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Reviews
Killer's Delight (1978)
Not a bad attempt at an American giallo.
I came across this movie in a list of movies inspired by true crime cases. The inspiration for this film was the cases of Ted Bundy and Edmund Kempler.
The script is very simple, clearly having some influence by European films like 'Bird With The Crystal Plumage' or 'Black Belly of the Tarantula'. However, Maralyn Thoma doesn't make this mystery that complex, focusing more on the cat and mouse game between the killer and the detective.
Compared to most modern slick thrillers and horror movies, it is easy to consider this film dull with it's steady progression and lack of cheap fake scares. What this film is trying to achieve isn't cheap shocks but a slow sense of frustration and dread.
The killer is underdeveloped as a character for a simple reason, this film is from 1978. A lot of the information about serial killers, their psycho-pathology and victimology was still being developed at the time. Without the information we take for granted now, it was much better to keep the tension by detaching from the killer, making him a monster by mystery.
The actors in this film are giving their all. James Luisi is a very sympathetic, complicated protagonist, absorbed in this case and torn between his home life with his family, and his mistress, a psychologist who can give him his first clues on the nature of this kind of monster.
The girls playing the victims are very convincing in their naivety, their shock at being trapped and their fear being in the hands of a madman. They aren't mere cookie cut bodies or subtly being blamed for their victimization, with small action and dialog, they are made real and ordinary for us.
Oh, and also because it is a late seventies film, there has to be one lame, over sentimental song. That's just a given.
This is an overlooked film, and that's a pity. For a true horror maven, it is well worth watching.
Camp Cuddly Pines Powertool Massacre (2005)
This movie makes me happy in so many ways!
Jonathan just fills this fan girl's heart with delight! His brilliant "Space Nuts" a porn sci-fi sex comedy was so much fun I've currently making all my fan friends watch it. It's slowly going house to house, and I should get the DVD back sometime in mid 2007 at this rate.
Now he's taken on horror, the genre I adore! This spooky, comic sex romp is everything "Scary Movie" attempts to be, except with jokes that are actually funny. The jabs at the manic maniac movies of the 80's and 90's, and send ups of contemporary indie frights are handled with deft cuts that are witty, sexy and still a bit scary.
Stormy Daniels, Princess of Space Nuts and heroine of Eternity, is in fine form as Kirsten, bubbly blonde danger magnet who isn't sure what she should be more traumatized by - the possible dismemberment of her boyfriend, or breaking the heel of her $300 shoes. Jessica Drake, (departing from her usual style with a rather flattering auburn hairdo), is marvelous as the acid tongued Megan, who provides a bitchy straight woman to Kirsten's floaty punchlines. (Megan: "Okay, if you were a phone, where would you be?" Kirsten: "In a phone booth." Megan: "Okay, if you were a phone booth, where would you be?" Kirsten: "At a gas station!") The rest of our college "kids" are rounded out by Eric Masterson, as our math geek, Blair Witch documentary artiste; Voodoo and Tommy Gunn are our lettermen (one being the captain of the badminton team), who are trying prove themselves manly and heroic, with limited success. Josh: "Did you just hear that sound?" Rayford: "What sound?" Josh: "Well, there were like two different sounds - one was like a bobcat or an owl and the other was like a scream." Todd: "A scream? What kind of scream?" Josh: "Like AHHHAHHH, only a lot more girlie." Todd: "Oh, you mean like when I'm f**king your mother, right?" Josh: "That only happened once!"
Add to the blend a mysterious guy to be run over by a van, a beautiful spirit guide, an attack raccoon, a well with a creepy Ring chick, as well a mysterious old caretaker (Mike Horner - who played the Evil Overlord in Space Nuts is comic gold here!) and even dearer to my heart and other places, Randy Spears - a gruff voiced Texas sheriff- and it's mixed very well.
There is splashing blood, disfigured psychos, roaring power tools and startling soundtrack chords, that do add a nice bit of horror atmosphere, however, the film is first and foremost a comedy. So, the horror is a dash here and there, in the midst of it all - adding to the fun, but not eclipsing it.
The sex scenes are quite hot, even if a bit too formulaic. The performances are enhanced by people maintaining character when they can. However, I would say there is a decided lack of cunnilingus in this film and I think that Jonathan should really address that in his next movie. A little more variation in the pop-shots would be welcome, just so I don't have to listen to the sigh and, "Look another facial." which accompanies most of them -well, it is mostly me saying that, true. Oh, and the gold belly chain on the mental patient.? Yes, it's pretty, but under a hospital gown? That's just not right.
As with Space Nuts, the extra discs are just as much fun as the film itself, with commentary, bloopers, shorts, auditions and all kinds of camp stuff!
I plan to inflict this movie on everyone I know - and this time, I'm buying a spare DVD!
On the Air (1992)
A Blast of High Velocity Weirdness
I adored this show when it aired and have had the good fortune to have all seven episodes. Ian Buchanan is comic gold as Lester Guy, the second rate star of the Lester Guy show, constantly upstaged by his angelic, kind, beautiful, yet rather simple minded, co-star Betty Hudson. Miguel Ferrer is electric as the ass-kicking, frothing studio executive, Buddy Buddwaller - delivering genius lines like, "McGonnegal, I bear nothing but scorn and calculated retribution in response to shabby treatment from those so far down the food chain." A surreal combination of gypsy magicians, ducks, the hurry-up twins, a sound engineer with Bozman's Simplex, and beatniks make this a hilarious joy ride. Lynch and Frost will astonish and amaze!
Mondo cannibale (1980)
Fun Eurotrash!
Enjoyable Cannibal Eurotrash! A simple tale of foolish exploration by a man who thought hostile Amazon territory would be more fun to see with the wife and kid along. Then the cannibals just make the whole trip worthwhile, eating his wife and kidnapping his daughter. Ten years later we are witness to the father's trek to reclaim his daughter who was by this tribe as a reincarnation of the tribe's Goddess. Since Dad showed so much foresight and planning the first time, it is a trip begging to be fraught with mishap.
Other reviews consider this the worst film they've seen...perhaps so in their case, but I seen lots worse than this. "Amazon Arena" and "I eat your skin" for example. Oh, this says a lot about my collection, doesn't it? Anyway, it's not Cannibal Holocaust or Make Them Die Slowly, however it's fun, not deeply plotted - but entertaining drive in fare. I liked it better than Hostel.
Just don't plan to eat during the native scenes.