Movie Review: The Nesting (1981, Blu-ray)

Probably the easiest transition for an adult filmmaker who wants to go mainstream is to switch over to the horror genre. During the 70s and 80s a few did just that. Roommates director, Chuck Vincent, did it with the 1987 Deranged as well as numerous raunchy comedies throughout the 80s. Bill Osco was a producer who also made a name for himself in the adult industry that branched out into horror with The Being and Blood Diner. Maybe the most polished of the blue movie genre-hoppers was Armand Weston (The Defiance of Good and Take Off). Weston directed the haunted house film, The Nesting (aka Massacre Mansion), which is seeing a release now from Blue Underground.

Buy The Nesting [Blu-ray] and DVD

Movie Review: From Dusk Till Dawn / From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1996/1999, Blu-ray)

Quentin Tarantino's love for genre is pretty obvious in his screenplay for Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn. It seemed like a perfect match, teaming up with - at the time - upcoming filmmaker, Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Planet Terror, El Mariachi). Together they got to create their homage to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. This time around with vampires. Echo Bridge has just recently released the first two films in the From Dusk Till Dawn Series, From Dusk Till Dawn (of course) and From Dusk Till Dawn II: Texas Blood Money on to Blu-ray.

Buy From Dusk till Dawn / From Dusk till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (Miramax Double Feature) [Blu-ray]

Movie Review: Stripperland! (2010)

I really don't think it matters where you are geographically - everybody has a strip club story. Whether you're the guy who hits Scabby's Caberet by the airport once every few months or the fool who drops hundreds weekly in Ginger and Destiny's g-string while getting ten minute lap dances. It all ends the same. Sure, you may get a snail-trail on each knee from the gals but what does that do for you in the grand scheme? Nada. You’re just lighter in the wallet and more than likely yanking your crank later to Red-Tube until you burst blood vessels in your melon. Either way, whether you’re stripper addict or a regular joe the "stripper" is a fascinating creature. Why not combine strippers with the undead? Sean Skelding felt it was prudent to do so by creating the trashy top-less flesh-eating terrors in Cheezy Flix's Stripperland! Does this not sound like a recipe for craptacularness? Let’s have look see!

Buy Stripperland! on DVD

Movie Review: Tortured (2011)

Oh boy. I don't know what to tell you about this one. I can start by saying they stole the poster artwork from I Spit on Your Grave, and I can also tell you that they stole over an hour of my time. At times like this, I'm thankful for Facebook, because I spent most of the running time of Tortured chatting with my sister instead of following the lack of a story.

Buy Tortured on DVD

Movie Review: The Terror (1963)

Directed by Roger Corman, among several others

The Terror, a one-off feature from director Roger Corman that doesn't really fit in with his Edgar Allen Poe series, makes no sense whatsoever. Starring Boris Karloff and a very young Jack Nicholson, the feature was notoriously flung together in three days in order to take advantage of the sets for The Raven (1963) before they were demolished.

Buy The Terror [Blu-Ray + DVD Combo Pack]

In early 19th century France, Lieutenant Andre Duvalier (Nicholson) has been separated from his regiment in the midst of the Napoleonic wars. He sees a ghostly young woman (Nicholson's then-wife Sandra Knight) wandering by the roaring coastline. Ignoring his request for directions, the mute woman leads him towards the sea, where she vanishes beneath the waves. Andre loses consciousness and awakes in the house of an old woman (Dorothy Neumann) who claims to have never seen the woman.

Movie Review: Bloodlock (2010)

Vampires, vampires and more vampires. Brooding and trendy. When can we be done with vampires? They're everywhere, and I want nothing to do with them. It isn't that I never liked vampires. I've just had my fill. They're always the same now. I feel like every one of them stepped out of an episode of 90210. Now, think about all of that, add Blacula's premise with an even worse script, stir, and just leave this out of your Netflix queue.

Buy Bloodlock on DVD

Movie Review: Pieces (Two-Disc Grindhouse Edition)

As much as I enjoy watching genre flicks, there are few that I can say that I've watched more than ten times. Juan Piquer Simon's amazingly stupid but infinitely enjoyable splatter epic known simply as Pieces is one of those select few that I can revisit a ridiculous amount of times. Grindhouse Releasing has put out some of the coolest cult classics over the past decade (Cannibal Holocaust, I Drink Your Blood and Cannibal Ferox) so seeing that the company has gone all out with a two disc special edition with all the fixins is no surprise.

Pieces begins in 1942 (or is it 1982), where we see a young man putting together a puzzle of a naked woman only to be interrupted by his angry mother. The little fellow does what any disturbed child would do - plant an axe between his mother's cranium and continuing on with his puzzle. Fast-forward to the present day where a killer is on the loose - complete with a trench coat and chainsaw - mainly targeting the women at a college. His goal : To put together the perfect women, piece by piece.

TV on DVD Review: Stan Lee's Superhumans: Season One (2010)

Superhumans is a reality show where hosts Stan Lee and Daniel Browning Smith travel the world in search of individuals with unique genetic deficiencies.

Buy Stan Lee's Superhumans on DVD

Is it just me, or does Stan Lee put his name on almost anything these days? When this originally aired on the History Channel, I will not lie to you, I never watched one episode. At this time, Stan Lee's name seemed to be on other shows that I was not a fan of. Boy, am I an idiot. This show is fun.

In this two disc set, you have eight episodes where people try to show you their talents and superhuman traits, as in one episode about a guy who could break cinder blocks with his head. Then, when they doubt that he is superhuman, they do an MRI to reveal his skull is thicker than the usual skull.

Shameless Plug: THE RED THING

This shameless post is to inform all readers of this blog that my short film, THE RED THING, is currently showing on the website www.50hourslam.com.

The short film was made as part of the 50 Hour Film Slam competition a couple months back. All participating teams were given a piece of music, a line of dialog and some other parameters and within 50 hours were required to deliver a completed short film. Here is my humble effort. I was writer/director and it was shot in the house where I live. Please give it a look , and if you like it, give us a vote.

The film stars Wes Deitrick, a veteran of many horror films, including Guyver 2. His daughter May is in it also, as well as my friend Chris Peterson. Another local film maker, Ray Biddle, was my partner on the project. He shot the short and handled post production.

Movie Review: The Violent Kind (2010, Blu-ray, Image Entertainment)

Lately I've been on a on a independent crime film kick with my most recent viewing being Simon Rumley’s superb Red White and Blue. I was expecting a similar film when I slipped the Butcher brothers' film The Violent Kind into my Blu-ray player. Boy, was I off. Really the only things these two films had in common was sadistic violence and lead characters that appeared to never bathe. Image Entertainment has just recently released The Violent Kind on both Blu-ray and DVD. Is it comparable to other well-made independents or does it stand out on its own? Let's have a look!

Buy The Violent Kind [Blu-ray] or DVD

Hammer Is Back! Wake Wood Coming Soon From Dark Sky Films!

Street date: July 5, 2011
Prebook: May 23, 2011
SRP: $34.98 (Blu-ray), $27.98 (DVD)
Running time: 90 minutes
Not rated

GRIEF-STRICKEN PARENTS TRY TO BRING THEIR DAUGHTER BACK FROM THE DEAD IN A THRILLER FROM THE MOST FAMOUS NAME IN HORROR.

Buy Wake Wood [Blu-ray] or DVD

The Heart-Pounding Supernatural Shocker, a New Film From the Reborn and Revered Hammer Films, Comes to Blu-ray and DVD from MPI/Dark Sky Films July 5, 2011

Movie Reviews: Boobs, Blood and Cellulite: The Films of Mr. Creepo

by David Hayes

Oh the job I do for you people. Oh the horror. Below you will find some DVD reviews from those loony douchebags over at Mr. Creepo productions. If anyone decides to actually go out and rent/buy any of these let me tell you right now… I warned you! Just as the titles suggest, these sexploitation/horror "films" are heavy on the skin (or the skin is really heavy… see below) but no amount of areola can make them good. Well, chilluns, feast your eyes on what I like to call: The Six Hours I Will Never Get Back.

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The Sandy Hook Lingerie Massacre (2002, Mr. Creepo)

Street Date: Currently available at www.mrcreepo.com

Dear God. Again, dear God. With a promising title, and the assertion that Debbie Rochon's breasts will be bared I am usually a happy little camper. I open my DVD player, throw in Sandy Hook tittering to myself about the exploitive genius I am about to watch and lo and behold, not 10 minutes into the movie my eyes are boiling out of my head. You see, Mr. Creepo is a real guy. He hosts his films, speaking in a nasally, pseudo-pedophile voice, and touts the badness of his own films. Of course, I don't think he knows just how bad. To show you this, gentle reader, I will utilize the patented 1 sentence plot synopsis. Ahem, Debbie Rochon and 6 overweight strippers go to a weekend retreat on the Jersey Shore where they run afoul of a murderer with a hook, in bondage gear, who's motivation for massacre is still escaping me, a creepy lighthouse, an abandoned amusement park and they die (after a disturbing nipple and tongue piercing segments featuring the belly dancing overweight stripper). The transfer to DVD is your basic DVD-R with a generic label on the disc, trailers for other Creepo films are included but no other special features. To be fair, though, the box art is pretty darn good for this schlocky attempt at filmmaking. The film is well over feature length (too well over) and I don't think, in my humble opinion, that you will find anywhere else on the planet anything like The Sandy Hook Lingerie Massacre, unless of course it is…

The Sweet Life Coming From Synapse Films!

Joan Jett in her romantic comedy debut, THE SWEET LIFE, from Rocco Simonelli, the co-writer of the cult hit THE SUBSTITUTE, and Roy Frumkes, the producer of STREET TRASH!

Buy The Sweet Life on DVD

Title song "The Sweet Life" performed by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts!
From Rocco Simonelli and STREET TRASH producer Roy Frumkes comes this metropolitan tale of big-city romance.

THE SWEET LIFE is a romantic comedy about two brothers who had nothing in common until an arm-wrestling female bartender took them on.

Movie Review: X-Men: First Class (2011)

Hey, look. We're sorry about that whole The Last Stand thing. Oh, and Wolverine? Yeah, we really don't know what happened there. Just, please, let us make it up to you. We'd like to extend a goodwill gesture. It has an origin story, and uh, oh, just to make sure it's good, we let the guy who made Kick-Ass direct it. I know, right? So, we really hope you'll accept our apology, and just for kicks, we'll throw in Kevin Bacon. We cool?

Buy X-Men: First Class [Blu-ray] or DVD

That's basically what it felt like the people at Marvel were saying when they served up X-Men: First Class. As for me, apology accepted. Origin stories can be great, or they can be ham-fisted attempts at explaining every detail of a character's being. This was very smooth and organic. Several origin questions are answered, and it all stays true to the preceding trilogy. This is not a reboot or remake. This is a prequel in the same line of films. This movie actually fits into the X-Men series quite well.

Movie Review: The Andy Sidaris Collection: Girls, Guns and G-Strings (2011, DVD, Mill Creek)

Mill Creek reminds us that Andy Sidaris was indeed the greatest director ever with a release of his boob/action packed tenure. Hold on to your keyboards, tits, gun and explosions up ahead!

Films:

Boobs. Bombs. Bullets. Any questions? Hope not, cause that's all you really need to know about the films from the late, great Andy Sidaris. A man who took the greatest things in life, put them into a blender and hit frappe. The result is a series of films dedicated to all things badass and entertaining. Filled with gratuitous boobage supplied by then Playboy Playmates, these women also kicked major ass, sometimes putting other 80's action commandos to shame. Add a tropical island setting, car chases, excessive gun play, anything associated with raising your testosterone level and you have the gist of the 12 films included in this release.

