Final Exam 1981 (the GOLDEN year for the SLASHER film)

Jimmy Houston gives us something a little different than your normal slasher fare. A lot of people think the character development and the time it took the director to give us insight on our characters detracts from the film, making it seem like a talky television movie. In some respects this is quite true.While going a different direction in regards to characters, Houston still gives us the already clichéd shot of two love bird co-eds getting all hot and sweaty in the back seat of 'jock boy's' car. Familiar territory already.Wouldn't you know it? After the star quarterback for his college football team finally talks his date into the back seat, someone starts fucking with them - pushing and bumping the car. The dude's first instinct is that it was probably one of his jealous team mates, but he soon figures out it probably isn't when someone jumps on the hood of his car and slices a huge hole in the canopy of quarterback's convertible with a big butcher's knife. He then realizes he should get the hell out of Dodge and jumps in the front seat, but is quickly jerked through the hole in the canopy and manhandled onto the hood of the car. The killer lunges his silvery bladed butcher's knife deep into quarterbacks chest as his girlfriend watches in horror

We then witness a close-up of the screaming chic in the back seat. The camera zooms in on her ugly face while her annoying scream goes on until our next fade in.It's the next day and a group of co-ed acquaintances are discussing the murders that took place at the rival college. (ala Scream) There's a pretty uplifting vibe to the film already, as the characters make jokes and make light of the situation. One of the Frat boys going as far as to say that since the star quarterback from the rival team was now dead, "they might have a chance to take them."During this short little opening to introduce our main characters, we get to learn a lot about them already. We realize that they're seemingly normal (well, all except for Radish who's obviously a closet homo) people with thoughts and feelings like the rest of us sub-humans.Mark, one of the football-jock-frat boy-pricks is even cool in his own right. Final exams are there and he needs to pass, but like most red blooded Americans he plans to cheat because he didn't study. Well, I guess you could call it cheating. I'm not going to go into detail because this is ultimately a great surprise in the movie. Let's just say that I thought Houston was going to give us a morsel of slasherness and shy away from it, giving us a 'Red Dawn' rip-off instead.Nevertheless, we have our virginal heroine, Courtney. Everyone loves her, but she can't find the right person. She's the one who'll let you cheat off her even though she's contemplating your murder in her mind. There's the serial killer freak who has a poster of the Toolbox Murders up in his dorm room. He always drinks Irish whiskey at the end of the term, and probably would prefer Courtney if she were a man. We have our fat coach who lives his dreams through his students when he could still do a single push-up. There's a drunken security guard who'll get your goat. There's a whole slew of likable characters to root for.I almost forgot to mention that there's hardly any bloodshed in this movie, and not until forty-five minutes after our opening sequence does anyone come into contact with the killer. BUT, all is not in vain. This film has loads of atmosphere to keep it on the right slasher track.

 It indeed is talky throughout, and plays off like a television drama at times, but it delivers on a larger level during the last thirty minutes. The finale is really well done. We get to see glimpses of the killers face, which is basically an ordinary man in a green army jacket.The lighting is very well done and the setting of the school added more gloom and doom to the situation. There's also some very good camera work in regards to certain shots - The 'Shining-esque' shot of Courtney walking down the long hallway after she finds Radish's face smashed through a door. Some very good stuff.What's the motive for the killer's murderous rage? Well, it never answers that question. We're left wondering why he chose to stalk college campuses in his black van and ultimately butcher coeds like they molested him when he was a kid or something. I should be pissed at this idea, but the open ending rings true on the same bell as Halloween. (Not to mention the similar piano score) Maybe the producers got a little ahead of themselves thinking they had a gem on their hands, thus the obvious sequel. Aside from all the obvious detractions, Final Exam still works for me.

The Boogeyman 1980

The movie begins with the 'Halloween-esque' shot of a quaint suburban home, all nestled quietly against beautiful lush scenery and ambiant darkness. Faint blues are used throughout, giving us the impression that something sinister is about to happen inside.

The camera latches still on the curious young faces of Willy and Lacey, who look barely six. They peak through the window at their alcoholic mother and her drunken sadistic boyfriend having foreplay (with a pair of panty hose over his face) when they get caught. It seems the boyfriend likes to tie young Billy to the bed when he's been a bad boy and leave him there.

Young Lacey, inclining on her sibling survival techniques, runs to the kitchen and grabs a butchers knife, cutting the ropes from Willy's wrists. He frees himself and runs to mom's bedroom (where her and boyfriend are making love) with the butcher's knife, and stabs the shit out of pantyhose man. Anyway, doesn't all this - the butchers knife, the voyeurism, the opening shot, (I forgot to mention the music), the murdering of someone by a young child - doesn't all this sound like we're in store for a masked killer who will ultimately 'come home' sometime during the movie? Sure it does, and why wouldn't it?

I don't want to give Lommel more credit than he deserves with his entry into the slasher sub-genre, but he threw us a loop - not just ripping off 'Halloween', but 'Amityville Horror', and 'The Exorcist' as well.

Anyway, after the kid knifes his mom's boyfriend to death, we go on down the road a bit, (around twenty years) where we find  Lacey who has grown into a nice looking young woman, and her brother (who now is mute ever since that fateful night.) Oh yeah, I almost forgot: It seems as if a certain mirror in the bedroom on that night twenty years ago (My mom used to have one just like it - she purchased it for twenty bucks back in the early eighties.) captured the image of Willy murdering his abusive father figure and somehow traps the spirit of the dead boyfriend inside it.

It seems as if Lacey and her brother have made a pretty good life for themselves. She's a grown woman now, married to a local policeman, where she and her brother live with the husband's family in a big nice house on a farm.

