Isaac Hayes is...

Shut your mouth.... but I was just about to talk about Isaac Hayes. Well, what needs to be said about the man that hasn't already been said. 

Pick up this new design at the link below. 

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Wishin' and Hopin' with Dusty

Dusty Springfield should be known by any cult film fan from her song Son of a Preacher Man in Pulp Fiction, but her story of blue eyed soul goes back for years before that with hits like Wishin' and Hopin',  You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, a version of Spooky, and The Look of Love from the Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, David Niven comedy version of Casino Royale. 

You don't have to say you love Dusty because now you can show it. Check out this design on a variety of products at the link below.  

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/62517487-dusty-springfield?store_id=2969989

Stunt Rock (1980): The Evel Knievel Of Wizard Inspired Rock Band Films

When the word 'Rock' is contained in a movie title, one can often tell a lot about what the flick is going to be like by judging the other words around it. If it's paired with 'murder', things probably won't go well. With 'around the clock', then you best be ready for a wholesomely rebellious experience. If it's coupled with 'jailhouse' then a hip swivelin' good time is in your near future. However, I really didn't know what to think about 'rock' being placed so close to 'stunt'. The synopsis on TCM, where I caught this as a weekly Underground selection, said simply this, "The movie features a stunt man and a rock band." in what I thought must be one of the vaguest descriptions ever. After all, I knew Stunt Rock was a Brian Trenchard-Smith joint, and I ha always enjoy Trenchard-Smith films such as The Man from Hong Kong, Escape 2000, Dead End Drive-In, and that Criterion worthy classic BMX Bandits. Merely boiling down a concept like Stunt Rock to 10 completely undescriptive  words that capture nothing of what the film was sure to contain. I sat down one Sunday evening, along with my wife and out good pal Fran Goria, to watch Stunt Rock in order to write this review and do the film the justice that TCM's synopsis denied it.

Big Money Rustlas (2010) F***king Westerns, How Do They Work?

Historically I love a Western, but also historically (and yes historians have written about it because it is so vast), I can't stand Insane Clown Posse. You might ask why that is, and there are so many good reasons. First and foremost, as a fan of rap and hip hop in general, I have to say that their music is horrid. Lacking any real skills on the mic, they make up for it with so called "shocking" lyrics full of violence, misogyny, and general stupidity. I should point out that these are the guys who wondered in their 2010 song ”Miracles" how magnets worked, but couldn't muster up the wits to find out. Then there's the fact that these are grown men in their 40s wearing black and white clown makeup without a sense of irony. I know lots of people have clown issues, but the only Psycho Clown that will get me creeped out is Shivers the Clown. So I will never be convinced that Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J are hard mofos. Instead, I will assume they they are opportunistic entrepreneurs who somehow stumbled on a crazy rapping clown angle and made that work for them, and not just for a while, ICP have been doing their thing since 1989.

Deadly Doll's Choice: Joyful Noise (2012) Dolly, the Queen, and Me

When I agreed that I should go to see Joyful Noise as part of the ongoing swap series I have with Emily of the Deadly Doll's House of Horror Nonsense, I might have been drinking. Okay, I was definitely drinking. When else would seeing a movie starring a Country singer, a Rapper turned actress, and a plot grounded in gospel music sound like a good idea? From my hazy recollection, the answer to that is about 5 or 6 beers in. At any rate, while my decision was clouded by alcohol, my viewing experience was done in an unmercifully sober state. Heading out on January 19th, Dolly Parton's 65th birthday, I made my way across town to the slowest theater, pitched up in the back row directly under the projector, and experienced the film called Joyful Noise. Well, first off, they didn't call it Astounding Vision for a reason. It's not the kind of film I would pick out to see on a big screen, but, while I didn't become moved by the spirit, I might have just enjoyed myself a bit more than I expected.

Deadly Doll's Choice: The HorrorHound Weekend Edition: Rocktober Blood (1984)

Hello folks. It’s time once again for another monthly film swap with my good pal Emily of The Deadly Doll’s House. A couple of weeks ago we got a chance to meet in the flesh for the second time. The first time was at Horrorhound Weekend Cincinnati where Emily and I did a live and in person film swap with movies that had been rotting away in our collection. This time, for Horrorhound Weekend Indianapolis, we tried something a little different. Setting a limit of ten dollars, we vowed to buy each other a film while at the convention and so we did. I chose for her the locally grown Indiana independent flick The Unhuman. I chose her film due to her love of children in horror flicks as the cast seemed primarily filled with pre-teens, but I know indie flicks are hit and miss. (Click on over to the DDH to find out what she thought.) For me, Emily picked out the out of print horror flick Rocktober Blood (1984).

