Last House On Dead End Street

Last House On Dead End Street (The Funhouse, Cuckoo Clocks of Hell) Directed by Roger Michael Watkins (as Victor Janos). 1972
This is a very mysterious film that way back in the mid 90’s when I bought it from Chas Balun, no one had the real story of where it came from or how it was made. This didn’t stop the gore community (namely The Creation Book: Killing For Culture) from inventing and speculating ridiculous nonsense about what they thought went on. They were inspired by The Psychotronic review (as many others were) to seek out what actually happened, but they decided to make it up. Later however David Kerkes totally redeemed his credibility by flying out to NYC and hunting down everyone involved in the production and got the real story (printed in Headpress 23). In my opinion Weldon is the authority on exploitation and this is one of my favorite reviews, taken from a perspective of the pre-Internet world. He got the ball rolling and others went further to dissolve the ridiculous rumor that it was an actual snuff film. A few years later on a message board, someone online (the real Roger Watkins) appeared to tell his side of the story and afterwards, The Barrell Entertainment DVD came out with commentary from Watkins and Chas Balun, the record clearly had to be set straight! Also included is a selection from the library score (taken from the RETRO-TEQUE blog) that Skunkape graciously edited this track together.

           Terry (Watkins) a giggling maniac, who looks like a future member of the Ramones with his black leather jacket and long hair, narrates, explaining that he had just served a year in the state pen. We see bits of flashfowards; like Terry’s hands wrapped around someone’s throat (this is footage left over from the original cut, which is lost) and Hawkins partner Ken Fisher pulling out intestines (which reveal an amateur surgery scene from the ending too early).
Ken spouts deranged lines like “You know what I like? Tits like bananas and leather”. He is a typical porn creep lowlife (like Bill Margold).
 We see genuine slaughterhouse footage (that Watkins filmed on his own), which in the original cut of Cuckoo Clocks Of Hell is a lot longer.
Terry Hawkins hooks up with Bill, a gutless cameraman and two Manson-like former prostitutes. None of these people seem thrilled to join Hawkins on his murder spree and none of them know what they are getting into. All they are told is that they will be involved in making weird movies no one has ever seen before. His mission is to get revenge on the filmmakers that put him in jail.
            Palmer (Ed Pixley) shows his latest sex shorts. A woman takes a bubble bath (in b/w) and two naked women start to make out. A lot of footage was shot and either left out or rearranged by producers trying to market it as a fake sequel to Last House On The Left (the film actually came out after Dead End Street). Fisher in the interview conducted by David Kerkes, mentions that a Broadway wannabe actress hauled him into court and lost her case by a slim margin, she was bent out of shape because there was cheesecake footage intended for the loops that Terry and Palmer watch, but were never used. Meanwhile at the party, Palmer's masochist wife puts on blackface makeup (in extreme greasy close up) then is whipped continuously by a guy pretending to be a hunchback. The guests laugh and/or get turned on by the pain. These people are the eventual victims in Hawkins' snuff film.

