Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Well, in light of Mr. Tobe Hooper's passing, I decided to re-watch the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It has been ages since I've watched and I really wanted to see it now that I'm older....maybe wiser? And I actually found things I had not seen in my youth. It's a film with a lot going on. Much more than a non-existent "massacre".









With a budget of $300,000, he cranked this film out as fast as he could - often shooting seven days a week. The film's lead - Marilyn Burns - must have been mute by the end of the shoot with all the screaming she does here.

I'm not going to go over the basics in too much detail. I'm sure if you're reading this, you've seen the film already. You've had over 40 years to watch it, lazy bones. :)  In short....



College folks in a van head to their family home in Texas, they give a ride to the WRONG hitchhiker, they get involved with the wrong folks, and most of them are dispatched quickly and horribly.

The film has several iconic scenes that come up in almost every horror documentary you can see. heheheh  Some of them are chilling to this day. Hooper's direction is fantastic. Scenes are shot well with a ton of thought put into the framing and execution. You can see the vision behind the shots. They are worked out brilliantly with a lot of work put in to get them looking right.

This shot for instance.....

The character of Pam played by Teri McMinn is sitting on a rocker outside and stands when her boyfriend doesn't answer her from inside the house. (Yeah...this doesn't end well....)  She makes her way to the house and the camera follows, slipping under the rocker and gliding with her as she walks to the house. As she gets closer, the house looms up - bigger and bigger as it blocks out the blue sky. GREAT shot. 

There are other shots where the framing is spot on.  Sally (Marilyn Burns) runs for help and, as she waits for the person to get their car, she's blocked in on the far right of the screen with an open room behind her. This creates a TON of tension. I really thought someone was going to creep up behind her. But, no, just tension. Fun stuff.

The grinding, banging, discordant soundtrack helps build that tension as well. With the screaming madness of the Family, Burns' desperate screams, and the insane soundtrack, things are ramped up quickly and you get a feeling of nails on a chalkboard.

And overall, for a film called Texas Chainsaw Massacre, there's not a ton of death and violence in here, but what IS there is really, really awful and terrifying. Hammer blows, meat hooks, and the titular CHAINSAW come into play and the visceral, violent goings on are cringe worthy.

There's also an attention to detail that kinda blew me away. I mean...$300,000 in 70s cash is nothing to shake a stick at, but it's also not a TON of money. There is so much work done to the sets and little details in the characters that I noticed this round that it's a little mind-blowing. Even down to Leatherface's serrated teeth. It adds to the creep factor. There are some aspects that didn't do as well - like Grandpa's old age makeup, but it's still a sight to see.

I didn't really pick up on the supernatural elements until this viewing. They almost elude to the happenings happening due to the Hitchhiker's actions - the bloodletting and writing of a symbol on the van as it drives away. Did he bind the van folks to him through magical means? Did the items left of the porch drive the van folks to the horrific ends they met? Kinda interesting to think about.


There are a LOT of people that need to thank Mr. Hooper for their successes. At least giving him MAJOR props for ideas and styles. (You know who you are, horror filmmakers!) I think I'll be running through more of Tobe Hooper's work in the near future.  I just caught the film I'M DANGEROUS TONIGHT - a solid 1990's made for TV film, and his work is super solid and interesting. I think SALEM'S LOT will be next if I can track it down!

Thanks for reading! 

Burial Ground (1981)

Wow....

I had seen clips from Burial Ground on numerous clip shows, but seeing the whole film really mad a much bigger impact. It's a fun zombie epic siege film that is now on my FAVORITE ZOMBIE MOVIES list for sure.

A professor is exploring some old ruins and discovers something big. He invites a bunch of people to the site - a manor house is there as well, and goes back down to o more exploring. BOOM! Zombies swarm him and he's gone. And...the guests are still on their way. You can see where this is going. heheheh

The dubbing is a mess and the acting is...well...also a mess in places, but it all comes together wondrously in a bloodbath of Italian flavored goodness and tool wielding zombies! We have everything in here. Fire, head bashing, bear traps, popped eyes, gore and gore and gore, axes, wrestling.... The list goes on and on!

