Flicks: Blackenstein (1973)

Crackenstein axes his self the perennial existential question: Why is I here, foe?

Ladies and Jerklemen, with a deep sense of heartfelt pride, I present to you William A. Levy's one-of-a-kind journey into classic B minus film-making...Blackenstein!

In the funky, soulful 70's, when Eddie Turner (Joe DeSue) returns from Vietnam minus his arms and legs, Dr. Winnifred Walker (Ivory Stone) appeals to her former teacher Nobel Prize winner Dr. Stein (played by John Hart) for help. Luckily, Dr. Stein has been tinkering about with a mysterious new substance he calls DNA. He happily accommodates the couple by growing Eddie some new arms and legs in a big-ass vat of the futuristic goo. Not bad, eh, manlings?



If only the actual movie made as much sense as these jangled film stills.

Somehow, the experiment unexpectedly goes awry. Eddie promptly sprouts a square afro, dons ankle boots, and lurches out into the night in order to awkwardly cop feels from random women. The last half hour is virtually incoherent. However, Levy's career didn't suffer greatly after this film and he went on to make Wham, Bam, Thank You Spaceman (1975) two years later.

This film is so, so, so, so bad you'll need to turn up the 23 minute version of Pink Floyd's "Carefull With That Axe Eugene" a lot louder than usual. It helps.



References:
IMDB, Blackenstein
Grindhouse, Blackenstein
Stomp Toyko, Blackenstein

The Sleaze-A-Saurus Rates It:	This Flick Is Available At:

Flicks: The Love-Ins (1967)

Like WOW, Dad - it's ... so crazy significant, see?

In the late 1960's, manlings eradicated a subspecies of human called "hippies". Hippies were terminated due to their lack of hygiene, poor grammar and an all-around no-goodnik general attitude. These strange creatures erroneously believed that flowers had the power to stop bullets - probably due to being hepped up on goofballs.

The Love-Ins is a quasi-documentary of this patriotic genocide based on the life of Timothy Leary and shot in the heart of the 1960's San Francisco art and music scene. The Love-Ins features Susan Oliver (one of the Green Ladies on Star Trek TOS) and a cross-section of Haight-Ashbury musical groups such as the psychedelisized cover-group The Chocolate Watch Band.

In closing, the Sleaze-A-Saurus heartily congratulates all contemporary scaleless manlings on their ancestors ability to thin their own herd while wishing a fond farewell to no-goodnik hippie types.



References:
Wikipedia, The Love-Ins (1967)
IMDB, The Love-Ins (1967)
Turner Classic Movies, The Love-Ins (1967)
Edward McNally, LA 1967

Hippie related products are available at:

Flicks: Italian Spiderman (2007)

Let's just see American Spiderman control the minds of penguins. Try that, Spidey.

Publicized as a lost Italian action film from the late 1960s, Italian Spiderman began as a student film by an Australian film-making collective formed by Dario Russo, Tait Wilson, David Ashby, Will Spartalis and Boris Repasky at Flinders University.

When the short was uploaded to YouTube in late 2007 it has gained a massive cult following with over 3 million views as of August 2010.


References:
Wikipedia, Italian Spiderman (film)
Facebook Group, Italian Spiderman
Myspace, Itlain Spiderman
Youtube, Episode #01

Italian Spiderman is available at:

Flicks: Cannibal Girls (1973)

Jeepers! Like, what's eating you, Barbara?

American International's^[0] Cannibal Girls was Ivan Reitman's (Ghostbusters, Animal House) first feature film. It also features Eugene Levy (SCTV and American Pie) as potential lunch for a bevy of curvy young cannibals. The movie was shot in 1973, in rural areas surrounding Toronto, Ontario. Oh, did I mention that it was made with a low, low budget ($12,000 large in Canadian Dollars according to Schlockmania.com) and most of the dialogue was improvised? Score!


Who knew the key to a healthy diet was plenty of gratuitous nudity? The Sleaze-A-Saurus, that's who.

In the picture, three young women are led by a smooth talkin' Reverend whose slick sermons usually concern the many merits of cannibalism. They encounter the wandering freaknik Eugene Levy and his lovely gal pal Gloria. The two try to stay off the dinner menu for the next 84 minutes. A lotta boobs, sudden moments of gore and a genuine creepiness pervade the film which debuted at South by Southwest in 1973.

