The Crazies

Okay I'm back and yes we are finally on an outbreak movie. I just thought it was in poor taste to have done such last month. So as we are under quarantine we may as well get on with this so I went with a master of horror, George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Season of the Witch, Martin, Dawn of the Dead, Knightriders, Creepshow, Day of the Dead and Monkey Shines) and naturally as this is one of his earlier films, we are back to Pennsylvania. This is The Crazies a.k.a. The Mad People and Code Name: Trixie

Virus can't touch you in flavor country.

Evans City has a crisis on its hands with a military plane downed in the mountains and its cargo leaks into the city's main water supply. DUN DUN DUN!!!! Oh you know the score here. Plausible deniability, military attempting to get a handle on it and it's gone completely pear shaped or tits up if you prefer. Naturally we discover our virulent affliction is man made, code name of Trixie. Nothing good with come of Trixie. Keep that in mind.

Firefighters David (Will MacMillan of The Enforcer Salvador, Bad Girls, NYPD Blue, Las Vegas, The West Wing, Raising the Bar and Jada) and Clank (Harold Wayne Jones of The Crazies, Knightriders, The Paper Chase, Fantasy Island, Hunter and Provoked) get the call to a blazing inferno formally a house as the husband/father killed his wife and set his house alight! Meanwhile, David's pregnant girlfriend Judy (Lane Carroll of Hercules in New York and The Crazies) is assisting Dr. Brookmyre (Will Disney of The Crazies) to the children of said arsonist. Shockingly enough, they suffered from some burns.

Clarice Starling?

A massive military police action with soldiers donning gas masks and hazmat suits are blocking the town. The obvious joke er um named officer in charge, Major Ryder (Harry Spillman of Dirtymouth,The Crazies, Born Again, All My Children, The Sex O' Clock and Comfortably Numb) uses the hospital as base command and they're here to help with the virus. They claim the virus either outright kills them or drives the subject completely bonkers.

Ryder's higher-up Colonel Peckem (Lloyd Hollar of The Crazies, Good Times, Siege, Lou Grant, The Jeffersons, Boardwalk, Rage of Angels and Kiss of Death) and his pet scientist Dr. Watts (Richard France of There's Always Vanilla, The Crazies, Dawn of the Dead, Vortex, Dreams Come True, The Sorrows of Dolores and Graveyard Shift) have an experimental cure they can unleash. I had to rewind to that scene because Dr. Watts is the same man that plan the scientists calling officials and journalists dummies in Dawn of the Dead. So yeah I missed that whole exposition plot dump due to laughing.

Dammit, left the coffee pot on.

With quarantine being issued about the town, the soldiers are doing house to house searches trying to help folk and have to shoot the loonies. It's part of the Midwest, how will you know the difference?

As a box office bomb, this film hit cult status with the VHS generation and well because the director is George A Romero.

Some fun film facts now!

Most of the bit characters including the white hazmat soldiers were paid local high school students.

The massive house fire was actually the local fire department destroying an abandoned house, so Romero and crew set up cameras and was allowed to film the whole event, creating a great effect on a ridiculously low budget.

Most of the screams, gunfire, soldier and townsfolk dialogue and sound effects had to be added in post-production ADR in Romero's basement of the Latent Image Studio.

It's eerie, relevant and frankly will ennerve the right folk like it was intended to do. Romero's concern about the control the government has over the country worried him constantly.

Because of its cult status, in 2010 a remake was released shot primarily in Lennox, Springwood Lake and Panorama Iowa. Thanks to TubiTV, I got to watch this and several other older horror films. A quick update for parents. The big spoiler is kids do get shot in this flick. I myself have no children but I am an uncle and it creeped me out.   So yes I give this spoiler out due to its disturbing aspect of the film.

And yes today's film has titty in it.  Sorry lady readers, the man children were going to ask me anyway.

Premarital sex?  Heavens!