Buy Girls Guns & G-Strings on DVD

Eats & Drinks Review: Redline Energy Drinks

I am riddled with caffeine. I must drink gallons of it per month in one form or another. I was told my ADHD makes me crave it. It could also have something to do with my usual lack of sleep, raising a two-year-old, or any number of things. One of my caffeine sources is the energy drink. Until a few years ago, the closest we came to an energy drink was Jolt Cola. I heard about Redline when it came out, but it was only available in a few places. Once it was widely available. I gave it a shot.

Buy Redline on Amazon.com

The first thing I noticed was the warning label. Yes, every energy drink contains one, but not like this. It wasn't the standard line about people sensitive to caffeine. This is the warning that should be on cocaine. When you buy your eight ounce bottle, it recommends that you drink only two ounces to start, and four ounces at the most. It also said not to drink more than one bottle per day. I saw that as a challenge, and I downed it in about three gulps.

Interview: Zach Green from Fatal Pictures

James DePaolo chats with Worm producer and the co-founder of Fatal Pictures, Zach Green.




1.What made you want to be a producer?

I first went to film school for "Post Production" Editing. Thats what first caught my interest in the industry. I hooked up with my film Partner Writer/Director
Richard Powell at film school in Toronto, ended up editing a short film he had directed and ever since than we have been working together. We started our
production company in 2007. "FATAL PICTURES". And naturally I would produce and put together our films i would naturally want the best i could have for our films so i just stepped up and did everything in my power to get the best cast and crew i could, and finding the locations dealing with all the legalities etc and if i need to ill hire other procure(s) to help me , so Richard can just focus on Writing and Directing the best film he can.

Movie Review: Bianca (2011)

Tom Steeber's "Bianca" is that rare cinematic beast: something I have never seen before. It is at once thoughtful, disturbing, horrific and moving. The fact that this smart and disturbing tale is told in animnation only heightrens its creepiness, and gives it an atmosphere unlike anything else. It got under my skin.

Buy Bianca on DVD

Bianca tells the story of Glen, a regular, average-looking guy who catches the eye of Bianca, a beautiful but enigmatic girl that he meets at work. Bianca is sweet and sincere, and never thinks even for a second that she is out of Glen's league. But there is an oddness about her that is hard to peg. However, Glen, thrilled that such a beautiful woman is attracted to him, allows himself to be swept up. At their first sexual enounter he learns her secret. She has a bizarre sexual fetish that I don't think I've ever heard of before. It invovles a razor, and that is as much as I can say without giving too much awy. Suffice it to say that the sex scene is as distrubing as anything I have seen all year. It starts out making you laugh, and ends up making you cringe.

Movie Review: The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)

I'm pretty sure I just watched a guy blow himself for an hour and a half. Robert Evans is the producer of some of the greatest movies of all time including The Godfather, Marathon Man and, of course, Popeye. According to him, he is the greatest producer, lover and mind of the twentieth century and beyond. I heard about this movie over and over, and I had to finally sit through it. I discovered one thing. There are blowhards, and there is Bob Evans.

Buy The Kid Stays in the Picture on DVD

Movie Review: Uncle Farts' '70s Grindhouse Sleazefest (2011)

Two things that I enjoy most in my vast entertainment tastes are bouncing breasts and fart humor. When I saw that the folks at Alternative Cinema were producing yet another sleazy movie set similar to the very generous After Hours Films line called Uncle Farts' '70s Grindhouse Sleazefest, this filth enthusiast got quite eager to check out a new collection of vintage smut. The films compiled on the set include: Sex Odyssey, Dionysius, Honky Tonk Nights and Satan's Daughter. The atrociously animated Uncle Farts is your humble host for all four outings.

Buy Uncle Farts' '70s Grindhouse Sleazefest on DVD