Movies with the word Slaughter in it: Slaughterhouse Rock

Welcome back from the second day of the week. Yeah movies that have the word slaughter in them seems a trifle lame but again NO SUGGESTIONS WERE MADE. Sorry if that was a bit on the nose, I got a couple of messages complaining about yesterday's write-up. I wasn't sure it was because it was blaxploitation or just my idea to watch it. So again the randomness of the week I have an 80's horror film of featuring music by Devo, a gaggle of teens and Alcatraz!?! This is Slaughterhouse Rock a.k.a. Hell Island a.k.a. Alcatraz Horror and Slaughter House.

There is no Alex, only Zuul.

Our story centers around Alex Gardner (Nicholas Celozzi of Pretty Smart, Marked for Death, Carnal Crimes, Hidden Obsession, Campus Hustle, Big Sister 2000 and Deep Cover) a young college student (that seems to be held in a high school) who has vivid dreams or nightmares if you will, experiencing the numerous deaths of victims in Alcatraz. No, no. Not the inmates of decades past, but a vicious killer who dwells in Alcatraz slaughtering at will. His nightmares start effecting the physical plane of existence as his starts sleeping above his covers. Four feet above his covers! He barks, he drools he claws! His friends all share the same rental house and have witnessed this first hand. Thank God he didn't sleep in the nude or wank at night.

And there on the handle, was a hook...

Discussing it with his teacher, Professor Harding (Donna Denton of Nashville, The New Mike Hammer, Death Blow: A Cry for Justice, Glory Years, Slaughterhouse Rock, Gor II and Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All) professor of the occult and supernatural, suggests to head to Alcatraz to face his demons if you will. His brother Richard (Tom Reilly of Paper Dolls, ChiPs, Young Warriors, Kiss and Be Killed, Sworn to Vengeance, Mirror Images II, Valleys of the Dolls and Ice Cream Man) and gang of Marty (Ty Miller of The Young Riders, The X-Files, Without a Trace and U.S. Seals), Krista (Hope Marie Carlton of Hard Ticket to Hawaii, Savage, Bloodmatch, A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Master, Round Numbers and Noctropolis), Jan (Tammy Hyler of Cloak & Dagger, Pretty Smart, Judgement, A Time to Revenge, Back in the Day, Heaven Bound and I'm Not Ashamed) and Jack (Steven Brian Smith of Moonlighting and Slaughterhouse Rock) all decide to help Alex confront this problem head on and boat out to Alcatraz... cause you do that.

Pumpkinhead: Man on the Town.

A friendly and foxy ghost Sammy (Toni Basil of Myra Breckinridge, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Movie, Greaser's Palace, Mother, Jugs & Speed, Angel III: The Final Chapter, Rockula and Eating) formerly a pop rock star of the band Bodybag, tries to give Alex advice to stop this evil residing in Alcatraz and save his friends, maybe bring herself some peace as well.

No sooner does the Scooby gang make their way to land, Richard gets possessed by a cannibalistic demon trying to attack his buddies and brother alike. Can anything be done to save Richard? Will Alex continue to be haunted??

The use of Alcatraz makes sense as the general theme giving us dark dreams, demonic possession, astral projection and ghosts roaming about. Ladies be warned there is an attempted rape. Yeah, that was clearly needed he said with great gobs of sarcasm. This film loaded with some decent practical effects, good lighting, a fair degree of fog machines going on full tilt, the atmosphere is creepy but the lack of enough characters cuts down on the potential for eerie effects. This film has a solid, fast pace giving a flick with horror elements rather than the typical 80s exposition, drawn out slasher film.

Director Dimitri Logothetis (Pretty Smart, The Closer, Body Shot, Hungry for You, Cheyenne, Dark Realm, The Lost Angel and Wings of the Dragon) had a good crew, a decent cast and good direction overall. Not too shabby.

Not even my 80s hair to stop all this weirdness.

Movies with the word Slaughter in it: Slaughter

Welcome back for the week my gentle and loving readers.   SoOoooo... I did not get any ideas, comments or suggestions for what to write this week.  Honestly it is okay to offer some film, TV or video game ideas.   With that in mind, I randomly chose the word slaughter as the crux of what I would be viewing.  As luck would have it, rather than some jiggly girl in lingerie with big breasts running up the stairs rather than out the door, I got a blaxploitation of action packed goodness starring the one, the only Jim Brown (Cleveland Browns fullback from 1957-1965, only man to be inducted to the sports Halls of Fame for College Football, Pro Football and Lacrosse) This is Slaughter.

