Santo and the Blue Demon Versus the Monsters - review

Check out Paul Cooke's fun (and sureal weird) review of SANTO Y BLUE DEMON VS LOS MONSTROUS which I posted the trailer for in my last post. As I'm sure you know Paul does the Ballistic Blood Bullets blog. xD

Everything!!!

Yes, I've posted this trailer before but it's necessary that I post it again! SANTO Y BLUE DEMON VS LOS MONSTROUS has everything!

Three OOP Eddie Romero films re-released on DVD

Here's some more multo bene interessanto info that I've just picked up today: The three Eddie Romero directed Filipino films, BEYOND ATLANTIS, BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT, and TWILIGHT PEOPLE have been re-released on reg. 1 DVD by VCA as part of a 12 film box set called SCREAM THEATER: THE SADISTIC 70S.

This is certainly brilliant news as these films are way outta print! There are two new copies of BEYOND ATLANTIS listed on Amazon.com right now, and the cheapest one is $95!! The cheapest second hand copy is 42 bucks. Retromedia's DVD release of BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT is still available on Amazon fairly cheap (around $10) and it's a lbx print too. However, TWILIGHT PEOPLE is also rather expensive, retailing for around $40 for a new copy.

The 12 films are on 4 discs so there could be compression issues, however, a couple of gents on Dvdmanicas were nice enough and informed me that the picture quality is good on all three films. Charlie_G of Dvdmanicas sent me some screen grabs from BEYOND ATLANTIS and they certainly look alright. Obviously I don't know about compression and shit or how they'll look on a 50" TV set but when you (like me) are used to shit fullscreen pixellating VCDs from Malaysia and 5th generation video dupes then you'll think this is like watching films from Heaven. LOL.




The full set consists of these films:

Alice Sweet Alice (1977)
Beast Of The Yellow Night (1971)
Beyond Atlantis (1973)
Death Game (1976)
Don’t Open The Door (1975)
House Of The Living Dead (1976)
The Night Creature (1978)
Scream Bloody Murder (1973)
Sisters Of Death (1978)
Twilight People (1972)
The Vampire Happening (1971)
Young Hannah: Queen Of The Vampires (1972)

The set isn't listed on Amazon but it's available directly from VCI for just under $15 + postage. They do ship overseas. I already have the old releases so I won't be ordering this set but the films are cool and if you haven't got them you can certainly save a lot on this instead of coughing up for the OOP versions. I paid $40 for my copy of BEYOND ATLANTIS a couple of years back. >_<


Thanks to Ken & Charlie for the info.

Films from the future

Well, "from" the future cos somehow I still live in 1988! Argh. And I remember how I used to look forward to 1999 wondering whether the moon would really disappear from its orbit around the Earth - and if we would have proper space ships then. Obviously none of that happened. The new shiny futuristic world that most sci-fi authors imagined we would have just never happened. We still live in the same crappy dirty old world. I'd say it's even gone from crappy to worse. Oh well. At least we still have the moon to look at at night time (unless you live in smog filled places).

Anyway, I watch all kinds of old cinema from many countries so I often miss out on new American (and other Anglo/Euro) horror films but I'd like to rectify that. But it'll take a while obviously. Over on Dvdmanicas there's been two ongoing threads where the members post their favourite POST 2000 HORROR FILMS and I've simply collected all titles into one list.

If any of you have UBER FAVES that you think I should start with please do make a comment. Films you can't live without! (NB: some obvious films are missing from the list! I decided not to include the ones I've already got). Feel free to list new horror films that aren't on the list if you think they deserve it (i.e. they have to be among your faves - it's not enough they are new!). Cheers.

And yes, I should have included the ones I've already got cos you don't know which ones they are. Doh!


