Week of July 31 to August 6

Monday, July 31, 2006
SWV Snake Spectular
Rattlers – 1976

     Nerve gas turns rattlers into killing machines. This surprised me, as I thought they were already. Shows you what I know. This movie fits nicely into that great 70’s genre “Animals Gone Wild”. This one is a real beauty. Total lack of direction (the only other thing the director (John McCauley) has done is a flick called Deadly Intruder, a Danny Bonaduce vehicle), terrible acting, crappy photography, absurd plot, and it ends dumb. Painful, with no redeeming value (ie, no nudity).

The Snake People – 1971

     One of the 4 Mexican movies that Boris Karloff made right before the end of  his life. The print is terrible (which is pretty unusual for SWV, and this is just a throw away. It’s not even listed on the cover), This is Mexican slock. It is SO below last week’s Curse of the Crying Woman.

The disc has the usual collection of trailers, shorts (gotta love girls dancing with snakes!) and posters.

Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Silent Rage – 1982

     Chuck Norris fights a zombie, or a Michael Meyers, that is chemically created by a pair of madmen. This is not too shabby, really. A little more gore might have made this great!  And it’s got Stephen Furst, Vir Cotta from Babylon 5! This disc has subtitles, but no other extras.

Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Masters of Horror – Joe Dante – Homecoming – 2005

     Well, this is the most political episode so far. But what a novel concept. Voting Zombies! And a little math here, Jane Cleaver = Ann Coulter. And she is one tough bitch. Considering that we learn in the extras that she’s not familiar with guns, she sure slings that shotgun around comfortably. And there’s the holographic doctor from Star Trek: Voyager!

No subtitles, but in the commentary, the writer Sam Hamm freely admits the left leaning (gee, ya think?) Five years ago, this would have offended me. Now, I’m so disgusted with our government, I cheer!

There is the usual batch of interviews and featurettes for a MOH disc. The best bit is the Fantasy Film Festival interview.Here we see series creator Mick Garris as a kid, PLUS Barbara Steele, Joe Dante just after Pirahna, and Paul Bartell, just after Death Race 2000!

Thursday, August 3, 2006
The Flesh and Blood Show – 1972

     Here’s another movie that I have NO recollection how it got into my que at all, let alone up to the top. It’s not so much a proto-slasher as a whodunit. But it’s got the guy from Queen Kong!

BUT ITS TOO DAMN DARK!

There only extra is an interview with Peter Walker (Producer). But let me ask you a question. What kind of moron records an interview outside and doesn’t put a wind sock on the mike. The interview is almost inaudible over the wind noise in the microphone. Idiots!

Friday, August 4, 2006
Ren & Stimpy – The Lost Episodes

     Spike TV hires the original creator of Ren & Stimpy to create some more “Adult” episodes. These are the episodes even THEY wouldn’t show. With an introduction by Weird Al!

Well, if you think you’ve seen R&S at their most disgusting – GUIESS AGAIN!

More big boobs, homosexual inuendos, and disgusting stuff then you can shake a nose goblin at.

There are some cool reveals. The best (and the only one I’m gonna talk about) is the fact that the Fire Chief from the Fire Dogs episode is based on Ralph Bakshi. They were afraid that he’d not like it, but in fact he loved it. So they did a new episode (Fire Dogs 2) that actually FEATURES Ralph, including him do the voice talent. Yes, that’s right, the man who did Fritz the Cat, Wizards, and the animated version of Lord of the Rings is in a R&S cartoon, and BOY is it gross.

Saturday, August 5, 2006
Wizards – 1977

     Speaking of Ralph Bakshi, I just so happen to have it in my stack to watch, so I decided to break my own rule and jump this one up in the rotation.

And speaking of rotation, MAN, does this movie have a ton of rotoscoping. For those of you NOT into animation, rotoscoping is when you take live action film, and paint over it, giving it a partially animated look. It was used before computer animation made it unnecessary. It was used to make movement look more realistic.

The disc has subtitles (YEAH!), and a commentary by Ralph himself. He admits that even HE hates rotoscoping today. There is lots of discussion about color and B&W and technology. He talks often about working as a team and obviously really respects and loves the folks who worked with him.

Sunday, August 6, 2006
The Wickeds – 2005

     First the good stuff. This has Ron Jeremy in a non-porn role.

Now the bad; everything else. First off, it’s too bad that Ron dies so soon. And once again, I hated everyone in this movie and am rooting for them to die.

Oh, hey! Never mind. Ron’s not dead. Yeah!

This is an Evil Dead wanta be. Unfortunately, it sucks. No extras, subs or ANYTHING. Cheap bastards.

Severed – 2005

     “I’m a lumberjack and I’m undead, I eat your arm and I eat your head”

Six million shakey cam shots later, all you will say it “God, this movie just goes on and on and on and on and…”