Hazard Jack is a 2014 American horror film directed by David Worth (Poor Pretty Eddie; House at the End of the Drive) and starring Amanda Maddox, Alison Lani and Macauley Gray. The film avoids the trappings of many recent horror films and focuses squarely on the 1980’s slasher aesthetic.

Pity poor Jack. Returning from serving his country and suffering with a particularly bad dose of post-traumatic stress disorder, he then finds he has been let go by his employer, the only source of comfort and routine he had left. Seeing little option but to roam around an abandoned hospital, biceps bared but face shielded by a large welders-type visor, he awaits trespassers to take out his anger on. Luckily for him, a group of alleged teenagers decide it would make the ideal venue for their annual paint-balling contest. There are three distinct factions within their number; a gaggle of vacuous, lust-crazed airheads; a couple of quieter more thoughtful types; two homosexual characters, leaving only someone in a wheelchair out of the catch-all demographic.

A sniff of alcohol is all it needs for these three groups to split up and for the dumbos to commence a game of strip target practice with the paint guns, a sequence which seems to take up half the film. The two young ladies comprise of so much plastic, they’ll be keeping cockroaches company in millenia to come, whilst the blokes both wear bandanas – they aren’t the most endearing types. Slowly, Jack (Quincy Taylor), offs the offending and offensive youths one by one, using an array of tools he presumably used to use in his day-job, including a nail-gun, flamethrower (!) and a power drill.

Helpfully, some of the teens have tied each other up in readiness for a spot of light bondage, the blindfolds they’re also wearing making Jack’s work somewhat easy. Despite the cavernous hospital literally spewing corridors and hidey-holes, the youngsters find themselves bumped off one-by-one by the ambling killer, preferring to hide in wall cavities than just walk out of the unlocked front door. A surprise pregnancy announcement, some interrupted fellatio which is being filmed on the male participant’s phone and some contemplation in the hospital chapel (!) bring us mercifully to the film’s ending, as well as our will to live.

Director, Worth, is probably best known for his 80’s fare Kickboxer and Bloodsport, the dialogue from which was seemingly ripped into tiny shreds and randomly reassembled to be used here. This is truly dreadful stuff, at no point offering any hope of suspense, violence or thrills, cheap or otherwise, rendering it as a disaster as both a film and, more specifically, a slasher. The ‘kids’ (average age approx 27) have absolutely no back stories of interest, the two gay characters throwing the LGBT’s work back several decades and the girls, the plastic surgery industry about the same. Jack himself, presumably a wrestler at some point, communicates in grunts for reasons left unsaid, hopefully the authorities stopped his benefits for using work tools for his own selfish means.

The spilled blood is of the squirty food-colouring kind and the slayings ultimately yawningly tame, despite the array of tools used and the odd heart ripped beating from its cavity. The sex and nudity is equally tiresome, not so much ‘soft-core’ as ‘padded’. There’s no reason why the slasher shouldn’t make a comeback but this is simply empty; no character, no scares, no excitement. If someone pointed to this as to why they didn’t like horror films, you’d be hard pushed to argue against them.

Daz Lawrence

‘Satan is coming!’

The Devil’s Wedding Night is a 1973 Italian horror film originally known as Il Plenilunio delle Vergini (“Full Moon of the Virgins”). It was directed by Luigi Batzella (Nude for Satan; The Beast in Heat) and stars Rosalba Neri and Mark Damon.

In the USA, The Devil’s Wedding Night was released by Dimension Pictures (Kingdom of the Spiders; Werewolf Woman; Night Creature) with a typically lurid advertising campaign. After a number of pan-and-scan VHS releases, the film was finally released widescreen on DVD by Shout Factory in September 2006 with optional comments by Elvira although the print used has obvious wear.

Plot teaser:

The 1800s: scholarly Karl Schiller believes he’s found the ring of the Nibelungen, which holds great power. It’s at Castle Dracula. His twin, Franz, a gambler, asks if vampires frighten Karl; Karl shows him an Egyptian amulet, which may protect him. Franz takes the amulet and sets out ahead of his brother, arriving at the castle first. There he finds a countess who invites him to dine.

Later that night, Karl arrives. Coincidently, it’s the Night of the Virgin Moon, a night that falls every fifty years and draws five virgins from the surrounding village to the castle not be heard from again. Can Karl protect his brother, find the ring, and rescue the virgins?

Reviews:

” … a by the numbers vampire film with some serious T&A tossed into things to spice it up a bit. It’s formulaic, to be sure, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable particularly when it’s shot as well as it is here thanks to some slick cinematography from the late, great Joe D’Amato. The castle makes for a great and macabre set, the women are all lit quite seductively and while there isn’t as much atmosphere as, say, Castle of Blood or Black Sunday there are still some very memorable visuals and sets.” Ian Jane, DVD Talk

“Stealing the show as usual is the supremely sexy Rosalba Neri of Amuck! and Lady Frankenstein. Her over-the-top performance combined with her propensity for nude scenes make Neri’s presence a boon for this flick. There’s also Lara, the Contessa’s servant (and lesbian lover), who is played to perfection with a dichotomously somnambulistic and bug-eyed craziness by Brazilian actress Esmeralda Barros. The most pitiful roles are given to Xiro Papas (Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks) as the monstrous vampire thug and Gengher Gatti (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) as the mysterious butler/coach driver.” Doomed Moviethon

“It’s no overlooked masterpiece of gothic horror; with its fits of pure silliness, but Damon doesn’t look down at the material, Neri is gorgeous (especially nude), and Joe D’Amato’s atmospheric cinematography is often stunning.” Basement of Ghoulish Decadence

“Rosalba Neri doesn’t get to have as much fun as she does in Lady Frankenstein but she still turns in a watchable performance. Mark Damon, who plays twins Karl and Franz, does so with equal commitment on both sides and in doing so pays tribute to Barbara Steele who played duo roles in Black Sunday, in which he also stars. They really do seem like two different people even though still playing with the good twin / bad twin cliché.” Sinful Celluloid

“It’s well-staged, beautifully shot and loaded with naked, lesbian vampires and curvy villager babes. Unlike films of this type made for today’s video market, it also takes its horror elements rather seriously and manages to have some fun along the way. It’s hard to dislike any movie in which one of the male leads seduces a peasant girl out of her knickers by slyly reminding her that Count Dracula is only interested in the blood of virgins. Though hardly a classic, it’s not bad, and it certainly delivers on the promises of its lurid U.S. ad campaign.” Bloody Disgusting

“… Batzella’s occasionally arresting imagery, as well as Neri’s sexy but commanding premise, make the film worth a look. While he’s certainly not cut from the same cloth as Mario Bava, Batzella manages to create an eerily erotic gothic atmosphere, highlighted by a fog-bound scene of undead women gathering for a blood orgy, and — especially — scenes of Rosalba Neri bathed in blood and rising naked from her crypt.” Tomb of the Headless Werewolf

Italian trailer:

Wikipedia | IMDb

“From time to time you have to make a film like Armageddon so people see that you’re still around.”

