Originally meant to be directed by John Carl Buechler and star Jack Palance, budget woes changed things up and this ended up being made by Emmett Alston (Nine Deaths of the Ninja, New Year’s Evil) on board and George Kennedy — who stipulated that his daughter Shannon must have a role, that he’d only be on set for three days and that he’d get $15,000 for his work.
Jack Bergman has led four of his friends — Fred Proctor, Carrie Austin, Cindy Ossman* and Tom Phillips (Billy Jacoby!) — to his uncle’s cabin for a weekend of booze, sex and hijinks. That was the plan, but the truth is that his uncle was taken away by a sasquatch and a woman killed right in the place where they’re supposed to be hanging and banging.
Then there’s Bill Crafton (Kennedy), an angry older man who is both the crazy man warning them all to stay out of the woods and the tough elder seeking his missing daughter. After the girls get naked, the beast attacks and wipes out everyone but Jack, Carrie and Cindy, who survive the night only to have to wander a path back to civilization.
If you’re like, “Oh cool, another Bigfoot slasher ala Night of the Demon,” just stay tuned.
That’s when they meet Tara (Kennedy’s daughter Shannon) and Betsy (Michelle Bauer!), who are seeking a field of marijuana, which leads to Bauer getting nude — shock of shocks! — and zombies showing up. That’s when this movie goes off the rails, seemingly throwing everything you’ve ever seen in ten horror movies, proving you a 5 for $5 for 5 nights rental experience all in one film.
Shot in the Bronson Cave section of Griffith Park — a setting for many a science fiction and horror film and TV show — Demonwarp then piles on everything it can, like space devil worshippers in a giant UFO experimenting on teenagers, zombies in The Residents t-shirts, George Kennedy running around and Bauer remaining naked for nearly the entire time she’s on screen, as well as a trick ending.
You ever put Chinese food on top of a pizza and then dunk it into a bowl of chili? This film Taco Towns that concept and throws you a crepe, some gruyere cheese, a layer of special guacomolito sauce, wraps it in a corn husk filled with pico de gallo and then layers it with zombies, a Bigfoot who looks more like a gorilla, shoots it all in broad daylight and serves it up in a commemorative tote bag filled with spicy vegetarian chili.
More movies should be this wild.
You can watch this on YouTube.
*Note that Bergman, Proctor, Ossman and Austin’s last names are all taken from members of the Firesign Theater.
I thought I knew what a necromancer looked like. I kind of thought it would look like Orson Welles in robes for some reason, but now I know that it looks like an 80’s girl in a unitard and a red headband and I feel much safer with that knowledge. Said necromancer is practicing her magic in a garage, slicing up women with axes and making the bikes of nerds go bye bye.
Her skills will come in handy when our heroine, Julie (Elizabeth Kaitan, who slasher fans will tell you was in Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 and Friday the 13th Part VII, but some people will blush and whisper, “She was also Candy in Vice Academy 3 through 6.”) is assaulted by a trio of horrible folks in a movie theater while the security guard is sailing a solo voyage down the seas of mayonnaise in the rest room. She refuses to go to the cops, but when she and her friend Freda see an ad that catches their eye: “Sometimes revenge is the only justice. I, and not others of this world can help. Contact the power. Call (213) Revenge.”
Lisa the Necromancer only charges $20 for her services, which will come in handy when our heroine has to go to a party at the home of one of the men who assaulted her, Paul. Why she’d go to this, much less put up with the sexual harassment of her professor Charles DeLonge (Russ Tamblyn!) is beyond me. Let’s blame 1988 direct to video movies and the fact that they were made to get young boys to rent them more than being concerned with changing the language and actions that we use to interface with one another. Actually, this one does more than most to advance the conversation — while still featuring plenty of nude male ass and female breasts.
From a scene with a band playing music, as all great 80’s movies must have, to blood coming out of faucets, castrations and spray painted pentagrams, nearly every frame of this movie seems calculated to please me.
What put this in front of my eyes instead of another film was that it’s basically a demonic I Spit On Your Grave and the fact that it was directed by Dusty Nelson, who made Effects, and written by William T. Naud, who directed Island of Blood/Whodunit. Much like that movie, you can also get this from Vinegar Syndrome.
Joe Spinell’s last film, this movie was never released to theatres or to video and the only known copy belonged to the actor best known for his role in Maniac. This was a bootleg for years until Code Red put out a version in 2010 that was padded with public domain footage to increase its length. Vinegar Syndrome re-released it in 2016 without that footage.
Uncle Roscoe (Spinell) attends community college during the day and kills women at night, saving their body parts in his basement, Spinell is, of course, the best part of this movie, acting completely unhinged and making what should be a typical film into anything but just by the ability of his performance.
His nephew Nicky joins Pam, who is one of his professors and her roommate Mandy to figure out what Roscoe is up to. But soon, the hunters become the hunted and pay the price.
Even Spinell at the end of his life, struggling through making this movie, is better than anything most actors will do on their best day. Seeing him cry and try to talk to a corpse is at once heartbreaking and hilarious.
Director Frank Avianca is actually a pseudonym for the following four people: Screenwriter William James Kennedy, cinematographer Richard E. Brooks (the cinematographer for DarkAugust, Teenage Mother and Creating Rem Lazar) and producers Steve Bono and Frank Avianca (writer and producer of Blood Song) all of whom had a hand in directing this film.
Day 19: Beyond the Darkness: Watch one with a love story. There’s more than one way to get mushy! (But this also a “two-fer,” as it qualifies as an October “Slasher Month” entry!)
Once more unto the ’80s SOV breach, dear trash video friends, once more, we go — with a film that, for me, works as a homage to the violent n’ gritty, self-destructive characters of Abel Ferrara’s (The App) initial, “video nasty” one-two punch of The Driller Killer and Ms. 45. If you’re familiar with the Ferrara canons — even with his later, more commercial films, such as Fear City and Bad Lieutenant — you know his films are all about the faith and redemption of screwed-up people making do in a screwed-up world.
So goes the life of Danny and Goose (Paul Harper and writer-director Jim Van Bebber) in a tale we’ve seen many times before: The leader of the Ravens wants out to create a better life for him and his girl — and after one, last job, he’s done (as in the recently reviewed The Good Things Devils Do). But once you’re in “the life,” you’re never out. So when the members of a rival gang kill his woman in spite of his wanting to leave the life, Goose is out for an over-the-top, video game-styled revenge (the love-gushy Scarecrow Video part!), full knowing that his bloody rage (that will remind the underground SOV connoisseur of Buddy Giovinazzo’s 1984 debut Combat Shock) will, most likely, leave him dead by dawn. (Don’t believe me? The dudes at the Sleazoids Podcast You Tube paired Combat Shock and Deadbeat at Dawn into one review-show.)
Now, you may have seen that described tale before . . . but not one that’s directed by Jim Van Bebber, baby. His outlandish scripting is supported by kinetic camera work capturing some of the most over the top, slasher-inspired splatter (it’s “Slasher Month” all this month B&S!) that rivals the worst (or best?) of the Italian cannibal genre-boom of the ’70s and ’80s. Seriously. That’s it. That’s the plot. A simple set up giving reason for Goose to set out on revenge — and Goose cutting an ultra-violent swath across the city without reason — well, actually, “for love,” right? This shite that goes down . . . dude, Patrick Swayze would shite his pants in the Road House* that Brad Wesley built. If Road House was made in the grindhouse ’70s — and slapped with an “X,” it would be Deadbeat at Dawn.
So, how did we come to review this SOV classic from Jim Van Bebber? (Yes, it was shot on 16mm, but it’s all about the “vibe” of it all; I lump Don Dohler into the SOV-doms — even though he shot on 16mm and blew ’em to 35. There’d be no SOV ’80s* without Don’s pre-video store, drive-era influences.) Well, first off, I went down an SOV rabbit hole with a review of Curse of the Blue Lights, Jugular Wine, and Taintedfor “Vampire Week” and Snuff Kill and Dead Girls for our month-long slasher-horror blow out for October. (Nope, we didn’t forget Blood Cult and Spine, already reviewed ’em!) Then, there’s my upcoming October review for the (not really starring) John Doe flick, 1997’s Black Circle Boys.
Now, if you know that Satanic-not-so-metal flick, you know that it’s based on inspired by the murderous, 1984 exploits of Ricky Kasso (which also, in part, fueled the scripting of 1986’s River’s Edge; a “Psychotronic Month” review is on the way later this month!). And that, in conjunction with one’s Van Bebber fandom, knows that, for his second film, he wrote, directed, and starred in one of the most unforgettable short films of all time, My Sweet Satan (1994). His loose take on David St. Clair’s 1987 expose Say You Love Satan, it tells the story of 17-year-old Ricky Kasso (Van Bebber) and the murderous exploits of the Knights of the Black Circle, which resulted in the sacrifice-death of his friend, Gary Lauwers.
Oh, and there’s the Rocktober Blood part of the equation. . . .
It’s just another one of those analog-celluloid alignment of the stars at B&S About Movies that makes all the overworked and underpaid writing worthwhile. So we noticed an unusual uptick in views for, not only for our secondRocktober Blood review-take (written in tribute to the death of Nigel Benjamin), but for our investigation of the lost sequel, Rocktober Blood 2: Billy’s Revenge, as part of our “Box Office Failures” week of reviews.
So we hit Google and Bing. Something’s up with Rocktober Blood. Why all of this sudden flurry of hits? Did Paul Zamerelli, over at the Analog Archivist on You Tube, discover something new about the film? Nope. It turns out Petar Gagic over at The Cine-Masochist on You Tube churned up the blood pool on the “No False Metal Classic” (check out our “No False Metal Week” of reviews) with an affectionate, August 14, 2020, review of Rocktober Blood.
Of course, Petar’s brain works like Paul’s, which works like Sam’s, which works like Bill Van Ryn’s, and works like mine’s: the movies just start bleeding together. So, after mentioning the controversy over the failed production of Rocktober Blood 2, Petar’s review logically dovetailed into the controversy between Synapse and Jim Van Bebber regarding the DVD reissue of Deadbeat by Dawn.
Now, if you know your underground SOV cinema, you know all about the infamous Van Bebber voice mails. And you know that the You Tube upload of those calls has long since vanished. But thee ye analog overloads inspired Petar to make a copy — which he included on the tail end (stars at 12:15, for those of you that never heard it) of his Rocktober Blood review. So, it seems, Petar inspired the denizens of the video fringe to Google n’ Bing “Rocktober Blood” once more — 35-plus years later — and they ended up at B&S About Movies.
And, with that final nail in the coffin, so to speak, the spirits from the netherworld spoke: “Ye must write a review of Deadbeat by Dawn, for it has been foretold. If ye doeth not, Jim Van Bebber will kick thou ass and leave not ye a skin cell or corpuscle to be found.”
So, hey, I do not fuck around with the netherworlds, as I have enough problems in my life. So I ye do as they commandeth. For it has been told that for every person that doeth heard of Deadbeat by Dawn, there is the one that hath not. And ye all must bow to the SOV majesty that is the work of Jim Van Bebber.
Amen. I’ve love fucking writing fucking film reviews for this fucking site!
You can stream Deadbeat at Dawn on You Tube. True Van Bebber fans can watch the film — along with his shorts My Sweet Satan, Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin, Doper, Kata, Into the Black — in a convenient, one-stop streaming package from Shudder through Amazon Prime. It’s a well-shot, imaginative, over the top movie. Put it on your short list of films that you must watch before making your final, mightily stomps on the terra firma. Or Van Bebber will kick thou ass into oblivion.
Even truer Bebber fans — and aren’t we all — can check out this 2003 Shock Movie Massacre Interview with, wait, is that Dave Wyndorf of Monster Magnet? Nope, that’s Jim!
* Be sure to check out our four-part interview with Road House director Rowdy Herrington. And be sure to check out our reviews of River’s Edge and Black Circle Boys for our deep dive into the life of the sick f*ck that brought us here: Ricky Kasso. And we’ve recently reviewed the Kasso documentary, The Acid King.
* Click through our SOV tag to read our ever-growing list of reviews regarding shot-on-video films from their ’80s VHS-birth to the digital and phone-shot brethren of today.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Movies.
Based on a 1924 German film, Waxwork is the kind of baffling video rental film that I can’t get enough of. Written and directed by Anthony Hickox (Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth), it’s all about a wax museum that’s filled with the of course they’re really alive figures of the eighteen (6+6+6) most evil beings to ever be*, which would be the Marquis de Sade, a werewolf, Count Dracula along with his brides and son, a golem, an axe murderer, an alien, a sort of Audrey 3 talking venus flytrap, the Phantom of the Opera, The Mummy, zombies, Frankenstein’s monster, Jack the Ripper, The Invisible Man, a voodoo priest, a witch, a snakeman, Rosemary’s Baby himself and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
As an economical video renting teen, this movie always seemed like a good deal, because you got everything you wanted out of multiple rentals all for the same price.
