Michelle (Denice Duff) — who we last saw in Bloodstone: Subspecies 2 being grabbed by the mummified mother of Radu Vladislas (Anders Hove) and pulled deep into the catacombs beneath the Full Moon castle.
Now, Radu is brought back to life with Michelle’s blood and the dagger that killed him, with our heroine promising to follow Radu if he teaches her how to be a vampire and takes her on the hunt. Soon enough, Radu realizes that if he’s going to be with her forever, he’s going to have to kill his mother. That certainly fixes some issues on the holidays, I guess.
Radu gets killed in every movie and this time, he’s tossed off the roof of the castle and impaled on a tree and then burns in the sunlight. But if we know anything about our friend Count Vladislas, he’ll be back trying to win over Michelle before too long.
This was shot back to back with the last film, which means that yes, you will be seeing a flashback to fill out the running time. Such is the Full Moon experience.
Before Full Moon was endlessly re-releasing and remixing their own movies, they were taking other films, getting Forrest J. Ackerman and Ken Dixon (who directed and was behind the other Full Moon-related remix movies Zombiethon, Famous T&A and the Best of Sex and Violence) to write a whole bunch of labored puns and having the good sense of hiring Elvira to voice the horrendous writing, which she gives one great try at making better than this deserves to be.
That said, if I saw this as a kid and saw scenes within Astro-Zombies that had Tura Satana cut into moments of Elvira making jokes, my puberty would have started much sooner than it did.
The way these are edited, as well as the horrible quality of the prints that were used, just makes me want to watch the original films and not this on the cheap cash-in.
This week, we’re joined by Ben and Gregg from Neon Brainiacs, a podcast sorting out the good, bad and schlock of 80’s horror movies. We’ll be starting at 8 PM EST on the Groovy Doom Facebook page where we’ll talk about the movies, see the ad campaigns, make two cocktails and more.
Filmed at the same time as Trancers 5: Sudden Deth in the Full Moon castle — how did they avoid it for so long — this Trancers movie finds Jack Deth without his wife Lena and having lost his other wife Alice to Harris. So now, all alone and angry at everything, he agrees to go into the past again.
Due to an attack by a Solonoid, Jack finds himself in a whole new dimension that’s a lot like medieval times where the Nobles — proto-Trancers? — sick the life force out of humans — like vampires. This would seem like the perfect time to crossover Subspecies with Trancers, but come on. We don’t have the budget for that.
To battle the evil Lord Caliban, Jack must travel to the Castle of Unrelenting Terror and perhaps even work with the evil ruler’s son Prospero. And because none of his technology works, he might not make it out alive.
Written by comic book writer Peter David (the Oblivion films), this movie’s budgetary challenges were solved by director David Nutter taking entire pages out of the script. Nutter would go on to much bigger and better things, including directing multiple episodes of Game of Thrones and Disturbing Behavior.
“A parable on the ambiguity of political narratives. Possibly an “un-biopic” of Hillary Rodham set in 1969 Alaska. Possibly a collective dream about a young woman with only the most abstract connection to the politician. Possibly both.”
How can you not be fascinated after reading that?
In 1969, Hillary Clinton was just Hilary Rodham and she spent the summer after graduating from Wellesley by working her way across Alaska, washing dishes in Mount McKinley National Park and sliming salmon in a fish processing cannery in Valdez, which fired her after a few days of work and then shut down overnight when she complained about the unhealthy workplace. Then, she went to Yale Law School and this past adventure was forgotten as she entered the world of history.
Addison Timlin plays Hilary and the film is careful to never say whether or not she is the future First Lady and Secretary of State. Instead, she’s just a young girl just learning to make her way in the world of men, even discovering how her speech works like a short sword against the males that she attempts to connect with.
Zachary Cotler and Magdalena Zyzak, who co-directed with Colter writing the script, also workd together on another challenging film, The Wall of Mexico. Just like that film, this one subverts the story that you expect and pushes you to confront your preconceived notions.
As the moth moves in the stages of its life, from egg to larvae, coccoon to taking flight, the path remains fixed and rigid. No matter what happens between Hilary and her temportary friends Ryohei and Mitsuru, men who live within the wreck of a ship left behind by the last tragedy that struck the town of Valdez, her life seems as if it already has been decided. Is the summer amongst the common peopleher last gasp at trying to change all that? Or her just realizing that she should know who the little people are before she begins to command them?
No matter how you feel about Hilary Clinton, I recommend that you watch this. There hasn’t been a film like it in some time.
You can get this movie on all digital platforms from Dark Star Pictures.
