All Movie Guide
Two Catholic boarding school students (Dominic Guard and Dai Bradley) embark upon a carefully calculated campaign to drive their hated headmaster (Richard Burton) insane. The boys launch their scheme by cooking up the most bizarre and depraved of imaginary sins, then recite these infractions in the Confessional. This sadistic little game gets wildly out of hand, resulting in murder. It's a toss-up as to who is the most repulsive character; the headmaster or his two charges. One of a long line of 1970s stinkers barely redeemed by the presence of Richard Burton, Absolution was not released until 1988, long after Burton's death. Hal Erickson
All Movie Guide
Director Monte Hellman (who would later direct a young Jack Nicholson on two low-budget westerns) earned his low-budget wings on Filmgroup's bizarre fusion of hostage/crime thriller and big-rubber-monster flick -- a quirky juxtaposition employed to similar effect 35 years later in From Dusk Till Dawn. The story begins with a team of gold thieves hiding out in a ski resort cabin after a heist, taking two people hostage as they prepare to smuggle their loot across the Canadian border -- unaware of the giant, icky-looking spider-monster lurking in a nearby cave, which preys on anyone unlucky enough to stumble near its lair. The film's woodland exteriors add a richness lacking in the typical dusty desert settings of this film's genre contemporaries. The cobwebby monster is played by Chris Robinson, later the star of General Hospital. Cavett Binion
All Movie Guide
The final installment in Hammer Studios' Dracula series is also the least interesting of the lot. A fairly direct follow-up to Dracula A.D. 1972, this sequel finds the Count (Christopher Lee) developing a potent strain of bubonic plague which he and his devil-worshipping disciples plan to release from 1970's London to wipe out nearly all life on earth. His efforts are challenged once again by the dedicated Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), leading to a rather uninvolving climax. Despite the always-welcome presence of Lee and Cushing, this installment plays too flagrantly with the time-honored Hammer Gothic formula, giving Dracula actual dialogue and surrounding the leads with a dull, amateurish supporting cast -- with the possible exception of Joanna Lumley (later of BBC-TV's Absolutely Fabulous). This also marked Lee's final performance as the Count and signaled the beginning of the end for Hammer's horror heyday. Also known as Satanic Rites of Dracula and Dracula is Dead and Well and Living in London. Cavett Binion
All Movie Guide
Jason Blade (Edward John Stazak) is a martial arts expert trained by the Panthers in China. He is sent to Australia for a secret mission against evil druglord Zukor (Michael Carmen). When his partner Linda (Linda Megier) dies, her cousin Gemma (Paris Jefferson) joins Blade and his crusade. Blade and Zukor's murderous henchman Baxter (Jim Richards) have a final showdown in this routine action feature. Dan Pavlides
All Movie Guide
Teenagers find an old movie script from an abandoned film project and learn the terrifying reasons it was scrapped in this horror outing. Sandra Brennan
All Movie Guide
One of the first of several horror films with "Don't" leading the title, this gory low-budget thriller takes place in an experimental hospital for the criminally insane, where the pioneering director allows several patients to act out their twisted fantasies (which involve necrophilia, paranoia and popsicles). When a new staffer shows up, things start to go haywire -- beginning with the bloody axe-murder of the doctor himself and leading to a total takeover of the asylum by its most dangerous inmates. The acting is horrendous, the sound is incoherent and the color is so cheap-looking that some theaters were issued black-and-white prints... but somehow the intrinsic sleaziness generated by the threadbare production manages to lend it a remarkably suitable ambience. Instead of vanishing into obscurity, this quirky little potboiler became a staple on the early-70's drive-in circuit, thanks to Hallmark Films' frequent double-bill bookings with Wes Craven's Last House on the Left (even borrowing the logline "Keep telling yourself: It's only a movie...") and Mario Bava's Bay of Blood. Some video versions are missing most of the graphic violence from the original cut. Cavett Binion
All Movie Guide