Andrea Bianchi's direction is an odd mix of great and horrid, but the film pops along at a grand pace. The cast is solid and play their parts well enough to keep things moving. It even has the ever creepy Pietro Barzocchini in it. He always freaks me out.

If you are looking for zombies and blood, this is your movie. There are some grand kills in here and some fun zombie looks. It's a visceral, nasty little film that manages to pack a LOT of action in. It made me so...very happy. :)

Again, SHUDDER adds more and more of this awesome content each week. They are really knocking it out of the park!

You simply must check this film out if you have not already. A great pairing for this would be NIGHTMARE CITY.

Crucible of Horror / The Corpse

(( Minor Spoilers, but it really doesn't matter with this film! heheheh ))

I was in a British 70s horror mode a few days back, so I tossed on THE WICKER MAN (THE ORIGINAL, not the Cage-ified version) - a feature I had not seen all the way through in one sitting for one reason or another. Well, it turns out after viewing it that I had never even seen it! I was so happy, even though I knew what the end twist was. It was fun to watch it play out.

After basking in it's glory for a few moments, I wanted to see some more British horror, so I ran through some of the NETFLIX offerings to find more 70s UK horror goodness....and found CRUCIBLE OF HORROR instead. hehehehe

Now...mind you...I didn't hate the film. Not at all. It stuck with me on many levels. However, there were moments where I thought I passed out and missed something. Whole chunks of plot and story line just...disappear in this film right from the opening.


Michael Gough plays a sadistic Father who rules his home with an iron fist and schoolmaster cane. His wife is a wreck - doped and sealed up in her room painting during the days. The son works with the father in finance and is a proper Brit ponce. And the daughter played by Sharon Gurney is supposed to be 16, but looks like she's 26. :)


The son kisses up to the father properly and is a little lapdog, so the father leaves him alone. The daughter, however, is abused daily - possibly even sexually by the horrid father, as the mother sits weakly by doing nothing. The daughter is beaten, her mail is gone through and she's kept from doing much of anything. Finally, the mother and daughter decide that it's time to do something about the situation. They need to kill the father.

They hatch a plan and set off to do the deed when he's off at a hunting weekend, but something goes...very wrong...with their plan.


WHOLE POINTS, SCENES, AND CHARACTERS DISAPPEAR IN THIS FILM!!!!!  hehehehe  It's wild. The very beginning of the film shows the dad being a menace, so we know he's evil from the get-go. However, there's a scene in the very beginning of the film where the daughter returns from a trip via bicycle, heads upstairs and pours a smoking liquid into a perfume bottle - the image used on the poster. However, I don't recall ever SEEING THE DAMN THING EVER AGAIN! heheheh No mention of it. It's just...gone.



People have whole exchanges with the family in one way or another, then...poof...they are just gone, seemingly outliving their welcome and just...not being brought up again.

Then towards the end, you know something is going on, but think that maybe there will be a HUGE twist reveal of some sort.


The brother knew about the women's plot against the father and uses it against them somehow? Nope.

The father knew, got the son involved, then the two of them were pitted against the two women? Nope.

They were spotted by the neighbor who has the hots for the "16 year old" daughter and HE was messing with them? Nope.

MAGIC? The Father was so evil that he came back to life? I don't have ANY idea....maybe?

Well....major spoiler.

The father just comes back to life, scares the crap out of the mother and daughter, then everything goes back to the usual day to day abuses and boring breakfast banter. The daughter stares on as if drugged - not believing what's going on, I guess. The father opens another love letter, tears it up and says, "Well, I don't think you'll be going out to meet any boys today, will you?" or something to that effect.


A one liner is tossed at the mother by the father ("What are you going to do today? More of your PAINTINGS?") then the camera pans over to the mother and it looks like she's aged 15 years. Maybe 25. She's old, grey and wrinkled. Then, she slowly fades away. Yeah....fades away and disappears.

