Movie Review: Demeking the Sea Monster

I'm not entirely convinced that when the Japanese get up in the morning, they immediately think that the day would be so much better if only someone would make a giant monster movie. There are so many daikaiju in Japan that, even with the mighty Gojira on hiatus since his last outing in Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004, you still can't move without tripping over one. Admittedly, Tokyo must be the best place in the world to work in construction because whenever any building gets finished, something stomps on it so you can start over, but you'd think that everyone else would have been there, done that. Yet here comes another daikaiju movie, made as late in the day as 2009, but this one turns out to be more than a little different: it's a giant monster movie without a giant monster. Yes, you should read that sentence again. To be fair, Demeking does turn up for an awesome five minute dream sequence halfway through, but that's it.

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A Sequel to Manos: The Hands of Fate?

Oooh! I'm excited for this one! Although, technically, a sequel to Manos would seem absurd, I am highly, highly intrigued! Will it be better than the original? I don't even think there are odds on that in Vegas. Entertainment Weekly has called Manos: The Hands of Fate the worst film ever made. If you've seen it, you probably agree. The original was made famous by the cheesy movie-savants at Mystery Science Theater 3000... 'nuff said!

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Here's a fun little precursor to the sequel of the century from the production company, Valley Lodge Presents.

Visit them online at www.torgolives.com!

EXW Xtreme Tuesday Pro Wrestling!

Howdy, Cheesers! For those of you who partake in the redneck soap opera of professional wrestling we will be hosting Elite Xtreme Wrestling's rebroadcast of their Xtreme Tuesdays live event at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill in Mesa, AZ. Some great independent action, every two weeks, for EXW.

And make sure to listen for our very own David Hayes, the voice of EXW! The main event this episode? None other than Val Venis taking on Derek Niekirk for the EXW Heavyweight Title! Also on the show: Gabriel Gallo, Frenchie Riviera, Dom "Da Bom" Vitali, Andrew Helleman, Prophet, LT Tyler, "The One, The Only" Tyson Tyler and many more!

Movie Review: Miyuki

Miyuki is currently the only feature written and directed by Immanuel Martin, surprising because he obviously has both talent and something to say and because this was released back in 2007. It's far from your usual horror movie as it doesn't follow any of the usual genre conventions, but it's all the more creepy for not swimming in blood or setting us up with paper thin monsters. The choice to slip into Japanese with subtitles on occasion is rare for an American film, like the choice of giving the lead role to a young Japanese lady who has not acted before or since. Neither is likely to make a mainstream audience happy but I get the impression that Martin isn't looking for a big hit with Miyuki and both these choices add to the realism and help to ground his film. It begins deceptively quietly with countryside that's as pleasant as Saiko Nakamura's minimalistic score and it stays deliberately quiet and slow throughout.

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Eats & Drinks Review: Trough of Gluttony

I live near a Taco Bell. This is not good. When I don't feel like cooking, my fridge is bare or I want a quick meal, I have an awful fast food option. One of my favorite things over the past few years, though I rarely order it for some reason, has been the chalupa. The deep fried fluffy shell is the only thing that sets it apart from a regular taco. Other than that, you do have your choice of styles, like supreme, which is the same as a supreme taco, or baja, which just has some odd looking sauce thrown on it. Apparently, this wasn't good enough for our friends at the fast food border.

Movie Review: Dead Enders

Dead Enders is, in a word, unique. The sophomore effort from Writer/Director Paul Hemmes (after his first feature The Domain), Dead Enders is a twisted little romp through the labyrinth-like mind of one whacked out woman. Dead Enders is an ambitious effort, and there is a lot to like about it, but it almost feels as if the filmmakers didn't take the notion quite far enough (see below). It is well worth the time spent, if you're willing to have your horror in art house form (which I am).

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The story plays out like stream of consciousness poetry, which is on purpose, I believe. You see, Robert (the underrated Seth Gandrud) is taken hostage by Sydney (the fabulously malevolent Christie Collins). He is tortured. He is abused. He sees Sydney's murderous past in all it's gory glory. It would be pretty straightforward stuff if it weren't for the nagging mystery of who or what is sharing the dungeon basement with them, exactly. Sydney renames Robert, calling him Larry, because she is yearning for a long, lost love... and she's insane. We are given the story in bits and pieces, like Sydney is telling us what she is seeing in her mind, and that is backed up with some... interesting camera work. The intent of the camera and lighting work, which is definitely not standard but quite stylized, is to usher us into Sydney's world jarringly, with effect, much like our protagonist Robert/Larry has been drugged and drug in. It is hit or miss, though. When the stylized lighting effects are working, they are working well. When they aren't, it feels as if you're watching a theatrical production.

Movie Review: Nikkatsu Roman Porno Trailer Collection

For the past few years, Impulse Pictures have made numerous notable contributions to the sexploitation DVD market. In their search of the globe for some of the wildest erotica this world has to offer, Impulse has continued to build a vast library. Impulse has unleashed domestic releases of some Christina Lindberg classics, entries from the insane Pornochanchada films of Brazil and now they have licensed over 20 Nikkatsu Roman Porno films from Japan. The first release in the Nikkatsu DVD collection from Impulse Pictures is a glorious compilation of many of the soon to be released Nikkatsu oddities,entitled, Nikkatsu Roman Porno Trailer Collection.

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Movie Review: Dora-Heita

Guest reviewer and Cinema Head Cheese Asian cult film afficianado Dineh Tom takes a look at AnimEigo's Dora-Heita.

I remember the Golden Age of Japanese cinema, or at least my past soul does remember them, ha! There was always something about the chambara films within that time that gave me the chills. Maybe it was way a samurai lived a life in solidarity when the times were changing and he had no one to serve. Or, it could be the way a samurai can be so quiet and gentle, yet turn into a slashing weapon of death when he was given the right circumstances! So, when I was allowed to watch “Dora-Heita,” the film directed by Kon Ichikawa and produced in the year 2000, my anticipation was very high.

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The story goes that the famous Akira Kurosawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Kon Ichikawa, and Masaki Kobayashi wrote the film. They joined forces to create a production company that would allow them to make their own stories and possibly enliven their country’s motion pictures. After all these years, Kon Ichikawa, the last director remaining out of the four, finally made the piece.

Movie Review: Aaah! Zombies!!

OK, so how seriously are we supposed to take a movie called Aaah! Zombies!!? Well, not very seriously at all, but co-writer/director Matthew Kohnen had to retitle it to persuade a distributor to release it Stateside so we'll allow him some leeway. Originally the film was named Wasting Away, a neat title which explains a few clever nuances in the story, and indeed that's what it was released as in Europe back in 2007, but apparently that name was too subtle for US audiences, thus the change. Kohnen isn't complaining though because it almost guarantees his film will top any alphabetical list of zombie films you can conjure up. It deserves to be noticed too, not for being a great film (it falls apart soon after halfway) but because it comes up with something new and cool that has every possibility of influencing the genre more than any of the other new and cool concepts zombie flicks tend to come up with every time I blink. Only time will tell, I guess.

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Book Review: A Study in, well, Perverted Stuff by Ed Wood

Wood was a staff writer for both Edusex and SECS (The Sex Education Correspondence School) Press. While working for them, he churned out volume after volume of porn cleverly (or not) disguised as meaningful scientific and sociological studies. What these tomes amounted to was an excuse to include hardcore pornography pictures (featuring strange, 70s penetration) under the auspices of “education” and neatly bypass the newly-created obscenity laws. In all of these, the picture captions are some of the funniest in history. Under pictures of normal, seventies coitus, captions like “Anal sex is common with black magic rituals,” or, “The black man’s only weapon may be a sexual one,” or even, “Mother love has been attributed to many transvestite’s conditions,” only add to the sexual fervor that these titles instilled in their readers (amid bouts of laughter). The titles were overly wordy (usually beginning with A Study in or Motivations in…) The photographic content of the books many times undermines the entertaining and appropriately Wood-ian quirkiness of the text. The majority of the books were produced for a loosely-tied series called, “The Sexual Encyclopedia for Adults Only.” What follows is an examination of some of Wood’s best.

BUY THE DEVIL & MRS. GRUNDY BY ED WOOD!

New Horror from Norway? Norway!

Hey gang! Here is an announcement from Apothesis PR about the next great horror thriller out of Norway (home of Dead Snow)... Inside the Whore!

Norwegian film director Reinert Kiil's follow up to his successfull rape-revenge horror thriller Hora (english title The Whore, now available) is now on the way. Filmed this summer in June/July in Norway, the official website which includes a brandnew trailer and still pictures are now online. It is not for the faint of heart, as the films tagline describes it "A meta-film with meta-violence within a meta-production" and it is easily guarrenteed to be a film like nothing you have ever witness before. The director is at the same time promising a film which beats his last film Hora by milestones when it comes to cruelty.

The title of the film is Inside The Whore and the director plays himself in the movie, supported by a strong cast of actors such as Viktoria Winge (Max Manus, Cold Prey 1+2), Kim Sønderholm (Westbrick Murders, Blood Fare), Jørgen Langhelle, Dagrun Anholt, Isabel Vibe who reprises her role from the original Hora movie and finally Norweigian reality TV star Anette Young.

Movie Review: Halloween (1978)

During this season of holidays and haunting, I was pleasantly reminded of one of the reasons that I began to become a horror movie fanatic and what prompted my own dive into the world of horror. In 1978, I was five years old. I was living with my father, and my stepmother at the time in Frankfurt Germany. As a child, I was very interested in both comic books, and reading in general. I remember crawling into bed with the latest version of Batman, or lingering in the Army Navy surplus store and wandering around the comic book racks trying to decide who to take home until my head spun.

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My family traveled a great deal to sometimes out of the way places, so the aspect of sitting around the television set and watching my favorite show usually never happened mainly because there wasn’t any television where we were. But, on this occasion I was being treated to something new and wonderful. I crawled out of bed in hands of fall with the smell of leaves percolating throughout the air in heavy rustic doles.

“We’re going to the movies tonight.”
“Really? Which one?”
“You can pick any movie you like.”

Movie Review: The Voyeur

Take a look to the left at the cover of Brass's soft core erotica film, "The Voyeur (L'uomo Che Guarda)". Like what you see? Well good because Voyeur is chalk full of dairy aire supplied from naked curvaceous European women. This is a Tinto Brass film and if your acquainted with his work then you know what you're in for. The Voyeur however is my first foray into Tinto's work. I've known about him and his legendary status as an erotica filmmaker but have never had the chance to see it for myself until now. I can't say this is the best place to start in his vast catalog (Caligula, Salon Kitty) but it definitely suffices. The plot centers around Eduardo "Dodo" who is, you guessed it, a voyeur.

The plot goes like this. Dodo is a professor of French literature and lives in a nice penthouse with his bed ridden father Alberto and busty in house nurse Fausta. Silvia, Eduardo's blonde and beautiful wife has left him for another man. Dodo becomes extremely jealous and turns to his voyeur fetish in her absence. Dodo begins to watch everyone around him perform sexual acts. Dodo even secretly watches Fausta as she does more than just take care of Alberto, at his request. Eduardo also daydreams frequently, especially about Silvia. He also has flashbacks from when Dodo was younger about watching his mother and father having sex. All of this ties in together to form a predictable finale but it is an enjoyable watch.

Micro Budget Film Festival - No Entry Fee!

Hey all! If you're a filmmaker (and some of you are), our buddies at Hollywood Asylum 13 are running a NO ENTRY FEE Film Festival for no-budget films made for under $15,000! If that sounds like you, take a walk on the wild side and head over to:

Hollywood Asylum 13!

Hollywood Asylum 13 Film Festival was founded by Geraldine Winters (Clownstrophobia) and provides the low budget filmmaker with a place to be seen and gain awards for their work. NO ENTRY FEE!! The panel consists of outstanding judges who are in the entertainment community including Billy Garcia (Survivor), Jason Prager (Beauty and The Geek), Paul Grassi (The Mole), Joey Boots (celebrity videographer) and international cult movie star Kim Sønderholm (Craig, Horror Vault, Return to Yucca Flats: Desert Man Beast) as well as Geraldine Winters. Entries are open and the contest runs from November 1, 2010 to December 30, 2010. Submissions are accepted online or by mail listed below. BUDGETS FROM $0 - $15,000 max only!

Mail Films to:

DGW Films Inc

P.O. Box 35

Green Village, NJ 07935

Film Festivals have become insiders clubs to some extent and that often means films developed on a shoe-string never get accepted or get their recognition. Cost is also prohibitive to many indy filmmakers and entry fees are now up over $100 in some cases. We'd rather see filmmakers spend that $100 on filmmaking!

Movie Review: Saw 3D

Saw 3D by Heather Henshaw

Written by: Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan

Directed by: Kevin Greutert

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Yet again, this Halloween debuts another installment in the well-known Saw franchise. They say this is the last one to be made. I think this may actually be the last (if you believe that or not). I have sat through all seven films now and I must say this one was much better than the last few on some, but not all, levels. I was hesitant about the 3D and I would not classify this as a horror film; for me it was a comedy more than anything.

The Platinum Elite DVD Collection from Video X Pix!

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The Movie Burrito: Volume 6 - Schlock and Awe

In this edition of Cinema Head Cheese’s The Movie Burrito, we have four brand-new DVD releases from Cinema Epoch, SubRosa Cinema and Wild Eye Releasing/MVD Visual.

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First up, schlock-master (and reality-TV star) Donald Farmer’s Scream Dream, starring the lovely Melissa Moore. The wicked lead-singer of a god awful heavy metal band possesses buxom beauty, Jamie Summers (Melissa Moore).There’s some blood, a couple pairs of enhanced teets but Scream Dream is truly a rough watch. It opens somewhat well with a topless minx getting chainsawed in her bed, but from there, it drops into a black-hole of ineptness .Don’t get me wrong, I live for movies like this, but Scream Dream is one of the poorest examples of “heavy metal horror”.Even eclipsing, Ferd and Beverly Sebastian’s, Rocktober Blood. The picture quality is also an area where this release fails - it looks like it was sourced from a 10th generation EP tape! Sound quality isn’t that much better, as it hums and buzzes like one of Grandma’s old vibrators. There is a great SubRosa trailer reel though!

Contest: Cannibal Girls DVD from Shout! Factory.

In honor of Halloween and our loyal Cheesers, Cinema Head Cheese is giving away three copies of one of the most anticipated horror titles of 2010, Cannibal Girls. These DVDs come courtesy of the great folks at Shout! Factory!

The contest is simple: Just email us, post on our website or even on our Facebook, in one word to 500 words, how bad you want a brand-spanking new copy of this cult classic. If you do email us at cinemaheadcheese@yahoo.com, be sure to title it, "Cannibal Girls Contest".

Winners will be announced in a few weeks. Good luck and have a very safe and fun Halloween!!

Movie Review: Feeding Frenzy (2010)

Through out the '80s and early '90s, Joe Dante's popular horror-comedy Gremlins had quite a bit of imitators. Some of these films actually turned out quite well (Critters, Ghoulies), but others were dreadful (Hobgoblins, Munchies, Beasties). Red Letter Media's Mike Stoklasa (Oranges: Revenge of The Eggplant) and Jay Bauman think it's time to bring the mini-killer creature flicks back with their own goofy and grisly entry Feeding Frenzy.

Hollywood Roadkill: Monster Mashups

In recent years, the horror movie industry has run out of ideas. We're seeing remakes of classic franchises, endless sequels and possibly the worst atrocity of all: the crossover. Alien vs. Predator was shot poorly and made a good guy out of the Predator. Jason vs. Freddy was long awaited and extremely disappointing. The Wolfman met Frankenstein's monster, King Kong faced Godzilla and Mel Brooks met Dracula. All hard to swallow.

These are a few crossovers that thankfully never made it to the big screen.