EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE (1978)

"Do you still go in for a lot of lovemaking?"

Laura Gemser returns as the famous reporter with a nose for news and a bod for steamy lovemaking – with all comers! This time out our intrepid newshound is hot on the trail of an international gangster and winds up at a white slavery auction.

After going undercover as a poor girl, Emanuelle gets shipped off to Madame Claude’s brothel (hence the alternate title EMANUELLE AND THE GIRLS OF MADAME CLAUDE) where she learns the dreaded too much and has to be lobotomized, but not before a hot nurse strips down to get it on with our super duper snooper in a hospital room featuring a giant cabinet of drugs.

Paced and structured like the sleazier EMANUELLE IN AMERICA (1977), WHITE SLAVE TRADE is a bit more erotic than the usual Joe D’Amato fare and packs more plot into its first 12 minutes than all of the excruciating BLACK EMANUELLE/WHITE EMANUELLE.

Includes: sex in exchange for car repairs, auto-eroticism, safari montage, dancing natives, tranny, Chinese Joe. – Dan Taylor

EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE is available at Amazon.

Cinesludge Returns with a Double Bill of Hairy Hijinks!

The Evil Monks of Cinesludge Abbey have extracted themselves from mounds of snow and paperwork to return with an all new episode!

This time out it's a double dose of hairy hijinks from Fred Olen Ray that come under the spooky spotlight – the mutant-wolf-on-the-loose gorefest of DIRE WOLF aka DINO WOLF (2009) and the T&A horrorshow featuring Paul Naschy known as THE UNLIVING (2004), recently unleashed on an unsuspecting public like Waldemar Daninsky attacking some grubby peasants.

So sit back, crack a brew (or two) and enjoy!

If you want to watch first, DIRE WOLF and THE UNLIVING are both available at Amazon.

You can listen to the latest episode at Cinesludge or iTunes.

Batter Up! Slash, Dash and BILLY CLUB Bash with the Evil Monks of Cinesludge

Baseball may be over but it's always Slasher Season for the Evil Monks of Cinesludge!

In the latest episode, David Zuzelo of TOMB IT MAY CONCERN and I wax nostalgic about our discovery of and love for the much-maligned slasher genre and even offer up a list of some of the genre faves we return to again and again and again. (Hint: None of them are HALLOWEEN flicks and at least three include Edmund Purdom... THREE!)

Plus, we take a largely spoiler-free look at the newly-minted-but-feels-like-the-90s baseball-themed slasher neo-classic BILLY CLUB, in which a tormented tween comes back to wreak havoc on the Little Leaguers whose hijinks landed him in the loony bin. Where they appear to have no intramural baseball team.

So grab some stale popcorn, an overpriced beverage and your nail-filled Louisville slugger and listen in as two HorrorDads take a break from their daily routine to chat about their favorite cinematic comfort food.

Cinesludge: The Mangled Media Podcast is available via Cinesludge.podbean.com as well as on iTunes.

If you have any questions for the Evil Monks, comment below or drop us a line at editor@dantenet.com and we'll be happy to answer them in an upcoming episode.

For the latest Cinesludge news and giveaways, be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter via @CinesludgeMedia.

No Tricks, Just Treats... New Horror Anthology Has Ties to New Episode of CINESLUDGE

While bouncing around the web this morning I ran across some exciting news about TALES OF HALLOWEEN, a new horror anthology flick that will start shooting next month.

I love horror anthology flicks and it's a topic we'll be covering in Exploitation Retrospect #53 (slated for next fall), but the talent involved with this one gets my juices flowing even more than usual.

Not only will we get segments from Neil Marshall (THE DESCENT, DOG SOLDIERS), Mike Mendez (THE CONVENT, BIG ASS SPIDER!) and Axelle Carolyn (whose Marshall-produced SOULMATE is one of our current DVD giveaways), but John Skipp – whose 'The Light At The End' is one of my fave horror novels – is teaming up with Andrew Kasch.

And Joe Begos – whose entertaining "lumberjack on a murderous rampage" flick ALMOST HUMAN is discussed on the new episode of CINESLUDGE – is also directing a story. Swing on over to Podbean or check us out on iTunes to give it a listen as Evil Monk #1 and Evil Monk #2 talk Mack Bolan, men's adventure novels, ALMOST HUMAN and the recent Exhumed Films 24 Hour Horrorthon VIII.

31 Days of Fright: It's a Slasher Mash-Up With CAMP QUILTFACE: FIRST CARNAGE... Or Something

Better late than never, I always say, and with my daughter's grade school BOO BASH tonight and the Exhumed Horrorthon in the morning I just hope I can keep things straight. Better to give out the skull rings and happy monster stickers tonight, not the copies of ER and NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR Blu-Ray! Here's your Friday dose of slasher fun ... times two!

I have not seen what is referred to as the "CAMP BLOOD trilogy" and – after reading a synopsis – I'm not entirely convinced the makers of 2014's CAMP BLOOD 3 (sic) have either.

