A killer assortment of short films created by returning filmmakers.
The Blue-Eyed Boy & Mister Death (2024): The description for this says, “Losing a loved one is never easy. Losing a parent can be even harder. Will Cummings had a hole in his heart shaped like his Dad that he tried to fill after the Cancer took him, yet nothing seemed to work. But what if every great once in a cosmic while, on the rarest of occasions, Death felt bad for being a jerk, and gave you one last chance to say those words that you thought no one would ever get to hear? What if you could hear that familiar voice just one more time? What would you say?” A thought-provoking subject, and hey! Vernon Wells is in it!
Wow. This is one emotional movie. It made me tear up a few times as I saw so much of my own life in it. Adam Hampton, the lead, does a really great job emotionally in this, and what could have been a very one-note film has so many levels to it. Well done!
Still (2024): A miraculous discovery in the woods fulfills a despondent woman’s deepest desire, but triggers a nightmarish new reality in Rakefet Abergel’s film Still. Obviously, this comes from a very personal place of losing a child, and this does more to show me what that feels like than several large-scale, big-budget films. Just a raw and unyielding look at how it feels to have a future torn away from you. Great acting, outstanding production values and in no way does this feel preachy. It feels real.
Bart & Bobbi Kill Each Other (2025): Bart (Michael P. King) and Bobbi (London Garcia) have lived together for about thirty years. Now, they have had enough. One of them must leave. Or maybe die. Maybe both of them, if we go by the name of this short, are going to die. Regardless, director, writer and producer Aaron Barrocas has done an incredible job with this short, one that combines sharp dialogue with fun effects and plenty of inventive ways to keep things moving.
The Rewind (2025): “Josh is desperate to get back his wife, Nina. He turns to a new technology that allows users to re-live a difficult moment in the hope of learning important lessons. Impatient for results, he soon discovers that Rewind therapy is not the magic fix he hoped for, and some would put this tech to a more sinister use.” That’s the hype copy for this, but wow, what it ends up being is so dark, and the ending is so brutal that I couldn’t believe it. Such a well-made short that feels like it could easily become a full-length film!
Efflorescence (2025): In this film by Sofia Gaza-Barba, LaLa (Susana Elena Boyce) has turned vegan as an act of love to Johnny (Aaron Fernando Deitz), the latest love of her life. But after binging rare greenery at a flower shop to stop her everlasting hunger, she finds herself turning into a flesh-eating human plant, the exact same night she’s expected to meet her lover’s vegan friends. As her mother reminds her, she’s Mexican and eats meat. She’s changed for all of her boyfriends — including a gamer, as her mama reminds her — and now, she’s turned her back on everything, not eating carne asada. Well, not for long. A lot of fun!
Wreckless (2024): At her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Lucy (Jennifer A. Goodman) begins to freak out. Filled with worry, she starts to drift and even loses control of her reality. Directed by Timothy Troy and written by Goodman, this doesn’t make Lucy the hero or keep her from blame. It also doesn’t condemn her. It’s a very even-handed depiction of what people going through addiction must go through.
Tepache (2025): Directed and written by Carlos Garcia Jr., this is the saga of Gael (Alejandro Galindo), a legendary medieval dinner theater knight who decides that tonight is the night to win back his true love, the exotic dancer Noel (Stephanie Oustalet). This movie was terrific, not allowing its hero to get away with his stupidity while making what could have been a one-note character, Noel, work so well.
September Drive-In Super Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre, September 19 and 20, 2025. Two big nights with four feature films each night include:
Friday, September 19: Mark of the Devil, The Sentinel, The Devil’s Rain and Devil Times Five
September 20: The Omega Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Grindhouse Releasing 4K restoration drive-in premiere of S.F. Brownrigg’s Scum of the Earth and Eaten Alive
Admission is $15 per person each night (children 12 and under – accompanied by an adult guardian – are admitted free). Overnight camping is available (breakfast included) for an additional $20 a person per night. Advance online tickets (highly recommended) for both movies and camping here: https://www.riversidedrivein.com/shop/
My teachers and guidance counselors in high school told me, explained to me, screamed at me: “You’ll never learn anything being obsessed with all of these horror movies!”
