Retro Slashers

Happy Hell Night missed the slasher frenzy by almost a decade but it’s still a pretty good attempt at a straightforward horror movie. As legend has it, twenty-five years ago seven students were slaughtered by a seemingly unstoppable force named Malius (Charles Cragin). The survivors - a student (played by a very young Sam Rockwell) and [...]

1989 was full of uncertainty. Like George Michael’s sexuality for instance, and this oddball black comedy slasher. Offerings was a regional horror movie shot in Oklahoma and is a total rip-off of Halloween. However, it also likens itself to Rob Zombie’s remake by giving the killer a motive. It’s also a little bit like Prom [...]

David Hess was no stranger to the world of celluloid horror when he stepped behind the camera for his directorial debut (and swan song as of this printing). As an actor he made us cringe as Krug, the scariest of the hoodlums featured in Last House on the Left and his rapist take on Of [...]

Once upon a time there was this bodybuilding guru named Jake. Jake Steinfeld actually, but he went by Body by Jake and built an empire as trainer to the stars. He was rumored to be the only man to make Steven Spielberg throw up. There’s just a touch of irony that he caused such mayhem [...]

I don’t know why when horror fanatics hear the word “obscure” they think they have to see that movie! I mean, maybe it’s obscure for a reason! It’s kind of a sickness we have, to hunt down the rarest of horror, especially slashers. Goes to prove that we are a passionate bunch. But are we also [...]

*Note: I wrote this review before Code Red’s release of this incredible film. For those of you unaware of who exactly to blame for the shot-on-video sub-genre, look no further than director David Wintergate who made the first SOV flick, Boardinghouse. It would be easy enough to attack the poor Mr. Wintergate for creating such [...]

Lori Lethin was a mainstay of episodic television in the 80s, appearing in everything from The Dukes of Hazzard to Hill Street Blues. But it was her genre work that earned her cult status (although her role on Charlie’s Angels was pretty dang cool too!). Lori Lethin’s pretty and petite girl-next-door beauty may have ensured [...]

Las Vegas Bloodbath was one of my first introductions into the bizarre world of shot on video mayhem. I am from Sin City and this movie was floating around my fair weather town back in the early 90s, thanks to the infamous Mascot Video Store, which was owned by the even more notorious Ray Dennis [...]

 Somehow Mortuary fell through the cracks. Released in 1983, which we all know was right smack in the middle of the heyday of the slasher; this lost classic disappeared and is hardly mentioned anymore. Mortuary centers on Christie (Mary Beth McDonough from The Waltons), who saw her father murdered but has blocked out the actual [...]

I have to admit mild trepidation when I decided to make Shot on Video Month a reality. I mean, most SOV movies are POS, you know? And I’m watching a lot of films I haven’t seen before. I was taking a big chance and although I’m famous for being a big adventurer John Huston style, [...]