film was reclassified and re-released in 1999 but with over three minutes of cuts which included the removal of most of the gore from the climax. It was then subsequently passed complete by the BBFC in 2004 and is now available in both an uncut form and a version re-edited by the distributors to tighten up the dialogue.

Actor Clint Howard said that director Eric Weston’s original version of the film that was submitted to the MPAA was longer, and contained more blood, gore, and nudity than the unrated version of the film. Especially during the shower/pig attack scene, and the final confrontation.

Buy Blu-ray: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

On 25 January 2016, 88 Films released Evilspeak on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK with the following extras:

• Audio Commentary with Producer / Director Eric Weston
• Interview with Cast Members Joseph Cortese, Clint Howard, Haywood Nelson, Claude Earl Jones, Richard Moll and Don Stark
• Theatrical Trailer
• Intro by Eric Weston
• Stills Gallery
• Newly Commissioned Artwork by Graham Humphreys
• Reversible incorporating original artwork

Reviews:

“There is a lot of padding in this paranormal davenport, but if you stick with it long enough, you’ll be rewarded with beautiful torrents of red spurting torment. After all, how can you dismiss outright a film featuring SATANIC PIGS OF HATE!?” Bill Gibron, DVD Verdict

“Evilspeak is definitely classic ’80s trash, and worth your time if you’re in a nostalgic mood for silly horror, or want to remember when we thought our Apple’s were magix boxes that could do anything, if we could only program it (and give it human blood.” Thomas Pluck, Pluck you, Too

Buy Blu-ray: Amazon.com

“The directorial debut of Eric Weston, Evilspeak is remarkably engaging, imaginative and well-crafted. It contains a strong performance from Howard, plus a deliciously over-the-top nasty turn by veteran character actor R.G. Armstrong.” TV Guide

Cast and characters:

• Clint Howard as Stanley Coopersmith
• R. G. Armstrong as Sarge – Friday the 13th: The Series; The Beast Within; The Car
• Joseph Cortese as Reverend Jameson
• Claude Earl Jones as Coach
• Haywood Nelson as Kowalski
• Don Stark as Bubba
• Charles Tyner as Colonel Kincaid
• Hamilton Camp as Hauptman
• Louie Gravance as Jo Jo
• Jim Greenleaf as Ox
• Lynn Hancock as Miss Friedemeyer
• Lenny Montana as Jake
• Richard Moll as Father Estaban

Filming locations:

The film was shot in three weeks, using locations in Santa Barbara and a condemned church in South Central Los Angeles.

Release:

Evilspeak was released on August 22, 1981 in Japan, and February 26, 1982 in the United States.

Buy Hidden Horror: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

“What I always forget is how damn gory Evilspeak is. First of all, the decapitations – these must be the uncleanest and most brutal ever filmed. Good old Coopersmith have a hard time aiming them right and often ending it all with destroying the heads completely. Everything shot in glorious slow-mo and tons of blood.” Fred Anderson, Ninja Dixon

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: Museu do VHS

Related: Horror High

Margot Kidder (October 17, 1948 – May 13, 2018), born as Margaret Ruth Kidder, was a Canadian American actress. She is best known as Lois Lane in the Superman film series, playing alongside Christopher Reeve. Kidder began her career in the 1960s appearing in low-budget Canadian films and television series.

Horror fans mainly know Margot Kidder’s work as the twins in Brian De Palma’s Sisters (1973); as sassy Barbara “Barb” Coard in Bob Clark’s seminal slasher film Black Christmas (1974); and as Kathy Lutz in The Amityville Horror (1979).

However, Kidder also appeared in horror-themed productions such as 1973 TV movie The Suicide Club (part of The Wide World of Mystery series), The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, the 1992 Tales from the Crypt episode ‘Curiosity Killed’, The Hunger TV series episode ‘The Sloan Men’ (1997), the 1997 Aaahh!!! Real Monsters kids’ television series (voicing Mistress Helga), slasher movie The Clown at Midnight (1999, with Christopher Plummer), supernatural anthology pic Death 4 Told (2004) and Rob Zombie’s Halloween II (2009).

In 2015, she won an Emmy Award for her performance as Mrs Worthington on the children’s television series R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour.

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘Keeping your head under stressful conditions can be difficult.’

Headhunter – aka Head Hunter – is a 1988 American/South African supernatural horror movie directed by Francis Schaeffer (Wired to Kill) from a screenplay by Len Spinelli. The movie stars Kay Lenz, Wayne Crawford, Steve Kanaly and June Chadwick.

A Miami cop is downbeat because his marriage has failed and his wife has a female lover. Meanwhile, a demon from Africa arrives among Miami’s Nigerian community and begins decapitating people and possessing others…

Reviews:

“Headhunter has the foundation of a good horror movie, if only it didn’t take itself so seriously. It seems determined to be dark and atmospheric, like a low-rent Serpent and the Rainbow — an unrealistic goal when the bad guy’s wearing a hooded Halloween costume from Spencer Gifts.” Black Horror Movies

“Lenz and Crawford have decent chemistry with one another and make for likable, engaging leads. Good thing too because this is heavier on the talk than it is the action. Some scenes are tense and fairly well done (others not so much), the creature design (not seen until the last five minutes) is adequate and some of the spirit POV camerawork is pretty cool, too.” Justin McKinney, The Bloody Pit of Horror

“It’s different, it’s quite exciting and the central duo make likeable leads, even if there is a little too much of the soap opera stuff, especially at the start. It also scores kudos points for intercutting the final fight with the film that is showing, unwatched, on Hall’s TV:The Hideous Sun Demon. The plot is a tad fuzzy…” MJ Simpson, Cult films and the people who make them

“Made at the end of the Eighties, this is very much a product of its time, a wannabe video-nasty with a monster that looks like something out of Star Trek and plot holes you could drive a bus through. Probably the scariest thing about it is the acting. “I don’t know what to say,” mumbles its cop hero in one of many interminable filler scenes, which pretty much sums up the dialogue.” Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

” …it spends an inordinate amount of time on Pete’s domestic strife with his switch-hitting ex (Chadwick), who at least marginally fits into the story in the third act. Fortunately  it manages to rally up a memorable scene every now and then including the aforementioned “take me to the river” scene and a lively finale that really has to be seen to be believed.” Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital

Choice dialogue:

“Life comes so damn cheap.”

Cast and characters:

• Kay Lenz … Katherine Hall – Fear; Stripped to Kill; House
• Wayne Crawford … Pete Giullani – Snake Island (director); The Evil Below; Barracuda (The Lucifer Project); Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things
• Steve Kanaly … Captain Ted Calvin
• June Chadwick … Denise Giullani
• John Fatooh … Roger/Headhunter
• Gordon Mulholland … Professor Robert Sinclair
• Sam Williams … Samuel Juru
• Helena Kriel … Murphy
• Ted Le Plat … Detective Haynes – The Mangler
• John Barrett … Detective #2
• Frank Notaro … Store Clerk
• Jim Neill … Bartender
• Isaac Albert … Maniac
• Robert La Thom … Houseboy
• Al Roberts … Praying Man

IMDb

Grave Robbers – aka Ladrones de tumbas – is a 1989 Mexican supernatural horror feature film directed by Rubén Galindo Jr. (Don’t Panic; Cemetery of Terror) from a screenplay by Carlos Valdemar, adapted from Galindo Jr.’s storyline. Fernando Almada, Edna Bolkan and Erika Buenfil star.

During the Inquisition, a satanist is accused of practicing black magic and tortured before being killed by an axe to his chest. As he dies, he curses his torturer’s descendants.

In present day Mexico, a group of greedy teenagers dig up graves looking for treasure. In doing so, they inadvertently discover a catacomb and resurrect the devil worshipper as a zombie killing machine…

Reviews:

“It’s a dragging slasher with a reliance on gore for gore’s sake and little magnetism. Galindo makes a slight move towards effective style (the subterranean exploration scenes for one), but the film is bogged down by aimless gab.” Joseph A. Ziemba, Bleeding Skull!

” …this features a few genuinely gruesome moments. Despite being completely unoriginal, this is actually a pretty fun movie. Apart from dragging a bit in the middle, it’s busy and fast-paced most of the time and the production values, acting, sets, cinematography and make-up effects are all either good or at least passable.” Justin McKinney, The Bloody Pit of Horror

“This obviously low-budget Mexican horror flick takes a while to get cooking, but once it does, it’s pretty gory […] The effects may not be state-of-the-art, but it’s apparent that they’re a labor of love and a breath of fresh air when compared to the sterile CGI effects of today. The film has a low-budget atmosphere that’s infectious, so it’s various shortcomings (including some camera shadows) can be ignored.” Fred Adelman, Critical Condition

“This is a slasher film of the highest degree, and as the body count mounts, so do the excellent Tom Savini-type special effects. Heads and hands are lopped off, throats and skulls are gashed, and one poor girl has her face mashed through the bars of a gate.” George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In

