EDITOR’S NOTE: As the site celebrates Arnold’s 75th birthday, I’ll be featuring multiple articles about his movies every single day. To start, well, we start at the bottom with his first film, not even using the Schwarzenegger name. Originally posted on December 5, 2020, this is Hercules In New York. 

Whatever happened to the star of this movie, Arnold “Mr. Universe” Strong? Oh yeah. He grew up to be the greatest action star of all time, that’s what. But this movie is the very definition of starting small, as Arnold Schwarzenegger — 22 years old and laying brick with his lifting buddy Franco Columb — was told by his friend Reg Park (who took over for Steve Reeves in Hercules and the Captive Women) that he should shoot for his dream of being a movie star.

This wouldn’t do it.

It’s also the first film for director Arthur Allan Seidelman, who mainly did stage and TV work like the Nancy McKeon TV movie of the week Strange Voices.

If you ever wanted to see Hercules get sick of Mount Olympus and go to Earth, where he becomes a pro wrestler as well as best friends with a pretzel salesman named Pretzie (Arnold Stang, who between this movie, Ghost Dad, Dondi and Skidoo* has pretty much been in the very worst of the worst in film), well, then this movie fills out all of your boxes with a sharp number two pencil.

James Karen (Poltergeist, Return of the Living Dead) and Richard Herd (the Supreme Commander from V) show up, as does four-time Mr. Universe, one-time owner of the biggest escort service in California and later evangelist Dennis Tinerino.

Also, just to be a total anal retentive nerd, I want to mention that while Zeus, Nemesis, Eros, Pluto and Atlas are Greek gods, Hercules, Venus, Juno, Mercury and Neptune are the Roman versions, while Samson — who is kind of, sort of Hercules’ brother in this — comes from The Bible.

So yeah. Hercules comes to New York and gets mixed up with the mob and a pretzel salesman before coming back to Mount Olympus and sending a message on the radio.

*For some reason, I kind of love Skidoo.

You can watch this on Tubi.

With segments on everyone from Chyna, Effy, Lisa Marie Varon and Nyla Rose to Chris Colt, Chris Kanyon, Pat Patterson, Valerie Wyndham, Dani Jordyn, Cassandro, Charlie Morgan, Sandy Parker, Sonny Kiss, Pollo Del Mar, Sue Green, Wade Keller and so many more, Out In the Ring explores the lives of LGBTQ professional wrestlers past and present, as well as the history of LGBTQ representation in professional wrestling.

By using the traditional modern talking head doc style of archival footage and interviews, this does a great job not only showing where pro wrestling was but where it’s going. I was really excited to see luchador and wrestling historian Vandal Drummond show up in this, as well as to see info on wrestlers of the past like “Exotic” Adrian Street and Austin Idol, as well as how the hypermasculine ideal of pro wrestling — hello, Road Warriors being Tom of Finland dreamboats — containing more than just CIS sexuality.

This is the first feature from director Ryan Bruce Levey, who has a huge subject to tackle in a short time. Wrestling in all ways has come so far — just look at the Raw segments with Lawler saying all sorts of anti-gay rhetoric and guys still lead these chants on shows I’ve been on — but still has so far to come, much like the rest of the world.

As someone who has wrestled independently since 1995, it’s been interesting to be a part of the way wrestling shifts and changes. Even in my own way, I’ve had to change, as while we used to do a podcast that made fun of homoerotic moments in wrestling’s past, I wonder now if people knew that we were doing that to make fun of the way that so much of wrestling pretends that it could never be queer? Regardless, I’m happy that people are finding a home within an entertainment genre that I love so much.

The only thing that makes me sad about this is that it places Sonny Kiss and Nyla Rose’s AEW success as a major step forward and now…neither gets hardly any TV time. Let’s change that too.

You can learn more on the official Facebook page.

