Gory greetings horroryearbook alumni! Welcome to another exciting edition of IT CAME FROM THE MAILBOX, a column where your old pal Brain Hammer reviews whatever random crap the good folks at horroryearbook decide to throw my way.

It’s been a while since I’ve done…anything really. I have to admit, I’m getting a bit burnt out on the horror genre these days. There’s nothing new or particularly interesting going on. It’s an endless parade of half baked remakes and uninspired backyard buffoonery. Most of the screeners I find in my mailbox now promptly wind up in the trash because I have no interest in watching them, much less attempting to review them…and then promote them. Even a bad review is too much publicity for some of the dogshit I’ve been sent in the last year or so. I was more than ready to throw in the towel on this column for good, until a few days ago when I received a message from my drunken and shiftless editor Wil, asking me if I would be interested in checking out a screener copy of the new Shout! Factory release of Ivan Reitman’s 1973 cult classic CANNIBAL GIRLS.

A pre-SCTV Eugene Levy & Andrea Martin star as Clifford & Gloria, a groovy young couple who plan a romantic winter getaway in a small town in the middle of nowhere called Farmhamville. Their trip quickly takes a detour into disaster when Clifford’s beat up old car breaks down. The young lovers try to make the best of the situation and check into the local motel. The elderly manager of the motel welcomes them with open arms, and then proceeds to tell them about a horrifying local legend.

According to the legend, a terrible trio of incredibly sexy and homicidal young girls once lived in a nearby farmhouse. The sirens once lured a trio of incredibly horny and stupid young men to a violent demise, and then feasted upon their flesh. Then the girls mysteriously disappeared and were never seen or heard from again. Clifford & Gloria are understandably freaked out by the story, but are stuck in town until their car can be repaired. Clifford then attempts to seduce Gloria with the power of his folk rock balladry in a scene that made me wish I had a pair of scissors handy to shove into my ears and perhaps some bleach to splash into my eyes.

Later that evening, Clifford & Gloria are escorted by the motel owner to a cozy little bed & breakfast isolated deep within the surrounding woods. The proprietor of the b&b is a bizarre and bearded hippie type who calls himself Reverend Alex (Ronald Ulrich). The rev wastes no time before leering at Gloria, and then inviting himself to join them for dinner. The entertainment for the evening is also provided by the Reverend, who regales his guests with tales of his family’s proud history of of executions and venereal disease. The meal is then served by the Reverend’s three lovely female companions, and because this is a horror film, no one makes the obvious connection to the local legend. Clifford & Gloria ultimately decide to spend the night with the gang, which is a rather foolish decision for characters in a film titled CANNIBAL GIRLS to make. These girls do exactly what you think they do!

Eugene Levy is an ugly, ugly man. That thought kept running through my mind over and over again while I was watching this flick. I’ve always found him to be a bit creepy looking, but to see him back in the early 70′s sporting a huge afro, mutton chops, and mustache is something else altogether. He looks like the mutant offspring of Gene Shalit & Tony Iommi. Now that I got that verbal abuse out of my system, I can comment on his performance in the film – it’s actually really good. Eugene’s talent for improvisation is obvious, even at such an early stage in his career. Andrea Martin & Ronald Ulrich also do a great job fleshing out the threadbare script with a lot of witty, off the cuff dialog.

But what about the CANNIBAL GIRLS, you ask?!? Simply stated, they are fucking amazing. The lovely ladies are played by Randall Carpenter, Bonnie Nielson, and Mira Pawluk, and all three are incredibly gorgeous. The highlight of the movie for me was seeing the girls parading around in their sexy, matching outfits. These girls also know how to deliver the bloody goods. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this film has more than it’s fair share of splatter. I also enjoyed the fact that the comedy never completely overshadows the horror. This is a very self-aware & campy horror film, bordering on parody, but it also never feels like it is entirely trying to take the piss out of the genre. It comes across as more of an amusingly satirical tribute to the trashy low budget drive-in flicks of it’s era. It would be nice if the horror filmmakers of today could learn how to do that sort of thing properly. Sadly, they just don’t make them like this anymore!

The good folks at Shout! Factory have quickly become a horror & exploitation fan’s best friend with their top notch dvd and blu-ray releases. CANNIBAL GIRLS is no exception. This special edition release marks the long overdue debut of the film on home video in the States. Even a bare bones dvd release would have been cause for celebration, and this special edition release -which is loaded with bonus features gets the party started in a BIG way. The “scrumptious” bonus material includes brand new interviews with director Ivan Reitman, producer Daniel Goldberg, and none other than Eugene Levy himself! There’s also radio spots, the original theatrical trailer (which rules), and an alternate audio track that features the infamous William Castle styled “WARNING BELL,” which supposedly warns tender-tummied viewers of any upcoming carnage. Best of all, the warning bell doesn’t really work. It usually starts a bit after the blood, or stops short before the gore is gone. They don’t call them exploitation flicks for nothing!

CANNIBAL GIRLS is currently available on DVD from Shout! Factory. Consider this one Brain Hammer approved and highly recommended!

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!

Actually, the good folks (folk?) at horroryearbook had nothing to do with this one. I owe this editon of ICFTM to none other than horror director Ryan Nicholson. For those of you who don’t know who Ryan is, you should check out my exclusive interview with him here.

Several months ago I contacted Ryan looking for a screener copy of his then latest effort HANGER. He was nice enough to send me one, along with a BONUS BODY in the form of his first short film TORCHED. Being the completely insane and unprofessional piece of shit that you all know and love, I then promptly buried the dvds and proceeded to drift into a several month long binge of chronic drug addiction and soul shattering suicidal depression. But now I’m all better. I’M BACK FROM THE GRAVE AND READY TO PARTY!!! And what better way to come out of retirement than by shitting out a review of those flicks he sent me back in the day? Will it be worth the wait?!? Somehow I doubt it, but the movies were cool…

TORCHED is the heartwarming tale of a young girl named Deanna who gets brutally raped as she leaves her apartment one morning. Hats off to writer and director Ryan Nicholson for not wasting any of the viewers precious time, he gets the lead actress naked in the first minute of the film and then has her raped approximately three minutes later. After the lovin’, she takes a sperm sample and goes to the hospital where she convienently works as a nurse to have it tested. The next night, the masked rapist returns to her apartment for round two. This time around Deanna manages to get her taser and quickly renders her attacker unconcious.

This is where the fun begins. Deanna keeps her rapist hostage and over the course of the next few days and nights begins to horribly torture and mutilate him. She also has sex with her semi-creepy upstairs neighbor and fends off her annoying and nosy best friend. She slowly begins to lose her grip on sanity, and even begins to question if the guy she’s torturing is really the same guy who raped her in the first place. As the fiery sexual torture escalates, Deanna reaches a fever pitch of violent fury. Her ultimate revenge will be a dish served HOT!

Talk about starting your career as a director off in a BIG way! I have to give Ryan much credit for making such an uncomprimisingly brutal short film. TORCHED only runs approx. 45 minutes, but it packs enough mayhem into those 45 minutes to shock even the most jaded gorehounds. I thought I had seen it all when it came to the standard “rape and revenge” themed exploitation flicks, but the revenge in this one really takes it to another level. I think most male viewers will have a hard time watching this one without crossing their legs a few times. The climax of the film where she roasts the guy’s nuts with a blowtorch is a real chunkblower.

There’s really not much else to say with this one. It’s a short film, and like most short films it seems to end when it’s just getting started. I enjoyed the story, perhaps too much because I was slightly frustrated with the direction it ultimately went in. I kept thinking of nasty scenarios that could have played out with the chick, the rapist, and the neighbor. This definitely could have been expanded into a full length film. The only real complaint I had about this brand new “Char-Broiled” version of the film is the use of the Necrophagia song “Cannibal Holocaust” on the soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great fucking song, but it doesn’t belong in this film. It’s used during one of the climatic scenes of torture, and it immediately ruined the scene for me because I was thinking “Hey! It’s Cannibal Holocaust!” when I should have been getting into the scene.

Those minor complaints aside, I thought TORCHED was awesome. Very satisfing, and highly recommended for the rape & revenge enthusiasts. The restored and re-ignited version of TORCHED is available on dvd from Ryan’s own Plotdigger Films. The limited edition “Char-Broiled Editon”includes an all-new transfer & soundtrack, a behind the scenes documentary featurette, director’s commentary, and the trailer.

HANGER is the feel good story of a homicidal mutant that survives a coat hanger abortion and grows up to seek revenge on the murderous pimp who killed his prostitute mother. “Hanger” is also the name of our unfortunate hero, named after the coat hanger that almost did him in as a fetus. Flash forward 18 years, and little Hanger is all grown up and more than a little pissed off. He teams up with his dead whore mother’s favorite john and goes after the pimp, and other assorted street trash, looking for bloody revenge. Payback is a BITCH of a whore!

As you can imagine, this one has “first date movie” written all over it. Any flick that opens with Lloyd Kaufman having his genitals burned on a stove is automatically Brain Hammer approved, and HANGER is no exception to this rule. Speaking of Lloyd Kaufman, this film very much looks and feels like something Troma would distribute. It’s cheap and nasty, and I mean that in a good way. Once again I have to give props to writer and director Ryan Nicholson for making such over the top cinema. This is the third full length film that Ryan has done, and it reaches a new level of repulsion that his other efforts (Live Feed & Gutterballs) didn’t quite achieve.

HANGER feels like a move made by someone trying to outdo themselves, for better or worse. It’s like Ryan tried to cram as much nasty shit into 90 minutes as humanly possible. The incredibly disgusting abortion setpiece is a real showstopper. There’s also no shortage of tampon tea and colostomy bag fucking. To be honest, I found it all a bit overwhelming at first. I had to medicate myself until I reached the right mindset to enjoy watching all of the pudding plopping prosthetic ass fucking going on.

This is clearly love it or hate it material. For what’s it’s worth, I thought it was well made. The gore effects are about as top notch and convincing as they come. The acting sucks, and the humor is retarded, but that takes a backseat to the splatter. This is a throw back to the clas-sicks such as Bad Taste, The Toxic Avenger, and Street Trash. People looking for intelligent, sophisticated, and thought provoking horror need to look elsewhere. Those with a taste for trash will likely eat this up.

HANGER is available on dvd from Vicious Circle Films. The unrated dvd is loaded with special features including director’s commentary, behind the scenes footage, deleted scenes, a blooper reel, and a very explicit stills gallery. Buy it for someone you love!

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!

Gory greetings horroryearbook alumni! Welcome to another exciting edition of IT CAME FROM THE MAILBOX, a column where your old pal Brain Hammer reviews whatever random crap the good folks at horroryearbook decide to throw my way.

“Slime flies when you’re having fun!” It’s hard to believe it’s been 22 long years since Greg Lamberson first unleashed the 80′s splatter classic SLIME CITY upon the world. Around this time last year, the word began circulating that Greg was preparing the long awaited sequel. The now completed film is titled SLIME CITY MASSACRE, and I was lucky enough to recently find a screener copy in my mailbox. In the coming months, SCM will be making the rounds at horror conventions and screenings across the country. As the film has yet to see a wide release, I will keep this review brief and try a bit harder than normal to avoid any spoilers.

SLIME CITY MASSACRE takes place several years after the events in SLIME CITY. The bizarre New York City neighborhood known as Slime City is devastated by a “dirty bomb” attack. In the wake of the attack, the now radioactive Slime City has been evacuated by the government. The only people who remain are a haggard assortment of homeless slimeheads and a pack of pimps, prostitutes, and drug dealers that cater to the rich tourists who still pour into Slime City from uptown.

Meanwhile, a soldier named Cory (Kealan Patrick Burke) goes AWOL, and along with his draft dodger girlfriend Alexa (Jennifer Bihl) goes looking for some peace and quiet on the west coast. Their quest leads them through crowded uptown shelters, dangerous Central Park refugee camps crawling with cannibals, and finally leads them into the remains of Slime City. There they cross paths with a pair of squatters named Mason (Lee Perkins) and Alice (Debbie Rochon). Mason extends the invitation to stay, and Alice warns that the place turns into a real “Sodom and Gomorrah” at night.

The desperate search for food brings Cory and Mason to the tattered ruins of the Zachary Devon Soup Kitchen. Once inside the locked basement, they discover hundreds of bottles of Zachary Devon’s Homebrewed Elixir. Mason immediately begins counting the millions they can make selling the hooch on the black market. Cory is more interested in the jars of “non-expirable” Himalayan Yogurt. They bring their discoveries back to the shelter and waste no time eating the funny looking neon colored yogurt and getting smashed on the wine.

Thus begins the downward spiral into SLIME. The two couples stumble off into their rooms and the fun starts. The gore gags are too elaborate and disgusting to spoil any further, but suffice to say – an impressive amount of slimy sex, possession, and graphic mutation quickly follows. The twisted back story of Zachary Devon (Robert C. Sabin) and his “temple of pleasure and fulfillment” is also revealed, and proves equally disturbing. Then the shit really hits the fan when a slimy billionaire named Ronald Crump (Roy “Street Trash” Frumkes!) sends in his paid army to wipe out the denizens of Slime City once and for all. It’s all out war between the slimeheads, soldiers, and mutant cannibal marauders!

This review could be summed up as follows – it’s about damned time! SLIME CITY MASSACRE was well worth the wait. Not only is SCM a worthy sequel, it’s one of those rare sequels that is just as good, if not better than the original. What really impressed me about this one was the cool back story about Zachary Devon and his coven of flesh. The star of Slime City, Robert C. Sabin returns and turns in an eerie performance this time around as the perverted cult leader who urges his followers to “control the flesh or follow the slime.” SCM works as both a sequel and a prequel to Slime City. It fills in a lot of details about the original story and adds modern touches, such as references to “the war for oil” and “homeland insecurity.”

Then there’s the matter of the splatter. SLIME CITY was quite the puke worthy little number, so I had high hopes that SLIME CITY MASSACRE would try to top it. I wasn’t let down. It takes a while before Lamberson finally gets down to the good stuff, but once he does it doesn’t disappoint. There’s no shortage of slimy sex, skull bashing, severed heads, gory gunshot wounds, and a pair of outrageous gore gags that have to be seen to be believed. Trust me when I say, you’ll never look at a bathtub the same way! Troma fans should also keep their eyes peeled for the “special disappearance” of Lloyd Kaufman and a cameo from “Irish” Dick Biel of SPLATTER UNIVERSITY legend.

Not much more I can say without spoiling the good gory fun. SLIME CITY MASSACRE is hands down one of the coolest horror flicks I’ve seen in ages, and it’s Brain Hammer approved in a big way. Hopefully Greg doesn’t wait another 22 years before the next one! Stay tuned to this fine website for all of the latest SLIME CITY MASSACRE happenings.

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!

This time around I was contacted directly by my old chum Sonny Fernandez. Sonny is the hardworking mastermind behind Down Twisted Studios. He currently holds the record for being the director whose films I have reviewed the most. I’ve already reviewed five of his past efforts in previous ICFTMB columns. You can check out those reviews here: Bleed, Aborted/Cold Blooded, The Last Battleground.

Sonny’s latest effort is a vampire chick flick titled THE NEW GIRLS. The vampire chicks are a tasty yet terrifying trio of gothic eye candy with appropriately exotic names – Svetlana, Lenore, and Renai. The film opens with a late night bloodbath that quickly establishes the girls as a deadly force to be reckoned with. The seemingly beautiful young girls are in reality centuries old bloodthirsty vampires that are on the run from their homelands in Europe. The vamps vacation in a hick town in the middle of Nowheresville USA and quickly begin draining the life away from the local yokels. The leader of the pack, Svetlana has visions of gutters being cleaned with blood and vows raining death upon the humans.

The new girls immediately catch the eye of a pack of body count fodder that are planning a weekend beer bash blowout. A dude makes the mistake of inviting the new girls to the party and a deadly chain of events is set into motion. The sexy girls immediately make a big splash at the party. A drunken idiot goes up to Svetlana and offers to suck a fart out of her ass like a bong hit. Svetlana responds by inviting him into the bathroom and then ripping his jugular out with her teeth. Meanwhile, love is in the air. The sensitive vampire chick Renai discovers feelings she never knew before when she meets a tubby emo boy at the party and walks home with him. These two losers immediately fall in love, which does not make Svetlana happy.

I have to admit, I’m not much of a vampire fan. Fuck, I could probably get kicked off of this website for saying this – but I don’t even like Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The current trend of vampire loving goth girls with copies of Twilight tucked under their flabby arms leaves me scratching my head. Vampires and vampire flicks are gay. The only exceptions are the original Salem’s Lot and anything with sexy vampire girls. Sonny was smart enough to make a vampire flick with some Salem’s Lot influence and he got three hot chicks to star in it. This was a good call. The girls helped me pay attention and the movie had enough action to keep me interested.