Udo Kier – born Udo Kierspe; 14 October 1944 – is a German actor who has appeared in over 200 films, across many genres, though his appearances in horror films have been particularly notable.

Kier was born in Cologne, near the end of World War II. The hospital in which he was born was bombed by the Allies moments after his birth and both Udo and his mother had to be dug from the resultant rubble. In his youth he worked as an altar boy and cantor. He moved to the United Kingdom to learn the English language when he was 18 years-old.

In 1966, Kier was cast in the lead role for the short film, Road to St. Tropez by director, Paul Sarne. His first major film, appropriately enough, was the notorious horror movie Mark of the Devil (1969) a production packed with sexual imagery, extreme violence and, if you were lucky, a branded paper bag to vomit in, handed out at selected cinemas. Working alongside one of the titans of the screen, Herbert Lom, Kier, with his good looks, was cast opposite the facially disfigured Reggie Nalder; to ram home the point, Kier’s character, Christian (the hero) is pitted against Nalder’s sadistic witch torturer, Albino. The notion of Kier wearing a metaphorical mask and adopting a larger than life personality would become one of his trademarks.

Two of the most important films in his early career were made back-to-back; Flesh for Frankenstein in 1973, directed by Paul Morrissey, a relationship which began when they met on an airplane flight, and Blood for Dracula, filmed by Paul Morrissey for Andy Warhol’s studio and produced by Vittorio de Sica and Roman Polański, with Kier playing the lead roles of young Dr Frankenstein and young Count Dracula (Warhol had little to do with either film, aside from the selling power of his name in the title). Udo’s thick German accent and wildly over-the-top performances immediately made him a cult figure with audiences. Indeed, Kier’s accent had led to many of his early performances being re-dubbed.

In a typically contrary fashion, rather than building on his now alluring performances and growing fan base, he continued to act in wildly disparate and, in a mainstream sense, uncommercial selection of films; Just Jaeckin’s inadvertently funny erotic drama, The Story of O (1975) and the following year’s bizarre Spermula, in which he played an alien ‘popping out’ of a man, did little to sell him to a family audience.

Adding to his appearances on the list of DPP banned list of films in the UK, his role in 1976’s House on Straw Hill aka Exposé as an anguished writer is both intense and alarming and Udo attempts to break the world sweating record. Alas, the film was something of a bone of contention, the film’s producers apparently doing everything possible to avoid paying him. It was to take another maverick member of the film-making community to drag him back to a medium he always felt happiest with.

Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) is now, rightly, considered a classic of the genre and though Kier’s role of the doctor can scarcely be considered the lead role, his association with the film and his mannered performance reminded audiences that Kier wasn’t just a pantomime ham. Ironically, he later appeared in Argento’s Mother of Tears, in which the director proves himself to be infinitely hammier than his actor.

It should come as little surprise that Kier also crossed paths with other Euro film philanderers: Poland’s Walerian Borowczyk cast the actor as Jack the Ripper in Lulu (1980) and in the following year’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne and Czechoslovakia’s Kurt Rabb gave him a role in his The Island of the Bloody Plantation, 1983.

Probably based on his cult status as Count Dracula, Kier has appeared in a number of other vampire movies, such as Die Einsteiger (1985), Blade (1998), Modern Vampires (1998, alongside Rod Steiger), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Dracula 3000 and BloodRayne (2006).

Throughout his career, Kier has almost uniquely managed to balance his acting projects between ‘high art’ and gruelling trash (such as Evil Eyes and Fall Down Dead), a trick which has endeared him to audiences and film-makers without necessarily leading to him being mobbed on the street.

Fans of the actor have included Walerian Borowczyk, the aforementioned Dario Argento, Andy Warhol, Paul Morrissey and Rainer Werner Fassbinder (which allegedly ruled him out from appearing in any Werner Herzog films, due to an unspoken agreement between the directors – there was some slight leeway with a fleeting appearance in 2001’s Invincible). He has appeared in all of Lars von Trier’s movies since 1987’s Epidemic (with the exceptions of The Idiots, The Boss of it All and Antichrist) as well as the far more mainstream Hollywood blockbuster Blade (1998) as well as the ironic independent film Shadow of the Vampire (2000) produced by Nicolas Cage. He has also frequently worked with idiosyncratic German director Christoph Schlingensief.

He made an appearance in cult movie My Own Private Idaho (1991) directed by Gus van Sant. Well-known film appearances were in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) with Jim Carrey as a billionaire, Ronald Camp, in Barb Wire with Pamela Anderson, as a NASA flight psychologist in Armageddon, and as Ralphie in the film Johnny Mnemonic, though these flirtations with Hollywood did little to dampen his enthusiasm for horror and the absurd.

In the music world, the actor’s cult status led to an appearance in Madonna’s infamous 1992 attention-seeking book called Sex, as well as the video for her disco hit “Deeper and Deeper” from the album Erotica. Kier appeared in nu-metal band Korn’s music video “Make Me Bad”, in Eve’s music video “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” and in the music video for “Die Schöne und das Biest” by defunct German band Rauhfaser.

He also starred as the psychic “Yuri” in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and its expansion, Yuri’s Revenge, played the villainous Lorenzini in the 1996 film The Adventures of Pinocchio, and then later reprised his role in the 1999 sequel The New Adventures of Pinocchio. He also voiced Professor Pericles in the 2010 – 2013 animated series Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

A documentary on his life and career entitled “ICH-UDO…der Schauspieler Udo Kier” (“ME-Udo…the actor Udo Kier”) was filmed for ARTE, the French-German culture channel in Europe, and released in 2012. The documentary won the New York Festival “Finalist Certificate”. He was honoured by the Munich Film Festival with its CineMerit Award in July 2014.

Kier continues to act with horror films still featuring heavily on the horizon and so it is fitting that this career overview should end with the news that he will play Bela Lugosi in the 2015 movie The Final Curtain: The Last Days of Ed Wood, Jr.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

Selected Filmography:

1969 Mark of the Devil
1973 Flesh for Frankenstein
1973 Blood for Dracula
1975 The Story of O
1976 Expose
1976 Spermula
1977 Suspiria
1981 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne
1983 The Island of the Bloody Plantation
1989 100 Jahre Adolf Hitler – Die letzte Stunde im Führerbunker
1990 Blackest Heart (The German Chainsaw Massacre)
1991 My Own Private Idaho
1993 Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
1994 Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
1994 Terror 2000 – Intensivstation Deutschland
1995 Johnny Mnemonic
1996 Barb Wire
1998 Modern Vampires
1998 Armageddon
1998 Blade
1999 Besat
1999 End of Days
2000 Shadow of the Vampire
2000 Dancer in the Dark
2002 Feardotcom
2003 Dogville
2004 One Point O
2004 Evil Eyes
2004 Dracula 3000
2005 Headspace
2005 BloodRayne
2005 Masters of Horror – Cigarette Burns (dir. John Carpenter)
2006 Pray for Morning
2007 Grindhouse (Werewolf Women of the SS trailer)
2007 Fall Down Dead
2007 Halloween
2007 Mother of Tears
2011 Melancholia
2011 The Theatre Bizarre
2012 Night of the Templar
2012 The Lords of Salem
2012 Iron Sky
2013 Nymphomaniac
2014 The Editor
2015 The Final Curtain: The Last Days of Ed Wood, Jr.

‘Trip… into a nightmare of evil!’

Guess What Happened to Count Dracula? is a 1970 PG-rated US comedy horror movie written, produced and directed by Lawrence Merrick (The Demons; Manson). In 1969, more obscure X-rated edits of the film, with an emphasis on male gay sex, were released as Does Dracula Really Suck? and Dracula and the Boys. In Italy, it was released as L’orgia del vampiro with promotional artwork that erroneously listed Al Adamson as the director.

The film stars Des Roberts, Claudia Siefried, John Landon, Robert Branche, Frank Donato, Yvonne Gaudry, Gene Stowell, Denny Lester,John King III, Jeff Cady, Angela Carnon. It was mostly filmed at the famous Magic Castle in Hollywood.

Plot teaser:

In order to escape communists in Romania, Dracula transforms himself into a swinger named “Count Adrian” and runs a theme restaurant in Los Angeles with his sidekicks.

Meanwhile, the real villain is his new love’s ex-boyfriend, an egotistical TV actor…

Buy with Dracula (The Dirty Old Man) on DVD from Amazon.com

Reviews:

“This isn’t the absolute worst thing you’ll ever see, but I do have to wonder what kind of audience they had in mind when they made this. On the plus side, it’s surprisingly stylishly lit, very colorful and not horribly photographed. On the down side, the acting’s not very good, it doesn’t bring much new to the table storywise and there are lots of glaring continuity issues.” The Bloody Pit of Horror

“But, the funniest parts of the movie have to be Count Adrian’s facial expressions. His attempts to be vampire-y end up looking like a strange combination of surprised and concerned. His attempts to merge his eyebrows with his hairline almost succeed, however. Aside from the ridiculous story, stupid dialogue and questionable acting, also be ready to have your ears raped by grating organ music. Count Adrian’s club plays annoyingly half-hearted circus music, as well. The editing is jumpy and sometimes cuts off lines…” Bad Movie Nite

“It’s way too slow and lacking in wit, but it sure has enjoyable moments including a dream sequence and some hypnotism montages. The makeup is inspired so its no surprise that Ric Sagliani went onto better things…”David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

Ad in the Village Voice of December 4, 1969, for the New York opening (complete with bowdlerised title)

Thanks to Doctor Kiss on the 70s Horror and Sci-Fi forum for the Does Dracula Really…? ad mat

The Nightmare is a 1781 oil painting by Anglo-Swiss artist Henry Fuseli (1741–1825). Since its creation, it has remained Fuseli’s best-known work. With its first exhibition in 1782 at the Royal Academy of London, the image became famous; an engraved version was widely distributed and the painting was parodied in political satire. Due to its fame, Fuseli painted at least three other versions of the painting.

The painting depicts a sleeping woman draped over the end of a bed with her head hanging down, exposing her long neck. She is surmounted by an incubus that peers out at the viewer. The sleeper seems lifeless, and, lying on her back, she takes a position believed to encourage nightmares. Also in attendance is a horse…or at least a horse’s head, which is looming through partially parted curtains.The colour palette, applied with oil paint, consists mostly of dark colours—black, deep greys, shades of brown, and blood red—with the exception of the young woman and the bed which she is laying upon, which are made up of more heavenly whites and gold tones. It is a relatively large piece, standing three-and-a-half feet tall and just over four feet wide.

Opinion of the painting’s meaning has long divided critics but, understandably, most presume the peering horse and imp/demon on the woman’s chest are the manifestation of a nightmare she is experiencing. Others have ascribed specific meanings to the uninvited bedroom visitors, whilst others have largely ignored these aspects and frothed at the mouth at the perceived overt sexuality of the woman. Other thoughts see it as being an image of the woman’s wanton desire or simply a painting of a piece of literature read by Fuseli. The contrast of light and dark shadow, as well as the motionless imp make the picture particularly creepy, the horse’s head both bizarre and perverse. The horse could possibly be viewed as the ‘mare’ of the ‘nightmare': more revealing is that the origins of the word mare are derived from the Old English word maere, which referred to a goblin or incubus. Another meaning of nightmare derives from mara, a Scandinavian mythological term referring to a spirit sent to torment or suffocate sleepers. The early meaning of “nightmare” included the sleeper’s experience of weight on the chest combined with sleep paralysis, dyspnea, or a feeling of dread.

When first exhibited at the Royal Academy of London in 1782, the overwhelming reaction was one of shock, the demonic aspect and the revealing of female flesh too much for many. Though the woman is not directly being attacked in any way, viewers understood the painting to portray a sexual invasion of a white, virginal innocent. The incubus would be read by many as being synonymous with nightmares. More learned students of art would have known Fuseli more for his previous paintings which tended to revolve around religious themes. Fuseli, who never revealed his personal motives for creating the image, sold the painting the same year for twenty guineas. A less valuable engraving by Thomas Burke was widely displayed in its place, accompanied by a poem:

So on his Nightmare through the evening fog

Flits the squab Fiend o’er fen, and lake, and bog;
Seeks some love-wilder’d maid with sleep oppress’d,
Alights, and grinning sits upon her breast.

The painting became so well known that it was commonly used for satirical reasons with characters in the painting being replaced by the likes of British Prime Minister William Pitt and French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in later years. Later still, the painting became a huge influence on writers. The Nightmare likely influenced Mary Shelley in a scene from her famous Gothic novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). Shelley would have been familiar with the painting; her parents, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, knew Fuseli. The iconic imagery associated with the Creature’s murder of the protagonist Victor’s wife seems to draw from the canvas: “She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down, and her pale and distorted features half covered by hair.”

