Category Archives: Exploitation
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981) | The twisted exploitation horror’s UK Special Edition 4K UHD/Blu-Ray release
When it comes to Psychotic Women/Hagsploitation/Grande Dame Guignol cinema, the US indie horror Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (AKA Night Warning) ranks in my top 10, and UK genre-fans can now check it out in a brand-new Special Edition Dual 4K UHD/Blu-ray and Standard Blu-ray release from Severin Films. Available from 13 May 2024.
Giving a supremely unhinged performance is Susan Tyrrell – best-known for John Huston’s Fat City (1972) and Andy Warhol’s Bad (1977) – who plays Cheryl Roberts, the overprotective aunt of Billy Lynch (Teen Beat magazine pin-up actor and singer Jimmy McNichol) who was orphaned as a baby after his parents died in a horrific car ‘accident’. Now a gifted high school basketball player, Billy gets the chance to go to college on a scholarship and starts dating school newspaper photographer Julia (Julia Duffy) – but Cheryl is determined to keep him by her side – at any cost!
Events soon conspire against poor Billy when his mad aunt stabs a television repairman to death and claims he tried to rape her. Bigoted, homophobic detective Joe Carlson (The Inglorious Bastards‘ Bo Svenson) is assigned the case, and when he discovers the repairman was in a relationship with Billy’s coach, Tom Landers (Steve Eastin), he suspects a gay love triangle gone awry and targets Billy as the killer. But Carlson’s fellow investigator, Sergeant Cook (Britt Leach), suspects something’s not quite right with Cheryl. And so, the stage is set for Cheryl and Carlson to become increasingly unhinged as the psycho-thriller gets darker and darker until its blood-splattered finale…
The most bizarre thing about this terrific little bleeder is that it was helmed by William Asher! OMG! When I saw his name on the credits, I thought this couldn’t be the same guy who directed some of my faves – like the Beach Party films and TV’s Bewitched? Well, it is, and having listened to the three audio commentaries on this release, Asher really embraced the project and its themes of toxic motherhood, homosexuality, incest and necrophilia – all framed within a modern-day Oedipus tale written by Alan Jay Glueckman (who participates in one of the audio commentaries), which also includes a positive portrayal of gay relationships (something that was extremely rare at the time).
Who knew Asher would be capable of handling such material – but he does, with aplomb. And he did so as a replacement for the film’s original director, Jan de Bont (yep! he of Speed fame), who was fired when the film fell behind schedule. Asher also doesn’t shy away from the horror elements, which include a mummified corpse, a pickled severed head and death by a kitchen knife, machete, revolver and a fireplace poker. Plus, some pistol-whipping and meat tenderiser bludgeoning.
And while Tyrrell rightly steals the show (her performance is a masterclass in acting psycho – and the licking scene with the spilt milk is a doozy), I loved Marcia Lewis as Cheryl’s nosey but good-natured pie-making neighbour, Margie (who so channels Bewitched‘s Gladys Kravitz), while a very young Bill Paxton (credited as William here) makes his feature debut as Billy’s jock nemesis, Eddie. Julia Duffy, of course, went on to great things, including Newhart.
Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker is now scanned in 4K from the negative with hours of new special features (check them out below), courtesy of Severin Films. A total must-have!
SPECIAL FEATURES
• Audio Commentary with actor Jimmy McNichol [ED: This was my least favourite of the three AC’s – as there are lots of pauses in the conversations between Jimmy and the two moderators, who really should have done more research before interviewing Jimmy]
• Audio commentary with co-writer/producer Steve Breimer and co-writer Alan Jay Glueckman [ED: This was my favourite of the three ACs as it explores the film’s genesis, production and release in detail]
• Audio commentary with co-producer/unit production manager Eugene Mazzola [ED: Lots of interesting detail here about the film’s production]
• Extreme Prejudice – Interview with actor Bo Svenson [ED: Thankfully, Bo is nothing like the character he plays, and has great respect for the LGBT+ community, and praises the film and its cast and crew ]
• Point and Shoot – Interview with DoP Robbie Greenberg [ED: Great to hear the future two-time Primetime Emmy Award winner giving us a breakdown of his early career, working on the film and giving his critique on it after all these years]
• Family Dynamics – Interview with Editor Ted Nicolaou [ED: Ted ended up working for Charles Band but started out being the sound recordist on Texas Chain Saw Massacre and got the Butcher Baker gig thanks to Jan de Bont, but remained on the production after his pal left the film).
