80s Slasher: Hell Night

Howdy all and welcome back for another rousing day of Rotten Reelz Reviews. We are on Day 3 of 80s Slasher Week so let's do this right. How about a flick involving a hazing of frat and sorority with Regan of the Exorcist, Matthew Star of the Powers of Matthew Star and a Van Patten??? Sounds insane or totally unfeasible? Tough titty cause it's happening and this is Hell Night.

Excuse me director, why am I dressed this way?

Journey with me into the Time Tunnel (Already made countless TARDIS and Way back machine references) to the year of 1981.  No smartphones and your games were pre 8-bit or at an arcade. SAVAGES!!!    And with director Tom DeSimone and psuedonym Lancer Brooks (Chained, Prison Girls, Sons of Satan, Erotikus: A History of the Gay Movie, Station to Station, Catching Up, Wet Shorts, The Concrete Jungle, Reform School Girls and Angel III: The Final Chapter) such a concierge of soft core Skinamax films, hardcore gay pornos to a few horror films? Such a diverse collection. Our indie horror film opens with a band, a beer bust and general shennanigans. As the hazing is commonly known as "Hell Night" our would-be pledges have to spend the night in the haunted mansion of Garth Manor, where you will have to hear the Wayne's World theme over and over.   I could however, be wrong.

Jason Vorhees without his hockey mask!!!

As the pledges are decided we get nerdish Marti (Linda Blair of The Exorcist, Savage Streets, Repossessed, Perry Mason: The Case of the Heartbroken Bride, Skins, Sorceress, Scream and Supernatural), preppy rich boy Jeff (Peter Barton of The Powers of Matthew Star, Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter, Sunset Beach, Repetition and The Young and the Restless), surfer dude Seth (Vincent Van Patten of The Six Million Dollar Man, Wonder Woman, Rock 'n' Roll High School, Yesterday, Payback and The Young and the Restless) and party chick Denise (Suki Goodwin of Hell Night and Voyagers!) as the sacrificial little lambs. They're told of the horror stories of Garth Manor and how the father Raymond went completely batshit, strangled his wife and then killed his deformed kids in horrific ways. It was said that the youngest child Andrew was never found dead or alive, and is spoken in hushed whispers to still be hiding in the house itself.

Before our frat brat pack can unleash a myriad of pranks and gags at the innocent pledges they find the house may not be so deserted after all. Really getting a Scooby Doo vibes with vicous murders.

Will Marti and Jeff escape this gruesome faith??!!! Has Andrew been dwelling in the manor the whole time??!! Who is has allowed that house to stay abandoned and not simply bulldozed it??!!!

40 days shoot time for the whole flick.  Peter Barton was chucked down a flight of stairs and actually hurt his leg in the process so that limping away was due to hurting himself. There was no hedge maze on the mansion property, it had to be trucked in and grown there.

Not even the Powers of Matthew Star can save you from this flick!

80s Slasher: He Knows You're Alone

Hello folks! I am back for Day 2 of 80s Slasher Week and this one took me by surprise. I was not prepared how I would feel after this film. So if I threw out the name Armand Mastroianni, would you have a clue to whom I am referring to? I would estimate that 8 out of 10 people haven't the foggiest notion of the fellow I am talking about but for those 2, hey thanks. Director/producer Armand Mastroianni (The Supernaturals, Tales from the Darkside, Cameron's Closet, Double Revenge, Friday's Curse, Dark Shadows, Virus and Fatal Error) has directed and produced both film and TV for more than 3 decades and while the name does not immediately spring to mind, chances are you have seen his work. Today we focus on a slasher film shot in 1979 and yes you could say it is hanging on the coat tails of the success of Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but that would be a dick move. This is He Knows You're Alone.

Yeah it's fuzzy but a warm coat.

