Announcement: On October 20, 2020, SRC Cinema — the reissues studio that gives you “Awesome underground movies you need to see, now!” — announced their acquiring Snuff Kill from Doug Ulrich for a Blu-ray release, complete in an all-new capture from the original SVHS master that’s also filled with new extras. First rolling out in a limited-edition, the Blu went into a wider release in later-2021. You can read the press release on their site.You can also visit the studio on Facebook.
Don’t forget: American Genre Film Archive released Darkest Soul on Blu-ray in 2020 as part of their Blu-ray release of Scary Tales.
Meanwhile: Vinegar Syndrome issued their own Blu-ray of Scary Tales. There are no Blus — but we are hopeful — for Ulrich’s 7 Sins of the Vampire, but DVDs of that title abound at Amazon and Walmart — yes, at Wallyworld! — for the taking.
So, once again — as with Calamity of Snakes, Delirium, and UFO: Target Earth — we review a bygone and forgotten VHS oddity just for the hell of it — and we come to discover its receiving a hard digital reissue.We really need to keep ourselves in the loop, more.
This is the one time when the grainy, washed-out, 3/4″ tape production values of SOV films works to the advantage of its subject matter, in this case: a grimy, underground snuff film. And this film wastes no time in getting to the “snuff”: a woman tied and blindfolded to a chair has a knife’s tip navigate her body — then she’s repeatly stabbed. And we haven’t even got to the hung-by-the-ankles head explosion, the torso-leg separation by chainsaw, and the not-so-garden variety decapitation. This isn’t a film for the weak: it’s bloody, the nudity is bountiful, and the psychobabble as to the “why” is plot piffle. (And, as I recall, there’s a bit of coprophilia involved; if not in this film, it was one of the Shock-o-Rama banner’s other titles. So, you’ve been warned.)
Yeah, Snuff Kill has already exceeded the sleaze and gore shock content of the Holy Grail of the SOV/Big Box plains, Spine, which was made with the sole purpose of taking John Carpenter’s Halloween to its next grimy, logical step — and failed.
But not Snuff Kill, baby.
The original VHS cover I remember.
It’s dark. It’s mean. This film tricks you — courtesy of its lack of the usual SOV camp — into believing you’re watching “real kills” and not Karo-n-food colored special effects. Are there acting and production faux pas? Are some of the SFXs a bit off-the-mark? Sure. This is a zero-budgeted SOV, after all. But for what is, essentially, a bunch of high school friends getting together on the weekends to make a movie, it’s a commendable effort.
The “uncut” VHS reissue I don’t remember. Kevin Smith’s Clerks, anyone?
The noirish tailspin of Doug, a struggling filmmaker who settles as a struggling wedding videographer, begins when, instead of going to the movies to see a horror flick, his squeeze decides they should go to metal concert. And Doug, loving both horror flicks and metal, does as his lady doth request (you know, just another pussy-whipped, bloody-metal lover like myself and Sam, the B&S Movies boss).
Doug comes to realize that the band he and his wife just watched — its members adorned in monk habits who slit their throats on stage — is fronted by his old high school buddy, Ralis (writer-director Al Dargo). And Ralis enlists his old camera-totin’ friend to make the ultimate gore flick scored with the music of his band. Doug (the not bad Mark Williams in his only film role) is, at first, fascinated by the “realistic” gore that Ralis creates; he soon comes to realize the “kills” are real. Of course, as with any film noir protagonist, Doug is repulsed and fascinated his friend’s exploits and becomes his reluctant, murdering accomplice.
Sigh. Thanks for the memories of the good ‘ol days of hitting the ol’ mom-and-pop video store sandwiched between a quickie market and Punjabi eatery with a gym on the corner bay next door to an insurance agency; a dinky-cheesy outlet stocked with way too many titles under the Shock-O-Rama banner (the owner was stocking the shelves more for himself than his clientele, obviously). The label also distributed Doug Ulrich and Al Dargo’s first two SOV entries: the even harder-to-find (than Snuff Kill) Scary Tales (1993) and Darkest Souls (1994) (as of October 2021, we’ve since reviewed both).The music of the film is provided by (very cool-named) Thee Enigma Jar and Doug and Al’s band Surefire.
