Kenta Osaka and Hirohito Takimoto have teamed up to direct this tale of three Americans who escape to Japan to have fun, but end up trapped in the home of a crazy family who wish to sacrifice them to their gods.
You have to give it to the sales team for the tagline: “You’re not in Texas anymore. Welcome to Japan.”
Once when I was staying in Japan, our friend’s mother spent all this time cutting up fruit for us and it was a tremendous gesture, as it wasn’t inexpensive to put this together for us. As she came upstairs to bring this gift to us, she noticed that one of our group still had on shows and even worse, was standing on her son’s bed. She let out a shriek of pure terror and ran crying from the room at the foulness of the gaijin who had infiltrated her humble home.
Therefore, this family going nuts can be explained by how baka baka Americans can be.
Of course, my friend Macky’s mom didn’t want to murder us all in the ancient Japanese tradition of Hitobashira (The Human Pilar), which was when ancient Japanese people cemented living people into walls to keep their homes safe from the disasters the gods would send their way.
If you’re in the mood for a strange comedy with lots of gore, as well as a fight between hammers and swords, well…I can’t stop you from wanting to see this. It’s available on DVD and on demand from CultureSHOCK JAPAN and Leomark Studios, who were kind enough to send us a copy to review.
Danny Trejo has a pretty solid gig these days. Show up for a few minutes in a direct to streaming movie, get the check and keep on being cool. He’s a dependable name above the credits even if he’s only in your movie for a little while.
Joan Campbell (Rachele Brooke Smith) must battle a demon from her past that has already destroyed her family and now has taken possession of the only relative she has left, her sister. She can be a priest in this alternate reality where the Catholic Church embraces women, so this movie has that going for it.
Writer and director Robin Bain has put together a film that hits all of the moments that you want from an exorcism film while also being smart enough to dress Trejo in holy vestments and put him up against the Left Hand Path. He and Joan are all that’s left, because a suicide bomber has taken out every exorcist that the Catholic Church has trained, which is a tremendous blow to them, one imagines.
This isn’t the best exorcism movie you’ll ever see — Lord knows I’ve seen so many that I’ve made a Letterboxd list to catalogue them all — or the worst. There are a bit too many flashbacks, but just enough Catholic songs to let me know that it’s heart is in the right place.
The Last Exorcist is available on demand and on DVD from Uncork’d Entertainment, who were nice enough to send us a review copy.
DAY 13. OPEN SOAR: This should focus on flying or aviation somehow.
I’ve gone on record proclaiming my love for the Airportmovies, specifically their continual devolution from high end picture to scummy cash-in — and therefore, more awesome films — as the series progressed. By Airport ’77, things had become goofy. And by The Concorde … Airport ’79, any semblance of being a quality picture went out the window, the same one that George Kennedy opened and fired a flare gun out of to throw off a heat-seeking missile.
Which means that of all the four films, the 1979 one — blame a cast that includes Sylvia Kristel, Robert Wagner, Jimmie Walker, Susan Blakely, Martha Raye, Charo, John Davidson, David Warner, Sybil Danning and Harry Shearer (where were Edmund Purdom, John Carradine, Donald Pleasance and Cameron Mitchell and what were they doing at the time to not be in this movie?) — is my favorite.
Let’s smashcut to Italy, where Ruggero “Monsieur Cannibal” Deodato — the very same man who made Cannibal Holocaust; Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man and the astounding Dial Help, amongst others — would join with scriptwriters Ernesto Gastaldi (The Possessed, Day of Anger) and Renzo Genta (Jungle Holocaust) to try and get a few extra kilometers (it does 2,179 an hour) out of the Concorde, which trust me, was all the rage in 1979.
If you could make a Venn diagram out of my film loves — and you totally can — this exists at the absolute center point of Italian ripoffs, American actors in foreign films, disaster flicks and opportunities to dream of making a souffle for Mimsy Farmer.
This film starts with a great disclaimer, which is always the way the best of films begin:
“This story is imaginary, and any reference to actual events or to real persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. The supersonic airliner “Concorde” is a stunning reality, however, the result of space-age technology, it links continent to continent, flying in complete safety at over 1,200 miles per hour. The production wishes to thank “British Aerospace,” English builders of the “Concorde,” for their kind cooperation and for producing film footage and materials.”
I am willing to bet that the makers of this film never spoke to anyone who made the Concorde and my proof is that this movie starts with one of them wrecking, which was the greatest fear of this plane and one they’d probably never want in a film.
