April Exploitation/B-movie Challenge 2016 - Day 5

I was long overdue to visit the earlier films of John Waters so I did just that. I started with MULTIPLE MANIACS which features Divine in the lead role where she runs the Cavalcade Of Perversions with her group of freaks including homosexuals, junkies and fetish acts to exploit the audience for their cash or down right murder them for it. It's all in a day's work! Then there's the "Rosary Job" scene with Mink Stole as she turns Divine into the lesbian that she wasn't a few minutes before. There's a 15 foot rapist lobster, there's more murder and drugs perversion and everything that is trashy and wonderful. MULTIPLE MANIACS would easily have the cult following that Pink Flamingos has if it would only get an official DVD or Blu-ray release. What a fantastic film.

I then took a step further back, one year further back to be precise to Waters' 1969 film MONDO TRASHO which is nearly a silent film aside from some voiceover work creating very sparse narration and dialogue. This film is referred to as The Gutter Movie as it was literally filmed in gutters, alleys, and abandoned places around Baltimore. I didn't have the love affair that I did with MULTIPLE MANIACS but it was great to see Waters' and his crew of Dreamlanders really beginning to mesh and get their chemistry together, especially Divine who seems to just be dipping her toes in the waters that she would jump into head first a year later and then years later become a drag and cult film icon. There's plenty to like here but it is a lot of experimenting with ideas and styles that would later become fully realized by the God of trash cinema.

I finished the day with EQUALIZER 2000, another Cirio Santiago post-nuke film taking place in the barren and blistered wasteland that was once Alaska. Now a desert but still rich with oil, it's a wild blend of car chases, shoot outs, fire, mountain people that look more like the Fillipino actors they are than the native Alaskans I assume they're supposed to be. There's a lot of bad acting and cheesy dialogue and I eat up every second of it It's not quite the great time that Wheels Of Fire was but I still highly enjoyed it up to the very end where in celebration everyone throws loaded guns into a fire to signify their new found peace... I can only laugh at how bad of a time they had seconds after the film cut to credits and live ammo heated up and began going off.

Today's Rundown
Multiple Maniacs - 8/10
Mondo Trasho - 6/10
Equalizer 2000 - 7.5/10

April Exploitation/B-movie Challenge 2016 - Days 3 and 4

It was tough to find time these last couple of days. The 7 hour shitfest that WWE called Wrestlemania 32 took up most of day 3 and day 4 became unexpectedly busy as well. I managed to squeeze in a film each day starting with Cirio Santiago's action packed ride through the post-apocalyptic desert wasteland, WHEELS OF FIRE. This Roger Corman production is packed with car chases, shootouts, fist fights, beautiful women, leather, nudity, rape, flamethrowers, subterranean sand people, space cults and more. It's cheesy in all the right ways and I love it.

Then came a re-watch of THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH, a film I've watched a couple times in the last week to refresh my memory of it for a visit on the Astro Radio Z podcast which focused on gialli this week. If you were to look up "giallo films" in a dictionary THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH could very well be pictured. It's a textbook example of the genre complete with stylish direction, exotic setpieces, a black gloved killer, red herrings, and a twist ending. It stars Edwige Fenech who is one of the most gorgeous women to ever grace the silver screen along with leading man George Hilton and the brilliant character actor Ivan Rassimov. This is a perfect movie.

Today's Rundown
Wheels Of Fire - 8/10
The Strange Vice Of Mrs. Wardh - 10/10

April Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge 2016 Days 1 & 2

To kick off an exploitation movie challenge I don't know if there's too many better places to start than with a Bill Zebub movie. He's made his name making movies filled with schlock, nudity and some off beat humor all on a micro budget. HOLOCAUST CANNIBAL was no different as we watch a group of Nazis struggle to survive the jungles of Argentina, which looks more like the woods behind your house than any exotic South American location. The Nazis have to deal with cannibal natives, sexy women, giant spiders and snakes. They continually get their ass kicked in slow motion. I rather enjoyed the film but found the constant slow motion editing and use of German metal for the soundtrack to become tedious. Nevertheless I'm a fan of the film and it was an appropriate way to kick things off.

ALLEY CAT is a film that I've wanted to see for quite a while as it is a rape/revenge film in the vein of Ms. 45 and Savage Streets - I knew ALLEY CAT would be right up my... ahem... alley. What I didn't get was a film nearly as mean or depraved as either of the films it is compared to. What I did get was a cheesy, karate filled revenge film with a prison shower scene that takes place in the smallest shower I've ever seen. Oh, and it's still got a good bit of that exploitative goodness to keep it just mean enough. It's not the cult classic that Savage Streets is and it isn't the masterpiece that I find Ms. 45 to be but it's damn entertaining and a really solid watch.