Mrs. Palmer is disemboweled. Hawkins wears a large mask that looks like a head in Zardoz. The other killers wear clear masks. They are passed around ritualistically; all of these masks were utilized from the Oneonta theater department at SUNY. The killings were inspired by Manson and Hawkins was a student of quality horror films and influences (Fellini, Serling, Shakespeare, Hammer Films). There is a story in the Headpress book, where Watkins got a job on Blood Orgy Of The She Devils and referred to T.V. Mikels as one of the shittiest filmmakers he’s ever witnessed. There was a black man who acted in the film saying “there are no good roles for black actors” Watkins mentions Othello and the guy actually had no idea what he was talking about, immediately after, Watkins left the set in anger!
            The whipping scene and a man forced to suck on a deer hoof sticking out from a girl's crotch could have been in Euro art films. It’s still disturbing and impressive considering the minimal budget (hundreds of dollars). A poster for PSYCHOPATH ("Mother may I go out and kill?”) is seen on the wall, which is one of the inspirations for Maniac 2: Mr. Robbie.
There are giant Rocky Horror like red lips hanging on the wall (which were found by Ken Fisher). The deluxe two DVD set comes with an illustrated booklet by British Headpress magazine editor David Kerekes, who first learned of this movie in the first Psychotronic book. The "It's only a move" ad was reproduced and Weldon asked "Have you ever heard anyone even admit that they saw it?" Kerekes vowed to find the movie and the director. Turns out it was filmed (as Cuckoo Clocks of Hell) using 16mm ansco color film in and around SUNY University, Oneonta, NY during 72/73 by Watkins (under several pseudonyms) using his father's money and film lab connections. Actor’s were students or college professors of the director (who says he was high on speed at the time) It was first released in the South as Funhouse, in 77 played 42nd st. in 79,was briefly available on tape, then became a word of mouth cult item. The DVD includes 4 of the director’s silent shorts with commentary. One is a childhood basement production inspired by The Pit and The Pendulum. You can see Watkins grow up from an innocent seeming horror fan kid to a speed freak young man, to a depraved adult. From 75 to 89 he directed many NYC area porn movies (many with S+M themes) as Richard Mahler. (Partial source: Psychotronic Video)
          (Crankenstein’s take on Last House on Dead End Street): I had no idea what I was in for as I popped in the VHS and awaited the frightening scenes of carnage. You must remember that at the time this film was shrouded in rumors. The rumor was very powerful: that it was an authentic snuff film and all the names in the credits were changed to protect the supposed guilty (it was impossible not to be captivated by its reputation).
           The music score immediately infects your subconscious (those library phased out psychedelic choral voices made it extra ghastly). The black humor is present through out and the cut and paste style editing made it seem criminal in some way. I defy anyone to watch the last half and not be repulsed by the scenes of carnage, torture and humiliation. A victim on the operating table is cut open and woken up by smelling salts after passing out. Watkins was attempting to recreate what it must have been like for the thrill killing Manson Family, gleefully destroying the rich and powerful. It’s one of the most hateful nihilistic films ever. In the production phone calls section on the DVD (which get increasingly weirder), he mentions the premise of the film project as a recreation of the Manson family murders on the phone. The doe foot blowjob scene is one of the most disturbing and graphic images ever filmed (Watkins was a Bunuel and experimental film fan). It’s all very calculated and even though haphazardly re-edited by someone else without director permission (he vents about this on the commentary), it is still ahead of its time and would hold up now among today’s jaded horror fans. Watkins died on March 2007.

            Killing For Culture asks who is Victor Janos? They speculate how it was filmed without sound and later dubbed to create an ominous Snuff connotation that it was filmed in a secret location “Where life is cheap”. This book came out in 1994 and for those who had seen this film, they were in on the confusion and many would be duped into thinking it may have been a genuine snuff film. The DVD has some of the greatest commentary tracks ever recorded as Watkins and Balun ham it up, cackle like maniacs and give away all the tricks and secrets that every underground gorehound craved. Trying to keep my distance from this film’s use of mixing real horror (Cow footage) with fake I found it more intriguing and grudgingly came to respect it even more. David Kerkes rectified the errors of the "Killing For Culture" book by going more in depth in HeadPress 23. All of the details are layed out and nothing is eclipsed by rumor or hearsay, each scene is described by the people who were there and worked on the production. From the article you can tell how influenced Watkins was by that University environment and utilized the help of teachers and students to create his twisted vision. Most film school grads will never make a film (Hawkins was a product of the street level guerrilla filmmakers) and though this is his only film, it’s quite a grassroots achievement. When you consider the pathos and horror is inflicts on its audience with the cheapest tricks available its very effective. They used a real cow’s eyeball for the drill segment at the finally. The title “Cuckoo Clocks Of Hell” was taken from Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, the artistic influence is light years ahead of complete trash like Savage Weekend or Lucker The Necrophagous and the more I research how this film was made, the more I’m astounded that I didn’t respect it from the beginning. The most hilarious part about the Kerkes article relates to the film premiere at 42 st. in its zenith of sleaze. Paul Jensen (who is still a professor at SUNY, give him a good rating at ratemyprofessor.com) says they were the only white people in the theater and everyone was yelling at the screen. He couldn’t tell if they liked it or hated it, but they were afraid someone would recognize Watkins in the theater as the guy in the Zardoz mask. Later someone did and mentioned how he was the guy throwing animal guts around! There’s a hilarious Joe Franklin interview on Youtube (also included on the DVD). Unfortunately it’s not available on DVD since The Barrel version went out of print.
Terry Hawkins Odyssey track

          

Theater of Guts

Tribute Trailer

Killer Snakes

Killer Snakes (She Sha Shou) Directed By Chih-Hung Kuei. Starring Kwok Lueng-Gan (1975).

