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In the Mouth of Madness. A truly middling picture where the tone is all wrong. It would make for good remake material.
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"Ah! By god's balls what licentiousness!"
Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom. -
TALES FROM THE HOOD 2 - This was shockingly bad. I really wanted to like it, but the stories are stretched way beyond the breaking point (it's 110 minutes long) and it's often embarrassingly stupid. The fourth tale is barely even horror and goes on and on and on. The framing story has an amusing performance from Keith David, but the climax of it is just awful.Why would anybody watch a scum show like Videodrome? Why did you watch it, Max?Comment
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I'm not surprised in the slightest.Originally posted by Matt H. View Post"Ah! By god's balls what licentiousness!"
Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom.Comment
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Day 6: Horrors of Malformed Men
These Rampo films are a bit too Scooby Doo for me. Still, I really want some soft shell crab now.I'm bitter, I'm twisted, James Joyce is fucking my sister.Comment
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Title-Operation Nazi Zombies AKA Maplewoods
Source-Brain Damage Films DVD
I have loved Zombie films since I first saw Night of the Living Dead,the original of course,back when I was 8 or so. So even if I got a feeling the movie is gonna be crap I will give most zombie films a chance.
One day earlier this year I was killing time waiting on a friend to get off from work. Stopped at Family Dollar and saw they had restocked their "Top Hits DVD" bins. I am sure some of yall have seen these. Mostly they seem to be stocked at places like Dollar Tree,Dollar General,Family Dollar and other budget stores. They are usually former Blockbuster or Netflix rental dvds. That get packaged in cardboard sleeves. Then sold for a buck or two. You never know what you will find. It could be a well known released from Criterion or it might be some low budget mockbuster from the Asylum. In the many copies of Love Guru I found 3 DVDs I wanted. 2 were collections of Public Domain cartoons,one with Casper the ghost and the other with Bugs Bunny. The other DVD I got that day was Operation Nazi Zombies.They were priced at 2 bucks each. But when they got rung up they were only a buck each. SCORE!
Made in 1999 under the title Maplewoods,Operation Nazi Zombies wasn't released until in 2003. Then in early May 2012 Brain Damage Films,who it seems have went out of business,got the DVD rights and retitled the film Operation Nazi Zombies. Which makes sense,the new title will get more attention. Cause I know if I saw a film named Maplewoods and a film titled Operation Nazi Zombies I am gonna be more inclined to watch/buy the latter one.
I hope that works. It is the trailer for the movie. As you will see it is after Brain Damage Films got the rights and retitled it.
So how is the movie?Back in the 70s a man was using some research the Nazi's had done during World War II. The plan was to use zombies as your basic ground troops in the big war.Which when you think about it is a good idea. In war there is always plenty of dead.So if there was a way to turn these dead into soldiers why not?
The entire film is told in flashback style. With the narrator being held prisoner in a military jail.By the end of the film we are given a total non-ending.Our narrator is told he will never be able to escape. And it ends.
The acting ranges from decent to kindergarten play levels. The script seems to be decent. But some of the dialogue is very clunky. Not sure how much of that is a fault of whoever wrote the dialogue and how much is the fault of the actor/actress saying the dialogue. The special effects work is the same mixed bag. Some of it is fairly impressive when you take into mind how low budget the movie is. I keep seeing that this film cost around 250,000 to make. Which isn't much at all. Then some of the FX work looks really bad. There doesn't seem to be much CGI in the film. Most of the FX work seems to be practical.
The movie isn't a total piece of shit. And yea I only paid a buck for it. It is a film that I wouldn't recommend to people unless they are hardcore horror and/or zombie fans. Really it makes for a good "Hey I want to see a horror film and I want it to be one I haven't seen before" movie. I wouldn't be surprised if this was up on Hulu,Netflix,Tubi,Pluto TV or one of the many streaming services. And for free or extremely cheap it is worth watching once. Just don't go in expecting a great film.
Operation Nazi Zombies gets a C.
EDIT-Not long after I finished writing this I discovered that the entire film is on Youtube. In previous years during 31 Days of Horror I have mentioned the Youtube channel Kings of Horror. A channel that gets permission to upload lots of independent horror films. IIRC last year or the year before I watched and reviewed Pop Punk Zombies off the Kings of Horror channel.So ,and I hope this work I really wish blogger made it easier to embed youtube videos,here is the full movie.
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Day 7: The Witch Who Came From The Sea
This is a bit borderline as far as horror films go. It was marketed as one, but doesn't seem to fall neatly into any genre. I'll probably have far more coherent thoughts on it when I get around to watching it a second time, but for the moment I can say than I really like it. Elliptical in parts but never confusing, and dealing with plenty of dark themes without swinging too far into either sleaze or pretension. It's the type of film that probably wouldn't work nearly as well without all its rough edges.
The script has plenty of great dialogue, and Millie Perkins gives a superb performance. Matt Cimber's direction is also much better than you'd expect for this type of film. And the ending is fucking brutal, an emotional trainwreck that never derails into histrionics.Comment
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Day 7: The Black Sleep
It should have been more fun with that cast.I'm bitter, I'm twisted, James Joyce is fucking my sister.Comment
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Fear not, no chance of that occurring. Dan Minsky, that's gold...Originally posted by Jason C View Post
wonder how they managed to end up with that particular garbling.
Bill being too busy with other projects, brother Walt stepped in to handle three Naschy titles for him, which shall be forthcoming.
I helped out and can safely say I provided rock solid English subs for the Spanish track of FURY ( and the other 2 as well ).
Bill may still have a couple other Naschy films he signed, not sure where those are currently ).Comment
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I suspect it's an Alexa style audio capture thing. I sometimes watch cheapo English language films on Prime with the subs on, and there are often cloth eared mistakes like that. There's probably a requirement somewhere to have subtitles on everything. They're almost as good as old school Hong Kong subs.Originally posted by John Bernhard View PostI'm bitter, I'm twisted, James Joyce is fucking my sister.Comment
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THE CHAIR - Typically sadistic and mean-spirited Chad Ferrin flick that takes place in a corrupt prison where the guards (led by Roddy Piper, in his last role) torture and humiliate the prisoners. It's not badly made or anything, just relentlessly grim and probably not the kind of film you'd watch more than once. The centerpiece is a brutal sequence where the guards (including Zach Galligan) gang rape and murder an inmate. Nasty stuff.Why would anybody watch a scum show like Videodrome? Why did you watch it, Max?Comment
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Title-2008's Gross Ile Halloween Horrorthong Hosted by Deadpit Radio's Uncle Bill and the Creepy Kentuckian
Source-Deadpit.com DVD
Over the last 8 years I have mentioned Deadpit.com and the Deadpit Radio podcast a few times on this blog. Even reviewing some of their fan commentaries during my annual 31 Days of Horror. Late last year I was sent a big box of DVDs from a former fan of Deadpit. Most of the DVDs were various Deadpit fan commentaries synced up with the films they commentaries were made for. The other DVDs were either collections of the now defunct Deadpit on the Road Youtube series,the Into the Pit documentary and the dvd pictured above.
I didn't start listening to Deadpit Radio until sometime in 2010. I heard it mentioned on another horror podcast I listened to,the fun Dread Media. By the time I started listening to Deadpit Radio and visiting the site the above DVD was out of print.And I never heard anyone mentioning it.
Well my buddy CodyLL had bought a bunch of DVDs off the Deadpit guys at conventions. And after the hosts of Deadpit had managed to piss Cody off enough that he stopped listening to their show,he offered to send me all his Deadpit stuff. I can't remember if he mentioned this Horrorthon DVD or not when he told me he was sending me the package.
I got in the package and was flipping through all the DVDs. Trying to figure out to watch first. Then I saw this Horrorthon DVD.From what I saw on the cover I figured it was Uncle Bill and the Creepy Kentuckian hosting 2 horror films. The two films are Night of the Living Dead,the original from 1968,and Jerry Warren's Man Beast,which is from 1955.
Now of course I have seen NotLD many times,but had never even heard of Man Beast. So I threw the DVD into my player.Started it up. The first film they show is NotLD. With CK and Uncle Bill doing the horror host duties. Like telling us a bit about NotLD.Now both these guys claim to be horror experts. But really in their intro they mention nothing about NotLD that any horror fan wouldn't already know. So I ended up skipping through NotLD and figured I would watch Man Beast. Not knowing anything about Jerry Warren or Man Beast I enjoyed hearing what Creepy Kentuckian and Uncle Bill had to say about both subjects.
Connie is looking for her long lost brother. Who disappeared while searching for the yeti in the Himalayas. She leads a group to the area hoping to find her brother.She finds the last place her brother was seen and ends up running into a strange guide named Varga. They are quickly attacked by a giant monster and we find out that Varga has sinister plans for Connie.
Lots of the film looks like it is made up of stock footage. Which appears to be way older than the rest of the film. While the movie is only a bit over an hour it feels much much longer. Not sure if it is the print used,but the movie looks horrible. I know that lots of films that are in the public domain the easiest versions to find are from 16mm prints. And both Night of the Living Dead and Man Beast look like 16mm prints.
After about 15 minutes of watching Man Beast I was pretty bored. By the 20 minute mark myself and the other people watching the DVD with me had dug out our phones/tablets and were half watching the movie,half fucking off online.
This is a hard one to give a grade to. Cause Night of the Living Dead is a horror classic. One that if I meet someone that is over the age of 30 and claims to be a horror fan but doesn't like Night of the Living Dead I start to question if they are really a horror fan. But then Man Beast is just horrible.I get the feeling it was the third movie on lots of drive in theater's triple bills. For those of yall too young to have gotten to experience the drive in movie circuit in it's haydays,if the theater was having a double or triple feature they would usually put the best movie on first. With the second or third film being an older film that wasn't that great. The host segments are ok at best. Deadpit Radio had a sense of humor that is funny at first. Then after a bit you realize how limited their style of humor is. And quickly it goes from being funny to just being annoying.With Creepy Kentuckian being the biggest offender in the annoying department. He seems to take pride in how dumb and childish he is.
Earlier this year I did a quick video review/showcase of this DVD. And while doing it I read the back of the DVD case for the first time. Which is a long piece full of praise for Deadpit and it's two hosts. And hey you gotta promote yourself.But one of them,and I am betting it is Creepy Kentuckian,attributes the quote on the back to Lucio Fulci. Which is just stupid. First off by the time this was done Fulci had been dead for close to 2 decades. Secondly even if he was alive Fulci wouldn't be watching a mega hack like Creepy Kentuckian badly hosting 2 films.
2008's Gross Ile Halloween Horrorthon gets a D.Comment
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Day 8: Ouija: Origin of Evil
I have not seen the original Ouija. I would not have bothered to see Ouija: Origin of Evil were it not directed by Mike Flanagan. After greatly enjoying Hush and hearing very good things about his other work, I was interested to see what he would do with a generic modern possession movie. The answer is not much, but it's more about what he doesn't do that elevates it from 'waste of time' to 'enjoyable time-waster'.
Firstly, he does away with cheap jump scares. Unfortunately he doesn't replace them with anything actually scary, but I'd much rather enjoy some atmosphere building and creepy images than get battered around the head with loud noises. Secondly, he actually has some fun with the imagery. There are multiple split diopter shots and plenty of fun little cinematic moments. The production design is great as well, choosing to aim for an evocation of the '60s rather than being scrupulously realistic. The only nostalgic touch that goes too far are the cigarette burns. Yes, despite being shot digitally this film has fake cigarette burns as well as slight frame judder during reel changes.
It's still very forgettable though. The cast do good work but the script fails to capitalise on any of its thematic potential and the PG-13 rating curtails any gruesome imagery (though there is a conceptually nasty bit near the end that went further than I expected). I had a perfectly fine time watching it, but I can't say I would recommend it.Comment
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Awww. LADY FRANKENSTEIN is one of my favorites. I could watch it on a loop. I found Neri to be chilling and intriguing as schemed and manipulated with an "at any cost" mentality to achieve her goals. The sleaze was welcome too.Originally posted by Alex K. View Post
Awesome, I'm not alone. The commentary track for this one is surreal.Originally posted by Alex K. View Post
Thanks for the info. What a relief.Originally posted by John Bernhard View PostComment
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Originally posted by Jason C View Post
It's funny, the 90's was not a great time for all of the oldschool Horror Gods. Craven may have been the only one to have not had bomb after bomb after bomb both commercially and critically. But the only two Carpenter films from that time that are good are Escape From L.A. (which is awesome) and I think Vampires. Vampires certainly has problems and I certainly wouldn't say it's top tier Carpenter material. But it's fun in a cheesy way and it's especially amusing to see James Woods slaughter vampires."Ah! By god's balls what licentiousness!"
Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom.Comment
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Day 8: Phantom Ship
It's Lugosi, it's Hammer. I'm calling it horror.I'm bitter, I'm twisted, James Joyce is fucking my sister.Comment
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