The House on Sorority Row - 1983

I never know what to say in the opening paragraph here.  I need like a standard introduction.  That's why I like the movies with alternate titles, but I don't count those unless they're readily apparent, usually by having inconsistency with what the internet calls it and what the film calls it.  Also, there's the whole "other language" thing where titles didn't translate.  This film is apparently also known as "House of Evil" and "Seven Sisters" but nothing I saw or noticed on the film would give it that title.

Basically it's a revisit to my slasher genre, made in 1983 just in time to capitalize on the surge of slashers coming out.  Not the first nor the last to place it at a school, also not the first to do it in a sorority, and also not the first to have female nudity.  Let's start adding up the other cliches here, shall we?

In this installment of "girls die because _______" (fill in the blank), the girls accidentally kill their cruel school teacher and control freak Dorothy.  They do it in a pretty insane fashion too, they're going to pull this really elaborate prank with a real loaded gun, one girl points it at her, pretends to shoot one of her friends, and makes her get into a pool.  Then they shoot at her and miss on purpose, at which point they all start laughing.  Then she climbs out of the pool, hits the girl with her cane, and the gun goes off again, shooting Dorothy dead.  What the fuck?!

Why would you have real bullets in the gun?  Why would you have bullets at all, wouldn't it work the same to point an empty gun at her, she doesn't know?  And why pretend to shoot one of your friends?  Yes, at the time being it makes sense, the girl who got shot was protesting the punishment of Dorothy, but wouldn't it have been equally believable to just, you know, point a fucking gun at Dorothy and not have that whole scene happen?  It's so stupid!

That scene alone probably gives this movie it's cult following, besides the fact this is 80's horror that follows all the rules.  Anyways, the "ghost" of Dorothy comes back and sometimes it looks like she's killing people, sometimes it looks like someone else is killing people.  I would think they weren't sure how they were going to end it, from everything online I read, the production wasn't exactly straight and easy step by step, and I think they just had to work with what they had a lot of the time.  But in general you have scared girls left and right, some decent deaths, and a genuinely weird ending.

How does it stack up to the other classics?  Well, it's not even close for me.  This had no innovation really, it's just by the numbers.  The deaths were ok, but nothing too special.  I think I'd take just about any other even SORT of well known movie over this.  I'd say, in terms of originality, characters, deaths, and general fun factor, Memorial Day Massacre wins hands down.  Obviously, The Forest would probably still lose.  And, I haven't really reviewed many slashes on here.  Which, for me is strange cause I love them.  I have been thinking of rewatching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre recently.  I might.

So, I guess it gets like 2 stars or something.  It just wasn't that good, people.  Nothing new brought to the table, and it wasn't even fun to watch.  Maybe with some die hard horror slasher fans, it'll be better.  Or some beer in you.  I dunno.

The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy - 1959

I'm feeling a little too lazy to dig into my past reviews to discover if this is my first Spanish language film dubbed into English.  Nothing springs to mind.  I was going to review a Santo movie a while back, I might have even finished it I really don't remember.  Anyhow, the point is that I haven't really touched the whole genre of "what the fuck was going on in Mexico in the 50's-70's?"  Yeah, that's a genre, deal with it.

It's a lot like a bizarre offshot of the superhero genre.  In Mexico, which was technologically behind America, but not by far, the entertainment of choice was wrestling.  Luchadore shows were very popular, kind of like going to the circus or going to the zoo...but cheaper, less of a "big deal" and since it was just sweaty men involved in the shows, you could obviously have more shows, and do them anywhere.  The stars of the wrestling world were elevated to almost superhuman status in the eyes of the common man, and they were among the first stars to be brought into movies to further their popularity.  I realize that what I've been describing so far is a lot more of the Santo type of movie, and this movie isn't really about wrestling....so, let's get to this film.

Robot vs Mummy is a dialogue heavy, slow moving film.  It's made from an era where, as established by directors like Corman, the film was mostly scenes of people talking about what happened instead of actually seeing what happened.  The film begins in such a fashion.  A bunch of smartly dressed men stand around, using unrealistic sounding phrases to discuss at great length what happened a while ago, which is in this case recapping what happened in the movies set before this, which was 1957's The Aztec Mummy and sequel, The Curse of the Aztec Mummy.

