A year after making this movie, which translates as World of the Vampires, Alfonso Corona Blake would direct Santo vs. Las MujeresVampiro.
Count Sergio Subotai is a vampire who is seeking to wipe out the descendants of his greatest enemy. I’d like to state for the record that he is played by Guillermo Murray. When I was a nino taking el espanol, anyone named Bill was called Guillermo, which means William. So this vampire is really named Mexican Bill Murray.
Another fact that this movie taught me is that instead of a stake through the heart, sunlight, garlic or a cross, music is the best weapon to use against a Mexican vampire. I take that back — stakes are also used.
That said, there are some attractive female vampires and an organ made of human bones and skulls, so this movie isn’t all bad.
Slaughter Night is a portmanteau written and directed by Gilberto de Anda. It features three stories that aren’t really connected, but the astounding ending of the last story more than makes up for that. I’d never seen a Mexican Bigfoot before and now that I have, I feel like my life is closer to finally nearing completion. Don’t feel sad. I feel fulfilled.
In the first story, a young actor wants to get ahead and learns that his elder rival uses black magic. So he kills the man and steals his book of spells, which seems like the worst idea ever. Or perhaps that’s the second story, where some punk rockers try to rob a family of vampires.
The last story, well, that’s why you’ll want to watch this. Mexican action movie star Mario Almada — who looks like someone’s dad and not who we in America would think of as someone who should be in those types of films and we really need to get over our prejudices in so many ways, but particularly against elder Mexican actors not being able to patear el culo.
Anyways, Mario plays a hunter who has been after a Yeti for his entire life, before having to join forces with El Squatcho and fight a bunch of thugs who are about to assault Mario’s annoying comedy relief wife. Much like the creature in Night of the Demon, this Bigfoot’s fight style is to knock people’s heads clean off. It’s everything I wanted this movie to be, but it takes a while to get there.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This movie originally appeared on our site on October 29, 2018. As we’re covering Mexican films all week long, I feel like this is the perfect time to remind everyone how perfect and wonderful and special this little oddball film is.
The sequel to 1980’s Intrepidos Punks, this one ups the ante from the very first five minutes. After Tarzan (luchador El Fantasma, father to NXT star El Hijo del Fantasma) is freed from prison, he instantly gets revenge on the man who put him away, Marco (Juan Valentin) by interrupting the cop’s daughter’s quinceanera. His gang proceeds to rape and kill every single person there, leaving Marco alive so that he can be tormented by his loss.
Let me sum this up the best way I can: Tarzan and his gang look like the best Italian post-apocalyptic movie ever, if a Mexican wrestler led a gang that’s mostly made up of Japanese women wrestlers circa the Crush Girls era that had constant Satanic orgies. Tarzan even yells, “Long live death, cocaine, marijuana and alcohol!” at one point, sending me into ecstatic bliss.
Marco’s partner says that “We are all guilty. We are all accomplices. All of us!” Probably no one listened to the police chief when he claimed that the gang was only the tip of the iceberg at the end of the last film. Now, Marco is getting kicked off the force, slowly eating soup and planning his horrible vengeance on the gang.
This movie quite literally comes from inside my brain. It’s the only place where luchadors can lead Satanist drug gangs against an ex-cop willing to take things so far that he pours acid on people, all whilst a surf punk band jams out and curvy dancers gyrate to their completely offbeat (and off beat) performance. Everybody has aluminum foil on their spikes or metallic hair or is naked or has a bad dye job or looks likes the random dudes you beat up in Final Fight. Throw in a black mass where a goat is beheaded and devoured and you have the feel good movie of 1987!
The only thing I don’t like about this movie is its ending, which Roberto Ewing explains away the entire movie as one bad dream. Fuck that. If you just stop the movie right before that, all will be much better with your world. I also want there to be more movies in this series and am willing to Kickstart anything that attempts to make this happen.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article originally ran in Drive-In Asylum #19, which you can buy on this etsy store. I’m so excited to share this movie with you.