Girl, you already got your alimony check.  Now git!

Jim is Slaughter, former Captain in the Green Berets, war hero and all around bad ass. With his dad being deep in the mob, a car bomb goes off killing both his dad and mom as they returned from an evening show. Nosey reporter Kim (Marlene Clark of Enter the Dragon, Ganja & Hess, The Beast Must Die, Switchblade Sisters, Sanford and Son and Highway to Heaven) senses a scoop and badgers our hero whom wants nothing to do with her. Hitting up one of dad's contacts he is off for revenge to nail the muthas that killed his folks. Taking out a handful of these dirtbags, Slaughter has been picked up for unloading a Colt .45 (pistol not the malt liquor) on an airstrip.

That may be a factory recall.

Expect a few N bombs folks because...um, it's the seventies?  The chief inspector of US Treasury (Cameron Mitchell of Carousel, Blood and Black Lace, The Beachcomber, The High Chaparral, Space Mutiny,Memorial Valley Massacre and Easy Kill) says he can waive the murder one and assault with a deadly weapon charges if... Slaughter heads down to South America (Mexico City) and take the rest of these scumbags out.

The mobsters that almost lost their lives decide to lay low, live off the ill-gotten gains for a while and not draw attention. That doesn't sit well with number 2 in the organization Dominic (Rip Torn of Montserrat, Slaughter, Blind Ambition, The Beastmaster, City Heat, RoboCop 3, Men in Black and Men in Black 2) who wants Slaughter dead, the organization to expand and take over L.A. Slaughter just made it to "South America" only to find out that reporter girl Kim is actually part of the US Treasury department as a field agent and the chief assigned her to watch Slaughter's back...possibly his front too.

Yup, she's never going back.

Dominic wants Slaughter's head on a pike given his boss insists Dominic's girl Ann (Stella Stevens of The Nutty Professor, General Hospital, The Poseidon Adventure, Chained Heat and Santa Barbara) to pork information out of Slaughter but ends up falling for our boy.

Will Slaughter live up to his name? Will Rip Torn live up to his? Why did Kim have so few lines?

South America was all over Mexico City so I don't know why the organization couldn't have been located in Mexico. Still love that we see Slaughter's folks in a car that explodes, covered in flames that shoot up 20 feet in the air, the next scene Slaughter is waiting on the ER doctor for news. Doc tells him that his father didn't make it and I am thinking, "Well yeah, dude got well done." Went up like one of That Guy From Harlem's NY strips.  Just needed a bottle of crappy J&B scotch to go with dad after that.

Driving Mr. Brown: The TV Movie.

Dead Rising Week: Dead Rising 2

Welcome back ladies and gents! Yesterday I was busy making a Halloween project. Here's hoping the juicy skeleton looks amazing. Back to the topic at hand, zombies on the rise! Grr. Yes this beloved subgenre of horror has gone through spurts since 1968 George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The 80s, 90s and the 2000s give a bit of zombie craze until 2004 it gets back up again to ravage the world. The Walking Dead is on its 6^th Season, Z Nation its second and Fear the Walking Dead to Season 2 as well. So let's get off our butt and get back into smiting the undead. This is Dead Rising 2.

Airball!!

Following after the exploits of Willamette Colorado, the zombie virus is a plague running rampant throughout the states. Five years after the first outbreak is the town of Fortune City, Nevada. A reality sport game Terror Is Reality. A game show where the contestants kill off zombies for money and glory. This time around our protagonist Chuck Greene (Peter Flemming of Replicant, Good Boy!, Love Sick: Secrets of a Sex Addict, Becoming Redwood and Almost Human) a former Motocross champion that is in need of money. His daughter Katey was bitten by her zombified mom when she was 5 and the only thing to keep the virus at bay is Zombrex(daily injection to suppress the zombie viral strain). The show's gaggle of zombies prepped for the contest get loose and Chuck scoops up Katey head to an emergency shelter. The lone security Raymond Sullivan (Phillip Maurice Hayes of Unforgiven, Powder, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sabrina, the Animated Series, Gadget and the Gadgetinis, Dinosaur Train and Wolves) is hesitant to allow Katey to stay but Chuck assures him he can keep her stockpiled on Zombrex.

Nope, I'm no Frank West but I'm good.

