Dirty Books (2016): Indie Short Subject

The days and remembrances of high school. Most of us have experienced those years, of social awkwardness and spending more time trying to get laid than trying to get straight A's. As a matter of fact, high school has been a popular theme in movies; about social awkwardness and trying to get laid. For many of us high school was also about being involved; whether that be with clubs, the school newspaper, or juggling our social circles. Not all high school movies are about social awkwardness and getting laid though. Along comes Dirty Books, a short subject which not not only tells a compelling story, but offers more satisfaction in a smart film of under 16 minutes than many, and I do mean MANY, films do in 90 minutes.

David, the editor of his high school's newspaper, is faced with an all too contemporary problem; his printed school newspaper is going to be phased out in favor of a school blog. In order to save his paper, David has to come up with a story that will get attention...even if he has to create that story himself.

There are several things which impressed me with this film, and I wish all too much contemporary filmmakers would take lessons from it. The direction and cinematography are excellent, as is the tight editing; there is not a dead moment or filler scene in this. Zachary Lapierre, the director, and Ian Everhart, the cinematographer, are obviously good judges of composition and perspective which are used to good effect in an excellently directed film, and why I chose to use the group shot of the cast for this review, over the poster, as it is a wonderful example of group composition.

I am finding out more and more what a good actor Timothy J. Cox is. I bring this up not only because he plays the school principal, Dr. Bradley, in this, but to also use him as a yardstick to rave about what a great job Noah Bailey does in the lead role of David. Cox is a seasoned actor, yet Bailey holds his own very well in scenes with the two of them together. I don't normally like to do comparisons, but Noah Bailey reminds me in some ways of Zach Braff, both having a self-assured confidence without being cocky. Keep your eyes on this young actor for great things to come in my opinion.

The cast as a whole is fantastic. The writing is natural and leaves no lingering dialogue. There are some subtexts to the story which I will not go into as it is only a 16 minute movie, and it would be more meaningful for you discover what they mean to you. I have an itch that the writers of this were fans of the show Scrubs, but I just can't scratch that itch and I'll leave it at that. Overall it is simply well done. Dirty Books is a high school comedy done smartly.

I give it a full 5 Daggers!

Availability

You can watch it for free on YouTube. Check out the IMDB listing here.

Zombie (1979): Very Much Digestible

Zombie (1979) - Lucio Fulci's zombie movie classic. Kind of killing the suspense of what I think of it, huh? Known variously as Zombi 2, Zombie Flesh Eaters and Gli Ultimi Zombi among various other titles worldwide. Following on the heels of Dawn of the Dead (1978), released as Zombi in Italy and other countries and hence why Zombie is also called Zombi 2 to appear related, Fulci defined the zombie movie and those who would follow in his tracks arguably more than Romero did with Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. Romero is obviously the granddaddy of the genre, but Fulci pumped his movie full of atmosphere, a feeling of apocalyptic doom in the air, deliberate pacing, and of course gut wrenching gore earning him the nickname the Maestro of Maggot Mayhem.

A mysterious, abandoned boat is adrift in New York Harbor. Events subsequently on that boat and the contents found on board set a reporter and a woman on a trip to an uncharted Caribbean island looking for her missing father, and into the grips of an unexplained epidemic causing the dead to rise from their graves.

The premise of Zombie is simple, and this premise would end up being copied for many movies to come. From the opening scene of voodoo drums beating in the background, a corpse tied up in a sheet used as a death shroud slowly rising as a man turns and fires a bullet into the head of the corpse, death is in the air as a tempo is set in place for the film to follow.

A constant presence of voodoo and superstition lingers throughout the film. From locals talking about the things they have heard to patients in a ramshackle mission hospital talking to their recently deceased while in a state of delirium, death lingers in the air. Flies abound, bodies wrapped in sheets are piled into a mass grave, all have been shot in the head. Despair is all around. This is not a redneck jaunt through a shopping center but a story of survival with an air thick with the apocalypse at hand.