Yeah! There’s an age-restricted, sign-in upload on You Tube for Snuff Kill! And bless the analog lords, ye uploader loves their SOV horror! There’s several SOV titles on the Letterboxd Funtime TY page that will interest you, along with Doug Ulrich and Al Dargo’s debut feature, Scary Tales. Yes! This is going to be one awesome October, baby!
Trailers/Clips for Screen Kill: we found two, HERE and HERE.
From the I Did Not Know that Files: Doug and Al returned in 2013 with another SOV blood-boiler, 7 Sins of the Vampire, copies of which you can purchase through Amazon and Best Buy (here’s a clip).
Need more SOVs? During the last two weeks of January 2023, we rolled out another, all “SOV Week” of reviews. Be sure to click through on the SOV tag at the end of this review to populate our ever-growing catalog of SOV films (including a second take on the Screen Kill version). You’ll also discover other SOVs namedropped within our other Ulrich-Dargo reviews via these clickable images, below.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Movies.
DAY 3. STOCKED UP: When you’re in it for the long haul, you’re gonna need supplies. Watch something with a supply run in it.
As we entered the dumbest and most boring apocalypse ever this year, I discovered that every plan, every zombie escape strategy I had, none of it mattered. Instead, I would sit in my living room and watch moronic leaders fight over whether or not we would wear a mask, people willing to die to eat at TGI Friday’s and actual liberty get booed by people who shouldn’t even be allowed to sit in the stands at a football game.
If George Romero was around, he wouldn’t be surprised, other than the fact that our end is so bloodless, so pointless, so vanilla.
I watched Dawn of the Dead so many times that I could recite it at will in high school. Obviously, my goal was not to get laid. It was to study this movie over and over.
While the rest of the world had to wait until now for the end times, Pittsburgh knew it was real long before, when our church of commerce was taken over in the middle of the night by a bunch of maniacs and filmed evidence would confirm every one of our greatest fears. Like Pogo told us we met the enemy and it was us. It still is.
Where Night of the Living Dead took place inside a cramped farmhouse, Dawn would take place in Monroeville Mall, a place that now has a bust of Romero and a photo of Dario Argento that refers to him as a “castmember.” The humor of this caption makes me overjoyed.
Romero knew one of the mall’s developers, who showed him the secret areas behind the mall, and told the director that people could survive a disaster inside the mall. He now had an idea for the movie, but he couldn’t find anyone in America to help make it. That’s how Dario Argento came in and made his way to Pittsburgh.
Shooting from 11 PM to 7 AM, when the holiday music would come on and couldn’t be stopped, the filmmakers — joined by a creative cast and crew, including special FX maniac Tom Savini*, made a movie that influenced the whole world and every horror film that would follow in its wake.
Where the zombie plague was confined to Evans City before, now the end of the world has expanded and much like how no one can agree on how to fix a simple plague these days, no one can agree on how to properly battle the newly dead getting up and killing those that they once loved.
Stephen “Flyboy” Andrews (David Emge, Hellmaster) and Francine Parker (Gaylen Ross, Creepshow) are planning on stealing the traffic helicopter from the TV station they work at and escaping Philadelphia. They’re joined by SWAT officers Roger DiMarco (Scott Reiniger, Knightriders) and Peter Washington (Ken Foree, who is in so many horror movies, but let’s go with Death Spa) and land in Monroeville, hiding inside the mall and clearing it of the undead.
All the consumerism is too much. The living dead want to get into the mall, remembering their past lives, which were simply consuming. Now that money doesn’t matter, nothing that was worthwhile in the mall does either. The foursome decides to leave, but Roger has grown too reckless and is bitten. And one night, a gang of motorcyclists break in and allow the zombies to crash through the barricades. Stephen, angry at his loss of home, flips out and kills several bikers before he is bit.