Another literary giant also drew on the painting for inspiration: Edgar Allan Poe may have evoked The Nightmare in his short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839). His narrator compares a painting hanging in Usher’s house to a Fuseli work, and reveals that an “irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame; and, at length, there sat upon my heart an incubus of utterly causeless alarm”

Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986) features various interpretations of Nightmare as a central theme. Even more recently, The 2011 film The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 displays the painting in a sequence where Edward Cullen researches demon children on the Internet.

The painting is now owned and displayed by the Detroit Institute of Arts, where it is valued upwards of £4million.

Daz Lawrence

‘Where there’s sex… there’s horror!’

Group 1 was a US film distribution company that specialised in sex and horror movies, many of which were European (mainly Italian) imports, throughout the 1970s. In 1977, they also acted as production company for an action/horror movie of their own, the Charles Band produced and directed Crash! 

The company – which also used the name BLC Services – was known for their lurid ad campaigns and they weren’t shy when it came to ballyhoo (for example, their releases were often advertised as being in “blazing color” rather than merely color), plus blatantly misleading moviegoers with re-titlings, such as when they issued 1979 Australian psycho thriller Snapshot as The Day After Halloween – suggesting that it was a sequel to John Carpenter’s seminal slasher movie – and also as One More Minute.

And if the IMDb is correct, cheekily – or perhaps lazily – Group 1 re-used their promo artwork for Italian giallo Alla ricerca del piacere (1972), which they had issued as Amuck! for a later 1978 re-release of La mansión de la niebla (also made in 1972) as Massacre Mansion. Confusingly, Massacre Mansion has also been cited as an alternate release title for Alla ricerca del piacere. Please comment below if you can shed any light on the actual use of the Massacre Mansion title…

The company also distributed Mario Caiano’s sleazy Italian women-in-prison movie La svastica nel ventre (“The Swastika in the Womb”, 1976) under three different titles: Nazi Love Camp 27; Love Camp #27 and, with all mention of the Third Reich removed, the less offensive Living Nightmare. Group 1’s dual campaign for this Nazisploitation pic is discussed in Ric Meyer’s book For One Week Only.

Buy For One Week Only from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Meanwhile, Meat Cleaver Massacre, which features a tacked-on introduction by Christopher Lee, also became Hollywood Meat Cleaver Massacre ensuring maximum exploitation potential for Group 1 International Distribution Organization, Ltd (to use their full name).

Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia

Related: Hallmark Releasing Corp. | Joseph Brenner Associates

IMDb

Dracula Sucks, also released as Lust at First Bite, is a 1978 adult horror movie directed by Phillip Marshak from a screenplay by Daryl Marshak (Cataclysm) and David Kern, very loosely based on Bram Stoker‘s Dracula.

The film stars Jamie Gillis (Dracula Exotica), Reggie Nalder, Annette Haven, Seka, Serena, Kay Parker, John Leslie, Paul Thomas, Mike Ranger and John Holmes. Associate producer and editor Nettie Peña directed Home Sweet Home (1980). Second unit director Norman Thaddeus Vane later helmed Frightmare and The Black Room (both 1983).

Plot teaser:

At an exclusive sanitarium, strange things are happening: patients are acting differently and are being found with mysterious bite marks in their necks. Visiting professor, Van Helsing (Reggie Nalder) believes it to be the work of vampires. With the arrival of Count Dracula (Jamie Gillis), things get even stranger and more violent, as the diabolical count sets his sights on the beautiful Mina (Annette Haven)…

Reviews:

“There’s a strain of goony humor that is undercut by a genuinely eerie ambiance. It is an unwell universe where the dysfunctional out-rules the healthy and that includes a large part of the medical staff.  From the incest between the Sewards, the character of Henry (Margold) who, when not assisting the doctors, has a fixation on apples and ends up raping Irene and the fact that Van Helsing (played by character actor heavy Reggie Nalder) manages to out-creep Dracula, there are no real character safety zones here.

On top of that, there is the striking image of the Count’s handmaidens, who look like glamorous ghouls who just escaped Hell’s war zone, creeping across the asylum grounds at night.” Dangerous Minds

“Common sense takes a backseat to cocaine-fuelled nonsense and the audience is expected to make sense of it all. But we can’t. Because it’s annoying. Eventually, the effort to pay attention makes us ambivalent.

Sex is piled on — there’s incest, necrophilia, blow jobs in every imaginable combination, and a shot of a female vampire biting John Holmes’ giant dick. Likewise with the comedy. Racism, comedic sound effects, and loudspeaker announcements about enemas are supposed to be funny, but they’re not. As the plot is forgotten, the film unravels into random, vignette-styled chaos.” Joseph A. Ziemba, Bleeding Skull!

” …uneven in tone but impresses on a number of levels. In terms of style and production value, the film is on par with some of the more ambitious low budget horror films from the period thanks hugely to the time-consuming camera set-ups by cinematographer Hanania Baer (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark), the Castle Hill location, reasonably convincing if not always consistent period costumes and props, and decent to good performances (Haven even resembles Kate Nelligan from some angles).” Eric Cotenas, DVD Drive-In

The film has been released on DVD by Vinegar Syndrome. It includes the following features:

2-disc DVD Set | Region Free | 16:9 Anamorphic
Director’s cut of Dracula Sucks
Alternate Lust at First Bite edit (40+ minutes of alternate footage!)
Commentary w/ Actor and Co-Writer Bill Margold
Return to Castle Hill featurette w/ Producer Darryl Marshak & Bill Margold
Original theatrical trailer
German Art Gallery

Buy Dracula Sucks on DVD from Amazon.com

IMDb | Related: Bloodlust | Dracula Exotica | Sexcula

Nekromantik 2 - stylised as NEKRomantik 2 – is a 1991 German horror/splatter film directed by Jörg Buttgereit and a sequel to his 1987 film Nekromantik.

The film is about necrophilia, and was quite controversial and was seized by authorities in Munich twelve days after its release, an action that had no precedent in Germany since the Nazi era. Today, it is regarded as a cult classic.

On February 10, 2015, Cult Epics are releasing the film on a Limited Edition Blu-ray. Special features are:

• New Director’s Approved HD transfer (taken from the original 16mm negative)
• New Introduction by Jorg Buttgereit (2014)
• Audio Commentary by Jorg Buttgereit, co-author Franz Rodenkirchen, and actors Monika M. and Mark Reeder
• The Making of Nekromantik 2
• Still Photo Gallery
• JB Trailers
• Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
• Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2011) Live
• 20th Anniversary Live Concert performed by Monika M. and Friends – Video (2011)
• A Moment of Silence At the Grave of Ed Gein, Short film by Jorg Buttgereit (2012)
• Half Girl Lemmy, I’m A Feminist, Music video by Jorg Buttgereit (2014)
• Limited edition (5000) copies
• Includes Nekromantik 2 Collectible Artwork by Johnny Ryan & Nekrophilia photo of Monika M.

