It’s difficult to explain “Streets of Fire” to anyone and make it sound coherent. Walter Hill’s action film has just about everything, and ends up creating one of the most vivid and exciting amalgams of genres and themes I’ve ever seen. “Streets of Fire” is a film you just have to sit down, shut up, and experience. It’s a post depression, mid-fifties, action, crime thriller and romance noir with a rock and roll and soul beat. See? I can’t sum this movie up in one whole sentence, and I’m not going to try to. I’m ashamed I took so many years getting around to watching “Streets of Fire,” but goddamn I’m very glad that I did.
Category Archives: Grindhouse Review Fest
The Funhouse Massacre (2015)
Haunted attractions are big business in the US around Halloween time, each one trying to outdo the other. In the countryside, a new one called “Land of Illusion” decides to use local killers and their stories to up their scare factor. Little do they know, the six maniacs escaped the asylum housing them and find their way to the fun house and bloody, bloody mayhem ensues.
Evil Ways of Love (1972) (DVD)
This is the story of Andy, a man who was cheated on by his wife. So he got himself a boat called Evil Ways and took to the seas to look for booty. Literal booty of course. While there he comes across a gorgeous blond woman who is keen to his womanizing and helps him invite some partiers to feast lunch meat, and cheap beer while swapping partners. What’s a guy to do? When will Andy stop this hollow existence of sleeping with beautiful women?
Don’t Go in the Woods… Alone! (1981) (Blu-ray/DVD)
“Don’t Go in the Woods… Alone!” is one of the Video Nasties that renders the slasher genre completely inept with a film that’s nothing but splatter fodder. And bad splatter fodder to boot. Representing the worst the slasher sub-genre has to offer, “Don’t Go in the Woods… Alone!” is bereft of a storyline, common sense, and even likable characters. The only two people that manage to survive our hobo serial killer are two of the most grating heroes pictured in the genre.
Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989): Collector’s Edition [Bluray/DVD]
“I like movies that make America look great. Like “Rambo III”!”
“Teenage Wasteland” is about as inept a slasher movie as you can get, and yet it’s oddly compelling. Once again campers begin disappearing at the hands of Angela, and no one really knows why or wants to know where they went. All Angela has to say is “They went somewhere” and that’s fine for the cannon fodder that appear throughout “Sleepaway Camp III.”
Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988): Collector’s Edition [Bluray/DVD]
It didn’t take long for “Sleepaway Camp” to mock its own premise, as after the shocking ending to “Sleepaway Camp,” “Unhappy Campers” doesn’t miss a beat in re-introducing Angela. In fact she’s a puritanical camp counselor devoted to stopping the hormonal teenagers running wild in her camp, many of whom want to outdo Angela and run her out of camp with pranks that go awry thanks to Angela’s own clever thinking.
Blacula / Scream Blacula Scream (1972/1973) [Blu-ray]
You would think in a time where films like “Blackenstein” and “Dr Black, and Mr, Hyde,” that “Blacula” would be one of the worst blaxploitation titles of its time. Despite the title, “Blacula” is actually one of the strongest vampire films of all time, and one of the creepiest of its sub-genre. “Blacula” is a tragic character drawn a victim to his blood lust who begins turning everyone in to his spawn when he finds himself alive in the twentieth century, and it’s a shock to see such an entertaining movie arise from a concept spun off from Count Dracula.