Happy 72nd birthday to underrated genre helmer Jeff Lieberman who has written and directed a handful of offbeat classics like SQUIRM (1976), BLUE SUNSHINE (1977), JUST BEFORE DAWN (1981), and 2004's weird and wonderful SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER, which was discussed at length in the first episode of the late CINESLUDGE podcast (RIP). With today being a VHS Wednesday it seemed like a good opportunity to dig up this review of 1988's REMOTE CONTROL starring a pre-ENTOURAGE Kevin Dillon as a video store clerk. A slightly different version of this review appeared in Exploitation Retrospect #18 from September 1988.
Long before he was a critical darling on ENTOURAGE Kevin Dillon starred in this cable/videotape classic from Jeff Lieberman.
The story, such that it is, concerns a videotape from outer space that takes over people's minds and turns the viewers into homicidal maniacs. When two video store workers are accused of one of the murders they begin to unravel the mystery and take on the evil aliens bent on man's destruction.
Dillon plays "Cosmo", a video store clerk so-nicknamed because of his affinity for sci-fi flicks. Along the way he broods, smokes, wears a leather jacket and metal shinguards, and I'm pretty sure he sports an earring as well. In other words, he acts like he does in every single film he's been in. You have to admire someone who is so sure of their own ability that they refuse to alter their basic portrayal in any way!
Film starts out with a good weirdo-Yuppie S&M demise, and manages to throw a few fun-filled deaths into the proceedings (however, a fight at the videotape factory is beyond dull). Lieberman's not-so-subtle use of 50's kitsch set design and clothing reminiscent of old sci-fi flicks is cute at first, but ends up getting on your nerves after a while. The female lead is played by the lovely Deborah Goodrich (APRIL FOOL'S DAY, SURVIVAL GAME), a woman who could get on my nerves, or any part of my body whenever she wants!
To their credit, the filmmakers give the flick a fairly winning sense of humor and the proceedings aren't taken very seriously. In other words, REMOTE CONTROL is better than it has any right to be. Thumbs up for an entertaining premise, some good humor, and the welcome chance to look at Deborah Goodrich in tight costumes. – Dan Taylor After a long time out of print, director Jeff Lieberman released a 25th anniversary Blu-Ray back in 2013. It appears to still be available from his website in both DVD and Blu-Ray formats.
Time for another Troma Tuesday as Evan takes a look at the Maryland-lensed low-budget classic NIGHTBEAST from Don Dohler. I hadn't seen the flick since catching it at a local sci-fi and horror convention in the late 80s but Evan mentioned reviewing it for the blog so I went back for another look and concur that it's one of the finest pieces of trash ever released by Kaufman and Co. Look for MIDNIGHT MARQUEE publisher Gary Svhela and his father as locals who pull a dead girl from the back of their car.
When Troma distributes someone else's film, chances are it's a piece of shit that'll bore your dead grandmother to death. Thankfully though, this isn't always the case. Sometimes, Troma DOES hit pay dirt in their distribution acquisitions. Case in point: Don Dohler's NIGHTBEAST.
An alien craft crash lands near a small town and starts offing the clueless locals via ray gun, disembowelment and decapitation. Only Sheriff Cinder (Tom Griffith, who looks like the offspring of John Holmes and Mark Shannon) and his partner, Lisa (Karin Kardian) can stop the creature. Dohler regular Don Leifert appears in a small role as Drago, a biker who harasses the townsfolk.
NIGHTBEAST is a movie that knows its audience well. We ain't here for deep characterization or high drama: we wanna see the goony-lookin' alien get right down to business – business being disemboweling idiots and shooting them with a ray gun to make them vanish in a glorious flash of disco light (victims ain't "Stayin' Alive" here, folks). NIGHTBEAST moves along with zero fucks given, hardly stopping to take a breath other than when necessary. And it's one of the few movies to elicit some genuine tension from this viewer – something movies RARELY ever do. Bravo!
For a movie undoubtedly made on a budget of toe nail clippings and pocket lint, the special effects are about as good as it's gonna get. The optical effects look as though they were created using a disco lamp and the gore is what you'd expect from a low-budget film, i.e. cheap prosthetics and guts bought from Discount Butchers.
