Monthly Archives: October 2020

2020 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 7: Black Circle Boys (1998)

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Day 7: They’re Out to Get You: One with Heavy Paranoia (real or imagined).

“I don’t want to take lessons! I wanna have a fucking band! Fucking be like Deicide! Deicide. Yes, Deicide!”
—Shane Carver, loser leader of the Black Circle Boys

Yeah, maybe the guitar is broke, douche-dick.

I won’t say I hate this movie. But I was certainly disappointed by this movie, considering it “starred” John Doe of X and dealt with a misguided ne’er do well finding solace in black metal music. A group of Satan worshiping dopers want to start a band—and kill people—and John Doe? I’m up for that.

Oh, be careful for what ye hail, black metal and horror film buff.

What we ended up with here is an all-male version of—without the supernatural hocus pocus—1996’s much better The Craft, which also gave us a peek into the teenaged occult, as well as 1987’s The Lost Boys. And, oh shite, this film pulls the ‘ol Eric Roberts (Power 98) bait-n-switch on you.

Bastards!

Either John Doe was cast—in typical Eric Roberts fashion—for one scene just to get a brand name on the box/in the credits, or Doe’s work as a police detective investigating the Black Circle Boys Murders, for whatever reason, ended up on the cutting room floor. And sorry, Donnie Wahlberg is cool these days (and excellent) in TV’s Blue Bloods, but he just isn’t an effective consolation prize when we came to see John Doe (but, truth be told, the ex-New Kids on the Block member, in his third acting role, is very good as Greggo, effeminate Satanist who introduced Shane to the Black Arts). Oh, yeah . . . blink and you’ll miss Lisa Loeb (remember her gal-paldom with Ethan Hawke and hitting the U.S. Top 10 in 1994 with “Stay (I Missed You)” from Reality Bites?) as an “angry goth chick” in a club.

As you can see, the casting on this movie is flat out, upside down FUBAR’d. Why would a production (granted, it’s low budget, but still) take known commodities—that inspire us to rent in the first place—such as John Doe and Lisa Loeb—and place them in one scene cameos; each should be in the larger, respective roles of Detective Roy, played by Victor Morris (NBC-TV’s In the Line of Duty film series and Bigger Than the Sky), and the Dead Head-high schooler Chloe, played by Tara Subkoff (The Last Days of Disco; The Notorious Betty Page).

True, both Morris and Subkoff are affable in the roles, but wouldn’t you, as The Devil’s Advocate (sorry) producer, want to predominately feature Doe and Loeb’s names on the box in smaller type under the leads and copywrite-plug their past, known works on the box’s flipside? Loeb could totally pull off the wiles of a hippy chick high schooler—and you could feature her playing the acoustic guitar and singing a folk song—to the antithesis of the goth kids running the school. And if you’ve seen John Doe’s work in A Matter of Degrees and his co-starring role as Teddy Connor, the leader of the once great Wotan, in the NBC-TV Law & Order: TOS 2003 “Ripped from the Headlines” episode “Blaze” (which took it scripting cues from Great White’s tragic 2003 performance at The Station night club in Rhode Island*), you know that Doe not only carries a film as a lead actor with distinction—he can pull off a goth rocker with class and style. (Sorry, Donnie. No offense. We love Doe ’round these ‘ere Allegheny wilds and crush any actor before him.)

Ye, hail Teddy Connor! Courtesy of Gregory Hill Design/NBC-TV

But alas . . . Black Circle Boys was made in 1998 and not 1988; so the producers decided to appeal to the then nostalgic-maturing New Kids on the Block contingent, instead of the ol’ punk codgers (aka myself and B&S boss Sam) who admire John Doe and rocked out to X in the ’80s via The Decline of Western Civilization and Urgh! A Music War. And yeah, David Newsom (ABC-TV’s Homefront) is a fine actor (and now a successful reality television producer; kudos, Dave!), but the divine Dee Wallace Stone of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Howling fame is wasted in her “Eric Roberts Casting” as the troubled mom; Wallace would have been more effectively utilized in Newsom’s larger role as the swim coach-physics teacher hybrid—and being the horndogs we are, even get a few scenes of her in a curve-accentuating one piece. And yes . . . that is the pride of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Richard “Les Nesman” Sanders of WKPX in Cincinnati (check out our review of FM) also being woefully underutilized in his one (uh, I think it was two?) shot role as Principal Dunkel. (At this point, the producers should have called in Eric Roberts—who we friggin’ love like blood around here. And yes, another major f-up by the producers: not having Killing Joke on the soundtrack, Deicide references be damned.)