I was hunting for the perfect movie for this issue of Drive-In Asylum. My goal with each thing I write for this twisted tome is to discover something new. A film that perhaps people have missed. And certainly one that no one is talking about.
Cementerio del Terror is the perfect movie to answer all of those needs and more.
Directed by Rubén Galindo Jr., who also helmed the utterly baffling Don’t Panic! and Grave Robbers, this película de terror combines so many influences and films that it feels like the best DJ mix you’ve never heard of Evil Dead, Halloween and a children’s film while still boasting all of the grisly rojo gore that you crave.
Set in Texas, filmed in Spanish and utterly unconcerned with things like good taste or common sense, this movie appeals to every level of what I demand in cinema. Let me set it all up for you, muchacho: Dr. Cardan (Hugo Stiglitz, whose half-century movie career has led to roles in beloved junk like Tintorera…Killer Shark, Guyana: Cult of the Damned and Nightmare City) has left behind the scientific method to become a religious maniac determined to stop Satan himself from resurrecting the dead.
Then there’s Devlon, who has just killed seventeen people and his parents before being stopped by the police. Dr. Cardan knows that this is the exact body that El Diablo needs to begin his nefarious scheme, screaming “He’s not a man like you and me – he’s a demon!” as if he’s the Loomis to Devlon’s Miguel Myers.
If only six hard-partying teenagers armed with a book of spells didn’t steal the body of said serial killer. If only they hadn’t taken it to la casa junto al cementerio. If only they hadn’t accidentally raised the living dead.
This is the leap in logic this movie demands that you make: These sexy ladies were promised a rock ‘n roll concert by these moronic men and they make due with the body of a dead convict and rituals in a graveyard. These women were promised a rock concert and a jet set party and are instead rewarded with a bearded zombie who uses his fingernails to massacre every single one of them.
Everyone dies in the most bloody fashion possible, but only after they drink and dance to some of the worst disco you’ve ever heard, which makes this movie even better.
Just when you say to yourself, “The entire cast of this movie is dead!” a bunch of kids, led by one in a Michael Jackson tour jacket, enter the house and comically discover the disemboweled bodies of every one of the Satanic teens before they face off mano y mano with Devlon himself.
Throats are slashed. Blood is sprayed. Axes find their way into faces. Entire rooms get possessed. Kids goof around and hide behind tombstones as the film wildly shifts tone and becomes the goriest episode of Scooby-Doo ever.
Cementerio del Terror is unbridled joy, made by someone who it feels like got to play with all the toys that he always dreamed of owning. It shamelessly steals from so many films that it makes you throw up your hands and enjoy the ride. I mean, how many movies start off with buckets of crimson viscera and end with little kids saving the day before tossing in a shock ending?
There is no cynicism here, no winks to the camera that horror needs to be elevated and escaped from. That’s why I seek out stuff like this. These kind of flicks are a drug that I try and mainline into my veins at any opportunity. I suggest you do the same.
When you see the names Brian Trenchard-Smith and Nico Mastorakis listed as producers, you know that you’re probably getting into something good. Also known as Demon Island, this film was directed by Richard Jeffries, who is probably better known for the films that he’s written like Scarecrows and Cold Creek Manor. He’s only directed one other film, the 2008 TV movie Living Hell.
It’s funny, when I discussed this movie earlier today with Bill from Groovy Doom, he referred to it as “the monster movie with no monster.” That’s an apt description.
It’s also about a treasure hunter named Frye (James Earl Jones) whose underwater scavenging brings back an ancient sea monster that demands virgin blood.
Meanwhile, Neil and Sherry (Martin Kove and Mary Louise Weller, who appeared in Q The Winged Serpent the same year as this movie) have come to the island looking for his missing sister Madeline (Deborah Shelton, who also sings the song over the end credits with her then-husband Shuki Levy). Plus, Lydia Cornell stops hanging out with Cosmic Cow on Too Close for Comfort and shows up as Jones’ girlfriend.
