I EAT YOUR SKIN (1964)

  Made back in 1964 but not released until 1971. What obviously hurts this one so much in my mind is that it was paired up with the far superior and vastly gorier(and in color!) I DRINK YOUR BLOOD by producer/distributor Jerry Gross throughout the 70s. Taken on it's own it's not a terrible movie. Originally titled ZOMBIE, what you're dealing with here are those classic voodoo zombies(though the plot does explain that snake venom is somehow responsible for these bug-eyed shambling killers also). You get heads chopped off with machetes, a semi-mad scientist, fried egg zombies and lots of voodoo dancing. Directed by Del Tenney of HORROR OF PARTY BEACH fame, which along with this movie would make a way more suitable double feature. AKA CARIBBEAN ADVENTURE(what a dull title!) 

 There is a 2019 remake of this but as you might suspect it looks pretty dreadful!

The infamous double feature trailer where they don't show 1 second of I EAT YOUR SKIN:

 

THE EMBALMER (1965)

 This 60s Italian proto-slasher always reminds of the later AMSTERDAMNED with it's similar water-based scuba-diving killer. This time instead of The Netherlands though we're in the famous canals of Venice.  Our murdering fiend wears a cool Crimson Ghost-like skull mask with robe outfit except it's unfortunately not when he's actually doing the killing but the embalming of his victims. A fairly bloodless affair with some cool jazz warblings it's an OK watch if your expectations aren't very high.

                                        Played in the U.S. with this Barbara Steel banger!:

Known in Italy as THE MONSTER OF VENICE:

A HAUNTED TURKISH BATHHOUSE (1975)

  This 70s Japanese flick plays mostly as one of those pinky violence movies about a whorehouse and a gangster  dude who treats his wife, and pretty much everyone else, like shit(including murdering them!) up until it becomes a revenge-filled ghost tale towards the end.  They also throw in some comedy for better or worse(who doesn't love a bubbledance?), a pinch of Edgar Allen Poe(The Black Cat sees everything!) and we get a memorable cat-lady monster who claws and kung fus her way to vengeance. Definitely a unique one that furries might really dug,  

BEYOND THE DOOR III (1989)

  None of the BEYOND THE DOOR films have anything to do with each other except that this one was produced by Ovidio Assonitis who was the director and producer of the first film. The alternative titles of DEATH TRAIN and AMOK TRAIN are way more descriptive since most of the movie takes place on a Yugoslavian train. The plot is a pretty big mess concerning a group of students who go on a field trip to what seems to be a medieval Eastern European village run by a bunch of elderly Satanists and Bo Svenson in a goatee that makes him look like magician Penn Jillette. This might be Bo's greatest acting job ever as he has the accent down pat and is nothing like you've seen him before. There are some super gory( and also nonsensical) spectacles including the showstopper one where a guy gets ripped in half and then decapitated by the train. Not exactly essential viewing but good for some amusing splatter. 

 Allegedly Assonitis is working on a 4th movie in this pseudo-series titled EMBRYO: BEYOND THE DOOR as I type this.

                                                    Known in France as EVIL TRAIN!:

GRIZZLY (1976)

  A giant man-eating bear vs. Christopher George and friends at a camping resort. An obvious JAWS-rip-off that they make even more obvious by the tagline on some of the versions of the poster. A decent time-waster directed by THREE ON A MEATHOOK's creator William Girdler. He would go on next to make the similar animals run amuck epic DAY OF THE ANIMALS which is even goofier than this. Arms, a horse's head and even a little boy's leg are among the appendages lopped off by our super aggressive predator. Crazily enough it was only rated PG when it was originally released. 

 There is a sequel GRIZZLY II: REVENGE which I have never seen and seems to be one of those deals where they ran out of money and never actually finished the film until years later. 

THE GHOST STORY OF YOTSUYA (1959)

 Most of this movie deals with a relationship between a samurai, his fiancé and his friend. It only becomes a ghost story towards the very end of the film. It is pretty gruesome for something made in the 50s with festering wounds and sword slashes shown clearly. There's plenty of murders and some pretty clear cut villains on show, Based on some very old Japanese folklore it's worth a look for the atmosphere alone as many of these old Japanese ghostly epics are.