“While the plot and acting here are a complete mess, the film is worth seeing for the special effects as this is one gory little film. Innards are ripped out, faces are smushed, hands are chopped off and more, and the camera shies away from none of it. Thankfully, the effects are actually quite good...” Ian Jane, DVD Talk

“It’s colorful, gory, cheesy, silly and Galindo’s idea of scares is cobwebs, skeleton hands, graves, fog and a generous amount of (cheap) graphic gore. There’s a lot of axe-cuts of course, a head crushing, stabbings, a belly-ripping (from the inside, by a demon hand!), some general stabbings and decapitations and more.” Fred Anderson, Ninja Dixon

“Once you can get past all the Inquisition flashback shit and the inane treasure hunting malarkey, Grave Robbers settles down and becomes a fairly decent Mexican slasher flick chockfull of wonderfully moist gore scenes. There are plenty of gruesome axe murders to be had…” Mitch Lovell, The Video Vacuum

“Slightly above average cheesy satanic-zombie-slasher from Mexico with just enough extra gore and energy…” The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre

IMDb

More Mexican horror

Image credits: The Bloody Pit of Horror

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The Popobawa (or Popo Bawa) is a mythical cryptid originating in Eastern Africa, specifically in and around the Tanzanian area. Popobawa is an alleged evil shape-shifting being which is said by witnesses to take both human and bat-like form, causing instances of panic to spread among affected communities.

Popobawa is unusual in cryptid terms in being a relatively recent phenomenon, the first specific reference being from 1965 on the Tanzanian island of Pemba, perhaps pertinently just after the island’s political revolution. Named from the Swahili for Popo (“bat”) Bawa (“wing”) due to the shadow it casts when flying overhead, it is the most recent “shetani” , the collective of mostly malevolent mythical spirits originating in the Eastern Africa area.  As a shape-shifting creature, it takes the form of a human by day and as a hunched or dwarfen humanoid with a variety of characteristics at night – these can include:

• A hunched or dwarf-like human body
• Long, pointed ears
• A mouth crammed with fangs
• Grey skin
• A single eye in the centre of its forehead
• Huge, bat-like wings, folded when not in flight into a cape
• A large penis (up to six feet in length!)
• Emission of a sulphurous smell
• Appears in a puff of smoke
• Occasionally seen with a tail and a bird’s talons

Many of these elements seem interchangeable, with daytime sightings and metamorphosis into animals also reported. With no ascribed motive for the Popobawa’s attacks on men, women and children, it is notable and quite shocking that the majority of the creature’s attacks are not only violent but also see the sodomitic rape of the victim, lasting up to one hour. The victim, if left alive, is told by the spirit to tell others of what has happened, lest the beast to revisit them and re-enact the assault.

It would seem likely that a strong history of homophobia in the region has made a significant impression on this element of the story – others have suggested that the area’s history as colonial hotbeds of slavery is responsible to some extent. The night-time attacks have left communities (though most tellingly, usually the men) staying awake at night to guard against the Popobawa visiting their homes.

By the 1970’s, Popobawa was given something of a backstory, an angry sheikh having released a djinn (genie) to take vengeance on his enemies. However, he lost control of the creature and the djinn took its current form, demanding its victims believe in its existence. More sightings began to appear, particularly in Tanzania and Zanzibar, though it was 1995 when the first of two notably widespread panics were attributed to attacks.

Reports of the 1995 attacks were investigated by prominent American sceptic, Joe Nikell who reported that there was evidence that the likely cause was some kind of sleep paralysis, rather than an actual physical encounter. Accounts from people said to have been victims regularly tell of feeling they are being held down whilst being attacked, in common with many alien abduction stories and out of body experiences – this would certainly lend itself to Nikell’s theory.

Mjaka Hamad, a peasant farmer in his mid-fifties and an apparent victim of the Popobawa’s attacks in 1995, has related his ordeal to the media:

“I could feel it,” Hamad said, “…something pressing on me. I couldn’t imagine what sort of thing was happening to me. You feel as if you are screaming with no voice. It was just like a dream but then I was thinking it was this Popobawa and he had come to do something terrible to me, something sexual. It is worse than what he does to women.”

The most recent wave of widely-reported Popobawa sightings came in 2007 in Tanzania’s former capital, Dar es Salaam, significant enough that even BBC news covered it. Some locals anointed themselves with pig oil to protect themselves from the Popobawa, whilst steel and salt are also said to repel the creature.

TV Personality Benjamin Radford, who investigated the Popobawa in 2007, reported in Fortean Times that the legend has its roots in Islam, the dominant religion in the area. According to Radford, “holding or reciting the Koran is said to keep the Popobawa at bay, much as the Bible is said to dispel Christian demons.”

