‘Everyone loathes a clown.’

100 Tears is a 2007 American independent black comedy slasher horror film directed by Marcus Koch (Rot; Snuff Perversions: Bizarre Cases of Death). It stars Georgia Chris, Joe Davison (who also produced the film), Jack Amos, and Raine Brown, and was distributed by Anthum Pictures with an NC-17 rating. An extended director’s cut was released on DVD by Unearthed Films on 22 July 2014.

Plot teaser:

After being accused of sex crimes he did not commit, a lonely circus clown known onstage as Gurdy (Jack Amos) exacts his revenge on those who unjustly condemned him. The act sparks something inside of him which he cannot stop and now, years later, his inner-demons have truly surfaced. Part urban legend, part tabloid sensationalism… he is now an unstoppable murderous juggernaut, fuelled only by hate.

And worse, when two tabloid reporters (Georgia Chris and Joe Davison) attempt to hunt him down, they find themselves trapped in his warehouse, hunted by him and his conniving daughter (Raine Brown), who already has a deceptive plan up her sleeve. It’s a gory, horrifying fight for their lives with no telling who will emerge alive…

Buy Extended Director’s Cut on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“The great thing about the movie is that it wastes no time in killing off a whole bunch of people, with our killer clown offing the entire population of a halfway house in the first ten minutes. And this isn’t some off-screen massacre – we see every one of the kills in their splatter-y glory, with numerous beheadings and eviscerations to applaud. It’s a perfect way to start off this sort of movie, but what makes it admirable is that it hasn’t blown its wad – there are still about twice as many on-screen kills to go!” Horror Movie a Day

“I’ve actually been racking my brain all day trying to think of that one tiny speck of coolness I liked about it and I came up with a big fat NOTHING!!! Yes, it’s way over the top gory (which is how I like my horror flicks) with victims getting beheaded, strangled with their own insistence and limbs cut off at every turn. In the first ten minutes alone, eight people get killed in bloody and gruesome ways but the F/Xs are done so badly and that it takes all the fun out of it.” Sfipress

“100 Tears worked because it really had a nice balance of blood-splattering gore and quick one-liners delivered with witty humor …The throbbing techno/industrial soundtrack really added some intensity to the scenes involving Gurdy the Clown as he hacked and chopped his victims with his over-sized meat cleaver in bloody fashion. But, I have to point out that the intro to the film had a very Leonard Cohen-esque sound to it, mixed in with a bit of carnival/circus music” Bryan “Shu” Schuessler, Horror Society

Cast:

• Jack Amos as Gurdy the Clown
• Georgia Chris as Jennifer Stevenson
• Joe Davison as Mark Web
• Raine Brown as Christine Greaston
• Kibwe Dorsey as Detective Spaulding
• Rod Grant as Detective Dunkin
• Norberto Santiago as Drago Villette
• Jerry Allen as Ed Purdy
• Jeff Dylan Graham as Jack Arlo
• Krystal Badia as Jill Bryner
• Leslie Ann Crytzer as Tracy Greaston
• Jori Davison as Roxanna
• Brad Rhodes as Ralphio the Strongman
• Regina Ramirez as Bookstore Patron
• Clayton Smith as Young Gurdy

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘Screams of terror… silenced only by the splintering of glass!’

Nightmares – aka Stage Fright – is a 1980 Australian horror film, co-produced and directed by John D. Lamond from a screenplay by Colin Eggleston (Long Weekend; Innocent Prey; Cassandra). It stars Jenny Neumann (The Girl in the Empty Grave; Hell Night), Gary Sweet (The Dreaming), Nina Landis (Komodo), Max Phipps (Thirst; Mad Max 2; Dark Age); Edmund Pegge (Scream – and Die!).

The Bernard Hermannesque score is by Brian May (Patrick; Thirst; Roadgames).

Nightmares was released in the US uncut and remastered on DVD by Severin Films on June 28, 2011.

Plot teaser:

A young girl named Cathy (Jenny Neumann) tries to keep her mother from making out with a man while driving one day, and she inadvertently causes her mother’s death in the ensuing crash.

Sixteen years later, Cathy is now named Helen and has become an actress. Since her mother died with a shard of glass in her throat, Helen begins hacking through the cast of her new play, “Comedy of Blood,” in similar fashion…

Buy Nightmares uncut and remastered on DVD from Amazon.com 

Reviews:

“Nightmares certainly lives up to its name. Unfolding like a delirious fever dream, its abrupt cuts and elliptical montages prevent rhythm and typical narrative coherency. It’s almost reminiscent of a female counterpart to Maniac in its study of obsession and psychological scarring, while its conflation of sex and death echoes the giallo tradition.

All of this, of course, makes it a twisted, demon spawn of Psycho, and Lamond wears that Hitchcockian influence on his sleeve in several shots. His take on the then-burgeoning slasher genre is a wickedly stylish tour-de-force of roving cameras and high-strung symphonic sound that often work in spectacular fashion.” Brett G., Oh, the Horror!

“It’s hilarious that Lamond plays it like a mystery. Not only does Helen have violent sexual hangups and a thing with broken glass, but after the alley couple are killed, her recurring nightmare starts featuring scenes from that murder. You know, because she did it. Yet even after this, the movie keeps the slasher’s face hidden from us till the very end, as if Lamond forgot he already told us who it was.” Eric B. Snider, Geek Nation

” … the film offers nothing to the genre, which is even sadder when you consider it came out before many of the other slasher films folks can name off the top of their head. In fact it’s almost more like a giallo at times, due to the loose plotting, excess of sex and assholes, and crazy flashback motifs, but it lacks style. If nothing else, a giallo should deliver some nice set pieces, but one of this film’s biggest issues is how shoddily constructed it is. There AREN’T any set-pieces, scenes just sort of come and go at random throughout the film, leaving the viewer without any clear indication of how much time has gone by since the last one (that they all fade in/out to black doesn’t help).” Horror Movie a Day

“Even if he may be an awful editor, as a writer, Eggeton excels himself and his hilarious dialogue and intriguing personas are brilliant. I’ve done quite a bit of theatre and can confirm that the featured characterisations are spot on. I once read that celebrities are some of the most non-confident people on the planet and the fact that they’re swimming in a pool of insecurities up on the world’s stage makes them self-centred and narcissistic.

The script most definitely touches on that and it means that we can have fun watching them get slashed. And get slashed they do. EVERY single one of them. The performances may not be earth moving and there’s no one really to bond with, but it’s still enjoyable enough to watch.” Luisito Joaquín González, A Slash Above…

“I also really enjoyed how the film, whether intentionally or not, provided an explanation as to why killers in slasher films tend to go after lovers in heat as their prime targets. It’s become a running joke that if you plan to get it on in a slasher flick, you’ll not likely to live long enough to achieve that happy ending. What Nightmares does is provide us with a backstory as to why Hellen hates sex and how she sees sexuality as the murderer of her mother and in order to avenge her she must eliminate any trace of it that she comes across.” Matthew Saliba, The Celery Stalks At Midnight

Interview with John Lamond on Mondo Stumpo!

Cast:

• Gary Sweet … Terry Besanko
• Jenny Neumann … Cathy/Helen Selleck
• Max Phipps … George D’alberg
• John Michael Howson … Bennett Collingwood
• Nina Landis … Judy

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: Critical Condition

“From time to time you have to make a film like Armageddon so people see that you’re still around.”

Udo Kier – born Udo Kierspe; 14 October 1944 – is a German actor who has appeared in over 200 films, across many genres, though his appearances in horror films have been particularly notable.

Kier was born in Cologne, near the end of World War II. The hospital in which he was born was bombed by the Allies moments after his birth and both Udo and his mother had to be dug from the resultant rubble. In his youth he worked as an altar boy and cantor. He moved to the United Kingdom to learn the English language when he was 18 years-old.

In 1966, Kier was cast in the lead role for the short film, Road to St. Tropez by director, Paul Sarne. His first major film, appropriately enough, was the notorious horror movie Mark of the Devil (1969) a production packed with sexual imagery, extreme violence and, if you were lucky, a branded paper bag to vomit in, handed out at selected cinemas. Working alongside one of the titans of the screen, Herbert Lom, Kier, with his good looks, was cast opposite the facially disfigured Reggie Nalder; to ram home the point, Kier’s character, Christian (the hero) is pitted against Nalder’s sadistic witch torturer, Albino. The notion of Kier wearing a metaphorical mask and adopting a larger than life personality would become one of his trademarks.