• Cast and crew interviews with actors Jimmy McNichol, Susan Tyrrell, and Steve Eastin, make-up artist Allan A. Apone and producer Steve Breimer [ED: These are all worth checking out, but by far the must-see is Susan – fuelled by a stiff hit of tequila – watching the film for the first time, and getting over-excited by her own performance. Hilarious and rather special as the featurette is dedicated to Susan, who died in 2012, and includes shots of her with her tattooed prosthetics following her bilateral below-knee amputations).
• Trailer
• TV Spot
Mansion of the Doomed (1976) | Charles Band’s exploitation horror debut on Limited Edition Blu-Ray
From 101 Films comes the Limited Edition Blu-ray release of Charles Band’s 1976 exploitation shocker Mansion of the Doomed in the UK for the very first time. Available from 6 May 2024.
In this twisted take on Georges Franju’s macabre 1959 masterpiece, Les Yeux sans visage (AKA Eyes Without a Face), Richard Basehart stars as ocular surgeon Dr. Leonard Chaney, who only has eyes for his daughter, Nancy (Trish Stewart) – a continual supply of them.
After causing a car crash in which Nancy loses her sight, Chaney kidnaps and drugs people at random, cuts out their eyes to transplant them into Nancy’s rancid sockets, and then locks them up in an electrified cage in his basement. But when the unwitting ‘donors’ find a way to break out of their cell, is the game up for the obsessive doc?
When it comes to indie low-budget genre filmmaking, Charles Band is one of the legendary ‘kings of the Bs’ – and we’ve all grown up watching his Empire Pictures and Full Moon Productions output that’s included such cult classics as Ghoulies and the Puppet Master and Subspecies series. But it was Mansion of the Damned that set him on the road of horror and fantasy exploitation.
Band self-financed his maiden project (which he originally called The Eyes of Doctor Chaney as a nod to Lon Chaney) at the tender age of 22, and with the help of family (including his producer/director dad Albert), friends and some young guns just starting in the business (Stan Winston handles the special effects and future A-lister Andrew Davis is the cinematographer), he was able to pull together one of the most shocking yet compelling horrors of the late 1970s.
The scenes of the imprisoned victims (including an intense Lance Henriksen) attacking each other and stmumbling around in their cage, and the scene where Chaney attempts to kidnap a young girl in a park are genuinely disturbing, as is the real-life eye surgery. So much so the film was seized and confiscated under the Obscene Publications Act in the UK during the Video Nasty panic of the 1980s.
Hollywood stars Richard Basement and Gloria Grahame (who plays Chaney’s loyal assistant Katherine) bring much gravitas to the proceedings (especially Basement’s voice-overs – his deep, resonant tones are honey to the ears), and it’s all held together tightly by actor Michael Pataki in the director’s chair for the first time. All in all, this is a real fave of mine and what a way for Band to start his amazing career.
Look out for Vic Tayback (AKA Mel in TV’s Alice), exploitation star Marilyn Joi, former baseball player Al Ferrara, and even Lenny Bruce’s stand-up comic mum, Sally Marr.