They recap the story of the mummy being risen, getting vengeance, and then being trapped again in his tomb.  The mummy is raised again in this film when evil Dr. Krupp takes the mummy's breastplate and scepter (I think the second item was a scepter anyways).  Dr. Krupp knows that the mummy's gonna come collect, so he decides to build a redonkulous looking robot to defeat the mummy.

In this scene, roughly 2 minutes before the end of the film, mummy and robot have their final duel.

The main issue at work here, and the reason why this is among the bottom 100 on IMDb is because the fight between these two doesn't take place until like 6 minutes before the end of the movie.  We don't even see the robot until like the 55 minute mark practically.  I did actually check at the run time of the movie when we saw the robot, but I was drinking too much whiskey and I don't remember.  Anyways, I kinda liked it in that low rent, extremely bizarre alternate reality feel.  It feels like a strange nightmare or some warped dimension we enter when we watch....to me it feels that way anyway.  

I dunno, I feel oddly positive about it.  2.5 stars.

The Sadist - 1963

Also known as Profile of Terror and Sweet Baby Charlie.

Sometimes (usually) it's the films you don't expect to be interesting that turn out to be.  Such as case in point I had high expectations for Slithis, and low expectations for this movie, The Sadist.  Based on the murder spree of Charles Starkweather, this movie was one of the first movies to base it's plot around a real life killer.  Psycho was partly inspired by Ed Gein's murders, however this film was closer to the subject of it's inspiration, and made only 3 years after Psycho.

Arch Hall Jr gives a very strange performance as Charles Tibbs, a thrill seeking rebel teenager.  He appears out of nowhere after three people on their way to a baseball game break down and pull into a gas station way out int he middle of nowhere.  They are unable to find anyone who works there, something seems amiss, and then Charles and his girlfriend cohort Judy pop out of nowhere, Charles brandishing a Colt .45 (also, the official drink of this movie, I decided just now).

The great part of this movie is the believe-ability of it. Arch Hall Jr is just a little bit too over the top to be taken 100% seriously, but you can tell he really put a lot into the performance.  He also looks really crazy, he spends a lot of the movie scrunching up his face, with his hair waving all over, slightly crouched down and leaning forward....his character has a lot of physical attributes that make him look almost barbaric, as I'm sure was the intention.  

The tension in the movie is kept pretty high the whole time.  The characters in it act realistically, which was nice too.  They seem to think along the same line that I did earlier; he's barbaric, and that means not especially smart.  So they are always trying to outsmart him, and at every turn he's showing them he's smarter than they think, that he's actually a very cold, calculating, cunning person.   There's a fantastic sequence when he takes aim and shoots out a car tire, then a window, as his captives stare on in silence, his display of firing prowess shocking them all.

There's other scenes like this as well.  They did a really good job of having the dialogue form in such a way where we know what's going on, and it makes sense the way things happen, how the captives try and out-think him and he catches on to them.  Then, all of the sudden, he takes one of them, puts the man on his knees, and executes him with a single shot to the head.  It's a very real, absolutely riveting sequence.  We were told he was a killer, but his childish and wacky outside self made us think he was all talk....another time when he knows what we expect from him, he knows we underestimate him, and so he demonstrates his power.

Minimalism is again at work here.  5 actors, 1 of which is killed as I said, a lonely, abandoned car lot as the setting, filmed in real time, mostly dialogue, there is the potential for so much creativity here.  It's incredibly lifelike, the actors all did really good job with a very human sounding script.  As the two survivors square off against a truly sadistic gunman and his equally evil girlfriend, we as the audience end up wondering how they will ever escape.