Two of the most important films in his early career were made back-to-back; Flesh for Frankenstein in 1973, directed by Paul Morrissey, a relationship which began when they met on an airplane flight, and Blood for Dracula, filmed by Paul Morrissey for Andy Warhol’s studio and produced by Vittorio de Sica and Roman Polański, with Kier playing the lead roles of young Dr Frankenstein and young Count Dracula (Warhol had little to do with either film, aside from the selling power of his name in the title). Udo’s thick German accent and wildly over-the-top performances immediately made him a cult figure with audiences. Indeed, Kier’s accent had led to many of his early performances being re-dubbed.

In a typically contrary fashion, rather than building on his now alluring performances and growing fan base, he continued to act in wildly disparate and, in a mainstream sense, uncommercial selection of films; Just Jaeckin’s inadvertently funny erotic drama, The Story of O (1975) and the following year’s bizarre Spermula, in which he played an alien ‘popping out’ of a man, did little to sell him to a family audience.

Adding to his appearances on the list of DPP banned list of films in the UK, his role in 1976’s House on Straw Hill aka Exposé as an anguished writer is both intense and alarming and Udo attempts to break the world sweating record. Alas, the film was something of a bone of contention, the film’s producers apparently doing everything possible to avoid paying him. It was to take another maverick member of the film-making community to drag him back to a medium he always felt happiest with.

Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) is now, rightly, considered a classic of the genre and though Kier’s role of the doctor can scarcely be considered the lead role, his association with the film and his mannered performance reminded audiences that Kier wasn’t just a pantomime ham. Ironically, he later appeared in Argento’s Mother of Tears, in which the director proves himself to be infinitely hammier than his actor.

It should come as little surprise that Kier also crossed paths with other Euro film philanderers: Poland’s Walerian Borowczyk cast the actor as Jack the Ripper in Lulu (1980) and in the following year’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne and Czechoslovakia’s Kurt Rabb gave him a role in his The Island of the Bloody Plantation, 1983.

Probably based on his cult status as Count Dracula, Kier has appeared in a number of other vampire movies, such as Die Einsteiger (1985), Blade (1998), Modern Vampires (1998, alongside Rod Steiger), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Dracula 3000 and BloodRayne (2006).

Throughout his career, Kier has almost uniquely managed to balance his acting projects between ‘high art’ and gruelling trash (such as Evil Eyes and Fall Down Dead), a trick which has endeared him to audiences and film-makers without necessarily leading to him being mobbed on the street.

Fans of the actor have included Walerian Borowczyk, the aforementioned Dario Argento, Andy Warhol, Paul Morrissey and Rainer Werner Fassbinder (which allegedly ruled him out from appearing in any Werner Herzog films, due to an unspoken agreement between the directors – there was some slight leeway with a fleeting appearance in 2001’s Invincible). He has appeared in all of Lars von Trier’s movies since 1987’s Epidemic (with the exceptions of The Idiots, The Boss of it All and Antichrist) as well as the far more mainstream Hollywood blockbuster Blade (1998) as well as the ironic independent film Shadow of the Vampire (2000) produced by Nicolas Cage. He has also frequently worked with idiosyncratic German director Christoph Schlingensief.

He made an appearance in cult movie My Own Private Idaho (1991) directed by Gus van Sant. Well-known film appearances were in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) with Jim Carrey as a billionaire, Ronald Camp, in Barb Wire with Pamela Anderson, as a NASA flight psychologist in Armageddon, and as Ralphie in the film Johnny Mnemonic, though these flirtations with Hollywood did little to dampen his enthusiasm for horror and the absurd.

In the music world, the actor’s cult status led to an appearance in Madonna’s infamous 1992 attention-seeking book called Sex, as well as the video for her disco hit “Deeper and Deeper” from the album Erotica. Kier appeared in nu-metal band Korn’s music video “Make Me Bad”, in Eve’s music video “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” and in the music video for “Die Schöne und das Biest” by defunct German band Rauhfaser.

He also starred as the psychic “Yuri” in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and its expansion, Yuri’s Revenge, played the villainous Lorenzini in the 1996 film The Adventures of Pinocchio, and then later reprised his role in the 1999 sequel The New Adventures of Pinocchio. He also voiced Professor Pericles in the 2010 – 2013 animated series Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

A documentary on his life and career entitled “ICH-UDO…der Schauspieler Udo Kier” (“ME-Udo…the actor Udo Kier”) was filmed for ARTE, the French-German culture channel in Europe, and released in 2012. The documentary won the New York Festival “Finalist Certificate”. He was honoured by the Munich Film Festival with its CineMerit Award in July 2014.

Kier continues to act with horror films still featuring heavily on the horizon and so it is fitting that this career overview should end with the news that he will play Bela Lugosi in the 2015 movie The Final Curtain: The Last Days of Ed Wood, Jr.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

Selected Filmography:

1969 Mark of the Devil
1973 Flesh for Frankenstein
1973 Blood for Dracula
1975 The Story of O
1976 Expose
1976 Spermula
1977 Suspiria
1981 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne
1983 The Island of the Bloody Plantation
1989 100 Jahre Adolf Hitler – Die letzte Stunde im Führerbunker
1990 Blackest Heart (The German Chainsaw Massacre)
1991 My Own Private Idaho
1993 Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
1994 Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
1994 Terror 2000 – Intensivstation Deutschland
1995 Johnny Mnemonic
1996 Barb Wire
1998 Modern Vampires
1998 Armageddon
1998 Blade
1999 Besat
1999 End of Days
2000 Shadow of the Vampire
2000 Dancer in the Dark
2002 Feardotcom
2003 Dogville
2004 One Point O
2004 Evil Eyes
2004 Dracula 3000
2005 Headspace
2005 BloodRayne
2005 Masters of Horror – Cigarette Burns (dir. John Carpenter)
2006 Pray for Morning
2007 Grindhouse (Werewolf Women of the SS trailer)
2007 Fall Down Dead
2007 Halloween
2007 Mother of Tears
2011 Melancholia
2011 The Theatre Bizarre
2012 Night of the Templar
2012 The Lords of Salem
2012 Iron Sky
2013 Nymphomaniac
2014 The Editor
2015 The Final Curtain: The Last Days of Ed Wood, Jr.

El Silbón (English translation: “The Whistler”) is a character appearing in both Colombian and Venezuelan folk tales, famed for terrorising men, women and children, especially the latter whom he is known to feast upon.

The legend of El Silbón is thought to date back to the 19th Century and always concerns the events beginning with a young man murdering his father, for deeds as diverse as:

1. Finding his father abusing his young wife.

2. His father’s refusal to allow his son to feast upon the blood and innards of a recently slaughtered deer. The son’s solution is to kill and gut his father and to serve the resultant stew of human offal to his mother.

Either way and accounting for further slight deviations, the mother flees the scene, returning with her father who it seems is a dab hand at dishing out punishments and curses. Tying the boy to a tree, he rubs lemons and chillies (or red peppers) into his eyes, whips him soundly and, being a frugal sort, squeezes the remaining lemons over the wounds. He is then presented with a sack containing his father’s remains (or sometimes, future victims), which he must carry on his back for eternity. Not quite finished, spectral hounds are sent to pursue him wherever he wanders. A final curse is uttered to send him on his way:

“Eso no se le hace a su padre…¡Maldito eres pa´ toa´ la vida” [roughly: “You should not have killed your father, you are cursed for the rest of your life”]

As the ghostly son sets off, with dogs not far behind, he whistles a distinctive tune; think “Do-re-me…” or the note progression C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C.

The cursed young man now takes his anger out on many who cross his path but particularly men who have cheated on their wives, drunkards and children. The sight of him distantly traipsing across the plains, stick-thin and sporting a large-brimmed farming hat, can often be preempted by the sound of his distinctive whistle, at well as the sound of the bones in his sack grinding against one another. Though common sense would dictate the louder it is heard, the nearer he is, in actual fact is actually true, meaning a distant sound after a glimpse of the boy could spell imminent doom.

Every night the ghoulish traveller stops at a different house in order to count the bones in his sack. If no-one at home is roused by the sound of this by the following dawn, a member of the household is certain to die. Drunks are given less of a chance; those found sleeping off the booze are dispatched at once, by the novel approach of having their alcohol and blood sucked out of their body via the belly button.

He is often to be seen during the rainy seasons. It is possible to arm oneself against attack from El Silbón by either reminding him of the crimes which have lead to his torment or by keeping one of the items he was tortured with close to hand; red peppers, a whip or a dog. This writer makes no comment on the kind of homes which may have all three of these things.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

The Manson Family is a 2003 American true crime horror film written and directed by Jim Van Bebber. The film covers the lives of Charles Manson and his “family” of followers. The film had a long and troubled production history. Director Jim Van Bebber personally financed the production starting in 1988, and then continued to shoot it sporadically on weekends and off days. In 1998, Creation Books published Charlie’s Family: An Illustrated Screenplay, in the UK.

