15 June 1926 - 26 September 2016
"He seen somethin' different. And he
done it."
A seminal force in the world of trash
filmmaking, he is considered the inventor of the modern gore film. (In theory,
a position he holds with David F. Friedman,
but when the partnership ended Friedman's true interest proved to be
sexploitation.) To use his own, favorite words: "I've often compared Blood
Feast (1963) to a Walt Whitman poem; it's no good, but it was the first of its
kind." And a truly fun gore film, too — which makes it "good" in
our view.
Unlike Blood Feast and his "better
movies", many of the projects he worked on are unbearable cinematic
experiences; but more than enough of the others are sublime, otherworldly, like
the best of Ed Wood, Juan Piquer Simón
or John Waters. Were it not for innovators like him, A Wasted Life probably
wouldn't be.
One of the truly great has left the
building.
The films below are not necessarily
presented in the order they were made and/or released.
Go here for Part I: 1953-60.
Go here for Part V: 1969-72.
Go here for Part VI:
1973-98.
Go here for Part VII:
2002-08.
Go here for Part VIII:
2009–10.
Tonight You Die
(2011, dir. Jim Roberts)
OK, numerous sites list HG Lewis as an
"actor" in this super-obscure, low budget gore flick from Ohio
filmmaker Jim Roberts who, according to Hellnotes,
was (at the time of Nov 15, 2011) "an Electronic Media Production major at
Kent State University". But nowhere online does Lewis make reference to
this project, nor does he appear in the two trailers we found — but what the
fuck, for the benefit of the doubt we'll list it here and supply the only plot
description we found, and the only one used anywhere online.
Trailer 1:
Way back in 2013, Independent Flicks
said, "[...] The sun rose on the campsite, shedding light on the hellish
carnage. A young woman's lifeless body was slumped against a tree, slashed
open. Her husband lies nearby, in a mutilated heap. The fire flickers,
revealing the charred remains of their unborn child. Who would commit such an
atrocity? The police are clueless, but someone knows the truth. Fueled by a
savage lust for revenge and a brutal appetite for death, they set out to find
the killer in a blood-drenched quest for retribution. [...] The acting is so
and so, but Tonight You Die makes up with it by its fast and furious pacing,
good camerawork and editing, a nice soundtrack and unrelenting violence. Oh
boy, this is one violent little flick and most of the stuff is of the realistic
nature, gun shots, stabbing, being beaten to a pulp and much
much more.This is gloriously gory, some stuff does happen off-screen but
there's a lot happening onscreen. The makeup fx ranges from decent to very
good. There's no T and A in this.
[...] It's a very entertaining, violent and bloody ride with a few twists thrown
in for good measure. Highly recommended but it might be hard to locate a copy
as it hasn't gotten widespread distribution yet."
Trailer 2:
Odd that he ("Daydreamer" from
Sweden) doesn't make reference to an appearance of the great HGL.
Death by VHS
(2013, dirs. David Sabal, Jacob D. O'Neal,
and Scarlet Fry [aka Walter Ruether])
Another regional no-budget movie involving the
Arizonian Scarlet Fry [aka Walter Ruether]), he who brought you Nightmare Alley
(2010; see Part VIII),
and friends. Originally entitled Scream Machine, it was renamed Death by VHS when
released, not in any way trying to ride on the success of the better-known
anthology movie V/H/S (2012 / trailer),
which was quickly followed by S-VHS aka V/H/S 2 (2013 / trailer).
HGL — and John Waters, actually — are among the many names given "Special
Thanks" in the credits.
Horror News, which says the movie is "extremely bad from front to back",
has the basic plot of the 5-story anthology movie, which reads as if taken from
a press release: "A battered and mysterious VCR… A bevy of lethal videotapes…
These are the building blocks of horror in Death by VHS. A mind-blowing descent
into madness and death. Five shocking vignettes, designed to take your sanity
and devour your soul! Mild curiosity leads to severe consequences when a couple
rents a supposedly cursed video cassette recorder. An urban legend renowned for
leaving a trail of agonizing and torturous death. Unbelieving, they take the
plunge… And another legend is horrifyingly born… Do you dare give fate a
winning hand, and test yourself against the hellish consequences of the VHS
machine? Insert Cassette Press Play…DIE!"
