What I Dug in 2010: Movie Edition

If you're looking for a "best" films list or even a list of flicks that came out in 2010 you may want to move along. It'd probably be tough to argue that anything I really enjoyed would make anybody's "best" list and other than THE SOCIAL NETWORK and PREDATORS, the only new theatrical releases I saw this year were all kid-oriented... ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS 2: The Squekuel, SHREK EVER AFTER and TOY STORY 3.

So what you have below is my list of the flicks I enjoyed watching the most in 2010. Doesn't matter when they came out, doesn't matter how I saw them... but first, a little accounting. Unless I watch 20 flicks to ring out 2010 my numbers are definitely down from 2009.

2009
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75 New + 30 Rewatches = 105 Total

2010
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67 New + 18 Rewatches = 85 Total

I did watch a higher percentage of films for the first time (79% this year to 71% last year) but the overall list is disappointingly light on Kinski flicks (only three for the year!) and my Eurotrash excursions took a surprising drop-off about midway through the year, never to recover. If I'm going to make any kind of cinematic resolutions for 2011, correcting those glaring errors will be at the top of the list.

Without further ado here's DT's 2010 Favorite Watches (in no particular order, only new watches eligible):

DANCE OF THE DEAD (2008): A late entry on the list thanks to a recommendation from good pal Bruce Holecheck of Cinema Arcana. Imagine a high school zombie comedy that's a little bit DAZED AND CONFUSED and a little bit NIGHT OF THE CREEPS with geeks, freaks, dweebs, cheerleaders, rockers and rednecks teaming up to battle an army of toxic zombies on prom night. Genuinely funny and packed with plenty of splatter.

TRIANGLE (2009): People seem to love or hate this Twilight Zone-esque tale of castaways who find themselves reliving the events on a seemingly-abandoned cruise ship after their boat capsizes. The ads featuring a weapon-wielding killer wearing a bag over their head might have led folks to believe this was more of a slasher than a head-scratcher but I loved every twist and turn.

KISS KISS BANG BANG (2005): It only took me five years to catch up with what may be my favorite flick of the last decade. A smashing love letter to the Gold Medal and pulp paperbacks I was obsessed with back in the 90s, Shane Black's triumphant return features Robert Downey, Jr. and Val Kilmer (aka The American Klaus Kinski) as a pair of mis-matched detectives in this somewhat screwball actioner. Downey, Kilmer and Co. need to re-team for another adventure from these characters... and soon!

DELIRIUM (1987): Oh DELIRIUM – and Serena Grandi – how did you escape my gaze for so long? Pretty sure this late 80s giallo from Baby Bava ended up in my Netflix queue at the urging of fellow HorrorDad(tm) and Tomb It May Concern scribe David Zuzelo – who apparently knows me very, very, very well. Grandi stars as Gloria, a former model who runs an adult mag called Pussycat. A deranged killer/stalker/fan is murdering models, posing them for the camera and then sending the pix back to her, boosting circulation but also making poor, busty Gloria wonder if the killer is one of her inner circle. Well, duh! An off-the-wall slice of 80s Eurotrash complete with familiar faces from Bava's DEMONS, sexy gals in various states of undress and a very oddball vibe that sets it apart from the norm.

GONE WITH THE POPE (2010): Duke Mitchell's "lost" 70s low-budget gangster epic finally saw its long overdue release thanks to the tireless efforts of Oscar winner Bob Murawski who shaped this bizzaro tale of mobsters (led by Duke Mitchell, the low-rent Dean Martin) who decide to kidnap the Pope. Certainly one of the most perplexing cinematic experiences I've ever had, with what seems like two shorter flicks jammed together to make one jaw-dropping, existential masterpiece. Along with BOARDING HOUSE (see below) this was the theatrical highlight of the year for me.

