DVD Reviews

“Is your sword for hire?  I would pay anything for it. What is wrong?  Is your sword too small. . . “ Go BOLD or GO HOME, right?  Surely, that must have been behind this sword and sorcery romp as a bad king dares to raise a demon from the depths of Hell in order to conquer even more land for  ...

Jack Hill is BACK in a BIG way! For anyone who “hates” on exploitation film auteur Jack Hill’s The Swinging Cheerleaders for its objectification of women – namely cheerleaders – there’s a need for a brief lesson in film and cultural history.  Made during the 1970s, Hill’s movie was a very ...

Exploitation flicks don’t get any nastier than this!  You've been warned.  If there is any thread of humanity left within you, you'll just stop reading now and go about your day.  Nothing to see here. Still here?  Goooooood.  Then you already know just how absolutely AWESOME this film is and, yeah, there's plenty to see.  I don't know  ...

Now, this right here is the KA-RAZY chopsaki kung-fu that I miss about the martial art flicks from the 1980s!   Written, directed and starring Taiwanese martial arts legend John Liu (The Secret Rivals, Invincible Armor), New York Ninja is truly a ...

Primal terror has never looked this good before! Writer/Director Joe Dante (Gremlins) humorously takes on America’s culture of violence with 1981’s The Howling.  Manically led by a charging performance from Patrick Macnee (BBC’s The Avengers), The Howling and Dante – alongside Jon  ...

“You made two mistakes.  One was getting up and the other was making fun of Shirley Temple.” Directed by David Berlatsky and starring Gary Conway as a decorated World War II veteran who returns home to try to save his farm from being taken over by the bank, The Farmer, a ...

"The motion picture that follows is a fable. In it there are many nudists but only one monster. In life, it is generally the other way around." Brain dead dialogue?  Plenty of female flesh?  Monster madness?  Where do I sign up?! AGFA and Something Weird, those cool-headed ...

Fishing with grandpa was never as wild and as out there as in this slasher satire!  That’s right, Gorehounds and Guppy Heads, Blood Hook is back to get you in the mood for some more summertime hijinks . . . and this time all the muskie madness and mutilations are completely uncensored!  Whoop  ...

007 who?  The Man From Hong Kong has all that you crave! Operating as if Inspector Fang Sing Leng (Jimmy Wang Yu) was the one and only James Bond, The Man From Hong Kong blows its action sky high and delivers a spirited action-adventure flick that could only come out of the pages of ...

Independent films don’t get any more baadasssss than with Melvin Van Peebles at the helm.  Recognize that right now and we can remain on speaking terms.  The collective black consciousness is alive and well in his filmography and, thankfully, his independent output left a lasting mark on pop ...

“Doctor!  Doctor!  She’s . . . dead.” A horror triple feature from the vaults of the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA)?  Yes, please!  Call it the return of the Drive-In schlock.  Hell, call it whatever you want.  I call these films - Help Me . . . I’m Possessed, Carnival of Blood, and Night of the ...

This set from Arrow Video is arguably their best release yet.  It is indeed a labor of love as the company has carefully curated and gorgeously presented a selection of all-time Shaw Brothers classics in this box set.  You read that correctly.  From King Boxer to Mighty Peking Man and everything  ...

Make no mistake about it.  Jack Frost 2: Revenge Of The Mutant Killer Snowman is not a great movie.  It might not even be that necessary considering the first one was all bark and little bite, but as we are talking about a psychotic (and in this one, resurrected) snowman who kills for jollies, I guess ...

The new comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson called The Hustle is an almost identical remake of the 1988 classic comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin - itself a remake of Marlon Brando’s Bedtime Story. I say “almost” because  ...

“The worm is the spice!  The spice is the worm!” David Lynch’s Dune might not be the director’s favorite movie-making experience.  It also might not be on any science fiction fan’s top 10 list (although it probably should be).  Those sentences alone do not make Lynch’s attempt at bringing ...

The man with the straw hat is back!  And so are his ghoulish finds in the windy city of Chicago.  Watergate era television doesn’t get much better than with Kolchak: The Night Stalker.  And that, my friends, is a certified fact. It begins in a dingy motel room.  A cassette player is on.  A disheveled  ...

“Can you still do the things with your eyes?  You’re not crazy if you can still do the thing with your eyes.” I will NEVER forget the first time I saw Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  I wouldn’t go outside in the rain for weeks afterwards thanks to the opening few minutes of  ...

Folk Horror.  The very combination of the words suggest a clash of ideologies and, true to its nature, this seems to be its roots.  It is a concept of evil so entwined with the land that it is damn near impossible to ever tear its threads clean.  The voices in the woods; the pagan ceremonies on the  ...

Opening with a classic song from a bygone era is a bold move for this supernatural coming-of-age story about a bullied teen who takes matters into his own hands.  Especially when that familiar chorus - as The Platters’ own Tony Williams soars vocally - kicks in and the audience witnesses  ...

And just like that . . . a future cult classic has arrived! Based on a Ubisoft game and featuring a wonderful cast and of solidly realized characters, Werewolves Within is the whodunnit horror/comedy of the year.  Fresh as the falling snow that has cut off the small town at the center of this  ...

Your savior has arrived! There’s something wrong with Maud (Morfydd Clark, Crawl).  This is important to identify correctly as we are with the poor girl for the entire movie.  In fact, we never leave her side no matter what happens or what dark forces take over her body as they communicate ...

Leave this house now!   Peggy (Sian Barbara Allen, Billy Two Hats) never should have taken the housekeeping job at the Elliot Estate.  She knows this now that its deadly mysteries have been unearthed.  Of course, it might be too late for her, but it is not too late for us.  You’ve been ...

In 1992, the first feature film made by a Scottish woman was released. That was Margaret Tait with Blue Black Permanent. Seven years later, Lynne Ramsay became the second with her own feature debut, Ratcatcher. And what a debut film it is! ...

Greetings from Valkenvania! Written and directed by Ghostbusters’ Dan Akroyd, Nothing But Trouble has achieved almost legendary status as Akroyd’s OTHER horror/comedy.  You know, the one that was the box office BOMB, blasting itself into oblivion with its troll-like Valkenheiser ...

It’s a party to die for! Demonic spirit or not, Killer Party proves why wild costume parties inside abandoned fraternity houses are a really bad idea.  There’s just a lot to unpack by way of young adults and their raging hormones before the twisted spirits ...

This is a movie about the girl next door . . . turned into a robot in a life-saving operation by the teenage genius who lives on her block.  Still with me?  You should be as Deadly Friend, directed by Wes Craven, is a forgotten gem of 80’s horror schlock as it successfully combines horror elements with  ...

Beware the yellow van! Opening with some great aerial shots of San Francisco, Jeremy Hoenack's Killer’s Delight (originally shot as The Sport Killer and later re-released as The Dark Ride) shocks its audience when a van that we’ve been following pulls to the side of the road and a nude, dead ...

Black magic!  Like in Marilyn's books!  This demon wants a lifeless body to control! Through the Fire begins with a flat tire.  We have a glorious wide shot in which a white car comes to a stop against a night full of stars.  That single shot is pretty awe-inspiring.  Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is  ...

“Kiss me, Tyler!” Alright, alright, so Girls School Screamers might be on the rather cheap end of Z-grade budget horror, but from the very beginning (in which a ghost in a wedding with worms and maggots dangling from her face scares a little boy so badly he runs from the house), to its ...

Once Upon a Time there lived a young woman named Wanda (Kathy Ireland.  You know the name.  Look up the number!) and she really wanted to change in order to please her surfer boyfriend.  She can change!  She wants to change! ...