Slash-Mess Day Nine: Black Christmas (1974)

Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder scream of a Scary Christmas in '74.

A very scary Slash-Mess, manlings! In years past, Internet audiences thrilled at The Sleaze-A-Saurus's Silent Night Deadly Night Axe-Mass Terrorthon. Beginning in 2010, we celebrate the new tradition of Slash-Mess embracing both retro and new horror movies in order to counteract the evil of Macy's commercials and crass consumerism! It makes this time of the year kind of hard-to-top, actually.

And so, it only seems fitting that your ol' pal, The Sleaze-A-Saurus, presents to you another special Slash-Mess treat: the original 1970's version of Black Christmas (1974).

The original Black Christmas, recently updated with a lackluster "remake" in 2006, stars the beautiful Olivia Hussey (Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet) and Margot Kidder (Superman) as the remaining two residents of a sorority house that has been temporarily abandoned for the holidays. The atmosphere is jolly and carefree, except for an ongoing series of menacing telephone calls, and, oh yes, we've just seen someone climb into the attic with apparent malicious intent.

What's worse? The calls are coming from inside the house! Authentic? You betcha.


Oh that beautiful actress by the wreath. Olivia Hussey being cute-as-a-button in Black Christmas (1974).

The well-written and acted Black Christmas also features Keir Dullea (2001) and John Saxon (Enter The Dragon and the original Nightmare On Elm Street) and was directed by Bob Clark (Porky's, The Karate Dog, Baby Geniuses).

This 70's sorority house the phone is ringing off the hook! And guess who keeps callin'? Who else but a sweaty obscene caller with his mind-on-murder and murder-on-his-mind! Clearly a dedicated professional!


All the David Carradine jokes aside - this never turns out OK.

Before long the whole house is in stitches, gone to pieces and a bit strung out (mostly in piles) as the mysterious caller shares his overwhelmingly bright Slash-Mass spirit with each and every one of these beautiful sorority sisters - in person and in the flesh.

The film is very good - high tension and good performances from the leads and co-stars. Black Christmas earns itself four manling skulls outta a possible four!

References:
IMDB, Black Christmas (1974)
Horrorphile, Bleck X-Mas (1974)
Movie Genie, Black Christmas
DVD Dino-bots, Black X-Mas (1974)

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

Slash-Mess Day Eight: Scream, Blacula, Scream! (1973)

Mamuwalde returns to L.A. to feast upon the blood of b-movie actresses.

William Marshall reprises the role of the undead African prince Mamuwalde - this time with the young and bodacious Pam Grier (93 movies to her credits including Coffy (1972), Jackie Brown (1997)) as the sexy voodoo priestess Lisa who finds herself directly in Blacula's unholy vampiric sights.

This sequel to the original Blacula (1971), released by infamous American International Pictures (AIP), features much higher production standards and choreographed fight scenes that adds an unexpected ferocity to Marshal's characterization of the doomed prince.

References:
IMDB, Scream, Blacula, Scream! (1973)
Wikipedia, Scream Blacula Scream
Realm Of Horror, Scream Blacula Scream

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

Slash-Mess Day Four: The Intruder (1989)

This late 80's slasher film gives "Lost In Super Market" a whole new meaning.

AKA "Night of the Intruder", "Bloodnight" and "Night Crew: The Final Checkout", The Intruder has come to us much like Return of The Living Dead and Night Of The Comet - a precious relic of 1980's American culture where hair was big and the good times - well, they were even bigger.

This slasher is set in a grocery store and tag-lined with "A new dimension in terror". The movie is notable due to the fact that it's the directorial debut of Scott Spiegel, the co-writer of Evil Dead 2 and features both Raimi brothers as super market employees.

Spiegel wrote and directed The Intruder as his first major Hollywood feature and, learning from Sam Raimi's example, was not afraid to bring out the gore and excellent bloody effects - including a mid-skull decapitation with a beautifully made practical!

This approach to horror would become a trademark on his next pictures including: From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999) and Hostel III (2011).


Heads up, people! I'm fresh outta Excedrin and I got a headache this big.

The Intruder is more of an effects movie surrounded by a lot of suspicious giallo styled plot. Bruce Campbell cameos as a cop, Sam Raimi appears as "Randy" and Ted Raimi (Sam's brother later be featured in Xena and Raimi's first Spider-Man) appears in the film as "Produce Joe". Emilio Estevez's sister and Martin Sheen's daughter Renée Estevez stars as Linda.

The Intruder has some decent scares, imaginative effects and rises above a lot of 80's slashers one-dimensional approach to serial killer flicks.

References:
IMDB, The Intruder (1989)
Wikipedia, The Intruder (1989 film)
Lost Highway, The Intruder
Girl Who Loves Horror, The Intruder

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

At Last - The Slash-Mess Season 2012

This year, hu-mon, don't simply let a Scary Slash-Mess sneak up on you.

Didja know that December 13th is the start of this year's 12 Days of Slash-Mess? 12 days of the worst, the most banned and the most bizarre horror movies ever released upon the modern world. Shiver in terror, recoil in dread, as your pal and mine, the Sleaze-A-Saurus, presents a dozen carefully selected horror movie gems!

This year don't let Slash-Mess take you by surprise - subscribe now to get into the true spirit of Slash-Mess! See you Thursday December 13th for the start of the Slash-Mess season, boys and ghouls. Scary Slash-Mess!

Slash-Mess Day 0: Savage Sisters! (1974)

These three ladies mean business, brother!

Scary Slash-Mess to all! So, you've managed to make it this far into Slash-Mess, eh, puny hu-mon? The Sleaze-A-Saurus is most impressed with your above average tolerance to exploitation cinema.

As a deviation from your ridiculous culture's pastime of watching cheap simulations of dainty fe-male hu-mons being raped and tortured The Sleaze-A-Saurus presents fe-male hu-mons kicking the asses of the males of your species in: Savage Sisters! (1974).

References:
IMDB, Savage Sisters (1974)
Score Film, Savage Sisters (1974)

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

Slash-Mess Day 1: Women's Prison Massacre (1983)

Emmanuel Goes To Hell - pretty much the only thing she didn't do in the movie series.

Softcore meets WIP in Women's Prison Massacre - an "Emmanuelle" movie in disguise. Women's Prison Massacre stars the sultry brunette from the Emmanuel series, Laura Gemser. Gemser is a beautiful woman of Indonesian descent who is today an Italian citizen who starred in 57 movies during her career from 1974-1994. The Emanuelle series included: Emanuelle's Daughter (1980), Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977), Emanuelle in America (1977), and Black Emanuelle (1975).

Gemser, who also was a costume designer for 12 motion pictures, retired from movies in 1994.

References:
IMDB, Emanuelle fuga dall'inferno (1969)
Snake Plissken's Haus, Women's Party Massacre (1983)
Planet Terror, Women's Prison Massacre (1983)
Brian's Drive-In, Women's Prison '83

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

Slash-Mess Day 2: Love Camp 7 (1969)

In the wild, wild world of WIP/Naziploitation films the first casualty is the audience's patience for lousy scripts.

One of what U.K. government film censors declared bad enough to labeled as a "Video Nasty", making it banned in Britain in the 1980's, was also considered so bad that in 2002 the British Board Of Film Classification (BBFC) refused to even rate it for a DVD re-release! All of this aside, the flick is widely regarded one as the first of the sub-genres of women-in-prison (WIP) and nazisploitation movies. It was directed by the late, great Lee Frost (writer of the Thing With Two Heads, director of Black Gestapo) and written by Wes Bishop (co-star of Chain Gang Women).

The movie is a cult classic and represents the beginning of a series of exploitation films about women in prison in the 1970's, such as Women in Cages (1971) and The Big Bird Cage (1972), both of which made Pam Grier's career in the genre. It is also the first in the Nazi exploitation (or Nazisploitation) genre of concentration camp movies, that includes Canadian Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS (1974) which was produced by David F. Friedman (Something Weird Video co-founder) and led to several sequels with Dyanne Thorne as the titular character, the Italian Nazi Love Camp 27 (1977) and Last Orgy of the Third Reich (1977).

References:
IMDB, Love Camp 7 (1969)
Wikipedia, Love Camp 7
Stomp Tokyo, Love Camp 7 (1969)
Dead Duck, Lee Frost's Love Camp
Score Film, Love Camp

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

Slash-Mess Day 5: Return Of The Living Dead (1985)

Dan O'Bannon (Aliens writer) directs his own version of the Night Of The Living Dead.

When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to once again arise from their watery graves and go on a cannibalistic rampage through Louisville, Kentucky. Here, the re-animated hu-mons seek out seeking their most favorite of foods, KFC: Kentucky Fried Chippies.

The steady and nuanced direction by Dan O'Bannon, writer of "Alien", run through out this brilliant installment of Romero's zombie genre that revolves around counter-culture outcasts (punkers, new wavers and beady eyed morticians), maximum effects and then: even endowing some of the zombies with a limited power of speech (Send...more...paramedics...SNARF!). Dark humor, excellent undead effects, prosthetic make-up and much better casting make this 80's update a classic in it's own right.

References:
IMDB, Night Of The Living Dead (1985)
IMDB, Tom Savini

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Sites: Retro Slashers

Every infamous Hollywood villain BUT the Sleaze-A-Saurus? The sheer nerve of these arrogant manlings!

A really, rea-a-lly good site for all things Krueger, Kruug, Leatherface, Vorhees and many more obscure-o cinematic slashers can be found at Retro Slashers. A team of writers and designers have put together an exhaustive database of horror, giallo, zombie, andmaniac films (w/collectibles!) as a top shelf resource for all fans of gore and splatter movies.

In Jason vs. Leatherface - everyone is the winner. Click the image above for the large version or below for the book at Amazon.

Where else can a poor ol' gorehound find Simon Bisley's elusive Jason vs Leatherface comic that went of print in 1995? The three-parter is there, alright.



References:
Comic Vine, Jason Vs. Leatherface
Dork Sights.com, Retro-Activity
Fright At First Sight, Child's Play 2 Comics

Jason vs. Leatherface is available at: