Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Hursey is a pharmacist specializing in health informatics by day, but his true passion is cinema. His current favorite films are Back to the Future, Stop Making Sense, and In the Mood for Love. He has written articles for Film East and The Physical Media Advocate, primarily examining older films through the lens of contemporary perspectives. He is usually found on Letterboxd, where he mainly writes about horror and exploitation films. You can follow him on Letterboxd or Instagram at ashursey.

Today’s theme: Bleeding Skull!

You know you are in the right place when a movie has a throwaway line like “I gotta start buying a better cut of coke”.

I love that the alternative title to this film is Alison’s Revenge, and there is absolutely no character named Alison in this movie. A better alternate title would have been I Was Prom Queen Too. 

Seems as if everyone was the prom queen in high school except for our protagonist Amy (Lane Coyle). A professional photographer, she finds herself shooting high school cheerleaders, prom queens, and swimsuit models. But with her alleged artistic flair, she has higher ambitions. When she comes across an interesting camera in a random pawn shop, she cannot resist a little retail therapy to help soothe her current career path. Little does she know that this camera contains the spirit of a serial killer. Now with every click of the shutter, her subjects become victims, with the photos predicting how they will die (similar to David Warner’s photos in The Omen I guess).

It took me a while to accept the treasures that SOV films have to offer. But once I bought in, I went all in. It does not take much for me to find value in these films. Likable characters (or at least interesting characters). An unhinged plot. Doing a lot with a little. That is just about all I can ask for. Who cares if it looks like they filmed inside someone’s heavily carpeted house in the 1980s with no budget for decent lighting? Does it matter that these actors have no experience, and may never be seen again? It does not. I’m always amazed that people can make a movie for $10,000, and here I am, about 35 years later, wishing that I had the gumption to try to create something people might be discovering for the first time decades from now. 

Bleeding Skull ranked Fatal Images at #46 on their list of the best shot-on-video films. Feels okay to me. Now we just need one of these boutique labels to give this one a nice release so more people can become exposed to the delights of sassy models, roommates who wear their pajamas under their street clothes “to save time”, and supernatural cameras that never run out of film.