Nightmare USA Films Discussion Thread

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Rik

Yeah, but where to start!

At the beginning!

Originally Posted by Rik

Thought I'd give the disc another try, so I gave it a wipe and low and behold it bloody (no pun intended) works!

N.B: The film isn't actually featured in the book

Ha, yeah it only covers North American independent cinema from 1970-1985. Bloody Moon is a German/Spanish co-production.

Glad you got your disc working though!

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Curse of the Headless Horseman (1972)

It's not often I think this (least of all say it), but Curse of the Headless Horseman is quite possibly one of the worst films I've ever seen.

It tells the tale of Mark, a hippie medical student who inherits his uncle's Wild West themed ranch theme park under the stipulation he can keep it if he turns a profit within the first six months.

However, the ranch is a dilapidated run-down mess so Mark decides to move in along with his hippie pals and set about drawing in some custom. Once there the group of hippie stoners are 'haunted' by a headless horseman who rides around the ranch splashing blood at people from his severed head collection.

This may well sound fairly entertaining, or even quite amusing, but the fact is that the themes here (hippies meets cowboys meets The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) are executed so poorly that the result is nothing more than an dull, plodding and amateurish rendition of Scooby Doo with terrible acting, bad dialogue, and unconvincing kills. A real chore to endure.

[BAKA]

Originally Posted by Rik

Mine just arrived too

Looks like I got my poster signed right before yours too

They packaged it insanely well.

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

There's a sequel apparently, and they're also known as 'Crazy fat Ethel' 1 & 2, i think. Interestingly if you put in Crazy fat Ethel in Google it reveals there is also apparently a remake with Linnea Quigley thats new.

I love Crazy Fat Ethel. Silly, but a lot of fun.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by BAKA

They packaged it insanely well.




.

Yeah, very impressed with the packaging, kinda like what D & T Mailorder do

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

The Curse of the Screaming Dead (1982)

The Curse of the Screaming Dead AKA: Curse of the Cannibal Confederates starts off as a slow, dialogue heavy road trip film in which a group of annoying friends are motor-homing it across the southern US drinking, hunting and incessantly bitching on at/about one another. They stop at a dilapidated confederate burial site and decide to make camp. However, the inhabitants of the graves have other ideas.

I've seen my fair share of low budget cheese-fests in which bad acting and ropey dialogue goes hand-in-hand. Therefore, it is something I often can (and do) endure ...up to a point anyway. The acting in Screaming Dead drops to an abysmal subterranean basement low with continuous wooden, stilted dialogue and awkward over the top deliveries to the extent that I often wanted to leap through the screen and forcibly gag all involved.

Happily, there are some zombies around to alleviate these painful exchanges of dialogue; unfortunately they are all unconvincing, rubber masked extras who stumble around in the dark allowing our group of incessantly annoying on screen 'friends' to briefly come across as ever-so-slightly less annoying whilst we are subjected to a barrage of cheap zombie kills. For dessert? A double helping of more cringe-worthy vocal exchanges.

[Rondadoronron]

The Gore Gore Girls – Herschell Gordon Lewis ( 1972)
One of the last splatter movies H.G.Lewis directed,(god i luv the term splatter movie)
Herschell Gordon Lewis,there isn't a film of his i don't like and yes I have watched Gruesome Twosome and Something Weird and still managed to stay awake.
The Gore Gore Girls is some what different in tone to his other blood and guts films in that the film swings from brutal gore to almost absurdest comedy,most of which falls flat but is so bizarre in tone.The violence is also quite strong but has an air of bizarreness in its vary-est guises with Ass pummeling with a meat tenderizer,nipple snipping (milk from one breast and chocolate from another)eye gouging and just all round chunks of gore being fondled.
The whole proceedings are over seen by detective Abraham Gentry played by Frank Kress who almost looks and acts like a more camper Jason King (if that's at all possible)aided by a Nancy Drew wannabe Nancy Weston (Amy Farrell).
Strippers are being murdered,Who is the killer?Yes its your usual scooby doo plot-line but with more meat on show than a butchers window.There are some really wild and wonderful characters in this film,in fact there doesn't seem to be a single well balanced character in the whole proceedings main example being Grout (Ray Sager) an ex Vietnam vet.
And seeing as this is the early 70's H.G. Lewis, the Godfather of Gore even crow bars in the feminist movement ( I think your wasting your time trying to win them over Mr Lewis).
There really is something for everyone in here,skanky 70's strippers,oodles of gore and for lovers of tedium (count me in) inane dialogue that really goes nowhere plus a mind bending jazz score.And an air of sleaze that oozes from the very pours of your DVD player like a scene from Videodrome.
Long live the old Flesh long live Herschell viva Zapata.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Dark Sanity (1982)

Dark Sanity concerns a recovering alcoholic and her husband who move into a new house which was the scene of a grisly murder some years before. The wife starts seeing visions of the murder and the murderer via psychic visions, to which everyone else attributes to a relapse in her drinking. However, an ex-police sergeant also shares this particular gift (conveniently) plus believes that the real killer is still at large.

A pretty ropey and inconsistent film that seemed to crawl along and then run out of steam a little at the end. Supposedly a slasher, although I wouldn't exactly classify it as such.

Name change suggestion: Dull Insanity.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

From B_E's musings this book seems like a guide on what not to see.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

From B_E's musings this book seems like a guide on what not to see.

I think I've already seen all the good ones!

[Rik]

After reading Ron's H.G Lewis review, I felt like watching one of his films, so I put Two Thousand Maniacs on and only lasted 45 minutes before I got bored and turned it off, pretty sure I enjoyed it last time but I couldn't get into it tonight.
Watching The Burning now, due to the recent discussions about it, I fancied some good old stalk and slash of the Savini variety