I can hear you now — we already covered the 1987 version of this story. We covered the 2014 remake, as well as the three sequels that came out of it, Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns and Seeds of Yesterday. What else could I posibly have to say about VC Andrews and the Dollanganger family?
Oh you know me. Plenty.
After years of dealing with a DVD that had quite literally no extras — barely even a DVD menu, to be honest, as it came out so many eons ago — it’s awesome to have a 1080p blu ray release of this sitting on our shelf.
Originally published in 1979, VC Andrews’ novel Flowers in the Attic was a monster sensation, with multiple sequels and even a cottage industry of books from the author that continued to be written after the passing of the author, thanks to the miracle of ghost writers like Andrew Neiderman.
Blood Beach and Nightmares director Jeffrey Bloom ended up in charge of this film after Wes Craven’s script struck producers as too dark. This would be the first of many clashes between creative and producers, ending with, well, an ending that no one was happy with. More on that later.
After the sudden death of their father, the Dollanganger’s — Chris, Cathy, Cory and Carrie along with their mother Corrine — go to live with her parents, the same people who disowned her years ago once they learned of her incestuous relationship that spawned the children.
Corinne makes a bargain — both with her childen and her mother. They will stay in the attic — get the title now? — and never be seen or heard from, while she will work to get back into the good graces of her terminally ill father. The goal is for them to have the money they need to live their lives, but that payoff seems further and further away as the family is pretty much left to rot.
What follows is pure mania — a rat becomes a pet, pastries are poisoned, brothers bathe sisters, moms get whipped — and I couldn’t be happier. This is the kind of movie that you’re kind of amazed ever got made.
Because after all, this movie is a nearly impossible film to get right, as how can you make everyone happy? Those that have never read the books are going to be shocked by the incest. And the fans of the book are going to want more of it. There’s no way to make one of these groups of people happy without angering the other. The Lifetime remakes just went all in and were less worried, but they were also made nearly thirty years later.
You can see VC Andrews in the film briefly, as she plays a maid cleaning the windows. I always thought that was kind of cool, except that I spend much of the movie looking for her and never paying attention. Kristy Swanson, who plays Cathy, has said that Andrews told her she looked exactly as she pictured the character when she was writing the book. Andrews died before the film was released.
Castle Hill in Ipswich, Massachusetts was the shooting location for this movie, with reshoots done at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. These are the same two locations where The Witches of Eastwick was also made.
The new Arrow Video release is packed with extras, which is why I’ve sought it out even though I’ve bought this film more than once. It has new audio commentary by Kat Ellinger, author and editor-in-chief of Diabolique Magazine, as well as interviews with cinematographer Frank Byers, production designer John Muto, actor Jeb Stuart Adams and composer Christopher Young, as well as the original trailer and a production gallery of behind-the-scenes images, illustrations and storyboards.
The real reason to grab this is because it features the original studio-vetoed ending, which I’ve never had the opportunity to see before. It’s been kind of a holy grail after loving this movie so much and it’s awesome to finally have that pay off. Plus, you get the revised ending with commentary by replacement director Tony Kayden, which gives plenty of insight into this troubled production.
You can watch this on Tubi, but for the best possible experience, grab the new blu ray release from Arrow Video. You can also get it from Diabolik DVD.
DISCLAIMER: We were sent this movie by Arrow Video, but that doesn’t impact our review.
Zombies. First recorded in an 1819 history of Brazil by the poet Robert Southey and then introduced to the West in W.B. Seabrook’s 1929 novel The Magic Island, then used as a monster by Hollywood in all manner of films until perfected in Pittsburgh in 1968. Since then, I’ve seen how every nation and generation treats zombies. I’ve thrilled to their Italian cousins, awash in splatter and excess. Cataloged all the forms, from Return of the Living Dead’s punk rock undead and Tarman to Burial Ground’s incestual walkers. I’ve seen zombies created by voodoo, by ultrasonic radiation meant to destroy insects, by Venus probes and government chemical warfare and even when Hell became full. And I’ve grown old enough to become angry at their 20th century running and mainstream progeny.
But I’ve never seen a French zombie. Not until now.
La Revanche des Mortes Vivantes — or Revenge of the Living Dead Girls — was promoted as the first French gore movie. Even better — or worse — it comes in two versions. There are two versions: a horror version and an erotic version which has a different ending and is much longer, nudge nudge wink wink. Here, the living dead girls aren’t zombies, but instead just dressed up to commit their crimes. Those scenes are all missing in the horror version, which makes the movie that much more difficult to understand.