Fulci successfully brings this story to the screen in a sickeningly beautiful presentation. The pacing is deliberate. There are no running zombies in this. The dead rise as though they are corpses; their movements punctuated by sounds as though rotting ropes are being twisted. The music is haunting, from voodoo drums to fully realized compositions. It is a masterpiece setting a standard not even equaled by Fulci.

I give it 5 Daggers.

Availability

DVD and Blu-ray

Video Trash: Pieces (1982)

What better marriage is there for a 1980s horror movie than a slasher flick and college coeds? Add to this mix another marriage, that of Christopher George and Linda Day George (as Linda Day) with early 80s horror movies. Now for good measure throw in a chainsaw, lots of blood, and of course those college girls have to get naked. This is not an instant recipe for success, misogyny yes, but the movie still needs to be entertaining to some degree.

Pieces begins with the all too common flashback sequence which pretty much defines where this movie is going. A young boy is harshly scolded by his mother after being caught putting together a jigsaw puzzle of a naked woman, and in return harshly hacks his momma to death with an axe. Some 40 years later (patient SOB he sure is) girls on a college campus are being dismembered with parts of their bodies gone missing. The police, an undercover female cop and a college student join forces to smoke out the madman, if they themselves don't get killed in the process.

Pieces is also the all too common 80s misogynistic trash. Being an 80s slasher flick alone is odds enough that it would be that, but then throw in girls getting naked then being cut up by a chainsaw wielding killer and it screams misogynistic trash. Interestingly it is also pretty well paced and does not bore, if you are the right audience for this movie.

From the very start of Pieces there is slicing and dicing. Unlike the tried and boring formula of many slasher flicks of the 80s, this does not waste time with stalking and superficial character development. There is no character development in this story, they are just characters on screen. The movie starts with a bloody killing and continues this spree. The pacing moves the movie along well while an underlying soundtrack that sounds more like it belongs in a zombie movie keeps the tempo.

As with this type of 80s trash you really don't have to worry with bad acting. Aside from Linda Day George's character and a secretary there are no female characters in this movie given any more importance than being chainsaw meat and there's not enough time for them to get in any bad acting. I stand corrected; there is Linda Day George's infamous "BASTAAARD!" scene which has gone down in movie history as an achievement of over-acting. Intelligent dialogue and a sensible plot are also something very much missing from this movie.

I give it 3 Daggers. For the right audience it offers plenty of blood, action and a decent amount of nudity from start to finish.

Availability

Blu-ray and DVD

10 Movies with Disembodied Heads

Fantastical cinema, horror and sci-fi, sometimes veers into very strange ground. I don't dare call the disembodied head (a head completely removed from the body) the strangest of those for the simple fact that if I took a hard look into other areas I would not only bet I could find an even stranger subject but many examples as well. For the purpose of this article I am sticking with a subject above the neck. I guess you could say this is taking the CAP off the subject.

I know, that was bad, but before I PART ways let me just say these 10 films only have the subject of a disembodied head in common. The nature of the disembodied head does vary. The majority of them deal with heads living without the benefit of a body, either through scientific or supernatural means. There is also a stone head, an embalmed head, and even shrunken heads; which just goes to prove you can get head in all shapes and sizes...oh that just sounded so wrong.


The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958) - Follows the natural events of digging a well to discover a box containing the head of a sorcerer, evil of course, who was beheaded some 400 years prior. Through the sorcerer's psychic powers people start killing each other. Never say to a sorcerer's head "I've had it up to here with you." Available on DVD

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) a.k.a. The Head That Wouldn't Die - A car crash results in a mad doctor's girlfriend being decapitated. What's a mad doctor to do but naturally keep her head alive in a pan while he searches for the perfect body for her. Talk about the hard way to get head from your girlfriend. Available on Blu-ray and DVD

They Saved Hitler's Brain (1963) a.k.a. The Madmen of Mandoras - When they said Hitler was the head of the Nazi Party, they really meant it. It seems those sneaky Nazis not only escaped to South America as everybody said they did, but they took Hitler's head with them; probably easier to get him through customs that way. The only thing standing in their way of resurrecting him is they didn't count on his brains being in his ass. Available on DVD

