The Necro Files:

The Necro Files came along on the second wave of Shot On Video horror (or something like that) in 1998. I remember renting it then, when I should have known better, still hoping to find that truly horrible blend of sex and horror ala Joe D'Amato, (to whom the movie is dedicated) for reasons.

As the punning title might suggest, the movie both hopes to seemingly ape The X-Files (it fails at that) and also to present a tale of necrophilia, but the twist is, it's necrophilia IN REVERSE! The movie starts off with a bang: a gal with a cute body takes a nice, cleansing shower. She then puts on a robe which hangs open, pats down one boob with a hand towel, and wanders around her house before being raped and killed. Guts are fondled, and the rapist is dispatched with extreme prejudice by a pair of insane cops.

Even more-insane Satanists, some time later, sacrifice...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
A deep dive into Filipino cult film history

The Movie
In a bit of meta education, watching documentaries can provide one with a great list of movies to discover, as there are a host of films that help explore unique niches, like the delightful Not Quite Hollywood and Video Nasties. However, it doesn't get much more niche than Filipino cult films. That is, unless you zoom in a bit more, and tighten the focus to Filipino cult films starring the shortest lead actor in film history, the 2'9" Weng Weng, star ...Read the entire review

The Film:

The Neon Dead:
Horror-comedy is harder than it looks. Both genres require a strong underpinning in reality to work correctly. The two together need a foundation twice as strong in order to support viewer's belief, and concern for our heroes. The Neon Dead unfortunately lacks solid ground to stand on. It's a case of a movie with strong visual style and a simple conceit, set up to deliver laughs and scares. Without decent footing, director Torey Haas' treats miss the mark.

Paranormal Investigators Desmond (Greg Garrison) and Jake (Dylan Schettina) bide their time working in a video shop, in Haas' debut feature. Meantime recent college graduate Allison (Marie Barker) sweats an upcoming job interview when she notices an irritating, bloody ghost in her newly inherited home. Brushing it off, Allison answers the door to a pushy girl scout, who conveniently recommends Desmond and Jake as a ...Read the entire review

The Horror Network:
Chalk it up to Wild Eye Releasing to bring us this Brain Dorton and Douglas Conner presentation of The Horror Network, a rarity in the world of anthology horror, in that it's almost 100% good. If you're in the need for some quick-fix scares and uneasy feelings, (and who isn't) but can't decide which movie to throw in your cloud or whatever, cue this one up. Taken as a whole, or in small doses, The Horror Network really satisfies.

Let's jump right in with '3:00AM', a disturbing little vignette that plays like Repulsion on 78 RPM. A woman walks around her dark house. She's jumpy. Scared. Every little thing creeps her out, startling her and shaking her to her core. Just wait until she starts playing with that Jack-In-The-Box if you want to know what delicious anticipation is. Her world of terror accelerates. You drug-users in my audience will know the f...Read the entire review

Queen Crab:
Always reliable creature-feature director Brett Piper takes the piss immediately, setting Queen Crab in 'Nowhere, USA'. If you didn't already ascertain from the title, this old-fashioned monster feature shouldn't be taken too seriously. Some wooden acting doesn't stop enraged-crab-mayhem from being a hell of a lot of fun, though, with Piper's stop-motion effects top-notch as usual.

When we first meet Melissa, her jerk-off scientist dad treats her like dirt while trying to solve World Hunger from his basement. Consoling herself by consorting with a cute purring crab she finds by the lake, Melissa feeds the gentle creature grapes laced with growth serum, and, some years down the road, the rest of the town finds out about It.

As a crab the size of a school bus, Queen Crab finds herself increasingly irritated by the stupidity of the locals, and starts to killing, egged on b...Read the entire review

I won't insult horror aficionados by saying that I am one, because I know how seriously they take the love of their genre. I'm more of a sci-fi guy myself, though I have watched my fair share of slashers, but I in no way understand the depth of the devotion it takes to be a horror super fan. I don't know of any other genre that has the cult following that this one does, the sheer number of obsessed enthusiasts, the collectors of the most obscure memorabilia & lore. Maybe Star Wars nuts, but that's something totally separate, a LARPing spectacle that can't be explained. No, horror is the most fervently followed of all film, and ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Richard Griffin, probably New England's premier exploitation horror comedy director strikes again with his odd and oddly endearing Frankenstein's Hungry Dead. The film is far from perfect, and made with little time and less money, but manages to mostly work regardless.