According to online sources, 1999's CAMP BLOOD features a group of campers on the run from a killer clown in the woods. One member of the group survives for CAMP BLOOD 2 (2000) and is hired for a movie-within-the-movie about the original massacre.  Five years later, series creator Brad Sykes mined the "reality show trope" by having contestants line up to spend the night in the infamous woods for a shot at a million dollars, only to have their ranks thinned by a bloodthirsty killer who may or may not be the "legendary" clown of the original flick. Titled WITHIN THE WOODS – not to be confused with the EVIL DEAD precursor of the same name – the flick seemingly brought the FRIDAY THE 13TH-inspired series to a conclusion.

Or so we thought.

Enter the prolific Polonia Brothers and the recently released CAMP BLOOD: FIRST SLAUGHTER (MVD), inexplicably also known as CAMP BLOOD 3. In a nutshell, students in a one-credit urban legend class at a local college are tasked with proving whether or not the "Clown of Camp Blood" is real... or bullshit.

And, like so many before and after them, the dim-witted, unprepared victims students head off into the woods. Will they discover the location of the legendary "Camp Blood"? Probably, because it seems like every character in the movie discovers the sign at some point. Will they find evidence of the murderous mountebank? Probably not, because in a first reel twist the "Clown of Camp Blood" gets offed by another deep woods stalker, this one decked out in camouflage and sporting a mask that looks like it was left over from the EMPIRE OF THE APES shoot.

Students wander off, the seemingly out of shape killer wheezes after them and... news flash! It's three months later and the students have disappeared, leaving only video evidence that will reveal their collective fate. Yep, CAMP BLOOD: FIRST SLAUGHTER has turned into a found footage slasherfest, thanks in part to the camcorder the killer wore on the side of their mask.

From here on out writer/director Mark Polonia (SPLATTER FARM, PETER ROTTENTAIL, EMPIRE OF THE APES [see ER #52 for my review]) delivers pretty much what you'd expect from a low budget slasher riff that looks like it was filmed in SNOW SHARK's backyard. There's campfire fun, horny hijinks, students wandering off to get killed, more finding of the "Camp Blood" sign and priceless dialogue like "a broken down cemetery, a broken down church and a broken down car... man, I hope this isn't an omen".

Maybe a bit too ambitious for what was surely a miniscule budget (it feels like the prop department had one cutaway machete that's used repeatedly), CAMP BLOOD: FIRST SLAUGHTER is enjoyable on a casual viewing level. Neither outrageous nor super gory, it's best recommended for slasher completists and lovers of low-budget horror only.

And this story would end right there had I not picked up THE KILLER 4-PACK (MVD) the next day and glanced at the back cover. Only to find that one flick – CARNAGE: THE LEGEND OF QUILTFACE (2000) – was directed by none other than HELLINGER helmer Max Cerchi. (FYI, David Zuzelo and I talk at length about Cerchi's HELLINGER, HOLY TERROR and, yes, QUILTFACE in the first episode of CINESLUDGE available here and at iTunes.)

Written by John Polonia (who died in 2008 after working on countless low-budget flicks with his brother – and CAMP BLOOD 3 director – Mark), CARNAGE: THE LEGEND OF QUILTFACE (aka CARNAGE ROAD) mines much of the same territory as CAMP BLOOD: FIRST SLAUGHTER, though in much more straightforward slasher fashion.

This time out our intrepid urban legend detectives have been replaced by a quartet of college photography students instructed to head out to the desert and take photos, unaware that the disfigured, machete-wielding veteran known as "Quiltface" stalks the dust-swept wasteland. Luckily, a chatty van driver (the scene-stealing Max Hail) is only too happy to inform the students about the legend before dropping off the "idiots wanting to go to the desert".

Unlike HELLINGER and HOLY TERROR – available on a double feature disc from MVD – QUILTFACE lacks the quirky charm that made those flicks so jaw droppingly enjoyable. Oh sure, Quiltface gets all put off by one student's bra and eats the money she tries to bribe him with (and then does a little dance), but he lacks the charisma that Wayne Petricelli brought to the titular role of Hellinger. And although Nick Armas from HOLY TERROR shows up for a blessedly brief role as a horny shutterbug who gets Quiltfaced during the opening sequence, any goodwill engendered by his death is negated by Dean Paul as the shriekiest final guy-girl in the history of horror cinema.

Resembling a poor man's David Walton (tv's ABOUT A BOY), Paul screams, shrieks, panics, cries and all but wets his pants during the flick's 70-minutes-though-it-feels-longer running time. You'll be rooting for Quiltface to drop his character like a three foot putt thanks to one of the single most annoying performances in horror history.

That said, there's enough strangeness about CARNAGE: THE LEGEND OF QUILTFACE under any name for me to recommend it to lovers of cinesludge and other slices of oddball sinema, but all others beware!

THE KILLER 4-PACK (featuring CARNAGE: THE LEGEND OF QUILTFACE), CAMP BLOOD: FIRST SLAUGHTER and the HELLINGER/HOLY TERROR: DOUBLE FEATURE FROM HELL are all available at Amazon.

