Awful Spring

OFFSPRING-2009-This one is about the cannibalistic offspring of some lighthouse operator that terrorize a town in Northern Maine (but it was filmed in Michigan). Canadian actor Art Hindle plays a alcoholic ex-police officer who heads a local force to hunt down the killers (they also speak their own language) who like to steal babies. It's very nasty, not very well made and the cannibals are unintentionally funny sometimes. It was kind of like THE HILLS HAVE EYES hits the suburbs and features gore and nudity. It's based on a novel by Jack Ketchum (he also wrote the screenplay) who's other novels RED and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR were made into films. Director Andrew van den Houten also made a movie called HEADSPACE.

Bean There, Done That...

HILLSIDE CANNIBALS-2006-A group (family) of cannibals terrorize some teens in the California desert in this low budget gory idiocy. They mostly use torture, eat the flesh and drink the blood of their victims but they also grunt and groan and fight amongst themselves a lot. Somehow another guy who's daughter was killed by the tribe has tracked them down and wants revenge but he gets killed the first time he attacks them! This is suppose to have been inspired by the (possibly fictional) legend of Sawney Bean, a Scottish madman who terrorized his native land with a his own family of cannibals but the real influence is THE HILLS HAVE EYES (which may have be influenced itself by the Bean legend). The director Leigh Scott plays the head of the clan.

I just read the DVD box also makes reference to THHE and the Bean legend!

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Chuck vs. Rodney

THE PROJECTIONIST-1971-This unusual feature has once popular NYC children's host Chuck McCann as a movie loving projectionist who works in a theater run by a pompous and demanding manager (Rodney Dangerfield in his movie debut). When not working he wanders the city, plays pool and dreams he's a celebrity. Sometimes he imagines he's a superhero called "Captain Flash". These are Flash Gordon inspired sequences but are more like a take on silent films and comic books (Dangerfield also appears as the villain "The Bat") as the characters never talk. Word balloons are used instead. These parts are clever but a little silly now (maybe not so much in the early '70's). Ina Balin plays the girl of his dreams.

The biggest surprise in this unique low budget wonder is the use of so many mainstream Hollywood movies (especially CASABLANCA, FLASH GORDON and CITIZEN KANE). There's also a strange commercial on TV for The Christian-Judeo Good Guy Kit.

THE PROJECTIONIST was made by Harry Hurwitz (he also appears as an usher) who later made AUDITIONS, FAIRY TALES, NOCTURNA, SAFARI 3000 and others. He died in 1995 at the age of 57.

Thanks for reading!