Mr. Jefferson (Ryan Hanley) is tired of the antics of the high school kids he teaches, so he gives them an ultimatum: either join him for a tour of the local wax museum, or go to detention! Faced with this stark choice, the kids go to the museum, run by creepy German, Dr. Charles Frank (Michael Thurber). Ashley and Coulton (Shannon Hartman and Patrick Keeffe) decide they want to break back in to the museum later that night for some sexy time, and are followed by their classmates Katherine (Jamie Lyn Bagley), Zoey (Aurora Grabill), her friend Vermin (Jesse Dufault) and a few others. Of course, they don't re...Read the entire review

Films about PTSD and the cost of war are very popular right now. I've watched four in as many months, each slightly worse than the one before. American Sniper had the biggest budget by far, the biggest star, the biggest controversy, and the best results. Next was Fort Bliss, a different take on a similar issue, a woman's view of coming back home to the "normal" world, and a mediocre film. On a more low-budget note was Fray, a much more upsetting look at the debilitating trauma that affects our veterans. And now, Memory Lane, an indie darling that combines this common theme with a sci-fi element, and undoubtedly del...Read the entire review

Hi-8: Horror Independent 8:
Hi-8 hearkens back to the g(l)ory days of SOV horror, when all a backyard auteur needed to enter the low-stakes world of the exploitation movie market was a video camcorder, a gallon of fake blood, a bucket of pig intestines, and a few women willing to take their shirts off for the camera. Those were great days for filmmakers and viewers with a taste for unsupervised no-holds-barred horror. Hi-8 recreates those vibes perfectly through the able hands of 8 independent horror directors who made that era such sloppy fun in the first place. Though the emphasis here is on fun, (you won't find quite the same level of creepiness on hand as in the VHS series) Hi-8 does what few other horror anthologies do: It starts strong and just gets better and better.

First up is Tim (Killing...Read the entire review

The Movie:
The found footage genre is mostly played out, but every once in a while you can run across something that's interesting or innovative. In Play Hooky, director Frank Petrilli delivers some thrills and a few innovations, but doesn't really blow the lid off.

Two cousins, Lance and Brad (Vincent Kulish and J. Wright Chester) decide to take some unauthorized time off of school, and since you can't have a truly fun hooky day without girls, they also pick up their friend Rosie (Kim Kleemichen), her friend Megan (Becky Byers) and tagalong friend of Megan's, the painfully awkward Claire (Theresa Davis). They spend a lot of time wandering around, trying to find a good place to party, until they decide to go to an abandoned insane asylum. Petrilli deftly handles the "why are they still filming" issue by having Brad put a secret pinhole camera in his hat, with only Lance knowing it'...Read the entire review

Sexina (Lauren D'Avella) is not just one of the world's most famous pop stars, but also a secret private investigator on the side. When a former rock star turned scientist (Cash Tilton) goes missing, Sexina is called in to investigate his disappearance and how it might tie in Glitz Records, home of Sexina's strongest competition, the egocentric womanizer Lance Canyon (Luis Jose Lopez). With associates dropping left and right and Lance Canyon trying to push her out of the spotlight (while he himself fights being pushed out by the next boy band sensation), Sexina must juggle her investigation with her obligation to perform at a high school for Vera (Kellie Fernald), the winner of an essay contest.

Film parody, especially modern film parody, can be a torturous experience, a tin-eared mixture of belabored irony and increasingly outdated references. Sexina is not a painful experience, far from th...Read the entire review

President Wolfman:
Stag Films and Wild Eye Releasing present Mike Davis' President Wolfman.

And that's it, I'm outta here.

Not really, but it's hard to figure out just what to say after that opening. I guess I'll go the dry route, mentioning that President Wolfman is a little like a lost episode of MST3K without the robot silhouettes. Per the back o' the box, it's 'made entirely from recycled, stock, & public domain footage, with a newly scripted, scored, and re-voiced soundtrack' including 'enhanced visuals and post production.' With that in mind, enjoy the story of President John Wolfman, a single dad who sprouts fur and kills folks during the full moon, just as his name would imply!