Everything is going great until Lacey receives a letter from her psychotic mother who states that the doctors haven't given her much time to live, and that she feels it her right to be able to see Lacey and Willy before she passes on. This takes Lacey through a flashback of that fateful night, and resurfaces all those happenings, leaving her is a state of shit, I mean shock.

Weird things start to happen and people start to die in weird ways. Lacey starts seeing her mom's dead boyfriend  in mirrors throughout the house. Willy paints the mirrors black while listening to The rolling Stones (just kidding) in a symbolic gesture.. It's all about the mirror's baby! An old hypnotist ( played by John Carradine) soon gets involved and during a session with Lacey, is witness to her inner demons. It's suggested that she go back to the house where her problems had originated and tackle her issues face to face.

Well, this seems like a good idea. She and her husband travel to that old two story house where three siblings are alone while Ma and Pa are on vacation. Lacey and her husband ask to come in and see the house again. All is fine until she walks into the bedroom. It just so happens that the same exact mirror that was on the wall twenty years ago just so happens to be in the same spot in the same bedroom. Ok, now that's the most logical thing I've ever heard.

Anyway, it's explained that the mirror just somehow never got thrown out and crap begins to happen. Lacey sees pantyhose man in the mirror and bashes it all to hell. Like any normal person, Lacey's husband puts all the pieces of the broken mirror in a paper bag and they take it back home with them.

After they leave, one of the weirdest death scenes in horror film history happens. If by some chance someone reading this review hasn't seen it yet, I'm not going to give it away, but let's just say that three siblings die in about thirty seconds, via some kick ass ways.

To make a long story short, throw in a little bit of a possession flick ( mixed with another sub genre) into a big bowl of slasherness and you'll ultimately end up with, 'The Boogeyman.'

Throw in a priest who tries to fight the menacing spirit of the pantyhose man, along with a mute brother who finally builds up enough strength to speak during the traumatic ending and you pretty much have it. Dammit, throw in a dumpy shot-on-video look (I have the old vhs copy) and THEN you'll have it.

I think I'm done. Wait, I said that looking into a mirror. So, did I actually say that backwards?

The Abomination 1987

A young southern boy finds himself a changed man. Cody is your typical white trash with some problems. Like all good old southern boys, he has an overbearing, albeit ill Mother, who eventually is the cause of his demise.

It seems as if good old Mom has a cancerous tumor deep inside her lungs. While watching a money hungry preacher on television late one night, she harks up this solid tumor, which in turn, takes shape as an ancient demon. The 'phlem demon'then resides inside the cupboards of the house where it eventually coherses young Cody to kill everyone in his path. Like most people who become brainwashed by cancerous tumor demons, Cody then brings back the body parts to the demon so he won't starve to death

The demon keeps getting fatter and Cody keeps killing.

There's buckets of blood in this one. There's a very gorey chainsaw decapitation scene and about thirty minutes of him waking up from the same nightmare...over and over and over and over...and over....and over.

Just when you think you've seen it all, you ain't seen shit. This is one of those films whose title fits the bill perfectly. An'Abomination' is exactly what this little film is, but it's one of those good abominations. This is one of those rare must-see cases for the subject matter alone. It's not everyday you find yourself witnessing a deranged young man doing the evil bidding of his Mom's cancerous demon.

This is one hard mutha to find. I was lucky enough to find a copy at a friend of mine who used to own a video store. Like mentioned above, this is a case where you should pick it up if you ever run across it.
If you want something serious, don't even bother - but - if you're in the mood for some silly over-the-top gore and bad acting, with a sideshow of southern evangelist shenanigans, watch this instead of the Trinity Broadcasting Network - You'll get more spiritual fulfillment.

I Drink Your Blood 1970 -aka- Phobia

A band of Satanist hippies lead by Horace Bones roll into a town and begin terrorizing the local folk-  raping a local girl after she sneaks in one of of their satanic rituals. Grandpa goes after the bunch of filthy hippies, but the hippies corner Grandpa, force feeding him a little LSD. His grandson doesn't take to highly by this and decides to get back at the hippies by feeding them meat pies infected with blood from a rabid dog. They turn into crazed lunatics and begin killing and/or infecting everything in their path.

Where to begin with this one. This is probably the most filthy -  grimy drive-in flick I've ever had the pleasure (or displeasure) of watching. I don't hate the film. The whole scenario is something that's made in a cheese factory, but the 'nastiness' of the film as a whole makes one want to take a shower after watching.

Bashkar (who was incidentally paralyzed not too long after I Drink Your Blood was made. He has since passed away) plays the ludicrous Horace Bones who's pretty much a man hell bent on power play using satanic rituals to brainwash his followers. They make their way into town and move into an abandoned house that's soon to be torn down anyway. The house is infested with rats and the group of hippies go from room to room impaling the rats on anything they can find, roasting them and eating them for a meal. Some nasty shit.

The scene where Grandpa comes home fried on LSD and holds kitchen utensils against his forehead constituting a set of horns is quiet humerous, but quiet disturbing once you shower off the layer of cheese.

Also known as Phobia, I Drink Your Blood had a pretty good run at the Drive-In back in the day and has since gained a small cult following. Is this film worth watching? Well, yes. If only once. The whole premise makes this one a  strange pile of dirt. This will definitely leave a layer of filth on ya folks.


Sure, go ahead and give it a whirl. OR, you could go outside and roll around in the dirt for a hour and a half and have the same experience.

Ron Palillo is Dead

Of course he is known for playing the eccentric high school student in the 70's sitcom 'Welcome Back Kotter', but horror fans know his as the also eccentric mental patient who befriended Tommy Jarvis in Friday the 13th part 6: Jason Lives!~ I always liked his character...he put a lot of 'heart' in playing Hawes...chewing on his little straw.

Rest In Peace 'Hawes'.

Ron Palillo:  1949-2012

80's Slasher essay coming up soon!~

Going to do an essay on the golden years of the 80's slasher film. I'm not even going to touch the big studio slashers, but the more obscure titles like Just Before Dawn, Maniac, the Final Terror, Lunchmeat, etc. Gonna be good. Keep checking back for updates!~

Slasher quote of the month: Blood Rage 1987

"That's not cranberry sauce."

I Feel Sorry For The Killer (part 1)

Has there ever been a character with less than desirable attributes that you find yourself rooting for even though you know you shouldn't? I would imagine all us cinephiles at one time or another have cheered when Jason Vorhees slams a helpless nude female against a tree in a sleeping bag - or, when we get a sudden rush every time we see Michael's Myer's mask appear from the shadows. It's a beautiful thing. This post is also a multi- parter. I'll be talking about horror/slasher films in which there have been sympathetic villains, or characters who are clad-killers who have gained iconic status among the youth of the 80's.
Take for instance the killer from the late 80's slasher effortOfferings. A young kid is ridiculed and tormented and eventually pushed down a well by neighborhood bullies. The kid eventually grows up and hunts down his tormentors and murders them in some unconventional ways. His only true friend was a little girl in which he sends body parts to her as some sort of thank you for her kindness to him as a child. Now, we shouldn't be feeling sorry for our little deformed murderer, but throughout the entire film, we really don't see the killer as a 'killer'. It's as if the vigilante in us steps out for a second and succumbs to the vengeful intentions that leads us to murder. I thought of going into some indepth-reviews, but I'm only going to cover the basics - the films from the top of my head that I can remember having a sympathetic streak, ever how subtle it might have been. Everything will be just one big old ramble, so deal with it. Seriously, just hang in there. You might find something interesting.

I'll touch base with such things as story lines, atmosphere, motives etc:.
There's two different types of film that deal with sympathetic villains. One form of the sympathetic villain is described in the cinema and literary world as the anti-hero.. This is basically the same thing as the 'sympathetic villain', the only difference being that the anti-hero is someone bad we shouldn't like, but for some reason we do. Off the top of my head, the Paul Kersey character (made famous by Charles Bronson from the Death Wishfranchise) comes to mind. We have a middle aged man whose family was murdered by a bunch of street thugs. Paul takes it upon himself as being some form of avenging angel and guns his way through street crooks like a hot knife through butter. Even tho Kersey's actions are as immoral as the thugs who killed his family, we feel a sense of sympathy for him, rooting him on as he pumps thousands of rounds into a bands of stupid-shaved-headed- dummies. The series gets more over-the-top as it goes along. Rape is a huge theme in the Death Wish series and is probably one of the more immoral acts a person could commit besides murder. In that 'avenging angel' mentality, we feel that the thugs are getting what they deserve.

The true form of a sympathetic villain deals with someone who may have experienced some form of mental scarring, blurring their mind into thinking their murderous actions are right. He/She may be someone who was treated badly in the past and is looking for love or companionship. There may be a mother fixation in which the villain was molded by verbal and physical abuse from their mother, choosing victims who remind them of their mother. He may be someone who has a fixation with someone whom, in the stalkers mind, is their vision of love and happiness. (Refer to the previous sentence) Ezra Cobb (a character based off Wisconsin's butcher, Ed Gein) - from the 1972 Canadian horror, Derangedloves his mommy so much that he decides to dig her up and bring her back home. He also likes to trap women inside his home while wearing a wig and his mother's old clothes - Not to mention hunt them down like wild game and gut them in his barn. Aside from this, knowing what grizzly things Ezra Cobb had done, his character is so sympathetic, we begin to like Ezra. We see him as that old likable (but strange) man down the road who rides a lawn mower down the highway. What makes us (knowing that Ezra was an insane cold-blooded killer) become attached to such a character?

Some villains may play the blame game, blaming a certain group of people for a death of a loved one, or simply seek revenge for what someone did to them. They may reveal themselves in a climatic speech towards the final victim trying to condone their murderous actions. (Kevin - Graduation Day 1981) Maybe their peers in high school taunted and humiliated them. Ever remember seeing a scene in a slasher film where the killer maims an unlikable and annoying character? Just for an instant you find yourself rooting for the killer as he shoves the spoon of the victims nose. C'mon, you guys know you got a hard on when Jason picks up the spiteful blond in Friday the 13th The New Blood) and throws her behind a television set.

Marty Rantzen in his grotesque-mental state


(Marty Rantzen) being the victim of brutal humiliation by the bullies and 'cool kids' in school. (It's kind of funny because every person playing a high school student is over thirty if I'm a day over five) Marty is horribly disfigured during a prank gone awry when they give him a bad joint that leads to a chain of events involving school based chemicals. Let's just say that Marty is wearing a permanent Halloween mask for the rest of his life. He fakes a class reunion in which his tormentors are lead to the reunion like sheep to the slaughter. They are now gathered all in one place so Marty can take his aggression out on them. When the killing starts, it's really hard not to hear the words "He got what he deserved" ringing in the back of your mind. Even though Marty is now a raging murderous individual with a grotesque face, and even more grotesque intentions, one still feels a little bit of sympathy for him. After all, he was strung up naked in the locker room. Beaten and pushed around. The good old scripture verse 'an eye for an eye' springs about quickly..