Now, that’s how you cast, music consult, and sell tickets, kiddies. But alas, I am a schlub writer and not a casting director or music consultant. . . .

So, anyway . . . We meet Kyle (Scott Bairstow of FOX-TV’s Party of Five), a star high school swimmer wallowing in depression over a personal loss (an idiot friend fell off a bridge/water tower and broke his neck while they were drunk; instead of moving on and taking responsibility, Kyle blames “the world”)—which makes him easy pickings for paranoia-poster child Shane Carver (a very good Eric Mabius; big screen debut in Welcome to the Dollhouse, noticed in Cruel Intentions) and his little goth clique, The Black Circle Boys. Kyle is introduced to hard booze, drugs, devil worship, and frog beheadings-by-mouth in quick succession . . . and murder, by way of drug-dealing Rory (an early Chad Lindberg of The Fast and the Furious), a BCB “slave-trainee” by Shane as a form of sacrifice. Along the way the boys start a band, which is an utter failure. So, out of frustration—and a parnoid belief his goth-clique is betraying him—Shane starts killing off the other members of ‘the Circle.

At least I think that’s what happened. Yeah, they lost me. That’s what happens when you deny me of my John Doe fix, boondoggle me with Donnie Wahlberg, and don’t give us the black metal we came for and stick us with a bunch of never-heard-of bargain bin basement clutter that is neither “black” nor “metal” or anything worthy of woof or a tweet. I mean, come on . . . a movie about “black metal murders” that only uses the word “Satan” once? And what in the Sam Hill (another music consultant f-up: no Glenn Danzig and Samhain**) is this B.S. referring to Satan as “Father” all the time? Get the Anton LeVey (The Devil’s Rain) out of here, Mr. Politically Correct screenwriter. Fuck, dude.

And what the hell, bass player? Learn your root, 3rd, and 5th triads. Fuck me. Even the shittiest of shite bassists know ’em. You deserved Shane slashing your throat and tossin’ your lame ass off a bridge. I’d nut-punch you myself, dick breath. The Relentless from American Satan would dissolve you and your “boys” into a puddle just by pissing on ‘ya. Pusswads.

Ugh. Another great clip — lost — that ruins the point of the previous paragraph.

In the end: What we have here is an ineffective, low-budget variant of 1987’s far superior River’s Edge (starring Crispin Glover and Keanu Reeves), in the Black Circle Boys claims in its promotional materials that it is “Based on a True Story.” And while it’s beneath River’s Edge, Ricky 6 — which is also based on Ricky Kasso’s “Satanic Panic” inspiring crime — is better than Black Circle Boys.

F-You, marketing department. Your “true story” and John Doe bait-n-switch be damned, pisses me off. And you too, Mr. Music Consultant.

That “true story” takes us back to Slayer, whose loud and aggressive music—featuring violent themes that would even scare Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath—went beyond the usual horror-film influenced, satanic lyrical themes to include odes to sadism, necrophilia, serial killers, and Nazi death camps. Not helping Slayer’s reputation in the eyes of the Moral Majority was Slayer’s music being predominately featured in the River’s Edge, the film itself based upon the 1981 California murder of Marcy Renee Conrad and the 1984 New York murder of Gary Lauwers, where their troubled-teen killers bragged about and returned to the murder site of their victims.

The most catastrophic example of this ignorance regarding hard rock and heavy metal music was the highly publicized, 1994 West Memphis 3 case in which questionable “evidence” led to the wrongful conviction of three non-conformist boys as murderous Satanists. Their only guilt: a shared interest in rock music, horror films, and unconventional art and books (you know, guys like myself and Sam, B&S About Movies’ boss. And we’re harmless, really).

