DVD Reviews

Beheadings! Bosoms! Blood! Welcome to the dark side of the 1950s. Made for a mere $29000 in 1959, The Monster of Piedras Blancas looks like a million bucks in high-definition in 2016. Down with the fuzz. We want clarity in our Creature Features and Olive Films absolutely  ...

Gothic horror gets its kink on in 1962’s The Horrible Dr. Hichcock. This is one of the movies that you really have to wonder how in the hell it got made. Like ever. Like ever ever. Directed by Riccardo Freda (working as Robert Hampton), the Italian director responsible for The Ghost   ...

Cellblock D. That’s where the best women are. According to Makillers (aka 12 Wild Women), an ultra low budget film from director David Prior and American International Pictures, when it comes to assembling a team of ruthless killers to take down a drug-dealing human  ...

Well, how neat-o is this, B-movie lovers?! Mad Max meets lasers … in 3-D! That’s the best way to describe this low-grade attempt to cash in on one of the most epic action flicks of my youth, The Road Warrior. Directed by Empire Pictures founder Charles Band (Parasite  ...

Six college students. A station wagon. An archaeological dig. And a tent. Those are the elements at play in 1983's uber-bloody Scalps. Written and directed by Fred Olen Ray (Deep Space), this effective horror flick is as minimalistic as it gets. It was filmed in mere days,  ...

Hilarious. That’s one word to describe the outrageous events in this cult flick.  Another words would be awful.  Put the two together and you have a recipe for immortality.  So bad it’s good!  Operating as a sequel to the 1958 classic with Steve McQueen, Beware! The Blob  ...

When it comes to the history of horror, there are few years as important as 1942.  That was the year RKO switched gears and turned away from artists like Orson Welles.  They pulled The Magnificent Ambersons out from under his feet and went on the hunt for showmen  ...

It is essentially a cheaper version of Ridley Scott’s Alien, but underwater.  That’s the best description of The Rift (aka Endless Descent).  This knock-off is only one of the several underwater exploitative films that were rushed out from almost every studio – no matter  ...

Joan Crawford.  Her name alone invokes images of all sorts.  F. Scott Fitzgerald considered her THE ORIGINAL flapper.  She was a dancer, a radio talent, an actress, but, above everything else, she was a force of nature.  She alone made herself a star.  No one else  ...

Gearheads and punks rejoice! Your metal and steel obsessed world just got a hell of a lot shinier. The neon-splashed roads of an Ozploitation classic are yours to drive upon once again. Dead-End Drive-In has arrived on blu-ray. Complete with a brand new 2K restoration  ...

The Killbots are coming!!!  The Killbots are coming!!!  Grab your wayfarers, pop your collars, and hitch up your chinos, we’re heading to the mall of the future.  With robots providing security detail, the Park Place Mall is slashing its prices … and its customers.  Wait, what?  ...

Vestron Video continues its Lionsgate-sponsored rebirth with the High-Definition release of one of the craziest horror films to ever see the light of the day, Blood Diner.  Where the fuck do I even begin?  If you’ve seen the film, then you know EXACTLY the total anarchy  ...

Two horny teenagers interrupt their quickie – now that the parental units have left the house – to down some more hooch.  The guy needs something to drink.  Apparently, her vagina isn’t satisfying all of his needs.  Poor girl.  As the dude leaves his best gal’s warmth  ...

There are few things MORE terrifying to me than an exaggerated Richard Nixon mask.  I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s the extended nose or the heavily-lined cheeks, but it just creeps me the fuck out.  In fact, it might be the single most terrifying thing that I know of.  You’re aware of  ...

Garden shears.  It had to be garden shears.  Ho! Ho! Ho!  Let the stabbing begin!  Written and directed by Todd Nunes, All Through The House is a Christmas-themed slasher that makes for a better trailer than it does a movie.  I’m not saying that, as far as independent ...