Daz Lawrence, HORRORPEDIA

Wikipedia

Image credits: Cryptid Wiki | Mythology.net

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The following is a list of the best horror films currently available on Netflix USA and UK in June 2018 as recommended by HORRORPEDIA. Feel free to leave feedback via the comments section below.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

In small-town Virginia, police are called to a gruesome crime scene where a family has been massacred in their own house. In the basement, an even more disturbing discovery is made: the partially buried corpse of a naked young woman.

The cops take this unidentified victim to a small, family-run morgue, where they ask proprietor Tommy Tilden (Brian Cox) to perform an urgent forensic analysis in order to help determine what happened at the blood-stained house… [read more]

The Babadook (2014)

Six years after the death of her husband, Amelia struggles to discipline her “out-of-control” six-year-old Samuel – a son she finds difficult to love. Samuel’s dreams are plagued by a monster he believes is coming to kill them both.

When a disturbing storybook called “The Babadook” turns up at their house, Samuel is convinced that the Babadook is the creature he’s been dreaming about… [read more]

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

In 1897, newly-qualified solicitor Jonathan Harker takes the Transylvanian Count Dracula as a client from his colleague R.M. Renfield, who has gone insane.

Jonathan travels to Transylvania to arrange Dracula’s real estate acquisition in London, including Carfax Abbey. He meets Dracula, who discovers a picture of Harker’s fiancée, Mina, and believes that she is the reincarnation of his dead wife Elisabeta… [read more]

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Technicians Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley prepare for an operation, one of several taking place around the world, while joking with fellow technician Wendy Lin.

College students Dana Polk, Jules Louden and her boyfriend Curt Vaughan, Holden McCrea, and Marty Mikalski go to a remote cabin in the woods for a vacation. While there, the technicians control the local environment and give them mood-altering drugs to manipulate the group into following a scenario. The drugs gradually reduce the group’s intelligence and awareness, and also increase their libido… [read more]

Carrie (1976)

Withdrawn and sensitive teen Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) faces taunting from classmates at school and abuse from her fanatically pious mother (Piper Laurie) at home. When strange occurrences start happening around Carrie, she begins to suspect that she has supernatural powers. Invited to the prom by the empathetic Tommy Ross (William Katt), Carrie tries to let her guard down, but things eventually take a dark and violent turn… [read more]

The Conjuring (2013)

When a rural family of seven begin to suspect that they are not alone on their Harrisville, RI farmstead, they hire world-renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren to check out their secluded farmhouse.

The Warrens may be seasoned ghost hunters, but they soon realise that they are in over their heads. As supernatural activity around the home becomes increasingly violent and ominous, the couple must fight for their lives in order to destroy the most terrifying evil they have ever encountered… [read more]

Creep (2014)

Aaron (Patrick Brice) is an optimistic videographer that decides to work for Josef (Mark Duplass) after answering his ad on Craigslist. All Aaron has to do is record Josef throughout the day and remain discreet about the entire set-up. Josef tells Aaron that he’ll be recording a series of videos for his unborn son, as he’s suffering from a terminal illness and will never be able to see him grow up. While Josef seems strange, the money is too good for Aaron to pass up and he agrees to the task.

However, as the day progresses Josef becomes increasingly strange and Aaron finds it difficult to tell whether or not some of the things Josef is saying or doing are truly jokes or actually a sign of true danger and mental instability… [read more]

Cult of Chucky (2017)

Confined to an asylum for the criminally insane for the past four years, Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif) is erroneously convinced that she, not Chucky, murdered her entire family.

However, when Nica’s psychiatrist introduces a new therapeutic “tool” to facilitate his patients’ group sessions — an all-too-familiar “Good Guy” doll with an innocently smiling face — a string of grisly deaths begins to plague the asylum, and Nica starts to wonder if maybe she isn’t crazy after all… [read more]

Deathgasm (New Zealand, 2015)

A comedy horror movie written and directed by Jason Lei Howden. It stars Milo Cawthorne, James Blake, and Kimberley Crossman.

New kid in town Brodie and bad-boy Zakk quickly bond over their mutual admiration of heavy metal rock music. But when these two metal-heads unwittingly summon up a demon known as The Blind One, their dreams of stardom may just have to be put on hold…

[read more]

The Descent (2005)

Having entered an unmapped cave system, six young women become trapped and are hunted by bloodthirsty human hybrids lurking within… [read more]

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

On the run from a bank robbery that left several police officers dead, Seth Gecko (George Clooney) and his paranoid, loose-cannon brother, Richard (Quentin Tarantino), hightail it to the Mexican border.

Kidnapping preacher Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel) and his kids, the criminals sneak across the border in the family’s RV and hole up in a topless bar. Unfortunately, the bar also happens to be home base for a gang of vampires, and the brothers and their hostages have to fight their way out… [read more]

Gerald’s Game (2017)

Once again, Jessie Burlingame (Carla Gugino) has been talked into submitting to her husband, Gerald’s, kinky sex games—something that she’s frankly had enough of, and they never held much charm for her to begin with. So much for a “romantic getaway” at their secluded summer home.

After Jessie is handcuffed to the bedposts—and Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) crosses a line with his wife—the day ends with deadly consequences. Now Jessie is utterly trapped in an isolated lakeside house that has become her prison—and comes face-to-face with her deepest, darkest fears and memories… [read more]

He Never Died (2015)

A comedic horror feature film written and directed by Jason Krawczyk. Jack (Henry Rollins) has developed a routine for his life that he sticks to in order to avoid giving into the impulse to engage in cannibalism. He stays away from society other than regular trips to a local diner, bingo games, and to the hospital, where he purchases blood from a hospital intern, Jeremy (Booboo Stewart)… [read more]

Hellraiser (Clive Barker, UK, 1987)

Kinky deviant Frank (Sean Chapman) inadvertently opens a portal to hell when he tinkers with a box he bought while abroad. The act unleashes gruesome beings called Cenobites, who tear Frank’s body apart. When Frank’s brother (Andrew Robinson) and his wife, Julia (Clare Higgins), move into Frank’s old house, they accidentally bring what is left of Frank back to life. Frank then convinces Julia, his one-time lover, to lure men back to the house so he can use their blood to reconstruct himself… 

Hush (2016)

After an accident robbed her of her hearing as a teenager, author Maddie Young began to lead a life of seclusion. As an adult she spends her time in an isolated cabin out in the woods, but Maddie soon realises she is no longer alone and is now being hunted by a masked killer… [read more]

The Invitation (2015)

Will and Eden were once a loving couple. After a tragedy took their son, Eden disappeared. Two years later, out of the blue, she returns with a new husband… and as a different person, eerily changed and eager to reunite with her ex and those she left behind.

Over the course of a dinner party in the house that was once his, the haunted Will is gripped by mounting evidence that Eden and her new friends have a mysterious and terrifying agenda… [read more]

It Follows (2014)

For nineteen year-old Jay, fall should be about school, boys and weekends out at the lake. But after a seemingly innocent sexual encounter, she finds herself plagued by strange visions and the inescapable sense that someone, or something, is following her. Faced with this burden, Jay and her teenage friends must find a way to escape the horrors that seem to be only a few steps behind… [read more]

John Dies at the End (2012)

A new street drug that sends its users across time and dimensions has one drawback: some people return as no longer human. Can two college dropouts save humankind from this silent, otherworldly invasion? [read more]

Misery (1990)

Sick of his 19th Century romantic heroine, Misery Chastain, novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) kills her off and writes a more personal, modern novel.

When his car crashes in remote mountains Paul is saved by ‘number one fan’ Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), who adores Misery and has even named her pig after her. As she nurses him back to health at her remote dwelling, he realises she is not just going to let him go… [read more]

Oculus (2013)

Ten years previously, tragedy struck the Russell family, leaving the lives of teenage siblings Tim and Kaylie forever changed when Tim was convicted of the brutal murder of their parents.

Now in his twenties, Tim is newly released from protective custody and only wants to move on with his life; but Kaylie, still haunted by that fateful night, is convinced her parents’ deaths were caused by something else altogether: a malevolent supernatural force­­ unleashed through the Lasser Glass, an antique mirror in their childhood home… [read more]

The Omen (1976)

American diplomat Robert (Gregory Peck) adopts Damien (Harvey Stephens) when his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick), delivers a stillborn child. After Damien’s first nanny hangs herself, Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton) warns Robert that Damien will kill Katherine’s unborn child.

