Exploitation Retrospect Returns with 130 Page 30th Anniversary Issue!

The Journal of Junk Culture and Fringe Media returns with a super-sized 30th anniversary issue clocking in at 130 pages! 

This time out the ER Crew looks at the world of horror anthology films with a special review section featuring SLAUGHTER TALES (2012), TORTURE GARDEN (1967), THE UNCANNY (1977), TOMB OF TERROR (2004), HOLIDAYS (2016), GRIM PRAIRIE TALES (1990), ASYLUM (1972), THE BURNING MOON (1992), CRADLE OF FEAR (2007), SCREAMS OF A WINTER NIGHT (1979) and many more. Plus, we look inside the world of 21st century anthology flicks with filmmaker Scarlet Fry.

We remember THE DESTROYER co-creator Warren Murphy with an interview by The Paperback Fanatic and examine the legacy of Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan (THE EXECUTIONER) and other men's action heroes via reviews, articles and an interview with author Mike Newton.

Obscure horror gets its due thanks to an interview with Gary Wallace (star of video store oddity THE JAR) while Evan Romero waxes nostalgic about Joe D'Amato's PORNO HOLOCAUST and breaks down the films of Jorg Buttgereit.

Longing for the sights, sounds and smells of old movie theaters? Take a trip through Kris Gilpin's theatrical scrapbook while Chris Poggiali examines the history of hot pants cinema.

And what would an issue of Exploitation Retrospect be without a bulging review section? Join Douglas Waltz, Mitch Lovell, John Grace, Devin Kelly, David Zuzelo, Jim Ivers, Evan Romero, Eric Miller, Neil Vokes, Robert Segedy, Mike Hauss and Dan Taylor as they dive deep into a video vortex of horror, action, exploitation and sleaze.

The new issue is currently available from CreateSpace as well as Amazon.

If you prefer to order direct from the publisher, please visit the ER website.

31 DAYS OF FRIGHT: Anthology Flick Friday Visits the TOMB OF TERROR (So You Don't Have To)

If you think Full Moon flicks can be hard to follow and occasionally incoherent even at feature length, wait till you get a load of them "re-edited and re-energized from past classic films" down to anthology-sized chunks!

Eschewing any kind of wrap-around and simply plunging us right into the re-titled mini-features, TOMB starts off with 'Ascent from Hell' truncated from the 1994 feature DARK ANGEL: THE ASCENT directed by Linda Hassani and starring Angela Featherstone as Veronica, the beautiful but misunderstood demon girl who just wants to see what it's like in the world up there. It's kinda like Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID if Ariel had wings and devil horns and instead of King Triton her dad was Nicholas Worth in bondage gear who spit-screams lines like "I'll teach you what it means to SCOFF AT THE LAW!!!" like only Nicholas Worth can. Unable to resist the call of the mortal world Veronica climbs out of a sewer into somewhere in Europe (who knew?!) and your typical "cute but demonic vigilante out of water" tale ensues. She kills some baddies, torments the town's mayor (whose major misdeeds must have been left on the editing room floor) and falls for hunky doctor Max (Daniel Markell) who doesn't think it's weird that his hot new girlfriend has no heartbeat, calls television "the magic box" and sprouts horns and claws while they're getting it on.

In the middle segment, genre vets Ashley Laurence (the HELLRAISER flicks) and Jeffrey Combs unite in the horror/heist tale 'Infinite Evil' which has been carved from the HP Lovecraft-inspired feature LURKING FEAR (1994). When parolee John Martense (Blake Adams) discovers that his father and Vincent Schiavelli stuffed a cash-filled corpse in a graveyard, he heads off to Leffert's Corners unaware that a trio of bad guys who know about the cash are hot on his trail. It all comes to a head in a graveyard church where Dr. Haggis (Combs), Cathryn (Laurence) and a handful of locals have taken refuge from the family of cannibalistic underground dwellers who emerge during rainstorms to feast, unaware that the mysterious John is more closely connected to the subterranean monsters than any of them realize.

