Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge 2015 - Day 1

Another April has arrived and what better way to ring in the warmth of Spring than with the warmth that only exploitation films can give you? As part of the DVD Exploitation/B-Movie/Drive-in challenge I'll be keeping track and reviewing my monthly viewing with daily (or semi-daily) posts.

To start the challenge I decided to go with a Scream Factory Blu-ray release I'd been putting off watching for a while... THE ISLAND from 1980. A journalist and his son head off to the Bermuda Triangle to do a report on the hundreds of vehicles that have turned up missing in recent years. Their plane crash lands and they're quickly abducted by the pirates who inhabit the area and have been doing their thing for 300 years. The rest of the movie is spent with the father trying to escape and undo the brainwashing they've done to his son. With only a handful of exciting scenes it really drags on and isn't anything great. It's competently made and has a few notable names like David Warner but there's just not enough excitement to stop it from being a chore.

Next up was another that I knew would be bad but I was somewhat surprised by how bad. The Mondo film cycle that began in 1962 with Mondo Cane had seen dozens of entries by the time BRUTES AND SAVAGES rolled around. This 1977 entry to the genre is bad, bottom of the barrel bad. All movies like this stage many of the scenes but BRUTES AND SAVAGES does so with such low quality and such cheapness that it's shameful. This movie is shock value for the sake of shock value and the worst kind at that. Numerous animals are slaughtered on screen and it isn't in the interest of art or documenting and preserving the traditions of a culture or tribe, it's simply to shock the audience and to make a buck. There's a fake alligator head eating a man, scenes of what seems to be an actual brain surgery (you have to wonder if the patient knew he'd be filmed while under such dire circumstances) and just to end on a high note the film closes with a bit of beastiality because why the fuck not? This is pure dreck but manages to be a small piece of exploitation and Mondo film history if anything.

Day 1 was bad, and if this was really the best movie I watched that pretty much sums it up... A BETTER PLACE is an indie film from 1997 about a high school kid that moves to a new town and the only person that really welcomes him at all is the loner outcast kid of the school. The two quickly become friends and seem to be good for each other. That is until an accident leaves a man dead and the new kid tries to distance himself from his new friend. A BETTER PLACE has solid acting from a young and what I assume to be a fairly raw cast. It's predictable and nothing we haven't seen before but is worth a watch and is really pretty decent.

BLACK OAK CONSPIRACY was the biggest disappointment of the day as I was hoping for a sweaty, adrenaline driven piece of Roger Corman produced action. Instead this down south good-old-boy movie about a Hollywood stunt man that returns home when his mother falls ill and finds that his family's land has been swindled from them is too hokey and tongue in cheek with virtually no pay off to make it all better. The audience wants to see Jingo the stunt man take down the corrupt town and mining company and get back what is rightfully his but instead we get potatoes stuffed in exhaust pipes a few fights that go nowhere and some car chases that really don't go anywhere. It's not awful but it'd be interesting to find out why they didn't go for a more revenge styled approach.

Disappointment after disappointment for day 1 as we close out with the 1973 Spanish horror film A CANDLE FOR THE DEVIL. A small town inn ran by two religious sisters is the subject of a woman's investigation as she has noticed that her sister and several other English tourists who are a bit more sexy and free than the conservative sisters would prefer have gone missing from the inn. The police become involved when a man finds something suspicious while eating dinner and the truth is revealed. This one had potential to be really good, even a minor classic of 70s Spanish horror. It needed to take a sleazier path than it did. It's slow burning and not incredibly graphic in its violence. Had this film been more graphic and ramped up the sex and violence a bit we'd have something really worth talking about but as it stands it's a slow burn that doesn't reward the viewer enough.

Today's Rundown
The Island - 4.5/10
Brutes And Savages - 2/10
A Better Place - 5/10
Black Oak Conspiracy - 4/10
A Candle For The Devil - 4.5/10

Exploitation/B-Movie/Drive-In Challenge 2013 - Day 13

First up for day 13 was GORGO. I had just received the Blu-ray in the mail and popped it in. This is an early 60 giant monster flick from Britain. While it is a decent picture it pales in comparison to most Japanese monster movies of the era. I did find the "Gorgo promotional tour" scene to be pretty cool and show how people will spend money to see any type of "freak" even if it is exploiting the beast, person, or what have you.

