USA UP ALL NIGHT WEEK: Fatal Exposure

 

"Fatal Exposure" aka "Mangled Alive" (1989)

Director: Peter B. Good

Writer: Christopher Painter

Stars: Blake Bahner, Ena Henderson, Dan Schmale

Review by: "Machine Gun" Kristin

I’ve probably seen “Fatal Exposure” in a video store at some point. I mean, just look at the video cover. Trashy, kinda scary with the big skull in the background. Maybe like a cross between an 80s slasher and a Shannon Tweed flick? In 1994 (S6:EP92) it was broadcast on USA’s Up All Night (paired with “The Sex Puppets”). I’m kind of astounded with the amount of sex and pretty shocking gore scenes that this was watchable in an edited for TV format. Editing techniques weren’t nearly as fancy back then as they are nowadays. (For example, check out the digitally painted on bras in the edited for TV version of “ShowGirls”). Sure, the sex is mostly just nips and super high on the thigh underwear (damn you 1989 fashion!) still on, but you get the point.

We follow the mullet-haired Jack T. Rippington (hahaha), grandson of serial killer Jack The Ripper (played by kickboxer/soap opera actor, Blake Bahner). He believes that the blood of his photoshoot model victims is basically Viagra which he stores in a lunchbox Thermos. He laughably explains what he's doing to the camera as sort of an on-screen narrator. This is done somewhat tongue-in-cheek though because when he first meets his Sherilyn Fenn-type "dreamgirl" Erica (Ena Henderson) she says, "do you always talk to yourself?".

This movie is weird because it should be seen as terrible, unlikable, badly made, etc, but it's really not. I don't know, I liked the characters and felt that they weren't trying too hard. Make no mistake, this movie is pretty terrible, but that doesn't mean it isn't super fun. It would awesome to watch super drunk with some friends and lots of snacks. Like I mentioned before, I was pretty surprised at how viciously gory the death scenes are in this, and there's a lot of them. Heads chopped off, hydrochloric acid ingested resulting in melting flesh.

Whew! We can thank Scott Coulter (who also did "Class Of Nuke Em High" among a ton of credits and still works in effects today) for the kool gore effects.

The tone of "Fatal..." reminded me soo much of "Soultaker" (1990) which was savagely (by that I mean hilariously) made fun of by Mystery Science Theater 3000. I was also reminded of the fantastic, "Panic Beats" with it's extreme gore, house-in-the-middle-of-nowhere and soap opera-y feel. Lots of fun!

You can check out "Fatal Exposure" over HERE

Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer

Joe Coleman's poster that appeared in The Horror Handbook.

Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer. Starring Michael Rooker, Directed By John McNaughton (1986).

Even though I love this film, I’ve avoided it for several years. It’s extremely depressing, disturbing and generally unpleasant. I decided to revisit it the other night while drunk as a skunk and it’s still a brilliant and harrowing independent film with guts to spare. The violence is ugly, unrepentant and disgusting but for some reason it picked up a buzz from some high-brow critics like Siskel and Ebert. That’s actually where I first saw a clip of it and couldn’t wait to check it out. My dad actually freaked out at me for wanting to see it, years later I taped it off Cinemax. It really resonated with the thumbs up, down guys—they defended it against the tide of irrational censorship and convinced others to watch it. These same critics, who demanded their audience boycott slasher movies in the 80’s, it seems were major fans of this John McNaughton film. They saw it as not exploitation but delivering a message more so than the typical brainless exploitation and it doesn't glorify the violence. Once the ultra- conservative Bush/Reagan era bit the dust in the 90s, it seemed as if these types of gritty realistic horror films were given more of a chance under the context of an artsy film. Of course, now it’s a billion times worse in the current society and political climate but that’s irrelevant to this review.

I'll have you know Amerikkka is great again!

In the Deep Red Horror Handbook, Chas spoke about this film in his chapter “I Spit in Your Face: Films that bite”. Balun placed it among what he categorized as “drano enemas” like Nekromantik, Deadbeat and Dawn and Last House on Dead End Street, all films that were impossible to find at time in 1989 for the average video junkie. They were the kinds of movies that got inside and ripped out your guts. He praised its low tech, high caliber acting and was unsettled by the fact that McNaughton makes Henry so fucking likeable and never indicts him.

all the girls want to know, who's the cutest boy on death row?

The two main characters are based on actual murderers like Florida’s Ottis Toole, who killed and ate Adam Walsh and even had a cannibal BBQ sauce that was listed in Mike Diana’s sick zine Boiled Angel. Also, Henry Lee Lucas and Otis’ sister Becky existed but she was significantly younger. They took these true crime figures and gave them their own spin, even though it’s biographical most of the details are rearranged or fictionalized, like the fact that in reality Henry and Ottis were gay lovers.

See I'm straight, I got a Jesus shirt!

It begins with the aftermath of different murder victims, we hear the disturbing audio of their last moments as Henry (Rooker) goes about his day. Tom Towles is in my opinion the most frightening aspect of this entire film, he’s a pervy, learing sexual predator who constantly is on the verge of a conniption fit over nothing. He doesn’t have the concept of “dial it down” and at one point kicks in a T.V., when he can’t get the rabbit ears to work. I like Siskel's theory about this scene, where Otis equates people as objects and only knows to deal with them thru savage violence or screaming at them until they comply. This leads to one of my favorite cinematic characters possibly ever, the fat-assed television salesman played by Ray Atherton. He looks like a mutant, deformed version of the Comic Book guy from The Simpsons. Atherton was not an actor but a producer of sleazy movies like FART: The Movie and Death Scenes 2, I can’t make this shit up folks!

WORST HAT EVER.

Henry (the film not the character) acts as a scared straight for the dangers of buying pot from some scumbag dealer, instead of going the dispensary route. The scene where Otis, sells dope to a high school kid and tries to molest him was most likely shown to legislatures as a reason to enforce these new pot laws—yeah right!   

The part that was seriously effective and unnerving to me occurs when Henry (Michael Rooker) and Otis (Tom Towles), “go out for a beer,” which is code for let’s go out to assault and murder an entire family in the burbs. That moment, which they capture on a camcorder is played endlessly on a loop as the slobby, perverted sister rapist Otis snoozes in his grundies in front of the boob tube.

SPRING BREAK!

This movie was shot in 1986, but remained unreleased for 3 years because of hypocrisy and censorship. There’s something viciously organic about the mutilation and graphic violence that really turns up the gas on the nightmare fuel. That aspect was why I haven’t revisited it since high school. Even though, the film is very uncomfortable, it is worth re watching and carries the fury that most serial killers movies wish they could accomplish. Rooker of course went onto super stardom with The Walking Dead and Guardians of the Galaxy. Towles played a guy who's dog had rabies and bit Elaine on Seinfeld, he appeared in a few Rob Zombie movies then died tragically from a stroke a few years ago. This director never made a film that impressed me all that much sadly, this however is his finest moment.


BUY IT HERE

GUTS FIELD REPORT: NASHVILLE MIDNIGHT MOVIE at The Belcourt: THIS IS AMERICA PART 2

NASHVILLE FIELD REPORT BELCOURT THEATER: THIS IS AMERICA PART 2. Directed By Romano Vanderbes, starring Ron Jeremy (1980).

Here I am back at the only place in Trashville to see weird movies for sickos only.

I always arrive early enough to check out the pre-show which has stuff related to the film they're about to play. As I got in slightly late, I saw a part of the Dead Kennedys Target video (that I still own from high school) which had a segment from the local San Francisco news about Jello's run for mayor, followed by Drug Me. One part that cracked me up showed Richard Pryor walking into a gun store where all the weapons had their own voices and personalities (one of them was Robin Williams, R.I.P.), it was taken from Pryor's short lived TV series. I also saw a trailer for Human Highway, the Devo/ Neil Young movie which has been a total bitch to find until now. I first read about that one in Psychotronic and it's finally being re-released.

This gun is the tits, it's loaded with cocaine bullets!

