Brief Thoughts -THE INVISIBLE MENACE (1938)

A week ago Turner Classic Movies celebrated Boris Karloff's birthday by showing a marathon of his films and among them was this little seen and little talked about murder mystery. It's a slight film and really only of interest to Karloff fans and aficionados of the kind of tight, fast mysteries that the major studios would pump out by the dozens in the 1940's. Those films were built to be series with a recurring main character as the sleth (The Falcon, The Crime Doctor, Lone Wolf, etc.) in the mode of the highly successful Charlie Chan films.

THE INVISIBLE MENACE was not built to be the start of a series and for that I am glad! The only character that could possible have fit the mold as a mystery solver/crime fighter in a future film is Colonel Rogers (Cy Kendall) and the guy is a tin-plated jerk! He decides almost immediately that Karloff's character is guilty and then proceeds to spend the next fifteen minutes of the film slapping and punching him around in an attempt to get a confession! And in full view of every officer and witness on the army base where the crime took place. Dumbass! 

Overall the film is a pretty solid murder mystery and, of course, Karloff is a major red herring. There is some not bad comedy, the mystery element is pretty decent and the film runs less than an hour so it certainly doesn't have time to wear out it welcome. Minor Karloff but of interest for those that are curious. 

Argosy Magazine Covers

With the weather turning cooler my thoughts (and reading habits) shift to the pulp-y end of the fiction spectrum. These old Argosy covers show the wide range of genres the magazine printed which mirrors my desire to constantly move between different types and styles of tales. Any of these covers would have enticed me to plunk down my hard earned coins for the promised diversion. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a great day! 

A Bionic Christmas Carol

It being the end of year Holiday season (don't deny it - the ads cannot be avoided!) I have been watching a few genre related Christmas tales. Encouraged by my buddy John Davis' mad collection of such things I convinced him to check out something I haven't seen since its original broadcast back on December 12th 1976. Yes, we watched A Bionic Christmas Carol from the fourth season of The Six Million Dollar Man! Of course this much beloved (by me) series made a version of A Christmas Carol! This was the 1970's when it seemed that every single damned TV series was required by law to craft an episode adapting Dickens' yuletide classic so that even Col. Steve Austin had to find a Scrooge stand-in to set right. Never was the story so bizarrely bent to a concept!

But one of the joys I have found of revisiting this series is getting to see interesting guest stars pop up to add to the novelty. Here we have the great Ray Walston as the Scrooge character and Dick Sargent (the famed second Darren of TV sitcom Bewitched) as the Cratchit stand-in. Walston plays Horton Budge, a cost cutting businessman staying just barely on the legal side of his government contract until his miserly ways nearly get an employee killed - and on Christmas Eve too! Sargent is his nephew who owes the old man thousands of dollars used to pay for his wife's medical treatments. When the Christmas Eve accident threatens delays in the progress of Budge's project he forces his workers to come in on December the 25th to keep costs down. What's a Six Million Dollar Man to do? Why, dress up as Santa Claus and take advantage of Budge's health problems to scare him into being a better person, of course! I love the 70's.

I'm not going to claim this episode is very good but it isn't without its charms. The cast is game and the scenario is rock solid so there is little chance of making a truly bad version of this tale. I'm not sure a non-fan of the series would get more than a passing bit of Holiday entertainment from A Bionic Christmas Carol but I'm glad to have been able to see it again. Oh! One of the great things about seeing these as an adult is being able to spot some sly humor in the show including two neat jokes slid into the proceedings. The first is a carefully framed shot of Austin in a toy store in which the at the time very hot Six Million Dollar Man action figure can be seen on a shelf just to the left of the character's face. Nice! The second actually took me half the episode to catch on to- the project Ray Walston's company is working on for the space program is a Martian exploration experiment. Yes- My Favorite Martian was trying to get folks to his home planet! Very cool.

NaschyCast #54 - MORTAL SIN (1977)

We are back again to talk about another Naschy film. Of course, this one has very little Naschy in it, but at this point we'll take what we can get! MORTAL SIN is a pastoral drama set in a Spanish country in the 1940's with the ghosts of the previous decades civil war hanging over everything. The story plays out as a study of several characters attempting to find their place in the war changed world with particular focus on the three female members of the family - two sisters and the widowed matriarch - as they react to the presence of a young man of marriageable age who moves into the house. The three servants also factor into the proceedings as the relationships become more complicated and the expected romantic entanglements begin to take shape. You might think this is very different from the films we have covered here before but, as we point out, there are many similarities to past subjects of this podcast than you might think.