The Frozen Dead (1966) - Apparently taking a cue from the aforementioned They Saved Hitler's Brain in both plot and bad acting, this is the story of a scientist who keeps the heads of Nazi war criminals alive in order to find suitable bodies for them and resurrect the Third Reich. Goes to prove you just can't find a Nazi with a good head on their shoulders...maybe on someone else's shoulders. Available on DVD

The Thing with Two Heads (1972) - It seems Ray Milland lost his head, and as a result ended up doing this movie. Coincidentally the plot is about him losing his head and it being put on Rosey Grier's body, with Rosey's head still attached. They then proceed to disprove the old adage two heads are better than one. Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Zardoz (1974) - Okay, so it's really a floating stone head, which fits as you have to be pretty stoned to enjoy this movie anyway. Known primarily for grown men running around in red diapers. Available on DVD

Macabre (1980) a.k.a. Macabro - Co-written by Pupi Avati and directed by Lamberto Bava, Macabre tells the story of a woman traumatized by the death of her lover, and after getting out of a mental institution, dealing with her loss by keeping his head in the refrigerator and continuing a love affair with...it. Gives new meaning to the expression 'getting head'. Available on DVD

Re-Animator (1985) - Herbert West must have been a lonely child. His genius has allowed him to create a serum that re-animates the dead, but it also gives him this bad habit of playing with them, such as decapitating a college professor then re-animating his head and body seperately. The professor's head can still talk, and his body can still walk, though these two skills don't necessarily sync well. They always said that professor had a good head on his shoulders, but it's no longer there. Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Cemetery Man (1994) a.k.a. Dellamorte Dellamore - Being a caretaker of a cemetery can't be much fun, and even more so when in your cemetery the dead return to life and you have to kill them a second time. Thankfully you can depend on your dim-witted assistant who had a crush on a young lady decapitated in a motorcycle accident to take advantage of this and dig up her head to put in a gutted TV set to keep him company. Well, at least his TV still has EARS. Available on DVD

Shrunken Heads (1994) - Three teenagers are murdered, so a transplanted Haitian voodoo priest takes it upon himself to re-animate their heads so they can exact revenge. "You look...smaller" is not the line any teenage boy wants to hear. But they can fly and go splat. Available on DVD

Well now don't you go and get carried away about decapitating anybody watching all these movies. Just remember to keep your HEAD about you.

Robot Monster (1953): Malfunction Malfunction Malfunction

Robot Monster (1953) - The worst movie ever made? Well that's one of its reputations spread by those trying to make copy or sell a book, but those same people have obviously never seen a Ray Dennis Steckler movie if they proclaim Robot Monster to be the worst movie ever made. It is actually a very successful movie, but more on that later.

The evil Ro-Man has destroyed all life on Earth with his death ray, but somehow overlooked eight people, two of whom are pilots he kills in short order anyway and so this leaves only six survivors for the rest of the story. So consider the scenario: an alien invader with the technology and know-how to knock out the world's military forces and all human life on Earth, save for 6, is about to be outsmarted by the most idiotic bunch of people he couldn't have possibly in a million years missed.

Now as hokey and mindless as that plot may sound...it is exactly that.

Well how can that not be the worst movie ever made? Well, because it is so entertaining in its ineptitude. Some seasoned actors and some, well let's face it, bad actors speak dialogue so juvenile it must have been written by school children. Goofs abound throughout the movie including the camera being bumped and knocked off scene, a rocketship hurtling through space being bombarded with cosmic rays providing enough light to show that it's just a guy dressed in black holding a rocketship model, an evil alien who appears to be a gorilla wearing a space helmet carrying the heroine of the story off in his arms while she is seen in shots to be laughing and enjoying herself, oh the horrors.

Yes, Robot Monster is one messed up production that still somehow succeeds in being amazingly entertaining in its short running time of barely over an hour. Despite whatever the makers of this may have intended, and of one thing I'm pretty certain is it wasn't this, what they ended up with is one incredibly funny movie.

