Also known as Janara, this Italian film is all about the mysterious disappearances of the children of San Lupo, in the province of Benevento in Italy. Some of the people believe that it has to be a pedophile, while others blame a legendary witch.
The folklore and stories of the witches of Benevento date back to the 13th century, with the main belief being that this town is where the witches of Italy choose to gather. Even the town’s football club, the Benevento Calcio, have a logo of a witch on a broomstick.
Marta and Allessandro have come to collect Marta’s inheritence, but are not prepared for what they will find in the village, which is populated by plenty of strange folk who have no interest in outsiders. If this movie was shot in the U.S., I would have been bored, but I tend to forgive Italian film everything.
Once, years ago, “Skull Crusher” Johnson took on Mad Dog Joe De Curso for the title. Johnson got caught in the ropes, Mad Dog hit a dropkick and “Skull Crusher’s” head went flying into the crowd. After being acquitted of manslaughter, Mad Dog attached the judge and bailiff, went to jail and then jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge.
But what about the world title? Well, seeing as how he didn’t have a head, Johnson hasn’t defended it in six years, which is the first of many cues that this movie doesn’t understand wrestling all that well. But now, wrestlers from all over will appear in a battle royal to pick the next champ. And one of those wrestlers, The Mask, just might be Mad Dog.
We get to watch The Mask battle in a two on one match — again, this movie has no real idea how wrestling works and it’s about wrestling — against Dick Murdoch and Richard Beyer, who are billed here as the Grunt Brothers. I’m assuming that Beyer is Dick Beyer, otherwise known as Mr. X and most famously, the Sensational Intelligent Destroyer. The Mask wins this match when his valet shows her breasts to the twosome, which seems to be a way beyond early 80’s finish.
The movie episodically presents a mockumentary where we see The Mask battle against other wrestlers like El Toro (Mondo Guerrero, doing dives way before anyone else), American Starship Eagle (Dan Spivey, whose other partner in American Starship was Coyote, or Scott Hall; he went on to be Waylon Mercy and helped develop the Bray Wyatt character), Commie Warhead, Captain Carnage, “The Golden Greek” John Tolos and “Exotic” Adrian Street.
Old school — really old school — fans will recognize Victor River as Skull Crusher, Matilda the Hun from the original GLOW as Queen Kong, Steve Pardee, Count Billy Varga, El Goliath, “Irish” Pat Barrett, Bill Anderson and Pistol Pete Marquez in the movie.
Mad Dog is played by Magic Schwarz, who was Smasher in Over the Top and Poker in Stone Cold. The Mask is Steve Strong, who in addition to wrestling, was also in the Bo Derek movie Tarzan the Ape Man and Looker. Captain Carnage is played by “Man of Steel” Bill Grant, a weightlifter who is in Puming Iron.
Most interestingly, Wally George shows up. Yes, in today’s conservative Fox News-style television world, Wally is forgotten. But at one point, “Mr. Conservative” was the innovator of combat TV, which was just as fake as pro wrestling, but made for some entertaining trash. He’d go on to appear in Repossessed and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, as well as commentary on RollerGames, the sadly abortive 1990’s attempt to bring back roller derby before it went from worked sport to real one, which is exactly the opposite trajectory of pro wrestling. George was married six times and before you say he contributed nothing of value to this world, know that he’s the father of Rebecca De Mornay.
This all came from the mind of Allan Holzman, who made the absolutely deranged Forbidden World for Roger Corman. After knowing that, this all makes so much more sense.
You can watch this on Tubi. If you need to own this for yourself — and you probably will — Scorpion Releasing is putting this out on blu ray in July.
Known as Samson vs. the Vampire Women in the U.S., this is one of four Santo films that were dubbed into English and released north of the border. Blame K. Gordon Murray, a distributor of Mexican films whose movies mainly played children-friendly weekend matinees or late night TV thanks to American-International TV.
A coven of vampire women awaken in their crypt after two centuries of sleep. Their leader, Queen Zorina, just wants to go back to Hell with her husband Lucifer — man, I love this movie — and to get here there, Tundra makes a vow to take the granddaughter of a woman who escaped her evil grip.