Buy Nekromantik 2 on Cult Epics Blu-ray from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Plot teaser:

Monika (Monika M.) is a beautiful necrophiliac who lives alone in Berlin. By day she works as a nurse. By night she prowls through cemeteries while searching for fresh corpses. When she reads about the suicide of Rob (Nekromantik‘s Daktari Lorenz) she finds his grave to dig up his body and brings it home.

Mark (Mark Reeder) lives across town and makes his living dubbing porn films. After meeting Monika, romance blossoms and they fall in love.

But all is not well in Monika’s world. Her relationship with Mark begins to falter and she has to make a final choice between loving the living or the dead…

Reviews:

“The film is almost a re-imagining of the first, many similar concepts but approached from a slightly different angle. Whereas NEKRomantik focussed on loss and rejection, NEKRomantik 2 is more about female empowerment and acceptance of strangeness. In both films the man in the relationship loses the game but the focal point of the second is the triumphant female whereas the first was of the breakdown of the male.” Horror Extreme

“With Monika M. in captivating form as the intelligent, but lonely soul in search of that illusive orgasm she, in many ways, can be seen as representative of Buttgereit’s ‘lonely’ male audience, except in the heroine’s case, she doesn’t just sit back watching transgressive films all day, she decides to do something about it. Perhaps this is why male viewers find the film distressing? Why predominantly male/right wing censorship authorities deem the film so endangering to the public? And why feminists have welcomed this subversive piece of trash ‘art’ into their collective bosom? Whatever the reason, Nekromantik 2 stands as one of the most provocative ‘horror’ movies…” Carl T. Ford, Unrated: Cinema of the Extreme

” …uses its comparatively epic running time for a more ambitious and densely-textured narrative. While the corpse scenes are naturally gruesome, there’s a strong surrealist sensibility at work that keeps it more curious than repellent. Apart from the aforementioned seal scene, a depressing and ill-advised attempt to outdo the bunny footage from the original film, Buttgereit strangely avoids any graphic bloodshed or nasty latex dismemberments for most of the running time. Of course, he’s really just saving it up for the powerhouse finale, which amazingly outdoes the Daktari Lorenz’s “climax” from Nekromantik.” Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital

Buy Sex Murder Art: The Films of Jörg Buttgereit from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

“The film tries rather badly to waver between porno-horror and the new wave, like some mutant offspring of Living Doll (1989) and Jules et Jim (1964), even throwing in a witless parody of My Dinner with Andre, though the exploitation bases are tackily covered with surprisingly elaborate H.G. Lewis-style gore and found footage, ranging from seal-autopsies on video to the hardcore that Reeder is seen to be dubbing.” Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror 

Buy Nekromantik Limited Edition Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘When play becomes slay’

A Darker Fifty Shades: The Fetish Set is a 2015 American horror thriller written and directed by Shane Wheeler. It stars Bill Oberst Jr. (Circus of the Dead, Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies), Sarah Nicklin (The Disco Exorcist, Sins of Dracula), Glenda Galeano, Tomiko, Julia McAlee, Angel Curran, Deauxma, The film’s original title was The Fetish Set.

The film is available on Wild Eye Releasing DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk. The DVD Special Features include a commentary from Sarah Nicklin, cast audition tapes, and more.

Plot teaser:

Four beautiful women attend a fetish convention in San Antonio, Texas, hoping to make some easy money, but find themselves thrown into a dark, underground world of obsession and murder when a deformed, sadistic serial killer (Bill Oberst Jr.) sets his sights on the quartet. Now, their friendship and personal limits will be torn apart as they struggle to survive the most brutal weekend of their lives…

Filming locations:

San Antonio, Texas

IMDb

Terror in the Crypt – also known as Crypt of  Horror – is a 1964 Italian/Spanish horror film directed by Camillo Mastrocinque [credited as Thomas Miller] (An Angel for Satan), from a screenplay by Ernesto Gastaldi and Tonino Valerii (also assistant director).

The story was loosely based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s lesbian-themed novella Carmilla. The film’s original release titles are La cripta e l’incubo and La Maldicion de los Karnstein. The score was by Carlo Savina (see below).

Cast:

Christopher Lee, Adriana Ambesi, Ursula Davis, José Campos, Véra Valmont, A. Midlin, Carla Calò, Nela Conjiu, José Villasante.

Plot teaser:

Count Ludwig Karnstein (Christopher Lee) dreads his daughter may fall prey to the curse upon his family, a curse which promises the witch Sheena will eventually be reincarnated in a Karnstein descendant. Could Laura really be a vampiric killer?

Reviews:

‘With its cheesy Sunday afternoon horror thrills (and some wild-eyed and voluptuous ladies), Crypt of the Vampire is a whole lot of fun. There’s melodrama, mysterious manuscripts and some gruesome business involving the severed hand of a hunchbacked beggar.’ Doomed Moviethon

‘Brimming with atmosphere and shot in glorious black and white in and around authentic gothic ruins, Crypt of the Vampire has all the proper ingredients to affix it to the better movies made during the salad days of Italian horror. Although the film is sluggish at times, veteran director Mastrocinque … instills some truly haunting and shadowy imagery, especially when Laura’s macabre fever dreams are in full swing.’ George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In

‘The crepuscular atmosphere with candlelit interiors, the obligatory crypt and, on stormy nights, a bell tolling in a ruined church, lack the bite of a genuinely perverse force while all attempts at eroticism are foiled by the bovine incomprehension of the participants.’ Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Enclyclopedia: Horror

Choice dialogue:

“I like these ancient castles… they have such an atmosphere of mystery.”

“I’ve killed her. I’m a monster! I want to die!”

IMDb

She Wolf – original title: Mujer lobo – is a 2013 Argentinian erotic horror film directed by Tamae Garateguy from a screenplay by Diego Fleischer based on her storyline. It stars Luján Ariza, César Bordón, Hernán Bustos, Edgardo Castro, Germán Da Silva, Miguel Forza de Paul.

