Baron Bava

 

 (imdb)

BARON BLOOD-1972-Peter comes from America to Austria to discover his roots and learn about this ancestor Baron Von Kleist (dubbed Baron Blood by the locals). At dinner with Uncle Karl and his family, Peter meets Eva (Elke Sommer) and they discuss a witch named Elizabeth Holly who put a curse on the Baron. For some reason, Peter wants to recite an incantation that could bring the Baron back to life. Eva takes him to the room where the Baron died and he invokes it. The Baron comes back as a deformed killer. When the castle is put up for auction a guy in a wheelchair named Becker (Joseph Cotton) buys it. Later they suspect he is the Baron who's restoring the castle complete with impaled victims and a torture chamber with recorded screams. The Baron reveals himself and in his torture chamber. He tortures Peter first. However, an ancient medallion causes the Baron's recent victims to rise and torture him to death. 

Stylish direction from the great Mario Bava, who made this between A BAY OF BLOOD and LISA AND THE DEVIL. It was a big hit in the US.

Thanks for reading!

An Hour And 5 Minutes In Hell

 

 (imdb)

SEASON IN HELL-2006-There seems to be a terrorist attack on the East coast. Two people trying to escape the mayhem stop at a house run by satanists or a blood cult. The shaky direction and optical effects are ridiculous. Women are tortured and when one of the guys tries to free a kidnapped girl, he's later dismembered.

The director has issues and probably saw HOUSE OF1000 CORPSES too many times.

Thanks for reading!

Kill The Video Camera

 

 (imdb)

KILL SYNDROME-2006-Shot on video garbage about some redneck assholes torturing a girl for a snuff movie. They kidnap others and torture them. The acting sucks of course. A movie like this (I'm not even sure if it is a movie) makes me wonder...

 Sure, some amateurs with a camera who've seen THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE too many times may have just wanted to make an extreme gore film because they thought it was cool but I'm not sure. 

The 2 directors might profit from mental health examinations.

Thanks for reading!

More Gore

 

 (imdb)

CANNIBAL FEROX-1981-NYC Police Lt. Rizzo (Robert Kerman aka porno star R. Bolla) and Sgt. Ross (Venantonio Venantini) investigate the murder of a junkie. Then three people Rudy (Danilo Mattei), Gloria (Lorraine De Selle) & Pat (Zora Korova) set out to the Amazon so Gloria can prove there is no such thing as cannibalism. After they have trouble with their jeep, they hike in the jungle and discover a decrepit man eating maggots. They meet cocaine traffickers Mike Logan (John Morghen aka Giovanni Radice) and his wounded pal Joe (Walter Lucchini) who were attacked by cannibals. Stupidly Logan kills an Indian girl and Joe reveals in flashback that Logan is lying. Looking for emeralds Logan tortured a young native to death. After Mike and Pat run out on Rudy & Gloria and the dying Joe, the story switches back to NYC for a bit as Lt. Rizzo still investigates the murder which Logan is attached to. Back in the Amazon, Joe dies and locals dine on his intestines. The natives capture all four and Logan is strung up and tortured. His…um…manhood is cut off and eaten. Then his wound is cauterized. Rudy is killed trying to escape. Gloria and Pat are put in a pit and sing "Red River Valley". Logan tries to escape and they cut off his hand. Then the movie's most infamous scene. Pat has hooks jabbed into her breasts and is left to die hanging on a pole. Then the top of Logan's head is lopped off and his brain is eaten. A sympathetic native helps Gloria escape. When he's impaled, Gloria considers suicide but is rescued. Back in NYC, she writes a book, receives her doctorate and still looks traumatized from her ordeal. 

Extreme gore and real animal killings make this real sick.

And why did the clowns who made this thing have the explorers/troublemakers being from America? Italian Umberto Lenzi wrote and directed it! 

Radice/Morghen was also in Antonio Margheriti's CANNIBALS IN THE STREETS and Lucio Fulci's THE CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (also with Venantini). I originally saw this in a theater (on 42 street) as MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY.

Thanks for reading!

More Naschy

 

 (imdb)

THE DEVIL'S POSSESSED-1974-Baron Gilles de Lancre (Paul Naschy) hires Simon (Eduardo Calvo) the alchemist to teach him how to make gold from glass. At first Gilles is reluctant to help the alchemist because it requires a human sacrifice. However, with some urging from his consort Georgelle (Norma Sebre), he overcomes his misgivings, and a local cutie is killed. Later Gaston Malebranche (Guillermo Bredeston) returns from the war and has a fight with some hooligans in a bar. The Baron uses murder and torture to keep everyone in check while searching for the philosopher's stone. His Georgella says the devil will talk to him through a severed head, so he has a local boy decapitated. The head does talk to him and tells him to sacrifice some virgins but the voice is actually that of the alchemist who is obviously in cahoots with Georgelle. 