Inexplicably, Lila Kedrova from Zorba the Greek and Jose Farrar — well, he’s less of a surprise as Jose may have been the first actor to win the National Medal of Arts, but he’s also in spectacular junk like The Sentinel, Bloody Birthday and The Being — both appear.
Arrow’s write-up promised “blood, nudity and beachside aerobics.” This delivered, as well as some great dream sequences and moments where beachfront rituals seem to go on forever. That said, I had a blast with this movie, as any film that has Martin Kove skipping around the waves holding a miniature engine while the ladies go wild and James Earl Jones yells at everyone will hold my attention.
Arrow has, as always, gone all out on this. Beyond the 1080p presentation — making this look so much better than it ever has before — they went out and got new audio commentary from director/co-writer Jefferies and a newly-filmed interview with producer/co-writer Mastorakis. The Graham Humphreys cover art is more than worth the price of this disc, too.
You can order this from Arrow Video, who were kind enough to send us a copy.
I have often commented that I sometimes worry that someday I may hit the bottom of the well, that nothing strange will exist any longer in film to delight me. That said, thanks to movies like this, which I didn’t even know existed until Arrow Video was kind enough to send me a copy, prove to me that there will always be something odder, stranger and more screwed up to watch.
Teruo Ishii made movies like Yakuza Law and Horrors of Malformed Men, but this was the sixth in his series of abnormal love movies. It’s all about the high demand for tattooed geishas and the rivalry that builds between two highly skilled masters of tattoo.
Unable to repay a local lender, Yumi is serving as a kept woman for two years, but soon learns that this is a house of pain, not pleasure. From the moment this movie begins, there’s a shocking amount of violence displayed. But the main reason to stick around is that there is so much incredible tattoo art on display, as the women’s bodies become the space where war is declared bweeen the two artists. And when the madam learns that one of them, Horihide, has noble intentions, she plans on making everyone pay.
There’s a scene in this movie where a geisha has glow in the dark tattoos that come to neon life the drunker she gets on sake. For that alone, this is totally worth a watch.
Ishii made two other movies before this that are in the same genre, Shogun’s Joy of Torture and Orgies of Edo. From most accounts, he went way beyond the bounds making this one, depicting Japan’s Edo period in perhaps the most perverse — and one assumes, crowd pleasing — ways possible.
You can get this from Arrow Video, who have given this grimy movie all the attention that Criterion would bequeath to an Oscar winning classic from the 1940’s.
If you’re a fan of Detroit rock ‘n’ roll of the late ’60s—amid all the crazy fandom for all things Alice Cooper, Grand Funk Railroad, Iggy Pop, Bob Seger, and Ted Nugent—you might have heard of Suzi Quatro with her bands The Pleasure Seekers (You Tube) and Cradle (You Tube).
Then she hooked up with British music impresario Micky Most and RAK Records to become one of the U.K.’s biggest glam stars. And that success grew when she began working with Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, best known for their work behind the scenes in making Sweet (“Fox on the Run,” “Love Is Like Oxygen”) into international glam stars.
Achieving only minor Top 200 chart placings in the U.S with her Top 10 Euro-hits “Can the Can,” “48 Crash,” and “Devil Gate Drive,” Suzi eventually found notice in America courtesy of her recurring appearances as Leather Tuscadero during the 1977 to 1978 season of the ABC-TV U.S sitcom, Happy Days (you can watch a compilation of all her music appearances on the show in the video below).
Unfortunately, the show failed to consolidate her success on U.S radio, but she did score her lone Top 10 hit, “Stumblin’ In,” a 1978 duet with British singer Chris Norman. Eventually, with the Knack-inspired new wave in full swing, she scored her final two, U.S Top 100 hits with “Lipstick” and “Rock Hard” from her 1980 album, Rock Hard.
