Along with being one of my earlier horror movie memories, Jim Wynorski’s “Transylvania Twist” also happens to be one of the earlier horror movie satires that predates “Scary Movie” by almost ten years. It lampoons the slashers of the eighties, it tackles horror movie clichés to a fine art, and even props a few music videos here and there. A mix of “Kentucky Fried Movie,” some “Monty Python,” and a dash of “Young Frankenstein,” Wynorski’s “Transylvania Twist” is an admirable and often giggle inducing attempt at spoofing the entire horror genre and the fads of the mid to late eighties by staging some raucous old fashioned television commercials (with a horror twist of course), while also positing its own plot line in the process. After a hilarious prologue involving a hapless busty traveler and three demented slasher icons getting more than they bargained for, we meet Dexter Ward, a young man who visits his dead uncle at his funeral and is shocked to discover his uncle has yet to kick the bucket.
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Two-Faced Woman (1941)
Following up “Ninotchka” is something of a task, especially since Ernest Lubitch’s cinematic masterpiece went on to immortality. For Melvyn Douglas and Greta Garbo, “The Two Faced Woman” is a disappointing follow-up but I’m shocked it was so poorly received by literally everyone during its initial release. “The Two-Faced Woman” is reportedly the film that ended Greta Garbo’s career when she quit show business after the poor reviews during the film’s run destroyed her enthusiasm for acting. As for George Cukor’s film itself, “The Two Faced Woman” is not the disaster I expected, but it’s certainly no masterpiece.
The Tunnel Dwellers of New York (2008)
As a lifelong native of the Bronx and New York, the older you get the more you begin to hear about the city and how there is an entirely different dimension behind the neighborhoods you see on a daily basis. If you look beyond Manhattan where the landmarks have all turned in to Disney attractions, if you look past the subways that create the illusion of sanitary conditions and safety, you’ll discover within the shadows and crevices of every construct that there is a hidden society beneath your feet.
Troll (1986)
I remember the moment in “Best Worst Movie” where one of the stars of “Troll 2” are looking at a DVD box of “Troll” and “Troll 2” at a video store, and the clerk explains that the movie meant for the bad movie section of the shop is “Troll 2.” After finally watching “Troll” I can safely say that this absolutely unbearable film should also be in the same category as the film that ventured in to the town of Nilbog. Harry Potter and his family have just moved in to a mysterious apartment complex directly near a small wooded area. Upon discovering their surroundings, irritating little sister Wendy entering the basement, she’s captured by a troll, and the monster takes on her form. Rather than playing it cool and sneaking about the apartment building, the troll of course begins wreaking havoc acting like a hyperactive child for reasons never actually explained, and biding its time by venturing around the building making mischief.
The Taint (2010)
After reading the press materials for Dan Nelson and Drew Bolduc’s “The Taint,” I expected almost anything to happen while watching it. And that’s pretty much what I was given when watching “The Taint.” Just about anything and everything that you can imagine happened. And some things you were too afraid to imagine happened. It’s almost impossible to describe the film that was made by directors Dan Nelson and Drew Bolduc, but it’s an experience that no one will forget after watching it. And surely enough it has Troma written all over it. It’s compelling while also entertaining. It’s trashy but it’s clever. And it’s completely abundantly moronic, but also has a wit to it that makes it entertaining.
There's Nothing Out There (Two-Disc 20th Anniversary Edition) (1990) (DVD)
From Troma comes the twentieth anniversary release of “There’s Nothing Out There!” a film I’d admittedly never heard of and was most surprised to see that not only was “There’s Nothing Out there!” something of a fun early nineties horror comedy, but one that was a self-aware jab at the genre long before “Scream” ever convinced audiences it did it first. “There’s Nothing Out There!” is about a bunch of high schoolers who out in to the woods for Spring break to party, drink, and bone each other senselessly. Around the same time as their arrival, an alien being has just crash landed in to Earth, and is now lurking in the woods. Is it out there? Where is it if it is out there? Why is it not in there with them?
True Grit (2010)
When Mattie Ross first meets Rooster Cogburn, it’s behind the walls of a ramshackle outhouse behind a farm house where Rooster is attempting to ward off his young hire while pushing off the runs in his privacy. He holds no pretense about keeping his respect or dignity for her nor does he try to show her his face in the midst of his groans, he just continues with his acts showing her all of the regard he thinks she deserves. When Mattie Ross finally sees Rooster he is a man she is unprepared to confront and has no idea how to approach him. He has one eye, speaks in an unintelligible mumbling monotone of voice that would indicate he is half asleep and drunken during his trial, and his recollections of pursuing and killing criminals are foggy at best. He is a man of loose morals and zero ethics, but Mattie is ready to meet Rooster and woo him with dollar signs and enthusiasm, to which Rooster is neither impressed nor amused by.