It looks worse and worse for Chuck as it looks like he went backstage and let loose the zombies of war to lunch and munch the competition. Chuck now has to venture out into Fortune City via air duct (Come out to the coast, you'll have a great time. Have a few laughs.) and make his way to more Zombrex until the Army is due to arrive in three days. Yup another 72 hours in our open ended, survival horror game with some new mechanics.

A Co-Op and Multiplayer option giving four players to compete in Terror Is Reality. The story progresses to offer the achievements and trophies. The health bar is a large collection of squares rather than the two small ones. The AI of survivors are less dopey. Meaning they can nut up and fight, the zombies like to have man meat Chuck and makes the escort mission less painful and maddening. Chuck can get distracted in mini games via casinos to gamble for more money. The vehicle mechanics are so much better but mostly bikes to maybe fit Chuck's former lifestyle as a motocross champ. 

Our combo weapons have gotten a bit screwier with things like: Dynameat (A stick of dynamite crammed in a ham), the Paddlesaw (two chainsaws duct taped to a kayak paddle ) the Hail Mary (a grenade taped to a football) and finally the Spiked Bat (ballbat with nails hammered in it) and you will need it as your boss battles are just as loopy psychopaths have either gone crackers due to zombies or the panic in the air inciting fear giving them jollies. Love the additional weapon Boomstick (a pump action shotgun duct taped with a pitchfork) and the ridiculous activist Stacey (Robyn Ross of Mega Man, Juno, Dead Rising 2, Fairly Legal, Suck it Up Buttercup and Cedar Cove) who was at the show protesting for zombie rights and equality.

It is dark humor, warped mini-games, squashing a zombie with a motobike so yes this is gorefest of goofiness. 

Zombie combo platter!!!

Dead Rising Week: Dead Rising

Well folks we are back for the week and I apologize for the last week being too short due to sinus headaches. The zombie genre is so beloved by all for some reason. Morbid curiosity? Gore fans? Whatever the case may be, folks cannot seem to get enough of the undead. This time around I thought we would look at a series of games involving the shambling dead folk. This is Dead Rising.

Zombie munch party!!!

So we are speaking of the PS3 and PC games that originated from Capcom because... Resident Evil just didn't covet enough of this genre but we follow the story arc of Frank West, photographer/photojournalist (voiced by stuntman and voice actor Terence J. Rotolo of Masked Rider, Big Bad Beetleborgs, Power Rangers in Space, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, Dead Rising, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Devil May Cry 4) First off, this guy looks like he should be paparazzi getting latter age Disney girl up-skirt shots but I digress. Frank has covered world events, major wars and impressive scoops of that nature. Toodling around Colorado, he stumbles in on a town gone batshit. Military convoys blocking the roads and all forms of communications going in and out of Willamette Colorado have been jammed. The whole town seems overrun by zombies. He beelines for the local shopping mall because maybe Colorado has less gun restrictions so the possibility of boomsticks a plenty!

Zombies or Mallrats?  Only Kevin Smith knows for sure.

With a fistful of lettuce, Frank charters a helicopter to get some aerial shots of the place Frank wants more visceral close ups so he tells the pilot to drop him off on the roof of the mall and come back in three days for more scratch. Turns out the mall may have not been the wisest choice as the place is packed almost wall to wall zombie mob. Frank starts snapping pics left and right showing the utter pandemonium. Frank hooks up with some fellow survivor characters giving a story path and moving towards goals and side quests via sandbox game.

This is classified as a third person horror survival fending off zombie attacks, rescue survivors, fight with nutters and stay alive to get the full story. The funniest part of this is finding any available item as a melee or bludgeon weapon. A TV, kayak paddles with chainsaws duct taped to it, chucking soda cans, beating a zombie to death with a mannequin arm or maybe a neon sign plugged in.

72 hours to get the story, get out and not get bit. Without weapons, Frank has some decent hand-to-hand street fighting/wrassling moves from some gut punches, tossing people and using the environment. There are no combos to remember or any of that crap. You stab, clunk or shoot out your way to the next level. FYI, the friggin mall looks about the size of Mall of America.

Zombies are plentiful, the boss battles are off their nut and the story line is a bit odd but overall loads of replay ability. So if you want to hack and slash the undead without deep, profound matters of the heart, hearing people flip out or for the Resident Evil fans want to collect more than 6 or 8 items, this is your jam.

Escort missions will forever blow!!!