SLAUGHTER NIGHT (2006): Forget the slasher-esque title and headache-inducing aka of SL8N8. SLAUGHTER NIGHT is an entertaining dose of Euro-horror that dispenses with the recent penchant for torture-gore (FRONTIERS, etc.) and gets back to the stuffs I love... possessed beasties ripping out throats and wielding weapons! Though the set-up is pure horror trope and some of the stylistic flourishes gave me a slight headache, I enthusiastically recommend this Euro-mix of THE DESCENT, DEMONS and MY BLOODY VALENTINE.

ASSAULT OF THE SASQUATCH (2009): When this disc arrived in my PO Box I thought, "hmph, it looks like ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 with Bigfoot". And after watching this very fun, low-budget I can confirm that that's exactly what it is! More entertaining than it has any right to be, ASSAULT (like THEY BITE and MANSQUITO) finds just the right balance of no-budget exploitation inventiveness, gory effects and crazy humor. Don't be fooled by the no-name cast and improbably high-concept, um, concept. ASSAULT OF THE SASQUATCH delivers more than it promises.

DON'T WAKE THE DEAD (2008): I'd been anxiously awaiting this flick since seeing a trailer for it on YouTube a couple years ago – so when the aforementioned Mr. Zuzelo popped a copy into my hands this summer I had to temper my enthusiasm in order to fairly assess the flick. Ah, screw that, I couldn't wait to watch this nutzoid blend of undead Knights Templar, bimbo rock fans, Nazi zombies and pistol-packing monks who just happen to carry kung-fu weaponry with them. The first 30 minutes is so relentlessly paced and insane that it's hard to expect director Andreas Schnaas to keep it going... and he can't. But I give the pic a free pass and endorsement thanks to that first half-hour and one of the most gut-bustingly entertaining moments in whacked out horror history. Deserves to be seen with a crowd (ala THEY BITE, PIECES, RAW FORCE) for maximum enjoyment.

BOARDING HOUSE (1982): Speaking of RAW FORCE, that flick was the highlight of the 2009 Exhumed Marathon... an insanely great piece of largely-undiscovered trash cinema that literally rocked the house. For me, the highlight of 2010's marathon was easily BOARDING HOUSE (aka HOUSEGEIST), a shot-on-video-then-transferred-to-film masterpiece that will either make you fall in love with its amateurish brilliance or kick your TV in to make it stop for the love of God! There is no middle ground with this lovably inept blend of babes, telekinesis, monsters and mayhem.

FROZEN (2010): It's unfortunate that AMC's hasty pulling of Adam Green's HATCHET II got more ink than his blink-and-you-missed-its-theatricla-release thriller FROZEN, a flick that is rightly getting its due on more than one year end wrap-up. A 180-degree turn from the excellent HATCHET (I have yet to see the sequel), FROZEN tells the tale of two pals and one girlfriend stuck on a ski lift due to a mix of incompetence, indifference and that glazed-over minimum wage look. In other words, forget zombies, demons, devils, vampires, werewolves and whatever other supernatural beasties you're afraid of. It's the doped up dudes who run the ski lifts and carnival rides we probably have to fear the most! Itchy-skitchy and genuinely tense, Green's FROZEN simply confirmed my love of warmer climates and sandy beaches.

So there you have it. My "Favorite Watches for 2010" barring any last-minute contenders I might see tonight. Though there were a handful of completely worthless duds that I suffered through (DRAG ME TO HELL, MIRRORS [US], TERMINATOR: SALVATION, THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW [original], NECROSIS, CRUCIBLE OF TERROR, ANGELS & DEMONS, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, METAMORPHOSIS, BUG) I felt like this was a pretty solid viewing year.

In fact, you could do worse than check out any of these honorably mentioned slices of sinema that almost made my Top 10: REDNECK, BIG BAD WOLF, BLOOD GAMES, PLANET HULK, PSYCHOMANIA, BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD, BONE SICKNESS, LOVE & MONEY, THANKSKILLING and WILD BEASTS.

