31 Days of Halloween 2021 Day 14: It's Horror Heaven in 'Paperbacks From Hell'

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]

 

Let’s face it, I am exactly the target audience for this book. I grew up in the seventies and eighties, loving the horror genre in all its formats. Movies were my favorite way to get a fright fix, but horror novels were a close second. And man were there a lot of them during those two decades, calling out to me from the shelves of my local bookstore with their lurid covers and enticing taglines.

 

Thanks to Grady Hendrix and his hugely enjoyable book ‘Paperbacks From Hell’, it’s now possible to enjoy the best parts of the literature in question – the aforementioned covers and basic synopses of the batshit crazy plots – without having to invest the time it would take to read in their entirety what were, if we’re being totally honest, mostly mediocre books.

31 Days of Halloween Day 9: Rewind to the nineties with 'V/H/S 94'

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]

 

After a 7-year hiatus, the found footage anthology franchise V/H/S returns with its latest installment, V/H/S 94. Streaming exclusively on Shudder, it’s a grisly but fun collection of bite-size horrors from multiple filmmakers that capture the essence of the era in which they are set (1994, natch) while also tapping into the fears of our present.

 

The framing sequence, Jennifer Reeder’s “Holy Hell”, involves a SWAT raiding the compound of a religious cult involved in distributing an especially nasty narcotic that causes its users to gouge out their own eyes while watching videos. This of course offers up the excuse for watching the other short films.

Halloween Rocks 2021 Day 9: Kill the Hippies "Howl-A-Balloo"

Kent, Ohio's own Kill the Hippies under the pseudonym Vance Midnight and his Swank Bodies turn in this fun sixties style novelty tune. I put together the video, so don't blame them for that.

 

 

31 Days of Halloween Day 6: It's Revenge of the Mushroom People in 'Gaia' and 'In The Earth'

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]

 

Louie Schwarzberg’s 2019 documentary FANTASTIC FUNGI walked (or perhaps more accurately, blurred) the line between science and new age woo in its exploration of earth’s fungal lifeforms, and the theory that they may have some sort of interconnected intelligence. Similarly, the late Terrence McKenna wrote several books on his belief that mushrooms and other plant-based hallucinogens were a way to communicate with a metaphysical intelligence he referred to as “the other”.

 

Perhaps that same intelligence reached out to filmmakers Ben Wheatley and Jaco Bouwer, who independently of one another made IN THE EARTH (Wheatley) and GAIA (Bouwer, from a screenplay by Tertius Kapp). Both films deal with the fungal kingdom interacting with humans. But rather than benevolent enlightenment, the protagonists wind up taking decidedly bad trips more akin to Ishiro Honda’s MATANGO, known to American aficionados of psychotronic cinema as ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE.

31 Days of Halloween 2021 Day 4: The Unedited Horror of 'Censor'

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]

 

CENSOR

 

For British horror fans in the 1980s, it was the best and worst of times. That’s when home video companies took advantage of loopholes in the law to release previously banned or heavily censored horror movies in uncut form on home video.

 

At least for a while.

 

Once the British tabloid press realized what was going on, they bestowed the mantle of “Video Nasties” on these lurid films. And of course, they tried to blame all manner of real life crimes on their influence. All without any evidence. But when has that ever got in the way of a good moral panic?

31 Days of Halloween 2021 Day 3: 'Psycho Goreman' is an E.T. Gone Bad

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]

 

If E.T. was an unstoppable killing machine and Eliot was a sociopathic little girl, you might wind up with something like PSYCHO GOREMAN. Proudly wearing its influences on its sleeve, PSYCHO GOREMAN captures the vibe of low budget eighties schlock better than any recent film this side of TURBO KID, basking in nostalgia while at the same time managing to feel fresh and original despite all the classic tropes and retro imagery it trots out.

