Nigel

 

NIGEL THE PSYCHOPATH AT LARGE-1994-How come when people make lists of the worst movies ever made, a garbage film like this isn't there. Well I guess most people haven't seen it. Terrible editing and direction, zombified acting, loud noises, atrocious gore sfx with splattered blood that looks like it was squeezed out of a tube and worst of all the gas mask wearing killer preys on kids and uses a weed whip to kill. One kid has his arm severed and his stump spurts blood. He kills adults too. Meanwhile some yokels are hunting for him. When one of them accidentally kills a kid, his partner just says, "don't worry about it". Actors laugh and smile. A fight scene involving a broom seems intentionally stupid but I'm not so sure. 

The end features a policeman who looks like a high school student, a guy in drag and a drunk who thinks the drag is his ex-girlfriend! What happens when kids who've seen FRIDAY THE13th too much get a hold of a camera! Director Jim Larsen also made a movie called BUTTCRACK (1998).

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The Stoned Movie

 

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CURSE OF THE STONE HAND-1965-Jerry Warren took two Chilean horror films (one from 1945, the other from 1946!)) and combined them into this kooky anthology using an abandoned house for its connection.

The first story is based on the short story "The Suicide Club" by Robert Louis Stevenson. A heavily in debt man joins a gambling club with some very deadly rules. He finds himself in bigger trouble with his own life at stake.

 In the second story, a guy named Charles dominates the home life of his sister. When brother Jamie returns from school, he finds Charles has married his fiancée, Ruth. A handyman (spliced in John Carradine) talks to his partner about a secret room in the basement. Meanwhile Jamie kisses Ruth and she admits she doesn't know why she married his brother. This isn't really a supernatural tale and the "Dorian Gray" like ending seems tacked on. 

Warren regular Katherine Victor also appears in some Warren added scenes.She was in Warren's THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN the next year.  Bruno Ve Sota is the uncredited narrator.

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Atomic Bug Zapper

 

LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE-1974-After a woman runs nude in the streets of London, Edna (Christine Galbo) and George (Ray Lovelock, who was FIDDLER ON THE ROOF in 1971) meet when she backs into his motorcycle and it needs repairs. They get lost trying to find her destination in the English countryside. George leaves Edna alone in the car to ask directions and runs into a group from the Ministry of Agriculture trying to kill insects with ultrasonic waves. Edna is attacked by a zombie-like man but she escapes. A local says it sounds like a loony who's dead. 

Meanwhile Edna's weird photographer brother-in-law Martin (Jose Lifante) takes pictures of a waterfall while his drug addicted wife, Edna's sister Katie (Jeannine Mestre), is terrorized by the zombie guy who kills Martin. A grouchy, hippie hating police inspector (Arthur Kennedy) investigates and accuses Katie of the murder). He doesn't believe Edna when she says the same man who attacked her sister attacked her too. She and George go to a cemetery to check out the dead guy's grave and are attacked by some newly resurrected zombies. They and a police man get trapped in a mausoleum. The cop tries to get to a radio he dropped outside and is killed and eaten. Later when another cop is killed, the stupid inspector arrests George for murder. It would seem a new nuclear powered bug zapper is causing the dead to rise. In the end, Kennedy kills George thinking he's responsible for all the deaths but George gets even…..

Slowly paced horror has some gory deaths but Kennedy's character is ridiculous. Partially filmed in UK, this Italian production was directed by Jorge Grau. Also known as THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE.

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Door To Hell

 

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NIGHTWORLD: DOOR TO HELL-2017-Brett Anderson (Jason London; DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993)), an American living in Bulgaria and grieving over the death of his wife, takes a job in a mysterious apartment building where he seems to be monitoring an empty room. He reports to two odd balls Martin & Goron, and Jacob (Robert Englund), a blind man. They seem to be afraid of something in the room. Apparently, the apartment is located on top of one of the 7 gates of Nightworld, the land of the dead. Their gate is guarded by a 150-year-old architect who's ready to die and then the gate will be opened. Jack has several bad dreams and hallucinations including a bloody one while having sex with local gal Zara (Lorina Kamburova; also in LEATHERFACE the same year). The climax is ok but it rips off Fulci. It also has some similarities to THE SENTINEL (1977). It was directed by Chilean born directed Patricio Valladares. Female lead Lorina Kamburova died of complications of CoVid-19 in 2021 at age 29.

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Alien Cover Up

 

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WAVELENGTH-1983-Iris (Cherie Currie) and musician Bobby (Robert Carradine) hook up at a bar. Iris seems to get a vibe from a secret government lab where some aliens are being held. Dan (Keenan Wynn) shows them a secret entrance. The duo arrive just as an autopsy is being performed on an alien and Iris freaks out. Yes, a secret government installation is housing 4 aliens who were shot down and believed to be dead but they are only in some kind of self-induced hibernation. The scientists all excited when they learn of Iris's connection and begin a battery of tests which culminates in the discovery that the aliens (now down to 3 since one was dissected) carry a deadly disease. "If you could go anywhere in the universe, would you come to this loony bin to set up a plantation?", someone asks. The inept jerks plan to bury the aliens alive (along with Iris & Bobby) but Bobby frees them from their cryogenic tanks. They highball it out to the desert with help from Dan and two native American friends. The Navy and The Marines plan on destroying them but the aliens (little bald guys played by kids) get help from their home world. 

This is a modestly made but entertaining little Sci-Fi film from New World Pictures. Director/writer Mike Gray had previously written THE CHINA SYNDROME (1979).

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Dickens/Serling

 

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CAROL FOR ANOTHER CHRISTMAS-1964-An updated version of Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol written by Rod Serling for The United Nations. 

A man, Daniel Grudge (Sterling Hayden) left bitter by the death of his son in the war is visited by 3 ghosts, Past (Steve Lawrence), present (Pat Hingle) and yet to come (Robert Shaw). In the H-bomb devastated future, Imperial Me (Peter Sellers) tries to make survivors think only of themselves while Grudge's butler (Percy Rodrigues) tries to unite humanity and is ridiculed. 

This all-star TV special also features Ben Gazzara, Eva Marie Saint and James Shigeta. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz a year after the colossal flop CHEOPATHRA.

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Filmed in NYC

 

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THE ORACLE-1986-New tenant Jennifer (Caroline Capers Powers) finds a spirit writing planchet. When she and her dick head husband (Roger Neil) and two friends use it, they seem to unleash the spirit of a dead man. A stupid janitor stabs himself to death and her hubby gets his head ripped off. Meanwhile, two thugs try to kill her because in a vision she saw them kill the dead guy. Jennifer is committed to some kind of mental hospital. She escapes but is captured by the dead man's wife and a butch hit woman. Horrible drawn-out junk with bad acting and cheap gory SFX. Filmed in NYC by Roberta Findlay (also the uncredited cinematographer).

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