If I can give you any advice, if David Warner invites you to his wax museum — or if a silver masked man gives you free passes for a matinee — don’t go. Because he has no good intentions.
The kids in this movie ignore this advice and soon, we have Mark Loftmore (Zach Galligan, Gremlins), China Webster (Michelle Johnson, Beaks: The Movie), Sarah Brightman (Deborah Foreman, Valley Girl, April Fools Day), Gemma (Clare Carey, Zombie High), James (Eric Brown, Buzz from Mama’s Family) and Tony (Dana Ashbrook, Bobby Briggs from Twin Peaks) being menaced by all manner of beasts.
As they walk through the wax museum, each installation transforms into a window into another dimension filled with danger. Tony is attacked by a werewolf (John Rhys-Davies) and ultimately killed by a hunter before the werewolf curse takes hold of him. China is turned into a bloodsucker by Dracula (Miles O’Keeffe, Ator himself!). Only Mark and Sarah survive.
A police detective starts investigating the wax museum but he’s soon killed by mummies, just as Sarah pretty much tells Mark that she likes him but it just doesn’t feel right. It’s really a mixed message. But still, better than being killed by undead Egyptians.
Mark’s grandfather, as it turns out, was killed by Warner’s character, but he has the support of the town’s elders, led by Sir Wilfred (Patrick Macnee). They must set the wax museum ablaze if they want to save reality, which means Sarah getting tied up by the Marquis de Sade and whipped, another example of the phenomena where I explain that this scene was for foreign markets to my head shaking wife.
If it hasn’t come through, I love that the characters are watching Dawn of the Dead, which gets homaged in the sequel. As for Mark’s house, it’s the same home from Ben, Willard, Elvira Mistress of the Dark and Witchboard.
You have to love a movie with end credits that say “Dedicated to Hammer, Argento, Romero, Dante, Landis, Spielberg, Wells, Carpenter, Mom and Dad, and many more…”
*The original script had the children from Village of the Damned, Jason Vorhees and The Thing in the wax museum. If this was made in Italy, the legal usage of those characters would not matter at all to the filmmakers. For what it’s worth, Jason sort of shows up, as Kane Hodder played Frankenstein’s monster.
Known as Evil Clutch in the U.S., this film translates as The Forest 1, with the number referring to the proliferation of sequels in its native Italy at the time. Written and directed by Andrea Marfori, it’s the story of an American student and her Italian boyfriend on vacation who run afoul of a female hitchhiker who is truly a demon.
It’s pretty much an even lower-budget version of Evil Dead, with the demonic witch having googly eyes, an exposition spouting horror author who speaks with a crazy voicebox, a town where monsters are coming back because we’ve forgotten about them, as well as decapitations and hand removals that would give George Lucas a mitachlorian-rich wet dream.
You’d think I’d like an Italian movie filled with blood and body organs that makes no sense more than I like this movie, but even I can recognize when something is coming together at all. It’s the kind of movie that probably sent Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni back into the loving arms of Argento films, happy for their comparatively high level of narrative cohesion.
Dutch director Dick Maas started his career directing the videos for Golden Earring, including “Twilight Zone” and “When the Lady Smiles,” which was controversial as it showed a man about to assault a nun. He moved into feature films, including the comedic Flodder and The Lift. He’s also known for the American version of The Lift, which was called Down, and the absolutely deranged holiday movie Sint.
This film is at the crossroads of giallo and slasher, using the canals of Amsterdam instead of Venice to create a place where the killer can appear at seemingly any time and place to murder at will.
The film starts with a bravura scene of violence, as a prostitute is murdered and then her body, hung above a bridge, literally rains blood on to a boat full of tourists.
What keeps it from being giallo and pushes it toward slasher is the fact that its protagonist is not a stranger in a strange land, but instead Eric Visser, a detective struggling to be a single father while solving cases around Holland’s capital.
And what pushes it even further into slasher territory is the film’s propensity to deliver on the gore, from decapitated heads to bloody kills. The antagonist is so brutal that one of the witnesses refers to him as a monster that came out of the water.
