Reviews

"Zombiethon" is basically a plotless compilation of much of the gore and nudity from various zombie movies. Clips are shown from "Zombie," "Astro-Zombies," "The Invisible Dead," "Zombie Lake," "Zombie 4: After Death," "Fear" (which actually does not contain zombies), and "Oasis of the Zombies." The clips for each of these movies vary in length. If the zombie sub-genre is a personal favorite, then this is truly a treat, but for most people this is not worthwhile.

The "plot" tells of a bunch of zombies in a movie theater watching zombie movies. This really just acts for linkage between the previously mentioned clips. From "Zombie," the shark scene, the infamous eye scene, and most of the rest of the zombie carnage are shown (along with the topless scuba diving and the scene in which Olga Karlatos takes a shower). From "Astro-Zombies," many pathetic looking scenes are shown, all of which lack gore and nudity. From "Zombie Lake," the scene in which a busload of girls go skinny dipping only to be fondled by the rising Nazi undead is shown. Clips from "Invisible Dead" bring many shots of nude women being fondled and undressed by an invisible force, and also give away the ending. The clips from the rest of the movies are in the same vein.

The few original scenes seem to have been well directed, there is no original script to judge, and acting varies based on what clips you are watching. The gore effects made specifically for this movie are campy and obviously fake, and, once again, gore effects taken from other movies vary (Zombie outshines everything else in this department).

"Zombiethon" is meant for those with a love for the zombie sub-genre. My rating: six out of ten.

"Laboratory of the Devil" is one of the sickest movies ever made, though it's not as bad as its predecessor. It also lacks the sense of realism that "Men Behind the Sun" had because it replaces documentary style filmmaking with stylish camera work. It also goes for plot and character development instead of just showing the horrors of the camp. This is not to say "Laboratory..." isn't violent; it's just that the violence does not have the impact of that in "Men...".

The plot follows a man who is enlisted in the infamous squadron 731 in Japan. He is also forced to leave behind his fiance, and due to the secrecy involved with the location of squadron 731, he cannot have any kind of contact with her or any of the outside world. As he is forced to kill the Chinese, his mental state begins to deteriorate. "Laboratory..." has many scenes of various inhuman deeds being performed, which include the "skin-ripping" seen in the first film, a VERY detailed "autopsy" on a living person, and people being given lethal injections just to see how long it takes to kill them. All of these scenes are extremely realistic, and are bound to sicken even those with the strongest stomachs.

Had "Laboratory..." had the documentary style of "Men...," it easily could have surpassed it. Godfrey Ho's direction is once again very solid, and the special effects are almost too realistic, which really adds to the film. The acting is also very good. Like "Men...," this film also suffers from terrible dubbing (It sounds like those dubbing the film are talking through a mouth full of food). Like the first one, this film is not all about violence; it has a very strong message about Japanese WWII war tactics (They kidnapped numerous Chinese off the streets and killed them inhumanly in experiments. The Japanese have not apologized to this day for their actions against the Chinese.).

This film is for those with strong stomachs who want more than just violence in their films and also is for gorehounds. My rating: Seven out of ten.

"Reincarnation of Isabel" is a great example of good Euro-trash. It triumphs over its obviously low budget through a combination of gore, unintentional humor, a great score, flashy camera work, and large amounts of gratuitous nudity. It is surprising that this movie has not received a cult status yet, being that it is better than many cult movies. Thanks must be given to Redemption (the company that put this out) for finding a print of this movie, which was long considered lost, and giving it its first domestic release ever.

The "plot" is as follows: A woman named Isabel is burned at the stake when the Inquisition comes to her small village. Apparently they are not too far off, either, because she actually was a witch. Her husband and another local take her body and put it in the dungeon of a castle. Flip to present day: The husband and some of the locals who were on his side have been reincarnated (no explanation is given), and through some twist of fate know it. The husband then attempts to reincarnate Isabel with the hearts of young virgins in some satanic ritual. There is actually much more to the plot (something to do with vampires, and many unnecessary characters), but it all becomes a confused mess. This lack of plot can be forgiven, though, because the plot is not what the movie is trying for.