Six years after her daughter was abducted, Carrie Dawson’s (Veronica Jean Trickett) life has hit rock bottom. But what if her daughter is still alive? That’s the story of director and writer Warren Dudley’s film.

Carrie was once the single mother of Lolly, living in a gorgeous house in Brighton paid for by her ex-husband Dan. She’s started dating again and her mother Mary (Sarah Priddy) is taking care of Lolly, but when her dementia gets worse and she forgets to pick her up from school, Lolly is never found.

Six years later, Carrie lives in a small apartment and can barely make ends meet as she struggles to care for her mother. Her only hope comes with a Facebook page for missing kids that she runs. And to make ends meet, she finds herself doing sex work. But one day, she finds the clues that may point to Lolly still being alive all these years later.

This is an emotionally fraught movie with true darkness — and hope still — inside it.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Also known as Watch Out Gringo! Sabata Will Return, this Italian Western was actually made in Spain by Pedro L. Ramírez (School of Death, The Fish with the Eyes of Gold) and Alfonso Balcázar from a script by Giovanni Simonelli (The Ark of the Sun God, Jungle Raiders) and José Ramón Larraz, who had already made Whirlpool and Deviation.

There’s no Sabata in this movie, but you’d be forgiven if you think there is a Trinity, as this movie feels a lot like that Italian Western. Rayo (Jorge Martin, e così divennero i 3 supermen del West, Electra One) and Texas (Vittorio Richelmy) must work together to find the hidden gold of Carrancho (Fernando Sancho), a thief who is being hunted by Luke (Daniel Martin, A Fistful of Dollars).

I have no idea how you can make a movie and have Rosalba Neri and barely feature her, but somehow these filmmakers did exactly that. I was waiting for her to show up and do something  but no, she’s basically silent and barely in this.

A very basic Eurowestern, neither all that good not all that bad. Instead, it does nothing to bring anything unique or say anything of merit.

Look, we all have to work.

By 1992, I figure the need for Satanic psychosexual madness was not high in Spain, so José Ramón Larraz directed this film from a script not his own — stars and brothers César and Jorge Cadaval (collectively known as Los Morancos or The Blueberries) wrote it along with Ramón de Diego — and it’s outside his wheelhouse seeing as how it’s a cop comedy.

In Seville during Expo 92, a Panamanian and an Iranian villain set up a drug and arms trafficking business behind the front of an import and export company. Luckily, officers Juan Romero and Benito Arena (Jorge and César) have just completed their antidrug classes in Miami and have come back to Spain to battle the war on drugs. 

Jack Taylor is in this and man, how many different films, countries and genres did he show up in? He’s in Mexican movies like Neutrón, el enmascarado negro and the Nostradamus films, the big budget Cleopatra, plenty of Jess Franco films, battles Paul Naschy in Doctor Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo, battles the Blind Dead in The Ghost Galleon, takes part in some giallo like The Killer Is One of 13 and Red Rings of Fear, plays a priest in Conan the Barbarian, is in Larraz’s Edge of the Axe and Rest In Pieces, is a journalist in the Tawny Kitaen movie Crystal Heart and ended up being in around 128 movies. What an awesome career.

The Seville in the title refers to the Seville Expo ’92 which ran from April 20 to October 12, 1992 on La Isla de La Cartuja in Seville, Spain. “The Age of Discovery” celebrated the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus reaching the Americas after launching from Seville’s port and more than 41 million guests attended.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This originally appeared on the site on February 24, 2020.

Arrow Video put out José Ramón Larraz’s Edge of the Axe earlier this year and I loved every minute of it. While Deadly Manor isn’t quite as good, it’s still plenty strange. Just when you’re lulled into near-sleep by the numbers slasher plot, something absolutely and wonderfully bizarre happens, like the flashback to the bikers causing the accident or shocking nude photos of living, dead and perhaps not so dead people that show up throughout the film. Seriously, if nudity bothers you, this is not the movie for you.