The final film of day one came from Frederick Friedel - BLOODY BROTHERS. This film takes Friedel's two feature films Axe and Kidnapped Coed and edits them together into a film of it's own in an attempt to make soe money from his movies after being swindled by producer Harry Novak on those films. Taking two separate films and managing to make an even somewhat cohesive third film by smashing them together is a commendable feat and Friedel manages just that. It's an interesting watch because it includes footage not seen in the final cuts of the film, notably in Axe where the market scene is longer. BLOODY BROTHERS isn't as good as either Axe or Kidnapped Coed but I respect what Friedel was able to pull off by making a presentable film.

Two movies for the second day and we start with PIGS. I'll be reviewing the brand new Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray of this title so I won't be going too in depth with it here but I really really liked PIGS and loved that it wasn't at all what I expected.

I finished things out with Larry Cohen's feature film directorial debut, BONE. This was a tense, mean, funny and uncomfortable commentary on race and class featuring an incredible performance by Yaphet Kotto who gives the most chilling lesson on smashing roaches that you'll ever see. The writing in this film is interesting and goes unexpected ways and really draws the viewer in and the cast as a whole pull off some nuanced performances that carry the script to a massively successful place. The film is flawed but it proves that exploitation films can be both poignant and smart.

Today's Rundown
Holocaust Cannibal - 6/10
Alley Cat - 7/10
Bloody Brothers - 5/10
Pigs - 8/10
Bone - 7/10

CODE 7, VICTIM 5 / MOZAMBIQUE (Blu-ray Review) - Blue Underground

UK/1964
Directed By: Robert Lynn
Written By: Peter Yeldham, Harry Alan Towers
Starring: Lex Barker, Steve Cochran, Ann Smyrner
Color/186 Minutes/Not Rated
Region FREE
Release Date: March 29, 2016

The Films
CODE 7, VICTIM 5 stars Lex Barker as Wexler, a private detective hired by a South African millionaire for protection and to solve the murder of his butler. Upon arriving Wexler meets all the people associated with the millionaire, including his family, business partners and men from his past that may hold the key to the killings as they all appear in an old war photo together. Car chases, fights and shoot outs become the norm as Wexler tries to unravel the mystery.

CODE 7, VICTIM 5 is an entertaining crime thriller that is straight forward in its delivery of a decent mystery that puts everyone involved in immediate danger. The direction is solid and the photography by Nicolas Roeg is beautiful. Lex Barker is a Bond knock off without all the gadgets and is more than capable of it. He's the man to handle all of the bikini clad eye candy running around while solving the crime. The film is more violent than I had expected with more bloodshed than I could have guessed.
All of the elements come together making CODE 7, VICTIM 5 an exotic crime flick that is a fine film.

In MOZAMBIQUE a broke and out of work American pilot is offered a job as a cargo pilot making runs between Mozambique and Lisbon. He quickly finds himself in a web of kidnapping, murder and smuggling. The pilot's focus changes from making a buck to finding out the identity of the person that has put his life in danger.

The exotic setting of Mozambique should be interesting and beautiful, adding to what could have been a thrilling potboiler from director Robert Lynn. Instead the film is dreadfully dull. As fun and thrilling as CODE 7, VICTIM 5 was, MOZAMBIQUE feels that soulless. The score is slow and drawn out, especially in the big climactic ending which could have made the entire film worthwhile to sit through but instead it is a letdown with an incredibly bland score that doesn't fit. The best thing I can say about MOZAMBIQUE is that it's competently made.

This double feature of Robert Lynn films from 1964 show the best and worst of what the director could do and in very similar vehicles. On the surface they're almost identical plots in exotic locales but the paint by numbers MOZAMBIQUE doesn't take advantage of just about anything it had going for it while CODE 7, VICTIM 5 revels in being an exciting detective romp that is surprisingly violent.

The Audio & Video
This Blu-ray from Blue Underground marks the U.S. home video debut for both of these films and it wastes no time showing how good it can look in the opening scenes of CODE 7. The vibrant colors of costumes and decorations in a festival scene are gorgeous and vibrant. This carries on throughout both films and at its best the PQ lives up to those moments with very strong detail down to facial hair stubble and the texture of clothing with a natural film look and grain structure. At its worst the disc has some noticeable digital scrubbing that takes the PQ down a step but never to the point of looking offensive or bad. The image on this disc is good, even at its worst and fantastic at its best. The English audio track is a DTS-HD Mono mix that is crisp and clear. There's no distortions or background noise. Blue Underground took the original mix for these films and made them sound excellent in HD without needing to create gimmicky new surround mixes.