New Watches (67)
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12 Rounds
The Alcove
American Drive-In
Angels & Demons
Assassination Bureau
Assault of the Sasquatch
Batman: Under the Red Hood
The Beast Must Die
Behind the Planet of The Apes
Big Bad Wolf
Blades
Blood Games
Boarding House
Bone Sickness
Bottle Shock
Bug
Cold Storage
Crucible of Terror
Dawn of the Dead (Extended Cut)
Dead Eyes Open
The Deadly Spawn
Delirium
Don't Wake the Dead
Drag Me to Hell
Driven to Kill
Five Elements Ninjas
Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks
Frozen
Going to Pieces: Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film
Gone with the Pope
Grand Prix
Green Lantern: First Flight
The Green Monster
His Name Was Jason
The House on Sorority Row
JCVD
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
Justice League: The New Frontier
Kidnapping of the President
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Lights, Camera, Dead
Lisa & The Devil
Loose Screws: Screwballs 2
Love & Money
Metamorphosis
Mighty Peking Man
Mirrors
Muckman
Necrosis
Night of the Demon
Planet Hulk
Predators
Psychomania
Psychopath
Redneck
Slaughter Night
The Social Network
State of Play
Survival of the Dead
Tales from the Crypt II
Terminator: Salvation
Thankskilling
Triangle
Wild Beasts
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Zombieland

Rewatches (18)
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Batman vs Dracula
Better Off Dead
Beyond the Darkness
Curse of Frankenstein
Demons
Elm Street 3
Forbidden World aka Mutant
Friday the 13th Part 2
The Funhouse
Galaxy of Terror
Grand Slam
House by the Cemetery
The Howling
It Lives Again!
Jason Goes to Hell
The Last Match
Masters of Horror: The Black Cat
Phantom of the Paradise

An ER Holiday Classick: BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974)

Here's a review of a holiday horror fave from the ERchives...

It's a bit of a bummer to be writing this review after the tragic and untimely death of director Bob Clark, who died with his son Ariel on April 4, 2007 at the hands of a drunk driver. Best known for such disparate flicks as the original PORKY'S and the holiday favorite A CHRISTMAS STORY, Clark is equally beloved by fright fans for his trio of early, groundbreaking works: the hippie/zombie hybrid CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS; the politically charged DEATHDREAM (featuring a zombified Vietnam vet in the days when the conflict was a daily presence on the evening news); and, BLACK CHRISTMAS, which established the often-cribbed blueprint of a mysterious killer hacking his way through a shopping list of co-ed cuties, frequently around a holiday. In fact, the blueprint has become such a shopworn genre cliche that CABIN FEVER and HOSTEL director Eli Roth spoofed it with THANKSGIVING, his contribution to 2007's double feature concept flick GRINDHOUSE.

For some unknown reason I've always had a mental block about renting BLACK CHRISTMAS. I love Clark's work – especially his other aforementioned horror films – but I can't count how many times I knowingly passed on this classic. I really wish I knew why but I don't. Luckily, because of the 2006 remake (to be reviewed at a later date), renewed interest in the original resulted in this special edition...

Read the complete review at Exploitation Retrospect: The Journal of Junk Culture and Fringe Media.

Farewell Jean and Blake

Why does it always seem like the end of the year brings a spate of passings? Yesterday we had conflicting "is he or isn't he dead?" reports about Eurotrash filmmaker Jean Rollin (he is, apparently) while today brought news that Blake Edwards is gone.

Despite being a huge Eurotrash fan, I am a definite neophyte when it comes to Rollin's work. I can honestly say that the only one of his films I know for a fact I've sat through is ZOMBIE LAKE. And I always thought it was a Jess Franco flick. Hell, even after seeing it I think it's a Jess Franco flick.

Ironically, the latest update to the ER website features a handful of Jean Rollin reviews from the pen of Louis Fowler (including FASCINATION and REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE), though not everybody on our crack staff feels as fondly about the man.

I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the man, though. After our daughter was born in June 2007, the first film my wife and I sat down and watched with her was the aforementioned ZOMBIE LAKE. That's me holding her next to the on-screen menu to commemorate the event. Hey, what can I say – she was a week old and we took pictures of her doing everything!

