Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Dixie Dynamite (1976)




Directed by Lee Frost.

Starring Warren Oates, Jane Anne Johnstone and Christopher George.

IMDB

This one stars two my favourite actors in Warren Oates (Race With The Devil) and Christopher George (City Of The Living Dead).

Lee Frost has many trailers on this site already such as "Policewomen" (1974) and "The Thing With Two Heads" (1972).

Pretty good 70's road fare, especially if you like Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Vanishing Point, Smokey and the Bandit, Race With The Devil etc.

Monster Shark (1984) aka Devilfish





Directed by Lamberto Bava.

Starring Michael Sopkiw.

IMDB

One of a few legendary Jaws-rip offs from the Italians. Movies such as Enzo G. Castellari's "The Last Shark" and Bruno Mattei's "Cruel Jaws" were so slavish to the original that they actually used footage directly ripped from the blockbuster Spielberg film (and were sued because of it).

This one tries to be more coherent but it ends up being less entertaining because of it. This is a true stink bomb from the wildly uneven Lamberto Bava who was sometimes capable of great films like "Macabre" (1980) and "Demons" (1985).

This is also one of Michael Sopkiw's last films, though he has only done 5 in his whole career. Still, he's a memorable leading man, especially in Italian jungle fare like "Massacre In Dinosaur Valley" (1985) and as a Mad Max-like warrior in "2019: After The Fall Of New York" (1983).

Hawk the Slayer (1980)




Directed by Terry Marcel.

Starring Jack Palance and John Terry.

IMDB

Whoa. Total mind blow.

Palance takes his bad ass Western villain character into the Star Wars inspired Sword and Sorcery early 80's where glowing swords and Tron-like special effects meant box office gold.

Except this British helmed film was only shown in America on television and has managed to become a cult favourite thanks to it's light-hearted take on the genre and some decent F/X and set design despite a typically low budget.

Palance is great fun to watch in everything he did, whether it was Hollywood drek, Italian crime or westerns, or odd one-offs like this one.

House of Whipcord (1974)




Full Movie


Directed by Pete Walker.

Starring Barbara Markham, Patrick Barr and Ray Brooks.

IMDB

Creepy, psychotic old ladies torturing and killing nubile young British women.

This film has really polarized opinions among fans and critics, some calling it boring and others finding it extremely powerful.

Director Pete Walker went on to direct some other interesting films like Frightmare (1974), Schizo (1976) and House Of The Long Shadows (1983) starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

Boardinghouse (1982) aka Housegeist





Directed by John Wintergate.

Starring John Wintergate, Kalassu and Alexandra Day.

IMDB

A shot-on-video cheapie (when shot-on-video was a true rarity) from the golden age of the slasher genre. This one actually had a limited theatrical run but some reports say it was originally supposed to be a comedy but was edited into a straight slasher/horror pic by distributors.

This was given a DVD release by Code Red so it's available to be seen by grindhouse freaks the world over.

Hilarious trailer with some truly bizarre scenarios and imagery. Enjoy.