Shortly thereafter, Brennan dies and Katherine miscarries when Damien pushes her off a balcony. As more people around Damien die, Robert investigates Damien’s background and realises his adopted son may be the Antichrist…

[read more]

The Ritual (2017)

After a tragic robbery and homicide incident, four British former university friends reunite for a hiking trip in Sweden. However, they encounter a menacing presence in the forest that seems to be stalking them… [read more]

Se7en (1995)

The newly transferred David Mills (Pitt) and the soon-to-retire William Somerset (Freeman) are homicide detectives who become deeply involved in the case of a sadistic serial killer whose meticulously planned murders correspond to the seven deadly sins: gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust, and envy… [read more]

Teeth (2007)

Dawn (Jess Weixler) is an active member of her high-school chastity club but, when she meets Tobey (Hale Appleman), nature takes its course, and the pair answer the call. They suddenly learn she is a living example of the ‘vagina dentata’ myth, when the encounter takes a grisly turn… [read more]

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) packs her things and leaves her apartment, angry over a dispute with her partner Ben (Bradley Cooper). While driving away she turns on the radio; it claims that there are numerous blackouts in major cities. Michelle becomes distracted after Ben calls her, and her car crashes and goes off the road from the distraction, flipping upside down.

When she awakens, she discovers she is chained to the wall in an unknown location. After reaching her phone only to receive no signal, a man named Howard (John Goodman) enters the room and tells her he saved her life and the world outside is now uninhabitable due to the nuclear or chemical fallout from “an attack.”… [read more]

30 Days of Night (2007)

In the far Northern Hemisphere, the small town of Barrow, Alaska, experiences a solid month of darkness every year. Though most of the residents head south for the winter, some townspeople remain behind. However, those that stay regret their decision when, one year, hungry vampires descend on Barrow to feed. Sheriff Eben (Josh Hartnett), his wife (Melissa George) and a dwindling band of survivors must try to last until dawn breaks over Barrow’s monthlong twilight… [read more]

Train to Busan (2016)

Seok-woo is a fund manager, workaholic, and divorced single father to his young daughter, Soo-an. For her birthday, she asks him to take her to Busan to see her mother.

As the train departs, a convulsing, ill young woman boards with a bite wound on her leg. She becomes a zombie and attacks a train attendant, quickly spreading infection in the train. Seok-woo receives a call from his co-worker warning him that “violent riots” have erupted in Korea… [read more]

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)

A group of “college kids” are going camping in the Appalachian mountains. While at a gas station, they encounter Tucker and Dale, two well-meaning hillbillies who have just bought the vacation home of their dreams: a run-down lakeside cabin, deep in the woods. On Tucker’s advice, Dale tries to talk to Allison, but because of his inferiority complex and appearance, he only scares her and her friends… [read more]

Veronica (2017)

Madrid, 1991: During a total eclipse of the sun, Catholic schoolgirl Veronica and two friends decide to make a Ouija board to invoke her father’s spirit. After the glass shatters, Veronica enters a kind of trance and passes out, frightening her friends.

Having recovered, she starts to perceive strange things at home that make her think she’s brought her father back to the world of the living [read more]

The Wailing (2016)

A mysterious sickness is spreading among the people of the Goksung village, causing violent murderous outbreaks followed by stupor and eventually death.

Police and doctors first suspect the victims were poisoned by wild mushrooms. Officer Jong-goo, who is investigating the cases, meets a mysterious young woman called Moo-myeong (“no name” in Korean), who tells him about a Japanese stranger and his involvement with the deaths… [read more]

Would You Rather (USA, 2012)

Iris (Brittany Snow) and seven other desperate people become trapped in Shepard’s (Jeffrey Combs) mansion. Shepard forces them to play a sadistic game for a large sum of money — but the dilemmas become increasingly deadly… [read more]

Zombieland (2009)

After a virus turns most people into zombies, the world’s surviving humans remain locked in an ongoing battle against the hungry undead. Four survivors — Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and his cohorts Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) — abide by a list of survival rules and zombie-killing strategies as they make their way toward a rumoured safe haven in Los Angeles… [read more]

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“It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent Fritters”

Motel Hell is a 1980 American comedy horror feature film directed by Kevin Connor (The House Where Evil Dwells; At the Earth’s Core, Frankenstein – [2004]; From Beyond the Grave), from a screenplay by producers Robert Jaffe and Steven-Charles Jaffe, and stars Rory Calhoun as farmer, butcher, and meat entrepreneur Vincent Smith. The movie is often seen as a satire of key genre films such as Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Farmer Vincent Smith and his younger sister Ida live on a farm with a motel attached. It’s called “Motel Hello,” but the neon ‘O’ flickers. Vincent smokes meats said to be the most delicious in the area. The secret is human flesh, and Vincent has the areas around his motel strewn with various booby traps to catch victims, including a couple of would-be swingers.

