I remember seeing this movie on a double bill at the old Olympic Theater in my hometown of New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was the main attraction, while the second feature was a little black and white zombie opus by some guy named George Romero. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was the title. Romero’s film has since been hailed as a modern day horror classic, endlessly written about, analyzed and overanalyzed. EQUINOX has pretty much faded into well-deserved obscurity.
A reporter is doing a follow up story on a strange, year old occurrence. He visits with David, a mental patient who attacks him. The head psych doctor plays him a tape of David’s taped interview, and the bizarre tale is told in flashback. Seems geology Professor Waterman (sci-fi/fantasy writer Fritz Leiber) has discovered something rather unusual and sent for David. He brings along his pal Jim and two girls. They go to…
Both Arleigh and I have devoted a lot of time on the site to talking about our mutual admiration for the films of Italian horror director Lucio Fulci. While Fulci will always have as many detractors as defenders, the fact of the matter is that Fulci has been a major and often unacknowledged influence on the direction of horror cinema. To cite just one prominent example, the disturbing and graphic body horror of The Walking Dead has less to do with Romero and everything to do with Fulci.
Fulci remains a controversial figure and that’s not surprising. For every Fulci lover, there’s a detractor. For every good horror film that he made between 1979 and 1982, there’s a terrible one that he made in the years leading up to his mysterious death. But what everyone seems to agree on is that his 1979 epic Zombi 2 is one of the best (and most important) of the post-Romero Zombie films. Zombi 2 may have been produced to take advantage of the popularity of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead but Fulci created a film that transcended its origins.
(Personally, I prefer Fulci’s film to Romero’s but that’s a discussion for another day.)
Zombi 2 is a film that’s provided us with a few scenes that we love here at the Shattered Lens. Whether it’s the scene where a zombie wrestles with a shark or the very first Fulci’s signature eyeball impaling, Zombi 2 is a film that is full of memorable scenes. Tonight, I want to highlight another moment from Zombi 2 — the conquistador scene.
As this scene begins, the film’s star are already fleeing from an army of zombies when they discover that it’s not just the recently deceased that they have to fear. This is a scene that manages to be shameless, silly, and disturbingly effective at the same time. In other words, it’s pure Fulci.
Hi! Are y’all enjoying the Olympics? I’m not but I’m still occasionally watching them and asking myself questions like, “Why do male beach volleyball players actually get to wear clothes while competing?” and “Are there any countries other than America, Great Britain, and China competing this year?” Seriously, if you were just to judge from the coverage on NBC, it would appear that the USA is the only team competing in the majority of the events. It’s a bit unfair to those of us who, while American, are also proud of the fact that our ancestors came from Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Germany.
Therefore, this edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers is dedicated to those countries that are being ignored by NBC (and probably the BBC as well). I’m talking about such worthy countries as Albania, San Marino, and especially the beautiful island republic of Chacal.
Here are 6 trailers for Team Chacal.
1) Gymkata (1985)
It’s not quite gymnastics and it’s not quite karate — instead, it’s Gymkata!
2) Jack the Ripper (1976)
From director Jess Franco comes a film that’s either about Jack the Ripper or the current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
3) Terrorgram (1988)
The name pretty much says it all.
4) Castle Freak (1995)
I can still remember this one on HBO when I was like 12 years old. It actually gave me nightmares, it was so scary!
5) Two Evil Eyes (1990)
I’ve been planning on seeing this movie for a while now. It was directed by both George Romero and Dario Argento!
6) Goldengirl (1979)
I’ve shared this one before but, with it being the Olympic season and all, I simply had to share this trailer again. Have you figured out her secret yet?
Our first trailer comes to us from director George A. Romero. The monkey from this trailer also made an appearance in Toy Story 3.
2) Survival Run (1979)
As a film, Survival Run looks pretty bad but I think this trailer actually provides a public service. Seriously, stay out of the desert. Between the radiation mutants and the drug smugglers, there’s nothing good to be found out there.
3) Streets (1990)
I can imagine the tag line for a rerelease of this film — “Before Christina Applegate was keeping it Up All Night, she was keeping it up on the Streets!” I have to give credit for this discovery to the newest addition to TSL, the Trash Film Guru. Check out his review here.
4) Street Asylum (1990)
Continuing the theme of the streets, here’s another film about urban crime. This one stars Wings Hauser and G. Gordon Liddy.
5) Fatal Skies (1990)
Things aren’t much safer in the skies. This film, oddly enough, apparently star Timothy Leary.
6) The Freeway Maniac (1988)
Obviously, he’s been spending too much time on Central Expressway during rush hour. (Yes, that’s a Dallas-centric comment.)
Hi and welcome to the latest edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation trailers! To be honest, I’m usually way too ADD to come up with (let alone maintain) any sort of theme with my trailer posts but this weekend — almost by pure chance — a theme has emerged! So, without further hold up, let us consider 6 Trailers of the Dead!
1) Night of the Living Dead (1968)
How have I done nearly a 100 of these posts without featuring the trailer for George Romero’s landmark Night of the Living Dead?
2) The Astro-Zombies (1968)
Apparently, 1968 was a big year for the dead returning to life.
3) The Majorettes (1986)
The Majorettes was directed by the late Bill Hinzman, the guy who played the Cemetary Zombie in Night of the Living Dead.
4) Dawn of the Dead (1978)
To be honest, I think I’ve already featured this trailer in an earlier post. However, there’s no way that you can start a post with Night of the Living Dead and then end it with Day of the Dead without finding some room for Dawn of the Dead in the middle.
5) Dead Heat (1988)
Wow, this looks really, really, really … not good. However, according to Wikipedia, it’s about zombies and it’s got the word “dead” in the title so it works theme-wise.
6) Day of the Dead (1985)
I’ve watched this trailer several times and those arms still make me jump every time!
“No one does it like the teenager do it…” This kinda looks like Dazed and Confused as directed by a Crazies-era George Romero. I actually like this trailer a lot. It has this vaguely threatening subtext to it.
One of Lucio Fulci’s final films, this was made for Italian television. It’s actually better than you might think from the trailer. But, yes, it is a far cry from Zombi 2.
Judging from the trailers I’ve come across since I first started this feature, the 70s were a turbulent time. The revolution continued with Combat Cops.
“Pam Grier is …. Sheba, Baby!” Sad to think that the last time we saw Pam Grier on-screen, she was reduced to playing Julia Roberts’ best friend in Larry Crowne.
George Romero’s follow-up to Night of the Living Dead is better known as Season of the Witch. Like most of Romero’s non-zombie films, it has some major issues with pacing but it remains of interesting artifact of its time. The film has a feminist subtext which works about as well as can be expected, considering that the movie was made by a man.
I recently came to the realization that my destiny is to list and share 666 of my favorite grindhouse and exploitation film trailers. Previously, I’ve shared 12. Here’s 6 more.
1) Liquid Sky— Have you seen Liquid Sky and if the answer is no, why not? Liquid Sky is one of the great underground films of the early 80s, an epic about drugs, aliens, bisexuality, and performance art. Quite simply put, you must see this movie.
2) Blacula — When I first saw this trailer, my first thought was, “Oh, that is sooooo wrong.” But, the movie actually isn’t that bad. William Marshall is wonderfully dignified and haunted as the tragic title character.
3) Bio-Zombie — I haven’t actually seen this movie but I love this energetic trailer (and the Hello Kitty reference, as well).
4) Martin — This trailer for George Romero’s vampire movie features the film’s star, John Amplas, speaking to the audience in character. Martin is one of the unacknowledged great vampire movies. Supposedly, there’s a remake in the works which, needless to say, is not necessary in the least. The original is more than good enough.
5) Near Dark — Speaking of vampire movies, here’s Near Dark. Before Kathryn Bigelow won an Oscar for The Hurt Locker, she made her debut with Near Dark. Of the two, Near Dark is the better film.
6) Rabid — This is an early David Cronenberg film and probably one of his first stabs at being a “commercial” filmmaker (I would have to ask R-Lee for sure on this as he’s the resident Cronenberg expert). The late Marilyn Chambers plays a young woman who gets infected with rabies and proceeds to spread the disease throughout Montreal. As you might expect with a Cronenberg film, the Canadian government quickly turns fascist and a lot of Canadians die as a result. The movie’s not totally succesful but the trailer is. As a sidenote: in 2004, Marilyn Chambers Taylor was the vice-presidential candidate of the Personal Choice Party. I cast my first vote ever for her.
I remember seeing this movie on a double bill at the old Olympic Theater in my hometown of New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was the main attraction, while the second feature was a little black and white zombie opus by some guy named George Romero. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was the title. Romero’s film has since been hailed as a modern day horror classic, endlessly written about, analyzed and overanalyzed. EQUINOX has pretty much faded into well-deserved obscurity.
Through the Shattered Lens 