Here are the first four contests in my better-late-than-never Grindhouse Brackets. “Submitted for your approval,” in the words of the late great Rod Serling, are the trailers for these fine flicks below. You’ll also find a poll embedded under each match-up to record your votes, which will remain open only for the next 168 hours (or, one week from today)! I’ll close these polls then, and move on to the next four matches at that point. Without further ado, today’s lineup:
Classic 1950s Horror/Sci-Fi
First up, we pit the never-should-have-been-remade science fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) against the equally classic The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954):
Horror From the 1980s, or Close Enough
Next, let’s put Christine (1983) against The Amityville Horror (1979), for more current match-up featuring inanimate objects. Amityville is not technically from the 80s, but it might as well be:
Shlock on Wheels!
Thirdly, how about a motorcycle-themed Troma vs. Herschell Gordon Lewis slugfest, with Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (1989) vs. She-Devil On Wheels (1968):
Animals On the Loose!
Lastly for this time, we have a couple wild animal faves, both from The Year of Our Lord, 1976:
I don’t do this as often as I would like, but here are some more cool exploitation/B-movie/old horror movie posts I’ve enjoyed lately. I enjoy reading other posts on films that I might like to cover in this blog, and calling out some quality posts on this end of the cinema pool seems a good way to keep interest going in these sorts of films. Also, I’ve recently discovered the “re-blog” feature here in WordPress, so fellow WP users who do fine posts will find their stuff re-blogged in my “Quick Takes” section at left.
First things first: Starburstinforms us that the first three seasons of Airwolf–the only ones that matter are now on DVD! I loved this show back in the day, no Saturday night was complete without the family gathered around the tube watching more mid-80s Cold War hijinx ensue from a super-chopper run by some shadowy secret organization. I had forgotten that star Jan-Michael Vincent, whose alcoholism got the better of his career, was also in Lassie and the Danger Island segment of “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour.”
Essentially a murder mystery, combined with a haunted house story, combined with a tale of psychics and witches, combined with a slasher film, topped off with some possession undertones and a general sense of strangeness.
Looks like the good folks at Troma put this flick on YouTube in its entirety a while back when they did the same for a hundred-plus of their back catalog:
Thirdly, having just watched Witchfinder General(1968) not so long ago, I was very keen to see Church of Splatterday Saints review Mark of the Devil (1970), which cashes in on the success of the Vincent Price classic, but with more gory violence. As much as I enjoyed Witchfinder, I think I expected more explicit violence from it–Mark of the Devil fills that niche nicely.
Also, check out this recent interview with Michael Armstrong, who directed Mark of the Devil:
Fourthly, the “animals-on-the-loose” ripoff of Jaws entry goes to Dogs (1976) (H/T Outpost Zeta), with David McCallum.
Fifthly, Horror-Movies.ca has a nice list of seven underrated apocalypse movies that you should check out. I love this list because some unexpected stuff–way outside conventional horror fare shows up. Click through to see the rationale for including these, but here are the trailers–I’ll be (re-) watching these soon. While you’re at it, check out the first half of a profile of the great Mario Bava here.
The 1992 version of the “Plan 9 From Outer Space” video game
Fifthly, Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) will again be adapted as a video game. The first adaptation was about 20 years ago for Atari ST and Amiga. I believe Plan 9 was the only one of Ed Wood’s movie to be adapted into both a video game and a porn flick (and oddly, within about a year of one another!)
Plan 9: The Porn! (1993)
Sixthly, Horrorpedia takes on a couple fun and schlocky flicks: Kiss of the Vampire, the 1963 version of Hammer’s Christopher Lee-less Dracula sequel and Fred Olen Ray’s Star Slammer (1989), featuring reclycled footage from two other must-sees: The Deadly Spawn (1983) and Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). Any re-uses of these gems must be epic.
Lastly, 3S Horror reviews another Troma masterpiece, Lust For Freedom(1987). Pretty standard 80s women-in-prison fare, with a couple decent one-liners:
I’ve been knocked down and insulted. I’m hot and dirty. I’m calling it a day.
Cops were dying all over the place and all I could do was act like a woman. I knew my days as a cop were over.
I saw your girlfriend french kissing a donkey on the reservation.