Wrapping up our little trio of tales is 'Eternal Damnation' (which the box also calls 'Evil Never Dies'), a refreshingly gory little morsel snipped from the millennial horror tale THE TALISMAN by director David DeCoteau (under the name Victoria Sloan). Elias (Billy Parish) is the new kid at the sinister sounding Gornek International School for Boys, a dumping ground for rich American brats like Burke (Jason Adelman), a blonde thug who makes other kids do pushups in their underwear and fantasizes about making it with Elizabeth (Ilinca Goia), the daughter of the head mistress. Meanwhile, Theriel (Constantine Barbulescu), an Uncle Fester lookalike with glowing red eyes, is going around yanking out the hearts of stunned, blood-spattered students. I bet that's gonna hurt enrollment! Can Elias find out who's behind the disappearances and thwart their evil plan... before it's too late?

I'm not exactly sure who the intended audience for TOMB OF TERROR was. Even the best movie would likely suffer from having two-thirds of its running time chopped out and the "re-edited and re-energized" shorts offered here all start out okay but eventually become incoherent messes. DARK ANGEL's straightforward (ie, predictable) storyline probably survives the cuts the best while THE TALISMAN – despite the gore provided by Uncle Fester – veers closest to being unwatchable. C. Courtney Joyner's LURKING FEAR, while jumbled beyond belief at points, is definitely (okay, maybe?) the one I'll track down in its full-length form, but I'm a sucker for crucifix-fu, horror-action hybrids and anything with Combs.

Strangely enough, all three segments deal with issues of family... Victoria defies her parents in order to explore the world of the mortals while Demon Mom and Demon Dad must learn to let their little demon go; John struggles with the loser legacy of his father and must fight the monster within; and, Elias – orphaned as a youngster – longs to find out what happened to his older sister. I'm not sure anybody at Full Moon had the foresight to thematically collect these tales, but if they did would it have killed them to come up with a better title or at least some kind of goony linking device?

If anthologies are your thing this one is easily skippable and if you dig Full Moon (and I pity you if that's the case) you're probably better served seeking out the original features.

TOMB OF TERROR is available at Amazon.

Scream Factory Announces New FROM BEYOND Blu-Ray Features

Definitely looking forward to the March 26 release of the FROM BEYOND Blu-Ray from the fine folks at Scream Factory (which you can pre-order from Amazon).

Like me you probably already have the 2007 DVD release but here's a tempting lineup of new bonus features that will be included (along with all the bonus features from the original disc)...

ALL-NEW SCREAM FACTORY EXTRAS: 

• Audio Commentary with writer Denis Paoli
• MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS – A look at the film’s extensive Make-Up & Creature Effects with Special Effects Creators John Buechler, Anthony Doublin, John Naulin, and Mark Shostrom
• PAGING DR. MCMICHAELS – An interview with Actress Barbara Crampton
• A TORTURED SOUL – An interview with Actor Jeffrey Combs
• AN EMPIRE PRODUCTION – An interview with Executive Producer Charles Band

EXTRAS CARRIED OVER FROM THE MGM 2007 DVD RELEASE:

• Audio Commentary with director Stuart Gordon and the cast
• THE DIRECTOR’S PERSPECTIVE - interview with Stuart Gordon
• THE EDITING ROOM: LOST AND FOUND - Gordon Stuart and MGM restoration team interview
• Interview with composer Richard Band
• Storyboard to Film Comparisions with Introduction
• Two photo galleries

Yes I Watched ELF-MAN. Or, I May Have Mental Problems.

Not only did I rent ELF-MAN starring Wee Man, Jeffrey Combs and Mackenzie Astin (son of John Astin and Patty Duke), but I held it an extra day so I could watch the whole thing!

In related news, I may have mental problems.

Somehow I couldn't resist the idea of a family holiday flick starring the JACKASS midget, Herbert West and the kid from THE GARBAGE PAIL KIDS MOVIE. Maybe I should try.

Astin stars as a widowed scientist who has created a solar cell that can deliver enough energy to power a whole house. Naturally, he finishes his invention on Christmas Eve and while out doing last-minute holiday shopping is kidnapped by the bumbling Mickey (Combs) and his two more bumbling co-horts.

