Hell's Teeth!

This is one of those weird low budget 80s horror movies that helped to fill the shelves of video store horror sections back in the day. Treading a strange line between the horrific, the dreamlike and the comedic, it's definitely a product of it's time featuring lots of splashy gore , rubbery monster effects and soft focus dreamy bits. Like so much 80s US horror product, it's seems to steal it's surreal, fever dream atmosphere from Suspiria, although clearly it doesn't compare in terms of quality.

Suspiria is a pivotal influence on this particular permutation of American screen terror. The moody electronic scores and fever dream plotting of the more haunting B-movie straight-to-video efforts owes much to Argento's vision.

A motorcycle gang kidnap a young woman from a roadside diner and slay her in brutal fashion. Years later the woman's grief stricken father discovers a magical crystal that can bring dead objects back to life. He uses it to resurrect his deceased daughter and she seduces any young men who wander into the town of Hellgate before enacting bloody revenge on them for her terrible demise. When a bunch of irritating students who are holidaying nearby hear of the gruesome legend they decide to find out for themselves if the tales are true...Big Mistake!

Fun packed cheese of the highest order, Hellgate is a bizarre movie that has some inspired horror moments.




Thai films are always a pretty gonzo affair. Classics like Tears of the Black Tiger display an energy and originality missing in a lot of Hollywood product. The same goes for their horror output. While the mainstream is locked in re-make limbo, the Thai's are knocking out crazy stuff like "Hell".

A group of advertisers are accidentally sent to Hell early and must battle past the pain, torture, violence and badly made up Orc demons to escape back to reality. This flimsy plot is a jump off point for some of the nastiest gore i've seen in a mainstream Asian movie. Stabbing, disembowelment, hanging, burning, drinking molten lava, this film is a gorehounds dream.

Throw in the usual Thai goofiness*, melodrama and weird humour combined with tremendous special effects and the result is a great piece of vomit inducing kitsch. Can't stop raving about this fantastically stupid movie!!!

*For real goofy fun, hunt down "Sars Wars" or the Japanese Rockabilly Zombie epic, Wild Zero