One note- both Troy and I refer to this as episode #55 at the beginning of the show and we are mistaken. I don't know how we screwed that up but we did. I guess jumping back and forth between this and The Bloody Pit is making us lose track of numbers in general! Sorry! This is #54.

There is no mail in the bag this time around but that doesn't stop us from veering far from our stated purpose in this one. The first half hour we discuss the KickStarter campaign to bring back Mystery Science Theater 3000; the Daniel Craig Bond films and how the new one measures up (spoiler free!); the difficulty of actresses being nominated for genre work and our respective horror Halloween viewings before we segue into going all moist over Paul Naschy. After the discussion and 'Our Man in the Field' Dan's new horror host segment we then talk at length about the SAW movies and the various long running horror film series. Has anyone out there ever watched all the Children of the Corn films? Really?

You can reach us at naschycast@gmail.com or over on the FaceBook page. Don't let us ramble free-range like this again folks! We'll get even further off into the weeds next time without leading questions. 

Direct Download LINK 

iTunes LINK 

KickStarter - Mystery Science Theater 3000!!!

If, like me, you are a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 the recent news that show creator Joel Hodgson is taking a run at resurrecting the series was incredibly exciting. I immediately clicked over to the KickStarter site, read up on the campaign and then contributed to the funding. Their goal is to completely fund the first full season and go on from there. Oh my yes! As much as I have enjoyed the various offshoots of MST3K (RiffTrax, Cinematic Titanic, etc.) the idea of a return of the original show in a new form is the stuff of fanboy dreams. 

Here is Joel's prospectus - 

Hello, People of Earth. 

Welcome! I'm Joel Hodgson. 

Once upon a time, a television series called MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 was born. We debuted on Minneapolis' KTMA, local television, on Thanksgiving Day 1988, as the world was in the final throes of Teddy Ruxpin-mania. That was almost thirty years ago, but for some reason, people still seem to like the show – it’s a mitzvah!

Our show has had a long, strange run. Across a UHF channel, a cable network, cancellation, a feature film, then another cable network, the show lasted for 12 years, two generations of hosts and puppeteers, 2 Emmy nominations and a total of 197 episodes before we got canceled again for good in 1999. Sadly, it was just as Prince predicted.

But maybe that's not where it all ends.

Starting today, we finally get a chance to bring back MST3K.

With your help, we can create a new season of MST3K, prove there's still an audience, and maybe even convince a network to bring us back for more.

KickStarter LINK 

HOUSE OF WHIPCORD (1974)

House of Whipcord begins on a rainy dark night somewhere in the English countryside. A beautiful but obviously distressed young woman is stumbling along a roadway. She almost collides with a parked truck and when the driver helps her inside he discovers that the poor girl has been beaten terribly with a whip. As the good Samaritan sets off to find a hospital the film flashes backwards in time to show us how this woman has come to be in this awful state.

We find French émigré Ann-Marie (Penny Irving) at a trendy art scene party in London where she is a minor celebrity because of her recent arrest for public nudity. Although the public indecency was done as part of a modeling job she is a little ashamed of what happened and even the lauds of her friends can't cheer her up. Lurking at the party is Marc (Robert Tayman), a handsome young man who takes her mind off her troubles and asks her out on a dinner date. At dinner Marc is charming but also demonstrates a hidden dark side when he frightens Ann-Marie with a closed-eyes game of tactile distress. This should have warned the lonely girl off but she seems to need some kind of relationship and so dismisses the incident. When Marc declines her offer of spending the night at her place she is surprised when he instead asks her to join him the next weekend to meet his mother in the country. Ann-Marie's roommate and fellow model Julia (Ann Michelle) is concerned about her friend but wishes her well on her trip. Julia has her own problems and is preoccupied by her married boyfriend's insistence on delaying leaving his wife.

