Movie Title (Country) Year
D. Director S. Star(s)
Alternate title(s) Synopsis. Notable Scene(s).
Movie Rating/10DVD Producer
*=indicates DVD Special Features
#=indicates as part of DVD collection
Kill, Baby, Kill! (Italy) 1966
D. Mario Bava S. Erika Blanc
Operazione paura, Curse Of The Living Dead Atmospheric Mario Bava gothic horror that makes dazzling use of gel-lights and authentic, ancient locations. In what is basically a supernatural giallo, the spirit of a little girl dispatches the citizens of her small, Transylvanian town each night in ghastly ways.
7.5/10
Killer Klowns From Outer Space (USA) 1988
D. Stephen Chiodo S. John Vernon, John Allen Nelson
Popcorn, cotton-candy and hideous vampire clowns all factor into a highly zany invasion from space. $10= a widescreen version of the film with a good commentary by the creative team behind the Klowns, the Chiodo Bros., and a slew of making-of featurettes, production art, animated menus and other surprises.
6.5/10
Kiss Me Quick!/House On Bare Mountain (USA) 1964/1962
D. Bethel Buckaloo/Lee Frost
Dr. Breedlove This charming pair of "Nudie-Cuties" are the equivalent to an archeological dig of pre-Sexual-Revolution America. The budgets sink far below Ed Wood's, the dancing girls are largely plagued by unsightly anterior cellulite (and hilarious hairdos), and the jokes are the lowliest form of Laugh-In puns, but they've both got MONSTERS! Well, the producer's frat-buddies in cheap masks, really, but did I mention there are naked women?
2.5/10
Land of the Dead (USA) 2005
D. George Romero S. Dennis Hopper, John Leguizamo
There was no real chance in our zombie-saturated cinema landscape that zombie-master George Romero's long awaited third sequel to Night of the Living Dead would be the revolution of the genre that it's predecessor's were, but it's far from a debacle in spite of a few moments of silly excess and Romero's feeble attempt at a "political message". Surely, one can only delight in so many zombies-eating-guts scenes, but it's fun to see the variety of interesting zombie designs (which have to endure more scrutiny than the now-popular "running zombies") and the ruined environment of a zombie apocalypse. Land of the Dead is perhaps not as deep as the last two of the series but the performances are more consistent in quality than the others and it certainly moves at a brisker pace. I'm not sure I'm sold on zombies as an oppressed underclass rising up against the Man, though I think it's nice that they apparently worked things out in the end.
7/10
The Legend of Boggy Creek (USA) 1973
D. Charles B. Pierce
This peculiar documentary must have seriously given me the ookies when I saw it at the movie theater as a boy, but 30 years later, as you might imagine, it's lost a great deal of it's remembered intensity. The movie is basically comprised of a bunch of very crude re-enactments recounting alleged encounters with the "Fouke Monster" of Arkansas, based on the testimonials of what a less dignified person than myself might describe as slack-jawed hillbillies. Producer and Director un-extraordinaire Charles B. Pierce efficiently casts some of these local yokels for the dramatizations, making for a drab sort of authenticity throughout. The weird little jingles that Pierce composed to pad this mediocre monster movie further plumb the muddy depths of stereotypical swamp-dwelling hick-ness. In another wise move, Pierce keeps the titular creature- obviously a guy in a monkey suit and dreadlocks- obscured by darkness as much as possible. The DVD has an unbelievably bad transfer (unless the movie has always been grainy and green, and I'd simply forgotten), and zero extras. Nada! None! Not even a stinking trailer! Why I oughta....
2.5/10
The Legend of the Chupacabra (USA) 1998
D. Joe Castro
The Troma team cleverly jumps on the Blair Witch bandwagon with their own Scooby-Doo-gone-terribly-wrong video expedition, this time involving the mysterious goat-sucker of Mexico, which, unlike Blair Witch, we see early and often. TLOC is garish, stupid and gory, like all Troma products, but... Well, let's just leave it at that. Plenty of extras that are no better or worse than the main feature, and a really crappy commentary track that I couldn't even make out. Recommended mostly if you are actually a fan of El Chupacabra.
2.5/10
Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (UK) 1974
D. Roy Ward Baker S. Peter Cushing
Seven Brothers vs. Dracula Dracula (as played by an Oscar Wild-ish John Forbes Robertson) is at the center of a vampire outbreak in China, so it's up to Peter Cushing's Abraham Van Helsing and a platoon of kung-fu fighters to chop-socky their way to his castle and call the dark prince out. This bizarre little exploitation flick, replete with vomit-faced vampires, gratuitous violence, karate zombies and ripped kimonos, is reputed to have been the last nail in Hammer's horror coffin.
6/10
Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (USA) 1973
D. Richard Blackburn S. Cheryl Smith
Lady Dracula, The Legendary Curse of Lemora Becoming, southern church-chick Lila Lee (Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith) comes from a troubled family, her mobster father on the run from the law for shooting the girl's mother, and she soon falls into the clutches of another sort of family: a clan of vampires, lead by the iniquitous and enigmatic Lemora. L:ACTOTS is an unconventional low-budget horror film, a period piece (dust-bowl America) that follows the heroine Lila Lee on a Lovecraftian Odyssey that ends in subjection to the night. Writer/Director Richard Blackburn (Eating Rauoul) appears as a minister who Lila Lee is in the care of, who struggles with a secret, inappropriate affection for the wayward youth.
7/10
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (USA) 1971
D. John D. Hancock S. Zohra Lampert, Barton Heyman
A supreme example of a gothic horror set in the seventies without the camp/exploitation qualities so common for genre cinema of the era, LSJtD evokes a feeling of escalating dread in the context of the gradually deteriorating sanity of the titular character. Whether the subliminal menace is supernatural or only in the troubled heroine's haunted imagination is left up to the viewer--a plot device seldom utilized with the competence and restraint exhibited here. A woman with a history of psychiatric problems is brought to a remote New England orchard by her husband and friend for a fresh start, only to find herself stalked by a ghostly presence from the area's past.
8/10
Lisa and the Devil (Italy) 1975
D. Mario Bava S. Elke Sommers, Telly Savalas
A woman tourist in Spain (Elke Sommers) finds herself stalked by Telly Savalas, ostensibly the devil himself. Mysterious and moody (and a touch incoherent), this lesser known Mario Bava thriller was released in America (recut) as House Of Exorcism, to cash in on the tremendous box-office success of the recently released The Exorcist.
5.5/10
Logan's Run (USA) 1976
D. Michael Anderson S. Michael York, Jenny Agutter
With any luck the 23rd century will see mankind moving into a huge bio-dome and becoming a mindless, hedonistic society of self-absorbed wastrels that systematically exterminates it's citizens when they reach the age of thirty. Then William F. Nolan and George Clayton, the writers of Logan's Run, can be hailed as visionaries well ahead of their time. In the mean time, this is one stupid sci-fi movie, even if it's pretty fun as sci-fi goes. The Warner DVD features a commentary by actor Michael York, the director, and the costume designer (?), and a making-of documentary, which is even more breathtakingly dated than the movie itself.
6.5/10
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (USA) 2004
D. Larry Blamire
Cute comic homage to 1950's sci-fi schlock in which an inept "rock scientist" (director Larry Blamire) and his too-perfect wife encounter a myriad of Ed Woodian characters, including a fakey lumbering mutant, a nefarious mad scientist (along with his slinky female slave "Animala", who is supposedly a combination of four different forest animals), a mixed-up duo of aliens and a "reanimated" skeleton while in search of a meteorite (in the all-too-familiar Bronson Canyon near Los Angeles) composed of a rare element dubbed "atmospherium". Included on the disc is a short making-of featurette, the classic cartoon short "Skeleton Frolic" and more!
5.5/10
The Loved One (USA) 1965
D. Tony Richardson S. Robert Morse, Rod Steiger
A sardonic British slacker breaks into the Los Angeles funeral industry in this terrific ensemble black comedy. Cameos by Jonathan Winters, Milton Berle, Liberace, Paul Williams, Sir John Guilgood, and others, some strikingly surreal imagery and smart dialogue compensate nicely for a somewhat convoluted plotline.
6.5/10