She definitely picked something that seemed to be right up my alley. I’ve shown quite a fondness for the subgenre of Heavy Metal horror. Black Roses, Trick or Treat, and Hard Rock Zombies are easily some of my favorite films of all time hands down. I was hoping that I would add Rocktober Blood to that list, and half the film had a good chance to make it. Rocktober Blood stars Tray Loren as Billy “Eye” Harper, the singer for a popular rock band. One night, Billy loses his mind and starts killing off everyone at the studio. That is except for Lynn (Donna Scoggins), his backup singer. She testifies against him in court and sends him off to the chair then takes over his band renaming it Headmistress. Two years later, she hits the road for the “Rocktober Blood” tour, but when she starts to see Billy “Eye” everywhere she goes and people start getting killed off, the newly crowned metal goddess has to contend with a lead singer come back to life.

Right Said FERD

I had never seen a film directed by The Sebastians before Rocktober Blood, but as soon as the name came up I recognized it from reading about them. Husband wife duo Ferd (yes Ferd, not Fred) and Beverly Sebastian wrote and co-directed a number of exploitation pictures including Flesh and the Firecat (a dune buggy bank robbing film), Gator Bait (starring Claudia Jennings as a Gator poacher), and On the Air Live with Captain Midnight (about an underground renegade DJ, a prehistoric Pump Up the Volume if you will). Their movies were famously full of low budget filmmaking, ample amounts of nudity, and all the cheesy action you can shake a stick at. For Rocktober Blood, much like similar filmmaker Doris Wishman and her film A Night to Dismember, the Sebastians took their one and only stab at hopping on the slasher bandwagon. The results are decidedly mixed, but even so this first look into their catalog only makes me interested to see more. The Sebastians made movies together up until 1993’s Running Cool, but hung it up after 22 years in the business. According to IMDB, after a heart condition, Ferd turned his life to the Christian church and became an ordained minister, but sadly it has no details as to what became of Beverly.

The problem that the Sebastians ran into with Rocktober Blood was execution of their ideas. The plot of a lead singer coming back to get revenge on his band is great. The backwards playing records when he kills people, also great. The cheesy often bizarrely gory death scenes also make the film worth a watch. However, the cast, the filmmaking, and the pacing basically kill off this film before the slasher can barely even get started. The main thing that drags the film down is Tray Loren. Unlike Tony Fields as Sammy Curr in Trick or Treat or Sal Viviano as Damien in Black Roses, Loren makes for an unconvincing rock god. With a head full of curly hair and a round face, he looks more like a fan from the audience than a Heavy Metal killer. His acting, which mostly consists on being a douche, is one note throughout, but during the last thirty minutes of the film he actually turns on some much needed charisma to salvage the film a bit. Donna Scoggins, appearing in her single movie role, provides a serviceable final girl without making me ever really care if she lived or died. The only character I could have done with more of was Nigel Benjamin, onetime lead singer of the band Mott, as The Headmistress’ manager. He seemed like he stepped right out of Spinal Tap and was ready to handle any debacle up to and including tons of killings while on tour (after all, after dealing with the Tap…)

To wrap up this review I thought I would try something different out today. I’m going to take a note from Emily and run down a few of the lessons I learned while watching Rocktober Blood.

Lessons Learned

If someone is standing too close, it is too dangerous to hit the psycho with a guitar. 

A body that has been buried for two years will look like medical lab prop covered in black snakes, worms, and will have silver orbs for eyes.

 Burning someone’s throat with a steam iron will make them bleed profusely and it takes relatively little effort.

Don’t even think about going to kill anyone if your makeup is not applied just right.

Your manager will always tell you it’s going to be alright despite the fact that half your band, your friends, and your assistant is dead.

If all else fails and you end your movie with narrative songs where the killer wraps up the film and fills you in on his upcoming plans, I will still like your movie.

With some luck, hopefully we can bring you another live film swap in only seven more months, but don’t worry, the Deadly Doll and I will be back next month and every month with another film swap. I’ve got plenty of things lined up around here as well. Rocktober Blood was a great way to kick off the month because for the next two months I’m going to be taking a look at a lot of killers in a little feature I’m going to call Spring Slashers. I’ve also got all kinds of great films lined up to talk about and the Hitch on the Hump guest posts will continue next week! So tune your internets back in for all of that, and I’ll see you on down the road.

Bugg Rating 

Easily this is the best song in the film, the appropriately titled Killer on the Loose.

Deadly Doll’s Choice (Live and In Person Version): Cut (2000)

This past Horrorhound Weekend yielded many things. I met a ton of new friends, met the fabulous Jill Scholen, got called “one sick mother” by Malcolm McDowell, and pretty much had one of the best weekends ever. It also allowed me and my blogging cohort Emily from The Deadly Doll’s House of Horror Nonsense to do our monthly swap of films for review in person, and we even got pictures to prove it. Coming from South Carolina (via a purchase at Papa Jazz in Colombia a couple of years back), I brought Ms. Emily the flick Bone Sickness. It had sat unwatched for a couple of years and not even the blurb from Uncle Creepy could convince me to check it out. From the Bronx, She brought to me (clad in the case for bizarre Russian cartoon Ax, Aioaioka!) the Australian slasher comedy Cut starring Molly Ringwald. When I sat down to watch, I expected something of a Scream clone and I wasn‘t wrong, but Cut actually took some turns to distinguish itself from similar movies like Final Stab (2001) and Hack! (2007).

Back in the ‘80’s actress Vanessa Turnbill (Molly Ringwald) was set to star in the slasher film Hot Blooded, but when the actor who played the film’s killer Scar Man went crazy and killed the director (Kylie Minogue); Vanessa was the one that stopped him. As the years went by, the unfinished film became the subject of rumors and many began to believe it was cursed. This doesn’t dissuade film students Raffy (Jessica Napier) and Hester (Sarah Kants) from trying to complete the movie despite the protestations of Professor Lossman (Geoff Revell) who was a production assistant on the ill fated feature. Luring Turnbill back with the allure of publicity for her vanishing career, the crew set out to finish the film, but someone is out to finish them first.

Without being too spoilery, I want to go ahead and get into where Cut scored for me. I expected the film to follow the formula set down in Craven’s film, but when I expected it to zig, it zagged veering the film into the deeply unexpected area of the supernatural slasher. I hesitate to say more than that and still keep the film’s essential twist under wraps, but suffice it to say I was surprised with how the film delivered. Australian director Kimble Rendall made his feature debut with Cut in 200, but since then he’s gotten work as a second unit director on such high profile films as The Matrix Reloaded, I, Robot, and Knowing. He is currently working on the film Bait set for release in 2011. It stars Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck, Fantastic Four) as one of the survivors of a tsunami trapped in a supermarket and fending off tiger sharks. Needless to say, you can go ahead and sign me up for that one as well. While the film isn’t flashy or all that visually clever, Rendall pulls off a few nice tricks, and the last few frames of the film should garner his eye kudos is nothing else.

As far as acting goes, this is where I was really surprised. Apart from Ms. Ringwald who effectively hams it up as the preening, washed up has been who never really was, the film is packed to the brim with stars of Australian film and television. Jessica Napier is well known from several Aussie TV shows such as McLeod’s Daughters, Wildside, and The Alice, and the deeper you look into the cast the more times the ubiquitous down under soap Neighbors pops up. Kylie Minogue’s cameo appearance is brief, but it will please both fans of the singer and those who wish she’d never sing another note. There was a general quality to the acting that I enjoyed, and it all served screenwriter Dave Warner’s script to life. As an added note, Dave Warner was once is Aussie pub band From the Suburbs which gained a cult following and compliments from Bob Dylan. He has since continued to write both for Australian TV as well as penning a number of crime and Australian Rules football books.

To compliment the solid acting and clever screenwriting, Cut features some really solid effects thanks to special effects work by Katherine Brown (Ghost Rider, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith) and Paul Katte (The Matrix, Man-Thing). Their creative effects really sold the execution of a number of clever kills that well balanced the film’s comedic tone without resorting to slapstick notions. So over the man miles this DVD has traveled from North to South, it has ended up being an appreciated title which surely will only get better on repeated viewings. I can’t thank Emily enough for getting this title to me, but I wonder if Emily will feel the same about her film. Head on over to The Deadly Doll’s to see if she got down with the Sickness, the Bone Sickness that is.