The trip to Marc's mum's home is a good deal longer than Ann-Marie had anticipated, and when they finally arrive she's ushered into the gated and locked compound of an old jail. Immediately the girl is divested of her clothes, her luggage and her dignity as she is brought before an elderly blind judge. She's informed that she has been found guilty of flouting public decency for her public nude display. The judge explains that they have set up this private house of corrections for the public good. Their goal is to hold people responsible for crimes that the permissive English courts punish too laxly. Strict moral uprightness is their objective and the only solace offered in this prison is a Bible placed in each small cell. The newest convict has the situation explained by her cellmate, another girl imprisoned on moral charges. The jail is looked after by only three older women; there are five other inmates and discipline is harsh. First offense merits a stay in solitary, the second infraction results in a beating with the titular whipcord, and strike three... you're out. Execution by hanging is the ultimate penalty and one that every single inmate has somehow met so far. The place is run by Mrs. Whitehurst (Barbara Markham), an obviously insane woman obsessed with morality and tormented by her past. She blames all her life's failures on the loss of her position as governess of a real prison years before — a loss having to do with the death of a female French inmate much like Ann-Marie.

While only two other women are employed as jailers, their care in dealing with the prisoners has made escape impossible. They seem just as deluded as Mrs. Whitehurst if not as mad, and at least one (Sheila Keith) appears to be a lesbian with a streak of sadistic self-hatred. Sadism turns out to be the rule of the place as we learn that Marc is Whitehurst's illegitimate son whose sadistic tendencies are encouraged by dear old mum. Not only is Marc used to lure wicked ladies to the trap but also once mother fixates on Ann-Marie he entices her to make an escape attempt. This leads to her quickly making strikes one and two with little hope of ever seeing the outside world again.

This is a surprisingly good film. Its low budget never interferes with the story and even manages to add a sense of malice to the proceeding at times. This is a fine example of meager means used effectively to make a solid movie. House of Whipcord sets itself up with a wink at the audience when it opens with a text passage decrying the fallen moral state of modern society. Anyone that thinks this is to be taken literally will be sorely and amusingly disappointed. The film is an attack on the simpleminded moralism of those who would wish to impose their views on society with poor Ann-Marie as an example of the folly of putting religious judgments into law. Ann-Marie is clearly a naive young girl searching for comfort and trying to find her way when she is abducted and tortured. She feels embarrassed by her actions and is a far cry from the kind of evil creature of lust that the self-appointed court is set up to punish. Of course, the fact that this system only seeks to punish women is the classic form of condemnation strait out of the Old Testament Bible. Remember, it was always the women who were stoned to death for adultery, not the men. This Biblical view of forcing women to act as scapegoats for all sin shows up in Whipcord starkly as the moralists don't even consider going after the male photographer who took the nude photos. Punishing men is never even considered by the jailers, as if Eve were the only sinner and her punishment the only concern. The system set up by this small coven of moralistic outlaws is, sadly, exactly the kind of religiously intolerant thing I see calls for every other week to this day. That director Pete Walker and his writers were seeing this type of moronic hypocrisy in swinging London is not as shocking to me as it is to notice that we are currently in another up cycle of the same thing now in America. With this kind of dark story is a downbeat ending any surprise?

I've only seen a few of director Walker's films but I've been surprised by their high quality. Especially here, he shows not only an eye for interesting ideas but a strong visual flair too. His shot composition is often clever and the film is very well edited with a remarkably fine story flow. In the last half-hour of the film Ann-Marie's roommate Julia begins a search for her and the juggling of these two narratives is handled brilliantly. The film never feels rushed but it moves very well. This is journeyman craftsmanship on display in a way that makes many more recent horror films look both poorly conceived and sloppy. I look forward to working my way through Pete Walker's films in the future.

Scooby Doo Villains by Grimbro!

Scary! Check out more of the artist's work over on his Facebook page or Tumblr site.

Filmirage Productions- WITCHERY (1988)

Because Scream Factory has been slowly putting them out on DVD and Blu-Ray over the past couple of years I find that I have been working my way through the film produced by Joe D'Amato's production company Filmirage. Until the past couple of weeks I had no idea that this company had existed but their name popped up at the beginning of METAMORPHOSIS (1989), BEYOND DARKNESS (1990) and now WITCHERY (1988). All of these are terrible horror films but I enjoyed them for various reasons that only lovers of Euro-Trash cinema will fully comprehend. Yeah, they're bad but they have something that makes them entertaining in ways that other movies of their level of quality just can't manage.

Looking at the list of 43 movies produced by Filmirage from 1980 to 1994 I can't help but be shocked at how many of them I have already seen. And looking at the descriptions of the others I just want to dive in and see the rest - now! There is bad horror movie gold in there! I just have to see any film called FRANKENSTEIN 2000 (1992) but I may hold off on the drama DIRTY LOVE (1988). Ah, who am I kidding? Joltin' Joe D'Amato making a film about a young girl seeking fame in the big city? It'll be sleazy madness!