Spoilers here.  The end I almost immediately hated.  Arch Hall kills two policemen that showed up, he kills his girlfriend on accident, and he kills one of the two hostages.  Now it's only the girl hostage and him (yeah, sorry, I don't fucking remember their names).  He chases her around, and randomly falls through some old boards into a pit that has a bunch of snakes in it.  As she watches from afar, he is attacked by the venomous snakes.  It just seems so out of place, and like a WTF thing to happen.  But then, I liked it.  It's so brutally real, in a way.  If she was to get the gun and kill him, if randomly like 8 cops gunned him down, it would feel like Hollywood.  But here they are, some ancient gas station, probably there used to be a whole town here, there very well could be some old buildings around with snake infested hideaways.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought it was perfect.

Again, the small details.  As things are wrapping up we hear on the car radio the play by play of the baseball game the three hostages were originally going to see.  The announcer describes the perfect weather for the game and tells us the Dodgers hit a home run as the movie fades away....

I really don't know how to rate it though.  I want to give it 5 stars, honestly.  But I'm well aware those kinds of ratings have to really be held for movies that deserve it.  I'm not someone who just hands those ratings out.  So, I'll give it 4.5.  This movie is just simply put, amazing.  I highly recommend it.  A very good, heartfelt portrayal of the evil of mankind.

Spawn of the Slithis - 1978

I totally forgot I saw this movie.  I also went into it wanting it to be really good Z grade trash and I have to admit it didn't quite scratch that itch.  This was a little while back, like 4 days or so ago that I saw this one.  This is one that actually has a fun story.

A long time ago, producers used to invent fun and original ways to get people to come see the movie.  In the 50's when the monster movie was exploding, producers invented all sorts of movie gimmicks to get audiences talking about their flicks.  William Castle of Castle films was also known to go above and beyond absurd in making these gimmicks.  Commonly, movies would offer you insurance if you died during the film, money if you could PROVE that the monster didn't exist, and more.  Here are some awesome gimmicks!  Anyways, this was obviously not a idea that would stick around forever, and most of these played out well before the 80's.  Spawn of the Slithis is known to have been a late subscriber to the gimmick idea, offering up....a "Slithis Survival Kit"!

Now, isn't that just awesome?  You can join a fan club, you can ward off the Slithis should it attack your neighborhood....  Aw man.  I searched long and hard to find a scanned copy of that thing online.  I want to join the fan club, do you think that address is still right?  And do you think they still get people sending these things in?  I love it.

Slithis is about a toxic monster that's created by a leak of nuclear fluids.  It goes around murdering the townsfolk who happen to be around it's little river home (usually these are homeless or hippies).  Police are on the trail pretty soon, and this movie follows every regimented idea about how police track down a weird toxic monster.

The Slithis itself varies from shot to shot.  It's clear they reuse one specific shot time and time again:

This shot.

In the faraway shots, the monster looks different, which was vaguely confusing.  Also, note how different the monster looks from the one on the Survival Kit.  It's mostly the mouth, I guess it does look somewhat similar.  Also, what the fuck city is in the back ground on the Survival Kit?  A weird dome building with two rows of lights?

It's definitely a classic 1970's horror monster movie, one I already want to see again.  For purposes of the review, I found it slow paced and yawn inducing, but it still gets 3.5 stars, damnit.

John Carpenter's Vampires - 1998

I dunno, the cover of the movie say's John Carpenter's, but IMDb and Wikipedia just say "Vampires" so I guess I might have the title wrong, but I'm going to leave it so that if anyone accidentally stumbles into my blog (thus becoming my first real reader) they know what Vampires movie I'm reviewing.

John Carpenter is known for many groundbreaking films, his catchy and awesome original soundtracks, and atmosphere.  So, this movie had a lot of build going into it for me.  Needless to say I am a giant fan of Halloween, Escape from New York, The Thing, They Live, Big Trouble in Little China, etc.  His movies often display a kooky weird society, or a slight twist on something normal, and that's always fun to see.  His horror movies broke rules, established new genres, helped define special effects, and are legendary.  So, once again, a lot of build.

I saw this for the first time when I was in my mid teenage years, and I remember thinking how disappointing it was.  I think I only saw it once, and then I just ignored it and didn't see a single movie of his since then.  Luckily, I didn't miss much since his next film was Ghosts of Mars, but let's not even get near that flick yet.