As he turns and follows his former friends into their hiding place, the urge to give up is too much. Originally, Peter would shoot himself and Francine would walk headfirst into the helicopter blades. But in the small window of happiness here, the pregnant heroine lives as the black cop decides to stay alive and save her. We see them fly away to an uncertain future.
While the American version of this film is 127 minutes and features a mix of library music and the Goblin soundtrack, Dario Argento’s Italian cut, known as Zombi, features more of Goblin and cuts out any of the film’s comic book humor, concentrating on providing more action. It would lead to a revolution in Italian horror, of course.
I’ve debated featuring this movie on our site for some time. It means so much to me, but I didn’t know what else I could say about it that hadn’t been said. Yet today, as I sit here and wonder just how bad the world is going to get by the end of this year, I see that the zombie apocalypse that I spent my life preparing for — influenced by this movie — is almost preferable to the Fourth Reich or Civil War that we seem to be heading toward. I can only hope that a few years from now, I’ll read this and laugh at all the hyperbole. Or maybe I’ll be fortifying the Exchange on Miracle Mile, surrounding my wife and myself with guns, DVDs and all the supplies we need to survive. Because after all, when there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth.
*Nearly every stunt in this movie was done by Savini and Taso N. Stavrakis, including a dive over a rail that led to the effects master nearly breaking his legs when he missed his mark.
The Forest is unlike any other slasher you’ve ever seen. Sure, it has murders in the woods, campers and stalking scenes. But it gets weirder than almost any other slasher would dare, pushing itself to the edge of absurdity while subverting anything you’d expect.
The killer — John — is played by Gary Kent, a stuntman whose work extends from his debut in Battle Flame through the films of Al Adamson and Roger Corman, emerging as the inspiration for Cliff Booth in Once…Upon A Time In Hollywood and the subject of the documentary Danger God. He’s not just a killer in this. He’s not just a cannibal. He’s a killer cannibal haunted by the wife and children that he murdered in a fit of rage.
Two couples — Steve and Sharon plus Charlie and Teddi — have decided to go into the woods for a vacation. The girls meet the ghosts the first evening, as they first meet the kids and then are confronted by their mother. If a ghost can be insane, hers definitely is.
When they were all still alive, the woman slept around on her husband to the point that he killed her, took off for the woods with his kids and watched them commit suicide, which was finally made him lose his mind and became the hermit human flesheater we meet in this film, the kind of maniac who’d feed a man his girlfriend.
The craziest thing about this movie is that Sharon ends up being the real hero — not just a final girl — and the two men are shown to be, at best, victims and at worst, total morons. Only she is capable, strong and able to survive, perhaps because she has connected to the dead children of the killer.
Even stranger, she was played by Tomi Barrett, who was the wife of Kent.
Shot in 13 days, this movie doesn’t get mentioned enough. Don Jones, the writer and director, would also Who Killed Cock Robin?, The Love Butcher, Schoolgirls In Chains and Sweater Girls — all quality films.
Look, not every slasher has Tom Hanks in it. Actually, this would be the only one. So if you’re ready to see America’s favorite actor in a movie that is directly inspired by Halloween, then this would be your one and only chance to get it done.
This was Armand Mastroianni’s first movie, way before he’d start making TV movies. It’s all about young brides getting killed before they even make it to the altar, so at least it isn’t a holiday-centric slasher. That means that the film is free to explore all of the parts of the wedding, from the home of the bride to a dressmaker’s shop and, of course, the wedding chapel itself.
Our heroine is Amy Jensen (Caitlin O’Heaney, Savage Weekend), a bride-to-be who is in the crosshairs of whomever the killer ends up being. This movie takes the typical loose woman must die formula of the slasher to a ridiculous degree, as the main character is unsure of her fiancee while her best friend is having an affair and they all pay, along with nearly everyone else they come in contact with putting together this wedding.