The only person that can save her is Santo, as his grandfather once saved the day all those years before. To get there, he’s going to have to fight a werewolf and then all of the vampire women, who decide they need to see Santo’s face, but the fun comes up and they all explode into flames. The silver masked man jumps in his convertible and drives away, satisfied with killing monsters for today.
Thunder in Paradise is a direct to video release from 1993 that also served as a jumping off point for a television series of the same name that starred Hulk Hogan as its protagonist, RJ “Hurricane Spencer”. Throughout its short-lived run it also featured other wrestlers, such as Giant Gonzales, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, Stin, Terry Taylor (Red Rooster) and even manager Jimmy “The Mouth of the South” Hart.
This series and I have an odd history, officially only this movie and 2 other two-part episodes that were made into films have been released in the United States on DVD. The DVD collection was put out by Lionsgate. I did happen to find a complete series release from Carol Media that I bought from Germany but when it arrived I was disheartened to find out that it did not retain its English audio at all, instead the entire series is dubbed into German. I was happy at least to have all the episodes even if they were in German. I have since found an unofficial set that has all the episodes and have been working my way through it.
The film is about RJ Spencer, a former Navy Seal, who along with his partner Brubaker (Chris Lemmon) own a high tech speed boat called Thunder. We’re keyed into Spencer’s military prowess by the movie opening with him and Brubaker invading Cuba to save a defector’s wife and son. RJ frequents Paradise Beach Resort which is owned by Megan Whitaker. Only Megan may not be the owner for long as she must marry within 72 hours or she will lose the entire resort. Fortunately for her RJ is hard up and is facing losing Thunder so she asks him to marry her and she’ll pay off Thunder. The marriage should be believable enough to fool her asshole uncle Edward played her by Patrick Macnee who was John Steed in The Avenger, because her daughter loves Spencer, but Edward is hellbent on ousting the whole thing as fraud. That’s the short of it at least.
There is also a strange brass necklace that RJ found in a shark’s belly that he gifts to Megan’s daughter Jessica, here played by Robin Weisman who doesn’t return for the series itself, that the evil Kilmer (Sam Jones of Flash Gordon) is after. He attempts to steal it from Jessica after RJ and Megan’s wedding by having his beau lure Jessica away from the wedding. The necklace breaks into a bajillion pieces and Sam runs like a bitch and sends in his heavy, played by Giant Gonzales, to manhandle RJ who ran after them when he heard Jessica’s cries.
The necklace it turns out is a treasure map, RJ and Brubaker go after the treasure but Megan insists on tagging along. Kilmer kidnaps Jessica and Kelly LaRew, Megan’s bridesmaid, and makes them draw a map of the islands that the treasure is on. Kilmer catches up to the crew and forces them to hand over the treasure and leave them to die in the cave the treasure was found in. It’s up to RJ who is apparently half whale to find a way out of the cave through an underwater passage that leads to the ocean so he, Megan, and Brubaker can escape and save Jessica and Kelly.
The film and series were both produced by the co-creator of Baywatch as well as Hulk Hogan himself. It’s a cheesy film that serves as a great intro to the series itself. Hell, it was later edited into the first two episodes of the series with a few cuts. Hulk Hogan is featured most prominently in the film, here appearing with an eye patch due to a real-life ski-doo accident, this is explained away in the film as being an injury dealt to him by Kowalski, played by the late Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. They even have a small scuffle during an arm wrestling match in the film. Brutus and Jimmy Hart are also in the film and series. It often feels there isn’t a film that Hulk was in that Brutus wasn’t part of.
Hogan here is it at one of the heights of his career, he had already done Rocky III, No Holds Barred, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Suburban Commando, and Mr. Nanny so he was no stranger to film or acting by this point. I really do feel that Hulk is one of the most important wrestlers turned thespians, his acting (some would say overacting) paved the way for many more wrestlers. I really enjoy his acting, it’s larger than life much like himself. He may be playing to the rafters but it is still a wonder to witness. His turn as RJ Spencer isn’t the most exciting or funny role he has had in his career but no one else could bring what he brings to the character. His interactions with Jessica are sweet and shows he really cares about her even if her mom Megan isn’t too impressed with him. Hogan gets to do some action here as well and I love when he gets to do that. Seeing Hogan shoot out of the hull of a boat on a ski-doo is what film is made for in my opinion.
