The TSL Horror Grindhouse: American Rickshaw (dir by Sergio Martino)

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

1989’s American Rickshaw opens in Florida. Scott Edwards (played by Olympic gymnast Mitch Gaylord) is a college student who pays the bills by pulling a rickshaw through the streets of Miami. One day, he sees an elderly Asian woman (Michi Koba) sitting by herself at a bus stop. When it starts to rain, he offers her a free ride home. Though Scott was just being nice, it turns out that this is the most important thing he’s ever done. The woman is a witch, and when Scott is subsequently implicated in the murder of the son of televangelist Rev. Mortom (Donald Pleasence), she uses her powers to help him escape both the police and the hitman trying to track him down. The witch, aided by both a cat and a cobra, has a history of her own with the duplicitous Rev. Mortom.

American Rickshaw is an odd hybrid of a film. In many ways, it’s a standard action film. Gaylord plays Scott as a lovable loser who gets set up by a stripper named Joanna (Victoria Prouty) and Jason Mortom (Gregg Todd Davis). While Joanna seduces Scott on a boat, Jason hides behind a two-way mirror with a video camera. When Scott hears Jason behind the mirror, he breaks Jason’s camera and leaves the boat with a videotape he thinks features him and Joanna. Only later does he discover that he grabbed the wrong tape. When Scott returns for the correct tape, he discovers that Jason has been murdered. With the hitmen determined to get the tape Scott did take, he ends up getting chased all over Miami.

At the same time, it’s a horror film. The witch uses her powers to help Scott, which means there are scenes of hitmen suddenly seeing a snake approaching them. The witch’s cat also shows up and stares at the ocean until Scott finally realizes he’s meant to dive in so he can find a clue. It’s established that the witch has a magical past with the demonic Rev. Mortom and that Mortom himself is involved in his own son’s murder. “He’s the devil!” Mortom’s wife (Judy Clayton) yells at one point, and it turns out she’s pretty much right.

This, of course, is all a polite way of saying that the film doesn’t make much sense, but anyone familiar with the films of Sergio Martino will not be surprised to hear that. Like many of the great Italian horror and thriller directors, Martino was always more interested in a few strong set pieces than in a coherent plot. American Rickshaw is more about the chase than the destination, and there are enough weird moments to keep things entertaining. Mitch Gaylord is just as blandly engaging here as he was in American Anthem. (“Steve Tevere has thrown a tripus!”) What Gaylord may have lacked in range, he made up for with earnestness.

Of course, the main attraction here is Donald Pleasence, playing the televangelist with an appropriately predatory glint in his eyes. Pleasence doesn’t get a lot of scenes, but, as always, he’s a memorable presence and he commands the screen whenever he does show up. The reverend is such a strange character that it’s hard to think of any actor other than Donald Pleasence in the role.

American Rickshaw is one of those films that seems to get a lot of bad reviews, largely from people who aren’t familiar with the unique style of Italian exploitation films. Personally, I think it’s impossible not to enjoy something as weird as this film. Seriously, how can anyone resist Donald Pleasence and Mitch Gaylord in the same movie?

Retro Television Review: Crime Story 2.1 “The Senator, The Movie Star, and the Mob”

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing Crime Story, which ran on NBC from 1986 to 1988. The entire show can be found on Tubi!

Today, we start the second season of Crime Story!

Episode 2.1 “The Senator, The Movie Star, and the Mob”

(Dir by John Nicolella, originally aired on September 22nd, 1987)

The second season of Crime Story opens with Torello, Abrams, and the Task Force still in Las Vegas. With Luca and Pauli apparently dead as a result of that nuclear blast at the end of the first season, various gangsters are trying to position themselves as Manny Weisbord’s new man in Vegas. Carlo Mastrangelo (Stephen McHattie) is the latest contender.

(And yet, it’s hard not to notice that, during the opening credits, both Tony Denison and John Santucci are listed. Neither appears in this episode other than in the pictures displayed at their funeral. But the credits don’t seem quite convinced that Luca and Pauli are dead.)

Crusading Senator Rourke (Kevin Spacey, in his first major television role) comes to Vegas. Rourke—the son of a former bootlegger and a presidential contender who speaks with a slightly abrasive Boston accent—is holding hearings on the Mob. Also arriving in Vegas is Pamela Palmer (Jenny Wright), a platinum-blonde movie star known for her glamorous sex appeal but who spends almost the entire episode hiding a black eye behind her sunglasses. As Torello discovers, Pamela is Mastrangelo’s occasional girlfriend, but she’s also having an affair with Senator Rourke.