More build leading into Vampires?  Sure, pile it on!  Starring James Woods, who I love, also starring Daniel Baldwin, Maximilian Schell, and Sheryl Lee from Twin Peaks.  AHHHG!  Dream cast!  Except Daniel Baldwin, but you know, whatever.  I'll prepare a noose in case the Daniel Baldwin fans track me down and want to hang me.

I dunno, why didn't this movie "do it" for me?  1) the characters were not especially developed, likable, or even memorable.  2) the villain, while cool, didn't have a real story, wasn't shown much, and his vampire powers weren't front and center enough. 3)  the weapons and the destruction of the vampires came off as very undeveloped, the humans didn't seem like a realistic defense against the vampires. 4) the action was very repetitive....I could go on.  The movie was very hollow.  It would dawdle along, something would happen, it would dawdle along, repeat.

I dunno.

You know, I've been all over the place with movies.  I was just researching the life of Weng Weng, the midget Filipino from such films as "For Y'ur Height Only".  I remember seeing that with my wife (girlfriend at the time) years ago and wondering just what in the world it was.  Now there's a documentary about him.  I remember seeing Troll 2 not because it was the "Best Worst Movie" but because it was the sequel to Troll, and supposedly had a sequel to it, Contamination .7
I guess my point is, movies are something which to me are something entirely "part of life".  There is no "life" without movies involved.  I fucking love movies.  I'm just saying.

Road House - 1989

Patrick Swayze was shirtless, practicing tai chi or yoga or some shit in a grassy yard, he was oiled down and shiny, and he was wearing drawstring white pants.  It was at that point in this movie that I told my wife, "Rifftrax did a mockery of this movie."  She was not surprised.  Something about that scene made me remember.  I could've checked that first, hell, I should've just intrinsically known that, but that scene in particular made that memory spring to mind.

Road House has gone from, in recent years, a fairly awful 80's fighting flick in the style of Over the Top and others like that, to a cult classic, must see, extremely well known comedy film.  Swayze's action roles, especially if you count Point Break, are becoming legendary these days, and it's really about time.  I had been laughing at Point Break since the late 90's, wtf happened recently that made people realize this shit is comic gold?

Road House is the classic story of a man who's brought into a rough and tumble town to set a local bar straight.  He's hired in the first part of the film, brought to this shithole town, and he's put in charge of bar security.  This is his trade, it's his thing.  He's a mystery man, tall dark and handsome, and soon gets involved with the daughter of local crime boss Brad (played by Jackie Treehorn from the Big Lebowski!)  Patrick Swayze and Jackie Treehorn trade tit for tat, kill for kill, and in the meantime Swayze poses shirtless a whole lot.  Somehow, I stayed sober for this movie.

Road House is for me one of those that, well, I get it, but it's not like Point Break or plenty of other shit shows that deserve the cult name.  Road House plays a lot like every other extremely stylized 80's movie.  I'd take Bloodsport over this movie every day, and I think a lot of it lays in the perception of the hero.  For me, Swayze character just isn't as likable.  Sure, he's Swayze, but he's too stylized and made inhuman for me.  I know, I'm complaining about Road House, wtf is wrong with me?

It's like in Birdman though, he doesn't relate to us, and even though they give him a back story, the question of why isn't answered to my satisfaction (why is he a bouncer, being the question).  He also is thrown this half cocked story about accidentally killing a guy at some point?  But then later single handedly kills like 10 guys, so what's the big fucking deal?

Also, I've only seen it a handful of times, but the script and deliveries don't make for any truly memorable lines.  So it's not quotable in my mind....

The music, clothes, the style, it's all there and you'll love it if you smoke, drink, watch with friends, or just, hang out and view.

A solid 3 stars from me, higher from other people though.

Zombie - 1979

And, here we go with the ultimate in zombie films, this is my kind of marathon of zombie films I have going now.  Side note, how cool would it be to live on a boat?  Boats are fucking awesome.  I want to live on a boat.

