Sergio Martino comes to America and makes an arm wrestling cyborg movie. You know that I love Hands of Steel.
You can listen to the show on Spotify.
The show is also available on Apple Podcasts, I Heart Radio, Amazon Podcasts, Podchaser and Google Podcasts.
April 25: Bava Forever — Bava died on this day 43 years ago. Let’s watch his movies.
Known in Italy as Gli invasori (The Invaders), this is the story of two Vikings, Erik (George Ardisson) and Eron (Cameron Mitchell), who are separated when Sir Rutford (Andrea Checchi) of England makes a surprise attack on their father, King Harald (Folco Lulli). In the battle, Eron is rescued, and when King Lotar (Franco Ressel) becomes angry that Rutford has gone against his orders, he is also killed. His wife, Queen Alice (Françoise Christophe), rescues Erik and raises him.
Twenty years later, King Olaf (Jean-Jacques Delbo) has made Eron his warrior of choice, ready to take the fight back to England. Meanwhile, Erik is made Duke of Helford and leader of the English Navy, but Rutford sabotages his ship and sets it on fire. In the battle to come, brother fights brother, brother discovers sister, and Eron dies, naming Erik to his title.
Together, the Viking, English, and Scottish armies defeat Rutford. At the same time, Erik becomes King of the Vikings with vestal virgin Rama (Alice Kessler) while her twin sister Daya (Ellen Kessler) sails alone with the body of her lover, Eron.
Shot in Rome’s Titanus Studios, this is director Mario Bava making use of all his camera tricks while also having good acting and amazing sets to work with. This is only the second movie he’d directed, and already you could see his power. There’s an incredible spider death trap and a mesmerizing beauty in the story of two brothers, long kept apart, first enemies and the twin sisters who love them. Yes, it was inspired by The Vikings, but the best Italian movies start with another movie and then do something all their own.
You can watch this on Tubi.
From the CUFF Guide: “In the chaos of Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park, a teenage usher named Vince Lawrence witnessed the fiery backlash against disco—a sound that defined freedom and pride. Undeterred by the hostility, Vince used his earnings to buy a synthesizer, setting in motion a journey that would change music forever. Venturing into the underground sanctuary of The Warehouse, where Frankie Knuckles spun revolutionary sounds, Vince teamed up with Jesse Saunders to form Z Factor, a scrappy collective of visionaries who captured the pulse of Chicago’s underground on wax. Their track, “On and On,” became the first recorded house music anthem, sparking a movement that transformed a local DIY culture into a global phenomenon. From those gritty Chicago streets to festival stages worldwide, Vince’s story is an electrifying testament to how a dream, born in the ashes of rejection, ignited a genre that continues to unite and liberate people across the globe.”
Directed by Elegance Bratton, this has Vince Lawrence tell the story of house and how it grew out of disco, which people believe died but come on. We know that isn’t true. This breaks down how rock bands felt threatened by disco and how Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979 was a way of fighting back. But what was a way for Steve Dahl to push back against disco replacing rock turned into racism, as this movie tells us. Some saw it as a targeted attack on black music.
Vince Lawrence was there that night working as an usher, saving for a synthesizer. He said when people were saying “Disco sucks,” it started to feel like they were saying it to him. And then he had to go home through Bridgeport, worried he would be made fun of, attacked or much worse. Steve Dahl got in trouble for a publicity stunt but it was out of control and an event that destroyed black art as some of the records were Motown, not disco.
In “The Flip Sides of ’79” in Rolling Stone, writer Dave Marsh said, “The antidisco movement, which has been publicized by such FM personalities as notorious Chicago DJ Steve Dahl, is simply another programming device. White males, eighteen to thirty-four, are the most likely to see disco as the product of homosexuals, blacks and Latins, and therefore they’re most likely to respond to appeals to wipe out such threats to their security. It goes almost without saying that such appeals are racist and sexist, but broadcasting has never been an especially civil-libertarian medium.” He also told Today, ““I was appalled,” remembers Marsh. “It was your most paranoid fantasy about where the ethnic cleansing of the rock radio could ultimately lead. It was everything you had feared come to life. Dahl didn’t come from Top 40 radio, he came from album rock radio, which was fighting to heighten its profile.”
In that same article, Gloria Gaynor said, “Disco never got credit for being the first and only music ever to transcend all nationalities, race, creed, color, and age groups. It was common ground for everyone.”
That’s where the movie gets into how disco gave birth to “a couple babies:” house and hip-hop. The difference, according to several in this, is that hip-hop led to violence and disrespect. House brought people together and house became a safe party with no gangsters, because, “everyone was gay.”
I really liked how the movie breaks down the song “Fantasy,” who thinks they wrote it and how the black artists felt disrespected by the white singer, Rachael Cain (who is also part of the Michael Alig NYC club scene and ended up owning Trax Records). I also liked how so much of early house was one drum machine and one synth. Nothing else. Just noise and beat; the DJ became the focal point; not a band. Not a real drummer.