Later Gaston, who once saved the Baron's life, is more than welcomed in the Baron's castle but Georgelle doesn't like him and says he should be killed. When an assassination fails, Gaston joins the underground peasants who oppose the Baron. After losing a jousting match to Gaston and killing the alchemist because he failed to produce the philosopher's stone, the Baron and his army go on a killing spree. Later he thinks he's invulnerable, but his enemies prove him wrong. 

This great historical bloody horror film was written by star Naschy under his real name Jacinto Molina as he once again teamed the director Leon Klimovsky (THE WEREWOLF VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMAN, DR. JEKYLL VS. THE WEREWOLF). The story is loosely an adaptation of the life of Gilles de Rais, a 15-century notorious French serial killer who had serves under Joan of Arc. Read about him here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_de_Rais

Thanks for reading!

Garbage

 

ANARCHY PARLOR-2014-In Vilnius, Lithuanian, a sinister tattoo artist (Robert LaSardo channeling Sid Haig) and his gross female assistant torture a bunch of young people. Just another sick stupid torture flick made by people who think they know horror but don't. Two directors (Devon Downs and Kenny Gage) are credited. They need mental help....

Thanks for reading!

Captive Women

 (amazon.com)

WOMEN'S CAMP 119-1977-Sleazy Italian production with Nazis subjecting female prisoners to various torture and experiments. Nude women are whipped, gassed and experimented on. A bald headed male lunatic prisoner feels up two women and another is forced to kiss an officer's boots. Meanwhile the broken Dr. Miesel (Nello Rivie) and his new assistant, a prisoner stand around watching other doctors operate. Women are forced to rub against a soldier who was frozen and he comes back to life. When the bald lunatic attacks a prisoner she's saved by a lesbian doctor who molests her. Women are also used to entice gay soldiers and turn them straight. 

Director Bruno Mattei besides making a few other sleazy exploitative “women in prison” movies also made several horror movies featuring zombies (sometimes under the pseudonym “Vincent Dawn”).

Thanks for reading!

 

Corman Hill

 

THE BIG DOLL HOUSE-1971-In a women's prison in "some banana republic" newbie Marni Collier (Judy Brown) shares a cell with Alcott (Roberta Collins; later in CAGED HEAT), Grear (Pam Grier), Bodine (Pat Woodell), Ferina (Gina Stuart) and Harrad (Brooke Mills). The place is run by Ms. Dietrich (Christiane Schmidtmer) but the real boss is the mysterious Col. Mendoza. 

After cockroach races, food suppliers Harry (Sid Haig) and Fred (Jerry Franks) come by and Harry feels up Grear. Bodine has a boyfriend revolutionary in the mountains and is tortured by head guard Lucian (Kathryn Loder) for info. When Alcott is caught having sex with Fred she's tortured too. Bodine and Alcott plan an escape and want Collier to help them. Then Alcott and Grear have a fight in the mud. The women plot their escape but Lucian tortures Collier to find out their plans while Dietrich dines with the prison doctor (Jack Davis). Then Harrad stabs Grear in the neck. Though Harry and Fred came for sex with Grear they wind up hiding the remaining women in their truck with Dietrich and the doc as hostages. Ferina is killed chasing her cat. There's an attempted rape, shoot out and explosion before the ironic ending.

This sleazy crazy entertaining movie was an early production from Roger Corman's New World Pictures and was shot in The Philippines by Jack Hill soon after the race car film PIT STOP and few years after filming Boris Karloff's US scenes for his quartet of Mexican made horror films. It's also the feature film debut of Pam Grier (who sings the title song). Before this she had a bit role in BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and was a receptionist at New World. Corman co-produced it with John Ashley. Hill made THE BIG BIRD CAGE the next year also with Grier and Haig.

Thanks for reading!

Nutsy Nazi Nonsense

 

NAZI UNDEAD-2018-Ashley (Georgia Chara) and Brad (Leigh Scully), a college couple from Australia with relationship problems have car trouble on the way to a castle. After finding a dead girl they wind up trapped in an old house with what seems to be the dead body of a Nazi officer. The place seems to be haunted. After having a nightmare Brad disappears. Ashley wanders around looking for him while seeing visions. Later she finds Brad who's been tortured, his body twisted. He wants her to put him out if his misery and kill him which she does. Then she cries and vomits. She leaves the house.