In Zombie, a group of people go to an island (they filmed in the Dominican Republic) and there a voodoo curse raises the dead, and they must be killed again.  The group of people, Anne, Peter, Brian and Susan, all scrape by to survive, as slowly we learn about how the voodoo curse works, and then as they discover the island where they are is actually an ancient graveyard, and all at once everyone thought dead long ago is coming back....

This movie invented the modern zombie that we see depicted in most ways.  Sure, Night of the Living Dead did it first, but this movie brought the horror, the gore, the legend, out into focus.  Shooting zombies in the head?  This movie.  Zombie's being rotten, disgusting, putrid, stretching out their arms, biting you?  This movie.  This movie was really the zombie movie to pack it all in and serve it up with modern tastes.  And it did it with awesome music, too.

I was thinking about how old this movie was while I watched it, and for perhaps the first time ever I had a moment where I realized, this movie is only 7 years older than me.  I was born in 1986, and I am 29 now.  Sure, I am not that old.  But I consider a movie from 1979 to be really old.  That's fucking weird dude.  To think that this movie, with it's distinctly old look to it, the actors with 70's hair, etc, is not even that much older than me.  I guess that's what getting older it like.  Damn, man.

This movie did actually age very well.  They didn't litter the costumes with 70's era clothes, there are no bell bottoms on guys or anything.  Mostly people look very normal, and the lack of a modern setting (the island is supposed to be mostly uninhabited) makes there be a natural lack of buildings and technology - time stamps if you will.  Much like my first review Killdozer, the isolation in the setting makes the film not feel as old as it is.

All things considered, in 1979 movies were experiencing a surge of reality and a lot of those movies are now classics.  Star Trek, Alien, Apocalypse Now, Mad Max, Nosferatu, Moonraker, Phantasm, Caligula, The Brood, the list could go on.  That was a tremendous year in movies, and this one belongs right there beside those classics.  I just got this idea to see a bunch of movies that were released in 1986 and see how aged they feel.  That could make me feel really old.

Zombie had an awesome setting, a great idea, cool music, decent actors, a sense of minimalism that I always appreciate, and good special effects.  This movie revolutionized the disgusting zombie we think of and expect when we see shows like The Walking Dead.  The poster for this movie makes this apparent,

I wouldn't be broadcasting this photo if it wasn't meaningful, in this case you can look at that and I'll tell you:  the makeup here is not a special one off effect.  Most the zombies look that awesome.  And then they attack your fucking face.  This movie kicks ass.

Barracuda - 1978

Song!

So maybe I've been more link happy.  What of it?  I actually hate that song too, and I didn't even think of it once before I started this review.  The song is just that style of rock I hate, like the "Hungry Like the Wolf" Duran Duran song.  I just don't like it!  I dunno bro, it's not my jam.

This movie might take the prize for "most anti-climactic movie ever" to some people.  First of all, the pacing sucks.  It's slow, the kills are not well done, the editing makes them just float by, and the atmosphere of the movie is non-existent.  Also, the killer fish, the barracudas, are not intimidating to the eye.  I actually had several times where I questioned:  are these the killer fish, or are we still waiting for the real killer to show up?  Partly that's because the kills suck, partly that's editing, but mostly just because the fish themselves look lame.

That might be "realistic" but it doesn't translate well here.  Also, the apparent ripoff feel of Jaws is heavy here, and the originality is near non-existent.  The funny thing about this movie too is that on Amazon Prime it was listed as Barracuda AKA The Lucifer Project, yet nothing else online refers to it as The Lucifer Project.

So your plot is the whole government conspiracy thing.  Someone is putting this toxin in the water, the toxin makes you always feel hungry, plus it ups your aggression and what have you.  That's all bad bad bad, and the fish are killing other fish, and then they're killing humans.  The underwater scenes are pretty cool and easily the highlight of the film, your standard monster cam takes care of most of the hunting and killing scenes, but when it's just the majesty of the ocean, a single scuba diver, etc, it's actually really neat.

