Barn of The Naked Dead

Barn of The Naked Dead directed by Alan Rudolph. Starring Andrew Prine. (1974).

            Some weirdos (Johnny Legend) have a special place in their hearts for this shitty drive in flick, I’m not one of them. The poster is what really grabs you! I remember seeing a big box for this at a video store (when those existed)! To me it has no redeeming qualities, unless you count the psychedelic theme song by Tommy Vig. Director Alan Rudolph didn’t do himself any favors later on by venturing onto working with Meatloaf in Roadie. Andrew Prine went onto to play the dumbass priest who gets demonically possessed in Amityville 2.

            The premise involves 3 showgirls (Elizabeth Berkeley not one of them). They are on their way to Vegas when their car breaks down and they get stranded in the desert. The evil ringmaster (Andrew Prine) locks them up in chains and plans to add them to his dilapidated hillbilly circus. This magnificent idea is completely wasted in Barn and it should be highly entertaining, but it’s the dullest shit imaginable! So what happened? Another case of too dull or not sleazy enough, available from Something Weird Video via Netflix. Download the cool theme song

Black Gestapo

         

Black Gestapo Directed by Lee Frost. Starring Charles Robinson (1975).

            There’s a moment towards the end of the film where Mack from Night Court has Uschi Digart; the naziploitation bitch hooked onto his arm while lounging by the pool. He has gone too far and becomes corrupt. This is one of the novelties of Black Gestapo, nice casting and not much else is in between. Lee Frost directed one of the campiest, funniest Blaxploitation films with The Thing With Two Heads, but here he poorly misses the mark. Frost has delved into Nazi territory before with Love Camp 7 and by combining the two different genres of Nazi and blaxploitation you’d think it would’ve added up to a powder keg of an epic, however you’d be wrong. 

 

There is never a turning point where the militant people’s armies of Watts decide to become Nazis and it’s severely disappointing! There’s ominous Hitler footage during the credit sequence but nothing fascist is ever delivered, just the fact that they are a Black Panther style militant group doesn’t necessarily make them Nazis. Gestapo is tame even by blaxploitation standards and there are some scenes of violence against the mob (even a castration), but nothing registers as shocking. As far as vigilante groups attacking the mob goes it seems that it should be more exciting, but it comes off all watered down and wimpy. The harsh subject matter and brilliant poster are not enough since the actual film never deliver the groceries, it is very hollow and not memorable. Another film that came along in the same league, later on dealing with the same type of racist subject matter also missed the mark was called Brotherhood of Death.

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