Jen and her family need some help.

After a few days of chaos, a fire broke out to my friend's previous house.  Thankfully no lives were lost but any potential revenue is lost.   Jen Lawson and family are good people that need our help.

No we are not asking to break the bank but please share this, offer some support and donate if you can.

These folks do not need their lives spun around anymore.   Please help out, won't you?

https://www.gofundme.com/2qymy7cu

Cult Slasher Classic: The Prowler

Welcome back to the week kiddies! After the bizarre day of yesterday I was a wee bit exhausted so hence the audio review. We are back with Cult Slasher Classic with a surprising B-movie slasher that was dubbed the most graphic horror flick ever to arise from the depths of Hell. You know with this genre getting CGI blood, green screen effects and ramping up the gore, all the while toning down any suspension. With the graphic SFX practical effects, eerie music and a good tone. This is The Prowler a.k.a. Rosemary's Killer, The Graduation and Pitchfork Massacre.

Rosemary's first DP goes horribly wrong.

A soldier overseas receives a Dear John letter from his girlfriend Rosemary has moved on to her new fella Roy. Yeah man, fighting for your country and left for a guy called Roy. This sticks in his craw causing him to return home during graduation dance. On June 28, 1945, Rosemary and Roy both are murdered by a prowler in military fatigues spearing them both with a pitchfork. Cut to 35 years later, June 28 folks want to revive this graduation dance tradition. Cue the Friday the 13^th music. Pam MacDonald (Vicky Dawson of Another World, The Four of Us, Breaking Up, Carbon Copy, The Prowler and ABC Afterschool Specials) must convince someone on her side to get this dance up and running she talks to Sheriff Fraser (Farley Granger of Rope, Strangers on a Train, Senso, Amuck, The Red Headed Corpse, The Serpent, The Man Called Noon, The Edge of Night, The Prowler and Death Mask) convince this pseudo mayor Major Chatham (Lawrence Tierney of Born to Kill, A Child Is Waiting, Custer of the West, Killer Without a Face, Such Good Friends, Abduction, Bad, The Prowler, Prizzi's Honor, Hill Street Blues, The Horror Show and Reservoir Dogs) like Lori Singer to John Lithgow to allow a dance to happen. Clearly Pam needed Kevin Bacon with his flared nostrils and smooth moves to make like a hoofer Jesus and bring joy to the masses.

BLUGH!!! *difficult to talk when stabbed in the head*

Sheriff Fraser less than enthused at this information while there is a robbery, a murder and grand theft auto all in one event. The Sheriff concerned but not enough to give up going fishing so he leaves his deputy Mark (Christopher Goutman of Texas, The Edge of Night, The Powers of Matthew Star, Goodbye, New York and George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation) in charge of this investigation thus boning Pam's evening. Pam heads out to the dance regardless leaving her roomie Sherry (Lisa Dunsheath of They All Laughed, A Little Sex, Deadly Nightmares, Rags to Riches, Alien Private Eye and Santa Barbara) to shower away. Yup obligatory nude scene was needed. Shockingly enough she is visited a large pitchfork skewering her to the wall and drove a knife into her boyfriend's head.

Grrr...Argh...

Pam has a punch mishap at the dance, heads home to change only to run into our combat garbed loopy who fails to off Pam because... well she is the sweet girl that cannot die horribly...yet. She flees to get back with Mark and warning the whole dance as she believes our nutter to be the original killer from 1945 with a bloody vengeance. Mark and Pam proceed to head back to the dance, warn the chaperone Miss Allison (Donna Davis of Kate & Allie and The Prowler) to keep the kids inside until the killer is caught.

Can Pam and Mork er um Mark stop this nut? Is it the actual soldier? Stay tuned!!

SFX guru Tom Savini thinks this is some of his best gore gags and practical effects and I gotta say I was blown away with how wrong they were. Tom Savini actually fired the double barreled shotgun aimed a hit on a fake head looked amazing. Totally bad ass. Apparently The Prowler that was released in North and South Carolina as Pitchfork Massacre in 1984 no one is truly aware who distributed it or whether or not they had legally had rights to release the film. This was very impressive!

That's not my loofah!

Cult Slasher Classic: Splatter University

Yeah folks I am back. I know, I know you missed me. So I thought I would focus on slasher films yet again but I do like the idea of us delving into the phenomenon that is Cult Classic Slasher movies. Or is it Cult Slasher Classic? Whatever the notion is, I thought it would be a bit of fun to eyeball this concept. Keep in mind, this will not be a fleeting look at an impression on a subgenre but actually some fan favorites. So howabout a wacky concept of a serial killer escaping a mental hospital and goes on a killing spree? This is Splatter University.

