Snuff (1976)

Director: Michael Findlay

Starring: Argentines

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: A film that could only be made in South America, where life is CHEAP!

Plot: A so-called "snuff" movie involving the exploits of a cult leader leading a gang of bikers in a series of supposedly real killings on film.

My Rating: 5.5/10

Would I watch it again? It could happen.

#213 on Drive-In Delirium Volume 1 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

It's called, SNUFF. It's purportedly got real killing in it. It's notorious. It's one of those films you seek out due to its reputation. It's all bullshit but oh, what a brilliant marketing campaign they had. Just watch the trailer.


The story goes that the producers of this film bought a cheap Argentinian slasher film called, THE SLAUGHTER (1971). They tacked on a newly filmed scene at the end and retitled it SNUFF. History was made. For the most part it's so-bad-it's-good. SNUFF opens with the guitar strains of a really good Wild Thing rip-off. I swore it was the real tune until it continued. This over traveling shots of hot chicks on motorcycles, inter cut with a drugged-out hippie broad. The biker chicks get to their destination and the three of them go looking for the missing member who's doped-up and holding out on them. Passed out, they fire a pistol beside her ear to wake her up. OUCH!


Well, it looks like they're all in a cult because their cult leader, Satan (pronounced like "Sahtahn", shows up and he gets Suzanna to start to cuttin' on the toes of the doped-up broad! It must not feel too bad because the girl getting tortured is acting like she's having an orgasm.


Cut to Teri, an actress of some reputation, who flys into town with her man, Max (who's REALLY badly dubbed). Max splits and Teri dials up Horst, a wealthy playboy/boytoy, for a booty call. Well Horst is already bangin' Angelica. She's in the cult, too, but we don't know it yet. OOOPS! Spoilers! Horst treats her like dirt talking about how great it is that Teri's in town.

"Oh, Angelica. You're so frigid."

Teri and Horst go for a boat ride while Satan's getting his hot cult bitches together for some skinny dipping. It's important to point out that his voice over tells of his plan to have Angelica have a love child of sorts with Horst so he can use it for a sacrifice. But with Teri in the way this could prove difficult. Who cares. There's naked girls frolicking in the river.


Some guy ends up dead and the detective on the case is questioning Teri. Horst's pop shows up and it seems Horst has a problem with how his family's obtained their wealth. Oh, please. The money's great 'cause it's gettin' you laid but you have to show some kind of moral high ground in front of the chick you're bangin'?

OK, so Angelica isn't in the cult just yet but she desperately wants to be. She must submit to Satan to complete the initiation while the girls watch. Naturally. I'm gonna start my own fucking cult. If this film isn't incentive enough I don't know what is.


Hmmmm...what to do next...let's kill some people!

They start by offing the folks at a gas station, including a kid!!!! AWESOME! All of this behind that great guitar Wild Thing ripoff from the beginning.


WTF? We're treated to a flashback moment from one of the girls about her abusive past. I guess this is thrown in for us to get some justification on why she feels the need to be a part of this cult or something.


Then it's back to killing folks. They make their way to Horst's family estate where the butler meets the girls at the front gate. He's knifed and now they're inside.




Horst is getting to know Teri while some creepy guy watches from above...


WHACK! Teri's dead and then the peeping tom snuffs it....





Horst breaks loose with the Ginsu Gals in hot pursuit...


He must've been slow as fuck 'cause the very next scene has him tied to a tree...to be whipped!


OK so he's presumed done. They run upstairs to the father's bedroom and knife torture his pregger wife...


He freaks out and has a heart attack...caused by the sudden onset of lead!






OK, so now we're one hour and fourteen minutes into this one hour and twenty minute movie and I've yet to see anything remotely close to being anything like a snuff film. That's when we get this...


It seems we've been watching a movie being made but didn't know it. So then you've got one of the camera crew telling another how that gory scene really turned him on and she reciprocates. We've got some classic dialogue here.