The passing of Blake Edwards definitely means a lot more in our house, though. I was a HUGE fan of his Pink Panther flicks as a kid and they provided me with hours and hours of laughs both in the theater and via countless viewings on TV. I also remember all the controversy and outrage that accompanied the release of his flick SOB and the earth-shattering news that Maria from THE SOUND OF MUSIC was going to show her boobs.

In other manly endeavors, Edwards wrote and directed 10 and created PETER GUNN and MR. LUCKY. Nice.

For my wife, though, this is the man who made OPERATION PETTICOAT (a perennial fave whenever it shows up on TCM) and THE GREAT RACE, not to mention BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S and probably a few other classics I missed while I was watching RE-ANIMATOR for the 27th time.

Have Yourself a Trashy Little Xmas: Day 8/Fright Nightlight

Have a cool ghoul on your holiday shopping list? Then you know you can't just waltz in to the local Target and find something that they'll just scream (with delight) about.

Check out the very groovy line of Morbid Decor lightboxes and lamps. All pieces are handmade and come complete with bulbs, cords, etc. All you – or the ghastly ones you give it to – have to do is plug it in and enjoy.

I think I'm partial to the Vampire Girl (shown here) but there's something for everybody, from TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE designs and William Castle flicks to THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE, Romero's classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, anatomical illustrations and more.

WALKING DEAD Killshots

Like they say over at Boing Boing... they didn't kill enough zombies.

Have Yourself a Trashy Little Xmas: Day 7/Time to Get Impossibly Funky

Over the course of Exploitation Retrospect's 14-year, 50-issue run I was always happy when people told me they enjoyed the zine and got a kick out of our reviews of trash cinema, music, the odd videogame and – eventually – food.

But I'll be the first to admit that when push came to shove there were probably two dozen zines I would have much rather read than my own: Slimetime (and later, Shock Cinema), Shock XPress, Videooze, Hi-Tech Terror/European Trash Cinema, Hitch, Violent Leisure, Fatal Visions and Wet Paint were just a few of the titles that I'd rip through in one sitting the moment they hit my PO Box.

Mike White's Cashiers du Cinemart is another publication that belongs on that list, though I was never quite sure if it was a film magazine disguised as a zine, or vice versa.

While we were getting blind drunk and "reviewing" SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY, White and his crew were exposing the, ahem, coincidences between Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS and Ringo Lam's CITY ON FIRE. While I was comparing TV biopics about Liberace, White was doing an exhaustive examination of Richard Stark's anti-hero Parker.

In his contributor bio White is described as being "midbrow" – too lowbrow for some, too highbrow for others. And that word – "midbrow" – is actually an excellent way to describe what you'll find in the recently-released Impossibly Funky: A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection. The nearly 400-page volume gathers feature articles and interviews from the magazine's 14-year, 15-issue existence including sections devoted to White's favorite target (Tarantino), favorite film (BLACK SHAMPOO), and even his love-hate relationship with George Lucas' STAR WARS saga.

But the articles I always looked forward to most in Cashiers were the examinations of unproduced screenplays and the alternate cinematic universes they suggest. Luckily, that rich topic also warrants its own section and its where I think the book is at its best. Rather than reporting on films that exist (the Parker flicks, Lone Wolf & Cub series, etc.) White and Co. dive into early drafts of such films as Joel Schumacher's 8mm, the Halle Berry stinker CATWOMAN, ALIENS III and the reboot of the PLANET OF THE APES, providing glimpses into what might have been.

One of my favorite Cashiers pieces – a look at all the botched attempts to relaunch The Man of Steel that appeared in issue #15 – gets reprinted here complete with all the casting tidbits (Tim Allen as Brainiac?! Russell Crowe as Superman?!) and the various attempts to kill and resurrect Superman, link it with THE MATRIX films, and even bring a director like Tim Burton or Oliver Stone on board.

One of the great things about this collection – you know, aside from a cover illustration that features Ralphus from BLOODSUCKING FREAKS – is that no matter if you're feeling highbrow, lowbrow or even midbrow, Impossibly Funky offers something that'll fit the bill.

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Have Yourself a Trashy Little Xmas: Day 6/The Deadcoats Are Coming!