Bugg Rating

Son of Dracula (1974) Everybody's Talkin' (About Me 'Cause I'm a Vampire)

There are some movies, that no matter what you hear about them, you have to see it for yourself. For years, I had heard that Son of Dracula was an incoherent mess and neither the appearance of Harry Nilsson or Ringo Starr made it any better and perhaps even worse. Still, I had to see it for myself, and thanks to my friends at Cinema de Bizarre, I finally got a chance. In a way, I got just what I expected, but there is something strangely fascinating about the film. While there was a veteran film maker behind the camera, the actors could have been outclassed by an Ed Wood cast any day, but still there is something, a glimmer, a wink, a bite, if you will, which makes the film go from the incoherent mess to an interesting slice of cult cinema.

A hundred years ago Count Dracula was killed by a stake through the heart, but now his son Count Downe (Nilsson) is poised to become the King of the Netherworld. With the careful guidance of Merlin (Starr), the Count prepares for the day, but he is troubled as human needs and desires begin to infiltrate his mind. After he meets a human woman named Amber (Suzanna Leigh), he is convinced by Dr. Van Helsing (Dennis Price) to undergo a process that will end the line of Dracula and turn the Count into a human. However, strangely for a Van Helsing, the doctor doesn’t have the vampire’s best interest at heart.

Singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson might be best known now to cult movie fans for his song “Coconut” that was featured on the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s film Reservoir Dogs, "Everybody's Talkin'" from Midnight Cowboy, or his power ballad “I Can‘t Live (If Living is Without You)”. While Nilsson amassed a cult of fans around his music, he never really achieved much mainstream success, and after his death in 1993, he has become an artist that is mostly forgotten outside of songwriting circles. As the story goes, Ringo Starr had an idea to make a rock and roll musical about Dracula which Nilsson thought was inspired by his album Son of Schmilsson. The ex-Beatles drummer had played on the album, and it shared a similar theme. Ringo however has stated that he never even bothered to listen to the album.

Ringo first approached David Bowie about acting in the film, and the singer turned him down (though Bowie would do his own turn as a vampire in The Hunger). Ringo then got Nilsson on board and recruited Hammer films veteran Freddie Francis for directing duties. Francis, who had directed The Skull and The Evil of Frankenstein, and Craze, probably had no idea what to make of the musicians and their horror romp, but it seems like he did the best he could with the low budget and inexperienced actors that he was handed. Nilsson’s performance could best be described as wooden, and Ringo is way better in films such as Candy and The Magic Christian, but their star power carries their weak performances.

Son of Dracula is also chock full of other rock royalty though in minor appearances as members of Count Downe’s band. The careful eye will see rockers Keith Moon of The Who, Leon Russell, Peter Frampton, and Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham lurking in the background of the film. There are also some great character actors who show up here, most notably is Freddie Jones as Dr. Frankenstein. He was a veteran actor at the time, but would go on to appear in films such as Krull, Wild At Heart, Firestarter, and Dune. Also supporting the film is a number of great songs by Nilsson. His power ballad “I Can’t Live” is featured in the film as well as the excellent theme song “Down”. However, the only song that was specifically written for the film was “Daybreak”, a song with very pertinent lyrics about the dangers of the daytime.

Son of Dracula is a film that has been a holy grail of mine for some time. As a fan of both of the musical stars as well as horror films, I just had to know. I'm not sure the film ever really knows where it's going. There's lots packed in there. Love stories, double crosses, songs, whatever Ringo was doing, and more songs abound, but the question is what to make of it. For Beatles and Nilsson fanatics and those out there who really love their obscure and strange little films, this is a must see. Son of Dracula could not rightfully be called a rock film, horror film, comedy, or spoof. I think its actually weird enough to fall into that very rare category of being a true cult film, a midnight movie of the highest order. Plus, you may think you've seen vampires do everything by now, but until you've seen Son of Dracula, you haven't seen a vamp lead a band into a full on '70's singer-songwriter jam. That's something that I am not prepared to live without. 'Cause I can't liveeeeeeeee.........