"Reincarnation of Isabel" is one of the most enjoyable Euro-trash movies, containing everything one has come to expect from this genre. Well, not quite everything. This movie unfortunately lacks in violence and gore. After the violent opening, the movie contains no more realistic effects (it does, however, contain some unrealistic effects. For example, a few "witches" are scratched with sticks, which is fine and dandy (they were topless, after all), but the effect was so cheap it was unintentionally humorous. It was achieved through the use of rubbing a blunt club with wet paint on the end against the skin of the two "witches."). The fake violence was not the only source of unintentional humor; the subtitles were actually much funnier. On the plus side, the acting was surprisingly good and solid, the music was decent, and the direction was pretty solid. It should also be noted that "Reincarnation..." gets better with every viewing. It should be viewed at least twice to get the wanted effect.

Recommended for all fans of Eurohorror. My rating: 7 out of 10.

"The Psychic" is probably one of Fulci's most plot-based movies. It also is fairly restrained; it is surprising that this was not issued a PG-13 rating. The only real gore was in the beginning of the movie when a woman falls off a cliff. Her face is shown hitting the side of the cliff repeatedly. Don't let the lack of gore stop you from renting this, though, because this movie is well worth it.

The story is as follows: A clairvoyant of sorts has a vision of a murder taking place in the house in which she lives. She then digs a skeleton out of the wall of the house. She calls the police, who in turn arrest her husband, the longtime owner of the house. In attempts to get her husband out of jail, she tries piecing together what happened based on her vision. It should be noted that the major plot twists are given away on the back of the box, so avoid reading it if surprise is wanted.

"The Psychic" is one of Fulci's few technically competent movies, containing few plot holes and a great storyline. Unfortunately, the same can not be said about the dialogue, which is subpar, and the quality, which takes away from the movie's viewing experience. Also, the first half of the movie drags, but luckily things pick up for the second half. Be sure to listen for the tune in the watch; it starts out like the theme song to "Zombie!"

This is an enjoyable movie for all audiences. My rating: 7 out of 10.

Though "Bride of Re-Animator" does not match up to the original, it comes quite close. This one strays even more from Lovecraft's original short story, turning more toward Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It also should be noted that "Bride..." actually out gores the original, making it a real treat for gore hounds.

The plot is as follows: Herbert West and Dan Cain have both recuperated from the chaos at the end of the first Re-Animator, and are doing experiments on the dead again. This time, rather than experimenting on whole bodies, they decide to mix and match individual parts, and eventually take on the task of building a women completely out of the parts of various corpses. Unfortunately for the "heroes," Dr. Hill is resurrected as a talking head and eventually acquires bat wings to help him deal with mobility problems. There is also a new love interest for Cain (played by the same women who played Alotta Fagina Austin Powers) and a nosy detective who has an idea of what West and Cain are doing.

"Bride of Re-Animator" is much more of a comedy than "Re-Animator," which usually works in its favor, but is a detriment in some parts. The actors are mostly from the original and execute their parts nicely. It is the special effects that often times carry the film. These effects, done by the same crew who worked on Evil Dead 2, are really exceptional and help make the movie so enjoyable. "Bride..." also has a great plot, good directing, and great dialogue. On the down side, the movie does not really pick up until the end and there are too many subplots.

"Bride of Re-Animator" is a great movie for all viewers who can stomach gore. My rating: 8 out of 10

"Men Behind the Sun" is a very good movie, and is also extremely disturbing. This is one of the few movies that has truly made me feel sqeamish, and, being a die-hard horror fan with a strong stomach, that is saying quite a lot. This movie also uses real animal cruelty and real corpses, making it all the more sick and realistic.

The plot tells of a Japanese camp just before the end of World War II. This camp is the head of a series of camps whose purpose are to make new biological and chemical weapons for WWII. In order to test these weapons, the Japanese need test subjects, so they capture and use the Chinese. The movie follows the experiments performed on the Chinese, the crazy leader who runs the camp, and a group of young men who have been enrolled into the camp, but now want out. This movie is famous for its sick scenes, which include a cat being ripped apart by a room full of hungry rats (which was real), an extremely detailed autopsy, and a man being put in a high frequency wave chamber (a real corpse was used for the scene, and this was the one scene in the movie that made me sqeamish). What makes this all worse is it all really happened.

This movie is filmed in documentary style, adding to the feeling of realness. All of the actors were believable, the camera work and direction were well executed, and the gore effects were extremely realistic. On the down side, the dubbing was completely abysmal (I think a women dubbed a male voice in one part), which really took away from the feel of the movie, and the animal cruelty did not really need to be there.