The film makes an attempt to be about the environment, but this is a film as subtle as someone dropping a car on your foot. Long story short: the CEO of a chemical company and his secretary take some shortcuts to get rid of chemical waste and somehow, it gets into milk. French girls love milk. French girls drink milk. French girls die. Then, the rest of the toxic waste is poured into the graveyard, which is never a good idea. French girls become French zombies.
Anyone that made milk better look out. These girls mean business. And if that means they have to bite off someone’s tallywhacker or shove a sword into someone’s panty hamster, they will. And they do.
Some say that Jean Rollin made this under the Pierre B. Reinhard pseudonym. If so, he was ripping his own Living Dead Girl off. I think that’s also wishful thinking, because I don’t know if Rollin could make a film this inept. Don’t take that the wrong way. So many critics of this film savage its acting, special effects and pacing. But they probably watched this alone when it demands to be viewed with a gang of inebriated, like-minded folks who don’t question why the zombie women suddenly decide to have a four-way lesbian makeout with one of their victims. Of course that happens. Why wouldn’t it? Instead, they throw around terms like gratuitous nudity, shameless trash and pointless drivel.
Obviously, if you’re reading Drive-In Asylum, you’ve either seen this or now I’ve pretty much talked you into it. I didn’t even get to the undead fetus in the bathtub, either, which has died because his father had a zombified hand and fooled around with his wife. Yep. It’s that kind of sick.
Also, to add to the open of this article, I now know that French zombies can think, plan and create traps. They also like to make out and play the pipe organ in churches, if you’re making a list at home. Because you should be. You never know when one of les morts ambulants is going to shamble in and try to make graveyard love to you.
Also known as Time Warp Terror, this movie was inspired by 1950’s horror films. On this island where the kids get trapped, it’s always 1959. It also has the band Cry No More all over it, lending it the perfect bit of 1980’s cheese that you may be looking for. Imagine The Beyond, but for kids. That’s pretty much what this is.
The final feature film directed by legendary British horror filmmaker Norman J. Warren (a long-time resident of the video nasty list), Bloody New Year is about a bunch of kids named Rick, Janet, Lesley, Spud and Tom, who save American tourist Carol from the bouncers and a ride operator of an amusement park. They end up stealing a boat and making their way to an island which has The Grand Island Hotel, a place where its always been New Year’s Eve 1959.
There’s even a movie theater that’s showing Fiend Without a Face, which plays before Spud gets offed. Actually, just like Shakespeare, everyone dies, becomes a zombie and all end up back at the New Year’s Eve party. Such is life and death in the resort areas of the U.K., I guess.
DAY 24: Short Attention Span Theater: Watch some shorts or anthology things.
Jeff Burr and fellow director Kevin Meyer dropped out of USC to finish their American civil war drama Divided We Fall. Bur would follow that up with this film, which somehow got Vincent Price on board.
So how’d that happen? Burr would tell Michael Varatti, “The producer and I got his address from a celebrity address service, and we went up to his door with the script and a bottle of wine in hand.”
Amazingly, they weren’t shown the door. In fact, Price himself answered it. “He had every reason to ignore us, and even if it was on a polite level, he could have said, “Okay boys, contact my agent,” but he was just so gracious. He invited us in, sat and talked with us for about 15 minutes, took the script, and that’s how it all started.”
Other than Dead Heat, this would be Price’s last horror role.
As for Burr, he’d go on to direct Stepfather II, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Puppet Master 4 and 5: The Final Chapter, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings and many more.
After watching an execution, reporter Beth Chandler travels to the small Tennessee town of Oldfield, where historian Julian White (Price) tells her four stories about the sinister past and present of the town.
First, a grocery clerk (Clu Gulager!) tries to win over his boss and all hell breaks loose. This segment may be why this movie was retitled The Offspring for its U.S. theatrical run.
Then, a wounded man (Terry Kiser, Bernie from Weekend At Bernie’s) learns the mysterious secret of eternal life.
In the third story — and perhaps the most intense — a glass eater falls for an innocent young girl and pays for it, thanks to his previous relationship with the carnival’s snake woman (Rosalind Cash, The Omega Man).
