A mad journey into the mind of the depraved!
Monday, September 30, 2019
THE SECRET LIFE (1993)
After watching so many documentaries and other bio-dramas about Jeffrey Dahmer it's hard to keep them all straight in my head. I think I had seen this one at least once before but they all kind of blend together after awhile. This might be the most graphic one out there though. You get ol' Dahmer drilling a head to try and make a zombie, sticking a guy(feet first!) into a vat of acid while he's still alive and chopping up his victims with a circular saw among other gruesome scenarios. If you know the Dahmer story this one will have no surprises except for maybe the level of gore shown. It all gets pretty repetitive after a while but hey at least it's better than this version.
I was shocked to learn that this was actually shot on 35mm film because it looks pretty dreadful and low-budget and I just assumed it was 16mm at best.
Labels:
gore,
Jeffrey Dahmer,
serial killers
Sunday, September 29, 2019
THE DIRT GANG (1972)
This is a biker movie but it's a little different because the bikers here only ride dirt bikes. Luckily they also only seem to ride around desert locations. Led by a rather hairy, unattractive, one-eyed leader named Monk(Paul Carr who mostly did television work) they rob a gas station, kill a cop and then hide out at an old-west movie set. They rape and abuse cast members until Michael Forest, who was a former gang member and current stuntman, goes into hero mode.
The bootleg DVD I own of this touts Uschi Digard as starring in this but she only appears briefly as a naked gang member.
Radio hype!:
Saturday, September 28, 2019
THE INCIDENT (1967)
I can't help but think this film was influenced greatly by the famous Kitty Genovese murder that occurred only a few years earlier where a lady was stabbed to death in Queens, New York while neighbors listened to her scream but didn't want to get involved enough to even call the police. While nothing quite that horrific happens here it is a similar idea of a whole trainload of people that never seem to be able to come together to stop a couple of knife-brandishing drunken hooligans terrorizing them and prefer to mind their own business even though they easily could do something. While this movie might be more relatable to city dwellers where one is conditioned to not get involved I think anyone can understand the self-preservation tendency overwhelming the desire for justice. This is a very thought-provoking film that's probably too good to be lumped in with the usual dreck I post on this blog but I think it deserves any attention it can get and sadly it's little talked-about. It's also quite a frustrating watch as you want someone to show a little backbone and put an end to the proceedings long before that happens. I'm not sure I would want to sit through this one again but I'm glad I got to experience it.
The cast here is pretty remarkable including a young Martin Sheen, Beau Bridges, Donna Mils and even Ed McMahon but the highlight for me is Tony Musante(who is best known to me as the main guy from Argento's BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE) as our main thug who kinda reminds me of David Hess but not quite as sadistic and perverted.
Labels:
thriller
TIGRESS (1969)
Not to be confused with that Santo movie from 1973 or that Ilsa movie from 1977, this one is actually a super low-budget 60s sexploitation flick filmed in the Bronx. Made in Spanish and featuring a mostly Puerto Rican?(Nuyorican!) cast. It starts out with our main gal, Perla Faith, getting treated like crap by a local girl gang and then raped(actually we just see some big muscle-head guy lay on top of her but this is what we're told). Her drunken slob of a father dies during this attack and then it's revenge city. While this simple plot seems like it would be pretty hard to mess up the director, Glauco Del Mar, seems to decide to attempt to make an art film right in the middle of the movie so he does a bunch of strange quick cuts and throws in an oddly filmed peeping Tom fantasy scene. Then a cross-dressing stripper shows up for no real reason and a very unlikely decapitation takes place to liven things up. The whole film feels pretty ineptly made but this perception may have been heightened due to the terrible-looking version of this obscurity that I had the chance to view last night in the local weirdo theater. Probably more important as a culture artifact than an entertaining watch.
At first glance of the poster and video art for this I was expecting more of a FUEGO-type deal but that's not the case here. In fact this makes FUEGO look like an all-time classic in comparison.
