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.
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!
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.
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 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.
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.
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!).
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.
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!!
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
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.