I would argue that I have learned plenty, and 1977’s The Sentinel would be my doctoral thesis in “I Live My Life by What I Learned from 1970s Satanic Horror Movies.”
Lesson one: All models live dissolute lives and are mere seconds from an outburst; avoidance recommended.
When we meet Alison Parker (Cristina Raines), she’s a busy New York model. She’s gorgeous. And she’s always batshit crazy, suffering strange psychosomatic issues such as night terrors, insomnia and random flashbacks to all of the times she tried to kill herself. After she moves into a spiffy Brooklyn brownstone — because she wants to see if she can live on her own and not with her wealthy boyfriend, Michael (Chris Sarandon, more on him later). Right away, she starts hearing random noises and meeting people who don’t exist.
That all leads to work-related trauma, as she often passes out while modeling and ends up in the hospital. A young, pre-Law and Order Jerry Orbach is having none of her shenanigans, asking if they can just move her and give her clothes to another model.
Oh yeah — she also hated her dad, who just died. Her first suicide attempt came after she walked in on her ancient pa playing with an entire roomful of prostitutes. And it turns out that her boyfriend is being investigated by the police (played by Eli Wallach and a super young Christopher Walken) for killing his wife. Whew! Needless to say, she’s gorgeous but doesn’t have issues. She has subscriptions.
Lesson two: Catholic priests have crazy secrets that will implode your fragile secular mind.
Only one person — supposedly — lives in the building with Alison: Father Halliran (“Skinny Dracula” himself, John Carradine), a priest so blind that his eyes have gone whiter than Emily from The Beyond. All he does is sit in front of his window and stare into the void. Turns out that Alison’s new home is really owned by a secret society of excommunicated Catholic priests — all the cool ones are — and they guard the gateway to Hell. And that gateway? Yeah, it’s right here in the building. And Father Halliran is the Sentinel, the blind guardian of the abyss.
Why is Alison there? They’ve chosen her because with two suicide attempts, she’s the perfect candidate. The only way she can get to Heaven is by becoming the next Sentinel, because Halliran is ready to die, Biggie style.
Lesson three: If you are in a 1970s Satanic horror movie, DO NOT trust old Hollywood stars.
Alison’s neighbors may start off nice, but they’re all demented. Like the two leotard-wearing ladies who invite her for tea, then begin rubbing themselves like some demented exercise video, while Alison just tries to drink her tea. Seriously, this scene — it should be for shock or titillation — but it’s one of the unsexiest, most hilarious, take this movie out of the DVD player moments I’ve witnessed in a long time. Keep in mind — Beverly D’Angelo of the National Lampoon’s Vacation films plays one of them, the other is Sylvia Miles from Midnight Cowboy.
But it’s old Hollywood royalty that you really need to watch out for. Like Ruth Gordon and Ralph Bellamy in Rosemary’s Baby, Burgess Meredith’s Charles Chazen starts nice, but it turns out he leads the minions of Hell. At least he has a cool cat, right? He has an insane birthday party that Alison runs from, finally telling her real estate agent that the people in the building are driving her insane. Again, turns out no one else lives there. No one else but old Hollywood folks is ready, willing and able to help the cause of Satan. Like the aforementioned real estate lady, played by Ava Gardner. Or José Ferrer, wandering around in a red robe. If someone you recognize from a 1940s flick offers you some tannis root, just say no.
Oh! I almost forgot Psycho’s Martin Balsam is in this as Professor Ruzinsky!
Lesson four: If you are the hero or heroine of a 70s Satanic horror movie, you’re fucked.
Lesson five: Never, ever trust Chris Sarandon — not even in the slightest way
Michael tries to help Alison, discovering the big secret of this film. He breaks into a church office and discovers that the moment people with suicide attempts disappear, they show up as priests assigned to this building. What you don’t find out is that he dies — off-camera — and becomes one of the demons who tries to convince Alison to kill herself and bring Helllll to our world. And just why is he a demon? Because, of course, he killed his wife.