L.P.A. Flight 820 is the test flight that has crashed off the coast of French Antilles of the Caribbean, with French air hostess Jean Beneyton (Ms. Farmer, who is also in The Perfume of the Lady in Black Body Count) as the only survivor. She’s rescued by two fishermen who are soon killed to keep any witnesses from learning what has happened.
Moses Brody (James Franciscus, the voice of Jonathan Livingston Seagull) is an investigative journalist on the case, brought on by his ex-wife Nicole (Mag Fleming, who is in everything from Cannibal Ferox to Nightmare City and A Policewoman on the Porno Squad) who dies from a “heart attack” before he gets to see her. As soon as he arrives, he’s attacked by a gang of ne’er-do-wells before he’s saved by a man named George.
We soon learn that two men are behind all of this mayhem: the superstar powered duo of Milland (Joseph Cotten) and his business partner Danker (Edmund Purdom), who are using their Old Hollywood energy and big business scumbag savvy to keep all of this a secret.
Our heroes rescue Jean and find the wreckage of the Concorde underwater, but George loses his arm in the wreckage and gets shot several times because this is an Italian movie. I’m shocked that a turtle hasn’t been ripped asunder or a pig hasn’t been landed on by a jet engine at this point.
From here on out, the movie becomes Venantino Venantini (Father Moses from Warriors of the Wasteland) chasing Farmer and Franciscus while another Concorde, flown by Van Johnson (once second to only Frank Sinatra in bobbysoxer’s hearts), is being attacked by a vial of acid that heats up in the microwave and destroys the electrical lines of the plane. If the science of this all seems way off, welcome to the glorious world of Italian xerox cinema and its utter lack of making any sense. May it never change! And speaking of great things about this movie, the Stelvio Cipriani (A Bay of Blood, Death Walks on High Heels, Baron Blood, Piranha II: The Spawning, Tentacles) score is fabulous!
Somehow, this movie has the budget to have a nerve-wracking landing sequence. Our protagonists aren’t even on the plane, which is kind of an anti-climax, but at least Brody is ready to take down big business now that the henchmen are all members of the choir invisible.
Look for Robert Kerman from Cannibal Holocaust as the London air traffic controller. Years later. Deodato would say that if he had known that Kerman was a porn actor, he wouldn’t have hired him. Oh yeah? Well the other air traffic controller, Jake Teague, was in Debbie Does Dallas and Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle, so I think he isn’t being all that honest and is more upset about the fact that Kerman continually had horrible things to say about the hell he put the cast of the aforementioned human gutmuncher through inside the Green Inferno.
Two years after this movie, Franciscus would star in The Last Shark, making him that part of a very rare breed of actors: those that ripped off two major franchises aided and abetted by Italian magic makers. He’s also the kind of guy that can take over for Charlton Heston — who was in Airport 1975 — not once, but twice, seeing as how he did the honors in Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
This movie makes no sense and spends more time underwater than in the sky on a supersonic jet. 900 thumbs up, 300 stars out of 5, 300/10 would see this again.
PS: I couldn’t find this movie anywhere, so I had to watch it on a Russian video site, which meant that a Russian voice had to say every line a few seconds after it was voice as well as read every single block of text on the screen. The guy doing it even roped a female voice — I imagine it was his bored wife, much like how Becca reacts when I force her to watch Italian blockbuster remixes, to be the Soviet-friendly voice of Mimsy Farmer.
The editor of Loose Limbshas killed himself, so Edward Tor Swenson gets the job. However, the more that he works on the film, the closer he gets to insanity, as a mental patient tells him that he needs to “correct the world.” At once a slasher movie and a protest against Swedish censorship, Evil Ed made its way to video store shelves in the U.S. and made quite an impact. Pretty great for a movie that only played four theaters in its home country.
Screenwriter Christer Ohlsson was an editor whose job was cutting the violence from American slasher films for the European market. I would assume that he wasn’t working on them for Italy.
The title is obviously a play on Evil Dead, which is funny, because the villain of the third film, Bill Mosely, is the voice in the killer in the Loose Limbs films. They should have made those movies, because there was a scene where a woman is attacked by a beaver and then shot in the head with a bazooka.
Day 13: Open Soar: This one should focus on flying or aviation somehow.
“Please keep your tray tables — and crucifixes — in the upright position at all times!” — from the smartly-written Shout! Factory press kit.
So, did you hear the one about the priest, a rabbi, and an airline pilot captain who boarded a transatlantic airliner — and banned together to fight off a demonic possession pandemic? Did you hear the one about the movie that meshed ’70s disaster flicks with ’70 demon possession flicks? Did you hear the one about the priest who was dumb enough to fly an excised body back to Vietnam?
“I want these motherf*ckin’ demons off this motherf*uckin’ plane!”
No, sorry, Mr. Jackson. That’s not the punch line. Well, maybe just a little bit, Sam. But make no mistake which ’70s disaster classic this horror parody has taken to task. But where’s Captain Mike Brady of SST Death Flight to save the day?
How can this film not excite you the way it excited me!?
I haven’t even spun the trailer, let alone watched the film, and the cast on this has me drooling. We’ve got Robert Miano (280 credits strong, his work dates to William Shatner’s T.J Hooker, along with roles in Donnie Brasco, Girls Trip, and Open House with Adrienne Barbeau), Lance Henriksen (Aliens, Pumpkinhead, Near Dark), Bill Mosley (The Devil’s Rejects, Dead Air), Bai Ling (Dumplings), Kelli Maroney (!) (Night of the Comet), the always welcomed Kevin J. O’Connor (The Mummy, TV’s Chicago P.D.), the always very funny Matthew Moy (TV’s Scrubs, iCarly, and as Han Lee in 2 Broke Girls), and of course, the divine Ms. Barbeau (The Fog, Swamp Thing). Come on, now! They even got Johnny Roastbeef (Johnny Williams) from Goodfellas on board!
Dare I write a rip-off script called Demonjacked?
Never has there been a movie more self-aware in its scripting, with its actors going into full scene-chew, with over-the-top acting courtesy of the horror movie alumni-elite of Barbeau, Henriksen, and Mosely — all that’s missing from the cast is Bruce Campbell. So, if you go into this disaster-demon flick hybrid expecting Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2 — with an airliner switched out for a woodsy cabin, then you’re in for a great ride in the demon skies. If this was made with a bigger budget and thirty years earlier — with Kurt Russell hamming it up — we have Big Trouble in Little China on a plane. Yes, this movie is that crazy — a hammed-up, FUBAR’d version of the 1973 CBS-TV movie classic The Horror at 37,000 Feet.
And if you’re experiencing Re-Animator déjà vu during the opening title card sequence, that’s because Richard Band (From Beyond) composed the HBO Tales from the Crypt-inspired soundtrack and, to that end: there’s a bit ‘o each of those in the frames. If David Gale, aka Dr. Carl Hill of Re-Animator, aka Dr. Anthony Blakely of Ed Hunt’s whack job The Brain, were still with us, he’d be in Robert Miano’s role as Father Romero. And yeah, if you’re a fan of The Brain, then you’ll have no qualms boarding Flight 666. Just make sure you’re not forgetting your Zucker Brothers brand (Airplane!, Kentucky Fried Movie) luggage and you packed your DVD of thatTwilight Zone episode in the bags.
Co-writers Robert Rhine and Daniel Benton have been around the business for a while, with Rhine getting his start as an actor in Hardbodies 2 (1986); Benton’s been scribin’ since the late ’70s with TV episodes of Sledge Hammer! and Police Woman. Director Chad Ferrin got his start with Troma Studios and has made a dozen direct-to-video features, most notably, the totally nuts Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! (2006); here he’s given us a film that looks great; the production values are high, and the cinematography is well-lit and cleanly shot.
Sure, you can stream this at Amazon Prime, but a free-with-ads stream is available on the European F Share TV platform. You can pick up the extras-packed DVDs and Blus direct from the fine folks at Shout Factory.
Update November 2020: You can now watch Exorcism at 60,000 Feet as a free-with-ads stream on Tubi TV.
Disclaimer: We did not receive a review request or screener from the film’s production company or P.R firm. We discovered this film on our own and truly enjoyed the film.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Moviesand publishes on Medium.
Writer and director Gary Cohen was working in a video store and noticed that no one was renting any of the classic films that he loved. They were all renting slashers.
One day, a mother asked him if I Dismember Mama had any sex in it. He told her that it didn’t, but it had plenty of graphic violence. She told him that if it didn’t have sex, it was find for her kids. This scene is in the movie, except they are discussing the movie Blood Cult.
Steve and Rachel have just moved to a new town, setting up a mom and pop rental shop that seems to exclusively rent out slashers. One of their customers — probably Howard and Eli, whose sports store seems to be a front for mayhem — accidentally returns a video tape of one of their murders, which soon reveals that everyone in this sleepy little SOV town is a killer.
If you look closely on this box, it has J.R. Bob Dobbs of the Church of the Subgenius on it, claiming that he has approved this movie. Your tolerance for SOV horror will determine how much you like this yourself. You can watch it on You Tube and enjoy a documentary on its making, also on You Tube. As result of the content, the trailer is age-restricted, so log into your account to view.