Then along came an artist that Suzi inspired: one who achieved that number one single and album in America that eluded her: Joan Jett.
However, while the Detroit-born bassist never found mainstream success in her homeland, she kept on rocking, scoring an international hit with “Strict Machine” from her 2011 album, In the Spotlight, co-produced with Andy Scott of Sweet.
What elevates this Australian made documentary heads and shoulders above other pedestrian “talking head” rock documentaries is that director Liam Firmager chose not to travel the “feel good” promo route and create a puff piece on his subject; he eliminated all of the usual docu-candy coating. Suzi Q isn’t a cookie cutter journal that inserts a talking head here, an old photo there, and a rare film clip here; Firmager chose to tell a story—through over 400 rare archival film clips—that gives Suzi Q the feel of a musical biographical drama. However, unlike other rock bioflicks (The Doors, Ray, Walk the Line) this chronicle on the life of Suzi Quatro has no filtering; there’s no compression or compositing of characters and fabrication of pseudo events for “dramatic effect.”
Firmager not only researched his subject, he spoke to his subject; he got inside his subject. So, while Suzi Q is for the fans of an artist who sold 55 million records around the world, it’s also a film for Suzi Quatro. This is a film that shows rock ‘n’ roll fans that, at the end of the day, a rock star is just a musician. And a musician is just a job. And behind that job is a person. And that person has hopes and dreams, success and regrets, joys and pain. Firmager makes us, the fans, realize that those people behind those records on our turntables and posters on the walls sacrifice life’s normalcies that we take for granted. Through this film, Firmager provided Suzi Quatro a catharsis; a spiritual cleansing and life resolution that most of us will never be blessed; a realization that our lives were worth the journey. And that, maybe, we didn’t end up where we wanted to be or expected to be, but we ended up exactly where we need to be. And Suzi needed to rock ‘n’ roll and be the trailblazer and harbinger for the lives of others.
Suzi Q will launch on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD on July 3, while the film had a planned theatrical release at select U.S cinemas on July 1. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic closing theatres, Utopia Distribution will host a “SUZI Q” virtual event on July 1st featuring the film and an exclusive Q&A featuring Suzi Quatro and a Special Guest (available for 24 hours only) in advance of the film’s traditional release on VOD and DVD on July 3rd. The Q&A will be conducted by Cherie Currieof the Runaways and Kathy Valentineof the Go-Go’s. A portion of the proceeds from the event will support MusiCares, the Recording Academy’s™ charity, to raise funds in support of the organization’s COVID relief fund for music artists in need.
Suzi Q had its U.S. premiere at the Sonoma International Film Festival on March 29, where Quatro made an appearance; it made its theatrical debut last fall in the UK and Australia, where Quatro had her biggest chart successes. You can learn more about the film at its official website. There’s more Suzi tunes to be had at her official You Tube page.
Oh, and since B&S About Movies is a movie review site . . . there’s a “video fringe” connection to Suzi: her sister Arlene, also an ex-The Pleasure Seekers/Cradle member, is the mother of actress Sherilyn Fenn (Crime Zone, The Wraith, Outside Ozona). And here’s a tune from her uber-talented, underrated brother, Mike Quatro: a man who needs his own documentary flick. Speaking of which . . .
There’s more tales from Detroit to discover in the life and career of Sugar Man Rodriguez and the life and times of The Grande Ballroom in the frames of Searching for Sugar Man and Louder Than Love.
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 About Movies.
Disclaimer: This was sent to us by the film’s PA firm and has no bearing on our review.
Yes, there was already Jerry Warren’s The Wild World of Batwoman back in 1966, but now Rene Cardona is on the job. Yes, the same man who made Santa Claus and Night of the Bloody Apes, so you know that this movie is going to be chock full of completely baffling plot points, lots of surgery scenes and no short amount of lucha libre.