Another film that comes to mind in regards to a sympathetic character is the little made for television flick Hider in the House'. It was release on the USA network back in the late 80's.Tom Sykes was brutally abused as a child. He was beaten and bruised, verbaly abused and ultimately burned with cigarettes. When Tom became older, he couldn't take it anymore and burnt down the house along with his abusive parents. On down the road, Tom is now a grown man who is about to be released from a mental facility. Both Tom and his shrink are reluctant at the idea, but nonetheless, Tom Sykes is released. He scouts a beautiful neighborhood and captures somewhat of an opportunity. It's a newly built house in which the residents haven't moved in yet. Tom decides to secretly build a hidden room in the attic where he resides unbeknownst to the family. (This is another take on the 70's made for television film entitled Bad Ronald - where a boy lives inside the walls unknown to the family living in the house)

Tom learns the family's routine, even being brave enough to sneak down stairs at night and roam around the house. As time goes on, he becomes more obsessed with the mans wife who lives there and eventually sets it up where the husbands wife winds up catching him in bed with another woman in a hotel room. The husband is kicked out by the wife and it's the perfect opportunity for Tom to maneuver himself into the family's life somehow. Tom's pretty good with the plans as he sets up another concoction which places him at the scene of a school yard fight between the wife's kid and a school yard bully. Tom ends up breaking them up and is invited inside the wife's home. She offers him some water and a little ceramic bowl as a gift, but that's about as far as it gets. The wife finally realizes that Tom is a little off his rocker when he tries to teach her child some very violent fighting techniques in which she didn't agree with. Tom strolled by a few more times, the last time being when he refused to take no for an answer and almost busted in the door trying to get back into the house.

Aside from Tom's mis happenings and downsides - his scheming - his voyeuristic lifestyle - He emmits something in the form of semi-pity that allows you to feel just enough sympathy for him to find him a little bit likable. Tom, at heart, is really nothing but a big teddy bear. It all stems from our opening credits and how we hear how badly Tom is treated. This gives us a form of understanding on why Tom may do the things he does. Sure, he had to end up killing the family dog, killing the wife's best friend, and an exterminator - but it was only because the fumes were smothering him to death and with no choice, had to come running out of his hidden room, exposing himself to the exterminator. (No, I don't mean EXPOSING himself) The other incident happens with the wife's best friend when Tom strolls downstairs thinking no one is home.He gets caught in a weird situation, the woman screams, and Tom ends up killing her by breaking her neck. This little incident was truly an accident, as Tom didn't want her to scream and give him away. Stepping aside from all of Tom Syke's personal , um, flaws, lies a big fluffy stuffed animal. All he wants is a normal life and an all American family. His mind, being feeble from years of abuse, could not distinguish fantasy from reality and it ended up costing lives, as well as his own. Aside from all this, it's still hard not to feel some minuscule amount of compassion for Tom.

There once was a college student named Kenny who was trying to join a fraternity. Doc and Moe were the two main men - Doc being the more sarcastic and hard hearted medical student, with pranks a'many He surely never cared who he hurt during these pranks. Moe - He's the more sensible guy who's mainly Doc's little puppet. He doesn't agree with half the things Doc does, but he's still loyal to him. Maybe even more loyal to him than his own girl friend Alana, played by 70's and 80's scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis. It's the big new years eve bash and . Doc has just so happened to have fixed up Kenny with Alana in which Kenny has the hots for already. Kenny's quite a little fellow and the whole idea was absurd to begin with.n It's all just a big joke. What Kenny doesn't know is that Doc has stolen a cadaver from the morgue and placed her decomposed dismembered body in a bed, which is supposed to be Alana waiting for him. When Kenny undresses and winds up seeing that it's a dead body, he loses it. He wraps himself in a satin Curtain and screams to his hearts content until we hit the slow mo and the distorted sound of Kenny's demonic voice as he screams in hysteria. We 'still' the shot and cut to five years later where the old Sorority co-eds are celebrating their last rounds of pre-med before heading off into different directions. Moe and doc plan a little three-four hour trip on a luxurious train filled with booze, party supplies, a cool magician and all the co-eds you can shake a stick at. It just so happens that someone is on board, changing costume disguises and using them to lure his victims to their death. Is it Kenny extracting revenge for the pain and humiliation the gang caused him five years ago?
Of course it is. Do we feel soory for Kenny? Do we try and fathom the reasons as to why he would decapitate someone over a prank? I guess it's somewhat of an open ended question and maybe it's meant to be. I certainly felt as if Doc (even tho I somehow enjoyed his character) deserved some harsh treatment, but did he deserve a horrible death? Maybe in Kenny;s mind, Doc caused him a mental death, therefore, retaliating in his physical death. Who knows? Nevertheless, there's a hint of soft hardheartedness to be felt for Kenny, if only for a split second. Terror Train, is a production from our wonderful slasher brothers in Canada and delivers loads of wonderful cinematography, good suspense, and wonderful gloom and doom atmosphere. It's a great revenge slasher flick that should be seen by all cult film fans.

As I end this post, just think about the horror films you've watched and try and remember if there ever was a time in which you rooted for the killer/villain. I bet there's more instances than you originally thought. PART 2, shortly!