A seriously f-up dude giving AC/DC a bad name.

The occult and the America justice system simmered in a cauldron of abhorrence and ignorance once again in the 1999 Columbine massacre, as satanic-panic maligned the music of shocker-rocker Marilyn Manson and, to a lesser extent, the industrial/goth bands KMFDM and Rammstein as underlying causes. The misguided controversy forced Manson to cancel the remaining dates of his 1999 Rock Is Dead world tour and negatively affected the sales of his third album, Mechanical Animals (1998). Additionally slandered as “co-conspirators” were Oliver Stone, by way of the Quentin Tarantino-scripted Natural Born Killers, in addition to the designers behind the video games Doom, Wolfstein 3D, and Duke Nukem. (A 1999 Rolling Stone article: “Columbine: Whose Fault is It?,” in addition to Dave Cullen’s 2009 in-depth tome, Columbine, examine the tragedy.)

Paving the way for the legal atrocities of the West Memphis 3 was the 1986 case regarding the seminal British metal band, Judas Priest. In that judicial miscarriage against the creative arts, the parents of two Reno, Nevada, teenaged boys sued Judas Priest and its label, Columbia Records, for $6.2 million dollars, claiming the band’s 1978 release, Stained Class, contained backward, subliminal messages that drove the boys to suicide (the court dismissed the case in 1990).

F-in railroaded. Man, Don’t even get me started.

Prior to Judas Priest’s slandering by religious zealots, Ozzy Osbourne, the ex-lead singer of Black Sabbath, became the victim of another bogus suicide-by-rock music claim. Three sets of parents sued the “Prince of Darkness” between 1985 and 1990, claiming the song “Suicide Solution” from Ozzy’s 1980 debut album, Blizzard of Oz, encouraged their young sons to commit suicide—all three cases were eventually dismissed. In an archetypal overreaching misconstrue by the Christian Right blinded by satanic-panic to deflect their parental failures and to excuse the “misadventures” of their own children, the clearly anti-alcohol and an anti-suicide song, with lyrics written by bassist Bob Daisley, was a touching tribute to Bon Scott, the then recently deceased lead singer of AC/DC (AC/DC: Let There Be Rock). Other tomes claim it was actually about Daisley’s concerns regarding Ozzy’s health. Whatever Daisley’s lyrical motivation, the song certainly is not a clarion for teenagers to commit suicide.

Anyway, back to Black Circle Boys.

This ain’t no River’s Edge and director Joe Berlinger’s theatrical, three-film documentary series Paradise Lost is more disturbing and far more engrossing (in addition to the non-fiction books Blood of Innocents by Guy Reel and Mara Leveritt’s Devil’s Knot, both which examine the WM3 tragedy at length; the later book itself was adapted into a 2013 film). If the filmmakers behind Black Circle Boys had only adhered to their source material: David St. Clair’s 1987 expose Say You Love Satan, about 17-year-old Ricky Kasso and the murderous exploits of the Knights of the Black Circle (which resulted in the death of the aforementioned Gary Lauwers).

You can stream Black Circle Boys for free on You Tube, as it is not available on any streaming platforms. Used copies of the unnerving Say You Love Satan are readily available in the online marketplace—it’s a highly suggested read. In fact, read the book instead of watching this movie.

Ugh. Another trailer bits the digital dust.

Seriously, though: The appreciation of a film—whether it is good or bad, well-made or poorly made—is based in the age of the viewer; for film appreciation is of a time and place. While I love my horror movies (Phantasm to Rocktober Blood) and my Killing Joke, Samhain, The Misfits, Venom, King Diamond, and Deicide as much as the next guy, I was already ensconced in adulthood (wearing shirts with collars, even ties!) when Black Circle Boys was released. So, if you were in middle school or just starting high school at the time Black Circle Boys was released—as I was when the juvenile delinquency drama Over the Edge was released in 1979—rewatching this film will warm the cockles as your own person “classic” film.

* The Great White tragedy also served as the basis for the Mark L. Lester-directed and Eric Roberts-starring Groupie.

