The Movie:
As an homage to the silly fifties B-movies of yesteryear, Atomic Brain Invasion works pretty well, with references to such "classics" as Plan 9 From Outer Space and The Mole People for the cinephiles out there. But despite all its pep and earnestness, it can't quite pull off the feat of making this into a really great film.

First off, we're treated to a grainy, black and white intro with one Dr. Baxter Frank explaining something about fish men, and rambling on (for perhaps a bit too long) before finally kicking off the film. Then it's full on fifties America, as we're introduced to most of our characters, a group of high school kids, as they listen to their teacher lecture about astronomy in an observatory. We've got Lukas (Michael Reed) the trou...Read the entire review

Sculpture:
I've been dipping into the sleaze-pool a little too much lately, what with recent reviews of The Taint, Hanger, Defiled, and Someone's Knocking at the Door. Yet I keep going back to the slimy well. This time I've come up with Sculpture, which might just be a bit like a 1970s grindhouse flick as filtered through SCTV or something. Mildly funny, nicely offensive, really stupid, never scary and loaded with super cheap gore, Sculpture really doesn't take itself seriously, and neither should you. If you ignore any hyperbole on the DVD box - this is not "intense, gory brutal and di...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

Sculpture desperately wants you to chow down on a slab of gory, over-the-top camp. Unfortunately it tosses in a side of icky child abuse which gives the overall meal a bitter aftertaste. For much of its running length, the film is exactly what it aspires to be. The fact that it isn't better is largely a function of its limited scope and ambition rather than its execution.

Ashley (Raine Brown) has just come back home for her father's funeral. She isn't terribly broken up about it because her dad, Frank (Marv Blauvelt), was a sadistic and abusive brute. Fifteen years ago he caught his wife painting the image of a nude male model. He flew into such a rage that he killed the model and mercilessly beat his wife while Ashley watched on in horror. If you need further evidence of his depravity, we are also given brief glimpses of the many times he entered his daughter's...Read the entire review

The Products:
It's the twilight zone like vortex where ambition meets (and clashes with) ability. It's the homemade cinema Scylla and Charybdis: on the one side, desire, design, and dedication. On the other - talent and technological limits, along with anything and everything else that can go wrong on an indie outsider film shoot. Successfully maneuver between them and you end up with that true contemporary rarity - a camcorder entertainment that manages to fulfill its potential and promise. On the other hand, it's hard to know how to judge such efforts when they come up short. How do you balance excellence in inception with flaws in execution? Better still - can you support something that's sloppy and unsure of itself when you can see the sound possibilities lagging under the surface. Such is the case with the creative team of Jimmy George (co-writer) and Chris LaMartina (co-writer/director...Read the entire review

Book Of Lore / Grave Mistakes:
I think I waited over a week to review this disc in order to avoid gushing like Roger Ebert or Stephen King. Fact is, writer/ director Chris LaMartina (Dead Teenagers) and co-writer/ producer Jimmy George really know what they're doing. Like: give these guys some real money knowing. Maybe studio interference would have a damaging effect on their work, but from where I sit these two are among the most promising low-budget horror filmmakers working today. Both features on this disc are a little goofy, too, so if you can't stand your horror with the ha-ha, be warned. But if you want to be in the hands of fellows who know the horror audience like the backs of their hands, this is the place to start.

Book Of Lore:
Rick (AJ Hyde) discovers his small-town girlfriend murdered in hideous manner, as things begin morbidly heating up. Murders seem to ape ...Read the entire review

THE FILM

I'm new to the cinematic world of director Richard Griffin, an economical HD genre puppet master who appears to idolize grindhouse offerings and the cracked mastery of Troma Films. Over the last decade Griffin has helmed nine movies, and I haven't heard of any of them. That said, if "Nun of That" is any indication of his sense of humor and command of fringe moviemaking aesthetics, I might be inclined to continue my education. A lively, potty-mouthed, blood-spattered plunge into unrepentant sacrilege, "Nun of That" delivers a wily spectacles-testicles-wallet-watch adventure, ideal for those who desire their servants of God to carry shotguns and curse like sailors.

An elite squad of vigilantes, known as the Order of the Black Habit, has just lost one of their members in a siege to bring down notorious crime lord, Momma Rizzo (Rich Tretheway). A replacement is fo...Read the entire review

This may be the shortest review I've ever written for DVDTalk (indeed, it may be one of the site's shortest), because what can I say about Camp Motion Pictures' release of Trailer Trash!, a two-disc, five-hour collection of previously released trailers for sexploitation and splatter films? When I saw the title available, I just assumed this was a collection of cool old trailers for some marginal drive-in fare from earlier decades. Unfortunately, those vintage offerings are few and far between on Trailer Trash!.

If you're old enough to remember the classic drive-in experience (and I mean the really nasty, run-down, tawdry ones on the outskirts of town or deep out in the boonies, not those nice, clean suburban ones that showed Disney and Frankie and Ann...Read the entire review

The Product:
When they first appeared on the DVD horizon, Camp Motion Pictures had come up with one of the most peculiar business models in the entire movie distribution industry. Instead of concentrating on new, novel product, or well regarded nostalgia, the appropriately titled enterprise wanted to go back to the days of direct-to-video variety, a time when Super VHS and camcorder creativity ruled the no-budget, independent horror terrain. Resurrecting such repugnant remnants as Video Violence (1 & 2) as well as Ghoul School, and the Zombie Bloodbath trilogy, it seemed that any and every gore-drenched disaster from the Greed decade was destined to find a new aluminum disc home within their inventory. Now, the suits have strapped in and decided to make their own damn movies, and they've hired noted terror twins Mark and John Polonia (Splatter FarmRead the entire review

The Product:
Serial killers come in all shapes and sizes - big, brutish lummox to wiry, twisted twerp. You've got your cross dressers, your skin wearers, those with a God complex and your demented Devil's plaything. But it's rare to see a woman take up the splatter mantle. Indeed, gals are given the shortest of shrifts in the world of the wicked. Or sure, they can be witches, or smoking hot hit-women, but there's something antithetical to the female being when it comes to mass murder. So imagine the horror fans surprise when something like Beauty Queen Butcher comes along. A slapdash effort exploiting both the high school and pageant dynamic, this one-off effort is either the worst piece of pop culture perfection ever created, or the best bad movie ever made. Now available on DVD after years as an underground entity, the post-modern macabre fan can decide for themselves.

The Plot...Read the entire review

The Product:
Geek culture has sure come a long way in the decades since nerdiness was first defined. Used to be, the feeble were beaten up for their inability to fit into the proper socially mandated cliques. Now, they set the tone for all online discussions, and prowl the fringes of popular culture to formulate the latest examples of the zeitgeist. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the medium of film. Once, only artists and professionals were allowed into cinema's holy domain. But with the advent of VHS (and now, DVD), any dork with determination could and continues to make their own damn movies. Thanks to a direct to video market hungry for product, and an audience willing to accept sometimes limited entertainment returns just to watch actual films in the comfort of their homes, untested talent could make a quick buck and/or name for themselves releasing their hackneyed homemade efforts...Read the entire review

The Product:
Zombies - the go-to ghoul of every homemade filmmaker. Along with vampires and serial killers, these much maligned reanimated corpses have become the illegitimate lifeblood for hundreds of hack motion picture pariahs. Using the ongoing industry myth that a genre effort is the easiest way to get one's foot in the directorial door, a myriad of mom and pop moviemakers use the said trio of terror types to realize their usually limited and unimpressive aims. One such wicked wannabe is Todd Sheets. Back in the mid '90s he concocted his own tribute to the ongoing fascination with flesh eaters. When his Zombie Bloodbath made a minor splatter splash, he was inspired to fully explore the possible franchise. Two sequels later, and Sheets was labeled a certified cult phenomenon. Whether or not he deserved such a title is up for debate, and thanks to Camp Motion Pictures, we finally ha...Read the entire review

The Product:
They used to be a staple of late night cable TV, an easily obtainable alternative to the still very much taboo XXX experience. Indeed, back before adult material went meta, then mainstream, the only way to experience some hot horizontal hopscotch was to crank up Showtime or tune to Cinemax and wallow in a heaping helping of old school softcore sizzle. Sure, the actresses seemed a simple step away from the service end of your local dive bar, and their partners were either portly or merely playacting, but they frequently delivered some basic bang for your pay television buck. For better or worse, the easy availability of porn (along with the social acceptability of rampant plastic surgery) changed everything, so much so that no one even bothers with the non-penetration brand of balling today. Secret Key Motion Pictures would like to change all that. Hoping there is still an audienc...Read the entire review

This is an edited version of the original Ghoul School review found here. If you are only interested in the technical differences between the two releases, skip down to the Video/Audio/Extras section.

The Product:
It's a well-known fact that high school is Hell. From geeks to freaks, stoners to scary loners, everything about school just sucks. Heck, most state-sponsored student storehouses (and all parochial academies) stink like a strange combination of sweat, anxiety and crotch, a heady brew that instantly recalls redolent days in front of the mirror dabbing Clearasil on one's blackheads. So, is it that much of a stretch to impose zombies and maniacal monsters into the monitorless passages of this prison for the intellectually insane? Ghoul School doesn't think so. This undeniably nuts time capsule from ...Read the entire review