Movie Review: Blue Sunshine (1977, FilmCentrix)

Directed by Jeff Lieberman

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

In elementary school, us kids passed around a story about how one man took LSD and didn’t have a trip until exactly one year later – wreaking havoc as he was driving a school bus. While by all accounts, if the story was true, the man in question probably just scored some bunk acid. This bit of apocryphal information seemingly informed writer-director Jeff (Squirm) Lieberman’s Blue Sunshine, wherein some former hippie Stanford University students feel the effects of the titular drug and turn into raving, bald maniacs ten years afterwards.

Blue Sunshine begins with a Big Chill-like reunion in a mountain cabin when someone pulls the wig off a largely untalented comedian and singer, revealing him to be a balding, wide-eyed lunatic. Stuffing three screaming ladies into the cabin’s fireplace, the film’s erstwhile hero Jerry (future soft-core porn director Zalman King) is fingered for the killings. Hitting the road, Jerry eventually traces the murderous outbreaks to a strain of LSD downed by college students during the hippie era. Jerry traces the distribution of the drug to former hippie guru to aspiring conservative politician Mark Godard (from TV’s “Lost in Space”). Blue Sunshine’s climactic scene, wherein Jerry confronts a raging bald lunatic is set in a shopping mall disco, adds yet another layer of social commentary. The fact that Jerry saves the day due to the advice given to him by a gun shop owner – a longtime symbol of institutionalized evil as seen by the Left, leaves the audience much to ponder.

Movie Review: Nightmare Sisters (1988, Vinegar Syndrome)

Directed by David DeCoteau

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Melody (Linnea Quigley in buck teeth), Mickey (Michelle Bauer in a fat suit) and Marci (Brinke Stevens all nerded out) are dorky sorority sisters who have the frat house to themselves for a weekend. Their solution? Invite some equally nerdy fraternity brothers for a house party!

Unfortunately, Marci has made a recent thrift score find with a cursed crystal ball that took the life of its previous owner, an accursed spiritual medium (Dukey Flyswatter of the notorious shock rock band Haunted Garage). The girls whip out said crystal ball for an impromptu séance and our transformed into glamorous, insatiable succubi – female demons who like nothing more than seducing males and then castrating them with their fangs! Things get complicated with the arrival of an exorcist (Jim Culver) to drive out the demons. Low-grade comedy hijinks ensue.

Movie Review: Spider Baby (1968, Blu-ray/DVD combo)

  The credits dub this “the maddest story ever told”, a promise that's well on the way to being fulfilled in the opening scene alone, when Virginia traps and kills a hapless deliveryman in her makeshift web. She's one of three siblings who suffer from a genetic disorder that causes them to regress back to childhood, while retaining the physical strength and sexual maturity of adults.

 So many directors got their start working for Roger Corman and Jack Hill was one of them. Deemed by Quentin Tarantino as "The Howard Hawks of exploitation filmmaking".  He has been mostly known for having directed Pam Grier in two revolutionary for their times pictures black exploitation pictures Coffy & Foxy Brown.   He would then go on to work with Pam twice more in the two rather infamous shot in the Philippines women in prison films for Roger Corman. Those flicks were the overrated The Big Doll House and the underrated Big Bird Cage. Hill also had a strong working relationship with the great Sid Haig who thanks to House of 1000 and Devils Rejects has had a major career revival.

Movie Review: SexWorld (1978)

Directed by Anthony Spinelli

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

It would follow that Michael Crichton’s sci-fi epic Westworld (1973), a theme park for adults with anything-goes pleasure androids would eventually get the triple-X treatment. It took director Anthony Spinelli and his organized crime cohorts three years to mount SexWorld, but the twain between mainstream and porno would never meet. Whereas Westworld jettisoned James Brolin and Richard Benjamin on a futuristic hovercraft, the lower middle class folk ferried to SexWorld have to settle for a smoky ol’ bus, with a “SexWorld” banned hastily stapled to the side. As smut scholar Robin Bougie would note in his essential volume “Graphic Thrills: American XXX Movie Posters, 1970 to 1985,” there was no substituting Hollywood with Inglewood this time around.

Movie Review: Graduation Day (Blu-ray / DVD Combo)

With the Troma classics Sugar Cookies and Lust For Freedom currently available from Vinegar Syndrome the company has recently taken on one of the more well-known slashers of the early 1980's in Graduation Day. Troma did release Graduation Day several years back but it left much to be desired to say the least.  In the hands of Vinegar Syndrome though, improvement is inevitable, especially with the fact that it's making it's a Blu-ray debut in a combo pack from the genre DVD and Blu-ray producers.

Graduation Day was actually a spawn off the success of John Carpenter's Halloween as were many slashers from the era (The Burning, Friday the 13^th, The Prowler, just to name a few.)  The story surrounds a sudden death of an athlete and a series of murders that follow immediately after the young track star's death. When the deceased girl's sister, Anne (Patch Mackenzie, It's Alive III: Island of the Alive) arrives in town for her funeral the bodies begin to pile up of her peers in a variety of ways. Could Anne be taking some revenge kind of revenge on the students? Could it be the gym teacher played by the great Christopher George (City of the Living Dead, Enter the Ninja) or could it just be some random psycho with a blood-lust the killing of college kids?

Movie Review: Countess Dracula (1970, Blu-ray / DVD)

What do you get when you mix blood, murder, virgins, and a selfish, manipulative, homicidal crazy who doesn’t want to get older? Elizabeth Nádasdy, aka Countess Bathory. Hammer Films brings us Countess Dracula, a campy little vehicle perfect for the sultry beauty of Ingrid Pitt, our luscious little noble.

Countess Dracula is the story of Elizabeth Bathory and her horrific crimes committed against the young and nubile ladies in her neighborhood. We open with the funeral of the Countess’s husband and how she ogles Imre, the son of her husband’s best friend. I have to admit he is pretty but I’ve always been a sucker for a cleft chin.

At the reading of the Count’s will, Fabio, the castle Historian (who knew there was such a thing?) and Imre are very happy. But Captain Dobi dislikes inheriting the armory and the Countess is pissed she has to share her estate with Ilona, her and the Count’s daughter. Just because you can have kids doesn’t mean you should. What a bitch.

Movie Review: Dead Kids (1981, Blu-ray)

I’m not sure why but it seems I’ve been sent yet another film from the 80s. I don’t know what I did to get in the good graces of the powers that be (aka Jeff Dolniak). Please someone tell me so this happens again! Not that I don’t love watching the modern stuff, too, but it’s nice to have some throwbacks/classics come my way.

Dead Kids (aka Strange Behavior) sets the stage with a teenager sneaking a little ciggy in his room while his mom is downstairs preparing dinner. The power goes out and after the kid lights a candle and plays shadow puppets, he’s brutally murdered.

Chief of Police John Brady and his son, Pete, live in this tiny town of Galesburg. While dad is busy trying to solve the murder, Pete is trying to find a way to raise some quick cash so he can apply to the local university. Cue his bud, Oliver, who tells him about some scientific trials at Galesburg U where, if Pete volunteers to participate as a guinea pig, he can earn $100 per session (minimum two sessions required).

What could possibly go wrong?

Yep, these sessions involve behavior modification practices based on the recorded instructions of a dead professor, LaSange. When Pete signs up, the head technician, Gwen Parkinson, makes sure Pete hasn’t told his father about it. RED FLAG, PETE! RED FLAG! She then gives him a pill that supposed to make him smarter, increasing the connections in his brain, but really he just feels high 15 seconds after swallowing it. RED FLAG, PETE! RED FLAG!

After a few more murders, and a shit ton more red flags, CoP Brady believes these trials at the college are at the heart of everything. You see, his wife used to work for Dr. LaSange and in developing his crazy theories. John never believed her sudden death was anything but that bastard’s fault.

Movie Review: Death Spa (Blu-ray,1987)

Anyone hitting the video stores regularly in the 80’s and early 90’s should be familiar with the horror movie sub-label of MPI video called Gorgon Video. The days of VHS are long-gone for the most part and so it seemed for Gorgon…until now! Whenever the Gorgon banner adorned the giant clamshell of titles like the Faces of Death series and Mario Bava’s splattery giallo, you knew what you were in for – something very bloody and often shocking. The label’s comeback starts this summer with the release of Michael Fischa’s Death Spa (aka Witch Bitch)  on DVD and Blu-ray. As a longtime horror fan and someone who watched the grisly trailer over and over when it popped up on the VHS release of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer until I finally saw it on a shitty quality DVD from the UK, I couldn’t be happier.

When Catherine (Shari Shattuck) decides to kill herself after the sudden loss of her child her soul doesn’t quite rest – it becomes a jealous vengeful spirit. She doesn’t haunt a house, or a church or some hotel, she haunts a high-tech workout facility run by computers that’s owned by her handsome husband Michael (William Bumiller). Michael is a ladies’ man and Catherine’s none too keen on him having anyone but her. If it means blowing up heads or tearing gym patrons apart via the workout machines, she'll make it happen!

Franco Prosperi's MEET HIM AND DIE is Coming Soon From Raro!!

Raro Video Will Release Franco Prosperi's MEET HIM AND DIE, the hard-hitting Italian police thriller starring Ray Lovelock (Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man) and Elke Sommer (Lisa and the Devil).
Available on Blu-ray and DVD on April 1st in digitally remastered edition including a video introduction by Mike Malloy (Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the '70s) and a fully illustrated booklet with notes on the film. 

NEW YORK, NY- MARCH 3, 2014 - Raro Video is proud to announce the Blu-ray and DVD release of Franco Prosperi's MEET HIM AND DIE, a rare gem of the poliziotteschigenre starring Ray Lovelock (Fiddler on the Roof; Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man), Elke Sommer (Lisa and the Devil, A Shot in the Dark), and Martin Balsam (Psycho, Cape Fear).

Movie Review: The House Of Seven Corpses (Blu-ray + DVD Combo, Severin) 1974

Review By: Rob Sibley

Severin is one of the best companies currently in business. Sure you won't find a new release from them every week... but when they do release a film (Much like Synapse) it's pure perfection. THOSC was scheduled to come out the same day as the classic "House on Straw Hill" but Straw was pushed back due to print damage. But they (David Gregory and crew) care about the fans, about us little guys. They live for niche and perfection. Much like Don May Jr. at Synapse.

The House of Seven Corpses lives up to it's name and then some. From start to finish it's a fun old school film. Surprisingly rated PG. It's not a gore fest but it's R-rated stuff. Within the first 3 minutes we witness how these seven people became corpses. Each death/suicide more violent then the next. A very trippy Bava type opening that hooks you in from the get go.

Movie Review: Body Bags (Blu-ray)

Scream Factory has been going above and beyond with some really fine treatment of John Carpenter’s classic films on Blu-ray. Just this year we’ve seen excellent releases of The Prince of Darkness, Assault on Precinct 13 and what could possibly be their best Blu-ray release this year in The Fog. During the early 90’s Carpenter put together an anthology along with genre great Tobe Hooper for Showtime called Body Bags. Here, Carpenter directed two of the films -- Hair and The Gas Station, and Hooper directed The Eye. Much like Creepshow, Carpenter also does a frequently humorous and gory wraparound piece where he plays a mortician who uses the bloody corpses to tell the stories unfolding.

The Gas Station is the first in the anthology and this is a straight-up slasher with some sprinklings of humor. It follows a young, attractive women and her new job as an overnight gas station attendant. She’s alone the whole night after reliving the evening shift attendant (Robert Carradine, Revenge of the Nerds). Creepy red-herrings are strewn about here in the form of a bum played by Carpenter regular, Buck Flower (They Live) and a drunk played by horror great Wes Craven.

The bodies gradually start to pile as someone is wandering about the darkness surrounding the gas station and hacking up folks. The premise of The Gas Station is routine but it starts a fun pace for the film and has an enjoyable performance by Robert Carradine.

Movie Review: House On Straw Hill (1976, Blu-ray/DVD combo, Severin)

Review By: Rob Sibley

Let me start off by saying I've been trying to track this film down since I was thirteen years old. I was twelve when I first saw "Blood for Dracula" which started my love for all things Udo Kier. I searched and searched for this film with no luck. Thirteen years later, finally the film sees the light of day in the U.S. on glorius Blu-ray no less from Severin. Which is a company run by fans for fans of cult cinema.

This release was easily the most anticipated release of 2013 for me. I mean waiting and searching 13 years for a film and then finally to see it announced I was nothing short of amazed. Now thirteen years is a lot of time to build up hype and expectations. Did the film live up to it's name, was it deserving the video nasty label and being banned? No, it should have been banned. Despite some violence and an abundance of excellent nudity, the film is directed with pure class by James Kenelm Clarke. Who's only film I was familiar with was "Let's get laid" starring sex kitten Fiona Richmond.

Movie Review: Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1993, Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack)

Review By: Rob Sibley

Bill Lustig had a tough task with Maniac Cop 3. MC2 was easily one of the best action/horror films of the 80's. It's essential viewing if you dig these kinds of movies. It featured a stand out performance from Robert Davi, amazing stunts and gunplay that still is impressive to this day.

Maniac Cop 3 was released three years after MC2 and many fans say this was film that was better left dead. A lot of the blame went to Lustig but many didn't know the rather torrid production history the film went through.

In the making of feature director Bill Lustig had this to say "I hate the movie, I can't stand to watch it. Everyone got to piss in the pot, so that's what they got. A pot full of piss." My personal opinion is the film is much better then it's given credit for. For a film made esseintally by a comitte it came out well. Nowhere near as solid as part II but still it's a fun watch and at the end of the day... that's what counts.

Movie Review: Maniac Cop 2 (1990, Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Review By: Rob Sibley

 Finally after years upon years of waiting and watching shoddy full screen DVD transfers of this action/horror classic (Yes I said class). Blue Underground releases the film onto Blu-ray for the first time and even better this is the first time this fine film has received a release in it's proper 1.85:1 Widescreen aspect ratio.

Not only that but Blue Underground has gone the extra mile with the bonus features. This was easily the most anticipated release of the year for me and Blue Underground did this film proud. Not surprising since as we all know the director Bill Lustig runs BU.

Maniac Cop has always been a favorite film of mine. It's a near perfect film for what it is. It's filled to the brim with that great sleazy NYC atmosphere of the 80's that Lustig captured perfectly in his earlier films. It features a strong performance from Robert Davi and Robert Z'Dar aka the Maniac Cop perfectly embodies the role of this undead & unstoppable Terminator/Zombie like cop out for vengeance.

Movie Review: An American Hippie in Israel (Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack)

With just a handful of companies putting out Laserdiscs in the mid 90's, Grindhouse Releasing (headed by Bob Murawski and the late Sage Stallone) stepped to the plate to deliver some kick-ass titles, namely one of my favorite cannibal flicks in Cannibal Ferox.  From what I had known then up until recently was that Stallone and Murawski had just been working on films around that time. I was wrong. In the late 80's Murawski started his work on bringing one of the most bizarre, jaw-droppingly ridiculous films ever made to cult film audiences. Thought to be lost forever, 25 years later Amos Sefer's An American Hippie in Israel has made its debut on Blu-ray and DVD in a loaded three disc combo-pack and, well... it is a sight to behold.

After seeing the hilarious trailer for An American Hippie in Israel on previous Grindhouse Releasing discs, I must say that my anticipation for whatever the hell this thing was, was  at an epic high. The story is simple with our main character, Mike (Asher Tzarfati) has taken his free-loving ways thousands of miles from America, to a country he hoped to travel from end to end, Israel. When he arrives he hitchhikes with an attractive non-hippie named Elizabeth (Lily Avidan). Before Mike can put the moves on her the duo are stopped by a couple of creepy looking mimes. These guys have cock-blocked Mike before so he gives them an earful. Naturally, they don't respond...but that doesn't mean they won't continue to fuck with Mike while he's on his trip.

Movie Review: Black Sabbath (1963, Blu-ray/DVD combo pack)

Review By: Rob Sibley

  Mario Bava is the king of Italian horror, plain and simple. Don't get me wrong I am obsessed with Italian masters of horror. Dario Argento, Lucio Fulchi, Umberto Lenzi, Sergio Martino, Luigi Cozzi and Pupi Avati all are brilliant filmmakers. But Bava was special... some may call his films old fashioned. If by old fashioned you meant classy I'd agree. Bava single handily created the Giallo genre and at the same time (to me) did the first true slasher film with Bay of Blood. A film which was ripped off more times then I can count. Let's just say you wouldn't have Friday the 13^th 1 or 2 without Bay. You wouldn't have all the great early Giallo's from Argento if it wasn't for The Girl who knew too much and Blood and Black Lace.

Bava was ahead of his time, other filmmakers were just playing catch up. He was a man of many talents, not only an excellent director but a phenomenal cinematographer and writer. Look at “Hatchet For the Honeymoon” and tell me Brett Easton Ellis wasn't inspired by it for American Psycho. Bava didn't always just make horror films. He directed the criminally underrated epic “Hercules: In The Haunted World” and the Viking epic Erik The Conqueror. He also wasn't afraid to add humor to his films. His films often were filled with irony and pitch black humor.

Movie Review: Lifeforce (Blu-ray,1985)

For those of you who thought Cannon Films were just action film specialist back in the 80's, look no further then the sci-fi/horror oddity that is Lifeforce. Directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Funhouse, Poltergeist) and penned by the late Dan O' Bannon (Alien, Return of the Living Dead),  this cluster of space-vampire wackiness has just made it to Blu-ray and DVD via the folks at Scream Factory in a special edition that could "breathe" some new life into this underrated space fright flick.

When a group of astronauts attempt to explore "Halley's Comet", they instead find something way more interesting - naked people encased in glass floating. Sounds like fun, but the expedition unfortunately ends poorly for the crew and our seemingly harmless nudists become a threat to earth as they are pent on sucking the life out of humans and taking earth for themselves. The stunning Mathilda May plays the lead space vampire who seduces literally any man in her path after she escapes a laboratory.

Movie Review: The Manson Family (Blu-ray, 2003)

Any filmmaker who's taken the time to put together a movie knows that it can be a painstaking process that can take a remarkably difficult toll on your stamina. Some give up, and some are persistent like Deadbeat at Dawn writer/actor/director, Jim Van Bebber. It didn't take a year, or even several years to complete his movie The Manson Family - the process took more than ten years for him to finish his second feature film. In 2003, Severin Films' David Gregory and partner Carl Daft came in at just the right time to help Van Bebber finish, and now, for fans of this ferocious take on the Manson Family we are now treated to a special edition Blu-ray of the movie with new extras that even include Van Bebber’s return behind the camera with the 16 minute short Gator Green.

The story of Charles Manson and his group of followers known as the “Manson Family” has been told before (Specifically in Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter) but the actual Manson Family hasn’t gotten the attention that thankfully Van Bebber gives the likes of Tex Watson (Michael Pitman), Leslie van Houten (Amy Yates) Patty Krenwinkle (Leslie Orr). 

In many ways these lost souls are much more interesting and frightening as Charlie himself. Leading up to the notorious Tate-LaBianca murders, we get to become a member of this group of psychotic lemmings - almost watching over the shoulders them as they commit these crimes. The structure is non-linear here but still contains a lot of facts from the case and an approach to filming that creates a nightmare unlike anything put forth in a true-crime based picture. Some of the visuals are absolutely ghastly, as they should be considering the content. 

Movie Review: Baron Blood (1972, Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)

Review By Rob Sibley

Baron Blood may not be Mario Bava's most highly regarded film, but to me it's certainly a blast to watch. I'm a huge Bava junkie and often find myself revisiting his films often and Baron Blood is always a delight for repeat watches. This might have to do with the fact that the film is much faster paced then your typical Bava flick. Don't get me wrong I adore Black Sunday and the Giallo that started it all “The Girl Who Knew Too Much” and “Kill, Baby Kill...” but those films were definitely methodically paced and just a tad slow now and then. Those films are masterpieces of Italian cinema don't get me wrong, but I think younger audiences sadly would find those films painfully slow. Baron Blood on the other hand builds atmosphere quickly and expertly and moves along like a fine tuned freight train.

Movie Review: The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976, Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)

Review By: Rob Sibley

Scream! Factory is at it once again releasing a little seen gem of the 70's. To my knowledge "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" has never seen a DVD/Blu-ray release before. So toss out your second gen bootlegs boys & girls because this is the definitive release. Also it should be noted as a bonus, Scream Factory has included a second film in this set. Charles B. Pierce's "The Evictors", starring Jessica Harper (Suspiria), Michael Parks (From Dusk Till Dawn) & Vic Morrow (Bronx Warriors). So this review will focus on both films.

"The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is a highly effective and taut  docudrama. Based on true events, the film takes place in 1946 Texarkana. Everything is peaceful enough, until the quiet little town is shocked to it's core when a couple is viciously attacked. This couple had their little make out session interrupted by a large fellow with a sack over his head. Who rips out some of the cars electrical wires out and then drags the boyfriend out of the passenger side window. As he attacks the young women we cut to the following morning. Deputy Norman Ramsey (Andrew Pine) is driving along a stretch a road and finds the young women, bloody, beaten and unconscious on the side of the road. The police aren't able to obtain any relevant information from the shocked couple. They put out a warning to all the towns folk but that doesn't stop another young couple from heading out to a deserted stretch of road for a bit of romance. At this time Ramsey is driving by and hears gunshots only to find the boyfriend dead and the girlfriend tied to a tree with a bullet lodged in her and bite marks on her back.