Dude: That was dynamite. That was a gory scene. That really turned me on.
Chick: Really?
Dude: Yeah!
Chick: It turned me on, too.
Dude: Did it really?
Chick: Yeah
Dude: I tell ya...listen. Why don't...why don't you and I go over to the bed and we'll get turned on, turn each other on, huh?
Chick: With all these people watching?
Dude: In just a minute they're going to be gone.
Chick: But they're still here.
Dude: Aw, come on.
Chick: Naw.
Dude: Come on.


Smooching commences. You'll notice he's got a knife in his left hand. When she realizes they're filming it she starts to struggle. Game's over kind of thing. Geez if I had a nickel...




You can hear the cameraman say, "Hold her down" and whatnot, adding to the realism. Then we're treated to the 'cutting O the finger'...




Then the jigsaw handjob...



(nice touch having the fingers twitch, btw)

Hey, look! Her severed finger from her left hand is back on!


And just when she's gutted, the film runs out and you hear a voice say, "Shit! We've run out of film. Shit!" and another voice chimes in with, "Did'ya get it? Did ya get it all?" with the first voice back with, "We got it all. Let's get outta here." leaving with some heavy breathing for a second or two.






OK, now this ending was pretty fucking cool and it, naturally, takes you out of the film as it's completely unexpected. Major points there but where they had a truly great exploitative grindhouse-ian idea, they didn't go far enough. They should have used a single camera instead of at least two, as there are coverage shots, and they should've done a little better job of hiding the phoniness of some of the gore scenes. They were so close. You will watch this and know it's not real. That's probably because we're 34 years removed from it (and have seen so much since) but then it's also because they didn't do a good enough job of covering it up. Had they gone those extra few steps it would have been vastly improved. But then what the fuck do I know? They're marketing campaign succeeded. My nitpicking wouldn't have made a bit of difference or have sold one more ticket.

Overall it's lame but if you're into the Charles Manson type murder pictures or just for curiosity's sake, check it out. It's not nearly as bad as the IMDB rating of 2.6 suggests. You get some bad acting, worse dubbing and some topless cult honeys tossed with a bit of torture, kills and gore. Do you really need more of a reason despite it's lack of living up to its reputation?

Storm Over Bengal (1938)

Director: Sidney Salkow

Starring: Patric Knowles, Richard Cromwell, Rochelle Hudson

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: The "Bengal Lancers" ride again...fight again...love again...and die!

Plot: In British India a local rajah, a British ally, is dying and his subordinates plan to drive out the British once he's gone. A newly married British officer is dispatched to ensure that doesn't happen.

My Rating: 5.5/10

Would I watch it again? Nope.


Imagine watching a severely condensed version of a cliffhanger serial but with most of the excitement left on the cutting room floor. You have no idea how much it pains me to say that as I really enjoy these adventure pictures from this era.



I came to this film from a website I discovered a couple of years ago with a list of films that were the (possible) inspiration for Indiana Jones. This was on the list. It had no right to be. It's a standard one-hour adventure film that was so prevalent back in the 30s and 40s. I couldn't find anything "Indy" about it other than it was set in India in the 1930s. It really does feel like a serial but a typical one at that. After two years of searching the globe, I found it. IMDB lists the running time at 65 minutes and a 53 minuted edited version. I have the latter. Perhaps all the real fun was trimmed.


OK so I'm probably a bit harsh but I generally like these kind of pictures. I LOVE serials as they're mostly action packed to the gills with some really ingenious methods of torture, death, and action set pieces. SOB feels rushed and trite.

Take the love triangle. You've got the hero, Capt. Jeffrey Allison (Knowles), who everyone loves and looks up to. He's about to be married to Joan (Hudson) who's traveled to India just for the occasion. Then there's Jeffrey's little brother, Lt. Neil Allison (Cromwell), who's heads-over-heels in love with Joan but resents his brother because he's never there for her. Neil's clearly driven by emotion until his COMPLETELY unnecessary death. By the way, it's worth noting that Neil has only known Joan for THREE FUCKING DAYS!


The Maharajah is dying and is friendly toward the British. Ramin Khan is the leader of the rebel resistance and is planning evil things to incite the British. Meanwhile, Jeffrey is undercover among Ramin Khan's group as an Indian holy man in an effort to discover what he's up to. Jeffrey's cover is soon blown and he escapes to warn the Maharajah of the war that Khan is about to start. It's a race to see who gets to the Maharajah first. Will Jeffrey make it? Will Khan intercede and stop him?