The makers of 1982’s The Ghost Dance — don’t stop, don’t stop the Ghost Dance — deserve credit for their bold decision to create the first Native American slasher. The film tells the compelling story of a medicine man named Aranjo, who becomes possessed by the spirit of Nahalla, a warrior with a deep-seated hatred for the white man.
This being 1982, one of the Native Americans — Tom Eagle — is played by Victor Mohica, a Puerto Rican actor. I was stunned to learn that Chief Jay Strongbow was really an Italian named Joe Scarpa.
Frank Salsedo is in this and was the hereditary chief of the Mishewal Wappo Tribe. He also shows up in Creepshow 2as Ben Whitemoon.
Written and directed by Peter F. Buffa, who has a TV documentary series to his credit, this film is a thought-provoking slasher. It delves into the rich history of Native American tribes, sparking discussions about their past and their representation in cinema.
Slice up lime and fill a glass with them, along with crushed ice and cherries.
Mix other ingredients in a shaker and shake them up.
Pour over ice and serve.
Up next, an even stranger movie, if that’s possible.
Don’t Go Near the Park is everything I love about movies. Basically, it makes no sense and is filled with gore. That’s basically all I want out of life. You can watch this on YouTube.
Let’s be straight: I could type out the entire script of this movie by memory. That’s how important this movie was to a 23 year old me. I even worked in an ad agency inside a mall and often felt like the characters in this, walking the shops and stores of Station Square with no shopping agenda.
I was probably one of the few people back then who loved it, because it bombed and writer and director Kevin Smith apologized for the movie at the Independent Spirit Awards.
Today, as Smith says on the intro to the twenty-fifth anniversary Arrow blu ray, this movie has aged into being seen as a success.
The adventures of T.S. Quint (Jeremy London) and Brodie Bruce (Jason Lee) as they navigate the Eden Prairie Center Mall — actually in Minnesota*, but supposedly New Jersey — as their attempt to get over the loss of their respective girlfriends, Brandi Svenning (Claire Forlani) and Rene Mosier (Shannen Doherty). Along the way, they interact with Jay and Silent Bob, meet Stan Lee and even go to the dirt mall.
That’s an oversimplification of a movie that once — and yes, still — meant so much to me. What comic book geek doesn’t see themselves as Brodie, a man who can somehow win over Doherty despite only caring about Superman being able to shoot semen like a shotgun and playing as Hartford on his Genesis? Even all these years later, I see him as one of the coolest characters in the movies of my youth and have followed Jason Lee through so many characters as a result.
While Jay and Silent Bob Reboot felt like a massive misfire, I’m happy to see that this movie has lost none of its fun and good feelings. Sometimes, as Smith says, things just age well.
The Arrow re-release of this movie comes with so much, starting with a brand new restoration by Arrow Films of both the Theatrical and Extended cuts of the film, as well as a TV cut of the film featuring overdubbing to cover up the sheer amount of profanity. There’s also audio commentary with director Kevin Smith, producer Scott Mosier, archivist Vincent Pereira and actors Jason Lee, Ben Affleck and Jason Mewes, as well a new interview and introduction by Smith, a making-of film deleted scenes and more. You can get it from Arrow and totally should — they sent us a copy but I would have bought it myself.
*Fargo was being filmed in the same town at the same time.
DAY 12. THE FIRST WAVE: One by an indigenous filmmaker or indigenous cast members.
Doreen Manuel is the sixth child of Grand Chief Dr. George Manuel and Marceline Manuel. From perusing her official site, I’ve learned that she’s a graduate of the Aboriginal Film and Television Diploma Program (AFTP) at Capilano University and earned her Master of Fine Arts in Film Production from UBC.
This film is informed by her extensive background working in First Nations education and community development in both rural and urban centers. And beyond that, she comes from a long line of oral historians and factual storytellers.
This is a short film with a big story behind it. The heroine, Mary (Grace Dove, an indigenous actress based in Vancouver, BC and Los Angeles, CA who appeared in The Revenant) and her mother Claire (Andrea Menard) discover the skeletons of children and babies at what is claimed to be a Catholic reservation school but what may as well be a concentration camp.
Despite her mother’s warnings, now Mary must confront the past that Claire has worked so hard to escape. Can the bones being taken away from the school destroy so much pain?
I was shocked just how much story fit into only nine minutes of running time. This deserves to be a much longer — and much more widely seen — story.
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