WHAT?!?!?!?   WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED HERE?!?!?!???!?!

This film has all the makings of a classic, HAMMER HORROR style mystery, but runs so far off the rails it's crazy making. Things happen in here that had me re-watching whole scenes because I just didn't get it.

I had to do some digging to see if I missed something or if it was just really a cluster-F of a film and it turns out...it's just a cluster-F. It's script is at fault - the acting and the way it's shot is really spot on for what the film is and is a lot of fun to watch. But it just goes south at one point and spirals into this WONKY ZONE of "what the fuck?"

I'd love to get the inside scoop on this film. How did this happen? I mean, someone watched this after it was done and said, "Yup, that's about right. Let's release it." It's mind boggling. 

Take a look for yourself. It's a must see for the strangeness of the script alone. The score is grand as well. So mysterious and swirly - just like the film itself, I guess. COMMENT!

Complete film----

Coffin Joe

Why the HELL haven't I seen a Coffin Joe film yet?
Before 2014. It's going to happen. :)

Sugar Hill

Let me start this off by saying I'm a person of Native American, African American and South American descent. I also like knowing about the history of said peoples in the media, but I have not made a big effort to see much in the "blacksploitation" arena. So, I thought that a nice way to start the exploration off would be in some blacksploitation genre cinema.

For those questioning what the heck blacksploitation is, it was basically a style of film created to hit a more urban, ethnic audience after people realized that they had money to spend in the theater as well! heheh So, films like BLACK DYNAMITE and SHAFT were born. They featured black lead characters and "black situations" that producers thought would appeal to black audiences and get them out to spend some cash. Unfortunately, many of these were made by people cashing in on stereotypes. Even more unfortunate was that fact that it still worked and got people into theater seats. 




Wow. Sugar Hill was a fantastic choice, I believe. (I almost went with Blacula. A trained, black Shakespearean actor in the role is something I need to see in it's entirety.)

Sugar Hill tells the tale of Diana Hill - dubbed "Sugar" by her loving boyfriend. Sugar and her man are happy and doing well. He runs a club and is doing very well. Well, that is until the mob makes him an offer he CAN refuse. He does so and is murdered by them. Sugar exacts her revenge on them one by one with the help of the voodoo god Baron Samedi and his zombie army. Sound good? That's only because it is! :)

Baron Samedi is friggin' awesome! He's over the top and nutty with his top hat and cane. Sugar Hill is a powerful and strong black woman who takes matters into her own hands. And, none of the black people in the film are "shuckin' and jivin'" like I've seen in trailers for other blacksploitation films. These characters speak well and have good jobs. They are not pimps and hos, as it were. I loved that. The acting, while very 70s, isn't bad and the film works really well as a complete story. I have to say, I was a little shocked. :)


The zombies? Not horrible. You can tell that the effects budget or skill wasn't there, but they had one thing going that I really enjoyed - these crazy, shining and bulging gold eyes. A simple trick, but effective. It really made these zombies stand out. It was also fun to have them as voodoo based and not your toxic or plague zombies that you see so much of today. Their cobweb covered, slow moving way was fun and came across well.


The Director on this was Paul Maslansky. This was his only film behind the director title, but he went on to produce several films including the POLICE ACADEMY movies and the ever creepy RETURN TO OZ. 

I cut this film a LOT of slack due to where it came from, what I was watching it for and the time period in which it was made. I really didn't need to cut it slack, however. It held my attention and will be one that I go back and watch again at a later date. It was a fun filled time capsule that was well worth viewing.

Vintage Halloween Costumes

Nothing like some old-time, creepy, Halloween costumes to really set the mood.

I don't care how simplistic these costumes seem - they are some of the most frighting and oddly disturbing items that I've seen.


Just picture walking down the street at night - or, even during the daytime! - and seeing some of these little creatures walking towards you. Maybe singing a little tune?