In our reality, Batman is a rich kid with PTSD that beats up on criminals instead of donating his money to ways that would stop systemic racism and the cultural oppression that leads to crime in the first place. In the world of this movie, Batwoman is a well-to-do woman who is a high level pro wrestler who finds herself battling mad scientists who have learned how to create gill men.
Hola! This week and next, we’re exploring some of the best peliculas de terror from our friends to the south. What better way to celebrate them than by heading out to the drive-in so we can all have our minds expanded together?
Grab your lawn chair, get some PIC for the mosquitos and pack a cooler. We’re about to watch some insane films!
MOVIE 1: La Nave de los Monstruos (Rogelio A. Gonzalez, 1960): Allow me to present the perfect drive-in movie. The title promises monsters — a whole ship of them — but it gets even better with good and evil female aliens, a robot that falls in love with a jukebox, special effects stolen from a Russian film and a singing cowboy, all somehow in the same movie. This movie is one of the most charming films I’ve ever seen and I’m so excited to share it with all of you.
MOVIE 2: Cementerio del Terror (Ruben Galindo Jr., 1985): What if someone made a movie that combines Evil Dead, Halloween and The Goonies, yet didn’t skimp on the gore and had a Satanic serial killer who has returned from the grave to kill the entire cast before coming after a bunch of Michael Jackson loving kids? Good news. This movie has been made and I am here to confirm that it is everything perfect in this world. Axes to the face? Graveyard chases? A bad guy named Devlon? Prepare yourself for this one.
MOVIE 3: Vacaciones de Terror 2 (Pedron Gallindo III, 1991): Tonight is a night that may wear you out from its sheer awesomeness. But you won’t fall asleep. Oh no, how can you during a film that boasts Cabbage Patch Kids who turn into demons, a bloody birthday cake, the most 90’s clothes ever and a musical number that will cause every car in the parking lot to start rocking?
MOVIE 4: Alucarda (Juan Lopez Moctezuma, 1977): There’s a reason why this movie is last. Nothing else can follow it. All of the sheer lunacy you’ve watched already? That was just to get you prepared for this tale of young nuns who discover Satan and all the devil-obsessed and blood spraying black deeds that come in the wake of the Lord of Flies. This movie will own you.
See you next week, drive-in fans! Don’t forget — you can send us your picks too!
Poison for the Fairies was directed by Carlos Enrique Taboada, who wrote the Nostradamus series of vampire movies and also directed Even the Wind Is Afraid, Blacker than the Night and The Book of Stone. This film earned him two Ariel Awards, which are the Mexican equivalent of the Oscar, for Best Picture and Best Director.
If you’re a fan of young girls dabbling in witchcraft — and I think by now the movies that I talk about proves that this genre is beloved here — then get ready.
Veronica is an orphan that lives in a crumbling house with her near-dead grandmother and a nanny who has told her all about the power of witchcraft. Any other child would be afraid. Our heroine uses these stories to protect herself against the bullies of her school.
She finally gains a friend in Flavia, a wealthy girl who was raised to be an atheist. Veronica keeps bragging that she’s an actual witch and the cause of so much of the bad luck that this small Mexican village has been suffering through. Within days, Flavia is so afraid of Veronica that she will do anything she asks, even giving her some of her most prized possessions and obeying her every whim, even taking her on vacation with her family.
As they spend time in the country, Veronica says that she plans on making poison for the fairies, the natural enemies of las brujas. Flavia, pushed to the point of mania, locks the girl in a barn and watches it burn, ridding the world of witchcraft or, at least, one young girl who pushed her to the brink of madness.
I’ve never seen a movie quite like this. I’d say that it fits into the realm of folk horror, ala The Blood on Satan’s Claw, but filtered through Mexico’s unique co-existence of a magical realm and a very real Catholic world. The barn closing also reminds me of another film that is somewhat forgotten, The Other. Malevolent children in both of these films also learn to harness forces — perhaps more real in these examples than Veneno Para las Hadas — that they ultimately cannot truly ever hope to understand.
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