The Extras
Theatrical trailers for each film are included

The Bottom Line
I wish both of these movies were as good as CODE 7 - I still recommend this pulp crime double feature.

CODE 7, VICTIM 5 / MOZAMBIQUE is available HERE

EXCESS FLESH (DVD Review) - Midnight Releasing

USA/2015
Directed By: Patrick Kennelly
Written By: Sigrid Gilmer, Patrick Kennelly
Starring: Bethany Orr, Mary Loveless, Wes McGee
Color/103 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1
Release Date: March 8, 2016

The Film
Jill is jealous of her beautiful roommate Jennifer who works in the Los Angeles fashion scene and is a social butterfly, rarely staying home each night. Jill is recently single and struggles with body issues and eating disorders and rarely leaves the house. Jennifer's constant verbal abuse masked as friendship eventually leads to Jill spinning out of control.

EXCESS FLESH has a beautifully simple idea at its core dealing with some of life's darker sides. Eating disorders, body image issues, and unhealthy and damaging relationships are all looked at in the confines of this picture. Director and co-writer Patrick Kennelly hammers home the importance of food in this picture, with almost every scene having some sort of cooking or eating often with obnoxious chomping sounds and tight close-ups on the food and chewing itself. It hammers the point home immediately and never lets it lighten up.

Bethany Orr does a wonderful job playing the damaged Jill. She lets herself get lost in the role and turns into a dirty, abusive and obsessive broken mind. Mary Loveless lives up to her last name as Jennifer who severely mistreats and takes for granted her friendship with Jill. Even if her intentions are good sometimes she's an immediate catalyst to Jill's fractured psyche. Both of our female leads are great in their roles.

The movie takes a turn from strictly psychological to more physical horror when Jill chains Jennifer to the wall and begins to torture her mentally and physically abuse her. The biggest problem i have with the film and it's a glaring one, is that eventually Jennifer escapes, bruised and obviously beaten wearing nothing but bra and panties and Jill, who is also in underwear and absolutely filthy, manages to talk her way out of a confrontation with the police and Jennifer never opens her mouth to ask for help. It doesn't ruin the film for me but I think this scene would have been better left on the cutting room floor because it does nothing to forward the plot and only serves to make the viewer bang his head against the wall in frustration.

Few movies are perfect, and fewer independent movies yet. EXCESS FLESH successfully tackles several psychological issues to make a horror film that is genuinely disturbing at times and even a bit depressing. A bit more restraint and subtlety may have made this picture a bit better but as it is I'm a fan.

The Audio & Video
Midnight Releasing's release of EXCESS FLESH is a standard but well done DVD with a 16x9 anamorphic widescreen transfer that has relatively good sharpness and detail level and natural color reproduction. A 5.1 surround sound track handles the English audio mix with no problems. Clarity is good and there are no problems with distortions.

The Extras
-"I Don't Race" Music Video
-Official Trailer
-Teaser Trailer

The Bottom Line
There are some things I don't like about EXCESS FLESH but they're vastly outweighed by those that I do. Recommended.

EXCESS FLESH is available HERE

THE HOARDER (DVD Review) - Image/RLJ Entertainment

UK/2015
Directed By: Matt Winn
Written By: James Handel, Matt Winn, Chris Denne
Starring: Mischa Barton, Robert Knepper, Valene Kane
Color/86 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1
Release Date: April, 5 2016

The Film
Ella (Mischa Barton) suspects her fiance of cheating and keeping secrets from her so she and her friend sneak off to break into his storage unit on the sketchy outskirts of the city. After breaking into the unit Ella and several other people are thrown into a stalk and slash fight for survival when they find that a psychopath has started his own collection of victims that he keeps in his storage unit.

THE HOARDER comes out at a time when there have been several similarly themed films released on video and in theaters and will fit in nicely among the rest. Director Matt Winn does a fantastic job making the storage unit set look and feel much bigger and more disorienting than anything they could actually build on a manageable budget. The set design is also great, especially the old, nearly abandoned basement floor which has a damp, dusty look that you can almost smell the old musty mildew odor emanating from the old building.

The script is solid, with a handful of different characters each with their own story inside the walls of their units that will come to light during the night that they're forced to fight for their lives. It keeps things interesting with each character and nobody is simply fodder for the cannon of the psycho killer. There are some twists and turns in the story but most of them aren't unpredictable or unexpected, they could be described as a gentle curve more than a strong twist.