Despite Robot Monster's low budget of $16,000 it was shot in stereoscopic 3D using a two camera system, which very probably took up most of the budget. And with regard to the budget, the going story I have heard for years about the Ro-Man costume is that they did not have the budget for a proper spaceman suit so they hired an actor with his own gorilla suit and just added a space helmet to that. And an additional stunner is this was musically scored by Elmer Bernstein.

Robot Monster is simply not a well made movie. It could actually be used in a course on how not to make a movie. And yet it is very entertaining, it grossed one million dollars at the box office when it was released on a $16,000 budget, and it has burned a place in our collective consciousness of movie history to be remembered for ages. It may not be a good movie, but it was by far a very successful movie and remains a very entertaining movie for many.

I give it 2 1/2 Daggers for its entertainment value despite its many flaws, or perhaps because of them.

Availability

DVD

Rodan (1956): Kaiju Successfully Wings it

Rodan (1956) - Originally called Radon in Japan, no wonder this flying prehistoric giant creature has such a bad attitude, being named after a gas. This was the first color Kaiju movie released by Toho studios, the same studios that released Godzilla, and coincidentally the same actor who played Godzilla, wearing a suit of course, plays Rodan is this one. The English version uses several notable voice actors of the time for the dubbing, most notable of those was Key Luke and George Takei.

In a small mining village in Japan, nerves are frayed between miners leading to fights before descending into the mines. Flooding has been a problem as they dig deeper, but not as big of a problem as what they are about to uncover. It seems the underground chambers have been hermetically sealed by the earth for millions of years, preserving perfectly the eggs of a prehistoric Pteranodon, until the mining operation opened the chamber filling it with air and now a newly hatched giant flying reptile is terrorizing Asia.

Rodan is simply a fun movie. Probably my favorite among the Kaiju, Japanese giant monster movies, I have seen. It does not thrust Rodan onto the audience but builds up to the event presenting a mystery at first involving other smaller creatures. Rodan is still much of a mystery through a good bit of the first half as it flies at supersonic speeds and with its great wingspan producing hurricane force winds. This makes Rodan appear to be fearsome, and not to worry as Rodan will come into full force with fantastically fun battle scenes between the beast and the military.

Rodan is not without its problems. As the years have passed the Rodan costume now looks kind of silly. There is a lot of repetition of the same action sequences. Goofs such as, if you pay close attention, the background loop in one scene suddenly going in reverse. At times the miniatures used are so clearly the Tonka Toys they are. And often the dialogue is just so straight out of corny 50s sitcoms. Despite these flaws it is a fun movie, and even the flaws add some fun to it. It moves at a great pace and Rodan is one action-filled, butt-kicking mofo.

I give it 3 1/2 Daggers for being so much fun.

Availability

DVD

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): A Swingin' Time

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - When trouble arises our intrepid, gallant hero whips it out, I mean an actual whip, or pulls it out, I mean an actual revolver, and is one swinging guy... that just did not sound right.

A professor of archaeology and world adventurer, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) faces down danger constantly trying to secure the relics of our past for study and preservation in universities and museums, racing against those who would acquire such antiques for bounties, or for more sinister reasons. Taking place in the years before World War II, the Nazis are scouring the Earth in search of religious artifacts thought to have supernatural powers. One such artifact is the Ark of the Covenant as told in stories of the old testament and the torah. Indiana Jones is also on the trail of the Ark facing off against Nazis, would be assassins, and various other villains in a story straight out of the pulps.

The difference with this franchise spawning entry into pulp inspired adventure stories versus any movies which came before, is it is as vivid and exciting as anything a mind could dream up reading old issues of Doc Savage Magazine. A leather jacket and fedora clad, whip wielding adventurer with a gun strapped to his side lashes, shoots, rides, and fights his way out of predicaments only to find himself facing yet another predicament. His is an older world, one steeped in propeller airplanes, feisty dames, desert raiders, Nazis and occult lore. Telephones were things you used to tell an operator the number you wanted, probably a 3 or 5 digit number. A two-way radio would have weighed more than a microwave oven. And if you needed to contact someone for help, you were pretty much on your own.

