HenenHorror

BRAIN DAMAGE-1988-This is the kind of "forgotten" Frank Henenlotter film made between his first two BASKET CASE movies and the incredible FRANKENHOOKER.

It tells the story of "Aylmer", an ancient symbiotic slug like parasite that eats brains to survive. It also secretes a euphoric drug into it's host body that creates an LSD like high. It latches on to Brian (Rick Hearst), an anemic dullard who lives with his brother (Gordon MacDonald). An old couple had been keeping Alymer prisoner in their apartment by feeding him only animal brains to keep him weak but he escapes to find more tasty human grey matter. He talks too! One highlight is him in a sink singing "Aylmer's Song" while Brian rolls on the floor in agony. Aylmer's voice is provided (un-credited) by the one and only Zacherley, the NYC based TV horror host of the '60's (He recently turned 90!).

BD is well made despite it's low budget and there's lots of bloody deaths (in a junkyard, a toilet stall, a club called Hell) and clever dialogue. The funniest scene though takes place in a subway car where BASKETCASE's Kevin Van Hentenryck makes an appearance!

In addition to writing and directing Henenlotter (who should have made more films) co-produced and co-edited this wonderful insanity!

Thanks for reading!

Strangely, lead actor Hearst went on to become a soap opera star......

The Blog Where Human Timebombs Dwell....

HUMAN TIMEBOMB from 1995 stars Bryan Genesse (who co-starred with Carl Weathers on the 1991 TV crime show STREET JUSTICE) as an FBI agent battling Cuba drug lords. The head mobster plants a micro-chip in him that turns him into an assassin. With the help of a female lawyer (J. Cynthia Brooks) he rebels. Video vet Joe Lara is the control freak villian. The usual car chases, shootouts and explosions abound. Director Mark Roper later did a lot of syndicated TV shows like CONAN THE BARBARIAN and RELIC HUNTER.



What's worst than seeing a bad movie on cable? Seeing a bad movie on cable and then seeing it in the movies a year later under another name!!!

This was my fate when I happened to view a creaky low budget murder mystery called DELUSION on cable one night around 1980. The story concerns a woman (Patricia Pearcy from SQUIRM) who goes to work for invalid Joseph Cotton and people in his household start getting murdered. Everyone's a suspect! Who's doing it? Cotton's brain damaged son? How about his weird grandson? The drunk butler? The gardener? The lawyer? Maybe the maid? Even though the film makers try to be different you can pretty much figure out the twist ending as not many of the cast survive! Gets an A for effort I guess.

But that is not the end!
(It never is...)

A year or so later I went to a double feature at a local theater. For those of you who don't remember, a double feature was when a movie house showed two movies for the price of one! Really! They used to do that! Anyway, I don't even remember what the main feature was but the second feature was called THE HOUSE WHERE DEATH DWELLS. I was all set for some great unheard of low budget tomfoolery and what do I get?

You got it!

DELUSION under another name........

Thanks for reading!

Hammer's Other Time

BLACK CAESAR-1973-Blaxplotation classic starring Fred Williamson (who had starred in HAMMER the year before) as Tommy Gibbs who rises from abused shoeshine boy (who helps with a mob hit) to Black Caesar, the head of the Harlem underworld. He gets help from a phony black preacher (frequent co-star D’Urville Martin) and a corrupt white lawyer (William Wellman Jr.) to secure some ledgers that can expose some corrupt politicians and nearly kills his own father (Julius Harris). In the wildest scene he puts shoe polish on the face of a corrupt white cop (Art Lund) and makes him sing “Mammy” while beating him to death.

Gloria Hendry (who had a role in LIVE AND LET DIE the same year) plays his girlfriend who later betrays him. Val Avery is a mob leader Gibbs muscles out and Don Pedro Colley is Crawdaddy, Gibbs’s right hand man who causes a lot of trouble. The ending finds Gibbs seemingly dying near a burned out building in his old neighborhood after being beat up by local kids. 

He doesn’t die though. Gibbs-Williamson returned in HELL UP IN HARLEM later in the year.

BC was the second feature directed by Larry Cohen (who also wrote and produced). Besides the sequel he also made IT’S ALIVE around the same time and went on to make other quirky features. He and Williamson re-teamed (with Jim Brown, Pam Grier, among others) for ORIGINAL GANGSTAS in 1996.



HELL UP IN HARLEM-1973-This sequel was pushed into production and it shows. It’s a major letdown after the incredible BLACK CAESAR and has a lot of unintentional laughs.