In this run-of-the-mill horror film, it is the Christmas season, and derelicts who need money for food and/or booze get jobs playing Saint Nick in the city's department stores. An insane killer has taken a strong dislike to these Santas and either violently does them in or disfigures them in very ugly ways. A Scotland Yard detective (Edmund Purdom, also the director) has been assigned to capture the serial killer, but when he is unable to get results fast enough, he is replaced by Sgt. Powell (Mark Jones). The list of suspects includes the Scotland Yard detective, a reporter who happens to be on the scene just after one of the crimes is committed, and another fellow who was also around for several of the attacks and is indirectly related to one of the victims. The puzzle will hopefully be solved while some Santas (Father Christmas in England) are still around. Eleanor Mannikka
All Movie Guide
In this low-budget, straight-to-video war drama, a Pentagon advisor working in a South American country suddenly finds his sympathies shifting toward the rebel cause when he realizes that some of the atrocities going on in the conflict-torn country are being perpetrated by his own countrymen in disguise. When he first finds out about the covert activities, he protests, but that only gets him tortured by his men. He then becomes a full-fledged renegade and begins secretly training a guerilla force to fight back. Poorly executed violence ensues. Sandra Brennan
All Movie Guide
Teens in 1950s Tel Aviv were just as enamored of popular music as their American counterparts -- often listening to the same songs. In this romantic comedy, three buddies are on the lookout for an opportunity to express their sexual maturity. Benjie is much too nice for some of their shenanigans, Huey is overweight and bashful, and Bobby is very much a ladies' man. Huey in particular gets caught in some ticklish situations, as when he has to hide under a bed when a couple comes in to use it. Clarke Fountain
All Movie Guide
This is the third installment in Amando de Ossorio's "Blind Dead" series featuring the legions of the undead Knights Templar -- a sect of medieval monks who were executed in the 15th century for their occult practices and who periodically rise from their tombs to torment the living. This chapter puts the Templars on a ghostly Spanish galleon (which looks like it was built from a ship-in-a-bottle kit), cloaked in perpetual fog and roaming the seas in search of victims. When two bikini models are set adrift as part of a sporting-good chain's publicity stunt, they are seized by the flesh-eating ghouls. The company's frantic CEO sets out in his yacht to find them, accompanied by the head of the modeling agency, one of the models' friends, and an expert on Templar lore. They eventually collide with the galleon, whereupon the meandering plot finally gets down to business. The blind, slow-moving zombies shamble up from below decks and wait patiently, as always, for their shrieking, flailing victims to stumble into their clutches. This is one of the creepier entries in the series, making good use of the confined, fog-shrouded sets (presaging very similar scenes in John Carpenter's The Fog), and only wavers during long shots of the cheesy-looking model ship. The shock ending is also remarkably effective. Followed by the final chapter, Night of the Seagulls. Cavett Binion
All Movie Guide
Desperate for money, a husband decides to kill off his heavily-insured wife. Jason Ankeny
All Movie Guide
In this "guilty pleasure" outing by B-budget director Denis Sanders (Shock Treatment), William Smith plays an FBI man investigating reports of a coven of "bee-girls" -- women who have taken on the characteristics of bees, and who kill men upon making love. A cute device throughout the film allows us to see the action from a bee's-eye view. The script, by no less than Nicholas Meyer, pokes gentle fun at the conventions of the cheapo-horror genre without ever stooping to cheap parody. Invasion of the Bee Girls was also released as Graveyard Tramps. Hal Erickson
All Movie Guide
This obscure Italian crime potboiler features a nominal performance from a slumming Boris Karloff as wealthy businessman Don Gaetano, who assists a narcotics detective (Franca Marzi) in rescuing his kidnapped daughter from a drug-smuggling ring based on the island of Ischia. The syndicate's leader is using the girl as a shield to prevent the inspector from getting too close to their operation. Predictable plot twists abound until Gaetano is revealed as the man who masterminded the abduction from the beginning. Karloff, still in a pre-Thriller career lull, would fare considerably better in his next Italian production, I Tre Volti Della Paura, thanks to the deft hand of director Mario Bava. Also known as Monster of the Island. Cavett Binion
All Movie Guide
This action adventure features the skill of one amazing hero. ~ All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