It's not all fun and games, though, as Wolfman contends with his crazy, homicidal Vice President, a D.C. murder-spree, and the Chimerica Bill, an evil scheme to s...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Scream Queen: it's a term that immediately brings to mind beautiful women, covered in blood, belting out an ear shattering yell while battling whatever serial killer or monster they're pitted against. The late eighties and early nineties were the heyday of the scream queen, and in 1992, b-movie director Donald Farmer decided he'd gather together all the actresses he knew who fit the bill, and make a documentary, pithily titled Invasion of the Scream Queens.

The film consists mostly of interviews with actresses, and one male director (David DeCoteau), along with clips of many of their films. Farmer does in fact get interviews with a lot of very well-known and respected screamers, such as Michelle Bauer, Brinke Stevens, Mary Woronov, Monique Gabrielle and Elizabeth Kaitan, as well as some others that aren't nearly as well known, such as Tammara Souza, Deborah Stern, Veroni...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Anthology films seem to be hot right now, and you can't throw a blood covered brick without hitting one. The producers of the Perfect House make an attempt at a twist on the norm with their sort of anthology film, centered around a certain suburban house. It seems to be a normal, everyday family home, but inside lurk a lot of dark secrets.

Marisol and Mike (Andrea Vahl and William A. Robertson) are a young couple on the hunt for their first home. They have their eye on a cute little house in a nice neighborhood and pay a visit. Greeted by the oversexed realtor (Monique Parent), they walk through the house. It seems normal, until they come to the basement. Once there, they experience visions of all the horrible things that have happened in the house over the years.

There are three stories that are told. The first concerns a family seeking shelter in the basement during ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Nazi sisters, lesbians, zombies, murders in the desert: indie horror film Blood Soaked seems like it has everything. It's a pretty fun ride, and has some very cool imagery, but is a little uneven at times.

Katie and Sadie (Hayley Derryberry and Laina Grendle) are two sisters who live in the desert in a bunker ever since their neo-Nazi father passed away. They spend their time torturing and killing anyone unlucky enough to fall into their clutches, and turning them into zombies with a mysterious serum.

Piper and Ashley (Heather Wilder and Rachel Corona) are two young college girls who have just begun a lesbian relationship. Unluckily, at almost the same time, they cross path with the two Nazi sisters. An unfortunate incident with a rabbit forces them to pull off the side of the road, and soon they're in a game of chicken with Katie and Sadie. Things go downhill from the...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Theme parks are inherently creepy, especially when they are empty, and at night, and so make natural settings for horror movies. A number of theme park related films have been made, and Scream Park is the latest of these. It isn't a cinematic masterpiece, but it does moderately well.

Fright Land is a theme park on its last legs. It's shutting down tonight, in fact, and its mostly teenage staff decides to have one last party after the gates close to celebrate the end of an era. Jennifer (Wendy Wygant) works the ball toss booth, and reluctantly joins in the festivities, more heartily indulged in by her compatriots Carlee (Kailey Marie Harris) and Tony (Dean Jacobs). Their boss Marty (Steve Rudzinski, an accomplished horror director in his own right) shakes his head and lets the festivities commence.

But something isn't right. Jennifer hasn't been able to find her boyfrie...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
There is nothing more frustrating - or in some cases, fun - as misplaced passion. There are times when ambitions are so amplified that you either reject everything outright or fall into the rhythms of the creator's obvious fervor. Outsider filmmakers like Damon Packard or Giuseppe Andrews fit this mold, making their own unique cinematic visions without giving a good goddamn what the rest of the artform thinks. They see what they need to see and relate it in ways that have to be experienced, not explained. Then there are the homemade horror buffs like Chris Seaver and Dave Campfield. Fueled by the never-ending fount of scary stuff spewing from VCRs and basic cable over the last few decades, filmmakers like them believe that nothing is better than obvious homages to the creepshow comedies of the past, resulting in such treats as Mulva: Zombie Ass Kicker or Caesar and Otto's...Read the entire review

With all the overdone sentimentality in most Christmas movies, it's always nice to see something take a more cynical and twisted approach. Of course the classic of that is 1984's Silent Night, Deadly Night which was a slasher film with the killer wearing a Santa suit which was controversial in its time and disowned by its initial distributor. Straight-to-video movies and the internet have since made irreverent Christmases fairer game. "Caesar & Otto's Deadly Xmas" does this in a low-budget, somewhat complicated but overall humorous manner.

