Armando Crispino really only did two horror films, 1972’s The Dead Are Alive and this 1975 giallo, which is a shame, as this is a pretty decent entry in the genre. Known in Italy as Macchie Solari (Sunspots), it does indeed feature sunspot footage from space before we see any major murders. And if you’re looking for a movie packed with autopsy footage, good news. It totally lives up to its title.

Simona Sana (Mimsy Farmer, who is also in Argento’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet and The Perfume of the Lady in Black) is a pathology student who is trying to work on a theory about suicides, one that’s disputed by a young priest, Father Paul, whose sister — Simona’s dad’s latest fling — has recently killed herself. It turns out there’s been a whole series of self-killings which are being blamed on, you guessed it, sunspots.

I mean, what can you say about a movie that starts with several of said suicides, like sliced wrists, a self-induced car explosion and a man machine gunning his kids before turning the gun on himself? Obviously, this is a rather grisly affair, with real corpse photos spread — quite literally — throughout the film.

In between all of the gore, corpse penises, two bodies falling to their deaths and crime museums, there’s also Ray Lovelock (The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) as Simona’s boyfriend, an out there Morricone score and a heroine who hallucinates that the dead are coming back to life.

The plot gets pretty convoluted, but if you’re on this site, you obviously appreciate films like this and will get past it. This is an Italian 70’s murder movie, though, so if you get easily upset about the way men behave, well, be forewarned.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime.

Every 25 years, it begins. A family of untold occult power — bound to an ancient pact — must visit a small town and sacrifice four souls, including one of their own family. Now, they’ve come into the life of Kerry, a pregnant 18-year-old who just wants to escape her rural roots. Now, as her friends die around her, she’s looking for an even bigger escape — one that helps her avoid the sacrifice of her unborn child.

Directed by Richard LeMay, who also helmed the remake of Dementia 13, Blood Bound starts as a coming of age tale, as Kerry (Eden Brolin, daughter of James) tries to decide between leaving friends and family behind or being part of their druggy culture. But soon, everyone is caught up in the ritual and no one will escape unharmed.

By the end, the visions and nightmares turn into real demons, leading to major decisions being made. It takes awhile to get there, but if you ever wanted to see a mix of River’s Edge or Kids wih a possession movie, good news!

Blood Bound is available on demand from January 15, 2019.

NOTE: This film was sent to us by its PR company. That has no impact on our review.

Marianne (Susan George, Tintorera…Tiger Shark) has been on the run from her family and the criminals they’ve hired, because on her 21st birthday, she inherits millions of dollars from her mother and the legal papers that will incriminate her father, the Judge (Leo Genn, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin).

After being chased by those criminals away from her go-go dancing job, Marianne meets up with Sebastian, who takes her to London and tries to marry her. She’s not all that into it, so she plays with him and writes the name of his best man Eli on the wedding certificate. She starts to fall for Eli at the same time that she learns that her father had hired Sebastian to bring his daughter back to him.

Meanwhile, Marianne’s sister Hildegard has been in love with her father — and I mean in love in the most sexual of sense — and wants to kill her sister. Of course, she also gets with Sebastian and tries to put the moves on Eli.

Your enjoyment will depend on how much you like 1970’s kitsch and the directorial style of Peter Walker (Schizo, The Comeback).

Want to see it? It’s on Shudder.

Hell Fest is unapologetically a slasher film, bringing together six teenagers to be stalked, slashed and brutally offed by a masked killer who never speaks, only mumbles a child’s song and has no apparent motivation other than the need to kill. This fact has been harped on by nearly every reviewer — it’s derivative and has no explanation for the villain. Obviously, none of them were around for the slasher cycle. This is a film that has no need to be elevated or called anything other what it is — a popcorn horror movie that’s out to entertain you by any means necessary. It’s exactly what I hoped for — a competently made film with plenty of jump scares and no shortage of the red stuff.

Hell Fest is a traveling horror theme park that — for now — is making its home in Cincinnati (that said, the film is shot in Atlanta, using the Six Flags Over Georgia’s Fright Fest decorations and the haunters from the Netherworld Haunted House). A young girl is separated from her friends and soon murdered by The Other (Stephen Conroy, who has quite the resume for his stunts). As the camera pulls back from her corpse, we notice that she’s now become a prop in the haunted house.

Natalie (Amy Forsyth, who braved the No End House on the SyFy show Channel Zero) comes back to town to ger former apartment where her best friend Brooke is now living with Taylor (Bex Taylor-Klaus, Dumplin’). Our heroine doesn’t get along with the new roomie and the feeling is mutual. But things have been off lately — instead of partying, she’s only cared about school and work. But this weekend, she’s here for a good time, which means that she gets set up with Gavin as the girls get VIP wristbands for Hell Fest, along with Brooke’s boyfriend Quinn and Taylor’s man Asher.

Natalie first notices The Other in line, as a girl insults the haunters and yells at the killer. He steals a snow cone knife and stalks her through a maze as the girls are seperated from the boys. In the last section of the haunt, that very same girl appears and they think she’s just one of the actors. The Other kills her in front of Natalie, who demands that she just get it over with, not knowing that she’s seeing the real thing.

The killer stalks the group as they move through the massive Hell Fest, including stealing photos of Natalie and Gavin making out in a photo booth. As the teens move into the more intense sections of the park — the Dead Lands — The Other begins offing them one by one. But he’s also pretty inventive, stealing Gavin’s phone to stay in touch with Natalie. As the group rides into the next section of the park, it’s revealed that there are many Others and it’s simply a mask worn by employees.

However, after a haunter dressed as The Fly sprays Natalie with goo, she cleans herself up in the bathroom while reconnecting with her best friend Brooke. She texts Gavin and hears his phone beep in the next stall, revealing that The Other has been after her the whole time. There’s a great part here where she’s drying her hair and we just see him show up and touch her hair and disappear that’s incredibly well shot.

They try and inform security, but the guard tells them if he arrested every employee that scared someone, there wouldn’t even be a Hell Fest. While all that’s going on, Taylor agrees to be beheaded on stage as part of a magic show. The girls believe that the killer is really going to get her, but it’s all part of the act…until the killer reveals himself backstage.

Taylor escapes, only to be sliced up in public, causing a panic and the two final girls — Natalie and Brook — go on the run from The Other.

The best part of this film? Tony Todd plays The Barker, whose voice is in every ride and attraction, as well as appearing on stage for the magic show. It’s always a joy to see him in any film and his distinctive speech pattern made me applaud from my couch.

What really pushed this movie forward for me was the skill that director Gregory Plotkin (who edited Get Out and Happy Death Day) and cinematographer José David Montero displayed. There’s plenty of moody fog and Bava-esque lighting, as well as the kind of stalk and slash jump scares that I felt the Halloween remake was sorely missing.

Hell Fest is nothing more than a slasher in the best traditions of the genre. And that’s exactly what it should be. There’s an eye decimating kill that will please Fulci fans, someone’s head gets smashed open with a hammer and all manner of folks are placed in danger by a killer who could really be anyone. Sure, there could have been more subtext. Of course, there could have been more motivation. But really, all we want out of a haunted house is to show up, be scared and have plenty of fun. This movie does exactly what it was made to do and does it quite well.

This social-realist movie from debut feature filmmaker Jason Raftopoulos is all about Jim, a father in the midst of a struggle: he has less than a day to pay back a massive gambling debt, all while trying to look after his young son. His relationship with his son will be tested as his plans to pay back the loan fail and one final chance to repay the violent loan shark puts his son’s life at risk.

Interesting enough, Ty Perham who plays the young Alex in this movie is really the stepson of star Damian Hill. It’s his first acting experience and he really does well, appearing totally natural and seasoned.

Sadly, Hill died shortly after this film was released in Australia. He was only 42 and after seeing his performance here, it felt like there was plenty left for him to achieve.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to watch a lot more Australian cinema and have been pleasantly surprised at the efforts. West of Sunshine is another film that continues that trend. It will be released here in theaters on January 18 and then you can find it on video on demand as of January 22.

NOTE: We were sent this by the movie’s PR team, but it has nothing to do with our review.

I’d love to have heard what people in the 1970’s felt like when they encountered a movie from S. F. Brownrigg at the drive-in. Something like Don’t Look in the Basement, Scum of the Earth or this truly inspiringly strange affair, a movie that riffs on Repulsion while presenting a woman who is in the grips of madness — or maybe not.

Leslie Fontaine (Camilla Carr) lives in a mansion with her husband Kevin — or maybe she doesn’t or maybe Kevin is her brother, this movie isn’t going to give you any easy answers — who is locked in their bedroom and doesn’t want to make love to her, no matter what she does. Finally, she allows herself to seduce a local teenager — a scene that is the Wikipedia definition of awkward — before “Kevin” emerges and kills the guy with a saber.

Everything proves that Leslie and Kevin are the same person, but at the end, after she consumes pills and broken glass in equal measure, we see her funeral. And Kevin’s there, ready to move into the mansion. There’s no explanation at all for this, but I’m not certain there’s one that will suffice.

I’ve often discussed that the difference between a film seen as art and one seen as exploitation really comes down to the theater that shows the film. This is a movie that aspires to the former while emerging from the muck of the grindhouse and drive-in, a burst of strangeness even amongst the other movies that it would play with.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime.

A mother and her 8-year-old son are drifting through life, following her boyfriend as they barely scrape out an existence one small crime at a time. But when she decides to finally leave him and live in a mobile home community, there’s a chance their lives can change.

Imogen Poots is amazing in this movie, which I’d compare to Room. It starts with her character Ali trying to place her son Bone into a foster home and when that seems too difficult, she takes him with her as she conducts a life of crime with her boyfriend Evan. From teaching her son how to train roosters for cockfighting to stealing meals every time they eat, it’s no life.

Anton Yelchin was supposed to star as Evan, but due to his tragic death, his Green Room co-star and friend Callum Turner respectfully took his place. He’s really good in this as well.

There’s no real direction to this, yet that feels like what their life is like. The ending, where she careens down a dangerous road towing the mobile home that should be their escape, is really powerful, though. It’s some great filmmaking and the highlight of the film, other than the strong performances.

Director Vladimir de Fontenay filmed a short of this in his native France a few years ago and this movie is his chance to expand upon that film. It’s definitely worth a watch, but if you’ve lived with this kind of craziness in your family, it may not be an easy one. As Robert, the laborer who allows them to stay in the mobile home park says, “What planet are you people from?”

You can watch Mobile Homes On Demand January 22.

Note: We were sent this by the movie’s PR team. That has no bearing on our review!

Rospo Pallenberg, the director of this film, is probably better known for the movies that he collaborated on with John Boorman, like Exorcist II: The Heretic, Excalibur and The Emerald Forest. This is the one and only movie he ever directed and sadly, it’s mostly known for being one of Brad Pitt’s first roles.

Brian Woods (Donovan Leitch, son of Donovan, the man who sang about smoking bananas in “Mellow Yellow”) has just been released from a mental hospital after his father was killed suspiciously. He quickly falls in love with Paula (who can blame him, she’s played by Jill Schoelen from Popcorn), but she’s already dating the big jock in town, Dwight (Pitt, who met Schoelen on set and got engaged to her at the end of filming). For some reason, the school’s principal Mr. Dante (Roddy McDowell!) is also in love with her. Once we get that all settled, a bunch of murders start happening and any of Paula’s suitors could be the killer.

I mean, how can you not love a movie where Paula’s district attorney dad (Martin Mull!) gets shot by arrows and spends the entire movie stumbling around and trying to get rescued?

The kills in this movie are ridiculous: one teacher is killed on a Xerox machine and every kid gets a copy of it. Another is having way too good of a time on a trampoline before a flag gets put under it.

It all ends with Dwight’s head in a vice and Brian making him choose between the two men. Paula screams, “Stop fucking with my emotions!” and literally sends a claw hammer into his brains and slicing him in half with a circular saw.

Seriously, this movie is just weird. It has no set tone and usually, that’d make me hate things, but it works here. Also, if you like Wall of Voodoo, they and lead singer Andy Prieboy are all over the soundtrack.

Vinegar Syndrome re-released this film this year, giving this 1989 late era slasher some loving attention. Please reward their efforts and go buy it from them!