Every Horrorthon, I like to bring out an old favorite of mine. Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers used to be a regular feature here on the Shattered Lens. Every week, I would share some of my favorite grindhouse and exploitation film trailers. Unfortunately, it turned out that YouTube only had a limited amount of good trailers and I soon found myself having to reuse trailers to keep the series going. As a result, this feature went from being a weekly thing to a holiday thing.
Well, it’s the holidays!
Here are six of my favorite horror trailers! I will definitely be watching all six of these this October!
(Be warned, some of the trailers are not safe for work and feature quite a bit of blood and violence.)
Put yourself in the shoes of the townspeople in 1971’s I Drink Your Blood.
Here you are. You’re minding your own business. Life isn’t great because of the economic downtown. Your town is nearly deserted and is basically full of empty buildings. In fact, it seems like there are currently more construction workers around then townspeople. The workers are working on the dam. Maybe a dam will help the area. Maybe it won’t.
The sexist construction workers are kind of a pain but then, things get even worse when a bunch of hippies show up. Led by the mysterious Horace Bones (played by dancer Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury), these are not your typical (if annoying) peace-and-love hippies. These hippies have more in common with the Manson Family than they do with the commune folks from Easy Rider. They are a remarkably diverse group of hippies. Some of them are young. Some of them are older. Some of them really enjoy attacking other people. Some of them are just along for the ride. For his part, Horace is really into Satanism and human sacrifice and he encourages his followers to feel the same way. Has anyone nice ever been named Horace Bones?
When the cultists assault a local girl named Sylvia (Arlene Farber), they are confronted in the abandoned building in which they are squatting by Sylvia’s grandfather, Doc Banner (Richard Bowler). They proceed to beat up the kindly doctor and they force him to take LSD. Sylvia’s younger brother, Pete (Riley Mills), get revenge by injecting the blood of a rabid dog into several pies and then selling them to Horace and his hippies. Almost all of the hippies eat the pies and soon, they are foaming at the mouth and rampaging through the countryside, infected by and spreading rabies. One of the hippie women ends up having sex with all of the construction workers, which leads to the rabies spreading even more. Soon, it’s hippies vs hardhats as the fights happening across the real world are repeated in small town America. Of course, there’s no police around to break up the fights and, thanks to the rabies, everyone is fighting to the death. Heads are ripped off. Electric knives are used to carve more than just food. People are set on fire. Blood is definitely drank.
Only one hippie didn’t eat the pies. Andy (Tyde Kierney) was never a big fan of Horace’s Manson-like tendencies and he pretty much draws the line at human sacrifice. Andy flees from Horace’s world and finds himself with Sylvia, Pete, and Mildred (Elizabeth Marner-Brooks), the owner of the local bakery. The four of them struggle to survive in a world that has literally gone mad.
I Drink Your Blood was, not surprisingly, controversial when it was first released. It was one of the few films to be given an X-rating for its violence as opposed to its sexual content. It is definitely violent, though it’s really nowhere near as graphic as some of the R-rated horror films that have come out over the past few years.
I Drink Your Blood is a classic grindhouse film, one that takes a fairly ridiculous premise and works wonders with it. The crazed hippies fighting the far more blue collar construction workers stand in for the fanatical soldiers in America’s cultural wars, with innocents like Sylvia, Pete, and Mildred caught in the middle with Andy. Director David Durston mixes horror and satire with a deft hand, suggesting that the rabies is ultimately just allowing people to show their true selves. I Drink Your Blood is an underground classic and thematically, it’s portrayal of a rabid world is just as relevant today as when it was first released.
It’s a double feature like none other! The majority of the trailer (understandably, in my opinion) is devoted to clips from I Drink Your Blood. What is I Drink Your Blood about? It’s about a little kid who gets rid of a bunch of annoying hippies by giving them food that has been infected with rabies!
2. Grizzly (1976)
Wow, I wonder where they got the idea for this movie from!
3. The Crater Lake Monster (1977)
Awwww! What a cute monster!
4. Cathy’s Curse (1977)
Beware of Cathy …. and her doll too!
5. Jennifer (1978)
A bullied teenage girl has psychic powers …. hmmmm, this sounds familiar….
6. The Children (1980)
“Something terrifying has happened to the Children!” This actually a pretty scary film but somehow, the trailer is even scarier.
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
This October, we’re using 4 Shots From 4 Films to look at some of the best years that horror has to offer!
As a part of this October’s horrorthon, I am pleased to announce the return of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation film trailers! This used to be a regular (and fairly popular) feature here on the Shattered Lens. Unfortunately, a few years ago, I discovered that I had shared almost every worthwhile trailer on YouTube and, as such, it became more of a “special occasion” type of feature.
However, enough time has passed that there are now new trailers on YouTube! Yay!
So, let’s get things started with 6 Trailers for The First of October!
(Why six? Because Lisa doesn’t do odd numbers!)
I Drink Your Blood (1971)
Let’s start things off with I Drink Your Blood (1971), a film about what happens when hippies get rabies. None other than Ryan C, the Trashfilm Guru himself, has described I Drink Your Blood as being one of the greatest grindhouse films of all time.
2. Psychomania (1973)
What’s the best way to deal with blood-crazed hippies? How about an English motorcycle gang? This was also the final film of George Sanders.
Not all werewolves ride motorcycles! Some of them terrorize remote locations and are hunted by Peter Cushing, as seen in The Beast Must Die.
5. Shock Waves (1977)
Peter Cushing went from filming The Beast Must Die to appearing in Shock Waves, perhaps the greatest Nazi zombie film ever made. Check out my review here!
6. The Loch Ness Horror (1982)
However, zombie nazis aren’t the only thing that live in the water! Just ask the people of Scotland!
And really, that’s the way it should be. The whole appeal of the grindhouse was that it existed on the fringes. The grindhouse was not a part of the establishment. The grindhouse had no desire to be a part of the establishment.
That said, here are six grindhouse films that I think could and perhaps should have been nominated for best picture:
I Drink Your Blood (1970)
This film is about what happens when a group of already odd hippie Satanists get infected with rabies. It’s perhaps one of the best examinations of the culture war ever filmed. In the role of Horace Bones, Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury gives one of the most arrestingly strange performances of all time.
Literally one of the greatest films of all time. Now, I’m not saying that American Hippie would have won. 1972 was the year of The Godfather, Cabaret, and Deliverance. But surely, a nomination could have been arranged. “You fools. You fools. Stop pushing buttons. You fools…”
Agck! This crime thriller still freaks me out. And that ending … OH MY GOD! The Sting may be good but The Candy Snatchers sticks with you forever.
4. They Call Her One-Eye (1973)
The Candy Snatchers wasn’t the only great grindhouse film to be released in 1973. Why nominate A Touch of Class (has anyone ever watched — or heard of — this nominee?) when you could nominate They Call Her One-Eye?
This French classic, from director Jean Rollin, never got a U.S. release so technically, it was not eligible to be nominated for Best Picture. But what about Best Foreign Language Film?
Welcome to the latest edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film trailers! Let’s see if we can scare up some frights with these 6 trailers!
Today’s edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers is dedicated to the memory of Sage Stallone, the founder of Grindhouse Releasing. When Sage Stallone passed away last week, most news reports concentrated on the fact that he was the son of Sylvester Stallone. However, even more importantly, Sage Stallone was responsible for helping to introduce people like me to the old grindhouse classics that would have otherwise faded into obscurity.
1) I Drink Your Blood (1970)
I know I’ve shared this trailer before but, with the news of Stallone’s passing, I felt it was only appropriate to share it again. I Drink Your Blood is perhaps the best film ever released by Grindhouse Releasing.
2) Cat In The Brain (1990)
This trailer is kinda disgusting but, at the same time, cats are just soooooooo cute, no matter what they’re doing! This film was directed by (and stars) Lucio Fulci.
3) The Swimmer (1968)
I was actually surprised to discover that this film was released by Grindhouse Releasing because it doesn’t really strike me as being a grindhouse film. That said, I haven’t seen the actual film. I’m just read the John Cheever story that inspired it and I’ve seen the trailer, which I like a lot. And so, here we go.
4) Weapons of Death (1976)
This crime film was directed by the underrated Italian filmmaker, Mario Caiano. Franco Nero is not in it but he really should have been.
5) Never Too Young To Die (1986)
Does John Stamos have a reality show yet? I thought I read somewhere that he did.
There’s several very good films that I need to review over the next few days but, at the moment, I really need to write about Basement Jack, a low-budget 2009 slasher film that I watched on Chiller. Why do I need to write about Basement Jack? Well, I’m already hesitant to go to sleep because I know I’m going to have nightmares about this film. So, consider this to be my attempt at a quickie exorcism. Indulge me because I need to get this film out of my system.
Why Was I Watching This:
I love horror movies and, even though they always seem to end up giving me nightmares, these old school slasher films are like catnip to me. I can’t resist watching them, if just to see if they can keep the inherently predictable conventions of genre interesting.
What’s The Movie About:
Basement Jack (Eric Peter Kaiser) is a serial killer because when you’ve got a name like Basement Jack, it’s not like you’re going to become an accountant. Anyway, Jack’s thing is that he goes from town-to-town, selects a family to kill, and then secretly moves into their basement until there’s a thunder-storm. Once it starts raining, Jack proceeds to brutally kill the family.
Karen (Michelle Marrow) is only person to have ever survived being attacked by Jack. Now, Jack is obsessed with Karen and follows her from town to town. So, Karen decides to turn the tables and she starts following Jack. Except, of course, Jack was already following her so it would seem like for her to follow him, all she would really have to do would be turn around. But anyway, I guess the important thing is that Karen-and-Jack have one of those hunter/hunted connections.
Jack and Karen both end up in a new small town where Jack sets off on another murder spree while Karen hunts for him. She does this by teaming up with a seriously incompetent cop named Chris (Sam Skoryna). Unfortunately, all of Chris’s fellow officers are 1) convinced that Karen is the murderer and 2) kinda stupid. Will Karen be able to convince the cops that Jack is real? Will Jack continually manage to stand back up after taking more damage than anyone should, realistically, be able to take? And most importantly, will Lisa be able to sleep tonight?
What Worked?
Oh my God, this film should not have disturbed me as much as it did. Seriously, I’ve seen thousands of horror movies that all had better production values, better gore effects, and better acting. And yet, Basement Jack really made me paranoid. I think that’s because director Shelton does manage to create a legitimate feeling of dread that saturates every ludicrous frame of this movie. There is remarkably little humor in this film and, as opposed to a lot of slasher films, all of the victims here just come across as normal, likable people (as opposed to being slasher movie stereotypes).
Kaiser is a genuinely scary killer and Morrow makes for a sympathetic protagonist. She brings a lot of conviction to her role. Exploitation vet Lynn Lowry (remember her from the original Crazies and I Drink Your Blood?) plays Basement Jack’s domineering mother and wow, she is scary.
Now, I’m going to admit there’s one image in this film that I know is going to give me nightmares tonight. It’s of a policewoman who, after being gutted by Jack, is seen lying on the floor, trying to stuff her intestines back into her body and oh my God, I wish I hadn’t seen that because it really got to me. I’ve read several other reviews that have all criticized the CGI gore effects as looking fake. Maybe they do, I’m not really an expert on anatomy. All I know is that image of those intestines sprouting out across a twitching body; that image is trapped in my head. It’s something that I truly wish I hadn’t seen but I still have to list it as something that worked because film horror is supposed to leave the viewer uncomfortable.
What Didn’t Work:
Oh, trust me, a lot didn’t work. Like most slasher films, this one was riddled with a combination of plot holes and characters just acting as stupid as can be.
As our male lead, Sam Skoryna displayed all the charisma of a spilled intestine and, to be honest, most of the other actors gave performances that were fairly atrocious. For some reason, one of the film’s detectives is played by musician Billy Morrison and his English accent is just so jarringly out-of-place in the film’s middle American setting. (What makes the situation especially odd is that no one in the film ever comments on his accent. Trust me — I live in middle America. Hell, I’ll be really pretentious — I mean like Sasha Stone pretentious — and say that I am Middle America. No, actually, forget I said that. That sounds really stupid. Anyway, my point is that if you’re the only Englishman in town, people are going to remind you of that every chance they get.)
An attempt was made to give Basement Jack some backstory and to explain why he does what he does. And by that, I mean that this is one of those movies where the action comes to a sudden halt every few minutes juts so we can be told that a man,who hides in people’s basements and only kills when it’s raining, is mentally ill. Gee, filmmakers, thanks for clearing that up.
And finally (SPOILER!), I am so sick of seeing slasher movies that end with a close-up of the killer’s signature killing tool just so we can suddenly see the killer’s hand come out of nowhere and grab the weapon. I mean, is anyone ever surprised by this anymore? I guess, at one time, this seemed like a twist ending but today, it just comes across as being lazy. (END OF SPOILER!)
“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments:
Just like our heroine Karen, I usually try to flirt my way out of traffic tickets as well.