Whatever Troma was smoking when they picked up NIGHTBEAST for distribution they need to smoke more of it: of all the Troma-distributed films I've seen, NIGHTBEAST is definitely one of the best. No-bullshit entertainment is what NIGHTBEAST is all about, so do yourself a favor and take it up on the offer. – Evan Romero Evan Romero is a regular contributor to the pages of ER (including our mammoth 30th anniversary issue available from our website) and spends much of his time reading morally questionable books and watching movies no sane person would touch. He is the vocalist/bassist for the punk band Porno Holocaust (you can find them on Facebook and listen to some demos if you’re inclined). His short story “Touch” was recently published in REJECTED FOR CONTENT 5: SANITARIUM. You can read more of his reviews at ReelAtrocities.com or at PopHorror.com. He last wrote about THE ORPHAN KILLER.
I would normally be laying the blame on our Fearless Editor for allowing me to watch drivel. But I can't do that here. No sir: I'm personally accepting responsibility for my choosing to view MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (1986) – because I enjoyed it!
We already know the story: Earth passes through the tail of a comet which causes machines to go haywire (except for the ones in service to the plot). A group of mucho retardos, led by Billy (Emilio Estevez), take refuge in the Dixie Boy Truck Stop and try to survive.
Directed by a coked out Stephen King and featuring a bangin' soundtrack by AC/DC, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE is very much, in King's own words, a "moron movie" in terms of plotting, writing and characters. Even by B-movie standards, the inconsistencies on display set the bar very high for incompetence. Why don't ALL the machines come to life? Why do spigots come to life? Why don't the trucks trash the truck stop in the first twenty minutes? Why don't the characters try and escape in the first twenty minutes? Why do some guns come to life but others don't?
Of course, the answer to all these is very simple: the plot demands it. With zero fucks given, the movie plows along in overdrive from one scene to the next, running down common sense like an innocent pedestrian – then backing over it to run it down again. But I'll be goddamned if that doesn't make MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE 98-minutes of pure, dumb fun. Watching this movie unfold, it's not hard to imagine King burying his face in a huge pile of cocaine (a la Tony Montana) and snorting it up like a Hoover vacuum each day before shooting, a wide coke-grin smeared across his face as he attempts to direct.
If I really had make one complaint – "Just one!?" I hear our Fearless Editor screaming – about this film, it would be the cuts demanded by the MPAA which threatened to slap the film with an X-rating. Reportedly, the original uncut version made George A. Romero sick. One famous scene to end up on the cutting room floor was a boy's head exploding as he's crushed by a steamroller. Fuck you, MPAA!
MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE might not have the best reputation, but it's highly recommended if you're in the mood for some mindless fun filled with explosions and stupid decisions. And here's to hoping Stephen King will release the uncut version, which he supposedly has in his possession, sometime in the near feature. – Evan Romero
Evan Romero is a regular contributor to the pages of ER (including our mammoth 30th anniversary issues available from Amazon) and spends much of his time reading morally questionable books and watching movies no sane person would touch. He is the vocalist/bassist for the punk band Porno Holocaust (you can find them on Facebook and listen to some demos if you’re inclined). His short story “Touch” was recently published in REJECTED FOR CONTENT 5: SANITARIUM. You can read more of his reviews at ReelAtrocities.com or at PopHorror.com. He last wrote about OVER THE TOP. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE is available from Amazon.
Trying to put the finishing touches on a mammoth 30th anniversary issue and stay on top of our 31 Days of Fright blog feature may have been biting off more than I could chew.
In fact, it'd probably be for the best if we just moved Halloween to sometime in November.
Everybody cool with that?
Well, assuming that's going to get about as much traction as #repealthe19th I better put on my big boy pants and get back to work on both things!
But first, I wanted to dash off a few quick capsules of some of the movies I saw in the theater this week. That's right! I actually made it out to not one, not two, not three, but FOUR honest to goodness movies this week which throws my whole theatrical screenings average for a total loop. (Okay, so one was that MIDDLE SCHOOL movie which I saw with the wife and daughter but hey, it meant putting on presentable clothing and venturing into the outside world.)