You say want sex and violence?  Well, the Masked Mutilator has EXACTLY what you are looking for.  Just be respectful because this house parent will definitely kick your ass ...

Kitty’s back on the cell block!  Woot! Woot!  Let the sweat-dripping orgies begin! Violence in a Women’s Prison, originally released in 1982, is a damn ugly exploitation flick. Even when you lower the bar when it comes to Women in Prison flicks, this ...

In which David Chiang takes out strongman Bolo Yeung in a literal David and Goliath sequence!  This is - thanks to the stunning choreography - the best scene in the movie and it leaves a lasting impression that resonates long after the movie has  ...

Demons! Ghosts!  Killer Clans!  And one sword to rule them all! If you like your Kung-Fu completely bonkers and all sorts of SPACED OUT, then Holy Flame of the Martial World is the wild tale you have been waiting for!  In it a reunited brother and sister battle all sorts of otherworldly villains on their  ...

Have Sword, Will Travel is highlighted by a rousing finale which makes the journey through this love triangle absolutely worth it.  Unfortunately, there’s quite a lot of drama to get through before we get to all the bloodletting.  This might be a turn off for some fans of wuxia, but the film remains a  ...

Drugs are bad, mmkay? The third film directed by Tong Kai, one of the greatest Kung-Fu choreographers to have worked with the Shaw Brothers, is a masterpiece.  And you thought martial arts couldn’t be moving?!  How wrong you are.  The tragedies in this film are unyielding as the leader of the ...

It’s monkey style kung-fu versus snake style in Sammo Hung’s highly entertaining Knockabout, a comical slick of chop socky which will have you laughing in no time.The comedy is what happens when two unfortunate con artists ...

In which the 18 legendary weapons of China are dispatched to put an end to the bullet! Lei Kung (Liu Chia-Liang) is acting strangely.  The Boxer rebellion is in full swing and several clans have sworn to train students ways in which to defeat the gun.  This includes use of the supernatural.  Anything is in  ...

In which a wall of 12 monks stacked on each others’ shoulders forces Derek Yee to perform the human corkscrew maneuver to slide right past them! Opening with a surprise attack by four ninja-dressed assassins, one courier's mission goes tits up really quickly and all ...

The martial arts hijinks continue with the introduction of the “3 Holy Fools” who raise one of the two newborn sons destined to be emperor some day.  Shaolin Prince is an epically cool late-era Shaw Brothers offering that should have been better received than it was back in 1982 when it was originally  ...

In which an abacus becomes a weapon! Inviting a muscle-strapped cat named the ‘Spearman’ (Lung Tung Sheng) to a peace party is not a good idea.  Okay, sure,  the various members of the ‘Iron Flag’ clan have their reasons not to trust the criminal-minded ‘Eagles’, but the strongarm they hired is not ...

New Fist of Fury could have been so much better.  Sure, it was the film that began to launch its star, Jackie Chan, into the martial arts stratosphere but it’s not nearly as smooth sailing as the original film, made 5 years earlier, by the same director,  Lo Wei, who was convinced Jackie was the  ...

Gloriously over-the-top and wonderfully directed by Sun Chung, Human Lanterns is what happens when the Shaw Brothers merge their particular brand of martial arts with the American slasher . . . and this violent result is as disturbing as it sounds. It helps when the leading character is psychotic, you  ...

In which Shaw Brothers enters the Ninja dome and delivers one hell of a knockout punch when it comes to over-the-to-top clenched-teeth martial arts mayhem! Directed by Chang Cheh and featuring solid performances from Cheng Tien-Chi and  Lo Meng, Five Element Ninjas (also known as  ...

Revenge, thy name is Sammo Hung!n The Iron-Fisted Monk is some good ol’ kung-fu delivered with all the grit and the glory one would expect from its talented cast.  Produced by Raymond Chow (who was still licking the wounds made by Bruce Lee’s death) and made when Hong Kong cinema  ...