Messiah of Evil

How goes it? Well after that festering stink nugget of a film Monday, I need a pick me up. Alas no ether in site so I will have to just watch today's movie and hope for the best. Another horror film but at least the synopsis offers promise. A young woman searches for her missing artist father in a California sea based town, but the whole area is watched by a strange cult of the undead. This is Messiah of Evil.

Worse orgy...ever.

Worry not, gentle readers. This is yet another alternative titled film. Titles like: Messiah of the Evil Dead, Deep Swamp, Messiah of Evil: The Second Coming, The Second Coming, Revenge of the Screaming Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Dead People, Night of the Damned and Blood Busters. What a collective of festive titles.

We see a young man with that seventies hair, the Epstein from Welcome Back Kotter and he's wearing corduroy. Apparently running for quite a while or he is a chain smoker and it's only been 5 blocks. A young girl lets him into her pool patio where he takes it easy for a moment and then throat slashed open with a straight razor with the first minute and 22 seconds. Boom title card! No screwing around here.

We have some mildly depressing music. Think Morrisey. As a young woman down a long hallway declares that madness is all around her and they can't even hear her scream. The monologue feels as though the main protagonist is recapping those events prior and we are playing catch up.

Gentle and demure Arletty (Marianna Hill of Mannix, The Name of the Game, The Baby, High Plains Drifter, Kung Fu, The Magician, The Godfather: Part II and S.W.A.T.) is on a quest to find her wayward artist father in the small beach town of Point Dume, California. She arrives at his beachfront house to find it abandoned. Bereft of life in the house, she finds a diary specifically addressed to her. As she reads through it, her father complains about a darkness consuming the town little by little, these ominous nightmares he has been having and tell her to never look for him. I was personally waiting for a to do list, grocery list and possibly girls he slept with and his ratings on each of them.

So pants optional at this gas station? Okaaay.

She rolls into town, low on gas and a full service station! What a myth. Her attendant seems to busting caps into howling creatures' collective asses. No wolves were hurt in the making of this film. The poor foley guy though. Ouch. Dude comes right over, cleans the windows and gases her up and there is this huge awkward pause. Because honestly do you want to ask what he was shooting at, not knowing if he is unhinged?

The owner of the art gallery was absolutely no help whatsoever as he recounts vaguely meeting Arletty's father and said that none of his work would sell as all his paintings had gatherings of peopele in that were black, white and grey. The men were all in black suits, white shirts and black ties. So either the Mormons moved heavily in Cali, the Men in Black stationed there or this was some serious brown acid he dropped.

Arletty bumps into smooth aristocrat Thom (Michael Greer of The Gay Deceivers, Diamond Stud, The Curious Female, Fortune and Men's Eyes, The Streets of San Francisco, Summer School Teachers and Sunshine) and his two bits of posh crumpets Toni (Joy Bang of Maidstone, The Young Lawyers, Hawaii Five-O, Pretty Maids All in a Row, Night of the Cobra Woman, Room 222, and Cisco Pike) and Laura (Anitra Ford of The Big Bird Cage, Invasion of the Bee Girls, The Longest Yard, Messiah of Evil, Starsky & Hutch, Wonder Woman, Baretta and The Streets of San Francisco).

Group hickeys!!!

They are gadding about and having fun but Thom has to interview the town kook for an article on the town of Point Dume, Charlie (my favorite character actor, Elisha Cook Jr. Of The Maltese Falcon, A Gentleman at Heart, Dark Waters, The Big Sleep, Shane, House on Haunted Hill, Peter Gunn, Rosemary's Baby, Blacula, The Night Stalker and Salem's Lot). Charlie speaks about the 100^th anniversary of the dark stranger that came to town. He also talk about the blood moon. The night of the blood moon appears and the evil will consume the town. It's at this point, I have already packed my bags and got the hell out of there. Elisha also provides more bug eyes than he did even in House on Haunted Hill. Looks like a deranged leprechaun hoarding his Lucky Charms from those pesky kids.