First up was a trip to Silver Spring, MD for a couple screenings at the American Film Institute Theater. I'm pretty embarrassed that I've lived in this area for close to 16 years and last weekend was my first trip down there. Considering the number of revivals and their annual Spooky Movie Festival (which was the reason for the trip), I should probably have my "Movie Lover" card revoked. Bonus points for the burger, tots and Double Duckpin at the Quarry House Tavern around the corner, even if they did charge per can about what I pay for a six pack.
Up first was MY FATHER DIE (2016), the debut feature from Sean Brosnan, son of that guy who played James Bond. Chester (Chester Rushing of STRANGER THINGS) is best buds with and protector to his younger brother Asher (Gabe White). But when he crosses the line with their biker father, Ivan (an impressive Gary Stretch who looks like Norm McDonald's impression of Burt Reynolds coupled with Barry Bonds' steroid regimen), it results in Chester's death, Asher's hearing loss, and a long stretch in the slammer for dear old dad. Fast forward two decades when a grown, but still deaf, Asher (now played by Joe Anderson from TV's HANNIBAL) discovers that Ivan has been released early and he must ramp up his plan for revenge. A swirling, sweaty Southern gothic stew of preachers, porn, stomped cops, torture sessions, car chases and gun battles ensues as Ivan and Asher head towards their inevitable showdown. Maybe a touch long at 102 minutes, Brosnan's debut is nonetheless riveting and explosive, with plenty of humor to offset the revenge-driven mayhem. And yes, that's John Schneider as the grizzled cop following the trail of blood and bodies.
Shifting gears completely was the Spooky Movie followup. Tim Reis' BAD BLOOD: THE MOVIE (2016) is an ooey gooey love letter to all those mad scientist VHS flicks we rented in the 80s. Making her feature film debut, Mary Malloy stars as Victoria, a young woman home from college to find herself. Unfortunately, she finds herself living with her mom, meddling stepfather (Brian Troxell) and reptilian stepbrother. Out for a night with friends she ends up attacked by a slimy creature and is reported missing, presumed dead by Stensland (Troy Halverson), the investigator hired by her stepfather. When she turns up weeks later it's assumed she's hooked on some kind of designer drug which stepdad Wade quickly smashes so that she can get clean. Unfortunately, the "drug" was actually an antidote designed to keep her from turning into a hideous "werefrog". Calamity ensues. Reis, who also wrote the script, deftly juggles both horror and comedy, making BAD BLOOD feel like any one of a hundred similar flicks I rented over the years. Halverson practically steals the show as the deranged ex-cop on the werefrog's trail and though the ending never went as far as I hoped the whole slimy affair has me in search of THE DEMON'S ROOK (2013), an earlier flick Reis worked on.
Last but not least I had a chance to hit the theater last night for a screening of SHIN GODZILLA (2016), the latest Tokyo stompfest featuring The Big G. I'm neither a Godzilla fanboy nor a purist, so I wasn't bothered when friends whose opinions usually track with mine mentioned that the flick was maybe a tad talky and even, well, boring. These lowered expectations probably served me well and with a Bobby Flay Crunch Burger and Onion Rings in my gut and a Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA in hand (oh how I love modern cinemas!) I settled in for 120 minutes of wanton destruction. Unfortunately, it's more like 20 minutes of wanton destruction, Godzilla evolution and laser tails coupled with a solid 100 minutes of meetings, meetings about meetings, subtle digs at the US, not so subtle digs at the US, charts, origami, copier setup and did I mention meetings? Seriously, the BluRay should come with a 30 Day free trial for GoToMeeting. I'm thinking that having Godzilla TAKE A NAP (?!) in the middle of the movie probably wasn't the best plot device and the whole thing felt pretty anti-climactic, but any night that includes burgers, brews and a stompfest can't be all bad. – Dan Taylor
Dan Taylor is the editor and publisher of Exploitation Retrospect. He's pretty sure his recent case of writer's block is over. He should really get back to work on the 30th Anniversary issue of the zine.
A couple weeks ago ER contributor Evan Romero wrote up his initial impressions of David Prior's shot-on-video head-scratcher SLEDGEHAMMER and it sent me scrambling back through the ER-chives for my own review. While scanning the review I noticed that I mentioned a couple other Prior credits including FUTURE FORCE with David Carradine and Robert Tessier... which I'd just grabbed during a men's action novel and VHS haul at a local thrift store. In other words, The Trash Gods were informing me that 1989's FUTURE FORCE was next up in the VHS Wednesday rotation.