This early Paul Verhoeven effort stars Monique van de Ven as a young Dutch hooker in 1881 Amsterdam who struggles to move up the community's social ladder. Jason Ankeny
All Movie Guide
The Lazarus Syndrome stars Louis Gossett Jr. as brilliant, temperamental cardiologist Mac St. Clair. At present, St. Clair is at loggerheads with his chief surgeon, who gives every sign of being incompetent. St. Clair's dedication to his job causes ongoing friction in his private life. Made for TV, The Lazarus Syndrome was the 90-minute pilot for the series of the same name. It was first shown September 4, 1979; the series itself lasted until October 14. Hal Erickson
All Movie Guide
The only real novelty in the videotaped 90-minuter Legacy of Blood is its having a largely black cast going through the motions of a plotline that had previously been performed to death by white actors. Moses Gunn stars as Joe Mattingly, a supposedly respectable insurance agent. Short of cash, Joe utilizes the services of a loan shark. Now he's deeply in debt, and time is running out to make good his loan; perhaps a little life-insurance scam is in order. Legacy of Blood was originally telecast in 1974 on the ABC late-night anthology Wide World Mystery. Hal Erickson
All Movie Guide
In this parody on vampire movies, a countess must bathe in virgin blood to keep her youthful appearance. Unfortunately, a good virgin is hard to find these days as her sons, who kidnap prospects from a local fashion boutique, soon discover. She also has a doctor working on developing synthetic blood. Sandra Brennan
All Movie Guide
A film-industry makeup man (Mickey Rooney) goes crazy in Manipulator, kidnapping an actress and holding her hostage on a back lot. The film is R-rated for violence and nudity. John Bush
All Movie Guide
Three people, a couple and a young woman, get lost in a vicious fog and seek protection from the elements in an ancient, ghostly mansion. John Bush
All Movie Guide
This ABC Wide World Mystery entry revives the old "Orient Express" format with a large (and largely middle-aged) cast. Two murders are committed on a San Francisco-bound train. There are plenty of suspects with plenty of motive for investigating detective Keenan Wynn to sift through. Except for leading man David Steinberg and supporting player Elliot Street, most of the suspects are such over-40 veterans as Hildy Brooks and Logan Ramsey. Originally telecast in 1973, Night Train to Terror was lensed on videotape. Hal Erickson
All Movie Guide
This satirical comedy answers the question "What would happen to television if the censors took a day off?" Sandra Brennan
All Movie Guide
This low-budget film is about a scientist (Kenneth Hendel) and two other people (Kay Lenz and Richard Hatch), in the wrong place at the wrong time, who are transported to another world in another dimension when an earthquake occurs just as the scientist is experimenting with his "matter" transmitter. As the transmitter beeps and flashes, the trio end up in the strange world of Vonya (which looks very much like the African plains where this film was shot, and where everyone speaks English). Their main objective is to escape back to Earth, but in the meantime, they have several comic-book style villains to handle, of course. Eleanor Mannikka
All Movie Guide
A herd of chemically altered rattlesnakes become fearsome killers in this made-for-TV chiller. The tale is set in the Mojave Desert and centers upon Sam Parkinson, a noted zoologist, who has come to investigate a series of strange deaths that began with two dead children found near their parents' campsites. Sam is accompanied by Ann, a photographer who make an appalling discovery. Sandra Brennan
All Movie Guide
When five MD colleagues go camping up in the northern woods they encounter a crazed killer, turning their vacation into a nightmare. This one definitely borrowed heavily from the successful film Deliverance. ~ All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
The struggles of some wagon-train riding pioneers are explored in this tale of the origins of the Mormon Church. ~ All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
A group of couples head out to the woods for a weekend camping outing when they run into a crazy killer who starts to kill them. ~ All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
In this made-for-television chiller, an enormous and angry Bigfoot launches a campaign of death and destruction against the skiers who have disturbed its home. Sandra Brennan
All Movie Guide
In this grim and gory horror outing, a remote hotel is but a facade for a human abattoir where the guests are butchered and their body parts sold on the black market. Sandra Brennan
All Movie Guide