Finally, after a Civil War battle, Union Sgt. Gallen (Cameron Mitchell!) and his men discover that the town of Oldfield is populated by war orphans who they don’t take as seriously as they should.
Two-time Bond girl Martine Beswick — and Sister Hyde from Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde — shows up, as does Lawrence Tierney and Miriam Byrd Nethery (who would play Mama Sawyer in Burr’s Chainsaw film. It’s also the final role for Angelo Rossitto, who was Master in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, along with roles in Freaks, Galaxina, The Trip, Al Adamson’s Dracula vs. Frankenstein and so many more films.
While not as solid as an Amicus portmanteau, this certainly has its merits. You can check it out yourself on Vudu or order the blu ray from Shout! Factory.
DAY 14. S.T.D. Madness: No, not syphilitic symptoms! Science, Transformation & Dabbing; a cracked scientist’s creative palette.
Producer Sandy Howard (A Man CalledHorse, The Neptune Factor — look for that one in oh, a few hours on our site, The Devil’s Rain!, Meteor) had a three-picture deal with RCA-Columbia back in the glorious days of direct to video store movies. Along with Dark Tower (where Freddie Francis (numerous Hammer and Amicus favorites like Trog and Tales from the Crypt) and Ken Widerhorn (Shock Waves, Return of the Living Dead Part II,Eyes of a Stranger) combined forces to become Ken Barnett, directing Michael Moriarty and Jenny Agutter as they battled a haunted high rise) and Nightstick (in which a renegade cop and Leslie Nielsen battle terrorists), he dreamed up a ripoff of Aliens that would take place in a hospital that was called Green Monkey due to the theory that that’s where AIDS came from. Hey — it was 1987.
Helping matters was the 30% Canadian tax benefit, as long as the film was shot in the Great White North with mainly Canadian talent. That means that Saskatchewan native John Vernon is going to show up in most of these films. That’s a welcome thing in my eyes.
Marwellia Harbison is an old woman who loves her plants, but her Micronesian plant is drooping and when handyman Fred Adams inspects it, it pricks his finger. Soon, he collapses and she takes him to Hill Valley Hospital.
Doctors Rachel Carson (perhaps named for the Pittsburgh native whose book Silent Spring advanced the global environmental movement) and Judith Glass see the man and are shocked to discover he already has gangrene.
Ther next patient is the partner of Detective Jim Bishop (Steve Railsback, Helter Skelter, Turkey Shoot), who was shot point blank by criminals.
But back to Fred, who starts shaking and puking up a gigantic insect in pupa form, which they hospital techs put into a bell jar. For some reason, this hospital is also testing military-grade lasers and can analyze monstrous bugs that come out of the stomachs of old men. It’s really all things to all people, a deus ex machine for all seasons.
Marwella and the paramedic who helped Fred now have the same symptoms, and when Fred himself goes into cardiac arrest, the shock paddles cause his chest to explode in a torrent of blood. When the doctors all demand that the hospital be quarantined, hospital director Roger Levering (there’s that John Vernon role we’ve been waiting for!) refuses, as he doesn’t want to cause a panic.
Can things get worse? Of course. Remember that bug in the bell jar? Well, a lab tech is ordered to keep an eye on it, which she instantly forgets when her boyfriend brings the promise of weed and sex in the parking lot. Then, to compound matters, a group of sick kids decides to screw around and pour blue powder all over the beast. That blue powder ends up being some growth hormone, which of course was just lying around the lab. So now, in addition to the virus spreading throughout the hospital, there’s also a gigantic bug killing people left and right.
Can our heroes stop the bug — and the outbreak — before the government enacts the Return of the Living Deadprotocol and nukes the hospital from orbit? Well, you’re just going to have to watch for yourself.
Don Lake, who is in six different Christopher Guest movies and is the writing partner of Bonnie Hunt, shows up as an entomologist. And if you’re looking for cameos by people that you know you love, look no further than SCTV alums Robin Duke and Joe Flaherty (Pittsburgh’s own Count Floyd) who are a couple preparing to have a baby in the midst of this insectoid madness. And this is also one of the very first acting roles for Sarah Polley, who would go on to star in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. She’s one of the kids dumb enough to pour that blue growth powder all over that bug.
Blue Monkey is also known as Insect and Invasion of the Body Suckers, both of which have magnificent VHS box art.