The only downside of the movie as far as I’m concerned is the love story. Now matter how much dramatic music Sonny blasts in the background, the scenes with the vampire girl and her wimpy love interest are time wasters. There is no real emotional connection between the two. It all happens way too fast, and the two actors have no chemistry together. The love story feels forced, and is the only part of the movie that I could do without. The rest of the film is great. It seems to occasionally poke fun of the current vampire genre. For real horror fans, there’s plenty of blood sucking, heart ripping, and gut grabbing.

On the technical side of things, I think Sonny is getting better with every film he makes. Considering how little money he has to work with the final results are pretty impressive. The special effects in this one are mostly blood gags and they look convincing. There’s some hilarious looking monster bats that make a brief appearance. Unlike some of Sonny’s other flicks, the monsters and mayhem are kept to a minimum. This is more of a “traditional” horror film than Sonny usually makes, but it also moves a lot faster than Sonny’s other flicks and is easier to follow. I think his earlier films have a bit more “soul” than this one, but THE NEW GIRLS is probably Sonny’s best overall effort. The improvement from film to film is amazing, I’m really looking forward to seeing more DOWN TWISTED epics!

Sonny was nice along to send along a two-disc (!) screener copy of THE NEW GIRLS. The bonus disc contained a lot of funny bloopers, behind the scenes special effects footage, and trailers. I think Sonny’s flicks keep getting better and better. All horroryearbook alumni are highly encouraged to support the man and check out his flicks! You can keep up with the latest Sonny Fernandez happenings at his official myspace page.

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!

Howdy horroryearbook alumni! Welcome to another rootin’ tootin’ edition of IT CAME FROM THE MAILBOX, a column where your old pal Brain Hammer reviews whatever random cowpies the city folk at horroryearbook decide to throw my way.

Y’all best put on your shitkickers! It’s time to take a twisted trip back to old west with Lee Vervoort’s GUN TOWN. The town in question is a backwoods tourist attraction that promises travelers a taste of the wild west. Back in 1979, an unfortunate accident involving alcohol causes the proprietor and sheriff of Gun Town – Frank Bailey, to snap and kill one of the tourists. Frank is later declared insane and serves 30 years in a mental institution. Things go from bad to worse for Frank when a fire breaks out at the asylum and leaves his face and body horribly burned.

After being released, Frank returns to Gun Town sporting a Michael Meyers mask and is more than a little pissed off at the world. This is bad news for a pack of random idiots on vacation who stumble into Gun Town while looking for a missing friend. At first the kids think the town and the weird rednecks that inhabit it are harmless fun. They find out the hard way that sheriff Frank is not playing around, and that his pistol is loaded with live rounds – not blanks.

The sheriff blasts a few of the kids and then stalks after the rest. The ladies receive special treatment from the sheriff with his patent plastic wrap strangulation. One of Frank’s kinfolk kidnaps the token comic relief nerd and locks him up in a pen for moonlight sodomy. Those who attempt to run away are shot in the back by Frank or waylayed by the rest of the blood crazy Baileys. This leaves a young girl alone with two choices…DRAW OR DIE!

GUN TOWN is the directorial debut from Lee Vervoort, who also wrote the film and stars in it. For a first time director at the helm of a very low budget horror film, I think he did a very good job. The film has decent production value, tight editing, effective scoring, and a good looking cast. The best thing I can say about the cast really is that they are good looking. None of them are great actors, but that’s not something fans of homemade horror flicks will have a problem with. None of them were bad enough to completely ruin the movie, although the comic relief nerd tries his hardest.

Lee plays the role of the masked sheriff and does a fantastic job. The mask is creepy looking, and Lee’s body movements and contortions occasionally give the blank face of the mask some emotion. The character is really far out there. A silent killer who plays dress up as a sheriff, has a wife and various annoying children, and has a fetish for suffocating women with plastic wrap. I have to admit, I didn’t really get that part of the movie. The killer repeatedly kills women with plastic wrap. I thought a noose would have been more appropriate for the old west theme.

That leads me to my biggest complaint about GUN TOWN. There’s not enough fucking GUNS in it! With a title like GUN TOWN I was expecting to see a couple dozen kids get their heads blown off. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. The body count is fairly meager, and only a couple people get shot. The effects are hit & miss. There were a couple ridiculous looking fake limbs that should have been left on the shelf at Spencer’s Gifts, not brought to the set. My only other complaint about the film was that the young characters were all annoying imbeciles and that the opening stretch of the film was boring.

That said, the film is still worth a watch. The minute the kids get to Gun Town things get interesting. Right away the music changes and takes a sinister tone. Little details like that go a long way. The combination of a western themed tourist trap and a masked slasher is unique, and I have to give Lee credit for doing something original instead of rehashing the same old slasher storylines. The Bailey family is a cool creation. You can see the familiarity with the Sawyer and Firefly clans. Hell, someone should really give Lee some more money and let him do a couple sequels! I’d like to see the concept taken further with a bigger cast, and more importantly…a bigger body count!

GUN TOWN is currently available on dvd from L.A.V. Pictures. You can check out the official website – www.guntownthemovie.com for more info. Brain Hammer approved!

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!

Gory greetings! Welcome to another exciting edition of IT CAME FROM THE MAILBOX, a column where your old pal Brain Hammer reviews whatever random crap the good folks at horroryearbook decide to throw my way.

THE RIVERMAN is a film based on real life events that were recounted in the best selling book The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer, co-written by Robert Keppel. Keppel is a former criminal investigator who worked both the Bundy and Green River Killer cases. The film takes place in 1982 and highlights a frustrated young detective named Dave Reichert who draws the unfortunate assignment of working Seattle’s Green River murder case. Reichert turns to retired Keppel for help, and Keppel hesitatingly agrees. Things get interesting when Keppel receives a letter from non other than Ted Bundy himself, offering to help out with the investigation. Keppel then begins a series of taped interviews with Bundy that eventually lead to Bundy’s breakdown and confession to eight previously unsolved murders.

The premise might sound familiar, because this real life story was the inspiration for The Silence Of The Lambs. The idea of a cop going to a serial killer for help with an investigation is now shopworn, but The Riverman has the advantage of being based on a true story. Tom Towler’s script, which is based on Robert Keppel’s book, is also exceptionally well written. The epic monologues that Cary Elwes delivers about murder and the way the Riverman feels when stalking his prey are chilling. I have listened to this movie several times while it plays in the background as I write this review, and the exchanges between Bruce Greenwood & Cary Elwes at the end of the film are powerful and gripping without even looking at the screen.

Serial killer bio-pics are very hit & miss. For every good one (Ed Gein) you stumble upon there’s a dozen more that are completely worthless. (Too many to mention) The Riverman ranks as one of the very best that I’ve seen. Interestingly enough, this film was made for television back in 2004 and is only now seeing a dvd release. That had me thinking this would be a lame melodramatic “docudrama,” but I’m happy to report that The Riverman is actually a very good serial killer film.

This is hands down the best film about Ted Bundy ever made. The casting and costumes are perfect. Cary Elwes absolutely inhabits the role and makes it real. He plays Bundy to creepy perfection. I love the little details, such as Bundy’s dirty feet in his prison cell, and the fact you see him beating off while looking at a true Crime magazine. Elwes plays the part with the perfect amount of menace and mincing. He’s loathsome and pathetic, which is the way he should be portrayed. Elwes has a great chemistry with his co-star Bruce Greenwood. The climatic final scene where Keppel walks Bundy through the details of one of his murders is riveting.

The only minor complaint I have about the film are the scenes spent with Robert Keppel’s family. For some reason the families of cops in these movies are always wretchedly annoying, and this film is no exception. The scenes with Keppel and his overly-dramatic wife who says her job is “to protect this family” and complains of her husband “coming to bed with his hands full of DEATH” are real eye-rollers. The actress who plays the wife has the rancid stank of soap operas all over her. The rest of the supporting cast isn’t that hot either, but the movie really revolves around the solid performances of Elwes and Greenwood so it doesn’t matter.

