Topic: Jimmy's - 2013 Ooctober Horror Marathon

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: ZAAT (1971)

Genre: Science-Fiction / Horror
Director: Don Barton
Rating: NR
Length: 1h40
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:78.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: Spanish

Stars:
Marshall Grauer   
Wade Popwell
Paul Galloway
Gerald Cruse   
Sanna Ringhaver   

Plot:
Brace yourself for one of the craziest, silliest, most notorious (and most sought-after) underground monster movies of the 1970s.
Strange occurrences begin to plague Cypress Grove after a disgruntled ex-Nazi scientist (Marshall Grauer) disappears into his makeshift lab on the outskirts of town, only to re-appear as a half-human, half-catfish monster. As part of his sinister plan to rule the world, he also takes to polluting the local waterways. mutating the local aquatic wildlife. The mismatched duo tasked with keeping the townfolk safe is made up of of a young biologist (Gerald Cruse) and grizzled redneck sheriff (Paul Galloway). But quickly realizing they're in over their heads, a call goes out to the Inter-Nations Phenomena Investigations Team (INPIT for short). Before you can say "catfish po'boy" a groovy RV rolls in to the small southern town, driven by a pair of special agents (Dave Dickerson and the lovely Shanna Ringhaver) armed with a six-wheeled dune buggy-like Amphicat. But will it be enough to take on the deranged creature and his army of deadly mutant catfish?

My Thoughts:

This one was a really nice surprise as I expected some silly man in cheap suit non-sense. Sure it's a man in a suit, but he is a good physical actor. This is more or less a "remake" of Creature from the Black Lagoon and it is much better than most of the other remakes of this Universal classic. Evidently this is a low budget production but they had a lot of cooperation from Marine Land so the lab set is impressive. The underwater cinematography is also professionally done.

This is really an enjoyable movie that you can watch with your kids since there is no real violence and nudity in it. Give it a try you won't regret it at all believe me.

Rating :

[Dragonfire]

It does sound kind of interesting.

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Slithis (1978)

Genre: Horror
Director: Stephen Traxler
Rating: PG
Length: 1h26
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:78.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Alan Blanchard   
Judy Motulsky
J.C. Claire
Dennis Falt   
Mello Alexandria

Plot:
Finally nature unleashes it's revenge! From the pollution of our nuclear waste came the killer we couldn't destroy. Our worst nightmares come to life with the terrifying, scaly monster – SLITHIS! First this nuclear mutant killed household pets near the canals of Venice, California. Now it preys on old couples and a homeless rotund man sleeping in the public men's room! In the tradition of JAWS, two outcasts, a teacher and a Jamaican seahunter, will take on the ugly monster to stop the slaughter! This mud monster creature is something out of those 50's classics we love!

My Thoughts:

This one is sure violent for a PG rated film, but guess why? After the director get it approved by the MPAA as a PG movie he put back everything that was cut by the MPAA to get the rating and release the film as it was originally made

Another water creature movie and this time it is a creature created by a spill at the nuclear central. It's the kind of movie you watch with your brain turned at off or it would have an overdose of pseudo science. Of course if you don't think the movie is fun (and some of the line are so stupid that you don't really have a choice to laugh). The film was made in less than 2 weeks wich was really fast even for a low budget seventies production, so it's evident that we got some plot holes and bad acting. But as I said the film is funny and the creature is scary (most of the money was put in the monster costume). By the way was turtles racing really something popular in the USA at the end of the seventies?

(click to show/hide)

The monster attacked a couple in a boat, killed the guy (in a gruesome way since it slashed the victim belly) and after that he rape and kill the woman

The film is a little bit expensive but it's a real cult movie who worth that price.

Rating :

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Octaman (1971)

Genre: Horror
Director: Harry Essex
Rating: NR
Length: 1h19
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:78.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Pier Angeli   
Kerwin Mathews
Jeff Morrow
David Essex
Jerome Guardino

Plot:
A scientific expedition to a remote fishing village discovers high levels of radiation as well as a strange mutant-like small octopus that walks on land and has bizarre human-like eyes. The leader of the expedition teams up with a circus owner who wants to exploit the weird creature but trouble ensues when the two men discover their crew has been slaughtered and the mutant is missing. Tales from the villagers come to light describing the local legend of a half-man, half-sea serpent, but what the expedition finds is an astounding seven-foot-tall walking octopus that has a lust for human blood! Now, the hunters have become the hunted and the race is on. Who will survive and what will be left of them?