But if you’re aware of Mr. Sarandon’s movie history, you shouldn’t be surprised. The guy is Jerry Dandrige from Fright Night, after all, a vampire who literally fucks with Charley Brewster to his face, in front of his mom, before killing and stealing his best friend and having vampire sex with his girlfriend. As if that dick turn wasn’t enough, Prince Humperdink in The Princess Bride spends an entire movie two-facing the titular princess.
Any time I see Chris Sarandon in a movie, I instantly put up my bullshit filter. I will not trust the man — despite the fact that he’s also the voice of Jack Skellington. If you are a character in a 1970s Satanic shockfest, I implore you to do the same.
Lesson Six: Avoid Michael Winner at All Costs.
I’m joking — I actually love a lot of his work despite the slapdash direction and general griminess of it all. His 70s output from Death Wish gradually becomes meaner and darker and stranger, with the exception of Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood. And with that movie — and its preponderance of aging Hollywood star cameos — there’s a good chance at least one of them will go all lesson three on you and slice a pentagram into your chest.
He courted controversy (and was more well known as a restaurant critic and England’s rudest man at the end of his life) here by making, well, an artistic choice. Instead of costumed demons, he simply hired real deformed folks to wander around. It’s either pretty unsettling — or totally awesome, depending on your mindset — to see a crazed Burgess Meredith commanding an army of tumored-faced and genetically challenged real folks to help a girl kill herself.
That said, Cristina Raines felt that Winner was a horror to work with. She claims that she was in tears nearly every day on the way to the set and refuses to watch this film, so as not to stir up any bad memories that remain.
If you follow the above rules, one would hope you survive your film plight. That said, the 70s were a horrible time to be alive, so there’s a very real chance that Satan will turn your happy ending into a downer one and we’ll all have to reflect upon it. Oh yeah — and I love this movie, simply because I grew up Catholic and would read The Pittsburgh Catholic to see which films were given the dreaded O rating, which condemned them for being morally offensive. Just look at the notable films so chastised and damned: Pink Flamingos, Dawn of the Dead, Barbarella, Billy Jack, The Wicker Man…so many films to adore!
EXTRA CREDIT ONE
The Sentinel was written by Jeffrey Konvitz, who gifted the world with the teen romp GORP and produced the sequels to BloodsportandCyborg. Speaking of sequels, he wrote one to this movie titled The Guardian (the alternate title was The Apocalypse) and holy shit — I’m just going to share the description verbatim: “She was the Sentinel, the living guardian of the gates of Hell. She was the sole barrier between humanity and the forces of satanic evil pent up since the Fall from Grace. Hers was the most terrible penance of all; chosen for her sins, she had been committed to a living death, a blind nightmare in which the only reality was the reality of her demonic adversary and the awful powers she had been endowed with to constrain Him. Now her penance is nearly up. For Monsignor Franchino, that means the resumption of the most dreadful task the Church has ever bestowed; once again, he, and he alone, must find and commit a new victor over the guardianship, knowing that at every step the powers of evil will battle to pervert the change-over. For the Prince of Darkness, it means a final chance to unleash his minions on the world and begin at last His long-awaited reign of evil. For Mankind it means…The Apocalypse.” I would watch the shit out of that.
EXTRA CREDIT TWO
If you’re looking for a film that hired Dick Smith just so they could push the R rating to the goriest of limits, this is a decent choice. Abusive dad ghosts get their noses shredded, eyes get decimated, blood explodes out of heads…it’s a shame that Smith didn’t get to create the actual demons!
EXTRA CREDIT THREE
Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger, and Richard Dreyfuss all appear in this, but blink and you will quite literally miss them.
EXTRA CREDIT FOUR
Michael Winner almost died from eating poisoned oysters, and his estate was questioned upon his death, as it was discovered he was paying for numerous ex-lovers. I think I’d rather watch a movie about his life than any movie he directed.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Angel Heart was on USA Up All Night on August 13, 1994 and March 17, 1995.
