If anyone else made this movie, one would say it looked cheap. But man, this is a slick looking Jess Franco movie and I say that with love. He even had star power that he hadn’t had since the early 70s, if you consider Robert Forster — and Robert Foster, I mean Antonio Mayans — as well as George Kennedy, Ramon Estevez, Silvia Tortosa, Craig Hill and Brett Halsey stars. I definitely do.

A Eurocine film written by Franco, Daniel Lesoeur and H.L. Rostaine, this takes place in the country of Puerto Santo, which has Estevez and Halsey as rebels who get guns from Kennedy and President Ramos leading the country with the help of the military power of Madero, who is played by Forster. Meanwhile, the American government wants to be involved, so they place some of their CIA agents into this firecracker of geopolitics.

I wondered, “Is this a Jess Franco movie?” And then, in the middle of a somewhat fancy kitchen, appeared Lina Romay and I literally yelled her name out audibly. I’m weird, what can I say?

This movie helped me answer a question I have had for some time. Who would win between George Kennedy and a helicopter?

You can watch this on Tubi.

Spain’s first major horror film production, The House that Screamed—AKA La Residencia and The Boarding School—was based on a story by Juan Tébar. Because the cast included both English and Spanish actors, the film was shot in both languages and then dubbed into English in post-production.

Directed and written by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (Who Can Kill a Child?), it takes place at a school for girls—reforming them and making them acceptable wives for their future husbands—in 19th-century France run by Headmistress Señora Fourneau (Lilli Palmer). Teresa Garan (Cristina Galbó, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) is a newcomer to the school and instantly notices just how strange of a place it is. For example, she always feels like she’s being watched.

Fourneau rules the school by the whip—quite literally, she has no problem beating her students into submission—and has Irene Tupan (Mary Maude), an older student, as her near WIP second-in-command.

Yet things are not alright. Students keep going missing, Teresa is bullied when the girls discover that her mother is a prostitute, and Luis (John Moulder-Brown), Fourneau’s son, is in love with Teresa despite the rules of her mother, who believes that none of these girls are good enough for him. He was once interested in Isabelle (Maribel Martín, The Blood Spattered Bride) until his mother roughly helped his face and intoned, “These girls are not good enough for you. What you need is a woman like me!”

That’s when the film literally goes Psycho, wipes out a main character, and the narrative transforms an antagonist into the protagonist. The horror, however, is nowhere near over for anyone. That idea of Luis finding a woman just like his mother haunts the headmistress.

This gorgeous movie predates Argento’s Bird With the Crystal Plumage by a few months and Suspiria by eight years. It’s as much a slasher as a gothic horror movie and works as both, and it has elements of Giallo and Women in Prison films. Yet, above all, it remains classy and has lush colors, incredible cinematography and luscious interiors, making this quite the furniture movie. Even better, you can see the film that was taken from it. Pieces might be a tribute movie, even if it’s not a movie discussed all that often in the U.S.

I hope that the new Arrow Video release can change that.

It comes with a brand new 2K restoration from the original negative by Arrow Films along with an audio commentary by critic Anna Bogutskaya. Extras include interviews with John Moulder-Brown, Mary Maude, Juan Tébar, the director’s son Alejandro Serrador and Spanish horror maestro Dr. Antonio Lázaro-Reboll. There’s also alternative footage from the original Spanish theatrical version, trailers, TV, radio spots and an image gallery. It comes inside a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch and has an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Shelagh Rowan-Legg and double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch. You can order The House That Screamed from MVD.

I’ve never seen The Gods — it’s on Tubi — but this sequel has Mikey James (director and writer Mykel Shannon Jenkins) returning after the loss of the love of his life Sofia and their unborn child. Her brother and his rival Anthony Fasano (Kevin Interdonato) wants Mikey to pay for her death, which means that Mikey and his brothers  Bobby (Casey Ford Alexander) and Keith (Nicoye Banks) have to pay their old debts while staying out of the sights of Fasano and his murderous crew.

The budget might be low for this, but it’s a more character-driven revenge movie. The first film seemed to be a very Romeo and Juliet story while this is the aftermath with characters caught between regret and revenge. The five years between the two movies has not reduced the rage between the Fasano and James families. Add in Mikey trying to help an old friend named Olympus (Ernest Thomas), who is targeted by a hitman named Florian (Daniel O’Reilly) and you have a recipe for bloody vengeance. And then there’s Lil Homie (Mykel’s son Bryce) whose love life may be the past repeating itself all over again.

The Gods 2 looks great and hey — you can’t beat the price, because it’s playing for free on Tubi.

William (Wayne David, the writer, director and star of this movie) lives alone in the British countryside, thought to be missing — along with his girlfriend Chantelle (Sian Altman) — but probably the truth is closer to hiding. In fact, she might be there. Or she might be a hallucination. She could be a memory. See, William has some problems. Big ones.

Now, there’s a shed where William heads out to feed and talk to whatever is inside, feeling apologetic and worried that he’s blamed for whatever got whatever is in that shed there. And there’s also the enigmatic Visitor (Grant Masters), who claims to know what’s happening but he might be one of the other parts of our protagonist’s dreams. Or delusions. Or he may really know what’s going on.

At 89 minutes long, this feels a bit longer than that. That said, it’s shot really well and with a little bit of tightening, it could really be something special. As it is, it’s a unique film that’s still worth your time.

Wolf Garden is now available on digital platforms from Gravitas Ventures. You can learn more on the official Facebook page.

Will (Scott Hamm Duenas) is drinking himself into the grave when he isn’t attending court-ordered grief counseling run by Bella (Alison Haislip). But then he meets a stranger named Von (Tobin Bell) who gives him some records that, when played, contain messages from his dead daughter Shelly. In fact, they just might give him a clue that can bring her back from the dead. All he needs is one last recording but now the stranger has disappeared.

Directed by Kenny Yates (who was a child actor on the TV show Zoom) and written by Dumas and Kipp Tribble, who plays Bryan, this is as much a supernatural film as one where a father left behind by death seeks redemption from the daughter he has lost. It’s not an expected film and it really tries something unique and interesting. The idea of records of meditations unlocking the beyond is a really solid one.

There’s also the push and pull of the group, as Bryan (Tribble), pushes Will to embrace their teachings and work toward recovery. Yet Lydia (Nija Okoro) feels that the preachiness of their steps is wrong and that Von’s meditations are the answer. You’ll have to watch to see who is right, who is wrong and if even right and wrong matter when it comes to grief.

ReBroken is available on streaming platforms on March 7 from Gravitas Ventures.

Pygar (Robert Woods) recounts the story of his journey to Antigua — and The Lustful Amazons of the title — to Karzan (Wal Davis; if you’re watching the French version, he’s Maciste). He also tells the young adventurer that there’s a fortune in gold for the taking, but it’s all a ruse, as Pygar and the Amazon Queen (Alice Arno) are working together in the hopes that Karzan can be put out to stud. Once they get back to Antigua, Maciste is taken by the women and Pygar and Yuka (Lina Romay) go into business for themselves and take the gold.

Also known as Amazon Temple, Maciste contre la reine des Amazones, Yuka, Mädchen, die sich lieben lassen and Karzan contro le donne dal seno nudo, this is not Les Gloutonnes, a very similar film that uses much of the same footage and also places Howard Vernon into the narrative as Cagliostro.

Pygar is forced to have sex with Kali Hansa — oh the humanity! — while Alice Arno spanks him — the horror! — while Maciste sleeps with thirty plus Amazons, some of which do not survive his lovemaking abilities. Also: a werewolf shows up. Also also: the actress playing Marcia, Chantal Broque, is Alice Arno’s younger sister.

You can wonder why Franco was making a Tarzan ripoff — or peplum movie depending on the version you see — at this late date, but really, it was all about the naked Amazons.