The Special Occasion Slasher

How many slasher films can we really think of that don't involve some kind of special occasion being completely ruined? Valentines Day was destroyed by that whacky Canadian, Harry Warden. Final Exams have been distorted from the taking of a simple test to the murdering and maiming of college co-eds by a van driving, army coat wearing, mad-man. Oh yeah, he carries a butchers knife. Graduation Day has been forever cast in the never ending worm hole of special occasion slashers. The good old birthday has been mired and trodden under foot by the mighty 80's money makers. Halloween was destroyed by a knife welding psycho wearing a bleached out William Shatner mask. Christmas was turned from a holiday of good tidings and joy, to a day of bloody missle toes and harrassing phone calls. The summer camp turned from a place where kids could feel safe, to a place where they could be considered prey by a machete carrying freak. Even the personal dreams of an individual were not safe. A man named Freddy Kruger could now pervade our dreams and turn them from a peaceful unconscious emmission of the garbage of every day life, to a struggle of wits and survival which usually ended in an exaggerated death for the person dreaming. The night when most teenagers just wind up drunk and pregnant was turned from just that, to a day that would be labeled by a greaser punk named Lou, and a boggin wearing hatchet-man stalking the school corridors on Prom Night. Nothing was safe. Not even the confines of a train amongst all your friends. At a party no less. A killer could now follow you on a train during a New Year's Eve party and kill all your friends one by one. Hollywood simply left no stone unturned. Can you really blame them? They moved on from one special occasion to the next, hoping to cash in on the flavor of the day. They'd wear us out with one gimmick and simply move on to the other. It was a game of 'who can outlast who'. As long as they made films like that, there would surely be an audience for it. In Hollywood numbers, that particular audience could result in the shutting down of a franchise, nevertheless, the special occasion slasher never went 'viewerless'. The slasher film helped turn memorable and traditional events into horror. The telephone (as I mention in my psychological phone murder posts) was among the first 'good timey' things to become exploited. Soon after, a simple Sunday afternoon drive became a nightmare. The special occasion slasher had been right in front of the producer's face all along, but they were either afraid to touch it, or just didn't think it would stick. The off-kilter date of Friday the 13th - a random time throughout a year or two in which the 13th of the month falls on a Friday. It's supposed to mean bad luck and the 1980 special occasion slasher mixed the camp setting and the ominous date to turn Friday the 13th post 1980 into a double ominous day. Something was gonna happen and that was all there was to it. I CAN remember going to the beach with my mother and her friend as a kid on Friday the 13th. Someone stole her purse (which had her keys in it) and we ended up having to walk five miles to have a spare made. I guess we dodged Jason on the freeway somewhere.

When you really think about cinema versus real life, there's not much difference. There may be a little exageration on the celluloid end, but there's something tangable in both realms. The slasher film was so successful because it turned the simple things in life - an outing with the family - one's birthday - one's graduation day ' Valentine's Day etc - into a day of dread and anxiety, not a day of good times and relaxation as it should have been. The comfort zone that previously came with these occasions was shattered. All the warm and fuzzy feelings had been driven away and exploited by the big hammering fists of Hollywood. The family aspect was sometimes used in the special occasion slasher, but not nearly as much as camping pals, or frat brothers and sorority sisters. Maybe one day, we'll have a slasher film that can exploit every single holiday in one film. Friday the Black Christmas After Halloween - Yeah, that sounds about right.

The House By The Cemetery 1981

 A family moves into a new house in the country where strange things happen and people get murdered.

The opening scene opens up like a typical American slasher film. A boy and girl just get done having sex when they're brutally murdered. The girl actually gets a large butchers knife through the back of her skull and out of her mouth. It soon turns from familiar slasher territory and launches itself half-speed into a full fledged Gothic-like drama with some good kill scenes thrown it. HBTC is more than just a souped up drama with a good slice of Americana thrown in tho, it's a very good film as a whole and proves Fulci-despiser's wrong when they say he's a hack.

I'd certainly recommend this film to all horror fans. Slasher/Giallo fans will also find something redeeming in HBTC. Fulci gives us a little class along with sporadic gore, but limits himself- keeping in frame with just hammering out a good damn film.

Cannibal Ferox 1981 -aka- Make Them Die Slowly

                                                     
To start it off right, this film is one of the most vile and utter pieces of Italian trash to ever climb from the cesspool of Italian cinema. Thecannibal genre is a mixed array of cinematic happenings that deal with a variety of different 'types' of cannibals - Cannibal Ferox just so happens to deal with the 'jungle cannibal'.

For instance, there's your back-woods cannibal types that are depicted in such films as Cannibal Campout, Lunch Meat, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There's your 'Brings back strange disease from the war' cannibals as depicted in Cannibal Apocalypse - Another Italian sleazefest made by the Italians and co-starring Cannibal Feroxstar Giovanni Lombardo Radice and John Saxxon of all people. There's your Hannibal Lecter types - This type of cannibal is usually based on evidence from real police files. An usually articulate man with supreme taste, and an appetite for the grand. There's also your homosexual cannibals such as Jeffrey Dahmer - who ingests human flesh because they're lonely. I see no correlation between this well formed depravity and loneliness, but I'm sure there's some Freudian pseudo explanation that says there is.

Now, we refer back to the most popular form of 'the cannibal' - Your primitive jungle dwelling cannibal . Throughout the seventies and early 80's, there were two main players in the Jungle' cannibal genre that pretty much opened up a whole new can of worms, but also closed the lid some years later. Umberto Lenzi and Ruggero Deodato - Those two names should be synonymous with extreme violence, cinematic rapes, latex gut munching, but most sadistically, live animals being killed for 'shock value'.Both men claim that they never filmed any killing of live animals - and that the producers shot those scenes after their job as director was finished.Whatever the case may be, the slaughtering (or set-up of the harm or killing) of live animals for the purpose of shocking someone in a film is going too far if you ask me.

Cannibal Holocaust is probably most notorious in regards to scenes of torture and cinematic violence. But a lot of people disagree, saying they were most disturbed by Cannibal Ferox.

Ferox starts off in that typical Italian fashion. We have an Anthropology student who denies the fact that cannibalism ever existed. She's convinced that mad tales of flesh eating are just that - mad babbling folklore created by the civilized man to give the jungle a stark legacy.

