Flicks: Son Of Blob (1972)

A chip off the old Blob directed by Larry Hagman? Yes, this really happened.

In 1958, the first Blob movie crept into theaters nationwide. A bright-eyed Steve McQueen, who was 28 at the time, starred in a James Dean type role as the world's oldest misunderstood teen, "Steve". The film made $240,000 or roughly $1.9 million in today's dollars.

In 1972, the first Blob sequel, Son Of Blob (1972) or Beware! The Blob was released to a much different America. No longer was the illusion of a perfect nation intact as it was in the post WWII years. My 1972, many cultural leaders that had catapulted to meteoric heights had been snuffed out, assassinated or succumbed to drug abuse. America had watched it's President die live on television in Dallas in 1963, his brother murdered in 1968 in LA, Malcolm X murdered by the very people he was trying to free from segregation in New York and MLK Jr. killed by a sniper's bullet in Memphis after years of persecution for the same cause. Viet Nam was raging out of control. Jim Morrison, Janice Joplin and Jimi Hendrix had each died due to drugs or alcohol before a larger "revolution" could take place. The King himself had mutated into a bad Las Vegas lounge act and was wearing sequin adorned super-hero costumes.

This America had seen it's best and brightest die before their appointed hour and the rest huddle for shelter in the ashes. The revolution, although truly transformative for the country, was seen as a failure. These events left a deep emptiness in America's psyche that could not be over-looked. Consequently, there were no more "golly gee whiz" or "hunky dory" attitudes present from American films from the 1950's.

Now, the youth and the hipsters were isolated "freaks" whose leaders had all vanished and whose revolution had crumbled. This is the era of the early 1970's. As the Watergate break-ins were happening (May 28 and June 17th 1972) and in the years after Woodstock was a strange time for the country. This is the time when Son Of Blob was released.

As if all the aforementioned catastrophes were made into an unstoppable giant creature made of globs of acidic pink and red goop, the Son Of Blob came to life. As a low-budget picture, the film used cheap locations in Venice, California. Although a comedy, this film features the disenchanted remains of a counter-culture that collapsed under the weight of it's own expectations.

References:
IMDB, Beware! The Blob (1972)
IMDB, Steve McQueen
Wikipedia, Elvis Presley

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Flicks: Horror High (1974)

Horror High has one killer chemistry curriculum. And their cram sessions are to die for.

Not to be confused with "Return To Horror High" (1987) actor George Clooney's first film role prior to joining the cast of the Roseanne Barr TV show or the comedy remake in 2005 - the original Horror High was part I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957) and part Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Take out Micheal Landon and good writing and you have: Horror High (1976).

Horror High aka "Twisted Brain" foreshadows Harry Kaufman's The Toxic Avenger (1984) in many important ways such as: featuring a bullied nerd gets who super powers (like hairy forearms) and then runs murderously amok plus, just like many Troma features, this movie was made on a shoe-string budget but was able to engineer some gory and realistic practical effects such as face melting.


At Horror High, they know the sure fire cure for acne and unsightly blemishes - boric acid!

If you pick the DVD, courtesy of Code Red who re-released the film in 2005, you will be treated to various commentaries including an interview with Austin Stroker.

The film is notable for the appearance of Mr. Austin Stroker who was featured in John Carpenters's original Assault On Precinct 13 (1976) and as MacDonald, the inside Establishment man turned ape collaborator, in Battle For The Planet Of The Apes. He also played Jeff Allen in the animated series Return To Planet Of The Apes in 1975. Unlike the previous Apes series films this one depicted ape society as a technologically advanced society, complete with cars, movies and television!

Stroker has appeared in 50 films and counting including Sasha Cranes' gory, low budget slasher Machete Joe (2010)

References:
IMDB, Horror High (1974)
IMDB, Austin Stroker
Doomed Groovies, Horror High
The Horror!, Horror High

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Slash-Mess Day 8: Vampyres (1975)

Infamous horror movie that emphasizes the sexual and feminine nature of the vampire.

Anulka Dziubinska and Yutte Stensgaard are a seductive lesbian vampire couple who sulkily waylay and abduct various passer-byes, both male and female, to hold them captive at their rural manor in the English countryside. The lovely ladies to so in order to feed on them to satisfy their insatiable thirst for hu-mon blood.



"But I doan wanna snack on Hans!". Picky vampires really prefer the big taste of Rolf.

Filmed in England by Spanish director Jose Ramon Larraz infamous for his combinatioon of the erotic and the horrifying in his films - Larraz adds a joyous celebration of steamy eroticism and vampirism. If he had failed (he doesn't), we would have been saddled with a sexless non-classic that wastes the carnal talents of the smoldering Yutte Stensgaard as the stuffy and stoic turns of some of the worst Hammer Brother films.

Larraz also directed The National Mummy (1981) featuring mummies, naked hu-mon females and very gross humor and the paper-thinly plotted erotica film, Madame Olga's Pupil's (1981).

References:
IMDB, Vampyres
Cinezilla, Vampyres
Drive-In, Vampyres

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Flicks: Sister Street Fighter (1974)

Sister Street Fighter teams up with Sonny Chiba to face Reiko Ike and Jun Jo.

Sonny Chiba, reprising his role as Terry "#1 Man" Tsurugi appears for the second half this great chop sockey/crime-action movie. Production values are slightly better with more characters and Toei studio actors appearing including a hokey Hong Kong heroin boss and Japanese actress and model Reiko Ike. It should be noted that Reiko Ike was a cult persona herself. Reiko had also co-starred in Street Fighter's Last Revenge (1974) with Chiba as well as two very successful "pinky" (Japsploitation) movies: The Sex And Fury (1973) and Female Yakuza Tale (1971).

In Sister Street Fighter, Jun Jo, minus the trach box from Return of Sreet Fighter appears as another different-but-still-evil karate master-villain in another blockbuster kung fu epic. This film was followed by The Street Fighter's Last Revenge (1974), which featured much higher production values as the genre earned more money for Toei and international distributors.

References:
IMDB, Sister Street Fighter (1974)
IMDB, Reiko Ike
IMDB, Sex And The Fury (1973)
IMDB, Streetfighter's Last Revenge (1974)

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Flicks: Cinderella 2000 (1977)

Who needs "production values" when you've got porn 'staches and upbeat musical numbers about abstinence?

The Sleaze-A-Saurus has become quite disturbed! After observing many, many manling teleplays he has noticed an alarming trend. Manling horror films and manling porno films are the same thing! You dare scoff? Then, I present to you, scaleless ones, Cinderella 2000, a sci-fi/horror film starring porn starlet Catharine Burgess (star of Through The Looking Glass) aka "Catherine Erhardt".

Director Al Adamson strikes again. with a a movie full of groans and a few moans in this late 70's Star Wars rip-off. Cinderella 2000 features some Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) moments of irreverent satire while offering a straight faced demand for "free love". Cinderella 2000 earns itself a whopping zero manling skulls outta a possible four manling skulls!


References:
IMDB, Cinderella 2k
Youtube, Trailer
Cinema Chite, C2K
Sex. Gore. Mutants., Skinderella 2000

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