Well, since we covered the other movie named Scalps this month, I feel like I wouldn’t be doing my job on this site if I skipped a movie by the same title, but directed by the titanic twosome that is Werner Knox and Vincent Dawn.

You know who I mean. Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragrasso. Yes, the men who gifted us with magic like Shocking Dark, Night Killer and Troll 2. They’re the literal bread and butter that makes this site churn, baby.

The Civil War may be over, but try telling that to Colonel Connor (Alberto Farnese), who has taken over a Texan fort and is brazen enough to try and buy Yari (Mapi Galan, Phantom of Death) from her tribe. When they refuse, they kill everyone but her.

She escapes and meets up with one of Connor’s ex-soldiers named Matt (Vassili Karis, The Arena). While he hates Native Americans, he despises Connor even more and nurses her to help. Together, they get the revenge they both need, which mostly consists of Yari scalping everyone she can.

Made with the same crew and much of the same cast as White Apache, the amazing thing is that this movie feels more like a late 60’s Italian Western than a 1987 exploitation movie. This is way better than you’d believe, especially from the men who made Robowar. It also has way more scalping than the other version of Scalps, if you’re looking for a scalping movie.

I thought I knew what a necromancer looked like. I kind of thought it would look like Orson Welles in robes for some reason, but now I know that it looks like an 80’s girl in a unitard and a red headband and I feel much safer with that knowledge. Said necromancer is practicing her magic in a garage, slicing up women with axes and making the bikes of nerds go bye bye.

Her skills will come in handy when our heroine, Julie (Elizabeth Kaitan, who slasher fans will tell you was in Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 and Friday the 13^th Part VII, but some people will blush and whisper, “She was also Candy in Vice Academy 3 through 6.”) is assaulted by a trio of horrible folks in a movie theater while the security guard is sailing a solo voyage down the seas of mayonnaise in the rest room. She refuses to go to the cops, but when she and her friend Freda see an ad that catches their eye: “Sometimes revenge is the only justice. I, and not others of this world can help. Contact the power. Call (213) Revenge.”

Lisa the Necromancer only charges $20 for her services, which will come in handy when our heroine has to go to a party at the home of one of the men who assaulted her, Paul. Why she’d go to this, much less put up with the sexual harassment of her professor Charles DeLonge (Russ Tamblyn!) is beyond me. Let’s blame 1988 direct to video movies and the fact that they were made to get young boys to rent them more than being concerned with changing the language and actions that we use to interface with one another. Actually, this one does more than most to advance the conversation — while still featuring plenty of nude male ass and female breasts.

From a scene with a band playing music, as all great 80’s movies must have, to blood coming out of faucets, castrations and spray painted pentagrams, nearly every frame of this movie seems calculated to please me.

What put this in front of my eyes instead of another film was that it’s basically a demonic I Spit On Your Grave and the fact that it was directed by Dusty Nelson, who made Effects, and written by William T. Naud, who directed Island of Blood/Whodunit. Much like that movie, you can also get this from Vinegar Syndrome.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime and Tubi.

Fifteen years in the making with archive material going back forty years, Rom Boys looks at one of the world’s most unique skateparks, which is one of the only ones in the world to have official historic protection. This films does more than introduce you to the people who used the park, but shows you the rich influence that Rom had on their lives.

With more than 30 interviews with architects, historians, entrepreneurs, street and graffiti artists, professional skaters and BMX riders as well as the old school locals who have been visiting the park since it opened, this is a first-time look at a very influential space.

However, when the park suffers a major tragedy during the middle of filming, this film shifts from how these skaters and riders all come together to try and save the park from closure.

There are some astounding shots of the park as well as rich footage of the past. If you have any interest in BMX, skating, graffiti or the influence of these activities on our culture, this is a must watch.

For more information, you can visit the official site and Facebook page. You can watch it on demand from 1091 Films, who were kind enough to send us a review copy.

Six students are about to fail right before graduation, but their teachers Ms. Blook (Felissa Rose, who also co-wrote this movie) and Mr. Warner offer them a weekend camping trip with no technology as the chance to get the credit they need to escape high school. Of course, that means also going to Camp Twilight, a place that has inspired so many urban legends.

Look — it’s 2020 and kids are still going to have sex in the woods. Then, they’re going to pay.

