Vestron
Vestron was founded in 1981 by Austin Owen Furst, Jr. (born 1943), an executive at HBO, who was hired to dismantle the assets of Time-Life Films. Furst bought the video rights of the film library for himself and decided to…
Wild Guitar (1962)
At times the marriage between the Arch Halls and Ray Dennis Steckler seems to have been a bit rocky. This movie may rank as Ray’s most `coherent,’ (or least experimental) because of the heavy hand of Arch Sr. as producer,…
The Cry Baby Killer (1958)
In the film, Jack stars as teenager Jimmy Wallace, who, when we first encounter him, is in the process of getting the crap pounded out of him by a gang led by the suit-and-tie-clad Manny Cole (Brett Halsey). Later that…
Screech of the Decapitated – Review of a B Movie Cult Classic
Once in a great while, filmmakers encourage each and every cast and crew member to provide input and to add their creativity and quirks to their film to make it a group effort. That was the case for the film…
The Corpse Grinders (1971)
Ted V. Mikels is an exploitation filmmaker sometimes mentioned in the same category as H.G. Lewis or Ray Dennis Steckler. He really doesn’t deserve his place in psychotronic history alongside those legends. “The Astro-Zombies” had its amusing moments amongst the…
Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981)
his is one of those movies that doesn’t even make sense for one second.I mean:Flying Piranhas who live in in salt water!WAAHAA It is unbelievable that one could make such a crappy movie.The acting is horrendous,the story is even worse…
The Naked Flame (1964)
This micro-budget film (incredibly cheap looking, even by Canadian standards) tries to have it both ways and fails miserably. Half the time it tries to be an earnest culture clash drama but the script is boring and gutless. The Doukhobors,…
Zombie Self-Defense Force (2006)
Well Japan is fairly well-known for some of the really obscure, grotesque and outrageous movies within recent years. And “Zombie Self-Defense Force” or “Zonbi Jieitai” is one of those movies. I sat down to watch it because it is a…
Geisha Assassin (2008)
he film has been decried by some viewers because the feats of strength attributed to a mere girl are impossible, particularly after she has been injured. That would put down thousands of action films in which the main character is…
Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders (1953)
When I saw the title of this serial, I was expecting something along the lines of a cross between Ed Wood and Commando Cody. What I got was a fairly routine chapter play about a foreign power wanting to set…
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
All roads lead to Rome–or in the case of haunted house stories to Shirley Jackson’s THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE. Published in 1959 and then memorably filmed by Robert Wise with Julie Harris in 1963, both book and film have…
Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
“Phantom of the Paradise” is Brian De Palma’s outrageous blend of horror, comedy and rock opera very loosely based on Gaston Leroux’s immortal novel “Phantom of the Opera”. I know it is hard to think of a musical horror movie…
Love’s Labour’s Lost-A Requiem For The Movie Theatre
On the feast of St. Valentine , I thought it appropriate to write of love. Like many love stories it has tragic overtones and like many love stories it can dwell on what once was. This is one of those…
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967)
It took me a while before I really appreciated this film. Despite its flaws, this is probably the most serious, accurate, and restrained treatment on the subject you’re ever going to get without watching a straight-out documentary. What you have…
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Notorious for being the slasher film most tortured by the censors upon release, MY BLOODY VALENTINE has become something of a cult classic with legions of adoring fans. The only available version of this movie is missing over 9 minutes…
Black Caesar (1973)
Not one to miss on an opportunity, Larry Cohen’s second feature film utilised the explosion of blaxploitation cinema after the successes of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) and Shaft (1971), and crafted his own “black” action film, modelled on the…
The Bunco Squad (1950)
The bunco squad deals with confidence tricksters and fraudsters. In this movie they are trying to bring down a big time phoney fortune telling racket. Robert Sterling was just finding his feet in better films (“Two Faced Woman” (1941) and…
The Black Cat (1934)
BLACK CAT (1934) Starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Julie Bishop Directed by Edgar Ulmer The first film to feature both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, THE BLACK CAT was, and remains, innovative and strange. The opening credits claim…
The Abominable Snowman (1957)
Dr. John Rollason (Peter Cushing), his wife, Helen (Maureen Connell), and a colleague, Peter Fox (Richard Wattis), have traveled to a remote location in the Himalayas, ostensibly to study rare plant specimens. However, Helen and Peter soon learn that John…
Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)
The legendary cult director Edgar G. Ulmer certainly had made better movies than this but that doesn’t mean that this isn’t fun to some degree. The main problem is that the (lack of a) budget shows: there’s a lot more…