Plot teaser:

She Wolf is a serial killer who traps her men in the subway in Buenos Aires. She seduces, has sex with them and kills them. But one of those men is a police officer who is investigating her crimes. Running away from him she meets a dealer with whom she stars a relationship. This romance unravels a war between her three personalities: the monster woman, the sensual woman and the human woman who can still love…

Reviews:

‘Garateguy’s third feature is far more accomplished in the way form relates to content. For the action sequences, the camera is energetic and dazzling, and it truly captures and conveys the characters’ pulse and sensations. At nerve-wracking speed, it follows them wherever they go, and so a sense of sparkling spectacle is achieved. Let alone the intensely sexual and erotic scenes that are never gratuitous. Instead, they provide the raw power Mujer lobo is endowed with.’ Pablo Suárez, Buenos Aires Herald

‘Black-and-white exterior shots emulate Truffaut’s cinéma vérité “city life” visuals, but once we hit the interiors, it’s all Herschell Gordon Lewis: very static scenes, stilted dialogue, and plenty of boobs and blood.’ Denver Film Society

IMDb | Official website | Facebook

Behind Locked Doors – also known as Any Body… Any Way – is a 1968 US science fiction horror film directed by South African Charles Romine (Mysteries of the Gods) from a screenplay by Stanley H. Brasloff (director of Toys Are Not for Children).

In the US it was distributed by Harry Novak‘s Boxoffice International Pictures. In Germany, it was known as Die Schreckenskammer des Dr. Sex and in a stronger version as Then Came Ecstasy.

The film stars Eve Reeves, Joyce Danner, Daniel Garth, Ivan Agar (Shriek of the Mutilated), Irene Lawrence, Andrea Beatrice, Allan Michaels, Christina Piroska.

Plot teaser:

Ann and Terry (Danner) are two “swingers” who spend the night in a spooky old house, where they’re subjected to bizarre sexual experiments by Dr. Bradley (Garth) and his deranged sister…

Buy with The Beautiful, the Bloody and the Bare from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Reviews:

‘Female masturbation, several rape scenes (including one where Bradley rubs himself with baby oil before going in for the plunge!), a room full of naked dead girls propped up in lifelike poses, Ivan Hagar sexually molesting a corpse, forced voyeurism, goofy interrogations, whipping, a staged catfight escalating into a no-holds-barred four-person brawl leaving a bedroom completely totaled (this is an incredibly wild scene!), and a fiery finale complete with reanimated corpses and go-go dancing!’ Casey Scott, DVD Drive-In

‘A sleazy experience which becomes not-so-filthy in the midst of absurdist delights. This is an adult film in a 1950s playing field. It never goes over the top, but the option is always present. The barren, “windy night” visuals are infectious. Characterizations are both sensible and ridiculous. Hostile sex-periments lead to chuckles when scored with bull-fighting music and instigated by a polite, overweight nebbish.’ Joseph A. Ziemba, Bleeding Skull!

‘Far less visceral than Latin offerings in the medical science fiction sub-genre, such as the gruesome Gritos en la noche (1962), the film’s centre of interest is sexual, rather than physical, horror.’ Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction

Filming locations:

Upper state New York

IMDb

Terror at Orgy Castle is a 1971 US erotic horror film written and directed by Zoltan G. Spencer (The Satanist; The Hand of Pleasure) who also narrates. The film was shot silently on the same sets as Gallery of Horror (1967) and Blood of Dracula’s Castle (1969). It stars Bambi Allen (Satan’s Sadists).

Plot teaser:

Bill and Lisa, a young American couple on a European vacation, stay at a castle in Germany where they encounter Countess Dominova, her hunchbacked servant and are drawn into a black mass…

Reviews:

‘More sex than violence here, really just an old soft core with horror undertones. Best line of the film; three naked women are present in the room when the dude narrating says, “They don’t seem to worry about drafts here in this clammy hall.” Horrorthon

‘ …50 minutes of monkey scratchin’ crammed into a 63-minute saga about adventurous lovers. Our unseen narrator promises us a lot of interesting things. He swears we will witness a black mass and some manner of hideous human sacrifice …The closest we get to any real repulsion—aside from all the noxious nudity—is the infamous “rat casserole” scene, where a live mouse is plastered against a woman’s exposed stomach. The implication is that the rodent intends to “chew” its way out. Turns out it was all a hoax, just like the movie it resides in.’ Bill Gibron, DVD Verdict

‘As a ‘movie about girls’ Terror at Orgy Castle works, there are plenty to look at crammed into its 63 minutes. The narration provides some funny lines too, and the soundtrack is simultaneously horror-ific and groovy.’ Alex Eruptor, Movies About Girls

‘Although only a softcore movie, the nudity here is pretty explicit as both male and female genitals are put under close scrutiny from every angle by the probing camera. Basically, if it’s dangling enough and hairy enough it’s on the screen in it’s all it’s glory! God Bless the 70’s.’ Beardy Freak Reviews

Buy on DVD from Amazon.com

IMDb

Sex and Horror: The Art of Emanuele Taglietti is a 2015 book by Mark Alfrey published by Korero Press about the Italian comic book cover artist known for his outrageous artwork. In the course of his career in the 1970s and 1980s, Taglietti painted more than 500 covers, for fumetti comic books such as Zora la Vampira, Sukia, Ulula, Cimiteria, Stregonaria and Vampirissimo. Taglietti was one of most outstanding artists of the golden age of Italian comics. His distinctive iconic work brims with violence and eroticism. This highly visual biography displays dozens of his full-colour paintings and discusses his artistic techniques.

Buy from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

‘Dare you enter…’

House of 1000 Corpses is a 2000 (released 2003) American exploitation horror film written, co-scored and directed by Rob Zombie, and starring Chris Hardwick, Rainn Wilson, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie and Karen Black. Zombie produced a sequel in 2005, The Devil’s Rejects.

The plot focuses on two couples who are held hostage by a sadistic backwoods family on Halloween. Zombie’s directorial debut, the film drew from a multitude of influences, particularly American horror films of the 1970s, including The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes.

Filmed in 2000, the film was originally purchased by Universal Pictures, and a large portion of it was filmed on the Universal Studios backlots, but it was ultimately shelved by the company in fear that it would receive an NC-17 rating. The rights to the film were eventually re-purchased by Zombie, who then sold the film to Lions Gate Entertainment. It was released theatrically on April 11, 2003.

Plot teaser:

On October 30, 1977, Jerry Goldsmith, Bill Hudley, Mary Knowles and Denise Willis are on the road in hopes of writing a book on offbeat roadside attractions. When the four meet Captain Spaulding, the owner of a gas station and “The Museum of Monsters & Madmen”, they learn the local legend of Dr. Satan. As they take off in search of the tree from which Dr. Satan was hanged, they pick up a young hitchhiker named Baby, who claims to live only a few miles away…

Reviews:

Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film ‘lives up to the spirit but not the quality of its inspirations” and is ultimately a “cheesy and ultra-gory exploitation horror flick” and “strangely devoid of thrills, shocks or horror.’

