KNIFE OF ICE (1972)

  This Italian murder mystery starts out with a bloody bullfight and that's about the most gore you're gonna get out of this fairly slow-moving giallo by director Umberto Lenzi and starring Carroll Baker. This is the 4th movie these 2 made together and probably the worst of them all. There's a hippie junkie, Snoopy shows up in necklace form and of course lots of red herrings. It's almost saved by the ridiculous twist ending which might be the only thing I will remember shortly after watching this. 

The 3 other Lenzi/Baker films(which are also said to be a kind of trilogy):

ORGASMO (AKA PARANOIA) (1969)

SO SWEET, SO PERVERSE (1969)

PARANOIA (AKA A QUIET PLACE TO KILL) (1970) 

                                                         AKA SILENT HORROR:

THE ARENA (1974)

 It's kinda weird seeing 70s Pam Grier in ancient Roman times but compared to some of her fellow female gladiators here she does come off as the most kickass of the bunch. This is overall an odd mashup of 2 different genres, the Italian peplum(complete with many scenes directed by Joe D'Amato himself and featuring Rosalba Neri, Paul Muller, Salvatore(THE BEAST IN HEAT) Baccaro and many other familiar eurotrash cinema faces in big roles.) and the Roger Corman(who produced this) women-in-prison flick with Grier and Margaret Markov(who had previously been paired up in the classic BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA). There's also some clear inspiration from SPARTACUS. You get lots of sword-fighting and female-on-female violence. Decent time-wasting midnight movie. AKA GLADIATOR WOMEN(re-release title) and NAKED WARRIORS(re-edited cut video title). 

ALIEN FROM THE DEEP (1989)

  1989 was not exactly the best year for Italian horror(or sci-fi) films and this one really doesn't stand out all that much besides featuring a really bizarre giant monster that consists of a giant claw attached to what might be an alien in a space suit? It's kinda hard to decipher exactly what the creature actually is. In addition to that you get Charles Napier of RAMBO-fame as the main bad guy, quite a bit of gore and an homage to the final scene of ALIENS.  AKA ALIEN FROM THE ABYSS 

SHAOLIN TEMPLE (1976)

 I recently watched director Chang Cheh's earlier, similar kung-fu epic FIVE SHAOLIN MASTERS which is on the same Blu Ray disc as this and while that one was OK I think I preferred this one a bit more. It had some similarities to MASTER KILLER, which is one of my all-time chop-sockey favs, due to all the training montages. You don't just get one hero in this though there are a whole slew of master fighters brandishing a variety of weapons and fighting styles. The cast includes a bunch of classic Shaw Brothers stars in top form including Alexander Fu Sheng, Ti Lung, David Chiang and others. A little lengthy at over 2 hours but that is what makes it all so epic. AKA DEATH CHANMBER

Known in Italy as THE GIANTS OF KARATE!:

DEATHSTALKER (1983)

  This 80s sword & sorcery epic is seemingly influenced by CONAN THE BARBARIAN which came out only a year earlier but I saw it before CONAN and it was in fact the first movie my family rented back when we first bought a VCR in the 80s. Full of boobs, butts, rape and quite a bit of gore this is clearly not a family movie but as a young teen I sure dug it. Not having seen it since those days I must say it really holds up as a great example of 80s exploitation brought to us by Roger Corman's New World Pictures. You get a pig-headed warrior, evil wizardry, arms ripped off, multiple decapitations, mud wrestling, a fight-to-the-death tournament and lots of hot ladies showing off the goods including Barbi Benton. 

 There were 3 sequels with the last one being in 1991 and I don't remember anything outstanding about any of them. There are also various movies which used scenes from this in them because that's how Corman rolls. The 2 BARBARIAN QUEEN films with Lana Clarkson are also kind of sequels to this except the character she plays has a different name. A remake of this was recently announced which is supposed to simply be titled BARBARIAN.

This Norwegian VHS gives us the title STALKER: THE WARRIOR KING and features a totally different character on the box cover!:

RESIDENCE FOR SPIES (1968)

Jess Franco gives us a comedic spy movie here starring Eddie Constantine who was famous for starring in Jean-Luc Godard's ALPHAVILLE a few years earlier. This was before Franco delved into the more sleazy/exploitation portion of his career which is really the stuff I love best so this one is not anywhere near the top of my personal favs. Might be of interest to fans of 60s James Bond and spoofs of that sort of stuff but I don't think the action is anything near what you would want from your standard spy flick of the era.

THE KILLER IS STILL AMONG US (1986)

 Not the best Italian giallo flick in the world. Late in the subgenre, I think this one is mainly known because it contains one super gory bit where a ladies nipple and genitals are mutilated in very close-up detail. Beyond that though it's  pretty dull experience. Also the fact that it's based on a true story where they never found the killer doesn't lend itself to the most satisfying conclusion I've ever seen in one of these sort of films. While some 80s gialli(ARABELLA for one) can be amusing due to the ridiculous fashions of the time this really isn't one of those. 

Known some places as THE MURDERER IS STILL WITH US: