DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Horror Rock DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33723 Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:21:20 UTC Skip It

I figured I'd go ahead and take this opportunity to help proofread the marketing blurb from the back cover of Horror Rock, another stellar entry in SRS Cinema's "hey, let's raid John Russo's VHS collection and charge thirty bucks a pop" collection.

"Horror Rock" combines terrifying, heart stopping scenes from the most spine-tingling horror films ever made with some of the hottest classic indie rock music performed by the absolutely wickedest bands!

This sizzling collection explodes with searing renditions from such cult classic bands like Del-Lords, Judas Kiss, Hurricane, Over the Edge, Wrath, Children of the Wicked, Pandoras, Run Down Love Battery, Dickies, Booby Trap, Elvis Hitler, and Hot Rod to Hell.

If you like your music from beyond the edge, "Horror Rock" will deliver devilish pleasure to your ears as highlig...Read the entire review

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There are tons of grindhouse/schlock/horror/whatever trailer comps floating around on DVD nowadays: big stacks of 'em from Synapse Films, AllDay, Something Weird...the list keeps rambling on from there. If you're not all that interested in settling for vintage trailers, though -- if you want to heap on another layer of nostalgia by giving a trailer compilation from twenty years back a whirl -- SRS Cinema has just dusted off Drive-In Madness!. Clocking in around eighty minutes minus credits, this trailer comp from 1987 piles together a long list of schlock, horror, softcore, and campy sci-fi reels together along with a handful of short interviews.

The trailers scattered throughout Drive-In Madness! include...::implied drumroll::...

  • Nurse Sherri
  • Girls for Rent
  • ...Read the entire review

    ]]> Aspiring Psychopath DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33595 Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:08:57 UTC Skip It

    "I never park behind a rape van."
    - Lucinda

    The Movie
    Really? Movies like this can actually be made and sold to us in stores and on big-name retail websites? Producers actually think they should spend money to unleash such limp product on the public? Oh, dear readers...where to begin to describe the utter ineptness? How about the opening shot, when our "heroine" struggles as her wrists and mouth are covered with duct tape so cheap, it actually starts to fall off her mouth. (Never mind the fact that she could easily tear it off with her hands, which are bound in the front!)

    I have two warnings for you before we go any further: This film isn't even listed on IMDB, and this review uses a lot of commode mouth quotes from the film. Read at your own ri...Read the entire review

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    Diaries of the Living Dead DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33525 Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:36:11 UTC Skip It

    The Product:
    Zombie films are not rocket science - or at least, they weren't back before everyone and their brother had a camcorder and a DVD burner at their disposal. All you needed was a creepy local, a surefire idea, a couple of quarts of stage blood, and a basic proficiency in the language of cinema and you could deliver the creepshow shivers. Even the most misguided moviemaker could usually pull off an effective monster mash-up. Now, however, access to technology has made everyone a potential Romero, with the rancid results speaking loudly for the illegitimacy of said statement. Apparently, your typical cannibal corpse confuses the would-be auteur. Take Dead Summer and Deadhunter: Sevillian Zombies. These homemade horror fests want to redefine the genre dynamic while delivering some authoritative splatter. Sadly, neither one has the creative cajones to do anything ot...Read the entire review

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    The Undertow DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33514 Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:23:06 UTC Rent It

    The Product:
    Eric Stanze definitely deserves the title of auteur. Over the years, he has delivered some startlingly original genre efforts. From the psychological science fiction of Ice from the Sun to the effective Evil Dead mimicry of Savage Harvest, he is one of the most visionary directors in the outsider realm. But low budget production is a harsh mistress, and a body's gotta pay the bills somehow. Entering into a deal with DVD distributor Sub Rosa Extreme, and given the standard mandate (make some quick, fly by night exploitation titles) he oversaw the completion of over a half dozen direct to digital offerings. With names like Inbred Redneck Alien Abduction, Bizarre Lusts of a Sexual Deviant, and Insaniac, there was as much creativity as crap present, and very few of these films deserve a second mention. That's definitely the case with Stanze p...Read the entire review

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    Witches, Vampires and Zombies DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33477 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:21:27 UTC Skip It

    Witches, Vampires & Zombies: The Legends and the Truth:
    This is a new low in DVD marketing, a tragic waste of resources and a general insult to living creatures. Though not without pathetic amusement value, Witches, Vampires & Zombies is a DVD searching for a new sub-Skip It rating. Other than as a way to mint dollars with zero effort, the sole purpose of this release seems to be as an advertisement for another DVD release, and not even one hinted at in the program, but merely in the form of an advertisement on the reverse of the DVD sleeve, as seen through the clear plastic keepcase.

    So what is Witches all about? At 37-minutes length this 1989 production appears to be an underfed, made-for-cable-TV special for promoting mostly risible movies based on John Russo's novels. Under the egregious guise of telling the truth about Witches, Vampires & Zombies, author and filmmaker Russ...Read the entire review

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    Jess Franco's Vampire Lovers: Double Feature DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33326 Thu, 22 May 2008 21:24:15 UTC Skip It

    The Movie:

    The ubiquitous Jesus Franco has been making movies for decades now and currently has over two hundred titles in his filmography. Few directors are able to polarize genre fans so intensely as Franco - for every film buff who considers him a talent less hack, another sees in his work a sort of mad genius. Many describe his films as jazz, and a good argument can be made for that for both jazz and Franco's films share many of the same qualities. Both are typically based around a very free form and loose structure and are often times improvised. Even the most ardent Franco-phile will have trouble defending the movies he made for One Shot Productions, however. While it's admirable that the man is still working, the cheap, these cheap, shot on video trash movies appear to have been shat out rather than shot the care and artistic intent that makes his better films so valuable.

    V...Read the entire review

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    Snakewoman / Dr. Wong's Virtual Hell DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/20745 Tue, 21 Mar 2006 13:34:51 UTC Skip It

    Some filmmakers go into a creative decline as they get older, but many only get better. John Huston made some of his best films during the 1970s and '80, movies like Fat City (1972), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), and Wise Blood (1979), pictures made decades after earlier masterpieces like The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Orson Welles, despite constant financial set-backs, only grew as a filmmaker, making the intriguingly experimental F for Fake (1975) late in his career. And Akira Kurosawa helmed the incredible Ran (1985) at the age of 75 - and went on to make two more very fine films (and a third that wasn't so hot) after that, well into his eighties.

    For Eurocult filmmaker Jess Franco, bless him, the opposite seems true. Some of his earliest films, such as The Awful Doctor Orloff (Gritos en la noche, 19...Read the entire review

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    Crash Test DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/20116 Sat, 11 Feb 2006 14:29:46 UTC Rent It

    The Movie

    I've always had a weird soft spot for flicks from down under. I don't know why exactly (perhaps a childhood filled with watching the Mad Max flicks a hundred times each) but whereas some Americans gravitate towards Japanese horror or arty French feelms, I've always had a thing for Aussie cinema.

    That affinity might help to explain why I enjoyed Sam Voutas' Crash Test perhaps just a little more than it deserves, but regardless of where the flick came from, it's still a pretty unique and quietly thought-provoking little sci-fi mind-bender -- even if it's also a little pokey in the center and fairly dry throughout.

    Now when you hear the phrase "sci-fi," I don't want your brains to fill up with images of expensive special effects, crazy action scenes, or anything that could appropriately be described as "flashy." Nope, Crash Test is one of those "word-heavy" scie...Read the entire review

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    Killers By Nature DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18716 Mon, 14 Nov 2005 21:10:23 UTC Skip It

    The Product:
    First time director Eric Spudic, star of several no budget homemade horror films, decides to do a revenge dark comedy as his initial foray into motion picture making. Lucky us. A quick look at his IMDb bio states that our cinematic savant started writing scripts when he was 14 and made his first short film when he was 16. Obviously he's digressed since then.

    The Plot:
    Cory Buckner and Jeffrey Mordrid are a couple of slacker nerds whose nowhere life has only gotten worse since graduating high school. Cory smokes like a chimney and works a dead-end minimum wage job. Jeffrey lives with his parents and spends his free time masturbating to online porn. One day, while in a drunken stupor, the boys hit upon a brilliant plan. They will make a list of everyone who treated them poorly in high school, and then get some much needed "payback" on all of them. Initially, they inte...Read the entire review

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    Bizarre Lust of a Sexual Deviant DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18049 Wed, 05 Oct 2005 20:47:53 UTC Skip It

    The Movie

    Enjoy the title: Bizarre Lust of a Sexual Deviant. Sounds pretty disturbing, doesn't it? It fills your brain with all sorts of alarming ideas and nasty visuals, eh? Yeah. Upsetting stuff.

    Ahem.

    The movie itself ... is astonishingly boring. I mean really boring. Rare is the 60-minute movie that feels like a 60-hour visit to Yawnsville, but if your doctor happens to inform you that, unfortunately, you have only 75 minutes to live, you should break out a copy of this low-budget chuckle-fest real quick. Not only will your last hour on earth feel like an eternity, but you'll also be quite relieved when you expire ... because that means the movie's over.

    Shooting for some sort of "psychological character study" in the vein of Taxi Driver, Clean, Shaven, or Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Bizarre Lust, etc. features zero in the plot depart...Read the entire review

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    Buzz Saw DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16685 Thu, 07 Jul 2005 17:12:25 UTC Highly Recommended

    There's a fine line between reverence and rip-off, an incredibly thin tightrope between hijacking and homage. Just because you are enamored with someone's artistic efforts doesn't mean you have to steal them for yourself. You can pay tribute and stay original as well. Most first time filmmakers just don't get this, though. They tend to believe that if Tarantino tossed it up on the screen, if Gilliam managed to glorify it or Burton settled for nothing less, they too will not compromise - just copycat. That is why we see so much derivative dreck in the independent/ no budget/ homemade movie biz. Originality is such a rare commodity that those who are looking to break into the big leagues don't want to try for their own vision, they'd really rather just 'borrow" someone else's.

    At first, Buzz Saw appears to be another of these big screen burglars. It wears its references loudly and proudly and ne...Read the entire review

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    Sixteen Tongues DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15578 Sun, 01 May 2005 20:47:49 UTC Rent It

    Ambition can have two, distinct and divergent effects on a film. Usually, goals of epic glory translate into big fat buckets of junk, either because the targets were beyond the artistic reach of the filmmakers, or the surrounding production restrictions stifle the proposed scope. The results are almost always laughable, usually unfathomable, and stink of aspiration's bothersome sibling – pretension. But there are occasions where desire meets determination, and instead of butting heads and causing chaos, they each acknowledge their limits and learn to co-exist. Under such a tentative treaty, perfection is usually unknown. Yet often, the flaws are forgivable, since the creativity circuit has been completed and everything is working toward, not against, a common objective.

    Somewhere in the middle between these two ideals is Scooter McCrae's latest film, Sixteen Tongues. This is an attempt at g...Read the entire review

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    Red Silk DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15412 Wed, 20 Apr 2005 07:08:17 UTC Skip It

    Some genre legends have very questionable credentials. One man's hero is almost always another man's zero. People will both applaud, and be appalled by such exploitation luminaries as Herschel Gordon Lewis, Harry Novak, Doris Wishman and/or Bob Cresse. Jess Franco falls into this love 'em or hate 'em category. There are websites dedicated to his career, fan clubs formed for his films, and a general consensus that Franco – who is in his 70s and still making movies – is a treasure of the timeless sex and violence art.

    But for every admirer, there is someone who's felt hornswaggled by Franco's foul output. While his movies from the 60s and 70s have a certain feel and freshness to them, his late 90s/postmillennial output has been nothing short of nominal. In fact, many would argue this portion of his canon contains some of the worst movies ever made. Still, with so many enthusiasts out there, ready t...Read the entire review

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    Inbred Redneck Alien Abduction DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/14783 Tue, 08 Mar 2005 21:38:45 UTC Highly Recommended

    There are certain 'givens' in this world, pairings that just seem cosmically interconnected and inevitable. It is difficult, if not next to impossible, to imagine peanut butter without jelly. Take your pick of pectin rich condiment, but that nummy nut spread would be nothing without that little smear of fresh fruit compote connected to it. Death and taxes are always tossed into the same situational bowl, signs of some standard of assurance that only corporations and the incredibly wealthy seem capable of avoiding. For every rum there is a Coke, for every crack there is a whore. Existence is just incredibly funny that way. Things get harmonized in ways that make slight or indecipherable sense (cigarettes, whiskey and wild, wild women excluded) and yet we gladly accept the peculiar permutation without a single statement of dissent.

    Perhaps one of the most misguided of all the classical combo platters ...Read the entire review

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    Among Us: SE DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/11419 Mon, 05 Jul 2004 17:43:00 UTC Rent It

    CineSchlock-O-Rama
    features this title.
    ...Read the entire review

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    Gut-Pile DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/10886 Fri, 28 May 2004 01:07:12 UTC Rent It

    When the ledger of influential horror movies is finally drafted, here's betting that Sam Raimi's experiment in excess, The Evil Dead, is somewhere near the top. From its buckets of blood free-for-all style to its one step above home movie execution, this genuinely frightening foray into the demonic forces living in the Tennessee woods signified a new science for the scare film. It used to be that movies about the macabre had to be fashioned out of big production values, major studio schisms and a great deal of dopey spiritual significance. The Evil Dead (and its equally influential sorta-sequel, Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn) chucked all that chum out of the mix and brought the basics – and the balls – back to the fright flick. Along with it came a billion and three irritating imitations, all wanting to coattail on the demented directing style of a true cinematic visionary. And t...Read the entire review

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    Feeders Part 1 & 2 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/10586 Wed, 05 May 2004 17:57:25 UTC Recommended

    Sometimes, goofy is just good enough. Sometimes, the sublimely ridiculous and the campy crappy can balance out into a wonderful experience in amusing mediocre moviemaking. Ed Wood is the classic example of such a mentality. When it came to cinema, this guy was more a savant than a charlatan, neither a pretender to the throne nor the orderly who cleans it. Somehow, in his not-to-sentient mind, Master Wood conceived of stories and dialogue that function as a Rosetta Stone for some form of mental retardation. And yet, when plastered onto celluloid with appalling acting, horrible F/X and lots of borrowed stock footage, the attempted atrocity turned into a lightweight lunacy, a telling trip into this alcoholic cross-dressers private domain. Back in the 80s, Fred Olen Ray and Charles Band held a subliminal contest to see who could churn out the most moldy, yet mildly amusing bits of brazen ballyhoo. Each fou...Read the entire review

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    Creep DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/10345 Mon, 19 Apr 2004 06:32:53 UTC Recommended

    It's sad to say it, but the serial killer has become a hoary old cliché. Once the ultimate boogie man, able to scare adults and children alike with his tall tales of skin eating, genital saving and corpse grinding, now he or she has been reduced to an action adventure punchline, an acting tour de force worthy of Oscar accolade. There are a lot of reasons why the mass murderer has dropped off the demonology charts, resting somewhere between angry police captain and nymphomaniac Goth girl in the realm of the redundant. Seems like whenever a movie wants to up the menace factor, they find some sexually confused misfit, able to eat his own feces and hold down a high profile job at the same time, and give him a home life more fudged up than Paris Hilton and Trudi Chase combined. All the prop manager has to do is hand the heathen a hacksaw, and let the costume designer drape them in ornate ritualistic garb a...Read the entire review

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    The Real Casino DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/9744 Mon, 01 Mar 2004 22:59:55 UTC Skip It

    The Movie

    Whenever I see a film which is based on (or inspired by, or suggested by...) a true story, I usually find that I want to know more about what really happened. Even with the tons of extras that we get on DVDs, the true story is rarely to be had. Filmmaker Joseph Alexadre apparently feels the same way, as he has made a documentary which tells the true story behind Martin Scorsese's Casino, entitled The Real Casino.

    The film Casino, which was based on a novel by Nicholas Pileggi, told the story of Chicago mobsters Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) and Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) who move to Las Vegas to make their fortune. In his documentary, Alexandre attempts to explore the real-life influences on these characters, Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal and Tony Spilotro, as well as Alan Dorfman, who was the basis for Alan King's "Andy Stone" character. Alexan...Read the entire review

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    Cheerleader Autopsy DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/8723 Mon, 15 Dec 2003 17:47:12 UTC Rent It

    CineSchlock-O-Rama
    features this title.
    ...Read the entire review

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    The Severed Head Network DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/7850 Fri, 10 Oct 2003 05:19:11 UTC Skip It

    The Movies

    I'm one of those people who loves to read novels, but isn't all that crazy about short stories. Sure, I've read some good ones, but for the most part, I don't like the compact, "quick fix" nature of short stories. And, after watching The Severed Head Network, I apparently have the same feelings about short films...or maybe this wasn't the best place to start.

    The Severed Head Network is a collection of short experiment films, compiled by a company called Wicked Pixel Cinema. This DVD represents the "Best of" the two volumes of the compilation released thus far. Below, I will offer views on the eight short films offered here.

    1. "Vomire" -- Directed by Chad Eivins -- 6 minutes -- This is an purely experiment film, which has no cohesive narrative or story, but is simply made up of a series of "shocking" images. The film consists of graphic images...Read the entire review

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    Demon Lover/Gargoyle Girls DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/7325 Thu, 21 Aug 2003 19:54:56 UTC Skip It

    The Movies

    The title "Gargoyle Girls" is the most interesting part of this DVD. The movies themselves are standard-issue ultra-low-budget horror.