So yeah. Blue Monkey. A movie that hasn’t been rediscovered and re-released as a $50 blu ray by a boutique label yet. Once you could rent it for 99¢, now you’ll pony up the big bucks for it. Until then, you can order it from VHSPS, which is where my copy came from.
DAY 666. THE DEVIL’S WORKSHOP: A mass, ritual or summoning scene celebrating the Dark Prince.
Holy shit, this movie.
The poster art for Necropolis has called out to me many times and I’ve just never found the time. Now, I’m sad that I didn’t get to this sooner. This movie can’t be from our Earth. It’s too odd to be made by human hands. It’s oddly perfect, the kind of movie that I become an evangelist about and beg people to watch it. Then, they never get it like I do and think I’m insane.
Thanks, Scarecrow Challenge.
Necropolis is a one and done movie written and directed by Bruce Hickie, who I assume is from some parallel Earth, because it’s the only way I can understand the creation of this film. It was originally released by Empire Pictures before Lightning Video put it out on VHS and then it was later re-released by Vestron. My copy came by way of Full Moon, whose Grindhouse line has been re-releasing some awesome stuff.
Sometime back in the 1600’s, a witch named Eva (LeeAnne Baker, who was in Breeders and Mutant Hunt looking like every punk rock dream of my teenage years) abducts Dawn from her wedding ceremony and attempts to sacrifice her to the Lords of the Flies before Henry, a former slave, breaks on in and banishes her to Hell. Eva lets everyone know that she’ll get her revenge.
Now, Eva has returned to the streets of New York, sexing and killing her way through all manner of victims to get her Devil’s Ring back from the reincarnated Henry, who is now a street preacher who helps junkies get off smack. Meanwhile, Dawn is back as a reporter — saying everything as deadpan as possible in a British accent — while Billy is a New York cop. Everyone in this movie is as stereotypical as possible except Eva, who is really the heroine of the film to me. I’m all for her wiping every single one of them off the face of the Earth, even if we never really get a reason and even when she does, it just means she gets to walk the streets of New York City and look cool smoking a cigarette.
Let me tell you, you’ve never seen a film where a street priest who has an office in a closet and uses crosses make of sticks to repel evil battles an evil witch — who looks like Tianna Collins or Lois Ayres — that eats the goo of human brains and then uses it to nurse demons from her six breasts.
There are all levels of acting in this movie. Some folks read their lines like legitimate actors while others are clearly reading off of a cue card plastered to the wall. The effect is kind of mesmerizing, to be honest.
Much like Night Killer, this is one of those movies where I was screaming at the screen “I love this movie!” within minutes of it starting. There are also moments in the movie where Eva just starts dancing for no reason and I love each and every time that happens. In fact, I wish she danced throughout the entire film. She spends most of the movie making people kill themselves or have sex with her, which of course ends with them dying.
Also, this movie was made with all the budget and aesthetic quality of a Rinse Dream or Dark Brothers adult film. I mean that as the highest of all compliments. Seriously, this is the movie that I will be forcing people to watch with me for the rest of the year and well beyond.
Full Moon is making a sequel/remake/reimagining of this later this year called Necropolis: Legion. It doesn’t look anywhere near as fun as the original, but there are lactating evil breasts with mouths for nipples in the trailer, so watch at work at your own peril.
As for Necropolis, You can watch this for free on Tubi or order it from Full Moon. Or, you know, just come over the house and watch it with me. Bring some beer.
Let’s not beat around the radioactive bush and go straight to the Def-Cons.
The Def-Con 3 caveat: Contrary to the VHS cover, the Russians do not “strike back.” Not by missiles. Not by a Red Dawn or Invasion USA invasion. It’s just Americans fighting Americans. There’s no Russian collusion; the enemy is within: his name is John Tillman.
The Def-Con 2 caveat: Don’t let the bogus post-apocalypse marketing and the multiple-alternate art works fool you. This isn’t a Mad Max swindle. This is a straight-up First Blood double-cross—with a pinch of Panic in the Year Zero (1962) and a love-triangle dash of The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (1958) because, well, you have to have a sex scene where a guy, whose wife’s dead body isn’t even cold—and facing the end of the world—must shimmy-sham his best friend’s wife. (Way to elicit our sympathies, John Rambo, uh, I mean, John Tillman.)