Erwin C. Dietrich is listed as the director and writer of this, but it’s also Jess Franco pitching in to direct. There’s a story behind that.

According to Kyle Faulkner on Letterboxd, at the end of 1975, Franco got the job of making a more pornographic ripoff of Mandingo, which would seem to be right up his alley. As the cast and crew were at a party, Jess and Line Romay ran from the event that they were throwing, effectively dashing on the bill for two weeks before resurfacing in Italy. This is when Lina and her husband Ramon Ardid finally got divorced and Franco had to face up to years of running from his debts. That’s why he made so many films for Dietrich, as he was locked up as his house director to pay back people and probably stay out of trouble.

Pia (Pilar Coll), Margit (Kali Hansa) and Maite (Esther Moser) are three girls who dance in a cabaret — hey, have you ever seen that in a Jess Franco movie? — and live together in a one bed apartment, which is convenient for a menage a trois banana eating session. Then, Mustafa (Eric Falk) and two photographers (Kurt Meinicke and Marlies Haas) kidnap one of them, creating the need for a rescue operation, which means that all three girls try to hump Mustafa until he dies.

Sex in a coffin. Sex with a guy with a fez on his head. Posters for the Bond movies From Russia With Love, Diamonds Are Forever and The Man with the Golden Gun on a wall. A movie about work-based slavery when that’s what Franco was kind of going through himself. Another cut called Wilde Lust that’s the same movies with dongs. Yes, this kind of has it all, if it all means mid 70s smut.

Starting with grindhouse-style trailers for Zombie Blast Fighter and Don’t Eat My Flesh (and how great of a title is that?) and then following that with a murder straight out of Lucio Fulci, this movie presents a forty-plus-minute tribute to the godfather of gore’s three bloodiest films The Beyond, Gates of Hell and The House By the Cemetery all with a modern flair.

It’s smart because it even contends that the murder that drives the entire film happened in 1981, the same year that Fulci was popping eyeballs on screens worldwide.

Ian (Eric Larsen), who works in the movie business but keeps getting screwed over, and Katrina (Traci Burr) have just bought a new home when they’re made an offer by the very real estate agent who sold it to them, Sheryl (Brinke Stevens, always a beyond appreciative face to see show up in any movie and used to incredible effect here). She wants to offer them a hundred grand over asking price to get out of their house.

Does that seem strange? Look, I bought and sold a house in the middle of coronavirus lockdown so I’ll believe everything after what we went through.

The reason? The old owner — who also worked in films — was a suspected devil worshipper who was burned alive in the basement of the house. What was his name? Schweick? To make things worse, just the year before, a young girl had been stabbed in the basement.

Now, Katrina worries that Ian moved them in so he could get material for a new film. Or is it even worse and are they doomed to relive the same cycle as ten years before? Would you want to live in a home built over the gates of hell? What if it came with its own housekeeper (Allie Perez) who just randomly shows up while you’re in the shower and claims she’s part of owning the house?

From there, all sorts of dark and bloody events unfold, like Father Tom (Brad Banacka) trying and failing to bless the home (can the Amityville house be considered adjacent to the Fulci Cinematic Universe?) to Ian and Katrina’s daughter Heather (Janet Lopez) getting stalked by Jennifer to — of course — the blind Henrietta (Jennifer Moriarty) showing up to reveal the secrets of this house. If you’re wondering if zombies will show up, well, you’re on the right track.

Thanks to perfect music by Joshua Palace and the most assured direction and writing I’ve seen from Dustin Ferguson, Beyond the Gates of Hell rises beyond its low budget origins to create a film that follows the Fulci formula as if it were a cover band standing in admirably for a band we’ll never be able to see play live ever again. Before you get critical of someone redoing Fulci, well, wasn’t Zombi intended to redo Romero? And if we love Italian exploitation cinema and demand originality, we can’t have those two things at the same time. It was all based on remaking and remixing past films to create new experiences.

Here’s hoping that Ferguson rides the wave of this success into creating movies of his own that can rival the past that he adores so much.