Movie Review: Dr. Butcher, M.D. (aka Zombie Holocaust)

What is it about Italian genre film making of the 70’s and 80’s that makes it so attractive? There is just something about those movies that I find irresistible. Yes, they run the gamut in terms of quality from all-time classics to utterly atrocious, but they have a distinct look and feel to them. They also seemed to have cornered the market on ripping off other movies, from blatant remakes to unofficial sequels, whose connection to their predecessors is tenuous at best. Then there are the times where they rip themselves off. There are the likes of Zombi 2 (made as a sequel to Dawn of the Dead), Alien 2: On Earth (somehow this is supposed to be connected to Alien), and Star Crash (a clear attempt to cash in on Star Wars), then you have Dr. Butcher, MD, aka Zombie Holocaust.

Movie Review: Christmas Evil

As the Christmas season rolls around each year, there are a few certain films that always get watched. I always visit seasonal classics such as Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Elf, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Then there are the action regulars, most notably Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, and Lethal Weapon. Those are all well and good, but being a horror movie fan, there are the darker holiday films that need to have some time spent with them, this includes the likes of Black Christmas, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Krampus, and Red Christmas. In recent years a new film has come to my attention and has quickly risen through the ranks, Christmas Evil.

Movie Review: Christmas Evil

As the Christmas season rolls around each year, there are a few certain films that always get watched. I always visit seasonal classics such as Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Elf, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Then there are the action regulars, most notably Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, and Lethal Weapon. Those are all well and good, but being a horror movie fan, there are the darker holiday films that need to have some time spent with them, this includes the likes of Black Christmas and Silent Night, Deadly Night. In recent years a new film has come to my attention and has quickly risen through the ranks, Christmas Evil.----- Read the rest at Shit Movie Fest as part of annual 25 Days of Shitmas.

Screening Report: Cannibal Holocaust with guest Robert Kerman (Alamo Drafthouse 2/28/15)

Last night I went to a screening of Cannibal Holocaust, one of the most infamous of notorious movies. It has previously been banned in a large number of countries, although I am unsure if any of those still actually stand. In any case, it is a movie I have had something of a contentious relationship with over the years (evidenced by this review I wrote upon my first viewing back in 2006). In the years since, my disgust has softened and I have become something of a fan of it, even if I have some issues with the animal violence. On a happier note, how could I pass up a screening with an audience?

Movie Review: Eaten Alive! (1980)

In recent years there are few areas of film that I have fallen for more than Italian horror. There is just so much to love, they are the movies that keep on giving. Now, my knowledge of them is not always the best, but it is growing all the time. What is fun is watching a movie you think you had seen, only to realize you haven't. The movie in question is Eaten Alive! and is not to be confused with Tobe Hooper's movie of the same name, sans exclamation point. This one, from Umberto Lenzi, has more man eating cannibals and less man eating alligator. Still, I would have sworn I had seen it before, but I think I just saw other movies that were related to it.

Movie Review: Cannibals

Italian filmmakers in the 1970s and 1980s would see something becoming popular in another country and then attempt to replicate it by jumping on the bandwagon and then making some absolutely insane movie that is somewhat but not really related and make it quite entertaining. Think about what Fulci did with Zombie (or rather, Zombi 2). It seems that at this time there were other countries looking to get in on the fun as well. The Italians hit it big with cannibal movies like Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox, and Last Cannibal World that others wanted in on the fun. Enter French producers who enlisted Jess Franco to make his mark on the flesh eaters. The result was the lackluster Cannibals.

Movie Review: Contamination (1980)

An abandoned ship floats into New York harbor. A few intrepid souls board the ship and begin to search it, looking for clues to what happened. Then they find it. Reading that, it sounds an awful lot like 1979's Zombi 2, but it is actually the start of Contamination from 1980. Instead of Lucio Fulci it is Luigi Cozzi (or Lewis Coates as he is often credited). It has also been known as Alien Contamination (in a cut version) and Toxic Spawn when it was on VHS way back in the day (also cut). The movie begins as an Alien rip off, but manages to have a life of its own, holding your attention through to the ending credits.

Movie Review: Zombie Holocaust

I am learning more and more about how a movie can change from country to country. Different titles, different cuts, different languages, even different footage shot or integrated from other sources. The latest movie to show this is Zombie Holocaust. It is another movie that has had a host of different titles and a number of different cuts over the years. I have now seen two versions of the film, the American cut and the original uncut Italian version (at least what I believe is the uncut Italian version). There is not a lot of difference between them. They are easily identifiable as the same movie, and in both cases it is pretty silly. But a good, fun silly.

Movie Review: Anthropophagus

Anthropophagus is an interesting beast. Firstly, it is a film of many names, besides the title seen above, it has been called The Grim Reaper, Man Eater, Cannibal, and Antropofago (probably a few other variations, too). Guess the numerous titles could be due to the difficulty of pronouncing, much less defining, it. On top of that, it made the BBFC's Video Nasty list and has been banned in numerous countries. It has also been mostly available in an edited version with something around 10-minutes excised from it. I have had an uncut DVD sitting on my shelf for a long time, but for some reason it took until now to actually pop it in the player.

Critical Capsule: Terror Train (1980)

When Terror Train was released in 1980 the slasher cycle was still ramping up. Halloween had solidified the formula two years earlier and other filmmakers were looking for ways to mine the formula for all it was worth. Needless to say, while this movie seems rather formulaic, when it came out it wasn't. Still, that doesn't help it from feeling somewhat dated and very middle of the road. Now I know that a lot of people hold a lot of affection for this movie, but I am not one of them. It's not that I hate it, I just don't love it.

Critical Capsule: New Year's Evil

All the major holidays seem to have a themed horror film, even Thanksgiving has the recent turkey Thankskilling, so how about New Year's Day? It's horror movie of note dates all the way back to 1980 with a movie appropriately called New Year's Evil and this is the one time a year it is acceptable to watch this movie. It really is not a good one. I guess you could say it packs a little nostalgic charm, but it seems to go out of its way to be mediocre. It leaves very little behind, not bad enough to really rip on, not good or even cheesy enough to rally behind. It just seems to be, begging to be left alone and only dug up around the holiday. It is not like Halloween or Black Christmas that beg to be watched more often.

Movie Review: Friday the 13th (1980)

By the time Friday the 13th saw the light of day in 1980, the groundwork for the slasher film had already been established. Whether you go back to proto-slashers like Hitchcock's Psycho, Michael Powell's Peeping Tom, or Mario Bava's Twitch of the Death Nerve (some of whose kills were, uh, borrowed for the early Friday films), or if you stick to more traditional horror outings like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas, and Halloween (which may be the purest form of slasher), Friday the 13th is hardly an original or groundbreaking entry in the about to explode sub-genre. It is curious that this one, of all films, became the franchise-spawning, MPAA lightning rod, and virtual poster child for the slasher genre.

Netflix'ns: Nightmares (aka Stage Fright) (1980)

The early days of October find me still settling into my horror movie a day routine. It also finds me watching a movie I had never seen before. I was going through my Netflix queue and stumbled across an unseen gem. It has been in my queue for awhile, not sure why I never watched it before. Anyway, there is something about the chick with the crazy eyes and the shard of glass on the cover art that called to me. It inspired me to press play and see what was going on. The movie is called Nightmares, although an edited version can also be found under the tile Stage Fright.

Movie Review: Hell of the Living Dead

As I had a little time to kill last night before going to bed and not wanting to watch anything particularly serious, I set out to watch something from the horror family of Italian lineage. My first thought was to watch the Bruno Mattei/Claudio Fragasso collaboration Shocking Dark. This was mainly because I had watched the James Cameron classic Terminator 2 earlier in the day and Shocking Dark is also known as Terminator 2 (and was out prior to the Cameron film). Sadly, I was unable to find a copy, so ended up with another Mattei/Fragasso team up, Hell of the Living Dead.

Movie Review: The Night of the Hunted (aka La nuit des traquees)

I must admit to being a neophyte when it comes to Jean Rollin. Prior to The Night of the Hunted, my one experience win Rollin was Zombie Lake, a movie that is not good, but I think I kind of like (I am still making up my mind). It seems to me that Rollin is kind of love him or hate him type of filmmaker. I am rather glad that I discovered him at this stage of my cinematic maturation. If I had watched these movies earlier, I likely wold have written him off and meet looked back. I am not saying you will like him or not, his style is definitely am acquired taste.