 

The plot is set in motion when Siblings Mimi (Nita-Josee Hanna) and Luke (Owen Myre) dig up a glowing space artifact in their back yard that gives them control over the alien monster buried just a little further down. The alien (Matthew Ninaber), who Mimi has dubbed Psycho Goreman, or “PG” for short, promises to kill the kids the moment he is free of their control. Luke is understandably concerned, but Mimi let’s her dark side run wild, reveling in the power of having her own personal alien enforcer.

 

31 Days of Halloween 2021 Day 1: The Joyous Lunacy of 'Malignant'

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]

The setup for MALIGNANT will likely have horror savvy viewers expecting writer/director James Wan to revisit similar territory to his INSIDIOUS and THE CONJURING films. Once it gets into gear and starts throwing one insane twist after another at the audience, however, it becomes clear that this is a very different animal altogether.

Sure, the big budget slickness and Wan’s style are there, but at its heart MALIGNANT is an over the top, go for broke, just plain crazy horror film that has more in common with such gooey, goofy eighties fare as BASKET CASE and THE EVIL DEAD 2 than it does with the usual Blumhouse type fare. There’s also a heavy dollop of giallo style in the fashion of Dario Argento (DEEP RED, TENEBRAE), and a dash of seventies psychic horror ala CARRIE, thrown in for good measure. I’d say there’s even a little bit of THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES in this film’s DNA, although not quite as pronounced as it was in Wan’s SAW. 

Back From the Grave for Halloween

Has it really been a year since I last posted anything on this blog? Yes. Yes it has. You would think with the pandemic and all keeping me at home more than usual I'd be more inclined to write, not less, but that seems not to have been the case. In part, I've been spending more time with ebay related stuff. But the main reason is I just haven't felt like writing. That was so much the case this time last year that I didn't even do a 31 Days of Halloween blogathon.

 

Well, I'm not about to let that happen again this year. I don't know if I'll be back to regular posting once October is behind us, but at least for now I feel like writing some horror reviews.

 

I'll mainly be reviewing movies, but I'll toss in the occasional horror related book, comic, series, or music review if I feel so inclined. And while I'll be focusing on newer stuff I haven't seen or read or listened to before, I'm not ruling out the possibility of writing about something older that catches my fancy.

 

That's about all I've got to say at the moment, but starting tomorrow I'll be blathering on about my opinions at much greater length for the next month.  Hopefully you'll feel inclined to read.

 

'The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh' can't even save itself

CONFESSIONS OF A GEN-X PREMIUM CABLE JUNKIE: THE FISH THAT SAVED PITTSBURGH (1979)

 

THE MEMORIES

I’ve never been a sports fan. Never. Not baseball, not football, not basketball. The closest I’ve ever come was a period in my late adolescence through my early twenties when I was a fan of professional wrestling, which really doesn’t count. That said, I’ve always enjoyed sports movies. Go figure.

 

And while I didn’t watch basketball games during the seventies, I nonetheless knew who Julius Erving aka Dr. J. was. Like Lebron James, Michael Jordan, and Magic Johnson, he was the sort of athlete who transcended basketball to become a pop cultural icon. If you were alive in the late seventies, you just knew who he was.

 

Even more than Dr. J., though, I was familiar with Meadowlark Lemon, who played for the Harlem Globetrotters. For those who don’t know, much like the professional wrestling matches I would enjoy in later years, Globetrotters games were staged, with the predetermined outcome that the Globetrotters would always win. Also like professional wrestling, the fact that the games were staged in no way meant that the athletes were not highly skilled. But beyond their playing ability, the Globetrotters were first and foremost entertainers. And thanks to their appearances on Saturday morning TV (on Scooby Doo, and later their own show in which they were superheroes of some sort) I was a fan despite having never seen an actual Globetrotter game.

Explore the secret lives of stewardesses in short film 'Wives of the Skies'

[WIVES OF THE SKIES premieres on Amazon Prime on Tuesday September 29^th.]

 

I didn’t really expect a film dealing with 1960s stewardesses and Japanese bondage to be simultaneously charming, sexy, and feminist. But that’s exactly the case with the Honey Lauren’s short WIVES OF THE SKIES. Showing an attention to 1960s period detail and filmmaking technique similar to Anna Biller (VIVA, THE LOVE WITCH), Lauren explores the private lives of two young women whose job it is to cater to the needs of airline passengers and look fabulous while doing it. While objectified by many, the reality of who they are is very different than the typical male fantasy.

 

Our window into this world in the film comes via documentary filmmaker Derrick (Drew Brandon Jones). When he decides to interview stewardesses Fran (Rachel Alig) and Marcy (Madisson Bullock) for a documentary on their profession, he does so with a number of preconceptions and expectations. It isn’t long before his expectations are dashed.

 

WIVES OF THE SKIES is a very skillfully conceived and put together film with a winning cast. I’m just not sure there’s enough here to lift it above the level of a good looking, pleasant diversion, even with the feminist subtext and the respectful depiction of Japanese rope bondage (kinbaku). It feels like the first act of a feature film that then tacks on a majorly abbreviated conclusion more than a self-contained vignette. Regardless, the well-crafted visuals, humor, and subtext make this one worth a look. Besides, it’s a safe bet you’ve got 20 minutes to spare. You probably aren’t going to be catching a flight anytime soon.

 

Come on and Join Our 'Convoy'

CONFESSIONS OF A GEN-X PREMIUM CABLE JUNKIE: CONVOY (1978)

THE MEMORIES

I can’t really talk about my nostalgia for Sam Peckinpah’s 1978 film CONVOY without first talking about what, for many Clevelander’s of a certain age, is the definitive film version of C.W. McCall’s 1975 hit country song. I’m talking about the version of “Convoy” made for airing on the Saturday afternoon Cleveland area movie program hosted by Superhost aka Marty Sullivan (you can read my interview with Marty here). The short, silly little music video Supe and his crew came up with for “Convoy” is about as perfect an adaptation of the song as one could hope for.

It was in no small part due to Supe’s version that I wound up watching Peckinpah’s CONVOY when it premiered on Star Channel, most likely sometime in 1979. And while I doubt there was any way it could have topped the Superhost version for my younger self, I do nonetheless remember enjoying the feature for its numerous fight scenes and car crashes.

'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes' Delivers the Groceries

CONFESSIONS OF A GEN-X PREMIUM CABLE JUNKIE: ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES (1978)

Despite this being a little more high profile than most of the movies I’m going to be covering in this series, it was in many ways the definitive “Star Channel” movie for me. So at the risk of ruining a perfectly nice bit of childhood nostalgia, I bought a digital copy and sat down for a trip down memory lane. To add even more pressure, I coerced my 9-year-old son into watching it with me. Would either of us find this seventies artifact, a movie often spoken of as one of the worst films ever made, entertaining in the 21^st century? Let’s find out!

THE MEMORIES

I was 9 or 10 when I first saw ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES, which is just about the perfect age to watch a movie like this. At that age, one is old enough to understand some of the inappropriate jokes and feel like they’re getting away with something, but still young enough to yuck it up at the silly, immature gags that made all the serious, adult critics of the time groan.

But who cares about the critics, especially when you’re a kid? For me, this movie was comedy gold. I made sure to get in a couple of repeat viewings while it was in rotation on Star Channel. I knew the theme song by heart. I drew crayon masterpieces of tomato carnage in art class. I’m pretty sure if it hadn’t been for STAR WARS, I would have told you at the time that ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES was the greatest movie ever made.

But as such things happened in the late seventies, ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES was eventually removed from Star Channel’s schedule. I got older, and saw many other, arguably better films along the way. Eventually I watched the film on VHS and found it to still be reasonably amusing. I also saw the so-called “director’s cut” released in 1995, only this time I wasn’t quite as amused. Mainly that was due to the alterations rubbing me the wrong way.

I haven’t seen the movie since. Until now.

Cover your ears for 'The Shout'

CONFESSIONS OF A GEN-X PREMIUM CABLE JUNKIE: THE SHOUT (1978)

By Bob Ignizio

THE MEMORIES

It may seem odd to begin a series of blog posts aboutnostalgic movie memories with a film I didn’t actually see until just a few days ago, but allow me to explain. When my family first got Star Channel, the trailer for THE SHOUT seemed to be played almost constantly. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on in this trailer, but it sure looked freaky. Must have looked freaky to my parents, too, as they made it clear I would not be watching this movie. And since I hadn’t quite yet worked out how to “sneak watch” movies I wasn’t supposed to see (that would come soon), I was out of luck.

Nonetheless, the trailer made an impression.

Given this fact, you’d think I would have rented the movie on VHS at some point in the eighties. But while Columbia did release the film on tape at some point, I don’t recall ever seeing it on the shelves of any of my local video stores. As for DVD, I don’t believe the film ever had an official release in the U.S. on that format. Across the pond, England got a DVD in 2003, and again in 2007, and there was a Blu Ray release in 2014. But aside from the fact that these releases just weren’t on my radar, they were all region coded, and I don’t have a region free player.

Thankfully, THE SHOUT is (for the moment, at least) available to stream in the U.S. on Amazon Prime, which is how I finally got around to seeing it.

Confessions of a Gen-X Premium Cable Junkie

By Bob Ignizio

Way back in the stone age – before streaming, before DVDs, before VHS, and before cable – if you didn’t see a movie at the theater when it first came out, you had to hope it would show up on broadcast TV. And when it did, aside from having to deal with commercial breaks, the chances were good that the movie would be edited for television. 

But that began to change in the seventies. That’s when the earliest VCRs hit the market, and pay cable channels like Star Channel and HBO began showing movies uncut. While my memory is fuzzy as to the exact dates, I know my family got both cable and a VCR around 1978 or early 79. And in addition to basic cable, we subscribed to Star Channel, which would eventually be rebranded as The Movie Channel in December of 1979.

'The Wretched' scares up big drive-in box office in the age of Covid-19

[THE WRETCHED opens in Ravenna, OH on Friday May 22nd at the Midway Drive-In Theatre.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

In ordinary times, a movie like THE WRETCHED would likely have had a few late night screenings in select markets before going on to digital, where it would have had a hard time getting noticed amidst all the other low budget horror offerings. But with the Covid-19 pandemic completely upending the normal patterns of movie distribution, and major studios either holding back their releases or sending them straight to digital, a niche has opened for low to mid budget films to play theatrically at drive-in theaters (and apparently a few indoor screens in states that have relaxed social distancing rules).

It is thanks to this unique set of circumstances that THE WRETCHED, a modestly budgeted horror film from writers/directors Brett and Drew T. Piece, finds itself at the top of the box office charts, taking in around $300,000 since opening May 1^st on 11 drive-in screens. This Friday it expands to a few more locations, including the Midway Drive-In in Ravenna, OH. It’s also available to watch at home on the streaming platform of your choice.

That’s an interesting backstory for the film, but what really matters is whether it’s worth watching, pandemic or no. The answer is… kinda? Let’s just get to the review.

There's something out there in 'The Vast of Night'

[THE VAST OF NIGHT opens in northeast Ohio on Friday May 15th at The Mayfield Road Drive-in in Chardon, the Elm Road Drive-in in Warren, and the Magic City Drive-in in Barberton.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

While THE VAST OF NIGHT is set in the 1950s, its themes are just as relevant today as they ever were. On the surface, the film is about two small town teenagers – radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) and switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) – trying to track down the origins of a mysterious radio signal that interferes with both the phone system and Everett’s broadcast. What it really seems to be about, though, are small town fears. Both the fear of being stuck in a place where you don’t belong and don’t see much future, and the opposite but equal fear of leaving that place, no matter how stifling it might be.

Director Andrew Patterson, working from a script by James Montague and Craig W. Sanger, allows his film to unfold at a leisurely pace. Not only does that give us plenty of time to get to know our two leads and the world they inhabit, but it allows the mystery and suspense to build slowly and naturally. There’s talk of UFOs and possible alien abductions, and a subplot about a government cover-up that touches on our nation’s legacy of racism. But Patterson plays it subtle, and doesn’t try to juice things up with contrived action or peril. There is a satisfying (albeit ambiguous) payoff in the end, but it’s far from the sort of climax one would find in a more mainstream film.