Sure, the killer is Ray Carlton, a man left at the altar, but this movie decides to do the “it’s not over” ending as well, so when I say “whomever the killer ends up being,” I’m playing it coy.
While Mastroianni originally wanted to make a movie based on the urban legend “The Hook,” he sold the movie as containing a self-referential film-within-a-film. That would form the start of the movie, where a couple watching a horror movie are soon killed by the movie’s villain. If you’re saying. “Isn’t that exactly how Scream 2 begins?” Good news. You’re learning just how original those movies — which proclaimed to be the most original slashers in years — really were.
Hanks’ character was supposed to die, but everyone liked him so much, they kept him alive. See, even in his film debut, he was already everyone’s favorite.
DAY 2. SLUMBER PARTY: Watch one with a sleepover in it.
If you’re going to watch a slumber party, why not one that promises to be the final one?
I mean, just listen to this sell copy: “The plot is twisted inside out, leaving you stunned and clinging to your chair as you witness shock after horrifying shock. The ending will leave you breathless. And now, the blood flows like wine.”
Six popular teens and a science nerd plan on spending three months of partying when a parent goes away, but said parent is also a doctor who was planning on lobotomizing a mental patient who has stolen a scalpal and headed to get some pre-emptive payback. Steve Tyler wrote, directed and stars in this and it’s the only movie where not one, but two maniacs in scrubs wipe out teenagers.
It’s also among the worst movies I’ve ever seen, which seems like an astounding effort after the double digit Jess Franco movies that I’ve put myself through.
Also the killer’s name is Mr. Randles, which does not randle off the tongue quite like Jason Vorhees or Michael Myers.
This is a movie that has three endings while also being shot on video and film at the very same time. No, it’s not going for a mixed media effect. It’s just inept, which makes me kind of love it in the way you fall for the biggest charity case in the dog pound. But man, it does have a nice poster.
You may be astounded by the sheer volume of anti-homosexual slurs in this movie. And guess what — the ones saying it are supposed to be the heroes! And then there’s the dream sequence which has nothing to do with anything else before or after that seems like it could be one of the many endings to this movie.
You can watch the Rifftrax version of this on Tubi. Bring all the alcohol and drugs you have to survive this last slumber event or perhaps just watch Slumber Party Massacre II. The movie comes and goes from You Tube, but here’s non-age restricted sign-ins HERE and HERE.
“Necessity or chance approach not me; and what I will is fate.” — poet-philosopher John Milton
A “classic” is in ye eye of the beholder; it’s a subjective adjective that’s slash n’ swung much around these ‘ere wilds of Allegheny County with these old, emulsion-scratched outdoor ditties we hail under the big white screen’s twilight’s last gleaming. And, as with most of those “classics” reviewed at B&S About Movies—such as Eyes of Fire, Brotherhood of Satan, and Messiah of Evil—those films, even after B&S About Movies’ Chief Cook and Bottle Washer, Samuel, spins the reels and fingers the keys to ’em, they’re so f-in’ friggin’ good that they need to be reviewed a second time (Sam’s The Redeemer review) to implore upon ye, the B&S surfer-reader, of the majesty of the work.
Make no mistake, ye B&S’er: This lone directing effort by Constantine S. Gochis and lone writing effort by William Vernick is a ‘70s horror classic that (for this lowly reviewer) ranks right alongside Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls, John Hancock’s* Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, and Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. And while Harvey’s lone opus discovered its posthumous popularity among horror aficionados in the digital wilds of the public domain, and Coscarelli scored one of the biggest drive-in and theatre horror hits of 1979, Gochis-Vernick’s equally phantasmagoric feast of the senses found itself lost somewhere between the space gate and the red planet of the dwarfs.