Although I hadn't heard of them prior to viewing this, Caesar and Otto have been a duo for a while in a few shorts and one prior feature "Caesar and Otto's Summer Camp Massacre." Caesar Denovio is actually Dave Campfield, who pla...Read the entire review

The Movie:
The folks who brought us Disco Exorcist, Nun of That and Atomic Brain Invasion are back again with their take on eighties slasher flicks, Murder University. This film isn't quite so crazy or exploitive as those earlier films, but it has its quotient of oddity and nudity, to be sure.

Josh (Jamie Dufault) is a hapless college freshman, still torn by his father's sudden death the year before. His troubles are multiplied by the murders of a number of students at his college, a couple of which he witnesses. Though the police are skeptical of his claims of a cult group committing the crimes, grizzled Detective Forrester (Michael Thurber), who isn't ev...Read the entire review

A sequel to Showgirls? How could this miss? Paul Verhoeven's 1995 classic, the widest-released movie with an NC-17 rating and winner of Razzie awards for Worst Picture of 1995 and Worst Picture of that entire decade, is a true guilty pleasure and its ending certainly left you wanting more. I already knew Elizabeth Berkley would not be returning as Nomi, but maybe there'd be at least some mention of what happened to her since the last movie. I'd always wondered what became of the great singer/rapist Andrew Carver as well. I decided to celebrate the release of "Showgirls 2" by making it a double-feature night, revisiting the first movie in all its glory (despite only having the original non-anamorphic DVD release, which I'm going to have to upgrade to Read the entire review

Roughly 15 years after the events of the original Showgirls, Penny Slot (Rena Riffel) is still stripping in Vegas to make ends meet while she dreams of being a legitimate dancer. She's still with Jimmy Smith (Glenn Plummer), who dismisses her dreams of stardom as unrealistic, preferring to stick with the reliability of drug dealing and busboy gigs. When a Hollywood producer comes into the club where Penny works and gives her his business card, she decides to take matters into her own hands, hitching a ride to the City of Angels, in the hopes of securing a spot on her favorite TV show, "Stardancers." Upon arriving, she finds herself sucked into an all new whirlpool of decadence and betrayal, with ballerina Katya (Shelley Michelle) at the center of it.

Without making excuses for the quality of the finished product, a couple of things need to be known. Showgirls 2 is not a "real" seque...Read the entire review

I think the above picture says it all. This film is about mold, and yes, sometimes it and bodily fluids will come shooting out of pipes and orifices. The great thing about a movie like this is that it makes no excuses and doesn't try to impress anyone. It is what it is, and that's a horribly disgusting and often ridiculous b-movie romp. One thing you've got to love about b-movies is that nothing is off limits, no extreme too extreme, and that's of course what makes some of them great. Now, not all of them are great and some are downright unwatchable. You've got to be able to laugh at the film while cringing at the grotesque, or at lea...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Making independent films is often a hard slog. There's usually little money to be made, to go along with the miniscule budgets, and that lack of funds can often hamper creative expression, and even cripple it. This is not the case, however, with ultra-weird, low budget horror effort Dropping Evil. This is bravura independent filmmaking at its gonzo best.

The story revolves around four high school students. The two cool ones, Samantha and Mike (Rachel Howell and Tom Taylor) ask their significantly less than cool former friends Nancy and Becky (Zachary Eli Lint and Cassandra Powell) to go on a weekend camping trip, more out of pity than anything else. (Yes, Nancy is a guy with a girl's name, for reasons that are hinted at in the film.) Nancy happens to be a devout Christian, and is constantly lecturing the girls on their whorish ways, and overly concerned about his apple j...Read the entire review

The Movie:
The producers of The Disco Exorcist certainly have a love for seventies exploitation films, perhaps too much love. Their dedication to recreating the warp and weft of that genre leads to a little too much self awareness and winking, and not quite enough coherent plot or drama. There's plenty of bared breasts and blood, though, if that's what you're looking for.

Rex Romanski (Michael Reed) is carefree seventies swinger, spending his free hours between sleeping with beautiful women and indulging in narcotics at the disco, dancing the night away. He cares little for the women, spending a few sexy nights with each and then moving on, and most of them grumble about it, but don't really hold a grudge. Until he meets Rita Marie (Ruth Sullivan). Rita, in addition to being touchy about ill treatment by men, is a voodoo priestess of some sort. She and Rex meet on the dance floor...Read the entire review

The Story of Rock 'N' Roll Comics:
It's hard to know if this documentary is a full-blown case of First Amendment (In)Justice ala The People Versus Larry Flynt or just a fairly interesting story for a limited group of people. The subject of the story, Todd Loren - publisher of Rock and Roll and Revolution Comics - would have you believe the former, even if in action it seems like Loren himself chose to ride the truth train for convenience only. In which case, director Ilko Davidov should have been advised to take his own stand with this movie - to come out swinging either for, or against, Todd. It's advice he seems to have cautiously hedged against. This fundamental lack of mooring, combined with a super-specific, limited market of interested viewers, means that many of you who think you're interested now will wonder later if you're still as engaged.