A young woman, a bride is murdered on her very wedding day by the man she rejected for her cop fiance, a Detective Len Gamble (Lewis Arlt of Search for Tomorrow, He Knows You're Alone, Another World and Confessions of a Dangerous Mime)who stole McCloud's jacket has the sniffles but that won't keep him from his designated rounds. That night a girl is murdered in a movie theater in Long Island which ironically watching a slasher film. The biggest amusement on my behalf is Wes Craven stole this death scene and it is almost shot-for-shot via Scream 2 with a few alterations to it. Our beady-eyed killer makes his way to a bus from Long Island to Staten Island to shop for victims and boy he should be able to find more than a few if he is lucky so long as he doesn't crossover to Fulchi's The New York Ripper set because Andrea Occhipinti has it covered.

Surprise surprise as Len's partner is Detective Frank Daley (Paul Gleason of The Breakfast Club< She's Having a Baby, Johnny Be Good, Die Hard, Nightmare Beach, Miami Blues and Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence) and my first thought was, " Principal Vernon, what are you doing here? Don't you know John Bender is just going to misbehave?" but I digress as he brings Len into the loop that the victim is a bride-to-be and clearly it is the same killer that did in Len's fiance.

Ray's "O" face.  Ew.

Amy (Caitlin O' Heaney of Apple Pie, Savage Weekend, The Seeding of Sarah Burns, Tales of the Gold Monkey, Alien Nation, Civil Wars and The Emperor's Club)is a bride-to-be as she says good bye to her fella Phil (James Carroll of As the World Turns, Senior Trip, Girls Nite Out, Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story and The Gathering) is off with his buddies for a stag night leaving her alone with her girlfriends Joyce (Patsy Pease of Search for Tomorrow, Space Raiders, The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives) and Nancy (Elizabeth Kemp of Love of Life, The Clairvoyant, Eating and Welcome to New York) and dammit one of these pairings is leading towards erotic fiction. Probably closer to the guys rutting but meh I care not.

Len's hunch on his fiance's murderer is paying off as Ray Carlton (Tom Rolfing of Another World, He Knows You're Home and Disaster at Silo 7) is adhering to his M.O.of killing off the bride-to-be and all her friends and family around her. The clock is ticking and Len and Frank are chasing every lead possible.

Can they catch Ray??!!! Is Amy destined to die??!! Will I ever stop doing this serial gag??!!!

Still love the movie within the movie gag as I noticed Scott (Russell Todd of Friday the 13^th Part 2, Where the Boys Are, Chopping Mall, High Mountain Rangers and Another World) is making out in the car when they hear a noise.   Dammit man, how many times must you be massacred before it sinks in??!! A misconception that Tom Savini provided the FX makeup, gag weapons and copious amounts of fake blood for the shoot when in fact it was fellow FX artist and stuntman Taso N. Stavrakis (Friday the 13^th, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Creepshow 2, The Mask of Zorro, Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Miami Vice) handling the gore and gags.

With only a 15 day shoot, the overall production took 4 months to clean up, edit and ADR where needed. The pacing is good, none of that overused POV shots for the killer and yet seeing his face does not detract the creepy feeling that would come from not knowing the killer.  His eyes look so damn menacing you should feel at ill ease.  Not too shabby first movie out. 

Oh yes and I must not forget this is Tom Hanks first feature film ever. 

Jeepers Padre, this horror film is well-lit.

80s Slasher: Just Before Dawn

Heya gang! Well the week is upon us and that bloody audio review took far too long to record yesterday so today is going to be the starting point, the crux of the week's theme if you will. I thought I would gander at some obscure 80s slasher films. So yes, 80s Slasher is what we are going with. Not the stereotypical brands of Halloween, Friday the 13^th or even A Nightmare on Elm Street as they are deemed by many as hollow attempts to cash in on the original source material. Nope we are simply tackling relatively unknown actors in a low budget collective of psychological thrills, chills and spills.

Today's contrived concept is a group of campers make their way to the mountains to check out some property they bought. What they got instead was a nightmare. This Just Before Dawn.

Hehe blew up that thunderbucket!