            After Calamity Of Snakes this polished cinematic opus looks like an amphibian Citizen Kane! I actually switched this one off during lunch time to get a breather from the geek show carnage of Calamity, then had to just turn both of them off and enjoy my lunch. I have a phobia of watching real animals die while I’m eating (even non meat dishes). Killer Snakes has many of The Shaw Brothers staples you’ve come to know and love (Full bush, sadism), but this is a different breed of animal revenge film. It’s not like Black Magic or Seeding Of A Ghost because its missing maggots, voodoo and sorcery, instead its replaced by geek show antics! Killer Snakes takes the S&M subgenre and throws in slimy reptiles (still intrigued?, then like me you’ve got mental problems)!!

            The protagonist is a kitchen worker named Zhihong (played by Kwok Lueng-Gan), who seems harmless enough and feels empathy for a wounded snake that had an organ removed. The snake got off easy compare too the poor bastards that were mashed into pulp in Calamity Of Snakes. The same Asian remedies for everything under the sun are promised on the streets by snake oil salesman (literally!) and con artists. There is a lot of truth to this depiction and illegal organs and exotic animals sadly are senselessly killed and sold as delicacies and medicine in Hong Kong even today. Already you must be thinking that Killer Snakes has a lot more depth than Calamity and you’re half right!           

            At first I felt sorry for this demented loner/ kitchen worker. But as you may know from films like Ebola Syndrome and Maniac 2: Mr. Robbie, kitchen workers are psychotic madmen hell bent on poisoning people! The cobra telepathically summons his army of blood-thirsty snakes that await to strike who ever Zhihong thinks deserve punishment, like girls who won’t put out! He pathetically strikes up a relationship with a cute girl, but he’s too unhinged to act normal for three minutes. He goes back to hanging out with creatures that never talk back.  According to a user on IMDB.com, Snakes is actually based on two films Willard  and Stanley (two killer animal films one with Moe Green straight after The GodFather!), this doesn’t bother me, because the Shaw Brothers are so incredibly talented that they could ripoff RoboCop and I’d still think it was a good as the original! If you are looking for a sleazy demented killer reptile flick with S&M and revenge dished out by the underdog against an uncaring society, then check it out. But what ever you do try not to watch two snake flicks in a row like I did, because you will psychologically compare them. This one is a lot easier on the eyes then a lot of Hong Kong horror and Kung Fu epics by The Shaw team. 

Available for rent on Netflix.

The Arousers

The Arousers (Sweet Kill) by Curtis Hanson Starring Tab Hunter (1973)

  The beginning looks like it was filmed in French's Yellow mustard-scope or urine stained hobo mattress pee yellow. In the first minute there are two busty girls taking baths and lounging around while someone in the shadows is sniffing panties. Impotent Tab Hunter (kicks his girlfriend into a dresser and accidentally kills her). John Waters must have been aware of this film (he's always ahead of the curve) and possibly had him in mind for Polyester after seeing this sleazeball film. The shot composition is well thought out and effective for such a shoddy looking production. Tab disposes of a body among the rooftop with loud pidgeons squawking in the background. Angus Scrim (with a lot of hair) plays one of the neighbors who nails a pigeon coop shut.
     Tab Hunter plays Eddie Collins (coincidental name from Poor Pretty Eddie), a milk slugging high school gym coach who distributes free sex advice to teens. A groovy housewife with one of the most bland 70's apartments comes onto Tab. He acts very somber around women and the source of his murderous intentions are his own impotence. At first this one reminded me of Love Thrill Murders or Joe but it sadly let me down. Tab walks along the beach and broods (reminiscent of Seconds?), but then the editor abruptly cuts and now he's violently thrown into the next scene; staring at a cheesecakey blonde (a Something Weird Video strip tease looking girl). She wears a veil to bed while Tab clumsily takes her clothes off. This is the first hint that he might be a necrophiliac. A dopey hippie girl gets busted by the cops (I'm still not sure how she is connected to anyone else in the film). Tab gets in the shower with some girl, but as soon as she gets naked, he eerily hides out in the dark and slashes her with an electric knife. He stabs her off screen and calls her a slut. Like Norman Bates (or Ed Gein) he can only get sexual gratification from women once they are dead. 

YUCK a girl!