(Re)search My Trash
— which says the movie is "Good fun, really!" — has the plots to the
individual segments: "Suburban She Freak: Mary's (Courtney Morgan) face is
weirdly disfigured, so she has ordered a beauty potion — that unfortunately
turns her into a vampire ... Kim: In a world overrun by zombies, a radio
announcer details his experiences of becoming a zombie ... Christmas Krampus:
Mom (Tara Carlton) and dad (Rosasio LaMontagne) want to give their son (Jared
Leve Squee) away for adoption because he's retarded — but he's got a friend:
Evil Santa (Tony Sabal)! Regenerate: Paralyzed Ginny (Ali de Morgoli) suffers
from constant verbal and physical abuse by her husband Paul (Walter Ruether),
so much so that her best friend Stacy (Katie MacDowell) gives her some untested
medication to improve her situation. Before the medication takes effect though,
Paul kills Ginny. But the medication does kick in after death and ... Lepus: A
man in an Easter bunny costume (Brian Everet Smith) terrorizes the city — so
the Sheriff (Tyler Gallant) dresses up as Jesus (and might be Him even) to
fight him ..."
Trailer to
Death by VHS:
Slink
(2013, dir. Jared Masters)
HGL gets a "grateful
acknowledgment" — amidst a list of illustrious names featuring the best of
classic low culture. Including Harry H. Novak, which is why we looked at this
flick in Part XV of his R.I.P. career review, where we pretty much wrote: "Aka Virgin Leathers. Jared Masters,
the founder of Frolic Pictures,
is a 'self-taught Beethoven' who 'was expelled his freshman year of high school
for streaking' and now makes independent sleaze horror flicks. That he might
give 'Grateful Acknowledgement' to Herschell Gordon Lewis in the credits of one
of his numerous flicks is hardly surprising, as Lewis's movies are surely a
stylistic and contentual influence of this Young Turk. [...] The plot, as taken
from the Frolic Films website: 'After the unexplained death of their Uncle
Arlo, Kayla Nunez (Danika Galindo) and her sister (Jacqueline Larsen) venture to
his home in the rural town of Wickenhaven. They plan to claim their share of
his estate, but their trip takes a drastic turn after discovering that their
uncle's house is occupied by a mysterious relative, Aunt May (Julia Faye West),
who may be harboring deadly secrets. Complicating matters is the deranged,
lust-filled tanning salon owner, Dale (Art Roberts), and his exotic wife, Joan
(Dawna Lee Heising), whose business in designer handbags is the backbone to the
entire town's economy, and possibly the darkest fashion controversy the world
will ever know.'
Trailer to
Slink:
Slink stars younger gals who look like
wanna-be porn starlets, older gals who look like former porn starlets and/or
plastic surgery addicts (in this regard, 'Joan', photo below, stands out in
particular) and a variety of ugly men. The acting of Slink is postmodern bad,
the sets cheap and the tale over the top — just our cup of tea, in other words.
"The only complaint at Ain't It Cool News, however, is that the movie ends 'as if the camera ran out of film'. They go
on to rave that '[...] though this one feels like it might have been done on
the cheap, the idea behind it is strong and for the most part, Slink, though
somewhat predictable, plays out pretty masterfully. [...] Basically this is one
of those Motel Hell
(1980 / trailer)
type films where a down-home business makes its business off of the flesh of
young women, but instead of Farmer Vincent's fritters, the youthful flesh is
made into fashionable handbags, the likes of which Paris, Brittany, and
Christina tote to the fashionable affairs [...]. Slink is a pretty tight little
thriller with some nice twists along the way in terms of script. The film goes
to some dark places [...]. I have to give the film credit for having a very
corroded moral core and going to those dank places most horror films are afraid
to go. The effects are pretty great and the directing itself does a really good
job of maintaining its black tone throughout. [...] Though the evil tanning
salon wenches are overly botoxed and siliconed, it fits the tone of the
lifestyle the film is lampooning. This is a film about looks over everything
else; a comment on the shallow lifestyle we live in, so the gratuitous nudity
and NIP/TUCK (2003-10 / trailer)
wet dream actresses serve more of a purpose than just window dressing.'
But not that of Culture Crypt,
which hates the flick, saying: 'Unquestionably, the single greatest drawback to
reviewing low budget independent horror movies is that the job requires sitting
through the entirety of something like Slink. [...] Gather up some friends and
family with nothing better to do and use them to populate a cast and crew, no
experience required. That is the starting point for Slink. From there, the
filmmaking philosophy is simply to set each scene in a corner of a room
haphazardly dressed to resemble something else and let the camera roll on
whatever happens. [...] Any way it is sliced, Slink is a mess on all fronts.
Performances are painfully embarrassing for everyone involved. Sets look like
they were constructed for a high-school stage play. The music is out of place
and thoroughly obnoxious. And the ending is one of the worst ever seen. [...]'
That's Sexploitation!
(2013, writ & dir Frank Henenlotter)
Trailer to
Trailer to
That's Sexploitation!:
Three years earlier, in 2010, Henenlotter
made his first documentary, Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore (see Part VIII). His follow-up documentary for Something Weird was
this one, featuring HGL's former partner, "legendary schlockmeister David F. Friedman
in his final movie appearance", as host of a comprehensive historical
review of sexploitation.
How innocent it sometimes was —
Why Girls Walk Home (1929):
As DVD Drive-In
explains it, "[...] Having obtained over five hours of interview material
from a frail, ailing Friedman at his Alabama home in 2011 (it was the last time
either Henenlotter or Vraney saw Friedman alive; the producer died just months
later), Henenlotter set out to make a doc chronicling the seven-decade
evolution and death of the American sexploitation movie, with Friedman's
interview as the glue holding together selected cuts from Vraney's vast
collection of stag reels, peep show loops, nudie cuties, roughies, sex hygiene
movies, burlesque shorts, and white coaters. It took Henenlotter two years to
choose material and edit it down for the 136 minute-long That's Sexploitation! (unfortunately,
Vraney died unexpectedly before the doc was completed), where it received good
notices on the festival and art house circuits in 2013."
The DVD includes three and a half hours of
short from the Something Weird vaults.
Something Weird's
First Video Opener:
Creative Loafing,
which calls the obvious labor of love a "highly informative documentary",
goes on to explain that "Henenlotter examines the phenomenon of nudies,
stag films, burlesque shorts, sex-hygiene pictures and other sordid and
sensationalized types of lusty cinema that existed well outside the Hollywood
mainstream. Ample clips are shown (including some from such notorious works as Mom
and Dad [1945 / full movie],
Marihuana [1936 / full movie
/ trailer] and The Immoral Mr. Teas [1959 / full movie]),
and fascinating facts fly fast and furious. For instance, many of the theaters
playing these controversial films offered separate showtimes for men and women;
nickelodeons showing nudie reels were often tucked away in the back of
otherwise reputable, all-ages arcades; and (according to Friedman) nudist films
were popular in Germany during the 1930s since Hitler wanted to show off the
supposedly superior physiques of his beloved Aryans. The early clips are often
amusing (apparently, smoking pot can lead to such ghastly dangers as passionate
kissing), while many from the drug-addled 60s prove to be experimental and
bizarre in both form and content."
Something Weird Video's
World-Famous Opener:
Terror Toons 3
(2015, dir. Joe Castro)
We were gonna start this with some obscure
joke about how the only difference between Texas and the Chechen Republic is
that when Texas gays disappear they go to California, but we'll sort of skip
that and get straight to the movie, directed by Texas-born director Joe Castro (that's him below, the one without the wig), who
co-wrote the script with his significant other, Steven J. Escobar.
Trailer to
Terror Toons 3:
Cultspeak,
an interesting website that none of our computers like (it freezes on all four,
or on XP, Windows 7 & 8), describes Joes Castro as "an independent
filmmaker/special effects artist who has been working in the industry for over
20 years. His credits includes special effects work on films such as Night of
the Demons 3 (1997 / trailer),
William Lustig's Uncle Sam
(1996 / trailer)
and Herschell Gordon Lewis' Blood Feast 2
(2002) [Not to mention L.A. Zombie (2010 / trailer),
a movie high on our "To See" list.]. […] Terror Toons 3 […] the third
installment in filmmaker Joe Castro's madcap gory trilogy. The first film in
the series, Terror Toons (2002 / trailer),
took the violent nature of classic Warner Bros. cartoons to their natural gory
conclusion. The second, Terror Toons 2 (2007 / trailer),
drew a lot of its inspiration from fairy tales. This latest installment
combines both. The film begins with a segment picking up where Terror Toons
left off, seeing the resurrection of murderous cartoon villains Dr. Carnage and
Max Assassin. It then segues into an interconnected series of updated fairy
tales narrated by none other than the Godfather of Gore himself, Herschell
Gordon Lewis!"
In the interview found at Cultspeak, Castro
talks about how he worked on Lewis's Blood Feast 2: "I think within 10
minutes after arriving on set after getting in from the airport, Herschell and
I just hit it off. Somebody was supposed to be stuck with a knife and it was
supposed to be protruding out of the skull. I said, 'How big of a knife
sticking out of her?' He said, 'Well, what do we have?' I turned to him and
said, 'Whatever you envision, that's what we have.' He then knew immediately
that we were going to work well together."
And, indeed, Lewis spoke about his
involvement in Terror Toons 3 over at Rue Morgue, saying: "This is the ancient joke—when Joe Castro says 'Jump', my answer
is 'How far?' I love this guy, I love his talent. He's one of the most
underappreciated people in the splatter film world, and I'm very, very
delighted to be involved in this thing with him. We worked out a situation in
which he felt, and I do too, that my position in it would not be that negative
of a factor [Laughs]. So, who can say no to that?"
Worldwide Celluloid Massacre
rates the flick — as it does Parts 1 & 2 — "Of Some Interest",
saying: "Castro pushes the pedal to the metal for this sequel, going as
extremely over-the-top as possible into complete toon-mayhem as the evil toon
dimension takes over this world. […] The effects are a combination of mostly
very cheap digital effects, some practical effects, animation, puppets and
insanity. Everything is distorted and their shape and size keep changing like
in a cartoon, nothing obeys the laws of physics, everyone turns into mutated
human-toon-monster hybrids, their bodies exploding and distorting in extreme
splattery effects […], and all of this with a gleefully violent toon giggling
humor. There is not much plot, and it is more about the various insane segments
of splattery mayhem, anything-goes fantasy, and random violence, and,
obviously, actors act over-the-top while the scenery chews them. Once again,
terrible and entertaining at the same time."
As for "Violent Toons",
We're fans of Happy Tree Friends:
Ballet of Blood
(2015, writ & dir Jared Masters)
Jared Masters, the 'self-taught Beethoven'
behind Slink aka Virgin Leathers — see further above — offers another poorly
received movie, the credits of which are awash with "In Memory Of's"
and "Special Thanks" — the man simply knows and appreciates his
influences. Ballet of Blood sounds like the Columbine Massacre by way of Suspiria
(1977 / trailer),
while the trailer has an oddly Jean Rollins appeal, but we admit that we haven't
seen it — few people have.
(Re)search My Trash,
one of the few who have, has the plot: "The reputation of a prestigious ballet
school is at stake when one of the students, Nisa (Sydney Ray), storms in
wielding a submachine gun and injuring the school's prima ballerina, Sylvie
(Mindy Robinson) and thus pretty much ending her career, and on top of that
making a getaway. But the school's owner Wren (Julia Faye West) and head
teacher Delphine (Laura Amelia) do everything to keep the story under lock and
key, which includes shipping Ria (Jessica Knopf), the girl who provided Nisa
with the gun, away to a mental institution and working the other girls even
harder. But of course, an attempted murder like this doesn't just go away like
this just because you wish it to, as Nisa hides out nearby planning her next
strike, and Ria escapes from the mental institution to reunite with Nisa, and
Nisa sees the now heavily medicated Ria as her perfect tool. Among the students
of the academy, only Maren (Marla Martinez), a wannabe writer, seems to have an
idea what the girls are planning, as she knows what they have been through and
writes a novel about it — but she's considered a nerd by the others, so
basically her warnings fall on death ears ... but of course, the inevitable is
going to happen eventually..."
Trailer to
Ballet of Blood:
Scream Machine
(2015, dir. Scarlet Fry [aka Walter
Ruether])
Another regional no-budget movie involving
the Arizonian Scarlet Fry [aka Walter Ruether]), he who brought you Nightmare
Alley (2010; see Part VIII) and Death by VHS (2013). In fact, Scream Machine
was the originally intended title for Death by VHS, and like Death by VHS, it's
a horror anthology. HGL gets his almost standard-for-a-fry-movie "Special
Thanks" in the credits.
Trailer to
Scream Machine:
Fry divides the few who have ever seen one
his anthology films. Repulsive Reviews
is one of the nay-sayers: "It's obvious that writer/director/producer
Scarlet Fry aka Walter Ruether III is a fan of all things horror and that can
be an admirable trait in a filmmaker. However, his film Scream Machine is less
of a love letter to genre greats and more of an insult."
Canticle Cinema House,
on the other hand, is a yay-sayer: "Scream Machine is a great film that
not only is funny but also disgusting. The plot is out there and while not
original it gives it a unique spin. [...] Overall the acting was on point to make
a rather funny movie. I love the 5 short films that are combined to create one
long film because it allowed a more dynamic range of emotions, hilarity, and
gore to be shown. The one thing I definitely enjoyed was the sound effects and
the music. It added a flair of character to the film. If you get a chance to
see this film do yourself a favor and watch it, you will die from
laughing."
B.C. Butcher
(2016, dir. Kansas Bowling)
HGL's name is found amidst the long list of
those deserving "Special Thanks". Filmed in Topanga,
California, USA, and written by Ms. Bowling and Kenzie Givens, as
far as we can tell B.C. Butcher is also Ms. Bowling's feature film directorial
debut, though she appears to have a load of short-film and music-video credits.
Trailer to
B.C. Butcher:
Over at Kinky Korner,
after admitting that she "thought he [Kato Kaelin] was a super stud and
used to rub it out to him during my formative teen years", her
hotness Diana Prince (a.k.a. Kasey Poteet aka Kasey Kroft, pictured below) gives the
film an honest but positive review: "What do you get when you mix elements
of a slasher film, punk rock, Kato Kaelin and the stone age? You get B.C. Butcher,
directed by Kansas Bowling [...].
"At its core, B.C. Butcher is a simple slasher
film; A group of cavewoman, led by the boastful Neandra (Leilani Fideler), tie
up, gut and then eat said guts of another cavewoman, all because Neandra
suspects her man Rex (Kato Kaelin) is in
love with the other woman, but it's actually the B.C. Butcher (hence the title)!
Funny thing is, you get the sneaking suspicion that Rex is gay. After that,
it's pretty formulaic, but it's in no way a cookie-cutter clone of some other
film or boring. One by one the girl's fall victim to the monster (Dwayne 'Not the Rock' Johnson) as he disposes of them. The monster himself is just a buff dude in a
mask, which is part of the cheesy, low budget fun, but the biggest shock and
surprise was seeing Kato Kaelin show up in a primitive slasher movie from
Troma. You all remember him from the O.J. Simpson trial, don't you? Holy shit, am
I really that old? [...]"
The
Original Promo:
Blood Feast
(2016, dir. Marcel Walz)
Filmed in Paris, Miami, and Heidelberg,
nice places one and all. Imagine that! Blood Feast (1963) gets an official —
and serious — remake. Not all that unimaginable, actually, if you consider that
2000 Maniacs (1964) and Wizard of Gore (1970) have also already been remade. But
in this remake, unlike the others, HGL "has a skyped-in cameo as Professor
Lou Herschell".
Trailer to
Blood Feast:
Bloody Disgusting,
like many websites, has what seems to be the press release synopsis: "Fuad
Ramses (Robert Rusler) and his family have moved from the United States to
France, where they run an American diner. Since business is not going too well,
Fuad also works nightshifts in a museum of ancient Egyptian culture. During
these long, lonely nights he becomes allured by goddess Ishtar (Sadie Katz) as
she speaks to him in visions. Eventually he succumbs to her deadly charms.
After this pivotal night, Fuad begins a new life, in which murder and
cannibalism become his daily bread. As butchered bodies are heaped upon the
Altar of Ishtar, Fuad slowly slips further into madness, until he is no more
than the goddess's puppet…"
Regarding Fuad's situation, Severed Cinema
states, "I'd hate to see what kind of murderous visions he would have if
he worked in a store selling dildos, maybe of the Egyptian variety?"
But is the new version any good? Dunno —
but it seems to be dreadfully serious. As The Terror Time
states, "The tone of this remake and the original couldn't be any more
different. [...] The original is a gory, late-night horror party viewing while
this remake is played with dread and seriousness while mixing in commentary
regarding those who struggle with mental illness and financial hardship."
Robert Rusler, by the way, played the
obscure object of desire in Nightmare on Elm Street II: Freddy's Revenge
(1985), a film often discussed homosexual "subtext"; what we find odd
is that for all the discussion on its subtext, no one ever brings up that the
subtext is actually extremely anti-gay. (Still, Rusler made a damn fine obscure
object of desire.) As for the Mrs. Ramses of the movie, she's played by Caroline
Williams, who made her first film appearance somewhere (where?) in the rather
entertaining satire Smile (1975 / trailer).
More deserving of note is her lead role in the shamefully underappreciated
satire The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986 / trailer),
a truly funny black comedy. Lastly, the family daughter Louise Ramses is played
by the "London-born Australian pop singer, actress and model" and
former Playboy Playmate Sophie Monk
(34C-24-35), above; she's a rarity among contemporary Playmates in that she is 100%
all natural. She can also be found in two other earlier horror movies, The
Hills Run Red (2009 / trailer)
and Life Blood (2009 / trailer),
the last of which we looked at briefly in our R.I.P. career review of Charles Napier.
They Came from the Swamp:
The Films of William Grefé
The Films of William Grefé
(2016, dir. Daniel Griffith)
"I don't know why anyone would make a
123-minute documentary about [William Grefe],
but I am sure as hell glad someone did. The director of record is Daniel
Griffith, who made a name for himself creating featurettes and small-scale
documentaries as DVD extra features."
Trailer to
They Came from the Swamp:
HGL is among the talking heads, as are David
F. Friedman, Frank Henenlotter and Fred Olen Ray, and both William Grefe and a
variety of his actors and crew also come to word, including Randy Grinter of Brad F. Grinter's classic
disasterpiece Blood Freak (1972 / trailer),
and American singer and former teen idol Steve Alaimo, who has the dubious
honor of having "had nine singles to chart in the Billboard Hot 100
without once reaching the Top 40 in his career, the most by any artist".
Of the "name" actors that worked with Grefe — i.e., Jeremy Slate (who?),
Alex Rocco (of Return to Horror High
[1987]), Mickey Rooney, Richard Jaeckel (who?), Christopher George, Rita
"Yes, I look like I am and I am suffering from Alzheimer's" Hayworth
(!), and William Shatner — Shatner is the only one that comes to word, possibly
because all the others were dead by the time this documentary was made. In
theory, death should've also kept the forgotten character actor John Davis
Chandler (28 Jan 1935 – 16 Feb 2010, of Mad Dog Coll
[1961] and Moon of the Wolf
[1972], among many films) from participating, but the filmmakers dug up a
usable interview from 2008.
"Director Daniel Griffith of Ballyhoo
Motion Pictures has given Grefé a long overdue retrospect of his career in They
Came from the Swamp, not so much a documentary as a 126-minute love letter to
Bill Grefé and his work. With interviews and footage, we revisit the glory days
of exploitation and low budget films. In the case of Racing Fever (1964), Grefé
purchased amateur footage of a fatal speedboat to use in the film, saving a
fortunate in recreating such an accident as a stunt. [...] And then there's Impulse
(1974), with William Shatner as a sociopathic, leisure-suit-wearing, gigolo who
bilks women of their fortunes before killing them. The backstage stories are
almost as legendary as the film, with stories like Shatner supposed hanging
Harold Sakata, only to realize the stunt rig had failed and Sakata was actually
strangling. Shatner grabbed Sakata and held him aloft until the crew realized
they weren't improvising." [Hellnotes]
Killer Campout
(2016, dir. Brad Twigg)
Currently in post production, HGL died
while the movie was still being made. From the Martinsburg,
West Virginia, [independent] director of the mis-titled Milfs vs. Zombies (2015
/ trailer) — which shudda bin titled "Moms vs. Zombies" — take a gander of the
trailer to see what we mean. Or maybe they simply have a different concept of
MILF in West Virginia.
HGL supposedly supplied his voice
for something, somewhere in Killer Campout.
Trailer to
Killer Campout:
The plot description found online at places
like Arrow in the Head
says "Two youth counselors bring a group of emotionally troubled teens
deep into the woods for a weekend of solitude and confrontational therapy. The
trip turns deadly when the group is terrorized by a cannibalistic hermit with a
thirst for blood."
Horror Society
says pretty much the same: "Two youth counselors take a group of troubled
teens on a weekend camping trip deep in the forest. The trip turns deadly when
the group cross paths with a cannibalistic Vietnam vet who is thirsty for blood."
(Hmm; we thought "group" takes singular conjunction of the verb in
American English.)
Two other familiar names are supposedly
also active in the movie. John A. Russo, co-creator of the classic Night of theLiving Dead
(1968), is there as "Burt", says the imdb. After Night, by the way,
Russo went on to write and direct The Booby Hatch (1976 / trailer),
Heartstopper (1989 / trailer)
and Santa Claws (1996 / trailer),
among other fun (?) stuff. More obscure is the Baltimorian George M. Stover,
Jr., of Female Trouble (1974 / trailer),
the masterpiece that is Desperate Living (1977), and The Galaxy Invader (1985 /
trailer),
among others. At least in the John Waters' films, he always looked his part.
Now a retired man, he does a lot of independent films — all the power to you,
dude!
All the power to Brad Twigg, too.
Trailer to
John Water's Desperate Living:
Herschell Gordon Lewis' BloodMania
(2016, dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis,
Kevin Littlelight & Melanie Reinboldt)
Kevin Littlelight & Melanie Reinboldt)
"It is a perfect combination of
satirical comedy and horror."
Herschell Gordon Lewis
Shot in Calgary, a long way away from
Florida. The project HGL was working on when he died: an anthology movie of
four episodes, two of which were directed by Lewis, and two of which were
directed by Kevin Littlelight & Melanie Reinboldt.
Trailer:
ADDENDUM
Doctor Gore
(1972, dir. J.G. Patterson Jr.)
Aka The Body Shop, filmed as Anitra, going
by a clapboard seen in one shot. When re-released on video in the 1980s, the
movie was given an added introduction by Herschell Gordon Lewis himself. (About
which DVD Drive-In
is driven to say: "An alternate title sequence for Doctor Gore [...]
includes an introduction by Herschell Gordon Lewis touting Patterson as 'The
Master of Gore'. Yeah right. How much did they pay the real Master to say that?")
H.G. Lewis introduces the "lost"
film,
Doctor Gore:
J.G. Patterson Jr. is a now forgotten but
intriguing regional filmmaker / scriptwriter / film producer / occasional actor
/ special effects artist, and as such worked with HGL on four of Lewis's
projects: Moonshine Mountain (1964), The Gruesome Twosome (1967), She-Devils on
Wheels (1968) and How to Make a Doll (1968).
According to Brian Albright's book Regional
Horror Films, 1958-1990: A State-by-State Guide with Interviews, Patterson
Jr.'s full name was Junius Gustavious "Pat" Patterson, Jr., and he
died of cancer in 1975. Elsewhere, we learned that he was the son of Alice
Lumpkin and Junius Gustavas Patterson Sr, and that he was born on 11 January
1930 and died in the town of Salisbury,
Rowan County, NC, on 30 June 1975. He's buried alongside his wife Juanita Shaw
Patterson (1 May 1931 – 30 Sept 2009) at Lawing's Chapel Baptist Church Cemetery
in Maiden,
NC, Catawba County.
The Movie's Signature C&W Song,
Bill Hicks and the Rainbows'
A Heart Dies
Every Minute:
Balladeer's Blog,
on the other hand, seems to appreciate the movie a bit more, claiming that Doctor
Gore / The Body Shop is a "Category: A neglected bad movie classic that
deserves a Plan 9-sized cult following."
The Original Trailer to
Dr. Gore:
Blood Diner
(1987, dir. Jackie Kong)
Considering we saw this film years ago, we
are amazed that we didn't immediately link this prime slice of mid-80s
exploiter to HGL's Blood Feast (1963). But then a light went on when we read the following
in a talk transcribed at Cinema Knife Fight:
"I thought it [Blood Feast II
(2002)] was a fun enough sequel, packed with plenty of classic Lewis-splatter
and goofiness, although I thought Jackie Kong's unofficial 1987 sequel, Blood
Diner, was a much better film."
"We interrupt this program to give you
an important news bulletin: A suspect in the Happy Times All-Girls Glee Club
slaying has fled the scene and managed to elude the police. He is armed and
dangerous, and has been spotted in the West Side area, armed with a meat
cleaver in one hand and his genitals in the other."
Radio News Broadcaster
366 Movies
has the plot: "At the direction of their uncle Anwar (Drew Godderis), a
talking brain in a jar, two restaurateur brothers [Michael (Rick Burks, 27 July
1960 – 19 Feb 1989) and George Tutman (Carl Crew of The Secret Life:
Jeffrey Dahmer [1993 / full film])]
assemble a vessel composed of body parts harvested from immoral women to
receive the spirit of the ancient Egyptian goddess Sheetar (Tanya Papanicolas).
They are opposed by a pair of mismatched cops (LaNette LaFrance and Roger
Dauer) and the owner of a rival vegetarian restaurant intent on
stealing their secret recipe. After many bloody murders, they must
complete only the last ritual, a 'Lumerian feast' where Sheetar will take the
life of a virgin, along with the attendees at the banquet."
Trailer to
Blood Diner:
The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre
rates Blood Diner "Of Some Interest", claiming it's "Dumb
splatter fun wrapped in one of the happiest gore movies ever made."
TV Guide,
on the other hand, gives it one star and bemoans, "Although directed by a
woman, Blood Diner's consciousness is no more heightened than that of I Spit on
Your Grave (1978 / trailer)
or Maniac (1980 / trailer).
[...] Moreover, director Kong injects the sort of contempt for the original
material that ruins most horror satires. There's nothing the least bit
redeeming about Blood Diner."
Director Jackie Kong's
other movies include the odd but aggravating bad horror movie The Being (1983 /
trailer)
and two unmemorable comedies, Night Patrol (1984 / trailer)
and The Underachievers (1987 / full movie).
Since then, she's not really done anything in the film biz and has reached a
level where a fact like "Her mother Anita was a friend of Marlon Brando"
is considered noteworthy enough to be added to her imdb Trivia page. Her bio
page there seems to be all wrong,
and she might currently be a real estate agent.
Blood Diner (unlike Jackie Kong's other three films), was not produced by her then-husband,
Bill Osco, better known as the producer of the "first" modern feature
porno movie with a plot Mona: The Virgin Nymph (1970), the classic
soft-core comedy Flesh Gordon (1974 / trailer),
the entertaining and odd Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy (1976
/ trailer), and more. Instead, Jimmy Maslon was the man. He later also produced Blood Feast 2: All U
Can Eat (2002), among other stuff, and co-directed Herschell Gordon Lewis: The
Godfather of Gore (2010).
Herschell Gordon Lewis
May He R.I.P. —
and His Films Last Forever.
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