The victims are restrained, then placed in a ‘secret garden,’ buried up to their necks, and have their vocal chords cut to prevent them from screaming. They are kept in the ground and fed until they are ready for harvest. Ida helps Vincent, who feels he does no wrong and sees the victims as animals…

Reviews:

“With its crazy characters, sick psychedelic scenes, oddly ecological message, multiple murders and manic performances, Motel Hell is a definite cult movie in every sense. Throwing in sex fiends, slaughtered pigs, chainsaw fights and a garden of live heads, the film keeps you entertained all the way through.” Love Horror

“The greatest delight in a film full of unexpected treats is the cast, headed by Rory Calhoun. Sometimes an actor who has been reliable but unremarkable finds a part which he was born to play, and in the case of Calhoun that part turned out to be Farmer Vincent. Years of playing the lead in cowboy movies has given him an aura of solid reliability and he uses this to brilliant effect, making the fundamentally crazy Vincent seem strangely reasonable and even heroic.” The Digital Fix

Buy Shout! Factory Blu-ray + DVD combo: Amazon.com

• Audio Commentary with director Kevin Connor, moderated by filmmaker Dave Parker
• It Takes All Kinds: The Making of Motel Hell featuring interviews with director Kevin Connor, producers/writers Robert Jaffe and Steven Charles Jaffe and actor Marc Silver
• Shooting Old School with cinematographer Thomas Del Ruth
• Another Head on the Chopping Block: an interview with actor Paul Linke
• From Glamour to Gore: An interview with actress Rosanne Katon
• Ida, Be Thy Name:  A look back at Motel Hell’s frightful female protagonist Ida Smith
• Theatrical Trailer
• Photo Galleries

“Campy and self-referential, filled with puns and sarcasm, Motel Hell is well deserving of the audience it didn’t find upon release. The screenplay doesn’t hold back and the director takes advantage of his opportunities […] In addition to the satirical gore and some flashes of nudity, Motel Hell offers a host of strange and amusing images or situations […] The only flaws are some weak or obvious jokes (e.g. the preacher reading Hustler, or the overeager swingers).” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers, Lulu, 2012

Buy Claws & Saucers: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“Despite its gruesome aesthetics, you’re not subjected to the signature slasher images associated with the others — the camera will cut away, for example, before you see Ida’s blade even touch the skin of her human pets — but despite it being wasted on its original audience, Motel Hell is, rather inexplicably, nostalgically charming and heart-warming in the oddest possible way.” Michelle Butterworth, Bring the Noise

“Before it’s over, virtually every melodramatic cliche imaginable – including the heroine on the buzz saw – has been brought into play. The filmmakers make good use of stark lighting and gurgling sound effects to create their creepy atmosphere.” Videohound’s Complete Guide to Cult Flicks and Trash Pics

“Motel Hell could have been a great black comedy, but the uneasy direction of Kevin Connor, combined with the gore that comes with this territory, fails to get most of the picture off the ground.” James J. Mulay, The Horror Film, CineBooks, 1989

Buy Arrow Blu-ray + DVD combo: Amazon.co.uk

“It has some great moments, including a duel fought with chainsaws, a hero swinging to the rescue on a meathook, and Farmer Vincent’s dying confession of the shameful secret that he concealed for years. These moments illuminate the movie’s basic and not very profound insight, which is that most of the sleazoids would be a lot more fun if they didn’t take themselves with such gruesome solemnity.” Roger Ebert

“Played with a straight face, Motel Hell is not only seriously funny, but damn frightening […] The ending, which features a return of the dead-style siege of the would-be victims (still gurgling) and duelling chainsaws, is a bizarre high-watermark of low-budget 1980s horror films.” John Kenneth Muir, Horror Films of the 1980s, McFarland, 2007

Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

” …the farm is the epitome of Reagan’s America, where the grossest exploitation lurks just beneath the placid plastic surface, where murder is less blasphemous than sexual liberation, where idiotic families or tourists eat the most unutterable junk and the sheriff is ‘the biggest cannibal around’. Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror

Cast and characters:

• Rory Calhoun as Vincent Smith – Hell Comes to Frogtown; Night of the Lepus
• Paul Linke as Sheriff Bruce Smith
• Nancy Parsons as Ida Smith
• Nina Axelrod as Terry
• Wolfman Jack as Reverend Billy
• Elaine Joyce as Edith Olson
• Dick Curtis as Guy Robaire / First TV Preacher
• Monique St. Pierre as Debbie
• Rosanne Katon as Suzi
• E. Hampton Beagle as Bob Anderson
• Everett Creach as Bo Tulinski
• Michael Melvin as Ivan
• John Ratzenberger as Drummer
• Marc Silver as Guitarist
• Victoria Hartman as Female Terrible
• Gwil Richards as Mr Owen
• Toni Gillman as Mrs Richards

Buy on DVD with Wrong Turn and Needful Things: Amazon.com

Filming locations:

Exteriors filmed at Sable Ranch in Santa Clarita, California, USA.