     A busty, totally naked woman with a towel shows off her body and then disappears (this is a Roger Corman insert that was added after the Sweet Kill moniker tanked). There are random busty naked girls inserted into the film at gratuitous moments (thanks Roger!) and people were actually complaining! like this film had any integrity to begin with!? 
     There is a lot of abrupt edits which get kind of annoying. One girl attempts to get him excited by saying "pretend I'm your mother" and he spits in her face! The new scenes seem out of place ( the non naked girl ones that is) with the original ones from "Sweet Kill". Shout Factory is going to put this out soon on a double feature disc with Naked Angels. It really drags toward the last few minutes and the film gets really dark. The first and second half seem like two very different movies and there's less dialogue and little explanation as to what's going on. The source of his problems and urge to kill are obviously his impotence but it never takes us anywhere further. In the end the film forgets what direction its going in and basically slows down to a crawling pace, just before one final violent stabbing. It's an awkward forgotten movie that isn't really special enough to merit a rediscovery. 
You can stream it here LINK

Too Yellow?

BOOOYYYYYY!

Francine Fishpaw you're my Polyester queen

Delirium: Photos Of Gioia

Delirium: Photos Of Gioia Directed by Lamberto Bava. Starring Serena Grandi. (1987)

            Lamberto Bava is a filmmaker with a scattered legacy of cinematic duds and triumphs, Photos of Gioia is alittle bit of both. Possibly the dumbest film he’s ever made is Devil Fish (which I’ve only been able to sit through during MST3K). He struck ghoulish paydirt with The Demons series, which are brilliant! He’s sort of become a joke between Skunkape and I for awhile so as a gesture of “Hey he’s not such a shitty director” Mr. Ape sent me this flick in the mail.

            It’s drenched in euro trash fashion model sleaze. It’s got the same Argento influences of overly foreign actors and cheesiness, but not much blood (which would make it an overblown Italian skin flick). There are tons of photo shoot happenings in crystal blue shimmering pools at gaudy mansions in the high fashion world of PussyCat magazine! Serena Grandi is spectacular to look at and makes this dopey semi slasher film watchable. She resembles an Italian Jane Mansfield, working in a Bold & The Beautiful type soap opera atmosphere. She hangs out with Daria Nicolodi (who thankfully is dubbed), her husky voice never was able to reek havoc on the ear drums (that is until she is interviewed and had acted in Mother Of Tears, by far her dumbest role). There are tons of creative lighting and over saturation of trashy fashions (that as a red blooded American male I am unable to understand). The film is asking waay too much for a horror fan and seems geared toward late night Skinemax. It is in the catalog and Chas Balun mentions that there’s more boobs then blood.

             There is a killer loose stalking Gioia and her models. The first suspect is this pervish “Rear Window” tribute character (who totally looks like Richard Ramirez). He prank calls her and says yucky shit over the phone like I’m gonna explode on your flower!

            There is some hilarious office banter at the offices of PussyCat magazine and Gioia (Grandi) is the head entrepreneur. Her rival is a pearl necklace wearing stuck up woman, who I like to refer to as the “Shark Bitch”. She wants credit for making Gioia’s career and calls her whorey and fat. She says great dialogue like “Be careful the hate of a woman can be very bad!” She is pissed off that a former hooker like Gioia has gotten so far in the porn industry and their competition against each other reminds me of Kevin Mccarthy and Weird Al’s rivalry in UHF.

            The first victim has a giant veiny eyeball taking up have her neck and face. She looked like a Madball  or a Nightbreed monster. The killer sees his victims in different Halloween masks, but you have to guess what exactly you are looking at, it’s alarming and unintentionally funny. The cheesy wah wah guitar (score by Simon Boswell) adds more to the goofiness. The Cyclops lady’s corpse is manipulated and shot with a camera in front of a back drop of a giant half naked photo of Gioia, incriminating her.

            Serena Grandi bumps into her former boyfriend George Eastman, who looks like he just walked off the set of Iron Master. They later get it on in a soapy tub, with gratuitous boob shots. Her Richard Simmons lookalike boss walks in on them, he dresses like a combination of Michael Jackson “Thriller” era with a Bill Cosby sweater.

Sorry I ate your baby in Anthropophagus

            The second victim looks like 80’s porn star Christy Canyon, this time the photo shoot looks like two Eddie’s from Powerslave era Maiden grope her among a sci fi location. After getting getting it on with Richard Simmons look-a-like guy she gets attacked by bees. Before that happens she does a full naked strip with a bee mask on while the insects sting her to death.

Slave to the power of Vag!( sung to the tune of PowerSlave)

            A lot of bullshit happens and it drags on a lot (there’s that dull Lamberto pacing), but the killer does finally show his face and he looks like Jello Biafra wearing Robert Smith’s makeup. There are many scenes of eroticism with weird objects (knives, blue light saber) and finally everything turns out OK for Gioia. Her creepy stalker comes to her rescue and the Shark Bitch bails her out, The End. The main draw for gore fanatics is the cheesiness of watching Italian horror actors that have starred in better films and if I were twelve I would’ve been excited to stay up late and catch this naughty monster mask flick, but I guess that part of me still appreciates this kind of filth.

Nice review over at this great blog called House of Self Indulgence

Available on DVD (not sure about netflix) hopefully it will turn up on Youtube!

Burial Ground

Burial Ground: The Nights Of Terror (Zombie 3, (Le Notti del terrore) Directed by Andre Bianchi (1981).

            During the pre internet world this film sat on video store shelves and bootleg catalogs in complete silence. No one you ever knew confided and exclaimed “Holy Shit check out this zombie film with a dwarf in a bad wig who tries to fuck his own mom!” If someone came up to you first you’d wonder if they were mentally ill and second, you’d wonder why you never bothered to watch it before! I obviously am in the second bracket and one night got really wasted and dialed it up on Youtube (on my Roku).

            I have to mention the internet (and the Peter Bark Myspace profile!) for turning a reluctant interest to see this film into a drooling ravenous pile of slop. The Peter Bark references litter the internet like dead probes in outer space and unplugged satellites. There are so many that you’d think everyone in America had sat down together around the couch and enjoyed the zombie/ incest antics together! That’s why the masses must remember that the internet never reflects the real society. It’s probably a very small mutant community. I recommend mixing as many substances as possible while watching this one because its insanely fun!

            Andrea Bianchi had obviously wanted to ride the maggot infested pasta yacht and hitch his tugboat up to Fulci’s, Romero’s and become the new Zombie king! I think he owes more to a dwarf in his 20’s wearing a dime store wig cast as a preteen then Giannetto De Rossi (who handles the zombie efx here and in the Fulci films). The zombies look like they were baked in a giant sized Thing Maker.

I can't handle all this fame!

Giannetto De Rossi's secret weapon

Where did my other glass eye roll off to?

            Peter Bark has invaded the internet and there are tumblr’s music videos and blogs devoted to his legacy(he’s almost as famous as the keyboard cat!) Check out this fun music video

The box cover on the video looks exactly like Fulci’s Gates Of Hell and has a Ken Foree like tagline (“When the moon turns red, the Dead Shall Rise”). The zombie makeup is incredible and they all have their own signature personalities (they look like a Mercer Mayer drawing covered in mummy flesh). If I didn’t know any better I would believe that Fulci ghost directed this flick, because it has all those familiar elements; like overdubbed unintentionally funny dialogue, walking flower pot zombies and a haphazardly throw together storyline. The only red flag is the incest, which makes this film so strange and gives it a D’Amato feel! It comes out of nowhere and ends with old Barkey taking a gory bite out his mom's titty. Maybe if I re watched it sober and tried to over analyze it into some kind of metaphor that the director will most likely invent, I could, but I’d rather just enjoy this train wreck and not sort through the mangled bodies and rubble.

Hilarious review at Kindertrauma

Watch the entire thing here LINK

Why I never!

No Autographs please

                        

Dr. Lamb

Dr Lamb (Gou yeung yi sang ) directed by Danny Lee. Starring Simon Yam 1992.

            I hate to do it but it has to be said, so that others might join me in trashing Dr. Lame, I mean Dr. Lamb. I don’t know what anyone  else sees in this boring episode of Chinese CSI? Many critics have regarded this to be a Hong Kong version of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer or Maniac and they are dead wrong. Maybe if you cut out all the scenes of pathos, drama and character development found in the formentioned films and replace it with a dull episode of Chinese NYPD then you’d have your movie.