When Dad doesn't return home for Christmas dinner his daughter makes a wish on an antique elf doll that Daddy come home and the family be happy again. Cue Wee Man as one of Santa's elves who lands at the house, helps out the kids, their gramma and Dad's butcher girlfriend (?!) and tries to rescue Dad from the bumbling thugs. Did I mention they're bumbling?

It's like a low-rent HOME ALONE with a stoned midget instead of Macauly Culkin and Combs acting his ass off as the Moe, er, Mickey of the gang. Having seen FROM BEYOND just a few days ago I couldn't get Combs' classic "he bit his head off like a gingerbread man" line out of my head and I kept hoping they would work it into the flick. Instead we get lots of things turning in to other things, some reindeer fart jokes, and a western standoff spoof with Wee Man and Combs

Pretty brutal but I actually did laugh out loud a couple times once Elf-Man's home-sewn costume transforms into a real superhero outfit in time for him to battle the bumbling crooks. Filmed in nearby Frederick, MD the flick features elf design by FLY II director/Oscar-winning creature creator Chris Walas (!) and a monster fruitcake that looks like something out of an EVIL DEAD Holiday Special.

ELF-MAN is available from Amazon and Redbox.

We receive a small commission for purchases made at Amazon via this blog. Thanks for your support!

31 DAYS OF FRIGHT: Your Body is My Religion!

This review of Full Moon's disc for the long-awaited, highly-anticipated release of THE EVIL CLERGYMAN was supposed to appear last week during the Anthology-Athon. Alas, real life got in the way and it wasn't till this morning that I was able to finally get my thoughts pulled together. Oh sure, reviewing it for the anthology block is a bit of a cheat but since the segment was originally shot for PULSEPOUNDERS I feel like I can get away with it.

I used to be somewhat obsessed with all things Empire.

What can I say? When a studio releases what immediately becomes your favorite movie of all-time you become a fan. Going to the theater to see everything they put out. Immediately renting the flicks you loved or the ones that bypassed town in favor of a quickie theatrical release in NYC. It was a love affair.

The love affair with Empire flicks was frequently reignited when the big issues of Variety would hit the newsstands. Tied into industry events like Cannes or the American Film Market, the thick issues were a "must have" and I'd fritter away hours pouring through the pages trying to glean whatever details I could about upcoming flicks from all the studios, but especially Empire (and the Go-Go Boys at Cannon).

I can still remember the full-page announcement ad for PULSEPOUNDERS, Empire's "upcoming" entry in the then-popular anthology genre. It seemed like a genius idea from the mind of Charles Band: three segments, each a sequel to or logical offshoot of one of the studio's biggest hits of 1985. There would be a sequel to THE DUNGEONMASTER (itself an anthology of sorts), a continuation of the heroic adventures of future cop Jack Deth from TRANCERS, and, most importantly (for me, at least), a return to H.P. Lovecraft territory with THE EVIL CLERGYMAN, complete with RE-ANIMATOR stars Jeffrey Combs, David Gale and the lovely Barbara Crampton.

And so we waited. And waited. And waited. Every now and then a PULSEPOUNDRES still or news would trickle out but that was about it. Releases like FROM BEYOND, DOLLS and ENEMY TERRITORY kept me sated but it wasn't long before Empire's impressive average started to slide and PULSEPOUNDERS retreated into the dark recesses of my mind, emerging from the brain muck every now and then for me to ponder whatever happened to the flick.

Like most fans, I assumed that the end of Empire and Charles Band's subsequent move to Full Moon meant that PULSEPOUNDERS was lost forever, a myth to chat about on film boards and at hotel bars during conventions.

As it turns out, PULSEPOUNDERS wasn't swept away or left unfinished because Band was too busy making horrible vampire and puppet movies. As the producer/director explains in the featurette included on the long-awaited DVD release of THE EVIL CLERGYMAN, the original negative for the film was lost when one of the labs the studio used went out of business and it wasn't until 20+ years later – when a VHS work print was found – that wheels were set in motion for PULSEPOUNDERS to finally see the light of day.