101 FILMS BLACK LABEL SPECIAL FEATURES
- The Charles Band Empire: A new documentary on the career of horror legend Charles Band
- Cutting Teeth: Back to the Future editor Harry Keramidas on Mansion of the Doomed
- Limited edition booklet: Includes On Mansion of the Doomed by filmmaker and critic Chris Alexander and The Eye is Blind if the Mind is Absent: The Legacy of Ocular Violence & Video Nasties within Mansion of the Doomed by writer Andy Marshall-Roberts
Eight Eyes | This Serbian-set shocker is a trippy retro thrill ride
While trying to mend their fractious one-year-old marriage by taking in the Brutalist delights of Serbia and Macedonia, American couple Cass (Emily Sweet) and Gav (Bradford Thomas) gatecrash a wedding in Belgrade, where they encounter one-eyed ‘Saint’ Peter (Bruno Veljanovski), who inveigles his way into their lives offering to act as their personal guide to some of the city’s lesser-known abandoned communist buildings.
But Peter has an ulterior motive, which puts Cass in deadly peril when she and Gav have an argument, and he suddenly goes missing… Cass then finds herself propelled into a nightmarish, head-spinning, transformative journey.
The first in-house production from Vinegar Syndrome, Eight Eyes marks an impressive debut from director/writer Austin Jennings (The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs), who pays homage to the 1960s/1970s Exploitation genre (using 16mm and 8mm film stock is a real bonus) as well as the cinema of Lucio Fulci (The Beyond), Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) and even David Cronenberg (Videodrome). Oh! And let’s not forget Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho).
The in-camera special effects (during the climactic scenes) are a trippy delight, and the score and opening credit titles are pure nostalgia (think spaghetti Westerns of ole). And the gore scenes are a treat – although the most horrifying thing on show is a mallet-weaving naked obese man in a wax mask running around waving his tiny bits about.
As for the performances, the three leads play their characters to a tee – especially Bruno Veljanovski, whose ‘Saint’ Peter is hilarious and sinister in equal measures, while Bradford Thomas’ Gav reminded me of a live-action version of Ned Flanders from The Simpsons (although I don’t think Ned would be popping pills and getting drunk like Gav does).
So what does that title mean? Well, you’ll have to wait a bit for that, and it’s very ‘woo-woo metaphysical mumbo-jumbo’, which doesn’t make any real sense, but then, neither do a lot of Fulci films. Just come for the retro thrill ride. Oh! and as I love a bit of Brutalism, I’m so visiting Serbia now.
Eight Eyes had its International Premiere on Friday, 25 August 2023 at FrightFest in London
The Curious Dr. Humpp | The Argentine sexploitation cult horror on Blu-ray
The Curious Dr. Humpp is one of the most bizarre sexploitation films ever made – but so worthy of its cult status. And now you see it for yourself in this new Blu-ray release from 101 Films (available from 18 July 2022).
‘Permit your libidos to soar!’
A weird robot-like monster abducts seemingly random victims that are taken to the estate of morose mad scientist Dr Humpp (Aldo Barbero), who gives them an aphrodisiac formula ‘that turns humans into veritable screwing machines’.
With the aid of his former mentor, now a living, breathing, talking disembodied brain in a jar, the good doctor drains blood from the copulating couples (‘Let the lesbians share one room; I want to observe them’) that keeps him eternally young. ‘Sex dominates the world and now I dominate sex!’.
But when news reporter George (Ricardo Bauleo) is captured too, it’s up to Inspector Benedict (Héctor Biuchet) to find Humpp’s hideout before George is drained.
Shot with an artful eye to the Euro horrors of Mario Bava, Ricardo Frieda and their ilk, The Curious Dr. Humpp is a weird fusion of gothic horror, adventure serials and nudie movies, directed by Emilio Vieyra, atmospherically shot in black and white by Aníbal González Paz, and featuring an evocative score from Víctor Buchino. Add in that talking brain, the hideous guitar-playing monster, and some young ladies in sheer nighties, then stir in lots of dry ice, and you have one hell of a wicked brew.
Alas, the film also includes some 18-minutes of ‘sexy’ inserts – basically couples fondling each other in close-up. This was not of Vieyra’s making, but the producer’s. As such, this ‘Adult’s Only’ cut of the film was poorly received both in the US in 1970 (where it was given an English dub) and in Argentina in 1971. It was only when it was released on VHS by Something Weird Video in the 1990s as part of Frank Henenlotter’s Sexy Shockers From the Vaults series, that it found its proper audience.