It does not take a Masters degree in popular culture to proclaim the obvious: Zombies are Hot. And not in the way that glittery, Volvo-driving vampires and iron-pumping werewolves are considered hot. I mean in a global, strike-while-the-iron-is sense.

Flawed as it may have been, AMC's The Walking Dead garnered plenty of eyeballs and will be back with a second season. My Netflix queue is clogged with so many zombie flicks I can barely keep up and more big-screen adaptations are on the way. There's even a zombie-centric zine and no less an outlet than "the gray lady" published an essay about life in a zombie world by Chuck Klosterman.

So you'd probably think that with this creative tsunami sweeping Zombie Nation that we'd have run out of ways to deal with the brain-eating, shuffling undead amongst us. Wrong!

When ZOMBIE TERRORS: VOL. 1, AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE UNDEAD (Asylum Press) landed in my hands the other day my reasons for excitement were largely due to seeing good pal David Zuzelo's story "Ascension of the Blind Dead" come to life via art by Billy George. Zuzelo has been a Eurotrash mentor for years and as a fellow card-carrying HorrorDad we have been known to share everything from trashy movie tips and recipes to tweets about NFL games and stories from the harried trenches of childcare.

But as I sat down that evening and hungrily consumed the entire volume in one sitting, I discovered that Z's tale of Templars and monstrous opponents was but one of the many goodies the volume had to offer.

Like most compilations of this type – be they music, comic, cinematic or prose – the contributions are hit or miss. Some tales go for the more obvious brain-splattering, flesh-ripping gross-out though there's certainly nothing wrong with that. I'm always up for a heaping helping of four-color splatter (especially when it evokes a favorite scene from Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND).

Other tales take a more artistic or existential approach, dropping the zombies or survivors into mad landscapes where destruction is the only way to survive, no matter what side they're on. "Arena" by Asylum publisher Frank Forte certainly stands out among these tales and one could easily imagine the character Nightslice appearing in the pages of Heavy Metal or spinning off into a title of her (its?) own.

But my own particular taste in horror tends to follow a classically trashy course that begins with EC Comics, drifts through the terrors of Night Gallery and ends up in the aisles of broken-down cinemas screening dubbed imports and domestic splatter. So it's no surprise that my favorite tales involved culinary adventures gone wrong ("Feast"), nature run amok ("Creature Converts"), a Serling-esque tale that made my skin crawl ("The Jiang Shi"), Lovecraftian horrors ("Prey") and a tale of love and betrayal that would be right at home in the pages of EC, Creepy, or Eerie ("Allison").

As for Zuzelo and George's contribution? I'm admittedly biased but loved that the tale paid homage to the genre's less well-known Eurotrash roots and stood out as a truly unique entry in an anthology brimming with trashy goodness.

Also highlighting the volume are some fantastic pin-ups, especially from the mind of David Hartman. His two-page NIGHT OF THE CREEPS homage tickled me to no end and I'm determined to have it hang on the wall of my office some day.

For the zombie/comic/gore lover on your holiday list, ZOMBIE TERRORS VOL. 1 comes with our highest recommendation!

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Have Yourself a Trashy Little Xmas: Day 5/Run Like The Zombie Apocalypse is Upon Us

Some of you may not know this about me, but I run. Not a ton, maybe 3 miles a day, three or four times a week.

I'm not what I'd call "a runner" because I don't love doing it or go off on crazy distances or plan my life around my next 5K. I simply came to the realization that it was simpler and easier for me to go run around my neighborhood than it was for me to hop in the car, drive to the Y and do the same thing on a treadmill.

For the most part, I don't find runners to be a very funny bunch. Oh sure, my friends who happen to run, they're funny. The people I see at duathlons and 5Ks? Not so much. So I never dreamed that I would find "funny" running gear. Especially not horror-centric "funny" running gear.

But leave it up to my pal Lehigh Annie (woo-hoo!) to find just the right blend of running, horror and even a little food humor thrown in. You can pick this shirt up for your favorite running horror fan at SnorgTees. They also have a bunch of tv and movie-inspired tees including this design for all twenty-three of us who love EUROTRIP.