Despite support from various people, including members of the band Skinny Puppy, who provided a musical score (in the form of Download‘s Charlie’s Family album) that was released separately years before the film itself, the film remained incomplete. It screened on video as a work-in-progress at a number of film festivals during that time. Phil Anselmo of Pantera, Down, and Superjoint Ritual provided his voice as Satan.

The Manson Family is a cross between fictional story and documentary, overseeing the crimes of The Manson Family as led by Charlie Manson. The fictional story centers on a Crime Scene-esque TV series of the same name and its host, Jack Wilson (Carl Day). It is filmed in semi-experimental style and focuses on the early days of the Spahn Ranch including Manson’s attempts to record a music album, and the Manson family crimes, with little emphasis on courtroom drama regarding the trial, although some scenes depict Manson’s follower’s outside the courthouse.

Dark Sky Films stepped in with the funds to finish the film properly, and it has since been released theatrically and on home video. On June 11, 2013, Severin Films released a 10th Anniversary Blu-ray + DVD combo. This includes:

• Audio Commentary with Director Jim VanBebber
• Gator Green – Exclusive First Release of VanBebber’s latest short
• Exclusive New Interview With Phil Anselmo
• The VanBebber Family – Uncut Version of ‘Making Of’ Documentary Featuring Interviews with Cast and Crew
• In The Belly of The Beast – Documentary On the 1997 Fantasia Film Festival
• Interview With Charles Manson
• Deleted Scenes
• Theatrical Trailers

Read article: Coming Down Fast – Charles Manson on Screen

Reviews:

“The Manson Family pulls no punches in its handling of these gruesome events. Van Bebber’s only concession to restraint occurs when he cuts away from the mutilation about to be inflicted upon Sharon Tate and her unborn baby. All this excessive bloodshed has a point though; it’s never intended as gratuitous shock tactics. In a manner analogous to John McNaughton’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, the unsparing violence is meant to demystify and de-glamorize acts of carnal savagery that otherwise might register as little more than the routine slaughter found in your average slasher film. Violence, Van Bebber wants to say, is always ugly.” Budd Wilkins, Slant

“What Van Bebber does accomplish is to make a film true to its subject. It doesn’t bring reason, understanding, analysis or empathy to Manson; it wants only to evoke him. It is not pro-Manson, simply convinced of the power he had over those people at that time. In a paradoxical way, it exhibits sympathy for his victims by showing their deaths in such horrifying detail. In its technical roughness, its raw blatant crudeness, it finds a style suitable to the material; to the degree that it was more smooth and technically accomplished, to that degree it would distance itself from its subject and purpose.” Roger Ebert

“The greatest success of the film is actually that of the generally almost forgotten deaths of the LaBianca’s later that night (which have become almost an afterthought due to the ‘fame’ of the ‘Tate Murders’) which are covered in truly horrific detail and in fact their deaths are the hardest to watch of all, the brutal, sadisti, c multiple stab wound demise of Mrs LaBianca (even to the grotesque desecration of her body by uncovering, and then stabbing, her naked buttocks) is in fact by far the most explicit and uncomfortable death in the whole film. And that’s of course exactly as it should be, and it makes us feel exactly like we are meant to feel… shocked and sickened.” Beardy Freak

” … schizophrenic, bad-acid-trip of a movie retells the Manson legend from inside the family. The film actually looks like all of those terrible 60s grindhouse movies, with deliberately mismatched 16mm film stock, and drug scenes straight out of Alice in Acidland. However, this is a film with a deadly serious intent, sucking the viewer into the free love and drugs ethos of the 60s. We watch how this dream turns into a nightmare of grotesque violence, all at the hands of a very convincing Charlie Manson.” Tony O’Neill, The Guardian

Cast:

• Marcello Games as Charlie Manson
• Marc Pitman as Tex Watson
• Leslie Orr as Patty Krenwinkel
• Maureen Allisse as Sadie Atkins
• Amy Yates as Leslie Van Houten
• Jim Van Bebber as Bobby
• Tom Burns as Clem Watkins
• Michelle Briggs as Linda Kasabian
• Sherri Rickman as Snake
• Nate Pennington as Shorty
• Carl Day as Jack Wilson
• Corral Day as Franklin Riley

Wikipedia | IMDb | Official website

‘Everyone has nightmares about the ugliest way to die.’

Don’t Go in the Woods – also known as Don’t Go in the Woods… Alone! - is a 1980 (released 1981) American slasher film directed by James Bryan from a screenplay by Garth Eliassen. The film was shot on a budget of $20,000 in the summer of 1980 in outdoor locations in Utah in order to save money on the film’s lighting.

It is one of the infamous video nasties that was banned in the UK in the moral panic of the 1980s. It was finally re-released uncut, with a BBFC 15 rating (!), in 2007.

Plot teaser:

As something kills a hysterical woman, and a bird watcher, four friends – Peter, Joanne, Ingrid and Craig – trek through the wilderness. A tourist is thrown over a waterfall – landing near some oblivious frolickers – and his mother is wounded, and dragged away.

The four backpackers set up camp for the night, and elsewhere a pair of honeymooners are attacked in their van and murdered. The next day, the two couples continue their hike, while an artist is stabbed to death, and her young daughter is taken.

Two more campers are butchered, and while off on his own, Peter witnesses a fisherman be murdered by the killer, a spear-wielding wild man adorned in furs and rags. Peter rushes off to warn his friends, who the maniac gets to first, spearing Craig, and sending Joanne fleeing into the woods. Peter finds Ingrid, and after the two stumble upon the wild man’s cabin, they accidentally attack another hiker, thinking he was the savage. The killer finishes off the hiker, and wounds Ingrid, but she and Peter escape, and eventually reach civilisation, and alert the authorities to the backwoods psychopath…

Buy Don’t Go in the Woods on Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray + DVD from Amazon.com

Reviews:

“Aside from one nasty bit with a bear trap and a sequence toward the end that faintly — and accidentally, believe me — recalls The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in its slow, dread-saturated buildup, director James Bryan’s splatter film is an incoherent mess. An endless parade of victims keeps the fake blood squirting, but the murder sequences are so poorly staged that it’s usually impossible to tell precisely what’s happening. The most frightening thing about this alleged horror film, aside from its bad synthesizer soundtrack, is its pacing. Murder sequences are clumped together throughout the film, leaving a lot of flab in between.” Bryan Pop, DVD Verdict

“Much of the dialogue is priceless – a doctor saying of one of the escapees to the sheriff: “There’s a lot of pressure under that kind of stress and he might… he might become irrational!” The scriptwriter should have won some kind of surrealist award, or been shot – or both! The gore is cheap but plentiful (enough to get it banned in the UK, an accolade it still possess after so many years) and there is always the slightly satisfying feeling that you will (probably) never see anything as awful again.” Hysteria Lives

Buy Don’t Go in the Woods on 88 Films Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

” …a lively, ramshackle horror picture with a devil-may-care approach to story construction, and lots of grisly deaths. The story … may lack originality, but it plays the slasher horror game to the hilt and proved to be Bryan’s most visible and commercially successful picture.” Stephen Thrower, Nightmare USA

Buy Nightmare USA book from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

” …fat women huffing up hillsides, nerdy birdwatchers, roller-skating disco-bunnies and swinging couples, all accompanied by perhaps the most grating score of all time (by H. Kingsley Thurber). At the gore is plentiful – if extremely hokey.” J.A. Kerswell, Teenage Wasteland: The Slasher Movie Uncut

Buy Teenage Wasteland: The Slasher Movie Uncut book from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Cast:

• Jack McClelland as Peter
• Mary Gail Artz as Ingrid
• James P. Hayden as Craig
• Angie Brown as Joanne
• Ken Carter as Sheriff
• David Barth as Deputy Benson
• Larry Roupe as Store Owner
• Amy Martell as Artist’s Child
• Tom Drury as Maniac
• Laura Trefts as Doctor Maggie

Choice dialogue:

Craig: [tying Joanne in a sleeping bag] “Now I’ve got you, bitch! Let’s hear you say uncle! Say uncle! Say it, bag of bitch! Say it! Say it, bag of bitch! Say it! Say uncle!”

International titles:

Filo mortal – Argentina

The Forest 2 – Australia (video title)

Perigo na Floresta – Brazil

Le tueur de la forêt – France

Nie chodz do lasu – Poland

Não Vás à Floresta… Sozinha! – Portugal

No vayas al bosque… sola – Spain

Ausflug in das Grauen – West Germany

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘The dead shall rise and walk the Earth’

City of the Living Dead – Italian: Paura nella città dei morti viventi [translation: Fear in the City of the Living Dead], released in the US as The Gates of Hell – is a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Lucio Fulci (Zombie Flesh Eaters; The Beyond; The New York Ripper) from a screenplay co-written with Dardano Sacchetti. It is the first instalment of the unofficial Gates of Hell trilogy that also includes The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery. The film’s haunting score is by Fabio Frizzi and was issued again as a vinyl album in 2013 by Death Waltz Recording Company.