I’ve watched this film several times over the years: it was one of those go-to films you rented every October from the local mom-and-pop VHS repository—under its mid-‘80s shelf life as Class Reunion Massacre. Oh, how I remember those pulpy, black and white ads and newsprint reviews in my cherished movie mags of yore that featured that skull and cowl-faced grim reaper pressed against the diamond pattern of a wrought-iron gate. I can’t recall an October that I didn’t watch The Redeemer, Phantasm, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead (sorry, forget part deux; the original does it for me), and Rocktober Blood in a same-day marathon or within the same Hollows’ Eve week; they just warm the ol’ VCR’s electronics so well!
Sadly, while the analogously weird Phantasm was blessed with a well-financed advertising campaign that came complete with radio and TV ads (that I remember hearing and seeing on my local rock stations and UHF stations), The Redeemer, aka The Redeemer, Son of Satan, didn’t become known to a mass audience as result of its poor drive-in and (select) theatre distribution—and I envy those who had the opportunity to encounter The Redeemer in 1978 on the big screen. (These ‘ol bastard who claim that they did, you’d fill a 50 K football stadium; so I doubt they did. It’s like all of those people who “saw” U2 at the Hope and Anchor in Islington, England, in December 1979—when only nine people were in attendance (about the same number of people at The Crucifixion). It’s like all of these fire n’ brimstone preachers hawkin’ splinters of Christ’s Cross as your donation “gift”—there’d be enough wood spinters to manufacture a thousand crosses. So, how that’s tap “holy water” vial workin’ for ye? Have thou been “redeemed,” dear child?)
Anyway . . . when we look back at all of the mindless, post-John Carpenter Giallos**-twice-removed body parts n’ plasma slop making bank in the slasher ‘80s, how in the Sam Hill did this intelligently-written WTF*˟-is-going-on slice of brilliance die on the overgrown crypt vines?
Double-billed with John “Bud” Cardos’s Kingdom of the Spiders.
Ah, but ye must not be duped by Continental Video’s seven-years later 1985 VHS release under the title Class Reunion Massacre—for this Virginia-shot slasher we-don’t-know-what-the-f-it-is, is not a post-In the Year of Our Carpenter, A.D. production: The Redeemer began production in 1975, filmed for six weeks in the summer of 1976, completed reshoots in January 1977, and completed its three-month post-production between April 1977 and July 1977.
And here’s the film noir-cum-giallo plot twist: Halloween completed its twenty-day shoot over a four-week period in May 1978—The Redeemer was in the can, first. And the yellowed-cover turns again: expectations were low for John Carpenter’s˟* follow up to Assault on Precinct13; aimed primarily at secondary markets (duplex theatres) and drive-ins, it quietly opened in Kansas City October 25, 1978. Meanwhile, halfway across the country in Los Angeles, The Redeemer opened—on October 25, 1978. During its drive-in run, ironically, The Redeemer played on the bottom half of double bills with Damien: Omen II (1978). (Phantasm premiered June 1, 1979.)
“Thy is the common fate of all; Into each life some rain must fall.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Sadly, everyone remembers the madcap hijinks of ol’ Crospy in The Burning(1981) and Madman Marz in Madman (1982), (sorry, both are craptastica slices of crapola, even though they’re based on the Cropsey urban legend; Sam delves into the NYC legend in his reviews)—and no one remembers the lake-unleashed exploits of “The Redeemer” (a very good T.G. Finkbinder in his only acting role). It wasn’t until Johnny C. reinvented the admittedly dying horror genre with Halloween (ol’ Carps was the “Nirvana” of horror world, if you will)—and some confounded contraption called the VCR appeared on retail shelves—did the (retitled) The Redeemer finally find an audience courtesy of the hungry-for-product home video market.
So, what gives with that lame title VHS title?
Ah, the “Big Box” slip cover I remember.
Well, retro-peruse those brick-and-mortar VHS shelves, ye dear reader—look at all of those films with the word “Class,” “Reunion,” and “Massacre” in the title—and all of the horror films centered around a bunch of dopey high school kids-cum-asshole adults meeting their comeuppance years later. New title x new shelf life √ new audience = we can finally make bank on our cursed movie.