My Thoughts:

This one was directed by the man who wrote the screenplay for Creature from the Black Lagoon and It Came from Outer Space amongst other thing, so he knows how to write 50s creature movie. But this film lack something really important for that type of movie, a good creature costume. Not that it wasn't created by future famous FX artists (Rick Baker and Doug Bestwick began their career designing it), but it lack a feeling of reality because the head is a mask (the eyes have no expression and the mouth is a hole) and the tentacles doesn't move. The story also isn't that interesting and hard to follow (mexican accent without subtitles are sure hard to understand).

Nothing to write home about, I've seen better. but the remastering works is good.

Rating :

[GSyren]

I liked Zaat and Slithis and thought Octaman was just so-so. Looks like we have similar taste when it comes to this kind of movies.

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: The Pit and the Pendulum (1991)

Genre: Horror
Director: Stuart Gordon
Rating: 18
Length: 1h37
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:66.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Lance Henriksen   
Rona De Ricci
Jonathan Fuller
Mark Margolis
Frances Bay

Plot:
In the quest to save souls, the Spanish Inquisition will stop at nothing and knows no boundaries for its evil. Under the direction of Torquemada the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, a young baker's withe named Maria is falsely accused of witchcraft and dragged before the Inquisition and the Cardinal. Torquemada is enchanted by Maria's beauty and subjects her and her husband Antonio to heinous tortures to prove that his own desire for her are a result of her magic, and that she has "bewitched him". With the help of Esmaralda, Maria's cellmate and confessed witch, Maria must find the power to save her husband Antonio from Torquemada's ultimate machine of torture: the inevitable, razor sharp PENDULUM poised over the inescapable PIT of hell.

My Thoughts:

This is always enjoyable to watch a Full Moon's production from the time they were one of the biggest independant studio (wich is quite different of what they are now...). This was made in Italy and this add a lot to the production value (it sure looks better than the Corman's version). But you can't do a good movie only because the scenery is authentic. You need a good director, a good director and a good cast. All those ingredients are there with Stuart Gordon, Lance Henriksen (he is a much better actors than many believe), good supporting players (Jeffrey Combs, William J. Norris and Stephen Lee) and a good cameo by Oliver Reed who is now a Cardinal (see we can climb the hierarchy of the Church). The story is interesting (of course it isn't a new one since the original story was adapted for the screen many times), the effects are well done and the pendulum looks real and dangerous.

This is certainly not a real reference but the openning scene brought to my mind a dark page of the Catholic Church history. The trial of a long dead man is, at least for me, a reference at the trial of the Pope Formosus conduct by his successor Stephen VI (and no he wasn't a Pope for long, one year later he was condamned to death and strangled).

(click to show/hide)

An excellent film and of course I recommand the blu-ray version I own. It is region free and looks much better than what Full Moon had released here.

Rating :

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Strangeland (1998)

Genre: Horror
Director: John Pieplow
Rating: NR
Length: 1h31
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:85.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Kevin Gage   
Brett Harrelson
Dee Snider
Linda Cardellini
Robert Englund

Plot:
The glow of the screen illuminates his heavily pierced, tattoo-stained face as his fingers dance nimbly across the keyboard…searching, hunting.

His computer handle is Captain Howdy, and he surfs the local chat rooms for young female prey. Girls like Genevieve and Tiana, who mysteriously vanish after an online conversation with the cunning cyber-predator. Detective Mike Gage has a personal stake in the case: Genevieve is his daughter.

When Tiana's corpse – Tortured, pierced and scarred – is discovered in the river, Gage realizes that time is running out for Genevieve. Taking sadistic delight in Gage's desperation, Captain Howdy sends the detective a series of taunting e-mails, challenging him to a deadly online game of cat and mouse, and drawing him into his "Modern Primitive"world – a strange land of fetish bars, S&M, Body Modification and Goth-Rock.

My Thoughts:

This one isn't as known as it should be if you ask me. At first it looks like your regular serial killer movie, but it isn't. In fact this is a more a story about how as a society we create killer, not that this Capt. Howdy guy isn't a sick fuck to begin with but... The story take a different turn at the second act when he is liberated from the psychiatric hospital where he was treated after three years completly cure and ready to start a new life. The guy isn't the same anymore in fact he is some kind of frail wimp who wouldn't even scare my eighty four years old grandmother. Not long after his liberation he is attacked and left for dead by a crowd, this is why I say that we as society we create the monsters. Sure his bad side came back but is he really the one to blame? You got a surprising good performance in a dual role from Dee Snyder who also wrote the script for this film, I can't say the same for most of the others since the performance are not really nuanced (you are bad or you are good, no middle point) but Kevin Gage overact less than usual. The effects are really well done and you feel the suffering (see you don't need CGI to look good, a good effects guy can works miracle).

Anyway enough talking (or writing) we have here an underated gem who deserves to be seen.

Rating :

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

Genre: Horror
Director: John McNaughton
Rating: NR
Length: 1h23
Video: Full Frame
Audio: English
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Michael Rooker
Tracy Arnold
Tom Towles

Plot:
Michael Rooker is unforgettable as Henry, a soft-spoken loner with a cool exterior masking an inner rage that boils at blast furnace intensity.

When fellow ex-con Otis invites Henry to move into his Chicago apartment, he becomes a willing participant in Henry's senseless, random killing sprees. Meanwhile, Otis' unsuspecting sister, Becky (Tracy Arnold) is smitten with Henry, whose broken childhood mirrors her own.

Masterfully directed by John McNaughton, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER is a chilling character study of a mass murderer that continues to shock and disturb twenty years after its debut.

My Thoughts:

I know that some will disagree that this film is an horror movie, but for me it's the most frightening film I've ever seen (as you know I'm only frighten by the movie that could happen in real life). This movie is an evidence that it's possible to make a great film without a budget (100,000 $ for it). The acting is great and really convincing, seriously this is the best work of Michael Rooker and Tom Towles is the perfect choice to play Otis Toole. The movie doesn't always show the violent murder, but the result and this is scary to see only the dead victim and an echo of the murder action. Of course some murder are shown and the familly murder is the scarier thing I've ever seen on screen (I'm certain that the people who had seen the film understand) it's so realistically filmed and possible with all the crazy people living outside. The way Michael Rooker play Henry you had no choice to think that these kind of psychopat live a perfectly anonymous and normal life in reality.

Really nothing negative to say about this film (even the music score is frightening). They had changed some little fact about the real story by exemple the real Becky was the 12 years old niece of Otis, but I'm not sure that it's a bad thing since at one point enough is enough.

Rating :

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Evilspeak (1981)

Genre: Horror
Director: Eric Weston
Rating: NR
Length: 1h32
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:78.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Clint Howard
R.G. Armstrong
Joe Cortese
Claude Earl Jones
Haywood Nelson

Plot:
Life sucks for Stanley Coopersmith (Clint Howard, ROCK N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL), a teenage outcast who's bullied by everybody at the strict military academy he was sent to after his parents died. But when Stanley discovers the crypt of a 16th Century Satanist beneath the school's chapel, he creates a computerized Black Mass that unleashes unholy revenge upon his tormenters. Now, all Hell is breaking loose...and Stanley's flesh eating demon-pigs are only the beginning!

My Thoughts:

This one take a long time to put the pieces in place, but it that case it's necessary to justify the massacre at the end. Like I said the real bloodbath happen in the last act, not that nothing happen untill than (the shower scene is sure something to be seen). You get a good cast of character actors (Charles Tyner, Lenny Montana, Hamilton Camp,...) and even a young Katherine Kelly Lang (common every guy was forced by his girlfriend to watch The Bold and the Beautiful at least one time). The effects are well done and as a revenge story this is credible. If you have the precedent release from AB and like the film don't hesitate to double dip as the quality of this Code Red release is much better since it's from the original negative and not a patchwork of release prints.

Not a fast runner, but recommanded... and no you can't use your computer to conjure the devil

Rating :

[Piffi]

If "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" isnt a horror movie, i dont know what is. I've seen it aswell last year. After recommandations from you. And i will have to say for def that it is a horror. A good one. Good acting as you said. And the scary thing is that you get a "real" wibe of the thing.