The film stars Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Janet Agren, Antonella Interlenghi, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Michele Soavi, Venantino Venantini. Director Fulci makes an uncredited cameo appearance as Dr. Joe Thompson.

Plot teaser:

In New York City, during a séance held in the apartment of medium Theresa, Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl) experiences a traumatic vision of a priest, Father Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine), hanging himself from a tree branch in the cemetery of a remote village called Dunwich.

When the images overwhelm her, Mary goes into convolutions, and falls to the floor as if dead. The police interrogate Theresa, but fail to heed her warnings of an imminent evil. Outside the apartment building, Peter Bell (Christopher George), a journalist, tries to gain entry to the premises but is turned away.

The following day, Mary is buried in a local cemetery on Long Island overlooking Manhattan and Peter visits her grave site. The gravediggers (Perry Pirkanen and Michael Gaunt) leave Mary’s half-covered coffin at the end of their work shift and leave. Soon, Peter hears muffled screams as he reluctantly leaves the graveyard. Using a pickaxe, he frees the screaming woman from her premature burial, but with the axe coming dangerously close to her head as it smashes through the casket lid.

Peter and Mary visit Theresa where she warns them that according to the ancient book of Enoch, the events Mary has witnessed in her visions presage the eruption of the living dead into our world. The death of Father Thomas, a marked priest, has somehow opened a door through which the living dead can enter and the invasion will commence on All Saints Day, just a few days away…

Buy on Blu-ray | Instant Video from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Reviews:

” …with its nonsensical ‘plot’ randomly constructed according to the illogic of fear, and its grotesque emphasis on physical mutability, fragmentation and decay, it could just conceivably be the sort of disreputable movie the surrealists would have loved.” Time Out

” …City of the Living Dead’s narrative is bland and workmanlike, but it does at least plod along at a solid and continuous pace like the beating drum in Fabio Frizzi’s effective, minimalistic score. That score and every other aspect of the film really come into their own in the big finale; when the location of the portal into hell is discovered and Fulci’s direction is at its most stylish and lively, building up into a final shot that is perplexingly ambiguous.” Matt Shingleton, The Digital Fix

“While usual undead stylish Giannetto De Rossi isn’t along for the ride, these walking corpses are appropriately ghoulish and maggot infested. Their collective, grand rising occurs in one of Fulci’s best set-pieces: a dank, dark, cobwebbed crypt that exudes death. Whereas the barren wasteland of The Beyond is eerie in its vast emptiness, this is terrifying in its claustrophobia. Our characters here stumble into an eternal sea of visceral, violent death rather than a spiritual, soul-sucking demise.” Brett G., Oh, the Horror!

“What Fulci gives us is a collage of images, some of which fit into the film’s story arc, while others simply add to the overall atmosphere of apocalyptic doom. So, a shower of maggots appears out of nowhere, a boy’s head comes into contact with an industrial drill and a woman vomits up her intestines.” Jamie Russell, Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema

Buy Book of the Dead from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

“The story does verge on the incoherent at times and certainly isn’t as neatly tied together as The Beyond or The House By The Cemetery, but has a rather more dreamlike quality to it. The build up to the slightly anti-climactic ending is somewhat surreal… Andygeddon

Buy Lucio Fulci Collection on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

“City of the Living Dead is saturated with technical exaggeration, teeming with oddball performances and high on its own outrageous contrivances. Elegant cross-fades and superimpositions add beauty, as do a handful of judicious, painterly details, like the petal seen dropping silently from the rose held by the catatonic Mary in her coffin. All these factors coalesce, and the film survives its thin story thanks to the eccentricity of its detail.” Stephen Thrower, Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci

Buy Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy City of the Living Dead on Arrow Video Blu-ray | DVD from Amazon.co.uk

Special features:

• Original Theatrical trailer
• Dame of the Dead
• Live from the Glasgow Theatre
• The Many Lives And Deaths of Giovanni Lombardo Radice
• Penning Some Paura – Dardano Sacchetti Remembers COTLD
• The Audio Recollections of Giovanni Lombardo Radice
• Audio Commentary with Catriona Macoll and Jay Slater
• Profondo Luigi – A Colleague’s Memories of Lucio Fulci
• Fulci’s Daughter – Memories of the Italian Gore Maestro
• Carlo of the Living Dead – Surviving Fulci Fear
• Fulci in the House: The Italian Master of Splatter
• Gallery of the Living Dead

Choice dialogue:

Bar owner: “A few beers and you fellows start seeing ghouls and devils all over the place.”

Cast:

• Christopher George as Peter Bell
• Catriona MacColl as Mary Woodhouse (credited as Katriona MacColl)
• Carlo De Mejo as Gerry
• Janet Agren as Sandra
• Antonella Interlenghi as Emily Robbins
• Giovanni Lombardo Radice as Bob
• Daniela Doria as Rosie Kelvin
• Fabrizio Jovine as Father William Thomas
• Luca Venantini as John-John Robbins (credited as Luca Paisner)
• Michele Soavi as Tommy Fisher
• Venantino Venantini as Mr. Ross
• Enzo D’Ausilio as Sheriff Russell’s deputy
• Adelaide Aste as Theresa
• Luciano Rossi as Policeman #1 in Theresa’s apartment
• Robert Sampson as Sheriff Russell
• Lucio Fulci as Dr. Joe Thompson
• Michael Gaunt as the Gravedigger #1
• Perry Pirkanen as the Blonde Gravedigger
• James Sampson as James McLuhan; Séance Member
• Martin Sorrentino as Sgt. Clay
• Robert E. Warner as the Policeman Outside Theresa’s apartment building

Buy Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbook from Amazon.co.uk

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘Warning! How much horror can you stand??’

Taeter City – also known as Taeter City: City of Cannibals – is a 2012 Italian action/sci-fi/horror movie written and directed by Giulio De Santi (Adam Chaplin; Hotel Inferno - read our review) for Necrostorm productions. It stars Monica Munoz, Riccardo Valentini, Christian Riva, Wilmar Zimosa, Ortaez Santiago.

The film is being released on DVD in the US by Bayview Entertainment/Widowmaker on February 24, 2015.

Official plot teaser:

The futuristic metropolis of Taeter City is managed by The Authority – a dictatorship that rules with an iron fist. Utilizing a special radio wave system called Zeed, The Authority is able to distinguish criminals from law-abiding citizens; however these special radio waves also alter the demented brain waves of the criminals and force them to commit suicide in horrible ways. A special police force called The Bikers then retrieves their corpses and delivers them to massive slaughterhouses that supply the mega fast food chains with the human flesh products that are needed to feed the hungry masses. The Authority’s hand has managed to keep the citizens under control for quite some time, but a series of unforeseen chaotic events has slowly been undermining their rule…

Buy Taeter City on DVD from Amazon.com

Reviews:

“Taeter City is an action-packed whirlwind tour of a dystopian cannibal dictatorship that’s bursting at the scenes with shocking violence, a retro synth sound track, hilarious English dubbing, amazing home-grown digital and practical effects, and good old fashioned European gore.” Aaron Allen, Horror in the Hammer

IMDb | Official site | Facebook

Grizzly is a 2014 US/Canadian horror film directed by David Hackl (Saw V) from a screenplay by Guy Moshe and J.R. Reher (based on the latter’s storyline).

The film stars James Marsden (Straw Dogs; X-Men: Days of Future Past), Thomas Jane, Billy Bob Thornton (Chopper Chicks in Zombietown), Piper Perabo, Scott Glenn, Adam Beach, Michaela McManus, Kelly Curran.

This Indomitable Entertainment/Purple Pictures production has a reported budget of $10 million abd was originally titled Red Machine then Endangered. Open Road Films will distribute in the US. It has been rated ‘R” for: “violence, grisly images, language and brief sexuality/nudity.”

Plot teaser:

Two estranged brothers reunite at their childhood home in the Alaskan wilderness and attempt to mend their troubled past. Together with their girlfriends, they embark on a camping adventure that goes horribly awry when they are relentlessly stalked and attacked by a grizzly bear on a rampage…

Filming locations:

Vancouver, Canada

Wikipedia | IMDb

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood is a 1988 slasher horror film directed by John Carl Buechler (Troll; Cellar Dweller; Ghoulies III) from a screenplay by Manuel Fidello and Daryl Haney.