This is one of those films where—and we’ve discussed this several times in the reviews of truly oddball movies (such as Harry Hope’s Smokey and the Judge and Harry Hurwitz’s Nocturna, Granddaughter of Dracula)—it seems, the producers didn’t have a locked script and made it up as they went along. Or they had a couple of unfinished scripts and/or movies and spliced them together into a feature. (God Bless, Dr. Shagetz from 1974 becomes 1977’s Evil Town, aka also a 1985/1987 VHS; the unfinished films Scream Your Head Off and The Dark Side to Love (1984), and Cataclysm (1980), becomes the 1985 John Phillip Law-starring Night Train to Terror, comes to immediate mind.) Or they just went “female” and changed their minds for no godly-earthly, logical reason. (Wow, now that’s really sexist; Sam, pencil that transgression alongside my file’s other faux pas. I’ll see you at the bi-annual review.)
Seriously . . . how else can we explain the majesty of this Felliniesque, surrealistic horror?
First, we have a fully-clothed kid, his fist-raised in some sort of afterworld Heil Hitler-salute rising from the primordial stew of a rocky cliff-locked lake. And he hops a ride on church bus. Okay, so . . . we’re getting a crazy kid of The Omen variety, you know, like theatrical one-sheet tease. But wait . . . the kid’s fellow church choir mates are picking on him. Okay, so we’re getting a Prom Night knock off with a little kid extracting adult hood revenge. But wait . . . what’s the deal-e-o with this fire and brimstone preacher with two thumbs on one hand? Okay, so we have a troubled priest of the Jason Miller from The Exorcist variety, and the priest sidelines as child molester . . . and he goes “Jason Vorhees” after services have concluded . . . is he a clerical collared Freddy Kruger? And who’s the building inspector that kills the abandoned high school’s caretaker and makes a mask of his face to masquerade as the caretaker? And how did he decorate that basketball auditorium—complete with catering—all by his lonesome? Not to mention the gothic, “death trap” stage production complete with a graveyard and a giant clown marionette that’s hosted by a stovepipe-hatted magician spouting gothic poetry? Who is the poetry-quoting, camping duck hunter who just blew away one of the ne’er-do-well adults who escaped into the woods? Why the clowns? Why the masks? Why a different costume change of the The Abominable Dr. Phibes-inspired variety for each of the deadly sins-themed death trap-kills that reminds of David Fincher’s later SE7EN (1995)? Why this school? Why are these six, unrelated people sucked into this FUBAR’d version of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, aka The Little Indians (see Stallone’s D-Tox)? And there’s seven deadly sins, so is the Priest suffering one of the sins? Is the kid Satan himself, who contracted the Priest to kill these people to atone for his own sin—and his occult-driven double-thumb deformed hand is his retribution, and it “vanished” because he was “atoned” for his sins?
What in the Lords of Kobol frack is going on here?
Who’s the kid and what’s his relation to the priest? Who’s “The Redeemer,” the kid or the priest? Is priest the adult version of kid and we’re in a twisted afterlife where the past and present exist as one? Was the priest part of the same graduating class as The Redeemer’s victims? Is this his revenge? Why did his double-thumb suddenly vanish and appear on the kid’s hand! We need to know!
Now, do you see why the Phantasm analogy; for this more Coscarelli than Carpenter. Like J.H Hood from Ghoul Inc Productions—who once swore to himself that he’d never, ever watch The Redeemer again (for Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum is the true “Redeemer”)—pointed out during the September 5 Drive-In Asylum Double Feature Watch Party (Beyond the Door and The Redeemer): You go into this thinking . . . okay, this is another pseudo-slasher, light parody like Slaughter High (1986) . . . and you end up with a flame thrower totin’ clown roasting a guy’s meat and two veggies, and, as Sammy Panico pointed out: a sink drowning (that couldn’t have been Jeannetta Arnette; it had to be a body double-stunt actress) that goes on way, way, way too long. In the end, you can’t get a handle on where it’s all is going—and there’s not even a space gate or Tallman morphing into the Lady in Lavender or flying Chinese cuisinart harmony balls to leave you scratching your head.