Have Yourself a Trashy Little Xmas: Day 4/Back Off Dude, I'm a Vampire!

I usually lump personal license plates in with bumper stickers and things like those Baby On Board ("something, something Burt Ward") signs that were all the rage for about ten minutes oh so many years ago.

For me a car is just that. It's transportation, not an extension of my personality. The only two exceptions I can think of are my pal Bob who had this awesome license plate until he gave it to the man himself and this amazing pickup tailgate with a spray-painted Freddy Krueger.

That said, if you have a vampire buff in your life don't let them junk up their car with anything associated with The Lost Boys or the glittery dude who drives the Volvo. Let 'em kick it seriously üld skool with this license plate featuring the original silver screen vampire, Max Schrek as Count Orlock from Murnau's 1922 NOSFERATU. The plate from Tin 10 Collectibles features art from monster kit fave Jeff Preston and is limited to 1000 pieces worldwide. Just $12.99 from Big Bad Toy Store.

Have Yourself a Trashy Xmas: Day 3/Rigor Mortis

I was lucky enough to come of age – exploitation-wise – during what I fondly refer to as the last "golden age" of genre entertainment. Flicks like DEMONS and RE-ANIMATOR still played theaters. Drive-ins not only existed in decent numbers but weren't above screening the likes of CUT & RUN, NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES, SWITCHBLADE SISTERS and VAMPIRE HOOKERS. And maybe, most important of all, there was a thriving subculture of zines that focused on trash cinema, drive-in junk and old school gore.

For years now, that passion and dead-ication has been missing. Yes, great publications like SHOCK CINEMA and VIDEO WATCHDOG exist, but where are the drenched-in-blood, cut-and-paste publications that champion the best (and worst) the genre has to offer?!

Enter the good old photocopied horror film zine like RIGOR MORTIS. This excellent Baltimore-based zombie-centric publication is still heavy on living dead content (including a nice comparison of the two versions of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD as well as an exploration of zombie comedies or zom-coms that sadly fails to include the great NIGHT OF THE CREEPS) but there's also a look at Carpenter's THE FOG, paranormal reality shows and more among the pages of its first couple issues.

Even our main man Klaus Kinski gets a nice nod, with a five page article in RM#2 on Kinski's performance in Herzog's NOSFERATU and how it compares to other portrayals of the vampire mainstay. Unfortunately, there's no exploration of the trash-tastic NOSFERATU IN VENICE.

The third issue of the zine has an awesome Nazi zombie cover that doesn't belie the issue's contents. If there's anybody on your holiday shopping list that loves THE WALKING DEAD or professes to know what they'd do when the zombie apocalypse comes get them a subscription to RIGOR MORTIS.

Naschy Blogathon Continues!

Check out the initial list of links for today's installment of The Naschy Blogathon, including a plug for our own essay from yours truly, The Reluctant Naschyphile.

Can THE WALKING DEAD be Fixed?

I've had a lot of problems with AMC's The Walking Dead right from the start. Atrocious dialogue, derivative scenarios, disappearing accents, unlikeable leads, huge leaps in logic, poor pacing and we won't even get into how incredibly predictable the show has become or, more accurately, was right from the start.

With the first season finale coming up this weekend, it should have been time for the network to ballyhoo the overblown coverage from the likes of Entertainment Weekly (how many "best new shows on tv" are you allowed per season?) and a horror fanbase that seemed more than willing to overlook all the show's faults in order to bask in the glow of a tv show... about zombies... on a real (for cable, at least) channel.

Unfortunately for AMC, news that show co-creator Frank Darabont had let go of the entire writing staff and was planning to go with more of a BBC model in which scripts were assigned to freelancers started dominating the discussion, even bringing some of the more vocal critics of the show to the surface with some preparing a laundry list of issues that a new group of writers might be able to fix.

If you ask me, this seems more like a move for Darabont to exercise greater creative control over the show than any kind of admission that, so far, the writing stinks.