‘ …slaps together just the right amount of creepy atmosphere, nervous laughter, cheap scares, fun rides and blood and guts to satisfy any major fan of the macabre.’ Berge Garabedian, JoBlo.com

‘This movie is extremely effective at building up the tension early on. We have no doubt as to what is in store for the teens, but the lead-up to the brutality is actually quite a bit of fun. The acting from both the teenagers and the family is top-notch. Sid Haig is nearly brilliant in his portrayal of Captain Spaulding. He’s crude, crass, and a barrel of laughs. This movie fell apart for me in the second half. I dare say House of 1000 Corpses was almost brilliant in its first half, but turned into a run-of-the-mill horror picture the second.’ Martin Liebman, Blu-ray.com

‘Strung together with a migraine-inducing MTV aesthetic, this trawl through B-movie horror flicks plays like a fan film with a multi-million dollar budget. While Zombie’s love of the horror genre is readily apparent, this is a travesty of everything he professes to adore, a tour-de-farce of depressing inanity, that’s unable to do anything more than offer a messy, incoherent pastiche of other, better movies.’ Jamie Russell, BBC.co.uk

Buy on Blu-ray with The Devil’s Rejects from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Cast:

• Sid Haig as Captain Spaulding
• Bill Moseley as Otis B. Driftwood
• Sheri Moon Zombie as Baby Firefly
• Karen Black as Mother Firefly
• Erin Daniels as Denise Willis
• Chris Hardwick as Jerry Goldsmith
• Rainn Wilson as Bill Hudley
• Jennifer Jostyn as Mary Knowles
• Tom Towles as Lieutenant George Wydell
• Walton Goggins as Deputy Steve Naish
• Matthew McGrory as Tiny Firefly
• Robert Mukes as Rufus “RJ” Firefly, Jr.
• Dennis Fimple as Grampa Hugo Firefly
• Jake McKinnon as Rufus “Earl” Firefly, Sr.
• Harrison Young as Don Willis
• Irwin Keyes as Ravelli
• Michael J. Pollard as Stucky
• Chad Bannon as Killer Karl
• Walter Phelan as S. Quentin Quale / Dr. Satan
• William H. Basset as Sheriff Frank Huston
• David Reynolds as Richard “Little Dick” Wick
• Joe Dobbs III as Gerry “Goober” Ober
• Gregg Gibbs as Dr. Wolfenstein
• Rob Zombie (uncredited) as Dr. Wolfenstein’s assistant

Wikipedia | IMDb | Official site

‘Recourse to evil runs rampant against the laws of human restraint’

Docteur Jekyll et les femmes – also known as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne, Blood of Dr. Jekyll, Bloodbath of Dr. Jekyll and The Experiment – is a 1981 French–West German erotic horror film directed by Walerian Borowczyk (The Beast). The film is a variation on Robert Louis Stevenson’s story Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and stars Udo Kier, Marina Pierro, Patrick Magee and Howard Vernon. Electronic music pioneer Bernard Parmegiani provided the score.

Plot teaser:

The film takes place before, during and immediately after the engagement party of Dr.Henry Jekyll and Miss Fanny Osborne, attended by numerous highly respectable guests (a general, a doctor, a priest, a lawyer), the last of which informs the company that a child has been murdered in the street outside. While the others watch a young dancer perform, Dr.Jekyll instructs the lawyer to alter his will, leaving everything to a certain Mr.Hyde. Shortly afterwards, the dancer is found murdered, and the guests realise that one of their number must be a maniac with a prodigious sexual appetite…

The film was released in France in 1981 and won the award for “Best Feature Film Director” at the 1981 Sitges Film Festival for Borowczyk.

Buy on Arrow Video Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Reviews:

‘Few films in the Euro horror canon have attained the mystique of this beautiful, shocking, and highly memorable fusion of antiquity, sensuality and violence from filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk.’ Mondo Digital

‘This is utterly brilliant filmmaking that packs a tremendous wallop. In its sheer unleashed anarchy, Jekyll bests anything Godard came up with to suggest the crack-up of Western civilisation in Week-End (1967).’ Ferdy on Films

‘It’s obvious here that Borowczyk wanted to push some ideas he had explored in his previous films, most notably the celebrated blood bathing scene in Immoral Tales and the entire storyline of The Beast (which similarly dealt with a house filled with eccentrics celebrating an upcoming wedding, an engaged woman hiding a sensual side to her personality, and a groom with a grotesque secret). However, this was his first real foray into full-blooded horror territory, and he proves more than up to the task right from the eerie opening sequence.’ Mondo Digital

‘Though its weird, flowing cinematic style makes it a little difficult to follow at times, I think it actually does an interesting job of updating the story for more permissive times, and it actually has a enough real horror and shock to make it not seem like a literary adaptation.’ Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings

‘Borowczyk’s take on the Robert Louis Stevenson story, translated and infused with the director’s unique brand of visually perverse surrealism, unwinds with the dual-sided Dr. Jekyll and infamous alter-ego bringing misogyny, sex, murder and an over-sized ostensibly fake penis into sweaty focus! The Blood of Dr. Jekyll represents a milestone in sleazy filmmaking – showcasing the extreme nihilism of Stevenson’s infamous character…’ Pre-Cert.co.uk

Artwork by Martin Buchan

IMDb | Image thanks: Pre-Cert.co.uk |

WH

I Sanguinari (“The Blood”) is an Italian fumetti ‘adults-only’ comic book first published in 1972 by Milan-based Edifumetto, the company that also issued Orror; Sukia; Ulula and Wallestein, il mostro.

Initially, the I Sanguinari comic books featured Storie di delitti e di crudelta’ (“Stories of Crimes and Cruelty”), however issue 10 introduced a new focus: Storie di mostri e di vampiri (“Stories of Monsters and Vampires”) presumably because horror was perceived to be a bigger selling theme than crime. And frankly, who’d want to read about crime and cruelty in early ’70s Italy? So, violent erotic fantasy escapism aimed at a – possibly misogynistic? – male audience became the lifeblood of I Sanguinari…

Related: Orror | Sukia | Ulula | Wallestein, il mostro

Dracula Sucks, also released as Lust at First Bite and This Vampire Sucks, is a 1978 adult horror movie directed by Phillip Marshak from a screenplay by Daryl Marshak (Cataclysm) and David Kern, very loosely based on Bram Stoker‘s Dracula.

The film stars Jamie Gillis (who played the Count again in 1980 in Dracula Exotica), Reggie Nalder, Annette Haven, Seka, Serena, Kay Parker, John Leslie, Paul Thomas, Mike Ranger and John Holmes (Evil Come Evil Go and Count Spatula in Sex and the Single Vampire).

Associate producer and editor Nettie Peña directed Home Sweet Home (1980). Second unit director Norman Thaddeus Vane later helmed Frightmare and The Black Room (both 1983).

