Incubo sulla Città Contaminata (A.K.A. Nightmare City) (1980)

Nightmare City was one of those film that I was just dying to see. Often due to these high expectations the film turns out to be a disappointment. For a while I was afraid that this was the case at Nightmare City too but luckily I can say that at the end of this film a good amount of my wishes were fulfilled.

An airplane that was exposed to radiation crash lands. Out of the wreckage, blood drinking zombies emerge armed with knives, guns and teeth! They go on a rampage slicing, dicing, and biting their way across the Italian countryside.

Luckily there isn't a very long build up. The infected people, according to Quentin Tarantino Umberto Lenzi is not amused when you call his film a zombie film, turn up rather soon and immediately attack. The make-up of the infected people looks very low-budget and very cheesy, just the way I love it! Luckily it didn't look as bad though as I read on the internet. That doesn't go for the gore though. It looks like Umberto Lenzi had one mission: get the highest bodycount possible. And i'm down with that except when the quality of the gore is poor due to the high bodycount. And that is exactly what happens here. In just a couple of seconds/minutes there are so many kills following one another that they all look pretty poorly done. There are barely any scenes that really take the time to show some cool gore. To often it's of a level ''Tube of blood on backside of knife'' and that is a shame. Especially when you think of all those great Italian 80's which all featured amazing looking gore. 

Than the cast..... Originally Umberto Lenzi wanted Franco Nero, western legend who plays the lead in the original Django, for the lead. Lenzi's delusions got swept away pretty quickly though by the producer who delivered Mexican cult-actor Hugo Stiglitz to Lenzi. Lenzi didn't like it for one bit. And of course, Stiglitz is not Franco Nero and he isn't a great actor either but he does have some decent screen presence and he is a cool character. Actually it's acted pretty well by Stiglitz, very sober and not over the top. There is also Mel Ferrer, who I only knew from Eaten Alive (1977) but who also played in bigger productions. The rest of the cast is pretty much filled with smoking hot Italian chicks, and there is nothing wrong with that.

The first hour is a bit hard to go though due to the not amazing gore but the last 20/30 minutes are so great that I just love this film. There is also a great soundtrack but it is unfortunate that Nightmare City doesn't have the sleazyness that many other Italian 80's horrors had.

Non-Horror Exploitation: Death Race 2000 (1975)

The 70's of course were the years where exploitation films got released in rapid succesion. Films that usually had no boundaries and a director that was willing to go all the way to entertain, shock or thrill the viewer. As does in Death Race 2000 where driving over innocent citizens get you many points in the ''Death Race'' which is a national sport in the year 2000 which was the scary future in 1975. 

A champion of a brutal cross-country car race of the future where pedestrians are run down for points has a change of heart while being hounded by rivals and a conspiracy seeking to stop the race.

The cars kinda look like the Hot Wheels toy cars, that I used to own hundreds of, and therefore are kinda cute. The kills are a bit less cute though. They are all pretty damn brutal and more gory than I suspected.

David Carradine does a decent job as ''Frankenstein'', a lead character and one of the Death Race racers, but he isn't amazing either. I think all the honor  should go to a young Sylvester Stallone who does unsuspectedly good and is pretty funny as Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, another one of the Death Race racers. He's a guy with a a crazy short temper and an unhealthy obsession on beating Frankenstein. Pretty much every scene that features Stallone is a succes and a source of a lot of humor. And that's a relief as Death Race 2000 does have some moments where it all becomes a bit of a drag. There is also enough great looking women (and nudity) to keep you interested and sharp. 

The race itself isn't always very convincing, partly due to the fast-motion scene's (although they are not as shitty looking as in for example Mad Max 2). Another annoying thing about Death Race 2000 is the sub-plot of ''The Resistance'' that I didn't care for to much. 

Death Race 2000 doesn't quite live up to its reputation (for example there are numerous times where it is mentioned how many points driving over a child is and there are some close calls but it never really happens).  Though the film does have its charms and also Stallone is great in this movie. If you are an exploitation fan than it still is a must watch, even if it is for its reputation alone. 

Classic Grindhouse & B-Film trailers: Episodes 9&10

2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams (2010)

Due to the many critical reactions and reviews burning this movie to the ground I had my doubts before watching this movie. 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams turns out to be a very nice sequel to the enjoyable ''2001 Maniacs''. 

When this year's round of unsuspecting Northerners fail to show up for their annual Guts N' Glory Jamboree, the residents of Pleasant Valley take their cannibalistic carnival on the road and head to Iowa where they encounter spoiled heiresses Rome & Tina Sheraton and the cast and crew of their "Road Rascals" reality show. Performing "The Bloodiest Show on Earth", our Southern Maniacs prove more than ratings killers.