Also an interesting point that this film brings up is how black culture is always stolen from. Today, the most famous house musicians are white. House was stolen by white culture. Techno was taken from Detroit. EDM stole from black music. The creators of house never saw the money that other musicians did after them.
This is recommended, as it shines a light into a form of music I’d always wanted to know more about. Now, I want to go deeper and learn more about the personalities and songs that this has introduced me to.
Move Ya Body: The Birth of House screens as part of the 2025 Calgary Underground Film Festival, which runs April 17–27. For more information, visit https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/.
April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 25 and 26, 2025. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included). You can buy tickets at the show, but get there early and learn more here.
The features for Friday, April 25 are the first four A Nightmare On Elm Street movies.
Saturday, April 26 has Frankenhooker, Doom Asylum, Brain Damage and Basket Case 2.
Eight years after Basket Case, Duane Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck) and his brother Belial are still alive, despite falling out of a window. They’re kidnapped by Granny Ruth (Annie Ross) and are nursed back to health by her and her granddaughter, Susan (Heather Rattray).
Granny Ruth’s home is filled with what others would call freaks, like Eve, a female version of Belial, with whom he soon falls in love. But Duane still hates his brother and doesn’t want to be surrounded by these people and their deformities. The brothers are separated, but then reporters Marcie (Kathryn Meisle) and Artie (Matt Mitler) find them, wanting to bring them to justice. Belial scars Marcie for life, making her a freak just like him.
On the night Eve and Belial finally make love, Duane tries to run away with Susan, only to learn that she has been pregnant for six years with a creature. He shoves her out the window and sews Belial back onto his body as the film ends. Well, there’s more, but you need to see Basket Case 3: The Progeny.
You can watch this on Tubi.
April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 25 and 26, 2025. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included). You can buy tickets at the show, but get there early and learn more here.
The features for Friday, April 25 are the first four A Nightmare On Elm Street movies.
Saturday, April 26 has Frankenhooker, Doom Asylum, Brain Damage and Basket Case 2.
Beyond being a historian of exploitation films, Frank Henenlotter has made some outright insane movies like Frankenhooker and Basket Case. What other kind of mad genius would hire horror host Zacherle to be a worm named Aylmer, who creates drug-like relationships with his hosts while demanding to eat the brains of everyone they love?
That blue phallic worm secretes a highly addictive hallucinogen directly into the brain, forcing Brian to leave behind his life, his girlfriend and any hope of normalcy, all while being pursued by the old couple that had imprisoned the parasite and who know way too much of his history, leading to some of the longest and most hilarious expository dialogue I’ve seen in a film.
During the fellatio scene — yes, a woman puts Aylmer inside her mouth — the crew walked out, refusing to work on the scene.
There’s a great moment where Duane and Belial from Basket Case meet Brian on a train before he ends up killing his girlfriend. I realize that’s a spoiler, but nothing can prepare you for this movie. It’s truly one of a kind.
You can watch this on Tubi or on Shudder with and without commentary by Joe Bob Briggs.
I had a roommate who used to tell us Yinzers how much better everything was in Philadelphia. He would go on and on about the excesses of Wing Bowl and I’d think, “Who could live through such a thing?”
Now I have my answer.
From villain Damaging Doug to the vomiting of Matt “Sloth” Dutton, champion “El Wingador and unlikely winner Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, this takes you inside the Wing Bowl, from the first small event to the gigantic ones at the end, moments of overeating, too much drinking and out of control behavior, like Mize, who would smash beer cans into his head.
From 1993 to 2018, this was the Super Bowl for Philly, until days after the twenty-sixth year in the Wells Fargo Center, the Eagles won their first championship. Before that happened, people would regular eat 500 wings, often getting nauseous, as fistfights in the crowd and nudity would fill the day, which started at 6 A.M.
Suggested by WIP-FM Philadelphia show host Angelo Cataldi, this gets nearly every major celebrity — of sorts — into this, interviewing them and showing them in action. Sure, WIP didn’t share footage, but did you expect them to? This was like Roman circuses and even the stories told by my old roommate can’t compare to the reality.
Here’s hoping this doc gets wide release.
No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story screens as part of the 2025 Calgary Underground Film Festival, which runs April 17–27. For more information, visit https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/.
April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 25 and 26, 2025. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included). You can buy tickets at the show, but get there early and learn more here.
The features for Friday, April 25 are the first four A Nightmare On Elm Street movies.
Saturday, April 26 has Frankenhooker, Doom Asylum, Brain Damage and Basket Case 2.
You can listen to the show on Spotify.
The show is also available on Apple Podcasts, I Heart Radio, Amazon Podcasts, Podchaser and Google Podcasts.
April 24: Polonia Bros — Whether alone or with his brother John, Mark Polonia has made so many movies. Pick one off this list.
John and Mark Polonia and Jon McBride made this movie for $500 and it has more heart in it than anywhere near its budget will tell you.