Bugg Rating

Boy, howdy, it's hard to even find a clip out there of this flick, but here's one with the John Bonham cameo

Black Roses (1988): Metal Don't Need No Education

Last week when I reviewed Trick or Treat, The Film Connoisseur left a comment mentioning another well known heavy metal horror, Black Roses. I had been meaning to get around to it for quite some time. I first heard about it a while back on Outside the Cinema, and the host, Bill, shrieking the title in the style of a metal god reverberates in my mind. So off to Netflix I went, and thanks to the magic of the postal service, I finally got to see what at the fuss was about. When Black Roses was in theaters, I was twelve years old, right at the real beginning of my metal years. So I could understand the excitement of the kids in the film. My first metal show wouldn’t be for two years, but I was out of my mind that Poison and Warrant were going to be at the local auditorium. Thankfully, while I recall my friend and I smoking two whole packs of Marlboro Reds, seeing my first pair of bare breasts when a girl showed Janie Lane her goods, and learning to hold up my lighter like self respecting concert goers used to do (cell phones ruin everything), the band didn’t turn into demons and kill anyone. It would have been tragic if people had indeed died there with "Nothing But A Good Time" ringing in their ears, but a story like that would really dovetail quite nicely as an intro to Black Roses..

Nothing ever happens in the sleepy  little town of Mill Basin, but now that the rock group Black Roses, who have never played outside of the studio, has booked a four night run in town, the kids are beside themselves with excitement. While every high schooler in town wants a ticket, the local parents groups want to shut the concerts down. The shows go on thanks to the mayor (Ken Swofford) and the high school English teacher Matt (John Martin) who doesn’t see any harm in a little rock and roll. Jus to be sure, the parents go to the first show, and when lead singer Damien (Sal Viviano) prances out in a white jacket singing a song so wussy that Michael Bolton would be embarrassed to croon it, they all leave figuring everything is fine. That of course is when the lights go down, and now clad in black leather, the band starts the show for real. The band’s demonic music takes an almost immediate effect, brainwashing the teens, making them go from small town hicks to killers, criminals, and rapists. As the adults start getting bumped off, it falls on Matt the English teacher to stop Black Roses before the world fall under their metal spell.

Most reviews I read of Black Roses go on and on about the band at length. Talking about Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice playing in the band, waxing poetic about Sal Viviano’s hair, or trying to figure out what kind of buglike demons they actually were, the reviews of Black Roses contain no shortage of material to discuss. They seem to be missing the thing that made the most impression on me. What I don’t see talked about nearly enough is our hero Matt Moorhouse played by John Martin, who went on to a career as a soap opera actor on General Hospital and Days of Our Lives. This guy is no mere English teacher. He’s an Action English teacher. Sure, at first he thinks the music is innocent enough, but after he sees what it does to his formerly attentive students, Matt knows that must be stopped before they can take their show on a national tour.

With his tweed jacket in hand and mustache groomed expertly, Matt does what any scholar might when faced by a demonic metal band. He hit the books. That’s right, to figure out how to defeat demons, he went to the Library. I would say the film pays off that by demonstrating how knowledge is power, but I actually don’t think he learned anything that he used in the final showdown from the books. If he did, then someone needs to write this guy a tome that says, “If you want to try and stop the evil heavy metal band, do not march right in and confront them during a concert by pouring gas on the stage. They will see you. Try sneaking around instead.” Matt may come up a little short in the hero department, but I’ve got to give him a break. This is a guy who spends most of his time teaching Emerson and Walden, and defeating a band of demons is going to take a lot more than civil disobedience.

Black Roses director John Fasano already had plenty of experience with heavy metal horror because of his first film, 1987’s Rock and Roll Nightmare (which hopefully I will talk about next week sometime). While Black Roses was no stunning technical achievement, it was a solidly made film with little, other than some pitchy performances, to take away from it. His next film, this time starring Sal Viviano as the hero, The Jitters was an American film centered around hopping Japanese vampires, and he would go on to write a number of screenplays including Another 48 Hours, The Hunley, and Darkness Falls. Currently he and director Scott Spiegel (From Dusk Til Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money) are at work on the direct to video sequel Hostel III. I wonder if there’s a part for old Sal in there somewhere.

Black Roses does a number of things that I really liked. The bait and switch on the hero was well orchestrated (at first it seems like the savior might be one of Matt’s students and not the teacher), and the songs stuck in my head for days after watching the film. The real question is did I like it more than Trick or Treat. That is pretty hard to say. The music was better in Black Roses to say the least. The bad guy was still pretty cheesy, but didn’t move like he had just left the set of Solid Gold. However, Trick or Treat better illustrated the PMRC scare of the mid-80’s and brought way more gore to the table. Yet then I have to counter that with the fact that Black Roses had Vincent “Big Pussy” Pastore, introduced me to the idea of the Action English teacher, and one of the silliest endings I’ve ever seen in any film. In the end, Black Roses gets the edge, but only barely. Both films are definitely worth checking out, and if you’re like me and had a metal time when you were a kid, this one will make you want to throw the Devil horns the air one more time.