Back in the magical days of the Kennywood Hollywood Video, a place that I dream of today, I’d always see this VHS box and it was kind of intimidating, which is a feat for a movie made in 2000. As a result, I never watched it until now.
Written and directed by Dave Parker, it starts with a scientist named Eibon — hello Lucio — recording a message to tell history that he has brought the dead back to life and now he plans on becoming one of them, which is poetic and all, but if you’re going to die just to come back to life, what are you living for? Doesn’t that sound like the lyrics from a Creed song?
Then a zombie solves this for him by breaking in and chowing down.
The movie shifts to a film crew breaking into the hospital — actually the leftover set from End of Days — where Eibon did his experiments and even using his corpse to make their horror movie, which seems like the kind of thing that would never happen, except you know, all the real skeletons in just about every movie ever.
By the end of this, Eibon has become a lord of the zombies and it turns out that they come from an entirely different dimension that two of the survivors end up in because, you know, that’s what would happen to Ash. Or Liza Merril and Dr. John McCabe.
If you’re not ready for the cavalcade of references — Fulci is name dropped more times than you can count on a severed hand — you may enjoy this. I mean, the bad guy even tells his zombie henchmen to “Make them die slowly.”
That said, this is a pretty decent film if not wholly original, but that’s just fine. I mean, every rollercoaster is based on another rollercoaster. Parker would go on to make The Hills Run Red, The Dead Reborn, It Watches and the “Sweet Tooth” chapter in Tales of Halloween, as well as write, edit and even act in plenty more horror films.
On the Full Moon anthology The Dead Reborn, they repurposed this movie as “Zombie Apocalypse” and it deserves way better than to be chopped down by 66% and made to fit into this sham.
While most streamer opines weren’t kind, we dug Verotika: Glenn Danzig’s feature film debut that played with the Elizabeth Bathory legend. What can we tell ya: we adore auteur projects as much as we do movies with rock stars in them. As with his debut film, through its cognizance of Giallo-styled camera angles, Danzig displayed his knowledge of Fulci and Bava, and that class and style continues with his second feature film.
However, instead of Giallo, Danzig’s tackling the Spaghetti Western genre . . . with a Quentin Tarantino flare by introducing vampires into the frames.
The always welcomed Devon Sawa (Final Destination) is our resident “man with no name,” the “Death Rider,” who travels the deserts on horseback as he searches for Vampire Sanctuary to do battle with Count Holliday (Julian Sands), Vampire Lord of the Sanctuary, along with the likes of Carmillla Joe (Pittsburgh home girl Kim Director), and the afterworld gunslingers Drac Cassidy (Eli Roth), Bad Bathory (Glenn Danzig), Kid Vlad, and Duke VonWayne. Manning the bar is none other than Lee Ving of Fear, along with Danny Trejo, and director James Cullen Bressack (For Jennifer), in support.
Following two successful advanced screenings in Los Angeles and Las Vegas this past weekend, Death Rider in the House of Vampires will open across the U.S. at 200-plus screens in select theaters, Friday, August 27th, with most first showing at 9 and 10 PM. You can get tickets — as well as future streaming information — at deathridermovie.com. Just enter your zip code to find a theater near you.
You can learn more about the film with extended interviews from Glenn Danzig, along with actors Julian Sands and James Cullen Bressack on Glenn Danzig’s official YouTube portal.
Our Post-Premiere Review
Yes! We finally got our screener!
So, yeah, critics were not kind to Verotika and likened Danzig’s efforts to that of Tommy Wiseau . . . but I spoke in the positive of The Room, so, well, you know: What da frack do I know about film?
Those same critics weren’t onboard with Danzig’s sophomore effort, either. Me? Danzig’s grown as an against-the-budget indie filmmaker, but I’d still like to see improvement on his craft. Is it flawed: Yes. Is there a lot of passion and heart on the screen to compensate for the flaws: Yes. Should Danzig not serve as his own writer, director, and producer . . . as well as cinematographer and editor, turning the reins over for one to two disciplines to a more experienced craftsman — and let them have the last say? Probably. Danzig also scored the film — but that is the one craft he must keep to himself; in fact: I love the score and like to see Danzig compose for the films of others.
The “plot,” such as it is, well, there’s not much more to tell you beyond what we received in our promotional press kit to help launch its 200-screen U.S. theatrical debut in August 2021.