Plot teaser:

At an exclusive sanitarium, strange things are happening: patients are acting differently and are being found with mysterious bite marks in their necks. Visiting professor, Van Helsing (Reggie Nalder) believes it to be the work of vampires. With the arrival of Count Dracula (Jamie Gillis), things get even stranger and more violent, as the diabolical count sets his sights on the beautiful Mina (Annette Haven)…

Reviews:

“There’s a strain of goony humor that is undercut by a genuinely eerie ambiance. It is an unwell universe where the dysfunctional out-rules the healthy and that includes a large part of the medical staff.  From the incest between the Sewards, the character of Henry (Margold) who, when not assisting the doctors, has a fixation on apples and ends up raping Irene and the fact that Van Helsing (played by character actor heavy Reggie Nalder) manages to out-creep Dracula, there are no real character safety zones here.

On top of that, there is the striking image of the Count’s handmaidens, who look like glamorous ghouls who just escaped Hell’s war zone, creeping across the asylum grounds at night.” Dangerous Minds

“Common sense takes a backseat to cocaine-fuelled nonsense and the audience is expected to make sense of it all. But we can’t. Because it’s annoying. Eventually, the effort to pay attention makes us ambivalent.

Sex is piled on — there’s incest, necrophilia, blow jobs in every imaginable combination, and a shot of a female vampire biting John Holmes’ giant dick. Likewise with the comedy. Racism, comedic sound effects, and loudspeaker announcements about enemas are supposed to be funny, but they’re not. As the plot is forgotten, the film unravels into random, vignette-styled chaos.” Joseph A. Ziemba, Bleeding Skull!

” …uneven in tone but impresses on a number of levels. In terms of style and production value, the film is on par with some of the more ambitious low budget horror films from the period thanks hugely to the time-consuming camera set-ups by cinematographer Hanania Baer (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark), the Castle Hill location, reasonably convincing if not always consistent period costumes and props, and decent to good performances (Haven even resembles Kate Nelligan from some angles).” Eric Cotenas, DVD Drive-In

The film has been released on DVD by Vinegar Syndrome. It includes the following features:

2-disc DVD Set | Region Free | 16:9 Anamorphic
Director’s cut of Dracula Sucks
Alternate Lust at First Bite edit (40+ minutes of alternate footage!)
Commentary w/ Actor and Co-Writer Bill Margold
Return to Castle Hill featurette w/ Producer Darryl Marshak & Bill Margold
Original theatrical trailer
German Art Gallery

Buy Dracula Sucks on DVD from Amazon.com

Also released as:

Dracula’s Bride (X-rated version)
Lust at First Bite
Desejos à Primeira Mordida (Brazil )
Drácula chupa (Spain)
This Vampire Sucks (UK: video and DVD re-title)
Drakoulas, o sexomanis (Greece)
Dracula… ti succhio (Italy)
The Coming of Dracula’s Bride (USA: alternative title)
La novia de Drácula (Venezuela)
Liebling, du beißt so gut (West Germany)

IMDb | Related: Bloodlust | Dracula Exotica | Sexcula

Lucio Fulci Poker Cards are the latest offering from UK-based company Gods and Monsters, which had previously issued two, now sold-out, sets of video nasties trump cards. It is the first project in conjunction with the legendary home of cult film rarities, the Psychotronic Store.

We are promised:

1 High quality plastic-coated poker-sized cards
2. 36 ‘pip’ cards, all featuring artwork from films associated with Lucio throughout his career (not limited to just the director’s horror films)
3. 16 face cards, featuring actors and crew from Fulci’s films
4. 2 jokers and cover card exclusive to this edition
5. Brushed steel box featuring a holographic image taken from an iconic film in Fulci’s canon.
6. Strictly limited edition of 300 units worldwide. Individually numbered.

They are available to order from:

Gods & Monsters

Psychotronic Store

‘A hunger from beyond the grave!’

Love Me Deadly is a 1972 horror film directed by Jaques Lacrete from a screenplay co-written with producer Buck Rogers, based on a story by Robert Cleere and Roger Wall. It stars Mary Charlotte Wilcox (Beast of the Yellow Night; Psychic Killer), Lyle Waggoner (Murder Weapon; Dream a Little Evil), Christopher Stone (The Howling; Cujo), Timothy Scott (Monster Squad TV series) and Michael Pardue.

Plot teaser:

Attractive Lindsay Finch (Mary Charlotte Wilcox) has a habit of dressing in mourning and attending wakes for men she never knew. When everyone else leaves, she kneels before the coffins and kisses the corpses passionately. However, at the many parties she holds at her house, she shows no interest in any of the (living) men. She is also fixated with her deceased father (Michael Pardue), frequently daydreaming about her childhood with him and putting her hair in pigtails to visit his grave.

Her friend Wade Farrow (Christopher Stone) is romantically interested in her, but she rejects his affections. Meanwhile, mortician Fred McSweeney (Timothy Scott) notices Lindsay’s attendance at the wakes and, although she won’t admit to her secret passion, he recognises her as a kindred spirit.

McSweeney has a Satanic coven that meets after hours in the mortuary for necrophilic orgies with the latest cadavers…

Buy via Amazon.com

Reviews:

” … mostly a camp-fest directed by someone who obviously had little knowledge of the horror genre and no film experience whatsoever. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s not a watchable time capsule curio, and the backdrop of early 1970s Southern California is just as interesting as the actors themselves. The sight of statuesque Mary Wilcox kissing actors pretending to be corpses while not trying to crack a welcomed smile is amusing, and this is about as intense as her necrophilic activities get.” George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In

“While a good part of the movie is devoted to a pretty standard, sexless romance between funeral-haunting rich-bitch heroine Lindsay (Mary Wilcox) and humpy-yet-bland suitor Alex (Waggoner, who must still be cursing his agents to this day for this role), it’s punctuated with enough nastiness (attempted date-rape, corpse orgies, aforementioned crocheted ensembles) to keep you suitably off-balance.” Camp Blood

“Sleaze fan-addicts will likely be disappointed in this exercise of sex with the living and the dead. The storyline has so much going for it, but the director wastes far too many opportunities for me to recommend this to anyone other than die hard 70’s horror film completists.” Cool Ass Cinema

“As in Psycho–the film Love Me Deadly wants so desperately to match in terms of “shock value”–director Lacerte offers a full psycho-pathological post-mortem toward the end of the story. But who cares, really?  Hitchcock’s decision to spend the last ten minutes of Psycho “diagnosing” Norman is the film’s one stumble, and the device is even less convincing here.” Ludic Despair

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: Cool Ass Cinema | Ad mats courtesy of Raleigh Bronkowski via the Psychotronic Movies Facebook page