Abandoned , the ✓
Abominable (2006) ✓
Alien Raiders
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
All about evil
Alone
BATMAN VS. DRACULA ✓
Below
Blood Rain
Blood Night: The Legend Of Mary Hatchet
Blood: The Last Vampire ✓
Bruiser
Brutal River
Bubba Ho Tep
Bug
Calvaire
Cannibal (Marian Dora)
Chasing Sleep
Children , the
Cloverfield (2008)
Cold Prey
Colic
Collector , the
Coraline (2009)
Dagon (2001)
Daybreakers
Deadwood Park (2007)
Death Note/Death Note: The Last Name (2006)
DEATH PROOF
Deathwatch ✓
Devil's Backbone +
DORIAN GRAY
Dorm
Drag Me To Hell (2009) ✓
Exorcism Of Emily Rose , the
Fat Girl (2001)
Final Destination
Forbidden Door
FRAILTY 2001 +
Freeze Me
Frontier(s) ✓
GINGER SNAPS 2: UNLEASHED.
Girl Next Door , the + ✓
God's Left Hand Devil's Right Hand
Gozu
Grindhouse
HANNIBAL 2001
Happiness of the Katikuris , the
Hatchet
Headless Hero
Heartless
Hole , the
HORSEMAN , the
Host , the
House Of The Devil , the
I Sell the Dead
Inland Empire (2006) ✓
King of the Ants
LAID TO REST
Legion
Let The Right One In
Lost , the
Loved Ones , the
MALEFIQUE
Marebito +
Meatball Machine
Midnight Meat Train , the
Mist , the +
MR BROOKS 2007
Mum and Dad
My Little Eye
natures grave
Night of the Living Dorks
Noriko's Dinner Table
Orphanage , the
P
Pan's Labyrinth
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
Pontypool
Pyrokinesis
Rampo Noir
Red White And Blue +
Rogue
Ruins , the
Salvage ✓
Scrapbook
See No Evil: The Moors Murders (2006) (TV)
Session 9
Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Shadow: Dead Riot
Sheitan
Shortcut , the
Signal , the
Signs (2002)
Splinter
Strangers , the
Subconscious Cruelty
Suicide Circle
Sweeney Todd
Teeth ✓
Tormented
Triangle ✓
TRICK 'R' TREAT ✓
Trick or treat
Trouble Every Day
Vampire Hunter D +
Visitor Q (2001)
Wendigo
Wolfman , the
Zodiac

Got Axed! Sweeeet!!

I posted the trailer for the new Aussie zombie film AXED the other day (here) and just before the weekend I received a copy of the DVD from the director. Niice! Review soon. xD




PS: the scary ghostlike face on the left side of the cover isn't actually on the cover. It's the reflection of yours truly's haunting mug, LOLZ.

Holy mackerel, Batman!! The cover for the upcoming FLY ME / COVERGIRL MODELS dvd is here!!!

From Backyard Asia blog:

The DVD cover for SHOUT! FACTORY's upcoming DVD release of CIRIO H. SANTIAGO's two Filipino films, FLY ME and COVERGIRL MODELS is finally here! And with that it should (hopefully) be dead sure that we WILL be getting FLY ME on DVD!

As I reported recently, SHOUT! had actually at first cancelled including FLY ME because they didn't think the print was good enough. I asked label head guy Cliff Mac (in a forum post on Dvdmaniacs) to include the film despite the less than perfect picture quality and I guess the men in charge at SHOUT! pay attention to the opinion of BACKYARD ASIA blog because they soon after decided to include the film after all (or am I putting too much confidence into my own powers and this blog? Naah!).

The third film in the set is Roger Corman's American-Italian co-production THE ARENA starring PAM GRIER.

I don't have a release date yet.

"You're always welcome in Canada" - but personally I'd rather see you in the "other" Canada.

... "You" being my new (old) CD by the Swedish kings of garage-rock, THE NOMADS, and "the other Canada" being Scandinavia obviously! (both weathered down places located north of a big elephant - and some even say we're both more laid-back than our neighbour to the south, haha).



After having been on the lookout for a copy for quite a while, I have finally secured a brand new copy of the CD version of THE NOMADS mini album "Cold Hard Facts of Life". I bought the original 10 inch vinyl record when it came out back in 1996 - but missed the CD which came out the same year (but from a different label).

The 10" was released on Lance Rock Records in Canada and the CD on Strange Edge Records in Sweden. It's never been re-released so finding a shop that still had a brand new copy was certainly pretty cool! Incidentally, even tho the CD is the Swedish release the shop I'm getting it from is actually located in Canaduh! :D



And more Canadian; The tracks on the album are all cover versions of old songs by Canadian garage rock bands. And that's also why the back of the cover (on the 12") has that greeting from the Canadian label.

The picture on the album cover and the title are also "covers" as they were originally used on an record by a country singer called Porter Wagoner. He isn't covered on the record (and I've never heard his music) but I guess they just loved the image and title enough to use it for their Canadian cover album. I think it's a pretty cool album cover and title (altho I must admit, after having discovered the original, I think the Porter Wagoner cover is cooler!!). There are two versions of the Wagoner cover, they use a slightly different photo and I thiink the first one is from a re-release (a CD box) and the bottom one is from the original release. The one at the very bottom is of an eight-track tape version.

Crazy Desires of a Murderer - rare giallo

Directed by Filippo Walter Ratti (Italy, 1972)

I first read about CRAZY DESIRES OF A MURDERER on Johan Melle's excellent blog EURO FEVER quite a whle back, and when I recently stumbled over his review again I looked up the film on Amazon UK and was very surprised to see it listed there! The thing is the movie has never been released on DVD. It hasn't even been released in other VHS versions! This one UK video release (from Redemption) is the ONLY release there is! So to me it was weird to find it just sitting there on Amazon. Altho I'm by no means an expert on giallo films it is my impression that the genre has lots and lots of rapid fans. It's rumoured that Redemption only sold a mere 150 copies of the tape so why it was so easy (and cheap!) to get I really don't know. The tape is cut by 5 seconds but considering it's the only way of getting to watch the film I can certainly survive that! Fortunately, the tape is both in letterbox format and has English subtitles. Check out Johan's review on Euro Fever and also the cool review on GIALLO FEVER.

Mega Piranha (USA, 2010) - review

aka MEGA PIRAYA (Scandinavia)
directed by Eric Forsberg



I watched MEGA PIRANHA tonight and, my gawd, this is without a doubt one of the biggest turds I've had the pleasure of sitting thru, haha. The computer generated special effects were shit, they looked like something from a cheap, very cheap, computer game. The acting was shit, the lead character (played by Paul Logan, and I'm not even going to call him an actor cos I would probably get sued by the Actors' Guild) grunted his lines with the same confidence as if he were repeating lines in Russian without knowing what they meant. And thru out the entire film scenes and movements kept speeding up like in a fucking computer game.

Anyhoo, the story line: A boat with the US ambassador to a *bad* country in South America is attacked at the beginning of the "film" and everyone on board (including naked chicks) is eaten by big killer piranhas. These killer fish are so bad-ass they even eat the fucking boat! Back in the US the minister of fucked up affairs asks his Dolph Lundgren wannabe (aforementioned "actor" Paul Logan) to go down there and sort things out.

Once down there, ThirdRate-Dolph runs into an American scientist woman (played by 80s American pop chick Tiffany) and her two male scientist buddies who have created a new fish (or know about a new fish or some such, I'm not quite sure, I think it was probably explained while I was pouring coffee or stuffing chocolate and chips into my face in order to feel I wasn't wasting my time completely!). The local military is crooked and evil so our friends have to not only fight the killer fish, that keep getting bigger by the hour, but also fight the evil Devil worshipping cannibalistic zombie military. Okay, I'm exaggerating by 300% here (actually it would have made it heaps more fun IF they had been Devil worshipping cannibal zombies!).

Anyway, they fight, the fish escape from their pond, they get bigger, they fight more, the fish get bigger by the hour, the computer effects get worse by the minute, ThirdRate-Dolph keeps grunting, and ... it's all a mess!

MEGA PIRANHA is a piece of shit if I ever saw one. But, hey, that's not to say I wasn't entertained (cos I was) but that's only because my standards are so extremely low that I'll find poking a sleeping dog entertaining. There were some wild scenes in the film that we haven't really seen before, like killer fish attacking a big war ship and eating a helicopter and shit like that. The film makers (please don't sue me for calling them "film makers"!) obviously thought "bigger is better" and made eveything bigger. Well, not quite *better* but at least bigger. What we DIDN'T get was lots of gore and splatter which would certainly have helped a lot. And apart from the intro scene there weren't any boobs, I mean come on, what's wrong with these film makers!!

