CONFESSIONS OF A BLUE MOVIE STAR (1978)

 This movie starts out with Roman Polanski chatting about snuff movies, then the middle section, which makes up most of the movie is a German fake documentary(mockumentary?) about the porn industry(this part reminded me of one of those German SCHOOLGIRL REPORT movies). Finally everything is wrapped up and we get a post-ending sequence where a guy with a shopping bag on his head, like The Unknown Comic, tells us about how he, and a film crew, got high and made an "actual" snuff movie while some gory outtakes from LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT play to show is what a "real" snuff film looks like.
 It's such a strange idea for a movie that I would recommend this just for the oddness of it all. The middle part does drag a lot and it takes what seems like forever, with a few goofy parts to chuckle at, to get to the big finale and "THE END, AND THE END OF ALL HUMANITY" as it nicely puts it. AKA THE EVOLUTION OF SNUFF


Gong Show snuff director!:

The Japanese poster really jams a lot of stuff into one image:

and the Italian poster looks very classy!:

INVITATION TO HELL (1984)

 Out of all the horror directors that have been given the label of "Masters of Horror" Wes Craven has always been my least favorite. I mean since the 70s the man never really entertained me with much of anything that he did. I know this puts me in the minority amongst horror-nerds but it is how I feel whenever I watch his stuff from the 80s and beyond. This here TV-movie is a great example of what a truly hacky director he really was. It stars Robert Urich, who I believe is primarily remembered for his television work and his acting style is very fit for those types of shows, as the dad of a very schmaltzy BRADY BUNCH-ish family that includes Punky Brewster(Soleil Moon Frye). He gets a job working for this creepy company headed by Susan Lucci, from that ALL MY CHILDREN soap opera, who may or may not be the devil and bad things start happening. The movie plays out like a VALLEY OF THE DOLLS/INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS mash-up and Kevin McCarthy even shows up as Urich's boss to drive this comparison to the later film home. Also of note(to me anyway) is the appearance of Nicholas Worth, who was the killer from the slasher semi-classic DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE as the big tough-guy sheriff here and Michael Berryman, from an actually good Wes Craven film in a tiny part. The insane ending involving a flame-throwing/laser-shooting astronaut suit worn by our hero as he descends into hell to rescue his family and the part where we get to see Punk Brewster doing a Linda Blair EXORCIST-imitation almost make this worth watching, it just takes a really long time to get to these ridiculous parts and you could probably find way better TV-movies from the 70s to watch instead.
 There's also a British film from 1982 with this same title which I have never seen but it look like it's at least got some gore in it so maybe it's decent?

LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)

 This is a movie that totally disturbed me when I first saw it back in the VHS days and that was probably a cut up version with most of the gorier bits missing.  It's also a movie I felt compelled to watch over and over again because of the power it had over me and after repeat viewings this one eventually went up there into classic status in my book.  Like I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE it's a basic rape/revenge plot but here we get even nastier and more colorful villains.  David Hess as rapist/sadist/balloon-hater Krug Stillo and porn star/director Fred Lincoln as his henchman are both amazing as is their animalistic lady counterpart Jeramie Rain who unfortunately only appeared in 3 movies before going off to marry Richard Dreyfuss.  A lot of people give this movie shit for the scenes of bumbling cops(featuring future KARATE KID Cobra Kai leader Martin Cove) but as incongruous as they might seem this would be a ultra-bleak trip of a movie without those parts. Overall what you get here is one of the few examples of a good Wes Craven film in my opinion and worthwhile to anyone who loves real exploitation,sleaze and/or just nasty nihilistic films in general.  Avoid the remake unless you like watching very attractive people try and pretend their sleazy low-life rapists and failing miserably at it.

One of the more famous movies to use the old "it's only a movie"-line: