Retro Slashers

A year after Anthropophagus became an international hit, director Joe D’Amato (Aristide Massaccesi) re-teamed with star George Eastman (Luigi Montefiore) for this underrated sequel.  Rosso Sangue was banned by the British government during the Video Nasty Era and suffered from multiple name changes when it was released.  In America, Wizard Video released the film as Monster Hunter [...]

In 1983, Hikmet Avedis & wife Marlene Schmidt wrote & produced Mortuary, which Hikmet directed. A year later they were back in the same capacity with They’re Playing With Fire. Taking the plot of their 1974 movie The Teacher, and Eric Brown – the star of the popular Private Lessons (1981), it starts [...]

After a jilted lover (Tom Rolfing) kills his ex-bride-to-be, he decides justice has not been served and decides that all women preparing for their upcoming nuptials need to meet the sharp end of his knife. The killer has arrived in a new town looking for Amy (Caitlin O’Heaney) and her wedding party to make perfect, [...]

Uncle Roscoe (Joe Spinell) is a small town undertaker who loves his work and his customers, literally.  Roscoe is a necrophiliac who turns his female victims into brides while male victims become members of the wedding party.  When Nick (Patrick Askin) discovers his uncle’s dark secret he alerts teacher Pam Hayes (Rebecca Varon, or Yaron depending [...]

The new Nightmare is much better than I expected despite a few flaws.  First with the bad.  The new Freddy make-up is awful and seems to change during the course of the film.  Sometimes Freddy resembles the killer in Popcorn, other times he looks a lot like the rich villain in Hannibal.  Jackie Earle Haley [...]

The dvd companion to Stephen Romano’s excellent Shock Festival book is out now and it is a must have for slasher lovers, exploitation junkies, and movie nostalgia fiends.  If you grew up watching movies in 42nd Street grindhouses or southern drive-ins, then get ready for major flashbacks because Shock Festival brings back our childhood friends.  [...]

Get a load of that title… Did you ever hear anything that sounded more like a slasher movie? Unfortunately, Terror Stalks the Class Reunion isn’t a lost slasher – for a start, there’s no slashing – but, while part of me is writing this review to stop others repeating my mistake, it’s also worth pointing [...]

Cheryl (Ayn Ruymen), on the run after stealing her roomate’s cash, hides out at the King Edward Hotel run by her creepy Aunt Martha (Lucille Benson).  Other tenants include a kinky priest (Laurie Main) and George (John Ventantonio), a sinister photographer with a nasty addiction to blow-up dolls.  At night Cheryl hears mysterious noises coming [...]

Here we go again, another gem that’s been lambasted by critics armchair and professional alike: BCI Eclipse have dug up Robert Hammer’s 1980 sleaze-o-rama Don’t Answer The Phone and given it an uncut release. I do like my slashers but serial killers employing strangulation instead of the good ol’ butcher’s knife struck me as too [...]

Movie:
Liberal nudity, blood drenched murder shots and a menagerie of quirky characters contribute to this 1987 parcel of fun. It’s what made Cheerleader Camp the Cinemax staple that primarily exposed it to its many praisers. But the standout element is the central character of Alison Wentworth (Betsy Russell). Alison is not only frigid but self [...]

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 [...]

Guest Reviewer: Steven Lewis

This is the version of Halloween II that should’ve been released in theaters.  Rob Zombie’s director’s cut of Halloween II is out now with fleshed out story lines, more face time for Michael Myers, and a nihilistic ending much better than the pitiful one haunting the theatrical version.  Two years after her last encounter with Michael [...]

Movie:
A night shift for the clerks and shelvers at a suburban supermarket is going to be their last. Not just because it’s soon closing for good, but because someone is using the Deli tools to butcher the crew. “Half Off” indeed. Scott Spiegel’s Intruder is an underrated slasher due to the infamous mangling it received [...]

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 Night, [...]