In this comedy, a jobless public relations specialist goes to get some much-needed rest in sunny Florida and discovers a whole new set of troubles. Sandra Brennan
All Movie Guide
Playboy Playmate Jeanne Bell stars as T.N.T.. Jackson (."..she'll put you in traction!") in this popular blaxploitation film from Filipino director Cirio H. Santiago. Jackson leaves Harlem for Hong Kong to find her missing brother, who has run afoul of the Mob. Predictably, she must pose as a prostitute in order to find him, as well as engaging in topless karate. Santiago and his New World Pictures boss, Roger Corman, were so pleased with the film's success that they essentially remade it twice more, as Firecracker in 1981 and as Angelfist in 1992. Robert Firsching
All Movie Guide
We feel assured when veteran actor Gilbert Roland shows up in the prologue of the independently produced Treasure of Tayopa. Alas, this is the last we'll see of Roland until the epilogue. The rest of the film is Amateur Night in Old Mexico. The never-popular Rene Winters heads the cast as the leader of an expedition into the Mexican hills in search of gold. Another all-time favorite, Phil Trapani, puts a damper on the proceedings with a series of brutal murders. He is unfortunately stopped before he can bump off the producer and director of Treasure of Tayopa. Hal Erickson
All Movie Guide
In this spooky mystery, Scotland Yard embarks upon its most terrifying investigation that centers on a young girl's murder. Soon the hapless inspectors find London is filled with an army of the living dead raised by a vengeful madman. Sandra Brennan
All Movie Guide
Voodoo Black Exorcist stars out like a rewrite of The Mummy. Some 30 centuries ago, an African prince was entombed alive for stealing another man's woman. Flash-forward to the present; the prince's body is exhumed by archaeologists. Within seconds (or so it seems), the corpse revives, killing everyone who crosses his path. Hal Erickson
All Movie Guide
The fourth film in the series, this movie follows the escapades of Count Waldemar Daninsky (Paul Naschy), a classy werewolf, who is brought back to life by an over-curious doctor. Once free, he finds himself struggling to overcome the vampiric Countess Waldessa (Patty Shepard), who has taken his young female friend captive. Iotis Erlewine
All Movie Guide
Phenomena -- declared "my most personal film" by Italy's premier horror director Dario Argento -- marked the director's return to the eerie thematic territory he pioneered in 1977 with the horror classic Suspiria. Much like that film, Phenomena conforms to the logic of nightmares. Jennifer Connelly stars as Jennifer Corvino, the daughter of an American film star, who enrolls in a prestigious Swiss boarding school under the tutelage of the prudish Mrs. Bruckner (played by frequent Argento collaborator and former beau Daria Nicolodi). Possessing a unique telepathic gift, Jennifer is capable of communicating with insects on an instinctive level, often while sleepwalking. This trait soon brands her a "freak" among her snooty classmates but makes her a valuable asset to entomologist Dr. MacGregor (Donald Pleasence), who is currently employing the innate forensic skills of insects to aid police in tracking a serial killer targeting the boarders at Jennifer's school. As Jennifer's tiny friends (including the corpse-hunting Sarcophagus Fly) guide her closer to the murderer's lair, everything from MacGregor's revenge-driven pet chimpanzee to Bruckner's monstrously disfigured son figure into the mix, providing not one but three shocking endings. Shot in English and re-dubbed for various European markets, this graphic thriller was released in drastically edited form as Creepers in the U.S. and England; Argento's original cut runs 110 minutes. Cavett Binion
All Movie Guide
Look out, Shaft -- there's a new private dick in town in this similarly-plotted Blaxploitation flick of the late 1970s. The action shifts between Harlem and Miami as our hero works to clean up the streets, all the while trying to avoid a menacing White man named Big Daddy. Michael Hastings
All Movie Guide