At the 32 minute mark it seemed it was over but after wandering around Ashley finds herself back at the house, locked in. Some ghoul children ghosts say "Shhh" when she screams. She watches a film of the Nazi (Andy McPhee) killing his wife and kids because they are "unpure". He then cuts out their eyes and kills himself. The Nazi shows up and examines her teeth. She faints and wakes up with her mouth sewed shut. She runs away and into a car, who's occupants are Ashley and Brad and the movie begins to repeat! Except this time Brad dies from having a swastika carved in his back. The Nazi shows up and examines Ashley. She faints and wakes up, once again with her mouth sewn shut. She runs into her car again and the movie repeats itself again only this time Ash looks at the body and sees it's her. It seems a crazy un-dead nanny is to blame. 

This derivative art school trash was directed by Steven Spiel and is also known as LIVING SPACE.

Thanks for reading!

Gunn

BLACK GUNN-1972-Gunn (Jim Brown) is the owner of a slick club whose brother Scotty (Herbert Jefferson Jr.) is involved with the Black Action Group, a radical faction run by Seth (Bernie Casey). He also has some stolen mob ledgers. A mob boss (Stephen McNally) puts Russ Capeli (Martin Landau) who fronts as a used car dealer in charge of getting the ledgers back. Psycho thug Krigley (Bruce Glover) and cohort Rico (William Campbell) beat up parking attendant/informer Sam Greene (MLB pitcher Vidal Blue). A congressman Carl Adams (Gary Conway) can't get a table at Gunn's club and his bigoted friend Winman (Keefe Brasselle) starts a fight and gets thrown out. Adams associate Toni (Luciana Paluzzi; THE GREEN SLIME) can't persuade Gunn. After Scotty is killed Gunn wants his killer who turns out to be Krigley. Gunn beats him up. He goes after Capeli but is captured and tortured. Fortunately the BAG Bros come to the rescue. 

The crazed ending features a bloody shootout, a car chase, explosions and Capeli being set on fire. It ends with Gunn being arrested. Deacon Jones plays himself and Timothy Brown is also in it. This all star blaxploitation crime drama by England born Robert Hartford-Davies who before coming to the US had directed CORRUPTION with Peter Cushing. He followed up GUNN with another blaxploitation movie (also made in the US) THE TAKE with Billy Dee Williams.

Thanks for reading!

Caged Heat

 

CAGED HEAT-1974-Jackie Wilson (Erica Gavin) is arrested in a drug bust and sent to a woman's prison where she meets Belle (Roberta Collins) and Pandora (Ella Reid). The place is run by a hung up wheelchair bound warden McQueen (Barbara Steele) and a pipe smoking doctor (Warren Miller). She puts Pandora in solitary because she had a picture of her boyfriend in her cell. They pick fruit, have fights in the showers and walk around topless. Jackie's cellmate is lifer Levelle (Cheryl Rainbeaux Smith). 

When one inmate Maggie (Juanita Brown) tries to rebel, Jackie is also blamed. They are sent for CPT where the sadistic pipe smoking doctor gives them shock treatments as punishment. Later Jackie and Maggie revolt, steal a truck and then a police car. They almost get arrested for prostitution when they meet up with Maggie's friend Crazy Alice (Lynda Gold). Meanwhile the ⁰doc rapes the comatose Belle (and cries about it). Maggie and Jackie go back for revenge and a bloody shootout caps the finale.

This was screenwriter (and future Oscar winner) Jonathan Demme's debut as a director and also features a soundtrack written and performed by John Cale. I've read Michael Bloomfield plays guitar buon it but I'm not so sure...

Thanks for reading!