Following the publication of his 1978 novel Falling Angel, William Hjortsberg began working on turning it into a film. His friend, production designer Richard Sylbert (Dick Tracy, The Cotton Club), took the book to Robert Evans, who was running Paramount and was ready to make the film with John Frankenheimer set to direct and Dustin Hoffman in the lead.
That option expired, as did another attempt to get the movie made with Robert Redford. Years later, producer Elliott Kastner met with Alan Parker (Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, Fame, Pink Floyd: The Wall, The Commitments) to discuss him writing the screenplay. Parker also helped get the movie funded by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna as part of Carolco Pictures, as long as he was given creative control.
Parker made several changes from the novel, retitling the story Angel Heart, including moving the second half of the tale to New Orleans and advancing the time forward four years to 1955, so the story feels more at home in the 40s than in the approaching 60s. He also worked toward making Harry Angel more sympathetic and Louis Cyphre more realistic.
Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is a New York City private investigator who has been hired by Louis Cyphre (Robert DeNiro) to track down a singer named Johnny Favorite, who has been dealing with PTSD from World War II. Even the upstate hospital where Favorite was staying couldn’t find him, as his release was facilitated by mysterious people, and a doctor was convinced to change his records.
Cyphre offers Angel a large sum of money to continue hunting for Favorite. The trail leads him to Favorite’s fiancée, Margaret Krusemark (Charlotte Ramplifiancée the discovery that he had sired a daughter named Epiphany Proudfoot (Lisa Bonet) with an ex-lover.
Everyone that gives Angel info — guitarist Toots Suwho(blues musician Brownie McGhee), Margaret, the doctor — dies horribly. This causes Margaret’s father to demand that he leave town, but of course, he goes back to his hotel room and has rough sex with Epiphany while visions of blood drip down the walls.
So — follow me on this — Margaret and her dad were the ones who took Favorite out of the hospital. And the former singer was a sorcerer who sold his soul to Devilevil to be famous, but tried to get out of the deal by kidnapping a soldier in Times Square and eating his heart to take the boy’s soul. Now, in that soldier’s body, he went overseas and suffered facial injuries and amnesia during his suffering.
If you haven’t realized it yet, our protagonist and Johnny Favorite are the same people and the none-so-cleverly named Louis Cyphre is Devil himself. And everyone dead in the movie? Yeah, our so-called heroes killed them all and then had sex with their granddaughters. Gulp.
Although initially supportive of Bonet’s decision to make this movie, America’s one-time dad Bill Cosby dismissed the results as “a movie made by white America that cast a black girl, gave her voodoo things to do and have sex”. How did that all work out?
De Niro’s performance as Louis Cyphere is supposed to be based on his friend and frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese. For what it’s worth, it so unnerved Parker that he avoided him during his scenes and let him direct himself.
You know, before The Wrestler, so many people forgot just how good Mickey Rke can be. You had forgotten to discover that for yourself by going back and watching this for yourself.
Sept 15-21 Mockumentary Week: “Ladies and gentlemen, by way of introduction, this is a film about trickery – and fraud. About lies. Tell it by the fireside, in a marketplace, or in a movie. Almost any story is almost certainly some kind of lie. But not this time. No, this is a promise. During the next hour, everything you hear from us is really *true* and based on solid facts.”
Yosh (John Candy) and Stan (Eugene Levy) Shmenge came all the way from Leutonia to become the biggest polka band of all time, a career that lasted forever until they retired, which is what this movie is about. It’s also, as the title will tell you, The Last Waltz. Plus, you get the Michael Jackson tribute concert that ruined their career, Linsk Minyk (Rick Moranis) playing a series of road songs and an appearance by The Lemon Twins (Robin Duke, Catherine O’Hara and her sister Mary Margaret O’Hara).
Directed by John Blanchard (Really Weird Tales), this story of the Happy Wanderers first aired on HBO. You get to see so many of the shows that the brothers did, like Strikes, Spares and Shmenges, a bowling show, and the Polka Variety Hour. Plus, hear their most famous song, “Cabbage Rolls and Coffee.”
Nearly everything the SCTV cast did was right on, almost every time. This is perfect —a mockumentary that could convince some that this was a real band.