Derek (McBride) and Bennett (John Polonia) are driving through Pennsylvania — home of the Polonias — and have no idea that a small UFO just landed and ate a park ranger. Even when they’re on a date with Michelle (Melissa Torpy) and Donna (Maria Russo) — the daughter of the now digested man — they have no clue. Then they hit a man with their car, and before he dies, he keeps telling them about little men.
By the end of this movie, most of this small town has been chewed on, Bennett has been cloned by aliens and — spoiler — Derek kills the wrong one before multiple UFOs descend.
Say what you will about the puppet aliens in this, but this movie was distributed by Blockbuster Video shortly after the release of Independence Day. It was the most popular independent release of the year and has had two sequels, Feeders 2: Slay Bells and Feeders 3: The Final Meal. Keep in mind this was made by teenagers with a video camera.
You can watch this on Tubi.
April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 25 and 26, 2025. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included). You can buy tickets at the show, but get there early and learn more here.
The features for Friday, April 25 are the first four A Nightmare On Elm Street movies.
Saturday, April 26 has Frankenhooker, Doom Asylum, Brain Damage and Basket Case 2.
You know how slashers go: you need to get the horny teens to wind up in a secluded place with some promise of sex and drug hijinks. An abandoned mental hospital? That’s not frightening — it’s a good place to screw!
Of course, inside the walls of this old asylum, there’s more than just a place to party hearty. There’s also a deformed maniac who just so happens to be the attorney that split final girl Kiki’s parents up and caused her mother to die a decade before. Again, in slashers, there are no coincidences. Everything has been ordained, as if by freakish fate.
Now, the former Attorney Mitch Hansen has become The Coroner, a serial killer who uses surgical tools to wipe out anyone in his way.
The dual roles of Kiki and her mother Judy are played by Patty Mullen, Penthouse Pet of the Month for August 1986 and 1988’s Pet of the Year. You may also remember her from playing the title role in Frankenhooker and being married to Joey Image, one of the drummers for The Misfits.
However, Jane — one of the many friends of Kiki set up to die, as is the wont of the slasher — would grow up to be Kristen Davis. Yes, from Sex and the City. So if you ever wanted to see her get her face sawed off…
There’s also a punk band played inside the asylum named Tina and the Tots. Tina is played by Ruth Collins, who was also in Witch Academy and was paid $100 extra to show her breasts. Because you know, you can’t have a slasher without them (actually you totally can).
This was all written by Rick Marx, who also was behind the movies Taboo American Style 1: The Ruthless Beginning, Wanda Whips Wall Street, Blonde Justice #3 and Christy In the Wild. In case you didn’t guess, those are all adult films. He also wrote Snapped for Chuck Vincent, Warrior Queen, a biography on WOR late-night fixture Joe Franklin and the two Gor movies.
Behind the camera? None other than Richard Friedman (Scared Stiff, Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge). This movie is all over the place in tone and presentation, but if you rented it back in the late 1980s- it’s pretty much a perfectly goofball slasher that would go well with a six-pack and pizza- you probably have much fonder memories than I do. After all, if you went and watched Bloodsucking Freaks without seeing it through the lens of being 15 years old and landlocked in a small town, you probably wouldn’t understand why people liked it either.
You can get this on Blu-ray from the fine folks at Arrow Video or watch it for free on Tubi!
April 23: Regional Horror — A regional horror movie. Here’s a list if you need an idea.
Yes, there’s the 2011 direct-to-video film Boggy Creek and The Legacy of Boggy Creek, as well as this unofficial sequel. Still, the only real continuation of The Legend of Boggy Creek is Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues. And, wow, that movie isn’t good.
Throughout this movie, we’re told just how terrifying Boggy Creek is and if you don’t respect it, you’ll die. So why not allow children Evie-Jo (Dana Plato), her brother John-Paul (David Sobiesk) and their non-speaking friend T-Fish (Marcus Claudel) to get in a canoe and paddle down that creek? Sure, a hurricane is on the way and the monster that lives in the waters, Big Bay-Ty, only killed Evie-Jo and John-Paul’s father. How could anything bad happen?
A lot of this movie is about a fishing competition and Cat-Fish Kool-Aid, which allows our child heroes to win. And as for Big Bay-Ty, it turns out that he didn’t kill their dad after all. A snake did. And their mom is played by Dawn Wells, who at least didn’t get chased through the night by the Phantom Killer again this time in Arkansas.
I don’t know why so many regional horror movies decided to make Bigfoot movies for the kids, because even the idea of Bigfoot and that grainy Patterson–Gimlin footage made me terrified as a kid. Even more frightening is that these movies often use a gorilla costume for their monster.
Directed by Tom Moore, who also directed the much better movie “Mark of the Witch,” and co-written by John David Woody, this film didn’t involve Charles B. Pierce. I bet he sent a Bigfoot to everyone’s house.
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