Our story revolves around three NY college students who set out to the jungles of Columbia to disprove any talk of cannibalism or the practices thereof. Gloria (played by Lorainne De Salle of House on the Edge of the Park), Rudy, Gloria's brother (played by Brian Redford), and Patricia (Zera Kerowa of New York Ripper fame) get everything set and enters the outskirts of the jungle via off-road vehicle. Right away, things get off on the wrong foot as the jeep gets stuck and they're forced to foot their way through the wilds of Rio.

A few minutes later, the crew run into two small time New York drug dealers who just so happen to be lofting around the jungle floor when they're attacked by natives. Mike Logan (Giovanni Lombardo Radice -House on the Edge of the Park, Cannibal Apocalypse, The Gates of Hell, The Church) and his injured friend Joe, run into the crew and ask them for help.

Of course, the crew obliges. Little by little they learn of Mike's lust for cocaine and that there's more to he and Joe that meets the eye. It's soon learned why Mike and Joe are running from the natives. It seems as if Mike has a knack for violence - especially when fueled up on cocaine. The rape and murder of a native Indio girl by white outsiders doesn't go over to well with the villagers and it's a race through the jungle to find a way out. Not only this, but Mike is also responsible for torturing a Portuguese tribesman to death in search of emeralds. Mike's quiet the nice guy isn't he?

What follows are scenes of gratuitous violence accompanied by a sense of sexual depravity and drug induced paranoia. One by one, the crew are dispatched in some god-awful ways. To be honest, the gore sequences in the film aren't harsher than most gore films of its ilk. Where Cannibal Ferox steps foot into depravity (besides the torture and hinted rape) is the set up of actual on-screen animal killings which range from a gutted crocodile and turtle, to the feeding of a bound anteater to a very large python. If this isn't enough, we have a live pig which is gutted in bloody fashion by the cinematic hands of Mike Logan. As stated by Giovanni Lombardo Radice, a stagehand was given the job to actually slaughter the animal. He also states that during this scene, he tries to avenge the poor pig by pressing hard on a ceramic bowl that was to catch the blood - nearly severing the stagehand's wrist.

Cannibal Ferox is labeled one of the nastiest films of all time - and rightly so. An on-screen castration- Hooks through a woman's breasts - Hand severing - Decapitations - The rape and murder of innocent villagers - This film shouldn't be watched by anyone who is offended by such atrocious on-screen events. By this, I mean people who actually, eat, sleep and breathe.

It seems as the Italian cannibal genre grew older, the demonic imagination of filmmakers involved in the genre escalated to monstrous heights. Earlier films like Umbero Lenzi's Eaten Alive! (which uses the same music for Cannibal Ferox) also depicts scenes of animal cruelty and gang rapes, but the film as a whole isn't nearly as brutal as Cannibal Ferox. Jungle Holocaust, an earlier cannibal entry by Rugerro Deodato, is actually more of an adventure film than just a bunch of shock sequences strewn together. Personally, the adventure theme should have been the main attraction to these types of films. The jungle setting makes way for some good action sequences.

Going back to the topic of discussion, Giovanni Lombardo Radice stated to me in an interview that he regretted ever starring inCannibal Ferox. He says that it has haunted him for twenty-five years. Being remembered as Mike Logan is a huge disappointment for Giovanni. To tell you the truth, I can't blame the guy for feeling this way. But, didn't he read the script beforehand?

To sum it up, Cannibal Ferox is a film that should be viewed at least once just to see that everything you've heard has been true. Very few films live up to their legend status, but this is one of those exceptions. I have no idea how anyone could possibly enjoy the movie. To tell you the truth, I think that anyone who even considers such a film 'fun entertainment' should be checked for mental incapabilities.

*This film boasts at being banned in 31 countries - not only on the movies cover, but also in the Guinness Book of World Records. I think Umberto Lenzi should be banned and maimed - and gutted like the animals in his films. I have no idea what the international rules were/are for the killing of animals for the sake of entertainment, but I'm sure there was hot water to follow. It's hard to imagine such a film being made today. PETA would have a field day.

New Interview added

A new interview added to the 'Interviews' section with actor Tom Bongiorno from the obscure 1984 snowbound slasher, Satan's Blade.

Paul Partain (Franklin TCM'74) A few pictures at one of the few conventions he attended right before his untimely death in 2005.

'

My Bloody Valentine 1981

 TJ has since went out west and made his return upon really falling on his ass out there. He made so many mistakes and he wants Sarah back.

There's a slight problem because Sarah is now going out with TJ's best friend Axel. He explains to TJ that he went away - He didn't know where he was or when the hell he was coming back. TJ's reaction is that Axel is starting to sound like his old man and a nightly gathering at the junkyard almost turns into a scuffle.


In the meantime, the whole town is anticipating the first Valentines Day dance in 20 years. The reason there hasn't been a dance for so long is because twenty years ago, a man named Harry Warden went on a killing spree - murdering everyone responsible for leaving him and five other miners in the bowels of the mine without checking the methane level. The mine blew and here's Harry left all fucked up and eating the leg of one of his co-workers after being trapped underground for six weeks. All this just so happened on Valentine's Day and it was vowed by Harry that the same thing would happen if there was EVER another Valentine's Day dance.

Of course, the town sheriff still remembers the big mess twenty years ago and is still a little shell shocked in the pre-wake of the Valentine's dance. There's a local bartender who expels the legend of Harry Warden from his parched lips while the mining buddy cast play silly games with knives and make farting noises in light of all the bartender's serious hubbub.