Well about this time to start thinning out the cast, am I right? Sorry barely line having eye candy, yer toast.

Thom and girls get bounced out of the hotel like a bad check and they all crash at Arletty's dad's pad.

Yeah that was some seventies lingo but so is the flick.

Arletty takes her time through dad's journal and that is a trope pet peeve of mine. Read the whole thing through one sitting dammit. Think of the lives you could spare. And don't read any book of unspeakable evil out loud. Okay done ranting but the journal wasn't even that long.

Can the evil be thwarted? With Arletty, Thom and the girls survive the night?

Let's see... the pace was kind of on the move from the get go. They didn't dally but still had plenty of time to build up suspense. The kills are reasonably nasty and the plot was unusual and clever linking to a horror of the past. Honestly I think if you found a better copy than what I got, you would enjoy it. Old school story telling with a bit of freedom from the stereotypical standings of the genre. This sort of mob scene is pre Romero's The Crazies or Dawn of the Dead. No I am not giving away any more spoilers than necessary because it would ruin the film experience. Personally, I liked it. Good and creepy. The music scores were a tad odd. Just what I presume an acid trip would sound like in your head. Weird spoken word tunes and some ORGAN MUSIC!!

Aside from that, it was fun. For those that felt it wasn't their cup of tea, have fun riffing it at a drinking party.

Joni Mitchell looks HiIiIiIIiIIiigh!!!!

The Revenge of Doctor X

Hey there gang! So welcoming this July in our midst, we can take in a mad scientist movie. Yeah it's been a while and clearly we were due. Howzabout a co-op of American and Japanese cast and production companies? I mean that never ends in tears, right? Okay I will level with you, I have gone a bit crackers with Public Domain and there has to be something entertaining. This is The Revenge of Doctor X.

Those tacos aren't sitting well, Walt. You may want to crack a window.

Worry not my readers, it has alternative titles. Because it wouldn't be this blog without those. Also known as: The Double Garden, Venus Flytrap, Body of the Prey, The Revenge of Dr. X and The Devil Garden. Produced by Toei Company (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Scanners and The Way of the Dragon) and re-redistributed by New Horizons Home Video and my old nemesis, Mill Creek Entertainment; I just know I am getting something worthwhile.

Brought to me less than glorious mono, the title screen reminds me of General Hospital in the sixties and the organ music for the intro is abysmal.  Already we are off to a good start.  Scientist Dr. Bragan (James Craig of The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Omaha Trail, Seven Miles from Alcatraz, Dangerous Partners, Northwest Stampede, Code Two and Studio 57) smokes like a chimney and must launch a rocket out of Cape Canaveral. The line was brilliant. "How in the hell can anyone be so utterly stupid as to build a rocket base on the coast of Florida?!" With weather patterns being what they are, Dr. Bragan seems a trifle irked. It was then I looked at IMDB and found that the over the top dialogue is supplied by none other than Ed Wood (Glen or Glenda, Jail Bait, The Violent Years, Outlaw Queen, The Bride and the Beast, Plan 9 from Outer Space and Night of the Ghouls) so I prepare myself for the barb wire enema awaiting me.

C'mon Doc, let's go root around in our own filth.

With the tropical storm evading the launch site, all systems are go! Cue the stock footage! A few days in and there could be a possible error in their calculations. "Could be? Could be...Doctor Stanley?" Dr. Paul Nakamura (James Yagi of The Ugly American, The Twillight Zone, The Outer Limits, King Kong vs Godzilla and Walk Don't Run) being Dr. Bragan's assistant tells him maybe his skull crushing headaches will pass if he isn't around so much stress and vacations in Japan. Land of Kaijui, cyborgs, mecha and Kurosawa films. Might work.