As somebody who never read the comic, the show has had an unfortunate chilling effect on me. Despite trusted friends encouraging me to pick up the recent mega-collection of issues, I have zero plans to wade into the source material. With too much exciting reading staring at me from my bookshelf, a watch pile of DVDs that seems to grow by the day, and the ever-expanding list of stuff on Netflix Instant View, I have to admit that once the season finale airs I'm hoping The Walking Dead will just shuffle on by and not notice me.

Have Yourself a Trashy Xmas: Day 2/70s Horror Prints

With the Naschy Blogathon in full swing it seemed fitting that our second day of trashy holiday treats showcase the wicked cool handcarved linocut posters of Paul Naschy as Waldemar Daninsky, Christopher Lee as Dracula, Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein, Vincent Price as Dr. Phibes and Barbara Steele as Asa from Bava's BLACK SUNDAY.

Available from the Krek Prints shop on Etsy, each of these unique, hand-printed posters measure 6.5" x 9.5" and would look great framed and hung on the wall of your den, movie viewing room or office!

Can't decide on one? The shop does have one set of the complete run of posters.

Want to know more about the process? Check out the video below for a demonstration on how these groovy ghouls get made!



Thanks to David Z of Tomb It May Concern for bringing these to our attention!

NASCHY BLOG-A-THON: The Reluctant Naschyphile

Editor's Note: When the guys at Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies first announced the Naschy Blogathon I wanted in but wasn't sure what I should write about. "Surely," I thought, "there are far more knowledgeable Naschy scholars out there." So while we've written Naschy reviews and even waxed nostalgic about the man after his death last year, I decided to look my own relationship with Naschy in the face and ask the question, "What took ya so long?!"...

It's hard to admit now, but during my formative years as a trash fan I was a bit of a film snob. Oh sure, I wallowed in gore and depravity, saw CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST in the theater, bought VHS dubs of uncut Japanese laser discs of Italian splatter flicks, watched anything with Wings Hauser in it, and stayed up nights dreaming about a big-budget remake of BLOODSUCKING FREAKS. But there was an unspoken prejudice lurking deep in my cinematic heart.

I didn't respect Paul Naschy.

I'm not even sure I realized it at the time. I certainly saw the boxes for flicks like NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST and HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN as I spent hours in the video store, bypassing them time after time for return visits to the Fulci, Franco and Romero buffets. I even devoured zines which heaped praise on the man.

None of it had an impact. I had my 15th viewing of ASYLUM EROTICA to enjoy. And I wasn't even that crazy about ASYLUM EROTICA!

Looking back I'm not sure what made me so resistant to Naschy's charms. Was it the over-the-top titles like the aforementioned HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN? Sure, it was great as the joke name for the West Philly house where some of my ex-girlfriends lived but the movie couldn't possibly live up to the title. Could it?

Was it the way Naschy looked? Could I not get past his resemblance to a trash-compacted splicing of John Saxon and John Belushi?

Maybe I was just tired of werewolf, vampire and Frankenstein flicks, an oeuvre that I deemed Naschy's stomping ground, complete with the dusty clichés of the Universal horrors that I wanted so desperately to distance myself from.

Whatever it was, it stuck. While my trash universe expanded, Naschy stayed stuck on the periphery, like an uncharted planet waiting to be discovered at the right time.

The right time for Naschy to enter my reel life came as my real life was dramatically changing for the better. An e-mail from an old friend had sparked a new phase in my romantic and professional lives, why shouldn't another e-mail spark a new phase in my endless pursuit of the best in junk culture and fringe media?

And so, I found myself joining a group of Eurotrash savants, men who will forget more about the world of Franco and Rollin as they sleep tonight than you or I will ever know. They embraced my love of all things Klaus Kinski, nodded knowingly when I argued that NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES was one of the five best undead flicks ever made and understood the joke when I said "Bad chop suey, so long!".

Soon the conversation turned to the career of Naschy and I admitted that my knowledge of the man and his work was limited at best. And with that my mailbox began overflowing with tapes and DVRs. Werewolf flicks, crazy crime movies, Euroboosh-filled 70s exorcisms, and something called NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST.

