THE NIGHTS OF TERROR - A re-watch. My favourite Italo-zombie flick - beyond that, not much to say. I think this is great because of the non-stop zombie attacks, the weird soundtrack, the curdled sleaze (emaciated dwarf-man gets oedipal) and, despite the technical rubbishness of some aspects, the genuinely claustrophobic atmosphere.
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 3 - I don't rate Brian Yuzna, he's too pedestrian. 'Society' was good, but could've gone further. This is my favourite movie of his. It has that early nineties slickness, which I thought really worked here... in opposition to the smooth action-horror is a painful romance that actually feels quite evocative.
MOTEL HELL - Seems to divide people a lot, but I liked. There's something engagingly weird about it, something slightly sick. I don't think it's too gentile a movie, despite protestations about a lack of gore. Thankfully, the humour isn't played too obviously until the end.
THE SLEEPER - Retro-slasher pays homage to yesterday's gore. I really liked it. It rips off (sorry, references) 'Black Christmas' beyond all others, and I liked the aspect of a completely unexplained murderer (with inexplicably weird eyes) who just makes freaky phone calls to campus chicks (erm, bedsides killing 'em). The shot on video look can't support this movie's claim to be all 1981, but sometimes it almost does. Again, this seems to divide quite a lot but IMO is very good.
BAD MEAT - Bad teens get sent to boot camp run by Nazis who eat some infected stew and end up as zombie fetish-cannibals. This was stitched together from an unfinished movie by 'Wrong Turn' guy after he ran out of funding. I actually really liked it. It's gross and uneven, but it's nice to see some genuine latter day sleaze with an authentically grubby tone. The non-ending seemed quite mind-boggling... those looking for cheap thrills could do much worse.
THE GOAT MAN MURDERS - Yes, I jumped on the bandwagon and quite liked what I found. I mean, this is a total dog but, after wading through at least thirty mins of collegiate sex-drugs whinge we're rewarded with some surprisingly mean spirited gore, including the soon to be infamous climactic assault on the blind. Along the way are non-sequitors such as a mentally challenged man eating some human shit and close ups of a plastic cock surrounded by wild ginger pubes. "Seriously, we'll get this into Asda and everything will be fine", said the man when he made this.
BLOOD FOR IRENA - I thought that this was excellent. Some have made a case for it offering a kind of highly distilled essence of Euro-horror, but I don't think so - a certain SOV crudeness made it seem too no-budget American to be the next 'Amer'. I don't know what to compare it to... at certain points, a series of 'My Bloody Valentine' record covers sprang to mind. Whatever, this is a really brave move, a dialogueless trawl through the life of a vampiric prostitute living in the nameless rotting shell of a township caught under perpetual twilight. I totally recommend this and hope it becomes some kind of watershed.
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