One thing that was cool about the movie is Tiffany who plays the fish scientist woman; She had a few pop hits in the 80s (I don't actually remember her) and with her curvy figure and 8 to 10 kilos too many in her luggage she's not really your usual hero-guy's typical love interest, and for that alone I applaud the film makers!! (uh, the fact that I've grown up on John Waters films and... appreciate... women with a 10+ kilo overweight in their luggage has nothing to do with my appreciation! Not at all. I said not at all!!). Oh, and it seems Tiffany has found her platform in the film world; apart from THIS killer fish film, she has also been in MEGA SHARK VERSUS GIANT OCTOPUS and MEGA PYTHON VS. GATOROID (of which I have seen neither).

I paid DKK 50 for this (second-hand at Blockbuster) which was clearly too much. I'd say it was worth DKK 25 at the most. There were no extras what so ever. I mean like zero! Not even a stinking trailer. The cover looks cool though!

Weng Weng sequel finally gets an official DVD release!

Yep, it's true! IMPOSSIBLE KID is finally getting an official DVD release! It's the good people at Umbrella Entertainment in OZ who are putting it out on a double DVD with the first film in the series, FOR Y'UR HEIGHT ONLY (albeit with a slightly different spelling). HEIGHT is already out on a fine, fine DVD from Mondo Macabro but I'm certainly not complaining about one more release of this entertaining film. As I'm sure you know already these films stem from the Philippines, and are both directed by Eddie Nicart. The DVD is scheduled to hit the Aussie streets on September 1st. I have no info of specs or extras. You can check the listing at Umbrella's website here.

To avoid confusion; Yes, there is already at least one DVD release of IMPOSSIBLE KID as it's part of the "50 Sci-fi films" reg. 1 box-set. However, in my book that's hardly more than a bootleg.


Thanks to Fred for the tip.

Killer Elephants DVD cover

Here's the cover for Fred Anderson's upcoming DVD release of the Thai killer animal flick THE KILLER ELEPHANTS (to be released on his new ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT label). I'm told the artwork is by Cinehound's Cteve. :D

AXED - "the most graphically violent Australian zombie movie ever made"

Axed is an Australian 'backyard' zombie epic that throws back to the grit of the late 1970's. Alone with his Axe, Bruce must slip and slide through the blood, the guts, the infected and a rag tag army militia that are hell bent on cleansing the town of all life. Then the dead start coming back to life.
[from YouTube description]

Arrgh, check out this trailer!! I haven't seen the film but this is how you make wild zombie trailers! Fan-fucken-tastic!! The film is AXED (2010) which is directed by Joshua Long (located in Brisbane and not unfamiliar with Mr Leavold whom you'll know if you're a regular reader on this here blog and/or my Filipino Vietnam War movie blog). Somewhere in Cyberspace I showed an interest in the film (how could I not!) and was surprised to get an email from the director. We got into talking about splatter indie films (he on he other hand was surprise to learn I'd actually watched the Aussie underground vampire splatter flick BLOODLUST at the Glasshouse in Melbourne shortly after it came out in the 90s, lol) and soon discovered we share a love for the bands BABES IN TOYLAND and GUITAR WOLF (and also - needless to say - a love for the Japanese ZOMBIE movie which Guitar Wolf starred in, WILD ZERO!!!). I asked him about a DVD release but unfortunately there won't be one for the time being as the film is still doing the festival rounds. Hmm, maybe you shouldn't watch the trailer, in the words of the crook replicant in BLADE RUNNER, "Have you ever had an itch you couldn't scratch?" The trailer certainly leaves an unfulfilled craving for MORE.
NB: the insane(ly fake Yank accented) voice-over is the director hisself.

BABES IN TOYLAND - "Live at the Academy" (June 17th 1992)

Kewl!! I've just bought this promo CD album that BABES IN TOYLAND released in 1992 to advertise their upcoming second LP, "Fontanelle". The album was never released to ordinary shops but only sent as a promo to radio stations. The CD contains one studio track from their (then) upcoming album and 11 tracks recorded live. The album isn't a bootleg but an official CD (your guess is as good as mine as to why the person behind the BABES IN TOYLAND Wiki page didn't include it on there! It's not like the band made so many records that this album would have disappeared in the abundance).

I lived in London in the late 80s and I would listen to the "Peel Show" every Thursday night religiously (or was it Tuesday? I forget). John Peel would always play a session by a band, and on one particular night in 1990 (I remember the year cos I remember the place I was living at the time, lol) he was going to play a session by BABES IN TOYLAND, and for the first time for many years he was also going to do a live interview. The interviewee was lead singer Kat Bjelland. I seem to remember she was on the phone from France, and she kept saying "fuck" which you didn't do on the radio in those days (I'm not even sure if you do it on the BBC nowadays) and John Peel tried to cover up by saying, "oh, you mean funk" and she'd go, "uhh, yeah". LOL. I taped it all but I'm not sure if I've still got the tape. I should have. Somewhere.

The CD didn't have a front cover other than the heart you see in the first scan. The live recording is extraordinary as it was never re-released and thus only exists on this promo disc. However, the CD isn't all that rare (I guess there are a lot of radio stations in the US, lol) and there are still several copies listed on eBay.

The text on the heart is a heart-warming message from babes reassuring the radio stations that there are no profanities in the studio track (but that there are in the live songs!). :D




1 Won't Tell
2 Bluebell
3 Won't Tell
4 Blood
5 Jungle Train
6 Right Now
7 Magick Flute
8 Ripe
9 Swamp Pussy
10 Sometimes
11 Pearl
12 Mother

Engineer – Nicholas Settich (tracks: 2 to 12)
Producer – Kat Bjelland (tracks: 1), Lee Ranaldo (tracks: 1)
Written-By – Babes In Toyland (tracks: 1 to 9,11,12), Kat Bjelland (tracks: 10)


The three scans and info are from the Discogs record data base.

The Taint - trailer

Check out this trailer for the new(ish) splatter movie THE TAINT! It's lowbudget and looks like great fun. I've just ordered it from their website; It's on special offer for 5 bucks US and with postage to Eurotrash-land it's only $9. Check the website here (they also sell a VHS version of the film!).

So AWE are releasing the Thai horror film CROCODILE, yes?

Noooo, they're just using THE POSTER from the Thai film for their release of the Italian film KILLER CROCODILE!!! Hahaha.


Fabrizio De Angelis, Italy, 1989

Incidentally I own the Thai DVD of KILLER CROCODILE 1 & 2. :D

But regardless, you should check out BOTH films! And needless to say big kudos to AWE for this release! There are many VHS and DVD releases of the Thai film. I've got the German DVD and Thai VCD, and I'm told the best version is the German DVD (the German DVD title is "Der Horror-Alligator - Das letzte Kapitel" and it's available from Amazon.de. You can check the AWE disc here).


PS: I called CROCODILE a Thai film but it's actually a co-production between Thailand, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and the USA. There are several edits of the film.

Best ever post-apocalypse film on a Friday

Alright, I've never actually watched RAIDERS OF THE SUN so it may be shite but I've just discovered it's on DVD (from Roger Corman's company) so I'm definitely gonna get it. Filipino stalwarts Henry Strzalkowski, Nick Nicholson, and Richard Norton are in it and it's directed by Cirio H. Santiago!!

Cirkin Dünya - trailer

Here's the cover for the rare Turkish VHS release of the (also) Turkish video nasty CIRKIN DÜNYA. When Miltos of Cinehound forum started selling the film on bootleg DVD he entitled it LAST HOUSE IN ISTANBUL and now this bootleg title is quoted everywhere including the fucken IMDb!! Hahaha. Anyhoo, the film has since then been released on DVD in Germany but unfortunately it only carries the German and Italian dubs. Go figure! Miltos' old bootleg is in Turkish and has English subtitles. Below is the German dubbed trailer. I believe the full version of the subtitled print is on YouTube.




PS: The video isn't mine (I wish!) but comes courtesy of a Cinehound member. :D