THE MAN AND THE MONSTER (1959)

  Mexican hero Abel Salazar stars in this tale of a pianist who sells his soul to the devil in order to be the best ivory-tickler ever! Unfortunately the side effect is him turning into a very hairy Wolfman-like monster. It took my a few attempts to get through this one since it is pretty slow-moving for a good chunk. Things do pick up once our monster cuts loose and starts his rampage. This includes snuffing a little girl(off-screen) and body slamming anyone foolish enough to tangle with him. Too bad Santo wasn't around to match lucha-libre skills.   Makes a good double feature with that other Mexican horror classic with Salazar CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN. 

                                           The Commander USA version!:

TERRIFYING GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL: LYNCH LAW CLASSROOM (1973)

 Very similar to the GIRL BOSS QUERILLA movies (it stars Miki Sugimoto and Reiko Ike who are in most of those movies also) but not actually part of that series. This one takes place in a reform school for troubled girls. It starts right out with a pretty brutal torture and murder scene but then the tone of the movies shifts wildly in intensity from super serious to buts that would seem tailor-made for a typical teen sex comedy of the 80s. I think the silliness is what keeps this one from being higher-rated by fans of this sleazy subgenre but I'd still say to check it out for some pinky violence goodness. You do get lightbulbs in vaginas, shock treatment, straight razor hijinks and lots of naked flesh on display. So what's not to love?

YAKUZA LAW (1969)

  I caught this one recently, right after watching director Teruo Ishii's other insane masterpiece HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN, and the one-two punch of both of these violent epics has made him my new favorite Japanese director of the moment. This movie starts out with all sorts of bloody torture and assassination scenes portraying various ways Japanese mobsters deal with those they perceive as going against the rules of the Yakuza. It's also an anthology movie told in 3 chapters that spans a large amount of time taking us up to the present day(of 1969 anyway). I know a few American movies were starting to display the ol' ultra-violence but this film takes it to almost-HG Lewis-levels of extremeness. Definitely a good one for fans of violent cinema with a strong stomach for eyeball-gouging, limb-chopping and other various acts of gruesomeness.  

  

                                      Just a small taste of the gore buffet!:

SILENT MADNESS (1984)

  Got a chance to catch this one in 3-D, the way God, intended recently. While it's a pretty by-the-numbers 80s slasher flick, 1. psycho escapes from asylum, 2. psycho kills sorority girls, 3. repeat, it was still fun to watch this in a theater full of enthusiastic horror fans so if you ever get a chance to see it presented this way give it a shot for some axe-flying action! I had previously, on two separate occasions, tried viewing this by myself and promptly fell fast asleep within the first few minutes, so I would not recommend that. As a bonus, the great Sydney Lassick, of course, steals every scene he's in as one of horror cinema's worst sheriffs.

 

HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN (1969)

  This one starts out as a mystery, with our main character(Teruo Yoshida) suffering from amnesia while locked up in an insane asylum, before taking a sharp turn into all out wackiness territory resembling something that would later be made by Alejandro Jodorwsky. Including incest, various deformities, unelected extreme surgery, torture, slavery and lots of boobs director Teruo Ishii doesn't fail to elicit some kind of response in the viewer which in most cases will probably be revulsion. This adaption of the writings of Edogawa Rampo doesn't shy away from some pretty gruesome depictions of violence that I can't believe would even be dreamt of in American cinema of this era. It certainly seems to be the echoes of a country that saw some pretty extreme real-life horror after having two nuclear bombs dropped on it. Check it out if you love bizarre movies.

DOWNTOWN HEAT (1994)

Director Jess Franco made this cop drama in the 90s and like most things from that decade it blows. This might be the most unlike a Jess Franco movie that I've ever seen his name attached to and it really seems more like your typical police TV show of the time than anything the master of sleazy Eurotrash cinema would have made. The one bright spot in this turd is Franco's mate and greatest find Lina Romay as a punk rock leader of a gang of miscreants. In her segments suddenly the movie briefly becomes a MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME rip-off with her taking the Tina Turner role(there's even a midget who mimics his big stupid friends which reminded me of Master Blaster). Sadly her appearance isn't very long and then it's back to very boring cop drama territory. Skippable and forgettable!