Set in the really not very distant future of 1991 (!), FUTURE FORCE posits a world where crime is out of control. Prisons are overloaded, gun battles take place in our streets and the privatization of law and order by the Civilian Operated Police State (or COPS) has pretty much meant the death of justice as we know it. On the mean streets of 1991 you're presumed guilty until proven innocent, although you still have to go to the DMV.
"Action superstar" David Carradine stars as John Tucker, the COPS-iest of the COPS, a nut-punching, teeth-busting, denim-wearing, paunchy badass who gets intel from wheelchair-bound Billy (shades of Oracle!) and keeps a bionic arm complete with cool computer lightning effects and a laser in the trunk of his car.
Carradine isn't happy with either the state of COPS or the condition of his fellow cops and it's easy to see why. They spend most of their down time in sleazy strip clubs and they're all pretty out of shape. (The flick practically screams for the presence of the one and only Rick Dean as Carradine's boozy sidekick.)
When a nosy reporter threatens to expose COPS, the company's CEO puts a $100,000 bounty on her head for the crime of treason and it ends up pitting the bored-looking Carradine against his fellow bounty hunters once he's declared "wanted dead or alive".
Borderline entertaining and slightly Troma-esque, my viewing of FUTURE FORCE was helped out considerably by a couple glasses of high-powered viewing booze (aka pints of 9% ABV Troegs Nimble Giant) and a brief appearance by Dawn Wildsmith and the most outrageous mall hair this side of South Jersey circa 1984.
Points off for no trailers at the beginning of the flick but bonus points for a scenery chewing performance from Robert Tessier (THE LONGEST YARD's Mr. Shokner) and the great 80s/90s villain attire worn by COPS CEO Jason Adams (DEADLY PREY's William Zipp). If only the action had been more kung-fu than kung-eh, but really we just want to see Carradine and the remote control arm take out the baddies.
Not the off-the-wall action spectacle I was hoping for from Prior, but just what you need when your daughter and her friends are tying up the big screen TV with a Harry Potter movie. Prior also directed the 1990 followup FUTURE ZONE in which John Tucker's son (Ted Prior, the director's brother) goes back in time to save Papa John (Carradine) from being killed by thugs. And, yes, I need my head examined because I'm actively in search of a copy of the sequel.
In the meantime, David Carradine will visit a future VHS Wednesday in CRIME ZONE (with Sherilyn Fenn) and we'll go back to the future with FUTURE WAR (starring Daniel Bernhardt) and FUTURE FEAR (with the killer cast of Jeff Wincott, Maria Ford and Stacy Keach!). – Dan Taylor
I'd love to tell you that the dearth of posts of late are due to me furiously working away on our latest print installment (that'd be ER 53 coming... "soon"). Unfortunately, the holidays, holiday illness, ennui, freelance projects, record snowstorms and an unscheduled six days home from school for the little one all translate into next to nothing getting done. But that doesn't mean we're short on hot, fresh content for you! In fact, as the review stack teeters behind me I'm happy to welcome our neighbor to the north, Devin Kelly, to the contributor roster. This is the first of Devin's reviews being published to the site but you'll be seeing much more from him in the weeks and months to come and in our bulging 30th Anniversary Issue. – DT
That old adage of "less is more" is one to live by where the horror and science-fiction genres of filmmaking are concerned. Far too often today – with the ability to pretty much do it all through technology and the like – the idea that seemingly everything and anything goes has never been more apparent. Then films like Mickey Keating's POD (2015) come around, and we're reminded what one can do when stripping things down to the bare essentials, regardless of whether budget constraints sometimes force that hand or not.
In Keating's film (set primarily within the wintery confines of an old family lake house), we've essentially got three central characters to focus on, all siblings. Second-born Ed (Dean Cates) sets things in motion after receiving a disturbing and eerily incoherent voicemail from estranged older brother Martin (Brian Morvant). Knowing of his elder kin's state of mind and deep personal struggles since returning from the war, the message is enough to send Ed into damage control-mode, with the idea that a small intervention might be appropriate before things spiral further ("...and I am not up for burying both my parents and my brother on the same side of this decade!"). Unbeknownst to everyone, however, this ordeal escalated and unravelled long, long ago.