Manscaping can be dangerous.

Yes we are back into an Aquanet and mousse commercial so expect a lot of CFCs being released into the atmosphere but that being said, our story starts with our crazy. Yup I know it is a huge surprise that the killer has a turbulent life story arc that drove him completely off his rocker but it was an 80s thing we never questioned. Our esteemed director of Class of Nuke 'Em High who also responsible for the film's editing so that's...good I guess. Giving you the opportunity to point the finger at everything you find flawed? Dunno. Moving on, we open in an asylum (wacko basket, nut house, screwball clank) with what looks like it is either underfunded or its staff is a bit too laxed for my tastes. You are watching over people that cannot fend for themselves anymore dammit! Be professional. So as an orderly is searching for their only aggressive head case he gets stabbed right in the hardy boys. Yup. Right in the dingy and our killer leaves wearing the orderly's clothes bloody pants and all. Those are some observant guards at this joint. If anything goes awry at this job, they are assured a position at Arkham Asylum easily.

So I have to be the heroine in this. What are you doing?

Off he goes right into a credits sequence that the font and the arrangement actually looks like it should be the end credits and not the beginning credits but beginning credits to a film seem like a lost art these days so I am allowing it. Before going any further I should point out that Troma Entertainment (Screamplay, The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke 'Em High, Blood Hook, Surf Nazis Must Die and Chopper Chicks in Zombietown) are responsible for the theatrical release so it is up to you if you wish to continue further. Three years later. Yup he evaded capture already so no Doctor Loomis on the case giving exposition on his habits or personality. Julie Parker (Forbes Riley of Splitz, Ground Zero Texas, Savage, Sweet Valley High, Shadow of Doubt, Mr. Murder, Megiddo: The Omega Code 2, Strong Medicine and Cooking from the Heart) has just taken the vacant teaching job at St Trinians catholic college, greeted by Father Janson (Dick Biel of The New York Centerfold Massacre, Tenderloin, Bad Girls Domitory, If Looks Could Kill, Firehouse, Slime City and Slime City Massacre) who gives her greetings, exposition about the previous teacher dying in her classroom in the late hours of the night and no one punished or even found for that crime. Hell boosting security at the college would be nice, an couple of ex-special forces with a conceal and carry would be a step up. Her landlady is all pleasant about murders and how they can be thoughtful to those that need to be dispatched. Enough warning bells screams get another job! To round this out, how about a visit from Crazy Ralph of Friday the 13^th to announce death curses and call the college "Campus Blood".    No sooner has Ms. Parker planted her books that students and faculty start dropping like flies courtesy of the POV killer going full-on knife happy.

Sheesh now that is a bad date.

Julie decides the logical course of action is to Nancy Drew her way through the list of potential suspects and solve the mystery herself. To be fair, she is better qualified than the jackoff police department that is stereotypical in most of these slashers. They operate as well as the lieutenant in Plan 9 from Outer Space, scratching themselves with their pistols and having no idea where to look next. Will Julie solve the murders? Can she find the wolf amongst the sheep?

Well overall this is an ambitious story with a small budget and while this is supposed to be over the course of a few days to weeks no one told the cast to bring different clothes I guess or the cat playing Wolf just liked sleeveless shirts so everyone could enjoy his armpit stench.   The gore effects are simple enough and feasible, the pacing is a bit slow but similar to House On Sorority Row or Final Exam building suspense.   At least I liked the cast in the latter movie, that Wolf guy spoke, howled or just looked at the camera one more time I was going to find this guy, fly out to his place and bludgeon him with a log. The ADR recordings volume didn't match with the film's volume so that made me snicker. Never saw so many Lee and Jordache jeans at mom level rise EVER.

The MPAA felt this was demoralizing, gory and without value and blah blah blah. Yes there are childish jokes, pranks, horny teens and typical behavior in a college. With the dark humor of pregnancy, doing drugs and drinking this is nothing shocking but I am curious how the human body spews blood like a fruit gusher. Still the MPAA makes this flick sound like Pieces and nothing could be further from the truth. 79 minutes run time does feel a bit long but it was a decent enough film.

You...didn't have...a hall...pass.