Tag Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

SOV Horror Review: Fatal Exposure (dir by Peter B. Good)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In his mansion in Alabama, fashion photographer Jack B. Rippington (Blake Bahner) kills people in ways that are cruel and grotesque. He does it with a smile on his face and a spring in his step, and he always remembers to take pictures first because, I guess, he really does take the whole fashion photographer thing seriously. He has standards. He’s a professional. When he meets and starts dating a model named Erica (Ena Henderson), she soon finds herself unwittingly leading victims to their doom.

Why is Jack B. Rippington so obsessed with murdering anyone who comes by his house? Well, you could say that it runs in the family. He’s the great-grandson of Jack the Ripper. He informs the audience of this. Myself, I have to wonder if Rippington is a family name or if it’s just his nom de meurtre. If Jack the Ripper’s last name really was Rippington, that would be a hell of a coincidence, and it would also show that Scotland Yard really wasn’t doing a very good job of investigating the crimes at Whitechapel. I mean, why did they devote so much time to investigating poor Montague John Druitt when there was a guy named Rippington wandering around?

Of course, it’s also possible that Jack the Ripper moved to the United States, had a daughter, and then she married someone named Rippington. Still, that seems like it would be an amazing coincidence.

(For the record, the real Jack the Ripper was some guy that you’ve never heard of and who probably died without ever telling anyone the truth. The fact that he was never captured would seem to indicate that the police were investigating the wrong suspects. And don’t start in with any of that royal conspiracy nonsense either. Honestly, that’s one of the silliest theories that I’ve ever heard.)

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Fatal Exposure. Fatal Exposure is a shot-on-video epic that has some surprisingly effective gore effects. Between burning people with acid and chopping off their heads, Jack B. Rippington really gets into his work, and the results are often difficult to look at. If I were to compare this to any other film, it would probably be William Lustig’s Maniac, which featured Joe Spinell playing an equally homicidal photographer whose crimes seemed to owe more than a little to Jack the Ripper. Of course, Jack B. Rippington is much more handsome than Joe Spinell was in Maniac. If Maniac was a plunge into darkness and a trip to the realm of absolute zero, Fatal Exposure tries to be a bit of a comedic romp. Jack B. Rippington may be a murderer, but he also enjoys talking to the audience. In its use of dark humor and its breaking of the fourth wall, the film has quite a bit in common with Lucio Fulci’s Touch of Death.

There’s not really much of a plot to Fatal Exposure. Jack B. Rippington takes pictures of women in lingerie. He kills anyone who comes to the house. Erica eventually gets suspicious. But director Peter B. Good keeps the action moving, and it looks surprisingly good for a SOV film. (Good was best-known as a cinematographer.) Blake Bahner gives a good performance as Jack B. Rippington. It’s not a film for everyone, but, at the very least, it feels like a real movie. That puts it ahead of most SOV productions.

Retro Television Review: Baywatch 3.0 “Summerfest Special”

Posted on 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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing Baywatch, which ran on NBC and then in syndication from 1989 to 2001.  The entire show can be viewed on Tubi.

This week, the third of Baywatch begins with a special!

Episode 3.0: “Summerfest Special”

(Originally aired September 13, 1992)

“Hi, I’m David Hasselhoff, here to welcome you to the Summerfest special.”

The third season of Baywatch starts not with a story about Mitch Buchannon and his fellow lifeguards, but with a breezy special about the California lifestyle and what viewers can expect from the upcoming season. David Hasselhoff stands on the beach in his Baywatch uniform and earnestly talks about how important lifeguards are and how the show is all about celebrating their heroism.

“Life’s a beach,” Hasselhoff says, “and everyone’s life is at the beach.”

“We’ll be back with the latest in barely legal swimwear!” announcer Sean “Hollywood” Hamilton says as the special goes to commercial. Yes, that is the actual line.

In between shots of beachgoers in bikinis, the Summerfest Special features interviews with the cast members joining Baywatch in season 3. Susan Anton talks about being dramatically taller than her on-screen daughter, Nicole Eggert. David Charvet is introduced as “Baywatch’s newest bad boy.” Alexandra Paul says that maybe her character and Mitch will hook up, then laughs. Kelly Slater says that he’s not really an actor, but he joined the cast to show the world what “surfing is all about.” Pamela Anderson says that she’s looking forward to playing a “metaphysical character” because she’s very metaphysical herself. Gregory Alan Williams, who is being promoted to regular status in season 3, talks about saving a bystander during a riot because “I don’t like mobs.”

In between even more shots of beachgoers in bikinis, Hasselhoff talks about his music career and says that Baywatch is a show the entire family can watch. He adds, “Skimpy apparel is a part of the appeal.” This is followed by a montage of women in bikinis.

The Summerfest Special isn’t streaming on Tubi or Prime, but it is available on YouTube. The version I watched included all of the commercials that aired with the show. There weren’t any pharma commercials, which I appreciated. In America, we don’t really realize how bombarded we are with commercials for medicine with potentially deadly side effects until we get a chance to watch a complete broadcast from a time when no one in their right mind would think of advertising prescription medication on television.

Instead, I got a lot of commercials for local businesses and special musical compilation albums. There was a commercial for a Dodge dealership that bragged about how their vehicles came with airbags. In the middle of a commercial for a gospel album, a preacher said, “Who the hell left the gate open?” and everyone in the church cheered. A woman quit her job with confidence because of her Secret deodorant. “I’ll borrow my mother’s scarf,” a young woman who reminded me of myself declared, “but my mother’s tampons? No way!” A bunch of teen soccer players announced they’d rather drink “Sunny D” than “soda” or “purple stuff.” I’m from the South, so it always sounds weird to hear people refer to Coke as soda. It’s even weirder to see people preferring an orange drink to it.

If I seem to be spending a lot of time on the commercials, that’s because they felt like little mini time machines. Watching them was like taking a 30-second trip back to the early ’90s. As for the rest of the special, it was essentially a lengthy commercial for Baywatch and bikinis, but everyone interviewed seemed to be in a really good mood. They were having fun, and that’s the important thing.

 

AMV of the Day: This Is Halloween (My Hero Academia)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

With the first full week of Horrorthon coming to a close in one more day, how about an AMV?

Song: This is Halloween, cover my Marilyn Manson

Anime: My Hero Academia 

Creator: ewin

Past AMVs of the Day

Lifetime In October: Killer Prom (dir by Alexandre Carriere)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2020’s Killer Prom, Yvonne Zima plays Sienna. Poor Sienna is desperately struggling with her life. She has a cheap apartment that she still can’t really afford. Her mother wants nothing to do with her. She hasn’t had much of a romantic life since missing her high school prom. She’s very jealous of her distant cousin, Hannah (Megan Vincent). Hannah is married to Dr. Tony Wilson (Mark Lutz), a man on whom Sienna has always had a crush. So, Sienna drowns Hannah at the family reunion and then moves to Texas so she can be close to Tony and his family.

Sienna not only wants to marry Tony. She also wants to help Tony’s teenage daughter, Maya (Erica Anderson), have a great prom night! In fact, Sienna has it all perfectly planned out. While Maya is off at prom, Tony will be so moved by his love for Sienna that he’ll ask her to marry him. The only problem is that Maya instantly notices that something is off about Sienna and she really doesn’t want her anywhere near her prom or her date, Jake (Kyle Meagher). Meanwhile, Tony is too busy mourning his wife to fall in love with anyone. And even if Tony was going to fall in love with anyone, it would probably be his assistant, Lauren (Brianna Barnes).

Oh, Sienna hates Lauren. When Lauren shows up at a barbecue, Sienna has to duck into the bathroom so she can ask her reflection, “Who wears a red dress to a barbecue!?” Really, Sienna? Who wears a red dress to a barbecue? I WEAR A RED DRESS TO A BARBECUE! You have a problem with me!? That said, Lauren’s dress is a little bit too expensive for a barbecue. Barbecues can get messy as anyone who has seen that picture of James Talarico sinking his teeth into those ribs can tell you.

Anyway, it’s a Lifetime film so Sienna loses it. She goes from wanting to marry Tony and become Maya’s stepmother to wanting to kill them both and does it pretty quickly. Of course, it’s up to Maya to save the family, even if that means missing her own prom. Don’t count on Tony to do anything. Tony is bizarrely clueless, even though it’s pretty much obvious from the start that Sienna has some issues. Men in Lifetime films never stop to think that the attractive woman who was the last person to see their wife before her mysterious death could possibly be a troublemaker.

I really enjoyed Killer Prom, mostly because I went to prom every year that I was in high school and I had a blast each time. Movies like this pretty much live and die based on how effective the actress playing the psycho is and Yvonne Zima gives a wonderfully unhinged performance as Sienna. She’s just so incredibly excited about the prom! It’s hard not to feel bad for her when it becomes clear that she’s going to end up missing another one.

4 Films For The Weekend (10/10/26)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’ve been watching Mike Flanagan’s Carrie on Prime.  I finished the fourth episode last night and today, I’m trying to find the strength to subject myself to rest of it.  To say that I’m not a fan of the changes that Flanagan made to the story would be understatement.  In my opinion, it really does reflect the worst tendencies of what is known as elevated horror.

Fortunately, you can currently stream Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976) and, if you haven’t seen it, you really do have an obligation to do so.  Flanagan needs 8 hours to tell his story.  De Palma only needed 98 minutes and a cast that could actually deliver their lines in something that wasn’t a robotic drone.  The film works because De Palma never feels the need to apologize for  making a horror film.  It also works because it actually has a nicely macabre sense of humor, something that’s lacking in both King’s novel and Flanagan’s work in general.  The film is currently on Prime.

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) doesn’t get much respect from a lot of horror fans but I’ve always liked it.  Interestingly, The Rage actually covers some of the same thematic ground as Flanagan’s adaptation.  The difference is that, once again, it only needs 105 minutes to make its point and it doesn’t apologize for being a horror film.  The scene where the football players go crazy while getting their heads shaved (and, in the process, become indistinguishable from one another) is surprisingly disturbing.  The finale, where Rachel goes on a rampage, is effectively violent and horrific, even if it can’t match the power of De Palma’s prom.  I was scared to wear my reading glasses after watching this movie.  Emily Bergl gives a good performance as Rachel.  Jason London sells the film’s final scene.  The oldest son from Home Improvement loses his testicles in closeup.  Be careful with those spearguns!  The film is on Prime.

Evilspeak (1981)  is the film that asks, “What if Carrie was a guy and what if he was a student at a military academy and what if he got his powers from a personal computer and what if he was played by Clint Howard?”  That’s a lot of questions but, for the most part, the answers are all entertaining in their own demented way.  Evilspeak is interesting because Stanley Coopersmith (played by the great Clint Howard) is not particularly sympathetic but his tormentors are so much worse that you still feel Stanley deserved his revenge and you don’t mind when the cannibal pigs show up.  This is also an example of one of my favorite mini-genres, the killer computer film.  I guess that people in the early 80s though you could do anything with a computer, even summon the denizens of the damned.  The film is on Prime.

The Fury (1979) was De Palma’s follow-up to Carrie and I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of this film.  That said, I know that the film does have its fans.  The fact that I’m listing it here shows just how much I’m currently disliking Flanagan’s Carrie.  I’d even rather rewatch The Fury then suffer another minute of the new Carrie!  That said, The Fury is occasionally interesting.  De Palma mashes up a lot of genres.  Kirk Douglas grimaces as if the world depended upon it.  Amy Irving takes the film a bit too seriously, as if she expected to follow in the footsteps of Sissy Spacek and receive an Oscar nomination for playing a telekinetic teen.  Carrie Snodgress is annoying but then her character dies in slow motion.  Never let “Here comes The Pony Express!” by your final words.  John Cassavetes later said he did the film for the money.  Bless him.  The film is on Prime.

Horror On The Lens: Plan 9 From Outer Space (dir by Edward D. Wood, Jr.)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

 

Today, we pay respect to Edward D. Wood, Jr. on the date of his birth.  He was born 102 years ago today.

Some films need no introduction and that’s certainly the case with Wood’s 1957 masterpiece, Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Plan 9 is a film like no other, a film that mixes UFOs with zombies and which ends with a rather sincere plea for world peace.  When Eros the Alien explains that the Solarnite bomb could destroy the entire universe, the film’s hero, airline pilot Jeff, doesn’t point out that Eros’s logic doesn’t make sense.  Instead, he just says that he’s glad that America is the one that has the bomb.  “You’re stupid!  Stupid minds!” Eros shouts before Jeff flattens him with one punch.  Go Jeff!  Don’t take any backtalk from that judgmental alien!

From Criswell’s introduction to Tor Johnson’s rise from the dead to Lyle Talbot casually standing with his hands in his pockets while a UFO explodes above him, Plan 9 is a true classic of some sort.

Can you prove it didn’t happen?

“Last Call Lenny” (Dir. Julien Lasseur) Short Film Review by Case Wright

Posted on by casewright

Happy Horrorthon! We are in the thick of it! I’ve been really spoiled with talented filmmakers. This film is listed a dark comedy, but I put it closer to horror.

There is a Jazz DJ who has decided to take his life and he calls Lenny. Lenny sets you up with means to take your life that are quite creative and, in exchange, he takes your furniture after your death so he can sell it. I would argue that the furniture business is his real business and the suicidal people are his vendors.

When Lenny meets the Jazz DJ, he discovers that the DJ is really just bored and not facing the typical existential crises that lead one to taking their own life. The film switches to horror because Lenny can tell that the DJ is indifferent to the means of his death; so, he willing to do a “Combo”- multiple death methods at the same time. However, Lenny does not think enough about safety and focuses too much on rigging the death methods, leading to his own quite funny death!

“Last Call Lenny” takes the darkest subject that I can think of and makes it funny. I hope you enjoy it!

Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial For Damien — The Omen II!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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

Tonight, at 10 pm et, #ScarySocial presents 1978’s Damien — The Omen II!

If you want to join us this Saturday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag!  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

The Harbinger is available on Prime!  See you there!

Horror Song of the Day: Ed Wood by Howard Shore

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As we already mentioned, today would have been the 102nd birthday of the pioneering indie director, Edward D. Wood, Jr!

Today’s song of the day is the theme from Tim Burton’s 1994 biopic of the director.  In my opinion, this remains Burton’s finest film.  Burton also directed the musical video below while the great Toni Basil choreographed.  And, best of all, the dancer is named Lisa Marie!

Horror Scenes I Love: Eros Explains Solarmite From Edward D. Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In this scene from the classic Ed Wood film, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Eros the Alien (Dudley Manlove) explains that he and his comrades had no choice but to invade Earth and raise the dead because mankind’s scientists have created …. SOLARMITE!

What is Solarmite?

Don’t worry, Eros will explain it to us and it will all make total sense….