** Glenn Danzig is in the filmmaking biz these days. We recently reviewed his film Verotika. Yeah, we adore auteur projects and movies with rock stars ’round here. Speaking of which . . . you can get all of the rock ‘n’ roll flicks you can handle with our “Rock ‘n’ Roll Week” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Week II” features from this past July and September with links to over 100 film reviews.

About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.

SLASHER MONTH: The Last House On Dead End Street (1977)

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Somehow, some way, this movie played the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals in 1973 as The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell. It also was named The Fun House, which is possibly how Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse became a video nasty. It was finally released in 1979 under this title by Cinematic Releasing Corporation, who tried to pass it off as a film connected to The Last House On the Left.

Because every name the film is a pseudonym and no one came forward to claim making this movie, there were rumors for years that this was a real snuff movie. In 2000, Roger Watkins came forward to take ownership, even telling how Otto Preminger had gifted him with the Bolex camera he used to film the snuff sequences. He was also hooked on amphetamine while making it, spending $2,200 of the movies $3,000 budget on drugs.

Watkins, who apprenticed with Freddie Francis and Nicholas Ray, would go on to make several adult films under the name Richard Mahler. His films Her Name Was Lisa and Corruption are less porn than art movies with penetration.

Let me state this up front: this movie is not for those looking for an easy watch.

Terry Hawkins just got out of jail for a year on drug charges and wants to make something beyond pornography. He wants to capture murder on film. He rounds up a crew of like-minded people and gets Jim and Nancy Palmer involved. Jim’s a porn director who says that people are getting too desensitized. Terry’s just the guy to shock everyone.

From real animal mutilation to people being forced to orally satisfy goat hooves — and oh yeah, body parts being torn apart while smelling salts are used to keep people awake — this is a movie about horrible people doing horrible things.

As for the square up reel at the end, where a voiceover claims everyone was punished for their crimes, distributor Leon Fentonand his assistant Bernie Travis added that as they felt that some punishment had to be delivered to the bad guys. Watkins felt that this ruined the film.

You can watch this on Tubi.

SLASHER MONTH: 976-EVIL II (1992)

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By writing Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time and House IV and directing Sorority House Massacre II, Deathstalker II (which he also wrote), Big Bad Mama II, Ghoulies IV, The Skateboard Kid 2, Body Chemistry IV: Full Exposure, Friend of the Family II, Sorceress II: The Temptress, The Escort III, The Bare Wench Project 2: Scared Topless, The Bare Wench Project 3: Nymphs of Mystery Mountain, The Witches of Breastwick 2, Bare Wench Project Uncensored and Bare Wench: The Final Chapter, Jim Wynorski may be the king of the sequels. Let’s add 976-EVIL II, a movie that somewhat continues the story begun in the Robert Englund 976-EVIL.

Also known as 976-EVIL II: The Astral Factor, this movie is all about Spike, a leather jacket wearing loner from the first film, again played by Patrick O’Bryan, and final girl Robin battling Professor Grubeck, who is in full command of astral powers and a Satanic horoscope phone line.

“Out of the darkness and into the light comes your horrorscope on this dark and stormy night.”

There are two great reasons to watch this. The first is Brigitte Nielsen, who did this movie for scale after losing a pool game bet to Wynorski. And the other is a bravura sequence that combines the two best known public domain movies of all time, Night of the Living Dead and It’s A Wonderful Life, as one of the girls becomes stuck between the two films and ends with Zuzu Bailey transforming into Kyra Schon and stabbing the girl with a trowel. It’s an astounding piece of filmmaking, one that comes out of nowhere (the script had the girl absorbed by a video game and the budget couldn’t handle it) and delivers.

You also get appearances by Philip McKeon (TV’s Alice) and George “Buck” Flower, as well as some great lighting and usage of budget.

This movie is way better than it has any right to be. Seriously, you should check it out right now, because I can’t believe this hasn’t received a high end re-release yet.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime.

2020 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 6: The Campaign (2012)

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DAY 6. POLL PLOT: One that involves elections and/or voting.* Government not required.

While the election is something I try to avoid every single morning, I do have to say that The Election is a movie that continually makes me happy. Sure, it’s a big dumb Hollywood comedy, but it’s filled with just enough abject stupidity to make me laugh. Sometimes, that’s all you need.

Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) is a five-time North Carolina Congressman, running unopposed when he leaves an explicit message for one of his supporters on her family’s answering machine, throwing his candidacy into question. Soon, he has an opponent — Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), who is the tourism director for the town of Hammond. Marty isn’t really made for the political machine, but thanks to the nefarious Motch Brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow) and their ruthless campaign expert Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott), soon the race is on.

Cam is a mess, either drunk driving or punching babies while Marty is a hapless fool. At heart, they’re both good men who have been pulled through the political machine, forced to become things that they don’t want to be.

Jay Roach went from films like Austin Powers to this and finally Bombshell, which takes the humor of this and adds it to a true — well, mostly — story. The script, taken from a story by Adam McKay and written by Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell, is on the right side of clever versus stupid, which is continually the finest of barriers.

A native of North Carolina, Galifianakis’ uncle Nick had been a State Representative, yet lost the 1972 Senate election to Jesse Helms. Much of this comedy comes from truth, which is always the right place.

I also find it fascinating that Dan Aykroyd’s career has taken him from playing Louis Winthorpe III to now basically being one of the Duke brothers.

SLASHER MONTH: The Video Dead (1987)

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Yeah, I know it’s not a slasher. But it has enough references to them that I’ve decided to bend the rules a bit. It starts with a TV set — mistakenly not sent to the Institute for Paranormal Research — that ends up in a writer’s house. Even when not plugged in, it only plays Zombie Blood Nightmare, a movie that comes to life and kills everyone that watches it. Like that writer. And like pretty much everyone else in this movie.

Despite a kid telling someone that he’s seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre hundreds of times — hence me including this movie in this month of slashers — it won’t save his life. In fact, the only way to fight the zombies is to not fight them, but making them docile instead. What a weird stance for a movie to have.

Writer/director Robert Scott also was the second unit director on Dracula: Dead and Loving It, as well as plenty of TV like House and Heroes. He was set to make a sequel to this. but refused to do it for the same budget as this movie.

Each of the zombies had their own backstories that were only known to the actors playing the roles. Jimmy D. was a star athlete who drowned, yet he misses all the action he got from the ladies. Jack died in a car crash. Ironhead was a serial strangler. And The Bride was murdered on her wedding day. She’s played by Jennifer Miro, who was a member of the punk/new wave/goth band The Nuns. She’s also in the David A. Prior movie Jungle Assault, the No Wave film Red Italy and the Stephen Sayadian/Jerry Stahl (you may know Sayadian better as 80’s adult director Rinse Dream, who made stuff like Party Doll A Go-Go!, Cafe Flesh and Nightdreams, all films that if they didn’t have penetration would be legitimate movies; Stahl has written for ALF, Thirtysomething and Moonlighting as well as the more scummy episodes of CSI; he also wrote Cafe Flesh and Nightdreams) movie Dr. Caligari, a movie that looks like a porn but is really an art film starring Debra De Liso (Slumber Party Massacre), Madeleine Reynal (Jennera  from Space Mutiny), Fox Harris (Forbidden World) and Randall William Cook (the effects artist who was also the villain in I, Madman). It does have its roots in adult, as the Mrs. Van Houten character was originally played by Dorothy LeMay in Nightdreams.

SLASHER MONTH: Hospital Massacre (1982)

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How many names can one movie have? A bunch, because this is also known as X-Ray, Be My Valentine Or Else and Ward 13. It’s directed by Boaz Davidson, the man who was behind Lemon Popsicle and its depressing as anything American version The Last American Virgin. That name brought me joy when it was on screen, just as much as seeing the Cannon name before the credits sent me into paroxysms of joy.

Back in 1961, a boy named Harold gave Susan Jeremy a valentine and when she made fun of it with her friend David, he breaks in and hangs her friend from a hatstand.

Susan grew up to be four-time Playboy covergirl Barbi Benton (Deathstalker). Well, that’s who is playing her. She’s just gotten divorced and has to head in for some routine tests at a hospital. Literally, the minute she walks in, an evil doctor laughs while looking at pictures of her as a kid.