This is really just another bad killer fish movie, and I don't know what else there is to dwell on there.  So let's skip to the end, spoiler warning here.  Another movie where in the end the main heroes, protagonists, die!  WTF?!  I'm not saying it's bad.  It's just so unexpected.  They finally link the aggression in the barracuda to this company, a cop and a science guy are leading the investigation....  They infiltrate the base of operations and get in a gun fight with two baddies. The reinforcement cops arrive just in time, baddies throw down guns, etc.  Then a nod from the baddies to the reinforcement cops, the cops turn their guns to the heroes and fire.  So I guess they were trying to say that since the government was in on this, they got to all the cops too.

Okay, great?

This movie wasn't that bad, but it certainly doesn't deserve any spot on the midnight movies, cult movies, movies to be watched in general lists.  Maybe if you're high enough, maybe.  I was drinking some Chinese beer during, and it did nothing for my enjoyment of it.

Day of the Dead - 1985

Originally intended to be the "Gone with the Wind" of horror movies, but scaled back a bit later on, one has to wonder what the Gone version was gonna be like and how it would'a played out.  Because this movie is epic, it's huge, and it's damn good.  So to think it might've been better, that's pretty insane.

George Romero was granted the rights to do the sequels to Night of the Living Dead, for an explanation see my review of Return of the Living Dead.  He just had to change the name a bit, so hence we had Dawn of the Dead in 1978 (he just dropped the word Living) and then this movie, Day of the Dead.  As you may be aware, there are plenty of others and remakes, but the original two are just Dawn of and Day of.

The movie starts with a scene of several people looking for survivors out in the city.  This is presumably a while after the zombie apocalypse, and after they leave without finding anyone, we learn they have searched hundreds of miles for any such survivors.  Back at their base of operations, an underground facility somewhere, there is a military presence of about 6 guys, and a scientist presence of 2.  Scientist Dr. Logan is a crazed old man and the leader of the scientist, Dr. Sarah, who is also the films leading protagonist.  This movie follows in the recent-at-the-time trend of making the lead a strong female character, a trend made popular by Halloween and Alien.

All these guys are in this underground facility, tensions and frustrations are running high, conflicts between the scientists and military are rampant, and now there is a new military lead in control.  This guy, Rhodes, is completely hellbent on putting everyone under his control, and wants to leave the compound and move to somewhere else.  The scientists want to continue their research, trying to figure out how to stop the spread of the zombies, and also if reversing the process is possible.  Anyways, the conflicts and plot goes on from there.

I kind of love fan theories and seeing other peoples take on movies like this that are fairly well known.  This movie is a true cult classic, a well known zombie film, and by a legendary director, etc.  So I was just reading on IMDb some fan theories concerning why the movie plays out the way it does, and a lot of them make a good amount of sense.  One theory is that despite how Rhodes appears in the film, he actually has a lot of motivation to send him off the way he does, and he may not be the true "bad guy" that the film makes him out to be.  This fan theory was pretty well thought out.  If you didn't want to read that, basically he has reasons to act the way he does.

The great parts of this movie are plentiful:  the music is freaking awesome.  Number one reason I saw this movie recently was because this music was put high on the list of inspirations behind the latest Boards of Canada album, and I fucking love Boards of Canada.  And it's true, the music is genius: 80's, John Carpenter inspired, minimal, creepy, awesome, etc. Listen!  I'm not like a giant soundtrack guy, but it's near perfect, I'd say.  The acting, again, solid.  The lead actress hasn't been in much, but was great in this.  The other actors are all good too.  They did a good job of making several of the characters memorable, yet still having disposable people in the flick.

The effects are good too.  Sure, not great.  By some other movies standards, a lot of the zombie makeup is pretty lame, barely existent, etc.  But some of the zombies look fucking awesome.  It's kind of a mixed bag.  But nothing horrible.  One thing this movie series does do which makes it stand out among the other zombie movies is to make the zombies capable of learning.  It's slow in this one, but in later Romero movies, it would of course be a plot point.  That plot point tends to make this movie get some guff.  Whatever, it's the small things that set these different zombie movies apart.  At least they were thoughtful re-imaginings, twists, instead of doing the same thing time and time again.