Two successful movie directors teamed together to bring to life a story like it could have only been imagined before. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas brought the adventure of the 1930s pulps roaring full steam ahead into the 1980s. For better or worse Raiders of the Lost Ark spearheaded the 80s into the decade of the blockbuster.

I give it 5 Daggers. Even though I think Indy is a little meaner in this one, this is the movie which set the standard for others to follow, including itself.

Availability

DVD and Blu-ray

Iced (1988): Going Downhill Fast

Iced (1988) - This movie has two things going for it, both of which are Lisa Loring's breasts. You recall Lisa Loring played Wednesday Addams on the TV show The Addams Family in the 1960s. If you ever thought you would like to see Wednesday Addams naked, well you're just a pervert becasue she was a kid, but all grown up she can certainly get your ski lift working.

Away at a ski resort a group of friends are busy with food, feuding and fu... I mean making love. One of their party who apparently has a god complex about himself has had too much to drink and wants to fight just about everybody. He takes off at night to do some skiing and ends up getting himself killed. Four years later the remaining group of friends are invited to a ski weekend at a resort just opening, but something is amiss as someone is stalking and killing them.

Yadda, yadda, yadda, you've seen this plot before in so many slasher movies. Not only is this one late to the party having come out in 1988, it sinks to the bottom of the barrel from the start and doesn't surface for air once. From one of the most poorly edited openings it has been my displeasure to see in a slasher movie to the most inconsistent red herrings I do believe I have ever seen so disrespectfully dumped on an audience.

The identity of the killer in this is so overly obvious. How do the filmmakers try to overcome this? By filling the movie with red herrings to throw off the viewer. But the red herrings are so stupid. They actually succeed in having the killer in two places at once, and it's for no other reason to distract the audience from this movie having barely any plot. It is incompetent and insulting to a viewer's intelligence.

I give it 1 1/2 Daggers. And the only reason it gets and extra half Dagger is for Lisa Loring's hot tub scene. You can find it on YouTube.

Availability

VHS Only

The Presidio (1988): A Thriller Lacking Thrills

The Presidio (1988) - At an army base, the Presidio, an MP discovers a suspicious car parked outside a building on the base and signs of a break-in. While investigating the break-in she is shot dead by the intruders who then lead MPs and subsequently San Francisco police on a chase which results in two police officers being killed in a car crash. Police Inspector Jay Austin (Mark Harmon) is sent to the Presidio to investigate the crime. Austin used to be an MP at the Presidio and has a history with both the deceased and several of the officers on the base, including the provost marshal Lt. Colonel Caldwell (Sean Connery) who is also investigating the crime. Considering their past history, Austin and Caldwell do not get along well with each other, and Austin does not get along well with anybody at the base. Of course a growing relationship between Austin and Caldwell's daughter, Donna (Meg Ryan) does not help matters.

This is more of a mystery, or a police procedural, than a thriller. It is essentially two stories, a detective story and a romance, both of which are tepid at best. which is also my reaction to this movie. From a movie standpoint it hits its marks, so the story is there and it works. What is not there, to me, is tension. In many thrillers and mysteries there is a sense of danger, or essentially a threat to the investigator trying to solve the crime, but no such threat exists for our two frictional detectives (and I mean frictional) figuring out this case. Of course just as much time, or so it seems, is spent on the relationship developing, actually fully blown from the start, between Jay and Donna.

The Presidio lacks suspense and some elements of the story are head scratchers which most likely exist because they were on a list of things to include in a mystery movie regardless of whether they fit with the movie. The relationship between Jay and Donna is much the same as the mystery in that it springs to life suddenly. There really is no challenge or courage for the characters to face, and so it doesn't feel like much was accomplished in the end.

I give it 2 1/2 Daggers. It's a competent enough movie, but it is still lacking and I feel I wasted my time with it.

Availability

DVD and Blu-ray

Anderson Bench (2016): Blood Letting and Laughs

Anderson Bench (2016) - I'm guessing like many of us I didn't quite expect this movie to be what it is. When you think of blood splattered comedies, names like Herschell Gordon Lewis, David F. Friedman and Ted V. Mikels come to mind. Somehow I must have missed the boat in associating that guy from The Dukes of Hazzard, John Schneider. Well, it seems like a new name has been added to that list of producers/directors of twisted, blood splattered movies.