Jeffrey beats Khan to the punch and obtains a signed document from the Maharajah allowing the British to defend his homeland against Khan. Now the Army needs to be warned of the ambush Khan has set for them. But wait! Khan's men have secretly been embedded in the castle and the jig is up! One of Jeffrey's men takes the treaty and makes a B-line to the plane, getting shot along the way. He makes his way back to camp to warn them but it's too late. They've already marched on and they're headed for an ambush. Neil volunteers to fly the plane and drop flares to warn them.


Say, what about them flares, huh? Neil makes a deliberate nose dive into the mountain path in front of the Army. Neil, of course, is dead. They find a note on him about Khan's trap. Countless deaths averted. I suppose you could say he succeeded in stopping the ambush but surely there had to be another way other than suicide. I mean, REALLY? He puts a note in his pocket thinking they'll find it? REALLY? With a plane in flames, this piece of paper is probably going to survive AND they will find it in time? Whatever.

Big fight between Khan's rebels and the Brits while Jeffrey overtakes Kahn in his hidden cave-base and blows it up. This in all of six minutes. The picture ends with Jeffrey and Joan contemplating Neil's death ending with Jeffrey putting his hand on hers and then Neil's ghost hand on top of his. The end.


So there you have it. It's really not that bad of a picture but it's not that great either. I guess if it weren't for the fact that I've been searching long and hard for this thing for the past couple of years I wouldn't have taken it so hard. But then sometimes it's not the destination but the journey that counts. I'd just like to have my cake and eat it, too.

Let the Right One In (2008)

Director: Tomas Alfredson

Starring: Lina Leandersson & Kare Hedebrant

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Eli is 12 years old. She's been 12 for over 200 years and, she just moved in next door.

Plot: Oscar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire.

My Rating: 8.5/10

Would I watch it again? Does the Twilight saga suck?

I saw this on a double bill with MOON (2009) as the second feature. WOW! Finally, an intelligent, thought-provoking vampire film that doesn't suck or insult the viewer. Of course this didn't come from Hollywood (although the US remake is due soon) but from Sweden, the country that gave us the kick ass Nazi zombie movie, DEAD SNOW (2009).


LTROI is really about the relationship between two children, Oskar and Eli. Eli just happens to be a vampire. To really speak of the plot is to spoil it so there'll be none of that here. It's a beautifully quiet, serene and haunting picture that stays with you long after the credits have rolled. It pulls no punches when it comes to the gore and the relationship between the two leads is very tender and sweet. I'd LOVE to discuss the ending but then it's spoiler territory.


Fuck it.

MARK OF THE SPOILERS.....

I feel that while Oskar is completely taken with Eli, she is forward-looking, knowing that she needs a caretaker. She has been looking at Oskar almost from the beginning of the film as the successor for that role that she desperately needs to be filled. So it's a mutual love they share but it's quite lop-sided with Oskar not knowing his fate as he will likely spend his life serving her. It's a twisted take but that's what I took from it as I pondered the film in the days after seeing it.

END OF SPOILERS...YARRRRRRR!

So here's a great horror flick that doesn't insult its audience by leading it by the hand and spelling out every little detail, wrapping up in one nice, tight little package. It's thought-provoking and refreshing. We need more of these instead of the by-the-numbers Hollywood bullshit.

Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)

Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis

Starring: Hayseeds

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: An Entire Town Bathed In Pulsing Human Blood! Madmen Crazed For Carnage!

Plot: Six people are lured into a small Deep South town for a Centennial celebration where the residents proceed to kill them one by one as revenge for the town's destruction during the Civil War.

My Rating: 6/10

Would I watch it again? Yeah, I think I could


So what is there to like about a low budget movie with bad acting and pacing issues? Plenty...well, sort of. I'd heard about this film since the 80s but never got around to it until recently. Was it worth the wait? Not really but it does have some really cool things going for it despite the stretches of boring bits.

