Who Needs It?

 

 (themoviedatabase.org)

THE HOWLING: REBORN-2011-This boring shit has something to do with a nerdy kid and a bunch of assholes who are werewolves. There's a lot of talk, overacting and eventually some werewolves show up at the end. Obviously made to cash in on the success of the TWILIGHT franchise, this was filmed in Canada and co-written and directed by Joe Mimziki who was once an executive with Sony Pictures.

Thanks for reading!

No Mania

 

 (imdb)

BLOOD MANIA-1970-A doctor (Peter Carpenter, also one of the screenwriters) is blackmailed for doing abortions when he was a med student. He has an affair with Victoria (Maria De Aragon), who's bed- ridden father is his patient. After the blackmailer rapes the doc's wife, Victoria uses a drug to kill dad. She admits to the doctor that she killed her dad but she promises to give him money from her inheritance to pay off the blackmailer. Her sister Gail (Vicki Peters) comes for the reading of the will. Surprise! Dad leaves everything to Gail. Victoria has a break-down but it doesn't bother the doc. He just romances Gail. 

This drawn out psychological bs has bad acting, a boring story, hardly any blood and plodding direction from Robert Vincent O'Neil who later directed ANGEL (1984) and its sequel AVENGING ANGEL (1984). Star Carpenter was a mystery man for years. It had been thought he passed away in the early '70's but in fact left movie making for real estate and died of AIDS in 1996. He also starred in POINT OF TERROR in 1971 with Dyanne Thorne. 

Co-star Maria De Aragon was later in Harry Essex's terrible THE CREMATORS (1972) and was unbilled as the alien Greedo in the first STAR WARS movie in 1977.

Thanks for reading!

More Bigfoot!

 

 (imdb)

THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT-1975-Tracker Ivan Marx, "the last of a dying breed", goes to Alaska to prove Kodiak bears are not killing cattle. He scoffs when a farmer tells him it's Bigfoot. Then his brother in law shows him 700 yr old cave drawings of "stick man" who the local Indians say kidnapped children. Then he finds giant footsteps in the snow. Later on he films the hairy monster! If you're a fan of nature you might enjoy the nature scenes that contain no Bigfoot footage. Marx was the cinematographer as well as one of the executive producers.

 It's all bs and Marx's bombastic narration doesn't help. Some say he was the first person to find Bigfoot prints. They've also said it's his wife dressed as Bigfoot. He starred in IN THE SHADOW OF BIGFOOT in 1977, another pseudo-documentary. Director Harry Winer did mostly TV after this but in 1986 directed SPACE CAMP. Music by Don Peake, one of the guitarists for the Wrecking Crew.

Thanks for reading!

Borecast

 

 (imdb)

BROADCAST SIGNAL INTRUSION-2011-A video archivist (Harry Shum Jr.) becomes obsessed with a mysterious video that may be connected with the disappearance of several women. He hooks up with a woman named Alice (Kelley Mack) and they go all over trying to find the answer. This pretty much tries to say something but the story (especially the ending) is confused. 

The director Jacob Gentry had previously done MY SUPER PSYCHO SWEET16 series of films for MTV.

Thanks for reading!

Send It Back

 

THE SENDER-1982-Dr. Gail Farmer (Kathryn Harrold),works in a psychiatric ward where she encounters a new patient the suicidal John Doe (Zeljko Ivanek). After trying to communicate with him she begins to have hallucinations, imagines he's in her house and sees cockroaches crawling in a refrigerator. She meets his mother (Shirley Knight) but no one else sees her. Apparently everyone can see Doe's dreams because of the interference of his dead mom. 

Meandering junk that might have been something in the '80's but now is dated. Director Roger Christian went on to direct a worse movie though BATTLEFIELD EARTH with John Travolta.

Thanks for reading!

Mean Johnny

 

MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS-1975-Johnny Barrows (Fred Williamson) is dishonorably discharged from the army for hitting an officer. He arrives in LA and is mugged and beaten. Some racist cops arrest him thinking he's a drunk. A Sargent recognizes him as a college football player and war hero. After turning down a job offer from obvious gangster Mario Racconi (Stuart Whitman), he combs the city for a job but to no avail and sleeps in a doorway. Then he meets the Professor (Elliot Gould) and gets a job cleaning up in a gas station for the racist owner Richard (RG Armstrong). At a pow-wow mob boss Da Vince (Anthony Caruso) has his sons (Roddy McDowell and Mike Henry) kill Mario and his dad (Luther Adler) but Mario survives. When Richard cheats Johnny out of his pay Johnny tries to get it by force and is beaten up by white cops again and arrested. He gets out and Mario hires him to kill the Da Vince family. He kills both sons then has a terrible fight with an assassin who looks like Tiny Tim. Unfortunately Tony Da Vince and Mario's girlfriend Nancy (Jenny Sherman) were conspiring against both families so when Johnny tries to put the moves on her she shoots him but Johnny rigged a mine that she steps on and is blown up. 

This drawn out low budget crime drama is terrible with director/star Williamson  sleepwalking through most of the film and hardly involved in the mob family war till the last half hour.

Thanks for reading!

Two

 

SPIRIT STALKERS-2012-Another waste of time about a group of ghost hunters (led by writer/director/hack Steve Hudgins) investigating the paranormal. It's boring, talky, badly edited and acted. I don't understand the good reviews this crap gets!

THE CREEPY DOLL-2011-This is another amateur talky piece of junk from Big Biting Pig (see above) about a loony pregnant woman and her doll collection that features a ghoulish “Addams Family” like doll. Her husband is a dick and her in laws are morons. Not much happens. She walks around, makes faces, acts bitchy and talks to her dolls. Eventually she kills hubby, his ugly mistress, mom in law and a guy she almost has an affair with. Dumb ass ending. Written and directed by PJ Woodside.

Thanks for reading!

Franco!

SUCCUBUS-1968-A demon or Satan(?) sends Lorna (Janine Reynaud), a stripper who does a staged S&M snuff film nightclub act, to kill. She meets an older guy (Howard Vernon) and stabs him in the eye. At a party people take drugs, dance and hallucinate. One guy who doesn't take drugs reads from a book. Lorna does a dance on the floor and the dwarf butler makes weird noises. Just when it looks like an orgy will break out her boyfriend/club mgr. Bill (Jack Taylor) breaks it up. After they have sex, he recites a story about a Queen with amnesia. There's a lot of walking around and talking until Lorna and another woman go her place to fool around. Some mannequins seem to come to life and Lorna stabs the woman to death. She then kisses one of the bald dummies. 

This thing moves at a snail's pace and may have been hot stuff in the late '60's but now it's boring out of date Euro-trash. To make sure you know Jesus Franco (in his first film outing outside his native Spain) directed this, there's a sex scene shot through a fish bowl. 

Filmed in West Germany, the German backers dropped out and Adrian Hoven (who later produced and starred in the infamous MARK OF THE DEVIL) stepped in to bring in new backers, take a role and have a real life affair with lead actress Reynaud (who was in Franco's KISS ME MONSTER in '69).

Thanks for reading!

John Saxon In The UK

NIGHT CALLER FROM OUTER SPACE-1965-An object from space crashes in the English countryside. The army investigate along with scientists Dr. Morley (Maurice Denham) and Dr. Costain (American John Saxon playing a Brit for some reason). Although the object was supposed to be very big. All they find is cold orb.

Back in their lab the duo are assisted by cold, stuck up Anne Morrow (Patricia Haines) who Saxon unsuccessfully tries to seduce. While Morley and an army major (John Carson) in charge try to answer the PM’s pompous inquiries over the phone, Ann while typing her notes starts to get hot flashes. They seem to emanate from the room where the orb is kept. When she opens the door a weird hand grabs her arm. She breaks away and sounds an alarm but of course when the soldiers look around they find nothing. After they leave the orb starts glowing. The next day the Major has decided it’s all a prank. Costain finds a weird footprint in the dirt and believes Ann’s story. Morley dies while experimenting with orb after being menaced by an unseen creature. The army takes some shots at it. The Major is killed by a Jeep driven by the creature! Costain makes a connection that the creature may be responsible for the disappearance of several women. It seems all the missing women answered an ad placed in a magazine by a mysterious person named Mr. Madra. Costain figures out the creature has come from Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter. Scotland Yard superintendent Hartley (Alfred Burke) sets a trap with Ann answering one of the ads. She’s killed. Then Saxon, Hartley and the Police Commissioner set another trap where they learn Madra is a half scarred alien (Robert Crewdson) that needs “new blood” to help resurrect his race. He takes the women and goes back home. 

Director John Gilling made the much better THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES the next year. Despite its film noirish like setting it's bloody boring with a lot of scientific jive about nonsense. It's based on a novel by Frank Crisp. Also known as BLOOD BEAST FROM OUTER SPACE.

Thanks for reading!

It's A Hoot!

HOOTENANNY A GO-GO (aka ONCE UPON A COFFEE HOUSE)-1965-Johnny (Curtis Taylor) likes Vicki (Karen Thorsell) so he buys the coffee house where she sings and waitresses. A lot of not much happens and there's some really silly parts like a pizza fight and an espresso machine that looks like a robot but it's mostly singing by Oscar Brand, Jim, Jake and Joan (Rivers in her film debut), The Goldebriars and The Free Wheelers. Deanna Lund (tv'S LAND OF THE GIANTS) is also in it. The director Shepard Traube didn't do much else.

Thanks for reading!