            Dr. Lamb (played by Simon Yam) trolls around in his taxi (I think they should have played romantic saxophone while this went on). He picks up hookers then rapes them, dismembers them and still this isn’t enough to hold my interest? I’m not some jaded creep either, but it’s done in a tedious way and shouldn’t come off this dull! Other elements that serve to douse the fury are literal broken English translations, which make it laughable, so that is half the battle (blame the subtitle guy).

            The story was based on real Hong Kong serial killer Lam Kor-wan who was convicted in 1982. I have to give some credit to the women who lied still playing defiled corpses, but again it’s sort of funny to watch their still faces while being humped. If they didn’t have twenty police men bumbling around the office questioning the family involved while shouting broken English at each other maybe it would’ve worked better than it did. I’m not here to defend the film and think others should express how bad this highly regarded category III film is because not all of them are winners.

I don't like this episode of Chinese Cash Cab!

Can we get some more police in here!

Available on Instant NetFlix

Poor Pretty Eddie

   There are over three hundred titles in the Deep Red catalog, most of them are in different sub-genres like Naziploitation, Italian Jungle Cannibal Films, and B rate garbage but one over looked genre is Hixploitation (a few titles are present in the catalog like I Hate Your Guts (Fight For Your Life), God's Bloody Acre,Savage Weekend, Scum of The Earth (S.F. Brownrigg), Ain't no way back), but most of them suck! They have bad lighting, horrid acting and bad hillbilly music (2000 Maniacs theme song being a shrill example). But they are so much fun, that is, if you are in the mood to suspend your political correctness and settle in for some slack jawed hijinks! One unforgivable omission in my mind is a film like this, with star power, redneck atrocities and the first of its kind adding on another subgenre: Elvisploitation! It should've been in the catalog and deserves to be! I plan on adding titles that belong in the catalog but for some weird reason didn't make it, these are what I call honorable mentions (more to come later on). I saw this late one night on TCM underground.

Poor Pretty Eddie (or Redneck Country Rape,Black Vengeance, Heartbreak Motel) Directed by Richard Robinson. Starring Leslie Uggams (1975).
Leslie Uggams (Hullaballoo, Family Guy) plays a famous singer who takes a break from civilization to vacation in the sticks and get away from it all, why she picks the deep South is beyond my comprehension! And yet she does, her car breaks down and she is forced to deal with a fear driven set of laws: fear of outsiders, fear of books, city folk and the media skewing their deep rooted sense of kinship and family values (does any of this sound oddly familiar)?
   She finds herself in a dilly of a pickle surrounded by racist corn pone characters like Shelly Winters (this is her best role) as a girlfriend/mother figure to Eddie Collins. Eddie with his flesh covered skull features, looks as if a teenage Julian Beck decided to dress up like Elvis.
   The film is entrenched with references to The King: hound dogs (them having sex, and being eaten),Elvis' unhealthy attachment to his mother,Cornel Parker type characters (like Slim Pickens and Dub Taylor). This time, another different shady degenerate character is involved in the production (like in Nightmares in a Damaged Brain) his name is Michael Thevis (click link).


                      Burp! I taste Kibble

   You also get one of the best roles ever for Lurch( Ted Cassidy), completely decked out in denim with a huge scar on the side of his face, he resembles Frankenstein in a Marlboro Man costume. Some of the local extras in the town look more frightening then Deliverance, giving the film an Italian Neorealism flavor.Whether this is intentional or not I'm not sure, but there are beautifully orchestrated surrealistic type scenes (murder fantasies, a gruesome rape/onlookers fixated on two dogs humping). Many film school art house touches are present, making this a sleazy highbrow forgotten cult gem.
  There is some hilarious shit too with Slim Pickens pretending to report Leslie Uggams repulsive rape by offering her a "Tomato to suck on" (while he doodles naked body parts). He asks her if "Eddie bit on her titties", while his retarded nephew looks on. There's a terrifying bar littered with dead animals on the walls and cheap beer available at every turn (BUD on tap is proudly endorsed). Dub Taylor plays "Floyd justice of the peace" and right there in the middle of the bar, a kangaroo court is set up next to the hillbilly bandstand (the creepy country music is great too). A nice Peckinpah slo-mo type massacre closes out the finally. Very highly recommended and a good place to start and end with the Hixploitation genre. Available for rent on Netflix.
Also on The ADC Roku channel.

Aftermath

AfterMath directed by Nacho Cerda. Starring Dead bodies (real and fake) 1994.

            There is a lot of controversy attached to this short film by Spanish director Nacho Cerda and criticism by Chas Balun calling it out as pure gorenography. Is this a misunderstood gem, an ahead of its time film that should be re-evalutated? I’m not sure myself and for all the years I watched Last House On Dead End Street I regarded it with confusion and distain for it’s methed out, speed freak thieving director who conned everyone into thinking it might be a genuine snuff film. Last House review is coming soon. Even though it was never a snuff film, it carried a stigma of that controversy and the myth is often more powerful then the truth. After I learned that Roger Watkins made a genuinely scary film with zero funds (at least nothing recorded) I gained all this reluctant respect for him posthumously.

            So back to Nacho Cerda’s Aftermath, he is making a statement that gore hounds are kind of psychotic in the way they gravitate toward Mondo Films (like Faces of Death, Jacopetti/Prosperi films) and have an unhealthy fixation on the macabre. Is he trying to piss off and alienate his own demographic? In a way Yes! because Aftermath is set up like a porn but in an autopsy room and like all myths we’ve heard the necrophilia ones.

            But did we really need to see a morgue attendant perform sex acts on a corpse?, not really but here it is immortalized on film! I actually found it really tedious and not hard to watch like Cerda intended (read his perspective HERE!) I’m also going to include the backlash critique that Chas gave at the screening with Jim Van Bebber (who defends the film). It is doubtful I will revist the film and I guess I have closed my mind to this journey, but then again why would I want to respect a basic corpse fucking porn (and I am a huge fan of Nekomantik). Aftermath divides horror fans and forces them to search within and determine why they watch these types of repulsive realistic snuff movies and in that respect it is an important statement.  I saw this originally on Netflix instant but it has since been removed. You can still rent it though.

Chas Balun Opinion

The Undertaker & His Pals

The Undertaker & His Pals Directed by T.V. Mikels. Starring James Westmoreland (1966).

            Maybe it was a case of right time, right amount of wasted, but I highly enjoyed this notorious dud. I went in with low expectations because everyone I know shat on it! T.V. Mikels is a director I have yet to see a film I liked (accept Girl In Gold Boots, but only the MST3K version). This one is my other favorites, in this film he’s sort of channeling H.G. Lewis (I realize I mention him a lot in this blog, but he rules)! I liked all the bad taste con-man undertaker shenanigans, goofy cannibal jokes (What’s on the menu)? People with food last names (Lamb, Poultry,Hamburger) are chopped up in this run down restaurant and put on the menu. A ballistic motorcycle gang is terrorizing the town and butchering girls, while the undertaker is in on it. There’s a great R&B garage track that closes the film that would fit right in on The dave the spazzradio show. Everyone comes out and takes a bow at the end just like in The Bad Seed. James Westmoreland went on to one of my all time favorite sicko exploitation slasher films "Don't Answer The Phone".

Twitch of The Death Nerve

 

 Twitch of The Death Nerve (Bay of Blood, Carnage) Directed By Mario Bava. Starring Claudine Auger. (1971)

Lately I’ve been trying to see more Mario Bava films, Black Sunday has always been one of my favorites. After seeing the original Friday The 13^th on the big screen, it made a huge impact on me and was more effective then I remembered. It inspired me to check out its originator.

            The trailer for this film under one of its billion alternate titles: Carnage, is one of the best solarized, acid soaked music videos and highly recommended for repeated viewings (it’s on the Mad Ron’s Prevues From Hell DVD). When I sent video comps to friends in the days of videotape trading I would always include it.

            Sean Cunningham blatantly steals from Bava with similar murders, shot scenarios in later Friday sequels a scene where two people having sex are impaled by one long spear. Hooking up with Wes Craven he also borrowed from Bava’s brilliant Rabid Dogs with some forced humiliation (“Piss your Pants” scene).

            Where is that guy now anyway? While Bava remains an innovator of stylistic Technicolor murder who influenced numerous Italian horror directors. Bay Of Blood (or Twitch of the Death Nerve) has the basic storyline and irrelevant dialogue as any other later slasher film. It was however the first to inspire many later ones during the 80’s.