31 Days of Fright: Countdown to Exhumed VIII

While sitting around the fire pit the other night, my daughter and her best friend began treating us to renditions of Christmas carols. On October 18th. It was all a little much for me until I realized that my own personal Christmas was arriving exactly two months early.

Yes, I'm talking about the Exhumed Films 24 Hour Horrorthon, the eighth installment of which will be taking place this coming weekend at Philly's International House on my old college stomping grounds.

Longtime readers are probably already familiar with Exhumed Films and the annual Horrorthon, but in case any new readers have landed here thanks to our new issue (available from our website) or CINESLUDGE (our new podcast venture) here's a quick recap...

Started in the late 1990s in the South Jersey/Philly region, Exhumed Films began reviving big screen horror in area theaters. Screening actual prints of the flicks (no video projection here), the group arranged spectacular double bills, zombie flick marathons and other events over the years. Best of all, Exhumed audiences treated the films like the fans they were, with MST3K nonsense and (largely) unfunny catcalls discouraged.

When the group's tenth anniversary rolled around in 2007 they rolled out their biggest event yet – a 24 hour horrorthon in which none of the titles would be announced prior to them hitting the screen. And what a lineup it was, starting with John Carpenter's classic HALLOWEEN and ending 24 hours later (give or take) with Lucio Fulci's gory GATES OF HELL, with detours into slashers (PIECES), WTF classics (PHANTASM), giant monsters (GODZILLA VS THE COSMIC MONSTER) and more along the way. (You can read a recap of Horrorthons I thru VI here.)

Unlike that first year, the Horrorthon is now an almost instant sell-out, with people still clamoring for extra tickets on the event's Facebook page.

And as in previous years, Cinema Arcana editor Bruce Holecheck is the only man brave enough to wallow in such an unhealthy dose of sinema and join us in our fight against sleep and the noxious combination of bologna and feet.

Last year's lineup was a solid, consistent show filled with some first time viewings, a couple welcome surprises that I'd not seen in years and one eye-violence-filled grimefest that had me squirming in my chair for 90 minutes...

• DEMON KNIGHT
• MONKEY SHINES
• REVENGE OF THE LIVING ZOMBIES (aka Bill Hinzman's FLESH EATER)
• MANSION OF THE DOOMED
• INFERNO
• WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE
• TINTORERA
• the original HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW
• NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR
• THE PARASITE MURDERS (aka THEY CAME FROM WITHIN)
• GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD
• TOXIC ZOMBIES
• DARKMAN
• DEMONS 2

What does 2014 have in store? And, as Exhumed likes to say, who will survive and what will be left of them?!

Watch the ER blog for a post-Horrorthon recap and stay tuned to CINESLUDGE for an on-the-ground report from the trenches!

Exploitation Retrospect Goes Wading in the CINESLUDGE!

Since their debut more than a decade ago I've always wanted to do a podcast.

I suppose it stems from the enjoyment I got from my years as a college radio DJ combined with the fun I still get from sitting down and talking with friends about the movies, books and other "stuff" we love.

For years, my friends and I would would retire to a diner, theater lobby, somebody's back patio or even the woods (where we'd be accompanied by a case of beer) and spend hours talking about the flicks we'd been watching, zines and comics we were reading or music we were listening to.

Recently, most of that chatter came on-line, in Yahoo groups (like the European Trash Cinema Paradise), Facebook and, to a lesser extent, Twitter. But nothing replaced getting together with friends or chatting with them over the phone and sharing a laugh or the enthusiasm at some weird gem discovered during late night Netflix trawling.

The biggest challenge I faced was finding the right person to do a show with. I had plenty of potential podcast partners in mind, so when one of them – longtime buddy, ER scribe and TOMB IT MAY CONCERN head honcho David Zuzelo – eventually approached me with the same idea a few months back, it seemed like a sign.

The result is CINESLUDGE, a freshly minted podcast that mangles media and wades into a messed up morass of horror, action, sexploitation, kung fu, men's action, Eurotrash and more. If you're looking for in-depth analysis of cinema and a film's place within its history, we may not be right for you. But if you want passionate appreciations of everything from low-budget auteurs and direct-to-video sequels to streaming gems and D-grade knockoffs, have we got a show for you! (Down the road you might even encounter musings from The HorrorDads and a visit from The Hungover Gourmet... who knows?!)

Check out our "test" episode featuring such mind-benders as HELLINGER, HOLY TERROR and QUILTFACE (plus a little ER history from yours truly) as well as our first "official" episode extolling the virtues of Jim Wynorski flicks (love is shared for GILA!, HOUSE ON HOOTER HILL and HARD TO DIE), Jeff Lieberman's schizo Halloween gem SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER and the recent Vinegar Syndrome release of the kung-fu-zombie classic RAW FORCE.

CINESLUDGE is available at these fine outlets:

• The CINESLUDGE Podbean Page
• The CINESLUDGE iTunes Page
• The CINESLUDGE Blog
• And, of course, the CINESLUDGE Facebook Page