Even if it is one segment at a time.

Besides Combs, Crampton and Gale, CLERGYMAN reunites us with composer Richard Band (who contributes a lush and romantically sinister new score), cinematographer Mac Ahlberg and scribe Dennis Paoli, who once again gets to indulge in the sexual side of Lovecraft with this atmospheric tale.

A young woman (Crampton) visits the castle room where she and her clergyman lover (Combs) consummated their illicit relationship – before he hanged himself. Left alone to gather her things, she soon finds herself being warned by a bishop (David Warner) that her lover was evil and simply wants to possess her soul. (And who can blame him?) It isn't long before the gropey clergyman returns, gets all handsey and is laying it on thick with lines like "your body is my religion". (Again, can you blame him?)

Relying heavily on atmosphere, THE EVIL CLERGYMAN isn't a wild, occasionally gross ride like RE-ANIMATOR or FROM BEYOND. The 30-minute segment is – David Gale's rat suit by John Carl Beuchler aside – largely effects-free and more akin to the Lovecraft adaptations of NIGHT GALLERY or MASTERS OF HORROR with a dash of the atmosphere we'd later see in Stuart Gordon's CASTLE FREAK (an underrated Combs/Crampton outing).

Combs' snarky smirk is put to good use as the love 'em and leave 'em sinister minister who has left a trail of crazed and dead chicks in his wake. And nobody does "hot and kinda crazy" like Crampton, who shifts effortlessly from demure to sexy in no time.

Kudos to Full Moon for rescuing PULSEPOUNDERS from the trash heap and releasing it to the fans. Naturally, given the source material, the image quality isn't great but this is a rare opportunity to see a flick that was long thought to be lost forever.

The disc is currently a Full Moon exclusive and includes a featurette from the CLERGYMAN premiere earlier this year as well as 60-seconds of work print footage from TRANCERS 1.5 starring Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt and Art LeFleur in a tale scripted by Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo. Full Moon anticipates that disc being ready for October 2013.

THE EVIL CLERGYMAN is available exclusively from Full Moon Direct.

Combs Cooks

I love cookbooks and I love horror films. So how come I'm just finding out about It Came from the Kitchen, a 2007 cookbook that collects recipes and food-related anecdotes from horror and science-fiction personalities?

Even better, the cookbook contains a recipe from none other than Herbert West himself, actor Jeffrey Combs.

Combs, star of RE-ANIMATOR (and its sequels) as well as the underrated Lovecraft-inspired horror flick FROM BEYOND, contributes his recipe for Tortilla Soup, a tasty looking blend of peppers, spices, beef and beans that will surely warm you up on a cold winter night.

You can check out the complete recipe – and stay on top of all the Combs news that's fit to print – by visiting The Combs Corner, an excellent blog devoted to the popular actor.

HOUSE OF RE-ANIMATOR Closed... For Good?

I first heard about HOUSE OF RE-ANIMATOR – in which Herbert West would be called upon to re-animate a deceased Commander in Chief... with horrific results, I assume – back when I trekked up to Philly to catch the premiere of the fun third installment in the series.

Producer/director Brian Yuzna mentioned it during his Q&A session and even suggested that the ripe-for-satire storyline might lure Stuart Gordon back to the franchise.

Since then good news arrived in fits and spurts about the film... Gordon would return along with original RE-ANIMATOR scripter Dennis Paoli... Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott and Barbara Crampton would all be in the film... recent Gordon star and Curious George narrator William H. Macy would play the President (sorry, I have a ten-month old) while George Wendt was on-board to play the Vice-President... it all seemed so promising.

Which inevitably meant bad news was sure to come... financing was becoming an issue... the flick might be a straight-to-cable episode of 'Masters of Horror'... the proposed Summer 2007 release date came and went without so much as a camera being turned on.