The film may not be unpredictable or anything altogether new, it is a solid horror film but unfortunately the cover art gives away one of the film's big jolts.

The Audio & Video
Image Entertainment releases THE HOARDER on DVD with an attractive standard definition release. The 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer has pretty good detail levels and black levels with little to no issues with blocking. The picture is sharp enough, with probably only a Blu-ray looking any better. The English audio is handled with a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound track sounds strong with no distortion or damage and no background noise. The overall quality is crisp and clear and I have no complaints.

The Extras
-The Making Of THE HOARDER

The Bottom Line
THE HOARDER probably won't become a giant hit or a surprise classic. It is a decent straight forward piece of direct to video horror.

THE HOARDER is available HERE

CHILDREN OF THE CORN Franchise Retrospective Part 1

This has been a long time coming, an idea that I've wanted to do on Celluloid Terror for the last couple of years and I've finally gotten around to doing it. I've long neglected the CHILDREN OF THE CORN franchise having only seen the original and the Syfy channel remake. I grew up with the original and loved it for a long time but a couple of years ago a downward trend began with it where each subsequent viewing left me feeling a little less favorable towards it than the last. I could have reviewed the first film in the series without giving it another watch but I decided to pop it in, dreading that I'd like it even less than the last time because at this point I don't think I would have even called myself a fan of the movie.

1984 brought us the first film adaptation of Stephen King's novel Children Of The Corn. The film of the same name was directed by Fritz Kiersch who is best known for directing this film. The film centers around the town of Gaitlin, Nebraska where child preacher Isaac has gathered the children of the town to commit mass murder of the adults- anyone over 19 years of age. Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) end up in the town and happen a couple of kids who are innocent from the evil and try to protect them while they're being hunted by Isaac and his numerous blade wielding kids.

As of now the film is over 30 years old and has quite a bit of visual effects that are dated. In fact the effects have been dated for a long time. I think the film has an inherent creepiness with all of the religiously brainwashed children who don't think or care about the consequences of their actions. The film features a strong supernatural element that adds to the terror our protagonists are facing until they realize they must destroy the corn field that these children apparently worship. The film is flawed and the fact that it only gets more dated as time goes by didn't help but I have finally put that behind me and accepted the film for what it is and I think I'm finally at a good place with it. The plot is interesting, our leads are more than capable of carrying the film as the rest of the cast is quite young throughout the majority and has a pair of characters that have become mini icons in the horror genre with Isaac and Malechi (along with his yell of "Outlander!"). I have a feeling that the rest of the series won't reach the quality of film making that this first film has.

CHILDREN OF THE CORN 2: THE FINAL SACRIFICE picks up in the aftermath of the Gaitlin murders where the now orphaned children are sent to various homes around the area. John Garrett travels to Gaitlin with his son Danny to cover the story for the tabloid magazine he writes for and they end up staying at a bed and breakfast that has taken in a boy named Micah who is a distant loner and becomes the new preacher for these freaky kids after he's sucked into an alternate dimension and comes back evil and ready to lead the children to murder again.

The thing that immediately jumps out at me is why aren't these kids in police custody or the state's custody in some sort of medical facility? They ran amok, started a cult and murdered their parents and they just get sent to live in foster homes? Who thought that was okay? That's just one of the absurdities of this film. Have we ever had a sequel use "final" in the title so early as COTC did? I mean part 2 and we're already calling it "final"? We're smarter than that!

The brilliance here is in how fucking cheesy this movie is. From the kill sequences that include flying stalks of corn, to houses being dropped on an old lady ala The Wicked Witch Of The West and razor sharp corn stalk leaves just to name a few to the ridiculous Native American and moldy corn conspiracy subplots that go nowhere and the budding romance of a couple high school kids who almost get it on in a pile of dismembered bodies. And I haven't even touched on the alternate evil corn dimension.. Yeah, that's a thing and it's stupid and bizarre.

Can I repeat myself by asking why in the blue hell these kids aren't locked away somewhere!?

Micah is a piss poor replacement for Isaac and they don't even try to replace Malechi. The editing is atrocious and leaves several scenes making absolutely no sense. Almost all technical aspects of this movie are poorly done but it's so cheesy that I can't help but be entertained by it.

CHILDREN OF THE CORN 2 was everything I was afraid of and everything I hoped for all at once.

Film Scores
Children Of The Corn - 6/10
Children Of The Corn 2: The Final Sacrifice - 6/10