The Def-Con 1 caveat: I grew up reading the long-running, best-selling pulp-paperback series Mack Bolan: The Executioner. I also read a few of Jerry Ahern’s entertaining knock-off, The Survivalist, which concerns John Rourke, an ex-CIA operative turned weapons and survival expert, in the aftermath of a nuclear war. This run-of-the-mill action-film swindle is a straight-up double-cross. It’s not an adaptation of The Survivalist books (issue #1), as the producers faux-lead us to believe—although the film tells the exact same book-story. This Sly Stallone and Jerry Ahern screw job couldn’t be a more blatant copyright infringement if it was The Running Man sticking it to novelist Robert Sheckley’s (The 10th Victim) The Prize of Peril.
So, in a non-budget that wouldn’t cover the day’s catering bill on First Blood—or finance a day’s shooting on a Cirio H. Santiago Rambo-knock off—this post-non-apocalypse has no choice but to be set in the present with the same ol’ cars, architecture, and weapons . . . and a red text-on-black screen opening title sequence, followed by more words-on-screen telling us where we are, followed by National Guard maneuvers stock footage spliced-in with mushroom cloud stock footage, backed by voice-over narration, followed by more-words-on-screen telling us where we are.
We know where we are: Rambo land sans Stallone to class up the joint—and no Mark Gregory to Trash up the Bronx.
Wait a minute. I’m acting like a dickhead doomsayer loading in cases of Bandit and Snowman-smuggled Coors (we’re in Texas, after all), powdered milk and porno-mags into a 50-megaton bunker. This is a B&S Movies’ movie. This is one of your movies.
The Survivalist has it all: Two actors from multiple Stallone movies. Yakity-yak stock footage atomic bombs. The awesome Steve Railsback. Beer-swilling redneck hoards. Pansy rioting hoards of twelve people. More rioting hoards of those same twelve people. Bogus hospital rooms. Motorcycle rapist wimps. Epic maintain-the-speed-limit car chases. The über-cool Cliff De Young. Non-vehicular mayhem. Motorcycles don’t so much as crash; they fall over. Rogue army officers more concerned with murder and rape than restoring social order. No National Guard hardware, i.e., jeeps, trucks, transports, or helicopters. Camouflage fatigues off the rack at Bass Pro Shops. TV dream queen Susan Blakely. A National Guardsman biker gang because the movie couldn’t afford jeeps. One unarmed helicopter. Lots of driving. Lots of fishing. Lots of looking up at that one helicopter. Campfire tales. Campfire love. Faux-Harold Faltermeier Beverly Hills Cop synthesizer doodling. And, most importantly: Marjoe Gortner.
Hell, yeah. It’s a schlock-cinema dream come true.
It’s all about a “nuclear device detonation” in Siberia and the USA is blamed. Cold War mob rule ensues; the U.S suspends the Constitution and declares martial law. Why onenuc-accident in Russia (it could have been a power plant failure?)—with no retaliatory strikes on U.S soil—causes flag burnings and government shut downs of travel, bank closures . . . I know, I know. I’m over thinking the plot, again.
Meanwhile, back in a small town in Texas, Jack Tillman (Steve Railsback), an ex-CIA operative turned survivalist, and his pacifist doctor-friend Vincent (Cliff De Young), debate on the proper course of action as the same two-dozen dippy looters run rampant in the streets for TV sets and two cowering omega-cops (not baseball caps with “Police” patches again . . . Omega Copalert!) fail to maintain order.
Before Tillman can get his family the hell out of apoc-dodge to retrieve his son from a remote summer camp . . . (Oh, no. Here we go again: In typical apoc-fashion, the “Big One” drops and male hormones go into rape and murder mode; see the superior Ravagers and No Blade of Grass) . . . Tillman returns from getting cash n’ gas and finds his wife and daughter murdered. So he hits the road to rescue his son—in a beat-up, run-of-the-mill “Tillman Construction” pick-up truck with fishing poles (a guy’s gotta eat in an apocalypse!) and sans a machine gun turret—with Vincent and his nurse-wife Linda (Susan Blakely)—which sets up the ‘50s-era end-of-the-world “love triangle.”