For only the true horror fans, especially those who have very strong stomachs and want to be grossed out. My Rating: 8 out of 10

"Scalps" is an extremely predictable and boring early eighties movie. Looking back, the only good thing about this movie is the special effects, but unfortunately, all of the gore takes place either in the very beginning or the very end. This movie is a very good example of a movie with a good premise that has gone bad.

The "plot" of this movie is as follows: A group of students goes out to a Native American burial ground to try to find artifacts. Predictably, the group of students begin to see signs of ancient spirits, who eventually start to attack and overcome the group.

Aside from being almost plotless beyond the first fifteen minutes, this moviesuffers from bad acting, extremely annoying characters, bad pacing, and horrible quality. The spirit effects actually look cool, but eventually they get annoying when the same shots are played repeatedly. I suppose that the gore effects are decent, but there are very few of them.

Try to miss this one. My rating: 2 out of 10

"The New York Ripper" is an entertaining and, in spots, an unintentionally funny movie (i.e. A women bumps into a car and apologizes by saying "Sorry, I was thinking of Boston"; a coroner was able to determine that a man has lived in New York all of his life by looking at his blood). This movie is also very twisted and disturbing. I love the torture scene and would have to say the bullet wound to the face the face is my favorite single part in the movie.

The "plot" is as follows: A killer who talks like a duck is on the loose in New York City, killing many people (especially prostitutes) in extremely violent ways. "The New York Ripper" follows a detective and a professor in search of the killer.

This movie is about as violent as they come. In fact, I believe that this movie was made as an excuse to be able to depict sick and demented murders. This movie is also full of nudity, which is not unusual for a Fulci movie. But getting to the many bad points, this movie had abysmal dubbing, acting, and writing. Fortunately, this movie holds up, despite everything wrong with it, and is an above average horror movie. Also, as a note to those interested in the special edition just released by Anchor Bay, the rerelease edition is wonderfully done and is worth the money for those who like this movie.

This is a great movie for gorehounds and horror fans. My rating: 6 out of 10

"Rest in Pieces" is not a very good movie. In fact, I found this movie to be quite a bore. It did have its moments, however, and was at least good enough to keep my interest.

The plot of "Rest in Pieces" is as follows: A greatly disliked woman poisons herself and leaves her money and estate to her niece. The niece and her husband then go to the small village in which the estate lies to see what they inherited. Once there, they find that the village is a front for a religious cult of undead people. The cult then is after the niece, trying to kill her and resurrect her into their cult.

This movie, like most eighties horror movies, had cheap gore effects and was full of nudity. Though some of the actors (the priest comes to mind) were convincing, most of the acting was bad. There were an uncountable number of plotholes (there was a part in which a dead person suddenly sat up. The undertaker simply said "Don't worry, that's common" and pushed it back down). On the upside, there were many scenes, such as the one mentioned above, that caused unintentional laughter. There is also plenty of nudity, which I need not say is a good thing.

This is one worth avoiding. My rating: 3 out of 10

George A. Romero's "Dead" series seems to get better with every installment. After seeing "Dawn of the Dead", I didn't think that this one would hold up (especially after reading most reviews on this site), but I was in for a pleasant surprise. Hopefully "Twilight of the Dead" will keep the trend and be better than Day.

The plot of the movie is as follows: The zombie crisis is in full swing, with very few human survivors left. "Day of the Dead" focuses on a group in an underground bunker. This group seems to be falling apart, with everybody pulling in different directions. The group is led by a sadistic guy with a power need who isn't hesitant to kill the others. Without giving away anything else, I can say the movie's real theme is that we are our own worst enemies.

This is a wonderful movie, with great acting, fantastic special effects, and a wonderfully written script. I cannot find any faults with this movie.

I don't give out tens very often, but I feel the need to here. My rating: 10 out of 10

"Toxic Zombies" is one horrible zombie movie! With an uncountable number of faults, I would rank this movie within the top ten worst films I've ever seen. This movie would provide a great example of a bad movie that came out of the early eighties zombie era.

The "plot", which is virtually non-existent, is as follows: A group of people are growing marijuana on a piece of land that is owned by the government. When the government hears about this, they drop a load of extremely toxic chemicals on both the marijuana and the people (the government apparently did not care about the condition of the people). These chemicals end up turning the group people into zombies, hence the name "Toxic Zombies". The rest of the movie involves zombies killing and eating people.

