I’m running a little bit late on getting this Valentine’s weekend edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Trailers up and running and for that, I apologize. Last night, around midnight, I found myself at Target waiting for them to start selling the latest Twilight movie…well, let’s just not go into it, okay? Instead, here’s 6 trailers for your Valentine’s weekend.
1) Valentine (2001)
Oh. My. God. This is such a bad movie! Seriously terrible. However, it is Valentine’s Day weekend…
2) My Bloody Valentine (1981)
The original.
3) My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009)
The remake, which is a lot better than Avatar.
4) Emmanuelle (1974)
Valentine’s weekend is all about either celebrating romance or being alone and bitter. I’ve been told that Emmanuelle can be used for both of those purposes. “This movie will be shown only in special theaters.”
5) Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977)
Not surprisingly, Italian director Joe D’Amato put his own individual spin on Emmanuelle (or Emanuelle as he spelled it, in order to get around copyright laws). This is probably one of the more explicit trailers I’ve ever posted so keep that in mind before you watch it.
6) Superfly (1972)
This trailer isn’t connected to Valentine’s Day at all but it’s got a lot of style.
Finally, let me just say, regardless of whether you’re in love, in lust, or mired in lonely bitterness, Happy Valentine’s Day!
Well, its Super Bleh weekend, the time of year when everything is just football, football, football! And Lisa says, “A bleh on both your houses!” Still, because I love theme posts, here’s the latest edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Trailers — 6 Super Trailers For a Super Weekend! Yay! 8)
1) J.D.’s Revenge (1976)
He came back from the dead to possess a man’s soul, make love to his woman, and get the vengeance he craved!
2) Texas Adios (1967)
Starring the best, the one and only Franco Nero!
3) H.O.T.S. (1979)
Trailers like this prove that it was apparently a lot easier to be considered attractive back in the 70s.
4) Inglorious Bastards (1977)
I think this film features a former football player so it goes with the whole Super Bowl theme. Plus, the title was borrowed for Quentin Tarantino’s super Inglorious Basterds.
5) Wild Orchid (1990)
This film was directed by the super Zalman King who passed away on Friday. R.I.P.
6) Roadhouse (1989)
The film co-stars the even more super Ben Gazzara, who also passed away on Friday. R.I.P.
This is one of those films that seems to show up in a dozen or so public domain DVD compilation packs. The “lake” in this film looks a lot like White Rock Lake and when I first saw this film, I was convinced it had actually been filmed down here in Dallas. However, I subsequently found that there actually is a Crater Lake up in Oregon. There’s no word yet on whether or not there’s any monsters living in that lake but you have to figure there would be, what with it being Oregon and all.
2) Shogun Assassin (1980)
Just the story of a single dad and his baby. Awwwwww!
3) 100 Rifles (1969)
Obviously, this was one of the many American attempts to make a Spaghetti western. “This film has a message…”
4) Soylent Green (1973)
Yes, we all know what’s in Soylent Green.
5) Xtro (1982)
Oh my God, this trailer freaks me out!
6) Scarface (1983)
Oh, stop it. I don’t care how many “respectable” actors are in the film, you know that Scarface is like totally a grindhouse film.
Seeing as how the Oscar nominations are due to be announced on Tuesday, I thought I would devote this edition to Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation trailers to films that were snubbed by the Academy. Remember them while you’re watching Rooney Mara accept best actress.
1) A Life of Ninja (1983)
Despite the colorful trailer, this film was not nominated for best Costume Design, Art Design, or Cinematography. Instead, all three of those awards went to Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander.
2) The Shark Hunter (1979)
Franco Nero was not nominated for best actor for his performance here. Instead Dustin Hoffman won for Kramer vs. Kramer.
3) The Terrornauts (1967)
The true terror is that the 1967 Oscar for Special Visual Effects went to Doctor Dolittle and not The Terrornauts.
4) Americathon (1979)
The Academy has never really appreciated hard-hitting political satire which perhaps explains why the previously mentioned Kramer Vs. Kramer won best picture while Americathon was not even nominated.
5) Don’t Torture A Duckling (1972)
The Oscar for Best Foreign language film of 1972 was given to Luis Bunuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and not to Lucio Fulci’s classic giallo Don’t Torture A Duckling.
6) The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
And yet somehow, Annie Hall was named best picture.
First off, allow me to again apologize for being late with my weekly trailer post. I had some asthma issues that basically left me fairly useless on both Friday and Saturday. Still, better late than never. In this latest edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Trailers, we acknowledge some films that were NOT nominated for Golden Globes.
1) The Flesh Eaters (1964)
I just recently got this one on DVD but I haven’t watched it yet. Of course, I love any trailer that starts out with a countdown.
2) Beach Girls and the Monster (1965)
The star of the film (which apparently co-stars the Watusi Dancing Girls), John Hall, was briefly a star back in the 1930s. This was his attempt at a comeback film and he ended up committing suicide after it was released.
3) Blast-Off Girls (1967)
This film was directed by the infamous Herschell Gordon Lewis. I want to be a blast-off girl!
4) Monsters Crash The Pajama Party (1969)
I don’t own this one on DVD, mostly because I’m kinda scared that if I watch it, a monster will pop out of the TV screen and try to drag me off to somewhere.
Let’s start off 2012 with this trailer for a low budget, drive-in film called Tomcats. It’s also known as Deadbeat, They Deserved It, and a few hundred other titles. The trailer is memorable for its light-hearted narration but the film itself is pretty dark (and kinda stupid, to be honest). By the way, this trailer features more than a little nudity and is definitely not safe for work.
2) Smokey Bites The Dust (1981)
This trailer was apparently used to advertise this Roger Corman production in Denmark.
3) Terminal Island (1973)
This is a landmark of feminist exploitation cinema. (Scoff all you might but there is such a thing and if you don’t believe me, go and read the best thing I’ve ever written, Too Sordid To Ever Be Corrupted.) Much like Smokey Bites the Dust, this trailer is in English but comes with Danish subtitles. It’s also NSFW.
4) Terror of Machagodzilla (1975)
And now for something completely different…
5) Across 110th Street (1972)
Who doesn’t love this film’s title song?
And finally…
6) Enter The Dragon (1973)
Yes, Enter the Dragon is an exploitation film. Just because it’s now considered to be a classic and it’s shown in film school (the first time I saw it was in film class) doesn’t change the fact that this film is pure grindhouse exploitation.
Welcome to 2012! Let’s make it a good one, just in case the Mayans were correct.
I’ve never seen this film but I’ve read about it and the plot actually sounds like it has potential: a killer is determined to kill a different person in each time zone across America over the course of one long, New Year’s Eve night. I get the feeling the execution was probably lacking but seriously, time zones are weird.
2) Student Bodies (1981)
This little satire of the slasher genre shows up on cable occasionally. I’ve never managed to make it all the way through but I do appreciate the gag with the killer continually stepping on chewing gum.
3) Screwballs (1983)
With a name like Screwballs it has to be …. uhmm, good?
4) Spring Break (1983)
Obviously, there was a serious lack of attractive people in the 1980s.
5) Ski School (1991)
Oh wait. The kinda attractive people were at the ski school. Emphasis on kinda.
6) My Tutor (1982)
However, as always, the truly cool people, were learning how to speak French.
On Thursday night, my twitter timeline briefly exploded when it was reported that legendary filmmaker Roger Corman had just passed away. I immediately jumped over to Wikipedia and I saw that Roger Corman was officially listed as being newly deceased. Quickly, I jumped back over to twitter and I tweeted, “R.I.P. to one of the most important figures in American film history — the legendary Roger Corman.” I then sent out another tweet in which I pointed out that this meant that two of the men who has played senators in The Godfather, Part II — G.D. Spradlin and Roger Corman — had died this year and within months of each other.
Immediatly, one of my twitter friends tweeted back, “If only real Senators would die as quickly.”
“Agck!” I thought to myself, “how do I respond to that? If I get all offended or humorless, I might lose a follower. If I say yes, that’s a good point, I might end up getting put on some sort of super secret government list…”
Even as I worried about my future as a subversive, I was thinking to myself that the best way I could pay tribute to the late Roger Corman was to devote my next edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation trailers to his memory. Yes, I decided, the next edition would have be all Corman, a celebration of the man, his life, and his movies…
And then it turned out that Roger Corman wasn’t dead. Turns out that some idiot journalist named Jake Tapper tweeted that Corman was dead and that’s what set off a chain reaction of false assumptions and early tributes. However, Roger Corman is still alive but you know me. Once I get an idea in my head, I have to see it through. Letting things go is not one of my talents.
So, with that in mind, here are 6 trailers in tribute to Roger Corman, who is not dead.
1) The Trip (1967)
In 1967, Roger Corman directed this film in which Peter Fonda plays a tv director who drops acid and ends up having a really bad trip. The script was written by Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper plays a random guru guy. Bruce Dern is in it too. As far as drug movies go, The Trip is actually pretty good though it does indulge in some of the standard Renaissance Faire imagery that all movies seem to use whenever attempting to visualize an acid trip.
2) St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967)
I recently saw this movie, Roger Corman’s first “studio” film. I have to admit that I thought it was a little bit slow but it had some fun performances and Jack Nicholson gets a memorable cameo where he explains why he dips his bullets in garlic.
3) The Intruder (1962)
In 1962, Roger Corman and William Shatner teamed up to make this look at racism and the people who exploit it.
4) The Raven (1963)
This is one of Corman’s famous Poe films.
5) The Wild Angels (1966)
Peter Fonda again. In this seminal biker film, Fonda again costars with Bruce Dern. Fonda’s girlfriend is played by Nancy Sinatra who, by the way, is one of the few celebs on twitter who will not only follow back but who will also actually respond to her followers.
6) It Conquered The World (1956)
Finally, let’s end things off with some truly old school Corman — It Conquered the World! This was Corman’s 3rd film as a director and his first major success.
Here’s to you, Roger Corman! Thank you for the movies and congratulations on still being with us.
Hi, everyone! Sorry for the delay in getting out this latest edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers. What can I say? The holidays are a crazy, crazy time. If you promise to keep reading and watching then I promise to not be late again in the future. Deal? Deal.
And now, without further delay, here’s 6 more trailers!
1) Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out (1989)
This film was directed by Monte Hellman, who directed some of the best films of the 60s and 70s. So, in case you were wondering what you get for directing a work of art like Two-Lane Blacktop, well, here you go.
2) Black Christmas (1974)
Continuing the holiday theme, here is the trailer for the original Black Christmas. This film was directed by the late Bob Clark, who later went on to direct a totally different Christmas movie called A Christmas Story.
3) Madhouse (1974)
I love this trailer for the melodramatic opening. I love the way the old grindhouse and exploitation movies would literally dare filmgoers to stay away. That takes confidence!
4) The Freakmaker (1974)
With a title like The Freakmaker, it has to be good.
5) The Creatures The World Forgot (1971)
The World, I am sure, had its reasons for forgetting.
6) Prehistoric Women (1967)
This film is also known as Slave Girls and I’m sure there’s probably prints out there entitled Slave Women and Prehistoric Girls as well.
The girl with bronchitis would be me and, I have to admit, I nearly didn’t do a trailer post this week because I was feeling so bad. However, then I had to stay home from the Richardson, Texas Christmas Parade for the first time in like forever and I thought to myself, “Bronchitis took away my parade but it won’t take away my trailer post!” So, on that defiant note, here’s the latest edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Trailers.
1) Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toymaker (1992)
Since it’s the Christmas season and I featured the trailer for Silent Night, Deadly Night last week, I wanted to include the trailer for Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 in this edition. Unfortunately, a YouTube search for Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 just led to me seeing a lot of video clips of this guy going, “Garbage Day!” However, I did finally find this trailer for Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toymaker.
2) Moon 44 (1990)
Before Roland Emmerich made the worst film 2011, he made this film.
3) Strange Invaders (1983)
From the same people who brought you Strange Behavior.
4) Leviathan (1989)
Agck! Underwater horror.
5) Ghost in the Machine (1993)
I saw this on HBO when I was like 11 or 12. I’ve been scared of microwaves ever since.
6) From Hell It Came (1957)
Finally, here’s some old school tree-related horror with From Hell It Came.
Through the Shattered Lens 