I only watched one other movie but it is a favorite of mine that I find to be a perfect mix of exploitation, social commentary and fun. DEATH RACE 2000 is one of the best movies the 1970s had to offer and is much more than just a car race to kill people that became a remake. With a cast that includes David Carradine, who is top notch here, to Sylvester Stallone and cult favorite Mary Woronov and with direction from Paul Bartel (Eating Raoul) this Roger Corman production has stood the test of time to be an influtential film that entertains from start to finish.

Today's Rundown
Gorgo - 6/10
Death Race 2000 - 10/10

Deathstalker (1983)

The 80s had hundreds of movies that ripped off other movies without shame or guilt. DEATHSTALKER is one of those movies. Directed by James Sbardellati under and assumed name this is 80 minutes of the stinkiest cheese you've ever come across. Big hair, crazy characters, sword fights, boobs everywhere, some wild gore and magic to top it all off.

Deathstalker is a mighty warrior sent on a mission by an old witch to find and unite the Three Powers Of Creation - A chalice, an amulet and a sword. 2 of these items are held by the evil king/magician Munkar. Munkar invites the best fighters around to a tournament to decide a successor to his throne - the winner rules! The problem is that Munkar has no intentions on giving up his power and is instead using the tournament to kill off any threat to his throne.

If you have half a brain it isn't hard to figure out where the story is heading. It is the incredible cheesy low budget nature (Producer Roger Corman would have it no other way in the 80s) that are the fun of it all. The naked girls are captured and often served up as nothing more than eye candy for us with all the goods on display. In fact they aren't just eye candy for us, the majority of them in the movie are simply objects for the warriors to toy with. The girls do get their revenge at one point in a rather entertaining scene. The sword fights aren't exactly the most memorable but they are adequate, and usually leave a bloody mess in their wake. Heads fly, guts get spilled and wild shape shifting make it all fun.

DEATHSTALKER is far from high art and isn't even original but serves as a fun time waster to turn your brain off to and just enjoy the glory of the B-movie. Swords, magic, boobs... how bad can it be?

6/10

Humanoids From The Deep (1980)

This is what happens when The Creature From The Black Lagoon hangs out with Ben Roethlisberger for too long. HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP is from Roger Corman's New World Pictures and that right there should tell you enough that you know just what kind of movie you are about to watch.

The blue collar town of Noyo is highly dependent on their Salmon fishing industry and when The CanCo company has proposed to open a cannery that they promise will hugely expand the business for the fishermen. The Native American population is highly against the damage it will cause to the local ecosystem and it is a driving force for most of the main characters. When the CanCo companies test tanks break during a storm DNA altered Salmon are released into the wild and the larger fish that ate them have now mutated into human-like creatures with great brain capabilities that want to mate with human women.

The movie has a brisk run time of 82 minutes and it moves swiftly through them. The pacing is spot on, following Corman's formula for successful film making we never get a lull in the action (or boobs) of more than a few minutes. The acting is surprisingly good for the most part and the direction is solid. Much of the exploitative moments in the film were shot with the 2nd unit crew because the original director Barbara Peeters had shot a more shadow based suspense movie that lacked the critical ingredients for a Corman production. The original title for HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP was Beneath The Darkness in order to play it off as the suspenseful mystery that Peeters was directing for so that they could land some name actors. The special effects in HUMANOIDS are fantastic. The suits are convincing, far from too rubbery and they have good movement. The gore, which is plentiful, is stomach churning in the best way. Excellent prosthetic work here from Rob Bottin (The Thing, Robocop). There is even a creepy score from future Academy Award winner James Horner (Titanic, Braveheart). And if the ending doesn't make you stand up and cheer in the name of all things ridiculous and awesome you can go to hell (not really, but you should be cheering.)

HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP is the whole package . Its fun (as any Corman should be), its scary, violent, action packed and sexy (as any Corman movie should be). Hell there is even a scene that may have been taken straight from the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. I only wish I had seen it sooner.

9.5/10

I'd like to quickly add in that Shout! Factory has done an incredible job restoring these Corman Cult Classics for their newer Blu Ray and DVD releases. These are B movies getting the Criterion treatment. It's a real shame that the Blu sales haven't been good enough to warrant future titles being released to get the HD treatment they deserve. Just go buy them, you won't be disappointed.