            From the first couple of minutes it’s got gore galore and rampant cruelty as a woman in a wheel chair is hung up and strangled. Mod looking teens frolic naked (shades of Friday the 13^th), and a faceless voyeuristic killer watches from behind the trees. There is a guy in an itchy sweater responsible for some mayhem on the island (he’s the obvious inspiration for the Mrs. Voorhees character). Almost every character is on edge and at each other’s throats! One of my favorite scriptwriters Dardano Sarchetti wrote the story concept and Carlo (E.T., Possession) Rambaldi assisted with the makeup. There’s a genius moment when a guy gets a machete plunged into his face and falls over, reminding me of the axe in the face death from Friday part 1. Highly Recommended and available on Youtube (link)

Shish kabobed

Mustache Squid Ride

Ring around the collar?

Yotsuya Kaidan

Original Folklore

Yotsuya Kaidan directed by Nobuo Nakagawa. Starring Shigeru Amach. (1959). 
This is one of the most famous Japanese tales of ghostly revenge in folklore. It has been adapted countless times and I am a massive fan of Japanese folklore and Noh Theater, so I knew I'd be able to hack it. For those that are looking for blood drenched Baby Cart/ Lonewolf and Cub shenanigans, look elsewhere! Kenji Misumi who directed half of the LoneWolf and Cub series made his own version of the Ghost story the same year. The original is a five act kabuki play and I'll admit it, I've fallen asleep a couple of times late night watching this,(it’s available on HuluPlus) I know better not to watch a foreign film late at night cause reading makes me sleepy.

            This 1959 version is the most admired adaptation of this story, which has been told since 1825. The film opens with an ominous warning "The fury of a woman driven mad is one of the greatest horrors of all". Three wandering samurai's are interrupted by Lemon, the protagonist who is detested as an uncouth Ronin and the class war is already established, He is angry because others won’t let him rise above, but there is more complication going on then you'd think. They are annoyed by him and say he haunts their property like a stray cat.

                He wants to gain entry into the samurai system and marry up into the ranks of order, but is rejected. You never have time to feel sorry for Lemon as you become acquainted with him because you realize he can only murder to sustain his self-confidence. He murders a lot through out this film, at first it's very theatrical in an orchestrated delicate style (which sounds ridiculous)! But it increasingly turns more graphic and there’s a division between the first act and the last. It starts off very slow but builds into a ghastly good time. Naosuke is Lemon’s servant and has an Iago (as in Othello) like personality he only seems to inspire Lemon to kill everyone surrounding them. He is dominated by Naosuke in the guise of friendship and calculates all his motives to murder, there is no explanation as to why he listens to his fake friend.

            They both consistently lie in order to cover up their senseless murders, it’s as if they are murder junkies. You’d think with the high body count there would be more blood flowing (the play is more graphic then the film see link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsuya_Kaidan).

            Lemon is an inhuman monster with no conscience or compassion for his wife Iwa and has no problem poisoning her with a toxic skin cream. Her masseuse, a trusted friend betrays her and acts like a frightened child (he feels guilty) after being paid to poison her. He cowers in the corner as her face melts into black sores and boils, this moment doesn’t happen till about 42 minutes in but it made up for lost time. Screaming in pain, she holds her son and asks how can Lemon be so cruel and in an act of mercy kills her child (off screen). The masseuses’ arm is lopped off by Lemon as the SPFX team cracked open the make- up kits finally!  Lemon seems to delight in murder and deserves a brutal revenge punishment that sadly is not delivered. The coolest part of the film for me was the watery zombie approach to ghostly revenge, it reminded me of The Tide segment of Creepshow. The ghosts in Yotsuya are never transparent but can hide anywhere and usually bring rivers of bloody water and pesky snakes. Lemon still deserved a more horrific death, but it’s pretty funny that he stabs through ghosts and hits living flesh (people behind the ghosts).The film is a bit tedious like certain Criterion bores (like Masaki Kobayashi’s overrated Kaidan which I found very dull and not scary).

            Nobuo Nakagawa pioneered extreme graphic violence during the early 60’s with Jigoku and this film. Psychotronic’s Michael Weldon praised his work for beating H.G. Lewis to the stomach churning punch before Blood Feast. It’s in no way a comparision but still pretty rewarding for a samarai ghost story. Yotsuya Kaidan is very much influenced by the Technicolor style of early Hammer films (like The Curse of Frankenstein). I think Chas included it because of it’s gore pioneering status and Hammer film inspired quality.
Available on Huluplus

Stop Bothering me

They Won't Stay Dead!