F (2010)

F (also known as The Expelled) is a home invasion film that takes place in a school in stead of a house. It's comparable to movies like The Strangers (2008), Eden Lake (2008), and The Maze (2010), though not in quality. The Strangers and Eden Lake are superior movies in my opion. On the other hand, F is a slightly better movie than The Maze was.

Teachers and other staff of a college are terrorised by a group of hooded strangers. Among the teachers is Robert Anderson, a troubled teacher with a drinking problem. He'll do anything to save his daughter, who is also inside the school building.

F starts off really nice. Troubled teacher, Robert Anderson, is a pretty cool main character. There's a gripping atmosphere, mostly due to the setting in the quiet, dark school. We've got a decent cast with of one or two familiar faces (David Schofield of Pirates of the Caribbean, and Roxanne McKee of Game of Thrones). The movie starts off as a drama (a teacher who has desperately changed for the worse after a violent confrontation with a student in a classroom. He has got problems with his wife, his daughter, his boss, and teaching overall). I actually liked the drama part of the movie more than the actual stalking/thriller part.

After a while a group of hooded youngsters arrive to terrorize the remaining teachers and staff. The build up to potentially scary scenes isn't great, resulting in me not really caring about what happened to the victims. Another thing that irritated me is that the 'killers' are free-runners, causing them to run and jump all over the place. They obviously added this to make them scarier, but in my opinion it made them look less realistic, making it less terrifying. On the other there was some unexpectedly good gore. There is one paticular brutal scene where a victim's skin is carved, and her face bashed in. Some really brutal looking madness.

F is a pretty decent thriller. Not one that will make a whole lot of 'top lists', but decent none the less. Both the atmosphere and setting are really cool. The first part of the movie (without the actual stalking) is the better part of the movie. The build up of crucial scenes should have been better for it to be a very successful thriller. It's still a pretty entertaining movie though. Apart from the idiotic ending of course. Also a little strange that we don't get any explanation on the acts of the killers.

Fun Facts (Source: IMDB)

A week before filming began, Johannes Roberts' 1st Assistant Director James Nunn spotted some local kids practicing parkour, or free-running. They were quickly hired for the film.
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At one point, this was going to be a UK/ US co-production with a considerably larger budget. However, Johannes Roberts turned the US money down in order to retain personal control over his project.  

Jason vs. Leatherface (2010) (SHORT)

After about half a year, I've finally decided to review stuff on here again. Jason vs. Leatherface marks the comeback. I rarely watch short movies, unless they really seem cool or interesting, like Jason vs. Leatherface did.

A girl is hunted in the woods by Leatherface. She bumps into someone, and thinks she has found rescue. Her day is about to become even worse, as this 'person' turns out to be the machete wielding Jason Voorhees. When Leatherface encouters Jason, they both decide to finally decide who is the better horror icon: by hitting the fuck out of each other.

Jason vs. Leatherface is exactly what you'd expect: two horror icons facing off for 9 minutes in a video game-like setup. For a small project that is probably made on a shoestring budget, this movie does look very professional. The soundeffects are good, there's some very decent camerawork, and some pretty cool editing (adding to the comic book/video game style). The fight itself is very well choreographed, something even 'professional' productions seem to lack sometimes. Another thing worth mentioning is the design of both Leatherface and Jason Voorhees. Both are done very well, especially Jason Voorhees.

Should this have lasted more than 9 minutes? Nah, probably not (although Freddy vs. Jason turned out to be a very entertaining feature length movie). It's definitely a cool fanmade movie, with a pretty professional look. Director Trent Duncan followed up this horror movie icon battle with a few other similair looking short movies: Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash (2011), Myers vs. Ghostface (2013), and Jason Voorhees vs. Michael Myers (2015). You wanna know who got the better of each other in Jason vs. Leatherface?... You'll have to watch it yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqEhrKy5CLQ

Zombie '90: Extreme Pestilence (1991)

Like most of Schnaas' movies, most people who watch it hate it. That's a shame 'cause this is actually a pretty entertaining trash movie. So far I had only seen some of his more 'recent' work: Nikos (2003), Unrated: The Movie (2009) and Karl the Butcher vs. Axe (2010). I wasn't really impressed by any of those movies, but I'm really digging this earlier work.