Dario Argento leaves a distinct and bloody impression with Tenebre, an Italian horror film that took the slasher genre to graphic new limits at the time of its release. Novelist Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) jets into Rome to promote his new book. Simultaneously, a killer obsessed with Neal begins a brutal series of murders that are followed by cryptic notes to the author. Inspector Germani (Giuliano Gemma) questions Neal, who then begins his own investigation into the bizarre case with the help of his assistant, Anne (Daria Nicolodi), and local youth Gianni (Christian Borromeo). Neal and Gianni follow leads to the home of a TV talk-show host (John Steiner), who is axed to death in front of Gianni while Neal is knocked unconscious. As they close in on the killer, flashbacks show the killer's murderous beginnings and an obsession with red shoes. Meanwhile, Neal's publicist, Bullmer (John Saxon), is revealed to be having an affair with the author's ex-lover, Jane (Veronica Lario), making them both potential suspects. Inspector Germani insists that Neal leave town, but even when he does, the killer strikes again, knifing Bullmer in broad daylight. At the same time, Gianni returns to the home of the dead talk-show host and recalls an important detail about the murder. However, he is strangled before he can tell anyone. At her apartment, Jane is brutally slain just as Inspector Germani arrives to discover the murderer's identity, along with the shocking, twist-filled truth behind the entire case. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
Susan Stevenson (Ursula Andress) and her brother, Arthur (Antonio Marsina), travel to New Guinea in the hopes of finding her husband, who has gone missing for three months. The pair encounter anthropologist Dr. Edward Foster (Stacy Keach), who agrees to lead a jungle expedition in search of the missing man. As mantraps and other jungle dangers slowly whittle away the search party, Foster becomes convinced that Susan's husband is somewhere on the tiny coastal island of Roka, home to the sacred island of Ra Ra Me. En route to the mountain, the party is captured by the Puka, a Stone Age tribe long considered extinct. Foster reveals that the tribe is cannibalistic, having been captured and forced to consume human flesh years before. This gruesome news, however, pales before Susan's discovery of her husband's fate -- a fate that will surely befall the entire party if they are unable to escape. ~ Paul Gaita, All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
Carroll Baker, the blond starlet best known for her role in Baby Doll, ended her career in a number of Italian giallo thrillers including A Quiet Place to Kill, Paranoia, The Fourth Victim, and this giallo-tinged crime film from director Osvaldo Civirani. Baker plays a dual role as translator Julie Harrison and her twin sister Mary. The serpentine plot begins as Julie tells her lawyer Dave Barton (Stephen Boyd from Ben-Hur) that Mary's life is being threatened in London while Julie herself is being stalked by a mysterious stranger in Amsterdam. Dave's racecar-driving friend Tony Shane (George Hilton) saves her from both an attempted kidnapping and an attempted murder before putting her up with an old blind woman to hide. The blind woman is murdered that same night, and Luciano Pigozzi turns up as an insurance investigator who finds out that Mary has stolen a precious diamond from an Indian Maharaja, double-crossing her husband to do so. To reveal any more of the plot would rob the viewer of the jaw-dropping developments, but the film features an unbelievable prank played by Julie's knife-wielding co-worker in a gorilla mask, a speeded-up car chase reminiscent of Rat Pfink a Boo Boo, and a very odd denouement in an abandoned windmill. The cast is loaded with genre veterans like Lucretia Love, Carla Mancini, Franco Ressel, and Ivano Staccioli, and the familiar-sounding score is by the ubiquitous Stelvio Cipriani, making this a solid addition to any giallo library. Various versions run 89 and 87 minutes. Robert Firsching
All Movie Guide
In this thriller, psychiatrist Dr. Cross (Vincent Price) kills his wife and expects to get away with murder, until he discovers that the slaying was observed by a next-door neighbor, Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw). As Janet attempts to convince her husband (Frank Latimore) of the doctor's dastardly deed, Cross shows up to advise him that Janet is in dire need of some in-depth counseling. Iotis Erlewine
All Movie Guide
There's nothing more terrifying than a Beast With a Gun, and when psychotic criminal Nanni Vitali (Helmut Berger) and three violent thugs stage a jailbreak, the streets will run red with blood in the final film from notorious director Sergio Grieco. Taking to the pavement in a horrific frenzy of rape, robbery, and revenge, Vitali seals his own grim fate when, in brutalizing a beautiful young woman, he catches the attention of a determined cop (Richard Harrison) bent on bringing the murderous madman to justice. As his relentless slide into darkness speeds to a furious race against death, Vitali seems determined to avoid going back into his cage even if it means going down in a hail of bullets and gunsmoke. Jason Buchanan