Then the First Blood starts to flow in the form of a National Guardsman dickhead (instead of a town sheriff), and former Tillman Vietnam nemesis, Lt. Youngman (Marjoe Gortner; cloning his dickhead-rapist National Guardsman role in the 1972 disaster epic, Earthquake; 1972’s Marjoe). During the rioting, Tillman humiliates Youngman in a backhoe vs. motorcycle mishap; Youngman goes into Brian Dennehy-mode and his sole prime directive—as society falls apart—is to bring his arch-rival, Jack Tillman, to justice. The rest of society be damned and to hell with the Russians. Tillman must die. Call Troutman before someone gets hurt.
Overall, The Survivalist isn’t a bad movie; it’s not Survival 1990-inept. It’s just cheap and mediocre with a desperately needed injection of sadistic Mad Max craziness to elevate it beyond its flat TV movie-action trappings. You end up being pissed that the great Steve Railsback—as with Gary Lockwood in the somewhat similar Survival Zone—has to do these “films” to eat. Yep. Welcome to Blood City (1977), Keir Dullea.
(Did I just watch and review Survival 1990, Survival Zone, The Survivalist, and even Omega Cop, for the sake of B&S Movies? What’s wrong with me?)
Remember, you can also enjoy Steve Railsback in Lifeforce, Turkey Shoot, and Trick or Treats (all reviewed on B&S), Marjoe Gortner in Star Crash, Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw, Viva Knievel, and Mausoleum (all reviewed on B&S), and Cliff De Young in the video rental hits F/X (yes, Brian Dennehy!!), Flight of the Navigator, and Shock Treatment. And there’s Susan Blakely who, in addition to appearing in the ‘70s disaster hit, The Towering Inferno, worked with Sly Stallone three times: The Lords of Flatbush, Over the Top, and Capone.
The sad footnote to this film: It was the final film of the iconic David Wayne who, as always, brings his acting chops to the table in his cameo as a kind-curmudgeonly backwoods gas station owner. Wayne deserved better for his omega bow. The dude got his start alongside Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn in the hit comedy classic Adam’s Rib (1949), and the smart ‘70s sci-fi piece The Andromeda Strain, but is best known as the Mad Hatter on TV’s Batman.
Equally insulting: J. Kenneth Campbell, a great character actor and requisite TV heavy-dickhead (pick a series)—from the sci-fi hits The Abyss and Mars Attacks, and Sly Stallone’s Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot—is reduced to a perpetual television image (a pseudo voice-over narrator telling us what’s going on) as the White House Press Secretary.
The out-of-left-field projectile: The Survivalist was directed by Sig Shore, the producer of the Blaxploitation classic, Superfly (1972). He made his directing debut casting Harvey Keitel (?) as a record producer cavorting with Earth, Wind & Fire (?) in the 1975 disco-fucked musical, That’s the Way of the World (aka Shining Star). His fifth and final film was the nobody-asked-for-it-and-nobody-saw-it-sequel-because-it-didn’t-have-Ron O’Neal: The Return of Superfly (1990; because of the big studio Shaft reboot with Samuel L. Jackson).
And that’s why a VHS fringe-freak like me watched The Survivalist: I love ‘70s blaxploitation and music films—and Sig made one of each. So he gets a pass on wasting an hour thirty minutes of my life . . . and Sam the Bossman’s (but spare Becca, the “B” of it all). And yours.
So, you still don’t believe this one has it all?
Well, see for yourself: a VHS rip is uploaded on You Tube. And that’s the only way to see it, since it’s out of print, the VHS is ultra-rare, and it’s not available on DVD. And, even though the film has nothing to do Ahern’s The Survivalist pulp series, you can check out this listing of all 33 titles and, yikes, Wikipedia has the 4-1-1 on all of the books, and then some.
Or, may we suggest you can pass this Rambo 40.0 . . . and visit with the original Rambo, now back in theatres with Rambo: Last Blood?
Uh, oh. Are these alternate titles and artwork? Nope.
Not to be confused with . . .
Or with . . .
Our two-part apoc blow out!
March 2020 Update: Sad news to report. Thanks to McSmith and his site The Books That Time Forgot, we’ve come to learn than Bob Anderson, the main writer for the revived series of The Survivalist books, passed away this January at the age of 72. McSmith loves his Ahern books, he reviews them all, HERE.
Godspeed, Mr. Anderson. Thanks for the cool reads!