On their way to a lake that no one can pronounce, some kids pick up a drifter with a dark past — don’t they all have those — and head to an abandoned mansion that has a car shrine up front, coffins in the basement and a closet full of scalps. And oh yeah — the same gorgeous yet evil woman has a photo up every few inches.

Everybody is soon about to be snuffed, but you knew that just from the first few seconds of the movie.

Greg Rhodes is in this movie and Ghosthouse, which would make a great movie to pair this up with if you’re looking for a fun evening. Jerry Kernion, who is Peter, has had a pretty nice career after this debut. And Jennifer Delora, who is pretty fun as the killer, was the second woman in Miss America history to be dethroned after her nude scenes in Bad Girls Dormitory became fodder for those easily upset. She’s also in all manner of genre favorites like Robot Holocaust, Suburban Commando, Bedroom Eyes II and Frankenhooker.

Seriously — hang out for the first hour or so of this movie. You’ll be rewarded with something really special when it comes to the final girl and the last twenty minutes or so.

As always, Arrow has gone all out for a movie that not many people were all that concerned about. So what! This features a new 2K scan, interviews with actress Jennifer Delora, Brian Smedley-Aston and Larraz (archival, not new, as he died in 2013) and a trailer for the Savage Lust VHS release. There’s also a commentary track with Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan.

You can buy Deadly Manor from Arrow Video, who were kind enough to send us a review copy. You can also watch this film on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This was originally on the site on January 21, 2020 and is back for the week of Larraz movies.

Al Filo del Hacha, or Edge of the Axe, is a very late in the slasher game film directed by José Ramón Larraz, who also directed Estigma, a movie that I’ve been obsessed with for some time. Other films from him include Symptoms, Vampyres and The House That Vanished, which was also released under the titles Scream… and Die!, Please! Don’t Go in the Bedroom, Psycho Sex Fiend and Psycho Sex. The posters for that movie are great, as they shamelessly steal from The Last House on the Left’s ad campaign.

The crazy thing about this film is that it’s set in the rural Northern California mountain community of Paddock County, yet it’s a mixture of scenes shot in Big Bear Lake, California and Madrid, Spain. Most of the exteriors are in the U.S., while the interiors are a world away. For example, the car wash killing that starts the movie is split, with the signage and cars in America and the actual killing in Spain. It’s a seamless transition, which makes it even more interesting.

Before the credits even roll, nurse Mirna Dobson dies at, well, the edge of the axe at the aforementioned car wash. Just from this first incredibly shot scene, you realize that this is anything more than your basic stalk and slash.

Our hero is Gerald Martin (Barton Falkes, Future-Kill), whose cabin is filled with computers and video games, in direct contrast to the natural world all around him. This puts him at odds with his landlord, a hermit named Brock.

Gerald hangs out with Richard Simmons — no, not the guy who danced with the oldies, but instead a wanna-be lady killer — who works as an exterminator when he’s not acting as a kept husband to his much older wife. He’s played by Page Moseley, who was in Girls Nite Out, Open House and The Jigsaw Murders. And his much older wife? None other than Patty Shepard, who was Hannah Queen of the Vampires and appears in Assignment: Terror, The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman, and Slugs).

Gerald and Richard check out the smell coming out of a bar, which ends up being the corpse of one of the barmaids, who it appears has killed herself. As this is a small town, the police ask them to keep it quiet, kind of like how they ignored someone slaughtering pigs and leaving their heads in the bed, as if these California farmers were Jack Woltz.

Paddock County is a lot like my hometown. All that’s there are bars. Lillian Nebbs is the daughter of the owner of another of those many bars and she’s home from school. She loves technology and video games as much as Gerald, which makes this movie into some sort of science fiction story. Of course, she does wonder why he has a list of all of the dead women on his computer. He replies that he loves making lists of data, you know, as you do.