‘Wow. How come this went unnoticed when it was released here in 1970?
Didn’t audiences go berserk when they saw it? An amazing out-of-control, instant cult classic,
quite unlike anything you’ve seen before. The world needs more movies like this‘. Frank Henenlotter
Thankfully, this 101 Films x AGFA + Something Weird Blu-ray release gives today’s cult film fans a chance to see the film at its best – as it includes both edits of the film in brand-new restorations. Plus, there’s a must-listen commentary from legendary Basket Case director Henenlotter, who gives the full lowdown on not only the film’s production but also its lasting legacy thanks to the work of Something Weird Video’s Mike Vraney.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• Newly scanned & restored in 2k from its 35mm internegative
• Commentary track with Frank Henenlotter
• La Venganza del Sexo: the 2K restoration of the original cut of The Curious Dr. Humpp from a 35mm fine-grain lab print. Presented in Spanish, with English subtitles (just remember to switch them on, unlike what I did, duh?)
• Shorts and trailers
• Reversible cover artwork
• English subtitles
The Monster (AKA I Don’t Want to Be Born) | The three Dame 1970s British shocker gets a HD remaster
From Hammer/Amicus director Peter Sasdy comes the 1975 Fox-Rank exploitation horror that totally deserves its cult reputation. If you haven’t seen it, then Network’s new remastered release (which is out on Blu-ray and DVD) is worth seeking out.
This unsubtle rip-off of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, sees Joan Collins cast as Lucy Carlesi, a London stripper who believes she has given birth to a demonic child, who possesses unusual strength. Ralph Bates plays her Italian husband Gino, who can’t decide whether Lucy is suffering from post-natal depression or not, Donald Pleasence is none-the-wiser as Lucy’s obstetrician, and Eileen Atkins is Gino’s nun sister, whom he turns to for guidance. But when Lucy realises that Hercules (George Claydon), a dwarf she once humiliated, has placed a curse on baby Nicholas, only an exorcism can save her child.
There’s much to deride this absurd slice of 1970s horror – including Bates’ and Atkins’ weird Italian accents, the obvious dubbing of Caroline Munro (as Lucy’s friend Mandy) and the laughable dialogue. But there’s also much to enjoy: the fab London film locations (I’ve passed the Chelsea house off the King’s Road many times); Collins looking ever so chic (in her own clothes, according to wardrobe supervisor Brenda Dabbs); and a gritty, atmospheric Ron Grainer score. You also get some memorable kills: including drowning, hanging and decapitation, and a great turn from Hilary Mason as the Carlesi’s no-nonsense housekeeper.
While Collins maybe the film’s star, Atkins, however, totally steals the show as Albana (who bizarrely conducts medical experiments on animals with her fellow convent nuns). After watching her steely performance, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was the inspiration for Dolly Wells’ Sister Agatha Van Helsing in 2020’s Dracula.
In the extras, director Sasdy proudly points out that his film (which he saved by pumping in his own money) boasts three Dame Commanders of the Order of the British Empire: Collins, Atkins and Floella Benjamin (who plays a nurse early in the film). Coincidentally, both Collins and Atkins are doing book events at the same time as this release – though I’m not sure this film will get much of a mention. But you never know.
Pre-order from Network: https://new.networkonair.com/british_horror_classics
SPECIAL FEATURES
• High Definition remaster from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio.
• Audio commentary from the Second Features podcast team
• Sasdy’s Baby: director Peter Sasdy gives an honest and gleeful look back at the film, and answers the long-asked question: why are Bates and Atkins’ playing Italian characters?