The other star of the show is Dave Brown in the pivotal role of the Green River Killer himself, Gary Ridgeway. Ridgeway is only briefly featured in the film, but the scenes where he appears are some of the very best. Brown does a fantastic job portraying Ridgeway and perfectly mimmicks his odd voice and speaking patterns. It’s actually a bit of a waste that Dave Brown doesn’t get more screen time. I would love to see him play the role of Ridgeway in a full length film. The film ends with a disturbing little diatribe from Brown as Gary Ridgeway, which is appropriate because like Ted Bundy says earlier in the film “These are complex people. People who have things to teach us about life, about ourselves.”

The Riverman will be released on dvd January 12, 2010. Brain Hammer approved and highly recommended for the serial killer/true crime enthusiasts.

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!

LIVE ANIMALS is the heartwarming tale of a beefy bearded maniac who pays his even beefier bearded henchman to kidnap five young adults and hold them captive in stalls inside a large isolated barn. The prisoners are treated like animals, tortured until their spirits are completely broken, and then sold into slavery to the highest bidder. When one captive asks where his girlfriend has been taken the bastard in charge coldly informs him she has been sold into prostitution and that the best he could hope for is that she winds up in a high end European brothel that will give her a bed and a room.

We spend time with the recent batch of human cattle, and then experience the horror of watching them sedated, captured, and then forced to live in filthy pens. The fresh female meat is routinely taken home to be pounded tender before being sold. The male captives quickly learn to keep or their mouths shut or have their tongues removed without anesthesia. As if this all isn’t brutal enough, there’s an incredibly annoying haggard bitch in a cell that never stops taunting the other captives and drives them crazy with her endless singing. One by one, the spirits of the captives are broken until a chance to escape finally presents itself. The innocent victims then turn into savage animals and the hunters become the hunted.

LIVE ANIMALS is the latest in a long string of recent horror films that deal with the themes of abduction, torture, and white slavery. The dvd cover even has a blurb that says “fans of Saw and Hostel will cheer,” so there should be no mistaking this for some pg-13 family friendly fare. This is clearly being marketed as a hardcore horror film, but gore junkies will be disappointed because there’s only a handful of scenes that are bloody and nothing is particularly over the top in the splatter department. There’s a tongue ripping set piece, and they cut away instead of showing the goods. It’s amazing how these modern “splatterfests” still pale in comparison to Blood Feast!

Despite the fact I thought this was a bit restrained in the gore department, it was still an uncomfortable watch and the many scenes of men and women in horse stalls were genuinely unsettling. The acting was decent for a straight to video flick about sex slaves and the production values were impressive. The film looks like it had a decent budget, which I am guessing it did not. Director Jeremy Benson shows some skills as a director. The biggest problem with this movie is the fact that it felt very familiar. Bloodsucking Freaks immediately comes to mind, as does the more recent Stockholm Syndrome. Putting <>b>Hostel and Saw on the cover also draws comparisons to those films as well. At this point you would have to be something REALLY special to stand out and be memorable, and sadly LIVE ANIMALS just doesn’t have that sort of quality. I thought it was a passable effort, but nothing I would want to watch again.

LIVE ANIMALS is available on dvd from Echo Bridge Entertainment. The bonus features include behind the scenes featurettes and deleted scenes. Not Brain Hammer approved, but perhaps worth a look for the hardcore torture junkies.

Clive Barker’s BOOK OF BLOOD is the story of a paranormal researcher named Mary Florescu who crosses paths with a college student named Simon McNeal who appears to be channeling messages from the dead. Mary has a theory that there are strange highways that lead the souls of the dead to their afterlife, and that there are also crossroads with our world. A supposedly haunted house should be the perfect location for one of these crossroads, but Mary & Simon quickly discover that the dead want to be left alone. Simon becomes a conduit for damned souls on their way to Hell and the souls carve their stories onto his body, turning him into a living book of blood.

John Harrison is the writer and director responsible for bringing Clive Barker’s BOOK OF BLOOD to life. The movie is a faithful recreation of two of Barker’s short stories: Book Of Blood & On Jerusalem Street. Reading the stories beforehand is not necessary for enjoying the film, but it will help build a sense of familiarity that might help ease the fact that the film moves at a snail’s pace. The stories are short enough to keep the reader riveted, the film manages to take a unique and morbid premise and stretch it into the point of tedium. In the short stories, Barker immediately throws the reader into the fiery climax of the paranormal investigation. In the movie, Harrison spends more time with the characters, and they are not particularly interesting.

As expected with a film with the name Clive Barker attached to it, there are some great gory scenes of spectral rape, face ripping and skin carving, but here they are spread out to the point of being ineffective. The “old dark house” set up has bone done countless times before, and no amount of noisy jump scares can wake up the now comatose viewer. By the time the climax finally arrives it plays out like a lame laser-Floyd show. “Stunning” and “Astonishing” are the words the press materials use to describe this finale, but “Cheap” and “Silly” were there words that kept flashing through my mind.

I thought this one had a few moments here and there, but overall it was boring and not something I would recommend to anyone other than the most rabid Clive Barker pinheads. BOOK OF BLOOD is now available on dvd from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. Bonus features include the trailer and a behind the scenes feature.

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!

Barnholtz Entertainment was nice enough to send along a screener copy of DRIFTER: HENRY LEE LUCAS – the latest direct to dvd serial killer epic from writer/director Michael Feifer. Feifer has been a busy man in the last few years, cranking out a string of grisly straight to dvd serial killer bio-pics including Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck, Ed Gein: Butcher Of Plainfield, Boston Strangler: The Untold Story, B.T.K., and Ted Bundy: Legacy Of Evil. You can check out my review of Ted Bundy: Legacy Of Evil here.

Prolific serial killer and/or pathological liar Henry Lee Lucas and his right hand man Ottis Toole get the Feifer treatment this time around. Lucas is notorious for having confessed to as many as 600 murders between 1975 and 1983 before changing his mind and recanting his story. Some Texas lawmen who worked on the “Lucas Task Force” remain stubbornly convinced that Henry is responsible for at least 350 murders, but the evidence and police work is dubious at best.

It appears that Henry and Ottis both enjoyed living in the media spotlight as world famous serial killer superstars and happily confessed to any unsolved crime that the police would accuse them of. Henry in particular confessed to several murders that he could not possibly have committed because work and hospital records proved he was in a different state at the time. But who cares about that pesky evidence stuff? Henry was more than happy to proclaim himself the “king of murder” and the police were equally happy to clear unsolved crimes from their desks. At one point Lucas was averaging at least one new murder confession per week, and hundreds of murder cases across multiple states were closed based on the strength of his confessions.

All of this “justice” came to a crashing end when Henry decided to change his story and declare that he wasn’t a serial killer at all and that he was only in fact responsible for two deaths – those of his mother (which he had been convicted for several years before) and his teenage lover Becky. This new story conveniently leaves out the murder of an elderly woman for which Lucas was originally arrested, and does little to clear up the confusion about his crimes. Just to make things more confusing, Henry would later recant THAT story and claim that he had only killed his mother. Regardless if Henry Lee Lucas actually killed 3 or 300 people, his legacy as one of the most notorious yet celebrated criminals in American history remains intact.

And this bizarre legacy is exactly what makes Henry Lee Lucas perfect subject matter for a serial killer flick. To date, this is the third film I’ve seen that attempts to tell the twisted story. This time around former Bold & The Beautiful star and current VH1 dating show dumbass Antonio Sabato Jr plays Henry Lee Lucas. DRIFTER in many ways is very similar to the other serial killer bio-pics that Fiefer has done in the past. It starts out with scenes of Henry in action, both killing and confessing, and then shifts to scenes that show Henry as a youth and offer some explanation as to how to became such a monster. I thought the scenes that portrayed Henry’s fucked up childhood were the best part of the movie and represented the only aspect of Henry’s life that hadn’t already been examined in either Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer or Confessions Of A Serial Killer. Like a lot of serial killers, Henry grew up under the oppression of his horribly abusive mother who enjoyed sending him to school dressed up like a little girl and even shot his beloved pet mule!

It makes some sense that Henry’s first (and last?) victim was his mother, whom he killed as a teen during an drunken argument. Henry claims the murder of his mother was a mistake, and the film presents an accurate depiction of Henry’s story. After Henry was later released from an overcrowded prison for good behavior he began drifting from state to state, working a series of dead end jobs along the way and often driving his old piece of shit cars non-stop for days on end until they would break down. Somewhere along the way, Henry meets his eventual partner in crime Ottis Toole and the two quickly become the Batman & Robin of serial murder.

First things first, Antonio Sabato Jr is an absolute miscast as Henry Lee Lucas. He’s not a bad actor by any means, but he looks entirely wrong for the part and also sounds NOTHING like Lucas. Antonio claims to have spent hours perfecting the accent, but it sounds like a bunch of incoherent mumbling to me. The biggest problem I had with Antonio in this role is the fact that he’s clearly a big buttery Italian stud muffin and he has no business trying to play a scuzzy roadhog like Lucas. The makeup department does a nice job giving Antonio Lucas’s trademark dead eyed stare, but the filmmakers then foolishly decide to throw away the effects work by having Antonio wear shades half of the movie.

The other biggest problem I had with this movie was the casting of Ottis Toole and his niece Becky. The guy who plays Ottis is your standard angry hulking redneck, and he doesn’t do a damn thing to make the character accurate or even semi-interesting to watch. The real life Ottis Toole was a faggot who liked to dress up like a woman and blow truck drivers for a ride. He was Henry’s LOVER and on more than one occasion killed women in a rage when Henry would reject his advances. None of this is even passingly brought up in DRIFTER. I wonder why repeated scenes of women being murdered and their corpses being violated is acceptable, but at the same time Fiefer shies away from showing scenes of his actors being gay for each other. Then there’s Becky. The real life Becky Powell was a semi-retarded twelve year girl. For some reason, all three of the flicks that have told this story always cast Becky as being some sort of sassy or sexy twenty-something. I find these sort of inaccuracies to be highly offensive for some reason. Like the filmmakers, I have no problem with the depiction of violent death but unlike the filmmakers I see no reason to sugar coat elements of the story that might be “too much” for an audience to handle.

That’s ultimately why this flick fails. It tries to have it both ways. On one hand it attempts to tell the story of Henry Lee Lucas with a fair amount of accuracy, and on the other hand it changes the crucial and interesting details to make the film a more politically correct sort of police thriller. Fuck that. Cop shows on network tv have more balls with what they present than this flick does. Michael Fiefer has a decent amount of talent as a writer and director but I think he needs to stop with the serial killer flicks because he just can’t seem to do them properly. A quick look at IMDB tells me that Fiefer’s next project is called “The Dog Who Saved Christmas,” and with a title like that it could easily be the scariest thing he has done to date. Except for casting Kane Hodder as Ed Gein of course. Now that was some TRULY scary shit!

DRIFTER: HENRY LEE LUCAS is currently available on dvd from Barnholtz/Lionsgate Entertainment. The bonus features include director’s commentary, stills gallery, and Spanish subtitles. Not Brain Hammer approved, but perhaps worth a rental for die hard serial killer enthusiasts.

ULLI LOMMEL’S NIGHT STALKER! That title alone should send shivers down the spine of any horror fan. Not because of the night stalker of course, the words “Ulli Lommel” are the real offenders. For those of you who lucky enough NOT to know who Ulli Lommel is, he is a hack horror director that has been shitting out some truly wretched pieces of direct to video garbage over the last few decades. I actually enjoyed some of his 80′s efforts such as The Boogeyman and The Devonsville Terror, and I never really had much of an issue with the guy until his annoying internet drones began flooding the horroryearbook message boards with spam topics proclaiming his greatness or asking “which Ulli Lommel film is your favorite?” That’s like asking which strain of HPV is your favorite. Gee, I like the kind that gives my girlfriend abnormal pap smears the best.

As some of you sharper readers might have guessed, this is Ulli Lommel’s pathetic attempt to tell the tale of Richard Ramirez. Ramirez of course was dubbed “The Night Stalker” by the press because he always committed his brutal crimes under the cover of darkness. Richard was a troubled lad who moved to Los Angeles to get closer to the two great loves in his life – drugs and Satan. Richard’s carnal crime spree only lasted about one year, but quickly became known as one of the most bloodthirsty and savage in American history. After being captured by an angry mob that nearly killed him, Richard Ramirez was eventually convicted in 1989 for 13 murders, 5 attempted murders, and 11 sexual assaults. Incredibly, Ramirez is STILL sitting on death row almost 20 years later waiting for his chance to finally meet the devil face to face.

Sounds like the perfect story to base a horror flick on right? Well so far I’ve seen three attempts, and all three were terrible! The other flicks were so bad I don’t even feel like naming them, but incredibly Ulli Lommel somehow manages to top them and made arguably the worst serial killer flick that I have ever seen. This flick reeks of bargain basement cheapness. The whole thing looks like it was shot with a camcorder and the editing appears to have been done with a machete. The lead actor who plays Richard Ramirez is absolutely fucking terrible. He appears to have based his performance off of Brandon Lee’s Crow instead of the Night Stalker. All this dude does the whole movie is suck on lollipops (seriously, every fucking scene!), sit around pouting and looking “disturbed” (more like constipated), and lull the viewer into unconsciousness with his mind numbingly boring voice over narration.

Did you know that Richard Ramirez was introduced to drugs and the devil by a pair of sexy lesbians who randomly see him on the street and decide that he is the most gorgeous man they had ever seen? Neither did I. To call this movie a piece of shit would be a severe understatement. I’m not going to waste any more of my precious few remaining brain cells discussing this one because it’s just not worth it. This is the type of trash that gives serial killers a bad name. Ulli Lommel’s NIGHT STALKER is now available on dvd from North American Motion Pictures. Buy it only if you need a cheap beer coaster or if someone you hate is having a birthday.

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!

Anyone who is familiar with this excellent website should have the words SLIME CITY permanently etched into their brains. During the past few weeks our beloved HYB editor Wil was in upstate New York doing…something on the set of Slime City Massacre, and despite my best efforts the site slowed down considerably in his absence. Now that HYB is up and running again there have been daily updates about the filming of Slime City Massacre. I even helped feed the Slime machine by promoting the recent dvd release of Greg Lamberson’s SLIME CITY GRINDHOUSE COLLECTION in my weekly DVD PICKS column. It’s been a SLIME CITY overload! This flick obviously has a special place in horroryearbook history.

Here’s a confession for you all…until I stumbled upon this website a few years ago I had never heard of Slime City. I feel slightly ashamed to say that, although now that I know that story of the film’s distribution (or lack thereof) it makes sense. I thought I had heard of EVERYTHING, and that I had seen them all. Slime City was the rare exception, it was an 80′s splatterfest that I had never heard of. I had never seen a Slime City review, and I never saw a copy of the film in stores. While splatter flicks like Toxic Avenger, Bad Taste, Street Trash, Basket Case, Brain Damage, or even Combat Shock were common place, Slime City was an enigma to me. Now that I have finally seen the film, I can say without a doubt that it deserves a special place in the 80′s splatter hall of fame!

SLIME CITY is the the toxic tale of a nice young man named Alex (Robert Sabin) who moves into an apartment in a strange old building so he can be closer to his perky but frigid girlfriend Lori (Mary Huner). His best friend Jerry helps him move and fills the body count and the much needed “obnoxious chubby wisecracker” role. Alex is a bit put off by the two weird old ladies who run the building, but he quickly decides the apartment is a keeper when he sees the incredible leather clad temptress named Nicolle (also played by Mary Huner!) who lives next door. Alex’s wet dreams about Nicolle quickly turn to nightmares when he hears blood curdling screams coming from her apartment at night.

Things get even more strange when Alex meets another neighbor named Roman. Roman is a space case punk rocker that offers Alex a dinner of green slime he calls Himalayan Yogurt. Alex is too nice to turn him down and digs in. He’s pleasantly surprised to discover that that nasty looking green yogurt tastes great. Then Alex tucks into a bottle of blue piss that was brewed years before by an evil occultist relative of Nicolle’s. The evil elixir causes Alex to hallucinate and he wakes up the next morning covered in slime. A few hours later he begins to melt and his face is covered with sores leaking multi-colored pus. A hobo talks some trash at Alex while he pukes in a back alley and Alex snaps and kills the bum with a lead pipe. Spilling the hobo’s blood causes Alex to turn back to normal, and he runs home horrified with what he has done.

Alex tries to pass off the whole experience as a crazy hallucination caused by drinking the homemade wine. Roman agrees and tells Alex that the wine makes him hallucinate all the time. Alex tries to go on with life as normal, but he soon develops a mysterious hunger for the green slime and an unquenchable thirst for the mysterious wine. Alex repeatedly mutates into a slobbering melting monster and becomes possessed with an evil spirit that compels him to kill anyone conveniently located in the apartment building or the surrounding streets. As the body count rises, Alex struggles to remain himself while he learns the sinister secrets of a cult that committed suicide in the basement of the building. A distraught Lori seeks the advice of a psychic and winds up tearing Alex’s heart out. Literally. This is truly a horror film with GUTS!

The makeup and gore effects in Slime City are outrageous. The film gradually gets gorier and gorier as it goes and the over the top carnage in the climax ends the film on a high note. The splatter is the star of the show, and there are numerous violent scenes that give the star plenty of precious screen time. The violence fluctuates wildly from simple slasher flick styled knifings and beatings to over the top set pieces of limbs being chomped on by ravenous gaping wounds in the proud tradition of The Thing and Videodrome. There’s also buckets of puke and slime, making the title of the film more than appropriate. The monster makeup on actor Robert Sabin is also worth mentioning. His graphic and gory transformation from an average looking Joe to a puking pus dripping monster is convincingly disgusting, even more so considering the low budget of the film. It rivals stuff you see in horror flicks with much bigger budgets.

But surprisingly, the splatter doesn’t completely steal (or carry) the show. There is also an interesting and unusual storyline. The film takes quite a few unusual twists and turns before finally degenerating into a pile of putrescent ooze. There’s also a lot more laughs than I expected. Not laughs because the film was pathetic either, I mean the film was genuinely amusing. The acting is also much better than you typically find in low budget horror flicks. Robert Sabin is quirky and likable, and makes a sympathetic lead, even when he is bashing in the skulls of winos or slicing hookers with straight razors. Mary Huner is amazing in her dual role of sweet virginal Lori and sultry seductive Nicole. Her performance is crucial actually, because if they had an unattractive girl or a hot girl who couldn’t act it would have never worked. Mary looks great and plays both roles perfectly. Her incredibly sexy dancing in Alex’s wet dreams is exactly the type of padding I like to see in a film!

Speaking of dancing, that brings up the burning question that kept repeating itself in my head when I was reading about this flick for the last two years – WHY HAVEN’T I HEARD OF THIS MOVIE? Incredibly, the answer can be summed up in two words: DIRTY DANCING. That’s right, Dirty Dancing. Middle America may have had the time of their lives when they fell in love with Patrick Swayze and learned that no one puts Baby in a corner, but splatter fiends had the WORST time of their lives when Vestron Pictures decided to celebrate their incredible box office success with Dirty Dancing by dropping their upcoming low budget Vestron Video vhs releases like a bad habit. Sadly, Slime City was one of the releases that Vestron Video cancelled.

Old school horror fans know all about Vestron Video. They were at one point a horror fan’s best friend. Their unrated vhs releases of Re-Animator, Pieces, The Mutilator, Slaughter High, and Splatter University were staples of any respectable horror collection. There is no doubt in my mind that Slime City would have joined the ranks of those other well known 80′s splatter classics with a Vestron Video vhs release, and it would have happened…if it wasn’t for Dirty Dancing. Vestron dropped their deal with Greg Lamberson, and Slime City fell into distribution oblivion. There was a limited vhs release, but not enough to make much of a splash in the splatter pool. The film deservedly went on become something of a cult classic, and bootleg vhs copies were an underground favorite for many years. This flick has it’s place in horror history, but it could have been much bigger. I have a hard time enjoying Road House now that I know that Dalton is partially responsible for me not having the chance to see Slime City back in the day.

Everyone can see Slime City now that the good folks at Shock-O-Rama Cinema have released Greg Lamberson’s SLIME CITY GRINDHOUSE COLLECTION on dvd. This nifty set contains 4 films on 2 dvds: Slime City, Undying Love, Naked Fear, and Johnny Gruesome. I have to admit, I’m sick of seeing the word “Grindhouse” on countless slapdash dvd collections. This is one of the rare exceptions where the name is actually appropriate. Greg not only spent countless hours watching films in grindhouse theaters in the 80′s, he also managed one! Collecting four of Greg’s films and packaging them under the Grindhouse title actually makes sense and doesn’t feel like like another lame cash in attempt on that flick of the same name that tanked at the box office. Unlike other filmmakers and greedy dvd distributors, Greg actually earned a living in the grindhouses, and that experience gives him the right to use the name for this release.

The SLIME CITY GRONDHOUSE COLLECTION includes four films and more bonus features than you can shake a severed limb at. I spent the better of two days making my way through the movies and the commentary tracks, interviews, and mini-documentaries that accompanied them. Undying Love, Naked Fear, and Johnny Gruesome are all worthy of individual reviews, but for the sake of space I will quickly summarize them. Undying Love is the tale of a suicidal dude who meets a female vampire. Naked Fear is about an agoraphobic who makes the mistake of choosing a murderous claustrophobic as a roommate. Johnny Gruesome (starring Misty Mundae) is a rock-n-roll mini-movie about a high zombie who wants revenge against the drug dealers that killed him. I enjoyed some of these flicks more than others, but all three delivered the goods with decent acting, passable (more or less) production value, and varying amounts of the juicy red stuff.

Add SLIME CITY to the mix, and you have four steaming slices of superior straight to video schlock. I’ve seen this collection going for well under $20 online and that is quite a bargain considering how much is included here. Fans of Troma flicks and the gory glory days of the 80′s horror craze need to see this flick. Some 24 years after the film finished shooting, the cult following has only just started to grow. Better late than never. Your tv will beg you for a pair of wipers, but your horror dvd collection will thank you! The SLIME CITY GRINDHOUSE COLLECTION is hands down one of the coolest dvd releases of the year, and should be considered a mandatory purchase for gorehounds. Brain Hammer approved!

KEEP THE BLOOD AND SLIME FLOWING!!!

NATURE’S GRAVE (aka Long Weekend) stars James Caviezel and Claudia Karvan as an unhappily married couple named Peter and Carla. In a last ditch effort to save the marriage Peter plans a weekend holiday on a remote beach in Australia. From the start, the vacation seems cursed. First Peter & Carla hit a kangaroo, then they lose their gps and cell phones. When they finally find the private beach they are looking for, the other couple they were supposed to meet up with is nowhere in sight.

Peter tries to make the best of the situation and immediately begins raping the land with his trusty speargun, surfboard, and rifle. He also tosses his beer bottles around like a jackass and does his best to destroy everything he touches. Carla is disgusted by Peter and continually bitches about everything she sees. After about 46 minutes of this shit things finally start to get interesting when an eagle attacks Peter and tries to claw out his eyes.

Just when I started to wake up and think this flick was finally going to snap into “Day Of The Animals” mode and begin to kick ass, it fell back into the familiar groove of arguing and camping and another long torturous stretch where nothing happens. A dead manatee washes up on the beach and slowly inches closer to the couple over the course of two days. GASP! I nearly shit my pants because that was so damned scary. Peter eventually finds some dead bodies, they argue some more, and then Carla splits. Peter and Carla both learn the hard way to respect nature, and Peter learns the importance of not stepping out in front of a truck.

NATURE’S GRAVE is the latest effort from director Jamie Blanks. This is the fourth flick in a row that Jamie has done that I didn’t like. He’s on quite a roll with me. Jamie also directed Valentine, Urban Legend, and Storm Warning. (You can check out my review of Storm Warning here) NATURE’S GRAVE is a remake of a 1978 Australian thriller titled “Long Weekend.” I have never seen “Long Weekend” but according to the the (very) little bit of research I did, this is an almost shot-for-shot remake. I had nothing to compare this to and went in with low expectations and I was still disappointed.

This was much more of a talky and slow building thriller than I was expecting. There’s a lot more talk than action in this one. The first 20 minutes or so are completely worthless. Just start 20 minutes in and you get the idea – angry couple goes camping. Then you go about 26 more minutes until something finally happens. Then about an hour and ten minutes into the thing it finally starts to ramp up the tension and you get a couple dead bodies and car crashes. Some viewers might appreciate the slow burn but I found myself reaching for the fast forward button. There’s one last attempt at some good gory fun, but at that point it was too little too late.

On the plus side, the film is beautifully shot and there are some decent shocks when the payoff finally arrives. I thought the acting in this one was quite good and James Caviezel and Claudia Karvan both turn in decent performances. Caviezel doesn’t take nearly as much of a beating in this one as he did in “The Passion Of The Christ,” but he does have almost as memorable of an exit. The ending was easily the best part of the film. Not only was it the coolest scene, it also made the movie go away. The setting and the premise were winners, but the end result was hard to sit through. The words LESS PLOT, MORE BLOOD kept echoing through my mind. Oh well. Better luck next time Jamie. NATURE’S GRAVE is now available on dvd from Screen Media Films.

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!

Timo Rose’s BEAST is a hair-raising horror tale about werewolves. It wastes no time at all and immediately kicks the viewers ass with some nasty gore when a pack of werewolf hunters in Romana are attacked and quickly ripped to shreds. The hunters are members of a worldwide underground organization that collects data on the beasts and tracks them down for slaughter. We then meet a pair of wacky werewolf warriors named Mike (Timo Rose) and Boomer on the trail of a pack in Germany.

We also meet a brooding and intense looking fellow named Alex (Joe Zaso) who had a deadly run in with the beasts and lost his girlfriend in the process. Mike pays his sister Amy (Raine Brown) an unexpected visit one night and Amy is shocked by how cold and unfeeling Alex is when talking about the violent demise of his girl. It doesn’t take long before Amy begins to realize there is something very wrong with her big brother.

Just when that drama begins playing itself out, the shit really hits the fan when Mike and Boomer have a wild encounter with a cracked out pair of rape happy robbers and then stumble upon the werewolves. They barely manage to escape with their lives and have to take shelter in the first house they can find. That house just happens to belong to Alex & Amy, and the hunters quickly take the siblings hostage and try to plan an escape. Seeing Amy’s life in danger is enough to make Alex go crazy with anger and unleash the monstrous secret that had been lurking inside him all along.

I thought BEAST was a cool flick. Timo Rose deserves much credit for delivering the goods and making a kick ass horror flick with plenty of splatter! Timo is a man of many hats. He’s the writer, producer, director, editor, and co-star. He’s also a white rapper who goes by the name King Hannibal! Timo has been making a name for himself in the horror genre over the last few years, and BEAST is his follow up to the equally brutal FEARMAKERS and BARRICADE. Timo is a truly a director with guts, and he happily splashes them all over the screen.

The gore is the star of the show, but the story and performances are also worthwhile. Special attention must be given to actress Yassmin Pucci, who looks fantastic and has a lot of funny lines about hairy King Kong balls. The dvd packaging touts “memorable cameos” by Night Of The Living Dead’s Judy O’Dea, scream queen (and personal punching bag of my drunken and shiftless editor Wil) Monique Dupree, and Gravedancers director Mike Mendez, but I have no idea what any of those people look like and couldn’t care less. One thing the cover gets right is the “sweeping score” by Marco Werba. I thought the score for this film was fantastic. It really added a touch of class.

Now comes the negatives. I thought this flick was overlong and from time to time it was hard to follow. The combination of German and English dialog is not always smooth, and the subtitles do not offer a lot of help in deciphering what the actors are mumbling about. Some of the digital effects are less than impressive, and I thought some of the scenes were too dark looking. The film sometimes tries a bit too hard to be funny, and there is an annoying little whistling theme that always accompanies the hijinks of the two hunters. By the time the film was over I was sick to death of hearing that shit.

Overall, I thought the good out weighs the bad and BEAST has big enough balls to deserve a pat on it’s hairy back. It’s one of the better werewolf flicks I’ve seen in a while, and the splatter alone makes it worth a look for sure. Timo Rose’s BEAST is available on dvd from Cinema Image Productions. The uncut limited edition includes audio commentary, behind the scenes footage, slideshows, trailers and other goodies. Brain Hammer approved!

KILLING ARIEL starts off with a bang as a young boy named Rick sneaks a peek at mommy and daddy in their bedroom one night and gets a steaming eyeful of mommy blowing daddy’s head off with a shotgun before turning it on herself. Things turn even more bizarre when a strange looking naked man suddenly appears from the darkness and begins chasing Rick throughout the house while whispering words of madness. Rick hides out in a closet until he is later discovered by his grandparents.

We than flash forward to the present. Rick is all grown up and clearly not right in the head. We see Rick talking to a psychiatrist about his troubled past. Rick is convinced that the mysterious naked man from his past was not only his mother’s lover, he was also an incubus. The rest of the flick plays out in flashbacks as Rick continues to take a twisted trip down memory lane. Most of the action takes place in 1973. At that point, Rick was happily married with two kids. Rick’s downward spiral begins one night with a sex dream where a demon molests him. This deranged dream apparently triggers a mid-life crisis within Rick, and he promptly dyes his hair to look younger and even buys a sports car.

Rick then crosses paths with a sexy young jogger named Ariel. Flirtation turns into adultery when Rick and Ariel plan a romantic weekend getaway at Rick’s childhood home – the same place where the murder/suicide took place. Ariel proudly refers to herself as a “sex demon,” and Rick has some fun banging her while she screams at the top of her lungs. The fun is short lived of course. It doesn’t take long before Rick begins having a series of hallucinations. The first one involves his wife catching him red handed with his mistress. As the hallucinations begin to get more and more surreal, Rick’s old pal the incubus shows up and starts in with the weird whispers. This causes Rick to become even more unhinged, and in a daze he grabs his trusty shotgun and goes ghost hunting. Rick tries to shoot the incubus but winds up accidentally blasting Ariel in the chest instead.

Rick is horrified by his mistake. In a panic, he wraps Ariel’s dead body in plastic and prepares to bury her in the backyard. Then Rick suddenly wakes up and finds Ariel alive and well and sleeping beside him. The rest of the film degenerates into a never ending cycle of “she’s dead…she’s alive…no wait, she’s dead.” Try as he might, Rick just can’t seem to keep evil Ariel down for the count. Ariel continually torments Rick as he repeatedly shoots her, stabs her, and even chops off her head. Just when Rick thinks he finally has the situation under control, he wakes up and the horror begins all over again. Think “Groundhog’s Day,” only with a crazy guy who can’t seem to kill his annoying demon lover.

I thought KILLING ARIEL was an offbeat horror flick that ultimately gets bogged down with a repetitive flashback story structure. It’s also a bit confusing in places. The acting and special effects were spot on though. I thought the lead actor was fun to watch. You can tell that writer and co-director Fred Calvert had his heart in the right place. The biggest problem I had with this one was the fact that the film endlessly goes around in circles and never really resolves itself. Perhaps if the film was a bit shorter, or if it had a more satisfying climax it could have been a bigger winner.

That said, I’ve seen worse. Compared to some of the other low budget independent horror flicks I get sent to review, KILLING ARIEL is well made and decently acted. That actually makes it more disappointing to me. This could have been a very original and entertaining little horror flick, but I think it falls a bit short of the mark and winds up being just passable entertainment. Not Brain Hammer approved, but it might be worth a rental. KILLING ARIEL is currently available on dvd thanks to the good folks at MTI Home Video.

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!

Gory greetings horroryearbook alumni! Welcome to another exciting edition of IT CAME FROM THE MAILBOX, an exciting column where your old pal Brain Hammer reviews whatever random crap the good folks at horroryearbook decide to throw my way.

Barnholtz Entertainment was nice enough to send along a screener copy of the latest direct to dvd serial killer epic from writer/director Michael Feifer. Feifer has a been a busy man in the last few years, cranking out a string of grisly straight to dvd serial killer bio-pics including Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck, Ed Gein: Butcher Of Plainfield, Boston Strangler: The Untold Story, and B.T.K. with Kane Hodder. You can check out my review of B.T.K. here.

Notorious 1970′s serial killer Ted Bundy gets the treatment this time around. It’s obvious that Michael Feifer holds Ted Bundy in high regard, as this film was originally titled Bundy: An American Icon. The title has since been changed to the less offensive sounding Bundy: A Legacy Of Evil. No time at all is wasted in this one, as we are immediately thrown into a disturbing scene of Ted Bundy in action as he torments and then kills a terrified young girl that he has abducted and raped. Once Bundy’s appetite for for torture and murder has been well established we get to see flashbacks of Ted as lad, finding out the hard way that his older sister is actually his mother. Ted never knew who his father really was, and the shame of his illegitimate upbringing helped fuel his madness.

