Die Screaming, Marianne (1971)

2.5 / 5 Jul '11
Tagline: Death bars the gate to her 21st birthday
Directed by: Pete Walker
Written by: Murray Smith
Actors include: Susan George, Barry Evans, Christopher Sandford
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror
Length: 99 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Well, I'm a huge fan of Pete Walker but I'd heard this was pretty lackluster so I'd left it alone until now. Everyone was right, this is very uninteresting and dry to boot. In fact calling it a horror film seems like an exaggeration, it's more of a cheap crime movie with a few little killings in it. Walker favorite Susan George stars as frees pirited dancer Marianne who ends up shacking with an ugly Bloke who nearly ran her down with his car. When he proposes sudden marriage she decides to fix it so that she is married to his best friend instead (wise choice, he is sooo yucky). Anyhow, angry jilted ugly Guy teams up with Marianne's uglier sister in order to scheme to get money out of Marianne. See she has the key to a large sum of money as well as some papers and secrets on her 21st birthday. It's all very cookie cutter and there is no flavor at all to this to note. It's really Walker's transition movie between his nudie cutie pics and his horror works, unfortunately this really won't appeal to fans of either.

Availability:  On DVD

Female Trouble (1974)

5 / 5
Tagline:  Divine Returns! with the whole "Pink Flamingos" gang in John Waters' Female Trouble
Directed by:  John Waters
Written by:  John Waters
Actors include:  Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole
Genre:  Comedy, Exploitation, Crime, Horror
Length:  89 minutes
Banned:  Nope

Review:
This is my all time favorite John Waters film and in fact in the commentary he says this is his favorite too.  The whole thing is extremely over the top so if you have a problem with ridiculousness turn away.  Divine plays Dawn Davenport (and actually gets screwed by himself in the role of Earl Peterson), a girl who doesn't get cha cha heels for Christmas.  She has fit and takes off where she gets impregnated by Earl.  Her daughter Taffy (Mink Stole in her most hilarious role) is neglected and is most certainly retarded (if you ask Dawn) and in an act of rebellion she tries to stop her mother for once and for all.  Stop Dawn from what?  Well on the road she was noticed by two beauty "consultants" shall we say (David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pearce).  They have her shooting eyeliner (beauty treatments) and since they believe crime is beauty they have her doing nasty things while they take pictures.  The climax is too much (in a good way), and I pretty much laugh from the second this starts to the end.  Heck even the title makes me laugh!  It's naughty, gross, perverse but most of all highly entertaining.  This is a must for fans of this sort of sleaze.

Availability:  On DVD

Sudden Terror (1970) aka Eyewitness

3 / 5 Jan '11
Tagline: Pins you to the edge of your seat.
Directed by: John Hough
Written by: Ronald Harwood
Actors include: Mark Lester, Susan George, Lionel Jeffries
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Crime, Horror
Length: 92 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Well this is a rather clean thriller that hasn't many thrills but it has a few interesting ideas at least. Our story is about a boy named Ziggy (played by Mark Lester of Oliver! fame) who is a chronic liar, storyteller and brat. His sister takes him to go see the President drive by, only he takes off and ends up witnessing the assassination of this President. Of course he's seen, and he's chased and blah blah blah, boy who cries wolf story of course. Of course nobody believes him until it's almost too late, and Sister (Susan George) meets a stranger who is very resourceful and together with their Grandfather they all must try and stay alive. It's just not as action packed and violent as I'd have liked, and Ziggy was just such an obnoxious character I was rooting for the bad guys to get him. Oh well, I sat through it without too much struggle, I just expected a fair bit more out of this.

Availability:  On DVD

Raising Cain (1991)

3.5 / 5 May '10

Tagline: De Mented, De Ranged, De Ceptive, De Palma
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Written by: Brian De Palma
Actors include: John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich, Steven Bauer
Genre: Thriller, Crime, Horror, Drama
Length: 91 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
It's not bad, though it's definitely not one of Brian De Palma's best. It features John Lithgow as Carter...and Cain and a few others. His Wife is concerned with the amount of time and attention he's giving to their daughter plus he's constantly monitoring him. When the wife meets up with an old boyfriend and sparks start flying things get rather dangerous. Especially when people warn her that her husband may be into recreating the experiments that his evil Father worked on. Lithgow is very over the top here yet he does a good job and really without him the movie would have very little. This does involve a few killings though we aren't exactly going to see much, it's more about the idea. It's also rather confusing in places as we see his hallucinations and various other things that we think are happening but later find out they aren't so. This leaves a slightly unsatisfying taste in the mouth yet at the same time...it's DePalma seemingly trying to borrow from Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch so of course it's weird. Oh well it could have been worse and at the end it made sense for the most part.

Availability:  On DVD

Retribution (1987)

3.5 / 5 Feb '10
Tagline: A Supernatural Nightmare of Unholy Terror.
Directed by: Guy Magar
Written by: Guy Magar, Lee Wasserman
Actors include: Dennis Lipscomb, Leslie Wing, Suzanne Snyder
Genre: Horror, Crime
Length: 107 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
What this does have going for it are some extremely creative and disgusting deaths (yay) in a revenge style setting. George Miller (Dennis Lipscomb) is a big unlikeable weenie, wussy to the core until his body is invaded by the spirit of a murdered Gangster hell bent on revenge. The thing is, George seems to gain confidence and even a punky whore girlfriend (even though I have no clue why...he's still a loser) since the possession, it actually bodes rather well for him. The only trouble is that he disappears during sleep time when he turns demonic blue with green eyes (or reverse I can't recall) and does some massive gory kills (hooray for us). Too much time is spent on the romantic angle and too much time is spent getting to know George (he sucks...I get it). It's clearly got a rather low budget feeling to it but the effects are where the payoff is. Maybe not one to go out of the way for, but still worthy for B-movie fans and those who like good deaths.

Availability:  On DVD

Curtains (1983)

3 / 5 Feb '10
Tagline: Behind Every Curtain, Someone Is Watching...Something Is Waiting
Directed by: Richard Ciupka
Written by: Robert Guza Jr.
Actors include: Samantha Eggar, John Vernon, Linda Thorson
Genre: Horror, Crime
Length: 89 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Considering this is an '80s slasher starring Samantha Eggar I had expected more. This does have a few memorable moments, mainly involving our killer's weird mask and specifically involving ice skating (you really have to see that part). Some of the plot points are rather interesting too but unfortunately it's too clouded up with tedium. The idea is that Samantha Eggar plays actress Samantha Sherwood who is set to play the role of a crazy person in a production. For authenticity she checks herself into the looney ward, and her agent just leaves her there and tries to recast. She gets herself out, is pretty darned ticked but is especially mad when she learns that a crop of young pretty actresses are all staying together in a house to test for the role she figures is hers. Together all of the actresses roam about the house until slashed up one by one of course (which doesn't happen fast enough). Really it should work better than it did but unfortunately the sum of all of it's parts is only slightly above average.

Availabilty:  Never released on DVD but it looks like people are selling Bootlegs

What's The Matter With Helen? (1968) aka The Box Step

3 / 5 Feb '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Curtis Harrington
Written by: Henry Farrell
Actors Include: Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror, Musical
Length: 141 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
I kind of hoped for more with this as I really like Shelley Winters and well Debbie Reynolds is pretty amusing too. The two play very best friends who's Sons have been arrested for murder, so they decide to flee for a new life. Adelle (Reynolds) is the talented one, she opens her own dance studio for children and seems to have quite a few singing and dancing numbers. Unfortunately we have to watch plenty of children tap dance and sing entire numbers throughout the film (I could have totally done without this). Helen (Winters) is the more religious and timid creature desperate for Adele's friendship though she pretty much lives in a shell. Things are going swimmingly until Adele meets the man of her dreams and plans to marry him, then we are all wondering....what's the matter with Helen? For long periods of the film nothing much happens, I know they are trying to establish the two women's relationships but it's overly boring. Once Helen starts acting strange things definitely pick up and getting interesting but it's almost too little too late. At least parts of this were worthwhile, and it is rather campy which makes it somewhat entertaining even when it's dull. Not the best film by far but this will definitely appeal to some.

Availability:  On DVD as part of a 2fer with "Who Slew Auntie Roo"