Back in the days when video stores still existed, there were shit tons of repulsive dreck in the mondo section like Africa Blood & Guts, Mondo Magic, Shocking Asia and the most famous Faces of Death. I’ve always despised this genre as cheap Fox News style propaganda mixed with genuinely horrific nightmarish accident footage or staged attacks and executions. Fodder for death metal videos and stoners with a taste for twisted violence, not for me at all. So why did I venture out on the highway to check this flick out? First and foremost, I fucking love this theater and want to support them. Awhile ago after seeing the very depressing and grim Killing Of America by Leonard Schrader (Paul “Taxi Driver, Hardcore” Schrader’s) doc, I discovered Jabberwalk (aka This is America part 2) and thought I should revisit it. There is a part one, but it's pretty forgettable. What's really strange to me is how both of these films combined are not as gut wrenching, at least to me, as something like Fahrenheit 911 or Bowling for Columbine (I'm sure Moore was heavily influenced by the Schrader film)

Skunkape found this sequel for me at least 10 years ago, I switched it on for probably a few mins, saw Jello Biafra riding BART with his campaign posters and shut it off. Thought to myself “Next” and then watched something with more guts. Then in the present year 2016 A.D., I figured I'd give this very cheesy, non-prophetic and out dated “mondo” movie that relies too heavily on sex and buffoonery and goofiness a second chance. There’s not much here to shock any drooling slack jawed geek show veteran who's seen Faces of Death a trillion times or preteens of now, who have every depraved sex act known to humanity at the click of a mouse, so who is this movie for, I don’t really know!

I enjoyed it regardless but really wish I could say, “Sheesh, I’m glad society isn’t as fucked up as that movie painted it out to be!” Just think of the lyrics to California Uber Alles (which fears the threatening grip of a, shudder to think, Jerry Brown presidency)! Holy fucking shit, I wish that’s the way the tide turned, but no, current society is a billion times worse than this mondo flick paints it out to be! At this point in time, Idiocracy, one of the most accurate futuristic depictions of a society ruled by the completely moronic and sub intelligent might have to catch up with how retarded everyone is right now. Check to see if Mike Judge’s brain matter hasn’t ejected all over the inside of his office out of sheer disbelief.

Ahhh that's better, if only this really happened.

So what goes down in Romano Vanderbes’ movie celebrating the eccentricities of the wackiest people he could gather for this event? Well, I noticed Ron Jeremy is featured during a lot of segments, in the passenger side of a naked carwash. One lady looked like she had a 4 boobs in two, over the shoulder boulders indeed. During a topless boxing match at the end, we get Vanessa Del Rio and Veronica Hart punching each other’s lights out (they were billed as just drunk girls who wondered into the ring). Jeremy shows up later at a repulsive hot top orgy at Plato’s Retreat, I recommend reading the incredibly sleazy book Tales From Times Square by Josh Alan Friedman for further debauchery on this subject.

valet parking and buffet? Oh boy!

At one point, the film attempts to get dark and shows a community of homeless underground dwellers (a pre CHUD reference) feasting on rats, one bum looks suspiciously like Brian Johnson from AC/DC. Another disgusting moment (which we’ve seen worse on mainstream shows like Fear Factor has an entire family scarfing down worms (and making juice out of the wrigglers), read The Worm Eaters review for more Zimmern style shenanigans, BARF)!

Shake & bake that rat baybayby all fucking night looonnnngg

After a while my patience wore thin, adding to the fact that there was possibly 5 other people in the theater, no one was laughing accept me and some fat dude in front of me kept checking the time on his cellphone (I almost narced on him, but I don't dime). The staff at the Belcourt mentioned that I was possibly the only person who walked in, not employed by the movie theater who had any interest in watching this flick, I guess I’m a "for real" weirdo.

There was a phoned in little segment showing Manson, people with hideous wounds, random protesting and scuffles, Edmund Kemper (who really ate up the film stock in Killing of America) and an inmate who was fried a couple of times in the electric chair (sans eye socket duct tape by the way). I mean the footage in Faces of Death looked more realistic.

Whew, at last my sinuses feel great!

2 more segments that I enjoyed overall were the footage of Bo Diddley partying with Hells Angels (which was shot for a concert in an already finished short called Hells Angels Forever and reinserted here). The zaniest of all, was an all handicapped band miming to The Village People’s “Macho Man” led by a fictional rich mentally challenged mastermind of a weirdo cult from Berkeley (they showcase the college campus, which I’ve been to numerous times, my wife and I would go to Top Dog across the street and lounge on the lawn). No actual guy exists as far as I can tell, I think I would’ve heard something by now. One last thing I’ll mention is a disco where a dude shoots whip cream out of a keytar at naked girls wading in red jello—I ain’t no foodie so I was definitely not turned on by this segment. I highly recommend checking this place out if you ever visit Nashville and can't wait to return!