An independent slasher film made in 1981 and directed by writer/director Jeff Lieberman (Blue Sunshine, Squirm, Doctor Franken, Remote Control, The Nevenending Story III and Satan's Little Helper) drags us into an RV and demands we play road games all the way. Okay it isn't quite that painful. Two rednecks are out hunting, drinking and shooting when they find an abandoned church and decide to dick around in it, something happens deep in the woods and they are never heard from again.

Meanwhile, a gathering of 5 twenty somethings making their way into the Oregon Trail that is a bit better mapped than that stupid Commodore 64 game where Warren (Gregg Henry of Scarface, Body Double, The Last of Philip Banter, Fair Game, Raising Cain, Payback and Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever) has a cabin in the woods but is halted by forest ranger Roy (George Kennedy of Cool Hand Luke, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Gunsmoke and The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!) who plays a round of skeptic comments and rather than telling them outright there have been unexplained deaths he gives them a helping of Crazy Ralph.

Warren, why are we watching a bear pee on a tree?

So Warren and company ignoring the warnings, they find the roads and switchbacks cannot let the giant RV through the dense forest, so clearly we need to set up camp and hope that the ominous music. Yup that is clearly slasher-in-the-woods genre but not everyone has that noticed that.

So naturally it is plenty of opportunity to get naked, skinny dip and screw each others' brains out.

Funny thing is this is beautifully shot as they choose to shoot primarily in Silver Falls State Park via Oregon in spite of the graphic slaughter awaiting to happen. So you know what that means? Yup we need some inbred mongoloid hillbillies similar to those of Wrong Turn!  Well this came first, so there Wrong Turn!

So we get some POV perving/stalking shots this film actually defines the hidden maniacs and making it a more engrossing and eerie atmosphere allowing for a gorgeous musical score by composer Brad Fiedel (The Terminator, High School U.S.A., Fright Night, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Fright Night Part 2, Terminator 2: Judgement Day) but it doesn't change the fact that our would be victims haven't been properly fleshed out. Really needed Amy Steel from Friday the 13^th Part 2. Now there is a gal that is smart, sassy, cute and kicks some ass.

Overall the vibe of the flick is impressive, story is decent enough and the effects are spot on but I think it is a wee bit the pale compared to the Vorhees clan.

Hey Jack Lemmon's son, can I get your dad's autograph?

Knock Off Week: Supaidaman

Welcome back all. The slight detour from this week's theme was a nice option via director Dustin Ferguson and his entertaining The Dummy 2. I thought of an excellent way to finish out the week however. In 1978, a year after CBS Americana Entertainment created The Amazing Spider-Man with Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. TV Tokyo and Toei Video Company put together a series that is "LOOSELY" based on Spider-Man. A reworking of Spider-Man by introducing with the giant mecha craze from the Shogun Warriors, Kamen Rider and Ultraman prior to Transformers, Robotech and Voltron. This is Supaidaman a.k.a. Spider-Man.

Spidey Jazz Hands!!!

Found on Tokyo Channel 12 and lasting 41episodes being a half hour each. Takuya Yamashiro (Shinji Todo of Spider-Man, Megaloman, Electronic Squadron Denziman, Kyotaro Nishimura's Travel Mystery 51, Uniform SurviGirl I and Keishicho Shinri Sosakan Asuka 2) a daredevil cyclist (No, not actual Daredevil or Ghost Rider) transforms into a familiar red and blue Spidey suit with a race car and a giant mecha at the ready available to combat the Iron Cross Army led by the dark emperor Professor Monster (Mitsuo Ando of A Fugitive from the Past, Kikaida: Android of Justice, Himitsu Sentai Gorenger,Goranger: The Movie, Goranger: Movie 2- The Blue Fortress, Inazuman Furashu and Supaidaman). Takuya unlike Peter Parker has been given support by an alien from Planet Spider after landing on this world 400 years prior in hot pursuit of the Iron Cross Army for vengeance after they blew up his home planet, he injected Yamato with the Spider Extract giving him his abilities and Spider Bracelet that is a web shooter but also stored his outfit called the Spider Protector.

Spider Mecha!!!!