It is the seventh instalment in the original Friday the 13th series and the start of the Kane Hodder era in which he repeated the role of Jason Vorhees three more times. The other leads are Lar Park Lincoln, Kevin Blair, Susan Blu, Terry Kiser (The Offspring).

Plot teaser:

Shortly after the events of the previous film, seven-year old Tina Sheppard witnesses her father abusing her mother, and runs out onto the lake in a boat. When her father tries to retrieve and apologise to her, Tina’s latent telekinetic powers awaken and she accidentally collapses the dock on him, causing him to drown.

Ten years later, Tina and her mother return to the lake at the request of her doctor Dr. Crews in order to face her fear and trauma over the death of her father. Crews tries to incite Tina to use her telekinetic powers through constant persuasion and manipulation, though under the guise of psychiatric care, he plans to exploit Tina’s gifts. After a particularly disturbing confrontation, Tina runs out to the docks and believes she senses her father’s presence in the lake. She uses her powers to resurrect him, but instead accidentally frees Jason Voorhees from his imprisonment…

Reviews:

‘The New Blood certainly moves briskly from one violent set piece to the next; as a result of Buechler’s emphasis on narrative momentum, however, the underlying themes, such as they are, never have an opportunity to breathe. With the victims made even more generic than usual this time around, the result is more or less the kind of slasher film the series’s many detractors accuse films in the genre of being as a whole: an empty-headed slaughterfest, with a bit of negligible human interest to offset the nihilism.’ Kenji Fujishima, Slant Magazine

‘Although the role of Jason isn’t exactly Shakespeare, Hodder turns in a great performance as the hulking, heavy breathing zombie killer.John Carl Buechler’s special effects are great, even though they were heavily edited by the MPAA. Hodder and the special effects are the main reasons to watch the film, since the rest of the cast sleepwalk through their parts and the dialogue is frighteningly dumb.’ Jim Harper, Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies

‘The makeup design this time around is absolutely stunning, and shows an attention to detail that has hitherto been completely absent from any aspect of the Friday the 13th series. Jason really does look like he’s spent a good ten years rotting at the bottom of a lake. His clothes are little more than soggy rags, his skin is greenish and slimed with putrescence, and his bones are visible wherever they lie close to the surface— his ribs, spine, kneecaps, and shoulder blades. It’s when his mask comes off during the final clash between him and Tina that the makeup team’s workmanship really comes to the fore, though.’ 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

Buy Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Censorship:

Several explicit scenes of gore were cut in order to avoid an X rating, including: Maddy’s death, who originally had a sickle jammed through her neck; Ben’s death, which showed Jason crushing his head into a bloody pulp; Kate’s death, which showed Jason ramming her in the eye with a party horn; the original VHS and DVD versions only show a full view of Jason as he aims towards her face, but quickly cuts to another scene before revealing the blood and gore gushing from her eye; we see Eddie’s head hit the floor; a shot of Russell’s face splitting open with a large blood spurt; Dan’s original death had Jason ripping out his guts; Amanda Shepard’s death originally showed Jason stabbing her from behind, with the resulting blade going through her chest and subsequent blood hitting Dr. Crews;

Dr. Crews’s death showed Jason’s tree-trimming saw violently cutting into his stomach, sending a fountain of blood and guts in the air; Melissa’s original death had Jason cleaving her head in half with an axe with a close-up of her eyes still wriggling in their sockets. The boxed set DVD release of all of the films and the single deluxe edition have all these scenes available as deleted scenes in rough work print footage, however the deluxe edition features more additional footage than the boxed set.

Buy Deluxe Edition DVD from Amazon.com

Ghanian hand drawn poster

Cast:

• Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees
• Lar Park Lincoln as Tina Shepard
• Kevin Spirtas as Nick
• Susan Blu as Amanda Shepard
• Terry Kiser as Dr. Crews
• Susan Jennifer Sullivan as Melissa
• Elizabeth Kaitan as Robin
• William Butler as Michael
• Staci Greason as Jane
• Jon Renfield as David
• Jeff Bennett as Eddie
• Heidi Kozak as Sandra
• Diana Barrows as Maddy

Body Count:

Documentary:

Wikipedia | IMDb

Hell – original title: 地獄 Jigoku and also known as Japanese Hell – is a 1999 Japanese horror film written and directed by Teruo Ishii. It is a loose remake of the 1960 film of the same title. The film stars Mutsumi Fujita, Hisayoshi Hirayama, Michiko Maeda, Yôko Satomi, Kenpachirô Satsuma, Kinako Satô, Ryûji Takasaki, Tetsurô Tanba.

Plot teaser:

Sixteen year-old Rika wants to leave a murderous cult but she is sent to Hell where she meets demons and souls who have committed heinous and outrageous crimes…

Reviews:

‘Though indeed graphic in its depiction, there is very little either haunting or life-like. This includes the huge styrofoam mallets wielded by rubber-suited demons, the jello-mud bath apparently symbolizing molten lava, the nude interpretive dances by bare breasted girls intended to convey the convulsions of hell zombies (etc etc etc). Despite the many flaws, however, this film is indeed entertaining, if not solely for the effort it attempts in providing a moral message.’ Scott Futz, SaruDama

‘For fans of Ishii’s previous work Jigoku will be a real treat, albeit a very low rent version of his previous glories at Toei Studios. At this point in his career Ishii was working totally independently on absolute shoestring budgets, so the painfully bad special effects, set design, and acting provide a comic counterpoint to all of the severed limbs, rape, and implied child murder. There are many out there who’ll take Jigoku as an opportunity to spend a night laughing out loud at a bad B-movie…’ Chris Magee, J-Film Pow Wow

‘Unlike in 1960, we quickly move to Hell early in the film – but it’s a tiny set with painted walls, a handful of extras, and only a few demons with inexpressive masks on – the monsters look more like 1960’s Ultraman cast-offs. Also the gore looks unconvincing and home-made. The film seems more preoccupied in showing topless girls and unconvincing sex scenes. It also looks like a sly way of restaging and exploiting the sarin gas attack story without identifying the film as such.’ Mark Hodgson, Black Hole

IMDb | Thanks to Dave Jackson at Mondo Exploito for inspiring this post

Eden Lake is a 2008 British horror thriller film written and directed by James Watkins (The Woman in Black). It stars Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender and Jack O’Connell.

Plot teaser:

Nursery school teacher, Jenny (Kelly Reilly), and her boyfriend, Steve (Michael Fassbender), escape their everyday life to an idyllic remote lake in the green English countryside. Attempting to relax by a lakeside, their trip is disrupted by the presence of delinquent teenagers and their dog, but Steve intends to stay and not be driven away from enjoying their vacation.

The following morning, as he is determined to report the unruly kids to their parents, Steve stops at a house hosting a group of bikes he thinks belongs to the kids. With zero response at the front door, he commits forcible entry, and he narrowly escapes out of a window before the homeowner, the father of one of the teenagers, returns.

The couple quickly head back to the lake. There, Steve goes scuba diving and Jenny sleeps on the beach shore. Unfortunately, Steve realises their beach bag containing his car keys, phone and wallet have gone missing. Instinctively, they check on the car, but it is gone. Returning to town on foot, they are nearly run over by their car that is being driven recklessly by the gang, only stopping for leader, Brett (Jack O’Connell), to smirk at them…

Buy on DVD | Instant Video from Amazon.co.uk 

Buy DVD | Instant Video from Amazon.com

Reviews [spoilers]:

‘ …while one doesn’t subscribe to the tenets of political correctness in such films, more care was surely required before playing so thoroughly to what looks like a massive dose of prejudice. Even so, it is impossible not to admire the way Watkins ratchets up the tension in his debut as director (he wrote My Little Eye) and keeps his tale strictly to 90 minutes. Beware that there are several scenes which will make you want to look away, and all the more scary because they seem uncomfortably real.’ Derek Malcolm, London Evening Standard

‘Watkins serves up an intense experience that will not be to everyone’s taste – Eden Lake is certainly not an entertaining watch, more a form of mental and emotion torture. Its climax does not even provide the expected catharsis, rather the threat of worse horrors to come. In this regard, it surely qualifies as one of the most frightening films ever made.’ David Tappenden, Fright Films

Buy Fright Films from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

‘It is as if Watkins has taken the famous news picture of the hoodie making the “gun” gesture behind David Cameron’s back – and photoshopped a real weapon into his hand. But it is believable in a way that does not depend on a neurotic attention to sensational newspaper stories: it has its own internal logic. And when Jenny finally gets some kind of violent revenge, and this goes horrendously wrong, it is, once again, all too believable. Watkins crushes the good guys’ last stand with a realist moment of despair and blundering horror to match Michael Haneke’s tape-rewind scene in his Funny Games.’ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

‘Alas, all the cliché boxes have been marked too, with people doing the sort of stupid things they only do in horrors. There’s also a ham-fisted message here about how violence dehumanises us all, which might have been pertinent if Wes Craven hadn’t already made it his own about 40 years ago.’ Daily Mirror

‘Eden Lake benefits from superb cinematography by The Cottage‘s Christopher Ross, which perfectly contrasts the lush greens of nature with the bloody, muddy nightmare that unfolds, aided by David Julyan’s sympathetic, perfectly pitched score. The cast are uniformly good, including the kids, with simply amazing performances from Reilly and Fassbender.’ MJ Simpson, Urban Terrors

Buy Urban Terrors from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

‘This is not, however, a Daily Mail rant about feral chavs. Instead, Watkins uses stomach-knotting tension and tongue-slicing horror to explore the complex dynamics of anti-social violence. We identify with the victims throughout, but Watkins also depicts the complex peer-group pressures within the gang  and the pain and confusion behind its leader’s eyes. The film’s one major fault is that Reilly’s character repeatedly acts in ways that serve the plot, but which run contrary to rational human behaviour. By contrast, the shattering downbeat ending is well earned and genuinely shocking.’ Nigel Floyd, Time Out

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘Dare you enter…’

House of 1000 Corpses is a 2000 (released 2003) American exploitation horror film written, co-scored and directed by Rob Zombie, and starring Chris Hardwick, Rainn Wilson, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie and Karen Black. Zombie produced a sequel in 2005, The Devil’s Rejects.

The plot focuses on two couples who are held hostage by a sadistic backwoods family on Halloween. Zombie’s directorial debut, the film drew from a multitude of influences, particularly American horror films of the 1970s, including The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes.

Filmed in 2000, the film was originally purchased by Universal Pictures, and a large portion of it was filmed on the Universal Studios backlots, but it was ultimately shelved by the company in fear that it would receive an NC-17 rating. The rights to the film were eventually re-purchased by Zombie, who then sold the film to Lions Gate Entertainment. It was released theatrically on April 11, 2003.

Plot teaser:

On October 30, 1977, Jerry Goldsmith, Bill Hudley, Mary Knowles and Denise Willis are on the road in hopes of writing a book on offbeat roadside attractions. When the four meet Captain Spaulding, the owner of a gas station and “The Museum of Monsters & Madmen”, they learn the local legend of Dr. Satan. As they take off in search of the tree from which Dr. Satan was hanged, they pick up a young hitchhiker named Baby, who claims to live only a few miles away…

Reviews:

Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film ‘lives up to the spirit but not the quality of its inspirations” and is ultimately a “cheesy and ultra-gory exploitation horror flick” and “strangely devoid of thrills, shocks or horror.’

‘ …slaps together just the right amount of creepy atmosphere, nervous laughter, cheap scares, fun rides and blood and guts to satisfy any major fan of the macabre.’ Berge Garabedian, JoBlo.com

‘This movie is extremely effective at building up the tension early on. We have no doubt as to what is in store for the teens, but the lead-up to the brutality is actually quite a bit of fun. The acting from both the teenagers and the family is top-notch. Sid Haig is nearly brilliant in his portrayal of Captain Spaulding. He’s crude, crass, and a barrel of laughs. This movie fell apart for me in the second half. I dare say House of 1000 Corpses was almost brilliant in its first half, but turned into a run-of-the-mill horror picture the second.’ Martin Liebman, Blu-ray.com

‘Strung together with a migraine-inducing MTV aesthetic, this trawl through B-movie horror flicks plays like a fan film with a multi-million dollar budget. While Zombie’s love of the horror genre is readily apparent, this is a travesty of everything he professes to adore, a tour-de-farce of depressing inanity, that’s unable to do anything more than offer a messy, incoherent pastiche of other, better movies.’ Jamie Russell, BBC.co.uk

Buy on Blu-ray with The Devil’s Rejects from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Cast:

• Sid Haig as Captain Spaulding
• Bill Moseley as Otis B. Driftwood
• Sheri Moon Zombie as Baby Firefly
• Karen Black as Mother Firefly
• Erin Daniels as Denise Willis
• Chris Hardwick as Jerry Goldsmith
• Rainn Wilson as Bill Hudley
• Jennifer Jostyn as Mary Knowles
• Tom Towles as Lieutenant George Wydell
• Walton Goggins as Deputy Steve Naish
• Matthew McGrory as Tiny Firefly
• Robert Mukes as Rufus “RJ” Firefly, Jr.
• Dennis Fimple as Grampa Hugo Firefly
• Jake McKinnon as Rufus “Earl” Firefly, Sr.
• Harrison Young as Don Willis
• Irwin Keyes as Ravelli
• Michael J. Pollard as Stucky
• Chad Bannon as Killer Karl
• Walter Phelan as S. Quentin Quale / Dr. Satan
• William H. Basset as Sheriff Frank Huston
• David Reynolds as Richard “Little Dick” Wick
• Joe Dobbs III as Gerry “Goober” Ober
• Gregg Gibbs as Dr. Wolfenstein
• Rob Zombie (uncredited) as Dr. Wolfenstein’s assistant

Wikipedia | IMDb | Official site

Pernicious is a 2014 US/Thai supernatural horror film directed by James Cullen Bressack (Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys) from a screenplay co-written with Taryn Hillin. It stars Ciara Hanna, Emily O’Brien, and Jackie Moore.

Plot teaser:

Three young, beautiful women arrive in Thailand to teach English for the summer, some with noble intentions and some just wanting an adventure, but none were prepared for the massacre that awaited them.

The nightmare begins when their new friends go missing, vivid bloody dreams haunt their sleep and a stolen statue leads them down a dark path into Thai folklore and magic that has been long forgotten. Their situation continues to become worse once they realise it’s not what that is haunting them but who: an eight-year girl, brutally murdered and sacrificed by her family decades ago who wants nothing more than to watch them bleed…

Reviews:

‘We get some real brutal deaths and some great practical effects.  Overall, Pernicious is a film for the real horror fans. If you are looking for a movie theater and popcorn flick then you are in the wrong place. However, if you want something sexy, bloody, and heinous then check this one out!’ Horror Society

‘Pernicious feels like a Japanese ghost story, in the vein of Ju-On or Ringu or any number of others. But at the same time, it manages to pull off a slasher feel as well, kind of along the lines of Hostel or Turistas, but the pretty girls in this movie, the ones in their underwear and covered in blood, play the opposite roles than you might be used to (somewhat, at least). Combining those two subgenres is no easy task, but the scares are here in full force right alongside a good-sized helping of well executed blood, guts, and gore.’ HorrorNews.net

‘Pernicious is a carnival for the eyes; with the aforementioned beautiful women, insane special effects, and haunting Thai setting, you’ll find yourself swept away in the story and in love with your favorite female lead. Sure, there are a few warts, but what it all boils down to is: How much were you entertained? Pernicious is very entertaining. It’s a wildly exciting watch from beginning to bloody end, and you’ll have a lot of fun with the characters and story. Pernicious is certainly worth a look.’ Scott Hallam, Dread Central

Wikipedia | IMDb | Officlal site | Facebook | Twitter

Slice – original title Cheun – is a 2009 Thai serial killer film directed by Kongkiat Khomsiri. It stars Chatchai Plengpanich and Arak Amornsupasiri.

Plot teaser:

The police are unable to find or stop a serial killer who targets men and dismembers their bodies. When the next victim is the son of a politician, the police turn to ex-hitman Tai (Arak Amornsupasiri) for help in hunting down the serial killer. Tai is then sprung from prison and works with the police to find the killer before the killer slices again…

Buy Slice on DVD from Amazon.com

Reviews:

“Slice is a bleak tale of actions and consequences which plays out to a fittingly tragic conclusion, and for people who enjoy visceral horror with a bit more emotional charge to it, this is a worthwhile movie.” Horror Extreme

“I highly recommend this film to those who aren’t offended by the disturbing aspects of it. It’s an enjoyable watch with some major twists that really got my attention.” In Nervous Convulsion

“This is a movie that never lets the audience calm down and go back to that normal state of non-thinking, non-controversial relaxation. When some shit happens here it happens big, and it won’t take long until something even worse happens. The stuff in this movie is something that never, and I mean never, would happen in an American movie.” Ninja Dixon

IMDb

WH

‘Where the student body is going to pieces.’

Slaughter High is a 1986 American/British independent slasher film written and directed by George Dugdale, Mark Ezra and Peter Litten. It closely follows the tropes of many other slasher films of the period and is mostly notable for the casting of Caroline Munro in the lead female role and the distinctive jester’s mask worn by the killer.