Detroit-born Loren started his min...Read the entire review

The Product:
Like one of his signature bits, comedian Andy Kaufman's death always seemed sort of...surreal. It was never meant to be funny (lung cancer never is) and yet, even with all the seriousness and fatalism surrounding it, there was a sense of put-on, a sneaking suspicion that what was happening was nothing more than the greatest meta-prank ever attempted by likeminded lunatic performer. Of course, as decades have past and the Kaufman mystique has been supplanted by today's shrill confrontational stand-ups, few are focusing on the possibility that the man may have faked his own death. Sure, there are websites dedicated to the idea and long standing theories that hold little water, but it's time, not a lack of truth, that has hindered any real investigation or revelation. If writer/director Christopher Maloney has his way, however, his new documentary will answer the question once and ...Read the entire review

The Electric Chair:
As the box says, this is "a lost treasure of New York City filmmaking." So what's up with New York City filmmaking anyway? Why so dark, bubby? It's not that there isn't a spark of hope and humanity, it's just draped in cynicism and despair. Full of loathing and rage, (not to mention a little bit of humor) this 80-minute black and white arthouse feature will first challenge your patience before kicking you in the crotch.

Notable New York character actor Victor Argo (Taxi Driver, Ghost Dog) plays The Comic, a beleaguered shoe salesman who's been nursing the avocation of stand up comedy for too long. Receiving a last-minute call for a 10PM gig at a dive on the Jersey Shore, The Comic reluctantly comes, loaded ...Read the entire review

Gold: Before Woodstock. Beyond Reality:
As I try watching Gold through the eyes of a hippie or a square in 1969 - as opposed to the jaded 21st Century aesthete that I am - I still can't help wondering what kind of thing I'd need to be on to not only truly enjoy it, but to tolerate it at all. Uppers, downers, speed, coke, bennies, reds, 'ludes, 'shrooms, pot, acid, mary jane, sugar cubes, banana peels, grass, weed, cross-tops, hooch, dope, LSD, smack ...

Without such a life-ending pharmacopoeia coursing through my veins, I'm left to taxing my appreciation of unintentional camp to make it through. It's a living, right? However, I'm pretty sure no amount of intoxicants can enliven or justify this ride. No offense, but Gold's "let's make a movie!" film-school excesses surely didn't play well then, and 40-plus years in the future, only nostalgia and curiosity can ease the painful f...Read the entire review

The Product:
Growing up in the '70s, we kids had several water cooler (or in our case, playground) debate subjects. A few of the more formidable included the annual Saturday Morning Cartoon Preview (would Scooby-Doo be back? Would the Kroffts new live action slice of surrealism be worth watching?), the tastiness of space food sticks, and the weekly roundtable on the ABC Movie of the Week. Like all impressionable youth, we couldn't get enough of the gratuitous genre workouts, most of the infamous TV films revolving around ghosts, demons, the paranormal, and the people who worship same. After a preplanned viewing, you'd shuffle off to school the next day, insightful review inside your head and collection of awesome/awful scenes at your disposal for ease of impressing. Most times, you struck paydirt - Duel, Trilogy of Terror, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Th...Read the entire review

The Product:
Growing up in the '70s, we kids had several water cooler (or in our case, playground) debate subjects. A few of the more formidable included the annual Saturday Morning Cartoon Preview (would Scooby-Doo be back? Would the Kroffts new live action slice of surrealism be worth watching?), the tastiness of space food sticks, and the weekly roundtable on the ABC Movie of the Week. Like all impressionable youth, we couldn't get enough of the gratuitous genre workouts, most of the infamous TV films revolving around ghosts, demons, the paranormal, and the people who worship same. After a preplanned viewing, you'd shuffle off to school the next day, insightful review inside your head and collection of awesome/awful scenes at your disposal for ease of impressing. Most times, you struck paydirt - Duel, Trilogy of Terror, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Th...Read the entire review