Articles, Movie Reviews, Lists, and more, celebrating the greatest, the latest, and the most obscure of the Grindhouse!
Category Archives: Grindhouse Review Fest
Father’s Day (2012)
It’s safe to say that Astron-6’s “Father’s Day” is nothing but nonsense and pure utter drivel, but I think it’s also safe to say that Troma audiences basically eat that shit up like it’s going out of style. I’ve met plenty of people who giggle through random bull crap on-screen as long as it tickles their funny bone. “Father’s Day” did nothing of the sort for me. Now many will argue “Don’t take it so seriously!” and “It’s not meant to be grade A entertainment,” but my question is: What the hell is it actually supposed to be? I mean, seriously, what is it?
American Scary (2006)
One of the many classic devices of American television much of today’s youth will never get a chance to experience is the horror host. Though there are many talented performers keeping the tradition alive, we don’t have a glut of horror hosts as we once had. And it’s a shame because horror movies are ultimately an experience, and the horror host is the persona that keeps us watching and makes the viewing experience worthwhile in the end. “American Scary” is a brilliant and utterly fantastic tribute to the age of horror hosts, and really excels at informing audiences of a once American facet of television that no longer exists.
Bikini Chain Gang (2005)
I don’t know what’s weirder, the fact that movie is a satire of women in prison movies or that I recognized that 90 percent of the cast for “Bikini Chain Gang” are porn stars. But then Fred Olen Ray’s comedy about women in prison is really just a mid-level porno that’s about ninety minutes. Well–fifty, when you cut out the monotonous sex scenes that injected mid-story. Basically, the story is so utterly simple it’s as if Fred Olen Ray wrote the premise down on a cocktail napkin in between bouts of Scotch and sniffing coke off of Asian strippers’ backs.
Day of the Dead (1985)
So the zombie apocalypse came and went and guess what? We lost. Miserably. After the world has been consumed by the cannibalistic walking dead by the hordes, there are really only a few dozen living humans on the planet. And they’re struggling to maintain the lingering shreds of sanity they still possess. Once upon a time, a long time ago, “Day of the Dead” was considered the lesser of the Dead trilogy from director George A. Romero, and it’s quite shocking considering “Day of the Dead” is a masterpiece. In fact it’s every bit as good as its predecessors “Night” and “Dawn” with just as much thought provoking material as the former titles.
Full Moon's Grindhouse Collection: Filmgore (DVD)
“FilmGore” is one of the many horror compilations grindhouse fans will get a kick out of, as it’s not only a compilation of the some of the most famous and obscure horror films of all time, but the presentation as a whole cuts through the droning dialogue and just zeroes in on the blood and grue. Basically it’s all one big cut together clip show from horror geeks and it shows. Dixon’s writing paired with the essence of Ackerman provides the film with a sense of charisma, in spite of the film basically being one big excuse to show off clips without much of a structure.
Not Another B Movie (2010)
Say, do you want to know what it takes to make a horror movie on a low budget? Do you want to know what trials a filmmaker and screenwriter go through to make a film and appease their stars? Do you want to know how hard it is to deal with executives and producers? After watching “Not Another B Movie,” I realized that no. I didn’t. And you know what? I didn’t care. The film is basically centered on a screenwriter who is meeting at a restaurant with some producers about his movie script and he basically spends the entirety of the movie imagining scenes from the horror movie, as well we recalling his experiences with snobby actors, and psychotic performers. There are also badly conducted audition scenes where the film gets to squeeze in some cameos for the audience, and nothing about the film is every really as entertaining or exciting as the filmmakers perceive it to be.