I have no nostalgia connected to this film so I’m coming at it purely from a guy who loves wrestlers who act stand point but it is one you should seek out if you like Hulk Hogan or Baywatch. You can get it on the Thunder in Paradise collection DVD put out by Lionsgate which is pretty affordable on Amazon. I really do hope that one day we get the series this film spawned on a proper home media release.
Florida filmmakers Sam and Cheryl Siragusa (2017’s Carnival Chronicles, 2018’s E.V.I.E; both sci-fi tales) take on horror in their third feature film with this tale steeped in Scottish folklore . . . about a creepy doll.
A family of the Amityville* variety comes to discover they’re the victims of a centuries-old curse when a rare doll starts wrecking havoc. They’ve obviously never read the handbook: never, ever go into any antique stores or second hand shops and buy old trucks. And that those dolls were wrapped up in black plastic for a reason.
As you can tell by the trailer, below, the production values on this low-budget indie are pretty high. So, if you’re into creepy doll movies — and who isn’t — there’s something for you to stream on a Friday night. To tell more, would plot spoil the fun.
What’s exciting is the Siragusa’s have contracted Caroline Munro and ’80s B-Movie scream queen Linnea Quigley for their fourth feature, the currently-in-production 1315 Wickey Way. Considering Munro was in the ’80s VHS classic Maniac and Quigley was recently in Clownado, you know what that film is shooting for: and we love it. Yes, I am digging on the Siragusas. Good stuff!
You can learn more about An Evil Tale on its Facebook page and watch it courtesy of Wild Eye Releasing across all VOD and PPV platforms, as well as DVD.
* Oh, us and Amityville . . . you have no idea. We review ’em all, with our ever-expanding Exploring: Amityville feature.
Disclaimer: This was sent to us by the film’s PR company. That has no bearing on our review.
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.
Think Kaley Cuoco’s Penny from CBS-TV’s The Big Bang Theory with common sense and intelligence — and an emotionally secure boyfriend — and you’ve met University of Toronto particle physicist Siobhan (Victoria Kucher). And unlike the constant “I have a girlfriend” bragging and the “Why can’t I have a girlfriend” whining of her BBT insecure counterparts, Siobhan is in a comfortable, mature relationship with her photographer-boyfriend Sean (Steven Yaffee).
Unfortunately, as with her fellow Big Bangers, she’s a bit self-righteous and passive-aggressive (think Howard Wolowitz’s “I’m an astronaut,” bragging at every opportunity, only less nebbish) and comes to realize she’s outgrown Sean and his free-spirited artschool friends. When she’s offered a physics fellowship at Switzerland’s CERN lab in Geneva and Sean has as an opportunity to attend grad school in Paris, Siobhan feels trapped. They break up, sort of; Siobhan goes off with her more-in-common-in-mind, geeky co-work, Alvin; Sean goes off with DeeDee from his circle of friends.
There are lots of analogies about “particles colliding” and “alternate universes” and “realities,” not just in the scientific sense, but in the relationship sense; that we’re all just particles bouncing around in space and time, always questioning our personal identities and how others determine our identity. This is a movie about how one finds their “voice” in life. And this isn’t a sappy Sandra Bullock time travel romp about a magical mailbox, either.
Skills abound in this feature film writing debut from Sean Gerrard, a graduate from York University’s film program (he’s produced five shorts and worked on several Canadian TV series); he writes with a level of intelligence you don’t see in the low-budget indies we normally review at B&S About Movies. If you’re a fan of human interest dramas like NBC’s This Is Us or ABC-TV’s A Million Little Things — only with a very light, sci-fi twist, there’s something here for you to watch.
The most interesting aspect of the film: Unlike most indies, which shoot it fast, cheap and quick in less than a month — or shorter, Gerrard chose to shoot Space & Time over the course of 11 months to show the “real time” progression of the break up and evolving of Siobhan and Sean’s journey through “space and time.” This is a well-made, intelligent film worthy of your streaming time.
Space & Time is currently available on all the usual VOD and PPV platforms.