In the end, this is a very good follow up to Dawn of the Dead, and a great zombie movie.  If you haven't seen it in a while, it's a great way to scratch that zombie itch of yours.

Vengeance of the Zombies - 1973

Also known as Zombi V: Vengeance

The literate translation of the title in Spanish is "the rebellion of the dead", and this is movie where I find myself disagreeing with the critics.  Not that this is the first or last time or whatever.  I guess this is looked at as semi-classic so bad it's good in the eyes of many people, and for me this was "so bad it's....eeehhhhhh."  That's the sound of you as you gradually lose interest, get distracted, and eventually just find your eyes and your mind wandering away from the film going on.

The problems here are heard to define, so let's start with the plot:  a voodoo priest raises girls from the dead and they kill people for him.  Paul Naschy, a real actor, plays the voodoo priest dude and also wrote the movie, which is kinda interesting.  This movie was made in Spain and dubbed into English, and I think he mighta done his own dubbing.  I watched this on Amazon, and the quality sucked.  Maybe I might've liked it better had the quality been better?  It is possible.

Anyways, the girls are mildly hot at times, but the one that takes the crown is Romy, who plays Elvira, but not the mistress of the dark.  She is apparently a well known Spanish actress, but I'd never heard of her or seen her other movies.  She gets a lot of screen time and it's apparent that a lot of this movie's fan base is there because of her.  Is she hot?  Sure!  We see her nice tits once too.  But this was not like a legend-making film or performance or anything, so I just shrug at the fans.

Basically it's very color by numbers, the women kill people, voodoo guy skulks around, Romy gets hunted, yawn.  The effects, acting, look, feel, atmosphere, it's all very dated.  This movie did not age well, and again I have to say I've seen older movies that feel way more intense than this one.

Well, that's all.  1.5 stars.

Brain of Blood - 1971

I watched this under the title of "The Oozing Skull" and it's also known as "The Undying Brain" and "The Creature's Revenge".  Enough titles already?

Immediately I had the experience with this movie where I felt like this was made (almost certainly) with a comic intent.  It's just different in the feel, in the atmosphere, in the aesthetic.  Yeah, I dunno, it may not have been intentional, but it felt to me like it was at least a percentage tongue in cheek.  In that 70's way wherein it still wants to be horror movie, it just is kinda aware that well, it sucks, and it's not going to succeed in that classic sort of way.

Maybe it's the plot.  Because not only has it been done before many times, I've fucking reviewed this exact same plot with the film "The Head"!  How many times can you do the plot of "I'm removing guy X's brain and putting it into body Y"?  I mean seriously?!  And how many times do they put that brain into a body that's an animal, that's some huge lumbering guy, that's deformed, that's grotesque....It's never like, put into someone normal.  I am beginning to wonder if normal people even exist in movies anymore.

In this installation of "brain goes into X body", the brain gets put into some lumbering hulk of a dude with a burned face.  A flashback at one point tells us that this guy got his face burned when two thugs decided to pour battery acid onto his face.  It gave me this whole internal dialogue about what would actually happen should you get battery acid on you, and according to google image search that shit will indeed fuck you up.  The makeup though is horrible.  It's like someone used a glue stick to glue this weird paper thing onto the guy's face, and sometimes the paper sort of peels off, or looks wonky.

sorry for the quality here....

On Tuesday of last week, I got back from a 8 day vacation, came to work, and around 9:30 in the morning I went and bought a "work beer".  It was just that kind of a day.  So I downed a 16 ounce can of beer at work and watched this flick, and it was just about as awesome as it sounds.  This movie did feel like an almost comedy, and that was also helped by what of the following (quiz portion of the review):
1) A midget with a vaguely foreign sounding name
2) A woman chained up in the basement
3) Bland kills
4) All of the above

If you guessed 4, All of the above, you are correct!  Not only have you watched movies like this before, you may even know this blog!  It's like I said, this movie has been done so many times before.

Despite all that, the movie was about as entertaining as it could be, and with the right atmosphere, you'll like it.  Maybe.  3 stars.