One of the most fun (and often funniest) elements of these European produced flicks is the absolutely terrible acting. Each film usually has one competent actor to anchor the proceedings but they are surrounded by people that seem to have never been in front of a camera before someone yelled action five second ago. Strangely, WITCHERY (1988) a.k.a. LA CASA 4 somehow snagged both David Hasselhoff and Linda Blair at down points in their careers meaning that the movie had at least two people on set with prior acting experience. You may smile at the idea of the Hoff as an actor but trust me, he is the thespian highlight of this silly-ass film. In fact, seeing him in this made me deeply aware of how often we see competent acting and brush it aside because it is the standard in what we watch instead of the exception. 

Hasselhoff may seem like a TV hack but when you put him in a film with people that can barely emote it becomes much easier to appreciate the skill he has. I'll never wish he was nominated for an acting award but don't discount what he can bring to a scene to make it seem alive and even believable. On the other hand Linda Blair doesn't add much to the proceedings. She doesn't embarrass herself though even when she goes all frizzy-haired Exorcist crazed near the end.

If you have any affection for Euro-Trash I think you'll get a kick out of the Filmirage movies and I'm glad that so many of them are easily available now. Scream/Shout Factory's releases are very good and any chance to delve deeper into these bizarre productions is welcome. They aren't everyone's cup of tea but if you have any curiosity you can dip a toe in with relatively simple clicks. 

CAGED! (1950)

I have to be honest and admit that my entry point for the Women In Prison film genre was at the sleazy end of the spectrum. I caught the grubby little Linda Blair movie Chained Heat (1983) on cable in my long ago youth and was suitably appalled – appalled enough to watch it in stunned horror at least three more times. So as I grew older and saw more of these types of movies my idea of what a WIP film would or could be became solidified around the 1970's and 80's version of the genre. I'm sure you'll forgive me if I thought that they were little more than delivery mechanisms for visions of various forms of lesbian sexual activity, shower room violence, petty torture acts and other harsh bits of business. Yeah, yeah- the occasional film might make noises about reforming the horrible conditions on display but mostly the filmmakers were just wallowing in gratuitous exploitative excess in the name of making a buck. Not that there is anything wrong with that, in my opinion. But imagine my surprise when I first encountered older WIP movies that couldn't fall back on showing a shower roomful of naked, large-breasted ladies. What would be the draw? Wouldn't the lack of such graphic elements cripple the film? What the hell is this? A film about women locked up in a prison that actually has a good script? How did this happen?

Caged! (1950) tells the sad story of 19 year old Marie Allen (Eleanor Parker). She has been sentenced to a stretch in prison because of a bungled armed robbery committed by her husband who was killed during the act. She insists that she had nothing to do with crime but she was convicted as an accessory nevertheless. To make matters for her worse, her prison entrance physical determines that she is two months pregnant meaning she will give birth while incarcerated. Marie has trouble adjusting to the harsh world of the women's prison and struggles to find people she can trust. She meets professional shoplifter Kitty Stark (Betty Garde) who says once Marie gets out, Kitty will get her a job is her line of work. Kitty recruits for organized crime on the outside and promises the young girl an easy life if she learns this criminal trade. Marie does not want to get involved in crime, but Kitty explains the realities of prison life clearly and events prove the 'booster' right. It is explained to her that she can be paroled after nine months, but over time Marie sees prisoner after prisoner being granted parole but then not released from jail because no job has been arranged by their parole officers. After one such prisoner kills herself the reality of her situation begins to become apparent. Adding to her despair is the sadistic matron Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson) who decides to single Marie out for attention when she refuses to play along with her money making schemes. By the time Marie gives birth to a healthy baby and is forced by the state to grant full custody to her mother she has a small bit of hope that she will be granted a parole to be with her child. But when her mother gives the baby up for adoption against Marie's will she snaps and makes a feeble try at escape.

Unlike many films of the genre, the prison in Caged has an authority figure that is actually sympathetic to the plight of the ladies under her care. The great Agnes Moorhead plays Ruth Benton, the reformist prison superintendent trying to get evidence against the cruel Harper while simultaneously attempting  help the prisoners find a pathway out of their dead end lives. Benton is as lenient with Marie as she can be but soon she has to punish her when her actions become less justifiable and more like her more hardened cellmates. When the now toughened Marie emerges from a moth in solitary she finally takes violent action against Harper and shows that she has given up hope of following the straight an narrow path to parole. She's going to get out of prison no matter what she has to do on once she is on the outside.