Bragan goes on for a 3 minute speech how the War made it impossible for him to visit Japan and his botany major never fulfilled. So how does one go from the study of plants to rockets? Hell if I know. Even with his rambling of the weight of mathematics with the bombs and eventual movement to the Space Race I was still baffled. I am re-titling this the Adventures of Doctor Snooze. If painter Bob Ross and pompous mansplainer John Agar had their genes spliced, this man would be the outcome. 7 minutes in and I want a nap.  Might also be the constant General Hospital soundtrack of ORGAN MUSIC.  More organ music in this flick than Carnival of Souls and that is saying something. Mostly that both films have their highs and lows.   Mostly.

Bragan's swingin' pad comes with a gorgeous assistant Norkio (Atsuko Rome of Akuma no niwa and Venus Flytrap). Too late for me to get this gig?   I can prattle on about rockets and plants too.   Meh. This entire film is shot in Japan and the kooky incidental music for sitcom is played for him running out of gas.   Gas station attendant (Al Ricketts of Akuma no niwa and Venus Flytrap) has taken to snake handling in his off hours. Yup it's that kind of movie where it is padded more than a psych ward.  Who asked for this film and why does it feel like Catholic punishment?   Upside, I can send a copy to Gitmo for interrogation methods.  Gimme what I want or you're watching Venus Flytrap again!   Gas station attendant (no name given in the whole time on screen) is a one man crack-up.  By that, he seems to only make himself laugh. He is also ADR as all his dialogue has clearly been re-added post production. GO TO JAPAN NOW!!!!

Lured by the flora and fauna, Bragan scoops up some of each to take with him to Japan. I'm sure Customs will love that and the guy with the rubber glove will be a firm but gentle lover as well.

Shall we get the goofs out of the way? I heard the howl of a coyote. In Japan. Where they would not be native to. Also customs would not allow live plants, fruits or foreign soil brought into their country by a commercial passenger.

Finally, some eye candy.

Okay got all that snark out of the way.  Let's make a quick note of camera work. Blocking is terrible, focus keeps popping in and out and there really isn't anything creatively done with the camera. No wide angles, roof shots or crane work that might have pepped this film up a bit. Also I am not certain if Ed Wood understood the medical definition of nervous breakdown as the Doctor seems to have them every five minutes. They seem to come on like Cluster migraines or micro seizures. Longed for some Tommy Wiseau reading like: "You're TEARING ME APART, Lisa!!"

Naturally our mad scientist some assistants for his plant endeavors, so alongside Noriko is a dwarf who I don't even have the actor's name or even the character's name. Bravo movie. Seriously, not even the credits had this sad cat's name.

Also I am convinced either God or Mother Nature is trying to kill Bragan as boulders, trees and other such debris kept hurtling its way at him which didn't seem to faze or even bother him. Giant ass rock almost crushes the guy and he shrugs it off like a minor inconvenience. The continuous organ music is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.  How did I find out?   I looked it up.  Figured I should see to what classical music was being butchered along with my sanity. The main problem of this film is that it dithers getting to the experiments. When he isn't losing his shit, screaming at Noriko or having yet another sightseeing trip, he might actually get around to doing some science.   Let's us not forget he's staying near AN ACTIVE VOLCANO!!!!  YUP!   Very relaxing this time of year.  So soothing is lava flow in your living room.  WHAT THE HELL??!!!

Cher is prepped to go under the knife just one more time.

SCIENCE WAITS FOR NO MAN!!! Unless you are in this flick. So imagine crossing Frankenstein with a touch of The Day of the Triffids. That sounds a bit exciting, right?

58 minutes! That is how long before we get to the science! Yeah most creature features by this time, the monster has escaped, racked up a double digit body count, the local law enforcement has taken the scientist downtown. Things would be happening! He tampered in God's domain tropes would be flying about. Not this opus. Oh God no. The kooky incidental music is driving me up the wall at this point. Just out of place and I guess decent dissolves and a montage would be too much to ask of this flick.

An hour and 8 minutes in and finally our creature appears. With Venus fly trap hands, an eerie howl and tentacles, I immediately feared for Noriko. It is getting a bit Hentai there.