September Drive-In Super Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre, September 19 and 20, 2025. Two big nights with four feature films each night include:
Friday, September 19: Mark of the Devil, The Sentinel, The Devil’s Rain and Devil Times Five
September 20: The Omega Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Grindhouse Releasing 4K restoration drive-in premiere of S.F. Brownrigg’s Scum of the Earth and Eaten Alive
Admission is $15 per person each night (children 12 and under – accompanied by an adult guardian – are admitted free). Overnight camping is available (breakfast included) for an additional $20 a person per night. Advance online tickets (highly recommended) for both movies and camping here: https://www.riversidedrivein.com/shop/
Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält (Witches Tortured Till They Bleed) got the maniacs at Hallmark Releasing all hot and bothered. The ad campaign — “Positively the most horrifying film ever made” and “Rated V for Violence”, plus giving out free barf bags — is evidence of the fact that this got so much of their creativity. Director Michael Armstrong’s first film, the Frankie Avalon-starring The Haunted House of Horror, in no way prepared audiences for this movie, which goes wild in showing the tortures it promises.
Count Christian von Meruh (Udo Keir) is a well-meaning young witchhunter — this comes in the wake of Witchfinder General — who comes to a small town to prepare the way for his boss Lord Cumberland (Herbert Lom) and to investigate the insanity of another local witch hunter, Albino (Reggie Nalder), who uses the threat of witchcraft to have sex with anyone he wants; he now wants Vanessa Benedikt (Olivera Katarina), a barmaid who catches Christian’s eye.
But really, so much of this is the chance to see gorgeous women like Deidre von Bergenstein (Gaby Fuchs) get tortured. It condemns these actions while simultaneously bragging about and reveling in them; such is exploitation. Soon, Christian learns that even his master, Cumberland, is corrupt; even if some people must die wrongfully, they will be martyrs who get into heaven. Mostly, everyone’s goal is money in this world, so who cares if an innocent family is murdered because of a puppet show?
Victoria is the one who gets the villagers to throw off the chains of oppression, and even though this good work happens, it costs her true love, as he’s thrown into a witch catcher and killed, seen as part of the same machine she has rallied them against.
It seems like making this movie was a war, as producer Adrian Hoven had his own ideas and script; he worked with cinematographer Ernst W. Kalinke to film some of his own footage. It’s difficult to determine who made what at this point, but you’ll probably be so confronted by nails used to find the Devil’s spot, tongues being torn out, whippings, beatings, nun assault, and outright killing that you’ll not worry who made what, you know?
Hoven made Mark of the Devil Part II, the official sequel, while in the VHS era, Alucarda was released as Mark of the Devil – Part III; two of the Blind Dead films were repackaged with new Michelle Bauer covers as Mark of the Devil – Part IV and Mark of the Devil – Part V; there are also two American sequels, Mark of the Devil 666: The Moralist and Mark of the Devil 777: The Moralist, Part 2.
Remaking Spider Baby seems to be a thankless task, but it’s one that Dustin Ferguson and crew have taken on.
If you haven’t seen the original, the Merrye family has been cursed with a disease called Merrye Syndrome, which only affects members of their family, hence the name, and causes them to regress down the evolutionary ladder as they grow older. They’re protected by their butler, Bruno, who realizes that he can’t control them for long.
Here, Bruno is played by Noel Jason Scott; the Spider Baby herself, Virginia, is played by Skylar Fast; Ralph, the role that Sid Haig essayed, is played by Cody J. Briscoe, and Elizabeth is played by Emma Keifer. Much like the inspiration, the family is being challenged by relatives who want the home and the estate. What they don’t realize is how dangerous the family can be, including the ones who have regressed into lunacy and cannibalism in the basement.
This has some meta-casting in it, as Beverly Washburn, who played Elizabeth in the original Spider Baby, plays a new character, Meredith. While Ron Chaney, the grandson of another star of the original, Lon Chaney Jr., plays Dr. Skinner. There’s also an opening that introduces a new character, Theresa Merrye, played by Brinke Stevens.