Labels:
boobs,
rape,
sexploitation
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
THE MAD BOMBER (1973)
I think what I dig most about this movie is that not only do you get the titular "mad bomber"(played by the great Chuck Connors) bombing the crap out of L.A. but as a bonus they also throw in a sleazy rapist(played by the also fantastic Neville Brand). The main plot deals with a detective(Vince Edwards) trying to locate rapey Mr. Brand because he got a look at the bomber while stalking a lady and then trying to get him to cooperate in the investigation. Along the way bodies get blown apart, multiple ladies get attacked and raped and Chuck Connors does some amazing moralizing to strangers. There's a heavily-edited version of this that's been released on DVD that was taken from the T.V. showing. It also has some alternative scenes which I guess they shot just for this cut. Luckily I was able to score a bootleg original R-rated version recently which is the way this one should be viewed.
Amazingly this was directed by the same man who brought us THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, as well as many other big monster flicks back in the 50's & 60's, Bert I. Gordon. This really couldn't be any more different from that film but they are both equally amazing in their own ways. AKA THE POLICE CONNECTION, GERONIMO and DETECTIVE GERONIMO
They really tried to make this movie seem like DIRTY HARRY with these posters!:
Labels:
action,
Chuck Connors
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
THE HORSEMAN (2008)
As usual if we want to find anything even remotely interesting in more modern-day cinema we need to leave the shit-hole regurgitation-factory of Hollywood(and the U.S. in general) and look to foreign lands. Here we have a pretty simple revenge tale made in Australia concerning a dad whose daughter is murdered after appearing in a rough porno flick that he anonymously gets sent in the mail. A very ugly looking movie that matches its look with its content fairly well. This thing is basically a mash-up of a revenge drama and a torture porn flick. We get fishhooks in genitals, a bicycle pump shoved down a guys dick, a nipple ripped off and then cauterized with an acetylene torch etc. You get the idea. Of course most of the tortures are performed by our "hero" so sick weirdo gore-hounds don't have to feel too bad about cheering on the gruesomeness on display. Also most of the more extreme gore isn't super graphic, this isn't one of those stupid GUINEA PIG movies after all. The only negative point might be that our main character(Peter Marshall) does seem a bit like Superman by the time things end but I wasn't expecting a documentary.
Director Steven Kastrissios has to be commended for a strong first movie. He went on to make one other movie after this called BLOODLANDS (something about violence in The Balkans) which might be worth a look.
Labels:
Australia,
torture-porn
Sunday, September 15, 2019
GANG WAR IN MILAN (1973)
Well, like the title says this one is about two warring mobster gangs. One is a prostitution racket headed up by Antonio Sabato and the other is a group of drug dealers led by a Frenchman(Philippe Leroy, who also appears in the superior Eurocrime flick MILANO CALIBRO 9). Lots of back and forth attacks happen; whores get acid thrown in their face, breast get sliced, a guy gets his balls electrified and various hits get carried out. It all gets a bit repetitive by the end, which does seem a bit long with it's 100 minute run time(some versions out there sadly cut out about 4 minutes of the more graphic stuff). Director Umberto Lenzi went on to make some better flicks in this genre as well as his more well-known horror and cannibal classic sickies. AKA BURNING CITY
Labels:
euro-trash,
Eurocrime,
gangsters
LIVE LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN (1976)
If you ever watched the 70's T.V. series STARSKY AND HUTCH and thought to yourself "what this show needs is some of that good old ultra-violence" then this might be the movie for you. Director Ruggero Deodato, along with fellow great Italian director Fernando Di Leo doing the the writing, brings us two DIRTY HARRY-type characters who have no problem acting just like the scummy criminals they are tasked with dealing with as part of a special anti-crime force. You see such violent atrocities as a lady getting her head bashed in just to snatch her purse, a poor seeing-eye dog run down by a motorcycle and more typical mafia hi-jinks including a guy getting his eyeball plucked out for being a tattle-tale. On our "heroes" side we get them breaking criminals necks, executing hostage-takers and gunning down bank robbers before they even get to commit their crimes. A pretty nihilistic film that I assume is supposed to make liberal-types cry but I ain't no expert on Italian politics of the 1970's. All I know is it makes for one of the best action-filled Eurocrime cop-dramas I've seen in a long time.
Re-titled in Hong Kong as THE SUMMERTIME KILLER PART 2 making this a sequel to the 1972 Christopher Mitchum movie where he seeks revenge on the mob whilst riding his motorcycle.
Lovely hand-painted African movie poster!:
German poster(which translates to something inexplicable like ICE COLD TYPES ON HOT OVENS??):
I'd like to imagine that thrash metal legends Venom were influenced by this films title:
Labels:
euro-trash,
Eurocrime,
Italy
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
THE BAT PEOPLE (1974)
Before viewing this 70's exploitation epic I had the notion that it would be something along the lines of that GARGOYLES made-for-T.V. movie with monstrous creatures living underground causing humans grief. What you actually get is more along the lines of a WOLF MAN-rip-off with a guy bitten by a naughty bat that turns him into a Man-Bat creature on occasion. So the film itself is a bit short on the promised "Bat People" but it's not totally terrible. You do get some bloody bat attacks(even though the movie is rated PG) and the Bat-Monster Man(designed by a young Stan Winston) is good for a chuckle. Overall though I had higher hopes for this one. AKA IT LIVES BY NIGHT
German VHS(THE BLOODSUCKERS!) cover with boobs!:
Labels:
1970's horror,
AIP,
monster on the loose
Friday, September 6, 2019
NAKED YOU DIE (1968)
This Italian giallo directed by Antonio Margheriti feels almost like the prototype for SUSPIRIA since it's also set in a school for girls. Except it's SUSPIRIA minus all the witchy stuff and all those super-stylistic Argento touches. It's also fairly bloodless for a movie about gals being murdered by a black-gloved killer. Also, despite the title, there's not a lot of nakedness on display. Despite all these seemingly negative aspects I still found this one to be very watchable late-night viewing. You get the typical twist ending, a guy gets scythed, and unexpectedly a James Bond-homage shows up at the end. One of the more light-hearted giallos I've ever seen but it worked.
The American release by AIP, as THE MINI-SKIRT MURDERS, cuts out what little nudity there is so that's not very cool. AKA THE YOUNG, THE EVIL AND THE SAVAGE. Released on video as SCHOOL GIRL KILLER
Groovy title track, nightmare!:
German title of SEVEN YOUNG WOMEN FOR THE DEVIL!(apparently this version was released in black & white for some reason):
Glorious VHS!:
and glorious Italian VHS!:
AIP double feature with another Italian exploitation flick(this one a mondo movie)!:
Labels:
Antonio Margheriti,
French,
giallo,
Italy
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
MALONE (1987)
This movie tried to make Burt Reynolds an 80's action star. At the time though people were not having it. I guess audiences got used to goofy Burt from all those SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT and CANNONBALL RUN films and that's all they would accept. Of course Mr. Reynolds had plenty of earlier action roles earlier on in stuff like GATOR and WHITE LIGHTNING but I guess those roles were lighthearted enough not to bum people out. This one isn't that bad with Cliff Robertson(probably known to most people from his appearances on various T.V. programs) as the no-good ultra-patriot looking to buy up a town and start his own revolutionary army or something and Reynolds is always good even if he's not cracking jokes in between blowing people away. Overall this one is pretty typical of 80's actioners(if you just overlook the way too young love interest(Cynthia Gibb)) and worth a look for Burt fans though you should probably check out SHARKEY'S MACHINE first for an even better example of his prowess in this genre.
Also fans of THE WALKING DEAD show can get to see a younger Hershel(Scott Wilson) here with no beard though he doesn't really get to do much except pal around with Mr. Malone.
Labels:
action,
Burt Reynolds
Monday, September 2, 2019
THE WASHING MACHINE (1993)
I assumed this was gonna be one of those killer appliance films, something along the lines of DEATH BED except with a naughty washer. Unfortunately that's not how things go down. Director Ruggero Deodato, best know for the epic CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, instead delivers what's more of a sexy thriller than anything particularly horror-based. There are a couple of fantasy sequences where some gruesomeness occurs, mostly involving chopping up people and a guy in a washing machine, but for the most part the plot deals with 3 wack-job(and very horny) sisters. There is lots of attractive bare ass and boobs on display and sex scenes that all involve sex while standing up(one time even in front of a refrigerator which seems like not the most optimal spot to consecrate your horniness).
I was pretty disappointed in this one for the most part but hey it's the 90's so I guess I shouldn't have expected much better. A more fitting title might have been 3 NUTTY BROADS but I guess that wouldn't fool very many horror hounds into watching this.
I see this one labeled as a giallo but since the body count is 1 I'm not sure that anything besides the SUSPIRIA-esque music qualifies it for that classification.
Labels:
erotic thriller,
French,
Hungary,
Italy
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