August 2009
** = Monthly Favourites
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
GRACE (2009)
Paul Solet
After losing her unborn child, Madeline Matheson insists on carrying the baby to term. Following the delivery, the child miraculously returns to life with an appetite for human blood
PONTYPOOL (2008)
Bruce McDonald
The flick is set in a radio station in Pontypool where one day the morning team starts taking reports of extreme, bloody incidents of violence occurring in town. As the story unfolds, the radio staff soon realizes the violence that is ripping society apart is due to a virus being spread through the English language. That in turn poses a problem for a yappy radio jock and his staff holed up in the broadcast booth housed in the basement of the town's abandoned church as a slaughter rages beyond its walls
DEAD WOOD (2007)
Bryant, Smith & Stiles
Very under-rated, low budget horror that’s actually very creepy. Four friends escape the grime of the city and head out into the woods for a peaceful, relaxing weekend. Events take a sinister turn when a mysterious girl appears in their camp looking for her boyfriend. Soon the nightmare begins as they find themselves lost in an endless wilderness stalked by a deadly force. As those left fight for survival they will discover the true nature of fear
BAD MOVIE POLICE CASE # 1: GALAXY OF THE DINOSAURS (2003)
John Treacy
Follow the adventures of Sgt. Elke Mantooth, Lt. Drucilla Dread and The BMP Task Force as they seek out the worst "cine-terrorists" in movie history and bring their crimes to justice for your entertainment! The first BAD MOVIE POLICE case is a little gem from 1992 called GALAXY OF THE DINOSAURS
**REPO MAN (1984)
Alex Cox
Now a cult classic, this is a punk fable of Otto, the newly hired repossession man played by Emilio Estevez. This off beat film has a little of everything: action, comedy, urban decay, police drama, mystery, governmental conspiracy and even UFO's. Story centers on Otto's search for a mysterious car carrying an odd cargo
TRUTH OR DARE: A CRITICAL MADNESS (1986)
Tim Ritter (Truth or Dare 2 & 3, Killing Spree)
Low budget, gory psycho-killer thriller. Mike Strauber catches his wife Sharon in bed with his best friend Jerry. He gets mad and takes off to embark on an adventure of murder and self-mutilation in demented games of truth or dare
HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER 2: MASK OF SANITY (1996)
Chuck Parello (Hillside Strangler)
In this installment Henry, played by Neil Giuntoli, is looking for work and finds it, cleaning and delivering portable toilets. He moves in with a co-worker until he gets his feet off the ground. His new friend soon discovers that the quiet, soft spoken Henry is a psycho, but he (like Henry's buddy in the original) soon begin killing total strangers for kicks. More graphically bloody than the original but obviously not as good
**NIGHTMARE IN A DAMAGED BRAIN (1981)
Romano Scavolini
A mental-patient, who is troubled with horrible nightmares, has escaped from his hospital. Now on the streets he can't help killing innocent people. But there is one family he is more than interested in and when he tries to kill them, he finds that it's not that easy. Uncut 98 minute gorefest taken from a very high quality Australian VHS and lovingly made into a DVD with menus & extras
SEIZURE (1974)
Oliver Stone (Platoon, Natural Born Killers)
A horror story writer, Edmond Blackstone, suffers from a recurring nightmare in which three bizarre figures terrorize him and his family. When Blackstone begins to write, the three figures appear at his home and the dream becomes reality
THE KILLING ROOM (2009)
Jonathon Liebesman (TCM: The Beginning)
Entertaining psychological horror in which four individuals sign up for a psychological research study only to discover that they are now subjects of a brutal, classified government program
ANGEL OF DEATH (2009)
Paul Etheredge
Surprisingly decent action-thriller with Zoe Bell (stunt woman from Kill Bill 1 & 2, Death Proof, Planet Terror etc.)
**HORROR SHOW aka HOUSE 3 (1989)
James Isaac (Jason X)
Totally uncut German Import with more gore scenes. Detective Lucas McCarthy (Lance Henriksen) finally apprehends "Meat Cleaver Max" and watches him die in the electric chair. But killing him only elevates him to another level of reality. Now Lucas' family is under attack, his sanity in question, and his house haunted. Aided by a disreputable college professor, can Lucas reclaim his mind, house, and family?
**HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (1980)
Barbara Peters
Totally uncut German import with extra gore scenes, this is a memorably and deliriously sleazy, outrageous, gory, and lively B-level monster movie. Scientist Susan Drake (Ann Turkel), in the employ of a cannery, has supervised an experiment to "improve" local fish life - but everything goes horribly wrong. The result is the creation of a quickly evolving new life form - man-shaped amphibious creatures that slaughter men and dogs and rape women
**TRAIN (2008)
Gideon Raff (The Killing Floor)
In Europe, a group of American college athletes unknowingly board a train that will become one deadly ride. Gory Japanese import of the new US horror
THE GARBAGE MAN (2009)
Hart D Fisher
The author of the notorious Jeffrey Dahmer comics brings his dark vision to the big screen with this tale of a black serial killer who must kill to silence the voices in his head. Sixteen years in the making, Garbage Man was completed after director Hart D. Fisher's longtime love and live-in girlfriend was brutally murdered during production
**FORT APACHE: THE BRONX (1981)
Daniel Petrie
Paul Newman plays an unconventional cop in New York’s infamous South Bronx. For some reason this excellent film has never had a European DVD release
INGLORIOUS BASTARDS (1978)
Enzo G Castellari
Not the Tarantino film – but the film he nicked the title from. Good fun, Italian war film with lots of explosions, shoot-outs and over the top action. Extras include a conversation between Tarantino & Enzo Castellari
**HORRIBLE (1981) aka ABSURD
Joe D’Amato (Anthropophagus, Beyond the Darkness
Infamous gorefest gets a proper uncut DVD release
**NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (1988)
Kevin Tenney (Pinocchio’s Revenge, Witchboard)
Good fun eighties horror. Plenty of gore, nudity and dumb one liners. Features the infamous vanishing lip-stick scene with Linnea Quigley
ASIAN LANGUAGE
**GROTESQUE (2009)
Kôji Shiraishi (Ju-Rei, Curse)
A young Japanese couple who’ve just met are kidnapped and ‘abused’ beyond human endurance. Ever watch a torture film & think ‘why don’t he just hammer nails through the victims’ bollocks – surely that’s the worst torture’? Well… in this film that’s just what happens, and by the way, nails through the bollocks is NOT the worst torture as you’ll find out before the end of this horrific gorefest. The ending of the film exceeds all expectations & ultimately propels the whole thing into the annals (pun intended) of all time classics & has to be seen to be believed!!!!!!
GONG TAU: AN ORIENTAL BLACK MAGIC (2007)
Herman Yau (Bunman, Ebola Syndrome, The First 7th Night)
A grisly throw-back to early 90’s Cat III movies and 70’s Shaw Brothers black magic films – although it never quite matches up to the very best of either of these eras. Lots of nasty CGI gore, flying heads, centipedes & nudity
**BIG MAN JAPAN (2007)
Hitoshi Matsumoto
An eccentric man aged about 40 lives alone in a decrepit house in Tokyo. He periodically transforms into a giant, about 30 meters tall, and defends Japan by battling similarly sized monsters that turn up and destroy buildings. Kind of a cross between Godzilla & Hancock… maybe…
X CROSS (2007)
Kenta Fukasaku (Battle Royale 2)
Outrageous action comedy that starts off as horror then turns into a deadly game of survival. A girl takes a female friend to a hot-spring resort to cheer her up from a breakup. It turns out to be the village of a cult-like tribe with a ritual that involves chopping off young women's legs. They also encounter a psycho Lolita woman seeking revenge for losing her boyfriend.
**MAGIC COP aka MR. VAMPIRE 5 (1990)
Wei Tung
Lam Ching Ying brings his Taoist Priest persona out of the hopping vampire genre and into a modern setting. The film masterfully combines the best elements of films like Mr. Vampire and A Chinese Ghost Story with modern Hong Kong police action films.
**BLOODY PARROT (1981)
Shan Hua (Flying Guillotine 2)
An expert swordsman is suspected of being the thief of a treasure sent to the Emperor. The swordsman who has nothing to do with the theft investigates and is led on the trail of the supernatural "Bloody Parrot". This leads to the "Parrot Brothel" and the star prostitute who walks around half naked. Strange things happen including a demonic possession, witches casting poison spells, disgusting autopsies and numerous sword fights. Then a dead constable turns into a vampire! This is all in the first 30 minutes!
OTHER LANGUAGES
A TOUCH OF DEATH (1988)
Lucio Fulci (Zombie Flesheaters, Beyond etc)
A black comedy from the master of gore. Lester Parson (Brett Halsey) is a lonely gigolo who dates and kills off middle-aged women in ultra-gory fashion just for the pleasure of watching them die, as well as to take their money and jewellery and also to cook and eat their remains for his dinner… yum yum
AENIGMA (1987)
Lucio Fulci (House by the Cemetery, City of the Living Dead)
The spirit of a comatose teenage girl possesses the body of a newcomer to her girls boarding school to enact bloody revenge against the elitist, lingerie-clad coeds responsible for her condition
KILLERBUS (2004) 34 minute short
Marc Fehse (Mutation)
Three gangsters are carrying out orders which are slightly outside the law in one of the coolest vehicles the world has ever seen: the Killerbus! Highly stylized black comedy with gangster shootouts & special effects by Olaf Ittenbach. Loads of extras – the making of documentary has English subtitles but the other extras don’t
**EMBODIMENT OF EVIL (2008)
Jose Mojica Marins (Coffin Joe)
After forty years in prison, the evil gravedigger Josefel Zanatas a.k.a. Zé do Caixão is released by the lawyer Lucy Pontes in accordance with Brazilian Laws. He moves to the slums with his followers that worship him, and he seeks out the perfect woman to bear his children while haunted by the ghosts of his victims. The vigilante brothers Captain Osvaldo Pontes and his brother Coronel Claudiomiro from the Military Police chase Zé do Caixão in the slums to kill him and they find a trail of tortured and mutilated bodies
****LE BAGMAN (2004) 19 minute short
Jonathon Prevost & Francois Simard
Bagman, a killer with a paper bag on the head, kills anybody who pronounces his name three times. When a gang of gangsters meets a girl who escaped the killer, they call Bagman and a violent battle ensues. Low budget violence & gore but done with such amazing style & flair you might think it’s an early Peter Jackson film. French with English subtitles, the extras are not subtitled but it doesn’t make much difference