Although I might have expected the reformist slant taken by this film, I wasn't expecting a 1950 movie to be so daring in talking about the nastier aspects of prison life. All the mean spirited subjects that I have come to expect from later entries in the genre are here. Yes, they have to turn away from gratuitously showing the lesbian relationships and vicious violent acts but those events are in the story and not hidden behind the prudish restrictions I expected. This is a classic social commentary film and it firmly places the blame on the prison system for turning Marie into a career criminal but it still manages to show that she chooses the easiest way out of her predicament. I was surprised by the ending of this movie and pleased by its high quality across the board. Caged is a very good film regardless of what you might think of prison stories and this might be the film to introduce new viewers to Women In Prison movies. It gives a sense of the unforgiving nature of the genre while saving the harder stuff for later. 

What I Watched in October

SICARIO is a sharp, well acted and tense crime thriller that focuses on its subject at an oblique angle. That subject is the American drug war and the methods that have grown up in various law enforcement departments to wage this battle. The film details the heavy toll on human life which is examined in arch detail with three characters in different stages of descent through the levels of the Hell that this war creates.  Emily Blunt is a young police officer given a career opportunity to work with what she thinks is a Department of Defense agent to take out a major Mexican drug lord. Josh Brolin plays the DOD agent hiding his true place in the government to circumvent international law in his quest to stamp out these criminal organizations. Benicio Del Toro is a shadowy associate of the supposed DOD agent who seems to have a set of skills and a task that only incidentally connects with the crime fighting operation he is a part of. This is a fascinating film that refuses to spoon feed its audience in the same way it refuses to offer up answers to the hideous problems it depicts. In a better world there would be more crime movies made of this caliber.

SINISTER 2 is a stronger than expected follow up to the original film that takes a minor character and expands things in a smart and effective way. As the finale of the first film revealed that this series is a part of the 'evil children' sub-genre this new tale uses that knowledge to set things up for the audience but then pulls a nice surprise as the horror ramps up. The movie boasts creepy atmosphere, a good pace and good performances even from the child actors. It's not going to make any converts to the cause but it is a solid modern horror entry and I'm happy to have this series' monster added to the gallery of big screen bogeymen.

Much has already been written about Guillermo Del Toro's latest film CRIMSON PEAK and I'll just say that I cannot understand some of the criticisms I've read online about the movie. (The most inane is the review I read that spelled out the author's disappointment because she thought the film was going to be about immortals feasting on the blood of a fresh bride! WTF?) This is exactly the kind of film I expected from del Toro - gothic, ghostly, creepy, beautiful and dark. This is a movie that wears its influences on its sleeve but does so in such a natural way that those unaware of the classic films being homaged need not notice. This is a movie that luxuriates in its own sumptuous colors and detail using the intricate set design to please our eyes as it also slowly reveals the true nature of the characters that inhabit the dank, rotting structure at the heart of the story. There are indeed horrible things in the basement as well as secrets hidden in the attic just like any good gothic mansion. Del Toro could go on making movies like this for the next twenty years and I would be a happy cinema fan.

I went to see THE LAST WITCH HUNTER fully expecting it to be a complete disaster. I'm  a big fan of star Vin Diesel as I think he is an actor that knows his skill set and always plays smartly to it in the roles he chooses. I was very happy to find that the script for this movie was actually well constructed and avoided the standard pitfall of most modern films of this type - snark! Yes, THE LAST WITCH HUNTER plays things straight only using humor to describe some of the characters and their relationships. The humor builds understanding of the world of the story instead of breaking the reality of the film. In the post VAN HELSING world this is a rarity with the soon to be released VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN being the latest yuk-fest to take this snarky, jokey path to cheapening the subject of the story being told. Sneering at the genre and its tropes is a poor substitute for cleverness! But I'll climb down from my soapbox and say that THE LAST WITCH HUNTER is a very well done supernatural action film with some effective horror elements woven throughout. The cast is well up to the challenge and the movie put a smile on my face more than once. I would welcome a sequel with more adventures of the team assembled by the end. This is the kind of movie most moviegoers will ignore with a turned up nose but it's exactly the kind I'm glad to see can still get made well - every now and then, anyway. 