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Axe (1974)

Genre: Horror
Director: Frederick R. Friedel
Rating: NR
Length: 1h08
Video: Full Frame
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Leslie Lee
Jack Canon
Ray Green
Frederick R. Friedel
Douglas Powers

Plot:
After terrorizing a convenience store salesgirl with tomatoes, three lowlifes on a crime spree hide out at an isolated farmhouse occupied only by teenage Lisa and her pathetically paralyzed grandpa. Bad move, guys, for while Lisa looks innocent enough, she's actually a ticking-time-bomb-of-psychotic-aggression who spends her days killing chickens, feeding raw eggs to her granddad, staring blankly into space, and hallucinating blood on a mirror. So when the three numbskulls add Lisa to their list of people to abuse, she promptly puts an end to their antisocial activities with the help of her two best friends, a straight-edge razor and her handy AXE...

My Thoughts:

Personally I wouldn't call that one an horror film, but the difference between an horror film and a crime one isn't that big. So because it countains some horror theme, I'll give it a pass.

First don't expect a lot of production value since it's really low budget wich isn't a problem for me as long as I feel the persons involved in a production care about the project. The film is short and it runs fast, so fast that sometimes you have no clue of what happen and why (the openning scene is sure part of that, since you have no clue why they beat the hell of a guy and you'll never know). The acting is convenable considering it's their first movie for most of them (the only exception being Frank Jones and Scott Smith, wich doesn't mean they were film old timer since it was their second or third experiences) and no one really do something after (excepted for Jack Canon who is in Maximum Overdrive and Weekend at Bernie's too). Even with the lack of experience Leslie Lee do a really good job with a hard character to play. The film end like it started with no real explanations, but I'm ok with that as we don't need to have everything explain to understand.

Sadly like all the Harry Novak properties released by Something Weird Video this is OOP, but you can always get it for a reasonable price at Amazon (at least it is less costly than Angels / Getting into Heaven) 

Rating :

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: The Kindred (1987)

Genre: Horror
Director: Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter
Rating: NR
Length: 1h32
Video: Full Frame
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
David Allen Brooks   
Rod Steiger
Amanda Pays
Talia Balsam
Kim Hunter

Plot:
Amanda's deathbed request to her son, John, was for him to destroy all the lab notes etc. from her last experiment. She also blurts out he had a brother. At the funeral John meets Melissa, who claims to be his mothers biggest fan. Together with some of John's friends they go to Amanda's house, but none are prepared for what they find there.

My Thoughts:

If you like movies like species or Forbidden World you'll be on pleasure cruise with that film, not that it's a copy of those two but it use more or less the same basic idea of a dangerous creature created by science. The action take a little bit to start (after quite a promising beginning) but when it does it does. Scary atmosphere, good creature effects (no CGI here this is all mechanical effects) and a very fugly creature designed by Michael John McCracken (surprisingly his career was short). The story is interesting and give us some surprises.

But I sure play the "where I've seen that guy before" while watching... since I didn't want to stop the film. At the end I was able to check DVDP and learned that it was Peter Frechette who is of course one of the T-Birds member in Grease 2 (the one who sing Do It For Our Country).

I would be happy to recommand it, but the film is currently unavailable on DVD due to a legal dispute about who own the movie rights. So untill the settlement of that legal dispute the only way to see it is on VHS wich mean full frame and with a gloomy and blurry visual.

Rating :

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Ban the Sadist Videos! (2005)

Genre: Documentary
Director: David Gregory
Rating: NR
Length: 1h34
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:78.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Chris Theobald (Narrator)

Plot:
An in-depth analysis of the "Video Nasty" scandal of the early 1980s in Britain.

My Thoughts:

As an outsider I've always find all that Video Nasty phenomena that happen in the UK ridiculous... in fact it's a good exemple of what happen when the "hollier than you" crowd take control. Here in my province we have one of the least strict film board in the world, everything goes as long as it isn't illegal (those being pedophilia, bestiality or necrophilia) or if they are humiliating for the people involved (and the only one I can thing fitting that criteria is Bum Fight who is always banned for good reason), so we don't ban or cut movie because of violence, nudity or rumours.

That two parts documentary is a very complete study of that case from the start of the video boom untill the end of that over the top case of censorship (and in case it was when you think that movie like The Exorcist were banned in England). Of course you must like talking head documentary since it's what it is, but we got some short films excerpt and archive footages (it's the only way to see how insane was Mary Whitehouse since she was already dead in 2005 and to listen Graham Bright since he was to chicken to appear).

If you are interested by the phenomena this is recommanded. The documentary was done when the "Box of the Ban" set were released in the UK (the first part in the first set and the other in the second one) but those sets are OOP and costly. Now you can get it from Severin Films since it's a bonus disc in their recent release of House on Straw Hill, but if you want the disc you must act fast since it's limited and only included in the first pressing. 

Rating :

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: House on Straw Hill (1976)

Genre: Thriller
Director: James Kenelm Clarke   
Rating: NR
Length: 1h24
Video: Widescreen 1:77.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Udo Kier   
Linda Hayden
Fiona Richmond
Patsy Smart
Vic Armstrong
Karl Howman

Plot:
Banned in Britain for thirty years in its uncensored version, THE HOUSE ON STRAW HILL is a shockingly violent and erotic tale of seduction, brutality and revenge. Cult movie icon Udo Kier (FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN, THE THEATRE BIZARRE) stars as a successful novelist suffering from writer's block, who rents a country cottage in the hope of finding inspiration. But the arrival of a sensual secretary, played by Linda Hayden (BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW, TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA) sets in motion of chain of events that culminate in an unrestrained explosion of sex and savagery.

Also known as EXPOSÉ and TRAUMA, this sleazy 'Video Nasty' from Brian Smedley-Aston (VAMPYRES) and James Kenelm Clarke (LET'S GET LAID), co-starring the notorious Fiona Richmond - 'Britain's No.1 sex symbol' - is now fully restored from the original uncut negative, available for the first time in America!

My Thoughts:

You have no idea how long I've waited to finally see that movie release.... more than 10 years. Yeah I know I could have got a region 2 DVDs, but all of them are cut so that would have been a waste of money. Does it worth the long wait and the high expectations?

You bet it does... This is an excellent thriller with an unpredictable storyline. Well act, but it isn't a surprise with Udo Kier (even if he was sadly dub) and Linda Hayden that I love since the first time I've seen Baby Love (a excellent film who will never get a legit because of its subject). This isn't really a film I would classified in the horror genre but more as erotic thriller with murder and violence. The movie didn't end the way I would had like but it's just me. There not much I can say without spoiling the film, but I can certainly say that it worths the price for me.

This isn't a film for everyone, but I sure suggest this one without hesitation. For once patience has been rewarded.

Rating :

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: The Manitou (1978)

Genre: Horror
Director: William Girdler   
Rating: PG
Length: 1h44
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2:35.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Tony Curtis   
Michael Ansara
Susan Strasberg
Stella Stevens
Jon Cedar

Plot:
What surgeons thought to be a tumor growing on the neck of patient Karen Tandy (Susan Strasberg of PSYCH-OUT) is actually a fetus growing at an abnormally accelerated rate. But when Karen reaches out to former lover and phony psychic Harry Erskine (Academy Award® nominee Tony Curtis), he discovers that she is possessed by the reincarnation of a 400-year old Native American demon. Now with the help of a modern-day medicine man (Michael Ansara), Erskine must survive this ancient evil's rampage of shocking violence, and forever destroy the enraged beast known as THE MANITOU.

My Thoughts:

This is the kind of film that make you say "WHAT???" when you read the synopsis. We sure don't see often movies about evil indian shaman growing in a woman neck like a baby. William Girdler was one of the most succesfull independant movie director of the seventies and after the box-office success of Grizzly and Days of the Animals he got a call from Hollywood. This is the first and only studio movie he did (he died in a helipcoter crash while doing scouting locations for his next project in 1978). As we can see he was welcome with open arms with a film cast of big names. Strangely from all his films this the one I like the least. The film is too conventional for my taste (not the subject, but the way he is made) and a little bit silly (the end sure is). But I like the performance of Tony Curtis and Michael Ansara (even if he play a way too stereotypical indian). BTW the evil indian isn't named the manitou but Misquamacus, no idea why they wrote that in the synopsis since a manitou, in this film, is a power that each thing in the universe possesses.

Not bad, but a little bit too long...

Rating :