The plot may not sound that bad to some, but what the director did with it is what made the movie so bad. There is not a large amount of gore, unlike what the box lead me to believe, and when gore is inserted, it is extremely fake. The acting is very bad, as is the dialogue and the plot. The only good thing about this movie is the unintentional humor derived from the script and the bad acting.

I recommend this movie for nobody. My rating: 2 out of 10

"Night of the Zombies", though not completely terrible, is a below average Italian gore movie. It was, however, not as horrible as I thought it would be after reading most reviews. In fact I found this movie to be quite entertaining until the annoying National Geographic footage was inserted. Beyond that point, the movie became a boring mess.

The "plot" is as follows: A chemical plant has a breakdown, causing radiation and dangerous chemicals to leak into the open. These hazardous wastes cause the deceased to rise and become flesh-eating zombies. The rest of the movie follows a military group whose mission is to shut down the plant.

Besides being unoriginal (it's a "Dawn of the Dead" rip-off), this movie suffers from bad dubbing, acting, and dialogue. On the plus side, this movie has great special effects and the first half is very entertaining. But, like most other Romero rip-offs, this movie isn't very good.

For gorehounds and horror completists only. My rating: 4 out of 10

When I rented "Unhinged", I was expecting a gore movie. The box even claimed that the movie had extreme scenes of violence that were cut from the theatrical release (I now have serious doubts about this being released in the theater). After finishing the movie, I wondered how it could even receive a video release.

The plot is as follows: A group of three young women on a car trip crash their car into a tree. These women somehow manage to make their way to a mansion, which contains an extremely sexist woman. Beyond this point, the movie is mainly composed of useless scenes that are intended to make the movie long enough for release.

One of the things that makes this movie awful is the acting. Lisa Munson, who plays the main character, looks as though she is reading her lines off cue cards. The others acting is bad, but not nearly as bad as hers. Another thing that makes this movie bad is the camera technique. Many shots are taken by cameras attached to the ceiling. This gets very annoying as the movie progresses. On top of all that, there is very little gore, which makes the box very misleading.

Don't waste your time on this one. My rating: 1 out of 10

"Hideous!"? I think that this movie should have been called "Ridiculous" instead. I often see bad movies, but not this bad.

The plot of the movie is as follows: A man who fishes pieces of garbage out of sewage for a living(?) fishes out a biological organism of some sort. He sells it to a woman who makes money selling these organisms, and the woman in turn sells it to some other guy. In the process of taking this organism home, this guy is robbed by a topless woman who works for his rival. I feel no need to describe this movie any further because the reader of this review should know by now that this movie isn't worth his\her time.

This movie suffers from horrible acting, a bad script, horrendous direction, and annoying characters, just to name a few things. The only good quality of this movie is the effects of the the monsters.

Try to avoid this one. My rating: 2 out of 10

This is one of the better gore movies to come out of Italy, but by Fulci standards it is strictly average. This is supposedly not the movie that Fulci had intended (I have heard that last minute script changes and budget cuts did away with a movie that might have surpassed "The Beyond"), but I feel it still succeeds.

The plot of this movie is as follows: A clergyman hangs himself over a cemetery in the town of Dunwich (Yes, the town made up by H. P. Lovecraft), causing one of the seven gateways of Hell to open. The gateway must be closed by All Saints Day, or the dead will come out of the earth and take over.

The gore effects in this movie are superb. This movie has people's brains being pulled out, drills going through heads, and a woman throwing up her entire GI tract. Other special effects, such as the laughable fireball in the beginning, the dubbing, and the dialogue leave something to be desired, as does the plot, but I really can't think of an Italian splatter movie that isn't lacking in any of these areas.

Overall, this is a gore driven film recommended to all but the squeamish or the faint of heart. My rating: 7 out of 10

This is one horrible movie! The "plot" is as follows: Little tumor-like organisms grow inside of human bodies. After living in the body for awile, these organisms come out (via the mouth) and turn into bloodthirsty, man-eating plants who have telepathic control over humans.

Being the gorehound that I am, I was immediately attracted to this movie by its cover (and, after reading the back of its box, its plot). Unfortunately, this movie wasn't even satisfying in the gore respect due to the gore's overall fakeness. In fact, the only thing that is satisfying about the movie is the unintensional humor derived from abysmally bad acting.

Skip this one or you'll just be wasting your time. My rating: 1 star out of 10 (somebody gave this ten stars???!!!)