Anyone who has studied history or who has an interest in conspiracy theories will be able to see the obvious real-world parallels. Rourke, with his bootlegger father and his less-than-ideal private life, is an obvious stand-in for both John and Robert F. Kennedy. (Of course, when seen today, the casting of Kevin Spacey in the role brings a whole other dimension to it. Now we instinctively distrust Rourke as soon as we see him, despite the fact that the show portrays him as sincere in his crusade against the Mob.) Pamela is Marilyn Monroe. Mastrangelo and his second-in-command Bobby Meeker (Michael Wincott) bring to mind Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli, two of the mobsters whose names regularly turn up in JFK assassination lore.

In real life, a heartbroken Marilyn Monroe overdosed and both Kennedy brothers were assassinated. On Crime Story, Torello is able to prevent Mastrangelo from assassinating Rourke, and an emotionally strengthened Pamela is able to leave Las Vegas for what will hopefully be a brighter future than the one that awaited Marilyn. This episode feels like a work of alternative history, one in which the Kennedys lived up to their promise and one determined man like Mike Torello could prevent a nation from being traumatized.

For a history nerd like me, this episode was enjoyable. It held my interest. I liked seeing how the show reimagined history. At the same time, Luca and Pauli were definitely missed. A format in which Torello deals with a villain-a-week doesn’t carry the same emotional punch as watching Torello obsess, episode after episode, on just one particularly nasty villain. Because Luca and Torello were opposite sides of the same driven coin, not having Luca around makes it feel as if Torello is incomplete as well.

That said, this episode ended with a shot of a bandaged man sitting on a beach in Mexico. Could that man be Luca? Hopefully, we’ll find out soon!

October On Lifetime: Taste Of His Own Poison (dir by Soran Mardookhi)

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 2025 Lifetime film Taste of His Own Poison opens with nerdy high school student Dylan (Nolen Dubuc) being attacked in the school bathroom by his nemesis, Sawyer (Dylan Kingwell). Sawyer, who comes from a broken home and looks up to his delinquent older brother, has a bizarre obsession with harassing Dylan. For some reason, he likes to eat half of Dylan’s lunch before tossing it on the floor and forcing Dylan to eat what’s left. This time, Dylan is saved by his best friend, Meredith (Juliette Hawk). Meredith tells Sawyer to leave Dylan alone, and Sawyer backs off. Later, in their chemistry class, Dylan attacks Sawyer.

Dylan’s mother, Courtenay (Rhonda Dent), is stunned to hear that Dylan has been getting into fights at school. Like all Lifetime mothers, Courtenay owns her own restaurant and has tried to raise her son to know better than to try to solve his problems with his fists. Her husband, Ben (Jonathan Purvis), is impressed that Dylan stood up for himself. As Ben explains it, he would do anything to protect his son. Courtenay doesn’t believe in rewarding violent behavior, even if father and son both claim that it was justified. Perhaps that explains why she and Ben are in the process of separating.

The next day, Sawyer once again grabs Dylan’s sandwich and eats it. Sawyer then has a seizure and promptly dies in the middle of the cafeteria. When it becomes apparent that someone poisoned Dylan’s sandwich, Courtenay finds herself considering what she would have previously thought to be impossible. Did Dylan murder Sawyer? Or was it Ben, who has already said that he would literally kill to protect his son? Both Dylan and Ben deny having anything to do with murdering Sawyer, but Sawyer’s violent older brother disagrees and wants revenge…

I really enjoyed Taste of His Own Poison, which felt like a throwback to the days when Lifetime was all about embracing the melodrama and seeing how many implausible twists could be pushed into one 90-minute story. This Lifetime film actually featured convincing high school students, as opposed to the 20-something actors who usually roam the halls. (I always notice that Lifetime high schools only seem to have about 20 students enrolled. I always have to laugh when I see the sparsely populated hallways of a Lifetime high school.) I have to admit that Taste of His Own Poison had a few plot developments that took me by surprise. A lot of that was because they often didn’t seem to make much sense, but with a film like this, it’s a bit pointless to get caught up in whether or not the story itself is realistic or if everyone is acting in a logical way. There are so many false leads and red herrings that I lost count. This is one of those films where you just follow the story to wherever it leads you. It’s the type of film that is designed to make you shake your head and say, “Oh my God,” every few minutes or so. It’s a fun movie. Just go with it.

Horror Film Review: The Mutations (dir by Jack Cardiff)

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1974’s The Mutations, Donald Pleasence stars as Professor Nolter. A genetic scientist, Nolter is convinced that plants are the greatest examples of evolution. During the classes he teaches at the local university, Nolter raves about the wonders of the Venus flytrap. Is there anything better than a plant specifically developed to eat bugs? When we see Nolter’s students listening to him, the majority of them appear kind of bored with the whole thing. Only Brian Redford (Brad Harris) is really that interested in anything Nolter has to say.

What no one knows is that Nolter has been conducting experiments of his own. Nolter has hired the deformed Lynch (Tom Baker) to abduct young women and eventually young men so that Nolter can try to speed up their evolution by injecting them with plant DNA… or something. To be honest, I’m not totally sure what Nolter was doing in that laboratory, and I kind of suspect the same was true for the screenwriter. What I can say for sure is that there were a lot of close-ups of the hypodermic needle Nolter was holding in his hand. Unfortunately, all of Nolter’s experiments have failed, and his victims have been transformed into strange creatures. One girl becomes a lizard woman. One guy is turned into a crab-like plant monster.

Fortunately for Nolter, Lynch owns a carnival, and Nolter’s victims just become the latest attractions. Lynch was himself once a carnival “freak.” He was known as “the ugliest man in the world,” and he’s never recovered from the shame and the trauma of being taunted for years. Nolter has promised to cure Lynch of his disfigurement in return for Lynch continuing to abduct new subjects for him. However, when a group of Nolter’s students come to suspect that a classmate has been transformed into a reptile, everything starts to come crashing down.

The Mutations is an odd film. On the one hand, the carnival setting and Donald Pleasence’s mad scientist definitely feel like they could have been lifted from any number of old, black-and-white horror films. At the same time, the nudity, the gore, and the clear implication that Lynch is a pervert, along with everything else, clearly establish that this film was made in the ’70s. Indeed, there’s a scene in which some students talk about dropping acid that practically seems to be shouting, “See? This film is modern and hip!” The film works best when it pays homage to the older films that inspired it. As always, Donald Pleasence seems as if he was born to play an obsessive and quite mad scientist. Tom Baker is brutish as Lynch, but he also communicates the pain that Lynch carries in his heart. (Baker especially deserves credit for managing to give such an expressive performance despite acting underneath a ton of makeup.) Michael Dunn also gives a good performance as the sympathetic leader of the freaks. Unfortunately, the college students are never as interesting. Our heroes are duds. Luckily, the villains are entertaining.

This film was directed by cinematographer Jack Cardiff and, not surprisingly, it looks great. This was Cardiff’s final film as a director. After this film, he returned to working as a cinematographer. One of his last credits was for Rambo: First Blood Part II. No matter what you may think of that film, it looks good! The same can be said of The Mutations.

October True Crime: Yoga Teacher Killer (dir by Katie Boland)

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

When I was growing up, my family moved around a lot. When it came to school, it wasn’t unusual for me to finish the fall semester in one state and then start the spring semester at a totally different school in another state. By the time I was 12, I had attended schools in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Louisiana. Whenever I mention that to people, they always express some sympathy that I didn’t have more stability in my life when I was younger. While I appreciate the thought, it didn’t really bother me that much at the time. It all seemed perfectly normal.

There was one thing that always remained consistent. No matter what state I was in or what school I was attending, there was always at least one person in my class who (1) had a food allergy and (2) would freak out about it at the most inopportune times. “Does this have peanuts in it?” they would ask while looking down at the pepperoni pizza that had been ordered as a reward for the class. “I’ll die if there are peanuts in it.” And, of course, there were never any peanuts in it. But just hearing that someone could die if they ate a peanut, a banana, or a mango had a way of really ruining the mood. Often, it felt as if I was expected to feel guilty because I could actually eat food that they couldn’t.

The 2024 Lifetime film Yoga Teacher Killer: The Kaitlin Armstrong Story features a scene in which Kaitlin (Caity Lotz) is attending a yoga class. She tells everyone that she’s currently the business manager for the best “gravel rider” in the country, Colin Strickland (Kyle Schmid). No one in the class has heard of Colin, and it also appears that they don’t know that gravel riding is a type of competitive bicycle racing. Kaitlin reacts to this news by suddenly freaking out about finding a mango in a fruit cup. She claims to be allergic to them and then starts to breathe extremely rapidly while clutching at her throat. Someone asks if she has an EpiPen. Kaitlin shakes her head and then gasps that she needs some Benadryl. The interesting thing about this scene is that Kaitlin is obviously faking, and everyone in the class knows that she’s faking, but they’re also scared to point that out. So everyone has to sit there politely while Kaitlin pretends to be having a life-threatening allergic reaction.

As the scene shows, Kaitlin has an obsessive need to be the center of attention and, when she’s not, she’ll create drama to make sure that she is. When Colin briefly breaks up with her, Kaitlin makes up a story about being chased by an unknown man to win him back. Unfortunately, when Kaitlin learns that Colin briefly dates Moriah Wilson (Larissa Dias) during the time they were separated, Kaitlin loses it. Moriah is younger and more successful than Kaitlin, and Kaitlin’s obsession with her leads first to threatening phone calls before moving on to murder.

Yoga Teacher Killer is based on a real-life 2022 murder that occurred down here in Texas. The film plays up the fact that Kaitlin Armstrong was a yoga instructor even though yoga really didn’t have much to do with the actual crime. It’s pretty much a standard Lifetime true crime film, one that is distinguished by Caity Lotz’s memorably unhinged performance as Kaitlin Armstrong. The film ends with a title card informing us that Kaitlin now teaches yoga in prison. One can only assume that she’s being accommodated with a mango-free diet.

Horror Film Review: Specters (dir by Marcello Avallone)

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the 1987 Italian film Specters, Donald Pleasence plays Professor Lasky. Lasky is investigating the catacombs underneath Rome. When he discovers a previously unknown tomb, he speculates that it may be the final resting place of a Roman emperor who was sacrificed to a pagan god by his own subjects. Lasky says that Roman historians tried to cover up the existence of the emperor because it was simply too scandalous to admit that he had been killed by the very people over whom he ruled. Now Lasky might have proof of his existence. But at what cost?

The main reason I watched Specters was the presence of Donald Pleasence. Unfortunately, as was often the case with Pleasence’s post-Halloween films, he doesn’t really get to do much in Specters. He appears in a handful of scenes, and he’s just as intense as always. Rather than being excited about the possibility of having made a major discovery, he seems rather worried about why the tomb was so well hidden in the first place. Pleasence brings his trademark intensity to the role. As always, it’s a joy to listen to the slightly unhinged timbre of his voice. That said, it’s hard not to wish that Pleasence had been given a bigger and more active role. John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, which was released the same year, showed that Pleasence was still capable of being a compelling actor when given the opportunity.

Instead, Specters is largely about Professor Lasky’s assistant, Marcus (John R. Pepper), and his girlfriend, Alice (Trine Michelsen). Alice is an actress shooting a horror movie in Rome, and Specters actually has a fairly clever sequence in which a scene of Alice being chased turns out to be a scene from the movie she’s shooting. For the most part, Alice just wants Marcus to stay home so they can have sex. Unfortunately, Marcus keeps getting called back to the catacombs. The one time they do have sex, we discover that Marcus has an incredibly hairy back, and it kind of ruined the mood for me. I will say that, as someone who owns over a hundred nightshirts, I was jealous of Alice’s collection. The nightshirt with all the months listed on it was to die for.

Opening the tomb releases an evil force in Rome. Lasky and his assistants are targeted, but occasionally the evil force seems to go after anyone who happens to be around. It’s not a particularly well-defined evil force, which occasionally makes the film effective. There’s a scene involving a suddenly erudite beggar that’s actually rather creepy. The film makes frequent use of a wind machine. Whenever the evil force is floating around, a big wind starts up and doors and windows are thrown open or slammed shut. At one point, Alice sinks into a bed, and we’re left to wonder if Freddy Krueger was sealed up in the tomb.

It’s a confusing film, one made up of multiple set pieces that don’t always seem to go together. The incoherence is not necessarily a bad thing. Fulci’s Beyond trilogy and Argento’s Inferno both showed that Italian horror cinema often benefits from dream logic. The main problem is that, with the exception of the underused Donald Pleasence, none of the characters are really interesting enough to hold our attention. The Beyond trilogy benefited from the presence of likable actors like Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck. Inferno may not have always made sense, but Argento was smart enough to populate his dreamscape with people like Daria Nicolodi, Irene Miracle, and Leigh McCloskey. (McCloskey may not have been the greatest actor, but his stolid presence grounded the film.) Specters just feels like a random assemblage of scenes that don’t really belong together. There are a few effective moments, but they don’t add up to much.

That said, it is always good to see Donald Pleasence. And Rome, as always, is lovely.

Monday Live Tweet Alert: Join Us for Short Time!

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasionally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie ! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.

Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be Short Time!

If you want to join this watch party, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Short Time on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag!

Enjoy!

Villain of the Day: Jody Joad (Earthquake)

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, when it was announced that child evangelist-turned-actor Marjoe Gortner had passed away at the age of 82, nearly every article mentioned his role as Jody Joad, the homicidal National Guardsman from 1974’s Earthquake. Now, personally, I think Marjoe’s best role was playing himself in the creepy but compelling 1972 documentary Marjoe. My second-favorite Marjoe Gortner performance was his turn as Akton, Stella Starr’s partner in crime in Starcrash.

That said, Earthquake was apparently the most commercially successful film in which he appeared. And it must be said that Jody is an absolutely horrifying villain. When we first meet Jody, he’s the guy no one respects. He’s a grocery-store manager who takes a good deal of pride in being a member of the National Guard. His three housemates make constant fun of him, both for being so uptight and for all of the posters of male bodybuilders that decorate the walls of his room. From the first minute we see him, it’s obvious that Jody is someone who has been waiting his entire life for a chance to be in charge and to put everyone else in their place. Jody gets that chance when an earthquake hits Los Angeles and the National Guard is called out to maintain order. In his uniform, Jody has no hesitation about executing his former roommates for looting. He also has no hesitation about kidnapping Rosa (Victoria Principal), the model who used to shop at his grocery store.

What makes Jody such an effective villain is that he’s thoroughly plausible. Everyone probably knows someone like Jody. He’s the guy who has a big opinion of himself and who is upset that others don’t seem to share it. He’s someone who feels that he deserves more than he’s gotten in life and who spends most of his time trying to hide the resentment that burns within him. He’s exactly the type of person who lets the least amount of power go to his head. In Earthquake, he assumes the role of judge, jury, and executioner toward anyone he feels is failing to respect his authority. In the real world, he would have been the guy searching through your old tweets to find examples of wrongthink. He would have been one of the people who spent his time snitching on neighbors who stepped outside without wearing a mask during the COVID era. Indeed, the last few years have revealed that there are many Jodys among us.

Marjoe Gortner brought Jody to terrifying life. In the documentary about his life, Marjoe Gortner famously said that he was “bad, but not evil.” Jody Joad, on the other hand, is a very recognizable evil.

Villain of the Day

Horror on the Lens: The Pumaman (dir by Alberto De Martino)

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Okay, so technically, the Italian 1980 film The Pumaman isn’t really a horror film. However, it does fit in with Halloween because it’s about a super hero and who hasn’t dressed up as a super hero for Halloween? (Well, I never have but I’m sure a lot of other people have!)

The Pumaman is actually a paleontologist named Tony (Walter George Alton) who, though he doesn’t realize it, is the last in a long line of Pumamen. Fortunately, an Aztec mystic shows up and lets him know. When Tony expresses some doubt, the mystic responds by tossing him out a window.

And you know what?

It’s a good thing that Tony has learned the truth about his heritage because the evil Dr. Kobras (Donald Pleasence) has an evil scheme to do something evil. To be honest, I’m not sure what Dr. Kobras is trying to do, though it has something to do with an ancient mask and mind control. The important thing is that Dr. Kobras is played by Donald Pleasence and it’s always a good time to watch Donald Pleasence in October.

Join #MondayMania For A Sister’s Obsession!

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, everyone! Tonight, on twitter, I will be hosting one of my favorite films for #MondayMania! Join us for 2018’s A Sister’s Obsession!

You can find the movie on Prime and then you can join us on twitter at 9 pm central time! (That’s 10 pm for you folks on the East Coast.) See you then!