Santo Saves!

 

 (wikipedia)

SANTO VS. THE HEADHUNTERS-1969-After our hero Santo of the Silver Mask (himself) beats up four guys, he discovers one of them has an ancient knife. Meanwhile, an explorer Don Alonso Grijalva (director/co-writer Rene Cardona) tells his guests about The Jivaro Indians and their propensity for collecting human heads. He even shows them a shrunken one. His daughter Mariana (Nadia Milton) is also present. Meanwhile one the guys Santo beat up is part of the headhunter cult and he tells the leader of his troubles. With the help of a Jivaro spy aka Don Alonso's butler, they kidnap Mariana and plan to make her a sacrifice. Santo leads an expedition to save her. And besides encountering hostile locals, Santo has to fight a crocodile and a leopard. Later the luchador extraordinaire fights the biggest warrior to save Mariana's life.

Another crazy south of the border production. Director/actor Cardona also made SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA and the comedy SANTO VS CAPULINA as well as NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES.

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Forgotten '70's Shit

 

JC-1972-Hippie-biker-pothead JC Masters (Bill McGaha) can't hold a job and hallucinates a lot. Almost 17 minutes past before the credits are shown! 

JC wants his gang to spread love and is almost like a weird religious cult preacher. He and his girlfriend Kim (Pat Delany) and his gang go back to his hometown to visit his sister (Joanna Moore). The sheriff (Slim Pickens) and his deputy (Burr DeBenning) are very upset because JC has a black guy David Little (Hannibal Penney) with him. After the redneck duo arrest and beat up Little it's rednecks vs. hippies in a motorcycle shotgun shootout. After the deputy kills Little peace loving JC kills the deputy. In the end the Christ like JC is killed. 

Visible boom mics are in many scenes in this dumb dated misfired parable written and directed by lead actor McGaha who made one more movie after this.

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The (A) Void

 

THE VOID-2016-This bloody violent tasteless horror movie is about a group of people trapped in a semi-abandoned hospital by a cult in white robes. A mad doctor (Kenneth Walsh) has "conquered death" and wants to bring back his dead daughter. He turns people into blob like tentacle monsters and the cast swears and screams a lot. This Canadian production has two directors Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski but one competent director would have been better.

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Hammer Vampires

KISS OF THE VAMPIRE-1963-This Hammer production begins with a guy interrupting a funeral and using a shovel to smash open a coffin. A scream emulates from within and blood appears. Then newlyweds Gerald (Edward DeSouza) and Marianne (Jennifer Daniel) have car trouble and Jerry goes off for some petrol. All the while they are being spied on by a mysterious figure in a nearby castle. All alone and spooked by the rising wind Maria ventures out of the car and meets the guy with the shovel who warns her to go back to her car. After getting a tow the couple get a room at an inn and are invited to dine with Dr. Ravna (Noel Willman), the guy who was watching them earlier. The eerily suave doctor has two kids, Sabena (Jacquie Wallis) and Karl (Barry Warren). At dinner Marianne seems mesmerized by Karl's piano playing. At a masked ball Marianne learns the truth. Ravna is head of a vampire cult. They imprison Marianne then tell Gerald there is no such person as his wife. Everyone agrees so Gerald goes to Prof. Zimmer (Clifford Evans) for help and we learn that his own daughter had been vampire-ized by Ravna (he killed her in the pre-credit funeral sequence). 

Although the story is fairly standard and boring, the finale where Zim and Jerry rescue Marianne is exciting and violent with the professor using a spell that sends vampire bats to kill the vampires! Director Don Sharp went on to direct Christopher Lee in THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES, RASPUTIN and several Fu Manchu entries.

Snakes On Everythig

CULT OF THE COBRA-1955-In this Universal horror story, 6 US G.I.s stationed somewhere in Asia and almost ready to return to the states meet a snake charmer (Leonard Strong) who gets them into a secret ceremony where (he says) a human being will change into a snake. They get drunk, put on hooded robes and go see the ritual. Though they were forbidden to take pictures one stupid guy (James Dobson) takes a flash picture. A riot ensues wherein the GIs beat up the cultists and burn the place but not before one of cultists (un-billed Ed Platt!) curses them with death. ("One by one you will die!") The stupid guy runs away with a basket containing the snake and gets bit. He survives but later is killed. The rest return to the states. Marshall Thompson is Tom Markel, a commercial artist who meets the mysterious Lisa Moya (Faith Domergue) who turns out to be a snake! His other pals include his roommate is Paul Able (Richard Long), ladies man Carl Turner (Jack Kelly), bowling alley owner Rico (David Janssen) and Pete (William Reynolds). While Tom falls in love with her, Lisa does away with his friends by turning into a cobra and killing them. Later Lisa realizes she's in love with Tom. It's the age old question: Can a woman who turns into a snake find happiness with the man she loves after killing all of his friends?

Paul figures out what's going on but no one believes him until he and Tom are the only ones left alive. When cobra-Lisa threatens Paul's fiance' (Kathleen Hughes; IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE) Tom uses a coat rack to subdue the deadly reptile as it transforms back into Lisa after it's dead.

CULT isn't a bad little film. It has a good cast and the cobra attacks are ok but it's drawback is it's predictable story. The minute the dark, enigmatic Lisa character shows up you know where it's all going. Director Francis D. Lyon worked in TV and later made the very low budget films DESTINATION INNER SPACE and CASTLE OF EVIL (both starring Scott Brady).

Almost every male star went on to have his own TV show. Star Faith Domergue had a busy year in '55. Besides playing a cobra woman she was in THE ISLAND EARTH, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA and THE ATOMIC MAN. COTC also features bits by Olan Soule, Myrna Hansen and Bing Russell. A  hot dog vendor in quick scene looks to me like Ben Frommer (he mostly has his back to the camera) who was in Ed Woods' BRIDE OF THE MONSTER the same year....

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