Looking back at the scrappy and silly 1985 teen action drama

Those of us who lived and came of age in the 1980s no doubt find it amusing that the decade’s film, music and fashion have become objects for contemporary pop culture fetishists. But that’s how this train rolls. The common zeitgeist almost always becomes exotic, exciting, important.

Still, who knew that director Matthew (DRAGONSLAYER, writer of CRIMSON PEAK) Robbins’ earnest 1985 teen drama/crime caper THE LEGEND OF BILLIE JEAN would emerge as a classic. Certainly not the critics of the period who dismissed its heavy-handed metaphors and cartoonish social statements as kid stuff and fluff, nor the young people it was targeted towards, who mostly ignored it theatrically and got tired of its presence on home video and cable very quickly. And while time hasn’t healed the picture’s ample flaws, there’s an undeniable energy to the piece, with broadly drawn performances by a doozy of a cast and of course, there’s that thundering Pat Benatar song (“Invincible”) that weaves its way into the soundtrack of the film itself. Re-released by Mill Creek Entertainment as part of their retro VHS line of Blu-ray’s as the “Fair is Fair” edition, the movie is definitely worth a watch (or re-watch) and is anything but boring.

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Severin releases one of the wildest “bad movies” of all time on Blu-ray

Those who – like me – have cited Ed Adlum’s SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED as the worst indie American horror movie of the 1970s, obviously never saw his 1972 go-for-broke earlier craptastic creeper INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS. I’d missed it, though had certainly heard many scream its perverse praises for years and now, thanks to Severin Films, we have a new remastered Blu-ray release packed (as the label always does) with wild special features so that hardcore fans and newly minted audience members (like me) can lock their bloodshot glazballs upon it. Naturally, one has to have a healthy streak of masochism in order to fully appreciate the film’s downmarket charms but those bold enough to endure its 77 torturous minutes will be – for better or worse – transformed for life.

Filmed in woodsy upstate New York by Adlum and his co-conspirators, Roberta and Michael Findlay (SNUFF and the aforementioned SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED), INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS was actually partially shot by future ERASERHEAD DP Frederick Elmes. And while there’s little trace of the future David Lynch collaborator’s singular visual style, the picture absolutely feels like it exists in ERASERHEAD’s bent universe. Nothing in this film makes much sense, either visually, aurally or narratively, with cross-eye-level framing, slipshod special effects and “acting” that is alternately listless and ludicrous. In it, a dopey bush-league student and a effeminate mad scientist stumble upon some sort of bubbly blood that they think is very important because it fills up their beakers magically. Said voodoo gore was drawn from the wounds of a local loser named Jim Carrey (ha!) who bled out all over the local bar. Poor old Jim had escaped the clutches of the titular Blood Farmers, a gang of hayseed Druids lorded over by a  poncy cult leader who needs the blood of the innocent to revive his Queen, who lies comatose in a pretty nifty glass coffin. After his daughter’s dog is killed and eaten by one of the giggling Druid henchmen (a riotous scene where a fluffy canine is replaced by literal fluff), the scientist and his youthful protege find a rusty old key and set-off to solve the problem of the super-blood and unlock the mysteries of the Blood Farmers.

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Cult Epics release Jorg Buttgereit’s Gruesome Horror Comedy on VHS for Valentine’s Day

As Valentine’s Day fast approaches, necrophiliacs can rejoice as Cult Epics has just announced the upcoming return of the loving dead – with the official VHS release of Jörg Buttgereit’s NEKROMANTIK 2. Produced in three exclusive variants (some signed), and featuring ghoulish new artwork by Martin Trafford and cover design by Parker Richardson, these numbered editions are strictly limited (with very low numbers), be quick as our previous VHS of NEKROMANTIK was a sell-out last year. Also unleashed is a delightfully gory antique enamel pin based on NEKROMANTIK 2’s original poster art – the perfect gift for your loved one at any time of year (alive or otherwise!).

You have an exclusive window to order the special edition here!

In case you haven’t seen this wild and sick sequel, NEKROMANTIK 2 tells the tale of a beautiful necrophiliac, who works by day as a nurse and prowls by night in cemeteries searching for fresh corpses, finds the grave of Nekromantik’s Rob––and brings him home. When her real-life relationship begins to falter, she has to make a final choice between the living and the dead, with gruesome consequences.

Dig in!

A look at Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson’s magnum macabre opus

FRANKENSTEIN ALIVE, ALIVE! continues the tale of Mary Shelley’s titular creature, beginning in it’s “I am never what they expect..so I have also learned it is always best to give them what they expect. Give them what they want. A monster.

At the beginning of the graphic novel the creature is now living a content life as a part of the ‘freak’ portion of a travelling circus and carnival as… ‘The Frankenstein Monster’! Having found a family of sorts who accept people as they are, without preconditions and without questions he can afford to remember back to a time when things weren’t so idyllic. From that prologue, the creature’s thoughts travel back to it’s attempt to the end of Shelley’s novel.  Up in the arctic it tries to end it’s existence as it is haunted by it’s maker, Dr Frankenstein.  Relying on the frigid waters to do the deed,  but to no success.  It seems the creature is, like original sin, immortal.   When it is found and brought to a benevolent doctor’s isolated clinic it finds a peace, living in relative solitude but acceptance… at least for a while. Continue reading “Review: FRANKENSTEIN ALIVE, ALIVE! THE COMPLETE COLLECTION”