February 2011

February 27 2011

SPAGHETTI SLASHERS – Tenebrae

Christian Sellers Reviews Spaghetti Slashers 6

“Tenebrae is a sexist novel. Why do you despise women so much?” Perhaps the most self-reflective moment from Dario Argento’s entire career. Having constantly been accused of misogyny due to the excessive violence his films have often levelled at their female victims, Tenebrae was a chance for the Italian filmmaker to finally comment on the treatment of women in horror. This scene would come shortly after a graphic murder in which a promiscuous shoplifter (having offered sex in return for avoiding prosecution) is brutally stabbed and then pages of the novel shoved down her throat. Does fiction promote violence in society and are the likes of Argento to blame when one of their fans rapes or murders? “Women as victims?” continued the journalist who had accused Tenebrae of being sexist, “The male heroes with their hairy macho bullshit.” Whatever the critics thought of Tenebrae, Argento’s first giallo thriller since Profondo rosso (Deep Red) in 1975, the BBFC and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) certainly were not impressed, resulting in the movie being labeled as a ‘video nasty.’

February 24 2011

Human Blood Required: The Making of Evilspeak

Christian Sellers Features Video Nasties 4

You could be forgiven for spending the first hour of Eric Weston’s horror drama Evilspeak wondering why on Earth it would have been included amongst the ‘video nasties’ during the mid-1980s. After all, it was relatively blood-free, inoffensive and the two brief moments of nudity were far less graphic than scenes that were included uncut in more mainstream pictures. But then, as the tension begins to build towards its inevitable climax, the film would subject the viewer to a sequence that would challenge that last sacred taboo – religion. Standing over his alter, Reverend Jameson speaks to the young group of cadets about their upcoming game and the overall game of life, when a pulse suddenly appears on the palm of the statue of Christ that hangs behind him. A stigmata wound is formed and blood begins to drip down onto his bible. Turning around to see a large nail slowly forcing its way out of the wound, he barely has time to react before the sharp implement is sent hurtling across the room and straight into his forehead.

February 22 2011

The Burning Man: The Making of Don’t Go in the House

Christian Sellers Features Video Nasties 7

Michael Myers had an axe, Leatherface had a chainsaw and Jason Voorhees had whatever was lying around – yet one of the most grizzly murder weapons used in the vintage days of exploitation was the flamethrower, the weapon of choice for Donny Kohler, the disturbed antagonist from Don’t Go in the House. Released amid the onslaught of low budget slashers that populated the drive-ins during the early 1980s, Joseph Ellison’s feature debut was a grim and unpleasant Oedipal thriller that depicted a young man whose abusive mother suddenly passes away, leaving him unable to deal with the grief and so he begins to take his frustration out on a succession of unsuspecting women. Don’t Go in the House became infamous in the United Kingdom during the mid-’80s when it was labelled as a ‘video nasty’ and faced prosecution, only further fuelling its reputation and arousing the interest of young bloodthirsty audiences.

February 19 2011

New York’s Finest Slashers Posterized

Dusk Features Maniac, Maniac Cop 2

William Lustig’s Maniac has been getting a lot of renewed appreciation lately, centered on the seminal 1980 NY slasher’s new theatrical run – if the recent Stephen Romano poster wasn’t cool enough (it was!), here’s another by Ken Taylor for Mondo Tees in support of the Alamo Drafthouse’s recent showing. Not only that, but it was screened back-to-back with Lustig’s slasher-action hybrid Maniac Cop 2 (1990), and we’re also showing off the custom poster artwork for that by Jason Edmiston here.

February 18 2011

Gross Gifts

Thomas Ellison Library Books 2

The success of Blanche Knott’s Truly Tasteless Jokes spawned numerous rip-offs in the early 80s. Julius Alvin cashed in on the raunchy joke book craze with the Gross Jokes series. Gross Gifts, the entry from 1983, skips the usual dead baby material and focuses on “everything from gross cosmetics to gross movies to gross vacations.” The “gross movies” sections will appeal to slasher fans the most. Gross Gifts is a mouth-watering time capsule that showcases some of the great merchandise available during the golden age of slashers.

February 16 2011

David Schow’s Leatherface

Christian Sellers Features Texas Chainsaw Massacre 5

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 had proven to be the third financial failure in a row for both director Tobe Hooper and Cannon Films, who had entered into a rather dubious three-picture deal following his exit from The Return of the Living Dead. With the rights available once again, New Line Cinema optioned to produce the second sequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and met with Hooper to discuss story ideas, although his commitment to another project, Spontaneous Combustion, would eventually force him to step down. Kim Henkel, Hooper’s co-writer on the original movie, would also attend a production meeting but soon realised that executives at the studio had little interest in what he had to offer. New Line’s Michael De Luca, an avid reader, had already become seduced by the writings of a young author called David J. Schow and, after his brief involvement with A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 (which he had dubbed Freddy Rocks) resulting in him being replaced by more experienced screenwriters, Schow completed work on an episode of the small screen spinoff, Freddy’s Nightmares.

February 14 2011

My Bloody Valentine Theatrical Night (Video)

Dusk Features MBV Week, My Bloody Valentine, Theme Coverage 2

As we say farewell to My Bloody Valentine Week and Valentine’s Day (don’t know about you, but we’re feeling bloated from all the heart-shaped candy), here’s an all-encompassing video short covering Blood Thirsty Thursday‘s theatrical screening of the uncut version that Retro Slashers co-sponsored during the week.

February 14 2011

David F. Friedman 1923 – 2011

Amanda By Night Features HG Lewis, R.I.P. 1

It is with extreme sadness that we report the passing of David F. Friedman at the age of 87. Friedman had his hands in all kinds of exploitation movies through the sixties and seventies and beyond, but it was his work on the grand low budget slashers he did in the 60s that really made him a hero to the horror world.

February 14 2011

My Bloody Valentine: Further Viewing For The Lovelorn

Dusk Features Hospital Massacre, MBV Week, The Prowler, Theme Coverage 5

My Bloody Valentine Week here at Retro Slashers has provided in-depth exploration of the 1981 classic: second-guessing the villain’s identity, filling your head with trivia, waxing nostalgic, contrasting the remake, and going brokeback with the boys of Valentine Bluffs. That’s a lot of love. If you’ve watched the movie for the umpteenth time and realized “it doesn’t get much better than this”, here are two additional titles that show the really red side of romance.

February 12 2011

My Bloody Valentine’s Blue Collar Machismo

Amanda By Night Features MBV Week, My Bloody Valentine 11

Blue Collar is hot.

It’s also so 70s and 80s. Let’s face it, when was the last time you saw men who looked like men working jobs that people really had? Yeah, it’s sad, ain’t it? My Bloody Valentine would be a good film by any standards of filmmaking, but the fact that it truly captures the hard working everyman, struggling adults caught up in a horrible situation, creates that much more of an impact when the bloodshed hits the fan.