Ferguson has said that he wanted to make this movie because the first one inspired The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and House of 1000 Corpses. In fact, the chance to make a movie like Rob Zombie’s is why he directed this. Spider Baby leans into that Rob Zombie feel, as the credits and theme song sound quite like the singer’s work. In fact, Robert Mukes from that film plays The Storyteller in this version.
I had a few issues with this, as the CGI spider isn’t as fun as the original, the film feels way too yellow, and the credits often have basic typewriter font in black over black images, obscuring the names of the cast and crew. This is probably the best-looking movie of the 140+ that Ferguson has done, and it looks like he applied himself on this, even if it ends with the requisite seven minutes or longer of credits when what we really want is more of the story.
The cast does a good job in this, but I feel for them, as they’re up against a classic with the kind of cast that rarely assembles for one movie. In fact, remaking this movie at all feels like a bad idea; there’s no way to be compared favorably unless you absolutely outdo or change the original, and even then, you’re fighting an uphill battle.
I get the challenges of microbudget filmmaking, that you only have some talent for a day and that you’re trying to get the most you can out of the meager finances that you can drum together. The thing is, Spider Baby cost $65,000 to make ($605,000 in today’s money) and was in no way considered big budget. Yet it has created a quite rightful cult following because it’s weird in a very earned way. It’s just unsettling enough, and often what it alludes to is much scarier than fake blood or a giant spider. While this is an improvement for Ferguson, I hope that he can learn from it and push himself toward original works that we can appreciate for decades to come.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Annihilators was on USA Up All Night on April 15, October 11 and November 25, 1989.
You know, I’ve wanted to watch this movie because the dude on the cover has a facemask on and is carrying a crossbow. That never really happens in the film, but at least it’s entertaining.
At the end of the Vietnam War, the soldiers known as The Annihilators — Sgt. Bill Ecker (Christopher Stone, The Howling), Garrett Floyd (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), Ray Track (Gerrit Graham!), Woody (Andy Wood) and Joe (Dennis Redfield) — undertake their final mission, during which Joe is critically injured saving his friends.
Years later, Joe works at his father’s Atlanta convenience store, which is under attack by a street gang led by Roy Boy Jagger (Paul Koslo) and his gang, The Rollers, which ends up costing him his life. His father then begs Bill to teach the neighborhood how to fight back, which pretty much consists of the guys ineffectually shooting at the gang members, and neither side being really able to hit one another, all while trying to stay away from the cops.
Known as Action Force in Europe, this movie would have been much better if I had just watched the poster and gotten high. Well, I learned my lesson, The Annihilators.
Charles E. Sellier Jr. directed this. Yes — the producer of so many of my favorite Sunn Classics films! It was his last time directing after a career that included Encounter with Disaster, Silent Night, Deadly Nightand Snowballing. He also created The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.
This movie was made at the same time as Invasion U.S.A. and shared the same stunt team, who worked on this movie during the day and with Chuck Norris at night.
EDITOR’S NOTE: American Gigolo was on USA Up All Night on December 27, 1997.
American Gigolo was always fascinating to me as a kid, as my mother wouldn’t let me in the room when it was on. As a result, knowing that it was “dirty” made me want to see it even more.
Directed and written by Paul Schrader, it’s about Julian Kay (Richard Gere), an escort for rich older women. Now, we know this is a fantasy, and I’m sure that affluent elderly ladies like to have a man, but I think we all know that most male escorts are for other men. But let’s get over that and explore the movie.
Along the way, he starts to fall for a senator’s wife, Michelle Stratton (Lauren Hutton), but soon finds himself being hired for a job he never does: BDSM sex with Mr. Rheiman’s (Tom Stewart) wife Judy (Patti Carr) while the old man watches. Julian tells fellow sex worker Leon (Bill Duke) that he never wants another call like that; Leon tells him that when he ages, these affluent old ladies won’t like him any longer.
Meanwhile, as Julian satisfies Lisa Williams (K Callan), Mrs. Rheiman is murdered. Detective Sunday (Héctor Elizondo) believes that Julian did it, but his alibi — sleeping with another man’s wife — puts his sense of morality to the test. He refuses to say where he was, and at each turn, evidence is planted, and he starts to realize that he’s being set up.