December 2022 Update: B&S About Movies’ reader Mark Brett, who is part of the Shore family tree, provided us with some additional insights to the film:
“Sig’s son Michael was married to my sister, so I’d met Sig several times. He actually gave me a VHS copy of Jack Tillman: The Survivalist and a movie poster of it, along with a [press kit promo] poster from Sudden Death [1985; stars Denise Coward from the U.S. daytime TV drama The Edge of Night, as well as Brett Piper’s Galaxy Destroyer].
“Sig’s sons played the rapists in the movie; his son Michael was the guy who killed Cliff DeYoung, and Michael Shore is listed incorrectly as “Michael Mayfield” on IMDb. As far as the other credits: Barbara Shore, Sig’s wife, helped with a lot of the writing and manners obviously were changed so it didn’t just look like a SHORE-fest on the credits.
“The actual vehicle Steve Railsback was driving [the Tillman Construction” truck we called out] was an Isuzu Trooper. Michael said, if I remember correctly, he picked it up from a California dealer and drove it about 4 hours to the set. He also said Marjoe was a good guy on the set.
“That said, as far as the “writing” goes: they pretty much made up everything while watching TV in bed on the last few films, according to my sister Lisa. Sig was putting a movie together called Tommy and the Ghost—a really horrible movie. I was asked to be the stunt guy for the kid on the dirtbike who races Tommy. They wanted a few jumps; Sig just asked what some of the types of jumps are called, and he threw them into this movie—without actual showing what they were supposedly doing. I only saw the movie once on my sister’s VHS copy. It was BAD!
“Michael Shore used to do sound editing years ago. I just wish I could’ve discussed movies more with Sig and Michael. I believe Steven Shore was in the film industry for a while, as well.
“All this said: I watch all these horrible movies for the same reasons [you do]. So, I figured I’d share some minor insights on Jack Tillman: The Survivalist.”
Our thanks to McSmith and Mr. Brett for their kindness; for using social media and blogging/comment platforms in a positive light to express their joy of books and film.We appreciate your positive reinforcement of our efforts to preserve films such as The Survivalist for others to discover.Hey, someone has to coddle lost and forgotten films like UFO Target Earth and The Spirits of Jupiter.Working together, we can make it happen!
About the Author: You can read the music and film reviews of R.D Francis on Medium and learn more about his work on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Movies.
Steel Dawn has a pretty great post-apocalyptic pedigree. Brian May — not the Queen guitarist — who did the music for the first two Mad Max films wrote the score. Anthony Zerbe, who was Matthias in The Omega Man, shows up as does Brion James, who was Leon Kowalski in Blade Runner, and Christopher Neame, who was in No Blade Of Grass.
And then we have Patrick Swayze as the hero, Nomad. Yes. Swayze.
Nomad was once a soldier, but his family was tortured and killed. Now, he wanders the desert, seeking the killer of his mentor and seeking revenge for his family. This brings him to the town of Meridian, where he learns how to be a farmer as he works alongside Kasha (Swayze’s real life wife Lisa Niemi), her son Jux (Brett Hool — trust me, between the producer, director and one of the stars, this was a Hool family project) and her foreman Tark (James).
Damnil (Zerbe), a local landowner and his gang — which coincidentally includes the man that Nomad wants revenge on, Sho (Neame), want a monopoly on the water supply. It just so happens that Kasha has a source of pure water that she plans to give to the entire valley. Hijinks ensue — Tark is killed, Jux is kidnapped and Nomad kills everyone before walking off alone.
Like all the smart post-apocalyptic films, this movie realizes that it shouldn’t be ripping off Mad Max, but should instead rip off Westerns like Shane. The scenery makes up for a lot of the plot’s shortcomings, particularly the desert scenes. There’s one astounding visual where Nomad walks past a shipwreck partially buried in the desert. That ship is supposedly the Eduard Bohlen, a cargo ship that wrecked off Namibia’s Skeleton Coast in 1909.
There are some days when I wake up and don’t want to do anything but watch the films of Cirio Santiago. Seeing as how he produced 64 films and directed 105, so either I need to not do anything like work for awhile or just be content in the fact that I will always have a new film from him to enjoy.
Cirio made a ton of post-apocalyptic films. This is but one of them, all about a gun that can change the balance of power. It’s called — you guessed it — the Equalizer 2000. It’s no Blastfighter, but what is?