Interiors of the motel, farm, and smokehouse were filmed at the Laird International Studios in Culver City, California.

Wikipedia | IMDb

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Cry Little Sister is a rock song written by Gerard McMahon (under the pseudonym Gerard McMann) and Michael Mainieri and performed by McMahon for the soundtrack to the horror film The Lost Boys (1987). The album peaked at number 15 on the Billboard 200, however the single did not chart in the US.

McMahon has said that he “wanted it to be about the longing for family from a rejected youth’s perspective, which I went through myself and that many of us have felt.”

Lyrics:

Cover versions:

• Charlie Sexton, on his 1989 self-titled album
• Mystic Circle, as a bonus track on their 2002 album Damien
• Zug Izland, on their 2003 album Cracked Tiles
• Blutengel, on their 2005 album The Oxidising Angel
• Aiden, on the soundtrack of the sequel film Lost Boys: The Tribe and the song also featured from the film Lost Boys: The Thirst.
• Nikki McKibbin, on her 2007 album, Unleashed
• Vesperian Sorrow, on their 2007 album, Regenesis Creation
• Ventana, on their 2009 album, American Survival Guide Vol. 1
• L.A. Guns, on their 2009 Album Covered in Guns
• Seasons After, on their 2010 album Through Tomorrow. This is the only charted cover of the song, reaching #20 on the Mainstream Rock charts.
• Eminem samples the track on his song “You’re Never Over” on his 2010 album Recovery
• Tangerine Dream, in their 2010 album Under Cover – Chapter One
• Celldweller released a “Klash-Up” in October 2012, featuring incidental music titled Hello Zepp from the first Saw movie.
• Krayzie Bone samples the track on his song “Hold on to Your Soul” on his 2015 album Chasing the Devil
• Dee Snider on the album Oculus Infernum, part of his side project Van Helsing’s Curse.
• Shining covers the song on their 2018 album X – Varg Utan Flock.
• On June 15, 2018, Marilyn Manson released a single cover version for Josh Boone’s upcoming film, The New Mutants.

Wikipedia

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‘Don’t kiss me, I’m not dead… yet’

Graverobbers – aka Dead Mate – is 1988 American horror feature film written and directed by Straw Weisman (Trunk; Hatchet post-production supervisor; US version of Godzilla 1985). The Lew Mishkin (Monstrosity; Carnage) produced movie stars Elizabeth Mannino, David Gregory and Larry Bockius.

The synth score was composed by Katherine Quittner.

The nightmare begins with Nora’s vision of her beating heart being ripped out of her body. Awakening with a start in the diner where she is a waitress, she meets suave Henry Cox. A lightning courtship leads to his marriage proposal and her acceptance.

Henry’s “home” turns out to be a funeral parlour, but the wedding takes place anyway. Nora’s increasing uneasiness proves justified after a harrowing chase through the cemetery, where she sees the empty grave of the graverobbers’ latest victim…

Reviews:

“The acting and dialogue are both uniformly terrible throughout, there’s extremely clumsy use made of voice-over and it can never seem to decide on a tone […] It feels almost as if the filmmakers threw in the towel at some point and just opted for random absurdity and forced camp because they had no clue what else to do.” Justin McKinney, The Bloody Pit of Horror

“Filled with amateurish scenes of necrophilia backed by lurid pop music, rubbery body parts, and other assorted hokum, Graverobbers looks to imitate superior films like Dead & Buried and Let’s Scare Jessica to Death but never succeeds. It starts off serious, but it’s as if they didn’t know how to end it, and the finale is packed with pure stupidity and ludicrous dialogue. DVD Drive-In

“The acting is terrible, the dialogue bad, the jokes are lame and the story line is stupid. The low-budget horror/comedy is a sicko film, that’s fit for the dead.” Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews

“There are some minor pacing issues here and there and there’s a fairly drastic shift in tone that occurs in the last twenty-minutes or so of the film, but if you’re in the right frame of mind for it this is pretty entertaining. Don’t misunderstand, this is no masterpiece and it was clearly made with a modest budget, but Weisman’s picture does manage to hold our attention…” Ian Jane, Rock! Shock! Pop!

Choice dialogue:

“Best of all, she’s safe. It’s safe sex now because we can’t get AIDS from dead people.”

Sheriff: “Everybody needs a good scare once in a while. Don’tcha think?”

Filming locations:

Red Hook and Rhinebeck, New York, USA

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