ARABELLA: BLACK ANGEL (1989)

 Not a blaxploitation flick but rather a very late entry trashy giallo movie about a nymphomaniac lady(Tini Cansino) who spices up her marriage by going to a weird Eurotrash whore house and maybe or maybe not killing various people. Very sex-filled and plays out like a softcore late-night Cinemax-type movie mixed with a bloody murder mystery. Filled with some ultra-80s fashions and some very hot ladies who are often naked this one is definitely a spicy and unique entry into any giallo marathon you might partake in. AKA BLACK ANGEL

MURDER MANSION (1972)

  This Italian/Spanish giallo mixes the supernatural with your more standard murder-mystery fare here. A group of people end up stuck in an old mansion that may or may not be inhabited by a vampire lady, a zombie chauffeur and other sorts of creepy spirits. It all works out in the end though and it's an atmospheric ride along the way.  Check it out if the old haunted house gimmick doesn't bore you too much. AKA MANIAC MANSION

                                    Known in Spain as THE MANSION OF FOG!:

Known in Italy as WHEN MARTA SCREAMS FROM THE GRAVE!:

CRAZY DESIRES OF A MURDERER (1977)

  Allegedly filmed in 1973 but not released for another 4 years most of this Italian giallo takes place in one location, an old castle, and revolves around a rich family, their sneaky servants and drug-dealing friends. There's a creepy relative who lives in the basement and eyeball violence is a recurring motif. Grave-robbing and sex with the mentally handicapped is thrown in to spice things up. Not the best giallo I've ever seen and I didn't recognize any of the actors here but it was OK enough for one viewing. 

AKA THE MORBID HABITS OF THE GOVERNESS

             
Available on Volume 3 of this Blu-ray series of forgotten and mostly very forgettable gialli:

FRENCH SEX MURDERS (1972)

  The weirdest thing about this Italian/German/French giallo flick is that the police inspector in it does a Humphrey Bogart impression throughout. Apparently actor Robert Sacchi did that bit in a bunch of stuff including THE LOVE BOAT tv show. Besides that weirdness this is a pretty good mystery that takes place in France and centers around a whorehouse. There's a few misleading cues that eventually unravel in a  fairly logical way unlike some other films in this sub-genre. There's also a pretty well-known cast of Eurotrash regulars including Howard "AWFUL DR. ORLOF" Vernon, Rosalba Neri, Barbara Bouchet, Anita Ekberg and others.  Black gloves, bloody killings and sexy women! 

Released on video in Norway as CALL GIRLS FOR INSPECTOR BOGART!

                   Known in Germany as THE EYE OF EVIL!:

                                   Known in Italy as APOINTMENT HOUSE:

Known in France as MURDER ON 17th AVENUE:

The video release in England really played up that Bogey likeness!: 

THE KILLER IS ONE OF 13 (1973)

  Obviously modeled after Agatha Christie's 10 LITTLE INIDANS this a very talky giallo from Spain. It's a decent enough mystery though to make it a worthwhile one-time watch if you run out of the more entertaining/outlandish/gory giallos out there. Paul Naschy appears but doesn't have a very big role. Perhaps Italy is the country to stick with for the good stuff in this sub-genre. 

Part of this Blu-ray set that contains movies that were probably forgotten for a good reason!:

 

GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS (2000)

  This one is the 25th Godzilla film(but only the 2nd in the "millennium series" which ran from 1999 to 2004) or the 24th film if you ignore that terrible American one from the 90s. It does what most of the films in this series do and ignores all the movies that came before it except for the very first one. Godzilla's foe is pretty bland being just a giant flying dragon-fly bug but the humans do come up with a black hole-generating weapon which is kind of a cool idea. Not my favorite but not the worst Godzilla flick you could catch. 

INSIDE (2007)

  One of the better examples from the wave of gross French horror films that came out of the early 2000s. This one deals with a very determined lady who just really wants to be a mom and is not above mass murder to accomplish this. It's also a story of revenge but it's hard to get into all of that without spoiling everything. Lots of scissor violence, babies in peril, gun-fu and even knitting-needle-fu that gets the blood flowing copiously. There is a ridiculousness to things though when our killer starts acting like some kind of ninja halfway through the movie and our main victim takes enough punishment to have killed her 20 times and keeps getting up for more punishment but if you can suspend your disbelief enough it's a wild ride. It's too bad these films seem to have stopped being produced(or at least being brought over to America so I can see them) about 15 years ago or so. It was a decent run while it lasted. MARTYRS is still the top(and most extreme) one in my book but if you can handle the gore quotient give this one a look also.

 There was a 2016 English-language remake of this which is apparently a watered-down version of the original and seems especially pointless.

SOLDIER'S REVENGE (1986)

  The first half of this movie seems like a really crappy version of FIRST BLOOD where we get a Vietnam vet(John Savage) returning to his hometown and getting hassled by everyone. A bar fight is the highlight of this section. For the 2nd bit it becomes a more typical war film where our hero gets involved in smuggling guns for some revolutionary South Americans. There are a few explosions, lots of gun fights and it's all fairly unremarkable. 

                                           Known in Germany as BURNING LAND:

and known in Finland as WARRIOR'S REVENGE:

COP IMAGE (1994)

   Anthony (BUNMAN) Wong stars here as a traffic cop who has an overwhelming fetish for the actual police. This is quite the departure from his serial killer persona that I always associate him with and is mostly quite a comedic performance. It also works as an action-packed homage to lots of stars of the past who get name-dropped including Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Jackie Chan, Bruce Willis etc. Some of the wacky takes on homosexuality and cross-dressing might upset modern delicate flowers but I doubt most of them would enjoy much Hong Cinema from this golden age anyhow. Give it a watch if obscure Asian cinema is your bag and if you can find it anywhere since it seems pretty hard to do that here in the U.S. 

THE UNDERGROUND BANKER (1994)

  So the message of this category III Hong Kong flick is don't ever borrow money from Triad gangsters. Got it! Starring Anthony Wong, best remembered as the cannibal Bunman from THE UNTOLD STORY. Here he actually plays the victim who turns out to be a hero role(though they do homage his most famous role when he threatens to turn the main villain into a pork bun). Unfortunately it takes his wife getting raped, turned into a prostitute and her and his son burned alive for the revenge portion to kick in. He gets help from his neighbor, recovered serial killer Dr. Lamb(which makes this actually a sorta sequel to another bloody Cat III flick DR. LAMB though he's not played by Simon Yam this time but Lawrence Ng) which leads to some fun knife-fu fights. Not particularly gory but there is quite a bit of violence and nudity on display to make this a memorable entry in this ultra sleazy category. 

                                      DEXTER ain't got nothing on Dr. Lamb!: