Non-Horror Exploitation: Supersonic Man (1979)

It's a bird!, It's a plane!, It's who? I'll tell you who it is.. It's motherfucking Supersonic Man coming to get yo honky ass. Supersonic Man has a status of being of the worst films ever and it definitely deserves it. What a complete pile of shit! I want 85 minutes of my life back....

An alien, "Supersonic Man," is sent to Earth to thwart the plans of evil men who would destroy the galaxy itself with their weapons. Only his superpowers, which include flight, bulletproof skin, and the ability to turn guns into bananas, can save Earth from destruction. 

I acually didn't notice any plot at all. I think it was something about an angry dude (Cameron Mitchell), who has an army of robots and guys with futuristic laser guns, who wants to capture a girl for some reason. No luck for him though as the girl is protected by Supersonic Man who has two personalities. One being the normal 70's guy with pornstache and cool look. The other being a super hero dressed like a mix between a Mexican wrestler and a male stripper. 

Anyone who's looking for an entertaining movie, like I was, in my opinion won't find much luck with Supersonic Man. As cool as the title sounds and as corny as the stills may look. I'll be the first to admit that the scenes where Supersonic Man flies over NY City looks cheesy and cool as fuck but i'll also be the first to admit that those scenes are pretty scarce in the first hour or so. Instead we get a lot of boring scenes of Cameron Mitchell, who looks more depressed by the minute as a result of appearing in this film, mainly sitting in his lazy chair watching his army kill one figurant after the other. It's safe to say that Supersonic Man is awfully quiet the first 60 minutes of this movie. 

After about 60 minutes Supersonic Man starts to get more and more screentime and only then the film starts to be what it should have been the whole 85 minutes. I mean, come on. It's way cooler to see Supersonic Man fly around, taking bullets to the chest like a boss and lifting bulldozers without any problem than watch a bored Cameron Mitchell whine about every single thing the whole time.  

Supersonic Man unfortunately hasn't become the experience that I was hoping for. It's way to boring to be such. The last 15-20 minutes definitely save this film from being a disastrous failure. Priceless scenes like the one where Supersonic quickly flies to a restaurant to get some champagne for his date with a girl unfortunately are a rarity in this film. Give credits to the cheesy soundtrack though that plays whenever Supersonic Man flies around over archive footage of New York. 

If you do actually decide to watch this film ---------> ''May the great force of the galaxy be with you'' 

Frankly I think only someone like Supersonic Man himself has enough strength to bite through this film. 

  

La Tarantola dal Ventre Nero (A.K.A. Black Belly of the Tarantula) (1971)

I'm getting more and more into the Giallo genre. I still have to see the early Argento films (Like Bird with the Crystal Plumage) but I've seen enough so far to note that I like the genre. The black gloves etc. got their charme and there are already a few Giallo's that I really liked (Tenebre being the best). Unfortunately Black Belly of the Tarantula falls under the category ''BAD''. 

Inspector Tellini investigates serial crimes where victims are paralyzed while having their bellies ripped open with a sharp knife, much in the same way tarantulas are killed by the black wasp. As suspects keep dying, Inspector directs his attention to a spa all the victims had a connection with.

I suspected way more of this French/Italian giallo. Black Belly of the Tarantula has a terrible tempo and many uninteresting dialogs that pull all the pace out of the film. There are only a few scene's that really stood out (The chase on the rooftop and the first killscene). Thereby comes that the soundtrack by maestro Ennio Morricone is terribly boring. 

I have to admit that the whole idea of a killer who paralyzes his victims and then stabs them in the belly is pretty solid. Unfortunately though the kills do get boring after a while as they are all pretty much the same and because of that the impact that the kills make is also very limited. There is also almost no gore which is a shame but that's something that can be replaced by atmosphere etc. which unfortunately doesn't happen in Black Belly of the Tarantula either. 

One of the better things about this movie is the lead played by Giancarlo Giannini who plays the detective. The rest of the cast is pretty much filled with beautiful women. That's cool and the girls did in fact really look good (Look for a small cameo of Italian hottie Eleonora Giorgi aswell) but it's a bit of a shame that they all look like each other (I think there were about 3/4 redheads who could have all been sisters) which confused me sometimes and that's not something you'll like as the plot itself is pretty confusing as well. 

The Black Belly of the Tarantula is far from a good Giallo. No tension, no gore not even a cool killer and just a few scene's that are really worth it. Hell, at least it's a good replacement for if you're just out of sleeping pills. 

Non-Horror Exploitation: Combat Shock (1984)

Yes, you saw right... Troma is connected to this film but PLEASE don't bring your friends and leave the chips and beer where they are. Gone is the corny humor of Troma films like Terror Firmer, Poultrygeist and Toxic Avenger. Get ready to meet a whole other side of Troma films. 

Frankie is a war vet whose life sucks. He has no money, a nagging wife, junkie friends, and a deformed baby. This is the story of one day in his pathetic post-war life. 

Frankie Dunlan is a completely worn out and mentally destroyed Vietnam veteran who expierenced the most terrible things in Vietnam but when he returns home he finds himself in a different but equally tough battle. He lives with his wife and his (by chemicals) deformed baby son. Hungry and without any hope left they look at Frankie who himself spends most of the day strolling through the ghetto's of ruinous New York looking for a job, food and money. You thought Robert De Niro had a hard time in Taxi Driver...? AT LEAST HE HAD A FUCKING JOB AND NO ONE TO LOOK OUT FOR!

Rick Giovinazzo is absolutely great in this film. Not a moment it passed my mind that he was just acting. It all felt like he was really experiencing it. The rest of the cast is a little bit less convincing (hey, wat did you suspect with a budget of only 40,000 Dollar) but luckily they don't go over the top either so that it all stays pretty realistic. Thereby comes that director Buddy Giovinazzo makes up for it with the magnificent locations. While the Vietnam locations might not look great (actually was shot in NY) the scene's in the worn out streets of New York do. Destroyed houses, graffiti, puking junkies and bums, trash, dirty heroin needles etc. They all get showed explicitly which creates an even better atmosphere. 

He continually gets rejected by the employment agency, he has got depts with criminals, his father doesn't want to see him, he can't feed his family nor himself and right in front of his eyes he sees his buddies become ruthless junkies and 12 year old girls become street whores.  Frankie's life doesn't have any meaning anymore and he is beginning to see this slowly as well (which results in a brilliant and disturbing ending scene). 

  Taxi Driver got nominated for 4 Oscars with a budget of 1,3 Million Dollar. Combat Shock kinda stayed the ugly duckling with a budget of 40,000 Dollar. Maybe it's better that way as the low-budget feeling creates such a strong and raw film which, in my eyes, beats Taxi Driver for sure. 

 

Non-Horror Exploitation: Lo chiamavano Trinità (A.K.A. They Call Me Trinity) (1970)

As a (spaghetti) western fan of course I've seen They Call Me Trinity once. But that was about 4/5 years ago and since Dutch tv never really broadcasts it any more it was time for me to go and find another way to see this Spencer-Hill classic.

A drifter comes to town where his brother is sheriff. His brother is actually a robber who broke the real sheriff's leg and left him for dead, and became sheriff in order to hide out. They team up against the local land baron who is trying to get rid of the Mormon settlers in a valley he wishes to own.

 So Terence Hill a sunburned, lazy low-life arrives at a small town (But not before he has eaten an entire pan of baked beans)  where he stumbles upon his brother (Bud Spencer) who he hasn't seen in a long time. It wouldn't be a western if the town wasn't being plagued by some assholes. And that's exatly what happens here as well. This time the villain is ''Major Harriman'', a somewhat gay role by Farley Granger, who has the town and the Mormon farmers just outside of it in its grip.


Of course Terence Hill is a nice appearance in any western movie but it is mainly the chemistry between him and Bud Spencer (who plays a hilarious role as the cranky brother ''Bambino'') what makes this film so great. Especially much credits to Bud Spencer who manages to be great and funny in literally every scene without him trying to hard. Another notable rol is the part of Remo Capitani as the leader of a bandit group, which he portrays pretty funny.

Enzo Barboni clearly didn't have the qualities withing the spaghetti western genre that for example Sergio Leone did have. But that didn't keep him from making an entertaining western that is much less serious than for example Leone's Dollar trilogy (think of over the top fist fights and humoristic one liners) but fortunately enough doesn't cross the line where it becomes annoyingly over the top either. 

While pretty much all Hill - Spencer movies are pretty damn entertaining this probably is the one that stands out the most. Beautiful locations, a great theme song, Spencer in one of his better roles and a lot of humor. They Call me Trinity will definitely entertain you.

Fun Fact (Source: IMDB)

The Italian movie with the highest number of viewers in Italian theaters until 1986. 

The Green Slime (1968)

Aaaahhh, this is too bad. The Green Slime had all the potential to be one of those dated but enjoyable sci-fi flicks. Unfortunately to much goes wrong to really call this film enjoyable.

A giant asteroid is heading toward Earth so some astronauts disembark from a nearby space station to blow it up. The mission is successful, and they return to the station unknowingly bringing back a gooey green substance that mutates into one-eyed tentacled monsters that feed off electricity. Soon the station is crawling with them, and people are being zapped left and right!

The Green Slime starts off pretty promising. The intro song is incredibly cheesy and right after that we get to see a lot of spaceships fly through space for about 30 minutes. This is all verry entertaining as it seems like director Kinji Fukasaku just turned his son's toy box up side down and just randomly picked some objects out of it to fly through space (read: a coloring with some stars) in his movie. Due to the cheesy level of the special effects this all stays very cool and entertaining. 
 
Unfortunately after that the film goes down hill. When the crew that was sent out to destroy a meteorite return to the space station it turns out that some alien scum hitched with them. The aliens look hilariously bad, as I expected them to look. Even than a film can be extremely entertaining (for example the 50's classic ''Robot Monster") but unfortunately that isn't the case in this movie. The battle between the human crew and the aliens is rather boring and I noticed that my attention was slipping away more and more. 90 Minutes is way to long for a movie like The Green Slime. 60/70 minutes would have been so much better but now it just seemed like it was never going to end. 

 The Green Slime starts off pretty cool but the entertainment level drops significantly as the movie continues. Especially in the last 20 minutes the movie barely manages to be interesting at all. I do ask myself by the way if Ridley Scott saw this film before he made Alien as the story is quite similar. 

Fun Fact (Source: IMDB)

 This film is listed among The 100 Most Amusingly Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE® MOVIE GUIDE.

  

Zombi 2 (A.K.A. Zombie) (1979)

Zombi 2 is the unofficial sequel to Dawn of the Dead, which was named Zombi in Italy. After that more and more Zombi(e) films followed. In 1988 Fulci directed his own sequel to Zombi 2 called Zombi 3. Though in 1981, 7 years prior to Fulci's Zombi 3, an unofficial sequel to Zombi 2 got released also called Zombi 3 (A.K.A. Burial Grounds: Night of Terror). After that more Zombi titles got released. Zombie 4: Oltre la Morte, Zombie 5: Killing Birds, Zombie 6 (A.K.A. Rosso Sangue) and if you look closely you'll also find a Zombi 7 (A.K.A. Zombie '90: Extreme Pelistince) directed by German trash director Andreas Schnaas. The best thing of it all is that non of this movies have anything to do with each other.

A zombie is found aboard a boat off the New York coast which belongs to do a famous scientist. Peter West, a journalist, travels to the Antilles with Ann, the daughter of the scientist. On the way, they meet with with Brian, a ethnologist, and Susan. When they arrive at Matul Island, they find Dr. Menard, and discover a terrifying disease which is turning the islanders into horrifying zombies which devour human flesh and seem indestructible....

Although many see Zombi 2 as the ugly, nasty brother of ''masterpiece'' Dawn of the Dead I don't see it quite that way. I liked Dawn of the Dead a lot but if I compare it to Zombi 2 I come to the conclusion that Fulci beats Romero on pretty much every aspect. The tone is set immediately. A zombie covered in white sheets gets his head blown after he comes back to life. After that the openingtitles appear also featuring the fantastic morbid. The scene following that in the harbor of New York is beautiful. The atmosphere is sublime and the fat zombie that comes out of the abandoned only provides more and more fun.

After that the film calms down a bit. We get to know the characters, the main ones being cult actor Ian McCulloch and Tisa Farrow. For some this might be a bit boring but I thought McCulloch had enough charisma to carry the film and the soundtrack composed by Fabio Frizzi is so great that it is almost impossible no to like this movie. 

After a while they get on a boat (Captained by Al Cliver who was a regular face in 80's Italian action/horror flicks) and head to a mysterious island where later a lot of blood will flow. But before they arrive there is another very  notable scene. Of course i'm talking about the zombie vs shark scene which I think is one of the best and notable scene in the history of horror. Arriving on the island more and more dead people start walking again searching for victims to put their rotten teeth in. The atmosphere stays incredibly strong and there is more than enough gore to enjoy. There is a very cool looking splinter meets eye scene where Olga Karlatos' beautiful eyes gets drilled by a piece of wood (well actually this only happens to one of her eyes) and there also numerous scenes where zombies have a human meat feast. 

Zombi 2 is one of the best zombie films i've seen so far (which are quite a lot). The atmosphere is amazing, the music very cool and the gore and make-up is nasty and effective. Add to that a very cool shot where zombies are walking on the Brooklyn Bridge and there is only one conclusion: Fulci knew how to make a fucking kick-ass zombie movie.

Fun fact (Source: IMDB)

As shown in trailers before the film was released, airline "barf bags" were handed out to theater moviegoers due to the unusually high amount of violence and gore for a horror film of that time. 

Non-Horror Explotation: Lik Wong (A.K.A. Story of Ricky) (1991)

Lik Wong is an awesome mix between Kung Fu films and Horror films filled with witless dialogs, over the top gore and hilarious humor. 

A young man with superhuman strength is incarcerated at a prison run by corrupt officials and seeks to use his martial arts to clean up the system.

Rarely will you see a film with a higher or even equal entertainment level as Lik Wong. Not even 10 minutes into the film already 3 ultra gory shots have passed by. The gore is extremely over the top and has its charm. Guts are used to strangle somebody, jaws get ripped from their head and bodies get skinned alive. These are the kind of things you'll see in Lik Wong. 

The first time I saw Lik Wong it was the English dub which led to a whole lot of funny one-liners (You've got a lot of guts Oscar!). This time though I bought the dvd with the original track and Dutch subtitles (As I'm Dutch) and while this time the one-liners might not be there, the original track might even be more fun than the English dub. Everything just sounds so more epic in the original language. Another thing you'll notice even more with the original track is the cast doing

an amazing job. They are all far from great actors but the better they fit in an over the top film like Lik Wong. The guards are all hilariously clumsy and submissive which continually puted a smile on my face. The absolute best thing about the cast is actor ''Mei Sheng Fan'' though. He's absolutely genious as the bad tempered, but at the sime time scared little, sub-principal of the prison.

The makers of Lik Wong knew exactly where the power of this film lies. It lies on showing the gore and creating the most ridiculous and over the top characters. And that is exactly what they do. Every hint towards a possible sub-plot gets cut off immediately in order to show some more bad-guys getting brutaly killed. Another good thing is that the tempo of Lik Wong is great and the film really flies by. 

Grab a bag of chips, get relaxed and enjoy the full 90 minutes of Lik Wong filled with cheesy gore, hilarious characters and cardboard walls collapsing when Ricky gets a fist on it.

FUN FACT (source: IMDB)

One scene required Siu-Wong Fan and Yukari Ôshima to exchange lines while standing close to a raging fire. Siu-Wong, doused with water for protection, was horrified when he noticed Ôshima's exposed neck literally smoking and blistering from the heat. When he asked her why she didn't move, she reportedly replied, "You weren't done with your lines, so I had to wait for the cut." Amazed by her professionalism, he referred to her in future interviews as "amazing Yukari." 

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

After enjoying Tom Savini's remake more than once I decided that it was time for me to watch George A. Romero's classic and original ''Night of the Living Dead''. Unfortunately the original Night of the Living Dead doesn't live up to its status and expectations. 

The radiation from a fallen satellite might have caused the recently deceased to rise from the grave and seek the living to use as food. This is the situation that a group of people penned up in an old farmhouse must deal with.

I'm sure Night of the Living Dead was a shocker in the 60's (although i'm a bit surprised as even then there were better and more shocking films than this one) but today as we speak there isn't much left of this classic. The tempo is a disaster for the current audience. For example, nearly 20 minutes of the film alone are spent on main character Ben boarding the doors and windows. There is little to no tension as the zombies outside are painfuly quiet. Hell, if Romero didn't occasionally show some shots of the living dead outside you wouldn't even know that there was an epedemic. 


The acting is overly dramatic. Duane Jones and Karl Hardman do a decent job but Judith O'Dea acts like she's straight from the 30's with her over the top dramatic performance. Her style of acting reminded me of the roll of Ann in the original King Kong. 

One boring scene after the other passes through and there doesn't seem to get to the film. ''Tensive'' scenes get fucked up by the bombastic music/soundtrack and even the atmosphere wasn't great. The only thing that keeps Night of the Living Dead from being a complete failure are the decent last 15 minutes where the zombies finally even get near the house. 

Night of the Living dead was way to slow paced for me. The lack of any tension or threat by the zombies was a real let down. I'm glad George A. Romero made two great follow ups in his Dead trilogy with Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead that I really enjoy. If I wanna see this story I'll watch Tom Savini's remake. 

Classic Grindhouse & B-Film trailers: Episode 10&11

From my youtube channel: Itagorehorror
http://www.youtube.com/user/itagorehorror?feature=mhee

De Lift (A.K.A. The Lift) (1983)

The Lift is seen as a pearle in the Dutch horror genre. That doesn't say much though as Holland barely produces horror films. Director Dick Maas (yeah laugh your ass off) does create a good little horror flick though.

First some ''horror-genre-in-Holland'' inside news. As I said, barely any horror films are made in Holland. You can count them on two hands I guess. Let's see.... We have got ''Dood Eind'' which premiered on the ScreamFest Horror Fiml Festival in the US as ''Dead End''. There is the Human Centipede films which will be more known to foreign readers. And the last more famous one is probably ''Sl8n8'' which premiered as ''Slaughter Night'' on the Toronto After Dark Film Festival but didn't even get a US release. Dick Maas probably is Holland's most well known horror director. He made good films like Amsterdamned (1988), The Lift, Sint (2010) the English title being ''Saint'' or ''Saint Nick'' and he's currently working on a movie called Prooi which means Prey in English where an escaped lion roams the streets of Amsterdam. But this review we're talking about De Lift.

A lift begins displaying some erratic behavior, like trapping some party goers and nearly suffocating them, and decapitating a security guard. Felix, the technician from the lift company, can't find anything wrong with the circuitry. When he and a nosy reporter begin asking questions of the lift company's electronics partner (Rising Sun Electronics) his boss puts him on a leave of absence. A subsequent visit to a professor leads them to believe that some evil experiments are being conducted with MICROCHIPS.

The story is pretty cool and as far as I know no one had come up with it before Dick Maas did. Though a concept where an elevator goes on a killingspree does seem like it could get boring quickly. Fortunately that isn't the case with De Lift. The film has enough excitement and has its tensive moments. It also features some great camerawork. There are some scene's that really stood out. The scene where a blind guy thinks he walks in the lift but falls into the elevator shaft and the scene where a guy's head gets stuck between the doors of the elevator as the elevator is comming down are great (although the beheading afterwards does look extremely cheesy). It has a great ending set in the elevator shaft too. 

The cast is typically Dutch. Huub Stapel, one of the more known and better Dutch actors, does a decent job. He isn't a great actor but he is pleasant to look at. There is also Willeke van Ammelrooy who is pretty annoying as the pushy journalist. The absolute worst thing about the cast is Paul Gieske though. The man is a parody of an actor and with plain disbelieve and a huge facepalm I was starring at his painfully bad scenes. 

Nearing the middle the film does get a bit more quiet and than you'll notice that without the elevator scene's there isn't a whole lot of great thing left about this movie (I can exept it tough as the budget was very low). And fortunately, as I said, the ending is great. There is also a simple but effective score by Dick Maas himself.

De Lift isn't an amazing movie, especially if you compare it to foreign movies. It is all a bit dated but still is great fun and does feature some very cool death scene's (including one that will make my ''Movie Kill of the Week'' videos on youtube). Definitely a cool tip if you are looking to get into more unknown foreign horror films.