Note: That is the clever design of the theatrical one-sheet: we didn’t edit the artwork with the edges cut off.
Disclaimer: This was sent to us by the film’s PR company.
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.
It’s Valentine’s Day and Bigfoot is looking for a mate. Even the prostitiute they hired to satisfy him isn’t enough, so he’s soon killing his way through the suburbs in this movie that was released on the Wild Eye Raw label.
BIgfoot, we learn, has a very small member. Yes, if you wanted to see Bigfoot tallywhacker, good news. This movie has the goods. Until now, I’d only seen him rip off cocks in movies like Night of the Demon. Of course, death and nudity and all manner of ridiculousness ensures.
This was written and directed by Brian Papandrea, who also is in the movie as Maverick. He’s an actor when he’s not directing, playing Jesus Christ in Gay for Pray: The Erotic Adventures of Jesus Christ.
Your enjoyment of this will depend on the amount of skunk ape love making you enjoy. There is a market for this, after all.
After 1957’s The Aztec Mummy, The Curse of the Aztec Mummy and The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy, it would take seven years for Popoca the Aztec Mummy — or some form of him — to return to menace Mexico. That said, U.S. producer Jerry Warren did release the original in the U.S. as Attack of the Mayan Mummy.
Popoca’s origins are much the same as Imhotep/Ardath Bey. He loved the wrong woman and paid for it, being mummified and now back alive, looking for his lost love. Except instead of Egypt, he was on the western side of the world. He was stopped with a crucifix — Mexico is incredibly Catholic — and being blown up real good with dynamite — Mexico is incredibly bloodthirsty.
An archaeologist leaves a secret codex with a professor just before he is killed by the Black Dragons. What would you do if you had such an important mythological relic? Well, I would do the same thing as this smart guy. I’d give it to Gloria Venus and Golden Rubi, the wrestling women of the movie’s title.
He isn’t ready for the Black Dragons to go another step further and kidnap the daughter of the archaeologist they murdered and have her steal the codex, though.
By the end of the movie, of course an Aztec mummy has been freed — we literally wouldn’t have a movie without this happening — and the gang, the mummy and our wrestling women must all have a battle royal.
There are really two Aztec mummies in this one: Xochitl, a female mummy, and her lover Tezomoc who can transform into a snake and a bat, which are totally new things when it comes to the mummified undead, at least to me. There are also evil female judo wrestlers because, well, that’s what was in the aqua that day.
The tagline for this movie was, “WEIRDOS! We dare you to see it!”
Accept the dare. Watch this on Tubi. It’s also on YouTube:
Lucha libre is to American pro wrestling as a movie like Alucarda is to an American possession film. Sure, they’re in the same category, but they’ve gone off into their own strange world where reality — the things we know and see and believe every single day — no longer exists.
Lucha takes the Catholic morality of Mexico to the extreme, with los technicos (the good guys) battling valiantly against los rudos (the bad guys) in matches that are often about technical skill versus brute force. There’s also the idea of putting your manhood on the line, as often there are chop and strike battles to prove who is more macho. And then there are the outfits and masks and characters, with each person exemplifying a different heroic or villainous ideal. When a feud reaches its conclusion, it often costs a combattant their mask — honestly, their face — or their hair.
There has never been a luchador like El Santo. While he began as a rudo, once he achieved his fame, he became the kind of celebrity that Hulk Hogan could only dream of. Santo isn’t a big time pro wrestler; he’s a cultural icon on the level of someone like Elvis Presley. He starred in fifty-two movies between 1958 and 1982, along with winning thirty-eight matches where he put his famous silver mask up against the hair and masks of opponents like Perro Aguayo, Espanto I and II, Black Shadow, Bobby Bonales, La Momia and so many more.
The first Santo comic was released in 1952 and after years of resisting appearing in the movies — the ring was his first love — Santo made his first two films, el Cerebro del Mal (The Evil Brain) and Hombres Infernales (The Infernal Men), in 1958. By 1961, Santo was just as big of a movie star as a wrestler.
El Santo was known to never remove his mask, even in private. When traveling, he made sure to take a different flight from film crews so they would never see his face as he went through customs. The only time Santo removed his hood in public was a week before he died from a heart attack, an action thought to be him realizing the death was near and he wanted to say goodbye.