 Bugg Rating

I couldn't find a trailer, but here's the opening scene featuring the band singing their song "Me Against the World"...

Trick or Treat (1986): I Want To Rock and Roll All Night (And Electrocute People With My Guitar)

For October 1st, I wanted to watch a movie for the first time, and so for nearly a year I have held on to today’s film, Trick or Treat (1986) and resisted the urge to watch it. I’m so glad I did. It turned out to be the perfect way to start October. I love the supernatural serial killer genre, but this one had something special to it. While Freddy needed you to sleep, Jason needed you to come to camp, and Michael Myers was devilishly picky about what zip code you live in, all Trick or Treat’s dastardly heavy metal killer needs is for you to WANT…TO… ROCK! What a terrible thing to have to fear, never rocking again. How would the world cope? We’ve been rocking and rolling for over fifty years now, and almost nothing goes better with Halloween and horror than rocking. There’s a reason every classic radio station ever programmed calls this month Rocktober, and that’s because it’s an unimaginative play on words. However, there is some truth to it. Would we really want to have to spend the month surrounded by ghouls, ghosts, and goblins while the gentle strains of Laurence Welk’s smaltzy waltzes float though the air. Wonderful, wonderful, my ass. If for no other reason Trick or Treat deserves to kick off my 31 Days of Horror.

As the film kicks off, we are introduced to Eddie ‘Ragman’ Weinberger (Marc Price) an outcast metal kid who finds his only solace away from high school bullies in the music of Sammi Curr (Tony Fields), a metal god who came from the same town as Eddie. Unfortunately, the teenager finds his one ray of hope taken from him when the heavy metal singer dies in a hotel fire. Taking pity on Ragman, local D.J. Nuke (Gene Simmons) gives him a test pressing of Curr’s last single, but when Eddie plays it back, he discovers backward masking that contained messages to him. He blindly begins to follow the orders, and finds that some force is helping him get even with the bullies. However, when people’s lives start being endangered, Eddie wants out. Of course, it is too late by then and a reborn Sammi Curr and his lightning blasting guitar are wreaking havoc on his hometown. It’s up to Eddie and nice girl Leslie (Lisa Orgolini) to put a stop to all the rock!

The first thing I noticed as the film opened was that this was a directed by Charles Martin Smith. If the name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, that’s ok. His face surely would. Known for roles like Toad in American Graffiti and Mark Shermin in Starman, Trick of Treat was Smith’s first time out at a director. Since the he has helmed films such as Air Bud, but let’s try and not hold that against him. Against the tide of pedestrian slasher fare that was de rigueur in the mid-80’s,  Smith made an interesting little film. It has a good cast of characters, some really funny moments, and enough METAL to camp it up considerably. Sure, it runs a little light on the horror tip. At one point, I was readily waiting for a drill press to go though a bully’s noggin when instead it is cut off just in time. The focus here is not about guts and gore.

Instead Trick or Treat pokes at the “horror” of rock music that was being stirred up at the time by people like Tipper Gore and the PMRC. Sure as anything, they thought, rock and roll was going to drive ‘80’s youths over the edge to kill, rape, and commit suicide because of a hidden message in the music. (Looking back, I always think it is funny that they used Judas Priest as the example of a band with hidden demonic messages. The funny thing is there was a hidden message in Priest, but it had more to do with how gay Rob Halford is.) In Trick or Treat, the crimes of rock and roll that were being foisted on it by conservative groups were a real, live danger in the form of Sammi Curr. The rock god himself however was hardly scary as played by Tony Fields, a former Solid Gold dancer, who landed the part after Gene Simmons passed (preferring to channel Wolfman Jack in his role as Nuke the D.J.) Probably the least sinister part of the film is when Sammi comes back via a speaker to perform at the Halloween dance. Strutting and jiving like the lost member of Poison doesn’t conjure up much terror, but he does make up for it by wielding a guitar that can vaporize people.