There's a mood crasher when TJ's father gets a heart shaped box with a human heart in it. Without question the sheriff cancels the dance. The incident is kept quiet, but it's not long before Mabel (the dance organizer) is killed by a coal miner equipped with blue cover-alls, breathing apparatus and large pick ax. (Sort of reminiscent of Joe Zito's The Prowler)

The sheriff covers up Mabel's death [as well] after she's found stuffed in a running dryer at her laundry mat, burned to a crisp. The young cast of colorful characters are told Mabel died of a heart attack and become all sad at the cancellation of the dance, but TJ has a plan - He'll move the party to his father's mine! They'll have the party inside the rec-room! Of course, we all know at this point that Harry or someone will crash the party.

What comes next is some very good stalk 'n' slash sequences that for the most part take place inside a very atmospheric and gritty underground mine. The mine makes way for some really good scares and is a perfect place for a pick ax welding miner to hide in the nooks and cranny's thereof.

The tension between TJ and his 'best friend' Axel is halted for a bit when it's learned that someone has been killing off members of the party up top and underground. They both realize that Sarah and some others are trapped in the mine and that they better get there beforeHarry does.
Axel is truly made a fool by TJ and Sarah. He's the fall guy for both TJ's and Saraha's riff between each other. Director George Mihalka takes John Beaird's script and does the best he can. It's a shame this movie didn't do all that well at the box office upon its initial release in 1981. This is truly a good film, even aside from the gore sequences lying on the cutting room floor. (Somewhat redeemed by it's 'uncut' release a few years ago. While a lot of the gore scenes were longer and more graphic, it still isn't the version George Mihalka had in mind) One of the best slasher films of the golden age of the slasher film. 


To sum it up, MBV is a film that can't be missed by slasher fans - even slasher fans of the Scream generation. Even younger fans should find something good in this Canadian slasher whether its shred to bits or not. An atmospheric upbeat slasher film that's never tedious and never boring. My Bloody Valentine is the epitome of what the slasher film should require. If you haven't seen this one, you are a piece of scum. 

Blood Stalkers 1978

                   

http://dvddrive-in.com/reviews/a-d/bloodstalkerspromo.htm

Relative Fear 1994

                                                      

Relative Fear should have been more than it is.(Those whacky Canadians) The potential for this film was there, but I don't think there was enough time for director George Mihalka (My Bloody Valentine) to do what he needed to do. Either that, or it was edited to shreds.

An insane woman has a baby that immediately is taken away from her by the state. At the same time the Pratman family nurse their newbord baby in the hospital room as crazy asthmatic grandpa and eccentric grandma come to gawk.

Peter Pratman is quiet the geek. The mother, Linda Pratman is an aspiring pianist and all seems well. We go down the road about four years and we find out that Adam Pratman is autistic. The boy doesn't speak a word. They hire a tudor who claims to have experience in dealing with austistic children, with a seemingly good track record. Accidents seem to follow little Adam around as crazy asthmatic grandpa is suffocated when someone pulls the hose from his oxygen machine. Grandma is killed when a dumbwaiter falls full speed downward, crushing her head to a pulp. One of Adam's little friends gets shot in the head when the the little tyke decides to show Adam his new gun. It just so happened to be the same little boy who makes Adam eat dirt.

Anyway, natch, it looks bad on little Adam, but it's not long before a police detective suspects the father as he was the one who found all the bodies. After harrassing the family a bit, the detective gets itchy and decides to make his way over to the Pratman house unannounced. Everyone's outside, but Adam lets him in. The cop searches around the house, but soon steps on some strategically placed toys and breaks his neck in a very unconvincing stair roll. James Brolin should have went out better than that.

Nevertheless, aside from Brolin's untriumphant death, we're in for quiet the surprise when it's found out Adam was switched at birth and is the son of the crazy woman we see popping him out at the beginning.

The twist ending really hits you hard and your left with that wtf? feeling. A relatively good movie that could and should have been more. The only reason I picked it up in the first place was because it was a buck, secondly, it was directed by the same director who did my favorite slasher flick of all time.

Little Adam stole the show. The casting people deserve some props here. A creepy little fart. There was something disturbing about him and those dull brown eyes.

Am I glad I spent that buck? Sure. A movie that would be good on a lazy Sunday evening.

Satan's Blade 1984 rare horror trailer

More interviews coming.

More interview coming from the cast of the obscure snowbound slasher Satan's Blade.

The Dorm That Dripped Blood 1982

                                               



Morgan Meadows Hall, an isolated seven story dormitory stands empty. Corridors that were once filled with the vibrant sound of co-eds having sex and puking all over the place is now vacant - on the verge of being torn down. No more wild parties. No more keg stands and such. Five college students volunteer to close the dorm during the Christmas season. Soon, however, out of the dark recesses of the quiet building emerges a haunting and lethal menace. Mysteriously, all phone lines are cut and the students are plunged into the darkness of a powerless and increasingly frenzied gloom. In a series of grizzly murders by and unknown specter, the students begin to disappear. Did David Copperfield kidnap them and throw them off a train?

As the murder mounts and the high-pitched staccato of slaying continues, the remaining students realize their up against a killer who'll eventually kill them with a spoon or something. The dark halls of the dorm now hide the killers identity. Once the object of nostalgic affection, Morgan Meadows Hall has been hideously transformed into the most suffocating nightmare imaginable. Well, not to unimaginable. Is that a paradox? Right off the bat, bad news prevails as I this little 'hider-in-the-cranny' is directed by two people. Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter are the biggest attention cravers on the face of the earth. Everything was evidently construed from the wonderful and articulate minds of these two people as their names are all over the back of the box, as well as the opening and closing credits. By God they wanted us to know they were a part of this film and was going to make damn sure we knew it.
The Dorm That Dripped Blood was an attempt by two guys who thought they could make a few bucks off the slasher craze started by 'Halloween' and 'Friday the 13th'. Did they succeed? Well, if you like terrible movies you'll love it. TDTDB delivers in many departments even tho some things are hard to see because of bad lighting. I'm sure either Carpenter or Obrow was responsible for being the DP, but decided to actually not use their name for a credit, pawning off the horrendous lighting job on some other poor soul. How generous of them.