Lucha libre owns a place in my heart that pro wrestling never will. It means so much more; it’s a passion play in the midst of the squared circle that still draws a huge crowd every Friday night in Arena Mexico.
Santo and Blue Demon Against the Monsters is a piece of magic. Here, our silver masked hero and his sidekick Blue Demon don’t just battle one monster. They battle every single one of them, one after the other, for nearly ninety mind-destroying minutes.
Leading the mob is El Vampiro, a vampire with the temerity to challenge Santo to a mask versus mask match in the middle of the holiest of all holy places, Arena Mexico, and the rudo nature to allow his army of monsters to invade before he loses
There’s also El Hombre Lobo, a werewolf that basically is just a hairy dude with fangs. La Momia, a skinny old man who looks like he could fold with one chop from Santo. Franquestain, who we can only assume is Frankenstein’s Monster with a van dyke! La Mujer Vampiro, who proves that ladies can be just as deadly as their male monster counterparts! El Ciclope, who takes over for the Creature from the Black Lagoon and looks like a beast straight out of Plaza Sésamo! Santo literally beats this dude with an ugly stick for twenty or more unanswered shots in a row while I yelled with madness and glee! There’s also a mad scientist named Bruno Halde and his dwarf sidekick Waldo, who struggle to keep these monsters in one piece. Oh man – I also forgot that there’s an evil clone of Blue Demon to deal with too!
This is the kind of movie that’s perfect for kids — think 60’s Batman mixed with some James Bond — except that there’s also a scene where a wolfman rips apart a kid’s parents in front of him, then does the same to the kid! In Mexican lucha films, rules don’t exist and life is cheap! And I haven’t even got to the scene where Franquestain stomps out a kid’s head. American History X has nothing on lucha monsters!
The end of this movie has Santo and Blue Demon — armed with torches and their pare fists, while wearing tight turtlenecks — murder nearly every monster thanks to the power of the cross and good old fashioned smashing everything. They also don’t even need hammers to stake vampires — our heroes do it with their bare hands.
As our heroes leave the vampires’ castle — leaving it ablaze after the staked vamps fade into nothing — the credits roll. In our overly CGI digital universe, a movie like this is a cool drink of aqua de fresa for what ails you. The best part is that this is just one of the many times Santo would go to war with the forces of evil. You can also watch him battle zombies, the king of crime, Satanic power, Martians, mafia killers, the Bermuda Triangle, karate experts and more.
Viva los luchadores! Viva la lucha! And most importantly, viva El Santo!
This article originally ran in Drive-In Asylum issue #18, which you can get right here.
The tagline on the box “A grin from fear to fear” sums up this sarcastic horror comedy, which serves as the feature film writing and directing debut by visual effects artist Torey Haas (V/H/S Viral). His resume in that field is pretty extensive, so you know you’re getting decent, cost-effective practical effects in this E.C Comics-styled horror tale that wears its Romero-Creepshow influence on its sleeve—well, slimy arm. Think of the Canadian (American syndicated) kids horror anthology Goosebumps seeping into The Walking Dead, and you’re in the Atlanta “neighborhood” (where this was shot).
The original theatrical one-sheets for the film, back when it was known as Invasion of the Dead, carried the subtitle: “Starring Desmond and Jake: Paranormal Exterminators,” so it seems there’s an intended franchise afoot. They’re Ghostbusters-styled supernatural enthusiasts who day-job at a Kevin Smith-inspired video store-quickie mart combo. And an unemployed college graduate discovers her remote country home suffers from a (comical) zombie infestation.
So who you gonna call . . . when you’re afraid of zombies?
This brings back the VHS ’80s memories of its similar brethren in Hard Rock Zombies and Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare, only with a superior level of quality courtesy of Haas’s effective zombie puppets. And the actors are giving it their all and having fun. And the new Neon Dead title fits: this film has a very festive and colorful production design. I had a lot of fun with his retro-romp!
Wild Eye Releasing has given this a DVD reboot along with a free-with-ads streaming debut on TubiTv.
Disclaimer: This was sent to us by the film’s PR firm. That has no bearing on our review.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Movies.
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