This hour and 33 minute movie drags on like a snail on a salt bed. I am certain my beard grew, ass fell asleep and brain cells committed suicide. Don't worry fellas, the topless female pearl divers confirm your tiresome question. For those not in on the joke, aye there be titty.

I was informed that Rifftrax made fun of this movie, which would have suited me fine. Riffing by your lonesome gets dull.

Hmm that's a botched nose job.

Torso

Well folks, I'm back. Something something headaches. Sorry it gets a bit repetive to type over and again. So after the odd film earlier I thought I would dabble back into the realm of Giallo and multi-genre director Sergio Martino (Slave of the Cannibal God, Alligator, Don't Play with Tigers, Screamers, Hands of Steel and 2019: After the Fall of New York) handles today's film. This is Torso a.k.a. The Bodies Presented Traces of Carnal Violence a.k.a. Carnal Violence.

Car problems?

We open on an erotic photo shoot with sleazy jazz for porno, a naked woman and man and some suggestive placements for dolls. Eerie looking dolls. Not sure if they are going for some interpretation of Dolly Dearest or they want to arouse Chucky but hey I never claim to understand every facet of art.  Ah good, it has devolved into a threesome or he's telling the girls a secret...with his penis. Got it!  Clearly a layout for Hustler. Where the heck was my mind?  I guess not enough in the gutter for a change. Sorry a bit too much exposition there. Journeying back after the carnal effects, we cut to an art history exhibition and lecture. Um, because they're also nude? The paintings not the class. That could be awkward.

Professor Franz (John Richardson of Black Sunday, One Million Years B.C., On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) and student Daniela (Tina Aumont of Texas Across the River, Man, Pride & Vengeance, Satyricon, Sergeant Klems and The Mechanics of Women) wrap themselves in a philosophical and spiritual debate on the paintings of Perogino and you can see the professor does have respect for her opinion. He feels that Perigino's lack of religious upbringing meant he could not possibly begin to delve into the immortality of the soul or the effects of Christianity has on the populous. Murders now! I'm having too many existential thoughts. Get to the murders. 

Student Jane (Suzy Kendall of To Sir, with Love, The Penthouse, Thunderball, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Fraulein Doktor and Van der Valk) does her own thang. Yeah I know I will pay for that. The red herring has already planted as we are to believe it is the wanker in the neckerchief (Stefano not Fred from Scooby Doo) who is the killer. The foreshadow is fair but Daddy's not buying, kiddies. But enough of that, next sex scene. Oh and in a Mini Cooper car smaller than the Reliant Robin. Good God, this girl has to be limber for that. Hey those breasts look real. I'm confused!

Maybe Makeout Murder Point wasn't the best place for sexing it up but what do I know. After coitus, John (Fausto Di Bella of A Tale of Love, Torso, Il messia, Escape from Galaxy 3 and Computron 22) spots a ski masked perv outside the Mini and beats cheeks to catch him and give him one for; thus leaving his girl Flo (Patrizia Adiutori of Torso, Tales of Canterbury, Play the Gale or Leave the Bed, Winged Devils and Giovannona Long-Thigh) unarmed, outmanned and slasher bait. Our killer has Jason Vorhees stealth capabilities and a scarf for throttling. Serial throttler sounds like a chronic masturbator though. Don't worry. A stabbing do happen and cut scene to morning later we find John was no better off. Looks like he called Mike Tyson a mediocre boxer. 

Are we end an exposition shot?

La polizia are hard at work. Inspector Closeau er I mean Martino (Luciano De Ambrosis (Without Family, Heart and Soul, Tomorrow is Too Late, Aretino's Blue Stories, Torso and They Were Called Three Musketeers But They Were Four) is dealing with this as best as his dubbed actor will allow. Sadly he didn't get the all powerful voice of Edward Mannix but I digress, it's still imposing.

