THE AFTERMATH (1982)

  There are a couple of problems I had with this post-apocalyptic flick. Number one is "star" Steve Barkett, who just so happens to also be the writer and director doesn't exactly make the most convincing action hero. Number two is the overwhelming score that seems totally out of place in a film of this sort and seems lifted from A Spielberg film or possibly an enthralling Disney presentation. Looking beyond these two things, which is kinda tough, you get a bizarro version of PLANET OF THE APES(and it was even shot on the same beach as the original APES) but instead of apes there's mutants(guys in terrible Halloween masks) and a gang of rapers and pillagers led by the great Sid Haig. There's quite a few gory bits including head explosions by shotgun, an arm is chopped off(allegedly an arm reused from THE CORPSE GRINDERS) and some pretty gruesome stabbing takes place. Mr. Famous Monsters, Forrest Ackerman shows up for a talky cameo. Maybe if this was re-scored I would have been less annoyed by it. 

This was originally shot in 1978 but that version was never released. It was later re-shot with different actors. I can't even begin to imagine how crappy that first version must have been. 

There was a remake of this in '87 called SURVIVOR

TRAINED TO KILL: USA (1973)

 I've been a fan of Vietnam-Vet-revenge tales since I was 11 years old and first saw FIRST BLOOD in the theater with my mom. My favorite ever has to be ROLLING THUNDER but this one  here is a pretty decent slice of 70s exploitation where we even get a biker flick jammed into the last third. The bike gang is led by Sid Haig who is a real highlight as a shit-kicking, chain-swinging character named Pill Box. Why he's called this I'm not exactly sure except that perhaps it's because he deals drugs? He isn't the main villain though, that honor goes to Mr. BLACK SAMSON himself, Rockne Tarkington. He's exactly the opposite of SAMSON here as a badass murdering scumbag who takes no shit from anyone. The film ends with a great climactic massacre and a ballad that seems totally out of place after watching all that crazy violence.

 Originally released as THE NO MERCY MAN, which is also the title of the wonky tune that plays at the beginning of the movie,  and then re-released as TRAINED TO KILL and then finally put out on video as TRAINED TO KILL: USA so we can all be clear and proud of where all this carnage takes place.

                                                             

                                                           The glorious VHS!:

SPIDER BABY OR, THE MADDEST STORY EVER TOLD (1967)

 This is one of my favorite weirdo 60s horror flicks so it's hard to write anything about it that is not gushing with love. It's the most classic of director Jack Hill's output, it's the last great role Lon Chaney Jr.(who gets to reference THE WOLF MAN here) got to play before his excessive alcoholism did him in and it's just a strange enough plot that it lingers in your brain for a long time after watching it. It also seems to me to be very influential on stuff like THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and other insane-family-type horror flicks that would explode in the coming decades. The message of this movie always baffled me a bit. I mean I assume we aren't meant to sympathize with a family of retarded murderers but, mainly due to the way Chaney plays his role, they are portrayed in a pretty sad light. The whole cast is pretty amazing in this which includes a young Sid Haig as a mute wack-a-doo and Mantan Moreland from the old Charlie Chan movies as an unfortunate mailman. I think more than anything else it's the opening of the film with the fate of Mantan, who we are so used to seeing in goofy light-hearted horror stuff from earlier times, that lets the viewer know that this is going to be a darker ride than what you might expect. A must watch for real horror fanatics. AKA THE LIVER EATERS and ATTACK OF THE LIVER EATERS

FOXY BROWN (1974)

                                  "I got my black-belt in bar-stools"

 Right after COFFY(this was originally intended as a sequel to 73's COFFY) this has to be my favorite Pam Grier movie. I think it was probably after seeing this in a theater years ago that I first fell in love with the blaxploitation genre. Grier goes on a one-woman revenge rampage. Highlights among the hit-list of violent acts include a lesbian version of your typical barroom brawl, a couple of guys killed by an airplane propeller, lots of bloody gun-play, a slit-throat and it's all topped off by a castration. There's an all-star 70's cast besides Grier you get Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargas, Sid Haig, "Hard Boiled" Haggerty of HARD TIMES and Mr. Clean fame and it's all directed by the great Jack Hill. A nice slice of 70's exploitation cinema with an equally groovy soundtrack by Willie Hutch. The  original shooting title for this was BURN, COFFY, BURN! which sounds awesome!

Before there was rap there were blaxploitation trailers:

GALAXY OF TERROR (1981)

 Roger Corman produced this ALIEN-rip-off along with the similarly sci-fi/horror themed FORBIDDEN WORLD around the same time. It's got a B-movie all star line up of actors in it including Joanie from HAPPY DAYS(Erin Moran), Mr. Hand from FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH(Ray Walston), Freddy Kreuger(Robert Englund) and Sid Haig(who only says one line in the whole movie). It's a pretty dumb movie with a nonsensical plot and a totally incomprehensible ending but I will say for the low-budget they at least got the most out of the sets that were available. James Cameron was in charge of production design so that explains that and he would go on from here to his directing gigs. There's tentacled monsters running around and some pretty gory death scenes but the whole payoff of this movie happens about halfway through where we get a woman stripped naked and raped by a giant, slimy space worm besides that there's not really a whole lot to recommend about this one.

AKA MINDWARP:

THE BIG DOLL HOUSE (1971)

"One of these days, I'm gonna come in here, and ZAP!" "Zap?" "You know, Zap. R-A-P-E: "zap"

While, technically, there were women-in-prison flicks before this one this is the movie that really kick-started the whole cycle thanks to it being a huge drive-in hit when originally released. It was made for Roger Corman's New World Pictures company and he was pretty much disgusted by the more gratuitous content. But you can't argue with success. Pam Grier plays lesbian inmate Grear and Sid Haig plays a sleazy salesman who dreams of getting raped by an inmate some lucky day. You get some mild torture scenes, junkie-dancing, full cavity searches, shower scenes, mud-wrestling and lots of other cat-fighting. Also all these type of movies after this had to have a big food fight scene. Compared to the later WIP pictures, by the likes of Jess Franco and similarly low-brow Italian directors, it is all pretty tame stuff but done well enough by director Jack Hill to be entertaining.  There's a nonsensical bit of dubbing at the end to give the whole movie a sorta happy ending which was apparently forced on the filmmakers for some strange reason. AKA WOMEN'S PENITENTIARY III (VHS release)

BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA (1973)

AIP cranked out a bunch of these cheaply-shot action flicks in the Phillipines around this time.  This is one starts out as a women-in-prison movie and then turns into a fugitives on the run from the law tale.  There's the obligatory shower scene of course and plenty of female nudity to go around, lesbian guards and a stupid prison-slop food fight.  Pam Grier is the black mama, who's a hooker and Margaret Markov is the white mama who's a revolutionary freedom fighter.  They get chained together and make a break for it, catfighting with each other the whole way.  Neither one of them is very convincing in their roles but then again nothing is very realistic about this film.  You also get Sid Haig in some funky shirts playing this cowboy/criminal type.  He has a great scene in his tidy-whities wrestling with some half-naked Filipino chicks. There's also a strange scene where he examines guys dicks and threatens to shoot off the smallest one!?  Overall there's enough going on to keep things from getting too boring and make this worth checking out even if it's not the best example of a Pam Grier action flick.  AKA WOMEN'S PENITENTIARY 10 (video release title)