‘Butt Boy’ sucks you in to its dark world

Review by Bob Ignizio

I’ve seen a lot of weird movies in my time. Weird is kind of my thing. And I can honestly say I haven’t seen anything quite like BUTT BOY. Maybe the closest comparison would be DAVE MADE A MAZE, but even that’s a stretch. It’s perhaps a kindred spirit to Adam Rifkin’s insane cult classic THE DARK BACKWARD, but while it may be almost as bizarre, BUTT BOY is decidedly its own movie.

So now that we’ve established what it isn’t, what, exactly, is BUTT BOY?

Structurally, this film fits in the neo noir/police procedural genre, with a bit of addiction and recovery drama thrown in. Office worker and family man Chip Gutchell (Tyler Cornack) discovers during his first ever prostate exam that he really likes having things inserted in his butt. And as time goes on, the bigger the better, up to and including small pets and even babies. He tries to kill himself and fails, but eventually seems to get his strange compulsion under control through AA meetings.

Don't say "Ok, Boomer" to the bad-asses of 'VFW'

Review by Bob Ignizio

Filmmaker Joe Begos seems to be following the old saw, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” with his latest film VFW. The film primarily takes its cues from John Carpenter’s 1976 siege action film ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13. Instead of having his punk rock thugs attack a police station, though, Begos pits them against a band of mostly senior citizen bad-asses who just happen to be hanging out at the local VFW hall across the street from punk central.

VFW spends a decent amount of time establishing its characters and their situation, but makes sure to get to the violent action before losing the eyeballs of today’s attention challenged audiences. And once the action starts, it doesn’t let up.

A martial arts saga reaches its conclusion with 'Ip Man 4: The Finale'

[IP MAN 4: THE FINALE screens Saturday March 14^th at 9:40 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

As the title proclaims, IP MAN 4: THE FINALE brings to a conclusion the series of films based (very loosely) on the life of Chinese martial arts master Ip Man. Like all its predecessors, it stars Donnie Yen in the title role and was directed by Wilson Yip, with Edmond Wong and Chain Tai Lee once again serving as screenwriters, this time in collaboration with Dana Fukazawa and Jil Leung Lai Yin.

Set in 1964, for his final adventure in the series Ip (Yen) travels to San Francisco’s Chinatown. There he hopes to find a new school for his son Ip Ching (Jim Liu), who has been kicked out of school in Hong Kong for fighting. Ip also checks in on his former student Bruce Lee (Danny Chan), who has opened a martial arts school that teaches Wing Chun style kung fu to anyone, regardless of race. This doesn’t sit well with the Chinese Benevolent Association, headed by Wan Zong-hua (Wu Yue). Wing and his fellow board members are adamant that Chinese martial arts should only be taught to Chinese people.

A housewife finds control through a strange habit in 'Swallow'

[SWALLOW opens Friday, March 13th at the Atlas Diamond Centre Cinemas 16.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Depicted as the stereotypical upper-class housewife, it would seem as though Hunter (Haley Bennett) has everything she could want from life. She lives in a nice house, has a good looking and seemingly considerate husband in the person of Richie (Austin Stowell), and wants for nothing material.

But in Carlo Mirabella-Davis’s SWALLOW, what some would consider the American dream is far from it. Hunter’s day to day life offers little opportunity for fulfillment beyond decorating her home. And it turns out her seemingly perfect husband is kind of a douche. He’s not physically abusive, but he has little if any interest in his wife’s thoughts and opinions.

The only other people in Hunter’s life are her in-laws, who at best see her as an extension of their son and not as a real person. Richie’s dad (David Rasche) barely acknowledges Hunter’s existence. Richie’s mother (Elizabeth Marvel), on the other hand, makes passive aggressive comments and suggestions to her daughter-in-law. Hunter’s own parents are notable by their absence, and if she has any friends, we don’t see them.