Ted Bundy (portrayed by Corin Nemec) was a handsome and charming young man who worked his was up from humble beginnings and went to college to study psychology. Ted even volunteered at a suicide crisis center. He was also a violent psychopath with a body count that reached well into triple digits. Bundy grew quite adept at acting both harmless and helpless and would even wear fake casts to lull his victims into a false sense of security. Once the girls and Ted were alone together the bludgenings, abductions, and violent murders would become a deadly routine. Bundy decapitated at least a dozen of his victims, and even burned one unfortunate girls skull in a fireplace.

Police arrest Bundy on suspicion of burglary and then connect Bundy to the kidnapping of several missing girls. Incredibly, Bundy escapes from prison not once but twice and makes a cross country trip to Florida that leads some to some of the most vicious killings in history. Once in Florida, Bundy’s dark side completely takes over and he unleashes his inner rage in a night of bloody mayhem that climaxes with five girls being clubbed, bludgeoned, strangled, and raped. Bundy’s final outrage comes a few weeks later when he abducts, rapes, and murders a 12 year old girl. A stolen car leads to his final arrest and capture, and the legacy of evil comes to a close when Bundy is executed in the electric chair in January of 1989.

Ted Bundy captured the interest of the public for being one of the very first killers identified as a serial killer. He was also unusually handsome and well spoken for a man convicted of multiple brutal murders. Perhaps more than any other killer in history, Ted Bundy proved that evil could hide behind the face of the boy next door. Ted Bundy has been the subject of countless books and now five different films. The most well known would have to be the 1986 NBC made for tv movie The Deliberate Stranger starring Mark Harmon. More recently, there was a fairly accurate and lurid straight to dvd flick by Matthew Bright called Ted Bundy that came out in 2002. I thought Ted Bundy was a brave flick for showing a lot of Bundy’s deviant crimes in great detail and for having a lot of insight into his character. I wasn’t sure what to think about Michael Feifer having a crack at him. I’ve enjoyed some of his efforts a lot more than others.

Well I’m happy to say that Bundy: A Legacy Of Evil is not only a cool flick, it’s hands down the best flick that Michael Feifer has done to date. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that this one stays close to the source material and doesn’t try too hard to change an already sick and terrifying story. The other reason this one works is Corin Nemic. I think he did a really good job in the lead role. He looked right, and he played the part with just the right amount of tounge in cheek. There is an unbelievable scene where Ted finds a dead wolf in the woods and begins howling like a maniac. Bundy had claimed that he had a dark animalistic side of his personality that would possess him, and this strange scene is a cool representation of that aspect of his demented mind.

It also helps that Bundy: A Legacy Of Evil is a bit more interesting to look at than some of Feifer’s other efforts. I thought the Chi Omega sorority slaughter was the visual highlight of the film. It was a bit more restrained than I expected, but I liked the way it was presented. All of the death scenes in this movie are excellent. Corin goes completely off the rails and his victims are all good actresses that make the scenes convincingly uncomfortable to watch. Unlike Matthew Bright’s Ted Bundy, this film does not try to make the death scenes amusing in any way. The endings of both films are a little less than satisfactory, but we all know how the story is going to ends anyways.

Bundy: A Legacy Of Evil co-stars the one and only Kane Hodder in a small supporting role of a warden who takes Bundy on the long walk. I was glad that Kane didn’t have the lead role this time around. He was miscast in Ed Gein: Butcher Of Plainfield, and he would have made an even less convincing Ted Bundy. Michael Feifer has a flick called Henry Lee Lucas: Drifter in the works and I’m excited to see what he can do that hasn’t been done already in Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer or Confessions Of A Serial Killer. I’m not a huge fan of all of his efforts, but hats off to the guy for bringing these killers to life. If he keeps making flicks as good as this one he should become a bigger name in horror.

I think fans of serial killer flicks should give this one a go. The scene where Ted roasts a severed head in the fireplace alone makes this one worth seeing. I thought this was one of the better straight to video serial killer efforts I’ve seen in a while. Bundy: A Legacy Of Evil will be released on dvd Tuesday 07/21/09. The special features include director’s commentary and a stills gallery. Brain Hammer approved!

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!

Gory greetings horroryearbook alumni! Welcome to another exciting edition of IT CAME FROM THE MAILBOX, a column where your old pal Brain Hammer reviews whatever random crap the good folks at horroryearbook decide to throw my way.

Actually, the good folks (folk?) at horroryearbook had nothing to do with this one. This time around I was contacted directly by my chum Sonny Fernandez. Sonny should a familiar name to anyone who spends quality time on this fine website. Sonny is non other than the hardworking mastermind behind Down Twisted Studios. I’ve already reviewed four of his past efforts in previous ICFTMB columns. You can check out those reviews here and here.

Sonny is perhaps best known around these parts for suffering much verbal abuse from my drunken and shiftless editor Wil on an episode of the short lived horroryearbook internet radio show. Sonny earned even more of my respect that night for taking the abuse like a champ, and Wil must have felt bad when he sobered up and heard the show the next morning because he gave Sonny his very own section on the horroryearbook message boards.

Sonny never stops working. His latest independent EPIC is an HP Lovecraft inspired freakshow titled THE LAST BATTLEGROUND. TLB tells the twisted tale of a night when all hell breaks loose and the sins of mankind come crawling out of the darkness to consume and possess the souls of the wicked. The cast of characters are a seemingly random group of outcasts including an exceptionally pretty and mysteriously clean looking homeless girl, a feminine sounding artist with a gift for clairvoyance, an emotionally battered girl who talks to an imaginary friend and her abusive asshole boyfriend, and a pair of cold blooded (and young looking!) hit men.

This odd assortment of humanity, as well as several others are all thrown into the depths of insanity when hideous looking monsters begin roaming the streets devouring the flesh of the innocent. People are forced to run for lives and try to find a safe place to hide. This proves to be impossible, as the monsters cause chaos on the streets and quickly cause society as we know it to collapse. With no police and no government coming to the rescue, the outcasts are forced to band together to survive. But do they deserve to survive?

First things first, let me say that the fact that I consider Sonny Fernandez to be one cool motherfucker has nothing to do with my feelings about this film. I review all films with an open mind, and I try my hardest not to let my personal feelings about the filmmakers influence my opinions. That said, I really liked this one! I would have to say that this is definitely the best film Sonny has done to date. This one has more monsters and mayhem than all of his other films put together. Some of Sonny’s other efforts were a bit too drawn out for my tastes, but TLB had the right balance of character development and non-stop action. The scenes where the characters attempt to drive away from the mayhem only to find themselves right in the middle of it were exciting to watch. There was a genuine feeling of frenzy in these scenes and the fast editing and chaotic camera work added a lot of intensity.

I’m supposed to be a critic, so now I will criticize a bit. The only complaints I have about this one are the usual complaints I have about most homemade horror flicks, mainly the fact that the acting isn’t very good and that the effects aren’t always very convincing looking. In some ways this actually adds to my enjoyment of the film. It’s obvious that this is nothing more than a group of friends having a blast making a movie. It’s hard for me to hate that. I have to say that I much prefer the handmade monsters effects and bloodshed that Sonny creates over the digital stuff that he attempts though. My advice (whatever that is worth!) would be to stick to what’s “real,” and perhaps not to make any more cardboard bazookas!

The reason I think TLB (and for the most part all of Sonny’s flicks) works is because Sonny is a talented writer. His story ideas are always damn original, and his characters and dialog are nicely fleshed out. Unlike Sonny’s other flicks, I actually noticed a few obvious horror influences this time around. The scene where a guy apologizes to his ex-girlfriend for skipping town and talks about falling on his ass was lifted directly from My Bloody Valentine. Another scene gave me flashbacks of Roger telling Peter not to let him come back as a zombie in Dawn Of The Dead. I think this sort of familiarity should be welcomed in modern ORIGINAL horror flicks. I’d much rather see that than another lame fucking remake.

Sonny was nice along to send along a two-disc (!) screener copy of THE LAST BATTLEGROUND. The bonus disc contained a lot of funny bloopers, several deleted scenes with introductions and explanations from Sonny, behind the scenes special effects footage, and trailers for TLB and his upcoming vampire-chick flick The New Girls Did I mention that Sonny is friends with a LOT of hot looking chicks? That doesn’t hurt his films either! It would be nice to see this flick get some proper distribution. I think Sonny’s flicks keep getting better and better and he really deserves a larger audience. All horroryearbook alumni are highly encouraged to support the man and check out his flicks! You can keep up with the latest Sonny Fernandez happenings at his official myspace page.

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!