The Crimson Executioner

THE BLOODY PIT OF HORROR-1965-In1648 a tribunal sentences “The Crimson Executioner” to death. They put him in a very colorful “iron maiden” type of device and seal it. In modern day Italy, publisher Daniel Parks (Alfredo Zucker) and staff visit a castle looking for a photo shoot. When there's no answer at the door one of them climbs in and opens the door from the inside. They do a little exploring then are summoned by the owner Travis Anderson (Mickey Hargitay) who tells them to get out. When they are ready to leave he changes his mind and let's them stay. Of course after they are warned to stay away from certain parts of the castle two jerks go wandering around looking for wine and one then accidentally breaks the seal on The Crimson Executioner's tomb. All goes well with the shoot until an execution device falls and kills one of the men. When a couple Ralph and Suzie go off for a fling they meet the Executioner face to face. Later Anderson explains that the castle they are in once belonged to The Crimson Executioner himself and he’s entombed in the lower chamber or was anyway. Later he spies on the girls while they are dressing and declares “The day of the Crimson Executioner has come”. Bad news. Then Suzie is found in the iron maiden. Rick, a horror writer (Walter Brandi) finds out from Nita that Anderson is actually her former lover, a weird actor who suddenly disappeared. “A muscle man in costume films”. They find one of the other models trapped in a mechanical spider web booby trapped with arrows and poisonous fake spider. Rick rescues her but the guy who went for the police is killed by an arrow in his neck. Anderson says he has the spirit of the Executioner in him but he's just a lunatic who doesn't want mankind “corrupting the harmony of my perfect body”! He keeps three survivors in his torture chamber while Rick escapes from a deadly bed (like the kind in 13 GHOSTS and an episode of TV’s THRILLER). 

By the time Rick gets to the dungeon everyone but Nita is dead. He has to fight the wacky killer and save her. 

Director Massimo Pupillo (TERROR CREATURES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE) really pushes the envelope with over the top theatrics, an outlandish script and a nutty performance by Hargitay in the lead role.

Milligan Again

GURU THE MAD MONK-1970-In medieval times, a monk named Father Guru (Neil Flanagan) kills and tortures in the name of God at his “Lost Souls Church of Montavia”. Simpleton Karl (Paul Lieber) wants to save his girlfriend Nadja (Judith Isreal) from death so he makes a deal with Guru. If Karl can get corpses for Guru to sell to a medical college then the monk will give Karl’s beloved a potion that will appear to make her dead but she just be in a kind of coma until an antidote can revive her. Karl agrees but he has to get the drug from Olga (Jacqueline Webb), who wants human blood for her “experiments” (she's a vampire). Guru brands victims, has their hands and heads cut off, eyes burned out. He seems to have a love/hate relationship with his hunched back slave Igor (Jack Spencer) and talks to his evil self in a mirror. After he kills a stranger who wanted to repent, Nadja tries to bond with Igor. When a pregnant girl goes to Guru for help the vampire lady bites her. Then “The Holy Father” arrives with Guru’s replacement, Father Polonski. Their  conversation shows Milligan wasn't a fan of the Catholic church! When the holy one chastises Guru for taking care of the vampire woman and says Guru will be leaving, Guru kills him. Though Igor helps lead Polanski to his doom, he tries to save Nadja from Guru's molestation. For his trouble he’s nail to a wall and has his tongue cut out. Then Guru and Olga have a falling out and she tries to kill him, but he kills her her instead. Somehow Igor escapes and there's a frenzied chase up a flight of stairs. Quite comically Guru  stabs Igor to death then gets tangled in bell ringing ropes and dies. 

Like most outings by writer/director Andy Milligan this features bad acting,atrocious sfx and endless talk. Filmed in and on the grounds of a NYC church.

Thanks for reading!

I Spit On Your Remake

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE-2010-A novelist (Sarah Butler) goes to a secluded cabin to write her new novel. She jogs, smokes pot and drops her cell phone in the toilet bowl. Some white trash rednecks spy on her and eventually break in, humiliate her, beat her, gang rape her and film it. She escapes the assholes before they can kill her. Unlike the original (which I'm not a fan of), her revenge it more detailed and exacting. The director of this (and it's useless sequel) Steven R. Monroe went on to making movies for the Hallmark and Lifetime cable channels and this:

 https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2013/11/when-will-it-end-bad-movie-making-i-mean.html

 There was a part 3 that also starred Butler by a different director.

Thanks for reading!

Revenge

GIRLS AGAINST BOYS-2012-A college student Lulu (Nicole LaLiberte) is dropped by her older married lover. After partying at a club she's brutally raped by some jerk she met. The police are no help so she and her friend (Danielle Panabaker) find the guy, torture him and then kill him. They kidnap Lulu's ex-lover and kill him too. Later they talk and ride around while “Hurdy Gurdy Man” by Donovan plays. She meets a dorky DJ guy but her friend kills him so she kills her friend with a samurai sword. Later she goes to a club and meets a girl who's been dumped by her boyfriend..... It was directed by a guy named Austin Chick....

Thanks for reading!

BTK

BTK-2008-A guy named Dennis (Kane Hodder) who calls himself a “compliance officer” is thought to be a nice guy though it's obvious he's nuts. He's actually a serial killer who wants to make a name for himself. It uses the case of a real life killer who used the same initials (it stands for Bind. Torture. Kill) but that's just an excuse to show an excess of violence, torture and gore. “Ain't Nobody's Business” by Mississippi John Hurt is heard over the end credits. 

Director/screenwriter Michael Feifer had made CHICAGO MASSACRE: RICHARD SPECK and exploited other real life murderers and their crimes with ED GEIN: THE BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD, BUNDY: AN AMERICAN ICON and THE BOSTON STRANGLER:THE UNTOLD STORY.

Thanks for reading!

What Day?

THE DAY-2011-This mean spirited nonsense combines elements of THE HUNGER GAMES meets NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with a splash of 28 DAYS LATER and probably a bit of THE ROAD.

The self important action gore mess has some young survivors of an apocalypse hold up in an abandon house to stave off an army of flesh eating humans (not zombies for a change). Ashley Bell (THE LAST EXORCISM) is Mary, a reformed cannibal out to kill the invading cannibals. But the group doesn't trust her so they wind up torturing her. Eventually she helps them (unsuccessfully) fight the invading horde. Everyone is killed which means nothing since there are no likable characters except Mary who in the final scene decapitates a little girl (ok, so it's a cannibal little girl....). With the usual jerky camera work, overacting and violence.

Dominic Monaghan (THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy) is killed early (he was one of the producers too). 

The director Douglas Aarniokoski was a second unit director on many films before obviously graduating to full director on second rate films.

Thanks for reading.

Another Anthology

 

 

BARRIO TALES-2012-In this anthology two morons go to a place in Mexico called Barrio to meet a drug dealer named Pedro. There they meet an old man who they insult. He tells them some stories.

The first tale is called “Maria”. A spoiled rich asshole and his equally asshole friends smoke dope, shoot pool and insult the live-in Mexican maid. The only one who gives her any slack of course is the one of Mexican descent who speaks Spanish. Later the dorks have a sex, booze and drug party. They throw the maid in the pool and she dies (hits her head?). They cover it up but but grandfather in Mexico gets bloody revenge.

In “Uncle Tio's Taco Bar”, some slackers discover the secret ingredient in the title taco stand. Parts of
his predictable story aren't bad especially when Tio (who acts like Fuad Ramses at times) goes on a rampage.

In “El Monstruo”, white trash kidnap some poor illegal immigrants and torture them. Fortunately one escapes and brings his brother and some amigos to the rescue (they are as screwed up as the white guys).

Back in the framing sequence the old man's crazy friend kills the two guys. He's not really a drug dealer. He lures Americans to be killed and eaten by poor Mexicans.

Contrary to this movies' theme not all white Americans are slacker racists who do drugs (well at least around here; I don't know how it is in LA where this was filmed).

 Director Jarret Tarnol will probably not go away.

Thanks for reading!

Grin and Lambert It

DAY OF WRATH (GAME OF SWORDS)-2005-In Spain in 1542, during the inquisition, a drunken sheriff (Christopher Lambert) investigates a series of murders that leads to a conspiracy involving corruption, torture, murder and aristocrats covering up their Jewish bloodline. 

This medieval tale is very slow going and Lambert's character is kind of a fool but it was nice to see Brian Blessed as the pompous mayor. James Faulkner is Friar Anselmo who conducts some tortures. A few higher production values can't cover up the fact that this is just more Lambert boredom. Filmed mostly in Budapest by director Adrian Rudomin.

Thanks for reading!

Silent Demons

HAXAN: WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES-1922-Another incredible silent movie!

Although it purports to be a documentary and there is a narrator who uses various pictures and charts to tell the story this in reality is a great horror film!!

Told in several episodes it traces the history of witchcraft, witch burning and how confessions were coerced from the witnesses and victims. Mind blowing scenes of hell include scary demons, a baby sacrifice and worshipers literally kissing the devil's ass. It's depictions explaining the various ways of torture are graphic for the time. Pretty shocking stuff for 1922! No wonder it was banned in the US and heavily censored in other countries.

This Danish production was the brainchild of Benjamin Christensen (who portrays the devil) a contemporary of fellow countryman the great Carl Theodor Dreyer (who made his own witchcraft trial movie in 1943). Two slightly different versions appeared later. One in 1968 had added narration by William S. Burroughs. Director Christensen later came to the US and made MOCKERY, a film about the Russian revolution, often considered one of Lon Chaney's weakest MGM films. After several other misfires he returned to his native Denmark.

Thanks for reading!