Gangster Tommy Gibbs apparently didn’t die. Despite being shot and beaten he manages to phone his dad (returning Julius Harris) who comes to his rescue, hides the ledgers and gets “some brothers who can still be trusted” to help out. They take Gibbs to a hospital and hold the staff at gunpoint and force a surgeon to operate (with no anesthesia). This part is pretty funny. Eventually the Gibbs character is re-molded into a force for good battling drug dealers and corrupt politicians. For a while he turns over his gang to dear old Dad who starts a gang war and kills his ex-girlfriend (the also returning Gloria Hendry). D'Urville Martin repeats his role as the preacher who is now legit and believes Tommy is doing good.

It’s entertaining but kind of a letdown. It’s been said the role of Tommy Gibbs was first offered to Sammy Davis Jr. who turned it down!

Thanks for reading!

"Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared." Henri Nouwen

Not So Subliminal Warning.....

Ok, the movie is called SUBLIMINAL SEDUCTION (1995). Warning number 1. It was shown on the cable network Showtime under the "Roger Corman Presents" banner. Now I like Corman. He was an independent maverick who made great low budget films in the '50's and '60's and he probably influenced a whole generation of movie-makers but recently all he does is release direct to video and cable nonsense, each more derivative than the last. See? That wasn't so bad was it?

Warning 2: This movie was produced and directed by actor Andrew Stevens whose other efforts include THE TERROR WITHIN 2, NIGHT EYES 3 and THE SKATEBOARD KID-2. Doesn anyone notice a pattern here? He did also direct a Don "The Dragon" Wilson martial arts thingy called VIRTUAL COMBAT.

Warning 3: It was released on VHS under the title THE CORPORATION.

The interactive hijinx story has a young couple (Ian Ziering and Katherine Kelly Lang) going to work for a Las Vegas video designer company run by the aforementioned Mr. Stevens, who yes has the unmitigated gall to also co-star in this (and limp and walk with a cane to boot) and his band of flunkies (Kin Shriner, Larry Manetti and Kim Morgan Greene). Dee Wallace Stone plays a talkative neighbor. The company is using cd-roms and video games to control people's emotions. "This stuff is like messin' with the inside of your head" says one character. They are also using subliminal messages to sell video games with names like "Mouse Maze" and "Radical Rat Trap".

Fred Olen Ray regular Hoke Howell and Juilan Kresner (from FIRECRACKER) co-star and to prove nepotism is not dead. Stevens' mom Stella also makes an apperance. It's not very good....



And speaking of not very good. A lot of TV shows are on dvd now. A good one to avoid is FLASH GORDON, a syndicated show made in 1954. It starred Steve Holland in the title role which sadly seems to be his only claim to fame. Looking somewhat like an All American '50's football player, he was bigger on talk than action but occasionally points an over sized "stun gun" at the bad guys. Irene Champlin plays Dale Arlen, in a dress that looks more like "IceCapades" than outer space. She doesn't do much but listen to Flash pontificate though in one episode she does try to fight. Much like her co-star Holland, this series seems to be her only claim to fame. Joe Nash is Dr. Zarkoff, who doesn't do much either. In fact, he hardly ever leaves his lab. Seems he didn't do much before or after either!

If you happen to get your courage up and decide to view an episode you might be suprised to hear most of the supporting cast speaking with German accents. Don't be! For some reason this no-budget mess was filmed in Berlin, Germany!

FLASH GORDON's credited director is American Wallace Worsley Jr. A second generation filmmaker (his dad directed several Lon Chaney Sr. silent films including THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME) he was mainly an assistant director and production manager on many US films. Guess how many other TV series he directed.....

I've seen Guther Van Fritsch's name sometimes mentioned as a director too. At least he did direct a number of TV shows in the '50's!!

This TV show should be forgotten in a flash.....

Thanks for reading!

Not Featuring Matt Helm...

THE SILENCERS-1995-The US government and aliens (who talk in sub-titles) are involved in inter-dimensional travel. The non-human Men In Black hynotize and intimidate poeple. Jack Scalia (also co-producer) is an FBI agent on loan to The Pentagon where General Greenboro (Clarence Williams lll) is in charge. Lots of time is spend on a subway shootout/chase, a shootout in a lab and a highway chase. All typical tradmarks of PM Entertainment, who for a time dominated direct to video releases (many with Don "The Dragon" Wilson).

Dennis Christopher shows up as an alien good guy agent (who's kind of a doofus) from "The Association Of Worlds" and uses holograms to explain where he came from and why he's here. The bad aliens are trying to take over Earth with clones. He and Scalia wind up at a UFO con.

Director Richard Pepin produced way too many direct to video action films (mostly with his partner Richard Merhi) but only directed a handful himself including CYBERTRACKER 1 & 2. He was also a cinematographer are many of them.

Thanks for reading!