The List
ASYLUM (1972)- 8 (rewatch)

TALES OF TERROR (1962)- 8 (rewatch)

PHANTASM II (1988)- 8 (rewatch)

PHANTASM III (1994) - 7 (rewatch)

SICARIO (2015) - 8

THREE THE HARD WAY - 6 (ridiculous but great fun)

SHUTTER (2008)- 5 (OK ghost tale)

A BAY OF BLOOD (1971)- 9 (rewatch)           

DARKNESS FALLS (2003)- 4 (rewatch) (not much going on here)

WITCHBOARD (1985) -6 (rewatch)

PIECES (1983)- 3 (rewatch) (so bad but soooo good!)

THE STUFF (1985)- 7 (rewatch)

SATAN'S BLADE (1984)- 4 (pretty bad slasher)

PRISON (1987)- 8 (solid supernatural horror)

HELLGATE (1989)- 2 (terrible horror effort)

I, MADMAN (1989)- 7 (well done horror fantasy)

DARK PLACES (1973)- 6 (Christopher Lee, Joan Collins, Herbert Lom in a pretty good scare story)

THE BEES (1978)- 2 (possibly the worst animal attack film of all time)

SINISTER 2 (2015)- 7 (well done sequel)

CRIMSON PEAK (2015)- 9

ABBOT & COSTELLO MEETS FRANKENSTEIN (1948) - 8 (rewatch)

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2014)- 8 (hilarious vampire comedy)

CITY OF THE DEAD (1960)- 8 (rewatch)

DARKNESS (2002)- 8 (rewatch)

SORORITY ROW (2009)- 3 (pretty bad remake)

WRONG TURN 2 (20) - 7 (well done sequel!)

THE FINAL TERROR (1983)- 7 (solid backwoods slasher)

TALES OF HALLOWEEN (2015)- 7 (well done anthology)

CTHULU MANSION (1992)- 4 (bad but not as bad as I anticipated)

RATTLERS (1976) -6 (I thought this was solid low budget regional filmmaking)

30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS (2010)- 6 (not bad sequel)

HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (Producer's Cut)  (1995)- 3 (terrible)

WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD (20144) - 8 (incredible Australian zombie film)

DIE, SISTER, DIE (1972) - 6 (mild thriller about inheritance in a nasty family)

DRACULA (1931)- 7 (rewatch on the big screen!)

DRACULA (1931) - 8 (rewatch of the Spanish version on the big screen)

HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1995) - 3 (rewatch of theatrical edit)

HALLOWEEN (1978 )- 10 (rewatch)

THE LAST WITCH HUNTER (2015)- 7 

My Euro-Trash List from 2007

Back in the dark ages - before Facebook - there were other communication platforms on the inter-tubes. One of these was Yahoo's Groups setup and on that site long ago I joined a group of likeminded fellows to discuss our favorite type of trashy films - the European kind! At one point we were convinced to come up with our own Top Ten and I gladly submitted mine which the amazing David Z preserved on his blog - you should read more of David's writing on films as his enthusiasm for marginal and marginalized movies is a wonder to behold. Talk of the list I posted a link to the other day has had David remind me of my personal list and I realize that eight years later I still think its a pretty good list.

1. BLACK SUNDAY
2. INFERNO
3. WILD WILD PLANET
4. TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD
5. ZOMBI
6. THE BEYOND
7. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST
8. DEEP RED
9. LADY FRANKENSTIEN (yes, me too! But only the full length cut!)
10. DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE

That's a quality set of movies that I can easily recommend to anyone wishing to dip their toes into the Euro-Trash waters. But, if in 2015 I was asked to craft such a list I think it would be quite different. So I think over the next few weeks I'm going to try to put together a new Top Ten Euro-Trash to see how much my thinking about the subject has changed. No deadline, but it should be interesting when I finally present it.

Top Euro-Trash Lists

Recently a Facebook post link sent me to this list of The Top 50 Euro Trash Films and quickly the online discussion of the contents made for more interesting reading than the list itself. I have several problems with this ranking with the foremost being that it slights the massive horror output of the European 1960's, 1970's and 1980's to the point of becoming a giant glaring hole in the middle of the entire endeavor. If you are going to make a Top 50 list of this type without including Fulci's ZOMBIE (1979) and/or THE BEYOND (1981) or a single Mario Bava film you are going to have to work to justify their absence. Also, if you start your description of a film for this list with this sentence - "You couldn’t in all honesty call this film Eurotrash." - you have failed in your task.

But the reason for any such list is to generate conversation and I guess in that it is a success. Oh - and bonus points for the inclusion of THE SISTER OF URSULA (1978) - more people need to see this trash classic.