Admittedly, I've seen thousands of movies in my lifetime. To say that few have had as dramatic an effect on me as BEAST is an understatement. Within minutes of its yeti-attacks-ski-troop opening I knew that whatever I thought I knew about Naschy was wrong. Forget the seemingly non-existent budget and occasionally inexplicable plotting. This was a horror flick made for horror fans by horror fans and the screen practically pulsated with the star's enthusiasm for the genre.

Some might suggest that starting what I call my "Naschyfication" with NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST was a doomed idea. How could a trip through his nearly 100 films result in anything but disappointment when I started off on such an admittedly high note?

Au contraire mon fraire! Nearly ten years after that initial introduction, I find myself as fascinated as ever by Naschy and his work. I've enjoyed everything from the most threadbare werewolf update (TOMB OF THE WEREWOLF) and outrageous crime-flick-gone-haywire (HUMAN BEASTS) to reanimated sorcerers on the sexy prowl (HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB) and what may be my favorite Eurotrash film ever made, the mind-boggling but endearing HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE.

Though he departed this mortal and cinematic coil a year ago, it's refreshing and encouraging to see that his spirit still lives on, whether it's in a statue capturing his famous interpretation of the cursed werewolf, a comic retelling of his most beloved tales, or this Blog-A-Thon in which people who have never met can share their love for a man and his monsters.

Have Yourself a Trashy Little Christmas: Day 1/filmBRAWL

When I woke up this morning I realized that somehow, when I wasn't looking, we'd arrived at December. The twinkling lights on my neighbors' homes, trees strapped to car roofs and that festival of lights we went to a few days ago should have tipped me off but what can I say... I'm getting old.

With the holidays right around the corner I figured it was a good idea to get around to plugging some of the groovy books, movies, music and more that have brightened my days of late. If you've got a trash fan on your shopping list I'm sure they'd love any of the items we'll be writing up.

Or, maybe you're the trash fan who always ends up with comically off-base stuff people think you'll like. If that's the case, just point them here... I promise not to steer anybody wrong!

Our first item is something you'd think had gone the way of the dinosaur thanks to the internet. No, not hardcore printed smut. It's the ever-popular capsule review film book!

I used to buy a ton of these books in the 80s and early 90s, but I eventually realized that most of the people writing these things did not share the same cinematic worldview as me. In other words, they were not recommending I spend my birthday watching James Toback's LOVE & MONEY with Klaus Kinski, Ray Sharkey and Armand Assante.

Frankly, I was probably better off listening to the recommendations of friends who also had blogs or hung out on the same obscure film groups.

Luckily, one pal – Brian Harris of the excellent Wildside Cinema – has collected his opinions into filmBRAWL a bullet-stopping 648-page volume that deserves a place right next to your computer, tv or wherever you add to your Netflix queue. (The book is also available as a digital download.)

Harris keeps the capsules short and to the point, with each entry featuring a spoiler-free write-up and simple five-star rating system that will quickly tell you if you should spend your time on PULSE 3: INVASION (*) or LUCKER THE NECROPHAGOUS (****). As the author states in the intro, you'll find everything in these pages from Jess Franco to Cannon Films, but he's also not afraid to endorse a creepy classic that you might have overlooked when you were spending your days watching GATES OF HELL (****) for the 17th time.

Best of all, in reading the reviews you get the feeling that Harris – who I only know from on-line exchanges – is the kind of film fan you'd love to hang out with, shooting the shit about your favorite trash flicks while downing a few beers and watching AMERICAN NINJA (***). And that, my friends, is about the best endorsement I can give any film book!

And if you ever need a break from the cavalcade of reviews, Harris even packs the back of the book with some interviews with genre vets (and newcomers) whose names you know (FRIGHT NIGHT helmer Tom Holland) and those you may not (Mike Mendez who directed THE CONVENT and CHAINSAW SALLY actress April Burril).

filmBRAWL receives the highest Exploitation Retrospect endorsement and the Trash Xmas Seal of Approval!