Robert Englund, star of the previous film, didn't come back for this sequal. A big loss you would suspect but his replacement Bill Moseley, another big name in the horror genre, fills in perfect for the absent Robert Englund. He might even do a better job portraying southern lunatic ''Mayor George W. Buckman'' than Englund did. The rest of the cast all look like pornstars who stumbled in the wrong set. They portray a crew working on a reality show called Road Rascals, a huge reference to Paris Hilton's reality show The Simple Life, who want to shoot their show at redneck country. And they just happen to stumble on George Buckman and his crew. The biggest rednecks you'll find. Anyway, the pornstar look-a-likes are all terrible actors who lack any talent. They are saved though by their enthusiasm and not having the slightest part of shame. This results in a lot of great scene's where the characters go completely over the top.

The script is filled with one-liners and dialogs that are so bad that they become very entertaining. And that is a thing the film does well. It's filled with hilarious over the top scene's which resulted in me smiling through the entire movie. The gore is very decent as well. It's never realistic looking but it is very cool looking splatter.

The film does look very amateuristic and low-budget. This doesn't only go for the camerawork and camerasharpness but mainly for the sound/dubbing which makes dialog sound like it was recorded in an empty bathroom. 

Overall 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams is a very decent sequal filled with enough humor, gore, tits, one-liners and crazy characters to keep you entertained for the full 86 minutes.

Classic Grindhouse & B-Film trailers: Episode 7&8

Troll (1986)

Generally Troll's status as a ''So Bad It's Good'' movie is completely overshadowed by Troll 2's status. Though I wanted to see part 1 before I was going to see Troll 2. A bad mistake. ......

An evil troll, Torok, the transformed state of the ex-husband of an old friendly witch named Eunice St. Clair, has chosen her apartment building to be the heart of the restoration of the world he once knew. To do this he uses an Emerald ring, and takes possession of a little girl named Wendy, whose brother Harry immediately suspects something wrong. Torok, often in the form of the little girl, goes into each occupant's apartment, hideously transforming people into plant pods.

Only after 20 seconds I started to feel a bit annoyed as it turns out Michael Moriarty, who I recently saw as the fucking annoying ''Mo'' in The Stuff (1985), has a lead role in this one too. The rest of cast isn't much better. The only likeable ones are the cute Jenny Beck as Wendy, whose body gets taken over by a troll, and the midget called Malcolm. 

Troll has a pretty weak plot which still should provide some fun though. Unfortunately that's not the case. Overall the film is pretty damn boring. It's al so soft that it could have easily been a film for childrens with a bit of a mysterious fairytale feeling. The only thing that keeps Troll from being a complete failure are the decent looking effects when a victim gets transformed into a plant (Although those scene's also get a bit boring after a while) and the troll itself who, although it's obviously a midget in a costume, looks pretty cool.

Troll is a painfully boring and uninteresting film. I have a sore neck from looking at the clock the whole time to if the movie was done yet. But no, it keeps on going with terrible, boring and slow-paced scene's. 

If you do want to see a movie like Troll go and watch Leprechaun (1993) who which due to it's funny humor is ten times better than this crap.

E Tu Vivrai nel Terrore - L'Aldilà (A.K.A. The Beyond) (1981)

I accidentally stumbled upon the main theme of The Beyond on Youtube and I immediately got the urge to watch Fulci's gore classic.

The cellar of an old hotel is built on top of the door to the beyond. Bloody zombies roam there. A young woman who is heir of the hotel wants to restaurate it. She is confronted with strange events. A painter has a lethal fall, the plumber vanishes and her friend breaks his neck. When she escapes to the hospital of a friendly doctor she doesn't know what a nightmare is waiting there...

The Beyond probably has one of the most brutal openingscenes i've ever seen. Set somewhere in the 1800's I believe, a group of angry guys armed with torches and iron chains bump into the hotelroom of a loner who apparently discovered a gateway to hell. The loner gets heavily beaten up with the chain and Fulci isn't scared to fully zoom in on the gaping wounds. Then they take him to the cellar where they beat him some more with the chain and then they nail him to the wall hammering some nails into his arms. Still fully on close up with great gore effects. And last but not least, they get some kind of biting acid which they throw on him so he melts away. Truly on of the most violent openingscenes i've ever seen. 

Years and years later ''Lisa'' buys the old hotel to renovate it. She hires a plumber to fix the leakage in the basement. The guy is called, I kid you not, plumber Joe. Played by debuting actor Giovanni De Nava who later on only had minor roles in 3 other Italian films. And that's pretty strange as he's pretty damn great, funny and kinda bad-ass as Plumber Joe. Unfortunately his part is pretty short as he accidentally opens the gateway to hell and gets his eye pushed out by a zombie. 

So now that the gateway to hell is open all kind of zombie creatures come out. This results in some other great gore scene's. There are scene's where a women gets melted by acid, a women gets her head spiked on a nail, a demonic possessed dog mutilates his master, a guy gets his head eaten by spiders and all other kinds of amazing gory displays. 

The film flies by due to those cool gore scenes and the amazing soundtrack provided by Italian music maestro Fabio Frizzi. The ending also is a great one. No happy ending right here in this Fulci flick. The ending is dark, creepy and sinister. Just like it should be in a horrorfilm.

Absolutely a must see if you are a Italian horror fan, a Lucio Fulci fan or if you are interested in the work of Lucio Fulci (In that case i'd also strongly recommend Zombi 2). The films is full of Italian gore, brilliant music and a very scarry atmosphere. Definitely one of the best horror movies out there while the first time I saw this film I just thought it was decent and nothing more.

Non-Horror Exploitation: Escape from New York (1981)

John Carpenter's Escape From New York over the years has really become one of my favorite movies. It's a typical 80's movie set in the future. Filled with a cool soundtrack, a dark atmosphere, bad ass villains and even more bad ass ''good guys'' who are here to save the day.

In the future, crime is out of control and New York City is a maximum security prison. Grabbing a bargaining chip right out of the air, convicts bring down the President's plane in bad old Gotham. Gruff Snake Plissken, a one-eyed lone warrior new to prison life, is coerced into bringing the President, and his cargo, out of this land of undesirables.

The plot is great. Manhattan Island being a huge maximum secured prison. Isn't that the most bad ass idea you've ever heard. It sure is for me. The dirty, grainy, dark streets of the devastated New York City look great and provide one hell of a great atmosphere. Together with the insanely awesome soundtrack by John Carpenter it sets you in the right mood. The dirty streets are filled with scary convicted criminals who are very cautious. And they have got a good reason, 'cause The Duke is out there.

The Duke, a brilliant role by bad ass cult actor Isaac Hayes, has captured the president for his own good. Now Snake Plissken, one of the coolest characters in a film ever, also a convicted criminal and ex-soldier is sent to save the president's ass. Originaly the studio wanted Tommy Lee Jones to play the role of Snake. But although I like Tommy Lee as well i'm glad Kurt Russell got the part. I think no actor in the world could have portrayed ''Snake'' cooler than Russell himself. But Isaac Hayes and Kurt Russell aren't the only interesting actors in Escape From New York, although they are definitely the coolest. We've got Lee Van Cleef, western hero who appeared in hundreds of movies, as a son of a bitch called ''Hauk''. Ernest Borgnine, appeared in over 200 films like Marty, The Dirty Dozen and The Poseidon Adventure, as the friendly ''Cabbie''.  Donald Pleasence, a fan favorite due to his role in Halloween, in an annoying role as the president. It also features Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog, Creepshow), Tom Atkins (Halloween III, The Fog) and of course Frank Doubleday (one of the gangmembers in Assault on Precinct 13) who plays the weird bodyguard of The Duke. 

John Carpenter creates a very dark New York City filled with creepy crooks and bloodthirsty maniacs. The Crazies are a cannibalistic group for example that live in the subways and once a month rule the street looking for food. This all creates a very threatening vibe along with the beast soundtrack from John Carpenter. 

If you are looking for a fun ride filled with bad ass characters, cool one liners, cannibalistic creeps, awesome music and this all taking place at the dark streets of NY, than this is your movie.

28 Weeks Later (2007)

28 Weeks Later is an excellent sequel to 28 Days Later. I had my doubts at the beginning of the movie though. The potentially great openingscene gets raped by the the flashy, rapid and unclear camerawork. I think there were about 5000 cuts in 5 seconds of film.

28 Weeks Later picks up six months after the Rage Virus has decimated the city of London. The US Army has restored order and is repopulating the quarantined city, when a carrier of the Rage Virus enters London and unknowingly re-ignites the spread of the deadly infection and the nightmare begins... again.

London isn't completely deserted anymore (although it still looks like a ghost town) as the US Army is slowly bringing new people into the city. But after a while the virus breaks out again and every single resident of London has to be killed to prevent it from spreading again. It's pretty clear that 28 Weeks Later is much more explosive and action packed than 28 Days Later was. The last one had a more grainy, darker atmosphere and had many of those amazing shots of the deserted London. 28 Weeks Later also does have those shots of London but, although they are still pretty cool, don't work as well as they did in 28 Days Later. Still the beautiful music that goes with the shots makes up for it.

The acting again is great. Everyone is doing great but I especially liked to see Jeremy Renner who kinda plays the same character he did a year later in the acclaimed ''The Hurt Locker''. 28 Weeks Later does also have it's fair amount of scene's that are brutal and emotional. For example the scene where soldiers are commanded to shoot everyone on the streets (including innocent boys, girls, women and men) to prevent the virus from spreading.

28 Weeks Later is a great follow up to 28 Days Later. Obviously the film is filled with more action and less with atmosphere but it still is a great film. Too bad that the camerawork was to flashy at times. 

Non-Horror Explotation: Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

Assault on Precinct 13 is another one of John Carpenter's classics. It was only his second film he directed, 2 years later after his directing debut ''Dark Star, and so he yet had to make other classics like Halloween, Escape from New York and The Thing. And although Assault on Precinct 13 was only his second film you could already sense the amazing talent of Carpenter......

Police ambush and kill several gang members in Los Angeles. Gang members make a pact of blood to strike back at police, and conduct a siege on the police station which is almost abandoned and due to be closed. Staff of the closing precinct and the criminals being held there while in transit must work together to fight off the attacking gang members.

Let's start with the amazing music score by John Carpenter. The main theme is very dark and works perfectly with the atmospheric setting in the ghetto's of California. The atmosphere is amazing and when the group eventually get cought in the police precinct it's just pure terror, brilliant tension, great music and some badassery by Darwin Joston as convict Napoleon Wilson. The whole ''being cought in an building with machete and gun wielding maniacs outisde who are out to kill you'' brings an very uncomfortable and claustrophobic vibe.

It's a bummer that Austin Stoker isn't a realy great actor and he hasn't got a lot of charisma to make up for it either. He's a likeable character but i'd rather see a guy like for example Ken Foree to take the role of officer Ethan Bishop. He isn't the worst actor in the film though. That's an honor that will without doubt go to Laurie Zimmer. She has the same uninteresting look on her face throughout the whole movie. It doesn't matter whether she's relaxing and drinking some coffee or if she's being threatened by blood thirsty killers. According to the trivia page of IMDB Zimmer hated her performance when she saw herself at the big screen. And with good reason because she had less facial expression than a comapatiënt. And than there also is Darwin Joston as Napoleon a convict ready for death row who stays very mysterious about his past. The first time I saw Assault on Precinct 13 I kinda hated his character. Well not so much his character but I thought Joston tried a little bit too hard to be mysterious. But after watching it the second time I liked his performace much better and c'mon, you gotta respect his classic one-liner ''You gotta smoke?''. 

Assault on Precinct 13 is definitely one of my favorite Carpenter movies (my absolute favorite being Escape From New York). A beast of a grindhouse flick with gang violence, a brilliant vibe, even more brilliant music and a lot of tension and atmosphere.

Classic Grindhouse & B-Film Trailers: Episode 5&6

Non Si Deve Profanare il Sonno dei Morti (A.K.A. The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) (1974)

This unexpectedly was an amazing film. Well I have to admit. With an amazing title like ''The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue'' and an equaly amazing poster I had some hope that this movie was gonna be good. I didn't expect it to be this good though. 

A cop chases two young people visiting the English countryside, suspecting them of a local murder; unbeknownst to him, the real culprits are the living dead, brought to life with a thirst for human flesh by radiation being used by area farmers as a pesticide alternative.

The film is pretty low-paced but that's not a bad thing. You get some time to get to know the characters who aren't really sympathetic though. Especially the main character ''George'' is an arrogant prick in the beginning although he turns out to be a likeable character when the walking dead rise for their lunch. In the meanwhile you get entertained by great camerawork and a beautiful setting in the countryside of England. 

The zombies are, while not covered in bloody make-up like Fulci's zombies, very ghastly and provide some very tensive scene's while in other zombie movies the zombies are just excuses to show some gore. There isn't a whole lot going on the gore part of the movie. Especially not in the first hour or so. Luckily for the gorehounds there are some nice gore-filled scene's near the end of the movie where you will definitely get entertained. 

The acting is fairly decent. Ray Lovelock does a decent job although I couldn't really take him serious due to the hilarious English dubbing. Alright guys, we figured the main characters are supposed to be English. You didn't have to have Prince Charles dub the whole thing. 

Anyway, Jorge Grau proves to be a very talented director. The zombies are ghastly and threatening, the atmosphere is great, and it never gets cheesy or anything like that. Even the fog machines (which often looks very cheesy) fit this movie perfectly. 

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue is a surprisingly good film which also features an amazing ending which will really grab you by the throat.

Classic Grindhouse and B-Film trailers: Episode 3&4

Classic Grindhouse and B-Film trailer: Episode 1&2

A Compilation of Grindhouse and B-film trailers (Mainly from the 70's and 80's) from my Youtube channel: itagorehorror.