Notes:
[0] = American International was an infamous B-movie distributor from 1956 to 1980. AI specialized in low budget horror, double features and exploitation releases. A short list of AI releases include: Reform School Girls (1957), Roger Corman's The Raven (1963), Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) and The Amityville Horror (1979).

More about AI co-founder Samuel Arkoff's "secret formula" at the Wikipedia Article.



References:
IMDB, American International Pictures
IMDB, Cannibal Girls (1973)
Wikipedia, American International Pictures
Schlock Mania, Cannibal Grrrls DVD
Bogeydom Licensing Ontario, Cannibal Ghouls

Cannibal Girls is available at:

Flicks: Street Trash (1987)

Street Trash: it's easy to find us - we're all over the place.

May is Melting Man Month at the Sleaze Blender! All month long The Sleaze-A-Saurus will be featuring the best of 60 years of jellified manlings captured on tape with the magic of cinema.

The genre of Melting Men is much larger than you'd first imagine. Simply ponder this, scaleless manling: any action movie or TV show that you've ever viewed contains at least one shot of a man one fire - introducing you to a small portion of a sub-genre of Action and Horror known as the Incredible Melting Man. Not very coincidentally, cult classic The Incredible Melting Man (1977) was a movie that firmly capitalized specifically on this inter-genre craze.

Director Jim Muro's Street Trash features an enterprising manling who industriously decides to sell a substance labeled Viper to his exclusive clientele of hobos, winos and derelicts for the reasonable price of 1 Earth dollar per bottle. Once consumed, the liquid painfully reduces it's victim to a pile of colorful ooze and a few singed bones.

Muro is known as one of the best Steadicam operators in the business. Street Trash utilized the freedom of the Steadicam to go into dingy settings in New York's Bowery instead of attempting to re-create the same level of filth and scum in the studio. Muro went onto work on a number of A and B pics on Steadicam including Titantic, Jason Takes Manhattan, Terminator 2 and the last two of the X-Men films.

As for the content regarding Melting People. Street Trash explores the human body as a delicate and decaying canvas for horror. This approach would later be seen in Peter Jackson's (LOTR) Bad Taste, in Blade and House Of 1,000 Corpses. Street Trash has become a touchstone for fringe horror fans and film makers by setting the standard for "overboard" gore.


References:
IMDB, Street Trash (1987)

The Sleaze-A-Saurus Rates It:	This Flick Is Available At:

Flicks: Mutant Zombies From The Hood (2008)

Oh ... So that's why they call 'em Crips and Bloods!

In 2008, massive packs of blood-thirsty animals roamed freely in downtown L.A. streets like a deadly disease. They moved in human form while feeding on the slow, the weak and the unwary. Then the zombies attacked.

Director Thunder Levin attempts to bridge the gap between an A-Picture actor, with C. Thomas Howell (Soul Man, Bay Watch, The Outsiders) and a B-movie script in Mutant Zombies From The Hood (2008). Levin has been a periphery figure in several films as an on-set photographer for studio promotional work. It was in this dubious capacity that he worked on Saturday the 14th Strikes Back (1988) the awful sequels to the even more awful Saturday the 14th (1981) horror movie franchise parody.


References:
IMDB, Mutant Zombies From The Hood (2008)
IMDB, Thunder Levin
Stormfront Films, Company Profile

The Sleaze-A-Saurus Rates It:	This Flick Is Available At:

Collections: Monster Kid Magazine

Monster Kid Magazine. What your inner child musta choked to death on.

Kinda funny. Disturbing. Really Awful. Childish. These are just some of the terms that scaleless manlings have used to describe the underground E-zine known as Monster Kid Magazine.

Monster Kid is inspired by the classic monster magazine tradition popularized by James Warren and Forrest J. Ackerman in the original Famous Monsters Of Filmland, in indie publications like RE/Search, Draculina, and in more mainstream publications like Fangoria.

References:
Monster Kid Magazine, Welcome!
Famous Monsters Of Filmland, Home
RE/Search Publications, RE/Blog