Anderson Bench (Jordan Salloum) is a down on his luck guy not too different from many of us who feel life has passed us by and left us spinning our wheels in the muck of our misery. His job of flipping burgers was probably not his goal in life, and married life for him is not any better. Then this young woman shows up out of nowhere and takes him on the ride of his life, a murderous ride that is.

That description would sound kind of like a horror movie, or certainly a more dramatic movie. But alas, it is a comedy, and a twisted one at that. From shootings to cutting people up into tiny little pieces, and a shredding machine thrown in for good measure, what takes place in this movie would be the envy of 60s and 70s exploitation directors. This takes a page from splatter movies of yesterday and updates it with the technology of today.

Anderson Bench has a visual and audio quality you would expect from top studios, even though this was made by an independent studio. Unlike most movies I have ever seen, the soundtrack plays throughout the movie. I found the use of an Italian western soundtrack through nearly one third of the movie to particularly enhance the scenes.

I don't claim to get this movie entirely. I don't know if that is the intention as I got the feeling the movie was presented as it is, and what you make of it from there is what you make of it. Don't get me wrong, the story is complete, it's just what you get out of it personally is more up to you.

As a comedy it is dark. This is not a teen comedy, or any other comedy you have likely seen. But, despite being dark it does have fun with it, and pumps energy and laughs into what could have easily been a sideshow splatter movie in lesser hands. As it is, Anderson Bench is thoroughly soaked in blood while having its tongue firmly planted in its cheek.

I give it 3 1/2 Daggers. It is entertaining and well made.

Availability

I had actually seen at least one review and several trailers for this movie on Twitter on many occasions. It is available as video on demand on Vimeo.

Sky's the Limit (2013): Indie Short Subject

Sky's the Limit (2013) - Clocking in at 7 1/2 minutes this is not going to be a time waster for anyone. April Schroer is the writer and director of this lighthearted short film set on one afternoon in the life of a widower and his young son. It contrasts the needs of the father to fill an emptiness in his life with essentially the same need of the son. The difference being the father is filling that emptiness by dating while his son feels left out and desires to get more of his father's attention.

My initial reaction to this short is wondering where the conclusion was. Of course being a short subject there doesn't really need to be one to tell its story. This is a slice of life and in that respect it succeeds. This is also a short subject that strikes me as an experimental film which only seeks to tell its story in a competent presentation, and in that respect it succeeds as well.

The strength for me is Timothy J. Cox's performance as the father. He tells a far greater story with his expressions and body language than is in the dialogue. Joseph Di Stefano as a young actor playing the son gives a conflicting performance, and that's a good thing. He comes off as bratty in his behavior, realistically portraying a child wanting the attention of his father more than the too often saccharine sweet portrayals of children in TV shows who have a Thomas Aquinas level of understanding of their inner feelings.

Despite these strong performances and an obviously well written script from which they could work, I still felt shorted. Maybe there's a follow-up story? An additional bug with the story is that there is no definitive designation of the father as a widower. He tells his son his mother is no longer here and looks longingly at a wedding photo of them, so it is implied but not stated; and I frankly took my cue from the description on IMDB and other reviews.

I give it 2 1/2 Daggers. At only 7 1/2 minutes it is worthwhile to see the work of this young director and these two fine performances.

Availability

You can watch the entire short film on YouTube

B-movie Basement: The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) - Bill Cortner is a brilliant though unorthodox transplant surgeon traveling to his home in the country with his fiancée. They have a car crash which he survives but she is decapitated. Taking her head he makes his way to his lab where he keeps it alive while he searches for a body he can use to transplant her head.

If this sounds like the plot of some 50s sci-fi schlock theater movie...oh wait, it is. What follows the setup is a lurid tale of a doctor so caught up in the divinity of his science that he can leave his ethics behind, only seeing his search for a replacement body for the woman he loves as an advancement and not the murder it is.