In an American high school populated by the usual jocks, hot girls and outcasts, Marty Rantzen (Simon Scudamore, misspelled on the credits with an extra ‘d’ – sloppy!) is most firmly the latter, the atypical, bespectacled nerd, good at complicated sums, not so good on basic human interaction. Come April Fool’s Day, Marty can’t believe his luck as he is lured by school sex siren, Carol (Munro) into the girls’ locker room for a baptism of shower-based sex. Alas, this is not the case and whilst disrobed and expectant in the shower, the curtain is pulled to reveal the school jokers armed with video recording equipment and a fire extinguisher to put a dampener on Marty’s dreams and his dignity down the toilet (which is literally where he’s heading, face down, thanks to his tormentors dangling him in).

He is ‘rescued’ by the arrival of the military instructor-like sports coach (played by Marc Smith, best known for his voice acting, of note his redubbing on Dario Argento’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet, and Deep Red) who does little to sympathise with Marty but does insist all the boys responsible report for detention that afternoon. Cleaned up, Marty is given a joint by arch bully Skip (Carmine Iannaccone) as an apology, though it is in fact laced with something less desirable. Sometime later, when Marty is diligently conducting solo chemistry experiments, he tries the joint and immediately rushes to the nearest public convenience to vomit. In his absence, Skip (even shirking detention, the rotter) enters the lab and rigs the experiment to blow up in Marty’s face. This does indeed have the desired effect but in the mayhem of the detonation, Marty knocks a jar of acid over himself, the net result being a half destroyed school and a hideously disfigured and broken nerd.

Some years later (anywhere between five and ten), Marty has disappeared from public life, doomed to a lonely existence as a scarred, damaged and apparently insane man. Meanwhile, his school ‘friends’ are enjoying their reunion, which happens to be on April Fool’s Day. Deciding to revisit their now closed school, though the corridors are still roamed by the old janitor, whose portrayal sets the racial equality movement back several decades. As the kids get down to drinking, smoking, snorting high jinks, the janitor is lifted off the ground by a jester-masked figure (actually played by co-director Ezra) and impaled on a coat hook. So begins a one-by-one slaying of the gang in occasionally inventive ways (intestinal explosion by tampered-with beer is a highlight) in a school which for reasons which are unclear, houses both a bath and a bed. The jester figure is, of course, Marty, eager to exact his revenge, though he leaves his beloved Carol until the end…

Slaughter High is a prime example of the problems which can arise from trans-Atlantic co-productions. Supposedly set in an American school, all the locations are obviousluy leafy Britain, the population of students and staff also British but tasked with adopting US accents, lest the idea of a film not set in America be an insult to the masses. The accents aren’t awful but are all underpinned by the hopelessly forced insistence that in no way is the wool being pulled over everyone’s eyes. Despite the fact that an actual school was used for the filming (remarkably, it did indeed have a bath in situ), the film feels very cramped and is largely shot in only a smattering of locations, again giving the impression that something is being kept from us.

The April Fool’s Day setting does leave the audience with that ‘one last gag’ feeling always looming on the horizon, though this could have been even more lumbering, the title having to be changed from April Fool’s Day to Slaughter High due to a genuinely unfortunate timing issue with the better-known film of that title just pipping it to the release post. Some prints retain this original title and have the replacement hastily tagged on as an apparent afterthought – Vestron’s Japanese release not even bothering with the afterthought. There is a certain irony of the film revolving around a date that so fuels the plot, time and continuity being haphazard throughout, from the eye-narrowing anniversary reunion timing to the incredulity-testing age of the students – Caroline Munro clocking in at 36 years-old at the time of filming and many of her co-stars well into their 20’s at least.

Dugdale and Ezra combined again on the curious if ultimately beige Living Doll (1990) with only the latter evidently staying in the industry, though with little in the way of breakout hits. Co-director Litten had slightly more lasting influence, his special effects creature work seen in Rawhead Rex and more significantly culturally as the co-creator of the non-more-80’s Max Headroom. Caroline Munro is sadly miscast, still radiant but a sore thumb as a school girl and barely more believable as an airhead actress who is just about savvy enough to avoid the casting couch of leering movie producer, Manny (played by actual film producer Dick Randall of Don’t Open Till Christmas and Pieces frame; never one to miss a trick, a poster for Pieces hangs behind him in his office). Munro appeared in the film off the back of The Last Horror Show, before 1987’s Faceless and Howl of the Devil signalled her all but withdrawal from the genre for some time.

Scudamore is far more serviceable in his role, a believable nerd whose character is let down by innate dumbness, belying his academic genius. Given a large school as his lair, it is weakly and unrealistically dressed, leaving him to bookend the film as Ezra, rather meanly, does the jester-masked stomping around. Sadly, aged only 28, Scudamore took his own life shortly after filming through a drugs overdose.

With a masked killer, illegal substances, lithe teens and variable morals, it is fitting that the score is composed and performed by Harry Manfredini, a huge nod to the film’s primary influence, Friday 13th. Manfredini is one of the luckiest of composers for horror films, his career largely pivoting on his work on the 1980 slasher classic, a score which, in truth, consists of piled-high stingers, pilfered exaggerated strings and the oft-repeated killer’s theme and little else of interest. Here he is rumbled somewhat, a clearly more meagre budget revealing his work to be perfunctory at best, at worst cringe-worthy tripe.

Somehow, despite all this, Slaughter High is strangely rewarding viewing. Perhaps it’s the carefree, glitch-ridden production values; perhaps it’s the contact threat of Munro relieving herself of her flouncy, voluminous dress suit (she doesn’t, instead the main nudity is, surprisingly, male and full-frontal). It’s possibly the fact that it sticks to the slasher rulebook so rigidly, the viewer can put in the least effort imaginable to watch… although the ending will jolt even the most heavy-lidded audience out of its slumber with its ridiculousness.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

Choice dialogue:

Stella: Talk dirty, Frank! Talk dirty!

Frank: Um… tits.

Stella: DIRTY dirty!

Frank: Um… fuck. Ah, tits. Screw.

Buio Omega – aka Beyond the Darkness, Buried Alive and Blue Holocaust – is a 1979 Italian horror/exploitation film directed by Joe D’Amato [Aristide Massacessi] from a screenplay by Ottavio Fabbri based on a storyline by Giacomo Guerrini.

The film stars Kieran Canter, Cinzia Monreale (The Beyond; The Sweet House of Horrors; The Stendhal Syndrome), Franca Stoppi (The Other Hell), Sam Modesto, Anna Cardini and Lucia D’Elia. The score is by Goblin (credited as The Goblins).

The film remains controversial in many countries, even today, notably Australia, where it has been banned since 1992 due to very high impact violence throughout. Buio Omega remains banned in several other countries to this day although a quick internet search means you can watch it fully uncut online.

Plot teaser:

On a luxurious estate in the Italian countryside, Francesco mourns his deceased lover. Soon pain and loss turn to madness and violence, as this troubled young man decides he cannot part with his love just yet. Excavating her corpse, he preserves her body with excruciating attention to detail. That, however, is only the beginning. Soon he is overcome with rage, murdering innocent young women and anyone else who infringes on the privacy of his estate…

It has been rumoured that D’Amato used actual cadavers in some of the autopsy scenes and during the attack on the hitchhiker. The presence of pretty obvious prosthetics makes this highly unlikely. A goregrind metal band named themselves after the film.

Buy Beyond the Darkness on DVD from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Reviews:

‘Despite a couple of mis-steps here and there, D’Amato’s movie is capped off with a nifty little shock moment that is a fitting end to an already intriguing, lunch launching little movie. Beyond the Darkness is still a strong feature all these years later and a shining, if highly repugnant example of extreme Italian horror.’ Cool Ass Cinema

‘Despite its shortcomings, Beyond the Darkness has some truly classic scenes that could potentially stick in the viewer’s mind forever. A must for all fans of Italian horror cinema, Beyond the Darkness could well be D’Amato’s best movie.’ The Spinning Image

‘Unfortunately, Massacessi’s approach is cheaply realist, trying to shock by unimaginatively filming butchery and cruelty. The potential poetry of a mad, necrophiliac passion that animates, for instance, Bava’s Lisa e il Diavolo (1972) is kept at bay by the crudely exploitative approach…’ Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia

‘Beyond the Darkness is a great movie; gory, kinky and surreal in a way that only D’Amato could deliver it. His cinematography leaves nothing to complain about, he knows what he wants from his compositions and that’s what we get. Ornella Micheli’s editing is perfect once again, and then there’s that excellent soundtrack by Goblin, that constantly keeps the movie moving along with their progressive rhythms … although not as violent and aggressive as Anthropophagus: or Absurd is possibly Joe D’Amato’s finest hour as a horror director.’ CiNEZiLLA

Also Known As:

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image thanks: Wrong Side of the Art

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Morris County is a 2009 three-part American anthology film directed by Matthew Garrett dealing with different individuals and groups in a small town who experience similar levels of alienation and despair. Though more comfortably described as pitch black drama, the levels of suffering and disturbing images throughout have led to it being considered a part of the horror genre, the monstrous characters and events portrayed in the film as disturbing as those of a supernatural or fantastical kind.