• The Excisit: interview with editor Keith Palmer
• Holding the Baby: fab interview with continuity veteran Renée Glynne, and wardrobe supervisor Brenda Dabbs
• Alternative titles (I Don’t Want to be Born)
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• Booklet written by Adrian Smith
The Green Inferno: Cannibal Holocaust 2 and Cannibal Terror on Blu-ray
THE GREEN INFERNO: CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST 2 (1988)
For years fans waited for the release of a sequel to Ruggero Deodato’s trendsetting Cannibal Holocaust, yet it would take almost a decade for The Green Inferno, also known as Cannibal Holocaust 2, to arrive… and it wasn’t what followers of the Italian cannibal cycle were expecting.
A group of enterprising adventurers venture into the Amazon jungle in search of a missing professor but soon the youngsters encounter more than they bargained for – European colonialism is exploiting the rainforest and the natives are fighting back! While Deodato’s original critiqued the mondo pseudo-documentary phenomenon, here director Antonio Climati (Mondo Cane, Savage Man, Savage Beast) turns the focus to satirising the hypocrisy and complexity of Cannibal Holocaust itself. A potent mix of macabre imagery, scenic locations, extreme gore and sly in-jokes, The Green Inferno is the gut-munching sequel you always knew you wanted but were too afraid to ask for!
SPECIAL FEATURES
• Brand new 2K remaster from the original camera negative in 1.66:1 OAR
• Extensive clean-up and colour correction carried out in the UK
• Remastered uncompressed English audio
• Remastered uncompressed Italian audio with newly translated subtitles
• ‘Scenes From Banned Alive: The Rise and Fall of Italian Cannibal Movies’. Ruggero Deodato, Umberto Lenzi and Sergio Martino discuss their notorious cannibal films, including The Man From Deep River, Cannibal Ferox, Cannibal Holocaust and The Mountain of the Cannibal God
• Italian opening and closing credits
• Remastered trailer
CANNIBAL TERROR (1981)
First there was Cannibal Holocaust… Then came Cannibal Ferox … But somewhere in France, someone was already hatching a plot to cash-in on the Italian intestinal classics with Cannibal Terror. With no budget, no professional actors and no flights to Amazonia, Cannibal Terror instead gives us Deodato and Lenzi on a cash-strapped level and the end result is The Room of cannibal movies! Brilliant and blood-soaked late night entertainment, Cannibal Terror was one of the UK’s infamous ‘video nasties’ – showing that our beloved censors have little in the way of a sense of humour! However, this torrid tale of stranded tourists being hunted by hungry natives is a work of demented genius from director Alain Deruelle that words can barely do service to. Prepare to feast your eyes on Cannibal Terror!
SPECIAL FEATURES
• Limited edition o-card slipcase [first print run only]
• Limited edition collectors’ booklet by Calum Waddell [first print run only]
• High definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Uncompressed English audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• ‘That’s Not The Amazon! – The Strange Story of the Eurocine Cannibal Film Cycle’
• Deleted scene
• Theatrical trailer
88 Films presents The Green Inferno: Cannibal Holocaust 2 and Cannibal Terror on Blu-ray 11 March 2019
Class of 1984 & Class of 1999 | Mark L Lester’s cult high school thrillers make an explosive return – on Blu-ray
From 101 Films and Lionsgate UK comes a double-bill of high school trouble with the Limited Edition Blu-ray releases of Mark L Lester’s futuristic high school thrillers, Class of 1984 and Class of 1999.
Idealistic music teacher Andy Norris (Perry King) moves to the inner city with his pregnant wife Diane (Merrie Lynn Ross) and is shocked to find his new school is plagued by drugs and violence. Refusing to turn a blind eye like his fellow teachers like science master Terry Corrigan (Roddy McDowell), he soon clashes with gang leader Stegman (Timothy Van Patten), setting off a chain of escalating events that puts himself and his wife in mortal danger…
Class of 1984 is one of the seminal cult movies of the 1980s and is director Mark L Lester’s contemporary take on the 1955 delinquent drama The Blackboard Jungle. Scripted by Tom Holland (who had just completed The Beast Within and The Initiation of Sarah), it still packs a punch after all these years.
