THE NESTING (1981)

  I'm not the biggest fan of ghost movies, which this is. It's also kinda disappointing that director Armand Weston, whose filmography, besides this, consists almost entirely of roughie porn flicks, basically went the pedestrian route of a generic horror movie with not all that much sex or violence. There seems to be ample opportunity too with this film centered around a haunted whorehouse that is the scene of a massacre and all. There is some blood, including a sickle to the head, and a smattering of nudity here and there but nothing all that exciting to recommend about this one. AKA MASSACRE MANSION

 Also in my head I always mix this up with the later 80s mutant cockroach flick THE NEST and get disappointed when no killer bugs show up!

A BOY AND HIS DOG (1975)

  I'd been wanting to see this post-apocalyptic(post World War 4!) sci-fi flick for a long time now but had somehow avoided it all these years. The premise, about a young man(Don Johnson, who went on to become famous for MIAMI VICE in the 80s) who can telepathically communicate with his dog(Tiger from THE BRADY BUNCH!) who helps him sniff out women for him to rape is certainly intriguing. The actual execution of this idea is pretty wonky and the film seems to suffer from a fairly low-budget. Still a movie where our "hero" is a rapist and possible cannibal before everything is over is a unique one. Also the bleak 70s ending is a big plus in my book. 

ASSAULT (1971)

  This movie deals with some pretty sordid events including the raping and murdering of teenage schoolgirls but since it was made in England things never get all that graphicly shown. It plays out more along the lines of one of those police procedurals but still managed to maintain my interest. Suzy Kendall, known mostly to me as the gal from Argento's THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, stars as an art teacher who is used as the cheese(cheesecake?) to lure our rape-happy killer out into the open. A mixture of sleaze and British-classiness that I found worth a look. AKA SATAN'S PLAYTHINGS, MOLESTED, THE CREEPERS and IN THE DEVIL'S GARDEN. Released on  American TV as TOWER OF TERROR

                                       Known in Spanish as PANIC IN THE FOREST:

Released on VHS as THE CREEPERS(not to be confused with the similarly titled Dario Argento movie from the 80s):

At the bottom of a double bill with this Eurotrash classic!: 

ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK (1971)

  This is not your typical Italian giallo. It does star Edwige Fenech as is often the case but more than being a proto-slasher flick with a bunch of people getting offed by a razor it deals with a woman going through the traumatic combination of losing her child and recalling her mom being murdered when she was a child. A lot of the film is full of what might be hallucinations or not when she imagines a knife-wielding maniac and a Satanic cult. This film was clearly influenced by ROSEMARY'S BABY but is not really a rip-off of that classic at all. There is some Satanic ritual animal violence involving a dog getting sacrificed so that might not be for everyone but besides this it's a very stylish crazy trip. AKA THEY'RE COMING TO GET YOU(which sounds a lot like a zombie movie to me!) . Released on video as DAY OF THE MANIAC.

THE CHOOPER (1971)

 Ray Dennis Steckler directs one of the most simplistic proto-slasher flicks ever with this tale of a cursed shack(hence the alternate title of BLOOD SHACK) in the middle of some dusty desert town that people end up getting killed in.  Pretty dull stuff and to make things even worse ol' Ray stuck a 10-minute long rodeo sequence right in the middle of the movie. 

 One bright spot though is that rockabilly legend Ron Haydock sings the Chooper's theme song so at least that's a little something. 

Released on video as CURSE OF THE EVIL SPIRIT:

KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988)

  I had successfully managed to avoid seeing this for many years up until a few nights ago when a friend of mine took me to a midnight showing in a local theater and it was just as stupid as I had anticipated. I know it's a favorite of many 80s kids, in fact there were a few folks in attendance all dressed up in full clown attire for this event, but I've never really seen the appeal of clown cinema(unless you're making a John Wayne Gacy docudrama of course!) I will give the film high points for all the great-looking practical effects done by The Chiodo Brothers. Can't say much for their directing abilities but apparently most people don't seem to mind. Luckily for me Stephen Chiodo never directed another feature. 

This could have been a much better film if it was 4 minutes long and starred The Dickies!:

THE MAN IN THE ATTIC (1953)

  Jack Palance acts his ass off in the title role of a movie that asks the question of "what if Jack The Ripper was your upstairs tenant?" It's clearly very loosely based on the facts since I don't think they ever got this close to catching ol' saucy Jack in reality. There's no gore or anything since this was the 50s but it is a good gloomy period piece with solid performances. Aunt Bee from THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW herself(Frances Bavier) is Jack's landlord and has a few freak out scenes as she is wont to do. 

 This is technically a remake of 1944's THE LODGER though that one was more of a mystery and was itself a remake of a few earlier film adaptations of a 1913's book called THE LODGER starting off with Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 THE LODGER: A STORY OF THE LONDON FOG.  There was also a 2009 THE LODGER movie. 

                                  

                                     Simply known in Spanish as JACK THE RIPPER: 

SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM (1976)

  So this Italian exploitation flick is a bit weird because it starts off like it's going to be one of those polizziotteschi movies where it's all about a tough cop kicking ass. The alternate title of BLAZING MAGNUM really makes you think this! Surprisingly though it turns into a more giallo-esque situation so I'll give this one extra credit for combining two genres. I'll also give it credit for having a scene where our main tough guy cop(Stuart Whitman) shoves a hot curling iron up the ass of a tranny the very same year as BLACK SHAMPOO which features a very similar sequence(in that case though it was a villain not the hero which makes this film even nuttier!). There must have been something in the air in '76! Loaded with sleaze, car chases and great character actors John Saxon, Martin Landau, Tisa Farrow etc. this one stands out from the pack despite some slow bits and monotony. AKA STRANGE SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM and .44 SPECIAL

Known in Spanish as THE LAW OF THE MAGNUM:

Known in Italian as A SPECIAL MAGNUM FOR TONY SAITTA: