Private Duty Nurses (1971)

 PRIVATE DUTY NURSES

With "The Student Nurses" being a hit, Roger Corman with his new company New World Pictures decided to make a follow-up with "Private Duty Nurses", the second of what would become a five film series (followed by "Night Call Nurses", "The Young Nurses" and "Candy Stripe Nurses"). Though I haven't seen previous film "The Student Nurses" in order to make a proper comparison, all the films in the series have no continuity between one another other than fact they all revolve the subject of exploiting sexy nurses so one can watch each film without worrying about being lost by not seeing the film before. With that said this second film comes off perhaps being the cheapest looking of the whole series I have seen thus far and one of the of the more dull entries as it focuses more on lame 'drama' and less on having our sexy nurses go for broke in the exploitation department.

Like the formula Corman liked to follow after being inspired with "Valley of the Dolls", "Private Duty Nurses" focuses on three separate nurses (a Caucasian brunette, a Caucasian blonde and the token black chick) and how their lives intertwine. We begin with our three nurses looking for an apartment while dodging advances of a sleazy landlord. They end up at a bar where one nurse goes home with the landlord and is amazed by his high tech waterbed, a luxury back in the day this was, and then gets tangles up in a drug cartel. Another nurse while back on duty starts falling for a Vietnam vet who risks his life racing motorcycles where our token black chick becomes sexually involved with a black doctor in the ghetto who tells her about racism in the hospital she works at.

"Doctor, if I take my clothes off do I get detention?" (get it... same guy from "The Breakfast Club")

The film tries to include underlying politically motivated subplots and female liberation into the main plot structure but don't be fooled as this is nothing more than an excuse to play off the fantasies of having sexy nurses undress. With that said director George Armitage takes the material far too seriously and instead of having fun with the sexy nurse theme, he bogs the film down with all the uninteresting melodrama padded with unnecessary montages to rock music to get the film to feature length.

Racial subtext... pretty heavy for a Nursesploitation film isn't it?

I'm afraid to say "Private Duty Nurses" is not that enjoyable of an exploitation film. Armitage takes the material far too seriously and the humor he arbitrarily throws in get lost in the sea of poorly handled scenes of melodrama. Will our Vietnam Vet survive his surgery? Will our brunette nurse finally find love admist being tied up in drug trafficing? Will our token black chick bring racism to light? Will the audience care? Well I sure as hell didn't and I'll bet but a majority of the audience watching this film won't either. If you looking for a nurse themed exploitation film with some entertainment value... look at one of the other entries into the Nurse Pentalogy. They are definitely more enjoyable than this heavy-handed cluster fuck.

 Written By Eric Reifschneider

Angel III: The Final Chapter (1988)

ANGEL III: THE FINAL CHAPTER

Though not strong enough to warrant a full fledged film series, New World Pictures couldn't pass up on the opportunity to franchise their money making hooker with a heart of gold character "Angel" thus they forged on to bring audiences a so-called "final chapter" into their "Angel" saga. To my surprise "Angel III" ended up better than I expected but I did go into the film with low expectations after the utterly disappointing second entry "Avenging Angel".

Angel (this time played by Mitzi Kapture) is a successful photo journalist (so much for that law degree she worked so hard for in the second film!) and while on an assignment runs into her mother that abandoned her in the first film. Not long after confronting her mother and learning about a sister she never had, her mother gets blown up so Angel sluts herself up to go undercover as a call girl to find her sister and bring down a high class drug/slave operation.

Mama go boom

Lots of changes in personal between the "Avenging Angel" and "Angel III" occur, most notably series creator Robert Vincent O'Neill stepping down and letting exploitation filmmaker Tom DeSimone take over the franchise reins. DeSimone, hot off his women-in-prison spoof "Reform School Girls", surprisingly takes the film into more serious territory, a breath of fresh air from the overly silly second film. Sadly he also does away with many staples of the original two films, like the quirky secondary characters and the whole street prostitution backdrop causing the franchise to get farther and farther from it's roots.

Our new 'girl next door' version of Angel with her new sidekicks

Also new to the series is star Mitizi Kapture, the third actress to portray the title character. Was it seriously that hard to get an actress to return for a sequel? Though Donna Wilkes fit the role the best, Mitizi comes out being my personal favorite actress in the role and seems much more comfortable than Betsy Russell in "Avenging Angel", though she does maybe have a hair too much of 'the girl next door' image to pull off an ex-hooker. Dispite that she is gorgeous and has a strong presence for an exploitation film. Alongside her is an 'old friend' named Spanky (Mark Blankfield) who never appeared in a film before this. Why not bring back one of the secondary characters from the other films? Even if the same actor wouldn't return why not replace him/her? It never stopped the filmmakers from recasting Angel! We also get Richard Roundtree in one of his many stock cop roles and ex-Bond girl Maud Adams as the leader of the whole drug operation.

"Where's my paycheck?"

"Avenging Angel" was a better 'sequel' but "Angel III: The Final Chapter" is a better film, if that makes any sense. "Avenging Angel" was a much more solid when it came to continuity but the more serious plot and darker tone of "Angel III" made it more engrossing film experience for me, though the tone shift may alienate some "Angel" fans in the long run. For a third entry into an action exploitation series, it wasn't that bad. Much like "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter", the subtitle is a complete lie as an "Angel 4" did emerge some years later but this one marked the end of the theatrical run of the franchise.

 Written By Eric Reifschneider

Avenging Angel (1985)

AVENGING ANGEL

With "Angel" being the sleeper it was in 1984, New World Pictures quickly put this sequel into production employing  the same director, writer and a majority of the same cast. One key actress is absent  however with Donna Wilkes passing on the film leaving the title character to be played by the beautiful, yet completely different looking Betsy Russell.  Does she have the assets to make this sequel the loveable campy hit the original was? Let's just say it's hit and miss... a majority being miss.

Angel, now graduating law school, has cleaned herself up and living the good life. When she gets news that the cop that got her off the streets is murdered, she sluts up again to beat the streets with the aid of her quirky friends to take down the criminal operation that killed him.

Angel is back... different looking but 80s as ever

Director Robert Vincent O'Neill decides, unwisely in my opinion, to make this sequel even sillier and campier than the first film. He takes the sense of realism and drop kicks it to outer space as the humor and misfit characters are even more cartoonish than they were in the first film. These eccentric characters (Rory Calhoun, Susan Tyrrell and Steven M. Porter) instead of being loveable, tend to grad the nerves and grow tiresome very quickly. Bettsy Russell also seems uncomfortable in the role of "Angel" never making the character her own or as empathetic as Donna Wilkes' portrayal in the original.

The highlight of Rory Calhoun's career

O'Neill also adds some 'new friends' into the mix, but these guys are hardly as memorable. First up is a pair of transvestites that the audience barely gets to know and the second is some guy called Johnny Glitter, an annoying shit bag that continuously throws glitter over everyone that is accompanied by a ridiculous wind chime sound effect on the soundtrack. I seriously wanted  to reach through my television to strangle his douche bag!

Somebody shoot this guy, please!

I did enjoy the reprehensible villains who are uber violent in their goal to steal property and the return of the wonderful Hollywood Blvd. locations but I didn't dig O'Neill's overexaggerated approach to the film. The sillier, more cartoonish approach makes the B-level campy charm of the original absent and in its place is annoyance. I still enjoyed it for what it was but typical with sequels I didn't like near as much as the original film. "Avenging Angel" still made enough money to warrant two more sequels.

 Written By Eric Reifschneider

Angel (1984)

ANGEL

By 1984 Roger Corman had sold his company New World Pictures in order to start his other film company Concorde Pictures.  Even with his presence and infinite wisdom gone the remaining team at New World had enough experience making entertaining cult exploitation pictures to still produce likeable cult ventures, without the guidance of Corman, proved by the 1984 sleeper hit "Angel".

The name angel refers to the street name of our main character Molly Stewart (Donna Wilkes). Honor student by day, she hustles the streets of Hollywood Blvd by night to pay the bills after being abandoned by her parents. Shit turns worse when a serial killer starts brutally murdering her friends and she goes all Charles Bronson to take her revenge. Can a vice cop help her catch the killer while at the same time convincing her to get off the streets for good?

She looks so angelic... doesn't she?

For an exploitation picture, "Angel" is relatively well made with some good actors well handled by director Robert Vincent O'Neill. Sure the dialogue and gratuitous nudity can get in the way of its story telling (imagine an exploitation film doing that?!) but O'Neill is still able to craft empathy for our main character and her questionable moral decisions to get by.

He's a psychotic killer... because he drinks raw eggs

For me the best part of "Angel" is the quirky secondary characters that aid Angel in her goals and ambitions. We get Dick Shawn as the witty transvestite Mae, Susan Tyrrell as the Jewish dyke apartment manager Solly,  Cliff Gorman as the respectable empathetic vice cop (with a crazy eye) and Steven M. Porter as yo-yo street entertainer Charlie. The real winner though is Rory Calhoun as Kit Carson, a loveable snile ex-western actor turned street entertainer. He totally owns the scenes that he is in.

The picture perfect apartment manager

What helps "Angel" is that it strives to be more than just merely another exploitation picture by providing the audience with empathy for our lead character, a suspenseful killer and even some good old fashioned vengeful action with colorful secondary characters. At it's heart it's still an exploitation picture with some silted dialogue and a few subplots that go nowhere (what happened to Angel's guidance counselor?) that keep it from being better. "Angel" really struck a chord with the grindhouse audiences who in turn made the film a modest hit, paving the way for four sequels: "Avenging Angel", "Angel III: The Final Chapter" and "Angel 4: Undercover".

 Written By Eric Reifschneider

Firecracker (1981) - 2/5

FIRECRACKER

When a film's trailer ends with the tagline "the first erotic martial arts thriller", I will admit as a guy it perked my interest. And what do you know, "Firecracker" lived up the narrator's statement as I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable seemingly unknown martial arts film from the trashtastic film factory in the Philippines run by B-movie maestro Cirio H. Santiago.

As expected the plot comes secondary and is basically a complete copy of Santiago's early Blaxploitation martial arts film "TNT Jackson", substituting the black lead with a white woman and moving the films location to the Philippines. I wouldn't doubt if Santiago ripped off the title sheet to the "TNT Jackson" script and replaced it with one that read "Firecracker", that's how much the plot of these films is alike! Here we have a sexy martial artist arriving in the Philippines to find her missing sister (instead of brother in "TNT"). She tries to work her way into a drug ring and ends up working with some undercover DEA agents (again, just like "TNT").

The absolute best part of this cheap martial arts thriller is Jillian Kesner as our sexy and deadly lead actress. Unlike the lead in "TNT Jackson" who had no martial arts abilities and was hired solely for her 'assets', Kesner not only has the looks but is an accomplished martial artist as well. Due to this she holds her own in plenty of violent fight scenes. I shit you not it's about ten in total with the first occurring in the first 2 minutes!

Schlock director Cirio H. Santiago knows exactly the type of film he's making so he pulls no punches in showing off Kesner's beautiful body. In her first fight scene, she fights some guys that busted into her hotel room only clad in panties and a bra. One long fight sequence has her loose her dress (yes, that is unintentionally funny) and ends up fighting her enemies topless! Silly and exploitative? Yes. Memorable? YOU BET!

Cirio also peppers the film with some gory scenes, including a night watchman getting impaled by a tool and even some eye gouging. Scenes of gratuitous violence are always nice addition to spice up a B-movie. The choreography is also decent here making the fight scenes far more believable than those so-called fights in "TNT Jackson".

"Firecracker" is bad but enjoyably so. The acting, editing and overall plot flow is laugh inducing but the fight scenes and sexy heroine makes this oh so entertaining. A definite guilty pleasure of mine and hands down my favorite schlock film from cult director Cirio H. Santiago. It's just a damn shame Kesner didn't go on to do more films of this nature. "Firecracker" got it's long awaited DVD release from Shout! Factory in a triple feature titled "Lethal Ladies" packaged alongside partner in crime "TNT Jackson" and "Too Hot to Handle". This set is worth checking out for fans of trash cinema.

 Written By Eric Reifschneider

TNT Jackson (1974) - 2/5

A Filipino made Blaxploition martial arts film that takes place in Hong Kong... how the hell did they pull off that weird amalgamation? Well "pull off" wouldn't be the the proper term but at least it's somewhat watchable... to an extent I guess.

TNT Jackson arrives in Hong Kong to find her missing brother only to get entangled in some heroin runners and undercover cops. Lots of fighting is the result.

Our title character is portrayed former Playboy playmate Jeannie Bell and it's obvious she has no martial arts background as her fighting is clumsy at best. She also lacks charisma and is a poor copycat and much more interesting characters portrayed by Pam Grier. What she lacks in on screen grace, filmmakers try to make up with in titillating nudity as we even get to see her fight four guys in a dark room topless only clad in panties (a scene that the director would later use in his film "Firecracker").

Filipino exploitation B-movie director Cirio H. Santiago has always been shoddy at best but TNT Jackson, an early film in his career, is far more thoroughly directed than his normal effort. Still his fighting sequences are all poorly staged, some even containing sound effects of hits that don't even connect. He also likes to use speed ups to make hits/kicks/throws look faster. Hell even utilizes the old Roger Corman trick of removing frames in order for the fights look faster and more brutal.

This shoddy effort fails as either a Blaxploitation or martial arts film thanks to poorly choreographed fights and a main star that lacks presence thanks to stiff acting. Still, for fans of trashy entertainment, it's worth a look for some unintentional laughs and nudity otherwise people are better off looking up Santiago's 1980 martial arts effort "Firecracker" which stars a women with some actual martial arts training.

The film was in public domain hell as many DVDs exist with poor VHS transfers. Shout Factory released a beautiful anamorphic widescreen transfer in triple feature alongside "Firecracker" and "Too Hot Too Handle", two other Roger Corman distributed exploitation 'classics.'

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) - 3/5

Roger Corman tested the waters for a low budget "Star Wars" rip-off by distributing the wonderfully lame Italian bandwagon effort "StarCrash". It proved to be extremely successful so Corman pushed on to produce and distribute a rip-off he could call all his own and "Battle Beyond the Stars" was born, proving Corman had what it took to create an extremely entertaining space opera on a shoestring budget and good enough special effects to provide stock footage for umpteen productions of his to come.

The plot steals from the legendary Japanese film "Seven Samurai", so much in fact this could be considered an unofficial remake with a space setting. Perhaps a better comparison would be an unofficial remake of "The Magnificent Seven" as Robert Vaughn plays the exact same character he got famous for in that popular westernized remake.

So we get is a Luke Skywalker wannabe named Shade (Richard Thomas) having his planet threatened by "Darth" Sador (John Saxon). Needing help Shade seeks of the help of seven warriors, including and not limited to an elderly Han Solo cowboy played by George Peppared, a Valkarie woman warrior, a reptilian lizard man and of course Robert Fucking Vaugn.

As you can tell the cast is fucking great, no doubt most of the films low budget going to pay the salaries of George Peppard and Robert Vaugn to give the film some bankable names. Though it's obvious these two took their roles for a nice paycheck, it's still nice to have 'em and it gives the film a hair more respectability. Richard Thomas, though not totally likeable, has enough charm to him to hold the film together as our young, virginal lead. Being a male it's obvious that cult icon Sybil Danning stole the show for me with her gigantic bosom almost bursting through her lack of wardrobe.

Behind the scenes we get a fantastic special effects crew giving us impressive visuals. The guys who provided the laughable effects for its brother in crime "StarCrash" should take notes after watching this. The score is also impressive, it being the early work of famous film composer James Horner, a man who would provide amazing scores for such famous films as "Star Trek II" and "Avatar". His score actually brings flashes of "Star Trek II" to my eyes when I hear it... yea it's that impressive.

John Sayles script is not surprisingly predicable, I mean how could it not be being a rip-off of "Star Wars" and derivative of "Seven Samurai". Where it makes up for its predictability is that the whole plot has it's tongue firmly placed in its cheek never taking itself too terribly seriously. That is what I believe gives the film so much of its staying power, being as popular with the cult film crowd today as it was back in 1980.

The plot is insanely predicable but the imaginative characters, likeable actors, surprisingly good special effects, epic score and script that doesn't take itself too seriously makes "Battle Beyond the Stars" the crème de la crème of "Star Wars" rip-offs. So grab a bag of popcorn, a giant soda and sit down for a fun-filled space opera that helps define the drive-in popcorn era of films.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Up From the Depths - 1/5

With his "Jaws" rip-off "Piranha" being a surprise hit at the box office and no doubt being drunk off that success, producer Roger Corman decided to bank (with no on screen credit) another "Jaws" inspired water logged thriller for his Filipino partner-in-crime Cirio H. Santiago with "Up From the Depths". Unlike "Piranha", "Depths" doesn't have the luxury of having a talented up-and-coming director in the form of Joe Dante behind the camera resulting in an extremely poor man-eating fish picture that, unlike its predecessor, will NOT be remade anytime soon (unless of course you count the similar themed "Demon of Paradise" in 1987).

A sunny vacation spot in Hawaii (see Philippines substituting for Hawaii) comes under attack by a deep water man eating fish when currents shift bringing up deep water fish to the surface. Now it's up to swindler Sam Bottoms (what the hell is he doing in swill like this?) and his girlfriend to stop the man-eater before it makes the tide crimson with the blood of tourists, shutting down the local resort.

Cirio opts to only serve as producer for this log of brown trout and leaves the directing talents up to frequent Corman collaborator Charles B. Griffith who seems deeply confused on what manner to treat the material. In trying to mimic Joe Dante he tries to add some sly sardonic humor to the film no doubt knowing the plot is B movie drivel but like many others that try to mimic the great Dante inferno he fails miserably. Rarely, I do many VERY rarely the humor works (I do admit having Sam Bottoms screen credit appear over some jiggling hula girls butts was great). The humor just comes out very awkward. Take the resort manager for example... what the fuck is up with this guy? One of his employees comes in depressed one day and he has to gall to ask if she's pregnant. Funny? Maybe unintentionally but it mostly comes out just plain awkward.

Like "Jaws" the resort decides to give a $1000 reward to anyone who slays the beast. This damn monster fish ends up killing dozens of people. Who the hell is willing to die over a measly $1000? Oh and the beast is seemingly indestructible and has more lives than a god damn terminator.

The monster fish itself is a sight to behold for unintentional laughter. It's just a big slow moving brown piece of fiberglass. Yes it literally looks like a turd. I understand the effects team didn't have much to work with but these effects are just horrendous.

"Up From the Depths" is a FAR cry from the B-movie goodness that was "Piranha" but it will be special interest for fans of trash cinema from the 70s. It's got a big, shitty looking killer fish eating up dumb vacationers hungry for a buck. It fails at mixing sardonic humor with B-movie thrills but still hold enough entertainment value for the curious movie connoisseurs of obscure monster films. Released on DVD in a double feature with "Demon of Paradise".

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Return To Horror High - 2/5

From the title one would think this is a sequel to the 1974 horror film "Horror High." The Internet Movie Database lists this slasher as a sequel to that drive-in "classic" but I am very skeptical. First of all the plot has absolutely NO connection. The first film was about a Nerd that drank a potion he concocted turning himself into a hairy "Hyde" like figure to kill the people who had done him wrong. "Return to Horror High" is tongue-in-cheek slasher spoof that pokes fun at the "stalk and slash" subgenre. To me the "Return" in the title is referring to the films plot about a movie crew returning to high school where murders occurred in 1982. The ending to this film also puts a kibosh on any connection. I can't find any other sources on the subject to prove that it is or that it isn't a follow-up. Since this film is completely different than the film "Horror High" one should go into this film with a fresh new perspective.

I touched on the plot before but the film begins with a group of cops (one being Maureen McCormick of Brady Bunch fame) on site of a mass murder where a killer butchered a movie crew who was filming at a high school where mass murders occurred five years before. The films plot diverges between flashbacks to the movie crew filming the movie to flashbacks of the original murders taking place. This is where the plot flow gets really messy.

The real problem with this film is it has plot lines going every direction and loses the audience in the process. The film begins with cops on site investigating the murder of our film crew, then the film flashbacks to the crew actually making the film, then the film flashbacks to when the first set of murders take place, but wait! It was just the movie crew filming a scene for the film! Later the film flashbacks to the original murders BUT it's an actual flashback this time and not a movie scene. Then the film flashes forward, back, forward and there is even a dream sequence shoved in there to royally fuck with the viewers. One almost needs a pen and paper to jot down notes to get this plotline straight! When I first saw this slasher in high school I remember not knowing what the hell was going on. Watching it again as an adult one really has to pay attention to know which plot line goes where.

What I do like about this film is that it spoofs the slasher genre, and low budget filmmaking in general, without being a full fledged comedy like "Scary Movie." It spoofs and at the same time it's an actual slasher film with enough blood and carnage to please gorehounds. I also like the portrayal of some of the characters, the highlight is Alex Rocco as the film producer as the just hams it up wonderfully as he screams "more blood" and "more nudity."

Since the films plotline takes so many god damn detours we never really know who are the main characters we are supposed to follow until over half-way through the damn film. Since the film jumps around so much we don't get to know our leads well and by the end after plot twist after plot twist I found myself not giving two shits.

"Return to Horror High" could have worked wonderfully if the damn plotline could have been tightened up better with writing and editing. Viewers are just destined to get lost in the timeline jumping mixed with "fooled ya" flashbacks. Despite those problems the characters are colorful, the violence is bloody, and it has a nice humor streak poking fun at the slasher craze. It's definitely worth a look for slasher fanatics but others need not apply. Keep an eye out for a small early role for George Clooney.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Evil, The (1978) - 3/5

Now this is a haunted house picture! Films like "The Haunting" (the original of course), "The Legend of Hell House", "Poltergeist", "The Changeling" and "The Amityville Horror" (original again) are among the most popular and are all fine films of the "haunted house" subgenre (well not so much "Amityville Horror") but beyond those "The Evil" is the one of the best of the Haunted House films that were released under-the-radar. Even the simplistic title fits this picture as this house is plain and simple evil incarnate.

Psychologist Richard Crenna and his doctor wife decide to purchase a huge abandoned mansion. To get the house prepared they invite a handful of friends. It doesn't take long for the shit to hit the fan as a dog allowed in the house starts going ape-shit barking at a sealed door in the basement floor. Crenna, being the curious house owner, removes an iron Christian cross holding the door shut (Note to self: If a room in the basement is sealed with a cross, there's a damn good reason it's there SO DON"T OPEN IT!) releasing an ancient evil which traps all the inhabitants of the house and playfully kills them one by one. Crenna is a man of science and can't believe a supernatural force has taken over but his wife sure believes and she has to beat the clock using an old diary of the man who built the house in order to destroy the evil once and for-all.

Director Gus Trikonis is able to generate some great atmosphere in the house beginning with the opening credits that are amazingly similar to "The Amityville Horror" which didn't even hit theaters until the next year. Trikonis also is able to craft some eerie and inventive death sequences. My personal favorite is a character running, stops to look up a dark stairway and start screaming. Another character comes bursting into the room and from a distance sees the women dragged up the stairway into the ill-lighted story above. It's an eerie scene made even more uncanny as we never know her outcome, but it is very obvious that she came to a horrible demise. Apparently in the original script it was supposed to be a little demonic creature that drags her up but due to budget restraints the monster was never filmed and the scene is more creepy with out it. This just proves that some of the best deaths are left to our morbid imaginations. This doesn't mean there isn't some violent deaths on camera as there is a burning, an electrocution and even a circular saw through the hand but for the most part this is a rather bloodless film. Sorry gore hounds! "The Evil" is some-what old fashioned in this sense as Trikonis goes for the "less is more" approach to the killings and blood, a concept that works.

He does, however to the films detriment, decide to show the transparent ghost of the former owner which just comes across as a little hokey. The cheese factor of this special effect could have easily been done away with. This however is not the biggest sin the film commits. That comes towards the end when Crenna and his wife come face-to-face with "the evil" that occupies the secret compartment in the cellar. This claptrap plot addition almost derailed this train into oblivion, causing the house to almost collapse on its own foundation. Showing what "the evil" was, without giving it away, was completely idiotic and would have been laugh educing if I didn't like the rest of the film so much. To be honest, that sequence royally pissed me off and almost ruined the entire picture for me. Apparently I wasn't the only person this "revealing sequence" pissed off as the distributors of the film (Roger Corman's New World Pictures) actually had the sequence removed from many of the prints due to audiences unintentionally laughing at its silliness. To be honest I don't remember this sequence when I originally rented it on VHS many years ago. It very well might have been there but I must have been so traumatized that the filmmakers would stoop to that drivel that I put it out of my mind. This asinine sequence is restored on the wonderful DVD release from Shout! Factory.

"The Evil" is a good haunted house thriller with a solid cast, a tense atmosphere and some eerie deaths. I would have easily given the film three and a half stars but thanks to the botched revealing on what "the evil" was I had to deduct the film a half a star. If you're a horror film fan, especially of 70's material, then "The Evil" is well worth a purchase. Shout! Factor was nice enough to release this lost gem on DVD in a double feature with "Twice Evil", a not so hot haunted house flick.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

StarCrash - 2/5

Since my brother is reviewing the greatest saga of all time (no not "Lord of the Rings", "Star Wars" you douche!), I decided to contribute a review for the greatest "Star Wars" rip-off of all time.... drum roll please... "STARCRASH"! Who's the best (or would that be the worst) at making rip-offs? The Italians of course! And who's the best at distributing rip-offs? None other than Roger Corman! An Italian film and Roger Corman, it's a match made in hell... as in hell of a good time!

"StarCrash" has a typical "Star Wars" rip-off plot with the evil Count Zarth Arn (Joe Spinell of "Maniac") destroying a galaxy ship with 'red globules' (don't ask) and kidnapping the Emperor's son (David Hasselhoff, the horror, the horror!). Jump to the other side of the galaxy and we are introduced to our heroin Stella Star (Caroline Munro, the luscious bikini clad villainess from the Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me" who had a talent for flying helicopters), her alien sidekick Akton (Marjor Gortnor, known from such stellar films as "The Food of the Gods" and "Mausoleum") are space pirates that pick up an escape pod and are captured after a high speed chase. They are latter released as the pod contained an android from the galaxy ship from the beginning of the film and the Emperor gives them the mission to go rescue his son from the clutches of Count Zarth and stop him before he uses his the deadly "StarCrash" weapon which as the capability to destroy the universe!

Director Luigi Cozzi (under his American pseudonym Lewis Coates) began his career working with Italian great Dario Argento and his directorial debut "The Killer Must Kill Again" was a marvelous little giallo. Gialli however were not his true passion. His passion was science fiction so Luigi decided it was a perfect time to cash in on the genre thanks to a little film, I forget the name, directed by George Lucas. Typical of Italians, he loads this space opera up with nothing but "influences" from "Star Wars", "Flash Gordon" and even "Jason and the Argonauts". "Jason and the Argonauts"? Yes there is a giant metal statue that chases our heroes just like the Bronze statue in the afore mentioned film and there is even a robot sword fight that is eerily similar to the fantastic stop-motion skeleton battle at that film's climax.

The cast for this film is just wonderful! We even get the great Christopher Plummer collecting an easy paycheck for appearing in the small role of the Emperor. The rest of the cast is B-movie vets and actress Caroline Munroe is a dish to look at. Did I mention she runs around half of the film in a space bikini? Ooo-la-la. When the dialogue gets too stupid to handle, her beautiful body is enough to keep you interested. She's not the only connection to the James Bond franchise... the score is provided by James Bond regular John Barry. How the hell did they get such a high profile composer to work on such trash? However they enticed him (cha-ching!) I'm glad they did because it's a fantastic score adding to the sheer fun of the trashy film playing in front of my eyes.

Thanks to being a low budget Italian rip-off, the special effects are the worst aspect to the film. Though they look shoddy (some not even looking better than effects from films made fifteen prior) they still have a silly charm to them. The dialogue is painfully awful in many parts but fans of this type of cinema should be used to poor and badly dubbed dialogue by now.

"StarCrash" is a BAD "Star Wars" rip-off but it's an entertaining bad "Star Wars" rip-off. I had a ball! The B-movie lover in my blood lapped this film up hungrily. Despite its trashy nature and low budget, "StarCrash" was a mini success here in the United States thanks to Roger Corman's company New World Pictures picking the film up to release stateside. Apparently Corman wanted to test the waters to see if there would be a market for low budget 'space operas' before he started production on his own "Star Wars" rip-off "Battle Beyond the Stars". There was and a small legion of fans would become known as "Crashers". Luigi did write a sequel that was supposed to be produced by "legendary" Cannon Films. What?! My favorite production company was going to produce a sequel to "StarCrash"? Sadly it never happened as producer team Golan-Globus rewrote Luigi's script to his dismay and he later ended up directing the craptacular 1983 version of "Hercules" for them instead. I say if you like cheesy science fiction, preferably mixed with trashy Italian style, then give "StarCrash" a shot. Hell it's better then most of those dreaded "Star Wars" prequels...

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Humanoids From The Deep [Monster] (1980) - 2.5/5

In the old Universal monster movies, our beastly guys in suits always went after the women and carried them off into dark corners. Exactly why were they so interested in women? And why did they always want to carry them off to secretive hideaways? Well Roger Corman answers that question with his trashy exploitation monster movie Humanoids From the Deep (also released theatrically as Monster) showing that monsters want sex too as our monsters carry off damsels in distress in order to have their way with them. The result is a schlocky horror film mixed with extremely tasteless sequences that will be sure to offend many viewers in the audience.

Near a coastal community, a group of scientists are experimenting with genetically enhanced salmon. Unbeknown to them their creations are growing at an incredible rate into humanoid looking beasts that begin to kill local animals at first. Soon they begin wanting to mate and move to the shores, killing the men and raping some women. Two rival fishing groups take matters into their own hands to kill the monsters.

In praise for the film, it really marks the end of the "guy in rubber suit" monster films. The story is just a more bloody, exploitative version of the lovable monster movies from the 50's and before updated for 80's audiences that craved more carnage. In that aspect alone I like it as I have a soft spot for monster films. The cast is also great and their performances really add to the films quality. There is even an underlying theme of racism in the film which is brought to a head when the animal killings begin.

The film however treads a little too much in to the exploitative section of films with its graphic sequences of inter-species rape. I completely see why many people were offended by this when it was released as it is rather degrading to women. Apparently the film's rape sequences weren't as graphic when originally shot as director Barbara Peeters made the scenes take place mostly off camera. Roger Corman, upset with the results, demanded more blood and nudity so he had the second unit director Jimmy T. Murakami go and film more nudity, gore, and graphic rape scenes. You can really tell a different director made these sequences as they really don't flow with the rest of the film. It's a cheesy monster movie with good actors with a nicely flowing plot when suddenly a sequence of graphic rape rears its ugly head into the picture.

I do have to mention the great monster suits created by Rob Bottin (The Thing) and Chris Walas (The Fly). These suits look great for a low budget monster film! The bloody effects will also wet some gorehounds appetites (the new release from Shout Factory is the uncut international version of the film under the title "Monster" which also includes a graphic decapitation not ever seen the U.S. market) especially during the final moments of the film when our beasts attack a carnival.

I should have enjoyed Humanoids form the Deep much more than I did. It's got a solid cast, a schlocky monster movie plot, great monster designs and added 80's blood and carnage. The added rape sequences must have just left a bad taste in my mouth for me so I just didn't enjoy it as much as I should have. This however is a must see for fans of B-movie cinema.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Humanoids From the Deep Trailer

Death Race 2000 - 3.5/5

When it comes to cheesy Roger Corman productions and even B-movie releases of the 70's, one film always tops the list. That is of course Paul Bartel's cult classic Death Race 2000. Death Race seems to be as popular today with the cult crowd as it was back in 1975 and no doubt that can be attributed to its sardonic, humorous approach to a very violent, controversial concept.

The film's concept is simple. Death Race (based on the uber serious story The Racer) is about a deadly cross country race which our racers get points for killing pedestrians. What a sadistic concept! However Corman and Bartel knew the concept would be too controversial to take seriously so they decided, wisely, to take a humorous approach with the material. Our main character is a driver named Frankenstein, played by David Carridine. His character is a beat up mess, wearing a mask to cover all the injuries from previous races. This is of course is a facade as he looks completely normal behind the mask. It seems the French are rebelling against the violent race so they start setting up booby traps for our racers, killing them to make a point. Carradine figures out a plan that his extremely attractive navigator is a imposter sent in by the French to take him out. Will he beat the French at their own game to win the race or will he have a change of heart? Finding out is one of the best B-movie experiences I have ever had.

This film could have easily been taken deadly serious but what makes it so fun is it's tongue-in-cheek approach with plenty of political satire. The film is actually rather goofy and even resembles Looney Tunes at moments. An example of this is our French putting a detour sign in the middle of the road which of course fools a driver to drive through a fake tunnel that leads off a cliff. It gave me plenty of flashes of Wile E. Cyote and Road Runner along the way.

All our cars and drivers are extremely goofy also with each car having silly designs that resemble those strange hot wheel vehicles that look like animals and such. Carridine's car looks like a lizard with rubber teeth, Sylvester Stallone's car resembles a mobster car complete with Tommy guns and Mary Woronov's car resembles a bull. We even get one racer that drives a Nazi car and screams "Blitzkrieg" whenever she runs over a pedestrian! The goofiest concept hands down is the fact that Carradine has a fake hand that is a grenade.... literally a "hand grenade." The sequence with the most black humor is a scene where a geriatric hospital puts out some elderly into the roadway to get hit by Carradine but Carradine swerves to hit all the doctors and nurses instead. Black humor indeed!

Death Race 2000 is an extremely goofy film and will definitely not be for all tastes with its mixture of black humor and extreme violence. I personally had a ball with the film and it is definitely on my list of top B-movies of all time. The film was so popular that it inspired an insulting pseudo-sequel called Death Sport made 3 years later as well as a recent remake in 2008 with a drastically different tone.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Death Race 2000 Trailer

Death Sport - 1.5/5

Three years after his surprise hit Death Race 2000, Roger Corman no doubt needed some quick easy cash so he decided to produce this insulting pseudo-sequel that acts more like a rip-off of the previous film. Employing David Carradine once again the filmmakers set out to make another futuristic film about a deadly sport, only changing the car aspect to motorcycles. The result should have been fun but instead comes out cumbersome and tedious.

1000 years in the future in a post apocalyptic world, we have barbaric warrior like humans being hunted down by "civilized" humans that live in domed cities (shown with horrible matte paintings). Our "civilized" humans use high tech "deathbikes" to capture these roaming bands of warriors and use them to fight in Death Sport, an arena based game where they force the prisoners to fight on "deathbikes." David Carradine is one of these barbarians captured and forced into playing but he and his playmate girlfriend (don't worry, she does get a nude scene) escape and most of the rest of the film is Richard Lynch and what seems to be a never-ending group of soldiers riding motorcycles trying to capture them.

The main problem with this film is that there is literally no fucking script. It feels like a ten page script stretched out to 90 minutes and directors Allan Arkush and Henry Suso (a pseudonym for Nicholas Niciphor) mostly fill the film with people riding motorcycles from one corner of the shot to the other. Since every time the motorcycles leave the frame they have an annoying ricochet sound effect, we then are graced to hearing this damn sound effect what seems like a thousand times! The sound effects crew should be shot for filling the film with this extremely annoying sound! Not only are the sound effects annoying but so is the awful score, which is completely unfocused and seems like our composer fell asleep on his keyboards.

Since there is no plot to speak of, the filmmakers decide to throw in some exploitative nudity our way and weirdest of these sequences is, I kid you not, a Christmas light nude torture room as our president of the city as some kinky fetish with electrocuting naked girls. They also fill the last half of the film with loads and loads of pyrotechnics and lots of slow motion explosions. Even with all this added crap they still didn't have enough to fill the ninety minute mark so they decided to add a completely pointless "subplot" of David Carradine trying to rescue a young girl from cannibal mutants. Yes it's as dumb as it sounds.

This film has nothing that made Death Race 2000 such an entertaining B-movie. The sardonic humor and political satire are gone and we are left with filmmakers with essentially a plotless film taking their material seriously. The result is rather boring, tedious movie affair that even the likes of Carradine knows is bad as he seems to be phoning in his performance. Only the most hardcore B-movie or Corman fanatics will enjoy this drivel.

Bonus Rant: Also what exactly is "Death Sport"? There is no good definition of the game in the the film. The rules are made very clear in Death Race 2000 but I have no
idea what the main goal of Death Sport is... other than killing.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Death Sport Trailer

BattleTruck [Warlords Of The Twenty-First Century] - 3/5

I remember seeing the video artwork to Warlords of the Twenty-First Century (also released theatrically as BattleTruck) on our local video store shelf and I always intended to rent it but sadly never did. Now finally, after all these years, I was able to view this seemingly forgotten post-apocalyptic film and it just saddens me I never got to see this as a kid as no doubt it would have been one that I watched a lot. Post-Apocalyptic setting with a giant armored semi... sounds like a young boys dream to me! Well... at least my dream.

The film opens with a simple yet extremely effective sequence with black smoke rising into the skies with a cackling, broken up radio broadcast stating how that radiation levels are still high and that a rogue group in an armored vehicle are terrorizing the roads, stealing all the fuel and goods they can. Apparently it's the future and after the "oil wars" the world's economy has collapsed and gas has become a scarce commodity (vaguely familiar of... what's that other popular post apoc film... oh yeah, THE ROAD WARRIOR!). The leader of this rogue group that drives the "BattleTruck" is a mean mother fucker and his daughter has had enough of his evil ways so she escapes only to be rescued from his men by a loner "mad max" type of anti-hero named Hunter (Michael Beck, of The Warriors fame). Not wanting company he decides to drop her ass off at a local village where she becomes a member. Not long after her father and his bastard BattleTruck move in and it's up to Hunter to rescue the girl and save the village.

There are many parallels that can be drawn up between this and The Road Warrior and it's easy to see why people consider this a "rip-off" of it (it is produced by Roger Corman, the master of rip-offs for Christ Sake!). This however isn't the case as they actually were both made at the exact same time. Director Harley Cokliss (cursed with one of the worst names in the field) actually goes so far to admit that George Miller, director of The Road Warrior, might have seen his script before starting on his film. Now that's food for thought! No matter what the case both films were made and released at the same time and Miller's film won out, becoming a worldwide success with BattleTruck fizzling out into obscurity. That however doesn't mean BattleTruck is a bad film and to be honest I was quite surprised on how good the movie was and there are many respectable elements within it.

I actually really enjoyed the plot which is very reminiscent of a western, just set in a post apocalyptic future. The characters are for the most part interesting and the villain is downright evil. This guy shoots and kills people for just looking at him wrong! Our hero "Hunter" is nowhere near as interesting or complex as, let's say, Mad Max but Michael Beck is adequate. The part that impresses me the most about this film is the production design. I can't believe how good the BattleTruck looks with a film that really had no budget. Harley Cokliss really utilizes his budget well and makes the film look like it had double the budget it really had. Still though it's budgetary restrictions do show up now and again and sadly the action sequences do suffer a bit.

With a little higher budget BattleTruck could have been grand but as is it is a good post apocalyptic B-movie. Again I was shocked by how good it was as I was expecting some bad trashy entertainment. I've seen so many of the Italian post-nuke flicks that are entertainingly trashy that I just expected this to be the same. Not so. I highly recommend BattleTruck for fans looking for a good, lost post apocalyptic films. Even with story similarities to the Road Warrior, if one doesn't expect this to be as good as that film, then you think you will enjoy.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

BattleTruck Trailer
Warlords of the Twenty-First Century Trailer

Galaxy Of Terror - 2.5/5

When it comes to trashy Alien rip-offs, there is one film that is the leader of the pack. That film is Roger Corman's seemingly lost classic Galaxy of Terror. Though absolutely "inspired" by Alien, Galaxy of Terror however isn't a complete rip-off like other films in the notorious subgenre like Creature, Forbidden World and Inseminoid. Sure there are some monsters lurking in the dark after our astronauts but there is plenty of psychological horror in addition to the basic stalking monster moments. The best way I can compare it is Alien meets Event Horizon... just trashier.

Our film opens like a complete Alien rip-off with a crew landing on a remote planet to investigate a cash landing. While there they discover an ancient pyramid where each crew member comes face to face with various monsters and die horrible, bloody deaths.

What I liked about this ultra cheap sci fi horror is the addition of the psychological horror aspect. It seems the Pyramid brings the crew members deepest darkest fears to life. This aspect itself makes this film a severed arm above the rest in the notorious "Alien" knock-off subgenre. The film is also full of amazing, practical special effects. Everything from matte paintings, creature effects to visual effects are all tops and brings out a real nostalgia feeling from this reviewer as I grew up with effects of this nature. I'm sorry but computer generated effects will never top practical effects in my book! The colorful cast of actors also makes this film a fun romp to watch. Where else can you see Edward Albert, Sid Haig, pre-Freddy Robert Englund, and Ray Walston in the same movie! Guaranteed nowhere else in the galaxy!

Even with all the praise the film succumbs to many B-movie flaws that seem to always plague Roger Corman productions. The first is the AWFUL dialogue. Sid Haig admitted the dialogue was so dreadful that he convinced to Roger allow his character to be mute. Still his crystal throwing badass was still required to say the laugh educing line "I live and die... FOR THE CRYSTALS!!!" That line gets me every time! The film also gets a little overly complicated and self-important towards the end and it becomes unintentionally funny with all its metaphysical mumbo jumbo.

People who have seen this film before are no doubt going "when are going to talk about the maggot rape!" Yes Galaxy of Terror has a grisly reputation as it has a sequence where a maggot grows to giant size and literally rapes one of our woman astronauts. This sequence is pure crass exploitation and sadly it's what the film is most remembered for. My parents went to see Galaxy of Terror in theaters when it first came out and they walked out during this sequence. This was one of two movies that my parents walked out of (the other being William Friedkin's Cruising) so I definitely had to hunt down the film that went over the acceptable edge for my parents. Viewing it now I can see why!

Galaxy of Terror deserves no more than 2 stars but I decided to bump it up a half a stare due to the fact a lot of hard work and effort went into making this film which really had no money to spend. Lots of blood sweat and tears were shed for this production and the film looks great as a result. If it just had better dialogue and a tighter script could it have become an "A" of a "B" movie. However can a film with a maggot rape scene be respectable even with better dialogue and script?

Bonus Rant: It just fucking irks me when people hear about this movie and all they can talk about is James "my way" Cameron. Yes James Cameron was production designer and second unit director on this film and yes he would go on to be an Oscar winner later but that doesn't mean he alone made this film! There is even a whole section of the documentary present on the DVD dedicated to him....grrrr

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Forbidden World [Mutant] - 2/5

I went into Forbidden World (also released theatrically as Mutant) expecting a entertainingly bad Alien rip-off and boy oh boy did I get what I expected! Sometimes said to be a sequel to the cult film Galaxy of Terror but I don't see the connection. Forbidden World is just another quickie Alien rip-off produced by Roger Corman that just happens to use some of the same sets as Galaxy of Terror. To be honest Forbidden world is FAR more of an alien rip-off than its earlier more popular counterpart.

The film throws the audience right away into a space battle getting everyone interested. We have unused stock footage from the Corman Star Wars rip-off Battle Beyond the Stars giving the film some nifty space effects. On the ship we are introduced to our "hero" and his android sidekick. Our bounty hunter is called to a planet to investigate a lab where one of its creations has broken free and killing all the lab animals. Once arriving the creature has already cocooned itself into a corner and emerges, turning various crew members into gelatinous creatures themselves that it can eat. By the end our creature becomes a bad carbon copy of our Alien design (see the "Mutant" poster for a visual representation) and trust me you will be rooting for the damn thing to eat our unlikeable characters!

The women on this scientific research base take the cake as being the strangest characters. I mean they are complete sluts! With what only seems to be a few hours after arriving, one of our gals beds our bounty hunter! The next morning our bounty hunter walks into the steam room and our other lady friend almost lays him right there, until our escaped Alien/mutant decides to fuck that up. Our gals also walk around the station in skin tight outfits and "robes" that barely cover their ass cheeks. In perhaps the most unintentionally hilarious moment our gals have an important talk about how to communicate with the mutant alien by soaping each other up in the shower! The director didn't even try to hide his attempts at exploitation! I did get a good laugh when one of the women tries to communicate with the "thing" via 1982 computer and the Alien mistakes the word "co-exist" into being that she wants to be eaten.

Forbidden World is a BAD Alien rip-off but unlike many other BAD Alien rip-offs (cough cough Star Crystal!) Forbidden World manages to entertain by being schlocky fun. The characters are one dimensional, the acting is bad, and so is the script. Yet all this badness mixed with 80's new wave still kept me glued to the screen. I am embarrassed to say but I actually had a good time with Forbidden World. It's got enough unintentional laughs, gory special effects, and gratuitous nudity to please fans of trash cinema. Corman himself would even produce a shit remake of this film in 1991 entitled Dead Space.

BONUS RANT: The original cut of the film contained 5 extra minutes of comedic material that apparently angered Roger Corman who believed comedy doesn't belong in a "horror" film. He had the material quickly removed before wide release. Thankfully Shout Factory also released the director's cut on DVD with this cut footage intact and it gives the film more of a tongue-in-cheek feel which I dug for a bad Alien rip-off. Shame on you Corman for cutting that material out!

Also don't be confuse this film and the 1984 film Mutant. Though they both share titles they are completely different. Sadly some DVD companies confuse the films and the 1984 film Mutant received a DVD release which utilized the Mutant poster art for this film. WHOOPS!

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Death Before Dishonor - 1.5/5

I will admit I have a soft spot for over-the-the-top cheesy 80's, politically incorrect action films. This is why I enjoy the output of Cannon Films so damn much. Invasion U.S.A., Missing in Action 1-3, Delta Force, Commando, Rambo II & III though not "good" films get regular spin time in my DVD player. They are just so damn much fun! I went into Death Before Dishonor with this same mentality as it fits the criteria. It's from the 80's, it's cheesy, it's politically incorrect... but it's just missing one ingredient. That ingredient is "entertaining."

Our film has a marine whose commander gets kidnapped by some terrorists while stationed in the middle east so going against the American ambassador's wishes and goes to rescue him. That's it.

Since this is a cheesy 80's action film I didn't expect a great plot but at least make the plot interesting! This plot is just a snooze fest and it has bland characters to match it. Though I enjoy Fred Dryer in his popular role in the television show Hunter, I found him at odds as an "action hero" here. Perhaps with a better film he could have made is mark in the cheesy 80's action category but his "action hero" character here is completely uninteresting. Since the character's are uninteresting we don't care if they live or die no matter how much the music tries to make us! The score tries hard, too hard, to compensate for the lack of emotions on screen. In a sequence where one of Dryer's soldiers bites it, the music comes in so forceful to try to make the audience know it's a sad moment. The music was so obtrusive here the sequence came out more unintentionally funny than sad. The villains are also superficial and hardly seem like any threat what-so-ever.

The film just comes off completely forgettable and thus lacks the fun, B-movie elements that Cannon action films were so grand at supplying. The film is a definitely B-action film but it doesn't go that extra mile to be over-the-top and fun and instead it just comes out boring and forgettable. Death Before Dishonor is a forgotten 80's action film and it deserves to remain just that. Potential viewers are recommended just to pop in The Delta Force again.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Piranha (1978) - 3.5/5

Due to the Piranha remake coming out this summer I received a message from my brother asking if I owned the original so he could see it. Sadly I didn't anymore and this bothered me as I consider myself the go to guy for the older horror films. I owned the New Concord DVD years ago but ended up selling the damn thing for nearly $50 when it went out of print. Thanks to the film being re-released soon I was able to pick up the old New Concorde edition I owned on eBay for pennies. Now my DVD collection finally feels more complete that I know own Piranha yet again and recently sat down with my wife to revisit some memories. All I can say is that I forgot how fun Piranha really was.

The plot itself is your basic B-movie nature gone bad rip-off that filled theaters after the success of Jaws. However the film rises above this label thanks to director Joe Dante to become an "A" of a "B" movie. It's amazing it turned out as good as it did considering the fun, yet silly plot and for the fact it was produced by Roger Corman who was mostly known for churning out fun, yet schlockingly bad monster films. The plot opens with two young lovers that break into an area that has fences with attention grabbing signs that read "Warning Keep Out" only to take a swim in what looks like the nastiest, dirtiest looking pool imaginable. Thanks to the title of the film we know that these young lovers are about to become fish food. A young, smart mouthed investigator is hired to find out where they disappeared to and with the help of a burnt out drunk living nearby, she tracks them down to that government testing facility with the pool of monsters. Unwittingly they drain the pool and thanks to our scientist played by Kevin McCarthy, they find out they released thousands of genetically mutated piranha into the mountain river system. Now it's a race against time to warn potential victims and to rescue our drunk's daughter before they all get sliced and diced by the razor sharp teeth of the PIRANHA! Throw in some government agents trying to cover up the top secret project and you are guaranteed wonderful B-movie time.

The aspects that make this film rise above other such films in the genre is the sharp writing of John Sayles (The Howling, Alligator) and the sure-handed directing of novice Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins). John Sayles' script really fleshes out the characters (all the more the Piranha to eat!) making them seem more human and more quirky than other characters in such films. Dante's directing also makes the film rise above the silly plot by having the characters take the situation seriously yet also injecting plenty of sardonic humor that he would perfect in The Howling. He also fills the film with little in-jokes seen with props and images on television screens (this would also be seen in later, more mainstream Joe Dante films). An example of this is a cop reading a newspaper which headline reads "Piranha leave little clues." I love when directors put this little extra work into films. Perhaps teh funniest in-joke is at the beginning when our investigator starts out playing a Jaws arcade game. Nothing like advertising right up front what film your ripping off! The film, for its time, is also pretty bloody and violent as we are shown victims whose legs are eaten down to the bone. The filmmakers also pull no punches and even break the taboo rule of killing children by having the pack of piranha attack a girls summer camp. By today's standards this is tame but back in 1978 this film was pretty graphic.

The one aspect about the film that brings it down for me is that the ending of the film becomes a little too much of a Jaws rip-off for my taste. We have large water resort that is owned by a stubborn Texan (cult actor Dick Miller) who refuses to believe any of the warnings just like the mayor in Jaws. Of course it ends up a mega bloodbath.

Overall I really enjoyed Piranha and the filmmakers made the film rise above it's typical B-movie status with good writing and directing. The plot may be nothing more than a Jaws rip-off (probably the best Jaws rip-off ever I might add) but B-movie fans will love the actors and graphic nature of the film (70's style). This is a B-movie I highly recommend.

Bonus Rant (Spoiler): I actually thought it was interesting how our hero beat the Piranha by killing them with pollution. Pollution coming to save us for once... that's a really unique concept. However I did find it a stretch that the control room for the sewage plant was underwater. You think the engineers would build an important room to, I don't know, a sewage treatment plant someplace that wouldn't get flooded!

Written By Eric Reifschneider