Van Patten’s pretty boy Stegman and his gang (which includes a Stefan Arngrim from Land of the Giants fame) may look cartoonish in their Starlight Express-looking faux punk gear, but the bullying that they inflict on fellow students (including a chubby Michael J Fox) is all too real and still very relevant today – as is the drug-dealing, sexual grooming of underage children, and the wanton acts of physical ‘and mental’ assault on teachers. Alice Cooper supplies the theme song, I Am the Future, Roddy McDowall’s meltdown will break your heart, and it still has one of the coolest poster designs of the era.
Class of 1984 makes it UK Blu-ray debit from 101 Films with this Limited Edition release, and it looks and sounds terrific – boasting some great extras…
• Life is Pain… a brand-new career retrospective interview with writer Tom Holland (Fright Night)
• And Pain is Everything: An interview with director Mark L. Lester
• Audio commentary with director Mark L. Lester
• Do What You Love: A career retrospective of Perry King
• History Repeats Itself: An interview with director Mark Lester and composer Lalo Schifrin
• Blood and Blackboards: Interviews with cast and crew
• Girls Next Door: Interviews with actors Erin Noble and Lisa Langlois
• Trailer and TV spots
• Stills gallery
• Collector’s booklet
Lester’s sequel, Class of 1999, is also getting a new term on Blu-ray, as it joins Lionsgate UK’s Vestron Collector’s Series.
It’s 1999, and youth gang violence is so high that the areas around some US schools have become ‘free fire zones’ into which not even the police will venture. When principal Miles Langford (Malcolm McDowell) decides to take his Seattle school back from the gangs, robotics specialist Dr Robert Forrest (Stacy Keach) steps in and introduces three android educators. But when the units revert to their original military programming and turn deadly (equipped with some powerful state-of-art weapons), former Blackhearts gang member Cody Culp (Bradley Gregg) must join forces with the rival Razorheads to stop the ensuing carnage…
I don’t recall seeing this first time round, but Lester’s futuristic sequel ain’t half bad. Yes, its all very cheesy, with more hideous Mad Max meets Flashdance costuming, cartoon violence and scenery chewing acting (I’m looking at you Stacy Keach! with your mullet and contacts), but it moves at a great pace and has some impressive physical effects and pyrotechnics – which all look pretty effective in this new transfer. Playing the droids are Patrick Kilpatrick, Pam Grier and John P Ryan – who all gets some suitably OTT Terminator-style demises.
The Lionsgate Blu-ray includes the following extras…
• Audio commentary with producer/director Mark L Lester
• School Safety: interviews with director/producer Mark L Lester and co-producer Eugene Mazzola
• New Rules: an interview with screenwriter C Courtney Joyner
• Cyber-Teachers From Hell: interviews with special effects creators Eric Allard and Rick Stratton
• Future of Discipline: an interview with director of photography Mark Irwin
• Theatrical trailer
• TV spots
• Still gallery
• Video promo
Miss Leslie’s Dolls (1973) | This demented schlock horror is a camp delight!
Whatever you do, don’t go by the IMDb listing for this 1970s schlockfest, which is supposed to be about ‘a gay drag queen with a mother fixation who terrorizes a city, hunting down, killing and dismembering women’. While that sounds like something I’d rather like to see, Miss Leslie’s Dolls is actually about a maniac obsessed with transporting her spirit into the bodies of young women, while the ‘dolls’ of the title are the preserved corpses of the girls she failed to possess.
With long black Morticia Addams hair, bushy eyebrows and five o’clock shadow, and dressed in a matronly purple robe, Miss Leslie looks like Aleister Crowley in Norma Bates drag. Now it’s pretty obvious from the outset that she’s being played by a bloke (Miami theatre actor Salvador Ugarte) being dubbed by a woman, but it all makes sense in the end and the road to the reveal is an absolute hoot.
This trangressive spin on the Old Dark House and House of Wax sees students Martha (Kitty Lewis), Lily (Marcelle Bichette), Roy (Charles Pitt) and their teacher Alma (Terri Juston) seeking shelter from a storm at Miss Leslie’s remote home in the woods.