Nice legs, lady.

It opens with a bang with a 4 1/2 minute banjo pickin', hootin' & hollerin' song that kind of sets up the story, while the stereotypical southern yokels get ready for their 100 year "celebration" as they detour tourists with Yankee license plates to their town. The song is fun, infectious and overly repetitive.


Now the performances are pretty fucking bad. It's like Tarantino's acting on a bad day kind of bad. Lots of "yee hah's" and "darn tootin's". Hideous. I realize this is far from high art but jesus it's bad.


It's almost 25 minutes of boredom until one of the yokels takes one of the female "guests" out in the woods to cozy up and get himself some sugar. He pulls out his knife and tells her to feel how sharp it is. She complies and he cuts her thumb causing her to freak out. Does she try and leave? Nope. Why? Because she needs to stick around for the first kicksass scene of the picture. While she's screaming she yells for him to do something about it so he cuts her thumb off. NICE! I'm not squeamish but this grisly little scene had me squirming.


Then Cletus or whatever his hayseed name is takes her to the mayor and the boys where they pin her down on a table and hack her arm off which finds its way to being BBQ'd later that night. Nice.


As part of the celebration, one of the guests is drawn and quartered. And then the coolest death I've seen in a long time. The barrel roll like you've never seen it before. A guest is forced to get into this barrel, see, and once he's in it they hammer some long-ass nails through it. See where this is going? The he's rolled down the hill as the townspeople cheer on.





Of all six of the guests, two of them make a mad dash for escape. They trudge through a muddy field ending at a pond where there's a WTF moment. Tom & Terry stop for a moment for Terry to clean herself up!?!?! We're treated to some nice flowery interlude music as Terry splashes water on her Playboy Playmate of the Month June '63 legs.


Meanwhile, back at the festivities, they're about to play everyone's favorite carnival game. The baseball-dunk-resulting-in-the-giant-boulder-squashing-a-pretty-girl game.




Tom & Terry finally get the hell out of Dodge and make their way to the sheriff's office. He takes them to the site where the town once was but isn't there any longer. He tells them that that town hasn't existed in a hundred years and how the Yankees came through during the Civil War, killed everyone and destroyed the town. At this point we're supposed to go "ooooooooh". Yeah, it's just a ghost town getting revenge by killing Northerners every 100 years. It's Brigadoon with blood.

As you can see, there's very little that's really worth watching. While it is fun to watch in spots, taking it all in with the bad makes it drab and stupid. If it hadn't been so silly and over the top I would have enjoyed it much, much more. It's barely a 6/10 and only because of the interesting plot and fantastically cool kills. I hear the Robert Englund remake, titled 2001 MANIACS (2005) is better. I'll check it out at some point. Apparently it features something the original severely lacked, nudity. It certainly would have helped.

Moon (2009)

Director: Duncan Jones

Starring: Sam Rockwell & Kevin Spacey

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: The last place you'd ever expect to find yourself

Plot: Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.



My Rating: 9/10

Would I watch it again? So far...3 times and counting

Where do I fucking begin? It's brilliant. It's one of the most remarkable pieces of sci-fi cinema to come along in the past thirty years. It very much feels like the kind of science fiction that we got in the 1970s pre-STAR WARS. I first saw this late last year on a double bill with LET THE RIGHT ONE IN which just about blew my mind. Both films require your attention and they both deliver intelligent genre cinema in spades.

I LOVE the model work. It's has a brilliance and realism that we aren't getting with CGI...yet. Growing up in the 70s I long for movies these days to NOT use the computer so much and get back to real, hands-on models. Sure there's things that have to be CGI but there's something to be said about real in-camera special effects. And oh how I miss stop-motion animation. Sigh.

Anyway, this is a tour-de-force for Rockwell and it's a fucking crime he wasn't even nominated for an Academy Award. Fuck. This film didn't receive a single nomination...AT ALL! I'm stupified. Just look at all of the other awards it has won. Oh, and Clint Mansell's score is pitch perfect. Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie) knocks this one out of the park. Here's hoping he can continue to deliver the goods in the proposed trilogy he's said he'd like to film.