That said, where it does flirt with the giallo are the sheer number of red herrings that this movie throws at you, which makes sense, as Holland’s fishing industry continually lands plenty of them from the nutrient-rich coastal waters of the North Sea.
DAY 2. SLUMBER PARTY: Watch one with a sleepover in it.
If you’re going to watch a slumber party, why not one that promises to be the final one?
I mean, just listen to this sell copy: “The plot is twisted inside out, leaving you stunned and clinging to your chair as you witness shock after horrifying shock. The ending will leave you breathless. And now, the blood flows like wine.”
Six popular teens and a science nerd plan on spending three months of partying when a parent goes away, but said parent is also a doctor who was planning on lobotomizing a mental patient who has stolen a scalpal and headed to get some pre-emptive payback. Steve Tyler wrote, directed and stars in this and it’s the only movie where not one, but two maniacs in scrubs wipe out teenagers.
It’s also among the worst movies I’ve ever seen, which seems like an astounding effort after the double digit Jess Franco movies that I’ve put myself through.
Also the killer’s name is Mr. Randles, which does not randle off the tongue quite like Jason Vorhees or Michael Myers.
This is a movie that has three endings while also being shot on video and film at the very same time. No, it’s not going for a mixed media effect. It’s just inept, which makes me kind of love it in the way you fall for the biggest charity case in the dog pound. But man, it does have a nice poster.
You may be astounded by the sheer volume of anti-homosexual slurs in this movie. And guess what — the ones saying it are supposed to be the heroes! And then there’s the dream sequence which has nothing to do with anything else before or after that seems like it could be one of the many endings to this movie.
You can watch the Rifftrax version of this on Tubi. Bring all the alcohol and drugs you have to survive this last slumber event or perhaps just watch Slumber Party Massacre II. The movie comes and goes from You Tube, but here’s non-age restricted sign-ins HERE and HERE.
For my money, Cyndi Lauper was way ahead of Madonna before she took some time off. But such is the fickle world of pop music. One day, you’re she bopping with The Goonies and a few months later, you’re struggling for relevance. That said, judging by the crowds on the last tour Cyndi did — remember tours — she did just fine.
Between Follow That Bird, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Dunston Checks In, director Ken Kwapis has done pretty well for himself too. Here, he places Lauper — thanks to a script by Babaloo Mandell and Lowell Ganz — into Romancing the Stone territory by way of ESP. She plays Sylvia Pickel, whose spirit guide Louise has guided her since falling off a ladder at the age of twelve.
Her opposite number is Jeff Goldblum’s Nick Deezy, who can tell the history of objects by touching them. They get along like oil and water at first, but come on. This is a 1988 movie that will surely have some romantic sparks before it’s all over.
This has Julian Sands as a potentially evil doctor, ancient aliens stealing psychic power, Peter Falk as the man who pays for the adventure and great character actors like Steve Buscemi and Van Dyke Parks in small roles.
Originally described as Romancing the Ghostbusters in the Temple of Doom, Vibes was going to originally pair Lauper with Dan Aykroyd. Now that I would have liked to have seen.
Despite starting her career starring in erotic films, Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel became known as Xuxa, the Queen of Children. With messages like “Want, Power and Reach!”, “Believe in Dreams” and “Drugs do Bad,” Xuxa has left a mark on the hearts and minds of kids all over the world in the same way that her Xuxa Kiss left lipstick on their faces. Her American-produced Xuxa show seems like the most action-packed, frenzied show of all time and sadly only lasted 65 episodes on The Family Channel. I’ve watched nearly all of them on YouTube and am thrilled that I was able to find this movie. Xuxa may not be well-known here, but in Brazil — and worldwide — she’s more than a star.
This movie is, to be perfectly honest, pure drugs.
Xuxa has angered the villain Baixo Astral — or Satan or the Bad Mood — by asking children to color the world. Working with his henchman Titica and Morcegão, he kidnapped her dog Xuxa, who yes, is really a puppet.
Xuxa, with the helmet of a turtle, a pink dolphin and a caterpillar, crosses through the River of Delusion, the Tree of Knowledge and all manner of traps to win the day, even if she’s tempted to the dark side.
As Xuxa would say, “I want to know if stars don’t fall from the sky, if somebody can answer what there is to fear?” If that makes sense to you, you’re going to love this movie as much as I do.
If Labyrinth wasn’t weird enough for you, perhaps this will be.
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