On setting eyes on the lonely middle-age woman’s tableaux of female statues, the teens suspect her of belonging to some weird love cult, but Miss Leslie explains that she has long held a fascination for dolls and for creating life size ones as her family once owned a doll factory that was burned down in a fire. Martha, meanwhile, is the spitting image of the girl Miss Leslie was in love with 20 years ago.
Things go all Thundercrack meets Psycho as soon as the lights go out, with the students and their teacher getting in some bed swapping and heavy petty (Roy’s a bit of a sex god, and there’s some girl-on-girl action), while ‘girl worshipper’ Miss Leslie heads to the cellar for an emotional heart-to-heart with the skull of her dead mother, whom she blames for her murderous acts. We then learn that all Miss Leslie wants in life is to be desired – and to do that, she needs to be reincarnated into the body of a young woman. Oh dear… there are three potential candidates upstairs!
What happens next is really ‘Out there!’ – with the standout scenes involving the waxwork ‘dolls’ coming to lurid life; Martha, Lily and Roy being chased by Miss Leslie armed with an axe dripping in blood, and a drugged Alma, dressed in baby doll negligee and fluffy mules, trying to escape from the deranged maniac. So does Miss Leslie succeed in her spirit swapping? Well you’ll have to see the film to find out. But I can reveal that’s there’s a neat twist at the end.
For decades this would-be cult classic was considered lost, and doesn’t even get a mention in any of my cult film reference books, including Michael Weldon’s Psychotronic Encyclopaedia (my go-to book for the weird, the strange and the freakish). But kudos to Network Distributing and The Erotic Film Society’s Julian Marsh for unearthing this hidden gem (which I’ve now watched three times).
As I’ve mentioned, the film shares its DNA with a host of other genre classics, with Psycho being the obvious one. Shot at the same studios in Florida where Hershell Gordon Lewis lensed his grand guignol offerings, it has the look and feel of the godfather of gore’s grindhouse flicks (especially Gruesome Twosome), but also has shades of Ed Wood’s Glen Or Glenda and even Beyond the Valley of the Dolls running through its exploitation veins.
There’s much debate as to who really directed this bizarre cinematic experience, which is all explained in the booklet, written by film historian Laura Mayne, which accompanies Network’s release, but that doesn’t matter, as this is a hugely enjoyable slice of cheap and sleazy 1970s horror, which also benefits from an unusual score by the film’s screenwriter (Ralph Remy Jr as Imer Leaf) that fuses the space-age electronic sounds of Bebe and Louis Barron’s music to Forbidden Planet (1955) with Bobby Beausoleil’s otherworldly orchestral score to Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising (1972).
Newly scanned from one of the few surviving prints in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, Miss Leslie’s Dolls is out on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital on 3 September from Network.
The Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978) | Sergio Martino’s notorious exploitation cult looks ravishing on Blu-ray
From Shameless in the UK comes the 2k restoration release of Sergio Martino’s 1978 Italian horror The Mountain of the Cannibal God (minus the gratuitous animal cruelty) on Blu-ray and DVD.
Ursula Andress braves tarantulas, alligators, anacondas and treacherous terrain as she goes in search of her missing scientist husband, Henry, on a ‘wild and uncontaminated’ island in New Guinea.
Enlisting the services of Stacey Keach’s professor Edward Foster and jungle explorer Manolo (Claudio Cassinelli), Susan (Andress) and her brother Arthur (Antonio Marsina) set their sights on the mountain of Ra Ra Me, where Henry’s clandestine expedition was headed. But everyone have their own private reasons for reaching this mystical destination… and not everyone is going to survive the ‘orgiastic pandemonium’ that ensues…
Also known as La montagna del dio cannibale (in Italy), Slave of the Cannibal God (in the US) and Prisoner of the Cannibal God (in the UK), Martino’s exploitation flick was banned in the UK as a ‘video nasty’ until 2001 for its violent imagery. Shameless have now reinstated the long-missing original dramatic gore, but has wisely chosen to ‘soften’ the animal suffering visuals which were patently inserted, completely out of context, to cater for commercial stipulations of the day. However, that bestiality scene involving a ‘disinterested’ pig remains intact!