Enter the third and youngest sibling (as well as the only girl of the three) – combative and rebellious sister Lyla (Lauren Ashley Carter). Ed hopes to bring her along as a way to quell some of the expected fury and resentment Martin is likely to elicit, with little sis being much closer to her older brother than the up-down relationship he has with Ed. Closeness aside, neither of the two have any inkling of the madness that lies ahead at the old lakeside retreat once regularly and fondly visited upon by their late-mother and father ("If Dad saw this place he'd be spinnin' in his grave"). This is something more than a mental breakdown induced by the monstrosities of combat in the service, however. Ed and Lyla have only to discover it.
As the determined Ed pulls up to the place through the white-covered woods showing the season, with sister in tow, it doesn't take much more than a glance to see that things are immediately off. Doors and windows completely plastered with tinfoil and waste bag plastic, a frenzied knock at the front renders zero response. With spare key put to use and the loud announcement of worried family members on the property, younger brother's voice soon trails off as his eyes slowly survey the deplorable conditions Martin has allowed a place of memories to stoop to. When a rampaging, psycho-gazed Martin comes storming in with hunting rifle ready to unload, the intensity factor goes from one to ten in a hurry (primarily through a wonderfully unhinged performance from Morvant). Ranting violently about takeovers and "pods", Ed and Lyla are left only to look on in bewilderment and terror. And when Martin speaks quite matter-of-factly about a certain something he's encountered, captured, and left captive in a heavily door-bolted room connecting to the basement, they can only conclude that he's slipped beyond any possibility of recovery or help ("No! Stop! Listen to me! Look at me! Do not under any circumstances go into that back room! Do you understand?! ANSWER ME!!"). Or has he? What has in fact triggered this talk of pods and who else is aware of it? Grab yourself a copy of POD and maybe you'll get your answers!
Much of what makes POD great is the believability of three relative unknowns in Lauren Ashley Carter (THE WOMAN, JUG FACE), Brian Morvant (THE BIG BAD), and Dean Cates (RITUAL). Morvant excels as the wildly unbalanced, internally-menaced Martin. Even in the lengthier moments of dialogue exchange, no moment or movement is wasted in Morvant's portrayal ("Oswald, Whitman, Timothy fuckin' McVeigh! What did they have in common? Huh?! Tell me what they had in common! They were all soldiers. They were all brainwashed fall guys who took the hit! And then, what happened to them? They got fuckin' nailed to the cross for it!"). Of the two, it is young Lyla who suggests that perhaps there's a sliver of something to what big bro is trying to get through to them. "What if he really does have something trapped in the basement?! What if he found something in the woods?!" she proposes. Always putting supposed common sense forward, Ed the skeptic shuts her down with sarcastic anger ("Jesus Christ, what if he's got the fuckin' mailman down there, Lyla?!"). As an added bonus for horror hounds is the presence of genre journeyman, Larry Fessenden (THE LAST WINTER, I SELL THE DEAD, WE ARE STILL HERE), who turns up in the third act as a mysterious government man called 'Smith'.
All in all, director Keating (RITUAL) has something solid here to be proud of. POD is a fun and sometimes eerie little backwoods sci-fi-horror with tried-and-true elements combined with a subtle vagueness that creates an additional air of mystery. When things finally come to a head, there are some jump-worthy moments and a somewhat unnerving Giona Ostinelli original score doesn't hurt things either.
An Official Selection of the 2015 South By Southwest Film Festival, POD makes the most of its short screen time and left this viewer quite satisfied. Although not a 'Found Footage' entry, the picture might make a diverting Double Feature with the same year's not so dissimilar THE ENCOUNTER (2015). – Devin Kelly This is Devin's first review for ER's online outlets. Previously a contributor to Cinema Nocturna, Devin is a Canadian purveyor and surveyor of all things exploitative and you'll be seeing much more from him at the blog and website as well as in the pages of the upcoming ER 53. You can follow him on Facebook. POD is available from Amazon.