Better slashers have started with less.

This is the kind of movie that really uses its environment in the best way possible, as orthopedic saws send heads flying and sinks filled with acid melt faces.

If you recognize the kids from the beginning, they’re Billy Jacoby and Elizabeth Hoy who were the murderous children in Bloody Birthday, which came out the same year as this one.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime.

2020 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 6: The Park Is Mine (1986)

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Day 6: Poll Plot: One that involves elections and/or voting. *government not required.

Author’s Note: This review originally ran on December 6, 2019, as part of our tribute to the film soundtracks of Tangerine Dream. This high-brow, Rambo-esque tale on the plight of war veterans — and the government that ignores them — was a great opportunity to revisit a great TV film. Be sure to visit our “Exploring: 10 Tangerine Dream Film Soundtracks” round up.

The Park Is Mine is a Canadian-American drama based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Stephen Peters and directed by Steven Hilliard Stern. The film focuses on Vietnam War veteran, Mitch (Tommy Lee Jones), who takes forceful control of Central Park to remember those who served and died in the Vietnam War and draw attention to veterans’ issues. As this wonderful book review by Grady Hendrix points out (beware, plot spoilers): You’ll see elements of other “urban blight” dramas, such as Death Wish (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), The Warriors (1979), Al Pacino’s Crusing (1980), and First Blood (1982), which this was obviously made to cash-in on the runaway success of 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part II.

The Park is Mine
The Key Video and CBS FOX VHS-versions/TRAILER.

But make no mistake: The Park Is Mine is not some cheapjack Rambo rip-off of the Cirio H. Santiago variety (we love you, Cirio!). This Tommy Lee Jones-led film is, quite frankly, one of the best TV Movie of the ’70s and ’80s ever produced, ranking alongside Richard Crenna’s The Case of the Hillside Strangler (Sam review, R.D Francis review) and Michael Gross and David Soul’s In the Line of Duty: The F.B.I Murders.

The soft and hard cover versions of the best-selling source novel.

In addition to featuring New Zealand-born and Canadian-bred singer Gale Garnett (best known to U.S AM radio listeners for her self-penned, 1964 Grammy-winning folk hit, “We’ll Sing in the Sunshine“), the film also features mainstay Canadian actors Lawrence Dane (1976’s The Clown Murders, top-billing with Hal Holbrook in 1977’s Rituals, 1981’s Scanners and Happy Birthday to Me, 1983’s Of Unknown Origin, and 1987’s Rolling Vengeance), as the ulterior motive-driven Commissioner Keller, and Peter Dvorksy (Harlin the cable tech in 1983’s Videodrome and Dardis in The Dead Zone), as Dix, the sniveling Deputy Mayor. Co-starring with Jones are Yaphet Kotto (Alien) and fellow Canux-actor Helen Shaver (the redneck-trucker romp High-Ballin’ and The Amityville Horror).

Mitch attends the funeral of his former war buddy who jumped from the roof of the veteran’s hospital. Returning to his motel room (his wife, played by Gale Garnett, recently kicked him out of their apartment), Mitch discovers that prior to his friend’s suicide, he mailed him a letter containing a key. The key gives Mitch access to a makeshift ammunition dump in a warehouse, then to another ammo dump in an abandoned sewer grate: his friend spent the last year planning to take over Central Park to raise awareness of Veterans’ issues; however, realizing his war-related cancer was too far advanced and he’d be unable to carry out the attack, he killed himself and “recruited” Mitch for the job.

Mitch accepts and an all Rambo-hell breaks loose in New York. If Travis Bickle had access to explosives and the intelligence to wire-up Central Park—and Tommy Lee’s character had driven a cab—you’d have a Michael Bay-styled action film. If Mitch had taken over a bank, you’d have Dog Day Afternoon (1975). One could also say that if John Carpenter directed, you’d have a pseudo-sequel to Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).

Shaver is the persistent, pain-in-the-ass reporter (think Patricia Clarkson’s Samantha Walker from the 1988 Dirty Harry sequel, The Dead Pool) who sneaks into the park for the “exclusive,” regardless of Mitch’s “message,” while Yaphet Kotto’s Eubanks is the sympathetic, ex-war vet S.W.A.T commander who wants to bring Mitch in before two mercenaries sanctioned by the more-concerned-about his-career deputy mayor go into the park to kill Mitch.