I love this quote from Schrader: “The character in Taxi Driver was compulsively nonsexual. The character in American Gigolo is compulsively sexual. He is a man who receives his identity by giving sexual pleasure but has no concept of receiving sexual pleasure.” Indeed, in one sscene-Julian is full frontal nude, a rarity even today, and he goes on about how being able to please women is the one thing that he knows makes him worthwhile. Schrader would revisit the themes of male sex workers in 2007’s The Walker.
The main reason I wanted to see this as a child was the music. Giorgio Moroder and “Call Me” by Blondie? Amazing. This also set the tone for style for the new decade, as Gere’s Giorgio Armani suits and Hutton’s Aldo Ferrante outfits established the look that so many would emulate.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Bad Girls Dormitory was on USA Up All Night on September 2, 1989; May 5 and November 23, 1990; May 4 and August 16, 1993; April 16 and August 14, 1993.
Tim Kincaid also made The Occultist, Mutant Hunt, Breeders, Robot Holocaustand lots of male-focused porn as Joe Gage. This is his women-in-prison film and it has a young women-focused behavioral unit run by Miss Madison (Marita, in her only film, with an accent that feels comedic).
Paige (Natalie O’Connell) is fresh off the bus and gets caught up in a vice bust. Marina (Teresa Farley) was left behind by her friends when the cops busted their coke party. Eula (Renata Cobbs) has been there for a while. And now, they’re fodder for the WIP grist mill, subjected to dirty touches by Dr. DeMarco (Dan Barclay) and Nurse Stevens (Rebecca Rothbaum) and prison attacks. You know how it happens.
A social worker named Ron (Rick Gianasi) is trying to fix things and gets a tour of the prison, but mostly he just gets to see naked female flesh because, well, you’re not watching this to learn about social reform. You’re there to see Jennifer Delora from Deranged and Deadly Manortake a shower with LeeAnne Baker and Debbis Laster. You can hang your head in shame after you read this. Lori (Casey Zuris) ends up having sex with the social worker, and yeah, she killed her last guy after his friends tag-teamed her, so treat her right.
Are there bad girls? You know it. Lisa (Jennifer Delora) and Rebel (Donna Eskra) — who tell the doctor he’s the worst lay ever and inform his nurse that she “doesn’t want a bitch, she wants a man” — are the ones who beat up the good girls and keep the plot moving. There’s also Dottie (Kate McCamy), who responds to a threat by saying, “If you make me get up, I’m going to be twisting some tits.” There’s also Gloria (Sherry Hoard), who is pregnant and doesn’t want anyone to know. Rebel gets assigned to her and screws a guard while she’s having a miscarriage. Cinema.
There are so many girls in the Bad Girls Dormitory, and I may have lost track of a few. This also looks nothing like any other prison that I’ve seen. But hey, I haven’t ever been in a Bad Girls Dormitory.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Heartbreak High was on USA Up All Night as Crunch on May 9 and October 16, 1992; June 19 and December 10, 1993.
Also known as The Kinky Coaches and the Pom Pom Pussycats, this has the City High Moose, led by Coach Bulldog Malone (John Vernon), playing the Johnson High Eagles, coached by Alan Arnoldi (Robert Forester), for the Chester W. Hick Cup. Malone sends Weasel (Paul Backewich) to film the other team’s plays and that’s the least of the cheating that goes on.
Everyone is either screwing each other over or screwing each other, all while sportscaster Jack McGuire (Norman Fell) comments on everything.
This is a co-promotion between Sandy Frank and Astral (thanks, Canuxploitation!) and that means there are a lot of North of the Border stars, like Kimberly McKeever from Scanners as the Eagles quarterback, Thom Haverstock from Terror Train as the City High QB, and Christine Cattell (Bedroom Eyes) as a cheerleader.
Director Mark Warren directed numerous TV shows, including Benson, The Dukes of Hazzard, Big City Comedy, The Wolfman Jack Show and more.
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