Well, according to a report on Fangoria.com the project is all but dead. And not the good kind of ready-to-be-reanimated dead we've come to know and love. Nope. Dead dead. Seems the political climate which makes the subject matter explode with potential is making investors nervous (or so suggests Gordon) and we'll probably never see Herbert West striding into the Oval Office with syringe full of glowing green goo.

But fear not fellow RE-ANIMATOR fanatics. Feel free to go ahead and make your own version or some other riff on the West tale. Fango also reports that Gordon will be a guest at the Boomtown Film and Music Festival and fans are being enlisted to create 3 minute videos based on the original Lovecraft tale or movie version.

Dante's Inferno: 7/20/07

Was reading old pal Aj Michel's terrific Syndicate Product blog this morning, including her piece on a particularly great shuffle produced by her MP3 player (Zen, I believe). I commented that I swear sometimes my iTunes shuffle knows what kind of mood I'm in and picks tunes out based on how hard and fast I'm typing, how quickly I'm jumping from site to site, etc.

A few songs into this morning's playlist I realized that my shuffle and I were in almost perfect harmony. Since firing it up earlier this morning – no live Stern show on Fridays so I almost always go for the shuffle to start my day – my playlist has featured Paul Westerberg, Joan Jett (with Paul Westerberg), T Rex, Descendents, Dictators, Marvelous 3, a cover of The Replacements' "Little Mascara" by The Draft, Afghan Whigs (whose career-spanning best of is available now), All, Too Much Joy, ABC, Jawbreaker (covering Joan Jett), the late but great Philly band The Stuntmen, and Screeching Weasel.

Considering I have 7600 songs programmed into my iTunes (that's 17+ days worth of music) that's an impressive lineup and one I would've been proud to serve up to my listeners were I still on the radio today.

Other quick hit news of note on this Friday morning...

Now that Stuart Gordon's FROM BEYOND is headed to DVD, Fred Dekker's NIGHT OF THE CREEPS tops my DVD Wish List. Fans of Dekker's THE MONSTER SQUAD have gotten their wish with a new 20th Anniversary Edition that's not so much reviewed as drooled over here. Frankly, I never got MONSTER SQUAD, but I have no undying love for the Universal monsters it celebrates.

I imagine that if you had any significant interest in Tim Lucas' massive, long-awaited Mario Bava book you probably have already ordered it. If somehow the 800,000 word (no, that's not a typo, all those zeros belong there) book has flown under your radar, act fast. Lucas recently announced that upon receipt of the shipment of books getting ready to leave Hong Kong the book's price would more than double in price from $120 to $250.

The release of The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan's follow-up to the phenomenal Batman Begins is currently shooting in Chicago. I have reached the point where I no longer want to know anything more about the film, which stars Christian Bale as The Caped Crusader and Heath Ledger as what promises to be a darker, sinister Clown Prince of Crime, The Joker. (Translation: No dancing to Prince songs.) If you want to keep up-to-date on TDK-related news, point your browser to the great Batman On Film site, the definitive clearinghouse for news, rumors, video, inside info and more.

Finally! FROM BEYOND Coming to DVD in September!

"Humans are such easy prey."

Since the advent of the DVD format almost everything I've been itching to see has made its way to store shelves. RE-ANIMATOR? Three versions. THE EXTERMINATOR? Director's cut. DAWN OF THE DEAD? How many cuts do you want?

But my video shelves have always felt a bit empty, and not just because I still have half of Klaus Kinski's filmography to track down.

No, it's the continued absence of two of my favorite films of the ER era... Fred Dekker's brilliant zombie-action classic NIGHT OF THE CREEPS and Stuart Gordon's incredible RE-ANIMATOR follow-up, the Lovecraftian FROM BEYOND.

As of September 11 I'll be able to scratch one of those titles off my "Where Is It?" list. Fangoria is reporting that MGM will release the director's cut of FROM BEYOND – which premiered last year on the Monsters HD channel – along with a widescreen special edition of another 80s terror classic, THE BURNING.

For those of you who have never seen FROM BEYOND, you're in for a treat. While not the infamous genre classic that is RE-ANIMATOR, Gordon's second flick is no red-headed stepchild.