Courtesy of Stern’s understated hand, what we do get: a real, humanized version of Rambo that, unlike Rambo, sells its introspective story regarding the plight of America’s Vietnam veterans—and other “voiceless,” forgotten Americans. It’s all about Stern intelligently toning down the Rambo’d cartoon violence and emphasizing the political angle of the story. Thus, we get a Stern-directed story that’s as good as any of those previously mentioned, New York-set “urban blight” tales.

Other works in Stern’s superior TV movie oeuvre (on U.S TV and cable; in Canada, they ran as theatrical features) are the James Brolin-starring The Ambush Murders (1982), the pre-stardom Tom Hanks-starring Mazes and Monsters (1982), and the Ned Beatty-starring (Ed and His Dead Mother) Hostage Flight (1982).

The film was released in 1985 on VHS by Key Video. It had originally been released on DVD overseas, but not in the United States, outside of grey market VHS and DVD imprints. However, on December 13, 2016, Kino Lorber released the first official Blu-ray Disc and DVD. They also released Jones’s Black Moon Rising and The Executioner’s Song, and Stern’s Death Wish-inspired hicksploitation trucker romp, Rolling Vengeance.

You can watch the full film on You Tube. As the lead comment on the video’s comment section declares: “I remember watching this on HBO (and we all do!) back in the ’80s. This has got to be Tommy Lee Jones’s best acting role.”

And as a You Tube commenter pointed out regarding the soundtrack: “. . . One of the best ‘80s soundtracks I’ve ever heard. These guys will always be the kings of electronic music.”

Indeed.

The Park Is Mine is the sixteenth soundtrack album released by Tangerine Dream and their forty-second album, overall. As with The Keep, its release came years later after its recording, not seeing release until 1991. All of the tracks were composed by Edgar Froese, Christoph Franke, and Johannes Schmoelling.

Prior to entering the world of film restoration and distribution as part of the Kino International family and their The Criterion Collection series serving film aficionados, Lorber was part of 20th Century Fox Studios. As Fox Lorber Features, the studio shingle released their debut film, A Matter of Degrees, in 1990.

Be sure to catch up with B&S Movies’ love of TV Movies and Canadian-made films with our tributes “Lost TV Week,” “Week of Made for TV Movies,” and “Sons of Made for TV Movies Week,” “Grandson of Made for TV Movie Week,” and “North of the Border Horror.” You can also catch up on the “urban blight” cycle of films with our “Death Wish Week.”

We sadly lost Peter Dvorsky in March 2019.
Steven Hilliard Stern passed away in June of last year.

*Sam and I share a mutual love of Tangerine Dream. Be sure to surf on over to our collaborative reviews of Tangerine Dream’s Top 10 scores with “Exploring: Ten Tangerine Dream Film Soundtracks.” Here’s the link to the full soundtrack of The Park is Mine.

About the Author: You can read the music and film reviews of R.D Francis on Medium and learn more about his work on Facebook. He also writes for B&S Movies.

SLASHER MONTH: Another Son of Sam (1977)

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Made in Charlotte, North Carolina by one and done director/writer/producer/editor/stunt coordinator/casting director Dave A. Adams, this movie isn’t even about David Berkowitz — or whoever was really the Son of Sam — much less a new version of this occult killer. No, instead, it’s about Harvey.

Who is Harvey, you may ask. Well, he’s a killer escaped from a mental hospital in a movie that has moments that seem to be Halloween a year before that even hit theaters. Don’t think that this has any Carpenter directorial highlights or moments of Dean Cundy-esque camera brilliance. The movie tends to pause for several seconds while dialogue just keeps running and the camera seems to be a window into the mind of someone tripping balls while the coolest synths ever play.

Speaking of music, the real star of this show is a lounge singer named Johnny Charro who still plays shows to this day. Oh yeah, there’s also SWAT officers in action, a stuffed dog who seemingly wants to take a shower with his owner and an abortion, because, well, I honestly have no idea why.