As much fun as the plot is, the cast had to pull off the right tone to make it work, and I think they really did. Marc Price, better known as Skippy from Family Ties, stars here as metal kid Ragman, and combining a mixture of his better-known dorky character and the put upon metal kid who doesn’t fit in, he makes for an endearing hero. Also equally well played was the bully, Tim (Doug Savant), who would later go on to play Felicity Huffman’s husband on Desperate Housewives. Savant was no William Zabka, but he definitely convinced me that he was an utter and complete prick. Trick or Treat also boasts cameos from Ozzy Osborne, spoofing his own image as an anti-metal minister, and director Charles Martin Smith as the school principal. Eddie’s best friend Roger, played by Glen Morgan, would become a prolific writer and producer in genre film before directing the remake of Black Christmas in 2006.  While many have attributed the metal soundtrack to various bands from Poison to Faster Pussycat, all of the tunes were actually performed by Fastway, a band featuring a former guitarist for Motorhead as well as Flogging Molly vocalist Dave King.

The truly terrifying thing about Trick or Treat is that it’s not widely available. Due to music licensing issues, it’s been off the racks for years with only a low quality DVD (which states that the movie stars Ozzy and Gene) exists though it is out of print. If you can get your hands on this one, you won’t be disappointed. For all the campy, cheesiness that the premise inspires in your brain, the real secret about Trick or Treat is that it’s actually a good film. What better way could I have chose to start the month? I hope you all come on back tomorrow for another dose of horror, and don’t forget to get those submissions for The Halloween Top 13: The Remake in before October 19th! Oh, and if you haven’t visited The Gentlemen’s Blog to Midnite Cinema, go on over there and check out my first piece, a review of the Ozploitation film Fair Game.

Bugg Rating

Ocean Drive Weekend (1985): Myrtle Beach Days for the First Day of Summer

If you’re like me and already sweltering under 100 degree temperatures, you probably feel like summertime is already here, but according to the calendar, today is the first official day of summer. So to celebrate I wanted to look at the film that most says summer to me, and that is 1985’s Ocean Drive Weekend. While most beach movies turn their eye to Florida or California, OD Weekend is a home grown flick that is set on the coast of South Carolina. More specifically, it is set in North Myrtle Beach where you will find the titular Ocean Drive. When I was a kid, we went down to Myrtle Beach every year, and we used to stay in the main part of the city, but when I was about 11ish we started staying up in North Myrtle for the wide beaches, the quiet nights, and all the great mom and pop hotels to choose from. While I have fond memories of the beach from when I was a little tyke, it was the years in North Myrtle that really stuck with me. Now when I want to drop everything to take off for the beach that is where I intend to go, but when I can’t, I sit down and drink in the beach through this low budget classic.


Ocean Drive Weekend was, once upon a time, distributed by Troma Entertainment, and if you take a look at the box art above, that probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise. If you were to judge the film by its cover, you might think it was some kind of mix of Revenge of the Nerds and Hardbodies, but the truth couldn’t be further from that. Instead you get something more like a Southern fried American Graffiti meets Porky's lite. The story opens sometime in the early sixties just as college is letting out for the summer. The Pepsi Pi’s of Leon University and the Sigma’s of A Great Southern University (Not the One You Think),as the film tells us, take off for a weekend of sun, fun, hooking up, and dancing the night away. Miller and Chuck also hit the road from University in Miller's crappy Dodge full of beer cans with a weekend at the beach and getting laid on their minds. As all the kids gather at the beach their are subplots about trying to get out of the draft, the impending drug culture of the late sixties, drinking a fifth of tequila in 60 seconds (which won’t kill you every time), and eating a raw steak then jumping off a pier to get out of the bill, just to name a few. The film culminates with Danny Van Wieden and the JV’s from Tech kidnapping Miller, and all the groups come together to save a fellow University man.

It may seem like Ocean Drive Weekend is just a collection of scenes, it's a pretty tightly wound plot where all the character's plots intermingle in a pretty smart way. To have a scene where the draft dodger is trying to shoot himself in the foot and misses but the sound scares off a date rapist, the evil Van Wieden, who loses his wallet that is later found by Miller to avoid getting arrested....whew.... yeah, but you see my point. The scripting of the film is one of it's strong points, and even though some of the acting is off, the natural tone and direction of the story seem to bring up the production quite a bit. Now I'm not saying that it's the cleverest film out there. This is not Momento we're dealing with, this is a beach movie, and compared to similar fare it's refreshing that Ocean Drive Weekend hits a good balance between real characters, good plot points, and maintains a light comic vibe.

