RAT PFINK A BOO BOO (1966)

  While watching this classic campy Ray Dennis Steckler film I couldn't help asking myself who the hell this was made for. It starts out like a rough crime flick complete with a woman being roughed up and mugged and then turns into a silly kid-friendly BATMAN-rip-off about a half hour in. Luckily an ape shows up towards the end to make the whole thing better. Apparently the hodgepodge nature of the film has to do with Steckler starting out making a straight-forward crime movie and then getting the brilliant idea of injecting some silly crime-fighters into it after already shooting a bunch of footage. Singer Ron Haydock is in the title role and supplies a couple of tunes including his classic RAT FINK of course.  A good time for trash movie weirdos!

 Presented in "REGULARSCOPE Black and White" though some prints have Rat Pfink's scenes color-tinted.

THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES (1964)

 Probably director Ray Dennis Steckler's most well-known film thanks to it's ridiculously long title. I don't think it's his best movie though(THE THRILL KILLERS has always been that for me). Billed as "The First Monster Musical"(just beating out THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH by a month!) it's all the singing and dancing performances and long-winded footage of a carnival that really drag the whole thing down for me. Steckler does, as usual, put himself in the lead role as a free-wheeling beatnik type who gets turned into a stab-happy murderer thanks to a creepy fortune-teller(Brett O'Hara). There's minimal blood and minimal zombies that don't show up until almost the very end. Also because this was pre-NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD we don't get those munching-on-flesh-type zombies but instead these "creatures" just strangle everyone they meet which is not very exciting. 

 Advertised as being filmed in TERRORAMA, BLOODY-VISON and HALLUCINOGENIC-HYPNOVISION Steckler would do the same gag he did with THE THRILL KILLERS and run into the audience with some folks dressed as monsters to scare folks at some screenings during the hypnotism scenes where a spiral would mesmerize the audience which seems like extra added fun. AKA DIABOLICAL DR. VOODOO and THE INCREDIBLY MIXED-UP ZOMBIE. Re-released as THE TEENAGE PSYCHO MEETS BLOODY MARY. 

 

                                             Real monsters invade the drive-in!:

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:

THE THRILL KILLERS (1964)

                                       
                                                "I hate people. They're no good!"

  Trash film director Ray Dennis Steckler made a bunch of films in his day. This here one is my personal favorite. It's a fairly straight-forward tale of a group of escaped mental patients on a bloody axe-swinging romp through a small town. Heads roll and Steckler(under the alias of Cash Flagg) even gets to show off his acting chops as the sneering main killer "Mad Dog" Click. Liz Renay, who would go on to appear in John Water's exceptional DESPERATE LIVING, plays the final girl who has to run around the desert in high heels in what is essentially an early example of a slasher film ending.
 This was shown theatrically as THE MANIACS ARE LOOSE and THE MONSTERS ARE LOOSE in "HYPNOVISION" which meant that a colorful hypnotic prologue was added and at certain dramatic scenes a swirling colorful hypnotic disc would appear while Steckler and a few buddies would run out and menace the audience with knives and axes. Sounds like a fun time that could never be pulled off today without some potentially dire consequences. This gimmick would also be used again by Ray for his next, and probably most well-known movie THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED UP ZOMBIES!!!?

                                         "A hallucinogenic nightmare!":

WILD GUITAR (1962)

 The great kewpie doll-faced Arch Hall Jr. was in only 6 movies back in the 60s and this is his first starring role. While his fleeting stardom was due to his dad, Arch Hall Sr., being the producer on these films I feel he still had enough talent, especially when compared to more modern so-called actors, to get by. In this one young Arch plays a naive hick named Bud Eagle who travels to Hollywood to make it as a singing star. He hooks up with an unscrupulous record producer, played by Arch Sr., who exploits our not-very worldly hero. Where does the line between reality and movie-fantasy storytelling blur together? Well allegedly Arch Jr. wasn't all that interested in being a big Hollywood star and was pushed into that role by pops so it's hard not to feel that at least some of this movie wasn't totally acting and that's what makes it an interesting watch. Also just on the surface, even if you don't care at all about any of the back-story, the movie is a pretty breezy, quick-moving tale about the dangers of the star-system with some cool 60s tunes and a love story thrown in to move things along. Director Ray Dennis Steckler turns in his usual ominous performance under his Cash Flagg pseudonym as the record company's tough-guy enforcer and he was nice enough to throw in his Lemon Grove Kids(Steckler's version/rip-off of The Bowery Boys) for some stupid comedy scenes. They would return in his goofy-ass LEMON GROVE KIDS MEET THE MONSTERS and Arch would be back in his greatest film THE SADIST. While Arch's films are remembered now as being classic bad movies they have some great clunky 60s charm to them.

Twist Fever!:

THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER (1979)

 My favorite movie by director Ray Dennis Steckler has to be THE THRILL KILLERS. After that one there's a big drop-off in quality but Steckler seemed like a nice enough guy who was really into making cheap drive-in fodder so I always give his films a shot even if they mostly disappoint in the excitement department.  This one here is a pretty rough sit. The whole movie is shot silently, Steckler only added sound and voice-over narration after his distributors forced him to, so it's got a bizarre feeling right from the start. The whole film basically consists of two scenes repeated over and over again. "The Hollywood Strangler" goes to see call-girls and unconvincingly chokes them to death, then our female star, "The Skid Row Slasher", slices the necks of some old dirty bums and at the end the title comes true in a not so very spectacular fashion. You do get some boobs and some colorful 70's blood thrown in but it hardly makes up for the slow-pace and repetitious scenes. Luckily I own this on a DVD with commentary by Joe Bob Briggs which makes it way more entertaining.
 Supposedly this was found in mass-murderer Ted Bundy's personal movie collection so I guess check it out if you're a very forgiving serial killer or crap movie fan or both.

SINTHIA, THE DEVIL'S DOLL (1970)

God, I hate this movie. SINTHIA is the story of this annoying little twat who is obsessively in love with her father and jealous of her mother. So one day she sees them making love and kills them both in a fit of illogical rage. This all happens at the very beginning of the movie so then for the next 80 minutes or so we are treated to pitiful ass-wipe Sinthia whining and crying about what she did. She repeats "Daddy, where are you?" and crap like that ad nauseam until you feel like the movie is intentionally trying to torture you with its pseudo-artsy-fartsy nonsense. The whole thing has the feel of a really bad LSD-inspired nightmare, but not in a good way. Director Ray Dennis Steckler, disguising himself here under the name Sven Christian, has done some good horror flicks (THE THRILL KILLERS) and some fun bizarre kid flicks (RAT FINK A BOO BOO) but he should stay away from attempting art-house bullshit. There is a ton of nudity on display but it's all presented in such an unappealing manner that I can't imagine it would turn anyone on.

This group turned the movie into a music video, not sure if it's any better that way but at least it's shorter and you can't hear Sinthia's grating voice:

Westerbergs serves Hospitalfood - "Sinthia, the devils doll" from Hospitalfood.be on Vimeo.