Harvey has been killing people because his mom assaulted him as a child. Why did the cops bring her out to try and talk him out of a hostage situation? Seriously, that’s some giallo-level police buffoonery.

You can get this movie on the AGFA blu ray for The Zodiac Killer or watch it on Tubi.

Evil Under the Skin (2019)

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A mother and daughter have decided that a weekend away would be the best way for them to reconnect. So they head off to a house in the woods, unaware that this is a place that attracts only the worst in people.

Basically — never ever take a vacation.

Originally called Fake Flowers, this stars Helene Udy (Amityville Clownhouse, My Bloody Valentine) as the mother and Angela Barajas as the daughter. You’ll see her naked just as often as you see establishing shots of the scenery, which go on so long that they take a life of their own and are no longer establishing shots. Hey — here’s the daughter naked bathed in green light so you forget that!

Then again, the dialogue outright says, “Nobody cares about boobies. This is Oregon.”

There’s also an incestual brother and sister team who have nothing to do with the plot, but such is life in Oregon, one imagines. “Nobody cares about incest. This is Oregon.”

This is the kind of movie that gets things like Lynchian thrown at it in the hopes that you’ll watch it. I’ve already told you that it has basically sixty straight minutes of naked girl in it and if that doesn’t sell you, the fact that it makes no sense and not because of talent won’t get you to watch it either.

Evil Under the Skin is available on demand and on DVD from Midnight Releasing, who were kind enough to send us a copy of this film.

2020 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 5: Postal (2007)

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DAY 5. GOING POSTAL: Something involving the postal service or shipping or getting a delivery. #savetheups

Isn’t it amazing that we have to fight to keep our postal service going? Honestly, every day that I wake up in 2020, indignity after indignity piles up until I can’t believe I’m not watching a horrible movie.

Clever segway into…

Speaking of horrible movies, Uwe Boll’s movies make back about 1% of their budget yet he keeps making them. I have no idea who their audience is. During this movie, I started to think that this is what John Waters’ films would have been like if he’d paid attention in school and never did drugs.

According to the director, the German fan club for the video game Postal contacted him, inspiring him to get in touch with Running with Scissors, the company who made the game. Boll started with the second game as his basis for this, but then decided to make the whole movie about his war with his critics — he regularly boxes them to prove that he’s tougher than them, which does not prove he’s a better director, but in the world of Boll I guess that’s a moral victory — and to show how the victims of terrorism are not heroes, but victims. This stance needs a storyteller that understands nuance, not someone who starts his film with terrorists abandoning their hijacking only for the passengers to accidentally send the plane into the World Trade Center.  This act alone guaranteed that this movie would play on barely any screens.

How soon is too soon? Pretty much any time, really.

You know how I say that people are often wasted in movies? This movie makes me judge the career choices and whether I even enjoyed any of these actors in the first place, retroactively cancelling nearly everything they’ve ever been in like some backwards in time career nuke.

I mean, I understand that Larry Thomas is only doing conventions — well, was — as the Soup Nazi, but does that make him a good Bin Laden? Did they have a photo of J.K. Simmons having sex with a farm animal to get him into this for under a minute? How did Dave Foley end up here? I mean, I often celebrate actors who went to Italy to make films when their star dimmed, but can a celestial body really grow this dark?

If you ever wanted John Cassavetes to come back from the dead to shake the shit out of someone, make it this time and make it Seymour Cassel, who really should know better. Everyone in this should. I should.

Verne Troyer gets assaulted by 1,000 monkeys to start the end of the world. That’s the TV Guide capsule review of this fecund ball of junk.

As for the challenge today, there’s not really any postal references here, other than the hero being called the Postal Dude, in some attempt to make this similar to the video game.

There are no peaks without valleys. Luckily, I have a new valley to place against all other films, a new absolute zero, a new bottom of the barrel several barrels below the previous barrel that I had once scraped.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I told you to. It’s beyond dreck, the kind of film that I would wipe my ass upon if I could find a physical copy of it. And I’m 1000% ready to do a barbed wire taipei glass death match with Boll if he wants it.