Yet in his lab is where his conscience lies. He may lack one himself but in her, only a talking head, she is his conscience. Locked further away behind a steel door is the sum of all his fears and failures. She not only begins to rattle his cage but stirs that beast behind the door.

Of course the plot of a talking head kept alive in a pan is silly. This was after all made in 1959 (not released until 1962). But this is not a story about scientific realities but one of a man's greed and coming face-to-face with his own demons; the demons of his own misdeeds.

Ultimately though it is just simply an enjoyable movie. You have a talking head, a hideous monster in a closet, a crazed doctor searching for a replacement body in burlesque nightclubs, and a catfight. It was ahead of its time (pun intended) and is quite an interesting allegory if you can enjoy it for what it is.

The Brain That Wouldn't Die is a black&white movie and runs for 82 minutes, though some home video and DVD releases may run for less time due to edits.

Availability

DVD and Blu-ray

Video Trash: Savage Island (1985)

Savage Island (1985) - Cobbled together from two existing Italian/Spanish women in prison movies, Escape from Hell (1980) and Hotel Paradise (1980) which were shot back to back with much of the same cast, Savage Island adds a wraparound of new footage starring Linda Blair as an introduction and conclusion to the story.

An elegantly dressed, attractive woman (Linda Blair), walks into an office high-rise one evening, shoots a security guard in the head (Penn Jillette of all people), and finds her way to the office of a sleazy emerald mine owner (Leon Askin) who has been using women prisoners as slave labor for his mining operation. She is there to tell him a story about one of his mining operations, and hence follows the original movie footage.

Being cobbled together from different movies, even with many of the same actors, Savage Island is at times sketchy, even outright jumpy in its presentation. Some actors are in only one or two scenes and then disappear from the movie, while other scenes are roughly edited together. Even with the bizarre editing of two movies into one, they actually succeed in making it work, having one cohesive, though at times hard to follow, plot throughout the movie.

Savage Island though is not about the plot. Women in prison movies often aren't. It's about the sleaze, and Savage Island is notoriously filled with it. Either of its two parent films could contend for the sleaziest of WIP flicks for iits time, but Savage Island upped the ante by taking some of the best parts of both and having more nudity than either of its parents alone.

Sweaty naked women, lashings (of naked women), fights between the prisoners (while naked), and of course naked while taking a communal shower, and some threadbare plot about a revolt and escape that nobody really cares about is what makes up this movie. Those looking for sleaze will find it in abundance. If you're not looking for sleaze then you'll want to avoid this one because it doesn't have anything else to offer. This was and is a direct to video release and the image quality is not great.

Availability

DVD

April Fool's Day (1986): Real Review or Not?

April Fool's Day (1986) - A group of college friends are ferried to the island mansion of their classmate, Muffy St. John, to celebrate their last year of college. Being a group of practical jokers at heart, from collapsing chairs to mysterious eyes in paintings, nothing seems to be off limits for practical jokes. Soon, though, with friends gone missing and Muffy acting strangely, the line between practical jokes and grim reality fades as the remaining friends are fighting for their lives. Or are they?

Featuring a cast of talented young actors including Deborah Foreman, Amy Steel, and Ken Olandt, April Fool's Day starts off with a bang. From the first scene we see these characters are always joking and pranking each other. Even a horrible accident on the boat ride on the way to the island where they will spend the weekend does not put a damper on their sense of humor. The sense of humor in this contrasts well, initially, against the story as it develops and brings down the amiability of the group.

I said initially because even though the movie as a whole has its tongue firmly in its cheek, there is a point where fantasy and reality, in the story on screen, become difficult to distinguish. Of course this is intentional on the part of the filmmakers and will rub different viewers right or wrong.

Overall April Fool's Day is a fun movie, and a different kind of slasher movie. It's not a movie you want to analyze. There are various elements in the movie which are there for the story, or effect if you will, but make little or no sense. It does not affect the rest of the movie, unless you spend too much time thinking about it, and the potential is rife for this movie to keep you annoyed if you let illogical stuff distract you.

I give it 3 Daggers for being a fun movie.

Availability

DVD