This is one of my favorite tropes of all movies — a computer that does more than computers in 1988 were actually able to do. This is a pre-Siri world, but the personal computers in this movie are able to speak in a very understandable voice. Trust me — I had a computer in 1988. It was a six-year-old Commodore 64 that took an entire evening to download less than a megabyte of info.

The killings haven’t stopped, as Rita Miller (Alicia Moro, Exterminators of the Year 3000, Slugs) is stalked and killed by someone she seems to recognize before her body is placed on the train tracks and torn asunder. Poor Rita — she has the best slash job I’ve heard of: beautician/prostitute.

This finally puts Officer Frank on the case. He’s just in time, because the farmer’s wife who found the pig’s head is killed and Richard finds the severed head of a nurse while out on the lake cheating with his wife. And oh yeah — yet another woman finds her dog murdered before the killer chops her fingers off and then chops her to bits.

Lillian tells Gerald her family secret — her cousin Charlie has just been released from a mental hospital. And he was there because she pushed him off a swing set and caused the injury. She feels that he’s the one behind the killings. She uses his computer to do research, attempting to learn more about the psychiatrists who treated Charlie.

Later that night, Richard’s wife learns that she’s bankrupt and gets wasted with local drunk Christopher (Jack Taylor, who was in everything from Pieces and Eugenie… The Story of Her Journey into Perversion to The Ghost Galleon, The Ninth Gate and The Vampires Night Orgy). On their way home, she drunk drives into a tree, only to be further inconvenienced by getting killed by the masked axeman.

At the scene, the cops find a pin from Lillian’s father’s tavern — the same one she pinned on Gerland at one point — which leads them to question her and her father.

So who is the killer, in this movie that feels just as much American/Spanish backwoods giallo as slasher?

Lillian accuses Gerald of being Charlie, which seems like a stretch. He responds by telling her that she is Charlie, as he’s learned that she had a head injury at one point and spent plenty of time in the hospital. It also turns out that all of the victims were either people who cared for her or women interested in her father. So Lillian attacks Gerald with an axe.

As the two fight, the cops arrive and shoot our hero. As Officer Frank tries to help Lillian, we notice that she’s smiling like a maniac.

Larraz considered Edge of the Axe his worst feature film, but it has more quality in it than ten slashers. Seriously, I’ve been holding off watching this for a while, as I had always loved its poster art and felt it could never live up to it. Good news. If anything, it exceeds it.

Unlike most slashers, which are content to ape from Halloween and Friday the 13th, this film spends more time making us care about every character, even the side ones like Richard’s wife. This isn’t kids in the woods screwing around, making us count the seconds until they’re decimated. These are real people caught up in the web of a killing machine.

The killings themselves are bursts of the unreal that intrude upon the problems that all of these characters face — money woes, marital infidelity, family secrets — and that makes each of the very creative death scenes even more effective.

There’s a new Arrow Video blu ray release of this movie, which features a beautiful 2K restoration from the original camera negative. You can choose to watch this in English or Spanish (which also has newly translated English subtitles). There’s also commentary by lead actor Faulks and The Hysteria Continues podcast. Plus, there are interviews with Faulks and make-up artist Colin Arthur.

You can buy this from Arrow Video. It’s also on Tubi.

Directors and writers Robert Livings and Randy Nundlall Jr. have gone back to the found footage well for a movie about a show also called Infrared which has a paranormal investigator and his production crew searching for ghosts at the Lincoln School, an abandoned and possibly haunted place scheduled to be razed.

Wes (Jesse Janzen) is the exorcist. His sister Izzy (Leah Finity) is a medium. Randy (Randy Nundlall Jr.) is the producer. Austin (Austin Blank) and Rob (Robert Livings) are here on sound and camera. They’re ready to make a paranormal TV show but searching for the kind of content that will break through what’s on basic cable.

As they roll past the school, Wes becomes obsessed and convinces the caretaker (Greg Sestero from The Room) to let them inside. Years ago, a gas leak killed several students and a teacher and the place really is haunted, all while Wes and Izzy fight as they had a falling out years ago and never expected to work together again.