Garia feels he cannot expect to combat the Iron Cross Army with just his abilities so offers a spacecraft that turns mecha and a flying car outfitted with machine guns and missile launchers with hides in his ship/mecha. Handy, no? Takuya's girlfriend Hitomi (Rika Miura of Sachiko no sachi, Spider-Man, Hissatsu shigotonin, Kareinaru houmonsha, Soushitsu, Kyotaro Nishimura's Travel Mystery 9, Kyotaro Nishimura's Travel Mystery 15 and Uradeka), a freelance photographer who constantly mocks her daredevil boyfriend for disappearing at random and is nowhere near as brave as Supaidaman. NO WOMAN IS THIS STUPID.

Little 18 year old sister Shinko (Izumi Oyama of Spider-Man) and baby brother Takuji (Yoshiharu Yabuki of Spider-Man) are Takuya's legal concern as he is there only guardian after his father died at the hands of the Iron Cross Army of which only Takuya knows and must carry that burden himself encouraging to continue his crusade against Professor Monster and his brigade of monsters. His insanely hot second-in-command Amazoness (Yukie Kagawa of Snake Woman's Curse, East China Sea, Orgies of Edo, Horrors of Malformed Men, Tokyo Band Girls, Queen Bee Strikes Again, Spider-Man, Solar Squadron Sun Vulcan and Ronin-gai) who seems to have a love/hate relationship with Takuya/Spider-Man and seems like more could happen. Interpol investigator Juzo Mamiya (Noboru Naka of Younger Brother, Whirlpool of Woman, Lady Snowblood, Keiji monogatari, Wangan ni kieta onna, Onihei hankacho, Hikinige Family, If: Moshimo, The Abe Clan and Oishinbo 2) easily figures out with Takuya's secret identity cause that took a lot of work and they decide to work together. Actually I found this entertaining but I like mechas and flying cars. So if you like giant robot and kaiju fights and may have a hankering of Spidey. Give it a view.

Toei managed to snag a couple of addition links with a Japanese counterpart of Captain America as Battle Fever J, a Tomb of Dracula anime as well as Shogun Warriors action figures made to a comic book via Marvel interacting with the Fantastic Four, Godzilla, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.and Red Ronin with an agreement via Mattel. 

Hey kids, I'm...well I'm not Peter Parker but vastly cooler.

Summer Screamer Screener: The Dummy 2

Good day to you all. At the request of horror director Dustin Ferguson (Terror at Black Tree Forest, Escape to Black Tree Forest, Doll Killer, Die Sister, Die!, Gloved Murderess, Cheerleader Camp: To the Death and Invitation to Die) I attend a screener of his current works which is a sequel to the 1995 Dante Falconi's The Dummy, in which a newlywed couple decided it was be a kick to get their fortune told, for the hell of it. The gypsy woman goes into her spiel and low and behold the couple act like jerks deciding not to pay her, mock her and off they go. The gypsy woman summons dark forces to imbue into a ventriloquist dummy to slay anyone the couple speak with on their first anniversary.  But that was all just a movie and no way that could ever happen.  This is The Dummy 2.

So that is the director's cut to 2001.  Anyone still awake?

21 years ago, the very dummy that cut a bloody swath across the country is being sold to a couple on E-bay for a tidy but fair sum.. except the part where it is a killer doll and going to maim and murder again. A close zoom pan on said dummy's eyes almost hints to a feeling of betrayal until you realize he is being prepared with dark forces yet again. With a few eerie optical exposure effects, blue lighting and even a little warped incidental music it is a quiet flick allowing your brain to fill in the gaps as you will.

I do love the fact Ferguson took advantage of the existing state fair for shoots. That must have taken very little convincing. The 8 and half minute intro seemed unusually long until I realized Ferguson was recapping the previous film. Yes the metaphysics strike again. Our young foolhardy bunch decide to hold a seance with the creepy doll and see if anything is true about its gruesome origins. But not before some weed, dancing and beer first off. Typical twenty somethings distracted by everything and anything so they prepare for the party/seance in their own time. Wow did I just sound that old?   You damn kids git off my lawn!!!   Fans of Jennii Caroline and Schuylar Craig will be happy to see them both again.

When Craigslist hook ups go horribly wrong.

A few constant niches in Ferguson's films are at least one person smoking, a fair amount of long pan roads to travel down, low level mood lighting and the girls can actually tone down their makeup to the level yes, you can tell they are wearing some but it is not pornographic overboard paint jobs. Little tip Indie Horror directors, find girls like Ferguson has that can act and have the ability to understand how to apply makeup with a series of brushes and not a trowel.

Thought there was quite a few local store visits too many, kinda dragging the story but again this is the screener and he will or won't trim what's going on.

While Velvet Acid Christ did music for Gloved Murderess similar to Goblin in Dario Argento's many films, Hate Dept and Kevorkian Death Cycle put their spin on the film.

While the established notion of The Dummy only being a film, the story arc for its sequel takes its time again and builds up a bit of suspense. The cat in the trench coat was killing me with his leers. You will have some fun watching this as much as it looks like the cast had fun making it.

So that's how you get Schuylar to come over.  Huh.  Well I did wonder.

Knock Off Week: Vahsi kan a.k.a. Turkish First Blood

Welcome back to Day 3 of Knock Off Week. So I was told of this bizarre film that we are tackling today. It has action, romance, zombies, military and really choppy edited car chases. Our main star of the film, actor and director (Deli Yusuf, Maden, Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam, Olum savascisi, Karate Can, Kopek, Turks in Space and The Class) has been in over 323 films and admittedly he does look like a terrifying bad ass that probably kills the other actors and no one is the wiser. This is Vahsi kan a.k.a. Turkish First Blood.

Hmm zombies or perverts?

 Our moving pictures opens with a house party which is so much like Communism in Vietnam when some lunatic biker gang from Psychomania decide to raze the whole party. My favorite part in this scene is a guy getting high kicked in the chest against a wall as blood was applied to his wounds because...boot heels are sharp? A young lady hops in her car to escape these dastardly demon bikers and for some reason the camera is set at crotch level and not to the passenger side or on the dashboard so the girl in a dress is driving with her legs crossed. Gotta say it feels like there may not be a stunt coordinator on the set.

Weirder still is she pulls up on the road finding five gored up men or they were have a scab and ketchup eating contest and passed out due to the heat exhaustion. Seriously the subtitles were created by someone without a firm grasp of the English language so I am left blinking a few times when sentence structure seems less than savory or satisfactory. The editing is so out there I swear I am watching a cross between Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes with zombies instead of rad mutants, Mad Max like bikers following up with First Blood

Turkish Christopher Plummer looks annoyed.

Love they even lifted Jerry Goldsmith's musical score for the film. Riza or Rambo if you prefer (Cuneyt Arkin) is being led away from a dirt road by armed guards when a car explodes and he just walks away from that and no follow-up to that at all. Armed men had him in custody and now they don't.

No sooner is Riza walking down the road again he gets ambushed by cast members of Turkish Mad Max as they spin in circles around him on bikes and a car. Truly stimulating. Riza proceeds to whoop the crap out of the bikers after they took turns slashing him with their steely knives but they could not just slay the beast. Not sure why he had to wait for multiple shallow cuts but hey I'm not writing this garbled crap. Turkish Richard Crenna giving his best Troutman impression tells the rest of this city to leave Riza to him but corrupt mayor/mobster thinks Riza is cramping his style. Hope he has a good supply of body bags. Yeah it was needed.

Riza meets up with said girl no longer burdened by a crotch cam but for some reason she automatically must be with the muscle bound goof and that slight dirty face she has means strip down and clean up in a lake. Still no clue if this girl has a character name or is it just chesty girl love interest. The mob/concerned citizens managed to find Riza and Girl With No Name in a massive rock quarry and cave...from like a completely different location. Again seamless editing Turkey. Considering it was day for Riza but night for the thugs and hell they were in a forest as well to his rock quarry. So it drags on and Girl With No Name ends up getting lightly tapped to death by foam rocks and Riza must get revenge the only way he knows how, by running at fast forward speed and slashing everyone's throat. That's right, Riza has the speed force at his disposal.