The story concerns the experiments of Dr. Edward Pretorious (Ted Sorrel), a mad genius who also happens to be an S&M/leather freak. His new invention, The Resonator, is a large, phallic device which stimulates the pineal gland and allows people to see things around them that the naked eye cannot observe.

Of course, there's a drawback. Those same things can now see us!

One of the creatures chomps off ol' Doc P's head and his assistant Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs) is locked up for the murder. Enter Dr. Catherine McMichaels (the luscious Barbara Crampton), a psychologist that has been called in to see if Tillinghast is fit to stand trial.

To determine his sanity, Tillinghast, McMichaels, and ex-football-player-turned-cop Sgt. Buford "Bubba" Brownlee (DAWN OF THE DEAD and LEATHER FACE star Ken Foree) return to the scene of the crime to re-enact the experiments.

Needless to say, this is another case of cinematic logic gone awry.

That's all I'll say about the flick and that all happens in the first 20 minutes. Unlike the fast-paced, manic exercise in black humor and horror that was RE-ANIMATOR, Gordon plays FROM BEYOND mostly straight. While this serious treatment slows the flick down a tad at the beginning things kick into high gear again for the last half and the result is a well-acted, slimy and FUN horror pic with the bonus of featuring Ms. Crampton in some serious leather gear.

Having only seen the R-rated release that Empire dumped onto video instead of giving a proper release in theaters, I cannot wait to see this slice of 80s horror cinema in all its glory.

Thanks to Bruce Holecheck for the tip!

New RE-ANIMATOR Two Disc Special Edition

I wanted to get more details before I gushed about Anchor Bay's upcoming special edition of Stuart Gordon's RE-ANIMATOR (slated for release on March 20, 2007), or as we call it around ER HQ "The Greatest Movie Ever Made."

Though there have been other special editions on both laserdisc and DVD, this new two-disc special edition looks to be the one RE-ANIMATOR to have in your collection.

According to Fangoria.com, the set will feature a new remastered, 16x9-enhanced 1.85:1 transfer with Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, plus:

• Audio commentary by director Stuart Gordon
• Audio commentary by producer Brian Yuzna and actors Bruce Abbott, Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton and Robert Sampson
• All-new 70-minute documentary Re-Animator Resurrectus, featuring interviews with Gordon, Yuzna, writer Dennis Paoli, actors Combs, Crampton, Sampson and Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, composer Richard Band and Fango’s Tony Timpone
• Music discussion with Band
• Deleted and extended scenes
• Theatrical trailer
• TV spots
• New production stills from Yuzna’s private collection
• New behind-the-scenes, posters & advertising, storyboard and fun-on-the-set galleries
• Stuart Gordon bio
• Screenplay (DVD-ROM)
• H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “Herbert West, Reanimator” (DVD-ROM)

I wish they'd found a way to include the long out of print soundtrack as well, but I suppose you can't have everything. Oh well, at least I still have my vinyl copy. But you can have this incredible two-disc package of The Greatest Movie Ever Made for less than $20. In fact, you can pre-order your copy from Amazon today and support ER at the same time.

Celebrate Poe's Birthday with Gordon and Combs

Although I have Showtime I haven't been watching their 'Masters of Horror' show as often as I should. First off, I know that every episode will be out on DVD soon after the new season wraps up (see the ER site for Louis Fowler's continuing reviews of the first season discs). Second, I haven't been all that super impressed with the episodes that I have seen.

But that won't stop me from watching tonight's episode. Or at least setting my DVR for it. Tonight's installment, an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Black Cat', is particularly timely, given that it's the 198th anniversary of the author's birth. To top things off, the episode is directed by the great Stuart Gordon (RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND, 'nuff said) and stars Jeffrey Combs as Poe. (If I have to provide any of Combs' genre credits I'm not sure why you're reading this blog.)

Combs joins the great Klaus Kinski as one of my favorite actors to portray the tortured, tormented and brilliant author, whose body just happens to be buried here in Baltimore. Kinski appears as Poe in Antonio Margheritti's WEB OF THE SPIDER.