    "Demon Lover" is a 1992 production, originally titled "The Summoned." It appears never to have been released on home video and that's easy to understand since the film is your basic silicone-enhanced early '90s softcore. Jenny Harris (Ashlie Rhey) is unhappy in her marriage (to a louse) and her job. Her new neighbor conjures up the titular critter (a guy in a bad rubber mask that's wisely kept in poor light) who takes care of anybody who crosses Jenny. Genre stalwarts Michelle Bauer, Joe Estevez and Robert Z'Dar are also on hand.

    "Gargoyle Girls" carries a 1997-98 copyright and boasts possibly the least expensive computer generated effects ever committed to disc. The entire production has an equally cheap made-on-weekends look and so it act...Read the entire review

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    Mari-Cookie and The Killer Tarantula DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/5123 Tue, 10 Dec 2002 06:49:04 UTC Rent It

    CineSchlock-O-Rama
    features this title.
    ...Read the entire review

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    Ice From The Sun DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/4429 Wed, 21 Aug 2002 03:44:17 UTC Recommended

    ICE FROM THE SUN

    Synopsis:

    The balance of power on a spiritual plane has just shifted. In an alternate dimension, a power-mad wizard controls both life and death in his icy world. Crafted from ice crystals harvested from the sun, Abraham toys with tortures and ultimately destroys the humans he tricks into entering his dimension. So great has his power become that all the angels in heaven and all the devils in hell are beginning to wonder whether they will be the next focus of Abraham's attention. Unable to do battle with Abraham themselves, the angels and devils enlist the aid of Allison, a young woman who has recently committed suicide. She is brought back to life for one purpose only, and that is to destroy the wizard before he kills the last of his human prisoners and sets his sights on both heaven and hell.

    It's hard to believe that no "big" studio exec has tapped Eric Stanze on the s...Read the entire review

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    I Spit on Your Corpse / I Piss on Your Grave DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/4120 Wed, 26 Jun 2002 21:15:02 UTC Skip It

    In the world of creativity- passion, desire, and drive do not equal talent. Its one of the sad truths of life, and probably the sort of advice the young artists of the world don't want to see in foreword of every book they study, hear spoken from their professors, or, at the least, find knit on inspirational throw pillows... If passion, desire, and drive did equal talent there is probably little doubt film maker Eric Stanze would be the Orson Welles, Tobe Hooper, or Wes Craven of St Louis, Missouri (and maybe I would be the next great surrealist painter/photogrpher/writer).

    I Spit on Your Corpse, I Piss on Your Grave is a low budget, independent, video shot, shock horror film. The simplistic story is about two brothers, one of whom kills a girl and the innocent brother gets blamed for the killing goes to prison and escapes a complete nutjob. He calls up his old girlfriend, abducts her, an...Read the entire review

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    Inbred Rednecks: SE DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/4009 Sun, 09 Jun 2002 04:40:32 UTC Rent It

    CineSchlock-O-Rama

    Joshua P. Warren hunts GHOSTS! He's even written a fistful of books on the subject and Simon & Schuster is due to publish his "how to" guide soon for those interested in coming face-to-ectoplasm with an actual apparition. Naturally, one so versed in the storied supernatural lore of his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina would make a HORROR picture, right? Well, no, not yet anyway, the first-time filmmaker instead drew from his rural surroundings to create the alleged comedy Inbred Rednecks (1998, 135! minutes).

    The movie: While technically there's no glaring evidence of human inbreeding, it IS implied that Billy Bob (Brent Ponder) may have put quite a bit of HIMSELF into the crea...Read the entire review

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    Shatter Dead: SE DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/3859 Sat, 11 May 2002 03:18:18 UTC Recommended

    CineSchlock-O-Rama

    Lots of folks TALK about making movies. Some have even been known to write snarky reviews of flicks OTHER people poured their souls into. But first-time filmmaker Scooter McCrae up and bucked the norm by actually making himself a zombie picture called Shatter Dead (1993, 84 minutes) for about 10 cents that went on to win a prize at the Italian FANTAFILM Festival. Sadly, McCrae didn't have the scratch to ATTEND the fest, but was plenty pleased to be recognized, especially with hero and grue guru Lucio Fulci among the judges who adamantly supported the film's recognition as Best U.S. Independent Feature.

    The movie: Things begin with a bang as two gals couple in a manner favored among can...Read the entire review

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