My Kobol Lords, this movie is Galactica-tastic!
So graphic a scene, you’ll flinch.
You can watch it with-ads on Tubi Tv or ad-free on You Tube. If you want it in the library: Copies of the 1985 VHS original released by Continental Video and the VHS re-issues via Victory Media in 1995 are can be found in the online marketplace. There are two versions of the DVD out there: Code Red’s October 2010 release (also as a Blu) as The Redeemer and Desert Island Films put it back into the marketplace under the old VHS Class Reunion Massacre title in 2012.
The Where Are They Now Post-Script: The Redeemer is one of those movie where, not only the writer and director dropped off the face of the earth, all of the actors disappeared from the business, sans one: Washington D.C.-born Jeannetta Arnette, who made her acting debut in producers Sheldon Tromberg and Stephen M. Trattner’s feature film debut, 1977’s Washington, D.C.-shot Teenage Graffiti (VHS image via Paul Zamarelli’s VHS Collector site; theatrical one-sheet image via IMDb; trailer via You Tube). Marketed as a soft core porn movie to get those speakers hangin’ off the car windows, it’s really just another one of those light-weight, drive-in T&A’ers about a Midwestern teenager dealing with the problems of growing up and deciding what he wants to do with his life (you know, like American Graffiti, only pseudo-pornier). Stephen Trattner actually gives some insight to the film via the You Tube’d trailer’s comment threads—and, good luck finding a copy: he doesn’t even have one. Screenwriter William Vernick, who got his start as a film editor for TV, transitioned into the unheralded world of script doctoring, for both horror and mainstream films, which he does to this day.
Makin’ it! Whow, whow, whow! (Do I have to explain the David Naughton in-joke?)
As for Jeannetta Arnette, she became a go-to guest star in the network TV series Three’s Company, Laverne and Shirley, St. Elsewhere, and The Fall Guy, which culminated with her 114 episode co-starring role as Bernadette Meara in the 1986 to 1991 run of Head of the Class. You want to see real acting: seek out her role as Sarah Jean Dawes in “Ride the Lightning,” a 2006 episode of CBS-TV Criminal Minds (outstanding, Jennetta!). You also know her theatrical co-starring roles alongside Rodney Dangerfield in Ladybugs (1992), the Oscar-winning Boys Don’t Cry (1999), Snow Angels with Sam Rockwell (2007), and James Franco’s˟˟ PineappleExpress (2008). Her latest work, Walking Up Dead, is currently in production.
** We had a huge Giallo blowout in June 2019, which we recapped and explored with our “Exploring: Giallo” featurette. So, get to hyperlink-a-clickin’, ye have lots of reviews to read!
*˟ There’s more WTF flicks to be had with our “Ten WTF Movies” featurette.
Based on the 2010 comic of the same name by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, this film stars Jesse Williams as a comic book creator whose work is being used to create real-life murders, which is concerning, as the comic itself is based on the unsolved killings of a maniac named the Slasherman.
After nearly a decade in production, this film has finally emerged. Written, produced and directed by Jay Baruchel, who usually shows up in much more comedic fare, this is a dark journey into being a creator and what happens when your audience takes things too far.
Jordana Brewster (TheFast and the Furious films) is in this as Kathy, Todd’s girlfriend and Niamh Wilson (SawIII and Saw V) as Aurora, Todd’s assistant, who are all brought into a world of horror that spills from the comic pages and into their waking lives.
I like the juxtaposition between Kathy writing about the victims at the same time that Todd is glorifying their deaths through his work, which he just can’t figure out an ending to.
This hasn’t received many good reviews, but it’s not all that bad. You may be put off by the comic scenes or some of the pretentious voice-overs, but it does deliver on the gore and at least makes you think about the people that get killed way more than most slashers ever would.