A military machine carrying untested lethal chemicals crashes into a forest, a dead patient comes back to life in the operation room and mutilated bodies are being found all over the country. A new epidemic has broken out, the "Extreme Pestilence". Two doctors discover the epidemic and take on the hopeless fight against the living dead. The only way to kill the zombies is to destroy the brain or seperate the brain from the rest of the body. 

The dubbing is one of the most discussed subjects of Zombie '90.... It's absolutely brilliant! Main character 1 is one of most German-esque dudes I've ever seen, yet he has the voice of blacksploitation hero Shaft. Meanwhile main character 2 has the voice of the stereotypical gay guy. Together they form an amazing duo, especially when they start rambling hilariously weird one-liners. The dubbing absolutely makes this movie. While watching the movie you'll get the feeling that they didn't know what was in the original script, and they just thought of dialogue on the spot. Whether that's true or not, it does make for some very entertaining dialogue. Some might find it childish humor, but I like it.

The gore isn't amazing. Believe me, there's enough blood, guts and limbs to keep it entertaining, but the splatter itself isn't of any remarkable quality. A nice addition is that the zombies use knifes, sledgehammers, machetes and chainsaws to kill and mutilate their victims. This creates a nice variety of deaths.

Quality wise it shouldn't come as a surprise that this movie fucking blows. The editing is atrocious. Numerous times scenes are abruptly cut. Also, one of the main characters has a way too obvious double roll as a zombie. Looks like they couldn't even scramble together enough extras. As far as camerawork goes, there's one nice shot, which is an homage to Zombi 2 (the zombie hand touching the glass while looking through the window in POV). Also notice how during a fight between a random guy and a female zombie, the cameraman has more interest in the female's ass than in the actual fight, causing the camera to awkwardly zoom in and focus on the ass multiple times. Quality wise the best thing about this movie is probably the soundtrack. It was apparently done by a guy named Gregg Parker (this is his only credited movie), who created a piece of music that could have easily been used in one of those 80's Italian zombie movies. Near the end of the movie you can see that Schnaas is really struggling to reach 70 minutes of film, causing some drawn out scenes.

Anyway, Zombie '90 is one hell of a freaking ride. The dubbing and countless scenes of (fake) violence make this one entertaining as hell. I have no idea if this was ever released in German, but I imagine it would be a whole lot less fun. The American dubbing made me laugh my ass off numerous times. I'm not claiming this is a good movie. But it made me enjoy my evening, so why should I bash it....?

Non-Horror Explotation: Conquest (1983)

Unexpectedly Conquest turned out to be another fantastic Fulci movie. I have not seen much of his work outside the horror genre (apart from the great western Massacre Time and the poor sci-fi movie Warriors of the Year 2072), but Fulci definitely proves he's capable of making good movies outside the genre.

Two warriors are determined to kill of evil goddes Ocron. They have to fight their way through many grotesque monsters though.

You guessed it, the plotline is pretty thin. The two warriors are beefcake Mace (played by Mexican Jorge Rivero) and Ilias (played by Andrea Occhipinti, ''known'' for his roles in The New York Ripper and A Blade in the Dark). Our evil goddes Ocron is played magically by Sabrina Siani, who walks around topless and with a creepy golden mask for the entire movie. It's safe to say that the plot isn't the movie's strongest point. The brilliant atmosphere however is.

Conquest feels very surreal and lugubrious. The monster and costume designs are perfect. The pace is unlike any other movie. Scenes where there's no fighting for more then 3 minutes are pretty much nonexistent. It also helps that Fulci included some nice pieces of gore during these fightscenes. It's definitely not a horror movie, but there is gore in galore. The score, done by master Claudio Simonetti, is absolutely brilliant as well, although not known to many. It definitely adds a little extra to the movie.

Unfortunately I'm not as happy with the visual side of the film. The over the top usage of smoke machines might be a little cheesy, but still looks great. It gives the movie a very desolate feeling. Unfortunately the ligting of the movie sometimes lacks, not to mention the strange haze that seems to lay over the screen. Therefor it's sometimes a little hard to see what's going on.

Conquest is definitely another great one by Fulci. It's totally different from movies like Zombi 2 and The Beyond (films which I so far consider to be his best work), but definitely deserves to be named among them. A magnificent atmosphere, great gore and a furious naked goddes. You've got me!

Non-Horror Exploitation: Sadomania - Hölle der Lust (A.K.A. Hellhole Women) (1981)

This is the first movie I've seen of Euro-trash legend Jesús Franco, who (in his better days) released about 7 movies a year. I'm not too familiar with his work yet but I do believe I heard somewhere that it was not uncommon for him to shoot 2 or 3 movies at the same time with the same cast, crew, equipment and locations.

The captives in a women's prison have to suffer daily punishment from their evil (transsexual) warden ''Magda Hurtado''. 

Yup, that's about the only plot you'll get. I think I expected a more brutal women in prison movie. It's actually quite tame. It's also nowhere near a horror movie. There is however an insane amount of nudity. Both guards and captives walk around in hotpants and bare breasts. After 38 minutes there is a scene where no nudity is shown for about 30 to 40 seconds. This record is not broken throughout the movie. Every now and then the close-ups are so detailed I really wondered what's the line between soft and hardcore. Certain stills of the warden could have easily been printed in a biology book: Chapter ''female genitalia''. What's also noticeable is the fact that every single character in this movie is so horny they are basically willing to have sex with anyone. They don't care whether that person has just tried to kill them or whether the person is dying. THEY MUST HAVE SEX!

For someone who is known to have produced so much trash in his career I was quite surprised by the great camerawork in this one. Franco and his cameracrew certainly know how to create some beautiful looking pictures. The setting, somewhere near the south of Spain, is absolutely stunning as well. But as great as the camerawork is, the choreography of fight scenes is absolutely terrible. Due to the clumsy way they are done, the little bit of action we are shown looks utterly ridiculous. The same goes for the scene with a plastic crocodile, which could have been a legendary scene but in stead is fucked up by ignorant filmmaking.

Even though the movie's running time is fairly long (about 103 minutes) it never gets boring (I wonder why.....). Near the end we get an amazing cameo of Jesús Franco himself as a gay brothel owner. Also the ending (SPOILER), in which the evil warden is forced to walk into the swamp where crocodiles are waiting to chew her to pieces, looks absolutely brilliant. 

Not a terrible movie to begin my Jesús Franco journey with it seems. He might go a little too overboard in terms of nudity, but since the original script couldn't have been more than five pages I don't blame him. Sadomania is an entertaining movie that could have used a bit more action and violence though.

Fun Fact (Source: IMDB)
In the scene where Lucas is seen having sex with a young man, the role of the young man is actually played by lead actress Ajita Wilson, minus her wig and wearing a fake mustache.

Non-Horror Exploitation: Terminator II (A.K.A. Shocking Dark) (1990)

You might think that James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgement Day is the only Terminator 2 out there. That's incorect. In 1990 (although filmed in 1988/89) Bruno Mattei directed an unofficial sequel which shamelessly was called Terminator 2. It's really incredible how they even got away with it (even though the movie was never released as Terminator 2 in the USA).

In a polluted future Venice researchers work to improve the situation. One day, unknown forces start killing them. A team of soldiers and a couple of civilians is sent to investigate. Soon, they encounter strange murderous creatures. 

Terminator 2 can be described as a compilation of everything that was ''cool'' around that period. Some influences from Aliens (1986), some influences from Predator (1987) and of course a lot of influences from The Terminator (1984). Writer Claudio Fragasso took everything he liked from those movies and created one himself. It should not come as a surprise that Fragasso was involved in this project. He has been involved in numerous unofficial ''sequels''. His most famous one obviously being Troll 2 (1990), the unofficial sequel to Troll (1986). He also directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3. No, not Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 which you might be familiar with and which was directed by Jeff Burr. Fragasso directed a movie called Non Aprite Quella Porta 3 (1990). In Italy Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies where released under the title Non Aprite Quella Porta, causing Fragasso to fool the Italian audience in thinking it was an official third part of the franchise. Obviously Bruno Mattei didn't shy away from ''borrowing'' stuff for his movies either. Take for example the Goblin soundtrack he apparently used without permission for his movie Virus (1980).