Student Carol(Conchita Airoldi of The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, Torso, Deaf Smith & Johnny Ears, The Cousin and Closed Circuit) can't stop eye banging the mysterious doctor and his fondness of scarves. If she hadn't been waved over by Daniela, I think she would have stalked the doc and given him an afternoon delight (Ask your parents, kids).

The girls decide to take a break from their classes and head to Daniela's Uncle's villa. Oh God I see where this is going. Yup probably a sentient cave, mutations and a demand for human blood. No wait, that was Sorority Girls and the Creature from Hell. This could be classier.

Jane and the Professor (No Mary Anne sadly) seem to hit it off very well. Dude you just made tenure, don't go blowing it over a young girl. That kind of activity will get you fired or killed. You're in a Giallo for crying out loud! Shape up!

So can you strangle girls by the dozen with this scarf?

Apparently the night time is the right time for a prostitute. Our snobby and foppish art student Stefano certainly believes that. Hmm I don't remember the conversion rate from dollars to lira, plus this is 1973 and the exchange differs now. Ugh fine I didn't want a prostitute anyway so JUST FINE! A bit of darkness ensues but no more than you expect in these films.

Carol still has her heart or loins set on the doctor as she keeps running into him. She also seems to have the hots for Daniela's Uncle? Um Daddy issues? Carol gets high with a couple of bikers and stumbles out in the worse kind of blocking. The dreaded day for night. Ugh, hate that lens.

Carol's made some poor life choices but I am sure it won't come back to haunt her too much.

With some amazing cinematography by Giancarlo Ferrando (Erotic Exploits of a Sexy Seducer, Slave of the Cannibal God, Loggerheads, A Policewoman on the Porno Squad, Alligator, The Good Thief, Ironmaster, 2019: After the Fall of New York and Warrior of the Lost World) and the handiest and heaviest Eastman Arriflex possible. They are pushing at least three cameras on this job so there is kitty in the coffers. The gore effects are pretty solid, the story has a decent pace and the cast are lovelies of both gender. Good suspense and tension is ratcheted well.

Don't worry horn dogs, plenty of nudity to go with your gore. It's Giallo for crying out loud. Going for the whole POV into the psycho-sexual madman's mind and pulled it off nicely. Of course any more sneers at kink and perversion from society's stand point and I was going to assume this was the founding fathers of the MPAA. 

You're out of order!! ALL OF YOU!!!

Rotten Reelz Reviews Audio Review #47: Phantasm

Hey gang.  Sorry for the absence for that last couple of weeks.  Migraines have been a bitch and I am hoping to get that under control.

That being said, I have finished a review of Phantasm

I hope you enjoy it.  Give me input, comments, compliments and critiques.

Rotten Reelz Reviews Audio Review #37: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

In honor of the passing one of the Masters of Horror, I decided to give some love to his first terrifying flick, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre My Audio Review of course.

Public Domain Flick: Grave of the Vampire

Hello there again everyone. Well I have been checking my Rotten Reelz Reviews Facebook page and the gmail account, (rottenreelzreviews@gmail.com) and I haven't seen a complaint, compliment or crass comment. So I suppose I can just take down all the above and just review whatever the hell I feel like. Let me know either way, people.

Now then I decided to hit up some good old fashioned public domain movies. Why you may ask? 1.) I am not required to hit up more than archives.org to find a copy. 2.) It is less hassle than dealing with commericals of Hulu and broadband issues of Netflix and Amazon. 3.) There is almost certainly a title that makes me blink more than twice after reading it. So howzabout a vengeful vampire searching the Earth for the one that killed his mother and made him into this abomination in the eyes of man and God? No I am not talking about Saya from Blood, D from Vampire Hunter D or even the Daywalker Blade. This is a precursor to all the above. This is Seed of Terror a.k.a. Grave of the Vampire a.k.a. The Tomb of the Vampire.

Sorry but I had to flap away a 400 year old fart.

Created in 1972 ( A whole year before writers Gene Nolan and Marv Wolfman pushed Blade into the Tomb of Dracula comics) and based on the novel The Still Life, writer/novelist David Chase (The Magician, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Switch, The Rockford Files, Moonlight and Almost Grown) and writer/director John Hayes (The Kiss, Shell Shock, The Cut-Throats, Sweet Trash, Dream No Evil, Jailbait Babysitter and Pleasure Zone) concoct a delightful tale of a day walking hybrid of human and vampire searching for his father...to drive a stake through his heart or maybe to do a father/son potato sack race. Who can truly say.

Our story begins in a cemetery, with a young couple making out by the headstones. Yeah that always goes well after dark. The grave of 1930s rapist/murderer Caleb Croft rumbles the ground so and the murderer has risen from beyond the grave attacking the lad defending his lady's honor and well the rape is implied. Caleb (Michael Pataki of Star Trek, Easy Rider, Side Hackers, The Cut-Throats, The Flying Nun, The Amazing Spider-Man TV series, Zoltan, Hound of Dracula and Rocky IV) is kinda scum, folks. Also hot on Caleb's trail is a detective that took Vampires 101 I guess who seems to have seen too many Bela Lugosi movies (Seriously, this is a line) Lieutenant Panzer (Eric Mason of Days of Our Lives, Scream Blacula Scream, Kiss of the Tarantula and The Love Boat) thinks the impossible is happened and the dead have returned from the grave and then...yeah he gets gacked and there doesn't seem to be any follow-up. Guess Panzer was not loved at the station. Tank jokes a plenty left in his locker, the wife is seeing the milkman on the sly and the family dog pees in his slippers.

Scrawny and Chunky.  They're cops.

The girl carries the child to term, believing it is her boyfriend's offspring...until she has to bottle feed him blood to strengthen him to manhood. That by the way we commonly call, a clue. 30 years later the infant is a man name of James (William Smith of Laredo, Gunsmoke, The Ultimate Warrior, Blood & Guts, The Frisco Kid, Hawaii Five-O, B.J. And the Bear, Hell Comes to Frogtown, Platoon Leader and Warriors of the Apocolypse) who has one mission, to avenge his mother (Kitty Vallacher of Deathmaster, To Hell You Preach, Savage Abduction, Soul Hustler and The Legend of Frank Woods) and slaughter pappy. A bit myopic I grant you but it keeps him going. James is also a vampire but can easily move around during the day without a lethal tan.

Hmm, like that Blade guy. Yeah, I figured that was still a comparison. James is convinced the deaths around the campus that Caleb under the guise of Professor Lockwood is no boating accident. The tox screens point out that all victims have died of extreme blood loss whether or not their throats were slashed or not and it isn't on the ground where they lay. The killer could have just propped the bodies too but hell I'm no detective with Vampire 101 training. Stake or be staked was a good chapter.

Will James get his revenge? Will he be no better than his father? Will Tiny Tim be allowed to walk again?

Well the overall vibe is commercial 1970s showing mild hedonism, flat partying and hints at sex. The cinematography is very precise, very little handheld and a bit static. The rumble between Caleb and James looks damn impressive. Think Roddy Piper and Keith David in They Live without so many shots to the balls of course. There really isn't explicit gore, sex or even that much blood in our vampire movie which was kind of surprising really. With a budget under a half a million, this give a decent feel to a film in spite of some of the content. I think it would have gotten a wider audience with a bit of the old T &A with some blood but all in all not a bad film. This marks the second vampire movie I have seen Michael Pataki in. The other being Zoltan: Hound of Dracula. I just wanted Pataki to quote from Sidehackers. You think I didn't love the boy??!! MY OWN FLESH I DON'T LOVE AS MUCH!!!

Anyone else get a laugh the sound editor is a guy named James Cheap? I just envision the foley stage made up in someone's garage but he has to hurry because the wife wants to park the station wagon and bring in groceries.

I don't have ADD, in fact I...Look a bunny!