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Badass B-movies

Details: Created: 22 July 2015; Published: 22 July 2015; Written by Loron Hays

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There is so much to say about this darling little horror flick. Jim Clark’s Madhouse is a film that – had there been some sort of coordinated effort behind the scenes to get everyone on the same page – could have been a financial success. As it stands, the film ...

Details: Created: 20 July 2015; Published: 20 July 2015; Written by Loron Hays

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I’m not going to mince words here. Truck Turner is one seriously badass flick. It is the type of B-movie that gets me so excited for the unlimited possibilities of low budget cinema. It is sooo much better than Shaft and the countless other Blaxploitation films offered up in the wake of ...

Details: Created: 20 July 2015; Published: 20 July 2015; Written by Loron Hays

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He’s one strange dude. Blacula, starring William Marshall (who would go on to become television’s The King of Cartoons on Pee-wee's Playhouse), and its immediate sequel Scream Blacula Scream (with the feisty Pam Grier) live again on Scream Factory’s twofer blu-ray ...

Details: Created: 19 July 2015; Published: 19 July 2015; Written by Loron Hays

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Opening with a bare-breasted dominatrix whipping a sacrificial virgin, The Crimson Cult AKA Curse of the Crimson Altar has to be one of the strangest British productions to have been distributed by American International Pictures. It is based on H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, ...

Details: Created: 09 July 2015; Published: 09 July 2015; Written by Loron Hays

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Criminally overlooked and often undervalued in the film community, Pit Stop is one hell of a gritty film that effectively carries its viewers to another time in America, back when the angst of the teenager had little voice or impact on popular culture. It is also one of the few films ...

Details: Created: 08 July 2015; Published: 08 July 2015; Written by Loron Hays

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Opening with a fantastic voodoo-inspired dance number that effectively out-funks Michael Jackson’s Thriller video by almost a decade, Sugar Hill combines some pretty gnarly bug-eyed zombies with the typical benchmarks in Blaxploitation flicks and manages to offer up ...

Details: Created: 06 July 2015; Published: 06 July 2015; Written by Loron Hays

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Long on style but short on plot, the two films that make up Scream Factory’s latest double feature delight only with an impressionistic use of heavy gore. These two seemingly unrelated films were released overseas as part of the La Casa series and, for strategic marketing ...

Details: Created: 29 June 2015; Published: 29 June 2015; Written by Loron Hays

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Finally, the long wait is over. Angela Baker is coming home … again. There are very few writers who truly understand how comedy can support horror and vice versa in the filmmaking community. Fritz Gordon, the screenwriter of Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland, ...

Details: Created: 27 June 2015; Published: 27 June 2015; Written by Loron Hays

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Scarecrows, written and directed by William Wesley, is positive proof that, yes, 19-year-olds can create effective special effects and creature designs. Originally filmed in 1985 but released in 1988, this supernatural horror film involving bank-robbing mercenaries up ...

Details: Created: 24 June 2015; Published: 24 June 2015; Written by Loron Hays

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Her name is Foxy Brown. Revenge is what she wants. Blaxploitation icon Pam Grier stars in Jack Hill’s Foxy Brown which delivers on what it promises: more sex and more violence. Written and directed by Hill, the film is definitely a step down from what he did with for ...