Back to the movie, which turned out to be quite mediocre. The acting, even for a movie of these standards, is absolutely terrible. The worst one was without a doubt Haven Tyler (not surprisingly this is her only acting credit). What's even more painfull is that Tyler has the lead role and is supposed to be some kind of Sigourney Weaver type of character. Needless to say the cast is very weak. Usually you'll see some familiar faces turn up in B-movies like these. Not in this one though. Most of the cast are one-time-actors. Geretta Geretta is about the only exception with roles in Demons (1985) and Rats: Night of Terror (1984).

The monsters in the movie are pretty much never really shown on screen properly. Not to mention the few times you do get to see them the monster design is pretty weak. The pace of the movie is decent but because the action is so predictable and uninteresting it still feels quite boring. The atmosphere is pretty good though. A lot of that has to do with the cool setting in the dark underground tunnels. The crew even plays around with some interesting lighting choises. The soundtrack is pretty decent as well, although not memorable. The movie goes pretty over the top in the last 15 minutes with a bit of timetraveling, the Terminator chasing two ladies in Venice and the eventual ending where the Terminator guy is killed (or sent back in time???) by some kind of electrical device.. Pretty vague...

Even though the poster is pretty god damn amazing, the movie itself is pretty tasteless. The monsters look poor, the gore is non-existent and the action is mostly lame. The atmosphere is good though and the setting is pretty awesome as well. It's not as cool as the poster makes it look like it is though.

The Sleeper (2012)

After Death Stop Holocaust (2009), The Sleeper turned out to be another Justin Russell movie to absolutely adore. It's sickeningly underrated at IMDB with a 4,0 and deserves much more praise than what it's getting.

It's 1981 and the girls of Alpha Gamma Theta sorority are having a party. As the new pledges arrive, so does an uninvited guest. Little do the sisters know someone is watching them in the shadows. As the girls shower, study, eat and sleep the stalker studies the girls. One by one he finds the girls at their most vulnerable and murders them. The police hunt for the missing girls and their killer, but will they find them in time? Or will the girls be forced to fight for their lives...

Russell chooses to set the film in the 80's this time, which creates a fun atmosphere. The old phones etc. are all vintage as hell, but the most 80's-esque scene is the disco scene, which seemed completely out-of-place and therefore is absolutely brilliant. It won't be a surprise for you that Russell also goes back to the 80's, the golden era of slasher movies, in terms of movie type. There is a dark killer out there who's slicing and dicing his way through various hot girls. Cliché's aren't backed away from, but if you do it in such a cool way as Russell does I don't care how many cliché's you put in your movie. The gore isn't next level or anything like that but still does the job. The kills are definitely fun to watch and the effects are cheesy (in the good way of course). The buil-up to kills is pretty well done as well. I love when a director manages to squeeze in that half a second shot of the shining blade of a knife before it strikes its victim.

The atmosphere in The Sleeper is simply amazing. Visually it's mostly great (especially for a movie with a small budget of 30,000 dollars). Don't expect Argento kind of shots but the movie does breathe that typical 80's slasher vibe. The acting is pretty decent, apart from 1 or 2 actors. Russell even manages to get 1 or 2 girls to go nude in front of the camera, and lets be honest: what's a slasher movie without a set of tits or two...?

Unfortunately the movie does have a few flaws (then again, what would you expect from a movie of this budget range?). Take the soundtrack for example. It's a great piece of work, supposedly done by a band called Gremlin (Goblin ode, anyone??). The thing is that the music is used in scenes that don't need that music. Simple visits to a bar for example are supported by scary, spooky music. Another thing is that the music seems to be a tad too loud, making it hard sometimes to hear the dialogue.

Overall The Sleeper is another magnificent horror movie from Justin Russell. Lets hope his next project (The Sleeper 2??!) isn't too far away. Cool gore, cool killer and an awesome 80's vibe. It's classic fun, like these types of movies are supposed to be.