Nevertheless, we start off with a guy who's running away from someone or something. He hides behind some bushes and thinks he's home free. Wrong. Someone jumps from out of nowhere and slices his hand in two. This scene has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie, but it's very welcomed, nevertheless.We are soon taken to an old dormitory (Morgan Meadows Hall) where Joanne, Craig, Patty, and Brian are doing their best to take inventory of everything in the dorm and sell it. Debbie (A youngDaphne Zuniga) eventually gives the crew the news that she's not going to be able to stay for the whole two weeks and that her parents were on the way to pick her up.

Debbie's parents soon get murdered - Her mother choked to death by a wire from the backseat of the car - Her father whacked repeatedly in the head with a baseball bat with barbed-wire wrapped around it. Debbie comes to the parking lot to meet them, finds their bodies, faints, and eventually gets ran over repeatedly by this unknown specter. Anyway, there's the usual crap dialog - Patty likes Brian, but Joanne likes him too. But Joanne also has a boyfriend. Is he the murderous -jealous type? There's a small hint of a love triangle in the making, but it never takes shape.

A couple days down the road, Joanne is out back at the dump checking on 'inventory items' and meets up with a 'junkster' named Bobby Lee Tremble. He takes a liking to Joanne and talks her into taking a check for his junk purchases. Somehow, Bobby Lee acquires Joannes dorm number and gives her a call late one night. He wants the two of them to get together for a beer, but she turns him down. He and his hard dick decide to take a drive. If this isn't enough, we have a homeless balding, fuzzy-headed freak running around using the dormitory as shelter. After a few encounters with 'Hemmitt the Hermit', weird things start to happen. A buffet table gets smashed - Food gets stolen - The lights go out - The phone lines get cut - Is HE responsible? We do have SOME decent acting, even though the lead, Laura Lapinski, looks like a piece of cardboard taped to a stick that a puppeteer from the rafters was controlling. We also have some good slasher action going on in the form of drills, Groen pressure cookers, cars, baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire, the good old-fashioned butchers knife and even an incinerator. There's also a very good score that adds a little bit of eeriness to the film that it normally wouldn't have had. There's a couple good point of view shots, but nothing to write home about.

Graduation Day 1981 (silly slasher motives part 1)

                                                                          
Boo Hoo Hoo! 'The coach pushed sweetheart too hard during the big track meet and was solely responsible for the heart attack that lead to her sudden death. She fell limp right on the track, but the coach was just screaming at her to run faster just a second before her death. The only logical thing to do is don a fencing outfit and kill the whole track team, the coach, or whoever else steps in my way.. All his yelling at her by the coach.... all his screaming...she just couldn't catch a break...and now, look at her. She's dead. My trusty stopwatch will keep the correct time as I hold it in one hand and kill with the other. I'll set up some good murder scenes so the audience won't get too bored in between all the bullshit. I'll replace the mat under the pole vaulter with sharp spikes. I'll tweak a football, placing a sharp steel rod on one end, and throw it at my victim in a glorious Dan Marino-like pass, piercing the receiver's poor chest. He should keep his eye on the ball, that's for sure.'

The above could very well have been the diary of poor distraught 'Kevin' ( E. Danny Murphy) From Graduation Day.(1981). The overbearing coach (Chris George) likes to be on top. He hates losing. He pushes his star track runner Laura (Ruth Llorens) a little harder than the rest which ends up in Laura having a heart attack after pushing herself too hard. In the final reveal, Kevin gives that glorious final speech involving the reason why he chose to do what he did. He places the blame on an overbearing coach and clamoring fans.The final girl (which is a tough bitch from the Navy- Laura's sister Anne) stands there and listens attentively, waiting for that moment to escape.

Graduation Day. What to make of it? To be totally honest, it's not one of my favorites, but I do like it a little better with each viewing. During the skating rink scene, the band (Felony) seem to play the same song for at least five or six minutes. The lead singer's voice got more irritating than Ozzy Osbourne's after listening to his vocals for hours at a time, but only Felony can make you feel this way after five minutes. That's a feat all in itself. I can usually give any song the benefit of a doubt, but I doubt Felony will care either way.

While an all out revenge slasher in the same ball park as The Dorm That Dripped Blood, Friday the 13th, Blood Hook, and Class Reunion Massacre, Graduation Day can incidentally fall into the 'desperation murder' scenario as well. Kevin is one distraught mofo. In his demented mind, everyone had to die. Someone had to be punished for the death of his high school sweetheart. It's made clear that they were even going to become married after the graduation. Since everyone was going unpunished, Kevin brought it upon himself to play judge, jury, and executioner. I'd say he did a pretty good job of it. Nevertheless, this little revenge slasher flick has a lot of fans, but I'm just not in that category. The motive wasn't a legitimate reason to murder six or eight people when you think about it. Sure, the coach pushed the kids a little too hard. He certainly didn't anticipate his star runner keeling over from a heart attack during her senior year in high school. What coach doesn't push his players to the limit?Graduation Day is basically a haven for showing off creative death sequences. There's certainly a few odd-ball death's, but it's nothing that hasn't been outdone by other low-budget horror films.

Kevin: He's an odd duck.He's a teenager who resembles a forty year old street bum-alcoholic - Kevin Badger, the cause for so many creative kills and much murderous mayhem, but was it worth it just because your girlfriend had a heart attack? So, this is your silly motive #1.: Boyfriend kills the whole track team (including the coach) because his girlfriend had a heart attack.