Three groups of people — Ownership, the Rebels, and the Mountain People — are battling for the control of the future after the bomb. Slade (Richard Norton, who played himself in Abba: The Movie, which I now must hunt for, and the Prime Imperator in Mad Max: Fury Road) was once one of the Ownership, but when his dad is killed, he goes off on his own. That leads to him making the titular gun along with Karen (Corinne Alphen — yes, she was once Corinne Wahl — the June 1978 and August 1981 Penthouse Pet of the Month and 1982 Pet of the Year; she’s now a professional Tarot card reader). That brings them into conflict with Deke (Robert Patrick!).
According to the absolutely astounding Internet Movie Firearms Database, the Equalizer is “based on a Colt Model 653 carbine (most likely Colt/Elisco Tools Model 653P, Philippine license-manufactured version), fitted with an M203 grenade launcher, a pair of overhead shotgun barrels and a pair of bottom mounted missile launchers. The launchers doesn’t produce muzzle flash when firing, and the hissing sound is akin to a compressed air blast.”
At the end of the movie, the Equalizer is destroyed and hot, wet manly tears burned down my face. But I wasn’t crying. I just had some radioactive sand in my eyes.
On the Code Red Blu-ay release of this movie, writer and actor Frederick Bailey says that he was inspired by Anthony Mann’s Winchester 73 as he wrote this film. You can grab that from Kino Lorber or watch this for free on Tubi and Amazon Prime.
Steve De Jarnatt has exactly three theatrical movies on his resume and all three are unique and intriguing works of art. Strange Brew, the blend of Hamlet and Canadian humor starring Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as their SCTV characters Bob & Doug McKenzie, was his first writing credit. Miracle Mile, in which Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham fall in love on the last day of mankind, went unmade for nearly a decade after De Jarnatt wrote it. He bought it back and ended up directing it himself, fighting to keep the film’s tone and downer ending intact. Beyond Cherry 2000, he’s spent most of the rest of his career in television — he wrote the X-Files episode “Fearful Symmetry” — as well as his short story “Rubiaux Rising” appearing in the 2009 edition of The Best American Short Stories.
In the future of 2017, America suffering through an economic crisis brought about by the end of manufacturing. Sound familiar? Well, at least we haven’t seen the country broken down into city states and lawless lands in between.
Society has become so legalized and hypersexualized that all encounters need legal contracts written before they can happen. That’s why most men rely on female Gynoids as romantic partners. Anton LaVey would have loved how this apocalypse ended up.
Business executive Sam Treadwell is one of those men. The love of his life — after a bad breakup — is a Cherry 2000 model (Pamela Gidley, who was also in Thrashin’, The Blue Iguana and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me). But after she breaks down after getting wet, she’s damaged beyond repair. Her memory disk can bring her back, as long as he can find a body in the lawless Zone 7. And for that, he’ll need a tracker.
Edith Johnson (Melanie Griffith) is that person, one of the toughest trackers around. Of course, she’s also beyond gorgeous and melted down my 15-year-old brain the first time I saw this (between Body Double and Something Wild, I think we can see how I ended up with a short-haired blonde firecracker for a wife).
To get Cherry back, our heroes will have to go up against the wasteland overlord Lester (an amazing Tim Thomerson), who is more self-improvement guru and 1950’s household devotee than military commander. It also turns out that Sam’s ex-girlfriend Elaine is one of Lester’s many wives, now calling herself Ginger. The group wants Sam to join after it seems like he’s the lone survivor of their attack, but Edith returns to save him.
You can see where this is all going to end up. Sam’s going to understand that he needs a flesh and blood relationship and Edith’s hard exterior is going to fall away once she realizes that Sam is stronger than she thinks. But getting there is most of the fun and this film, which confounded Orion Pictures with its combination of genre and tone, is pretty much forgotten. That’s a shame.
Cherry 2000has some great casting, beyond Thomerson and Griffith, who shine in their roles. Cowboy actors Harry Carey Jr. and Ben Johnson (The Last Picture Show, The Wild Bunch, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Terror Train and so many more) also appear, with this being the ninth film that they acted in together. And keep an eye out for Marshall Bell (Kuato’s host in Total Recall and the evil coach in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge), Laurence Fishburne as a lawyer and perennial baddie Brion James.
If you can find this strange little movie — it went unreleased for years until Griffith became a star with Working Girl — do so. I was lucky to find a DVD for way less than it should be and cherish it. It’s currently playing for free on the Pluto TV channel. If you own a Roku or Apple TV, Pluto TV is absolutely essential.
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