Finding an English subtitled version of this was damn near impossible without buying it outright. In the end I had to rent it for 5 bucks and boy howdy that was money well spent full of confusing scenes strewn together, fast cut edits, copy-written music lifted and Cuneyt Arkin looking either bored or psychotic.

So you got the poster shot?  Groovy.

Knock Off Week: Intikam kadini a.k.a. Turkish I Spit on Your Grave.

Welcome back any readers I may still have after Robo Vampire. Yeah that English dubbing really put the film into perspective for me. It says, not all foreign distribution should happen. Well knock offs and impostors are gonna happen in Hollywood. Hell Asylum Films lives on most of that alone. Of course there is always the comment of, "I liked that movie but I think I would go a different direction than they did." Which brings us to our latest discovery. I'm not sure why I keep doing this sort of thing to myself but apparently Turkey was not overcome with joy with the original Meir Zarchi 1978 shocker rape revenge flick, I Spit on Your Grave. Nope the idea for four men gang raping, degrading and trying to off a girl was just simply not enough for some folk. The idea that crossed director/writer Naki Yurter (Fehmi the Astronaut, Cehenneme postalarim, Sehmuz, Haydi bastir and Dert Duragi) if only we could make that a porno as well. Bravo movie, you have just lowered the bar on my blog yet again. This is Intikam kadini a.k.a. A Woman Like That a.k.a. Turkish I Spit on Your Grave.

Joe Spinell's vacation pics got overexposed.

No sooner did I actually find this film the stock alone is grainier than a grindhouse movie. Maybe David Hess' Krug mistook it for Sandra Peabody from The Last House on the Left and had his wicked way with it. Okay, so while the subtitles took forever to pop up I gathered this film is really trying to be its own film and in many ways it really is. Yeah yeah four guys jumped and girl and now she vows bloody revenge. Sadly I can find at least 30 more films like that and do not have to automatically call that a rip-off of I Spit on Your Grave. It could have been closely modeled after Ms .45. Also our rapists are not just punks working for minimum wage in this flick, turns out they are real estate agents who work and live in the city. Their car breaks down in the country and then wonder up to the household of Aysel and her father. After being offered food and shelter for the night they repay the kindness they have received with rape of the girl and brutally murdering her father. Sure you don't want to stop and boot stomp all the chickens or kick the goat in the balls too??

Cut! Turkish Bluto you are on the wrong set!

Asyel (Zerrin Dogan of Hizli giden yourulur, Sona Kalan Dona Kalir, Sev beni, Ooooh Oh and Rezil) is this close to commiting suicide when she decides she will get her revenge instead. Oh and for those of you who had issues with Camile Keaton seducing her attackers and then gacking them one by one well this one will just blow your mind as Asyel decides to seduce her attackers and even jump the bones of a couple of them, again in order for the sweet sweet revenge. I love how the guys didn't even recognize her because her hair is down and she is wearing makeup. Apparently this skin flick didn't get nearly enough flesh going so the other attackers are just in bed with a couple of other women so they must not be real choosy in this portion of Turkey.

Lastly in all of this, there are weird edits or cuts in the film where the music just stops or after a bit of dialogue is over, not even a wipe or dissolve just bloop! NEW SCENE! Music stingers are to be encouraged but alas this crew does not seem to get how that works.

Our infamous director Naki Yurter was arrested by the Turkish government in 1980 for creating and distribution of pornography or whatever film was deemed taboo or communist staple. Yurter never made another movie after Intikam kadini so not sure if that was due to mistreatment in prison or possibly prison guard beatings... I had no real further info on the guy aside from his passing in 2014.

Run time is an hour and well that seemed long enough. They had some ideas and some ways to make this a psychological thriller but no real technical direction, blocking shots was unheard of and the stock looked like it was the dailies before final print.

Well she's no Cleopatra Jones but yeah that's nice.