Originally known as Monster Lake, this Brandon Amelotte-directed movie is filled with plenty of names that will make genre fans happy. Beyond Rose, there’s also Dave Sheridan (Scary Movie, The Devil’s Rejects), Vernon Wells (Bennett from Commando!), Camille Keaton (I Spit On Your Grave, What Have You Done to Solange?) and Linnea Quigley (take your pick of 80’s and 90’s direct to VHS movies) on hand to be in this film along with a cast of young actors who didn’t learn any of the slasher rules.

In case you wonder why I never went to summer camp, it’s because movies like this taught me I was much safer at home. It’s a fun film — Rose is clearly having a blast in her role — and while not the best slasher you’ve seen, it moves quickly and has a decent ending.

Camp Twilight is available on digital platforms on November 1st. We were sent a preview copy and that has no impact on our review.

Joe Spinell’s last film, this movie was never released to theatres or to video and the only known copy belonged to the actor best known for his role in Maniac. This was a bootleg for years until Code Red put out a version in 2010 that was padded with public domain footage to increase its length. Vinegar Syndrome re-released it in 2016 without that footage.

Uncle Roscoe (Spinell) attends community college during the day and kills women at night, saving their body parts in his basement, Spinell is, of course, the best part of this movie, acting completely unhinged and making what should be a typical film into anything but just by the ability of his performance.

His nephew Nicky joins Pam, who is one of his professors and her roommate Mandy to figure out what Roscoe is up to. But soon, the hunters become the hunted and pay the price.

Even Spinell at the end of his life, struggling through making this movie, is better than anything most actors will do on their best day. Seeing him cry and try to talk to a corpse is at once heartbreaking and hilarious.

Director Frank Avianca is actually a pseudonym for the following four people: Screenwriter William James Kennedy, cinematographer Richard E. Brooks (the cinematographer for Dark August, Teenage Mother and Creating Rem Lazar) and producers Steve Bono and Frank Avianca (writer and producer of Blood Song) all of whom had a hand in directing this film.

You can watch this on Tubi.

When will the kids learn? When an old man in a town warns you of great evil, perhaps he knows what he’s talking about. When your college professor does the same thing, perhaps you should listen to him as well. But no, these kids just meander along and unleash the spirit of Black Claw and then all die one after the other.

Well, I guess we wouldn’t have a month of slashers if these kids knew what they were doing.

This Fred Olen Ray written and directed film isn’t bad. It’s a different location for a slasher, the Native American mythos are intriguing and hey — that’s Superman as the professor! No, really, that’s Kirk Alyn, the original movie serial Kal-El, as Professor Machen*, who works alongside Forest J. Ackerman, who plays Professor Trentwood. And oh yes — Dr. Sharon Reynolds is Carroll Borland, whose look as Luna, the daughter of Bela Lugosi’s Mark of the Vampire inspired plenty of undead femme fatales.

I don’t know of too many other movies that have a lion-headed ghost, much less a moment where the image of an old man inside a bowl of soup causes someone to slice their own throat, but there you go. Scalps is there for you, answering the call of a movie you never knew you wanted but now you will always feel like you need.

*Aldo Ray and Robert Quarry were also up for this role. I mean, those are great picks too.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Zipperface is one of the scummiest movies I’ve ever watched that wasn’t made in Italy, so imagine what that entails. Written, produced and directed by Mansour Pourmand, whose IMDB reveals is a person that emerges every 18 years to make a movie, like some crazed maniac that would be battled by Carl Kolchak, this is all about new cop Lisa Ryder (Dona Adams, whose mother Marilyn is also in this, which had to be uncomfortable) tracking down a serial killer on her very first case.

Zipperface is killing actresses who are also BDSM prostitutes at night, which for some reason has upset Mayor Angela Harris. The investigation by Ryder and her partner Harry goes through more red herrings than a 1974 giallo, as they look into a misogynist cop, a crossdressing aide to the mayor, a priest and a photographer.

Making things harder — I should have said difficult but this movie is obsessed with sex and it…rubbed off on me — is the fact that our heroine is dating Michael the photographer, the exact same man who everyone thinks could be the Zipperface. Zipperface! I love yelling that name out for no reason at all.

Much like any number of my favorite giallo, this ends with the killer being someone you would never think was the killer. If only this was made with less Cinemax After Dark feel and more giallo zeal. That said, I foresee this coming out via Vinegar Syndrome any day now.

You can watch this on YouTube.