3

I've heard bad things about THE MEDALLION (2003) with Jackie Chan but I kind of enjoyed it. It's much better than the Hollywood lensed THE TUXEDO and in some ways rather similar. Chan is a detective who has to protect a young boy dubbed "The Chosen One". While doing this he's killed but the title object that the boy possesses brings him back to life and as a invulerable superman to boot! Some of the SFX do leave a bit to be desired but Jackie gets to actually kiss his girl (Claire Forlani) a couple of times. The biggest disapointment for me was the boring Julian Sands as the main villian and the great Anthony Wong wasted in a "lackey" role. English comedian Lee Evans is also around to act stupid and Gimli himself John Rhys-Davies appears too...



DRAGONS OF THE ORIENT (actually made in 1988) is really more like a travelogue than a documentary. It's mostly footage of temples, movies clips, segments of Jet Li as a kid and some nice martial arts style demonstrations (the "duck style" is the most unusual). For some reason two fictional characters are also present. A guy who claims to be Li's sparring partner and a woman claiming to be a reporter. They challenge each other then provide some narrration of their own but the voices are of the ridiculous dubbed '70's variety providing some unintenional chuckles.



FAST WORKERS from 1933 is interesting for a number of reasons. It's based on a play (called "Rivets") and much of it takes place on the frame of a soon to be skyscraper. Two riveters (Robert Armstrong & John Gilbert) have problems with a woman (Mae Clarke, Elizabeth in the original FRANKENSTEIN). Jealously threatens their friendship in this drama directed by the once great Tod Browning. Both he and Gilbert were at the end of their long careers. 

Browning who had made FREAKS the previous year and DRACULA 2 years before would make only three more movies: the disappointing MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, the clever DEVIL DOLL and the uninspired MIRACLES FOR SALE in 1939. He never made another film and died in 1962 poverty stricken and forgotten. 




John Gilbert was actually in "comeback mode" while making FAST WORKERS after several years of alcoholism and vicious rumors related to his "high feminine" voice. However he died of a heart attack in 1936 having made only one more film. Of course Robert Armstrong played Carl Denham in KING KONG (and SON OF KONG) the same year. FW also features the unique talents of Sterling Holloway...

Thanks for reading!

Bloody Stuff

Blood Feast is arugably the first gore film ever. I say arguably because when I say "it is the first gore film" some egghead usually knows of some other movie made in someplace like Japan which is "really the first" and we get into a big argument and I wonder why I am having a fight over a low budget gore movie when I could be watching it instead of fighting over it and I get depressed and my day is ruined.....

Anyway, Blood Feast is director Herschell Gordon Lewis' first gore film (Ha! Can't disagree with me there!). It's crazy, very funny (mostly unintentional but I'm sure Lewis had his tongue in his cheek for many of the scenes) and very very bloody. Some of the SFX are bad but at least Lewis delivers what the ads promised! 

It's one of my favorite movies of all time but it's not for everyone....It's usually called part one of his "Blood Trilogy" which continued with 2000 MANIACS and COLOR ME BLOOD RED.

Oh yeah...and then there's this:

THE BLOOD TRILOGY- Something Weird-1996-WARNING: The video you are about to see is for BLOOD FEAST completists only! If you are a fan of H.G. Lewis' first gore film (I am), then you may find this little oddity interesting. It’s made up almost entirely of outtakes and unused footage from FEAST as well as COLOR ME BLOOD RED and TWO THOUSAND MANIACS.

It begins with the well-known BLOOD FEAST trailer. Then segues into the all silent and not as entertaining as it sounds scenes although there are some highlights. You get to see BF star Thomas Wood/William Kerwin working as one of the crew and lots of lingering close-ups of Mal Arnold/ Fuhad Ramses’ handiwork. The girl in the bubble bath who has her eye gouged out is more revealing in her outtakes than in the actual finished scene! And there’s really no rhyme or reason to the whole thing. It’s just a big ball of raw footage that sometimes plays like a bad nightmare!

Added to this at the end of the main footage is a bizarre short called The Art Of Carving starring Wood/Kerwin and Harvey Korman (who had been in Lewis’ LUCKY PIERRE) in an educational lesson on the proper way to carve a turkey and other meat! I’m not sure if Lewis had anything to do with this but it certainly is a mind boggler coming right after all those gory outtakes! The tape ends with a Kerwin trailer warning (in b & w) for THE GRUESOME TWO, followed by the original trailer and Mal Arnold’s weird warning for THE WIZARD OF GORE, also followed by the trailer. It’s an interesting artifact but as I said before this is definitely for completists only.

I believe this was only offered on VHS by Something Video and is now included in their DVD set of Lewis' BLOOD movies.

Thanks for reading!