Frankly, I think this rebuild makes for much more suspenseful jungle adventure (like King Solomon’s MInes meets Emmanuelle), while Giancarlo Ferrando’s cinematography of the jungle and its wildlife, and the cave locations (all shot in Sri Lanka,) really shine in this restoration. The camera also loves Andress, who looks flawless despite her many ordeals, which include climbing a genuinely dangerous waterfall and being turned into a living goddess coated in honey. The music score, by Guido and Maurizo de Angelis, is also one I could happily listen to in its own right. My only niggle is the film’s unflattering portrayal of indigenous culture (but that is something that’s problematic of many Mondo-style exploitation flicks of the era).
Martino has fully supported Shameless’ efforts not to ‘pander to exploitative and unnecessary violence against animals’, and the director explains that in detail in the extras that are included in this release.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• Cannibal Nightmare – Return to The Mountain of the Cannibal God: Documentary
• Sergio Martino on filming animal cruelty
• Theatrical trailer
• Italian credits
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Blood Diner (1987) | The insane cult horror comedy restored and remastered on Blu-ray!
This semi-sequel/remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ Blood Feast (1963) was written by Michael Sonye (aka Haunted Garage’s Dukey Flyswatter) and directed by Jackie Kong. It follows two weirdo brothers Michael (Rick Burks) and George (Carl Crew) and the reanimated brain of their serial killer uncle Anwar (Drew Godderis) as they attempt to resurrect an ancient Lumerian goddess, Sheetar, using the body parts of immoral young women and the sacrifice of a virgin to awaken Sheetar’s powers…
Given only a limited release back in 1987, Blood Diner’s cult reputation has grown over the years. Now, I do remember seeing it lurking in VHS bargain bins back in the day, but I never saw it until now as it’s been dusted off and given a HD Blu-ray makeover as part of Lionsgate’s Vestron Video re-issues – and I must say Blood Diner certainly belongs in the ‘it’s so-bad it’s good’ section of my cult film library.
The music is a bizarre mix of dire synth score, 1960s soul and mambo; while the acting (featuring the worst accents ever) is abysmal, but it’s all shot with such energy and OTT garishness – just like the Troma films of the day – that I’ve actually gone back for a second helping.
Featuring hilarious gross-out sequences and lots of blood, gore, cartoon violence and projectile vomiting, Blood Diner is one seriously insane ride. It also boasts the kind of way-out characters you’d expect from an early John Waters movie, including a burger bar owner whose ventriloquist dummy does all the talking, an obese food critic, a manic archaeologist, and that talking brain in glass jar.
Naked female flesh – and their entrails – are high on the menu alongside some quite nasty acts of violence against women and misogynist humour like ‘Every heard of battered girlfriends?’, which made me question whether the film’s female director was making some kind of a statement or not? There’s also some broad swipes against health food fanatics and the homeless which border on being just a little too unkind.
Filling out the running time is a unnecessary wrestling match involving an Ayran bloke wearing a Hitler moustache and Nazi insignia, while the film’s big set piece is the ‘blood buffet’ where Sheetah, now resurrected, and sporting what looks like a man-eating vagina with teeth in place of her stomach, causes complete mayhem.
Given the cult status that Troma’s Toxic Avenger has acquired over the years, this insane 1980s horror comedy is certainly in the same league. And now that its been restored and remastered – you never know, we might just see a stage musical adaptation one day soon. I know I’d pay to see that (just minus the misogyny).
Blood Diner is released through Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK, and includes the following special features:
• Audio commentary with director Jackie Kong
• Six Blood Diner featurettes: Queen Kong; The Cook, The Uncle, and The Detective; Open for Business; Scoring for Sheetar; You Are What They Eat!
• Archive interview with project consultant Eric Caidin
• Trailer, TV Sports and Still Gallery
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