There is no mistaken our Tarantino assumptions: you’ll get the From Dusk Til Dawn shakes. Sawa’s “Death Rider” is a mysterious cowboy who arrives in town on horseback with a naked, virgin sacrifice for entrance to Sanctuary: a brothel-cum-saloon flowing with rotgut, vamped-up hookers, and blood.
As we guessed: Fulci and Bava, the latter more so, rules the frames with lots — and maybe too many — zooms from Danzig’s Gialli-love emulated in the frames. Whatever weakness you see in the film from Danzig’s end are compensated by solid performances by Devon Sawa as our Death Rider, and Julian Sands — who I haven’t seen in ages on screen (but recently in a 2000s-shot U.S. TV re-run of NBC-TV’s Law & Order) — is top notch as the warlock-ruler of Sanctuary.
All in all: I am stoked to see what Danzig comes up with for his next project.
You can get Death Rider in the House of Vampiresmerchandise through Cleopatra Records, which also carries the Verotika Blu-ray/DVD/CD combo pack. Death Rider is out there as a single-disc 2K Blu-ray, we think: it was announced in 2021 at Blu-ray.com, but shows that it is “not rated” and has no release date. The film’s official site also offers no update on a streaming or a hard media release date, although it’s recently listed as part of the release schedule of VMI Worldwide.
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.
Is the Full Moon Universe a thing? If we’re to take Dollman vs. Demonic Toys seriousluy, the answer is yes, as beyond getting to recycle footage from Dollman, Demonic Toys and Bad Channels, Brick Bardo (Tim Thomerson) from Dollman, Nurse Ginger (Melissa Behr) who was shrunk in Bad Channels* and Judith Grey (Tracy Scoggins) from Demonic Toys all get together to battle Baby Oopsy Daisy, Jack Attack, Mr. Static and the evil G.I. Joe figure Zombietoid.
Let me just try and explain Baby Oopsy Daisy’s plan to you. As midnight draws close, a demon that has been buried in Toyland Warehouse will have its soul put inside his baby doll form, then he will impregnate Nurse Ginger, eat the shell of their child and become a human.
If you check out the Full Moon anthology The Haunted Dollhouse, you can see a cut down remix of this entitled “Dangerous Toys.” Seeing as how this entire movie is just a bunch of other movies put together, you really have to be amazed by how small the carbon footprint of Full Moon is.
*Never mind that Bunny was the one that really got shrunk.
Necropolis is one of my favorite late 80s direct to video movies probably ever. How else can I do anything but become obsessed by a movie in which an evil witch — who looks like Tianna Collins or Lois Ayres — eats human brains to give the proper nutrition to her demon babies through her six breasts?
There’s no way that this movie can live up to that one, trust me.
Instead, this film seeks to be a reimagining of that tale. Satanic vampire sorceress Eva (Ali Chappell channeling Cinzia Monreale instead of acting as a punk rock devil woman) frightens the villagers of the past so much with her sex magick that they murder her inside her lair. A hundred or so years later, occult writer Lisa (Augie Duke) movies into that home and soon becomes the body with which Eva will return to our world.
Director Chris Alexander was the third editor-in-chief of Fangoria and the co-founder/editor of Delirium. You may have seen his other films, Queen of Blood or Female Werewolf. Working from a script by Brockton McKinney, who has worked on several other Full Moon efforts like Blade the Iron Cross and Weedjies: Halloweed Night, he puts together a decent enough film, but the love in my heart for the original is so strong. That said, the psychedelic visuals are strong in this and they didn’t skimp on the blood, the gore and the breasts with fangs in them, because isn’t that what Necropolis is known for? Even better, Lynn Lowry is always a welcome sight.
I want more of this story*, however, and here’s hoping that the end of this film isn’t the last that we see of Eva or Lisa. I’m usually one for less is more, but at sixty-one minutes, I found myself wanting more.
Necropolis: Legion isn’t going to replace the first movie and that’s fine. It’s still awesome to see someone else’s vision, much less knowing that someone other than me has seen the original movie.
*There’s also a comic book — available from Full Moon — that tells the origin of Eva.
Seed pods from space land in Comet Valley and start incubating people and hatching more of their evil kind in a plot that in no way references or has even seen Invasion of the Body Snatchers and totally has Dan O’Bannon’s back when people accuse him of stealing from Shivers and It! The Terror from Beyond Space.
Peter Manoogian did direct Eliminators, so we should forgive him for this one.
Man, I set myself up by trying to do more than thirty Full Moon movies in a week, didn’t I? I’m struggling at 2 AM to say something nice about this movie. At least they didn’t make this another sequel to The Curse? It’s something to bring home if Critters is out? At least the poster is nice?
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