Part one introduces us to Ellie (Darcy Miller), a young teenager who is causing concern for her stepmother who suspects she has started smoking and is beginning to slide off the rails. Responding in the trademark, largely silent, sulky manner that teenagers expertly perfect, we learn that the suspicions have more than a semblance of truth, with Ellie going to the local corner shop to buy a bottle of whiskey. Clearly underage, she is quickly rebuffed by the shop assistant, though his manager suggests there may be a mutually beneficial way of resolving the matter. Leaving the store a short time later, defiled, she sits in a local wood, where she begins to partake of the hard-earned liquor.

Ellie’s miserable solitude is interrupted by three school acquaintances, also looking for extra-curricular misdemeanours, all of them surprised to see Ellie indulging in similar nefarious behaviour. After a marijuana joint is passed around, yet more sexual activity takes place, this time resulting in Ellie fleeing the scene to the safety of her local community. Once there, we find the true cause of Ellie’s quest to escape the cold glare of real life, ending with a shockingly graphic image.

Part two sees a Jewish couple struggling with their relationship, the wife, Rachel (Maren Perry), not waiting for a divorce to find another partner. Her husband, Noah (Albie Selznick, a tireless television actor, including episodes of The Twilight Zone and Freddy’s Nightmares in the 1990’s) initially carries on as usual, for both the sake of their young son and the fear of the scorn of his community. Noah, unable to confront his wife’s infidelity or his own homosexual yearnings, seeks a way out, resulting in an ill-advised pick-up at the local adult film store, a last resort to resolve his internal confusion after an aborted suicide attempt. As his world caves in around him, even the innocent young boy he aims to protect is mangling mice in a jar, leaving him to opt for a more drastic solution.

The concluding part concerns elderly couple, Iris (Alice Cannon) and Elmer (Erik Frandsen, Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet), she, kindly and happy with their quaint routines, he curmudgeonly and apathetic, though ultimately harmless. With technology getting the better of her, Iris has been retired against her will, her employers, grateful for her contribution, though eager to usher in a younger replacement. Iris finds it impossible to let go and returns days later, to the increasingly frayed patience of her now ex-boss. Worse still, Elmer expires overnight in front of the television, leaving Iris in a lonely world. We soon discover how a person with everything taken away from them can learn to cope…or not.

As an oft-overlooked independent film, Morris County can boast some stellar acting performances, uniformly touching, engaging and believable, despite the majority of the cast having little or no previous experience in front of the camera. Perhaps more surprising is that writer and director, Garrett, had even less experience (the first segment had previously existed in another form, as a stand-alone short): indeed in the years since, only one more short (Beating Hearts) and a forthcoming acting role, in Sociopathia, have appeared, a great shame.

It is not, by any standards, a cheery watch; the three stories show people at their lowest ebb and the descent into the cruel ways the mind reacts as a result; accordingly, every unflinching detail is shown, driving home that these are far from outlandish, convoluted scenarios – this is the everyday at its most brutal. Two of the special effects and make-up crew have at least seen some success since the film’s release; Brian Spears’ make-up has been seen in films such as The Innkeepers and The Sacrament, whilst Jeremy Selenfriend founded SFX company, Monster in the Closet, working on both modest productions (John McNaughton’s The Harvest) and the more lavish (The Amazing Spiderman 2, the Daredevil television series).

Looking behind the masks of seemingly average people in humdrum environs, the three stories all have surprise twists, though none feel forced or ridiculous and credit is given to the audience to draw their own conclusions. The film, which is likely to appear in “films you really should have seen” lists in future years, is fortunately championed by the writer Kier-La Janisse in her book, “House of Psychotic Women”.

Daz Lawrence

‘Prey for Salvation’

Zombie Resurrection is a 2014 British horror film, made partly with the aid of online funding. Set in an unspecified part of the UK, eight survivors of an apocalyptic outbreak, which has seen the dead rise from their graves, attempt find sanctuary as the undead hordes thin out and make sense of the chaos that surrounds them. It is the debut feature of directors Andy Phelps and Jake Hawkins.

Fifteen months after zombies ravaged the country, eight survivors trudge through the British woodland attempting to find a place of refuge known as Imperium, the destination known only by one of their number, the upper class Major Gibson (Joe Rainbow, Stag Night of the Dead), who revels in the hold he has over the others. These include Mac (Jim Sweeney), a sweary Scottish tough guy; God-fearing Esther (Shamiso Mushambi); almost respectably middle-class Beaumont (Danny Brown), who carries a golf club just to make sure you’ve “got it”, and the shackled prisoner Dr. Sykes (Eric Colvin), plus three more utterly detestable individuals.

In a twist to the usual lore surrounding zombie outbreaks, we learn that time has taken its toll on the dead, who are now few in number and those who do survive are ineffective decaying lumps. Regardless, the disagreeable bunch of the living find getting on with one another impossible and tensions rise even further when Gibson steps in a mantrap and has his leg removed. Taking shelter in a school building (expanding the quite obviously tiny shooting area by up to twenty feet), we find that Sykes is held as a prisoner due to his role in the development of the ‘virus’ which started the apocalypse – actually an attempted cure for chemical warfare – and that he is due to be hanged. Events spiral out of their control when they realise the building actually houses some unexpectedly spritely zombies and, even more surprisingly, that one of them has a quasi-religious gift for resurrecting the more decayed of his number, threatening to send them back to the early days of the outbreak.

On the plus side, there are some interesting ideas here; the diminished threat of rotting corpses over time has been touched upon in film and fiction before but, in this case, it’s central to the plot; similarly, aside from voodoo, there hasn’t been a great deal of emphasis on religion’s part in such a scenario. Unfortunately, these really only become viable as part of a short story – at a push, a play, though presumably a rubbish one. Without zombies as an immediate threat, you have to rely on the living characters and their back-stories to provide the drama and tension, done skilfully in periods of Romero’s early zombie films and large tracts of The Walking Dead comic and television series. You’d be correct in assuming this film has none of that.

Firstly, there are far too many characters, none of whom are engaging or illicit any sympathy from the viewer. This is exacerbated by the fact that the acting is of a shockingly poor quality, veering from potty-mouthed shouting to something that resembles the farce of a drunken person assuring assembled onlookers that they’re completely sober, whilst stood in a duck-pond. This sits particularly badly when the closing quarter of Zombie Resurrection attempts to ponder the complexities of life, religion and all points between, with the film left hanging as neither fish nor fowl, though almost certainly, foul.

The gore effects and make-up are passable and indeed, if that sends your pulse racing, you may still find something of interest here. Despite this, at no point is anything in the least believable; how a compound came to be called Imperium in just over a year (surely rejected even by eager Apprentice candidates), why the filmmakers opted to omit someone in a wheelchair from their parade of abysmal stereotypes and why, four years after filming wrapped, has this been allowed to surface without anyone having the guts to recognise this simply didn’t work. It’s another nail in the coffin of a horror sub-genre that just won’t stay shut.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

‘The most depraved film of the 21st century’

Someone’s Knocking at the Door is a 2009 American dark comedy horror film co-written and directed by Chad Ferrin (Easter Bunny Kill! Kill!). It stars Noah Segan, Andrea Rueda, Ezra Buzzington, Elina Madison, Jon Budinoff, Ricardo Gray, Lew Temple, and Vernon Wells.

Plot teaser:

Returning to the medical school where they were test subjects decades ago, a pair of outrageously twisted serial killers use shockingly brutal sex acts to start killing off a group of drugged-out med students…

Buy Someone’s Knocking at the Door on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

” It’s 50% the craziest sh*t you’ve ever seen on film and 50% regular, kind of boring low budget horror stuff. But still. Man. You’ve got to see it to understand how crazy it is. I wish it would have been crazier all throughout. Then it would be a damn masterpiece.” Film School Rejects

“The film does an excellent job of selling a typical horror movie premise – a psychokiller back from beyond the grave – but when you get inside it you discover it’s something even more twisted, and begs a second watch to see if it all fits as well as the ending wants you to believe.” Flash Bang

“It’s a film that tried too hard to be different and just doesn’t quite get there. It is certainly interesting, offensive, sick and funny, but sadly all those elements don’t always work together here.” Horror Cult Films

Wikipedia | IMDb

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