This week, our drive-in goes on the road — err, the rails — to deliver four different horrific tales that take place on a train. All aboard!
1. Terror Train (Roger Spottiswoode, 1980): Jamie Lee Curtis’ third entry into the early days of the slasher, Terror Train may not have a unique plot, but it does have an original mask-changing killer, a great location and literal magic. By that, we mean the stage magic of David Copperfield.
2. Horror Express (Eugeno Martin, 1972): Also known as Pánico en el Transiberiano (Panic on the Trans-Siberian Express), this film unites three great actors — Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Telly Savalas — and puts them aboard a train that is being stalked by an alien being.
3. Dr. Terror’s House of Horror(Freddie Francis, 1965): The first of the Amicus series of anthology films, this film allows us to stay on board with the Lee and Cushing team. In this one, Cushing plays the tarot-card reading Doctor Schreck, whose fortunes to the other passengers include killer vines, voodoo trumpet music, disembodied hands, werewolves and vampires.
4. Last Stop on the Night Train (Aldo Lado, 1975): I love that this ad promises that there will be no happy ending for this steam-powered version of Last House on the Left. Also known as Night Train Murders, The New House on The Left, Second House on The Left, Don’t Ride on Late Night Trains, Late Night Trains, Last House Part II and XmasMassacre, this movie ended up on the list of video nasties long after it was made.
Are you loving the idea of terror on a, well, train? Good news. We’ve got more track for next week. We’ll pick you up at the same time and same station.
If any film earned being a video nasty, it would be this one, a movie that has a man who was abused as a child growing up to be a serial killer obsessed with burning people alive. There is no one to root for or cheer for, only mayhem, malice and murder.
In short, the kind of movie that Gene Siskel would have a conniption over.
When Donald (Dan Grimaldi, a math professor who also played Philly and Patsy Parisi on The Sopranos) was a kid, his mother would use a stove to burn the evil out of him. Now fully grown, he seeks out women that remind him of her and kills them with a flamethrower in relentlessly graphic detail.
While the killer tries to confess his sins, he can’t stop. Even a simple double date ends with him smashing a candle over a woman’s head. And get this, it even has an ending very similar to Maniac, another movie that offers no easy answers or way out.
First off, the fact that one of the posters for this film rips off Night School‘s art makes me love it before I’ve even seen one second of footage.
Second, when I did watch it, it so shamelessly takes from other slashers that you’d very nearly be convinced that it was made in Italy.
Originally released as The Scaremaker, this was shot over the weekend at New Jersey’s Upsala College. That means that most of the scenes were shot in two takes or less.
After Dickie Cavanaugh kills his girlfriend in a jealous rage, gets committed and then hangs himself, all hell breaks loose. The men trying to bury him are killed and the school’s all-night scavenger hunt could not come at a worse time. Yes, I had no idea that when your college basketball team wins the big game that everyone has to engage in just such a contest.
There’s a killer on the loose wearing the school’s bear costume, using serrated knives as if they were bear claws. There are lots of POV shots as if you’re being attacked by the bear and I always enjoy being the participant in a bear battle.
For a movie made on a shoestring, they got some big names. Hal Holbrook is on hand! Julia Montgomery from Revenge of the Nerds and Stewardess School (yes, she’s a star in my world)! Lauren-Marie Taylor (Vickie from the second Friday the 13th)! Page Mosely (who is something of a scream queen, with appearances in Open House, Edge of the Axe and this movie)! And most importantly Rutanya Alda, who makes this film all hers in the last few minutes, despite the fact that this movie rips off Mrs. Vorhees’ motivation, as all lower level slashers must. I love Rutanya, who claims that she still hasn’t been paid her $5,000 fee for this movie.She should get way more than that, as the close is literally made so much better because of her commitment to more than one role.
If you’ve seen the trailers or poster for this, you may wonder, “Where are the girls in the artwork? Who is this girl in the trailer?” You are right to question these things, as the sales material was made reverse-Corman, in that it was created years after the film was complete.
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