Honestly, I could never see another found footage movie again and be happy. This at least has a solid performance by Sestero and a pretty frightening last ten minutes, but getting there is filled with so much talking and enough shaky cam to make me nauseated. Even I have my limits.

Infrared is available on digital now and will be on the Terror Films horror movie youtubeon July 29. If you click here, you can sign up to watch. It will also be on Kings of Horror on August. For more information, visit their website.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This was originally on the site on October 30, 2020.

Along with Edge of the Axe and Deadly Manor, Spanish horror director José Ramón Larraz made this movie explicitly for the burgeoning American video rental market. It has all the cheap thrills you want, but it feels like a Michelin star chef just made you a mac and cheese pizza.

Helen Hewitt (Lorin Jean Vail, The Patriot) and her husband Bob (Scott Thompson Baker, Open House) have just moved into the country villa of her recently deceased Aunt Catherine. Everyone there is pretty much beyond rude and more in your face hostile to them both, which is only the start of the weirdness they endure. I mean, I would have given up when the corpse of Catherine sat straight up when Helen kissed her.

Actually, even before they get there, Helen learns that her father was Catherine’s ex-husband and that he died soon after she was born. Her aunt has held a grudge out against the family, but still gives her everything she owns before she commits suicide during the video will by drinking poisoned milk. Yes, you read that correctly.

This is another movie I have to add to my poison milk Letterboxd list, which also includes La muñeca perversa, The Cat O’Nine Tails, The Two Mrs. Carrolls, The Killing Kind, Impulse, The Woods, Confessions, Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker, Edge of Darkness and Revenge of the Living Dead Girls.

Jack Taylor — who was in more horror movies than even I have watched, but I’ll list out the Nostradamus films, The Ghost Galleon and Female Vampire to start — plays a blind musician who plays a concert while everyone in the town conspires against the two newcomers. Eurohorror queen Patty Shepherd also shows up as a character named, get this, Gertrude Stein.

It’s not great, but the idea of a great movie is in here. But you know me. This is exactly the kind of goofball horror that I love.

You can get this from Vinegar Syndrome.

This movie is also called Los ritos sexuales del diablo (The Sexual Rites of the Devil) and in no way is it lying. This is José Ramón Larraz having 84 minutes to gio absolutely berserk, fusing his softcore films of the last few years with his occult and mental disorder efforts of the early to mid 70s. Supposedly he was embarrassed by this movie, but even with that in mind, there are so many wild things in this that you can’t help but stare at it.

This has other titles like Hot Fantasies and Naked Dreams and the film also does all it can to make those titles true. There’s literally non-stop sex in display here, lots of weird early 80s licking kissing and even a young girl laying with a goat in the most diabolical of all Biblical ways (and simulated, so don’t get too worried but still, the fact that I have to call out that the bestiality is fake should tell you exactly what kind of Satan majesties show up in here; that scene was also shot in a historical religious building to add even more sleaze to this).

I’m happy to see Larraz return to the foggy homes in London that are filled within and without with ethereal dread. I wish just as much attention was paid to the supernatural as the sex. But the story — Carol (Vanessa Hidalgo) and her husband Robert (Jeffrey Healy) should have never come to that ancient family manor filled with devils on the walls and Fiona (Helga Liné, Horror Rises From the Tomb) ready to sexually corrupt anyone and everyone. I mean, how could Robert resist? Does he want to get a sword up the backside like that other cultist who screwed this up?

It’s got a great title — actually it has more than one — and an incredible poster and it’s about sex, Satan, sin and sacrifices. I really loved reading other reviews that say, “It gets a little slow,” as if to gloss over that this is a movie filled with drug use, incest, an evil priest and — one more time — that horny goat. Have our lives become so staid that we can’t be shocked by things?

This is the kind of movie that churches salivate over burning.

You can get this from Severin.