Now, of course I wasn’t going to the beach on the early sixties (if it was about my years going it would be about reading Puzo's The Godfather on the beach, playing mini golf, and riding go karts at Grand Prix raceway), but my parents were. I don’t think that they ever had adventures quite like the ones detailed in Ocean Drive Weekend (if they did then they have some stories that I want to hear), but the film always reminds both of them of the time they spent down there in their teenage years. I think this speaks volumes about the film. While they both feel that other, more well known Carolina beach movie, Shag: The Movie, was a syrupy, inaccurate affair, OD Weekend hits the era where the innocence of the ‘50’s was waning, but the hippie culture hadn’t taken over yet, without making you wonder if they might have a pair of traveling pants around somewhere.

Try as I might, I can find out absolutely nothing about writer/director Brian Jones. I have long theorized that OD Weekend was made as a student film, but I‘ve got nothing to back that up. All I really know comes from the VHS tape; it was put out on Vestron Video, a Troma film with a 1984 copyright by L.A. Productions. In a way this film is a mystery all over. Most of the stars haven’t appeared in anything else with one or two exceptions. Della Cole (billed here as Konya Dee) who plays one of the Pepsi Pi’s appeared as “Stake Out Prostitute” in 1987’s Dead Aim starring Isaac Hayes as well as a few other productions, and she was probably the best actress in the film. Robert Peacock who played the film’s hero, Chuck, would later he appear in 2003’s Prison A Go Go!, a low budget women in prison film that coincidentally was also released through Troma as well as 2005’s A Texas Tale.

The last cast member with other credits was John Kohler who was so entertaining as computer geek/druggie Kurt. From his opening moments where he wakes up screaming about killer spinach to his monolog about sex, drugs, and rock and roll taking over the world, he really makes the most of what could have been a tiny and rather silly role.He has appeared in several films over the years including Freejack and Gordy, and more recently he made a couple of appearances on Important Things with Demetri Martin.

Some of the best actors in Ocean Drive Weekend never appeared in a film again. The best example of this is Charles Redmond who plays the beer swilling, ignorant, horndog Miller. Sure, he looks much older than the rest of the cast (who already look beyond college age), but it adds to the idea that Miller has been in college for quite some time. By all rights and reason, Redmond should be a character actor with a laundry list of credits, but it didn’t happen. I mean what other character could deliver a line like “Cooked… I don’t want my steak cooked, woman. Cooked steaks are for fags, I want it raw.” and still maintain an imbecilic lovability? Though I’m sure some of that is due to the fact that two scenes later Miller finds out that having steak tartare at a restaurant on a fishing pier might not have been the best plan. Needless to say, Miller is no PC character, but this is still an '80's film no matter the setting.

I can’t believe how far I am into this review, and I really feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of this film. Not only are there so many questions I have about the productions, but there are so many scenes I’d love to tell you about. I haven’t even touched on the nerds who get turned on by classical music and vector analysis, the romance between Chuck and Jeanie (P.J. Greene), or all the great music in the film. Not only do Carolina Beach music band The Rivieras appear in the film (also looking much older than they should have for the sixties), but they perform great songs like “Showdown” and “Be Young Be Foolish and Be Happy”. They also perform “Double Shot” in the film, but when it is heard on the radio it is clearly the Swinging Medallions version of the song even though it is not credited as such.

Everything about Ocean Drive Weekend makes me long for a trip to the beach, and in fact, I have one planned for the beginning of August over my birthday. While the beach in OD Weekend is not what I grew up with, it is still closer to what North Myrtle beach is becoming. I’m actually going down this year to see what is left before everything I remember is gone. While the film may be about the era of my parents’ youth, it has long been a part of my ritual of getting ready to go to the beach. For this reason, and because I hail from South Carolina, I think that I have a very different perspective on the film. I’ve seen the two or three reviews online that rate the film at a 1 or 1.5, and I have to disagree with those folks. Ocean Drive Weekend is a very original, different kind of beach film that focuses on a particularly Southern type of story that may not hit home with everyone, but for anyone who counts Myrtle Beach as part of their youth and cult films as one of their hobbies, this is a great film to sit down with and enjoy. The only bad thing is that its a bit hard to come by. I have a beloved VHS copy, and I see that Amazon has them for sale for under 3 bucks. So if I've succeeded in making Ocean Drive Weekend sound like something you might like, pick one up and you'll feel like you've still got a little sand in your shoes for sure.

Bugg Rating

Sadly no trailer exists, but here's one of the best Carolina beach music songs of all times, The Tams with "Be Young, Be Foolish, but Be Happy". A great sentiment to start off the summer.