The B-Masters Cabal

Some day, I will settle on a Teleport City design and stick with it. This one’s closer than most to being mildly acceptable to me. Anyway, usher in my endless George Lucas style fiddling with:

MOON ZERO TWO
England’s Hammer Films had the misfortune of releasing their nicely decorated but somewhat tepid science fiction romp Moon Zero Two in the wake of 1968’s two big genre-changing films, and as a result, Hammer’s effort comes out looking decidedly small scale and quaint. But perhaps even more crushing, Hammer released their breezy little moon adventure movie in 1969 and wound up competing directly with the actual Apollo moon landing. While a vision of the moon that included scantily clad dancing girls and scotch dispensers appeals to a certain sensibility, in the end, Moon Zero Two just couldn’t beat out Neil Armstrong actually hopping around on the surface of the moon, even though the real moon ended up not having any dancing girls or scotch — at least, one assumes, up until Alan Shepard got up there with his golf clubs.

And here we are, with two zombie movies that are worlds apart in terms of tone and style (though both are actually pretty good):

Colin (2008) – Yes, the “$75 zombie movie.”

Night of the Seagulls (1975) – Wrapping up the Blind Dead series on a highish note.

Aaaand out!

Okay, so maybe after some close examination The In Crowd will never win an award for being one of the best movies ever made. But, my God, it is filled with so much energy, so much fun that it’s a mystery as to why it never got any other kind of awards. With colorful characters, great dance sequences, and an absolutely killer soundtrack full of ’60s favorites, you’ll be wondering why it hasn’t built a cult in the more than twenty years since it was first released.

OPERATION PINK SQUAD 2

Once Operation Pink Squad II enters your life, it is a film that you will watch again. Even if you don’t like it, you’ll be drawn to it. It is the siren song of crazy-ass cinema. There are some truly wonderful, frenetic, jaw-dropping sequences going on. And, as I am not one for presenting wholesale spoilers, I haven’t even mentioned the ending, where things get really bloody, by Cat II standards anyway, but no less weird than the proceeding seventy minutes. This film is absolute madness.

Also hanging around…

THE HIDDEN
You WILL believe Kyle MacLachlan is a space alien

ZOMBIE HUNTER RIKA
Another Japanese zombie movie that doesn’t make much sense

BLOODRAYNE 2: DELIVERANCE
Suddenly, the first Bloodrayne doesn’t seem to bad.

New reviews at 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting:

Amazon Jail (1982), in which I like Oswaldo de Oliveira better when he’s being Joe D’Amato than I do when he’s being Andy Sidaris…

The Brotherhood of Satan (1971), in which Strother Martin is just the cuddliest little old devil-worshiper you ever did see…

Fright Night (1985), in which Susan Sarandon’s ex does nearly as good a job with his 80’s vampire movie as she did…

Georges Melies Trick Films, 1898, in which our Georgie starts to spread his creative wings a little…

Targets (1968), in which a nearly wheelchair-bound Boris Karloff is still more of a badass than any little punk with a sniper rifle…

and…

X: The Unknown (1956), in which Hammer steals a march on The Blob, and does it with portentous style.
 
 
 

It’s the third week of Month of the Living Dead, and again I get to play compare-and-contrast with this week’s selections.

One is a well-known minor classic of the genre…

I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

…and the other is, charitably, not.

Deadlands 2: Trapped (2008)

So we’ve done horror from Hong Kong, terror out of Tokyo. I guess that makes this…umm…the evil of Indonesia?

GHOST WITH HOLE

If you’re going to be queen of something, Indonesian horror movies from the 1970s and 80s are not a bad thing to be queen of. To my mind, when it comes to horror filmmaking with an exploitative edge, the Indonesians back then really knew what they were doing. Their films were both compact and loaded with outlandish visuals and over-the-top shock moments, more often than not realized by way of cheap but imaginative practical effects. While not all of them are classics, I can honestly say that I have yet to be bored by one.

And bringing up the rear…

VAMP
I love this movie a whole lot more than I remember, despite the Gedde Watanabe overdrive

CREEP
A movie that flirts with being good, then decides it would rather stab me in the face